bacidipesca - Tumblr blog

bacidipesca · 7 months

Text

!!!!!!!!! Holy shit holy shit this is such good content thank you for the glorious content I am fed this evening

No but really this is. So so good. I love you characterizing Mario as a hothead, as impulsive and surprising, because that’s exactly how I imagine him too. He just can’t keep his nose out of other peoples business.

Ugh ugh I love it when a good man scares an enemy into backing off. So good. When the bad guy is like “oh shit I fucked up” that’s when you know you’ve done a good job

🤌 high quality, excellent, so happy to be tagged to be sure I saw it.

In my own Marioverse, Bowser kidnapping Peach doesn't actually happen very often. Like, at all.

In fact, it only happens twice.

There’s animosity between him and Peach, absolutely, but he usually terrorizes her by way of sending troops to wreak havoc against her citizens. That's not ideal of course, but it’s just part of life; every Toad knows what to do at the first sign of trouble (read: run home screaming), there’s defenses and preventative measures alike in place, it's easy to counter and unsurprising before too long. Unpleasant, but not even particularly disruptful at this point.

And then one night, the princess vanishes, and all that’s left is a letter on her bed in harsh handwriting: Bowser’s bored of his own games and wants control of the Mushroom Kingdom, and until he gets it, Peach will remain his prisoner.

At this point, Mario is a member of her guard (how exactly that happens I haven't decided yet, so for now I default to this brilliant work by the supremely talented @bacidipesca and inspired by the also supremely talented @elitadream), as well as one of her closest friends. He's earned a reputation for his courage, strength, and selflessness, but no one at this point's actually expecting him to drop everything and go charging into Bowser's home territory to save her.

Mario is also a hothead with chronic hero syndrome. It's not just that he's hopelessly smitten close with her. Peach took him and Luigi in after they found themselves stranded in a strange world, giving them kindness, security, a place to call home. She's had Mario's undying loyalty from the moment they first met. Of course he's going to save her.

His actions are a shock to pretty much everyone, especially Bowser. He was expecting either the reluctant but unconditional surrender of her nation or an army, one of the two, not some guy with a funny accent who comes up to the princess' shoulder — who is both significantly faster and somehow almost as strong as him. The surprise works in Mario's favor, and he's able to free Peach and bring her back home not even two full days after her kidnapping, and he's battered and a little singed, but otherwise no worse for the wear.

I wanna go into more depth about the events between Kidnappings 1 and 2 in another post because this is already getting waaaaaay longer than I meant for it to, so to keep it short! Mario gets promoted to Peach's primary bodyguard, and all the extra time together means they go from best friends quietly crushing on each other to best friends in desperate, burning, all-consuming love with one another. So when Bowser kidnaps her once more, it's a hell of a lot more personal.

And Bowser's not underestimating Mario this time around; he's put a shocking amount of effort into ramping up his defenses and keeping Peach's exact location and state of well-being hidden. Mario won't be able to waltz in and carry her out. He makes one wrong move and he's dead. And now Bowser's threatening to outright kill Peach if his demands aren't met, so he's on borrowed time.

It's a very long three weeks. While Toadsworth spearheads efforts to string Bowser along, walking a fine line between not giving into his threats but also keeping him unsuspicious, Mario trains himself half to death, because he is going to face Bowser, and he is going to kill the bastard, and he is going to bring Peach home safely. He probably would train himself to death if not for Luigi dragging him inside and forcing him to eat and sleep every so often. He doesn't know if Peach is safe or comfortable or even alive, and he won't (willfully) rest until that changes.

The time and resources it takes just reaching Bowser saps most of his energy. The fight nearly kills him. He uses the last of his strength to pry the bars of Peach's cell open and then collapses from a combination of exhaustion, blood loss, and shock. If not for her healing powers, he would've died there on the dungeon floor.

He didn't kill Bowser. He didn't have time. But Bowser received a thrashing pretty damn proportionate to the one he gave Mario. He's oddly quiet from that point on, and no one in the Mushroom Kingdom complains. There's still an ever-lingering fear that he might come back, he might target them once more, he might succeed at what he attempted twice... but the truth is, so long as Mario's alive, he's not getting anywhere NEAR Princess Peach, much less the Mushroom Kingdom.

Bowser may be egotistical and a little dense, but he's not stupid, and he doesn't have a death wish. There's other conquests to be had, conquests against enemies that won't fight back (or at least won't miserably kick his ass).

#😘 god bless #good shit good shit

46 notes · View notes

bacidipesca · 8 months

Note

Hey! Just found your page and it's so sweet! How are you doing? I hope you're having a lovely, lovely day ❤️

Thank you so much oh my goodness!!!

My air conditioner is broken but I am doing so okay!!!!! :):)

I’m sorry I haven’t posted more recently but health issues and stuff. You don’t like to write when you feel icky. But thank you so so much!!!

