Categories > Games > Mario > Complications
Chapter 20
0 ReviewsChapter 20: A Competition of Bribery
Complications
Chapter 20: A Competition of Bribery
"Pauline!" Time felt like it was advancing in slow motion for Daisy, when she spotted the raccoon girl heading towards the group, answering Peach's call. The Mushroom Princess did not look surprised to see her.
The group of five made their way to the roller coaster, exchanging greetings with Pauline; Peach caught Daisy's surprised look and smiled. "It's not fair if both candidates are not present, right?" Peach had not yet made up her mind, but neither had Pauline or Mario and Peach could not ignore that, even if Pauline herself was willing to try to ignore her own heart. It had been Peach who invited Pauline to come along and provided her with a golden ticket. Peach also got the full story from the mayor of Moleville and knew exactly what to expect, or so she thought.
Daisy realized that Peach knew what was going on. Peach had known all along that Bowser was coming, and decided to make it, not only her change to see her feelings clearly, but also Mario's. Daisy laughed in good humor, she should have known that Peach would find out about her plans and make little modifications; but maybe this would be for the best.
xoxox xox xoxox
Pa'Mole used to be another worker in the mines during the era when Moleville was still developing, but he had been recently elected mayor. The mayor could have sworn he heard his wife mutter something about karma when King Bowser Koopa entered their house. Pa'Mole stepped back nervously and wondered why in the world Bowser would visit his house, which was one of the few houses left since the town became a tourist attraction. Furthermore, the Mario brothers were supposed to be visiting Mole Mountain today, and they should have arrived by now. "How may I help you?" Pa'Mole hoped that Bowser, like his previous royal visitors, came with a bribe and a request for golden tickets and information, but deep down he knew that his luck had ran out.
"My troops are taking over the management of Mole Mountain for the day. Clients can still come and go, I don't care, but when Peach and I visit a ride or something, I don't want anyone getting in our way." Bowser's tone was threatening, and made it clear that he would not give Pa'Mole the chance to argue.
Ironically, instead of becoming more worried, Pa'Mole took a deep breath and relaxed. "Of course, everything has already been arranged as Princess Daisy requested."
Bowser was surprised by Pa'Mole's reaction, which implied that the mayor had anticipated the request and was ready to fulfill it. He mentioned the name of Princess Daisy, whom Bowser knew was Peach's close friend. "What exactly did Daisy ask for?"
Pa'Mole felt less distress as the conversation went on. "By princess Daisy's request, she was awarded thirteen golden tickets, nine of which were delivered to prince Ludwig. She has also requested control over the roller-coaster cars when Peach and her companion ride them. We have made arrangements with Booster's Snifits to help us give Peach and Mario some time alone, then keep Mario busy when it is time for her to spend time alone with you. There will also be group activities for the three of you."
"Mario and Peach are not spending any time together, and what is all of this about? Why did Daisy ask for this?" Bowser demanded to know. He didn't understand why in the world Daisy would arrange things for Peach to spend time with him and with Mario. The Sarasaland princess might plan a date for Peach and Mario; but in this situation, Peach would go on a date with both Mario and Bowser.
Pa'Mole glanced at his wife, Ma'Mole, searching for support, but she only shook her head as if reminding him that she had warned him about what could happen if he accepted those bribes. Summoning all his courage, Pa'Mole spoke sincerely, "I prefer Princess Peach's method of obtaining information," and Ma'Mole shook her head.
"Peach?" Things were becoming quite interesting for Bowser, and even more confusing. "Peach has a part in this too?"
"Yes, Princess Daisy made some arrangements and paid a bri-I mean a fee to gain control of Mole Mountain for the day. She also mentioned that you and your children would be here, and that I should allow you to make any necessary arrangements as long as it did not interfere with her plan." Pa'Mole stopped, he didn't want to reveal the next part but he had already mentioned Peach so there was no choice. "Princess Peach... she... well..."
"Spit it out already!" Unknown to Bowser, his loud voice had given away his position to Daisy, who rushed over.
