#the eternal struggle

[legobiwan]

For the drabble prompt list

"none of this is your fault" mario and luigi

Drabbles, they said, Ha! I answered. Anyway, I have no idea where this came from, but enjoy this barely-edited not-drabble. I am apparently incapable of concise writing right now :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“None of this is your fault, Lou.”

Luigi scoffed, pushing dampened sleeves up both arms, smearing dark, sweaty grease across his skin in wide, impressionistic lines.

“You tell that to Toadsworth in three days. I’m sure he’ll be happy to believe you,” Luigi groused, tightening a stubborn, thick bolt with a violent twist. That should keep the engine boosters from flying off at speeds exceeding thirty miles an hour. (Or as they were counted in the Mushroom Kingdom, five hundred and two mycelia per second, a measuring system so opaque - and infuriating - that Luigi had sat through an entire five-hour Toad Council meeting just so he could petition the government to introduce a bill to launch a public vote on switching to any other quantifier that made a modicum of sense. The notion, of course, was voted down in a manner of seconds. Tradition, Mister Luigi, Toadsworth had sniffed, rapping his long-handled gavel with an imperious gesture, closing off all debate on the matter).

Snobby old toad could stuff it up his spore holes.

“He’ll get over it,” Mario said. “What’s he going to do, anyway? Make us sit through another boring state dinner?”

Luigi poked at a serpentine belt that resembled some slices of old cheese he once found in the back of their fridge in Brooklyn. How these guys managed to stay competitive with equipment in this condition was a complete slap in the face to basic physics.

“You like those dinners.” Luigi crawled out from under the dented chassis, sitting back on his haunches as he gestured at his brother with a ratchet-wrench, making curly patterns in the air as if he were a Magikoopa casting a spell.

“I hate those dinners as much as you. They’re hot, stuffy, and the food is an insult to the entirety of Brooklyn. It’s not my fault I get to sit next to Peach and you’re always stuck with Lady Maitake and her hundreds of onion bulb-pup photos for two hours.”

“Don’t remind me. Did you know she’s trying to train them to do circus acts and take them on the road?” Luigi ran a finger down one of the dusty schematics strewn about the stone floor. “Hand me that spanner, will you?”

Mario shook his head, chuckling, handing off the hooked tool to Luigi, who shimmied once more underneath the maroon-and-black kart. “Look, you got hoodwinked into a bad contract. I should have looked over the fine print before you signed.”

“You’re not my keeper, Mario,” Luigi grumbled, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. “And it’s not even the contract that I care about. Frankly, I’m impressed Bowser’s been able to get these things to do anything beyond cough up smoke and crash into the nearest palm tree. It’s a good challenge to get them running again.”

“So what’s the issue, then?”

Luigi stilled, his hands guts-deep in a mess of wiring and cables that looked like an earthworm graveyard. After a moment, he sighed, letting the spanner tool clatter to the floor with a bright, metallic jangle. 

“The issue,” he began, staring up at the internal electronic system of one of Bowser’s so-called best racing karts. “Is that he’s probably going to win. Bowser, that is. And everyone will make nice about it at the awards ceremony and Bowser will get too drunk on elderflower wine and get kicked out of the post-race party.”

“That happens every race, Lou.”

“Yeah, but you know Bowser. He’ll let it slip that I was the one doing repairs on his karts. And then in the morning, there will be a meeting. And Toadsworth will go on about the standing of the Kingdom being compromised and it being a diplomatic catastrophe that we allowed Bowser to win and that,” Luigi adopted a whiny, pompous voice. “Mr. Luigi has once again strained his credibility within the Mushroom Kingdom.” 

“Look, that stodgy old Toad has no chance of making those charges stick. You were exonerated, Weeg. Nothing that happened with Bleck - “ Mario clenched his fists, hissing through his teeth. “Nothing that happened in that place was you. That wasn’t your fault, and neither is this.”

Luigi reached towards one of the dangling battery coils, playing with the violet and yellow wires between his fingers. “Sure,” he breathed. “Not me.”

