Hello everyone! Welcome to my annual forage into the FFN world :P I'm not really sure where I'm going with this exactly, I have the concept but not a huge amount of it planned, but I've been getting back into writing recently and I thought this'd be fun to share. I don't know if anyone's gonna ask, but no, this doesn't belong in the Smash section, only Mario characters are used, but the Smash... concept is involved, I guess? Not sure how to explain without giving it away. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)
•••
Friday, the seventh of December, 2018. International Civil Aviation Day. Bartender Appreciation Day. Cotton Candy Day. But who knows about all that? Not these people. There was only one thing on their minds. The beginning of something... what's the word? It was a good thing, though good didn't cover it, nor great, not fantastic. This was the beginning of something ultimate.
Nobody would've been able to tell, though, judging by the bitter but windless cold in the air. It was, in reality, still, but anyone would've been able to sense the lingering, contagious excitement flowing around every corner. And in a way, it sucked, because these people were not invited. If only they knew.
20 different residencies around the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond, not houses as such, all varied in shape, size, form, material, and the like, received the same letter in the same envelope at the same time.
"Good morning – today's the day!
I sincerely hope you're having a wonderful morning – days, weeks, months, years have been building up to this day, and while you may not be directly involved, I very much hope that it is so far as wonderful as the wait has been prolonged. Regardless, I would like to invite you to celebrate! Come and enjoy the festivities with me, and others, it will be a jolly good gathering, I promise!
I know how disappointing it must be to be consistently excluded from the celebrations, year after year, so please allow me to begin to make it up to you, and perhaps allow yourself to prove yourself to me. I have attached a map to this letter, and you should find directions to exactly where you need to go attached as well. I hope you're as excited as I am!
All the best,"
The very last line of the letter was faded, on each letter. Every recipient could only assume it was just a mistake, just for them, for there was nothing to suggest otherwise. The map was giant, almost enough to make a person give up following, but this was an ultimate day, with potentially ultimate stakes, and ultimate days required ultimate tasks, which perhaps required ultimate effort. Not even the obnoxious number of exclamations deterred each and every one of the twenty recipients from following the instructions, map and directions, until they eventually all ended up at the same destination.
Smash House.
•••
"...It's easy to get a little carried away with excitement!" were the first audible words any of the 20 recipients heard amongst the bitter mutterings. The atmosphere and environment when they had each arrived was much different to what they had expected. Of course, mentally, everyone's expectations were different from each other's, but they had all figured that something wild, something big, something beautiful, something... ultimate... would be in store. And instead, they got a... reasonably sized manor, but nothing compared to what some of them were perhaps used to. Unreasonable expectations perhaps, but it left a slight taste of disappointment and underwelm when each recipient arrived.
These words came from Watt, the first of the recipients to speak up, and were met by bemused, confused and disheartened faces. A little bit of awkward silence ensued, with the casual glance sharing between the subconsciously formed groups, until it was broken again, this time by bitter mumblings from Dixie Kong.
"Can we go in already?!" she whined, rolling her eyes, "It's way too cold for me to be standing out here – can't we just open the door?"
"Oh yeah great idea!" Mona retorted sarcastically, "If only one of us had thought of that earlier... you know, I really don't know how I'm supposed to prove myself against all of you, the competition is sooooo good!"
This was met by disapproving scowls, until Toad spoke up, "Hang on, what do you mean, prove yourself? Prove yourself for what?"
"Did you even read the letter you got?" Mona questioned, already exasperated at the uselessness of the group she found herself in, "We're obviously here to prove ourselves to be worth putting in Smash, and-"
Mona was interrupted by a wicked cackling, as Madame Broode cried out, "You're really that stupid?! Ahahaha! Smash is literally released today, sorry sweetie, but that ship has sailed!"
"Well, why are we here then? What are we proving ourselves for if not for Smash?" Blooper asked, and once again everyone shared bemused glances. Blooper grumbled, "Brilliant..."
"So we don't know why we're here, we don't know how to get into where we're supposed to be, and we don't know what we're doing when we eventually do get in?" Koopie sighed, "Why did I even bother making the journey in this? I could literally be playing the game right now!"
"What's the time anyway? Maybe we're just... early?" Geno provided a voice of reason amongst the growing panic, "...Does anyone have a watch or anything?" Head shaking followed.
"Nope, dude, that would be waaaaay too convenient," King Boo shrugged, "Not a bad shout though, we're probably just early."
"Well what do we do while we wait? We don't even know how long we're supposed to be waiting for, if we're waiting at all!" Volbonan shrieked, not following the rest of the group's easing panic.
"Oh my god chill! Everything's fine, I'm sure we won't be waiting for long, I feel like the journey took forever..." Dry Bones moaned, "Everyone knows I can usually only walk back and forth for like, 5 metres, it was hell!"
"Wait is that a thing? You don't just... choose to walk back and forth...?" Pauline quizzed, raising her eyebrow, to which Dry Bones simply nodded, "...Weird..."
"I feel you, boy! My walking's nothing like it used to be..." Polari sighed wistfully, staring into the distance as he probably the glorious days of old when he could walk everywhere he wanted, under the stars, along the beach, under the stairs. Pure bli-
"You don't even walk?" Madame Clairvoya interrupted, staring at Polari, confused, "Honestly, these people..."
"Why did you even come if you don't like anyone?" Birdo snarled at Madame Clairvoya, evidently and ironically getting fed up with the increasing levels of anger and bitterness amongst the group.
