Chapter Twenty-Five
Furton's sled flew over the landscape, skimming over the icy snow and hurtling towards a warmer climate. Furton sat at the head of the sled, mostly looking out at the tundra, but sometimes sneaking wary peeks at Ghrea. Ghrea sat with her eyes closed, humming a strange, wavy song. Wes stared at the floor of the sled, trying to block out the sudden, consistent image of a thing in a bloody white sheet leaping at him. Peach was drinking her third bottle of whiskey, taking turns to glare at each of the other members of the sled. Furton, growing curious, broke the silence.
"Ehhhhh… Celiste…why do you wear, eh, sunglasses? I mean…it ain't that bright here."
Ghrea shifted the glasses a little, seemingly to cover her eyes up further.
"My eyes are…delicate to all forms of light." She pushed the glasses until the brim touched her forehead. "Yes…the light bouncing off the white snow…it'd be enough to make me cross-eyed."
"Uh huh." Furton nodded, not entirely convinced. Then he thought of another question. He turned to Wes. "And you…why do you keep wearing that cloak anyway? Ain't it getting dirty?"
Actually…it HAD gotten a little dirty and slushy when Wes had been pushed down by Ghrea beside Fahr's trading post, but it had merely become clean again...one moment it was dirty, and the next it was clean. Wes had simply decided not to think about it.
"It's…always clean." Wes said apologetically, having no further explanation. Furton waited for more of a response. "Well…and, uh…it feels right to wear it."
"Uh huh." Furton said grittily. It wasn't the answer he was looking for, although he himself wasn't sure what answer would satisfy him. Wes was a Magikoopa, wasn't he? In fact, it seemed by his clothes, a leader of Mushroom City? Hell, he could probably make spoons fly, why the hell should some clothes bother me. Furton decided.
This led to another question.
"Wait…so, Wes…since you're a Magikoopa, you can do some spells, right? Or do you not remember any?" Furton asked.
"Yeah…yeah…" Peach drawled. "You got some…you got a spell to send me home, huh? To my castle?
"I…no, I guess I can't, um, remember." Wes said quietly, balling the fist of his right hand tightly. His tried to concentrate on the others words, but his vision was swimming and now he was seeing a pale koopa woman in a bed. The image was tearing at him, and he had no idea why.
"Aw yeah, you should see some of the tricks Wes can do," Ghrea slapped Wes' shoulder.
The action was oddly comforting, and it snapped Wes out of his vision temporarily. Wes looked over at Ghrea, and tried half-heartedly to summon up some kind of magic to see through her sunglasses. He wanted to see her strange eyes again.
Peach, meanwhile, was arm deep into the crate near her (digging for another bottle of alcohol) when a little mouser went running up her arm. Peach seemed to be too focused on finding a drink to notice. As she threw her head back and downed the whiskey, the little mouser hopped around her shoulders and squeaked loudly. Peach lowered the bottle and stared warily at the small rat on her shoulder.
"This…better be a sub…a subconscious dream or something like that or other, or else I am going to be a…a raging princess…then I'm, uh…" Peach rambled on, blinking slowly at the mouser.
"Is she just going to wear that thing on her shoulder?" Wes wondered aloud.
"The Princess is a much more fascinatin' character than I thought she was." Furton commented.
"You stupid…stupid…" Peach suddenly broke in, struggling for words. "You animals…you need to…you need to not ignore me. I have needs…my castle left me, and I'm alone…alone with animals and a sled with some stupid crates…good GOD!...and my Mario…my Mario, he…" Peach burst into sobs. The little mouser squeaked and disappeared into Peach's messy, clumped blonde hair. Ghrea shuffled over and hugged Peach, keeping an eye out for the rat.
"There there." Ghrea said gently.
"Get your hands the %$# off me." Peach slurred.
"Mario…eh!" Furton said thoughtfully. "I hadn't even thought about him…I wonder if he's trying to find you, princess."
"He's…he's…" Peach burst into crying again. Ghrea shuffled away this time.
"You know…uh…Mario?" Wes asked Furton.