“Not you,” Mario insisted, his voice steely. “And besides,” he continued, a hint of humor creeping into his words. If you’re so concerned about Toadsworth, why don’t you sabotage Bowser’s fleet?”

Luigi pushed himself out from under the kart, snapping up to a seat in wide-eyed horror.

“And ruin my reputation as an engineer? No way, bro. I’ll risk the treason charges, thank you very much.”

Mario guffawed, ambling over to take a seat next to his brother, the two coming shoulder-to-shoulder, backs set against the passenger door of the Koopa Coupe. “I think your reputation is beyond reproach, Lou.” Mario gave a small, uncertain smile. “After all, you did build two killer robots in the span of two weeks.”

It was a huge step forward, just being able to talk about the whole incident in Flipside, no less joke about it - the ordeal with Bleck and the jester and Luigi’s brainwashing. Mario had stayed tight-lipped about the entire debacle for weeks after they had gotten back, much to Luigi’s aggravation, until things came to a head one night due to a series of ill-conceived plans on the part of the Toad Council, the most brazen of which featured a misserved cup of tea laced with a dubiously legal truth potion.

Luigi sniffed out half a chuckle, nudging his brother in the shoulder. “Well, I can’t let Bowser think I’m slipping, right?”

Mario eyed his brother carefully, his features brightening as he caught the note of mischief in Luigi’s voice. Grinning, he clapped his brother on the knee. “You’ve got an idea, don’t you? The Old Koopa King doesn’t know what he’s got coming.”

Luigi straightened, composing himself into the picture of innocence. “Dear brother, I am a man of my word. Bowser will win the race, just like the contract stipulates.”

“And?”

“Aaand,” Luigi drew out the word, schematics and thermodynamic equations taking shape in his mind. “Let’s say the engine modifications I’m making happen to engage a set of rocket boosters at a certain speed threshold. Bowser’ll like that. But then maybe the activation of those boosters, given a certain location and time input, temporarily cede control of the brakes and steering to a pre-programmed route of the engineer’s choosing.” Luigi paused for dramatic effect. “All after the race is finished, of course. No injuries. No harm. Just a little post-race joyride through the forest.”

Mario gave a joyous whoop, bringing his brother into a tight, side-hug. “They’ll hear him screaming all the way in Rogueport! Ha! You know he’ll threaten to invade during the after-party! No one will care if you worked on his kart once he shows back up breathing smoke!”

“He’ll do that regardless,” Luigi laughed, feeling lighter than he had in weeks. “But you know how these modifications are. Always a chance of overburdening your circuits.”

“And at least it’ll be a while before he tries to trick you into doing his dirty work again,” Mario added.

“I hope so.” Luigi placed a warm hand on his brother’s shoulder, smiling. “Thanks, Mario.”

