Mario and Olivia quickly made their way back up the incline and past that fake looking bush towards the quaint little inlet in the forest, of which thankfully wouldn't be repeating itself for multiple paragraphs this time around.
…
Of which thankfully wouldn't-
"WOAH!" Mario stopped in his tracks as something massive came down in front of him, a wall, well what looked to be a wall. The wall looked almost... cardboard-y, with the texture of it being similar to that of the goomba-hiding bush they encountered prior.
There was writing on the wall which said,
'Under construction, please wait five minutes...'
"Welp, guess we're waiting." Olivia said, and Mario nodded, as after all, the sign said to wait, and they couldn't just not follow the sign.
"Yeah, shame we don't have a chair to sit in or anything." Mario complained, and as if on cue, a beach lounge chair fell from the sky, perhaps you could call it a skyfall, although this skyfall wasn't a poorly written rushed Kirby fanfiction, and instead just an actual object falling from the sky.
"That's... convenient." Olivia noted as Mario sat down in the chair. "Though... it would be neat if we had some music to listen to...!"
Then as if on cue a radio fell from the sky.
"Oh, hey it's that same radio from before." Mario said, the radio looking sparkly clean from its recent dip in the spring. "I guess it has a hobby of randomly falling from high places."
"Yeah... I suppose so..." Olivia noted, looking upwards. "It would also be cool... if we had... a shovel?" Mario took a look upwards as well, and waited for the shovel to fall from the sky, but instead from over the wall a note was tossed, which Olivia caught as it fell down.
"Why'd you ask for a shovel?" Mario wondered.
"I mean, we need a shovel to bury the seed, don't we?" Olivia responded, peering towards the note.
Mario nodded, "Fair."
"It says... 'no shovels to give, stop asking you little..." Olivia's eyes widened, "OH." Olivia paused then looked the note up and down. "I don't think I can say that word without being charged for a hate crime."
"What's the word?" Mario asked, and Olivia floated over towards him, flashing the paper in front of his face.
"OH," Mario cleared his throat, "Better throw it away, you'll get cancelled if people find old notes you've read."
Olivia was confused, "But I didn't write it."
"Eh, you can get cancelled for breathing air wrong, better safe than sorry." Mario suggested, and Olivia nodded, tossing the paper off the cliff, and getting a fine for littering from the cliff police that she would never receive as the cliff police were too busy doing cliff police things.
"Well, I suppose we can wait while listening to musi-"
"MUSIC!" a cool voice on the radio suddenly yelled. "Before we get to that lets have a word from out sponsor, this is SSD Radio, DJ PT passing it off to some kinda artist dude..."
"Hoh hoh, Merci, Merci DJ PT," a French sounding voice spoke from the radio. Oliva looked towards the radio will an odd attentive aura around her, Mario decided to tune in as well. "It has been très intéressant for ze Mushroom Kingdom with ze Princess' castle being lifted up."
"Yeah, that was crazy, I saw that all the way from my hotel room!" DJ PT added to the conversation.
"Oui, bon pour vous." the French voice responded. "Anyways, let's just forget about all zat, no?" they asked. "I have ze... very essentiel art showcase, where I will be showing off ze traditional art of what you all would call... Port Prisma, no?"
"Well, I've seen your art, and I gotta say it's very..." DJ PT paused. "Distinctive?" he responded with an unsure voice. "I mean, I got a few buds over in Prisma, and to be frank I've never heard of you Mr...?"
"Mr... uhhh..." the French voice paused for a moment. "Zat is not important, what is is that I expect a full house... there will of course be... gift baskets."
"Gift baskets?" Mario asked, jumping up from his seat and leaning towards the radio.
The French voice confirmed what he just said, "Yes, gift baskets."
"Gift baskets?" Olivia repeated.
"Yes... gift baskets." They repeated once more. "Zat is what I said."
DJ PT spoke, "Gift bas-"
"THAT IS WHAT I SAID, GIFT BASKETS." They yelled before clearing his throat. "Ahem, yes, Outlook Tower, gift baskets, you all get the idea, no?"
Mario shook his head, "Not really."
"No." Olivia agreed.
"WELL TOO BAD, BECAUSE I'M NOT REPEATING MYSELF." They screeched. "ZIS INTERVIEW IS OVER!" they finished before they heard the sound of a phone line dropping, and a confused grunt from the DJ.
"Well, alright then, let's get back to some music, here's #2 on the charts M-A-X Powe-" before the DJ could finish his sentence, in a flash something whizzed past Olivia and Mario, and knocked the radio off the cliff. It was moving so fast they really couldn't see what it was.
"Noooooo, the radio is gone, I'll never mentally recover from this!" Mario exclaimed, standing up and dropping to his knees.
