He had been walking for some time as the sun set further. He was cold, tired, hungry, and really annoyed at the screeching voice in his head that wouldn't stop complaining about his cold, tired, and hungry state. Either way, it was pretty clear that he wouldn't reach even the edge of the Evershade Forest before the beginnings of true nightfall, and even though part of him practically knew that forest like the back of his hand by now, travelling through it was nerve-wracking enough at midday, especially for the part of him who had never even heard of the place until now.
Do you have absolute confidence we are on the path that is correct?
He let out an audible groan in response to the repeated thought. For the tenth time, YES. Now PLEASE stop nagging long enough for us to get there.
As the sun had reached that point on the horizon where you can only see a small sliver of its light, he came across a familiar weathered sign. Well, partly familiar. It pointed in the direction they were headed and read "Evershade Forest – Five Yards". The sight ahead confirmed what the sign and partial memory told him; the trees began to seem more untamed and clustered together along the path. "Bingo," he said aloud to himself. He glanced around as he approached the increasingly dense clusters of trees. Keeping his gaze near the bases of the tree trunks, he eventually found what he was looking for—what Luigi remembered he had left there.
It was, or at least seemed to be, a rather nondescript rock that wouldn't look too out of place if you didn't get too close to examine it, or notice the green "L" painted onto the side. He knelt down and lifted the decorative plastic "rock", one of those things you get to hide a lawn installment so that your yard looks more "natural". Underneath the false plastic shell was a small lockbox, the combination lock on which he undid rather quickly. He opened the box and removed a normal-looking flashlight. He shook it slightly, trying to check if it was still active, then turned it on and let its friendly bright beam illuminate the forest before him. "Good to see you still have working, old friend," he said warmly. The comforting light now in his grasp, he took a deep breath, then stepped into the boundaries of the forest.
The feelings he was getting upon starting the trek through Evershade was, like the entire situation, very odd. It was a strange mix of nostalgia, dread, and heavily denied terror.
Scared, Fawful? Luigi asked, partly teasing and partly an attempt to be comforting if the answer was in fact yes.
You are wishing so, aren't you, fink-rat?! Fawful retorted. I have chortles at this forest of stupidness! It is you who is being the scared one!
He rolled his eyes. The Fawful part of his mind was partly correct; the Luigi part was scared. He had been scared every time he had to trek through Evershade at night, though he wasn't used to making the path to E. Gadd's lab this late, usually only from. However, that was only because he knew exactly what lurked within the woods. Fawful had never been into these woods. He had no clue. And, unfortunately for both of them, he had a twisted imagination and was thinking up all kinds of potential threats, both plausible and implausible, as well as bits of memories cropped up from Luigi and twisted in strange manners.
"H-have the stopping!" he shouted aloud, putting his free hand to his face in an attempt to drive the imagined horrors from his shared mind. He sighed. "This is crazy, w-we need to have calm."
What is being your idea of brightness? Fawful spat at Luigi.
Er...maybe sing a happy song? Luigi suggested. Music usually does wonders to change any sort of mood.
A familiar laugh rang through his shared mind. That is being smart, Fawful said coyly, almost tauntingly. I have knowledge of one that is perfect!
He began to whistle an up-beat, jovial tune, one that was reminiscent of the opening to a film featuring an eccentric chocolate maker. Both halves of the shared mind were relatively calmed down by the happy melody...that is, until he began to sing the lyrics.
"Who can make your soul diiiiiiee?
With a passing glaaaaance?
Leave a bunch of notes around and make you poop your pants
The Slenderman, the Slenderman-man!"
WH-WHAT THE HECK KIND OF LYRICS ARE THAT?! Luigi screamed in their mind. That's just creepy! It's not helping!
You had suggesting of music to stave off the scaries, right? Fawful laughed. So I am singing about a thing of scariness that is fake in entirety! It is being a pure fabrication of the interwebs, honest!
Doesn't change the fact that it DOESN'T LIGHTEN THE MOOD.
He sighed and rolled his eyes, having been defeated by Luigi's apparent finality of the statement. So he decided to try again, with a song that would have no association with any spooky beings from the imagination of either Luigi, Fawful, or some guy on the internet with too much time on his hands. "Ground control to Fox McCloud—"
Oh god, please, no, stop, seriously, no David Bowie, nope nope nope.