Daisy stopped in front of Pa'Mole's door and listened.
"Princess Peach found out about Princess Daisy's plans and bribed-er I mean, she paid for Mole Mountain's services as well. She wished to include one more person in the group date. I agreed to help and-" The door was thrown open and Pa'Mole's explanation was cut off.
"And you didn't tell me!" Daisy finished for him.
From what he had found out so far, not only the koopalings were in on this, but Daisy and Peach as well. However, there were still many important details that he needed to understand. Bringing Pa'Mole and Daisy's attention to himself, Bowser summarized his confusion in four emphasized words, "what is going on?" The firm tone in which each word was spoken made it clear that his patience had reached its limits.
"Apparently Peach out bribed me," Daisy's ice glare made Pa'Mole freeze and remain silent. It was best to let her handle the explanations anyway. "Okay Bowser, here's the plan, Peach will be going on a date with you and Mario so that she may compare both dates and decide which one she liked best. I have made some arrangements so that Mario doesn't interrupt your portion of the date with Peach. While all of this is taking place, Luigi and I will take care of the koopalings to ensure that there are no interruptions. At least that was the original plan but Peach added someone."
"Peach helped arrange all this? She wants to go on a date with me?" Bowser's mood took a turn for the better. "I understand, so Peach has finally decided to dump that pesky plumber, it's about time!"
"Let's not forget, Peach is also going on a date with Mario." Daisy knew that with Bowser involved, carrying out the plan would not be easy, but it was certainly not impossible. "The reason for all of this is to let her compare her time with you and her time with Mario. Then she can decide if she wants to date Mario or-"
"Of course she'll choose me!" Well, Bowser was certainly confident, Daisy had to give him credit for that, but perhaps he was too confident; then again, Daisy could use that in her favor.
"I see you're very sure of yourself," Daisy smiled as Bowser played right into her plan.
"I am the best man Peach could ever wish for, and I am her husband." Bowser looked forward to the day when his beloved Peach would be married to him, not only in name.
"Well then, you won't mind that this has to be fair. If you're really confident in yourself, you won't bother Peach during her time with Mario, and you will behave during the group activities. Besides, Peach has already willingly given herself more competition by inviting Pauline." Daisy explained.
"Pauline, the raccoon?" Daisy nodded in reply and Bowser decided that he was having one of the best days of his life, not as good as his wedding day, but it could come close if things went well. "Don't you see what's going on? Peach wants Mario out of the way. She even found a date for him."
"It's not like that," Daisy argued, while Pa'Mole tried to slip away.
Bowser picked up the mole by the suspenders of his green overalls and moved him away from the door. "What other explanation can there be?"
"Peach wants Mario to decide without choosing her simply because she's there. She wants to know if his past feelings for Pauline are stronger than his feelings for her, or if he is truly over Pauline and in love with Peach. She wants the honest truth, and while Peach helps Mario find that truth, I'm trying to help her find her own truth. Also the reason she has been seeing the koopalings is..." Daisy observed Bowser's expression. She remembered that Peach had not explained anything to Bowser about the spirit world. Daisy mentally kicked herself for getting carried away and revealing too much information.
Bowser wanted to know more. "It sounds like you are very well informed."
"If by that you mean you expect me to speak, then your luck is over. Don't forget that when you marry the bride, you marry her entire family." Daisy was not very satisfied with her own choice of words, but they seemed to have an affect on Bowser.
"Get along with her friends and family, that's what you're talking about isn't it? Fine, I can tolerate everyone except for the Mario brothers," Bowser had known that eventually, when Peach truly became his queen, she would want him to get along with her father, the old mushroom Toadwart or whatever his name was, and her other little friends, Daisy included. But the Koopa King was so focused on winning Peach's heart and making her happy in the present time; that he gave those aftermath details very little thought.