Mario beamed back at his brother, playfully flicking the brim of Luigi’s hat. “Come on, Lou. Show me how to build a sentient robot race kart.”

~~~~~

Drabble writing challenge: Make me sweat!

[userautumn]

i think buck and tommy should last forever but i also think buck and eddie should get married and have a little girl. so. either everyone has to become cool with infidelity really quickly, or we gotta buddietommy this shit, there is no other option

[pourmercymercyonme]

am i pansexual or am i just aroace and willing to have sex and wanting to be loved??????

[rayshippouuchiha]

getting your blorbo into a situation - :D

getting your blorbo out of a situation - D:

[thesoulforgeorder]

[spanishskulduggery]

hello, i had a question, when do you use para and por? are they the same or similar? I watched videos and read stuff but honestly I could not understand can u please explain xx with examples would be excellent thank you

Sorry for the very late reply on this. To answer your question, they are different but linguistically they are related

In historical linguistics, para was por a "for to (do something)"

...

But to answer your question in terms of modern Spanish, they both come out as "for" a lot of times, but they are used differently

Don't feel bad for struggling with this, it is something that everyone struggles with especially English-speakers who use "for" for everything

para has much fewer uses - primarily it's "for" as in "in order to", or para que "so that (something would happen)" which uses subjunctive

para alguien is also "for someone" like the intended recipient

Or, it can be used for opinions - para mí "for me" can also be "in my opinion" or "from where I'm standing" is possibly an easier way to understand it

-

por has many more uses... primarily if you see por

First it has idiomatic things like por favor "please", por qué "why", or porque "because", or (el) porvenir "the coming future" / "what's to come", por cierto "by the way", por ciento "percent", por si acaso "just in case"

por is also used as "through" [like por el pasillo "through the hallway", or por el hospital "through the hospital"] which implies going through or entering/pressing into

And it can be "via" or "by means of", like por avión "taking a plane" or "by plane" etc.

por is also used as "per" in ratios like por hora "per hour" or por kilómetro "per kilometer"; and in that same vein it's also "by" or "times" like multiplication, so 5 por diez is "5x10" and that's why in texting por is sometimes written as X [like por qué "why" is sometimes xk?]

por can be used in substitution "for", so sustituir por "to substitute for"

And por can be "instead of" or "in favor of" someone... so votar por alguien "to vote for/in favor of someone", or hacer algo por alguien "to do something in someone else's stead" or "for someone else's benefit"

You will also see por used for certain verbs like pasar por alguien can be "to come get someone / to come pick someone up", or preocuparse por alguien is "to worry for/about someone"

I'll include my tag for por y para that has other examples that you can see more of

[pjsk-headcanons]

One one hand I'm an aroace ena who pushes people away if she can tell they have a crush on her truther, on the other hand I'm a fan of a couple of ships with her and one of them only works for me in a romantic context because enakasa is at it's funniest when it's a romantic pairing - the rats

.

[lenle-g]

I just wanna do lineart i dont wanna colourrrrrrrrr... but I know this is gonna be so much better if i colour ittttttttttttttttttttttt

[hiddenmoonbeam]

I have to remove the sheets from my bed for laundry but now I'm overcome with the need to curl up here and hug my pillow and think about Sirius and Remus snuggled together🥺😭😭

[nell0-0]

The urge to share my ideas but also wanting to keep them a surprise for when I actually do something with them

[legobiwan]

So. I'm revisiting a very old draft I cooked up of a Dooku-Obi-wan tale. Flitting between this and my Gravity Falls idea and my SPM concept stuff is rather dizzying on its own, not to mention I also haven't tried to write in the SW universe in quite some time. Going to try and publish some more excerpts to get back in the groove. Still getting those writing land legs (sea legs?) back. Yeesh, I'm rusty. Shake off that rust. Shake it off, shake it off.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re finally starting to ask the right questions, Master Kenobi, albeit to the wrong beings.”

Obi-wan stilled. 

The comm screen faded to its grey, standby mode, casting the small room into an almost total darkness, save the weak luminescence of a handful of stars peering from the corner of a single window to his rear. Around him, a set of blocky transmitters hissed in short, labored susurrations - a system that even now was uploading his message to some server on Taris, flinging it forward to unfortunate Bandomeer and then on to far, far away Coruscant. Obi-wan ran his fingers over the small, nubby input/output indicators sprouting from the consol, which flickered in an unmetered, erratic pulse; green to red to green to red. 

“I was wondering when I would see you again, Dooku.” 

