#i think that's why mario doesn't have his hat on - the adventure is starting to weigh on him and he opens up to peach for the first time

[chloecherrysip]

We're going to save your brother.

[sanvirtheobserver]

Taking Flight, Chapter 63: Anybody Home?

It's a dreary morning out on the open fields as SMG3's Airship glides through the clouds. Melony emerges from the Crew Quarters, having finished her nap as she notices Tari sitting quietly in the Rec Room. She kept her melancholy gaze focused outside the starboard window, not even noticing Melony until she raises her voice.

Melony: Hey Tari.

Tari: Hm?

Melony: You've been kind of....... out of it, lately. Everything alright?

Tari: Oh, that. Yeah, I just had a lot on my mind lately.

Her mind wanders back to the incident at Spudsy's, putting the names of an unsuspecting frycook and a loud mouthed manager on the morning obituary. She was well used to average chill days segwaying into crazy adventures, but they usually didn't start off with a fresh double homicide in the back of a fast food diner AND man-made horrors beyond comprehension RIGHT OUT THE GATE. Usually it takes one of these arcs another chapter or two to get into the Heavy stuff.

Tari: I just needed some time to clear my head, is all.

SMG3: Attention all passengers.

SMG3's voice echoes over the intercoms.

SMG3: Any who wish to be a part of the away crew best be ready and head to the top deck. We will be arriving at our destination shortly, so CHOP CHOP.

On the top deck we see Meggy and Mario already present, followed by Uzi, Noah, Vale, and Julia. Even Miss Mildenhall were present. This is basically their first major adventure on the ship, a prospect that Noah is most certainly excited about considering the fact he can't stay still. Meggy and Martha notice Tari and Melony appear from the bridge.

Meggy: Hey guys. Everybody is just about ready to head out.

Martha: So, what's today's GRAND ADVENTURE this time?

Melony: Tari thinks there's some kind of "evil plot" going on, so we're taking a trip to Evo City to do a little investigating.

Tari: There was this............ sick man named Lucas. He said a "doctor" lured him into an old Malonesky building, not too far from an old Parker's warehouse.

Meggy: That...... doesn't really help narrow down why we need to go to Evo City of all places.

Noah: Actually, it does! Evo City was founded with the help of two LOCAL companies, Malonesky Transport LLC and Parker's Building Materials. They basically had the whole area to themselves, so wherever you found a MTL office, there's most likely a Parker's warehouse somewhere nearby.

Meggy: How do you know so much about this place?

Noah: We lived there for a while before coming to the showgrounds.

Mario: Hm....... I think I've been there before.

The cavernous empty halls of his mind guide him to a not too distant memory as he recalls his story. It turns out he and Luigi were doing a plumbing job in the city. The job itself didn't go too well, since Mario didn't end up fixing anything. That and he MIGHT have left another sea monster on someone's house.

Noah: Oh THAT'S why Mr. Roland was so grumpy!

Mario: It wasn't all bad, though. I got this cool Shark hat at the gas station!

Uzi: So......... we're going to this random city to investigate some sort of crime ring or something?

Tari showed some unease as she recalled the incident at Spudsy's. The image of Lucas in that state was not a pleasant one.

Tari: All I know is that there's a self proclaimed "doctor" doing something horrible........

She takes a deep breath as her fingers curled into fists.

Tari: And he needs to be stopped.

Meggy: Well, can't say vigilante justice was on my bingo card for today, but........ f*** it. Let's go save the day again.

Mario: Mario is ready to move his PINGAS.

Vale: It would be nice to get out of the house, maybe even let off some steam.

Three's voice once again rings out on the intercom.

SMG3: We have officially arrived at the outer limits of Evo City. Bravo Team, you are free to depart when ready.

Noah pulls down a zipper on the back of his outfit, allowing a pair of leathery metal wings to unfurl. Julia and Vale follow suit, and they all give themselves a moment to let the appendages stretch and loosen up. Tari takes a deep breath as her own wings flare out from her back.

Tari: Everybody ready?

Noah: Lead the way!

Martha: You three play nice, now.

One by one, they all leap from the top deck and soar off towards the city. The only sound heard for miles was the scurrying of squirrels as they duck for cover at the sight of Bravo Team coasting through the sky above.

Tari: See anything?

Julia: All clear from my angle. Noah?

Noah: All clear. Looks like we got here before the morning rush.

The team comes to a landing in the industrial district. They now stand before an old rundown warehouse with the name "Parker" emblazoned onto its side.

Tari: The old Parker's warehouse.

She turns her gaze towards a large building across the road. A nearby billboard bore an old advertisement for Malonesky Transport LLC.

Tari: Bingo.

