Luigi I: A Trip to Sarassaland
"Sir Luigi…Sir Luigi, wake up!" An insistent yet regal voice calls out, the noise drowned by the groggy snore coming from the person the voice speaks to. The roar of the plane's engines off to the left also did little to help the person awake the man in green and only brother of Mario, Luigi, who current was resting fast asleep against the soft yellow leather passenger seat behind him with his head sagging down against his right shoulder. He was in a deep slumber, with only the occasional twitching of his nose alerting the golden-garbed Toad to the fact that the man in green is still alive. He is usually a patient fellow, but considering how he has spent the last three minutes trying to get Luigi awake his patience has started to run thin.
The Toad takes his hand out and pokes Luigi's gut, hoping to tickle him awake with that single action. But the man in green merely cracks a smile and giggles, his head moving up an inch before sinking back down into its delicately laid position. With all other options exhausted, the Toad lets out a peeved sigh before retreating to the nearby closet at the back of the hall, where he reaches into a lone box and pulls out a megaphone. Placing one hand against the mouth end as he walks back to the man in green, the Toad thinks to himself as his eyebrows sink in regret "As much as I hate to do this to the Princess' guest…" He then lifts the megaphone up, the widest part of the cone winding up just inches away from Luigi's right ear before the Toad exclaims into it "Get up right now you lazy oaf!"
The exclamation echoes through the megaphone and into Luigi's eardrum, ricocheting for seconds on end through his brain as his body is swiftly awoken in a panic, the man in green's arms flailing around as the Toad drops the megaphone and moves back to where he was before, standing in front of Luigi as he stops moving his arms and places one hand against his beating chest, a slight sweat dripping down the sides of his face as he looks at the Toad and says in an upset tone of voice "You could have given me a heart attack!" "I sincerely doubt that Sir Luigi…" The Toad replies, wanting to make his good intentions known to the man in green as he calms down, and once Luigi has removed his hand from his chest the Toad states with his arms folded behind his back and a light cough preceding his words "I just wished to inform you that we have entered Sarassaland airspace and shall be arriving at the airport within the next ten minutes."
The man in green blinked twice, not because the news was shocking but rather because he couldn't believe that he had slept for so long. He had departed from the Mushroom Kingdom about four hours ago, the last thing he recalls happening before he got on the plane was that he tried to help his old pal Driad out with his emotional distress, a matter that Luigi feels he didn't handle well enough considering the guilt in his eyes as he sat down in this seat after the plane had taken off. "…Well, I did what I could to help. Only Driad can conquer his own problems in the end…" Luigi thinks as he nods his head and says to the Toad in an appreciative tone "Thank you, I'll prepare to exit the plane."
The Toad nods his head in turn, but before he departs he decides to ask "If I may be so kind as to ponder…I noticed that you did not bring any luggage with you, Sir Luigi. May I ask why?" The man in green cracks a fond smile, his eyelids sinking longingly as he responds to the Toad with "For the next week its just going to be me and Daisy spending time with each other. No two-millennium old legacies, no ancient apocalyptic organizations, and no reality bending aliens…Just the two of us and all of Sarassaland to spend time in." The Toad raises an eyebrow suspiciously, Luigi misinterpreting the expression as he embarrassingly admits as a means of truly answering the question given to him "Oh, and I kind of forgot to grab my luggage before I departed…Thankfully Daisy keeps a few pairs of my type of clothing in her closet for such an occasion."
The Toad finds such information a little surprising, but as a blush appears on his face he composes himself with a gentle cough and proceeds to say to Luigi "You seem to be rather happy to be coming today…Do you perhaps plan to propose to Lady Daisy?" The man in green nervously wags his hands in front of his body after his eyes briefly widen, and with an insistent shake of his head he says to the mistaken Toad "No no no…Nothing like that. We aren't at a point in our relationship where we are wanting to even think about proposals. Right now we are just really good friends, and we just want to have a little fun after everything that has happened to Plit recently." The Toad glares at the use of the word 'fun', especially after Luigi's mention of Lady Daisy keeping some of his clothes in her closet, but the man in green catches the Toad's suspicions and says to him with honesty "We will be sleeping in separate beds, that's how it has always worked."
