For the record, half of this chapter is side-quest. Maybe most of it. So there's a heads-up somewhere. You'll probably notice, so no need to specify.

Mario and Luigi - A Superstar Story

Chapter 36: Splart Style

South Beanbean

Passing Beanbean Airport by going east, Mario and Luigi smashed a rock randomly, then dug around a suspicious area to find a Bean Fruit… whatever that was. Mario just stuffed it in the suitcase and they headed back north, then east, shifting a Boo Statue and causing some bridge to appear. Mario and Luigi nabbed a Hoo Bean and some coins, then headed south. They dropped down some ledges, where a sign was.

Splart Assistant Inquire Within

…Ask for Harhall

Mario and Luigi just climbed up the ledges to the east… to find a Beanstar Piece in a bird cage, hanging on a tree. They gasped.

"YAAARF!" Mario and Luigi jumped at what they just saw. The very same Bean left, glaring at the area east.

"Im-Impossible! No WAY am I working with explosive colours like those!" the Bean howled.

"Burrrr-urrrrp! Water…" an old Bean moaned, walking by, too. "Drank…too much water…"

Mario and Luigi hesitated.

"For the Beanstar Piece?" Mario asked, a bit worried.

"For the Beanstar Piece." Luigi nodded veeeery slowly as they both walked across the yellow bridge made of designer clothes. There, upon some footprint markings, stood a Bean with a very vertical head. They were furious.

"Honestly! What is one to do with such riffraff?!" Harhall asked themselves. Mario jumped. Harhall looked, and calmed down. "Oh! Welcome! WELCOME!"

Harhall struck a pose.

"I am called Harhall, genius designer. And I am also called Bleetch. Yes! We are one and the same! Did you know?" They asked. Mario and Luigi looked at each other, lost for words. They pounded the ground, shaking it. "Did you know?!"

They both nodded hastily.

"Yes, yes, whatever. Am I correct in assuming you're interested in the Splart Assistant opening?" Harhall asked. "Fine, fine. If you do a decent enough job, I'll pay you. Your pay will be… some coins."

Mario and Luigi fell to the floor.

"What? Do you have some sort of complaint? Hm? Hm? HM?" Harhall questioned.

They haggled for the certain object in the cage they saw to be their one and most likely only payment.

"Fair enough. Your pay will be…" Harhall gestured to the west. "A bean-like thing that cascaded down from the heavens! Tah-dah!"

Mario and Luigi looked interested now they talked to each other incoherently.

"What? Do you have ANOTHER sort of complaint? Hm? Hm? HM?" Harhall questioned. The Bros shook their heads.

"That's better. Now then…" Harhall got back to the job. She stomped the ground, and three helicopter bob-ombs (one blue, one yellow and one red) came flying out of three pipes, each one further away from the last. "You can help me with my Splart right away! But you must be snappy! Just do it and get it done!"

The helicopter bob-ombs flew back in the pipes.

"Now, don't mind me! I'll just give you a little advice while you work. Trust me, you need it. First, go have yourself a drink so you can become a proper Splart water pump! Once you're able to pump out water like a human fire hydrant… step on these little foot marks!" Harhall side-stepped off the foot marks and pointed at them. "Try it!"

Luigi looked at Mario pleadingly.

"Is this even good for my health?" Mario questioned as he filled up on water from the little pipe squirting out water, and stuttered over to the foot marks. A blue bob-omb flew out.

"Fine! FINE! I'll explain the method to my genius! Though the genius of Splart defies explanation… First, you must dye the fabric! Hammer your swollen friend to shoot water at the Designbomb! Try it, already! Try it!" Harhall urged. Luigi hammered Mario with great haste, and a drop of water shot out of Mario and blasted the blue Designbomb into the fabric, turning it blue.

"The colour of the Designbomb you hit… colours the fabric!" Harhall explained. "Oh. By the way… If you hit two Designbombs at the same time… then the fabric colour becomes a mixture of those two colours! Don't forget! It's vital to Splart!"

"Oh! And one more teensy thing! If you're dyeing fabric and you think Barf! That's all wrong! …Just talk to Bleetch! He'll make the fabric nice and shiny white for you! Once you're done dyeing, then you choose your design!" Harhall waited for a checkered Designbomb come out. "So you get to shoot water at the artsy bombs again! Isn't is just so fun you could dye?!"

Harhall waited. Luigi took this as a sign telling him to hit Mario again. He smashed him, and Mario shot out another drop of water at the Designbomb, knocking it into the fabric and turning it into a blue and white checkered design.

