Chapter 9 Doubts Creeping In

Lemmy stood on the balcony of his hotel suite, the cool nighttime breeze kissing his cheeks. He looked up at the stars and the moon, frowning as he did. It was happening. Tomorrow the competition would officially begin. Was he nervous? Kinda. There was a lot riding on this competition, at least from his perspective. He doubted anyone else competing was as invested in the outcome of the competition as he was. Benny and Luanne seemed excited, sure, but that was the extent of it. Lemmy had the most riding on this competition, there was no doubt about it.

Sighing, he pulled his phone out of his hammerspace. Going to his text messages, he scrolled through the words of affirmation that his family had texted him. Larry said he was going to kick ass. Wendy said she would watch every last second of the tournament on TV. Ludwig said that he believed in him, that he knew from the bottom of his heart that Lemmy was going to be amazing.

How hard would it be to meet all of their expectations? Would he wow everyone, or would he fumble the ball completely? Would everything work out in the end, or would this go down as Lemmy's most notorious failure?

Realizing that he needed to escape from these questions, Lemmy stepped back inside. He closed the door, both the one for the balcony as well as the one in his mind. Everything was going to be fine, he just… had to believe in himself. His siblings believed in him, believed in him to an amazing degree.

Which… would make him letting them down all the more miserable. How could Lemmy face anyone if he let them all down? How could he face his family? How could he face himself? How could he live with himself if he did badly during this competition? He would be the one who would have to live with his failure for the rest of his life. He was the one who would have to live with the fact that he wasn't amazing, that his dreams were out of reach, and that he was nothing more than a silly little koopa.

Lemmy slapped himself across the cheek. "No, no, I'm not gonna think about that." Dwelling on negative emotions was never productive. It did nothing good, left the person doing it with nothing worthwhile or substantial. He knew that, he knew it better than anyone. He was a person who didn't let negativity get him down. He had been that in the past, and now he had to be that same person now.

He let out a breath. "You're gonna do great, Lemmy," he told himself. He made his way over to the bed. "Even if you don't win, you can still walk away from this competition a happy koopa." Sure, saying those words didn't sound right given how invested he was in winning, but… whatever. The point of the self-to-self pep talk was to lift his spirits, not drag them further into the mud. He needed to stop. He needed to take a deep breath and banish these thoughts from his mind. They weren't valid, he knew they weren't. They were caused by insecurities that more than likely didn't have a basis in reality. He needed to stop trying to bring himself down.

He WOULD do great at this. He WOULD make everyone happy. This whole competition was going to be great. He had no reason to think otherwise, no piece of evidence that argued he should think otherwise.

With that last thought, Lemmy let out a breath and smiled. "Yes, this is going to be fine." He hopped into the bed, pulling the covers up over himself. "You're gonna rock this competition, Lemmy." He pulled his phone out one last time, looking at the text messages his siblings sent. They believed in him, so he would do the same.

"Hey Sherry, turn out the lights." The AI turned off the lights, and with a smile, Lemmy snuggled into bed and went to sleep.

…

Morning came sooner than Lemmy expected. It almost felt like he got no sleep at all, like he just closed his eyes and opened them after only a minute had passed. This was so strange, and it left Lemmy feeling weird. He expected that he would at least have had a dream.

Oh well. Rubbing his eyes, Lemmy stretched his arms up to the ceiling and yawned. This was it. It was the first day of the competition. He was going to go back down to the Shellturner Theater with everyone else and find out who was going up against who. It was going to be a time of high tension and anticipation. It was going to be a time when everyone was preparing to bring their A-game. It was going to be the Laugh-Off to end all Laugh-Offs, the time when Lemmy would have his chance to shine.

BRING! BRING!

Lemmy pulled his phone out of his hammerspace. He saw that he was getting a call from Ludwig, which helped him smile the tiniest bit. He pressed the accept call button and put the phone up to his ear.

"Hey, Ludwig."

"Hey Lems. I just wanted to check in on you. You know, because it's the first day of the contest and all."

Lemmy let out a breath. "Well, thank you! That's very nice of you, thank you." Lemmy rubbed his eyes again. "I hope things will go well."

"I think they will, Lemmy. I know you; you're one of the funniest people I've ever met. You're gonna do great."

"You think so?"

"Of course!" Ludwig paused. "And… well, don't think I've forgotten about that conversation we had last week. Lemmy… I know that you don't think very highly of yourself at the moment. But take it from someone who you've always supported; you're gonna do great. Even if you don't win, I know that you can accomplish your original goal. You're gonna leave an impact on a ton of people. You're gonna make someone happy in a way only you can."

Lemmy smiled, sniffled, and wiped his eyes. "Thanks, Ludwig. I needed to hear that."

"You're welcome." It was almost like Lemmy could HEAR Ludwig's smile through the phone. "And trust me, all of us at the castle are going to watch the competition, and we're going to be cheering for you."

Putting his hand to his heart, Lemmy sniffled again. "I know." He sniffled once more, hoping that he wouldn't turn into a blubbery wet mess. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Lemmy. Now, go get ready! Go down to the Shellturner Theater; the world is waiting to see you!"

Lemmy laughed. "Okay! I will! Talk to you later." With that, Lemmy hung up. He bounced out of bed and stood in front of the mirror on the lefthand wall. After adjusting himself in a way he was satisfied with, he let out a breath and faced the door.