The Toad smiles, nudging his left shoulder at the man in green with a wink of the same sided eyelid before saying "I was merely rustling your jimmies, Sir Luigi. I know that you are currently trapped in the dreaded 'friend-zone' with Lady Daisy…" The man in green's eyes flinch, his head sinking towards his chest as he says in a melancholy tone "Well you didn't have to put it that way…" The Toad realizes his mistake and says in an apologetic tone "Forgive me for the improper terminology then, Sir Luigi…" With that conversation done for, the Toad departs as the plane descends towards the runway of Sarassaland, which is paved with glittering sapphires that store enough sunlight within them to stay bright even when night falls to help guide the pilots to their destination.
Luigi looks out the window, seeing the plains of green grass laid out beside the runway sparkling brightly because of the dew dripping on the countless blades. He smiles at Sarassaland's beauty, especially as he lifts his eyes up slightly and stares towards the gigantic, glamorous castle off in the distance that lies beyond a bustling, almost utopian city. But he loses sight of the city for a moment as the plane circles around once to position itself right above the runway, at which point the wheels extend from down below the vehicle to help land it, the rubber squeaking slightly along the slick stone runway for ten seconds much to the chagrin of Luigi's ears before the plane comes to a complete stop. The man in green jerks forward slightly as the speed of the plane subsides, but the seatbelt wrapped around his waist prevents him from being flung out of his seat.
Now that he had arrived in his destination, Luigi undoes that seatbelt and gets up, stretching to get the blood flowing after his brief nap before he moves down the hallway and heads towards the exit, which is a three-step staircase that is lowered away from the rest of the plane. With the Toad he spoke to earlier bowing his head as he throws his arms towards the outdoors, Luigi thanks the Toad for awaking him, showing no bad blood between them as he then proceeds down the stairs and feels the warm heat of the sun beating down upon him for the first time in a few hours. After preventing most of the brightness of the sunlight from entering his eyes with a raise of his right arm, the man in green pokes his head forward and begins to walk across the runway, his body momentarily pausing as he meets the person he came here to be with.
As inferred from previous mentions of her, the lady was a Princess much like Peach, though her dress was yellow instead of pink and she appeared to be wearing a second, longer regal skirt underneath the main dress. She also didn't wear frilly, ballroom gloves, but rather a pair of gloves that end right around her wrists and have a rather rough appearance to them. She does have the same blue brooch on her chest that Peach has along with the jeweled earrings, but instead of being direct duplicates Princess Daisy has given them a…Well, daisy motif by adding in white crystal petals around the jewels and brooch. Also in contrast to Peach's appearance is her face, which is more rounded with full cheeks while her eyes are slightly bigger with fuller eyelashes. The last thing of note is her hair, which is thick, bouncy, and long with its orange coloring having hints of a dark brown tone to it. On top of her head is a gold crown that is smaller than Peach's with four jewel adorned around it.
Daisy wore a merry smile on her face as Luigi directed his vision her way, and with a quick sprint across the runway the Princess stands before the man in green. She is somewhat taller than him, but that is mainly because of her shoes rather than her natural height. As a friendly greeting, Daisy takes her right hand and bops Luigi lightly on the nose, letting out a light giggle as she steps back and says to the man in green as a light blush appears across his cheeks "Come on Luigi, lets head on over to my castle!" The Princess wasn't one for formal greetings, as evidenced by her energetic desire to get moving now that her guest had arrived. The man in green didn't mind this behavior though, and he followed Daisy without a word. The two of them traveled through a small thicket of forest before arriving at the capital city of Sarassaland, where Luigi saw an abundance of citizens running in and out of stores with items in their arms or on their backs.
