We're back with chapter 2.
…
Ok, let's begin.
{===}
You'd think Mario would be used to falling from floating castle heights into long patches of woods after all he's been through, but it still wasn't the most comforting thing to say the very least. He landed in the leaves of a tree, a quaint little pocket near the tippity top, of which he promptly tried to wiggle out of, his face brushing against the leaves as he did so.
…!
A bit more...
…!
Almost there!
…!
"Wahoo!" Mario exclaimed, jumping out of the tree and stopping where he was midair, thankful to be out of there. Then he looked down, seeing everything below him was way more than a few feet away from the ground. In fact, he was rather high up in the air.
. . .
. . .
. . .
"Funny quip." Mario decided to say, afterwards rapidly heading downwards...
. . .
Down...
. . .
Down...
. . .
Down...
. . .
AND-
CRASH!
"Ouch..."
Mario picked himself up and dusted his overalls off. As he took a full look around, he noted he was in what looked to be a Pine Forest, on an elevated cliffside as he was above the tree line, but that was all he could make out besides the blue sky above. A bit closer to him, however, there seemed to be various scraps of tiny paper around the tree, all in different colors, almost like little scraps of uh... what's the word?
He couldn't remember, and besides the little scraps there was nothing, nothing besides silence, though truth be told there were a few things around him. To his right there was a flower patch near a slightly de-elevated part of the cliff, sporting flowers in a range of colors, but that didn't seem all too important.
...
"Better... get going." Mario said, not exactly sure where to go, but walking ahead anyways. He headed left from his location, that being the only real place he could go that wasn't a flower cliff. As he went ahead, there was a tree, one that seemed mid-chop, but no axe in sight. Oddly though, the tree had a bit of a different look than the other greenery, a bit blocky in all honesty.
...
'Hey, wanna bust down that tree?'
...
"Huh?" Mario asked, looking around for the one who spoke, said voice speaking to him in a whispering tone. "Who's there?"
...
'Your friend... she's nearby...'
...
"Why are you whispering?" Mario asked, though the voice didn't seem apt to respond to his questions. Though the situation seemed a bit unprompted, he decided to follow the whispering, and turning back around to look for anybody else, or 'his friend' as the voice called them.
...
'On that separated cliff, over there... in front of you-'
...
Mario took the whisperings advice yet again, and looked in front of him, towards the aforementioned cliff. There a single lonely tree stationed there, but other than that? Nothing he could see. Mario took a stroll towards it anyways, the two places only being connected by a slight dip in elevation, a sort of curvy path to and from.
"STOP!" the voice of Olivia suddenly called out from above, and Mario peered up towards the top of the lonely tree to see Olivia there, stuck similar to how he was, but facing upwards. "Are you dense or something, or did you not see that massive gaping hole in front of you?" she asked, and Mario peered downwards...
Oh.
There was a hole.
Though the hole wasn't like most holes he'd seen before, this hole seemed almost... otherworldly, below it all an abyss of nothingness, held together by what looked to be metal bindings.
"Yeah, if you fall into that, there's no coming back, so be more careful next time, alright?" Olivia explained, and Mario nodded. "Anyways, I know you just rescued me and all, but I really need your help again, so... catch!"
Olivia then pulled something from out of nowhere, what looked to be a burlap sack of some sorts, silky white in color, and heading straight towards Mario with a half decent pitch. After a tiny bit of preparation, Mario held up his hands and caught it!
YOU GOT THE CONFETTI BAG!
It's kinda bland though...
"That's the confetti bag." Olivia said, blatantly repeating the flavor text. "You can use it to pick up confetti, and the confetti you put in the bag will be given special properties that can help you fix that hole!"
"Okay, but where do I get confetti?" Mario asked.
"Well, try hitting stuff with that hammer of yours, I'm sure you'll find some eventually." Olivia suggested. "Confetti looks like little colored scraps of paper, by the way."
Mario then got an idea of where some was, but a few things still confused him. "So, I have to manually pick up all these tiny paper scraps?" he wondered.
"No, he thought about that at least." Olivia assured in a low tone. "Just walk over to the confetti and it should get sucked into your bag as long as you hold it correctly.
'That's what she said...'
"Did you say something?" Olivia asked, seeming a bit offended. "If you're going to say something, you don't have to whisper it."