"The design of the Designbomb you shoot… alters the design on your duds! The Designbomb patterns are… the tropical design… the polka-dot design… and the checkered design!" Harhall named as the respective Designbombs came out the same three pipes as the coloured ones did.

"By the way, if you hit two or more Designbombs… the pattern always ends up being a star! Remember that!" Harhall ordered. "Once you're done with the design, I'll decide if it perfectly matches the artistic vision of Splart! So, yeah. Anyway, that's the method to my genius…"

"And now I'll need you to finish four outfits for me, OK, boys? Hop to it!" Harhall urged. "That's all I have to tell you! So get started on your first assignment with all speed! As for design, anything will do! Just give me a red colour!"

Luigi hammered to get red, let Mario refill, then went with the polka-dots.

"Yes! That's it! That will do fine! Next! On to the next one! Let's see… The next design is… I want something in yellow! Oh! And in a checkered pattern!" Harhall ordered.

Luigi hammered to get yellow, was off-timing for the checkered, and didn't hit anything, so Mario had to refill. Luigi hammered to get checkered.

"Yes! That's it! That will do fine! Next! On to the next one! Let's see… the next design is…" Harhall mused, rubbing her chin. "Give me some purple! Purple with a polka-dot flare!"

Luigi hammered, and nearly only got blue. Red was snagged too, and they got purple. Luigi barely missed polka-dot, and hit tropical stripes.

"No! No! No! This is all wrong! You must start over from scratch!" Harhall barked. "Give me some purple! Purple with a polka-dot flare!"

Luigi got red and blue (purple), and actually managed to get the polka-dots.

"Yes! Wonderful! Amazing! That's it! That will do just FINE! Next! On to the next one!" Harhall cheered. "Let's see… the next design is… I'm depressed! I crave brown! But with a star! Remember, to make a star pattern, just hit two or more Designbombs at once!"

Luigi snagged all three coloured Designbombs on the first try, getting brown. Luigi then got tropical stripes.

"NO! NO! NO! Horrible! Ugly! Out of style! This is ALL wrong! You must start over… FROM SCRATCH!" Harhall was disgusted. "Those are like the clothes you'd wear as an old man. I'm depressed! I crave brown! But with a star!"

Luigi got purple, restarted, and got blue with a star.

"Fabulous! But no! I asked for BROWN! I'm depressed!" Harhall stated.

Luigi got green, with a star.

"I actually like this, too…" Luigi whimpered as Harhall tore it to shreds.

"BROWN!"

Luigi got yellow, restarted, then swiped all six Designbombs, along with a Bean floating with some headgear that was only there for a split-second, but was still caught. Luigi getting brown with a Fawful face on the front. It was so entrancing it looked like it could steal souls... almost literally. Mario and Luigi nearly jumped when that face popped out of nowhere. They looked at Harhall for a response.

"AMAZING! I LOVE IT!" Harhall shrieked. "It screams entrancement! I just know this will steal the hearts of my adoring public! I have chortles, they would scream!"

"Wow." Mario had no other words.

"Splendid! We're all done here! This means must pay you with a bean-like thing, as promised! Go next door and get your pay!" Harhall ordered, leaving west. Mario and Luigi followed, after Mario let out the rest of the water he had in him.

There, by the tree and design bodies, was Harhall. Above, was the Beanstar Piece in a cage.

"See! Here is the bean-like thing I promised you! Take it with you!" Harhall unlocked the cage's flooring, and let the piece fall out before the Bros.

They snapped their fingers, jumped, spun, and made a pose as they got the piece.

"BEANSTAR!"

You got a Beanstar Piece! Only 2 more to go!

"Ah, nice work! You guys are incredible! If I need help again, I'll be coming to you!" Harhall promised. "Be ready for that!"

Mario and Luigi nodded as they headed out.

. . . . . . .

Mario and Luigi just passed the Boo Statue and turned west.

"Wait! Hold it! Stop!" a voice called behind them. It was Harhall. "I need your help again! You said you'd be ready for this, too!"

"Yeah, you kinda told us that five minutes ago…" Mario trailed as Harhall brought them back to the studio. "So, what now?"

"So, here's the scoop. As soon as I started selling my Splart clothing designs…" Harhall shared. "I immediately sold out and started getting orders for more!"

"You sold four pieces of clothing in five minutes. I'm not sure what to think of that…" Luigi wondered.

"It was probably that last one that sold like wildfire, I guess. Maybe it really was a hot design." Mario shrugged.