Meanwhile, Mario and Meggy have just been dropped off over at the Arrowhead Fields Trailer Park. The place was littered with vehicles in varying states of disrepair, with scrap parts and luggage scattered across the fields. Meggy was noticeably more on edge as the two searched for any signs of life amidst the wreckage. Some of the trailers looked as if they were ripped open from the outside, while others have been stripped down to their skeletons. There was a trailer that looks to have been ripped in half straight down the middle, and another that's been flattened into a rugged slab of metal. Her heart nearly dropped when she saw a hand poking out from between the folds.

Meggy: Christ almighty. What the hell happened here?

Mario: HEY, LOOK AT THIS.

Meggy rushes over to Mario's side, and the two stand before a mobile home. Not only was it the only vehicle that was somewhat intact, but the lights were on and it looked like someone was still inside. Mario cautiously walks up to the door and gives it a knock before retreating back to Meggy's side. The two wait with baited breath as the door swings open.......... revealing the sight of a weird looking toad with sunglasses waddling through the frame with a shotgun in hand.

???: I'LL END YOU! Wait a minute....... Mario?

Mario immediately recognizes his bright yellow cap with the word "boobs" written in comic sans on all sides.

Mario: BEN!

Ben: MARIO, MY MAN! It's been too long!

Meggy: Wait a minute. You know this guy?

Mario: Oh yeah! We go WAY back.

Ben: He fixed my pipes, we fought pirates, I was a mermaid for a while, it was fun.

Mario: So what brings you to a junkyard like this?

Ben: Um, I'm on my Spring Break road trip of course!

Meggy: But it's not even Spring.

Ben: Hey. Anything to keep the feds guessing.

Meggy:......... Right.......... Anyways, do you have any idea what's going on here?

Ben takes a quick look around. The coast seems to be clear enough.

Ben: Oh, I have no clue. I just got here last night. Almost NOBODY wants to come here for some reason. Something about screaming metal hellbeasts or something like that. It's probably some crappy rockband or something.

Meggy: Hm........ Screaming metal hellbeasts..........Alright. Thanks for the info, Ben. C'mon, Red! Let's go meet up with Tari.

Mario: Okie dokie. Bye, Ben! Tell Squidge I said hi!

Ben: Will do, man.

He shuts the door and goes back to blaring Midnight Riders on the radio as the two head off towards the industrial district........ unaware of the telescopic eye watching them from afar.

[eegasleega-will-change-this-l8r]

Ninten ninten ninten!!!

So this is my version of Ninten haha

God I literally cannot draw him 80% of the time so it's nice to actually have one turn out good (it's so hard to not accidentally make him look really stupid or really obnoxious ><)

He's pretty much entirely based off what I came up with in my head after playing the game and thinking about how I imagined the characters' personalities, so it's pretty different from the usual takes on him

Design details and a flood of headcanons below :D

So I wanted him to be very distinct from Ness!! There's similarities like the black hair and the clothing palettes, but otherwise nobody would look at my Ninten and Ness and confuse them for each other

Personality-wise holy fudge do I have a ton of stuff on him

He does have a hat but I only sometimes draw him with it (unlike Ness who refuses to go anywhere without it :3)

His overall shape is wayyy different to Ness's, very scrawny and straight while Ness is all round and squishy

Shirt's blue with a yellow collar, a single yellow stripe on the middle, and yellow edges to the sleeves

He looks a lot like his great grandmother ;)

and also pee-wee herman but that's not as profound

Ninten is a bright and relentlessly optimistic young boy from rural Eagleland

You can call him Pollyanna, say he's crazy as a loon, but he believes in silver linings and that's why he believes in you :)

So my main thing with how I imagine Ninten is that he's, like, almost the sole source of light in the story. How I see the rest of the world is super drab and bleak, pretty much everyone just perpetually down in the dumps (i'll get into this more when I make posts about the other characters!!) And then this kid shows up, and he's full of hope and compassion, and he makes everyone he meets start to realize "maybe everything isn't so bad after all…?" No wonder the final boss is literally the ultimate case of repressed feelings and angst lol

He started showing psychic abilities from a pretty early age, making friends with animals and moving small objects with his mind

He mostly gets his love of baseball from his Dad, but because he's forced to work away from home almost all the time, Ninten's Mom practices with him and takes him to games instead

He has two much younger sisters, Minnie and Mimmie (half-baked headcanon that her name's actually Mimi and she just doesn't know how to pronounce it XD) who cares about a lot, and he often ends up looking after them whenever their Mom's out

He's a pretty great babysitter because of this, takes a lot of babysitting jobs around town, and he's a huge mom friend to the party

Of course he loves penguins too :3

Mostly listens to cheesy upbeat pop songs and rock music, but there's not really any music he actively dislikes

Favorite video games? Uhhh he's more outdoorsy and physically active but he'd like casual retro stuff like the first Mario

He's not super popular at school, because he's the weird buck-toothed dweeby kid who never shuts up about hope and optimism and penguins, but he's not unpopular at least. The bullies learned pretty quick not to mess with him, and DEFINITELY not to mess with anyone else when he's around!!