"You'll have to do more than that. I can't believe I'm actually giving you helpful advice; but I suppose it will make things run smoothly." Daisy took a deep breath and began to explain her guidelines. "I'm sure you must have noticed that many people, except his enemies, like Mario and admire him. Peach is very concerned with the well being of her kingdom, maybe even more so than her own. What her people think is very important to her, and quite frankly not many people in the Mushroom Kingdom like you, except a small group that they call the BP shippers."
"BP shippers? Bowser Peach shippers?" Bowser didn't know he and Peach had a fan club in the Mushroom Kingdom, though he knew they had fans in the Koopa Kingdom. "I'm sure there are smart people out there who see how perfect we are for each other." Bowser's was quite happy with this new information. He made a mental note to yell at Kamek later, for not telling him about the BP shippers.
"That is not the point," Daisy tried to no avail to burst Bowser's happy bubble and bring him back to reality. "They are a small group and most people in the Mushroom Kingdom would rather have Mario as their king. The point is, you're standing in a really challenging position, because not only do you have to win Peach's heart, and I still have my doubts that you can, even if I will support her no matter what her choice is; but you also have to earn the positive favor of her people."
"They trust Peach, they'll like who ever she likes." Clearly Bowser would rather focus on his princess.
"Fine, just don't cause trouble. All you need to do is be a little more patient. You arrived too early anyway." Things would work out somehow. Daisy kept telling herself that over and over. "Will you wait until later and let Mario spend some time with Peach first?"
"No, I'm going to find them and stop the date right now." Bowser left without giving Daisy time to say anything more.
Pa'Mole let out a breath he did not know for how long he was holding when the door closed, leaving only Daisy, Ma'Mole and Pa'Mole inside the house.
A few seconds passed in silence until a shy away came in through the window singing happily. "La dee dah! Hi hoo, dee dum!"
"How are Pink and Red?" Daisy asked, speaking in a code known only to the shy away and herself.
"In the clouds!" The shy away happily reported his mission's progress.
Daisy grinned; she would have a lot of fun watching this play out, and so would Peach, admittedly or not. Hopefully by the end of the day everyone would be able to see things clearly. "Good job, what about Green and the chibis?"
"The tree flourishes and the wind plays." Perfect, it was all going according to plan.
xoxox xox xoxox
The code about the tree flourishing and the wind playing, was a reference to Luigi and the koopalings. It meant that he was still surviving and they were all in one place. But Luigi was not having an easy time. The koopalings wanted to see Peach, and they were planning to leave Luigi behind any minute, he simply knew it.
Luigi made sure to watch his back and stay on his guard, even if it resulted quite hard to do so while keeping track of eight children. He constantly counted them to make sure they were all still there. Luigi was surprised the koopalings stayed for that long, it probably only worked because he kept reminding them it was what Peach wanted.
All eight koopalings had been present when the shy away flew by, but that was a few minutes ago, and the level of noise around Luigi had decreased, which caused him to worry and start counting once again. "One, two, three, four, five, six... six? Mama Mia!" Not one but two of the koopalings were missing. "One, two, three, four... Wait!" The koopalings all ran away in different directions, leaving Luigi unable to decide which one to chase, and thus losing track of all of them. Luigi immediately called Daisy's cell phone to give her the bad news. He had a strong feeling that everything was about to go spiraling into chaos, and he was right...
Mole Mountain's pipelines needed repairs. The Mario brothers were called to work on those repairs... but they didn't answer. The parade and the following activities have kept the two best plumbers in the land busy. After that, they took a small vacation, and the blinking of their answering machine continued to blink unattended.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I do not own the Mario games or characters. As a random note, the shy away's singing was not random. That is what he sings in Super Mario RPG, which is also where Moleville is from, but the town has evolved a lot in this story. Razzi gets cookies because she guessed the pipe plot was coming. XD Next chapter, Beware the Flood. On another note, today I'm celebrating having made 2000 pixels for my Reno shrine and pixel collection site. It's Final Fantasy VII, which has nothing to do with this fandom, but having 2000 little pixels makes me want to do something to celebrate, and so I decided to update all my stories on the same day. It took a while to get everything ready to be posted at the same day but here it is. If you want to visit my Reno shrine there is a link on my profile. It has pixels, graphics, information and printables.