"You got this, Lemmy."

…

Walking into the Shellturner Theater today was a completely different experience from walking in yesterday. For one, there were a LOT more people. All forty of the contestants competing in the Laugh-Off were here, talking to each other on the stage. Lemmy's eyes scanned the stage, and he felt happy when he spotted Luanne and Benny. Luanne was talking to a red-haired human woman and Benny was talking to a purple bob-omb. Lemmy questioned which one of these two he should go talk to first. He went back and forth in his head for a little bit before ultimately deciding on Luanne.

He ran over to the stage. "Hey, Luanne!" Luanne turned to him as he jumped up and down in front of the edge of the stage. "It's so nice to see you again!" He jumped up, trying to grab hold of the edge. Unfortunately, the stage hadn't shrunk and Lemmy hadn't grown since the last time he was here, so he failed to reach the ledge.

"Lemmy!" Luanne and the red-haired human ran up to him. "Do you need help?"

"Nope!" Lemmy put every last bit of his strength into his next jump. "I… can… make it!" He was so close to reaching the stage, so damn close! But it was still out of reach, still so high over his head that his stubby little legs couldn't jump up to it.

"Here Buddy, let me help you," said the redhead. She held out her hand, and Lemmy gingerly took it (no pun intended). She hoisted him up, and despite her kindness, Lemmy's face still grew warm when he was on the stage. He wasn't one hundred percent sure why; he supposed he was just dealing with embarrassment.

"Uh… thanks."

"You're welcome." The woman extended her hand, this time for a completely different reason. "I'm Patty, by the way."

"Lemmy." Lemmy reached out and shook her hand. "Or, as you may call me, 'The Winner of the Ultimate Laugh-Off.'"

Both Patty and Luanne laughed. "Oh, we will see about that!" Patty said. Her eyes sparkled. "I think all of us have a pretty good shot at winning. I mean, not everyone's comedy skill is quite neck and neck, but… well, we all have experience performing in front of people, right?"

Lemmy bit his lip. "Well… kinda." On a technical level, that WAS true. He did perform in front of others… once. "Yeah, I think you're right."

Patty chuckled. "And honestly, I think it'll be interesting seeing all the different people going up against one another. It's going to be an all-out comedy brawl!"

Luanna laughed. "It's Super Laugh-Off Ultimate is what it is!" She and Patty laughed, with Lemmy joining in. Yeah, everything would be nice. Heck, maybe him getting a chance to see everyone else's skills would give him a source of inspiration…

"There he is!"

Lemmy, Luanne, and Patty blinked. Turning around, they saw Benny and the purple bob-omb coming up to them. Benny's eyes were sparkling. The bob-omb's were so far away from sparkling that it was concerning.

"This is him!" Benny said to the bob-omb. He gestured to Lemmy. "This is Lemmy Koopa! He's one of the Koopalings, and he's actually competing in the Laugh-Off!"

Patty gasped. "Wait, what?" She turned to Lemmy with wide eyes. "Are you really one of the Koopalings?"

Lemmy chuckled as his face grew warm again. "Well… yeah. I am."

"Oh great," the bob-omb said with a roll of the eyes. "So we got a famous person competing here. I bet he's gonna get a lot of votes from the audience just from recognition alone."

Lemmy felt a pang. Benny looked like he was going to recoil. "Uh..." he chuckled nervously and gestured to the bob-omb. "This is Chester, by the way."

"H… hey Chester," Lemmy said. He put on a smile that he hoped appeared civil. "And… well, I don't think that's gonna happen. Like I was discussing with Patty and Luanne, everyone who's competing in the competition has their own special talents. Everyone has a fair shot of winning the grand prize."

Chester sniffed. "Yeah. I get that, but still." He narrowed his eyes at Lemmy. "I don't want to compete in a competition that's rigged. I'd much rather have a TRUE fair shot at winning as opposed to one that only appears fair."

Lemmy's shoulders slumped. "I… I see."

"Well, that's neither here nor there," Luanne said. She put on a smile. "We all are going to put our all into this competition, so at the very least it's going to be entertaining to watch."

"Oh yeah, I can vouch for that," said Patty. She giggled as she ran her hand through her hair. "I've been on fire when it came to writing the jokes for the first round! I think the audience is going to love what I've come up with!"

"Y… yeah." Suddenly, and much to Lemmy's relief, a sort of alarm could be heard over the stage. Once it stopped, he looked at everyone. "I think that means Rouge is going to be here shortly."

"Oh man!" Benny said. He flapped his hands. "I'm sweating. Can you guys tell I'm sweating?"

"Yes." Chester walked over to the rest of the group. "You stick out like a red and sweaty thumb."

Lemmy frowned and went to join everyone else. The stage quieted down as all of the comedians kept their eyes on the door. They must've waited for a good ten minutes, but Rouge was nowhere to be seen. At first, Lemmy tried not to let this make him nervous. She probably had something that was holding her up; that's all. However, after the twenty-minute mark…

"Where's Rouge?" Lemmy asked.

"Beats me," Luanne said with a shrug.

"This is her competition; why is she running late?" Chester let out a growl and stepped away from the group. "I'm gonna go look for her."

"Uh…" Lemmy hesitated before going up to Chester. "I'll join you."