freeformschooler presents:
If Things Were Different
A short story collection
BradleyBradley sighed as he floated over to the "open" sign on the store window.
The Mushroom Kingdom's economy was in turmoil. As much as Bradley disliked the constant sieges of years gone by, without the military producing thousands upon thousands of jobs there wasn't enough money going around for civilians to purchase magic books all willy-nilly. There was a rumor going around that the halted conquests of enemy civilizations (and by extension, enemy gold) was causing the King and Queen's treasury to dry up.
The blue-capped ghost stopped switching the sign around for just a moment to peer out the glass windows of his store, Daily Magicks. It looked like some sort of fair was being held, and an audience was gathered around a podium where loud songs were played by bands like Coin Collection and The Koop. Even though the concert looked like a lot of fun, Bradley was never much for loud music.
Ding-ding-ding! Bradley was so startled by the bell on the front door he spun around in the air.
A customer? He turned to face a green-shelled Koopa Troopa who looked like he'd been through Lethal Lava Land and back. Tattered and limping, the Koopa looked once at the ghost then turned to the selection of magic books.
"Umph," said the green-themed Koopa. "Where healing books?"
Bradley pointed to the books with healing spells. "D-d-down on the bottom row."
"Oomph dislikes reading books. Where
best healing book?"
Bradley was about to make a fourth-wall-breaking remark about the Koopa (apparently named Oomph) not being high enough level, but he resisted and floated over to Oomph's side where he picked up a book titled
Advanced Healing Artes: Second Edition.
Oomph frowned. "Wimpy ghost holding out on Oomph. Oomph know books with 'Advanced' only second tier."
Bradley wanted to correct him. Instead, he bregrudgingly floated behind the counter to his personal imported spellbooks selection. He found one from Hyrule:
Master Xenos' Songs of the Ancients.
Upon presenting it to Oomph, who was delighted at the number of pictures in the book, the Koopa said, "How much for fancy book?"
"...T-three thousand coins." Bradley didn't have a price for it, so he just made something up.
"Only three thousand?" Much to Bradley's surprise, Oomph laughed and showered the shop counter with gold. "Good doing business!"
Three thousand coins in raw gold!? Bradley was so distracted by this profit that he almost forget to say "p-please come again". This kind of money would house him for another year.
"Hmm," As Oomph prepared to walk out the door he turned back to Bradley. "Wimpy ghost awfully surprised about gold. Would like to know where to get more?"
Oomph
Blub!That was the sound Super Bubba made when he detected intruders to his outdoor lair. He jumped out of the water below, drenching Oomph and Bradley in the process. To their surprise, the giant fish boss landed on the cliff near them.
Bradley was stunned. "H-he can breathe air!?"
Oomph charged towards the fish. "Never underestimate boss levels!"
"Pillar of Fire... stream forth from the volcano's center!" Bradley chanted an incantation. His ghost-hand lit up with a magical flame, and he pointed at Super Bubba. A jet of flame rocketed out from his body, searing the shades-wearing Boss Bass.
Super Bubba pucked its massive lips and spewed a blast of water in return, but at Oomph who handily dodged out of the way. The green-shelled Koopa took a running leap towards the boss fish and came crashing down with his special move,
"Play Ball". Super Bubba was launched far into the sky.
"Hm?" Oomph looked around. "Where Oomph send boss to?"
"L-look out!" Bradley flew straight at Oomph, knocking him to the ground a few feet away from his initial position. In a matter of seconds, Super Bubba landed where Oomph was standing before.
Close call.The fish looked stone dead. Oomph rejoiced: "Boss battle was easy! Good thing Oomph level grinded to level fifty-one!"
In some ways they made the perfect team. Oomph was strong but short-sighted whereas Bradley was weak yet quick on his feet. They gave each other a high five then jumped (and floated) off the cliff and into the watery pit likely housing Super Bubba's lair.
In a matter of minutes the two adventurers found themselves at the entrance room of a large blue underwater temple. Pathways branched off in multiple directions, but only one of them would lead to the boss fish's treasure horde.
Not anything they hadn't overcome before.
Fuzz
"Whooo! Go Coin Collection!" Fuzz was waving with one hand and scarfing down cotton candy with the other.
As the music blared from long-haired Toads on the stage above, Mushroom Kingdom citizens bustled busily around the center of the city where the concerts were being held. Craftsmen set up stalls on the edges, and food salesmen were as popular as ever. Fuzz didn't know why the performances were being held, but when he woke up this morning and saw them from his window he knew he had to come watch.
"Hey, guy," a voice said from beside him. "Guy with the funny spiked hair."
"Yeah?" Fuzz turned his head and saw what appeared to be a teenage Human boy covering his hair with a traditional red-and-white Toad cap.