Olivia floated towards him and spoke with an understanding tone, "M-"
"Okay I've mentally recovered." Mario decided, standing up and brushing himself off. "Would be great if this wall got knocked down though." Mario also noted putting his back up against it. As if on cue, the wall fell backwards, Mario falling backwards with in and flat onto the floor below.
Olivia jumped back, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, but I get the feeling this is going to become a running joke." Mario sighed, hopping upwards. "Alright, let's get this seed to Grandsappy!" Mario said, reaching into his pockets and pulling out the... the... the seed?
"Mario what's wrong?" Olivia asked as Mario moved his hands all around his pants, turning back and forth in a frantic dance.
Mario turned to Olivia, "I lost the seed." Mario realized, putting his hands on his hips. "I don't think we dropped it either, so..."
"SWEET LORD JESUS CHRIST MARY SAINT JOSPEH!" one of the trees from the inlet Grandsappy resided in yelled. "Someone, come quick!"
"Let's worry about that later." Olivia noted, her and Mario quickly speeding over towards the inlet to see what all the screeching was about, and as they made it in, perhaps it was just the wind, but something seemed different.
"Hon hon hon, it is I, Grandsappy!" Grandsappy said in an odd accent, though that wasn't the only thing odd about him, as something about him seemed... like a-three-year-old-doodled-a-tree-onto-a-piece-of-paper-and-showed-it-to-his-parents-only-for-them-to-put-it-on-the-fridge-taking-it-down-five-hours-latery-y.
…
Nah, it was just the wind.
"And I am unnamed tree number two!" the second tree to the side said, and they looked oddly exactly like grand sappy looked, same refrigerator drawing style about them. "Am I right lads, let's go all drink some tea and eat some fish and chips after zat Mario gives us zis seed... mate!"
"yeahhhhh!" the farthest tree said, moving up and down in a very unnatural movement, though it's not like they knew tree biology, so this was probably perfectly fine.
"But actually, we lost the seed." Olivia spoke.
Grandsappy laughed, "Hon hon hon, well you see, the reason you-"
"Mustached Guy, other girl, y'all have gotta stop this, somehow!" the closest tree said, interrupting grandsappy.
"Stop what?" Olivia looked towards Grandsappy once more before looking back. "I see nothing wrong with this."
Mario agreed, "Yeah, what's the issue?"
"What's the-" the panicked tree blinked twice. "Are y'all blind or something, take a closer look!"
Mario piped up, "You mean take a step back?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Anyways, lemme see..." Mario said, turning towards the trees once more... "Hm..." Mario held his finger up. "It's time for... Mario's Reason and Logic spectacular: Act One!"
THE GREAT DEDUCTION
The game is afoot!
The still panicked-but moreso confused at this point tree seemed perplexed, "What?"
Topic One:
Odd looking nature familiars.
Mario spun around and pointed towards Grandsappy with a SNAP, "Clearly if we take a look towards Grandsappy over here a stark conclusion can be made." He twirled his hand for a moment then held it out towards the old tree. "The texture on him is different-"
"OH-!" Grandsappy coughed before hastily clearing his throat. "I just... got ze trim on my bark!"
"Not only that-" Mario spun towards the left side of Grandsappy and pointed towards the floor. "We can note peculiar multi-colored marks on the ground next to him, along with a few interesting tools we can note.
"Precisely!" Olivia announced, joining in. "You can clearly see marks of what appear to be shovels, not just any shovels though, shovels that the person here couldn't give away!"
"So that leaves only one possible conundrum then." Mario jumped and did a somersault midair for no particular reason. "The real reason that there are shovel marks and why Grandsappy looks so-"
"ENOUGH!" a voice yelled, and Mario suddenly felt a lot less Shlomes-y. He peered towards Grandsappy to see him... FALL OVER? Yes, Grandsappy, or what Mario thought to be Grandsappy fell over to reveal it to be nothing but a mirage. Not only that but the two trees which he also had no qualms about whatsoever fell over to reveal behind them...
Pencils?
"I must say, ze king told me you all were not ze sharpest tools in ze shed, but you saw through my clever ruse..." a voice said, and Mario looked above him to see something massive heading their direction, directly on top of Olivia to boot-!
"Look out!" Mario yelled jumping towards Olivia and narrowly moving her out of the way. He skidded to the ground and turned around to see a rapidly spinning rectangular object that skidded to a stop to be a pencil case.
"Oh no..." Olivia said, looking on from behind Mario.
Mario turned his head, "Who is this guy?"
The pencil case opened itself and spoke like it was a mouth- "Hon hon hon, I go by many names, but you can call me Ze Missile Maestro, J-"
"That's Colored Pencils!" Olivia interrupted. "He's one on the Legion of-"
"HEY, ZIS IS MY EXPOSITION DUMP, you traître." Colored Pencils huffed. "As I was saying before zis imbécile interrupted, I am Jeanne Pierre Colored Pencils ze 12th, of ze Legion of Stationery, also known as...!"
