Origins: Daisy

12:00 PM

Daisy of Sarasaland sat in the TV Room of Sarasaland Castle, located centrally in the Easton Kingdom, feet propped up in her father's old orange recliner. Her fingers twitched on the television remote, angling for a button combination, then second guessing. She thought of everything she enjoyed on TV, but nothing curbed her anxieties.

Some birthday this is, trying to avoid the hustle and bustle.

The brunette bit her lip at the thought.

How bratty do I sound, gosh?

Of course, she knew not everyone woke up to a full staff happy to sing her a birthday melody or prepare her favorite breakfast. Some went their whole birthdays without any love of family or kindness at all. But no matter how many blessings she counted the fact of the matter was tomorrow was a Royal Court meeting. The four governors of Sarasaland's kingdoms would be on her doorstep tomorrow, no doubt showering her in well-meaning, but unwanted attention.

Daisy turned on the TV. She had to quiet the wasp's nest of her mind somehow. It defaulted to the sports channel. A Koopa Troopa in a blue hoodie and a blue Yoshi wearing sunglasses were engaged in a back-and-forth exchange of tennis. Daisy smiled at the image. Perhaps, she reflected, that's why she naturally gravitated towards sports. On the golf course, or the tennis court, she wasn't Princess Daisy, leader of all Sarasaland, she was just a competitor, and he standing was dictated not by who her parents were, but by how competently she played the game.

A realization came to her.

Oh, I still have Luigi's Smash DVD from last year.

On her previous birthday, Luigi had gifted her a "Best of the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Smash Brothers" DVD set. Smash DVDs were popular all over the world, and many worlds beyond, but they were especially popular in Sarasaland mostly driven by her own obsessive fandom of the combat league. She loved the fighting, but the fact that Luigi had come from the first tournament to their first date gave the Smash events an extra special place in her heart. . Daisy briefly recalled the hysteria whenever a batch would show up in a store, how quickly they would sell out.

It pays to know somebody I guess, she giggled, flipping the TV over to the DVD input.

Immediately, she flipped to Luigi's section. It was the weakest content-wise, as Luigi had seldom done very well in Smash competition, but Daisy gave that fact no relevance. She could watch the man who stole her heart move about forever. Having been sculpted in the same fights as Mario but a more creative mind in desperation, her green-garbed beau had developed a similar but non-identical fighting style to his brother, and wouldn't you know it, that was the stuff Daisy liked the best as she watched the highlight reel.

That hip attack he bookends his punches with, the running punch flurry, and oh my God that little kick he does when somebody's hanging off stage.

Just as the first ounce of lewd thoughts involving a "Green Missile" began to dance around in her head, a pang of ice-cold horror struck her.

SHOOT! HE'S COMING OVER FOR TENNIS, LIKE, NOW her inner voice screamed.

Bolting up out of the recliner, she ran to her bedroom, slamming the door to see the full-length mirror attached to it. She examined her reflection within. Yellow polo, orange belt, white skirt, knee-high socks, white tennis shoes with yellow laces.

Snickering quietly about how Peach would probably bemoan the fact she was wearing a golfing outfit to a tennis match; the brunette gave her reflection a thumbs up. Opening the door and happily striding down the hallway, she saw a blue Toad around the corner, dodging additional staff as he went to meet her.

"Your highness, Luigi is here for your tennis outing. Should I let him in?"

Daisy nodded quickly, "But I wanna greet him, ya know what I mean Buckenberry?"

"As you wish your highness," Buckenberry grinned.

As they walked through the main hall to the large front door, Buckenberry flashing a thumbs up to the two doormen, who pulled open the doors revealing Luigi in the blazing Sarasaland sun. Peach would have approved of his outfit, Daisy thought. Green polo, khaki shorts, and some spiffy-looking black tennis shoes.

"Hey, Daisy!" waved Luigi.

Daisy immediately ran to her long-time boyfriend, hugging him tight, "Hey Weegee!"

As the embrace broke, Daisy bit her lip, embarrassed, "I uh…forgot you were coming. Sorry if this outfit looks a little bit ramshackle."

Luigi waved his hand dismissively, "Babe, we've been together almost 20 years now, you don't have to get made up for me."

"I know," Daisy sighed, "I just… wanna make you feel special ya know?"

"Plus, you never look ramshackle. You always look great!"

"But…"

"And, I know how much birthdays and court stuff get to you, so of course you wouldn't wanna spend all day in the makeup chair exactly."

Daisy huffed, "Will you please let me be mad? You deserve better than my anxiety-ridden ass,"

" It's no trouble at all. You honor me with your presence, your highness," Luigi responded, bowing as exaggeratedly as he could manage.

The noise that erupted from Daisy's mouth was somewhere between a laugh and a gag. As the two paused for a second to register what had just happened, Daisy blushing red all the way, a ghostly visage of a dog appeared at Luigi's side. The brunette princess gasped.

