[Action/Narrative] tl;dr every character I touch has issues
The first few things were pretty odd; his mother greeting him, after he had a quick dinner in the cafeteria, and asking why he had avoiding going home for so long, asking if he didn't love her. He had reluctantly admitted that he did love her, even if he didn't like showing it, and that answer seemed sufficient enough; she didn't stop him when he left to go to his room.
The windows were all gone in some of the hallways, but now there were doors in their place. Yellow and pink and green and yellow doors, all asking Goombario more questions. Can you open us? We're lonely, we need a friend, can you be our friend? What's it like to be in school? To go to class? To talk to people? To be damned and despised and unwanted?
He opened these doors one by one, staring down at the ground so far below. Very far, miles and miles of air. If he fell, he would never reach that green dot below that was the grass. Goombario backed away, not wanting to have to experience that. Still, he opened the doors, because they wanted a friend and he knew what it was like to be lonely.
Finally, he came across a door that would not open. It was stuck and it wouldn't budge and it just kept asking him things. Do you like anyone? Was she a princess? Why aren't you two friends anymore? Didn't she try to kill herself?
Those questions hit a nerve, and Goombario lashed out at the door in frustration. It shrieked and vanished. Except it didn't, right? It just turned into a window, with an ugly crack in it. Had Goombario done that?
There was a reflection in the window now, except it wasn't really a reflection, because the person looking back at Goombario had a red hat and light skin and a mustache and a big nose.
"You came back!" For the first time since meeting his mother today, Goombario's emotions weren't muted; genuine excitement, genuine smiles. "Mario, you came back!"
Mario smiled back, and then replied. "I wanted to see all-a my friends again."
"We're here, we're here. Para and Watt and Goombella and I think I saw the Princess the other day...and me, I came back, too."
"I noticed," came a monotone response. Mario kept on smiling.
"...And that's supposed to mean?"
"I didn't come back-a for you. You lost hope in me."
How did Mario know that? No...no, wait, that never happened! Goombario always stayed loyal to him! "I never did. I was always waiting for you to return, and--"
"And you're a liar, at that. You hated me, right after the Aparoids-a were driven off. You hated my absence and hated the fake Daisy and hated the Aparoids and hated yourself. I don't stand for hatred. You should know that, being my-a biggest fan." Those last words were heavy in sarcasm. And yet Mario still smiled.
"I... Mario, please, I'm sorry, but I didn't hate you and I've been defending your reputation--"
"--by picking fights with your roommate."
"Mario, c-cut it out, please! This isn't funny!"
"You think it's a joke? You think it's all a game? You've been lucky to-a not die, given all the times the opportunity arose. Your survival's a fluke. You don't have any special abilities, few accomplishments... I dwarf you, Goombario. You can't follow someone who's forever out of your league."
"...Are you a Duplighost? Not Mario?" Goombario clung to a shred of childish idolization.
The smile grew.
"Duplighosts tell only lies. Mario always tells the truth."
The next thing Goombario knew, the window was shattered and his arm was through it and he was getting red all over the glass and the floor and himself.
He stumbled back, puzzled and scared. Why was there red everywhere? Did he just break the window? Did he hurt Mario? Was he supposed to care about that right now?
Pain all over his arm, pain bleeding out and running on it. He needed to get to the nurse's office.
He ran down the hall the way he came, ignoring the doors and their questions. What do you want to be when you grow up? Do you have any plans for the future? Is there someone important in your life? What are you going to do when you realize you're nothing? The doors were all red too, and they were smiling, and he himself had left a trail of red as he ran.
Goombario was smiling, too. Put on a happy smile and you'll be okay. No one will know that you know you were only fooling yourself into thinking he cared about you.
Drip drip, trail of red, trail of red turning into Bulb-ulb seeds turning into flowers. Evil white flowers from the haunted forest, flowers that giggled and spun and harshly parroted what had been said been said in the past, when a group of nine were trying to save their kingdom.
"Look, it's unbearably hot out. I'm getting pretty fed up with it, if you want to know the truth..."
"If a guy were afraid of heights, his legs would probably tremble and he'd probably freak out. *...gulp!*"
"I really hate eating fish. But fishing does look fun... Fishing in the harbor must be pretty relaxing. My dad goes fishing, too. I wonder if he knows this guy... But seriously, I hate fish."
"Oh, gross! Look, Mario! The water's filthy! And look! Garbage! These tunnels are a total nightmare."
"Well, I've determined that there's nothing here but cold, and I don't like it at all!"
