Quick Note: Spacing is still weird and part added in Bakery scene.
It was three days till Christmas, and no one was around.
Not a creature was stirring, and not a toad could be found.
Where were they you ask? I'll tell you the tale,
Of a hectic day out, at the big Christmas sale.
Our story begins, with the man dressed in green.
The one who never wanted to be shy, rude, or mean.
With all his shopping done, he had gifts for every other,
But how could he have forgotten, a gift for his own brother?
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" said Luigi as he walked, or rather was pushed into the large food court in front of him. Dozens of citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom were all trying to get through the doors, past the food court, and to the many shops of Mushroom Mall, the finest mall in the entire kingdom. At least that is what the advertisement says. Luigi, as you already know, was being shoved along by the massive crowd, but that was not what he was worrying about.
"Oh dear, what have I done?" Luigi groaned to himself, "I went down that stupid list about a thousand times: Daisy, Peach, Toad, Gadd, Toadsworth, and heck, I even got my mailman a present, so how could I have forgotten my own brother; my own brother! How could I have forgotten Mario? Most of the year, that's not even possible with his name in every other news line!"
Luigi sighed while looking at his surroundings, "Now I have to survive the crowds and find a super, awesome present for my bro by the end of the day."
He looked into the nearest clothing store and saw a toad and a koopa wrestling on the floor for a pair of high heels, "Maybe I'll start upstairs."
Walking up the steps to the second floor of the Mushroom Mall, Luigi smelled something very warm and fresh.
"Tayce T. Bakery," he read aloud, "well, Mario does have a sweet tooth."
Once inside, the man in green was wholeheartedly greeted by the owner, "Hello dearie! Congratulations on being my first costumer of the day!" The owner was an older female toad who was known for her exquisite cooking.
"You're kidding right?" Luigi said, "The entire mall is packed with sale-crazy shoppers! Surely you've had plenty of business?"
Tayce T. leaned forward behind her counter, "Oh, of course I've had many orders through phone, but until they all come to pick up their treats later in the day, no one bothers coming in during the morning hours."
"Oh, well. I'm just going to look around for a moment."
In truth, he became tempted to give up his hunt and spend all day keeping this lady company, but he just couldn't today. He was determined to find a gift for his brother. So, the man in green simply wandered the shop for a few minutes, looking at pies and pastries on display, all while trying to ignore the bored-looking cook behind the counter. It was becoming harder to stay focused while looking at a particular slice of cake he'd found; it was chocolate and looked so moist. He had rushed out the house this morning, causing him to miss breakfast, but before he could become completely infatuated with the baked good, he realized he should get back to the task at hand.
Breaking his gaze, he looked over at Tayce T. and said, "While this all looks very good, I'm afraid I must be going now ma'am."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't buy anything."
"Well, don't be sorry. Besides, I'll still be making money while you're out there spending it." Tayce T. grinned.
Luigi grinned back and waved as he left. He almost made it outside when he bumped into and invisible force.
"Wha…?" he said.
"Hello Mister." Said a voice below him, "You just walked into me."
He looked down to see a small toad girl. She had red dots on her head and long brown hair. She carried with her an equally brown teddy bear.
"Oh, did I?" said Luigi, "I'm very sorry about that."
"It's okay. Can I have some candy?"
Luigi wanted to end the conversation fast, "I'm sorry. I don't have any candy at the moment. I really must be going now."
She held the teddy bear to her ear as if it spoke to her, "Teddy thinks you're lying. Lying is bad."
"Huh? I'm not lying. If I had candy, I would give you some, but I don't." he said honestly.
"Okay, then. Goodbye." She waved to him but then didn't move an inch.
They had a awkward moment of staring before Luigi said, "Okay… Goodbye…"
Another brief moment later, neither side had moved. Then Luigi decided to just back away slowly and turn to leave. He inwardly sighed.
Little did he know, as he turned away the little girl grabbed something from his pockets. It was a shiny, blue, blinking ball of some sort. She looked at it with disinterest.
"You're not a wallet." She said as she threw it on the ground.
"Let's try Fredericks"
Fredericks was a clothing store that packed all the latest styles for the latest seasons. Luigi knew that the coldest months were coming so he thought he would buy Mario something warm. He began looking through coats of many sizes and, due to his stress level being quite high, it was proving difficult to find something just right.
"Too small, too large, too heavy, too thin, too blue and this one is too fuzzy." Luigi sighed and took a deep breath, "This search is way too hard."
So Luigi spent the next half hour looking and re-looking over the pile of coats, scarves, gloves, boots, and earmuffs. Many of them Mario didn't even need, and none of them seemed like the perfect thing to buy. So the plumber gave up and attempted to walk out the store, but he couldn't because of the long line to the store's cash register that blocked the exit.
"He-hey, excuse me," Luigi tried to move through but to no prevail, "I'm trying to get through here."
