#vivian not the one from ttyd

[sleepwalkr23]

awawawa

i made vivian a 3d model,,, its unpolished but itll get the job done for now awesumsauc

[linkedin-offficial]

they have a silly relationship

[technikki]

ive been curious about whether or not there's a limit to how far the game will stretch vivian to keep her tethered to the ground and well apparently i found it

[leertheartist]

the best ttyd partners (like the drill power up in wonder, I am a natural born coward and WILL use any excuse to hide or run away as fast as I can)

Also just…just pretend yoshi looks normal. I’ve never drawn him before, and you can tell

Small lil spoiler for the ttyd under cut

i didn’t really get the whole craze of Vivian (besides the big win for trans characters in nintendo games) but when she gives Mario the star i couldn’t stop thinking of that spongebob image, and I was then a proud lover of vivian from then on! She’s just a lil goober <:]

og image:

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

Shadow Queen VS Cursa

[cherryfennec]

'Lovers, brothers, killers.'

Aka the "Bad End Trio", [REDESIGN]

aka firefly vs gothic lady vs homeless man

I know there's no way for them to ever canonically interact so it's a good thing I'm an artist and can just

I should probably mention that my Paper Mario and TTYD knowledge consists of:

Paper Mario: the opening cutscene, the vulture fight you can skip by saying you're Luigi, Parakarry, Luigi's diary, the name Goombario, Star Spirits(?), Kammy

TTYD: Hooktail, Luigi's Adventure, the look of the final fight, Koops, Doo_liss, Peach talks to a computer, Vivian, Bowser's there (???)

With that being said, In the theoretical scenario where they met though I'd say:

SQ Peach would have Bowser wrapped around her little finger, it didn't need much convincing he's just like that.

Bowser would try to imitate the smoke from Peaches cigarette to try to impress her, making rings and stuff.

While she doesn't care about these antics she'll sometimes show fake gratitude so he doesn't turn against her. It's good to have allies, especially above average ones.

In the beginning they both thought the little guy was pathetic and while Bowser stayed in his egoistic mindset Peach soon realised that while she could beat The Koopa King, she would not win in a fight with CH Luigi. After that realisation her attitude towards him didn't change (not to raise suspicion) but she knows to keep distance just in case.

At some point she might've tried to manipulate him to her side as well but while he does look silly he isn't stupid.

One day Luigi will be friendly and jolly, the other cunning and mischievous. It's tough having two personalities. Same with Peach, power hungry and egoistic yet dainty and a flower fan. Bowser's the only one who is just plainly a brute with short temper that will do anything to get his way.

In summary: Bowser only wants Peaches attention (thinks he can gain it with power) and doesn't care about the runt unless he annoys him, SQ Peach knows that Bowser will do anything for her and takes advantage of it while also trying her best to play around the other nuisance to her benefit, CH Luigi does whatever he wants because he knows they cant do anything to stop him in the end and Mario is living his fever dream.

I could probably think of more ideas but then this post would be much, much longer. So yeah I redesigned them slightly for funsies and while working on the art I've also came up with some dynamics that I wanted to share. It's a little different from my usual stuff ,as I mostly try to stay relatively close to the canon, but I had fun with coming up with these!

[ponett]

i’m certain you’ll post your thoughts on the thousand-year door remake, but god isn’t it still crazy that this even happened

It really is wild. I thought for sure we'd just get a GameCube ROM library on the Nintendo Online service before we'd ever get a full-blown remake, and then they went and made this. And only half a year after they did a full remake of ANOTHER famously weird beloved Mario RPG that we never thought would get a remake.

I'll admit I still wish they would put up a GameCube ROM library so that we could (officially) play GameCube games on Switch other than the ones that have been given $60 remakes, but like, I can't complain much when it's a good remake. The art direction is gorgeous. There are lots of nice little quality of life updates, which I don't necessarily think the game needed but are still nice to have. And, of course, yes, the localization finally got updated to acknowledge Vivian is trans. In general it's just a treat

The only thing that I don't completely vibe with is the remixed music. Like, in any other game, I'd say a soundtrack like this whips ass. Origami King's soundtrack sounded similar, and that was great! But I think it leans too hard into epic orchestral rock and recurring leitmotifs and whatnot in a way that the original TTYD soundtrack didn't, and that lessens the game's unique vibe. Lots of tracks have also been extended, presumably to cut down on repetition, but they tend to do this with meandering new bridge sections that just kinda feel like musical filler before getting back to the original tune

