"Wow," Paul said as he entered Blumiere and Timpani's home. "This place is amazing!"
Blumiere chuckled. "We're on the same page, then."
"Rest for a day, dad, before inviting mom. The guest room is to your right with an adjoining bathroom. The kitchen is two doors down. Help yourself to something in the fridge. Instructions for the appliances are on the fridge. And dad?
"Yes?"
"Read them, please. This crowd is really advanced. Blumiere and I will be upstairs if you need something."
She kissed him on the cheek before doing as she said, her husband following.
Paul yawned. Maybe he wasn't there for the entire adventure, but the part he was in attendance for was exhausting. He shut the door and flopped on the mattress, not even bothering with blankets in the warm atmosphere.
Before he fell asleep, however, he thought about what had just transpired.
He and his wife had been sitting at their kitchen table at their own home, staring at the flames on the candles they had lit. Several rainbow blooms danced in the slight breeze in the middle of the candle circle. Both he and his wife were humming the same thing: a funeral song that indicated celebrating life. As such, it was a bit more upbeat than the usual dirge.
When they were done, they blew out and replaced the candles. They said not a word, but Paul waved good-bye to his wife as he left through the front door. She went back to add improvement to Timpani's old robotic arm, like how she's done ever since her daughter was lost.
Paul looked at the clouds, having a small amount of resentment for the blue sky. His daughter is dead, dammit! The sky itself should mourn for her loss.
Well, he got his wish. Right in front of him was a purple portal that blocked out the sky. But it sucked him in as well, throwing him into a very unfamiliar cave. His head smacked against a rock formation, knocking him out cold.
And we know the story from here, so I'm not going to repeat it. Just know the Paul was in absolute shock for awhile. His daughter wasn't dead; she was safe (relatively), healthy (relatively), and, most importantly, alive. And his son-in-law was with her. After what happened, he couldn't hold it in himself to despise the Tribe member or even dislike him. As long as Timpani was happy, so was he.
He smiled as he closed his eyes. Maybe, just maybe, he had learned something his wife tried to teach him.
Meanwhile, the couple had just plonked on their bead after removing unnecessary clothing items; namely Blumiere's hat, monocle, cape, suit coat and dress shirt and Timpani's butterfly pin that held her hair up. They put each itmein their respective place before cuddling together in their shared bed and falling sleep shortly after.
Tomorrow was certainly going to be interesting.
The residents of the house got up late the next morning. They gathered in the kitchen, not sure of what to say to one another. Shrugging, Blumiere began to gather ingredients for French Toast that Timpani started making. They worked as a team, quickly getting the food on the table for all of them and storing away quite a bit extra.
"The others come over often times, though usually not all at once. We always make sure to have something for them, as it's usually after an adventure of theirs," Timpani explained in between bites.
"Lord Bowser also brings the kids he babysits a lot, so we make sure to have food for all of them," Blumiere added.
"And if they don't, well, we've got dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow," Timpani shrugged.
Paul nodded at the logic, digging into his toast once more.
"Thank you," he said after he was finished, "I can do the dishes."
Blumiere held Timpani's shoulder, nodding at his wife.
Paul turned away, heading off to do his chore while the two held a silent conversation. As he started, he noticed as Blumiere stood next to him, towel in hand. The magician dried and put away the dishes as Paul washed them.
"Don't you have a spell to do that?"
Blumiere shrugged. "Yes. But I enjoy the feel of doing it by hand. Why expend effort on something that costs very little? Unless you wanted to make something special."
Paul tilted his head. It made sense. The two worked in silence, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. Paul was half tempted to ask about the local sports team, but he felt that wouldn't go over quite as well as he could hope.
"So what do you two do around here?" he asked instead.
"What?"
"I don't believe for one second that all you two do around here is just sit and wait for something to come along. Maybe on some days, yes, but not all the time. So what do you do?"
"We help Daisy a lot of the time," Blumiere started, "Some of the politicians are brutal with her for the simple fact she's young and female. Timpani is the blunt force; she addresses the hypocrisy the politicians put forth and questions their motives. They try to throw dirt at her, but perks of being from another realm means they can't find her background. You may be dragged into this, now that I think about it. Sorry."
Paul shrugged. "Politicians. You can't really do much about them."
"Not the conservative ones, no. I help Daisy with wording and some speeches… you have to watch what you say in magic and in the Tribe in general, else you could be taken a completely different way than what you mean. After I helped Daisy with a few sentences, she hired me as a ghost writer, of sorts. She tells me what she wants to say and what it means and I phrase it for her. They can't really argue against it when her words are clearly stated."
"I bet they liked that."
"They enjoy it even more when Timpani rats out their little spies. You can't hide anything from her, even if you wanted to."
Paul laughed. "Ah, she's always been able to do that. I remember telling her things she really didn't need to know."
Blumiere chuckled. "Or perhaps they were, and we just didn't realize it at the time."
Paul smiled. It seemed as if his son-in-law was comfortable with him to an extent.
Paul handed the last dish to Blumiere, who put it away.
"Come," he said, walking out of the room, "Timpani's in the common room."
He followed the purple-skinned humanoid into the aforementioned area, finding his daughter and the two Mario Brothers there as well.
"These two know the world far better than I. They agreed to help you find mom and bring her here," Timpani explained.
Paul moved to ask how he was supposed to get her there when Blumiere placed the cake decoration and the crystal Luigi had given them into his hand.
"She'll know," was all the magician said on the matter.
Paul and the two brothers nodded, brushing off the thanks that the couple gave them, citing that they were happy to help a friend and that this journey wasn't that brutal.