He stopped, puzzled. Oh, what is being the problem of yours NOW? Fawful groaned.
In all fairness, it would take too long to explain in enough detail for you to understand, Luigi replied. All you need to know is I get this sick feeling from anything related David Bowie ever since...yeah.
But it is not being David Bow— Fawful stopped himself. Oh right. Parody. Enough fairness.
He continued through the Evershade Forest, having finally reached a compromise of mind-easing music in a simple whistling tune, a tune that was familiar to part of him and was thankfully enough to soothe the other part. The shadows of the trees in the flashlight's bright beams still seemed to morph into imagined threats, but the whistling kept them at bay.
He heard a sound. The friendly-sounding bark of a dog recognizing someone it loved or would possibly love, though something about it sounded...off. It set him on-edge. He quickened his pace, still whistling, yet becoming increasingly nervous. He heard the bark again, sounding closer this time. It drove him crazy not knowing what was making the sound, so against his better judgement, he turned to face the source.
Sitting politely right behind him was a little white dog wearing a bright red collar. Or, at least, it looked like a dog. It was definitely not a normal dog; for one thing, its fur glowed eerily and it was somewhat translucent. It let out another friendly little bark, its bark echoing unnaturally for the environment they were standing in. Part of him knew exactly what this dog was, and was relieved to see it was this and not something worse. He remembered the little ghost dog, a friend Luigi had encountered during the Dark Moon incident. Even with all the forests' ghosts having gone berserk due to the Dark Moon having been shattered, this dog only wanted to play and generally be a harmless scamp. He remembered that when all was said and done, Luigi had taken the little guy in as a pet for a while, at least until his shenanigans had gotten a bit too much for him and Mario to handle and he had to be sent to live with E. Gadd instead. Luigi had wanted to name him "Spooky", but had remembered the ghost dog from the mansion he had "won" years prior had been named that, so to differentiate and to poke fun at a mildly funny meme, he had instead began calling the ghost dog "Spoopy".
He knew that Spoopy was a friendly spirit and only wanted to greet a person that at least partially looked and smelled like the friend he had known. But for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to approach his canine companion. In fact, he felt himself start to back away. "S-Sp-Spoopy...?" he managed to eke out, his voice shaking in a manner that made no sense and yet made ALL the sense. Recognizing his name, Spoopy barked again, wagging his ethereal tail in delight.
That's when he realized what was going on. The taunting voice of Fawful that had been a constant presence in their shared mind had gone quiet. No, not entirely quiet...there had been a non-melodic humming sound that had been ringing through their shared mind ever since he had first seen Spoopy. It wasn't humming. It was an extended whimper of dread and distress and fear.
If you're scared of ghosts, it's all right, Luigi tried to reassure the whining Bean. Spoopy's harmless, and only annoying if you've got something important that he thinks is a toy.
G-ghosts, hah! Ghosts are being s-stupid and fake! Fawful's voice didn't have quite the same note of narcissistic confidence that Luigi had come to expect. It had a thin layer of false bravado, but it was clear that he was terrified of...something.
Well, if ghosts are so stupid and fake, why don't you tell him? Luigi asked.
N-no! Fawful's voice practically echoed in their skull. It will have fury and then the biting and other badness!
No, he'll just get sad and maybe cry— It then clicked for the Luigi part of the mind. Oh, I get it now! You're scared of DOGS! Oh, that's just sad, that is just so sad.
There was no response from Fawful's part of the mind. Only a forced physical response. He turned and ran, screaming in terror, the flashlight's beam erratically dancing through the tall trees. Spoopy, predictably for a dog of any state of living, gave chase with glee, likely believing this to be an elaborate game instead of someone experiencing genuine fear. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, the friendly barking sounds following him being twisted in his mind as hungry snarls.
What are you doing, you goof? Luigi asked in disbelief. If you really wanted to get away from Spoopy, you should've thrown a stick or something. Little guy loves fetch...er, technically more like "keep-away"...
WHY DID YOU NOT HAVE TELLING ME BEFORE?! Fawful shrieked.
I didn't have time before you decided to book it!