Like, listen to this new orchestral rock minor key version of the standard battle theme that plays in Hooktail Castle

On its own merits? Great track! Awesome! And I'm all for JRPGs having more than one standard battle theme. But this is a wildly different vibe from the original, which relied heavily on quirky selections of synths that set it apart from other JRPG soundtracks. It feels like this new mix is overselling how epic it is, and in the process becomes more generic. It's like if you swapped the EarthBound soundtrack out for Bravely Default's. It wouldn't fit! An incredibly rare instance where I'm like "no, the composers really for real did not have to go this hard here"

But also before leaving Rogueport you can buy a 0 BP badge that swaps everything except the wholly new tracks back to the original GameCube versions, so that solves that

[dyzzythedemon]

some timeskip ttyd partner designs! Yoshi is killing it in the glitz pit, in totally-not-mario-inspired getup and gear!

Goombella and Vivian are research partners, the former tackling anomalies from a scientific perspective, and the latter tackling them from a magical one!

Flurrie and Mowz are retired, but still get up to occaisional shenanigans!

[janmisali]

any reasoning behind the stats given to vivian and the old psychic lady with the evil eye who reads fortunes and knows everything before it happens in the passport edit you made? cos itd be really cool if vivian having zero out of zero BP is a reference to how the equivalent stat in ttyd is FP, and in ttyd FP is shared among the whole party instead of each party member having their own FP counter

oh good someone noticed that. yes, vivian's stats are copied from her level one stats in ttyd (10 HP, 0 BP-equivalent). the old psychic lady with the evil eye who reads fortunes and knows everything before it happens' stats are mostly obscured by her name so they're just the same as mario's level one stats from the original screenshot

[damarassanctuary]

Welcome everyone lovelies to Damara's Sanctuary ^u^!

This is a place to share love and appreciation for the one and only Damara Megido because she deserves all the love in the world ^u^

Of course that also applies to our beloved Demoness, who has her own section in the sanctuary as well ^u^

If you're a Damara appreciator you're welcome to hang around ^u^ You can expect the occasional fanarts every once in a while, doodles and reposts! Basically anything to spread the Damara positivity!

And as for me, the owner of this Sanctuary, my name is Roxanne, but I mostly go by Roxy, Bug413, Bug or IceFlower413. It's a pleasure to meet you ^u^

Just a silly nerdy gal who has been a little too interested in a certain comic about 4 kids and a game since early 2020 ^u^ Also might or might not have a brain ghost Aranea living within my thoughts btw, so if you ever notice me ram8ling a liiiiiiiittle too much that's a possi8le reason why :::;)

I also draw fanarts of characters others than Damara, or from non-Homestuck related media even,

but I try to keep the Sanctuary focused on Damara as much as I can

(If you do want to see more of my art tho you can find my main medias here ^u^)

Hope you have a nice time in your visit to the sanctuary! ^u^

(some more stuff about me and DNI list below the cut)

Just in case anyone is curious, some of my absolute favorite characters aside from Damara include:

Aranea, Feferi, Roxy, Jane, Lynera and Remele (from Homestuck/Hiveswap)

Rosa, Fang and Stella (From Goodbye Volcano High)

Princess Farmer, Garlic and Mother Gaia (from Princess Farmer)

Niko (from Oneshot) (they're my child i'd literally die for them)

Abby and Zhen (from Psycholonials)

Princess Luna (from My Little Pony)

Vivian (from Paper Mario TTYD)

Haru, Erika and Manami (from A Year of Springs)

(Also I'm a HUGE fan of the fanventures Double Death of the Author by The LifeTime Channel and Burning Down the House by Victoria Lacroix, as well as the fangame Friendsim 2 by Studio June. Would highly recommend all those 3, truly the best of the best in terms of quality when it comes to creations by the fandom ^u^)

Also please do not interact if:

you are a bigot. This is a LGBTQIA+ friendly space and any sort of violence towards anyone for their sexuality, gender or identity in general is not welcome here.

you are a proshipper. I don't think I need to explain this one.

you ship Dammeen. Not really interested on a ship regarding an abuser and their abuse victim thank you very much (and yes I'm including blackrom there also).

you are just trying to start an unpleasant or out of topic argument. Always happy to discuss things peacefully or theorize about stuff, but if you're coming here with the intention of causing troubles and nothing more then please just don't.

you are a bigot. Just mentioning that one once more to be sure.