#i am unwell but that is beside the point #thank you so much for dropping in and saying hello!!

2 notes · View notes

bacidipesca · 9 months

Note

I hope this doesn’t upset anyone for me to chime in here but I wanted to say something and didn’t want to leave it in replies or tags, because I think it’s important.

Talent is not what makes good art.

Oh, yes, talent can absolutely help you make art. It can make things a little bit easier. But talent cannot, and will not, ever be able to replace good, honest effort and hard work.

Being talented is kind of like… being good at tests in school. Your brain can come up with answers for problems quickly and without much effort. But if you don’t do the homework, if you don’t study, you don’t actually learn any of the material. It stays in your head for a week and then vanishes because you never put it into practice. When you’re asked to ‘show your work,’ you can’t because you can’t explain how you got your answer, just that you know it.

Those are the limitations of being talented. You might have the potential, or the instinct, or the discerning eye, but if you don’t take the time to hone them and practice and work through the mistakes, you’ll never realize the full scope of what you can do because you’re relying on whatever shortcuts have gotten you to this point.

Being talented makes making good art easier, but you do not have to have talent or be talented to make good art, ever.

I’m going to repeat that because I think it’s necessary:

You do not have to have talent or be talented to make good art, EVER.

Your art is absolutely gorgeous. You’re very lucky to have such an incredible talent, I remember wanting to be a artist when I grow up, but I would just keep messing up. Haha! I really like how you draw the characters! Toads my favorite. And you draw him very good! Always know… that your followers, family, and friends are always there to support you. You are appreciated. And matter… and most importantly…You are an kind and incredible person with an awesome talent. Hope you have a good day! :D

(This may not be a ask…But you deserve all these nice words😊)

I'm- 😭🙇‍♀️💖

I don't know what to say. This is so incredibly sweet! Thank you so much for the lovely words! 🥺💐 Although if I may: please don't worry about messing up if it's something you enjoy doing. Art is all about experimenting and making mistakes, after all. I hope you may feel encouraged to draw whenever you feel like it; not with the pressure to make it look a certain way, but simply because it's fun. 😊✏️

19 notes · View notes

bacidipesca · 10 months

Text

🙈🙈🙈 oh goodness golly don’t say you’re intimidated LOL! I promise I don’t bite.

I’ve just been writing for longer than some of these tumblr kids have been alive.

All I ever really want when I’m feeling sick and drained is for someone to lay with me and hold my hand and talk to me until I fall asleep, so that’s what I gave Peach. 🤗

Thank you so, so, so much, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see people enjoy my stuff. I haven’t posted online in a few years so the response has been amazing. 💖💖💖

a weight you choose

Okay guys this one might be a little different. I’m a person who suffers from chronic illness, so I know what it’s like to really feel sick, and I wanted to write a hurt/comfort fic. Peach is sick with a stomach bug and this fic might be a little gross at points. There will be discussion of vomiting and snot, but no, uh, toilet things.

I hope everyone enjoys! It’s a bit of a long one. (Almost 4K!)

Waking up was usually not a difficult process for Princess Peach.

Though she was often up late with her duties and paperwork, Peach was an early riser by nature and usually itched to get out of bed and start her day with the rising of the sun (much to the chagrin of the folks in the castle). It was a rare occasion that Toadette had to come and fetch her, and rarer still that she didn’t immediately jump out of bed once she realized she’d overslept. It took several seconds of Toadette shaking her shoulder and trying to rouse her for the princess to even stir.

“Princess, are you alright?” Toadette said once again, and this time Peach heard it, though it sounded as though it came through a layer of cotton wool.

She scrunched her nose and groaned, turning for a moment to try it bury her face in her pillow. Even that slight movement, however, was enough to send a wave of terrible chills down her body from head to toe. She popped open her eyes to look up at Toadette, squinting a bit even in the low light, and she swallowed painfully. She opened her mouth to speak, but her eyes grew alarmed before she could utter a word and with more energy than she thought she had, she flung the sheets back and stumbled out of bed.

Her chambers, of course, had an adjoining bathroom and she raced over to the trash bin there to heave, catching herself on her hands on the rim of the bin before she could fall to her knees. It took quite a few rounds of heaving before she felt like she could lift her head again, and when she did she realized that Toadette had come in behind her and tied her hair back from her face.

Peach would have thanked her, but another wave of chills rocked over her and she couldn’t speak as she heaved again.

It felt like that went on for hours, though Peach was sure it couldn’t have been that long. She would get a moment to catch her breath, would start to stand upright, and her stomach would cramp or she’d feel a bolt of inexplicable pain shoot up from her gut to her throat. Sweat beaded on her forehead and in her hairline from the constant effort of coughing and her legs began to ache from the nonstop tension as her stomach continued to try to empty itself, long after she’d lost everything she’d eaten. When the rolling and cramping of her abdomen didn’t stop even still, she couldn’t help but start to cry and fat teardrops slid down her flushed cheeks. After a while she lost the strength to stay on her feet and went down to her knees, leaning on her elbows as she clutched at the trash bin.