A large pianta grunted and knocked him back a few feet. Luigi's temper grew, but before he could do anything, a loud bang was from outside Fredericks.
The people in line all became frightened and jumped back. A koopa lady threw her hands in the air, hitting Luigi the face. He stumbled backwards and fell back into a pile of coats on the floor.
"Ow, my nose! What was that? It sounded like an explosion!" As he sat up, Luigi saw the perfect thing to buy.
In front of him, in a bin full of gloves, was a pair that was a bright red, had a large white circle and a red "M" in the middle.
"I need those!" He dashed towards them and just as his hand went to reach them, another hand ran into his.
The owner of the other hand started to yell, "Ow! Hey what's your prob...?"
Luigi looked up to see a familiar face. It was Toadette.
"Luigi? What are you doing here?"
"Please, Toadette! I need those gloves!" he begged.
She grabbed the gloves, "What? No way! I saw them first and besides, I adore Mario! You don't even like him most days!"
"What? That's not true! I'm trying to buy those for Mario!"
"Oh."
"Yes, so please let me have them?"
"Hmmmmm, no."
"Whaaat? You just said you 'adored' my brother!" Luigi yelled.
"I do, but think about how cool I'll look walking into the castle at the big party! Everyone will have their lame old, regular gloves, and I'll be rocking my new Mario brand pair in front of all of them! It will be amazing!" she fantasied.
Luigi looked confused, "Her logic makes no sense! I-I, I don't what to say to convince her. Oh no, my minds blanking! I don't know what to do! I don't know what to say! Ahhhh! I'm not going to find anything for my brother ever and he'll hate me forever! What should I do now? What can I do now?"
Coming back to reality, Toadette focused on Luigi, who seemed to be spacing out and looked like he was about to cry.
"Well geez, don't cry about it. Mario's a cool guy and he'll understand if you don't get him something great, like these gloves," she mumbled that last part under her breath, "Just, go somewhere else and find something better.
Luigi collected himself after hearing Toadette, "Um, okay, I guess you're right…"
But by that point, Toadette had already joyfully skipped off to buy her gloves.
"Gotta keep your cool," Luigi said taking a deep breath. He started walking around the now smaller checkout line.
"I haven't seen Mario pick up a book very often, but he has gotten really interested in a few before. Maybe I can find just the right one in here," said Luigi while walking into "Shelves".
Luigi loved reading when he was home alone and knew this bookshop fairly well. He always enjoyed mystery and fantasy books but knew Mario needed a nice action book that would keep his attention. As long as he reads it before he decides he doesn't like it, Luigi thought, this would be a very good gift for him. I just need something new, and exciting! Something shiny would be nice.
About ten minutes had passed and Luigi was still looking high and low and reading through several back covers Luigi when he finally found one; one that he would love to read, but sadly not the one for Mario. Even in a humble store like this he found himself having to push his way through crowds of people. It was coming to the point where he'd swear that he kept seeing the same people everywhere he went. It was almost as if he knew some of these people, like that girl in the orange shirt way over there. He'd only gotten a glimpse of her face but he was sure that he knew her.
"Is that...?" he asked as he got closer.
Just as he did so, the mysterious girl ducked down on the floor. Luigi was confused so he pushed past more people to reach her. After moving past the last person, he found the girl in an orange shirt scampering across the floor.
"Daisy?" The lady in question froze.
"Oh, hey there Weegee. I didn't see you there," she said standing up, "Whatcha, uh, doing here?"
To this Luigi tensed but tried to stay calm and collected.
"Nothing, just looking," he said slowly, "Daisy, are you okay? You don't look so good."
It was true; the floral princess was now sweating and looked faint, "What? Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay? It's not like I forgot to buy something super important and now I'm here to buy it last minute, or something. Or something! That would make me an awful person, but I'm not, and I didn't, so I'm perfectly fine!"
Luigi looked mortified once Daisy was done ranting. Luigi thought he knew exactly what was happening. Somehow Daisy had found out that Luigi forgotten Mario's gift and was using sarcasm to show her anger. She was getting all upset over something he did and now more than ever was he regretting it. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was and that he wanted to still make his brother happy somehow, but words would not form.
He stared at the ground, "I-I-I..."
For the second time today, he felt like crying. He should have just bought the stupid cake.
"Oh my god!" said Daisy suddenly as she embraced him in a hug, "I'm so sorry Luigi! Look, its okay. I'm going to make this right, I promise! Please don't be mad at me!"
As she continued to speak, Luigi's sad face was replaced with another confused one.
"But..." he began to say before being thrown back into another hug.
"No! No excuses! It's all going to be alright when I'm done," she backed off and looked into his eyes, "Just let me do what has to be done!"
She gave him a warm smile and ran off, leaving the plumber behind along with many questions forming in his head.