[sol-lar-bink]

Sooo I started playing Paper Mario Thousand Year Door... still basically at the beginning. But its so weird that... this is my first og Paper Mario experience, and all I can do is be like 'Oh I know this mechanic from Bug Fables'

And now I kinda wanna go and play Bug Fables xDD

I've played Super Paper Mario and Origami King- and honestly I consider those two games pretty good and fun.

And Bug Fables is GREAT, so I'm super excited to see how TTYD goes, especially with some of the unique battle mechanics.

It's a game that even tho I've been around since its original release on gamecube, I have NEVER watched a lets play, never looked into the details. All I've ever known is that Vivian and Goombella are two of the most popular Paper Mario characters, and that the game is one of the best Mario games, like, ever.

[sleepwalkr23]

drew this on the 26th but i didnt feel like posting it then render/half done ref sheet for one of my ocs vivian

also she got a bio its down there (its meant to be a general oc tabber but vivians the only one completely finished so shes the one that appears)

explodes

[crusherthedoctor]

Hey all, hope everyone's doing good. Thought I should give an update on my current perspective on things around here, as it's shifted for reasons I'll get into.

In a nutshell, I'm feeling better than before... but I also think it's time for me to semi-check out of current Sonic discussion.

By now, you all know that with the exception of Superstars and Dream Team - and Jimbotnik, because of course - I've not been enthusiastic about much of the current stuff. Whether that be the likelihood that they'll continue with a Frontiers direction, the SA2 milking that has made me more sick to death of its influence than I thought was possible, the Year of Shadow in general not being all that enticing if your top ten does not include him, IDW still causing the same repetitive back-and-forths with its characteristically terrible decisions and disproportionate praise from fans who don't actually buy the comic, various other bits and pieces that plant further Eggdad seeds into people's heads, a bunch of other stuff that I'm just apathetic about while everyone else goes crazy over them... it's not been a great time for me. I'm the Garfield, and the current direction is the Monday.

That would all be one thing, but as you may expect, it's the fandom that really irks me. I don't like how it's considered necessary to make every post a bestseller in order for your opinion to be seen as valid and insightful. I don't like how you're expected to not criticise something just because it's popular or "iconic". I don't like how everyone dedicates themselves to the same old lengthy discourse that will continue to not change anyone's minds either way, since the only people listening are the ones who already agreed with them. I don't like how you have Flynn/Archie/IDW stans on one side, and an increasingly common "Japan only, no one else should ever touch the series, also the Japanese fandom is the only one with good people in it, I was born in the wrong country uwu" mentality on the other side.

And... I don't like that I've brought these concerns up so many times before when I know it'll always fall on deaf ears. Why do I do this? Why do I bother? For the fandom, I guess. But if the fandom doesn't even respect me, if my words are always doomed to ring in an empty hallway, why should I bother?

While all this has been going on, the Paper Mario Thousand-Year Door remake has been on my mind quite a bit, as it has been for a lot of folk. As someone who has always loved TTYD, as well as the original N64 Paper Mario, I'm happy to report that I absolutely adore the remake, and quickly considered it a gold standard as far as faithful remakes go. :) There's a lot of reasons for that, but that's best for another time. Anyway, after a certain point, it occurred to me... hasn't it been a while since I've been able to just relax and join in on the hype for something? Hasn't it been a while since my opinion lined up with that of the majority? Hasn't it been a while since, regardless of not actually posting, I felt like I belonged somewhere, and wasn't being made to constantly feel like I'm worthless because I'm not an artist, animator, etc?

I think this is something I've been needing for a long time now. The irony of it coming from the bing bing wahoo man is not lost on me.