"That looks nothing like me. Does it? No! Seriously though, does it? Mario? Hello? Look, I've been working out like crazy trying to get in shape for adventuring. There's just no way I'm that pudgy!"
The common room was on the way to the office. There were no couches. No tables, no computers, no televisions, no doors or windows. Just a big, empty room, with the carpet melting away to leave the bare floorboards behind.
Seven people awaited him.
They all looked a bit roughed up, almost they they had just been fighting. They looked like this after they had beaten Bowser several years ago. It was like not a minute had passed for them since then. How nice, being frozen in a triumphant moment of time...
"Are you all here to stay at the school?" Goombario wanted them all here. All eight of them together, like old times. Even if Mario despised the very ground they walked on, they'd be okay all together, and he wouldn't have to feel lonely.
"I'm not coming back," Lakilester-- Spike-- Lakispike said. "I didn't like it when I tried the first time."
"Tsk. Seriously? It couldn't have been that bad."
"I feel the same way," Kooper added. "I took a cue from Mario and left because there had been problems everywhere."
That's right, Kooper had left while Goombario was away, just as Mario did. But Mario left because--
"What kinds of problems?" Goombario asked.
Sushie clicked her tongue disdainfully. "The kinds that kept me and Bombette from ever stepping foot -- or fin, I suppose -- here in the first place. It's the same kind that's chased away people even when the problem ran away to try and train. It left that much of a malaise on this school. It can't be cleaned off."
Goombario stared blankly. The words all made sense, and he was smart enough to make the connections, but he didn't want to believe it.
Bow saw this, and she got angry really, really fast. "Goombario, you can't really be that stupid, can you!? Open your eyes! I left because you complain and get into trouble and you still think you're worth something!"
Unlike with Mario, Goombario felt like he was with equals, and this time, he argued right back, genuine emotion and anger flaring up. "I am worth something! If I can just focus on my studies and my training a little more, I--"
"You had your chance," Bombette interrupted; Goombario was quickly silenced by his former crush joining in on the mockery. "You stayed in school for a year, and when that didn't pan out, you dropped out to travel and train for another year. What now? Where is your proof of being a somebody?"
"My proof...? Getting the Star Rod back? Stopping the Aparoid invasion? Saving countless lives twice over!?"
"Please, you'd have never survived the first minutes of either of those without everyone around you helping you." Parakarry sneered at him. "I tried to protect you because I'd feel bad if someone died on my watch. We're all here only out of pity, Goombario. Me, the team, your clubmates... We only played along with what you wanted. You wanted to be a hero, so we just acted like disappointed but tolerant parents who smiled and nodded and gave you what you wanted. Even parents get fed up, however. Why do you think she lied and pretended that she had an alien clone? She was done with the ruse."
Duplighosts, Aparoids, alien clones, anything but the real deal. He believed that they were there and that they were saying this, but he was trying hard to not believe it was real. "Well, at least I'm not a manipulative liar, right!?"
It was Watt's turn to speak. Her voice was airy and innocent and childish, as always.
"You've been in on the ruse, too, lying and manipulating yourself, pretending to be okay even when you clearly weren't. You always knew, deep down, how fucking useless you are."
Goombario wanted to throw insults right back at them all. If it was one-on-one, maybe even two-on-one, he'd be able to do just that. But against eight people at once, he knew he couldn't win.
wait
onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight
an eighth person was there
He seemed very young, his cheeks flushed with energy and his eyes wide with curiosity. Everyone else seemed to fade and become part of the background, and Goombario's attention was focused on this person. He knew this child.
The young Goomba spoke. "Maybe it's not all that bad. People come and go all the time, so why should friends -- or so-called friends -- be any different? It just means you get to meet all kinds of people and you won't get bored with the same group."
Goombario stared.
"Oh, are you thinking I'm just an incurable optimist? Well, what's wrong with that? Smiling is always good because no one will know that you've been hurt in the past and you can't do anything about it."
"But... Well, okay, first of all, how are you here. You're me."
"You left the doors open, duh. Now, come on already, smile. Everyone is going away because of you, you probably won't be a distinguished solo hero like you've always wanted to be, and the world would be probably be better if you just made yourself disappear for good, but you've got your memories and your optimism, and that's kept you afloat all this time, right?"
"...Yeah. I'm okay, if I can keep doing that. I guess."
"That's the spirit."
The eight around him collapsed then, and when they hit the ground, they poofed into coins and flowers and stars of all colors. Goombario was too far gone to care anymore about them at the moment, though. He just wandered off; his arm felt tingly and stiff and red.
