Dear Flowerstar, and Anyone Else who Noticed,

You are totally right. Tippi DOESN'T have a back. I'm looking really hard at a picture of her right now, and I could have sworn that there was a rectangle between her triangle wings, which I interpreted to be a back, but there isn't. And now I'm not entirely sure why I thought there was. So... Everybody forget I wrote that, okay? Wonderful. Don't make me brainwash you... 'K?

UPDATE 2012: Now that I picture Tippi the way she appears on my deviantArt from the Super Mario-Kun comics, she once again has a back in my head.

EPISODE 1-3

"I came as soon as I heard!" said Mr. L, as he walked down the hallway with Dimentio. "So, what's the deal? Why did you need me?"

"Oh, Mimi has a little project she's working on," Dimentio said offhandedly. "She just wants a fresh perspective on it. Are you sure you aren't busy?"

"Busy? Nah," said Mr. L with a shrug. "My bro is on another one of his adventures, so I don't really have a lot to do except hang around the house. It's nice to get out and have a change of scenery, you know? And the costume fits me so nice," he added, holding out his arms and looking down at his overalls. "These fit better than my regular overalls. Or the ones that make me throw fire." He looked up at Dimentio and asked, "Wait, weren't you the evil one in the group that tried to destroy everything?"

"No," said Dimentio. "You must be thinking of O'Chunks."

"No, wait, I remember, because you had the giant jester robot-"

"I never had a robot," Dimentio said plainly. "I would like to have one, though. That would be fun. Maybe someday you could take me out for a spin in your Brobot."

"Hey, yeah!"

Dimentio rounded a corner to the break room where Mimi and O'Chunks were waiting. He nudged Mr. L into the room. "Play nice, you three," he said. "Have a good day, and I'll pick you up at four."

"Aren't you coming?" asked Mr. L.

"Oh, no," Dimentio replied. "I have far too much work to do. You have fun, though. Ciao!" And with that, he disappeared.

Mr. L found that suspicious, but then again, everything Dimentio did was suspicious. He pushed the thought out of his mind and went to say hello to his old friends.

"Hi, Mr L!" Mimi shouted as soon as he stepped into the room. "How ya doin'?" She jumped up and threw her arms around him. "Gosh, I miss you when you go away! How have you been?"

"Uh, just fine," said Mr. L, as he carefully removed himself from Mimi's grasp. "So, what's up? I heard that you guys wanted an extra man for something?"

"Yeah," said Mimi. "It's Nastasia. We wanted to make her feel better by showing her how to fall in love with other people, but gosh, we only made her feel worse. Do you think you could help us with that?"

"Oh, sure," said Mr. L. "You don't think Brobot would need to be here for this... do you?"

"No," Mimi replied. "I'm pretty sure this doesn't need to involve Brobot."

"Oh. Well, I'll still do it."

Mimi giggled. "Okay," she said. She pulled him real close. "This is what I want you to do," she whispered.

"This whole dimension is made of scum," Count Bleck grumbled as he finished wiping a bench clean. They were on one of Rogueport's many streets, and like all the others it was covered with dirt, trash, and graffiti. His backside had an enormous grease and dirt stain from where he'd tried to sit down only a moment before.

"Don't say that," Tippi said sadly. "You sound too much... well, you sound too much like your old self when you say that."

Count Bleck sighed. "I was talking about this kind of scum," he said. He held up the rag he had been using to wipe the bench. It was caked thick with dirt and mold.

"I know," Tippi said. "I just don't like it when you talk like that."

"I'm sorry. You know what they say about old habits." He looked up quickly at her. "Habits, my dear, not personalities!"

He sat down on the bench, and Tippi came to rest behind him. "I guess I just worry," she said sadly. "It's been so long since we were together before, I worry that you might have changed."

"People change," said Count Bleck. "Time changes everything. I'm not the same man I was when we were parted, but I assure you I'm also not the man I was when we met again."