Chapter 20: A Competition of Bribery
"Pauline!" Time felt like it was advancing in slow motion for Daisy, when she spotted the raccoon girl heading towards the group, answering Peach's call. The Mushroom Princess did not look surprised to see her.
The group of five made their way to the roller coaster, exchanging greetings with Pauline; Peach caught Daisy's surprised look and smiled. "It's not fair if both candidates are not present, right?" Peach had not yet made up her mind, but neither had Pauline or Mario and Peach could not ignore that, even if Pauline herself was willing to try to ignore her own heart. It had been Peach who invited Pauline to come along and provided her with a golden ticket. Peach also got the full story from the mayor of Moleville and knew exactly what to expect, or so she thought.
Daisy realized that Peach knew what was going on. Peach had known all along that Bowser was coming, and decided to make it, not only her change to see her feelings clearly, but also Mario's. Daisy laughed in good humor, she should have known that Peach would find out about her plans and make little modifications; but maybe this would be for the best.
xoxox xox xoxox
Pa'Mole used to be another worker in the mines during the era when Moleville was still developing, but he had been recently elected mayor. The mayor could have sworn he heard his wife mutter something about karma when King Bowser Koopa entered their house. Pa'Mole stepped back nervously and wondered why in the world Bowser would visit his house, which was one of the few houses left since the town became a tourist attraction. Furthermore, the Mario brothers were supposed to be visiting Mole Mountain today, and they should have arrived by now. "How may I help you?" Pa'Mole hoped that Bowser, like his previous royal visitors, came with a bribe and a request for golden tickets and information, but deep down he knew that his luck had ran out.
"My troops are taking over the management of Mole Mountain for the day. Clients can still come and go, I don't care, but when Peach and I visit a ride or something, I don't want anyone getting in our way." Bowser's tone was threatening, and made it clear that he would not give Pa'Mole the chance to argue.
Ironically, instead of becoming more worried, Pa'Mole took a deep breath and relaxed. "Of course, everything has already been arranged as Princess Daisy requested."
Bowser was surprised by Pa'Mole's reaction, which implied that the mayor had anticipated the request and was ready to fulfill it. He mentioned the name of Princess Daisy, whom Bowser knew was Peach's close friend. "What exactly did Daisy ask for?"
Pa'Mole felt less distress as the conversation went on. "By princess Daisy's request, she was awarded thirteen golden tickets, nine of which were delivered to prince Ludwig. She has also requested control over the roller-coaster cars when Peach and her companion ride them. We have made arrangements with Booster's Snifits to help us give Peach and Mario some time alone, then keep Mario busy when it is time for her to spend time alone with you. There will also be group activities for the three of you."
"Mario and Peach are not spending any time together, and what is all of this about? Why did Daisy ask for this?" Bowser demanded to know. He didn't understand why in the world Daisy would arrange things for Peach to spend time with him and with Mario. The Sarasaland princess might plan a date for Peach and Mario; but in this situation, Peach would go on a date with both Mario and Bowser.
Pa'Mole glanced at his wife, Ma'Mole, searching for support, but she only shook her head as if reminding him that she had warned him about what could happen if he accepted those bribes. Summoning all his courage, Pa'Mole spoke sincerely, "I prefer Princess Peach's method of obtaining information," and Ma'Mole shook her head.
"Peach?" Things were becoming quite interesting for Bowser, and even more confusing. "Peach has a part in this too?"
"Yes, Princess Daisy made some arrangements and paid a bri-I mean a fee to gain control of Mole Mountain for the day. She also mentioned that you and your children would be here, and that I should allow you to make any necessary arrangements as long as it did not interfere with her plan." Pa'Mole stopped, he didn't want to reveal the next part but he had already mentioned Peach so there was no choice. "Princess Peach... she... well..."
"Spit it out already!" Unknown to Bowser, his loud voice had given away his position to Daisy, who rushed over.
Daisy stopped in front of Pa'Mole's door and listened.