... ... ...
He lost his way, and he couldn't even leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind. They were leaking slower and slower, no longer gushing out of his arm like before. Besides, red breadcrumbs were gross, and Hansel was a nobody without a Gretel.
Goombario wandered down the forest path -- a school hallway had transported him here -- ignoring the trees that grinned, the bushes that rustled, and the flowers that mocked him. There was a way to navigate this Forever Forest, but it meant looking at all the odd flora, which he didn't want to do. The trees were joining in on the taunting now. "All alone, all alone."
A bush was in his way, two white flowers peeking out of it. They giggled to each other.
"Eeeh, really!? Just a sidekick!? How weak!"
"It's unforgivable to be so useless unless you're already long dead, right? HA HA HA HA--"
Goombario ripped the flowers off of their stems, and the bush withered and died as the flowers shrieked in pain, stopping abruptly and also going limp. The path was clear now, and he stepped outside into the darkness.
Nothing around. Tons of nothing that could be walked on. Goombario took a few experimental steps forward, looking around for anything that could be in the void.
Suddenly, a bright light, a loud bang. Goombario yelped; not only had he heard and seen it, but his body suddenly felt very cold for a few seconds.
Again, with crackling green lights overhead. A sweet taste was in his mouth. A purple-blue light, and he couldn't hear the bang over a ringing noise in his ears.
Synesthesia was the term, right? He was a synesthete, then. How come he never knew?
More and more lights exploded above, and each combination had a feel, a scent, or a taste. Sometimes there has even more noise or more color that he was pretty sure was only his mind.
It didn't take much for this to overwhelm him. He dropped down onto his knees, clutching at the "ground", at the abyss.
The evil flowers appeared in his hands. Except now they had red caps. And they had twisted grins. And a singular eye. They said nothing, and only stared unwaveringly, as sights and sounds and tastes consumed him.
((SO. HERE'S THE SITUATION.
1. There's a hallway with opened windows everywhere. One window has been punched right through, and there's glass and blood all over, the latter trailing down the hall in droplets.
2. Although the trail gets thinner, it passes through the common room, then leads elsewhere. The blood becomes scant from here on and there's no trail to follow unless you can follow scents or something.
3. Goombario is outside on his hands and knees, wincing whenever a firework goes off, and gripping some ripped-out grass tightly. His right arm is cut up very badly; not life-threatening, but it's probably a good idea to get him to seek medical attention very soon. He's still smiling, even though it's obviously forced.))
The windows were all gone in some of the hallways, but now there were doors in their place. Yellow and pink and green and yellow doors, all asking Goombario more questions. Can you open us? We're lonely, we need a friend, can you be our friend? What's it like to be in school? To go to class? To talk to people? To be damned and despised and unwanted?
He opened these doors one by one, staring down at the ground so far below. Very far, miles and miles of air. If he fell, he would never reach that green dot below that was the grass. Goombario backed away, not wanting to have to experience that. Still, he opened the doors, because they wanted a friend and he knew what it was like to be lonely.
Finally, he came across a door that would not open. It was stuck and it wouldn't budge and it just kept asking him things. Do you like anyone? Was she a princess? Why aren't you two friends anymore? Didn't she try to kill herself?
Those questions hit a nerve, and Goombario lashed out at the door in frustration. It shrieked and vanished. Except it didn't, right? It just turned into a window, with an ugly crack in it. Had Goombario done that?
There was a reflection in the window now, except it wasn't really a reflection, because the person looking back at Goombario had a red hat and light skin and a mustache and a big nose.
"You came back!" For the first time since meeting his mother today, Goombario's emotions weren't muted; genuine excitement, genuine smiles. "Mario, you came back!"
Mario smiled back, and then replied. "I wanted to see all-a my friends again."
"We're here, we're here. Para and Watt and Goombella and I think I saw the Princess the other day...and me, I came back, too."
"I noticed," came a monotone response. Mario kept on smiling.
"...And that's supposed to mean?"
"I didn't come back-a for you. You lost hope in me."
How did Mario know that? No...no, wait, that never happened! Goombario always stayed loyal to him! "I never did. I was always waiting for you to return, and--"
"And you're a liar, at that. You hated me, right after the Aparoids-a were driven off. You hated my absence and hated the fake Daisy and hated the Aparoids and hated yourself. I don't stand for hatred. You should know that, being my-a biggest fan." Those last words were heavy in sarcasm. And yet Mario still smiled.
"I... Mario, please, I'm sorry, but I didn't hate you and I've been defending your reputation--"
"--by picking fights with your roommate."