THE MISSILE MAESTRO: COLORED PENCILS
"Okay Jeanne Pi... the... Je..." Olivia paused and tried again. "Jean..." she shook her head. "I'll just call you Colored Pencils!"
"Figures one such as yourself would not respect my name, but no matter, I have a detailed itinerary of plans for you two, starting with my favorite activity, ze hide and seek!" Colored Pencils said with a laugh afterwards. "I was going to egg you all on a bit with my amazing artwork rendition of ze trees here, oh by the way, just uh... for future reference, did you like my art?"
"It was alright." Mario shrugged.
"Would you pay for it?" Colored Pencils wondered, his tone sounding a bit bubbly. "Cause after zis whole take over the world thing I wanna do my own thing away from ze king, and I figure doing commissions would be the best thing for zat, y'know?"
"Totally, I'd say work on your linework a bit more, it's kinda sloppy." Mario suggested. "Maybe try more detailed shading as well, I think-"
"UGH, SHUT UP, NOBODY ASKED YOU." Colored Pencils screeched, and Mario was about to point out that he literally asked but didn't have the time. "You know nothing about art, I mean there's no such thing as a 'Mario Painter', is there?"
The still-here tree spoke, "Well without the 'ER' there's technically-"
"ER, CAN YOU SHUT UP?" Colored Pencils said, snapping forward. "And no matter, zis is the first activity of mine that will make you absolutely love my art- I mean, kill you, KILL YOU, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
The pencils that were behind the tree drawings zoomed back into Colored Pencils' mouth, and he spun around, flashing an odd multicolored smile that Mario hadn't quite looked at in detail yet. 12 colored pencils spanning all colors of the rainbow were there, moving up and down.
"I shall see you perdants next time, HOHOHOHO~" Colored Pencils laughed, beginning to spin rapidly, and suddenly from the sky an odd light emerged above him that began to lift him up. "ALSO SUBSCRIBE TO MY MATREON AT MATREON DOT COM SLASH COL-"
FWOOSH
Colored Pencils disappeared.
"Aw, I didn't get his Matreon." Mario sighed, looking towards the ground. "It's Matreon because you can't say the version with P on this website." he added, glaring daggers at whoever checked for that in the php. Regardless, he looked towards Olivia who peered towards the sky. "Olivia, you know that guy?"
But Olivia didn't respond and was just looking up. "Man..." she sighed and held her head down. "He really did it, huh?" she looked towards the tree who seemed at a loss for words at this point. "Hey... uh... what's your name?"
"We're trees, we don't have names." the tree responded. "Not that we need any in the first place."
"Hm... I'll call you..." Olivia closed her eyes. "Tree...ya." Olivia opened her eyes. "Alright, Treeya, we're going to help you find Grandsappy, and find that seed!"
"Oh, didn't y'all find it beforehand?" Treeya wondered.
Olivia shook her head, "No, we found it Mario just lost it." she brushed off, repeating herself. "But we'll find it again, and... well, let's hope we can find Grandsappy and the other two as well!"
"Yeah, we got this, nothing that hasn't been done before after all." Mario assured. He then walked next to Olivia. "He said it's some kind of Hide and Seek, right?"
"Yeah..." Olivia tilted her head down. "Have you ever played hide and seek before, Mario?"
Mario nodded, "Yeah, I've played it with my bro when we were kids." he responded, putting a hand to his chin. "Course' I could never find him, even when it seemed like he did absolutely nothing to reach his hiding spot." Mario laughed. "Did you?"
"Well..." Olivia trailed off. "I mean since you said your story, I can tell mine, yeah, uh." Olivia took a deep breath. "Me and my brother... when we were first um... well, when we were... recently coming into being... we, along with Our Creator played hide and seek..."
"Your Creator?" Mario repeated, and Olivia locked eyes with him for a moment.
"UHHHHHHHHH-" Olivia turned towards Treeya, "Okay, anyways we better get on that hide and seek grindset AHAHAHAHAHAAH, okay we'll find Grandsappy, yep, sure, alright Mario, let's go!" Olivia said, going back towards where they landed into the more open area of the forest without him.
...
"Huh." Mario crossed his arms. He looked towards Treeya, "What do you think?" Mario asked them, and Treeya looked towards him.
"Kid's weird." Treeya responded. "I mean, I'm not a doctor, but she just kinda... seems like the off type, you know?"
"Hm." Mario thought about it for a moment.
…
…
…
"Well," Mario loosened his arms. "We'll be back with Grandsappy." he responded, and with that walked ahead, away from the no-more-having-mist entrance, and into the forest for a game of hide and seek.
{= = = }
Short chapter, but i took a bit to re-plan the story beats and introducing Jeanne Pierre over here is a very integral moment to the plot so along with Algebra 2 being cringe, i had to deal with that. Still, I'll be picking up the pace, so don't worry-