I don’t even have anything to come up anymore, she thought miserably, and she bit her lip hard to prevent a whine from escaping from her throat. Her efforts were in vain, though, because when she swallowed it felt as though she’d been eating broken glass. Her throat was shredded from all of her coughing, and she let out a pathetic sound as more tears rolled down her face, leaning on one of her arms. Pressed against her cheek, she could feel how hot and flushed her face still was.

She heard Toadette speaking behind her.

“…like this all morning. She hasn’t stopped, and it’s been about three hours now,” she said, and Peach reeled a little at the confirmation that she had, indeed, been vomiting for hours. Then she realized Toadette was talking to another person.

Oh, she must have gotten Nurse Toadessa, Peach thought, relief sweeping through her. Before she could even really finish the thought, though, it was already proven wrong.

“Dio mio, I understand,” came the other voice, and Peach couldn’t hear anything else after because the shock of it sent the most horrible wave of nausea through her yet.

Toadette had not fetched the castle nurse. She had gone and fetched Mario.

(What she did not know at this time was that Toadette had gone out with the full intention of getting the castle nurse, but Mario had found her first. And once Mario had heard the princess was ill, nothing could be done to prevent him from rushing to her side.)

Peach retched hard into the trash bin, this time seeing stars as her vision darkened around the edges. It hurt, it felt like she was going to turn herself inside out, she couldn’t stop to breathe—and honestly if this was her end she was beginning to welcome it, if it meant she stopped vomiting. Just as she was beginning to truly feel lightheaded, a bundle of cloth was pushed under her nose and her next retch was stopped in its tracks by the shock of the smell alone. She gasped and got another inhale that almost choked her.

When she tried to jerk back from the sharp, chemical smell, she felt a gentle hand on the back of her head and the cloth was kept close, though not close or hard enough to smother her—just to keep the scent invading her nose.

“I know, I’m sorry,” came Mario’s voice from somewhere above her head. Her eyes were still tearing and she could just barely see his hand in front of her face. He wasn’t wearing his gloves. “I know it smells bad, but it’s helping, sì?”

He was right, somehow. As long as she was taking in that burning smell, her stomach wasn’t trying to flip around. She could take a breath, and she did so greedily, coughing on mucus when she let it back out but not convulsing with the need to purge. A low sob of relief pushed out of her and she lifted her head for the first time in what felt like forever.

She felt disgusting. She knew there had to be something streaming from about every hole in her head—tears were still falling from her eyes, while snot ran freely out of her nose like an open faucet, and she was sure there was a strand of spit clinging to her lip and stringing to the side of the trash bin. But Mario smiled at her regardless, eyes warm and kind and sweet enough to have her heart thumping. He kept the foul-smelling cloth close to her nose while he reached into his pocket with his free hand for a handkerchief. Peach tried to back away again when he reached out for her face.

“N-no, I’ll get it dirty,” she said in a wavering voice, trying to turn away.

He chuckled softly at her and shook his head. “That’s the whole point, Princess.”

She didn’t have enough energy to struggle with him, so she let him wipe her face even though she thought it was pointless. It felt as though she would start crying or vomiting again any moment, and her shoulders hitched with an anticipatory sob just at the thought. Once Mario had stuffed his handkerchief away again, he pulled something different from the depths of his pocket, and Peach’s brow furrowed when she heard it crinkling.

“I need you to try to eat this,” he said, holding it out to her, and when she saw what it was she let out another sad little sound. It was a hard peppermint candy.

She shook her head, leaning back and away even as he unwrapped it. “Nooo,” she said, drawing the word out like a child and feeling pathetic even as she did so. “I hate peppermint.”

That caused Mario to pause, and he looked behind her. “Does she?” he asked, and she realized he must be talking to Toadette when she heard the little woman’s voice pipe up.

“No, she’s just being contrary,” said Toadette, in a tone that suggested long suffering on this particular subject, mingled with amusement. “She’s always like that when she’s sick.”

“I’m really not,” Peach tried to defend, but over her head Mario and Toadette were exchanging knowing smirks where she couldn’t see.

Mario made a soft sound in the back of his throat, as if to soothe her, and he lifted the peppermint to her lips. “You can spit it out later if you want, but this will help for now. Please, Princess, just for a few minutes?”

His eyes were imploring her behind the candy pressed to her lips, and her heart thumped again. Why, oh why, had Toadette fetched Mario to help her instead of the nurse? Why was he the one seeing her like this, drenched in sweat and leaking from everywhere? She could feel a bead of snot starting to drip down from her nose, and she parted her lips and allowed Mario to feed her the peppermint before it could touch the candy. He beamed at her, and finally allowed the nasty cloth to drop away from her face.