"Yeh, of course I do!" Furton laughed. "Everyone knows Mario! I know you would if you had your memory."
Wes looked over to Ghrea questioningly. Ghrea nodded.
"It's true. 'Super Mario' is his nickname." Ghrea began to explain. "He's rescued Princess Peach here from Bowser, king of the Koopa Kingdom, for the last twenty years now. He's known to be basically invincible…a juggernaut! Nothing can stop him, and he destroys everything in his path. …Or so they say. I've never met him."
Peach reached into a crate for another bottle.
"Aw, you ain't being fair." Furton said crossly. "Mario only does what he has to…he doesn't just kill needlessly."
The image of a bloody tornado appeared in Wes' mind, surrounding the vague, shadowy shape of a man. Wes blinked and shook his head, trying to dissolve the vision. He would forget it soon anyway.
"He's like the moral representation of the kingdom." Furton gestured vaguely in the air. "I mean, if he was really like that, if he really just killed like a maniac or somethin'…"
A coughing sound echoed from another world. The shadowy man turned around and headed for the source of the noise to finish what he had started.
"…I bet lots of horrible things would happen."
There was a constant fuzziness to everything that was melting the world, and the fine lines that had existed before were now phasing into one another. Suddenly everything snapped back, and Koji found herself getting up out of a puddle. Her body was wet where she had lied, and she was now getting chilled because of it. As far as she could remember it was getting late in the year, and snow was expected to begin falling soon.
She didn't have an opinion one way or the other on the weather. Then again, she didn't have any kind of an opinion at all. She didn't feel anyway about anything at that moment.
She moved her fingers along her left hand as a kind of experiment. Nothing. She felt nothing. She knew it was happening, she could see it, and she could control her arm, yet she felt nothing. She poked at it, and then hit it as hard as she could with her other arm. Then she looked over the ground and found a pointed rock. She slammed the rock's sharp edge against her skin, and a small surge of blood began dribbling out. She dropped the rock, edge now red, and processed the situation. She still felt nothing.
She grabbed some leaves and applied pressure to the wound, keeping the blood down. She had actually learned many medical techniques, and she had even used them to save a friend's life once, as far as she could remember.
The wound stopped bleeding eventually. Koji sat on the ground and began to think. She was trying to understand what was happening to her. Then she thought she was forgetting something important. She had TREVM YRIGS, watched the YZYZ TVG PROOVW, then…
Stabbed in the face.
She raised a hand up to her face and began to touch it. She started at her chin, and moved up. She went over her mouth, over her nose…she paused. She couldn't feel the rising horror of it, but she knew that she was about to find something terrible. She moved her fingers up.
They began to sink into something. Something mushy.
She wondered how she couldn't feel even a hint of horror. Then she wondered why she hadn't just seen her fingers dig into her sight. Then she wondered where she was looking from. She began to move her hands around her body to find the source of her sight, but it didn't take long before she was touching her neck- and covering her vision.
It was that strange charm…she remembered it, ripping it from SRH MVXP. It had looked like a mushroom, hadn't it…a dried mushroom. She had broken the chain it had been on, and now it was somehow fastened around her neck.
She slowly took it off, and her vision went with it. She didn't go blind; rather, she continued to see from it, even as she held it in front of her. She waved it around as an experiment, and her vision waved and blurred wildly. A strong smack of dizziness followed, one that she didn't feel. Her body wobbled from it.
When her body had recovered she slowly turned the charm around so that it faced herself. There she was- as she recognized herself in the mirror…with the exception of two new features. A jagged scar ran through where her eyes had been, and there was still a small trickling of blood out of the corners. Another scar ran over her neck, a reminder of the slash in the throat she had taken. She wondered why she wasn't dead.
"Hey yew! Lady! Don't I know yew?!" A bumpkin voice said from behind her. Koji slowly put the charm back on. She glanced backward and beheld a toad wearing a large straw hat.
