Chapter 9 New, Exciting Possibilities

While staring at the dolphins, swimming in their tank without a care in the world, Wendy couldn't help but feel a little cautious. She kept checking over her shoulder, prepared to come face to face with some sort of angry Mushroomer. She didn't see any, but shivers ran up and down her spine regardless. After all, it was pretty much guaranteed to happen, wasn't it? The Koopalings usually brought out the worst kind of emotions from the denizens of this normally happy kingdom.

And yet, standing here in the middle of the aquarium, things played out in a way that was so very different than what Wendy would ever come to expect. Not only did the Toads and humans not get mad, but some even stopped to get a look at her. Wendy felt a little squirmy at first, but the way their eyes sparkled quickly made those sensations go away pretty quickly. Some people even whistled upon getting a glance at Wendy, admiring her like she was the subject of an ancient sculpture.

After getting multiple of these kinds of interactions, Wendy finally felt enough relief to officially stop worrying. She looked at the dolphins, appreciating them and their playful personalities. She looked at her brothers, so excited about the marine life that they looked ready to dive into the tanks themselves to join them. She looked down at her hand. So soft and smooth. So alien to her now, a sign that her new appearance was guaranteed to provide her with the strangest experiences she would ever face.

That's what's been happening so far, after all.

The Koopalings decided to step away from the dolphins. Before they left, Wendy put her hand on the tank, hoping that she could engrain the sight of them in her brain forevermore. When she pulled away, she joined her family on their way over to the tropical fish. A colorful sight to say the least; it was like these animals had eaten sections of the rainbow. Wendy smiled at them; while not as dynamic or as fun as looking at the dolphins, she still appreciated seeing them. But then again, maybe this was just her being thankful that she wasn't seeing cheep cheeps for the thousandth time.

"Hey."

Wendy did a double take. She turned away from her brothers, gasping when she saw a blonde teenage human smiling at her. Looking into his eyes, she sweat enough to fill the entire ocean.

"H… hey," she squeaked. She cleared her throat. "How are you?"

The boy chuckled. "Much better now that I've seen you." He took a step closer, grinning as he did. "I was wondering; can I have your number?"

Wendy heard a gasp. She looked over her shoulder to see her brothers staring at the two of them, looking more shocked than they had been in years (possibly in their lifetimes). Wendy turned back toward the human, her heart pumping.

"Sure."

The boy's grin grew bigger as he handed Wendy a scrap of paper and a pen. She could feel her brother's eyes on her as she wrote down her number, on some level not entirely sure how to feel about all of this. When she handed the paper and pen back, the human looked ready to jump up and down in delight. He wished Wendy a smiley goodbye before turning back around to go look at the urchins.

Wendy turned back to her brothers, her face hot and her jaw dropped. They still looked incredibly taken aback.

"You… you got a human's number!" Larry exclaimed, almost loud enough to be considered screaming.

"Yeah!" Wendy chuckled. "I knew I was pretty in this form, but I didn't know I was this pretty!"

Iggy stepped towards her, and he was… smiling. "Yet another aspect of this social experiment that has opened up to us." He chuckled. "I feel there is a lot to be learned from this."

Wendy blinked. "I don't… I don't know if I follow."

Iggy's chuckles transitioned into giggles. "Well, my initial approach toward this experiment was that I just wanted to observe the Mushroomer's from a distance; keeping myself out of their affairs while also taking note of them." His eyes shimmered, and he also looked like he was going to jump up and down. "But this is proof that not only can we walk amongst the Mushroomers, we can also interact with them without any danger of inciting any hullaballoos or riots!" He closed his eyes, stomping his foot down on the ground with incredible speed. "Oh… can you feel the possibilities opening up to us? Can you feel the hands of fate changing our circumstances?"

Wendy looked over at her other brothers to try and gauge their reactions to this. She saw a wide variety of looks in the process. Morton looked a little indifferent to this whole thing, and Ludwig's raised eyebrow indicated he was battling incredulity. Lemmy smiled, which was shocking to Wendy while paradoxically not being surprising in the slightest. Larry just looked a little miffed.

"Iggster," Larry spoke up as he took a step forward. "Why would we want to interact with the Mushroomers? They hate us!"

"As koopas!" Iggy said while turning around. "But as humans? We can chat with them about their lives and interests, and they will be none the wiser when it comes to our true identities!" He chortled, his entire body shaking in the strangest way. "Which, if I were to be frank, is the perfect use for our new forms. After all, what better way for one to spend their time than by finding out more about the world in which you live?"

Larry snorted. "I don't know; playing video games sounds like a good way to me…"

Ludwig took a step forward. "I…" he paused before sighing. "I mean, it's an interesting idea, Iggster. Some might even call it good. But… but is it worth it?"

"Worth it?" Lemmy stepped forward now, looking at Ludwig in confusion. "It sounds like it could be a lot of fun! If we play our cards right, we could possibly form new friends! We could interact with the Toads and humans in the greatest way possible!" He beamed. "That sounds pretty worth it to me!"

Wendy stopped to think about this while Ludwig and Larry took the time to berate Lemmy for his idealized way of looking at things. Sure, what he said was a little naive, but honestly? His words really appealed to her personally. Especially the part about forming friendships. Even more so than getting people interested in her romantically, Wendy loved to make and be friends with others. Growing up as the only girl in a family full of boys, as well as battling an extreme bout of shyness throughout most of her life, made Wendy the kind of person who longed for that particular type of companionship. Sure, she loved her brothers, but friends? The prospect of friends was just so alluring, so amazing that she dreamed about it, both when she was awake and when she was asleep.

So… yeah, she was actually all for this. She could already imagine herself hanging out with some Toad girls, talking about their lives while enjoying a scrumptious meal at some sort of fancy Mushroom Kingdom restaurant. Was there a more appealing thought in the world?