"POULTERPUP!" she squealed, immediately kneeling to pet the dog with as much vigor as she could, "Who's a good puppy? You are! Yes, you! You…"

Then, something caught her eye. A green envelope, with Luigi's custom 'L' seal tucked into Polterpup's collar. As she carefully removed the letter, Luigi spoke up, "So uh…I've teaching Polterpup how to go invisible. Needless to say, it's caused for some ruckus when I…ya know…can't find him after."

"Oh yeah?" Daisy asked, eying the letter, "Luigi, I said no gifts."

"This one's…uh…pretty important." Luigi stammered as he and Polterpup brushed past her moving down into the expansive hallway. With a confused look on her face, the Princess of Sarasaland followed.

"Weegee, are you about to pull some stunt?" she shouted.

Nothing came, except for the happy, tiny barks of Polterpup, coming from the kitchen, the rightmost room it sounded like.

"You know the greatest gift of all is seeing that sexy bod of yours in a…"

Daisy pushed open the door to the kitchen, pausing mid-step. Staggering to keep her balance, Every member of the castle staff was stood around a large prep table, Luigi and Polterpup at the opposite head.

"…Polo," Daisy finished, blushing as red as an angry Wiggler, "You all heard…none of that,"

"We've heard you call him much worse your highness, trust us!" piped up a tiny old Toad, one of the maids.

The crew erupted into laughter, Luigi and Daisy joining. Luigi cleared his throat, and the laughter immediately subsided, "So babe, you gotta open the letter,"

Daisy rolled her eyes, flashing Luigi a sarcastic smirk from across the table. She opened it. Peaking out the top was…another envelope, this one white, made of much more expensive material.

"Luigi if this is a prank gift, I'm gonna…" Daisy started to yell, yanking the white envelope out.

The crux of her threat got caught in her throat, its contents scattered to the dust bin of possibility. It took quite a bit of effort to stun the brunette to silence, but the misshapen crosshairs on the red seal did it.

"Dude...is this…"

It was only when Daisy began to undue to seal that her audience noticed what it was. A few muffled gasps and cheers broke out but were shushed out by the veteran contingent of the castle. Luigi, all the while, smirked impishly, only breaking to pet a whining Polterpup.

"Dearest Princess Daisy of Sarasaland, we hereby welcome you as a contestant in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate…"

Tears of joy immediately began to stream down her face. She attempted to speak words, but all that came out were incomprehensible blubbers. Luigi strode over to Daisy's spot at the table to the applause of the Sarasaland Castle staff, "Happy birthday my love."

Daisy hugged Luigi so hard and so suddenly that a loud, pained wheeze erupted from the unsuspecting Mario Brother.

"I'm gonna be…. I'm gonna be a…"

"Yeah babe, a Smasher," Luigi choked.

"Oh Seven Stars, I'm crushing you aren't I," mumbled Daisy through tears, light chuckles arising as she let him go.

"Yeah but, I know this is something you've wanted for a really long time, and…"

"But who…who's gonna arrange the transportation for the people who want to go?"

"All accounted for in secret by Mario," answered Luigi triumphantly.

Daisy's face twisted in confusion, "How long has this been going on?"

"What, the arrangements?" Luigi asked coyly, "Ever since Mario took over."

"Geeze, so this has been in the cards for that long, eh? Are you sure Peach didn't just nag Mario into it?"

"No," Luigi said with an assured shake of the head, "Mario had been in his ear about it since we started dating. He…we, always figured if you could give Bowser a whooping in tennis, you could Smash with us. Master Hand didn't see it that way. Let's just call this one the correction of a long-standing error."

Daisy's eyes began to well up again, "All of you," she said addressing the staff, "Spread the word to everyone you know. I'M GONNA BE A SMASHER!"

The room broke out into applause one last time, a much hardier round than before, and people began to filter out. Polterpup bolted up to her and stood on his hind legs to meet her gaze. Petting the dog as he licked her face, she chanted, "I'm gonna be a Smasher, I'm gonna be a Smasher,"

Luigi began to hum the beat to Daisy's impromptu chant as Polterpup, ever the intelligent spectral hound, barked along. Suddenly, Polterpup caught sight of something from the kitchen's bay windows, standing on his hind legs after a frantic bound to the door, barking.

"You wanna go outside Polterpup?" Daisy cooed, " Us too! We've got tennis to play!"

"Uh…is the picnic dinner still on? I stay up at night thinking about Sarasalandian food sometimes,"

Daisy let forth a laugh that was a bit too loud, "When have I ever not fed you and Pup when you came to visit?"

"Alright!" Luigi cheered, "Let's-a go!"

And so, taking Luigi by his offered hand, the two began their journey to Daisy's private tennis court.