"Mario, c-cut it out, please! This isn't funny!"
"You think it's a joke? You think it's all a game? You've been lucky to-a not die, given all the times the opportunity arose. Your survival's a fluke. You don't have any special abilities, few accomplishments... I dwarf you, Goombario. You can't follow someone who's forever out of your league."
"...Are you a Duplighost? Not Mario?" Goombario clung to a shred of childish idolization.
The smile grew.
"Duplighosts tell only lies. Mario always tells the truth."
The next thing Goombario knew, the window was shattered and his arm was through it and he was getting red all over the glass and the floor and himself.
He stumbled back, puzzled and scared. Why was there red everywhere? Did he just break the window? Did he hurt Mario? Was he supposed to care about that right now?
Pain all over his arm, pain bleeding out and running on it. He needed to get to the nurse's office.
He ran down the hall the way he came, ignoring the doors and their questions. What do you want to be when you grow up? Do you have any plans for the future? Is there someone important in your life? What are you going to do when you realize you're nothing? The doors were all red too, and they were smiling, and he himself had left a trail of red as he ran.
Goombario was smiling, too. Put on a happy smile and you'll be okay. No one will know that you know you were only fooling yourself into thinking he cared about you.
Drip drip, trail of red, trail of red turning into Bulb-ulb seeds turning into flowers. Evil white flowers from the haunted forest, flowers that giggled and spun and harshly parroted what had been said been said in the past, when a group of nine were trying to save their kingdom.
"Look, it's unbearably hot out. I'm getting pretty fed up with it, if you want to know the truth..."
"If a guy were afraid of heights, his legs would probably tremble and he'd probably freak out. *...gulp!*"
"I really hate eating fish. But fishing does look fun... Fishing in the harbor must be pretty relaxing. My dad goes fishing, too. I wonder if he knows this guy... But seriously, I hate fish."
"Oh, gross! Look, Mario! The water's filthy! And look! Garbage! These tunnels are a total nightmare."
"Well, I've determined that there's nothing here but cold, and I don't like it at all!"
"That looks nothing like me. Does it? No! Seriously though, does it? Mario? Hello? Look, I've been working out like crazy trying to get in shape for adventuring. There's just no way I'm that pudgy!"
The common room was on the way to the office. There were no couches. No tables, no computers, no televisions, no doors or windows. Just a big, empty room, with the carpet melting away to leave the bare floorboards behind.
Seven people awaited him.
They all looked a bit roughed up, almost they they had just been fighting. They looked like this after they had beaten Bowser several years ago. It was like not a minute had passed for them since then. How nice, being frozen in a triumphant moment of time...
"Are you all here to stay at the school?" Goombario wanted them all here. All eight of them together, like old times. Even if Mario despised the very ground they walked on, they'd be okay all together, and he wouldn't have to feel lonely.
"I'm not coming back," Lakilester-- Spike-- Lakispike said. "I didn't like it when I tried the first time."
"Tsk. Seriously? It couldn't have been that bad."
"I feel the same way," Kooper added. "I took a cue from Mario and left because there had been problems everywhere."
That's right, Kooper had left while Goombario was away, just as Mario did. But Mario left because--
"What kinds of problems?" Goombario asked.
Sushie clicked her tongue disdainfully. "The kinds that kept me and Bombette from ever stepping foot -- or fin, I suppose -- here in the first place. It's the same kind that's chased away people even when the problem ran away to try and train. It left that much of a malaise on this school. It can't be cleaned off."
Goombario stared blankly. The words all made sense, and he was smart enough to make the connections, but he didn't want to believe it.
Bow saw this, and she got angry really, really fast. "Goombario, you can't really be that stupid, can you!? Open your eyes! I left because you complain and get into trouble and you still think you're worth something!"
Unlike with Mario, Goombario felt like he was with equals, and this time, he argued right back, genuine emotion and anger flaring up. "I am worth something! If I can just focus on my studies and my training a little more, I--"
"You had your chance," Bombette interrupted; Goombario was quickly silenced by his former crush joining in on the mockery. "You stayed in school for a year, and when that didn't pan out, you dropped out to travel and train for another year. What now? Where is your proof of being a somebody?"
"My proof...? Getting the Star Rod back? Stopping the Aparoid invasion? Saving countless lives twice over!?"
