Bow Before Your King
Chapter 7 - I'm Just a Kid!
Okay, so I feel like it's time to take a break from Bowser for now. And as for Dedede, I still think he needs a bit more attention, so more Dedede time soon! But with Bowser out of the spotlight, Ganondorf has to take his place. After all, he was barely in the first and third chapters, and the chapter after that, he received as much attention as Incineroar, who's only a side character, so he has some time to make up.
It is still "January 12, 2019" in this fic just so you all know. ...Man, seven chapters and we're still on the same day, lol. But don't worry, the first day of this fic is almost up, and we'll move on from there. What will Ganondorf do exactly to tick people off? Knowing him, it can be almost anything. Oh well, we'll find out and see...
~KF
It was nearing four in the afternoon. In spite of it not raining for a bit, judging by one look at the sky, one did not even need to pay attention to his or her local news station to find out on whether or not mother nature called for precipitation that evening. At that point, it seemed that it was turning into a storm. Perfect Saturday to stay in doors. But, if only it was that simple, especially if one waited until the last minute to prepare. There were quite a few people that happened to be in that boat.
Thus, it meant that there was the large possibility of high traffic when it came to the sidewalks, streets, and local stores. It was not uncommon for people to purchase a few extra treats and snacks before making it home in time.
Little Mac, Ryu, and Ike were three of those people. They in particular heard from Richter Belmont that Wolf O'Donnell was planning on showing his friends some new horror movie that came out recently. Unlike Dedede's situation, it was actually new at the time. His fans recommended it to him, and so he wanted to see for himself. Though, he decided that it was not his best interest to watch alone, and thus, he invited a few friends to watch it together within a few hours.
And so, some of his fellow fighters had to get snacks for the small get together. Sure, the mansion had a vending machine cafeteria, yet most likely, almost certainly, their master would not have been that fond of the idea of having the majority of the snacks taken away from the vending machine just for a movie. Besides, within each snack purchase, the process would have been very long and time consuming. Smash Mart was the obvious best choice.
"I still don't get it on why they call them 'Nike & Ike's..." Ike from Fire Emblem (in his Radiant Dawn form) was seen eyeing a certain candy that to this day he still wondered about. "I mean, most likely my name didn't inspire them, because I wasn't even thought of in the real world when they were invented..."
"They were released in 1940 I believe." Little Mac pointed out.
"But I'm not from the real world." Ike reminded him with a shake of his head. "So no one there knew what I was, so I don't know where that name came from."
"Perhaps the idea came from somebody else who was named Ike." Ryu guessed. "You can look it up and talk about them later. We have a small job to do, and we need to do our part here..."
While they continued to shop in the candy aisle as if they were literally 'kids in a candy store', Ganondorf Dragmire happened to be near the scene as well, as he entered the double doors of Smash Mart not too long ago.
It was rare for the Gerudo to run errands for people, let alone for his fellow Smashers. Yet when it came to Princess Toadstool, he never thought too much of it. The Melee veteran informed him of her infamous tea party that was scheduled for that day, though much to her dismay, for her special tea, she was missing the one ingredient that held superior.
Sugar.
How can the Mushroom Kingdom's princess forget sugar of all things? Might as well have forgotten about the actual tea itself. Perhaps her excitement got the best of her. Nevertheless, the only reason to why Dragmire was seemingly okay with retrieving the necessary item for her tea recipe was simply because of the fact that Ganondorf already happened to be in Smash Mart at the time.
However, that only led to even more questions? Why Ganondorf of all fighters? Was his personality not entirely the opposite of Peach's? He was known to be one of the most notorious villains in Nintendo's history, as well as newcomers such as Ridley and Dark Samus. He was not called 'the King of Evil' for nothing. But for Peach, she was simply one of those people that somehow always seen the good in people, even her arch-nemesis Bowser Koopa. She figured if she could tolerate him at times, why not Ganon? Just because of the popular opinion that he was the better villain? It did not matter to her. If anything, she considered it to be a good social move in an attempt so that the two could form somewhat of a mutual relationship. Mario was well aware of this habit that was shown since Smash era number two, and as much as he desired for her to disregard the idea, he knew that her hard work and determination was something that was never to be underestimated, so he never made that much of an attempt to reject the idea as much as he desired to. All he typically did was give her a warning, and contact him immediately if something were to go seriously wrong.