"That wasn't me!" Mario tried to defend, but Olivia's tone made it clear she believed a different tale.
"Right." she sighed. "Well, anyways, hurry and get the confetti, please, this position is uncomfortable." Olivia noted, and Mario headed back over towards the tree where what he now knew to be confetti waited.
Mario pulled apart the sides of the bag, opening it wide and moving the hole towards the confetti, the tiny scraps of paper shaking slightly as he approached. Mario got closer, and rather suddenly, the confetti got sucked into the bag, like unfortunate jewelry to a vacuum cleaner.
"Huh, she wasn't kidding..." Mario muttered, getting a slight enjoyment out of the satisfying feeling of the scraps being sucked in, though he didn't tread on the novelty for too long as he went around the base of the tree, collecting what he assumed to be a decent amount of confetti.
He then looked into the bag.
…
Kinda... empty.
Well, that's a lie, it wasn't THAT empty, but if it was gonna fill that hole somehow, he would probably need a little more. Then an idea came into his head, Mario turning his attention towards the nearby tree.
"Well, Olivia did say to hit it with a hammer." he remembered, and did as proposed, setting the bag aside to WHACK the tree with a hammer, like he was a Hero. Though it wasn't an insta-kill, a shower of confetti still rained down on Mario after the hit, confirming his suspicions.
Mario used the bag to suck up the rest of the confetti that fell, the bag being decently filled at this point, though he still doubted if it could fill the hole to its entirety. Mario looked towards the flower patch from before, and while he wasn't entirely sure it would work, he went over to try something.
He walked over towards the flower cliff, dropped down with the elevation, and after a small bit of walking lightly tapped a flower with his hammer. He wasn't expecting that much, but he got something, as a small bit of confetti shot out from the flower and slowly fell onto the ground.
"Hm, good to know." Mario recognized, deciding to do the same to the other flowers in the quaint little patch, promptly filling up the confetti Bag to a point that he found comfortable, then back over towards the hole. Once he reached his destination, he began tilting the bag to pour the confetti in.
"WAIT!" Olivia screeched, and Mario stopped in his tracks. "You gotta throw the confetti in order for it to work!" she elaborated. "Grab a handful, then throw it as hard as you can, toss it all on the hole!"
"Okie dokie." Mario acknowledged.
Olivia continued, however. "You know like... YAH, HAH, BOOSH, POW!" she annunciated in a suave manner. "You don't have to do the sound effects; I just find them fun."
"YAH!" Mario yelled, grabbing a bunch of confetti and throwing it onto the hole. As it skittered down towards the hole, Mario sort of expected it to fall in, but surprisingly that didn't happen. Instead of falling in like he expected, the confetti sort of stuck on top of the hole, sort of filling in the edges, and not going over it.
"There you go, you just have to do that until the confetti completely covers the hole!" Olivia added, yet again. "Also... uh... could you still do the sound effects? They're kinda fun when you say them!"
"HAH!" Mario followed through on, throwing even more confetti from his hand onto the hole, as the edges away from the other pieces began to get covered. "BOOSH!" he continued, more confetti piling on, until he finished his tossing with an oh-so satisfying "POW!" the hole now being patched up with confetti completely.
It then began to glow white, and after covering his eyes from the blinding light, Mario turned to see that the missing land had now turned into regular grass in record time.
"There, you did it!" Olivia cheered, and Mario closed the confetti bag for now. "Now hurry up and get me down from here, please!" Mario quickly ran over towards the tree, the little isolated cliff it was on not being anything that interesting, though there was a butterfly jittering about, that was all.
Mario then took out his hammer and promptly swung it at the base of the tree, confetti showering down from its branches, and what sounded like Olivia cheering, her perhaps coming loose from the tree.
…
But where was she...?
...
OH MY GOD SHE WAS FALLING RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM-
plonk
...okay, he kinda overreacted, the collision only made him fall over. Olivia was surprisingly heavy, though she quickly managed to get off of him, and he picked himself up.
Olivia then spoke, "So sorry, I really hope you don't remember me by this moment alone, Mario."
"Eh, it happens to the best of us, don't worry." Mario reassured.
"Alright then, so..." Olivia peered around for a moment. "Where are we exactly?" Mario shrugged, and Olivia closed her eyes. "There's nobody around to ask for directions, so this could throw a cut in our valley, eh?"