"Please, you'd have never survived the first minutes of either of those without everyone around you helping you." Parakarry sneered at him. "I tried to protect you because I'd feel bad if someone died on my watch. We're all here only out of pity, Goombario. Me, the team, your clubmates... We only played along with what you wanted. You wanted to be a hero, so we just acted like disappointed but tolerant parents who smiled and nodded and gave you what you wanted. Even parents get fed up, however. Why do you think she lied and pretended that she had an alien clone? She was done with the ruse."
Duplighosts, Aparoids, alien clones, anything but the real deal. He believed that they were there and that they were saying this, but he was trying hard to not believe it was real. "Well, at least I'm not a manipulative liar, right!?"
It was Watt's turn to speak. Her voice was airy and innocent and childish, as always.
"You've been in on the ruse, too, lying and manipulating yourself, pretending to be okay even when you clearly weren't. You always knew, deep down, how fucking useless you are."
Goombario wanted to throw insults right back at them all. If it was one-on-one, maybe even two-on-one, he'd be able to do just that. But against eight people at once, he knew he couldn't win.
wait
onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight
an eighth person was there
He seemed very young, his cheeks flushed with energy and his eyes wide with curiosity. Everyone else seemed to fade and become part of the background, and Goombario's attention was focused on this person. He knew this child.
The young Goomba spoke. "Maybe it's not all that bad. People come and go all the time, so why should friends -- or so-called friends -- be any different? It just means you get to meet all kinds of people and you won't get bored with the same group."
Goombario stared.
"Oh, are you thinking I'm just an incurable optimist? Well, what's wrong with that? Smiling is always good because no one will know that you've been hurt in the past and you can't do anything about it."
"But... Well, okay, first of all, how are you here. You're me."
"You left the doors open, duh. Now, come on already, smile. Everyone is going away because of you, you probably won't be a distinguished solo hero like you've always wanted to be, and the world would be probably be better if you just made yourself disappear for good, but you've got your memories and your optimism, and that's kept you afloat all this time, right?"
"...Yeah. I'm okay, if I can keep doing that. I guess."
"That's the spirit."
The eight around him collapsed then, and when they hit the ground, they poofed into coins and flowers and stars of all colors. Goombario was too far gone to care anymore about them at the moment, though. He just wandered off; his arm felt tingly and stiff and red.
... ... ...
He lost his way, and he couldn't even leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind. They were leaking slower and slower, no longer gushing out of his arm like before. Besides, red breadcrumbs were gross, and Hansel was a nobody without a Gretel.
Goombario wandered down the forest path -- a school hallway had transported him here -- ignoring the trees that grinned, the bushes that rustled, and the flowers that mocked him. There was a way to navigate this Forever Forest, but it meant looking at all the odd flora, which he didn't want to do. The trees were joining in on the taunting now. "All alone, all alone."
A bush was in his way, two white flowers peeking out of it. They giggled to each other.
"Eeeh, really!? Just a sidekick!? How weak!"
"It's unforgivable to be so useless unless you're already long dead, right? HA HA HA HA--"
Goombario ripped the flowers off of their stems, and the bush withered and died as the flowers shrieked in pain, stopping abruptly and also going limp. The path was clear now, and he stepped outside into the darkness.
Nothing around. Tons of nothing that could be walked on. Goombario took a few experimental steps forward, looking around for anything that could be in the void.
Suddenly, a bright light, a loud bang. Goombario yelped; not only had he heard and seen it, but his body suddenly felt very cold for a few seconds.
Again, with crackling green lights overhead. A sweet taste was in his mouth. A purple-blue light, and he couldn't hear the bang over a ringing noise in his ears.
Synesthesia was the term, right? He was a synesthete, then. How come he never knew?
More and more lights exploded above, and each combination had a feel, a scent, or a taste. Sometimes there has even more noise or more color that he was pretty sure was only his mind.
It didn't take much for this to overwhelm him. He dropped down onto his knees, clutching at the "ground", at the abyss.
The evil flowers appeared in his hands. Except now they had red caps. And they had twisted grins. And a singular eye. They said nothing, and only stared unwaveringly, as sights and sounds and tastes consumed him.
((SO. HERE'S THE SITUATION.
1. There's a hallway with opened windows everywhere. One window has been punched right through, and there's glass and blood all over, the latter trailing down the hall in droplets.
2. Although the trail gets thinner, it passes through the common room, then leads elsewhere. The blood becomes scant from here on and there's no trail to follow unless you can follow scents or something.
3. Goombario is outside on his hands and knees, wincing whenever a firework goes off, and gripping some ripped-out grass tightly. His right arm is cut up very badly; not life-threatening, but it's probably a good idea to get him to seek medical attention very soon. He's still smiling, even though it's obviously forced.))