But that was a side topic that was to be discussed for another time. The Dark Lord was already in Smash Mart just for a simple look around, after already making a stop at Warriors United, his bus dropping off not long after Bowser and Dedede fled the scene. Luckily for Peach, he happened to get in touch for him only a couple minutes after he wandered over to the supermarket. Ganon never thought for it to be that much of a deal. Just retrieve the item, proceed to the self-checkout, and make a simple purchase before the next bus was to arrive. He had no intentions on remaining in Smash Mart for an extra hour, or else the state of boredom would be too much for Dragmire to handle, and he had no desire to be caught in the rain.
Upon approaching the candy aisle, his ears picked up the voice of three familiar characters, three that he knew all too well, thanks to the amount of time spent with them in the mansion, in spite of not interacting with them personally as much as Master Hand recommended to his Smashers.
By the time he turned the corner, he was immediately recognized by Ike, Ryu, and Little Mac. With Ryu giving a brief wave, he turned his head back as well as the other two to continue their discussion, placing down more snacks in the cart.
"So, what time are we supposed to be in the auditorium?"
"No later than seven." Ike answered Ryu. "That's when it's supposed to start. Corrin and Captain Falcon are gonna pick up the pizza later, so yeah. This is gonna be a fun Saturday night despite the rain."
With a smirk responding to his own, Little Mac made one head turn, which resulted in his whole body making a complete rotation to see Lucina approaching with Ness.
"Oh, hi."
"Hello."
"Hi, guys!"
"You ready for tonight?" Little Mac questioned.
"I suppose so." Lucina took a quick second to remove her hair back from her eyes. "I'm not the biggest fan of horror, but I guess I can take a moment to step out of my comfort zone."
"...What, you guys are watching a movie?" Ness apparently was not aware of the plan at all.
Now knowing this too late, Marth's Echo Fighter immediately regretted her choice of words. "...Um... Yes, Ness. That's what we're doing tonight... However, I'm afraid it will be... 'too much'."
"...Too much?" He blinked. "What do you mean 'too much'? I can handle it!"
"Um... No you can't..." Street Fighter, Ryu, jumped to Lucina's side. "Hate to break it to ya kid, but it's better safe than sorry."
"But... But..." His blinking occurred again. "...Aww, c'mon guys! Did any of you play Earthbound or at least watched a Let's Play of it on SmashTube? Do you realize how dark that game is?"
"Using your game is not an excuse." Ryu shook his head. "And the gameplay of Earthbound does not compare to a real life thriller movie we're about to see tonight. I'm pretty sure that it's best for you to not undergo nightmares for the next week..."
"But, why? Is it because I'm a kid? If so, it doesn't matter! I should be able to go!"
As they all continued to argue over the matter, Ganondorf proceeded to grab the pack of sugar Peach was referring to, thanks to princess sharing a picture of what particular kind of sugar she needed for her recipe. Even though Ganon had literally done the task before a couple times prior, Peach wanted to make sure, in order to avoid having him waste time by going right back to Smash Mart, which would be more than enough for him to reach his limit.
"No! You're not watching and that's final!" He conveniently heard Lucina's statement right when she told off the Earthbound hero.
"Miss Lucina? Someone wants your autograph over here."
Shifting to another woman's voice, she sighed as she faced back, yet not out of irritation. Yes, she might not have been prepared for the fame prior to her debut in Sm4sh, yet she had more patience than some of the other Smash Mansion residents. Besides, at least it was not the real world. A simple autograph would have been fine.
"Stay here." She eyed Ness pointing to the white floor beneath them. "I'll be right back."
Upon leaving, Little Mac, Ike, and Ryu were all set to leave the area.
"Alright, we're done here."
"But, what about the kid?" Ike reminded Little Mac, pointing to the red-capped boy. "We can't just leave him here."
"..."
That was when the three took advantage of the silence to eye Ganondorf one by one, the orange haired powerhouse only staring back in return with no words.
"...Mind watching the kid until Lucina returns?" Up went Ryu's right eyebrow. "I'm sure it'll only be for a few moments."
"..."
"..."
"...Fine..."
"Okay..."