By now, it was midday and Luigi had managed to have not spent a single coin. Walking around, seemingly in circles, he decided it was time for a short break to clear his head. His initial plan was to go buy a snack from the nice lady at the bakery, but when he passed her shop on the second floor, she was now just as busy as she before claimed she would be. Luigi needed to go somewhere more secluded. Every staircase, hallway, and elevator was filled with shoppers, except for one. He chose that one.
"Only floor two and floor three?" he asked, "I didn't know this mall even had a third floor!"
He pushed the button and the doors closed, "Seems inconvenient to me."
The doors opened again and Luigi instantly relaxed. Outside was just a room-sized store with a calm red color scheme and the smell of fresh coffee filling the air. There were others here enjoying the moment, but no one rushed around like they did downstairs. In a trance, he followed his nose to the counter and was greeted by a man in a mug shaped hat, sat down, and ordered some coffee.
"This is much better," Luigi thought.
"Hey bro," said a familiar voice beside him.
Luigi nearly fell out of his chair.
"M-Mario?" he stammered, "Wha-What are you doing here?"
"We were out of toilet paper," he said up front.
He seemed beaten down and restless, even more so than Luigi.
"Oh." said Luigi.
"And bread." added Mario.
"Oh."
"Today bro, I have seen some stuff," he said gulping down some coffee, "Stuff I really wish I could un-see."
The man with the mug hat came back to give the younger brother his coffee.
He calmed a little, "Yeah, today's been crazy for me too."
"No kidding? What have you been up to? You're not here for the toilet paper too are you? 'Cause that would be the worst thing to hear today if you had already bought some."
"Maybe not the worst thing." Luigi said under his breath but Mario heard him.
"What do you mean?"
Luigi almost choked, "Uh, well, you know, like... Okay what if, I was supposed to buy the toilet paper, and the bread! But I didn't."
"Okay...?"
"Yeah! And then, say I went to buy said toilet paper, but now you're all angry because you didn't have any for today."
"Sure. So, what's your point?"
"Yes my point is, now that I've made you wait, how great does the toilet paper have to be for you to still really like it?" He practically shouted the last part and was now in his brother's face.
Mario backed away, "So you didn't buy any toilet paper?"
Luigi sighed, "No, but I'm really trying here."
Mario looked angry, "I spent all day trying to get..."
Luigi interrupted, "Mario stop. It was a metaphor."
"Oh... You shouldn't lie you know."
Luigi's head hit the counter as the eldest continued, "You know, I don't even care anymore Weege. All I want for Christmas is that dang roll of toilet paper. I'd be happy with any roll at all by this point. Anything at all, just as long as I get that warm feeling when it's given to me, all wrapped up and new. That's all I want."
"Well that's a relief." Luigi muttered with his head still down, but suddenly he looked up, "Wait, wait that's it! I know what to buy now!"
"Toilet paper?"
"What? No, not that! Anyway you were supposed to buy that like a week ago. I've got to go now. Thanks bro!"
"Okay, your welcome, I guess."
With that, Luigi rushed off with newfound excitement.
Luigi rushed off to the store he needed, an electronics store he knew that sold just what he was thinking of. To sum it up in a single sentence, he found, bought it, and then smiled uncontrollably as he completed his mission. That is, until he noticed something on his way out.
"Gadd?" he asked to a friend he had found.
The small man stood in his lab coat near a destroyed booth of some sort. A table was black with ash and he seemed to be mourning over pieces of machinery that lay on the ground.
"Gadd, what happened here?"
The professor managed to fake a smile at the plumber, "Nothing much my boy. My experiments only exploded is all. All except my RoboHound here."
A small miniature robot dog came out from behind him and whimpered to Luigi, "Oh, I'm sorry Elvin. How did this happen?"
"A girl came, pressed a button, and Boom! Now some of my greatest stuff is gone, not that anyone was buying anyway though."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Naw, I'll be fine. How 'bout a nice lunch though?"
"Sure I can do that, but let's just get out of this mall first."
So the plumber, the dog, and the professor walked away. They now were on the escalator to the food court when RoboHound's ears perked up. Out of nowhere RoboHound barked widely and darted up the escalator.
"Hey!" yelled Gadd after him.
All at once, RoboHound leapt into someone at the top of the escalator just as a flash of bright light blinded everyone in the area.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" screamed an old male voice.
Just then a mountain of cookies and an old toad flew down the escalator and plowed over the two, sending them falling down the stairs.
As Luigi blacked out, for a moment or two
I'll tell you the tale, of someone new.
For the rest to make sense, I need to tell you,
How this day played out, from another point of view.
That's the first chapter of six. Each, except for the last, is to be told from the point of view of each character. Some you have already met. Some(none), may remember this story from last year. Well, for this year, it is not only already written, but will be up in time for Christmas! At least, most of it. Also, the spacing turned out al weird when I uploaded, so I tried to fix that the best I could. Happy Holidays!