"A what in your what?" Mario asked, and Olivia looked to the side, perhaps in embarrassment.
"Uh... anyways, I guess we should explore around, unless you found something of interest?" she asked.
"I found one of those Magic Circles over near that odd looking tree." he answered, pointing towards it with his thumb.
"WHERE?" Olivia yelled, clearly a bit too loud, as some birds squawked at the sound. "Oh... yeah, near a tree, yes, uh... shall we?" Olivia asked, turning around and going ahead of Mario, towards the Magic Circle. Mario followed her, and it wasn't long before they reached the destination, Olivia peering towards the tree in silence.
"So... the Magic Circle is right there." Mario reminded her motioning down towards the ground.
"I know, but... this tree, I've seen one of them before, I think... I think it means my brother has been here already!" Olivia explained. "I mean, the tree doesn't really look natural, right?" she asked, getting in closer. "Or am I seeing things?"
'Tear it down...'
"I can't tear it down; I can't use the magic circle." Olivia huffed, turning towards Mario. "And could you stop whispering?" Mario was about to respond, but the voice seemed to do it for him.
'He's not whispering... just tear down the tree already...'
"Wait... who are you exactly?" Olivia wondered, though the voice didn't seem apt to respond to her either. "I guess we'll find out later, anyways, maybe you could break down that tree and turn it into a makeshift bridge?" Olivia suggested, moving out of the way of the Magic Circle.
Mario walked onto the Magic Circle, and like before held his arms up, said arms effortlessly coming into a long, Thousand-Fold existence, the tree in front of him a prime target for a WHACK, a SLAP, or even a QLUNAK, if that was a sound effect. Though sound effects aside, Mario moved his arms backwards to prepare for his attack, then with full force, SLAMMED his hands forward, knocking over the tree in a single punch.
As it fell down, Mario noticed that the inside of the tree was in fact hollow, like a tub almost, though his punch splintered the wood a small bit, leaving a bit of an awning at the top. Mario and Olivia made their way around the tree trunk and through the hollow part, making their way to the other side, where it seemed they had a clear path to follow.
"Alright, I guess we should get going then." Mario forwarded, looking towards a long path that seemed to dive further into the forest.
"Uh..." Olivia seemed to pause, as she peered towards a standard Question Mark Block in confusion. "What's that?" she asked.
"It's a Question Mark Block." Mario replied, a bit surprised she didn't know what it was.
"What does it do... just... floating there?" Olivia wondered, looking at the Question Mark dance around the sides of the block like a baby watching keys jingle.
"You just... hit it from the bottom, an item pops out usually." Mario explained, motioning for her to try it out.
"Okay..." Olivia nodded, floating under the Question Mark Block and peering upwards towards it, her face oddly showing hints of nervousness. "So, I just hit it from the bottom?" she asked, and Mario nodded yet again.
. . .
. . .
. . .
"Here goes nothing!"
Olivia flew upwards, her movements quick, and in tandem with said movements, the block popped up slightly and turned into a Regular Block. The sudden transition seemed to scare Olivia a bit as she almost hit the ground, narrowly avoiding it and instead heading behind Mario.
"...what did I do?" Olivia whispered, shaking like a Washing Machine. "Did something come out, was it a monster or something?" she sputtered.
"No, it's just a Mushroom." Mario corrected, walking forward and picking up the shroom, the dryness unfortunately not making it applicable for a Splash Screen. "Looks weird." he noted, the mushroom probably having took the advice of an air selling businessman, as it had shriveled up, and seemed to be dead.
"Oh... poor mushroom." Olivia realized, coming out from behind Mario's back. "Eh, I'm sure we'll find a way to fix it, probably." she took a guess upon. "Anyways, we should head on... but while we're here, can I ask you something?"
Mario nodded and gave her his attention. "Sure."
"So... when you and the other guy were fighting those Folded Soldiers, you were... fighting in real time, yeah?" she asked.
"Well, I always fight in real time, of course." Mario responded. "What of it?"
"Well, is that your tradition in the Paper World?" she pondered, tilting her head. "Because, it's not usually how us Origami Folk fight, is all."
"Not really a tradition, we just... do it." Mario responded, the question seeming a bit off. "How do you 'Origami Folk' as you say, fight?" he wondered.