After how the past few years in the Sonic fandom have felt like a classroom more than anything, watching everyone repeat the same Why ___ Is Secretly Good/Bad three hour manifestos over and over, and flogging themselves for being Not-Japanese, can you see why the simple pleasures of "hehe Vivian :3" would appeal to me? Can you see why I'd prefer to unwind? I made a valiant effort, but now, I can't force myself to keep up with shit that I'm not passionate about for the sake of a community that doesn't care about what I have to say anyway. I need to find myself a place on here that I can be at ease with.

So what does this mean for my blog? Well, nothing too jarring, just that my focus may shift a little for the time being. Despite what all of the above may imply, I'm not turning in my Sonic badge. I still love the franchise, even if I'm not so fond of its overall current direction. And obviously, I still love Eggman, that'll never change. I'll still answer asks about the series, talk about things I like, reblog stuff I like, work on Stellar, spread Egg Propaganda, and so on. But unless I'm asked about them in certain contexts (ie: "how would you improve this character"?), I refuse to talk about IDW, Frontiers, or anything else whose contents and fandom circles cause me migraines.

Not because toxic positivity, but because after the joy of gushing over Vivian TTYD, and remembering the feeling of belonging, I can't do this again. I can't change Tails calling himself Wildly Inconsistent. I can't change The End being a nothingburger. I can't change Lanolin being an arsehole. I can't change Surge's shilling. I can't change how unprofessional the IDW crew is. I can't change what they're doing with Eggman, and various other characters. I can't change any of these things, no matter how much I or anyone else rants about them, and half the time, no one is seriously listening anyway. So many words for so little results. So I need to move on, stop wasting my time, and turn my attention on things that actually make me happy instead of just... deflated. Maybe if I do that, I can belong again. Maybe when the direction inevitably changes again in the future, it'll feel like it came faster.

So yeah. That's where I'm at now. I hope you guys can understand.

[vonbaghager]

the little voice grunts in TTYD add a lot more character to every single character than you'd think

Vivian giggles every time she sets someone on fire

X-Nauts in the audience grumble and complain if they're thrown out for heckling

Doo_liss counts down to charge up his shapechange (I also appreciate how his dialogue noise sounds like "yuk yuk yuk")

Almost every character who throws themselves into an attack like Goombella, Koops, Lord Crump, etc lets out a grunt of effort before they do so

Grodus makes zero noise when he attacks because his spellcasting is effortless for him

One of the superbosses shouts like a Saiyan from DBZ every time he charges up

it's all these little touches that make everything feel so much more vibrant and seamless yknow? makes the characters feel even more like Characters.

[legobiwan]

Mario and Luigi "no one is going to hurt you"?