“The peppermint should help soothe your stomach a little until we can get some proper medicine in you,” he said. He brushed hair back and away from her face, eyes flicking from her soaked hairline to her swollen lips, and he frowned for a moment as he seemed to consider something. He looked her over for a long moment. “Do you think you can stand up?”

Oh. She hadn’t been anticipating that. She felt as though she barely had enough energy to keep her head upright at this point, but she had to at least try, right? She bit her lip and hesitated for a long moment, but eventually she nodded and tried to stand.

It swiftly became clear that she was going to need assistance. Her legs trembled still when she tried to get them to cooperate, and she nearly pulled the trash bin over on herself when she tried to use it for leverage to stand up. Mario and Toadette were quick to her side to help, both trying to soothe her as she mumbled out apologies.

“M’so, so s-sorry, I-I just can’t…” she said, almost losing the peppermint. Toadette shushed her, moving the trash bin out of the way so Peach couldn’t hurt herself.

Mario took hold of her hands, hoisting her to her feet with little apparent effort, and when she proved unsteady he positioned himself under one of her arms, placing a large hand at the small of her back. She was slow to move and Mario was kind enough to let her, matching her pace as she shuffled across the tile. His being shorter worked to their advantage as well, as Peach wasn’t sure she would have been able to stand fully upright if she tried.

“Here, Toadette is going to help you get into a shower,” Mario told her as they approached the steaming stall. The water was already going and a bench had been dragged inside so she didn’t have to stand, clearly the work of Toadette while she’d been distracted with her illness. “The hot water and the pressure will help, alright? But before you do, you need to take this.”

He gestured and Peach saw that Toadette had both a tall glass of water and a couple of medicine tablets in her hands. Peach bit her lip, skeptical.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it down,” she said softly, voice small and scared.

This wasn’t her being contrary, but genuine fear that she wouldn’t be able to stomach the cure for her illness somehow and she would just stay sick. She’d been going for three hours and hadn’t stopped, had hardly been able to catch her breath, could now barely walk across her bathroom. It didn’t feel like there was an end in sight.

“I think you can,” Mario said. He gave her a soft smile, and when he continued she swore it was like he’d read her mind. “I know it seems like it’s not going to stop, but this is going to pass. We got you walking, away from the bin. That’s an improvement already.” There was something a bit beseeching in his eyes. “You trust me, don’t you?”

Of course she did. That was like asking if water was wet, or if Peach’s favorite color was pink. She could see the look in Toadette’s eyes as she glanced between the two of them, the knowing, the smile that threatened to break out on her little round face, and Peach pouted briefly at her before she reached out for the pills.

Mario encouraged her to drink as much of the water as she could, though he urged her to drink slowly to not upset her stomach. Once the glass was empty, he took it and said that he would be waiting for them outside and then delicately handed her off to Toadette’s care.

Despite Peach’s apprehensions, Toadette did not take the opportunity to start teasing her—perhaps knowing the princess didn’t really have the energy for it at the moment. Instead she chose to explain how she’d run into Mario on her way to find Nurse Toadessa. Today had been a day Mario and the princess had been scheduled together, so he’d been waiting and worried when she hadn’t appeared for any of her morning duties. Upon hearing she was sick, nothing would appease him but to see her for himself and offer what help he could, even after it had been made plain what the illness was.

“He says he and his brother were sick pretty often as kids, so they know a few tricks,” Toadette told her, with a tone that suggested she’d been impressed. “And with a bit of rubbing alcohol and a peppermint, he had you on your feet.”

Oh, rubbing alcohol. That was what he’d been holding to her nose. Peach couldn’t help but be impressed herself, now that she had some of her wits back. He’d known exactly what to do to help stop the cycle, he’d even just happened to have a peppermint handy in his pocket. Now that she was out of the shower and into a new pajama set (Peach insisted if Toadette wouldn’t let her get properly dressed she should at least wear something other than a nightgown), Toadette had helped her hobble over to the vanity mirror and was helping her manage her hair. The candy that Mario had given her was nearly gone, and she crunched it away.

Her eyes widened suddenly and a pink blush stole over her face. She lifted a hand to her mouth in embarrassment.

“Did I really say I hated peppermint?” she asked in a little squeak.

Toadette laughed brightly. “Yes! You did!”

The princess buried her face in her hands.

Between the two of them they decided it would be best to just braid Peach’s hair back to keep it out of her face and comfortable to sleep in, and it became clear as Toadette brushed out her hair that Peach wasn’t going to be able to stay awake much longer. All of her energy had been drained by the morning’s stress, and now that the nausea had been tamed to a dull ache and she could finally relax, the weariness was catching up to her. When Peach tried to stand and walk away from her vanity, her legs trembled so badly that she had to take a seat again before she could get upright and she bit her lip hard against the sudden sting of tears. She lifted a hand to her face, covering her eyes. Oh, how she hated this. Hated to be a bother. Hated to need the help.