"I'll... tell you about it later, we should really get moving, my brother has to be stopped after all!" Olivia declared in a dodgy way. Despite the dodginess, Mario put the thought to the back of his mind for now, him and Olivia heading down the incline towards the forest.
The incline continued for a bit, it was a brisk trip for them, though there was a slight increase of elevation for a moment. Mario effortlessly jumped up, Olivia following in tandem via floating, and from the height increase they could make out a bit more of the far away view. "Wow, this view is pretty nice!" Olivia noted, and Mario looked towards it as well, seeing Toad Town in all of its glory.
…
Minus Peach's Castle and with five massive Streamers in the way, and blocked by a few trees, and shockingly empty, and with trash littering the road. But other than that, lovely view!
"I mean, the view of the town looks nice, I'd say." Olivia swooned, floating to get a closer look. "Oh yeah... Peach's Castle." she realized, letting out a tiny sigh. "Kinda bare, isn't it?" she noted, seeming to fumble with her hands. "And those Streamers, they..."
Olivia and Mario followed the trail the Streamers led in tandem, and in the far distance saw they all were wrapped around Peach's Castle on top of a distant mountain.
"Ah, so I guess that's where we'll need to head eventually." Mario theorized, putting a hand to his chin. "I'm sure we could probably get there earlier somehow, but it looks like it's wrapped pretty tight..."
"I bet my brother is in there, probably doing something really bad, like drinking from the lake, or- or- eating someone else's birthday cake!" she proposed, the last part seeming to offend her the most. "I have to stop him, it's my duty as his sister, after all."
"It is?" Mario wondered.
"Well, you have a brother, haven't you ever stopped him from doing something evil?" Olivia asked. "Wait... speaking of brothers, I saw a Green Hat with an 'L' falling from the castle when we got sent flying." Olivia recalled, lowering her head. "I'm so sorry... the green hat was related to your hat, right?"
"Nah, they're actually cousins, it's a common mistake, but just because they came from the same hat factory doesn't mean they're related." Mario explained.
"Uh, right." Olivia said, absorbing the knowledge like a dry sponge. "Well, if that's the case we better hurry to Peach's castle to reunite your Hat Cousins!" Olivia hurried. "Oh, your brother as well I guess." she added. "Anyways, I suppose we should head into the woods now, on our hat saving adventure..."
"Yeah, into the woods..." Mario conferred, looking towards the rather sinister opening into the treescape, woods which he had never been in, but for whatever reason wanted to avoid, the light seeming to get dimmer in the entrance, though not that dim, it was still noticeable.
"..."
"..."
Olivia then said something rather quickly, she said, "Firstpersontogointothecreepywoodssaywhat."
"What?" Mario asked, the meaning of the words suddenly becoming clear, and he slapped his forehead in anguish. "Fine, let's-a-go..." he sighed, Olivia following behind them as they made like a mediocre 2014 movie, and went Into the Woods.
{===}
'He's here...'
'He's entering...'
'Do y'all have everything set?'
'Yep-yep, this Is gonna be fun, teach those fools to mess with our Grandsappy!'
'Shhhh, shhhh, it's about to start, everyone remember your lines...'
{===}
Mario took a step into the woods, and immediately a sense of dread instilled in his spine, trees rustling in the wind lightly, the shadows of the leaves looming above, a few flowers swaying lightly in the breeze, but other than that, utter silence.
Until the whispering began.
'Someone's here...'
"Who said that?" Olivia whispered to Mario, who shrugged in response, being reminded of the one voice back on the cliff, though it was a bit different. "It's not the one from back there, I don't think." she noted similarly, and the voice ceased as wind ran through the area in a delightful dance against the trees.
…
They continued, Mario under past a large tree, various acorns hanging off its branches, though that was all. Mario walked past quickly, but suddenly an acorn fell from the tree, directly behind him, and based on the rather prompt, "Ow..." from Olivia, it seemed to have hit her.
...
'Headshot!'
...
"Who's there?" Mario asked, this time, looking around and heading under the tree again. Nobody seemed to be dropping acorns however. "Hm, maybe it was just a coincidence..." he proposed, and Olivia accepted it as an option, them deciding to move on from here, Mario picking up the pace.
…
'Look at him... just wandering around...'
'Who does he think he is?'