The creatures traveling through the glimmering streets bore some similarities to some of the creatures Luigi has seen in the Mushroom Kingdom, but he doesn't really comment on the matter as Daisy quickly bemoans "Oh…I forgot that today was when everyone was going to have a half-off special…" The man in green says to the Princess as she slaps her forehead and groans "Couldn't you just grab their attention so they can briefly step aside and allow us free passage to the castle?" Daisy glances over to Luigi with a slight smirk on her face as she responds with "Well couldn't you just use that Star Spirit form of yours to fly us to the castle?" The man in green shakes his head, surprised to hear the Princess ask that of him as he replies with "I don't think the Star Spirits would approve of me using those powers for such a trivial purpose."
Daisy turns her head back, letting out a small puff of air from her mouth as she holds her fists against her hips and says to Luigi "Well there you go. I can't just go and abuse my power on the common folk…Hmmm…" The Princess looks to the awnings above the entrance to the stores, poking her head towards the rooftops as a mischievous smile crosses her face and she quickly turns around, running backwards a couple of steps as she waves away from a puzzled Luigi and says "I hope all that flying you've been doing hasn't weakened your jumps Luigi! Come on, I'll race you to the castle!" Daisy, edging the man in green on to compete with her to make the trip to the castle more interesting, turns her body back around and dashes forward a few more steps before leaping gracefully onto one of the awnings, and after said awning sinks a couple inches from her weight Daisy is sprung onto the rooftops where she proceeds to sprint towards the castle.
Of course, Luigi is naturally left befuddled by the Princess' swift change in plans, but after cracking a smile the man in green decides to take part in Daisy's challenge and quickly moves towards the rooftops via the same manner as the tomboyish Princess. Though Daisy got a head start on him, the man in green was swift on his feet and was quickly working to close the distance between the two of them. Daisy looked back as she jumped between buildings, smiling and winking to throw Luigi off-guard for a moment before she grips onto the frills of her dress and holds them up slightly to prevent them from being a potential tripping obstacle, which in turn allows her to pick up the pace without fear of caution.
The man in green flinches in surprise at the fact that the Princess was holding back, and as he holds his arms behind him and leans his head forward Luigi forgoes all other distractions in the environment around him and quickly works to achieve his maximum ground speed. He keeps his eye on the ledges, making certain not to trip over them as he leaps from rooftop to rooftop in order to catch up with Daisy. The castle grows closer along with the Princess herself, and Daisy actually seems a bit surprised by the man in green's energy as she looks back and sees him only a few feet away from her. But there was still one advantage Daisy had as far as this race went, and with how determined and focused Luigi currently was there was no way that said advantage would be lost to her.
Turning back on ahead as the castle grew ever closer, Daisy smirks and begins to slow down at the edge of the rooftop, turning around and looking back at the man in green before he passes her by and leaps straight off the rooftop without giving a second thought towards the Princess' strange action. There was only one stretch of forest left to cross and he'd be the victor…If he was racing anywhere else, that is. For you see, legend speaks of a single awning in Sarassaland that is so bouncy, that if you played your cards right with it you could launch all the way up to the top of Princess Daisy's castle…However, Daisy, having planned to invite Luigi exactly on the day when the town would be busy with half-off deals, had been practicing on the awning until she figured out the perfect way to land on it so she would be propelled straight to victory.
Thus the tomboyish Princess leaps off of the rooftop, landing on the awning and being launched over the trees separating the capital city from the castle itself as her joyous "Yeehaw!" echoes into Luigi's eardrums as she flies by overhead, much to his surprise. The man in green lifts his head up for just a moment, ignoring the ground below him just as a large, firmly placed rock gets in the way of his feet and causes him to trip and stumble out of the forest, his body tumbling across the dirty ground for a few seconds as Daisy lands right in front of the ruby Oriental gates of her castle with her arms thrust high into the air and a victorious expression painted onto her face. She cheers boisterously, unaware of what happened to Luigi until she starts shaking her booty and turns around while swinging her arms in front of her chest, at which point she sees the man in green on his keister with a few bits of dirt on his clothing and face. The Princess immediately drops her victory dance and runs off to Luigi, her eyes showing a hint of concern for his condition as she asks "Oh my gosh Luigi, what happened to you?"