She vaguely remembered him as having the name of Taurence, and being one of the five or so male toads in her village. His wife was sick, as far as Koji remembered, and (unbeknownst to her) it was the reason Taurence was out in the Forest searching for curative mushrooms rather than heading out with the New Era Army. She could sense an odd vibration coming from him.
"Good Eldstar!" Taurence gasped. "Koji…is that yew? I thought yew were dead…! Your…your face…"
"Uuuuuhhhhhhh…" Koji opened her mouth. A vague whistling sound echoed from her lungs and began to siphon out of the scar on her neck as well.
"Eld…are yew a zombie or somethin'?" Taurence whispered.
"Uuuhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiii…" She began to feel the words emerge, but as she looked at him she lost interest in speaking. When she closed her mouth the slight rhythm she had been sensing coming from Taurence began to grow louder. It was the sound of a heartbeat…and yet more. It was the sound of Taurence's organs, his whole body processes. Abstractly, Koji could understand, no, realize his insides.
"Koji?" Taurence asked. He began to back away.
Experimentation. Suddenly, it was what she needed. She needed to experiment. Koji focused on Taurence's heart. She couldn't see it…and she couldn't exactly feel it…and yet there it was, like a thing you saw out of the corner of your eye. She understood it…she knew it. Once the heart was boldly impressed upon her mind, she imagined…crushing.
Taurence's mouth dropped open, and he wobbled. The blood began to run out of his mouth before he fell face-first into the puddle that Koji had woken up in. The blood quickly spread through the water, turning the puddle a crimson red. Whatever purity it had had before was gone, now the liquid was only becoming darker and darker. Koji watched in faux-interest for a good minute.
Then she began walking. That had been an informing experiment, but she didn't even really feel any intrigue in it. She didn't feel anything, and she didn't know where she was going. She tried to hope to care.
Once again, he was having the dream that his arm was on fire, the same that he had had for the last two nights. How vivid it was, only the absence of painful feeling seperating it from reality.
"Wakey wakey…"
A bucketful of ice cold water was tossed into Penter's face. He gasped and tried to move, but he found that he was strapped down to some kind of table, and he could do nothing to wipe the burning cold water as it rolled down his face.
"Son of a BITCH!" Penter yelled. He struggled mildly and then opened his eyes, allowing the bright light of a lamp to be burned into them. "Goddamn…!"
"Calm down…calm down…" An infuriatingly soothing voice said. Penter strained his neck to see who was talking, but he found that his head was being held in place by two clamps. Penter tried to struggle again, but the voice only began to "shh" more loudly at him. "Shhh…please don't struggle. Let's just relax…"
"%$# you I'm going to relax!" Penter shouted. "Where the hell am I? Why am I strapped up like this? Why…"
The person who had been speaking walked into view, right in front of the tilted table that Penter laid upon. It was a large brown bob-omb with rosy cheeks and no fuse, with squinty eyes suggesting some untold joke. In armless bob-omb fashion he was somehow holding a scapel on one side of his body and an empty bucket on the other. Penter wanted to scream at the bob-omb for both of the things he was holding, but…
"Please…please don't yell." The bob-omb said calmly. "I'm usually pretty good at remaining calm, but if I get too excited…well…" He paused and looked meaningfully at the wall behind Penter wistfully.
What is he looking at? Penter wondered.
"Last time, they had to replace everything in the room. It was a real mess." The bob-omb sighed.
"You don't even have a fuse." Penter growled, gritting his teeth. "Am I supposed to be afraid of you?"
"Whether I explode or not isn't the issue here, Penter. We're here for you." The bob-omb said simply.
"What?" Penter said incredulously.
"Everyone upstairs is baffled," The bob-omb said, shrugging. "You're a toad…yet you managed to get to Koopa Castle, fight off a good amount of guards, and then, even when you were knocked out…" The bob-omb paused again.
"What?"
"Hmm, you don't remember, do you?" The bob-omb looked at Penter curiously. "Say, why don't I introduce myself? I'm Lucky, Koopa Castle's head torturer."
"Oh, wow, the HEAD torturer, glad I didn't get some second-rate loser." Penter spat. "And your name's 'Lucky' as well…bet that has a great story behind it."