'He doesn't deserve that mustache.'
...
"Maybe if we don't listen, they won't talk?" Olivia suggested, though she retracted her statement quickly. "No, I have a bad time not listening to creepy whispers..."
"We could try at least." Mario suggested. Though as he took another glance around, he couldn't help but notice odd creepy looking black spikes around the place, maybe not exactly black, but that's what the lighting made them out to be. "Do you think there are any more holes over here?"
"Um..." Olivia took a moment to look around. "Over there, I think there's one behind that bush." Olivia noted, pointed to an off looking bush next to a tree. "Looks like something my brother made."
"Hm." Mario noted, walking over towards the bush and smacking it down with his hammer.
...
'He's just hitting stuff...'
'How can he do that?'
'Disgusting.'
...
Trying his best to ignore the noises, indeed behind the bush was a hole, to which Mario promptly took out the confetti bag and threw some on top, said hole not being that big compared to the previous one, but still taking a bit of confetti to fill. The hole began to glow white, and for a moment as the area illuminated, Mario faintly heard... something.
…
He wasn't sure what though, and he looked into the confetti bag for a moment. "Kinda running low." Mario noted, putting the back away
"Maybe try hitting another tree?" Olivia suggested, them looking to the tree near the bush. "I'll just stand back while you do it."
"Uh... right." Mario said, taking out his hammer and peering towards the tree, just a regular tree-
...
'Will he do it?'
'Let's find out.'
...
-just a plain old tree, nothing unusual about it compared to the tree he hit before after all-
...
'I wonder...'
...
-nothing wrong with the tree, yep, he was just gonna hit it and everything would be-
"We can fill up the confetti bag later!" Mario decided, dispatching his hammer, and backing away from the tree. He looked towards Olivia, and she had her face covered, though she uncovered it a few seconds after he turned back.
"Yeah, I agree, we should just leave the tree alone, save the environment or whatever..." Olivia assured, and they both decided to head along on their merry way through the dark forest. Their walking wasn't left in silence however, the whispers continuing about their every move and turn through the weird path.
…
'Look at him, disgusting paper creature.'
'I like the yellow one's hat.'
'He just stepped on a flower; he must hate nature!'
'I think my cousin over in The Bafflewood has seen this guy before.'
'His moustache reminds me of Grandsappy...'
'He should change his main colors, I'm thinking a more purple hue would work better than red, but I dunno, red and blue contrast each other quite well, so perhaps I'm-'
'Dude, shut up, nobody cares about color coordination.'
'Yeah, you're ruining the mood.'
'Sorry.'
…
After a bit more speed walking, the forest seemed to light up a small bit, and what seemed to be an incline in the forest, leading to a bit of the woods that was admittedly less dense with trees, though they still didn't seem to be any closer to Toad Town.
One thing they did see was a treasure chest, though it was on a plateau surrounded by the same spikes from before, (Which Mario could now see were a more navy green color) no way to get over putting a hole in your foot, so they continued on for now, hopping up a few extended rocks onto a higher cliff.
There was an even higher cliffside next to them but there seemed to be no way to get upwards, so he turned his attention away, looking around and seeing various trees casting wide shadows on the cliffside. On some of the trees were vines, seeming a bit unnatural and just hanging there, unprompted by any other foliage.
"I wonder what those vines are for." Olivia said, floating over towards one to get a closer look. "They don't look like something my brother made..."
…
'Will they do it?'
'Shhh shhh, you'll ruin it.'
'Just be quiet for now.'
…
"Hm..."Olivia muttered, still clearly a bit perturbed by the voices. "Try pulling one down maybe?"
Mario walked over toward a vine hanging from the nearest tree, took a firm grip and pulled it down, tilting the leaves of the tree slightly with his grasp. When he let go, the vine coiled up back into the tree, a singular coin falling down from its leaves.
"Huh, I guess money does grow on trees." Olivia realized, watching Mario pocket the coin. "Must be rough for this economy..."
"Yeah, inflation is through the roof." Mario confirmed, deciding not to make a joke about America and its horrid inflation rates.
…
OOPS.
Ignoring that, he then walked over to another tree with a vine hanging off, and yanked this one down as well. The vine retracted back into the tree quite like the previous one, though in direct opposite, nothing seemed to have happened, nothing Mario could see at least.