The man in green lifts his head up, dazed a bit from the multiple impacts with the ground as he responds to Daisy with "I-I think I tripped on something…" He was a little embarrassed to admit that as he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand, but the Princess didn't hold that fact against him as she extended her right hand out and offered to help the man in green up. Luigi took her hand, rising to his feet as the Princess put on a joyous smile and said to him "That's not all that happened Luigi." The man in green was puzzled by the comment Daisy said, his head tilting as he lets go of her hand and she in turn says "I won! Haha, the victory of the day goes to Daisy!" The Princess flings her arms into the air, cheering for herself once more as he turns around and lets out a loud "Woo-hoo!" much to the annoyance of the man in green.
Luigi, forgetting about his tripping accident for just a moment, smirks and says to Daisy "Now Daisy, don't get too full of yourself. The week is still young, and I WILL beat you in all other competitions we have over the next few days." The Princess stops cheering for a moment, turning to face the man in green with a sly smirk and firm glare on her face as she responds to his brave prediction with "Oh really now? Ok Luigi, since you lost first, what type of competition do you want to have next?" The man in green says with a coy raise of his eyebrows "Golf. 18 holes, no handicaps." Daisy puts on a shit-eating grin, accepting the man in green's challenge offer with a firmly spoken "Alright, you're on!" But before the two of them could head off to the Sarassaland, they had to change their clothes.
Thus the two entered the castle, the insides having a rather ancient China feel to them despite the fact that Daisy herself has never visited Earth, where this aesthetic style originated from. But Luigi didn't bother to take in the sites seeing as he had been here many times before, so he just followed Daisy along to her room, and after the two of them change clothes (Which in Daisy's case involves putting on a yellow tank top with a floral white collar along with orange shorts with yellow rims around the pockets and orange-and-yellow tennis shoes) the Princess almost forces another race onto the man in green to see who can reach the golf course first. However, Luigi quickly insists "No!", to which Daisy says with a pout of her lips "Spoil sport." The two of them then exit the castle through the back, making their way to the vibrant, fall colored golf course in what could be considered as just part of the Princess' backyard.
For the next couple of hours the two humans play golf with their own sets of clubs, going from hole to hole on their golf carts while trying their hardest to outdo the other's score. The grass and dirt is torn up by the wheels grinding against them as they ride, but Daisy doesn't worry much about this seeing as her groundskeepers will put everything back in order in a matter of hours. Instead, she focuses more on the enjoyment of this competition, especially seeing as come the 18th hole she is a couple points ahead of Luigi. The man in green doesn't fret though, for all he had to do was get a score that was three points lower than Daisy's and he'd win. Considering that this was a par 5, that meant getting an Eagle seeing as the Princess' track record for these type of holes so far was to get a Bogey.
Luigi gauged the direction and speed of the wind and swung his driver, hitting the golf ball with precision and watching as it flew through the bright sky towards the fairway, landing on the ground just inches away from a water hazard. Daisy then steps up to swing, thrusting her club straight forward in the direction she feels the ball will travel as she winks one eyelid shut and grins at her inevitable victory. She grips the handle of the club tightly, positioning it behind the ball as she stares at it with all of her might. She takes a mighty swing at the ball, but right as she hits it a mighty wind blows towards the west of where she stands. Daisy panics as she lifts her head up, gritting her teeth as she watches the ball fly across the air, curving its flight towards the water hazard before falling unceremoniously plopping into it much to the Princess' annoyance.