"It does." Lucky walked beside Penter, and out of view. "Those upstairs say that it's lucky that people survive what I do…but the simple truth is…that I'm an artist."
"Yeah?" Penter's eyes wandered over to a nearby medical tray that was loaded up with knives. "You like to chop people up?"
"That is only one method of my art." Lucky said right nearby. Penter felt the edge of a knife touching his head. Then it dug in a little. "You know…I've never seen a toad with orange spots. I've operated on a few dozen toads, but never one with orange spots. …Say, are you from a different country?"
"Piss off." Penter shut his eyes and tried to calm himself. "I came here to see the king…King Qourk, it seems. I want to offer an alliance."
"Yes…well, King Qourk is frightened of you." Lucky began to lightly drag the edge of the knife over Penter's head. It was digging in ever so slightly enough that it caused an itching pain. "You are a strange sight…it doesn't help his condition to see such a perturbing individual."
"Yeah, well I'm not here to harm him." Penter took a deep breath. The knife began to move its way down the left side of his face. "I'm here to take revenge on the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Fascinating." Lucky said. He finally removed the knife from Penter's head. "You are an odd one…it really makes me want to operate on you."
"What are we here for anyway?" Penter asked exasperatingly. "Are you going to torture me? Why?"
"Unfortunately, I cannot." Lucky said regretfully. "I am here to interrogate you. But, if you should choose not to answer my questions… well, then again, perhaps I will have a chance to…persuade you."
"What, you want to see if I really hate Princess Peach?" Penter rolled his eyes. "Go ahead. Ask me whatever you want. I'd be happy to tell you about what that bitch has done."
"Hmm…well, I'm not so interested in that, exactly…" Lucky finally walked back into sight. "Tell me, where wereyou born?"
"Where was I…" Penter's eyes narrowed. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
"Let me lay it out for you…I am to interrogate you in order to find out why you are so unnaturally strong. Until the Psycho Magikoopa can get here and induce you with hypnosis, I am the person in the castle best certified for getting answers." Lucky winked. "I have a lot of experience."
"Huh." Penter noticed a large red splattering dried into the stone floor beneath Lucky's feet. It wasn't hard to guess what it was.
"So…where were you born?" Lucky pulled the loaded medical tray closer with the edge of his body.
"I was…" Penter paused. "Look, that doesn't really matter, does it? In fact, when you think about it, it's…it's racist, even, really…"
Lucky placed the scapel onto the medical tray and began shuffling through the other items.
"My secret is that I work out. I…I worked out, for a really long time." Penter watched the medical tray closely.
"As far as my records have found," Lucky picked up a thumbscrew, and after a moment, put it down again. "There has never been a toad as strong as you are. Some had greater muscle mass than you have, and were larger individuals, and yet…they were weaker…" Lucky picked up an iron cord.
"I know a toad that's stronger than me. I'm…nothing special." Penter began sweating. It was true…Khad had been stronger than him. Penter supposed that if Khad had realized how strong Penter actually was he wouldn't have given Penter a chance to unleash the crazy punch that had killed him.
"Fascinating." Lucky said, choosing a large clamp-like device. He squeezed it with some difficulty, causing it to slowly crush together. "This is getting rusty."
"Are you even listening?" Penter exploded. "You're wasting your time trying to figure out where I'm from…" He knew the words were a mistake as the last of them left his mouth.
"It appears you're the one who isn't listening." Lucky pulled off one of Penter's shoes.
"What are you…" Penter didn't really have to ask.
"Maybe you're telling the truth about knowing another exemplary toad. If you are, that toad is probably from where you are from." Lucky pulled Penter's sock off, revealing a foot.
"Wait…wait a second…" A bit of pleading leaked into Penter's voice.
"I think you need an example of how I work." Lucky said cheerfully. He positioned the clamp over Penter's pinky toe.
"Bullet bloody bill."
Blaine stared wearily at the compass. The arrow, meant to point towards the magnetic north, was spinning around rapidly. He was either in no direction or all of them.
