Interview Five: Toadette Mimosa— 1506
The Inquisitor: Hello.
Toadette: Hello?
TI: What kind of persons are you? Peaceful? Angry? Cheerfuls?
T: Me? Hm… I guess I'd say I'm hardy. Is that good? …Is that what you're looking for?
TI: Hmm, I guesses! Are you curious about me?
T: About you? You're part of my dream, as far as I figure.
TI: That's a good attitute, but it's not entirely true. That is fines, it will work for our purposes.
T: Our purposes, huh? Your purposes or mine?
TI: That is unimportants. It is subjectivity, as are all things.
T: …Right.
TI: You may know me as The Inquisitor.
T: Got it.
TI: I'm going to ask you some questions, okay dokay?
T: …Hm. I can't resist anyway, can I?
TI: Not really…but it's okay. Just feel peace with it.
T: …
TI: Tell me who you are.
T: I'm just an ordinary gal in a broken world. …Ha ha…
TI: A broken world?
T: Six years ago the Cataclysm occurred, changing everything for the worse. The Mushroom Kingdom became the Land of Death, the Koopa Kingdom was whipped into a war for the throne, and Sarasaland became embroiled in a revolutionary war that spread to the other countries of the Oho Sea Ternion: Subcon, formerly Jewelry Land, and the Beanbean Kingdom. Still other things happened in the Tribal Lands and the Southern Mushroom Kingdom— essentially the entire Continent became a warzone, as the center of it all, the former Mushroom Kingdom, rotted further and further. No one noticed what was happening, on the grand scale— it seemed everyone was too busy fighting… or fleeing.
TI: …
T: After the fall of Mushroom City, some of my former coworkers and I escaped on one of our company boats and sailed for Seaside Town, on the way to Yoshi's Island. On the boat we were able to see parts of the Cataclysm from our ship. We stopped in Yoshi's Island and heard the rest of the news: the Mushroom Kingdom had become a burnt husk, and many of those who had gone to Mushroom Castle on the day of the Cataclysm had perished. Those who had survived…told insane tales. Madness that no one wanted to accept.
TI: …Like?
T: The battle being hijacked by duplighosts, the Koopa Troop collapsing and fighting itself, Princess Peach and Mario being there, fighting each other or something…
TI: Peach is a famous person, is not she?
T: The former princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Yes, she was. She was also a massive bitch.
TI: …!
T: I can understand her life being stressful, but...
TI: Did she die?
T: She was in the castle on the so-called judgment day. What do you think?
TI: Oh…
T: The fire converged on the place. It wasn't entirely burned down but anyone alive inside would have been roasted.
TI: The castle still stands?
T: Yes. The King of Death rules over it now.
TI: The…the King of Death. …Woulds you be okay discussing that?
T: Sure. He's the enemy.
TI: Oh. You are much more willingness to talk about the Land of Death.
T: Eh? Compared to who?
TI: Never minds. Tell me about this king.
T: He directs the Dead that wander the Land of Death. He's also the one who wills its spread and infection. And, every night he feeds.
TI: What?
T: He comes into our dreams…and as best as I can tell…he feeds on our dreams and memories. Our feelings. If he visits, you feel only emptiness for days. He is the worst nightmare. The darkness of your deepest, primal fears.
TI: Who exactly is getting these visits?
T: Almost everyone I've met's had him once. He comes and feeds and probes.
TI: He is looking for informations?
T: I don't know. Probably. But I don't know what he could be looking for. He never moves from his place above the castle.
TI: How frightening.
T: About a year ago, a large congregation of people began to form in the Southern Mushroom Kingdom, composed of all sorts of individuals: survivors of the Mushroom Kingdom, refugees from Yoshi's Island, the Oho Sea Ternion, and even the former Koopa Kingdom. Many now believe that this is the end of the world, with all of the wars that have been happening and with the spread of the Land of Death's rot.
TI: You says refugees from the Oho Sea Ternion…is not that land stable now?
T: Hardly. It's true that the Triwar that occurred there was finally won by Sarasaland, and that Subcon and the Beanbean Kingdom were soon after devoured into one massive empire— the Sarasan Empire—but that massive empire has cracks in it already. Daisy, or at least, her representatives, don't want to face it, but the land is going to fall into war again soon— a new revolution, one that will destroy the effects of the revolution the previous group worked so hard to establish. It's sad in a way… but then again, if the people of your land are not happy, are you really doing what should be done?
TI: Hurm…
T: (Sigh) It's been a long road. How did things ever get like this? These lands used to be happy.
