Chapter 12 Harmonious Irony

In order to find Dark Iggy more quickly, Morton and Iggy had decided to split up. Iggy ran through the west wing's hallway, barely paying attention to his surroundings. When he tripped, he got right back up. When he knocked over a side table, he left the mess lying there. When he was greeted by the servants, he barely acknowledged their existence.

It wasn't until Iggy came to a particularly brightly lit hallway in the main section of the castle that he stopped. As he stopped to regain his breath, he felt like his exhaustion was eating at his body. He didn't think he could go any farther.

"No," Iggy said out loud to himself, pushing that thought to the side. "Now is not the time for negativity. I need to keep going."

So, Iggy urged himself to go forward. He was like a car that was running low on gas, about to breakdown at any minute. But nevertheless, he kept on trucking. That is until he crashed into someone.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Iggy said. He noticed that he had barreled into Ludwig. What was odd about this Ludwig was the fact that he was wearing a green cloak.

"No, it's okay," Ludwig said. Then he looked at Iggy in confusion. "Wait a second, what did you do with Rage?"

Now Iggy was the one who was confused. He stared at his green cloaked brother, as if that was a legitimate method to disquell his confusion.

"What in the Mushroom World do you mean by that?"

Ludwig gawked.

"You split us up, remember? Ludwig's rage chased you down the hallway. Remember that?"

Suddenly, it all made sense. Just like the last piece of a puzzle, it fell into place.

"That wasn't me, that was my dark side!"

"Your dark side?" Ludwig asked with a drop of shock in his inflection.

With that, Iggy explained everything. By the time that he had reached the end of the anecdote, Ludwig looked concerned.

"Oh my developer," he said softly. "That makes certain current events make so much more sense."

Iggy nodded. He studied the green cloaked Ludwig like a model walking down the runway.

"So you're one of Ludwig's core personality traits?" he asked.

"Uh huh," the trait said with a nod. "I am Ludwig's determination. It's nice to meet you."

Iggy smiled when he saw Determination extend his hand towards him. He shook it with gusto, relieved that he had come across this trait and not one of Ludwig's more aggressive ones.

"Where are the other traits?" Iggy asked.

Determination directed Iggy to follow him. They paced quickly down the hallways, as Determination liked to go at a particularly fast speed.

"Well, there they are," Determination said once they had reached the spot. "Or, there I am."

Iggy looked at the three other traits. There was a sky blue cloaked one, a plum colored cloaked one, and an orange cloaked one. Iggy looked at the one dressed in a plum cloaked, causing him to shriek.

"Why is he here?!" he exclaimed with a note of fear dominating his voice.

"He is going to help us," Determination told the others. The orange cloaked Ludwig snorted back a snicker.

"Oh, that's a great idea," he said sarcastically. "Next why don't we ask the grim reaper to play poker with us?"

Determination looked peeved at his fellow trait. Iggy, meanwhile, was analyzing his brother's core traits.

"So, who is who?" he murmured out loud. He looked toward the Ludwig wearing a sky blue cloak. Unlike the other traits, this Ludwig was completely oblivious to the world around him. This was because he was singing to himself.

"We got split like a horrible couple,

The worst couple in all the land

And yes I am improvising

And for that you should give me a hand

Woo hoo!"

Iggy stifled back a giggle.

"Okay, so I'm guessing that is musical inclination."

"Oh wow, bravo," the orange cloaked Ludwig said grumpily. "How in the world did you figure that out?"

Iggy looked at him, doing his best to push his annoyance to the side.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The orange Ludwig looked at him with skepticism and incredulity.

"I'm the Easter Bunny. Who do you think?"

Iggy felt a bitter taste rise into his mouth. His annoyance was so great that when he spoke, he did it with a less than happy inflection.

"You're Ludwig's sarcasm, aren't you?"

"Ding ding ding!" Sarcasm said, mimicking a game show bell. "Look at that, you can put two and two together!" He smirked. "I'd give you a prize, but I could really care less."

Iggy glared at the sarcastic trait. Not wanting his annoyance to become overpowering, he directed his attention toward the plum cloaked Ludwig. This Ludwig looked at him nervously.

"Fear?" Iggy asked gently.

The trait nodded apprehensively.

"Yes," he said, his voice coming out in a squeak. Iggy took a step toward him, causing Fear to back away. "Don't come near me! I don't want to get split up again!"

"Don't worry, I have no intention of doing that to you," Iggy said. "I just need one of you to tell me how you got this way."

Musical Inclination and Fear looked at Iggy in confusion.

"You mean you don't know?" they asked in unison. Sarcasm scoffed.

"Wow, you must have the memory of a goldfish or something."

Iggy sighed, and Determination did the same thing.

"Guys, it wasn't Iggy who split us up," said Determination. "It was Iggy's dark side."

"IGGY'S DARK SIDE!" Fear screeched. The eyes of the other two traits grew wide.

"But how is that possible?" asked Sarcasm.

"It was an accident," Iggy admitted sullenly. "I accidentally dropped the personality splitter."

Suddenly, Fear started to let out little whimpers. He also got a really bad case of the shivers and shakes.

"Rage chased after the dark side!" he exclaimed. Iggy at once felt his own fear start to claw away at the back corners of his consciousness.

"Then we need to act fast," he said.

"Yeah," said Determination. "Our powers are influenced by anger after all. Iggy, if your Dark Side finds value in that…"

"Who knows what chaos he could bring," Iggy said.