The two humans then make their way to their respective balls, though Luigi merely plays casually from here on out, whistling quietly to himself as he hits the ball knowing full well that Daisy's luck was not going to improve. The Princess places her ball down beside where the first one landed in the water, trying her hardest to salvage her score for this hole with this next shot only for another gust of wind to blow her ball into another water hazard just inches away from the green. The Princess was starting to lose her composure and wanted to curse at the wind, but kept instead clasped the handle of her golf club and stomped on ahead to the next water hazard in order to place another ball down.
Meanwhile Luigi has already gotten his ball onto the green in two shots, but he has to wait for Daisy to get on before he can bust out his putter and sink in an Eagle. The Princess furiously swings at the golf ball, and after seconds of cutting up the grass she hits the ball and watches as it flies straight over the green and onto the knee-high grass on the other side. The man in green now finds himself sitting contently in his golf cart as Daisy tries time after time again to get the ball on the green until it eventually reaches a point where has gone over the limit and can't hit the ball anymore, at which point Luigi calmly says to a red-in-the-face Daisy "Daisy, I think you've already lost this game."
The Princess hears the man in green, and through his words Daisy calms down and decides against hitting the ball with the full might of her anger. She then turns towards Luigi, a slight frown on her disappointed face as she says "Fine, you win this round Luigi! But now we are tied, and I get to decide what we are going to do next!" She switches to a mischievous grin near the end of her sentence, something that unsettles the man in green as he lets out a timid gulp. The two humans move on to the next event in a tennis court, where this time around Daisy shows no mercy to Luigi as she swings her racket hard, the ball rocketing across the court and nearly blowing the man in green's head clean off before he has a chance to react. Needless to say, Daisy wins this round of their competition.
The sun was starting to set by this point, but it was still nice enough for the two humans so Luigi decided that their next event would be to go go-kart racing on the Daisy Circuit. The two take their respective go-karts from the garage of Daisy's castle (Don't ask why she had one installed) and drive out to the Circuit, moving to the starting line after getting a Lakitu to dangle the lights from his pole. There was unfortunately not enough of a heads-up given to allow someone a chance to set up item boxes, so it was going to be a bare bones race to the finish. The two humans take their go-karts through twists and turns, tunnels and…staircases in order to secure victory. The karts are pushed to their limits, their speeds staying at maximum as the rubber tires grind against the asphalt roads for a grand total of three laps, with Luigi proving to be the winner at the very end of the race by just an inch. Now the score was tied…And a determined Daisy knew the perfect way to break the tie.
Back at the castle, the two humans sat on a puffy yellow couch in Daisy's bedroom, their bodies positioned perfectly in front of a giant screen TV as their grip GameCube controllers in their hands and watch as a large text saying "Mario Party 7!" appears on the screen, with everyone from Mario to Toadette running across a scaled down version of the planet with happy looks on their faces. Daisy presses start and loads up her save file, but before she starts Party Mode Luigi's eyes go blank as he realizes something very important…"Wait a second…We're playing Mario Party…" The Princess, proceeding through the starting steps of the game, says nonchalantly to the man in green "Uh-huh." Luigi then turns to her and says with a bewildered look in his eyes "But Daisy, GameCubes aren't made on Plit, so how is it you have one?"
The Princess's eyes widen as her body stiffens up, and a few seconds later Daisy tosses the GameCube right through one of her windows to avoid the subject matter entirely. She then proceeds to the chair of a nearby table and slams her elbow down against the surface, staring over at Luigi as she grips her fingers together tightly and says "This will be the real final challenge…ARM WRESTLING!" Her voice flares up with excitement, but the man in green can't help but start sweating profusely as he hears the bones crack every time Daisy flexes her fingers inward. The Princess was known for many things, but the most prominent of them all was her sheer upper body strength that she strived to obtain after the first and only time she was ever kidnapped…It really goes a long way to explain why someone like Bowser hasn't come after her.