“…I think Mario might need to carry me,” she finally admitted to Toadette in a little whisper.

That was all she needed to scurry out of the room to fetch him; Toadette knew perhaps better than anyone else just how much Peach hated to feel like a burden—especially to Mario—so for her to say it in so many words meant that she knew she was at her limit. It didn’t take long for her to come back with Mario in tow, and Peach found herself a little surprised by just how solemn he looked until he laid eyes on her, and his mustache curled up in a gentle smile.

“You look like you feel better. Your eyes are brighter,” he said warmly, once he was within arm’s reach. Her heart fluttered a little at the sweet words—he always claimed he wasn’t very good with them, but he managed to say the nicest things to her. “Are you ready to move?”

She nodded, unsure if she trusted her voice not to waver if she tried to speak. He smiled at her again and slid an arm around her shoulders.

It was little effort for him to lift her into his arms and as always Peach was struck by how safe and secure she felt. For all his small size, he was so strong and fast and always, always so careful with her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fought the strong urge to bury her face in there as well. She barely noticed as he walked her out of the bathroom and back to her bed, feeling like she was floating instead, and it felt like the time was cut criminally short when he finally laid her down. A lump rose in her throat and her hand shot out before she could stop herself, wrapping her fingers around one of his thumbs as he started to back away.

“Stay with me? Please?” she asked. Her voice was starting to catch up to everything that had happened, a bit hoarse and reedy. She shuffled back towards the center of the bed and tugged weakly at his hand, giving him the big, wet eyes that had usually convinced Toadsworth to let her have just a couple more hours to read before bed as a child.

“Princess…” Mario’s cheeks were pink and getting darker. He glanced around them, as though he was afraid of being watched, or perhaps of being caught. “I don’t think it’s very, ah, appropriate as your guard…”

Before Peach could say anything else, or come to her senses about what she was asking of him, really, Mario jerked forward a bit, stumbling against the edge of the bed. He turned and saw that Toadette was behind him, a firm hand pressed between his shoulder blades. The look on her face was no-nonsense.

“Take off your boots, please,” was all she said, and Mario knew that there would be no getting away.

He pulled Peach’s hand from his and gave it a soft squeeze before he leaned down to unlace his shoes so he could join the princess. He sat on top of the bedclothes, leaving what he must have thought was a respectful distance between them, and leaned carefully back as he turned to face her. He’d taken off his hat at some point, she finally noticed. His hair was a bit disheveled, as though he’d been running his hands through it and then hastily tried to comb it into place again. That lump in her throat returned at the thought of him being so concerned.

“I’m sorry I made you worry so much,” Peach said after a long few moments of silence.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Mario said back, almost immediately. He shook his head at her. “You can’t help being sick. It happens to everyone.”

She didn’t say anything back for a long moment, unable to come up with words to express what she was feeling. After a beat, Mario picked up one of her hands in his and she blinked when she realized neither of them were wearing their gloves.

The skin of his fingers wasn’t as rough as she might have expected, but his knuckles were a little hairy, and his nails trimmed. His palms were wide and creased, and he had a scar across his index finger she’d never seen before. Most of all, his hands were warm, and they utterly engulfed hers. She would never get tired of seeing her hands disappear inside of his.

“My brother and I used to get sick a lot as kids,” he said. She looked up at his face again and saw the spark in his expression, the one that always came through when he talked about his brother and made his blue eyes twinkle. “And Luigi would always apologize over and over for needing help, or for getting me sick because I helped him. Do you know what always I told him?”

Peach shook her head slowly, sinking back further into her pillow.

“Un peso che si sceglie non si sente,” he said, and the smooth, melodic cadence of the Italian words felt like it was dancing over her ears. His thumb caressed over her wrist, and her heart caught in her throat when he translated for her. “A weight that you choose is not felt.”

A weight that you choose? Did that mean he was choosing her, too, like he’d chosen to take care of his brother? That he didn’t mind the work, because she was important to him? That he wanted to be here, regardless of if she was sick or not? She didn’t like those kinds of questions—they had jagged corners that dug into her mind as they passed through. They hurt to linger on, like they might burn if she held on for too long, or too tightly. She knew what she wanted the answers to be; her pounding heart and the little zips of electricity from where their skin touched were too telling not to know. But asking them, putting them to voice, was too terrifying to even consider.

“I just…didn’t want you to see me like this,” she managed to say at last, with little energy and a melancholy that no one but Toadette had ever heard from her before. Her tiredness was really beginning to catch up to her.

Mario’s mustache tilted up, one of those smiles where she could hardly even see his mouth because it was hidden behind his thick facial hair. He squeezed her hand again. “Why? You’ve seen me in plenty worse states than this.”

“S’your job, though,” Peach said, and even fading she realized how that sounded. “I mean, not getting hurt, but… oh, you know what I mean.”