He's super friendly and prefers to solve things peacefully but he will absolutely not hesitate to clobber a jerk upside the head with his bat

He owns his own tuxedo that he likes to wear at "formal events" (birthday parties and school picture days)

yeah he's a real goober

He never lets up in his hope but god did the Mountain and everything that happened after take their toll on him

I don't have anything on him during the events of Earthbound haha, as far as I'm concerned he was taking a well-deserved nap and that adventure was all Ness's

I also don't connect him at all to Ness, the only bridge between the stories in my mind is Giygas

And here's the sketch I based the digital art off of ^^

[robsterskellington]

List of my fics:

(Completed):

Soul Sharing = a Super Paper Mario fic wherein Dimentio and Luigi are forced to stay together in an unusual fashion, but it helps Dimentio begin to see the Worlds in a new light.

Keeping Promises = a fic based on @lizadale 's Dimigi AU where Dimentio finally finds a way to get rid of the Chaos Heart without killing Luigi (not canon to her AU, please check out her fics, they will give you life.)

What's Important to you, Snatcher? = a fic based on the A Hat in Time, Oh the Humanity! AU created by @doodledrawsthings , in which Snatcher has to make an important choice after Queen Vanessa kidnaps Moonjumper (my first fic, kinda sucks lol. Again, not canon to their AU, please check out their art.)

Prelude = a Bendy and the Ink Machine fic that leads into Bendy and the Dark Revival, with a fan theory of mine thrown in. (Not my best work, I wrote it because I needed to write something. My first one-shot fic.)

At Arm's Length = a The Case Study of Vanitas fic that I wrote with my cousin (HisDarkDisgrace on AO3, please check out his work), and my first collab fic.

(Incomplete/Work in Progress):

Embrace the Darkness = after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, before going to Quadratum, Sora has an adventure in the Eternal Kingdom of Hallownest, where he learns that the light isn't always the good thing, and darkness isn't necessarily bad. (My first crossover fic.)

Echos of the Past = a continuation of @zanzaflux 's Shadows of the Studio AU, where Ben, Bendy and Henry find themselves going back to Joey Drew Studios, for hopefully the last time. (Like the others, this is not canon to her AU, please read her fics if you have the time, they helped me survive 2020.)

(Discontinued/Hiatus):

These following fics are the ones that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to continue for my own reasons, but if anyone is curious about them, please send an ask or drop a dm and I'll gladly answer any questions about them.

The Nightmare before Christmas: Jack's Legacy = my own AU of NbC, that was created with a friend whom I am no longer friends with. Basically, it's my own twist on the story, with some new characters and some characters removed. I loved writing what I did, but unfortunately I just can't bring myself to continue.

Just a Glitch = I have absolutely no idea why I wrote this, I think it was on a stupid whim. Basically, it was my own interpretation of Five Night's at Freddy's: Security Breach, because as interesting as the game is, it didn't make a great deal of sense to me in a lore aspect.

Sonic Revival = This is my own Sonic story, that another ex-friend of mine wrote with me, but he wanted to create his own Sonic game and there were way too many ideas to use. It's based after Sonic Forces, since we started it around the time it came out, so now after Sonic Frontiers, the story doesn't make much sense. It contains my own Sonic OC, but I never got around to revealing her backstory since I kinda made it up.

(Upcoming works):

Yes, despite how much I've already got on my plate, I've been working with my cousin on a few more fics. Nothing has been posted yet, everything is still in the process of being written and edited- I do not intend to post any of these until they're complete, if I can help it. Warning: most of these are crossovers:

A Guide to Tainted Sorrow- by Nakahara Chuuya and Osamu Dazai: When a mysterious boy from another world falls into Yokohama on the brink of death without any memories of his past, aside from his name and the fact that his book is valuable to him, it's up to the Agency to take care of him. But exactly *who* is Vanitas, and why doesn't he remember why he nearly died?

Operation: Stray Dogs: When Agent Twilight receives a file from his informant Franky, he receives with it a peculiar mission- find and retrieve Agent Sigma, who has been sighted in Yokohama. Not knowing how long this could take, and under orders to be discreet, Loid Forger and his "family" travel to Yokohama. What could possibly go wrong?

The Case Study of Stray Dogs: What happens when most members of the Agency and two prominent members of the Port Mafia end up in an entirely different world, one full of Vampires staying hidden from Humans? Can they trust the Human Doctor and his Vampire friend to help them?