6:30 PM

Luigi surveyed the scene around him. Sat on a picnic blanket, a basket full of hummus, bread, meats, and summer season fruits all to themselves. Daisy lay contently in his laps, her luscious locks flowing all around him, and Polterpup laying some feet away, sleeping contently. They'd just played tennis for six five hours, with Polterpup retrieving every ball. To say the trio was exhausted would be the understatement of the century.

"Weegeeeee," whined Daisy.

"Yes, my dear?"

"I want more food, but I don't wanna move."

Luigi reached over to the picnic basket, rummaging through it to find a branch of grapes. With a chuckle, Luigi lowered the grapes to her lips, lifting them up a few inches. Contrary to what Luigi had expected, Daisy lurched up slightly, snapping the lowest hanging fruit away from the branch without opening her eyes.

"Okay Piranha Plant," he teased.

"Suck it, I'm a Smasher," grumbled Daisy.

"Dully noted your highness,"

"Why you talk like that," she mumbled, sounding closer to sleep by the syllable.

"I like watching you squirm,"

"Get that smile off yer face,"

Luigi frowned. How could she tell that he was smiling through closed eyes?

"Ya know, the night's still young. If we put some hot cocoa on, we might still be chipper enough to have some fun later tonight."

"Yeah," Daisy mumbled, eyes fluttering open.

Daisy rolled off of him, allowing him to get up. Next, Luigi took her hand and pulled her to her feet. The commotion awoke Polterpup, who trotted happily beside them. Throwing the grapes into the picnic basket, Luigi snapped his fingers. Polterpup then trotted over to the picnic basket, closing the lid and bringing it to them.

"Good doggy," cooed Luigi, much to the delight of Polterpup

"Smart doggy," tiredly agreed Daisy as the ghostly canine wagged its tail.

And so, plumber, princess, and pup began their journey back to the castle.

12:30 PM

The hot cocoa had certainly livened them up, and all that had been on Daisy's mind was Smash. The two had analyzed all available footage with Daisy providing commentary on how she might beat each opponent. He didn't have the heart to tell her that, while theory was good, the application of the theory in the ring is what mattered. But the ghost-hunting plumber zipped his lip. Nobody deserved their mellow to be so grossly harshed on their birthday after all. His strategy had paid off. The two had made out in the shower and had promised him she'd slip into something much more comfortable. Now, here he sat, in a bath towel, waiting for the most beautiful woman in his world to rock it.

And then, the communicator rang.

On the little table nearest the couch on which he was sprawled, a red watch glowed blue. Scrambling for it and pressing the button. Shulk's holographic image appeared, "I know you said you were gonna spend a few days with you girl before you reported, but erm…we've got a situation."
"What kind of situation?" Luigi's voice quivered.

"We found the Smash Core."

\ "I'm assumin' somebody who shouldn't have it has it."

"Yeh, somebody you're familiar with, Conker the Squirrel."

Luigi scratched his head in thought, "I've heard of 'im, never met him myself though. Seemed to keep to himself, from what the princesses said."

"That's not what our new guy said."

"New guy?"

"King K. Rool,"

Luigi felt a blast of cold leap up through his spine.

"So I…guess you need me to recruit?"

"Yeah, we're going to basically pull everybody from the Hand Archives," nodded the blond solemnly.

"Look, if we've got all of time and space at our disposal, can this wait until tomorrow morning? I don't wanna worry Daisy by jetting out on her birthday,"

Shulk's image disappeared for a few seconds. He reappeared with a warm grin on his face.

"You've got the okay. Swing by the Smashverse first thing tomorrow morning, you and Gadd can trade your Poltergust for Polterpup. Also, Daisy's gotta report at some point tomorrow your time."

Luigi raised an eyebrow, "Oh, so we're-a reportin'?"

"Yep," Shulk said, " And you know the mansion's "No pets unless it's a roster member" policy, hence the…erm…trade."

"Yeah," Luigi said with a laugh, " She's packed, dropped the bombshell pretty early this morning."

Shulk laughed, "Well good, I'll be in touch tomorrow morning. Enjoy your night, and tell the lady I said happy birthday."

"Will do," Luigi playfully saluted the hologram as the image dissipated.

And then, she walked through the door.

She had a swagger in her step as she sauntered towards him, the yellow, flowing robe she had on leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination about what was underneath. He thought that the cooldown between the mutual shower and Shulk's phone call would have stalled his engine, but this was not so. When Daisy was feeling herself, nothing was more captivating to the mustachioed man.

"Hey babe," she purred crawling next to him on the couch, "What was that about?"

"Smash business. Gotta take care of…um…Mama mia. Gotta go ghost bust first thing tomorrow, but I'll be back before you wake up. Also, we're reporting to the Mansion tomorrow."

"That's fine my love, so long if we have tonight." Daisy cooed, laying the sultry vixen voice on thick.

And, like a Chargin' Chuck to the endzone, she was on top of him. Daisy was clearly in some kinda mood, and that was fine with him. Pleasures of the flesh often offset the dread of a forthcoming adventure, and Luigi Mario would need all the help he could get!