"You're right, Lemmy." Ludwig and Larry turned and gawked at her. Before they could say anything to shoot down her words, however, Wendy spoke to them with the softest, gentlest tone possible. "I think that befriending the Toads would be more beneficial than anything else. We can learn more about their lives, as well as try to convince them that koopas aren't so bad. Even without that, interacting with the Toads in this way has the potential to be a lot of fun. We could gain memories, memories that we can look on when we're older and smile at!" As if to prove her point, Wendy smiled. "Doesn't that sound perfect?"

Ludwig hesitated. "I don't… I don't know if…"

Surprisingly, Morton took a step forward. "Well, I'm down for it." Ludwig and Larry now directed their shocked faces towards him, prompting him to shrug. "Might as well take advantage of our human forms while we have them."

Larry snickered. "Take advantage of our human forms? That's…" he stopped before putting his hand to his chin. "Actually, that might not be so bad…"

"It's settled then!" Iggy said as he clapped his hands together. "We will try to befriend some of the Toads!" He giggled. "When we do, we will all report back to each other to share and review our discoveries!"

Larry groaned as his shoulders slumped. "And here I was thinking this was supposed to be fun…"

Regardless of that sentiment, Wendy still smiled. "Well, I'm gonna go try this out right now!" Not wanting to waste any time, she started a walk around the aquarium. Hopefully, she would find the perfect friend somewhere in this building…

Celia gawked at Roy, who by now experienced a racing heart. The silence from her was so damn tense, and not in a fun way either. He actually began to sweat, hoping that coming here wasn't a mistake. He had come here because he had hoped this would be a cool development to share with his girlfriend. But with the way Celia looked at him… now, he wasn't so sure…

"R…R…" Celia's eyes grew wide as her tongue tried to form some new words. "Roy? Is that you?"

Roy nodded. "In the flesh!" He grinned again. "The human flesh, if you will."

Celia continued to stare. "How…" she tripped over her own words. "How did… why… how are you…?"

"Celia?" Roy recognized the voice calling out as Singe Marksmite's, Celia's koopa father. "Celia, is everything okay?" Within no time at all, Singe came to the door himself, stopping when he saw the Koopaling. "Oh." He took a step forward. "Uh… hello, young man. Who might you be?"

Roy was about to answer, but surprisingly, Celia was able to do so first. "That's… it's Roy, Dad."

Singe's did a double take. "What?" He laughed. "You're joking!"

"Nope!" Roy said. "She's not!"

Upon hearing his voice, Singe's eyes grew wide. He gawked and studied him, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. "But… but…" he looked into Roy's face. "How is this possible?"

Roy chuckled while scratching the back of his head. "It's a spell." He paused. "Well, to be more accurate, it's actually closer to a curse." He cleared his throat, doing his best not to let the terror in Celia and Singe's faces bother him. "But… but just because it's a curse doesn't mean it's any less cool!" The grin returned to his face, and the confidence returned to his heart. "I think I look pretty handsome if I do say so myself."

Celia and Singe exchanged a look with one another. As they looked back at Roy, they appeared absolutely frozen in place. Roy tried to tell himself that this wasn't a big deal. It was a huge discovery; it only made sense that they needed time to process it. Right?

After a little bit, Celia took Roy's hand. "Come inside."

Before he could even protest, Celia pulled him into the house. As she let go of him and shut the door, her breathing sounded hard and labored. Singe's state wasn't any better; he hyperventilated as he looked at Roy. All the while, Roy himself sweat like there was no tomorrow. He swallowed a lump, unsure of how things were going to play out from here.

"Sit down at the table," Celia said.

Slowly but surely, Roy did as he was told. Celia and Singe took their seats across from him, not daring to take their eyes off of him.

"Tell us everything," Celia said while leaning forward.

Roy blinked. "Uh… okay…" With that, he jumped right into the explanation. He went into as much detail as he possibly could, not stopping or hesitating (a fact that he was actually really proud of). Unfortunately, by the time he finished, Singe and Celia looked even more scared than they had been previously.

"A demon did this to you?" Celia squeaked.

"Well… yeah." Roy cleared his throat. "But you don't have to worry too much about that. It's not here, and Kamek and Bowser are going to take care of it back in the Koopa Kingdom." He placed his hands down on the table. "So… really, there's no reason whatsoever to worry."

Singe shook his head. "I don't know if I'd go that far…"

"Is this permanent, then?" Celia asked, her voice still notably high-pitched.

"Uh…" All at once, Roy's spirits sank. "Is it permanent? I… I honestly never really thought about that." He shuddered. "Oh man, I hope this isn't permanent…"

If Celia and Singe looked scared before, they looked absolutely terrified now. "What if that demon decided to set its sights here?" Singe asked. As he said this, he put his arm onto Celia's shoulder. "What if it tries to harm us?"

Despite his newfound uncertainty, Roy decided to protest. "It's not going to do anything to you guys. Trust me, you aren't important enough." Celia and Singe glared at him. "Uh… I mean…" he scratched the back of his head. "You aren't Koopa Kingdom royalty. I think the demon only did this to us because we're Koopa Kingdom royalty."

The father and daughter stopped glaring, but they still didn't look very comfortable. Roy stayed silent for a little bit before he decided to smile.

"So, now that that's out of the way…" he grinned at Celia. "Want to go on a date Cee?"

Celia's jaw dropped. "Seriously? You alert me to the existence of a frickin' demon and then want to go on a date?" She shook her head. "I… I need some time to wrap my head around this…" She got up from the table and went to her room.

"What? Oh, come on!" Roy got up and followed after her. "Celia, come back!"