Her eyes were having trouble staying open, so she missed the utterly fond look that crossed his face as she scrunched her nose in irritation at herself, as well as how he lifted his free hand to his mouth to contain a laugh at how cute she looked, fussing over her own words.

“I know what you mean, principessa,” he said, once he had control of himself. He could see that she was fading fast, and he reached out to pull the blanket higher over her shoulder. “Just get some rest now. Maybe when you wake up, we can try to have some soup, yeah? Luigi knows this great recipe our nonna used to make…”

He kept going, telling her about how he’d ask his brother to share the recipe with the kitchens, about how it used to soothe them when they were young, about how his nonna used to serve it out of old heirloom teacups for the two of them, until he thought that she was finally asleep.

The last thing Peach thought she felt before she drifted off was a soft pair of lips and a slightly scratchy mustache pressed against her temple, but she was sure she just imagined it.

/fin

#sometimes ‘write what you know’ is a load of crock #but sometimes it ends up leaving you with feelings that are raw and vulnerable in your work #peach was going through a somewhat toned down version of episodes that have landed me in the emergency room #if i don’t have the meds i use to keep the nausea down this is what happens to me and it’s just as little fun as i described #the smell of rubbing alcohol and sucking on peppermints are both legit was ways to combat nausea btw!!!#just be careful because you CAN get inhalation drunk from rubbing alcohol lmao a bitch found out the hard way

46 notes · View notes

bacidipesca · 11 months

Text

my au headcanons

Essentially, this is the universe in my head whenever I write for Mareach. Some details may differ from story to story and I’ll probably forget quite a few, but largely this is how I imagine the world works/the backstory informing my characters’ decisions. Behind a cut because this got so, so long out of literally nowhere.

I want to just say first au takes some inspiration out of @elitadream ‘s ideas but hopefully with enough distinction to make it unique.

The specific details I’ve borrowed or plan to thus far from elitadream: Mario being Peach’s guard in an official capacity, the chain chomp incident*, and staying in the castle/Toad’s quarters/workshop. (I was also planning on using their art as partial inspiration for their first meeting for my own AU as well but if they don’t want me to, I will do my best to come up with an alternative.)

*kind of, I explain that later.

I have a timeline in my head of several (like 5+) different encounters with Bowser plus other enemies sprinkled in, a distinct cast of toad ocs I’ve been building, I have a backstory for why Mario has super strength (Luigi has his own distinct power also), I’m pulling inspiration from the new Mario movie for my backstories for Peach and Daisy, I’m planning on possibly involving time travel in the future. I’m hoping that the differences will make themselves clearer as I go on here. If there’s anything here that I haven’t correctly given credit on, or that needs to be removed because the person who inspired it isn’t comfortable, let me know.

If you see anything as a part of this au that you would like to use or borrow for your own fic or art or au, go for it! I would love to see the result, so feel free to tag me, but also feel free not to. While some of my ideas are unique I think a lot of them just ‘make sense’ for the sandbox we’re all playing in.

- Mario and Luigi were born in Brooklyn to a really insular Italian-American community (their grandparents were the ones who came over from Italy) where they spent most of their time in their own neighborhood speaking Italian with family members and friends, which is what gives them their slight but noticeable Italian accents when speaking English.

- If you got them around someone like Pauline or another Brooklyner, though, you might hear them start to pick up on some of those vocal tics because it’s also ingrained in them from growing up in that area.

- Also this is where my (possible, eventual) time travel nonsense comes in—Baby Mario and Baby Luigi go on an adventure that ends with them getting Firebrand and Thunderhand powers, but it’s because of Kamek and his interference after already having met the brothers as adults who fell into the Mushroom Kingdom. So, as of everything I’m currently writing, Mario and Luigi have no recollection of that adventure because it technically hasn’t happened for them yet.

- But because time is so very rarely linear, or even circular, the Firebrand and Thunderhand powers are kind of hardwired into them now. They just discover having them at the same time they would have gotten them (and eventually will get them, because time travel) as babies.

- Does that make sense? No? Okay good, we’re all on the same page then.

- This is why it’s eventually maybe a possibility and not a hard and fast thing. Just accept that Mario and Luigi were born in Brooklyn with mystical powers.

- Accept it.

- Anyway—

- Firebrand powers! This is why Mario has super strength. He also has extra endurability, can withstand and collect heat/fire in his body, or generate it at a cost of energy to himself. Mario’s fire can be controlled much, much more precisely than he lets on, allowing him to even write or draw with it (hence the brand part of it). Because his powers are linked to Luigi’s, Mario’s fire does not burn him. Mario is very warm to the touch and doesn’t get cold very easily, and can even get a little overheated if he layers up too much and doesn’t let off any additional heat.

- Thunderhand powers! Luigi has super speed and extra stamina, can withstand and collect electricity in his body same as Mario, and generate it the same way as well. He can also produce thunderclap-like screams, but usually under high stress rather than on command. Mario can’t be shocked by Luigi’s electricity. Luigi’s constant fidgeting and his jumpiness can be partially attributed to his need to let off excess energy, and he has a tendency to give people a little static shock when he touches them. He wears gloves to try to mitigate it but it doesn’t help much.

