Hello everyone! So, while I love giving all my current readers more Adoption Drama goodness, I have some other ideas that don't relate to it (no, this will not change the update schedule for that). And I have been writing other things. So I decided to post some of those other things! This story is actually somewhat similar to AD in the fact the basic concept of the story boils down to "One character is raised by another and let's see how the story changes". The only difference is that I'm taking out the crossover elements. But enough pointless babbling! Let's begin!
The rain poured. There was an occasional flash of lightning or crack of thunder. Any sailor living in Rogueport knows how dangerous it is to go sailing in this weather. Only the best and most experienced even considered the idea. But sailing period was the last thing on Admiral Bobbery's mind.
"I lost both my loves on a night like tonight," Bobbery said to no one other than himself. His beloved wife, Scarlette, had died a while back while he was at sea and he blamed his own love of sailing for it. He had not been back on the sea since. Suddenly, the door to Bobbery's house slammed open as a few other sailors entered.
"Bobbery!" A young toad, T. easure, called out to him. "Get the bandages!"
"What's all this about?" Bobbery asked. Why these boys had barged in was all Bobbery cared about until he saw the problem. Bobbery couldn't speak and he knew the sigh in front of him would haunt him to his grave.
It was an unconscious young shadow girl. She had to be about five if Bobbery had to guess. But what truly scared him was her appearance. She was covered in blood, with cuts and bruises everywhere on her body. Her hair-which no one could tell the color of as it was so caked with both wet and dried blood-had been sloppily cropped off, leaving the girl with a short bob. And one of her eyes was missing, seemingly stabbed out. Bobbery let his drink shatter on the floor.
"Your house was the closest," T. easure admitted. "We found her in a merchant wagon."
"...We need to stop her bleeding," Bobbery said once he found his voice. "Once she wakes up, we'll see what she recalls." The sailors nodded as Bobbery grabbed a first aid kit. Her cut weren't as deep as they seemed, much to the sailors' relief. Her missing eye, on the other hand, ended up needing to be cauterized before they could even think about putting anything over it. Mercifully, she remained unconscious during the process. One of the Koopas, Jack, had to promise to get her an eyepatch if she wanted one.
"Mmmmh…." The girl groaned as she practically forced herself up. The sailors all watched her, making sure that none of her wounds reopened. She was shivering and seemed unable to get her hands to work like she wanted.
"Are you alright, little one?" Bobbery asked, trying to keep his tone soft. This girl was clearly frightened enough.
"I'm cold…" She slurred out. The sailors had a feeling she would be suffering from hypothermia, considering the weather. Jack grabbed a nearby blanket and draped it over her. She managed to wrap it around herself.
"Can you tell us who hurt you?" He asked her once she was comfortable.
"I...I don't know," The girl said as she looked at the floor. "All I know is my name…"
"Can you tell us that?" Bobbery asked, keeping his softer tone up. He had his suspicions on why this girl knew barely anything about herself.
"It's Vivian," The girl replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Well Vivian, would you mind if we talked for a second?" Bobbery asked. She just gave a nod, keeping her eye aimed at the floor.
"So why can't she tell us what happened to her?" Jack asked, keeping his voice low so Vivian couldn't hear.
"I've seen this before, old boys," Bobbery revealed. "She has amnesia from her trauma. I've known quite a few good sailors who've lost their entire memories from a blow to the old noggin or from watching a monster eat their mates."
T. easure nodded. "But what should we do with her? It's not like we can find who did that."
"She could stay here…" Jack trailed off. The three men glanced at each other. They knew that they wanted to watch over her, but was raising her really something they could handle? Finally, Bobbery sighed.
"I'll raise her," He said.
"You sure?" Jack asked. Everyone knew why Bobbery never sailed anymore. Was he really the best to raise a possibly traumatized child?
"I won't fail another," Bobbery said simply as he turned to face his new charge. She smiled at him. He smiled back.
Much to Bobbery's relief, Vivian was quick to agree to stay with him. She also took up Jack's offer for an eye patch. However, much like most children would be, she was exhausted. So, after a bath (which revealed her hair color was pink), Bobbery tucked her into bed on a spare cot.
"Good night," Bobbery said.
"Good night dad," Vivian sleepily replied. Bobbery froze. She was practically sleeping! She was not in the right state of mind! He had so many ways to write that statement off. But he didn't want to. He had remembered that Scarlette had always wanted children, but they had never been able conceive.
"This will be my redemption," Bobbery thought to himself with determination.
So, funny story. This story's concept took root in my brain when I was thinking about how it's implied that Vivian was actually the strongest Shadow Siren and that she was only so weak in the first fight because she lacked the motivation to actually fight. Once she got it while fighting with Mario, she (if you max her stats out and who doesn't do that?) is on equal footing to Beldam at the end of the game. So that got me thinking: What if she always had that motivation? And from there, the story began to form. My first concept was that, not only did Vivian's attacker (who will be revealed at a later point in the story) fully blind her, but she was taken in by the Master from the first Paper Mario and she would have been a warrior mage who used her magic to sense heat signatures. In addition, she would have been a partner in the first game and come to Rogueport with Mario and Peach to learn more about herself come Thousand Year Door. But then I realized that was way too confusing for both me to write and for people to follow, so I scaled it back to her losing one eye. But then I realized that she looked less like a warrior and more like a pirate. Hey wait. Pirate? Why don't I have her raised by Bobbery? From there, I finally managed to start nailing down plot points. Geez, this was wordy.