Blue Moon Family: on the night of the Crimson Moon, Noé and Dominique are forced to watch their friend Mina become a Curse-Bearer... or do they? When a brilliant blue light envelopes her, and a boy claims to have restored her True Name, exactly what happens next? And why does Louis look happier than he's done in weeks?

I hope you enjoy reading what I have been able to provide!

If you wish to ask me or my characters any questions, please feel free! (Anon asks are enabled)

Any comments are helpful and appreciated, too!

Thanks a lot! -RobsterSkellington.

[blazehedgehog]

How would you do a Mario and Sonic crossover platformer? I know Nintendo and Sega can't agree to an idea so I wanted to hear your idea.

I kinda-sorta already answered this by saying I don't think there ever would be one, and I don't know if it would ever work. Sonic and Mario and fundamentally different types of characters, at least in my head.

Which is more of a schism in the Sonic community in general, I think, because there is definitely people who I think would rather Sonic slow down and function more like a regular platformer. There's quite a lot to unpack there, but needless to say, I think that's why a game like Sonic CD is so celebrated; it's a struggle to go fast. If you play Sonic to go fast, Sonic CD is like a nightmare. Sonic CD is a game where there's lots of little stuff to get caught on, where the point of the game is to go slow and explore, and there's a lot more verticality to level design.

The counter to that is to say that Sonic CD's primary mechanic (time travel) requires you to maintain a high rate of speed for a specific distance. But there are also a lot of areas in each level that trap Sonic in a situation where he can't slow down, which feel like they are the designated "this is where you time travel" areas. Like two springs that bounce Sonic between them, or long tunnel to spin through, that kind of thing.

I would argue that Sonic found something a little more unique and interesting in pushing further towards racing game elements. Instead of competing directly with guys like Mario, Sonic found his own niche to fill. There's a line to be traced from Sonic Adventure 2, to Sonic Advance 2, to Sonic Rush, to Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations.

But, because Sonic found his own niche, it's hard to blend Sonic and Mario's game types. We already had Sonic Lost World, a game that really did not feel great to play.

So I don't know how you do a crossover platformer with them without just something super boring like "you make Mario levels using visual themes from Sonic" and vice versa. Or, like, giving Mario a hat or something that makes him run faster for a little while. That seems kind of plain, doesn't it? You'd want something more meaningful than that. "Mario, but you bounce on robots and springs" and "Sonic, but you spin through Goombas and bonk question blocks" is a very surface level sort of take. Cute, but probably not enough to carry a whole game. You need something deeper and more deconstructive.

But both Sonic and Mario have deconstructed each other on their own times. We had Sonic Lost World and Super Mario Odyssey. You have to take it to the next level.

Only I'm not sure that you can.

Okay. Let's treat this like a "gun to the head" situation. If you put a gun to my head and said I had to figure out a way for it to work...

An extra-dimensional force has stripped both Sonic and Mario of all their abilities. Sonic cannot spin or run, Mario can't really jump and doesn't gain any suit powers. They are both busted down to their utter basics.

This force is harvesting video game energy for... something. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it's starting to mutate and combine both of their worlds, and threatens to corrupt the greater video game universe at large. Robot Goombas, Motobugs you can knock around like Koopa shells, things like that.

The twist comes from Mario and Sonic's abilities. Being knocked down to basics, they are on equal footing again. And as you play, you collect these microchips to represent their signature moves. But the thing is: you can equip them on either Sonic or Mario. So let's say you find a chip that is "Sonic Speed +1". You can put that on Mario to make him run a little faster. You can give Sonic chips that make him spin when he jumps, but also give him Mario's hammer so that when he spins, he swings this giant wooden mallet, doubling the range of the spin attack.

Maybe the basic chips are just stashed out in the world, given out sort of like Stars or Shines or Moons in a Mario game. But the really important chips, the things like homing attacks or fire flower projectiles, those are at the end of special bonus rooms that recreate scenes from their classic games. Sort of like Mario Odyssey, where you'd go down a pipe and turn in to 8-bit Mario for a Moon. Just a little mini-challenge where you use their inherent classic abilities to recover one one of the more important moves.

By de-powering both characters down to nothing and allowing you to rebuild them however you see fit, you can build an original game that references both characters without making them seem so incompatible.

Other elements of their world would blend and mutate, as well. Imagine a super scientist Doctor Bowser, with his two-tailed Assistant, Junior. Together, they build a robotic clone of Mario, but the specifications aren't quite right, so he's a little taller and wears green overalls. Or you encounter an overweight, purple Donkey Kong who is only interested in fishing.

As you deal with these characters, you separate them back and restore order.

This would also open the door for other crossovers, if they could swing it. Not necessarily whole entire playable characters, but imagine equipping Mario with the Mega Buster or Sonic doing a Falcon Punch to bust up a Castlevania skeleton.

I think that could be really fun, now that I'm writing it out.