"Princess Peach found out about Princess Daisy's plans and bribed-er I mean, she paid for Mole Mountain's services as well. She wished to include one more person in the group date. I agreed to help and-" The door was thrown open and Pa'Mole's explanation was cut off.
"And you didn't tell me!" Daisy finished for him.
From what he had found out so far, not only the koopalings were in on this, but Daisy and Peach as well. However, there were still many important details that he needed to understand. Bringing Pa'Mole and Daisy's attention to himself, Bowser summarized his confusion in four emphasized words, "what is going on?" The firm tone in which each word was spoken made it clear that his patience had reached its limits.
"Apparently Peach out bribed me," Daisy's ice glare made Pa'Mole freeze and remain silent. It was best to let her handle the explanations anyway. "Okay Bowser, here's the plan, Peach will be going on a date with you and Mario so that she may compare both dates and decide which one she liked best. I have made some arrangements so that Mario doesn't interrupt your portion of the date with Peach. While all of this is taking place, Luigi and I will take care of the koopalings to ensure that there are no interruptions. At least that was the original plan but Peach added someone."
"Peach helped arrange all this? She wants to go on a date with me?" Bowser's mood took a turn for the better. "I understand, so Peach has finally decided to dump that pesky plumber, it's about time!"
"Let's not forget, Peach is also going on a date with Mario." Daisy knew that with Bowser involved, carrying out the plan would not be easy, but it was certainly not impossible. "The reason for all of this is to let her compare her time with you and her time with Mario. Then she can decide if she wants to date Mario or-"
"Of course she'll choose me!" Well, Bowser was certainly confident, Daisy had to give him credit for that, but perhaps he was too confident; then again, Daisy could use that in her favor.
"I see you're very sure of yourself," Daisy smiled as Bowser played right into her plan.
"I am the best man Peach could ever wish for, and I am her husband." Bowser looked forward to the day when his beloved Peach would be married to him, not only in name.
"Well then, you won't mind that this has to be fair. If you're really confident in yourself, you won't bother Peach during her time with Mario, and you will behave during the group activities. Besides, Peach has already willingly given herself more competition by inviting Pauline." Daisy explained.
"Pauline, the raccoon?" Daisy nodded in reply and Bowser decided that he was having one of the best days of his life, not as good as his wedding day, but it could come close if things went well. "Don't you see what's going on? Peach wants Mario out of the way. She even found a date for him."
"It's not like that," Daisy argued, while Pa'Mole tried to slip away.
Bowser picked up the mole by the suspenders of his green overalls and moved him away from the door. "What other explanation can there be?"
"Peach wants Mario to decide without choosing her simply because she's there. She wants to know if his past feelings for Pauline are stronger than his feelings for her, or if he is truly over Pauline and in love with Peach. She wants the honest truth, and while Peach helps Mario find that truth, I'm trying to help her find her own truth. Also the reason she has been seeing the koopalings is..." Daisy observed Bowser's expression. She remembered that Peach had not explained anything to Bowser about the spirit world. Daisy mentally kicked herself for getting carried away and revealing too much information.
Bowser wanted to know more. "It sounds like you are very well informed."
"If by that you mean you expect me to speak, then your luck is over. Don't forget that when you marry the bride, you marry her entire family." Daisy was not very satisfied with her own choice of words, but they seemed to have an affect on Bowser.
"Get along with her friends and family, that's what you're talking about isn't it? Fine, I can tolerate everyone except for the Mario brothers," Bowser had known that eventually, when Peach truly became his queen, she would want him to get along with her father, the old mushroom Toadwart or whatever his name was, and her other little friends, Daisy included. But the Koopa King was so focused on winning Peach's heart and making her happy in the present time; that he gave those aftermath details very little thought.
"You'll have to do more than that. I can't believe I'm actually giving you helpful advice; but I suppose it will make things run smoothly." Daisy took a deep breath and began to explain her guidelines. "I'm sure you must have noticed that many people, except his enemies, like Mario and admire him. Peach is very concerned with the well being of her kingdom, maybe even more so than her own. What her people think is very important to her, and quite frankly not many people in the Mushroom Kingdom like you, except a small group that they call the BP shippers."