TI: Were they? Or was only the Mushroom Kingdom's happy?
T: Well… still, things were better for everyone than they are now. People's problems used to be simpler…if you had a trouble, you knew the cause and you could fight it. Not like now…there are so many things happening that it's hard to tell what is causing what anymore. Even the conglomerate, one of the only sure things in this world, was formed in the Southern Mushroom Kingdom based on a guess…a guess that the King of Death is the one behind our sorrows.
TI: So things were happier for you before?
T: Before the Cataclysm? With certainty. I worked as the manager of a company with the greatest friends one could have. We were an odd bunch, ha, but I guess that's part of what tied us all together so closely. I would've been with them right up to the Cataclysm if…he hadn't contacted me.
TI: Who?
T: The fake Alago Acrux. The thing that I believed to be my childhood friend, back from the grave.
TI: Tell me more—
T: A long time ago…back when I was a child and my mother still owned this big shipping business in Mushroom City…I fell in with a bad gang. Things were alright, I helped steal things and even made important deliveries when I was only nine, but…I was stupid. It should have been a terrible warning sign that I was the only female member in the gang.
TI: Um?
T: I thought that made me special, that I was the only girl. Ha (Sigh)…
TI: …
T: One of the new recruits, Alago, saved me. As consequence, he ended up killing a member of the gang, and so became their enemy. I left them and helped supply Alago with information so that he could protect himself and ultimately take them down. It wasn't a big gang or anything, and we were really only children, so it wasn't an amazing accomplishment or anything.
TI: Interesting.
T: We remained friends for years after that, but Alago fell into another, larger gang, while I joined my mother's former company which she had sold off to a human named Wario that had come from the Tribal Lands. I offered positions to Alago but he wouldn't take them… It was too late. He had signed a blood oath months ago with the new gang he had joined.
TI: So he…?
T: He couldn't leave under threat of death. And as I said, this gang was much bigger. He wouldn't have made it out alive if he had tried to leave or turn on them in any manner. As it turned out, he ended up dead anyway.
TI: …?
T: Sixteen years ago, Alago went missing on a gang assignment. There was a chance that he had been sent to an outbranch of the gang in Rogueport, so I had hope he was still alive. It turned out that hope was misplaced— knowing what I know now, the pieces all line up clearly. Alago was killed by a duplighost that had been watching him and then, stole his form. This duplighost, masquerading as Alago, went to Mushroom Castle and began setting his roots up there. All part of his plan to…bring back whoever or whatever that thing was. I still don't understand.
TI: Why wouldn't he change his name?
T: Great question. I guess he knew the name had connections, and that they'd be useful to keep. He knew about my relationship to the real Alago, so he was able to send me a letter eight years later requesting help for his machinations at Mushroom Castle. He knew…he knew what the real Alago had done for me, so he knew if he contacted me I would come.
TI: But why did he want you so badly?
T: Another great question. I… have no answer. Only guesses.
TI: Hmm, our time grows short. Guesses will not do.
T: Then we won't talk of it.
TI: …Hmmm…
T: Do you have anything else you want to ask? I've got things to do. I'm not gonna remember any of this anyway, right?
TI: True…but, you should thinks of this as chair-tea!
T: Chair-tee? Charity?
TI: Oh my. I could ham sworn…oof, I could have sworn I was still okay…
(Very quietly, sounds of scratching and heavy breathing creep into the background.)
T: Okay?
TI: My minds… we, I am beginning to rot…
T: What the hell are you talking about?
TI: I was not…meant to life so lonng… My brain… But it does nit makes sense…in the miiiddle of an introview…
(Sounds of scratching and heavy breathing intensify.)
T: What is that sound? That…sound…I recognize that… Like someone scratching a wood wall…
TI: Scheiße! Get out! Tony! Get out! Thisshe… trying to find….
T: Uh…Tony?
TI: You…you…I cat remenber your namesake…you…
T: Toadette? [Her mental wave is shaky…that awful sound is beginning to affect her as well…]
TI: You now, dow nut you, Toadsworth? That're wi-fi interruptsing—
(The scratching sound is now louder than the breathing, so much so that the breathing is drowned out. The noise is becoming deafening.)
(Further dialogue…)
(Cannot be heard…)
(Sound of scratching lasts for a further three minutes.)
[END OF INTERVIEW]
/A/N/: Thanks again for the review, HitoroTheHunter, as well as pointing out my mistake in the References! It has been fixed.
