GREEN CHAPTERS: SHATTERING MEMORIES
Chapter Green 1: Reminiscence Clinic
It was a new day today. Ori went to check on her friends. She found Tatanga being given a massage by his steward.
"You're getting massaged at this time of day?" She asked.
"Why not? I think I'll take a break of adventuring today and take it easy." The alien replied.
"Sure thing."
"Wait! Where's that sad attitude of yesterday morning?"
"Well, I'm just glad you'll be staying here unlike the others."
"It's because of Larry."
Not wanting to answer any further, Ori left Tatanga's room and went back to Gami who was ready. This time, Mario and Larry would be with them too.
"Alright. There's only one Origami Star to get before we can reach the Brown Region and it's the green one." Gami said.
Everyone nodded and went to the minivan. The group drove to the Green Region and stopped at its town Verdant Village. Before heading out further into the region, they explored the small village and stumbled across a place named Los Memoriam Café. The group entered the place and took a seat. A strange figure was behind the counter. It was a bizarre humanoid wearing a white top hat and coat. A small butterfly colored like a rainbow was also at the counter and left to see the group.
"Welcome to the Los Memoriam Café. Is it your first time?" The butterfly asked.
Everyone nodded at her.
"I'm Tippi and this person at the counter is Blumiere. We also have two other staff members, one of them in the kitchen and the other one…"
She did not have time to mention the other person when the lights in the café went down. The group looked around and saw spotlights aimed at a small stage. On it stood a giant plant that looked exactly like the one that appeared in Klaira's video tapes. IT was holding a microphone.
"Good morning, Verdant Village! I'm Petey Piranha, your humorist for this noon." The plant greeted.
"Ah yes! This is Petey. He usually cleans the floors and tables and uses his free time to tell jokes." Tippi said to the group.
"Alright! Have any of you worked in a garage?"
A few people raised their hand including Mario.
"It must be TIRING to work in such conditions, even EXHAUSTING!" The plant joked.
The customers had a good laugh at the puns. Petey then noticed the group.
"You know, I'm gonna try something entirely different today. I'm gonna ask someone in my audience to tell a joke. So, who wants this honor?" Petey brought up.
The customers remained quiet.
"I don't have any joke to tell right now." Ori whispered, a bit upset.
"I'm not too good at humor. I hope he doesn't pick me." Gami whispered.
Somehow, Petey could hear those whispers. He directly looked at the group.
"I hear someone from this table would like to volunteer!" He said while pointing the table with one of his giant leaves.
Gami became more and more anxious. Ori closed her eyes and tried to come up with a joke.
"You, the punk turtle, you look like a walking punchline! You have a joke to tell me? You don't need to come over to the stage. I can throw you the mike if you want to!" Petey said.
The two origamis sighed in relief. Larry climbed on the table and stood up on it. He raised a hadn in the air and Petey tossed the microphone at him. The koopa caught the microphone.
"First, tell us your name!" The plant shouted.
"Koopa, Larry Koopa." The punk spoke in the microphone.
"Alright, Larry Koopa! What do you have to say to entertain us today?"
The punk looked at the giant plant. He pointed at him and…
"Ceci n'est pas un PETEY PIRANHA." He said with his flirty voice.
The customers looked at Larry, unsure if it was a joke. Petey first blushed then burst out of laugher.
"That was brilliant! That must've been the best pun someone could make with my name! I love it! Thank you for attending my show and have a good meal!" The plant concluded.
The giant plant climbed down the stage and went to see the group.
"So, you're new around here? I haven't seen any of you before." Petey asked.
"Yes, we just arrived here. I'm Princess Ori and this is my brother, Prince Gami." Ori presented.
"Hello!" Gami just said.
"Royalties, eh? What do royalties do in such a small town?" The plant asked.
"We're here to recover the Green Origami Star and we're looking for some people to join us." Gami answered.
"You're on an adventure? Can I come with you please?"
"Sure but can you defend yourself?" Ori asked.
"Um, I think so. I have some weird cards I bought from some guy a year ago because I liked the drawings on the cards." Petey brought up as he pulled out a deck of cards from his swimsuit.
"Yep, that'll do. Let's go then."
The group, now with Petey, left the café. Before though, Petey had to tell his boss he would take the day off and this could extend to a week.
"I have someplace to go before we can leave town." Petey brought up.
"What kind of place?" Gami asked.
"I need to go to the Reminiscence Clinic for a monthly therapy I'm following."
The group headed to said clinic. There was no one inside though. The clinic was one huge room with many beds.
"I don't think your doctor is here." Ori commented.
"You have to lie down on a bed and close your eyes. That's how he treats his patients." Petey said.
"That's not how I imagined a therapist to work." Gami said.
Each member of the group took a bed. Petey closed his eyes and the others waited. It took quite a long time and everyone ended up falling asleep.
"Wake up, Mario!" A familiar voice spoke.
Mario opened his eyes and saw Princess Peach. He stood up and realized he was back home when he looked around.
"Are you ready for our first ceremony for you?" Peach asked.
Mario did remember that even. It happened after he saved the princess from Bowser for the first time but how could it happen again? Mario followed the princess to the entrance door. When he opened it, he was surprised to see a celestial background instead of the usual plains he used to see. He took one step in this celestial background and found a floor. He left his house and looked behind. Peach seemed frozen in time.
"Good afternoon, patient number 64." An artificial voice spoke.
Mario looked around, trying to find from where it came.
"Do not bother to look around. I am everywhere. My name is Doctor Reminiscence and welcome to my clinic. Your friends shall arrive soon." The voice said.
"Mario, over here!" Ori's voice spoke.
Mario looked toward the source and saw the origamis. He joined them back. Larry just arrived too but seemed somewhat worried.
"If you wish, you may see the memory of your friends." The voice spoke.