"I believe you."

"I had a friend who used to say, "Ko-in ya no gotoshi." It means, 'Time flies like an arrow,' or so I've been told."

"Why did he say that?"

"I don't know... he spoke English just fine." Count Bleck stifled a yawn and looked around the town. "Strange," he said to himself. Then, to Tippi, "I have been thinking... this would make a really great project. Fix it up a little? This is exactly the sort of place we want to make better."

"And what would you have done with it?"

"I'm not sure... maybe give the Robbos something more constructive to do and take the Piantas down a few pegs. That should take care of at least half the crime in this city." Count Bleck laughed.

"You've been acting so strangely," said Tippi.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know..." she thought about that, trying to collect her words. "Remember when we were having dinner at the inn? I said you never really looked like you belonged somewhere? Well... I've never seen you quite so casual before, at all. You just told a joke a second ago, with the old proverb. It wasn't funny, but it was a joke. I never hear you make jokes."

Count Bleck didn't answer. He crumpled up the rag he had used to clean the bench and tucked it into his pocket. Then he put his hands back around his wife, and looked out into the sky.

"Why is that?" she asked.

"I haven't felt this good in years," he replied. "I haven't felt this good before, ever. There's no weight. There's no stress in secrecy, there's no pain of loss... I haven't felt this free since before I even knew you." She looked into his eyes. "Timpani, every night since we've been together, I've woken up, in the middle of the night, terrified that everything that happened before was just a dream. I was afraid that I would realize that the void was still open, and I was still alone. I've had to check, to make sure you were still there, and that it really did happen.

"Last night, I didn't wake up at all. Not once. And when I woke up this morning, the thought that everything may have been a dream didn't even occur to me, not until I realized that it didn't." He took a deep breath, and tried to feel if he was done with his story or not. "Timpani," he said at last, "it's the most amazing feeling in the world."

Nastasia was cleaning the last of the tissues off her floor when there was a knock at the door. She looked up- if it was one of the others coming to mess with her love life again.. but still she did have to answer the door.

"Who is it?" she called.

Mr. L opened the door. He was carrying a bouquet of flowers that looked as gorgeous as the ones grown in Flower Fields, and he smiled in an extremely inviting manner. "Good evening, Nastasia," he said politely. "I do believe you have a gentleman caller."

"What is this?" Nastasia groaned. "Did the others put you up to it?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. "I was just sitting in my house back in the Mushroom Kingdom, and thought, you know, nobody ever gives Nastasia flowers. A pretty woman like that ought to have a man give her flowers once in a while, don't you think?"

"No, I don't," said Nastasia flatly. She walked to the other side of the room and put her back to Mr. L. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm very busy."

"Shall I leave these here?" he asked? "To remind you of what a wonderful, lovable person you are-"

Nastasia turned around and pointed her finger out the door. "OUT. NOW. ...'K?"

Mr. L put his hands up and backed out the door. "Okay, okay, sorry," he mumbled. As soon as he backed out, Nastasia stormed across the room and slammed the door. A second later, she locked it.

Mr L. turned to his left. Around the corner, Mimi and Dimentio were peeking and watching. Mimi looked extremely dejected.

"I'm not sure why you thought that would help," said Mr. L flatly.

"Oh, boy," Mimi sighed. "Nothing we do seems to work."

Mimi turned back around the corner, leaned against the wall, and sank to the floor. O'Chunks was standing a little ways down the hallway, watching the action. "Have yeh got any more bright ideas, then?" he asked.

"I guess not," Mimi said sadly. "Thanks anyway, everybody. I guess there isn't really anything we can do for her."

Nastasia yanked the door open and shouted, "Yeah, well, that's what I've been saying this whole time, now, isn't it?" She slammed the door closed again. "Now stop hanging around my door!"

"Come on, guys," Mimi grumbled. "Let's all go do... some other stuff, I guess..."