It was true; the worst injuries the crew had taken were the rat's tail and Timpani's incident with the giant Boo.
While Paul and the brothers headed off (with the conversation "Where do you live?" "A place called Rainbow Road; did you ever hear of it?" ending with nearly inaudible, simultaneous groans), Blumiere and Timpani stayed in the common room. The latter removed a tool set from the bookcase and sat down at a desk, working on her mecha arm. Blumiere sat nearby, reading the book he had started before the adventure he didn't have time to finish.
It wasn't long before the brother came back with two people in tow. One was, quite obviously, Paul. But the second was unfamiliar but unmistakable. She had many of the same features as Timpani, with the dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair. The way she carried herself as well, and from what the brothers had experienced, some of her mannerisms were also shared traits. This was Timpani's mom, no doubt about it. She held the two objects Blumiere had given Paul in her hand.
The two brothers knocked on the door, but took their leave as soon as Timpani opened it.
"Peach is going into 'you-just-finished-an-adventure-now-sleep-' mode," Luigi explained, chuckling. "We'll see you all later." The two waved and headed towards Daisy's castle, where they would then proceed home via pipeline.
Timpani's mom, meanwhile, stood at the door in shock. Tears gathered and fell from her eyes.
"Timpani…?" she asked, much like her husband did when he first saw his daughter.
Timpani nodded. "Yes," she whispered.
Her mother ran forward, engulfing her in a hug. Timpani felt the tears on her shirt from her mother and felt her own streaming down her face.
Timpani's mother pulled back. "My daughter… oh, my daughter… you're alive!" she laughed.
Blumiere stood at the door. "Come inside… I'll make cocoa."
They did as such, Blumiere heading towards the kitchen to make good on his promise of hot chocolate.
"How?" Timpani's mother finally managed to ask.
"Well, after Lord Nutjob launched me over the cliff- no offense Blumiere…"
"None taken, that's an understatement."
"Anyway, after that, I wasn't quite dead. I would've been, if a wizard named Merlon hadn't found me. Apparently Lord Jerk had kicked me into another realm literally. Merlon turned me into a Pixl, and for awhile, I was known as 'Tippi', the only part of my name I could remember. All I could remember, actually. I remembered how to build robots, my own morals, and the like, but any personal questions and all I'd get was a blank. So I helped Merlon for awhile…"
"Until I did something foolish that I regret to this day," Blumiere spoke, filling in where Timpani left off. "I invoked the Dark Prognosticus after finding out that Timpani was dead. I nearly ended all the worlds, if it wasn't for Timpani and the others. You just met two of them, actually; the Mario Bros."
"The two others at the time were Princess Peach and Lord Bowser. I helped them, gaining my memories back as we journeyed on. We finally made it to Count Bleck's castle after finding all the Pure Hearts."
Blumiere tilted his hat over his eyes. "Bleck, how foolish I was…"
Timpani grabbed his hand but continued the story. "We confronted Count Bleck and showed him the error of his ways… and he became Blumiere again. But one of his minions, Dimentio, was the real enemy. He brainwashed Luigi, took a giant robot, and combined it with his powers. Mario said he, Peach, and Bowser had a difficult time fighting it. Blumiere, a girl named Nastasia and I were all sealed in Dimension D, an area of Dimentio's own creation. Two loyal minions, O'Chuncks and Mimi, came and helped me encourage Blumiere. The Pure Hearts appeared again and I took them to Mario to help him and the others. With them, they were able to defeat Dimentio. But not quite."
"Dimentio had left a shadow of his power to control the Chaos Heart, and it was going to finish what I had started."
"But it didn't. Blumiere and I took the PureHearts up to the Armageddon Altar and basically renewed our vows, calming the Chaos Heart. But the thing is, the Pure Hearts granted our wish as well. Blumiere was partially healed…"
"And Timpani's human form was restored. We were also sent to a world where we could be happy together…"
"Right here. Well, more specifically, a beach northwest of here, and about five feet above the ground to boot. We spent a time there, waiting for Blumiere to recover fully and me to get used to being human again before seeking out an authority figure. The only one here is Princess Daisy."
"As it turns out, she and Luigi have a sort of… arrangement. The point is, they very frequently exchange letters, and hers happened to address us by name."
"The heroes all recognized them and hurried over. Daisy knew who we were and arranged for us to meet them as a surprise. We did and told them what we told you now. A few months later, it's Peach's birthday…"
The couple went on to regale the adventure, Paul adding in where he was present in the adventure.
"You two… have gone through so much." Timpani's mother hugged them both. "I'm sorry for that pain."
"It's alright, madam," Blumiere reassured.
"If you can call him Paul, you can call me Viola," she informed him, "I am, after all, your mother-in-law."
"Of course. Would you like something to eat? We've got plenty," he offered.
"No thank you. I just want to enjoy my children's company for awhile," Viola smiled.
Timpani and Blumiere blushed a bit, inspiring chuckles from the parents.
And so Viola's wish was fulfilled: spending time with her kids who were presumed dead but were actually, gloriously, alive.
A/N: Oh come on, you really think I'm gonna leave Timpani's mom out? Hell no!
Anyway, Viola's name is inspired by one of my previously mentioned friends. He plays the viola so… yeah. Plus it fits in with Timpani's music-themed name. (Ever hear of a timpani drum?)
One more chapter you guys. I'm going to cry.
This chapter is in honor of Monty Oum. This man is the one who set me on my future career path, the only one I can recall being solid. He passed away a few days ago at age 33. I promise, Monty, to keep moving forward in all my projects. I hope you're smiling, wherever you may be.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own ideas.
(Current Length: just over 84 pages and about 32,416 words in MS Word.)