A metallic ping marked the initial reception of the message on Taris. It was fast - faster than he had expected, and Obi-wan couldn’t help but wonder about the encryption layers in the Count’s communication system. They were either so poor that his message would be hacked by every fifth-rate pirate this side of the Outer Rim, or efficient enough to meet the strict security needs of the heart of the Confederate uprising and still relay data at least a quarter-time faster than the Republic’s sclerotic, and expensive, hyperwave transmission lines.

“I’ve had other matters to attend to,” Dooku sniffed as Obi-wan’s vision settled into the darkness, the Count’s long, looming shadow beginning to creep from the tall, cylindrical ventilation system running vertically up the far wall. 

“Other matters.” Obi-wan toyed with a switch on the console, one that would set all new, outgoing communications to encrypt using an archaic verb form of Ancient Nettlese as its key. A childish impulse - and one that would result in nothing but a few lines of perturbed binary from the communications droids - but one not without its immediate appeal. “Other matters like coordinating the battle on the Dolla plains?”

Irritation rolled off the Count in spiny, sawtooth waves. “I had a hand in the strategy, but was not the decisive body in the final assault. You, of all people, should be familiar with the delegation necessary to conduct a proper war.”

Obi-wan snorted. “I suppose delegation is easier when all that is required is a few keystrokes.”

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

Inside of me there are two wolves. One yearns for Barriscowest, and the other adores their platonic relationship/s

[little-doggy-boy-kisserstraight]

when im around masc lesbians im fem but when im around fem lesbians im masc

[finniestoncrane]

i wanna. write about my silly self-insert oc. i wanna draw my self-insert oc. but i don't know what situations to put that bean in

[harlen-has-spirit]

Meds all the way in bathroom but bed is warm and cozy..... cruel and unusual-

[spanishskulduggery]

hi, I was wondering when to switch between the imperfect and preterite tenses? I’ve been reading some spanish texts and I’ve noticed that the imperfect is the main tense used, but I also see the preterite thrown in sometimes.

I'll link to my other things I've done on this in a reblog since I'm on my phone atm but it comes down to narration vs action a lot of the time

In linguistic terms "perfect" means "completed" [lit. "thoroughly done"], so "imperfect" means "not yet completed"... the imperfect tense is used for things that may or may not still be happening or continuing, so it is often used for narration and description

Imperfect is often used for:

narration, description

continuous past ("was doing", "was eating", "was sleeping")

used to, was in the habit of

telling time - always imperfect (era la una, eran las dos, etc)

soler + infinitive as "used to" as past tense is ALWAYS imperfect; there is no preterite form accepted so you normally only see soler in present tense "to be in the habit of" and imperfect "used to"

Preterite is commonly called "simple past", where it is things that happened and are done, and they are actions

In terms of reading, it's more that imperfect introduces something and describes it, while the preterite shows an "interruption" or "the action"

A common example I like to use:

Dormía y sonaba el teléfono. = I was sleeping and the phone was ringing. [imperfect + imperfect; no interruption, background description] Dormía y sonó el teléfono. = I was sleeping and the phone rang. [imperfect + preterite; involves an "interruption" of an "action" to the background description]

If you use the two imperfect, it sounds like someone was sleeping through the phone ringing, and/or that the phone ringing was part of the background. If you use imperfect and then preterite, it implies the preterite was a sudden occurrence that breaks up the narration.

...

But please be aware that most verbs can exist in the two different tenses and it becomes a matter of how they're understood...

Assuming 3rd person singular - se dormía would be "was falling asleep", while se durmió would be "fell asleep"

Sometimes it really depends on the mood - especially with ser and estar in preterite or imperfect - like you don't see too much difference between ¿dónde estabas? "where were you?" vs. ¿dónde estuviste? "where were you?" except in context where preterite feels more like interrogation "where were you (at that specific time)?"

...

There are a handful of verbs that change meaning depending on preterite and imperfect

I'll link things below that will explain it more but in general be wary of:

poder

no poder

querer

no querer

conocer

saber

haber

And also tener. Where normally tener is imperfect as preterite tener can come across as "to obtain", but there are so many idiomatic ways of using tener like "hungry", "thirsty", "hot/cold", and your age that there are times when preterite could be used. Still, in general, preterite tener is most often a synonym of conseguir or obtener as "to get"

-

Additional links:

A Linguistic Perspective on the Spanish Past

More in-depth explanation of imperfect

Using soler

The imperfect tag

The preterite tag

Preterite and Imperfect Contrasted from Bowdoin

Spanish Tenses & Moods Masterpost