"Mario, some leaves just fell behind us, do you think we should check them out?" Olivia asked, and not sure what she meant, Mario turned around to see a few rather large leaves on the path they were just on. He hopped down, noticing around 10 leaves, and not sure of their purpose, whacked one of them with his hammer, the leaf flipping over and revealing what looked to be a symbol for a 10-Coin.
"Huh...?" Mario asked, not sure what it meant, and going over to another leaf, smacking it and seeing a symbol for a 100-Coin, though a few seconds after, the leaf flipped back over, the first one he hit doing so as well.
…
'BZZT-'
'Wrong answer, hehe~'
'Oooo, I wonder if he'll get it.'
…
He then got an inkling of an idea as to what this was. He had experience with card games, even if it had been a while since his adventures on Port Prisma. Still, card games were card games, and he knew matching as well as he knew turn based RPGs, so like... he knew matching 2/6 times, and this was one of the two.
Mario went over to another leaf, flipped it over and found a symbol for... some sort of square outline, another flipped over leaf revealing the other 100-coin. Said leaves turned back over, and Mario then took haste to match the two 100-coin symbols, a surprise 100-coin being flung towards the middle of the match locale like a discus, landing with a thud as the leaves with the symbols disappeared.
Mario went over to pick it up as Olivia watched on, her eyes locked to his movement. The game of matching continued, Mario found a leaf with a big Red X on it, afterwards finding the other leaf with a 10-coin on it, said coins once again flipping over.
"Wow... you must be a really good Leaf Examiner..." Olivia complimented, and though she wasn't exactly correct she wasn't wrong.
"I've collected leaves before, but those were few and far between." Mario explained. "Though I guess it's kind of like examining in a way?"
"So, you're a... retired Leaf Examiner?" Olivia questioned. "Sounds like a neat title, put it on a website or something and have it say in big bold text, 'MARIO: RETIRED LEAF EXAMINER' to sell your brand!"
"You know what a website it, yet you've never seen a Question Mark Block?" Mario noted, and Olivia scoffed. "
"I assure it, I'm well versed in most things, like I said before." she assured, then paused for a moment. "Some things..." she changed it to, though there was yet another pause. "A few things, stuff that you probably don't know, which is why I offered to help before."
"Eh, I'm sure you'll probably know more by the time we defeat your brother." Mario encouraged, shrugging. "Anyways, I should get back to examining leaves- I mean... well, yeah, examining leaves."
Mario then went over to another leaf, and found the symbol of a single measly coin, flipping over the last mystery one and finding the second big Red X. It didn't take long after that, he knew where everything was at this point, and soon afterwards made haste in collecting the Singular Coin, then the 10-Coin, though when it was time to get the box symbol, the whispers stirred up again...
…
'Time for the show!'
'This was my favorite part of the idea...'
'Well, it was my idea.'
'Shhhh, shhh, shhhh.'
...
Mario shook away the whispers again, then flipped over both leaves with the box symbols. Then, just as soon as they flipped over...
…
Well, it was nothing. Nothing happened, nothing he could see at least, and nothing Olivia seemed to see either. They both looked around for something, but... well, the fourth word in this paragraph.
"Maybe... it's up ahead?" Olivia guessed, looking back towards the rest of the trees, a few vines still hanging.
"Hm, yeah, we can come back to this later." Mario conferred. "Let's just get this first..." he halted, Olivia waiting as he flipped over the remaining leaves for the big Red X, and quite like the box it seemed like nothing had happened.
"Well-"
Then Mario watched as Olivia got hit on the head with a life-sized Red X, the X bouncing off of her head like a volleyball and landing safely in Mario's hands.
YOU GOT THE "X"!
I mean, what else were you X-pecting?
"Owwww..." Olivia whined, rubbing the side of her head. "What happened?"
"I don't know what X-actly happened, but an X fell on your head." Mario X-plained.
"So why did my head mark the spot?" Olivia complained, though it was a light complaint to be fair. "Though you probably wouldn't know, you're not an X-pert on this kind of stuff, you probably don't X-plore the subject often."
"True, I don't show X-pertise in the subject, and while my knowledge may not be X-tensive on X's, I've fought a few X based foes before, so don't X-empt me from the conversation." Mario said, nearly X-hausting his vocabulary of X's, something he probably needed to X-pand soon.