This one...ballooned. I tried to get it out last night, but fell asleep during the endeavor. This is an attempt to explain/rationalize/make sense of some of the behaviors we see during TTYD, especially as it concerns Mario and Luigi. I'll say right now, neither brother is his best at this point, and I have a bit of a hypothesis as to where each of them may have been, emotionally, during this game. I think TTYD is a turning point for Mario, while Luigi's emotional lynchpin comes, to no surprise, after the events of SPM. Anyway, I'm not going to try and edit this any more than the perfunctory attempt I made. Here you go. A Mario-centric drabble that is most definitely not a drabble.

~~~~~~~~~

My dear Mario,

I have finally learned what the legendary treasure is. It is the spirit of a demon! The X-Nauts plan to revive this thousand-year-old monster and use its power to take over the world! They’re collecting the Crystal Stars so they can open the Thousand-Year-Door..they’ll find this demon’s spirit..but the only thing that can keep it locked away is the Crystal Stars themselves! You must not let them get the Crystal Stars! Please, Mario...you must put a stop to their horrible plans!

-Princess Peach-

Mario rubbed at his eyes, scraping away a week’s work of fatigue. 

Shit.

When Peach had first told him the X-Nauts (and what a stupid name that was) were planning on taking over the world, he had laughed it off. Ever since he had landed in the Mushroom Kingdom, every fifth jabroni from the castle to the Darklands had been some kind of aspiring universal tyrant, babbling on and on about taking over realms, how their new regime would be the mightiest, how they should fear me or fear my army or fear my power, all accompanied by cackling laughter suitable for Saturday morning cartoon. The threats were white noise to him now, another meaningless boast in the endless series of hopped-up, dent-headed, peas-for-brains bad guys who popped out of the brickwork like potholes on the Cross Bronx.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t been taking this whole adventure seriously before this. After all, the last time he got sent on a quest to find stars, he ended up facing off against an army of sentient weaponry bent on…well, yeah. World domination.. But those guys had actually meant business, less wanting to rule the world than reforge it, in the most literal sense, in their image. Hell, Geno wouldn’t have been sent down all the way down from Star Heaven or whatever it had been unless Smithy and his crew were the real thing.

But now Peach was kidnapped and demons were involved. And they needed the Crystal Stars to trap the demon, but those same stars would also release the demon in the first place. Mario pulled his cap close to his eyes, sagging against the public notice board in Rogueport Square, the rotten wood protesting under his added weight. Across the plaza, the gallows swayed in tandem with an oncoming breeze, the smell of spoiled fish and brine wafting over and mixing with the lingering odor of cheap booze and sweat that was the hallmark of Rogueport’s business center. 

Delightful.

Vivian had remarked, once they resurfaced from that whole mess in Twilight Town, that the port city had a certain grimy charm to it. Mario huffed, kicking away a crumpled can of Banditbar Ale. Yeah, this place had charm, all right. All the charm of a Staten Island landfill. 

“Why yes, Vivian, I spent close to twenty years as the premiere actress with the Mushroom Repertory Theater, although back when we first started, it was known only as “The Toad Troupe.” Flurrie laughed in her distinctive trill, her voice resonating from what Mario placed as the archway leading to the west side of Rogueport. “A silly name, but our founder was devoid of that creative spark that captures the imagination and whisks the audience away on a journey with you. Of course, he was a rather talented fundraiser.”

Mario grunted, sliding around to the backside of the noticeboard, which was covered in layers of colorful graffiti and three decades worth of dirt. One bright, recent message spelled out a rather graphic enthusiasm for certain body parts, ones Mario wasn’t even certain Goombas had. Not that he was about to ask. Half the population here would shank him for even thinking of the question. Goombella would drop a book on his head.

He slumped at the thought of the petite, boisterous grad student. Goombella, Flurrie, Koops - even Yoshnar. Not one of them had questioned it, had shown any suspicion that the Mario they were celebrating with, were feasting with in Twilight Town was not, in fact, their supposed friend. Sure, they commented here and there that Mario was acting a little strange, was a bit more bombastic than normal, but no one stood up and announced, that’s not our guy!

Granted, he had only known these people for a week. Not nearly enough time to get the measure of a person in the real world, but that had never hindered his traveling companions before. Geno and Mallow seemed to think the world of him.

Mario curled his fist. He should have interrogated Doopliss when he had the chance, should have pulled the truth right out from under his smug-faced bedsheets. Was it a mimicry of only the body, or did Doopliss’s magic also copy the whole of a man, as well?

And why did his friends believe that egotistical, grandstanding fraud had been him?