"No thanks, just do your daily therapy with Petey and we'll be going." Gami replied.
"Then why not leave him here?"
"He's with us. He'll be coming with us naturally."
"I am sorry. I am afraid I cannot let any of you do that."
"What are you talking about?" Ori asked.
"I have finally found the solution to his problem and I intend to perform it. No one shall prevent me to do so. After years of research, I have finally found a possible way to defeat amnesia once and for all."
"That's great but how long will it take?"
"Forever…"
"You can't be serious! There's no way we're giving up on him." Gami furiously replied.
"Strange. You just met patient number 3. Do you already consider him your friend?"
"He's coming with us, whether you like it or not!"
"In case, you'll be my guests forever…"
Celestial essence from the background gathered in one spot and materialized into Princess Peach.
"Forever…" She said.
The princess then pulled out a card and a frying pan appeared in her hand. She charged at Mario and hit him with the pan. Mario managed to block the attack but still received damage.
"What are you doing!? Are you out of your mind!?" Ori yelled.
"Forever…" The princess said once again.
"You're not leaving any choice then. We'll beat you!" Gami said.
The battle was on. Mario began his turn with a Mega Jump card and stomped on the fake Peach once. It did a lot of damage but it was not enough for anything to happen. Larry then used a Flying Kick card and approached the fake princess. The enemy pulled out a Toad Card in an attempt to protect herself from Larry's attack but the latter feinted with a Stomp card and jumped on her to land a lucky hit. Every time the group damaged the princess, the background distorted and the illusion blinked like a malfunctioning television. Larry's attack forced the celestial essence to reform itself and, this time, turned into a koopa that shared similar traits with the punk. The koopa however had big blue hairs with small round eyes and a single tooth coming out the mouth.
"Forever…" The fake koopa said.
Larry became angry to see this koopa. The fake koopa used a card to summon a magic wand and a Triple Flame card to hit the group. Since there were only two people in the group, Mario was hit twice. Mario reacted with a hammer card and a Quake Hammer card to unleash a shockwave. The shockwave caused the fake koopa to fall down on his shell. Larry then used a Stomp card to stomp on the koopa's belly. Being fallen down, the fake koopa could not use any Defense Card. The fake koopa then dissipated into celestial essence that materialized into a giant grey dragon origami with bright yellow eyes.
"Forever…" The dragon said.
Both Ori and Gami became angry to see the dragon. The dragon breathed fire at the group. Mario searched in his cards and pulled out a FLUDD card and extinguished the flames before they could reach him and Larry. It was now our heroes' turn. Mario used a Power Bounce and stomped on the dragon five times. Larry used a Magic Wand card and fired a magic missile at the dragon. Unlike the two other forms, it was not enough damage to beat it. The dragon approached the group and attacked Larry with a bite. Before though, the punk pulled out a Withdraw card and withdrew in his shell. This caused the dragon to bite the spiky shell and hurt him. Mario then searched through his cards and used a POW Block card to finish the dragon. The place instantly went black and the light came back. There were now two Larry's and none of them was among the group. The two Larry's saw each other and gasped. They looked at the group.
"I'm the real Larry!" One of them said.
"No! I'm the real Larry!" The other said.
The two Larry's sounded exactly identical. There was no obvious way to distinguish one from another.
"Okay, I'll ask one question only the real Larry knows the answer. Who is he looking for?" Ori asked.
"The prince, Bowser Jr!" One of the Larry's answered.
The other one was hesitating. Ori then went to the one who answered.
"I got you now!" She said.
"How!? I answered correctly!" The fake Larry pointed out with a different voice.
"That was a trick question. No one can answer that fast."
"Fine, you won. What do you want with me?"
"Please, let our friend Petey go."
"Again with that friend thing? You just met him. And I need him for my experimental treatment."
"Does he really have amnesia?"
"Indeed, not only him but the rest of the staff at the Los Memoriam Café too. I've been working for many years to try to find a cure for their amnesia but in vain. You were right to interrupt me or I could have degenerated even further. Patient number 3 does not seem to remember anything from his past."
"I think I have the answer."
"Is that so?"
There was a moment of silence. The fake Larry disappeared into celestial essence.
"Yes… That may be it. You have a proof of his past but… I will give you two choices: you tell him yourself or you let me." Doctor Reminiscence proposed.
"We'll tell him ourselves." Ori answered.
"Very well. Before you leave, I have a message for you koopa friend."
"What is it?" Larry asked.
"A small koopa asked me to deliver this if you ever happened to pass here. It was a few days ago." The celestial entity brought up.
Celestial essence took shape in front of the group and materialized into a rift showing an image of the prince.
"Hi! To Larry, since I know you'll be looking for me, I just reached this place and I found answers of where I could find the herb my daddy is looking for. I'm heading to the Grey Region to find it. I'll see you soon." The prince spoke.
The rift vanished. Larry was relieved to see the prince was fine. However, Doctor Reminiscence had something else to say.
"You seem to have tensions with a friend. I suggest you do something with this." The celestial entity brought up.
"That's none of your business!" Larry replied.
"Please, you must take convenient actions to solve those tensions. I fear further tensions may rupture the bond between you and him."
Larry ignored the voice.
"Well, I guess it's time for us to go. So, how do we leave this place?" Gami said.
The celestial background slowly turned into the clinic. The group looked around and found Petey still sleeping on the bed. They woke him up. The plant went berserk for a moment but calmed down when he found out it was his friends who woke him up.
"Sorry, I don't like being disturbed when I'm sleeping." Petey confessed.
"It's alright. Did your doctor finish his therapy?" Ori asked.
"Yes, we can now leave town. Where are we headed?"
"To the Mossy Swamps." Gami brought up.
The group left the clinic and headed out of town.