…
…
…
"What just happened?" Olivia asked.
"I... I don't know." Mario responded, feeling a bit X... EXhausted from all the X talk. "Let's just... continue on and pretend that never happened."
"Agreed." Olivia confirmed.
"Right, right." Mario nodded. And with that un-X... unEXpected event, Mario went back up the cliff, jumping up and heading back up to where the rest of the trees they left were. Looking towards the few he hadn't pulled yet, he went towards the one farthest away, whispers spoking us as he headed there.
…
'Has he seen the spring yet?'
'No, no, he's getting close though.'
'It's a shame he missed the thing back there.'
…
Missed? What did he miss? Mario shook the question off again, trying to shut out the voices like he was claiming insanity in a court trial.
Mario arrived at the farthest tree and took a grip on the vine before yanking it downwards, nothing of note seeming to happen besides a bird squawking, and then flying away soon after. Though as he was about to walk away a tiny bit of confetti rained down from the tree.
"Oh, that's... convenient." Olivia noted, Mario picking up the confetti into the confetti bag. "A bit too convenient honestly." she added. "But it's not that much to be fair."
"Yeah, kind of wish it was a bit more, but we'll deal with that later." Mario reminded her.
"Right, right." Olivia acknowledged. "Hey can I pull down the next vine?"
"Why?" Mario asked, and Olivia looked away for a moment. "I mean, yeah, go ahead!" he encouraged, motioning towards a vine hanging from a tree near the side of the cliff they were on. As he looked over there, Mario noticed something he hadn't really noted before. It was some sort of log hanging above, between all of the trees on the cliffside, a rather long vine tied around it to keep it held up.
"I wonder what that's for..." Olivia mused, tilting her head to the side. "Well, I suppose we should head over to that vine for now." and Mario agreed, walking over towards it and watching as Olivia wrapped her hands around it, YANK-ing the rope down a tiny bit, though she didn't pull it down fully.
Then in the distance, Mario could hear the sound of something falling, and he and Olivia looked towards the edge of the cliff, seeing a massive pond in the distance, or at least what looked to be one. Mario couldn't exactly tell since a large bit was covered up by some sort of disk.
"Do you see that?" Mario asked, pointing towards the disk, and Olivia... didn't respond, so Mario decided to ask later.
Mario then took a glance a bit in front of the disk where the water was still clear to see, and rather sparkling at that, what looked to be a flower bud fell from the sky, dropping into the water with a tiny sploosh. The water soon after began to glow, Mario covering his eyes from the bright light, though it quickly dimmed down.
"Woah..." Olivia swooned, clearly awestruck at the event, and oddly ready to talk all of a sudden. "The flower just... became... more flower-like." Her wording may have been a bit off, but she was correct, as the flower bud came out of the water, it was fully grown into a beautiful yellow rose, and promptly hopped back onto land.
"That's... certainly not normal." Mario said, not ever having heard of this lake before. "Try pulling that vine again..." he encouraged.
"Alright!" Olivia took another good YANK at the vine, it still not quite pulling down fully, but now her attention, along with Mario's, was glued to the lake, and sure enough something else began to fall. It was what looked to be a radio of some kind, though it seemed a few of its parts were ripped and broken.
"Well, rest in peace any fish in there..." Mario pre-remorsed, watching as the radio splashed down into the water, and a similar glow to before happened, Mario opting to not cover his eyes this time. He waited for a moment, and instead of turned over fish bubbling up, the radio gracefully came out of the water, and he could hear an ad play-
'Hey z'ere kids, do you like art? Well come on down to ze Outlook Mountain for an exclusive art session and book signing with ze famous-'
Was all he could hear before the radio bounced away onto the land. Mario not quite sure how a piece of electric equipment could withstand a full dunk in water, scratched his chin and motioned for Olivia to pull it once more, though she didn't follow immediately.
"Huh." she said, though it was a bit quieter than before. "I'm sure it's just a coincidence."
"What was a coincidence?" Mario wondered, and she looked towards him in a frantic way, her eyes darting around.
"Oh uh..." Olivia slowed down her mannerisms. "The voice- it- it just sounded... familiar is all." she responded. "Nothing to worry about. Honestly!" she brushed off, and while that made Mario worry even more, he decided to not press further, noting her stuttered speech.
