p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Hey. My name is Ninten. I know, I know, it's a weird name, but it's not like emI'm /emthe one who chose it. You can blame my parents for that. Anyway, I'm 12 years old and this is the story of how I saved the world./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"…What? You don't believe I saved the world? Oh yeah, right, emjust because I'm 12 I can't do cool stuff/em. Well, I really did save the world, whether you believe it or not./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Moving on. It all started when my lamp almost killed me. …emReally with the whole not believing me thing again? Come on. Just roll with it, I know it's weird./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I was just minding my own business that day. I had followed my typical routine: get up, not want to go to school, eat, go to school, walk my sisters home from school, and start on my homework. I'd been doing my math homework when I got hungry. I got up and was walking to the door when I suddenly got a feeling. A bad feeling. You know those vibes you get when you're watching a horror movie and you can tell something real bad is about to happen? Yeah, it was like that. My eyes flicked around the room as I turned around. My eyes zeroed in on my lamp. My trembling lamp. What? I pinched my arm to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nope, this was all real. Suddenly, the lamp's power cord came out of the wall and the lamp started levitating. I can only imagine what my face looked like, but it was probably hilariously confused. Or at least, it was before the lamp soared right at my neck./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I dodged, stumbling. Jeez, that thing could've snapped my neck at the speed it was going. It almost did, to make things even worse. The thing was righting itself after almost ramming into the door, so I took that time to grab it (emjeez, that thing was hot/em) and hurl it at the wall. emSMASH. /emI sighed. Mom would have my head for this. Now that the thing was dead, I had some time to think about what the heck just happened./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"1.) My lamp came to life and attacked /2.) I almost /3.) I broke my /4.) This could be happening in other parts of the house too./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Wait, what was that last one again? Other parts of the house. I blanched. emMy sisters! /emThey were only 7, they couldn't defend themselves if something attacked them! I gritted my teeth and ran out the door, entering the first room to my right; Minnie's room. I was lovingly greeted by Minnie's shrieking and yet another lamp flying at me. I followed the same steps I took with the lamp from my room, except with a little less almost dying. emDodge, grab it, ignore my burning hands, and smash it./em The porcelain pieces fell to the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Big bro…" I startled and whipped around when Minnie spoke up. "What's happening? Is the house falling apart? Is Mommy okay? Is Mimmie okay? I'm scared…" She babbled./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I walked over to where she was standing. She looked up at me when I knelt down in front of her and I put my hands on her shoulders. "Minnie, I really don't know what's going on right now," I felt bad when her expression dropped even more, but I didn't want to just lie to her, "But I'm gonna go check on Mom and Mimmie, okay? Now what I need you to do is stay here, and if anything else tries to hurt you, scream. I promise I'll come." emI have no idea where this sudden bravery came from, I still feel like I'm about to piss my pants./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As soon as my younger sister nodded, I shot to my feet and took off running. The next room over wasn't far, but the less time I took, the better. I burst into the room to see Mimmie scrambling away from her doll. emUgh/em, I hate that thing. It was a hand-me-down from Mom, who got it from her mom, whose mom made it for her. I knew there was some sentimental value to it, but the doll always kind of… creeped me out. It was falling apart, its clothes were missing, and it was all around ratty. Welp, either way, that thing's gotta go now./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Mimmie turned her scared gaze to me, begging for help. I dashed in between my sister and the doll, hoping that things would turn out well like they did against the lamps. I started with a kick to the doll, flinging it a little ways across the room. It emwas /ema doll, after all. It rose up, hurtling toward me, but I jumped to the side, flailing my arms a bit to keep my balance when I landed. Turns out the thing had really poor motor control (is that how you'd put it?), as it almost rammed into the wall. I took the opportunity to rush over and grab it by its little socked feet (emhonestly, I'm surprised that those were the things that never got lost. You'd think that the socks would be the first to go, but no./em) and bash its head into the wall hard enough that the head popped clean off. The doll went limp – er, limper? – in my hands. I dropped its body and slumped down a bit, wishing that this was all a dream./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, for some reason, it seemed like something in the air evaporated. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. My mind told me that it was the strange phenomenon ending, and I wanted to say something along the lines of emHow the heck did you get to that conclusion? /embut Mimmie was staring right at me and I didn't want to make my sister think I'd gone mad, so I just rolled with the punches and hoped my mind was right. Mimmie looked away from me, instead staring at the doll's head that was a few feet away from her. Then she looked back at me. Then back at the head. Her eyes flickered between us for a moment, before her eyes widened and she looked back at me./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ninten! I think there's something inside it!" emWell, at least she's taking it better than I expected/em. I walked over to the doll's head, crouching down and grabbing it carefully. I peered inside of it and I could make out the shape of a little box. I reached in and grabbed it; pulling it into the light, I could see that it was a small wooden box with a small indent on the sides. There were hinges on the back, and a rusty key on the side to wind it up. I figured, emhey, why not/em, and turned the key a few times (emby which I mean 10/em) before opening the box. When I opened it, a tune started to play as a small figure of a woman in a dress spun slowly. The music stopped after five notes, but the woman kept spinning. I tilted my head in confusion, replaying the five notes in my mind./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Huh, guess it's busted," I said, looking up at Mimmie only to see her wide eyes looking back at me. "Sorry, Mim. I'm gonna go check on Mom, okay?" My sister nodded and I stood up. She huffed when I ruffled her hair as I walked by to set the music box on her dresser./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As I was about to walk out into the hall, Mimmie said, "hey, Ninten?" I looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Thanks for saving me, but…" She trailed off, smirking a little, "I'm gonna tell Mommy you broke my dolly."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I just stared at her for a moment. emReally? This is what your brain latches onto after all this, Mimmie/em? I sighed and turned, walking out the door, knowing that there's no changing her mind when she decides on something. She's stubborn like that. As I trotted down the stairs, I just couldn't get those five notes out of my mind. I felt like they were important for some weird reason./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The part of my mind that had talked to me earlier sung quietly. "emTake a melody…/em" This time, I wasn't inclined to say anything in response. After all, the tune was very nice. My lips quirked into a small smile as I sang along to my mind's lyrics under my breath./p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongEdit (1-21-19): Decided to remove the prologue entirely. I felt it too short and generally unnecessary for the story./strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongThank you for reading! Please point out any mistakes in the reviews./strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"emstrongDisclaimer: MOTHER/Earthbound Zero/Earthbound Beginnings belongs to Nintendo/Shigesato Itoi./strong/em/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"…What? You don't believe I saved the world? Oh yeah, right, emjust because I'm 12 I can't do cool stuff/em. Well, I really did save the world, whether you believe it or not./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Moving on. It all started when my lamp almost killed me. …emReally with the whole not believing me thing again? Come on. Just roll with it, I know it's weird./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I was just minding my own business that day. I had followed my typical routine: get up, not want to go to school, eat, go to school, walk my sisters home from school, and start on my homework. I'd been doing my math homework when I got hungry. I got up and was walking to the door when I suddenly got a feeling. A bad feeling. You know those vibes you get when you're watching a horror movie and you can tell something real bad is about to happen? Yeah, it was like that. My eyes flicked around the room as I turned around. My eyes zeroed in on my lamp. My trembling lamp. What? I pinched my arm to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nope, this was all real. Suddenly, the lamp's power cord came out of the wall and the lamp started levitating. I can only imagine what my face looked like, but it was probably hilariously confused. Or at least, it was before the lamp soared right at my neck./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I dodged, stumbling. Jeez, that thing could've snapped my neck at the speed it was going. It almost did, to make things even worse. The thing was righting itself after almost ramming into the door, so I took that time to grab it (emjeez, that thing was hot/em) and hurl it at the wall. emSMASH. /emI sighed. Mom would have my head for this. Now that the thing was dead, I had some time to think about what the heck just happened./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"1.) My lamp came to life and attacked /2.) I almost /3.) I broke my /4.) This could be happening in other parts of the house too./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Wait, what was that last one again? Other parts of the house. I blanched. emMy sisters! /emThey were only 7, they couldn't defend themselves if something attacked them! I gritted my teeth and ran out the door, entering the first room to my right; Minnie's room. I was lovingly greeted by Minnie's shrieking and yet another lamp flying at me. I followed the same steps I took with the lamp from my room, except with a little less almost dying. emDodge, grab it, ignore my burning hands, and smash it./em The porcelain pieces fell to the floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Big bro…" I startled and whipped around