- Luigi can jump higher than Mario.

- They are fraternal twins, and where Mario is right-handed, Luigi is left-handed. Their powers are stronger coming from their dominant hands.

- Peach and Daisy are from the same place but not necessarily related. They were both displaced by a war that caused them to be, essentially, sent out as a last hope for survival into the unknown. They were discovered by the people in their kingdoms and raised by the people in authority.

- I haven’t decided yet if I want either of the princesses to have powers of their own. If I did, I would like to give a healing/soothing ability to Peach like I’ve seen some others ( @drones-of-innocence , @elitadream ) do.

- What brought Peach (and the others) to the Mushroom Kingdom is what is called a warp event. There are large, naturally occurring pipes in this universe that occasionally spit out things and people from other worlds. The Toads have studied them for centuries and eventually managed to reverse engineer all of their modern pipe technology from that knowledge. No one can say for sure what causes them but they can be predicted from the Mushroom Kingdom’s end, at least, as they’re usually heralded by thunderstorms gathering around the natural pipe in distinct formations.

- Peach was raised by Toadsworth (and a relative of Toadette called Toadanne, who eventually retired and was replaced by Toadette), at first just with the intent to look after her, but then with the intent to put her on the throne when she showed incredible intelligence and empathy from a young age. She has a constant drive to prove that her people made the right choice to make her their princess, and will do or sacrifice anything of herself to keep them safe and happy.

- Peach is capable of defending herself, but if she can avoid collateral damage she will always take the more peaceful option. Even if that means going quietly when she’d much rather be screaming.

- I’m borrowing heavily from the new movie with this, but I want Mario and Luigi to be small-time plumbers from Brooklyn who used to work for Spike’s wrecking crew. After Luigi hurt his knees in a work accident (don’t @ me over that one, it’s a popular headcanon), they split off to do their own thing, but in the end they stumbled into a pipe that took them to the Mushroom Kingdom

- It was the stormy season when they first came through so there wasn’t a team to greet them like there was when Peach arrived—instead they were discovered by Toad

- Now, the thing with Toad is I know that there’s like. So many ways to depict him, and there’s so many versions, and are they all the same guy or different guys or what

- But I loved the depiction of Toad in the movie as kind of a mix of Chef Toad and Captain Toad with a little dash of unhinged and undyingly supportive, so I’m adopting that into my personal headcanon and saying that the Toad that finds the brothers is also slightly unhinged but the best friend you’ll ever meet. He immediately pledges himself to helping the brothers out and helps them find their way through the mushroom forest to Toad Town.

- I think the Mushroom Kingdom kind of anticipates things like this to happen now and then, or at least they have systems in place to help people who have been displaced like this, so the boys are set up with a place to stay almost immediately and promised an audience with the princess so she can help with their dilemma—it’s not known to the average Mushroom Kingdom citizen that natural warp pipes are inactive outside of events and it’s impossible to predict when the next event will be or if the boys will have an opportunity to use it.

- They do end up having a really lovely permanent house in Toad Town with two bedrooms, one of which they share (FIGHT me it was so cute they still shared in the movie), and the other of which is a workspace/crash pad for Toad.

- Which means to me that Mario is invited to crash with Toad at the castle when he’s been given guest quarters there and he can’t sleep because his bed is too big.

- Mario doesn’t know what Toad actually does for work, or if he does work, except he has a space at the castle and he always seems to be tinkering with something when Mario comes to visit him there.

- (I don’t know what Toad does either.)

- Mario and Peach fall in love at first sight, but not at the same time.

- Peach is fascinated by seeing other humans (there are others in this world aside from Daisy, but they’re rare, usually nomadic/adventuring types, and Peach doesn’t get to leave the kingdom much) at first, but then quickly grows fond of the brothers once she gets to talk to them and even though she knows she shouldn’t, she takes a personal interest in helping them get established in the kingdom.

- Afterwards is not my own official canon, that’s more explicitly set in elitadream’s AU because of the Bowser portrayal (we’ll get to my Bowser don’t worry), tho to be fair I don’t know that it’s official to their canon either because the original art was also a what-if scenario

- I would love to call First Rescue canon to me but it borrows super heavily from the original fanart so we can just say Mario displayed his super strength in an effort to save the princess’s life. She had invited him up to the castle to check on him and his brother, to see what could be done about helping them find work or projects they might enjoy

- (In my head the Mushroom Kingdom is like kind of utopian and people dont always NEED to work and can be provided for by the community if they’re unable or they have Something Going On)

- But then he saved her and she was like ‘I need a way to make sure I see him as often as possible’ and asking him to be her guard was just the most natural thing

- Mario declines at first, mostly because he’s worried he won’t actually be qualified but also because he doesn’t want to be given special treatment over his brother, who he says is just as good as him

- (And he is!!!!!)