The main villain of The Legend of Zelda did not know what went through his mind at the time. He had already discovered the item Peach requested, and all that was left for him to do was to purchase it, and head out by the bus stop to wait. Now he had to babysit Ness of all people and have the patience enough to deal with him until Lucina returned. Like Bayonetta, being around kids was never his forte, though at least the Umbra Witch was slightly more tolerant when it came to it. For all one would have known, all Dragmire had to do was to leave Ness alone, not caring what happened to him in the end. He was not his kid, so he was not his responsibility. By law, he was not legally obligated to protect him from anything, said law happening to be the only reason to why the Smasher chose not to commit any crimes. Suffering the consequences was definitely not worth it.
Yet despite all of this, Ganon chose to stay with him? When it came to his way of thinking, it was quite absurd to say the least. However, he would have assumed that the biggest reason to why he chose not to even move was because of something he chose to think about.
A horror movie? At seven? How come no one informed him? Who's idea was it at the time? Sure, when it came to entertainment, technology was never exactly on top of Ganondorf's list, yet ever since he started smashing in Melee, he slowly became more interested as time went on. He had seen quite a few horror movies in previous Smash eras, which eventually ended up being his favorite genre by far, with the exception of the villains not meeting up to his expectations usually. Pushing that major criticism to the side, if he could watch a thriller with no problem, why not Ness? Because he was a kid? Nonsense. Was it really that big of a deal for children of his age to watch something that for all he knew might have been Rated R?
Then again, Ganon never paid attention to the rating at all when it came to the movies, mainly because of him not even being aware that the system even existed, which as a result, led to him wanting Ness's opinion on the matter. "...What is it that they are so concerned about?"
"..." Ness meanwhile, instead of pouting on why the kid never got his way thanks to responsible adult, Lucina, chose to stare at Ganondorf right in the eyes. Him suddenly speaking caused him to nimbly shake his head in attempt to respond verbally. "Oh... Well, I don't know. I don't know why it's such a big deal. Lucas I could understand. Even Squirtle or Kirby. But me? They have no idea of what I've been through before coming here! I'm sure at this point everyone in the mansion (except for the newcomers) know about Giygas and how creepy he was when I had to fight him with my friends! If I can handle that, I can definitely handle watching a movie for two hours!"
Perhaps if Dragmire was a parent, he would have most likely understood. Yet he never had children, and as stated previously, he was not even that fond of kids in the first place. Thus, he had to agree with the large-headed tween to a certain extent. To him, Lucina and the others were exaggerating. All one had to do was to simply stare at the large screen in the auditorium, watch the main characters interact with one another as the plot developed, and anticipate the climax. The fact that the adults of the mansion assumed that it would cause so much trauma for children such as Ness or Lucas was simply beyond Ganon, so the Goddesses very well knew that it was something fighter number ten could never wrap his head around.
As a side note, him not being invited to witness whatever horror-flick that was about to be shown that evening was something that he was wondering about. Just because he was perceived as unlikeable be most of his Smashmates did not mean anything. Horror-flick watching might as well have been one of his personal hobbies. It was not as if he would have gotten in the way or anything. With this, in combination to Ness's situation, the following move made by Ganon ended up being the result of everything that flowed through his head.
"...If it interests you, perhaps we could watch it together."
"You mean it!?" Judging by the immediate shocking response, Ness clearly did not care if the offer was coming from the villain of all Smashers or not. An offer was an offer, and if it was an offer for something that he wanted, who was he to reject the idea? It seemed as if there was the possibility that he still could have gotten his way after all. Maybe fate did intend for the two to be together at that moment.
Ganon nodded in confirmation. "I have my own reasons to why I plan on attending, yet with you joining me, perhaps we could both see it together. All that is required of us to do is to simply play our cards right."
You see, as long as Ganondorf is motivated by something that he could relate to, he could fit in with almost any situation. Yet at the same time, it is typically easier said than done. Sometimes you need to think outside the box when it comes to stuff like this. So hopefully that'll be a way of having Ganon interacting with people over than the other villains of the mansion. So...
Questions:
1. Ganon has no idea how wrong he is right now. But, will his plan actually work somehow?
2. What would others think of Ganon's decision making if he actually makes it in the auditorium with Ness of all people?
3. Do you think Ness would be completely tolerant of the movie, or is he about to be scarred for life? Take your pick.
I will see you all next week with how things turn out!