For the love of all that is good and holy, I FINALLY finished revamping all 43 chapters. Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Siph: And you're all graduated and stuff, so you have more time to be creative. Who knows? You might even get this done by your birthday.
October 18th, 2020 made a lovely sound as it passed me by. So did U.S. Thanksgiving.
Disclaimer: I had a lot of time to be creative but I chose not to be. WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!
Chapter 44: Improperly Paranoid
Ludwig finished his tale, glaring at Blue Koopa the whole time. She glared right back.
A very awkward silence lingered as the atmosphere grew heavier and heavier.
Ludwig spoke first, breaking the silence, but not his eye contact with Blue or the tension. "I hope you all realize now why I must do everything within my power to stay away from Bowser."
"That's what you think you must do," Blue hissed, "but it's not. You don't have to hide from him. You don't have to hide him from yourself."
Pauline cleared her throat. "I have to agree with Blue on this. Even if you're worried for Bowser Jr.'s safety, he deserves to know why you always avoid him."
"They all deserve to know," Blue corrected.
"Even if that were true, what they deserve does not outweigh what they need," Ludwig growled. "What Bowser needs."
Blue exploded, "And you think you know what he needs?! You've been avoiding him for four years! You probably don't even know what his favorite color is, let alone what he needs!"
The prince scoffed, "Orange. He designed his own emblem, after all, and all of ours, based on our own favorite colors. Which just shows I know a lot more about him than you do."
"He still needs his brother!" Blue shot back.
"He has five other brothers and a sister. My presence or absence is of little consequence."
"By the Stars!" Blue Koopa exclaimed. "You really think that?! I know a lot more than you know just by sneaking around the castle these past four years!"
"I know you work full-time as security at the Mario Toy Company. Do you use your vacation days for go back to Darkland and stick your nose into royal business?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," she answered.
Pauline stared at her. Well, Laney won that bet.
Blue continued, "I know that Bowser Jr. still looks up to you. You're his role-model. All your siblings know it. Lord Bowser knows it. He wants a relationship with you. He needs a relationship with you."
Ludwig growled, "He needs to stay away from me so I do nothing rash in an emergency again. I cannot afford to take any chances."
"And you called me paranoid." Kraig shook his head.
Ludwig turned his head to glare at the doctor. "And now you are going to claim to know more than I?"
Kraig took a breath. "Prince Ludwig, you are aware of my practice, and everything that can and does go wrong with our, as you put it, 'archaic' methods."
The prince's nostrils flared. "Fully aware. It still eludes me why anyone with a mind like yours would limit yourself to this establishment, but I am assuming that is not the point. Continue," he offered begrudgingly.
"With all the what-ifs, it's paramount that we have a myriad contingency plans within contingency plans within contingency plans. For example, we have Amps and Sparkies who can provide power in the case of a city blackout, as running electricity is required for our work."
Ludwig nodded. "That is understandable. How many levels deep do these contingency plans go? How many branches?"
"I'd say the one with the fewest branches still has more than twenty."
"Twent—" Ludwig sputtered. "Perhaps I underestimated your practice, if you are all so prepared."
Kraig let a smile betray him. "Yes. We are all prepared. We all know our roles in these emergencies. This way, we all have our own strategies on how to back each other up."
Pauline put a hand on the Koopa's shoulder, startling him. "Such as sending home any workers directly affected by an international crisis?"
He nodded. "A doctor with a heavy heart is compromised. As much as I didn't want to stop working, I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to continue. Everyone else knew this too, and had to kick me out."
He turned back to Ludwig. "There's being paranoid, and there's being prepared. It's easier to be prepared when everyone knows about the precautions. Taking on an important task by yourself," he shook his head, "is detrimental and dangerous."
Ludwig furrowed his eyebrows. "Except I am not taking on an important task by myself. I am not taking it on at all. I am leaving it to others, and only others."
Blue exploded, "But you're acting like the only alternative to that is taking care of him by yourself!"
Kraig pointed to her. "That is exactly the point I was getting to. Your Highness, you're not letting yourself work with your family and your guards to protect Bowser Jr."
Pauline put a hand on her chin. "At this point, Junior is old enough and clever enough to probably help out with this too. He came up with and orchestrated the whole Isle Delfino fiasco all on his own, didn't he?"
Ludwig growled, "Yes, Father conspired without our knowledge and smuggled Bowser out of the country for that little family vacation. Roy and I gave him quite a few unfriendly words upon their return. We'd made it perfectly clear to him that Bowser was not to be included on missions. What Father did was dangerous and reckless."
Blue cocked an eyebrow. "Because you wanted to protect him."
"Yes!" he yelled.
"But still planned on avoiding him to the end of time."
"Yes!"
"But, like Boss Lady said, Bowser Jr. can obviously hold his own during missions to beat Mario and win the Princess over. And like the good doctor here said, Bowser Jr. deserves to be a part of whatever plans you have in case you find yourself alone with him."
Kraig cleared his throat. "I would appreciate you not putting words in my mouth," he requested before turning to Ludwig, "but I can't deny the applicability. She is correct, any contingency plan involving protecting Bowser Jr. would be optimized with him included."
Pauline nodded. "He can even help you figure something out. He sounds like a good strategist."
Ludwig puffed smoke out of his nostrils in a long sigh. "I suppose you all have points…" His eyes widened as took a shallow breath. "No," he suddenly said in a very frightening voice. "Good ideas or not, they just won't work. Not with me involved."
Blue Koopa threw her hands up. "Oh come on! I thought we were getting somewhere!" She turned to the door.
"Your highness, I would appreciate you put more thought into what we told you." Kraig followed Blue out.
Pauline made no move to follow them, only watching them go sadly. Before she turned back to Ludwig to add her own thoughts, she was interrupted.
"Wow, Roy is right for a change. The genius really is an idiot."
All four heads turned at once to the newly awakened princess.
Hey look, I made it before Christmas.
Siph: Woohoo! *throws confetti at the ceiling*
I was always planning on ending this chapter with Wendy waking up. But that "no" that Bowser's Umbra said through Ludwig was a very last-minute idea. I decided, why not have him influence Ludwig's thoughts and words?
Siph: But why? What does the Umbra get out of that?
And that's the takeaway from this chapter. I want people asking that question.
Merry Christmas, and have a happy new year everybody!
Siph: My wishlist only has one thing: More opportunities to mess with J!