- Peach is more than happy to employ them both, especially when Mario explains that he and Luigi are plumbers in their own world. All of the castle’s defenses run on pipe technology, after all! Luigi heads hands-on teams that work around Toad Town to fix security issues, and Mario is made captain of the princess’s royal guard.

- Now here I want to pause and address the boys having the Firebrand and Thunderhand powers again, because it kind of affects their work, and also how power-ups work in this world.

- (Yes, I have plans for power-ups!! Get excited!!)

- The boys never revealed to anyone outside of one another that they had these powers. They discovered and developed them late enough that they managed to keep them hidden from their parents, though they surely always suspected something was different about their sons. The boys were savvy enough from growing up in Brooklyn to know not to tell about those gifts unless they had to, for their own good, because they were just too different from anything else on Earth.

- It was different when they got to the Mushroom Kingdom, though. They saw folks whizzing through pipes, turtles that talked, flowers that made people spit ice out of their hands. Though they were still wary, it was enough for Mario to let down his guard and save the princess.

- They still plan on holding some powers close to their chest, just for the sake of surprising potential threats

- I was planning on hopefully doing some training/research scenes with the toad guards, or at least doing some more in-depth headcanons at some point, because I believe power-ups work differently for the twins than they do for other people

- Power-ups are either naturally occurring, like mushrooms or flowers, or hand-made, like lucky bells. Different kingdoms in the land export different power-ups and they’re a big part of a kingdom’s trade.

- The Mushroom Kingdom specializes in mushrooms, obviously, and shares a border with one of the kingdoms of Sarasaland that spills fire flowers into their territory.

- On the opposite side of Sarasaland (which is saying a lot, it’s a big empire) is the Ice Kingdom, which exports ice flowers.

- Lucky bells and tanuki leaves and other power-ups that provide a suit/costume change are either handmade or altered by the kingdom that exports them to provide that costume. They are rarer than other power ups for this reason. It is a kingdom of furries, you get to decide who lives there and who rules it, have fun.

- It bothered me that super mushrooms in the movie only gave Mario like 2 feet of height and then the minis made him almost microscopic so when Mario has a super mushroom he gets to be Big. No, I haven’t decided how big that is yet.

- This is just something for me personally, don’t @ me.

- Oh shit right I promised I would talk about Bowser, let’s talk about Bowser

- I want to say on a scale from like Heinz Doofenshmirtz at 0% to Thanos at 100%, my Bowser is probably at like a 39%?

- Which is to say: he is capable, he is strong, he is dastardly, and he’s motivated by wanting to expand and legitimize his territory rather than feelings for Peach; by the same token, he’s not the brightest villain, he relies a lot on brute strength, he heavily underestimates his opponents, and he’s also being manipulated by people around him.

- His people follow him out of genuine loyalty, not fear. He’s very much a king of misfit toys, but they take their righteous anger a step too far in many cases and that’s where the problems with the Koopa Kingdom lie.

- If he killed someone by accident he would be really messed up about it.

- Tbh if he killed someone on purpose he’d still be a bit messed up about it

- At first he was targeting the Mushroom Kingdom for land and power, but after a few encounters with Mario his beef became very, very personal and now he’s pretty much out to ‘destroy’ Mario—everyone assumes that means he wants to torture him, kill him, rip him to pieces, but to be honest even Bowser doesn’t know what he would actually do if he got his hands on him

- Possibly maybe there will be a bigger bad to fight someday and that’s why I don’t want to commit to Bowser fully wanting to murder this plumber in particular

- (Look maybe someday they can race gokarts together okay?)

- This is why I say, again, that Afterwards is not canon to this au, I was using a Bowser who’s a little harsher than mine for it.

I thiiiiiink that’s all I really planned to say here? I’m hoping I didn’t forget anything, but I guess I can always make another post later. If anyone has any questions, my ask box is always open. I’d always love love love to talk about my ideas or the Mario characters 🩷

I’m writing a fic right now about Peach being sick and Mario coming to take care of her (shock and awe, something not inspired by someone else’s fanart??), let’s see if I finish it or give in to the urge to post this to tumblr first. ✌️

Oh shit I did manage to finish the fic!! That’s cool, you should read it if you liked this post. :O

(I’m afraid to put links on this rn in case tumblr nixes it from showing up in tags lol, I’ll add some later 🩷)

#mareach #mario #mario x peach #princess peach #super mario brothers #super mario brothers headcanon #luigi

11 notes · View notes

bacidipesca · 11 months

Text

Me, blissfully unaware: Hello tumblr, you said I had a notification…?

Tumblr: yeah, check this shit out, @noodles-and-tea liked your posts

Me:

#UH HI???#I love love love your art holy cow 😍😍😍#ty for reading 😭😭😭

3 notes · View notes