"Why did you even come if no one likes you?" Boom Boom retorted, earning a few snorts and chuckles. Birdo opened her mouth to argue, but stopped, huffed and slouched back. A natural silence followed, with nobody knowing how long they would be waiting, or what exactly they would be waiting for.
"So... has everyone had a nice day so far?" Honey Queen smiled awkwardly, hoping it would break the silence and add some positivity to the atmosphere. She received a few sympathetic and appreciative smiles for her effort, but no verbal responses. "That's... nice..."
"Why else could we be here, if not for Smash?" Dreambert questioned again, "Today of all days, I doubt it's not at least related to it in some way... DLC exists, you know..."
"The handsome fellow has a point!" Gooma exclaimed, shooting a wink at a growingly uncomfortable Dreambert, "I think everyone would pay to see a piece of this in high definition..."
"Oh sweet jesus..." Birdo muttered under her breath.
"Sorry, did you say something, skank?" Gooma hissed at the dinosaur, "I'll have you know many a man have paid for a piece of this, and many a man will continue to do so!"
"That's... gross..." Blooper cringed, "But that would make sense, the whole DLC thing... oh I just wish the door would open!"
"Oh screw this!" came the cry of Waluigi, "I don't need this to prove I should be in Smash, everyone wants me in anyway! I don't need this, I'm outta here!" He turned around and stormed away, but stopped in his tracks.
"The door is opening!" Watt shouted enthusiastically, "It's a miracle!"
"Not quite... but let's go inside. It better be heated..." Dixie muttered to herself.
"Oh yeah, fancy invites and fancy celebration and they don't even pay to have us heated? As if!" Toad yelled excitedly. The group of twenty walked through the wooden door, and... not even the most reasonable of expectations would have been fulfilled. A dull brownish grey covered the wooden walls and floorboards of a fairly large room, and it was mostly empty, other than a large screen against the back wall, and twenty black squares, seemingly in some sort of circle.
The only lights in the room were the small flickering lights around each square, as though it were some kind of game show, and a wall lamp on each of the four walls, reminiscent of a torch, but clearly a very cheap electronic version.
"Jeez, someone went all out," Madame Broode remarked, chuckling at herself, "So much for ultimate..."
"So much for fancy..." Pauline echoed, furrowing her eyebrows, confused and a little concerned at the situation she had found herself in.
"I'm... really glad I made the journey and the effort," Koopie scoffed bitterly, "What do we do now?" As before, her answer came through bemused and confused glances. Shrugging, she turned on her heels, "Whatever, I'm getting outta here."
However, as she turned, she noticed the doors had shut, "...Uhhh... who...?" Once again, bemused, confused, concerned faces in return. She rolled her eyes, "Come on, whoever it is, it's not funny." Still the same faces.
The screen flickered on, displaying a message, written in the style of that damned letter they had previously received, although clearly electronically generated.
"Good afternoon!
I sincerely hope that your journey wasn't too strenuous and that you are still enjoying your ultimate day! Now, to business. In my previous letter, I invited you here for a celebration, to come and enjoy the festivities with me, and others, and looking around this room, you are probably a little confused. So, open the door to the left of this screen, and let the festivities begin!"
The atmosphere changed quickly from confusion and annoyance to intrigue and slight excitement.
Watt giggled, "I knew it! This is gonna be great!"
"Well, let's open the door!" Volbonan cheered, and they all went to the door. They pulled it open, and continuing the theme of the unexpected, were utterly shocked at what was on the other side. Once again, the atmosphere shifted from intrigue and excitement to disgust and absolute terror.
"I-Is that... Mario?!" Dreambert exclaimed amongst the horrified gasps. On the other side of the door was a small, dark room, only lit up by an excruciating red light from the floorboards, illuminating the mutilated corpse of Mario, hanging from the ceiling in an even more disturbing light.
All twenty recipients were left speechless, unsure of what to say, do or think, or how to react. Eventually, Boom Boom burst into laughter, "Guys, it's a prank! Right? They got us so good!"
Some of the others joined him in laugher, in the belief that they had in fact been played, until Honey Queen got their attention again, "I'm afraid that this isn't a prank... look at the screen..."
Sure enough, a new message was displayed.
"Surprise! There's plenty more where that came from!
Welcome to Smash House! I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay, because for nineteen of you, you're never getting out! But for one extremely lucky individual, you make it out alive AND you make it into Smash! DLC has never been so glorious!
It's time to celebrate this wonderful, ultimate day, and I hope you can join me, and others, in the festivities! Please stand in your allocated squares, believe me, it's in your best interests to co-operate.
This is absolutely not a prank, this is the beginning. I'm suresome of you don't believe me, so in 30 seconds, I will make you absolutely certain that I'm being serious! Teehee!"
Everybody read the message in disbelief, and absolute silence.
•••
Cast: 01 Toad, 02 Mona, 03 Dry Bones, 04 Madame Clairvoya, 05 Dreambert, 06 Birdo, 07 Waluigi, 08 Koopie, 09 Boom Boom, 10 Dixie, 11 Geno, 12 Honey Queen, 13 Volbonan, 14 Watt, 15 King Boo, 16 Pauline, 17 Blooper, 18 Gooma, 19 Polari, 20 Madame Broode
•••
Hope you enjoyed! This chapter was a little awkward to write because it was more about getting each character out there so to speak, and hopefully I didn't make it too unbalanced in that respect.
Not that there's a huge amount to go off, but let me know in the reviews who your favourite characters are at this early stage! Or please just leave a review if you enjoyed. Thanks for reading! :)