"Something wrong?" Khad snatched the compass out of Blaine's hand. The needle inside only seemed to spin faster.
Khad looked closely at it, tapped the glass, tossed it in the air a few times, spun around in a circle holding it, licked it, shook it, threw it against the ground, rubbed sand on it, put it against his mouth and whispered something, balanced it on top of his head, threw it like a disc at Blaine's head which it bounced off of, caught it, danced with it, buried it in a hole, waited for five seconds, then dug it back up, and then he bit it fiercely.
"Hmm…it's still not working." Khad said contemplatively.
"No damn kidding." Blaine snatched the compass back. The needle slowed down, but continued to spin. "This thing is completely busted…how the heck was Alago using it?"
"He wasn't." One of the five regular NEA (New Era Army) members that had come with Khad and Blaine stepped over. "Alago had family in Rose Town, so he had the route memorized."
Did he give me this compass knowing it was broken?! Blaine stared at it and then dropped it on the ground. Bastard. When we group up again, I'm taking action. I mean, if I killed Alago, what would Khad do anyway? He wouldn't kill me…it's against his code.
"What do we do now, Blaine-o?" Khad inquired.
"Well…" Blaine sighed. No toad had ever willingly headed to the Koopa Kingdom, as far as he knew. Penter was truly deranged to have gone through here. "…We'll just have to keep heading the direction we've been going in."
"Right-y, then! Sounds like an adventure!" Khad piped.
Blaine rolled his eyes and face-palmed. There was no way he'd be risking this ridiculous "adventure" if he hadn't directly felt Khad's unnatural strength before. When Khad was alive he was already able to handle Bowser, so who knew what he could do now.
"It'll be like Blaine and S- Khad's grand adventure! No…wait…maybe this is too short. Our grand road trip?!" Blaine put a hand above his eyes and tried to peer into the distance, but the sandy winds prevented him from seeing anything.
"Is Skhad your new title?" Blaine asked absentmindedly. He was already thinking of Peach again. So Bowser's dead…what happened to the Princess? What did Toadsworth say…back in the tower…didn't he mention a Magikoopa? Did a Magikoopa capture the Princess? What then? Was the Magikoopa working for Bowser? Is this some kind of revenge? Did he capture her to…god forbid…kill her? And where's Mario been? Why didn't anyone go to his house? Wait…really…why didn't anyone go to his goddamn house? Son of a bitch…did something happen there?
Who cares about any of that? We're with the new king now. Khad has seen something special in you, and he's already made you a general of his army. We're already great friends with him…since when did Peach even know you? I think there's a great future ahead of us now. And you know…he doesn't look that bad for a corpse.
What…what? What is wrong with you? Is this what happens when you don't get enough nicotine? I'm not gay. I'm in love with her…
Ha! Ha ha ha! That's not real love, though, is it? And also…what about Eve, huh?
Yeah, it is real love- I've thought about her for as long as I can remember, and in any damn case, I'm far more interested in her than I am in any guy…including a %$# zombie. And Eve…Eve…
Blaine physically trembled.
It's wrong. I…can't…love…Eve…
"Blaine! Hurry! We're heading for UNCHARTED TERRITORY!" Khad laughed. Blaine blinked a few times and saw that Khad and the other NEA members were already moving a good distance away. Blaine slapped himself a few times and then ran after.
"Hauuuuuuuhhhhhahhh…" Koji gasped at a couple of birds. She held out her hands which were filled with some general bird seeds she had found and stayed as still as she could, trying to provide an attractive feeding place. The birds hopped back and forth, almost jumping onto her open palms, but her vague moans continued to scare them off.
Observing this, she resolved to keep her mouth shut.
After another two minutes a large red cardinal, staring intently at the seeds, approached more closely than any of the other birds. Koji stayed as still as she could, and after a few seconds, the big fat bird hopped onto her palm. Koji smiled, mirroring the mark on her throat. Upturned mouth means happy. Good.