"BP shippers? Bowser Peach shippers?" Bowser didn't know he and Peach had a fan club in the Mushroom Kingdom, though he knew they had fans in the Koopa Kingdom. "I'm sure there are smart people out there who see how perfect we are for each other." Bowser's was quite happy with this new information. He made a mental note to yell at Kamek later, for not telling him about the BP shippers.
"That is not the point," Daisy tried to no avail to burst Bowser's happy bubble and bring him back to reality. "They are a small group and most people in the Mushroom Kingdom would rather have Mario as their king. The point is, you're standing in a really challenging position, because not only do you have to win Peach's heart, and I still have my doubts that you can, even if I will support her no matter what her choice is; but you also have to earn the positive favor of her people."
"They trust Peach, they'll like who ever she likes." Clearly Bowser would rather focus on his princess.
"Fine, just don't cause trouble. All you need to do is be a little more patient. You arrived too early anyway." Things would work out somehow. Daisy kept telling herself that over and over. "Will you wait until later and let Mario spend some time with Peach first?"
"No, I'm going to find them and stop the date right now." Bowser left without giving Daisy time to say anything more.
Pa'Mole let out a breath he did not know for how long he was holding when the door closed, leaving only Daisy, Ma'Mole and Pa'Mole inside the house.
A few seconds passed in silence until a shy away came in through the window singing happily. "La dee dah! Hi hoo, dee dum!"
"How are Pink and Red?" Daisy asked, speaking in a code known only to the shy away and herself.
"In the clouds!" The shy away happily reported his mission's progress.
Daisy grinned; she would have a lot of fun watching this play out, and so would Peach, admittedly or not. Hopefully by the end of the day everyone would be able to see things clearly. "Good job, what about Green and the chibis?"
"The tree flourishes and the wind plays." Perfect, it was all going according to plan.
xoxox xox xoxox
The code about the tree flourishing and the wind playing, was a reference to Luigi and the koopalings. It meant that he was still surviving and they were all in one place. But Luigi was not having an easy time. The koopalings wanted to see Peach, and they were planning to leave Luigi behind any minute, he simply knew it.
Luigi made sure to watch his back and stay on his guard, even if it resulted quite hard to do so while keeping track of eight children. He constantly counted them to make sure they were all still there. Luigi was surprised the koopalings stayed for that long, it probably only worked because he kept reminding them it was what Peach wanted.
All eight koopalings had been present when the shy away flew by, but that was a few minutes ago, and the level of noise around Luigi had decreased, which caused him to worry and start counting once again. "One, two, three, four, five, six... six? Mama Mia!" Not one but two of the koopalings were missing. "One, two, three, four... Wait!" The koopalings all ran away in different directions, leaving Luigi unable to decide which one to chase, and thus losing track of all of them. Luigi immediately called Daisy's cell phone to give her the bad news. He had a strong feeling that everything was about to go spiraling into chaos, and he was right...
Mole Mountain's pipelines needed repairs. The Mario brothers were called to work on those repairs... but they didn't answer. The parade and the following activities have kept the two best plumbers in the land busy. After that, they took a small vacation, and the blinking of their answering machine continued to blink unattended.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I do not own the Mario games or characters. As a random note, the shy away's singing was not random. That is what he sings in Super Mario RPG, which is also where Moleville is from, but the town has evolved a lot in this story. Razzi gets cookies because she guessed the pipe plot was coming. XD Next chapter, Beware the Flood. On another note, today I'm celebrating having made 2000 pixels for my Reno shrine and pixel collection site. It's Final Fantasy VII, which has nothing to do with this fandom, but having 2000 little pixels makes me want to do something to celebrate, and so I decided to update all my stories on the same day. It took a while to get everything ready to be posted at the same day but here it is. If you want to visit my Reno shrine there is a link on my profile. It has pixels, graphics, information and printables.
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