when Minnie spoke up. "What's happening? Is the house falling apart? Is Mommy okay? Is Mimmie okay? I'm scared…" She babbled./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I walked over to where she was standing. She looked up at me when I knelt down in front of her and I put my hands on her shoulders. "Minnie, I really don't know what's going on right now," I felt bad when her expression dropped even more, but I didn't want to just lie to her, "But I'm gonna go check on Mom and Mimmie, okay? Now what I need you to do is stay here, and if anything else tries to hurt you, scream. I promise I'll come." emI have no idea where this sudden bravery came from, I still feel like I'm about to piss my pants./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As soon as my younger sister nodded, I shot to my feet and took off running. The next room over wasn't far, but the less time I took, the better. I burst into the room to see Mimmie scrambling away from her doll. emUgh/em, I hate that thing. It was a hand-me-down from Mom, who got it from her mom, whose mom made it for her. I knew there was some sentimental value to it, but the doll always kind of… creeped me out. It was falling apart, its clothes were missing, and it was all around ratty. Welp, either way, that thing's gotta go now./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Mimmie turned her scared gaze to me, begging for help. I dashed in between my sister and the doll, hoping that things would turn out well like they did against the lamps. I started with a kick to the doll, flinging it a little ways across the room. It emwas /ema doll, after all. It rose up, hurtling toward me, but I jumped to the side, flailing my arms a bit to keep my balance when I landed. Turns out the thing had really poor motor control (is that how you'd put it?), as it almost rammed into the wall. I took the opportunity to rush over and grab it by its little socked feet (emhonestly, I'm surprised that those were the things that never got lost. You'd think that the socks would be the first to go, but no./em) and bash its head into the wall hard enough that the head popped clean off. The doll went limp – er, limper? – in my hands. I dropped its body and slumped down a bit, wishing that this was all a dream./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"Then, for some reason, it seemed like something in the air evaporated. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. My mind told me that it was the strange phenomenon ending, and I wanted to say something along the lines of emHow the heck did you get to that conclusion? /embut Mimmie was staring right at me and I didn't want to make my sister think I'd gone mad, so I just rolled with the punches and hoped my mind was right. Mimmie looked away from me, instead staring at the doll's head that was a few feet away from her. Then she looked back at me. Then back at the head. Her eyes flickered between us for a moment, before her eyes widened and she looked back at me./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Ninten! I think there's something inside it!" emWell, at least she's taking it better than I expected/em. I walked over to the doll's head, crouching down and grabbing it carefully. I peered inside of it and I could make out the shape of a little box. I reached in and grabbed it; pulling it into the light, I could see that it was a small wooden box with a small indent on the sides. There were hinges on the back, and a rusty key on the side to wind it up. I figured, emhey, why not/em, and turned the key a few times (emby which I mean 10/em) before opening the box. When I opened it, a tune started to play as a small figure of a woman in a dress spun slowly. The music stopped after five notes, but the woman kept spinning. I tilted my head in confusion, replaying the five notes in my mind./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Huh, guess it's busted," I said, looking up at Mimmie only to see her wide eyes looking back at me. "Sorry, Mim. I'm gonna go check on Mom, okay?" My sister nodded and I stood up. She huffed when I ruffled her hair as I walked by to set the music box on her dresser./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"As I was about to walk out into the hall, Mimmie said, "hey, Ninten?" I looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow. "Thanks for saving me, but…" She trailed off, smirking a little, "I'm gonna tell Mommy you broke my dolly."/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"I just stared at her for a moment. emReally? This is what your brain latches onto after all this, Mimmie/em? I sighed and turned, walking out the door, knowing that there's no changing her mind when she decides on something. She's stubborn like that. As I trotted down the stairs, I just couldn't get those five notes out of my mind. I felt like they were important for some weird reason./p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"The part of my mind that had talked to me earlier sung quietly. "emTake a melody…/em" This time, I wasn't inclined to say anything in response. After all, the tune was very nice. My lips quirked into a small smile as I sang along to my mind's lyrics under my breath./p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongEdit (1-21-19): Decided to remove the prologue entirely. I felt it too short and generally unnecessary for the story./strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"strongThank you for reading! Please point out any mistakes in the reviews./strong/p
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"emstrongDisclaimer: MOTHER/Earthbound Zero/Earthbound Beginnings belongs to Nintendo/Shigesato Itoi./strong/em/span/p