“Where is Mario?” Flurrie asked, her voice closer now than it had been a minute ago. She had a habit of elongating her vowels to the point of absurdity, so Mario became Mahrio, emphasis on the ah. He had given up trying to correct her after the first hour of their acquaintance. Some things weren’t worth the fight.

Mario snuck a careful look around the edge of the noticeboard, biting his lip as a mess of dirty splinters poked through his skin. His traveling companions were gathered near the entrance to the Toad Bros Bazaar, Koops worrying at his hands as he fretted about Mario being kidnapped, or worse, continuing to Keelhaul Key without them. 

“Don’t worry, Koops,” Vivian soothed. “I’m sure he’s just gathering information or reading an electronic message from Peach.”

Goombella looked up from her notebook with a small frown. “I hope it’s not important intel. I need to write that data down so I can report back to Professor Frankly.”

“I can’t go back to Petalburg without…” The voices faded out of earshot, the door to the shop closing with a brash jingle. 

Mario unclenched his teeth, letting out an unsteady breath. He’d have to come back with them at some point. Maybe Doopliss saw something in him he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge, but Mario knew he’d be in way over his head if tried to take on the X-Nauts and this demon alone. Do like you always do, Mario. Suck it up, put on a smile, and say as little as possible. It had gotten him this far, whatever that counted for. Now, as for this Flavio -

“Hey, bro!” 

A hand clapped itself on his shoulder. Enemy, his mind blared, Mario grabbing at the interloper’s wrist, spinning the man around until he slammed into the announcement board with a pained “Oof!” Not one to let an advantage go to waste, Mario lunged forward, pushing his forearm into the man’s chest, close enough to his attacker’s trachea to leave no question as to the unspoken threat.

“Mario, what the hell?” A familiar voice squeaked. 

Anxiety spiked in Mario’s gut. Luigi? What in the world was his brother doing in -

Mario closed his eyes, letting out a soft hiss between his teeth as the realization hit. Damnit. The Waffle Kingdom. Princess Cannoli or whatever her name was. Mario released his hold on his brother, pinching the bridge of his nose as he took a step back. I don’t have time for this. Luigi shouldn’t have been in Rogueport at all, somehow making his way to the crime-infested city in the days after Mario had received the letter from Peach asking him to come investigate a treasure map.  

And look where that got her. Kidnapped by aliens with crappy names. He knew Luigi could handle himself, or at least, he could in Brooklyn. Coming to the Mushroom Kingdom had done a number on his brother’s confidence, however, and whatever predilection for gangly awkwardness Luigi had had before had grown since they vanished from New York. 

He didn’t have time to protect his brother and save Peach and save the world from a demon. 

“Bro?” Luigi reached a tentative hand towards Mario’s shoulder. 

It didn’t add up, this whole Waffle Kingdom business. Not that he didn’t believe in Luigi, but nothing over the past year had convinced him his brother was ready to set out on his own, the whole incident with the Boos aside. Now he was on a quest which, on the surface, sounded far too close to Mario’s own exploits in trying to gather the seven crystal stars. He knew his brother could be insecure, but this was really…

Mario’s eyes went wide as he slapped away his brother’s hand, planting his feet into a defensive stance, fists raised. 

It was Doopliss. It had to be. Had the identity-pilfering ghost been following him from the beginning? Or were those Shadow Sirens working for him, feeding him enough tidbits about Luigi to make a convincing copy? That would account for his brother’s strange tales, the majority he didn’t have the stamina to focus through, there being too much on his mind with all the plans and kidnappings and cursed chests.

“I beat you before, you son of a bitch, and I’ll do it again,” Mario growled, pushing his sleeves up his arms. “Give him back.” He needed to get this over with now, get his brother in his own body as soon as possible so Mario could track down the last stars. Damnit, why did Luigi have to wander off like this?

“Woah!” Luigi held both his palms up at shoulder height, scrambling backwards, knocking over a trio of half-filled bottles with a bright clang as he came up against the graffiti-covered noticeboard. A pungent yellow stream seeped from one of the fallen bottles, trickling into the eroded mortar between uneven cobblestones. 

“No one’s going to hurt you, Mario. There’s - “ Luigi grabbed a tuft of hair peeking out from under his cap. “There’s no one here but me. Well, me and Torque. And the rest of Rogueport.” Luigi gave an awkward laugh. “And, you know, Torque’s not here here, he’s inside the bar. But you get what I mean.” He gave his brother an uncertain smile, holding two thumbs-up in front of his chest. 

“Where have you been? What were you doing before this?” Mario demanded, voice rising.

The miserable droop in his brother’s shoulders was unmistakable. “I…told you already? The volcano, the sacrifice? Blooey and Jerry and the bridal dress? I mean, I know it’s not as important as what you’re doing…” Luigi trailed off, finding sudden interest in the variety of grisly stains tattooed on the ground, tracing a disturbingly crimson outline with his foot.