As the bird pecked at the seeds Koji concentrated firmly on it. She realized its heart- the shadow of its appearance, the steady beat of its processes, its force- and then she realized the blood within it pumping, faster and faster. Then she realized the heart exploding. The bird made a small noise before it toppled over, blood running out of its open beak. The other birds that had been nearby flew away in a panic, the flapping of their wings creating a kind of clapping sound for Koji's achievement. She looked down at the bird she had killed and brought it close to her face. She smelled the blood. She knew she was hungry. It was time for another experiment.
She ate the head first- then each leg, then the rest. She couldn't feel when her body was hungry anymore, so the only thing that the action satisfied was her curiosity. It seemed to be all she had left. And, oh my…there were so many things she had never tried doing before!
If she could feel excited, she knew she'd be excited to eventually reach a town.
Mmmm…there was drool running out of his mouth. He stuck his tongue out and slowly licked up the tasty saliva.
Mmmm...Mush…so good…
"Seigal. Seigal! Wake up, buddy!"
Seigal slowly opened his eyes, taking in the dim darkness of the tunnel. Shadowed by the deep darkness was a koopa standing above him. Seigal smiled woozily and shakily stood up. As he did, the koopa stuck a hand out to shake. Seigal grabbed the hand without any hesitation and shook it confidently. Seigal sniffled. Thank goodness the red powder was still safe in his shell- he wouldn't have to hide it from his new friend.
"Hello, friend!" The other koopa said grandly.
"Hello to you too, friend!" Seigal said boldly.
"What are you doing in such a frightening place?" The other koopa asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing!" Seigal proclaimed. The both of them burst out laughing. The laughing echoed deeper down the dark passage they were both standing in.
"Friend, have you been running? Your legs look tired." The other koopa kneeled down. Seigal laughed. Then the other koopa laughed.
"Friend, you look tired." Seigal sniffled and gestured to the other koopa's bent head. "I can see weariness running down your frame like a…like a waterfall…"
A silence followed in which the cheer of the encounter began to drain away.
"My weariness… do you… believe it?" The other koopa swiftly looked up, straight into Seigal's eyes, the shadows of the tunnel covering his expression. Seigal suddenly realized with an incredible uneasiness that he hadn't seen the other koopa's face yet. In fact, the darkness of the structure they stood in was dark enough to hide both of their faces.
"Do I believe what?" Seigal said nervously.
"Do you really think I'm tired? Do you think I've been struggling?" The koopa stood and turned his head questioningly. "And here I thought it was you struggling."
Seigal gripped one of his arms nervously and sniffled. The other koopa twitched.
"Friend…have you been inhaling something? Your nose is running." The other koopa whipped a finger across Seigal's face. Seigal flinched back while the other koopa brought the mucus he had snatched from Seigal's face up to his own and inhaled.
"What…what…" Seigal spluttered.
"Ah…I…see." The other koopa smiled grimly in the darkness, head cocked at a contemplative angle. His eyes and face will still entirely shrouded, yet with Seigal's eyes slowly adjusting to the dark he could see the other koopa's cheeks rising. "I see how it is. Would you kill for it?"
"Would I…what?" Seigal was growing more terrified and baffled by the moment. He glanced over to the opening to the outside. The light pouring in seemed a little dim- perhaps it was already almost evening.
"The Mush. Would you kill for it?" The other koopa grabbed Seigal's shoulders roughly.
"What are you doing?" Seigal yelped. His eyes snapped back to his assaulter's face, but still he could see nothing but darkness.
"Give me the drugs, Seigal." The other koopa began to reach his right hand into the back of Seigal's shell.
"What are you doing? Get off of me!" Seigal struggled. He grabbed the koopa's left arm which was holding him and threw it off. He then began to claw at the right arm, which was still digging into his back.
"Stay still, friend. I don't want this to be painful." The other koopa slammed his left hand into the front of Seigal's shell, smashing him against the wall. Air was violently forced out of Seigal's lungs, and a few pieces of sharp rock shattered from the wall he had been shoved into. The pieces fell harmlessly onto the sand.