"Oh, I mass-produced them a while ago. But apparently, twenty of each was not enough for my raging people. If you guys have time, I'd like you to make more clothes for me while the four designs are once again mass-produced to stall! If you make me a lot of clothes, I'll make it worth your while!"

"Great. Now I feel a need to do this now." Mario said.

"But this time, I want you guys to make your own designs! The clothes you design will be recorded right here! Enough room for 28 different designs!" Harhall showed them a piece of paper with 28 squares, one for each clothing design.

"Once you fill all these design spaces, I'll give you something incredible!" Harhall stated. "Good luck!"

Harhall walked and stopped beside a sign. Mario started talking tactics.

"So, our job is to come up with 28 unique designs, using the blue, red, yellow, checkered, tropical striped and polka-dotted Designbombs. Already, I can firmly state there are seven colours for us to work with, those being Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple and Brown. Upon those seven colours, we have four different designs to splat them with, those being Polka-Dot, Tropical Stripes, Checkered and Star. By doing some simple equation, say, four times seven, I can deduce there are exactly 28 designs available for us to create, four for each colour, seven for each design. Just enough for us to fill this piece of paper with. While it may be tough containing all this liquid, I'll be fine." Mario opened his mouth and filled up on water. He spoke with his mouth fill on the foot marks. "Hammer away, bro! Start with Brown!"

Luigi sweat-dropped. Harhall hardly seemed fazed.

Luigi began by timing it to get all three bombs, then nabbing all three again, ending with a Brown Star design.

"Not bad! Not bad at all! Brown Star! That sounds like an old star, who had nearly ran out of time in the starry skies! Maybe a kind of sub-stellar object or something along those lines! I like it!" Harhall stated as she marked it on the design sheet. "This is your salary!"

Harhall gave the Bros a Woo Bean.

Luigi snagged all three coloured Designbombs, let Mario refill, then got polka-dots.

"Stylish! Totally in style! Brown Dots… yes, that sounds like a music group. That'll be all the rage with those kids. Astounding! I like it!"

Harhall gave the Bros a Woo Bean.

Luigi hit blue, red and yellow, then got checkered.

"Not bad! Checkered Brown… like a chess board! The boys at Woohoo Hooniversity will be pleased when I show 'em these bad boys! I like it!"

Harhall gave the Bros a Woo Bean as Mario refilled.

Luigi got all the colours, then hit only tropical stripes.

"Not bad! Not bad at all! The Brown Stripes… that's definitely a rock band out there. Those young'uns will definitely help sales rocket with these! I like it!"

Harhall gave the Bros a Woo Bean as Mario refilled after spewing out excess.

"So, bro. Brown has been done. What's next?" Luigi asked, looking at the design sheet.

"Purple?" Mario suggested, mouth frothing with water as he stepped on the foot marks.

Luigi smashed the water out of Mario, nipping red and definitely snagging blue. He blasted stripes at the back, and Harhall looked pleased.

"Purple Stripes! Not bad! I've got an itching that's yet another music group, with how lazy those teens are with their names. I like it!"

Luigi was given a Woo Bean, like he would be for each and every design.

Luigi got Purple Star for this next one.

"IT'S A ZTAR BACKWARDS!" Luigi cried out in fear. "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Mario grabbed Luigi before he got too far.

"The Ztar, hm? Not bad… I like that."

Luigi got Checkered Purple.

"Yes, this could be Purple Squares, named after that famed digital studio across the seas. I know people will love that."

Luigi got Purple Dots.

"Yes, Purple Dots. Fabulous! The Shroob! Yes, I love it! I must find a way to ship these into space. I know of a planet whose inhabitants would love these!"

"Why do I feel that I know something that looks like that?" Mario asked. "In fact, I'm not going to wonder about that. On to Orange!"

Luigi got Orange Star.

"Absolutely stunning! I must send these over to Wars World! Those COs in that one continent will definitely invest in these for their troops!"

Luigi got Orange Stripes.

"So wild! Such power and freedom! This shall be… the tiger!"

Mario burst into laughter, letting out the water.

Luigi got Checkered Orange.

"Not bad! In fact, I love it! I just KNOW I'll be seeing this at a lot of races when I publish this… flag designers, watch out! Harhall's in town!"

Luigi got Orange Dots.

"Orange Dots… Ah, I have a certain gallery in mind where they'd adore this particular design! Adore it! I must send them a postcard of this fabulous design!

"About time we did my colour!" Luigi cheered.

Luigi got Green Dots.

"Beautiful! I now have a design I can flash to the makers of a certain app! I can feel high sales, on account of these very makers!"