The boy extended his hand, apparently expecting a handshake. "Don't I know you?"
"Probably not," Fuzz shrugged and shook the funny-looking teenager's hand. "Unless, of course, you work in the castle's kitchen like me. There's no escape from that place."
"That's it!" The boy laughed. "I'm Grimtoad, Peach's cousin. We've probably bumped into each other before at work. You do know what this celebration is for, right?"
Fuzz was dumbfounded. "For?"
"Word got out that the Queen is allowing Peach to speak publicly today. Everyone's just passing time until she shows up."
Huh, thought Fuzz. Peach? In public? He'd seen her several times before, but she was always in some sort of disguise. She never visited the kitchen, either. The King and Queen were quite strict, so getting word of her mingling with common folk like him would have been unfortunate.
"Hello, Mushroom Kingdom!"
Fuzz looked back up at the stage. The music had gone quiet. On the center of the raised platform Princess Peach stood tall, her pink dress flowing gently in the breeze.
"As you may or may not know," Peach started. Her hands were cupped around her mouth to make her louder. "A thousand years ago to this day, the original Mushroom Kingdom was comprised of only Humans and Toads. However, the two races were seperated by
segregation and
slavery."
Peach pointed to a random Toad in the audience. "Can I get this young lass to come up to the stage?"
The Toad girl was delighted to walked up the steps of the stage and stand next to Princess Peach. The regal princess pointed next to Fuzz of all people. He couldn't believe it.
"Come on, now. Don't be shy." Princess Peach gestured for him to come up, and the Toad girl waved at him from up above. Fuzz got up and nearly ran up the stage's steps in excitement. Peach pointed to and area right beside the Toad where he walked to and stood.
"But since that time a thousand years ago, we've made history!" The princess shouted to the audience far and wide. "Every citizen, Toad and Human, is free and accepted by both the Kingdom's laws and culture."
As Peach spoke, the audience mumbled and whispered. Fuzz overheard a few nearby conversations:
How does she know what happened a thousand years ago? Toads were never enslaved! What's she on about? It was obvious Peach was some kind of historian, but the general public had a hard time believing there was ever segregation and slavery.
"Now watch as these two ordinary people shake hands, accepting each other openly!" Peach looked at her chosen volunteers Fuzz and the Toad interpreted her words as a cue to shake hands, so they did just that then looked back at the audience.
"However, ladies and gentlemen, we have a new problem," Peach said. "Just as it was a thousand years ago, there is
racism rampant in the Mushroom Kingdom. Don't try to deny it. Almost everyone's been a perpetrator of this awful gesture against the Kingdom's new visitors: Koopas, Goombas, Boos..."
Fuzz expected the audience to start booing and shouting slurs against the animal-like visitors that started appearing no more than five years ago. Before then they were non-sentient creatures that roamed the wild and were usually hostile to humanoids. However, many of them seemingly became intelligent within the span of a single year. Much to the Fuzz's surprise, the audience stayed relatively quiet.
"So I encourage you, faithful citizens, to stick up for your fellow intelligent species no matter their shape or size," Peach bowed to the audience. "With that, I leave you. Have a wonderful day."
The audience gave a round of applause to Peach. Fuzz smiled. Things were looking up for the Mushroom Kingdom after all.
Ochita
"Ah... Mister Toadworth," Ochita raised his hand. "Can't we take today off for the festival?"
Mr. Toadworth, the magic teacher for Ochita's class at the Mushroom Kingdom Academy, scowled and pointed to the equations on the blackboard with his wand. "What? And fail my class? I think not. Don't you know how hard magic is to learn for people like us?"
This frustrated Ochita. He wasn't prone to frustration, but he really wanted to see Princess Peach just once. He had to think of something.
"
Yes, Ochita?" Mr. Toadworth noticed Ochita's hand was stilled up. The rest of the class giggled a little.
Upon closer inspection, Ochita's raised hand was twitching and contorting, making all sorts of shapes. A slight force caused his hair to blow outwards every few seconds. The class hadn't covered magic without incantation yet, but Ochita was a star student.
In a matter of moments, the chalk on the bottom of the blackboard raised itself and jotted down the answers to all five equations on its own. Mr. Toadsworth gasped along with the rest of the class.
Ochita merely smiled and stood up off his seat. "
Now may I leave?"
"Y-yes," said Mr. Toadsworth. His eyes were wider than ever. "That will be all."
Aaand that's all I have the energy to do. I hope you enjoyed the April Fools wall of text. I wanted to do more like Taric, Zach, Joe & others but I'll have to do those another time (besides, I'm already sort of doing Zach's this coming turn
) This is more a reminder that I'm alive and can get back into doing turns and updating my games soon(ish).
Author
Topic: Mushroom Kingdom Wars RTD: So long, a-bowser! (Read 220829 times)