Mimi always hated elevators; they felt like the real-life equivalent of loading screens on a video game. The slightly-distorted music filtered through a speaker in the ceiling; someone decided elevator music was supposed to be calming. Someone out there though the smooth jazz would be calming. Instead, Mimi kept thinking about how she was in a small metal coffin rising high off the ground, and the music was a distraction from the fact-

Okay, she had to stop thinking about that.

The elevator slowed and stopped. The doors opened onto the top of Flopside Tower. As the elevator descended once more, Mimi approached the single door on the tower.

She had seen the brightly colored doors on Flipside's tower, the doors leading to many different dimensions. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her, and she decided to see if there were any more doors on top of the tower in Flopside. In front of her now, however, there was only a single door. This one was larger than the others, and colored pink and black. The design on it reminded her faintly of the book the count used to carry around.

The Dark Prognosticus..

Nobody had seen or heard from Count Bleck...Lord Blumiere..or his wife, Lady Timpani, since the Chaos Heart incident nearly a year ago. Out of grief, Blumiere stole the Dark Prognosticus from his tribe, took on the name Count Bleck, and vowed to destroy all the worlds that took his love away from him. His own minion betrayed him, but in the end the dimensions had been saved.

Nobody had heard anything about Dimentio since then, either, thank Grambi.

The door gave off a slightly ominous aura, but that didn't stop Mimi from entering it.

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Castle Bleck?

The black and pink door closed and disappeared behind her. Has it always been this easy to enter? Mimi wondered. It was a white silhouette from where she was standing, but walking closer she saw it wasn't any different than when she was last there.

Interesting. She thought maybe with the Void's closing, the castle would no longer be standing, or at least showing some wear. It looked exactly as they had left it. The Void seemed to be a dimension itself as well; the dark space stretched out infinitely beyond the platform the castle sat upon.

The castle itself had three floors; the first floor was mainly where Count Bleck's lower-ranked minions used to be; brainwashed members of Bowser's army and others. The two upper levels contained the residential parts of the castle, and was home to Bleck's closer minions. She opened the front door.

The entryway was empty, but she could see a few Goombas standing by the door at the other end of the hall. She closed the door behind her, but none of them turned around. They were all seated in a circle, engrossed in an intense game of go fish. The three of them were in a tight huddle, trying to sneak quick glances at each others cards. The one whose cards were being peeked at would immediately shrink back and scowl at the other, while the remaining Goomba snuck a look at their cards. There was a lot of muttering going on in the group, and occasionally one would toss their cards around in a fit of frustration.

"Uh..hello?"

They all jumped at the sound of Mimi's voice. One let out a high pitched shriek.

"Holy crowbar it's her!"

"Um. Why are you guys still here?" Mimi asked. One would think they would have gone right back to Bowser once they were no longer under the count's control. She figured Bowser's minions probably liked him nearly as much as Bowser loved himself, and that they'd run right back to him instantly. The three brown mushroom creatures all glanced nervously at each other.

"I-It's nice here," The Goomba who had shrieked said. "I never really liked Bowser anyway."

The other two nodded quickly in agreement. One dropped his cards on the ground and stood up. He was beginning to bounce around angrily.

"I mean, we Goombas face a lot of discrimination in Darkland, you know, and even in Bowser's army we're just...expendable! I'm expendable! Disposable! Replaceable!" He took a deep breath. "EXPENDABLE!"

There was an awkward silence. The Goomba added a quiet "hmph".

"Here we can just...do our own thing," The last Goomba said. His expression suddenly turned hopeful. "You ain't here to kick us out, right?"

Mimi shook her head. "I guess you guys can hang out here..."

The Goombas nodded, sitting back down and picking up their cards. They resumed their game in a more gloomy mood;

"Got any 4s?"

"Go fish."

"Uh-huh."

Mimi slowly backed away, teleporting to the second floor of the castle.

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The upper floors were a bit more familiar to her than the first; they served as a living space rather than a maze of enemies. Nothing moved here, and she was grateful for a bit of quiet. She walked slowly down the hall, feeling memories creep back in. The Castle Bleck crew was dysfunctional, to say the least, but in a way it was like her dysfunctional family. The only real one she ever knew.

Ascending the staircase to the third floor, she noticed the fine layer of dust on the handrail. Nobody had been up this way in a long time. Everything was so quiet. Almost too quiet.

Aside from a few doors leading to the towers, the third floor was mainly the minion's bedrooms. Mimi's bedroom stood out like a sore thumb; after a bit of convincing (and a lot of whining), she was able to convince the count to let her paint her door bright pink. The door was covered in a mess of drawings, the largest reading:

KEEP OUT, DUMMIES.

A snarky smiley face had been drawn below the words. In response, the face had been scribbled out and written below it:

DIMENTIO THAT MEANS YOU ESPECIALLY.

Upon opening the door, she noticed the room was perfectly clean. Unlike the area outside, her furniture and remaining belongings were free of any dust. She also noticed the drawer she kept her diary in had been left open; the book was missing. Not that it mattered to her now, anyway; she had a new one. She remembered closing that drawer, though..

She shut the drawer.

Click.

Mimi whipped around. The doorknob moved slightly, then was still. She slowly walked over to the door and tried the handle.

The door was locked.

She jiggled it. No luck. She tried unlocking it from her side. Nothing. She didn't know her door could be locked or unlocked from the outside. She didn't even know her door could lock. She pulled on the handle, pressing one foot against the door. Her hands slipped, and she fell on her backside.

"Hello?"

Mimi stood up and knocked on the door.

"Is anyone there?"

No one. She twisted the handle again, trying to pull open the door, but it stayed shut. She pounded on the door with both fists.

"HELLO?"

"Why on earth are you yelling at a locked door?"

Mimi froze.

The voice behind her chuckled, and she heard a light tinkling sound as a key bounced between her feet. Hands shaking, she picked up the key and jammed it into the lock. Throwing open the door, she ran down the hallway and down the stairs. Panting, she looked around, running down the hallway to her right.

She ended up at a dead end.

Mimi whirled around, but the owner of the voice hadn't followed. She took off running again, heading back towards the main hall of the second floor. She heard the brief clicking of heels on the floor, and quickly drew a box around herself to flip out of the castle, but the box cracked and broke into pieces on the floor. Mimi froze. The clicking stopped, but she felt the presence of someone behind her. The owner of that familiar voice. She slowly turned to face them.

He wore a bright yellow and purple poncho and a matching hat, a jester's costume. His gloved hands held a pink book, labeled "Mimi's Diary." These details, however, were not what had her frozen in place. It was the mask on his face, half black and half white, twisted into an eerie grin. He tiled his head to the side and turned the diary in his hands.

"So nice to see you again!~"