Mario grit his teeth. That was something Luigi would say, right down to the shaky little inflections. Was his brother always this insecure? Had he been ignoring something deeper going on with Luigi for the past year? Something unpleasant curdled in Mario’s gut. He hadn’t wanted to face the fact that Doopliss mirrored his identity, warts and all. Was this the Luigi his brother saw in his reflection every day? Did Luigi even know how sad this looked?

Maybe it was Doopliss. Then again, from what little he remembered from his brother’s stories about his supposed Waffle Kingdom exploits, his own traveling companions were less than impressed with Luigi’s tactics, which seemed to be the literal definition of stumbling into good luck. 

As much as he hated to think it, Doopliss probably had better things to do than wreak havoc on a quest that may or may not have its basis in reality. It was true Luigi had made an astonishing number of enemies in a short period, but Princess Eclair seemed like something straight out of one of those adventure books they had liked so much as kids. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea of his brother hanging around Rogueport, but as long as all this Waffle Kingdom stuff was harmless - well, it would at least keep Luigi out of the underlevels and far, far away from the Thousand Year Door and whatever evil lay behind it.

The communication square in his back pocket vibrated. It was probably Goombella demanding to know where the hell he was. Mario brought his arms to his side, stretching out his fingers. He needed to focus. Whatever happened with Doopliss was in the past and he could waste away his time navel-gazing once this entire ordeal was over. 

Letting out a shuddering breath, Mario stepped forward, placing a firm hand on Luigi’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Luigi. It’s - “ Mario pursed his lips, weighing his words. “A lot has happened in the last few days.”

Luigi let out a watery chuckle, running his sleeve under his nose. “Don’t worry about it,” he shrugged, gaze still fixed to the ground. 

Great, like your brother needed another kick to the ego. Way to go, asshole. Mario dug his fingers into Luigi’s shoulder. Maybe Doopliss’s replication of him hadn’t been that far off the mark, after all. 

“Hey, Lou,” he gave his brother a gentle shake. “Why don’t you introduce me to your new friend? Squort or Morque, was it?”

“Torque,” his brother mumbled.

“Torque! Great! Let’s go meet him!” Mario said too brightly, taking his brother by the arm, all but dragging him towards Podley’s bar. 

“Come on, Mario, you don’t have to - “ Luigi huffed, trying to pull himself out of his brother’s octopus-like grip. “I know you don’t want to - “

Mario shoved the door to the bar open, wrangling Luigi inside, depositing his brother next to a Spike Top with a wrench on his head. The little creature made a series of rapid clicks with its mouth, somehow conveying annoyance without uttering a single intelligible word or facial expression. The Spike Top glowered at his brother, if the dead, beady-eyed stare could be called that, before turning around with an exaggerated shuffle.

Six to one, that’s Torque, Mario mused, feeling a momentary pang of sympathy for his brother. Oh Luigi, we have to talk about this one of these days. But that was for later. After the crystal stars, after Peach was safe, after the world was saved. Right now, he needed a minute to collect himself, to form a plan to find Flavio and get to Keelhaul Key, and an excuse to give his companions for his sudden absence.

“Hey Lou, is that your friend?” Mario gestured at the little Spike Top. He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “How about you tell me that story?”

Luigi eyed Torque warily, the Spike Top making a slight turn so its face was again visible. Luigi gave a sheepish wave in his direction, Torque responding with a loud click of its jaw and a series of buzzes that reminded Mario of a horde of angry cicadas. 

“Heh, he’s excited to hear it again, too,” Mario pressed on, willing himself to be oblivious to the mounting tension between the odd pair. 

“Well,” Luigi rubbed at the back of his neck, avoiding looking anywhere near Torque. “If you’re sure…”

“Surer than sure!” Mario exclaimed with fake enthusiasm, throwing his hands up like he was tossing two baseballs into the air. 

His brother gave a small smile, slipping his thumbs behind the straps of his overalls as he uncurled his defensive hunch, voice dropping into a more comfortable storytelling baritone. “Okay, then. It all started like this. Just as our boat arrived on Circuit Island…”

Mario let his brother’s tale wash over him, making appropriate sounds of acknowledgement when necessary. He knew this lapse would come back to bite him in the ass later, but he’d rather have a world he could fight with his brother in than no world at all. He took in a long breath through his nose, holding it at the top for five seconds before releasing it in the opposite manner, careful to not make it sound as if he were sighing in annoyance at his brother’s narrative.

Finding Flavio was his first task. And messaging Goombella, although he was tempted to put the inevitable tongue-lashing off for another few minutes. Flavio first, he decided. The name was familiar, and sworn he had heard it bandied about when he first arrived in Rogueport, barreling through every shop and back-alley headquarters he could find in a blind panic. He knew he needed to find someone who worked on a ship, some sea-faring type, although in this town, that could be anybody from a pirate to a fortune teller to a criminal on the lam. 