Unfortunately for Luigi, this very arm strength of Daisy's meant that the man in green would lose the very moment she said go. It was somewhat underhanded choice for the tiebreaking event, but considering the Princess' highly competitive nature the man in green should have seen this coming a mile away. But as Daisy grins and says to him "Come on Luigi, you can't back down now!" The man in green knew he'd have to swallow his worries and face the Princess in arm wrestling, even if it meant breaking every bone in his right arm…Luigi goes to sit down on the chair opposite of Daisy, only for a voice to break the tension from outside the broken window. "Hello again, Princess Daisy."
Daisy recognizes the voice immediately, her body becoming loose for a moment as she stands out of her chair and looks towards the window with disbelief in her eyes as the man in green stands behind the Princess and watches out for her as she moves closer to the person outside the window. The being was a burly purple alien that was roughly a few inches taller than Luigi. He wore a sleek black uniform with broad, double-tiered silver shoulder pads and a crimson belt around his waist. His hands had four fingers with rather pronounced claws, all of which looked just as sharp as the fangs in his mouth. His eyes were devoid of any irises, meaning that he had only medium sized black dots allowing him to look down at Princess Daisy with his eyebrows curved towards the area where his nose should be. The other thing of note on this alien were his pointed, bat-like ears. All of these distinctive features made Daisy's following response to this alien quite clear in regards to his identity "What are you doing here Tatanga?"
The Princess didn't seem at all threatened by Tatanga's sudden appearance. She doesn't even care to know how the alien is floating in mid-air in front of her window, nor does she want to know just why the alien has the balls to stand in front of her after his last appearance. Tatanga merely rubs his grimy alien fingers together, staring down at them as he says in a suave manner to the Princess "Why my dear sweet Princess…I am here to hold you hostage." The alien was nonchalantly blunt about such a serious issue, but upon hearing it Daisy stared at Tatanga for a few moments as though the alien had lost his mind before proceeding to puff her cheeks out in an attempt to contain her laughter before promptly falling onto her back and letting out a jolly guffaw at the alien's bravado as she rolls back and forth barely able to catch her own breath in the midst of her laughter.
Tatanga remains ever serious during the whole ordeal, especially as Luigi walks closer to him and says "Tatanga? You're that alien dude Mario beat up a few years ago, right?" The mention of the plumber in red brings a hint of fury to the alien's expression, but not enough to break his composure fully as he replies to the man in green with "Why yes…I am a familiar enemy of the famous hero of Mushroom Kingdom…And you must be his brother, Loogee." "…That's Luigi." The man in green bluntly replies, his expression showing annoyance at the fact that Tatanga just called him a booger by accident. The alien smiles, saying in turn to the man in green "Right, right…Luigi. Forgive me for not remembering the name of a second-rate sidekick…"
Luigi scowls upon being called that, but before he can verbally respond to Tatanga's coy attitude Daisy stops laughing and rises to her feet while wiping a tear from her right eye. With one deflated laugh to end it all, the Princess looks towards the alien with her eyelids barely open and says "You can't really be serious Tatanga…Remember how well your last attempt went? Do you really think you can successfully conquer my kingdom again?" The alien smirks, folding his arms behind his belt as he says responds to the Princess with a deep chuckle "Princess Daisy…What makes you think my intention here is to take over your kingdom?" Pulling his right arm out from behind his back, the burly alien reveals in the grasp of his pronounced claws a gelatinous sphere that wiggles around trying to keep its mass in balance. With a widening of his smirk Tatanga breaks open the sphere with the tips of his claws.
In seconds the sky becomes pitch black as a neon flash causes everything to invert and revert their natural colors for ten long seconds as a dome roughly 5 miles wide in circumference surrounds the entirety of Princess Daisy's castle, the very edge of it cutting into the stores down in the capital city as hundreds of citizens vacate the premises to avoid being trapped in the barrier, which finishes coming down with a ground trembling impact. Daisy hears the panicked cries coming from outside the castle, and quickly looks towards Tatanga with shock in her eyes as the alien smirks and says to the Princess "Now then…Shall we begin?"
Next Time: Tatanga's Demands