He didn't look back, continuing to run in a manner not dissimilar to a blue-quilled hedgehog. As he ran deeper into the forest, he began to see bright spots in the distance. He wasn't sure if they were a real occurrence or just another product of his fear until he drew closer and could see a building lit up from within. Part of him was unsure of the circumstances, but at the same time he knew exactly where he was headed, and it had been the place he had been looking for the whole time.
As he approached the lab, he could hear Spoopy still close behind him. He ran to the door and tried to open, but it was locked. In his panic, he banged frantically on the door. "P-professor!" he shouted. "Please, have opening the door! I-it's Luigi! A-and someone else! Hurry, please open up—!"
Shuffling could be heard coming from within the lab. Footsteps approached the door, accompanied by the voice of an old man. "Hold on, hold on, feller, I'm comin'," the voice murmured, a hint of sleep in its tone. The sound of locks being undone could be heard. "Geez, what's got you out here so late, and why d'you sound like somethin's crawled up your butt—" As the door opened, he fell into the lab from having leaned against it, nearly knocking the short-statured scientist down with him. "Good lord, what's all this ruckus?" Professor E. Gadd asked, clearly confused. "Who are you? Where's Luigi?"
"Professor, I know this has seeming of craziness," he said breathlessly. "I am Luigi, and I am also being..." He had no idea whether or not it was a good idea to tell him about Fawful, so he decided to ease him in a little bit. "...someone else. It is a story of much length."
"Luigi and someone else, huh?" E. Gadd seemed intrigued. This was why they had come to him; E. Gadd would be the most likely to believe something strange like two people suddenly becoming one individual. "Would I happen to know who this someone else is?"
"Er...ever have hearing of someone named 'Fawful'?"
E. Gadd thought for a bit. "I've heard the name before, but I can't say that I can really put a face or actions to it," he admitted. "So, Luigi...er, and Fawful too, I guess...hang on, d'you mind if I just mush your names together while you're together like this? Like something like 'Fawigi', is that okay?"
The newly-dubbed "Fawigi" nodded. "That is being fine," he said.
"All right." E. Gadd smiled warmly. "So, Fawigi, I take it you came here 'cuz you thought I could help the two of you get back to normal?'
"Yes!" Fawigi exclaimed. "So can you?"
"Hmm, I dunno," E. Gadd admitted. "Never heard of this sort of fusing thing happening with corporeal entities before. ...Uh, this Fawful person is corporeal, right?"
"Last time we had checking," Fawigi said. Truth be told, neither Fawful or Luigi were entirely sure that Fawful was entirely corporeal anymore after the whole "absorbing the energy of the Dark Star then turning into a bug thing and exploding inside Bowser's stomach" incident.
"Reeeaaal interesting," E. Gadd murmured. He looked Fawigi over, taking in all the different ways that the features of Luigi had apparently been changed by Fawful's presence. "Well, if you want, you're welcome to stay here until we can get somethin' figured out, all right?"
"That is being a good idea," Fawigi said. "I don't think Mario'd be too keen on...well..." He motioned around himself. "This. Because reasons."
"Don't worry, feller, I understand," E. Gadd said. He put a reassuring hand on Fawigi's shoulder. "We'll get this sorted out, or at least we'll give it a dang good try."
It was then that something slipped through the now-closed door. The friendly bark of Spoopy caused Fawigi to jump. "You had letting it in!" he squealed.
"Wait, what's wrong now?" E. Gadd asked with concern. "Ol' Spoopy been a bad dog or somethin'?"
"Fawful's scared of dogs," Fawigi chuckled. Then he swiftly added, "And he is having reasons of complete legitimacy for such!"
"Well, then, Spoopy really has been a bad dog," E. Gadd said with a light, yet sympathetic, laugh. He turned to Spoopy and scratched where his ears would be if he were a live dog. "You're gonna have to give our pal a bit of room for a while, okay? He's not just Luigi right now, you got it?" Spoopy gave a small bark of acknowledgement, then waddled over to the corner of the room and sat down. "Well, you should get some rest, feller," E. Gadd said. "It's late, and I figure you'd need it after what you've been through."
"Good idea," Fawigi said. Sleep sounded wonderful at the moment, and that was one of the few things his two conflicting psyches could currently agree on. E. Gadd cleared some stuff off the old couch in his front room and dragged out a blanket he kept for those times when Luigi would occasionally spend the night. Fawigi curled up on the couch and with surprising swiftness fell asleep.