It wasn’t like he could just walk around asking if anyone had seen a man with a peg-leg and eyepatch. For as quirky as the Mushroom Kingdom could be, it rarely conformed to his Earth-bound stereotypes. 

“The Skuuuuul Captaaaaaaaaain!” a boisterous voice warbled from a corner table. Mario made a perfunctory nod at his brother - yes, I’m listening - scanning each of the bar patrons until he landed on a short, well-dressed man teetering on the back two legs of his chair. 

“Festiiiivaaaaal!” he bellowed in discordant tones, hugging a bright red gemstone in the shape of a skull with one atm, raising a half-full mug of Chuckola with the other.

Then again, maybe he didn’t need to go around asking about pirates, seeing as one landed in his proverbial lap. The knots in Mario’s stomach unraveled, each freed line replaced by a bit of fluttering optimism he hadn’t felt since his victories in the Glitzville Pit. 

Doopliss was out of the picture. His companions were back and his brother, if not exactly happy, was at least distracted and, more importantly, safe. The man with the fluffy white cravat and maroon jacket caressed the cheekbones of the skull gemstone, singing another loud nonsense verse into its ear. 

Mario let himself smile. He was going to come out on top of this, hell and high water.

[linkedin-corp]

okay now that ive posted that thing on my art acc im gonna talk about chimera vivian here for a minute bcus i brainrotted to a friend of mine last night but i think its good if my ttyd followers know about the au lore

(LONG POST AHEAD. BEWARE)

it takes place and begins right as the party is to fight gloomtail. the party is fatigued by then and , to their dismay, they can barely handle him. he is more powerful than expected. in an unexpected turn of events, gloomtail eats vivian. without her, the party simply cant continue. so they flee

and while the party has fled the palace, and trying to reconcile a plan, the shadow queen that was destined to awaken within the palace soon eventually arises and begins to wreck havoc while the party is recovering from their loss. though, she is still weak, so she remains in the shadow palace , working away at what she can while inside it.

once the party has the courage and willpower to return, they finally defeat gloomtail in an effort to retrieve vivian first, but. as expected. shes not completely there

unsure who would be the one to do it, but one of them definitely ends up needing to use a spell or a certain type of magic to bring her back, probably. perhaps they encounter a friend who can use certain spells, like what theyd need. that will reverse stuff like. say. a friend getting killed and eaten by an actual dragon (time reversal magic ... ? much to think about ..)

of course it would go as expected; weird and massively backfire, because vivian is not your normal everyday individual, and neither is this dragon, both technically being under the shadow queens influence (in vivian's case, she is, a shadow. so inherently related to the shadow queen whether she likes it or not)

and then of course once ""vivian"" gets revived, its obviously not her. the party is super conflicted, and unsure what to do, so they once again flee, after just letting her do her thing for a bit (and accidentally kill many people in the process) as they are quite dazed . so is vivian, to be fair

once she finds the queen, vivian is luckily not as friendly to the shadow queen as falin is to thistle

even though she knows shes meant to follow under the queen and obey her every order, she also knows something is wrong. but since she isnt completely herself, and cant nessesarily think for herself, she cant make use of this anxiety. so she just tries to avoid the shadow queen when she can; unfortunately the shadow queen likes to use her as a sort of. large display pet/guard dog. chimera vivian is basically a giant ball of anxiety and sadness and confusion that sometimes manifests as blind rage.

her relationship with gloomtail during this whole ordeal is also very difficult and different, i think

instead of being kind and understanding in the way that falin is, vivian is scared and confused, and eventually lets her anger out at gloomtail, making him feel guilty the longer they stay connected. hes upset that they had killed hooktail, but he specifically starts feeling guilty bcus vivian technically didint do anything + shes also a shadow. so he accidentally did some overbearing friendly fire, even if vivian was working with mario at the time he ate her. oopsie

the way they change vivian back to normal? once they defeat the shadow queen she turns back. because shes sealed away, all the magic she cast on the world fades, as her influence is no longer thriving

majority of the au is just essentially the party trying to find those who can help them with their "needing those who can revive and manipulate dead people" problems . though once they do find them it wont be over

they wont be able to free vivian from gloomtail until the shadow queen is defeated, so they have to find a way to free vivian from the queen's influence first, and hopefully help her regain her memory in the process, so they can use her against the queen and have her on their side again .

biting the hand that feeds :)