She then followed suit with the vine, this time getting a rather sizeable YANK on the vine, seeming to pull it to its final length, but not letting it go as they both looked back towards the lake. It was... it was a seemingly whited out silhouette, Mario felt an odd sense of familiarity... and eggs.
For whatever reason he felt an odd sense of eggs hurtling towards his face, though surely it just had to be an odd though made up by his mind, or at least he assumed that as it fell. The figure landed in the water, said water glowing as per usual, and-
...
"OH..." Mario realized, seeing the figure jump out of the water, it's sullied colors now sporting a bright pink hue, and a similarly bright bow tie. The figure did a pose, then gave a wink towards their location, Mario wanting to time travel back to before they did this, but his pulse wasn't divine enough unfortunately.
"Who was that?!" Olivia asked, her voice seeming a bit nasally.
"Nobody, never seen them before in my life!" Mario replied, hushing away the topic and silently hoping to whoever above that he didn't encounter them again. "You can let go of the vine; I think."
"Oh, sure!" Olivia accepted, letting go of the vine, and like the ones previously it went back up into the tree, though this one didn't stop there. The vine began to uncoil from the log hanging above, and soon enough it fell down completely, landing with a THUD and rolling away from them, towards the side of a cliff they couldn't reach before.
…
'Hee hee...'
'Heh hoo!'
'Ohhohohoh!'
…
Mario ignored the laughing whispering and looked towards the log, a way upwards conveniently there...
"Y'know it seems like a lot of weird stuff is happening..." Olivia took note of, though that was rather obvious in all honesty. "Let's just continue on!"
Mario did as she said, and they both continued on, making their way towards the log and hopping on top, making it onto a little bluff, a single tree hanging above, and what looked to be a path out of here nearby.
Going back to the tree however, there seemed to be a Party Ball hanging from its leaves, a suspiciously hanging vine rope swaying in the wind below it, primed to pull the ball apart. Mario then spoke, "You want to pull this one down?" he asked Olivia.
"I mean, I don't mind either way." Olivia shrugged. "We could pull it both at the same time if you'd like."
"Oh, sure." Mario accepted, him and Olivia heading to different sides of the vine, both placing their hands on it, and Mario initiated a countdown.
"3..."
"2..."
"1..."
"PULL!" Olivia finished for him, and they both pulled with all of their might, peering up and-
Snap-!
Mario fell to the ground, Olivia stumbling a bit midair as the voices began to pipe up, though instead of whispers, they were a bit louder...
…
'AHAHHHAHAHAAH, he really fell for it, eh?'
'Saw that coming from a mile away!'
'I guess you could say... oh SNAP, hehe~'
…
Mario picked himself up, and saw Olivia wriggling around midair in slight anger. "How dare those voices do that?!" Olivia asked, her voice very pouty. "I mean, we can't even see them, that's totally not fair!"
"Yeah, tell me about it..." Mario comforted, picking the part of the vine that snapped off of the ground. "At least we got this..."
"Wow, so we just did it for the vine?" Olivia asked, looking at it like it was a pack of raisins on Halloween. "I mean, I'll take it, sure." she shrugged, Mario tossing the vine and Olivia catching it and holding it above her head. "Daa-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaaaaaa!" Olivia hummed.
"Heh." Mario laughed, and Olivia looked towards him as he did, quickly putting her hands down afterwards, holding the vine to her right.
"Ugh, anyways- let's continue uh..." Olivia looked around and made note of the path away Mario had seen before, turning her attention towards the direction. "There!" she decided.
Though something about the path seemed... different, it seemed some sort of mist was swirling about the entrance, but unlike a bad movie of a similar name, something about it seemed almost alluring. Maybe it was the color of the mist, a sort of purple-ish white swirling about in infinite spirals of softness...
Hm.
"Yeah, let's go." Mario said, walking towards the mist, Olivia following close behind. To their left as they followed there seemed to be a branching path with a hole, but they both ignored it for now. They headed into the mist, its odd softness brushing against their paper, and hoped they would find a way out.
{===}
Hey, it's meeeeeeeee, the author person dude guy. Thanks for reading, not much to say really, just trying to set up a bit of a connection between Paper Mario and Olivia, since all good duos have to have a way to bounce off of each other and all.
Lemme know what you think.
Until then, see you soon!