Luigi got Green Star.

"I believe it will be easy to coax those slightly off-the-chain fellows at the Green Star to promote my fabulous design! I am a very persuasive designer, I'll have you know!"

"Uh…" Luigi didn't

"Oh! Idea! Green Star, based off of the green stars I've heard you can collect to power things in the starry skies! Maybe I can pawn these off on those Lumas in the Green Star Galaxies..."

"Should you even know that right now…or even at all?" Mario asked, water dropping out of his mouth.

Luigi got Green Stripes.

"Yes, those lovely lads at Green Stripes will be glad to change this to their logo! Gladly, we adore this totally bone-shaking mind-blowing design, they will say! And then, I take my first step into the amazing world of FAME! FORTUNE! GLORY!"

"Uh… I think he's getting ahead of himself…" Mario trailed… a bit shaken by the outburst.

Luigi got Checkered Green.

"Checkered Green. Yes, I declare this the new colour for bouncy blocks! Just you wait, one day, you'll see my glorious design on some blocks that'll give you that extra leap away from those Bullet Bills!"

"Someone pinch me if that ever happens." Mario said.

"Time for Yellow!" Mario declared.

Luigi got Yellow Dots.

"Those new-born Beans at Yellow Dot will be crying for joy when they get to wear those baby-sized designs I shall promote and advertise!"

Luigi got Yellow Stripes.

"You'll definitely being seeing this in the next episode of that show. Next Step: The Television!"

Luigi got Checkered Yellow.

"That cab company will see this, and gawk at this! I call it now, they'll come begging for exclusive copies of my amazing designing skills! I love it!"

Luigi got Yellow Star.

"Now, this sure is familiar." Mario said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I definitely know this one, but I just can't put my finger on what exactly it is…" Luigi added sarcastically.

"Fabulous! Screaming with style! I may just be able to convince those big-shots in Star Haven to buy these! Amazing!"

"Time for Blue!" Mario said. "We're nearly done…"

Luigi got Checkered Blue.

"Hm… this could be an alternative flag design. Now those rival flag designers don't stand a chance!"

Luigi got Blue Star.

"Yes, these can be a complementary gift to guests, courtesy of the people at Blue Star Hotel, supplied by none other than me, and I could be paid!"

Luigi got Blue Dots.

"Ah, another gallery I can trust to buy my Blue Dots design for their exhibits and such. I might just be able to get sold out, if I play my cards right."

Luigi got Blue Stripes.

"The next time someone sings that song at a concert, I'll be there with a stand chock-full of this design! They'll sell like a wildfire spreads!"

"Yahoo! It's-a red!" Mario cheered as he went to refill. "Now we're talking!"

Luigi got Red Stripes.

"Yes, this could be just the thing for my haunted house set! People may think this is blood!"

Luigi got Checkered Red.

"Even the ants will gawk at this new fabulous design, the picnickers actually looking like the mat they sit on! Fabulous! I may just have to make bite-size designs just for those ants! I can imagine they'll pay hefty prices for size adjustment!"

Luigi got Red Star.

"I recall hearing about these. There are some galaxies with these stars out there. I heard they look fabulous! I know star-gazers will fall for these!"

"I seriously question how a designer knows about this mumbo-jumbo I feel they shouldn't know about yet…" Mario muttered. "I mean, it just feels TOO early for this…"

Luigi got Red Dots.

"Ah, how often a child tries to fool their parents with markers, pretending they have chicken pox! Now they can say they have fashion pox!"

Harhall looked twice after marking Red Dots in the sheet. He gasped.

"Oh, fabulous! You've filled every single space! Congratulations! With all of these clothes, I can open my own shop! Thank you! Thank you so much! Please take this!" Harhall cheered.

Luigi received an extra pair of Harhall's pants that only really fit Mario.

"I'm going to be SO busy getting ready to open my store. I don't think I'll be back here for a while. So, take care!" Harhall waved goodbye, and walked off, grinning at the design sheet in hand.

"Looks like we can leave, now, then." Mario realized. "Let's go see what Toadsworth has to say."

Needless to say, Toadsworth advised them to head for the Beanstar Piece in the northwest, so that was their new destination.

Seasonal Style, Splart Style, I think we may just have a pattern for chapters where the Bros get Beanstar Pieces.

You know, I really did put my heart and soul coming up with each and every one of those design lines. All 28 of them. In fact, they all reference SOMETHING out there. You might want to search up each and every one of them. There is actually a music group called Brown Stripes, for example. You never know! ^^