"You…asshole!" Seigal gasped.
The other koopa managed to grab onto the bag of Mush and rip it out from Seigal's shell. He stepped back a few feet away from Seigal into the deeper darkness of the tunnel and looked into the bag.
"Glad that's over with." The koopa smiled tightly.
No…I can't lose it…I can't lose the Mush…the wonderful…wonderful…Seigal glared at the koopa with an uncomfortable and new feeling of hatred. He glanced down at some of the sharp rocks that had fallen during the tumble. His mind began to twist and turn.
"Friend…there is something you must know…" The other koopa tossed the bag into the air again and again with one hand. Seigal kneeled down and picked up a particularly sharp rock. He glared up at the other koopa from his vaguely primitive crouching position.
"Give it back." Seigal stood up and approached the other koopa. A fierce hatred and rage began to burn in his eyes and soul, urging him, urging him-
"Friend…" The other koopa said seriously, gripping the Mush tightly.
"Give it back, you fucker!" Seigal suddenly screamed. He rushed at the other koopa and brought the sharp rock down against his face. All memories of his past training as a soldier were gone…only the intense rush of hatred and need for violence informed him. It was an altogether new high, although one that did not satisfy him like the Mush did.
"Fri…" The other koopa raised a hand to stop Seigal, but another sharp crack to the skull stopped him.
"Give it back give it back give it back give it back GIVE IT BACK!" Seigal screamed. His vision disappeared into both a real and imagined red haze. Soon enough, his feeling disappeared as well. A minute later, his arm weary from the experience of excited violence, he dropped the rock. He sank to his knees and blinked a few times so that his vision cleared, and then he picked up the bloody bag of Mush. He began to open it to snort again.
"Friend…" A voice croaked weakly. Seigal's head snapped up before he could snort and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. The other koopa was laying back, his face a nonexistent gorge of blood- but his left arm was bent at an angle, a finger pointing at Seigal.
He's not dead? How is he not dead? Seigal scrambled back a little, but it was clear that the other koopa couldn't move anymore.
"I'm glad we…understand now." The other koopa's arm shook violently, and then it fell onto the sand. The body shuddered and then stopped moving completely. Seigal trembled and dropped the Mush. He blacked out.
He woke up and immediately scrambled for the Mush. It's still there it's still there it's still there thank eldstar thank eldstar thank…
Seigal looked up. The body was gone. Seigal looked around at the crumbled stone walls, and then looked deep into the darkness of the tunnel ahead. The abyss terrified him, and the thought of the other koopa wandering around drove him to run.
He emerged into the evening sunlight. The setting sun…it was the only way for him to go, wasn't it? Yes…that was the only…logical decision. Seigal gripped the Mush tightly, before putting it back in his shell. Mushroom City…that's where I'll go. All sorts of people live there, and…they'll have to have more Mush, right? I'll need more, soon. If I ran out…it'd be…
He was struck by the terror of running out- running out of the precious Mush.
He started moving. More Mush…more Mush. It was all that really mattered. It was all for the Mush. Without it…he would…he'd…
I'm glad
we understand now.
/A/N/: Seigal and Koji have taken rather extreme turns. Seigal's addiction has led him to, uh, murder, and Koji's trauma has left her with seemingly no feeling. Now, I know some of you may be thinking that everyone's just going to be a complete psycho eventually— and maybe you're right, in a sense. However, there's a big difference between Mario's level of crazy (driven by disease and underlying psychopathy) and Penter's level of crazy (driven by innate anger). Everyone's crazy in their own way and all on different levels— but not in a way that will make this story just about a bunch of loonies wandering around randomly. Everyone but Mario is and will be at least capable of some level of logical thought.
Lucky may be familiar— he's from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, although there he runs the Lucky Lottery. Mario's Crowbar is a kind of Mario alternate universe, where the characters from the games still exist but they may be somewhat different people who lead different lives. Is there some traceable event that caused Lucky to end up where he is in this grim universe, or does it come down to something in the distant past that changed the destinies of all the people in this world?