THE ULTIMATE STORY-TELLING WARS!

[MessengerOfDreams]

The Portal


Ah, Brooklyn. Home sweet home. Some might consider it a crazy dump, but being someone who has been in Harlem before; I’d say there’s no other place I’d rather be. I woke up in my 7th story apartment in the heart of Brooklyn, the building I lived in deteriorating yet lovely. The alarm clock, my least favorite technological device, buzzed noisily next to me. I unplugged it from the wall, resisting the urge to throw it out of the window, as it would probably hit some poor unsuspecting passerby like my broken TV did when I threw IT out the window. I went into the bathroom, looked at myself, and saw that as usual, I was a mess. My hair looked more matted than a tortured poodle, and I really needed to shave. Ah, well, I’ll just put my work hat on. I brushed my teeth, shaved, and left. After all, I wasn’t the only one who lived here.

I got my overalls on and then knocked on my brother’s door. I heard a loud groan and an enormous yawn as he opened the door. “Mario,” he whined. “Must you always wake me up this early?”

“New York Traffic.” I replied. “I don’t want to be late again, we had a whole line of people outside when we were late yesterday, remember?”

“Ugh,” he sighed. “How can I forget? I was afraid they’d pull out tomatoes and start pelting us with them.”

I raised an eyebrow as I threw him his work clothes. “Here you go, Luigi.” I said.

He groaned again. “Do we have to wear these? We look like a friggin streetlight walking down the road.”

I laughed. Luigi, my brother. What an interesting person. He’s so unlike me, ironically. While I see myself as mostly a happy person, pretty brave, and in the mirror short, fat and not exactly attractive; Luigi is a little depressing sometimes, quite the coward, but on the outside, tall, thin and apparently attractive, to the frequent women that dine here with him. A side note here-I myself haven’t been on a date in a few years.

10 minutes later found us outside in front of our beat-up Ford Van. I tossed the keys to Luigi. “You drive this time.” Big mistake. 1 hour later found us in front of our plumbing shop, fender-less and missing a hubcap. I punched him in the arm and said “You’re paying for that, just so you know.”

“Mama Mia.” He replied. Ah, that was the Italian in us, and we were more than proud to show it off. I popped the cassette out (Behold, the technology of the 80s,) got the boom box out of the back of the van, and went into our little shop. “No line this time, Mario.” Luigi pointed out.

I nodded. “We’re…” I checked my watch. 8:51 Am. “… a whopping 9 minutes early! High five, Luigi. That’s a new record!” I said, grinning ear-to-ear in a mixture of humor and happiness as Luigi responded with an eye-roll. “Oh, come on, Luigi!” I threw my hands, boom box and all, into the air in a gesture of hopelessness. “You have no sense of humor!”

“Thank you.” He replied sarcastically.

Upon entering the shop, I popped in the cassette. Good ol’ Johnny Cash. What, you thought because I was Italian that I listened to Italian Music? How racist, I am disappointed. As a matter of fact, I Walk the Line happened to be my favorite song. Man, don’t get me singing. I sound like a horse being tortured.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, the beautiful lady who walked into my shop.

Seriously, she looked like a princess. Her blonde, rather messy hair was shielded in a parasol that she must have gotten off of Madison Avenue, as well as the dress. Man, her dress. The emerald in the center was eye-catching, and the pink shades looked as if they were made of silk. But her face intrigued me, I mean; I read confusion and wonder all over it.

Watch me make a good first impression.

“Oh, hello. You must be Luigi’s date, eh?” I asked.

“Who is this ‘Luigi?’” she replied, as if I asked her how to fix a sink.

Dang it. I thought. Not only is she not Luigi’s date, I just made a horrible first impression. “My bad,” I stammered, nervous all of a sudden. “He’s my brother. He dates a lot of people. It’s a shame, not really working out with any of them.”

“I heard that.” Was heard a ways away in the back room.

“Brothers,” I sighed. She giggled a little bit, giving me a sense of accomplishment. “So what you need? Sink clogged up? Need some tools?”

She looked perplexed, as if I was speaking a foreign language. “I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with your world.”

I raised an eyebrow but thought nothing of it. “Yeah, New York can seem like a whole different world sometimes. Anyway, you lost?”

She thought a minute. “Uhm, yes, I am. I am looking for your streets named Broadway, 7th and 44th.”

I smiled. Everyone knows where that is. “You mean Times Square?”

She lit up. “Yes, the Center of Telling Time!”

I raised my eyebrow again. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

She shook her head. “I am from… away, far, far away.”

I nodded. “Have fun in New York City.”

She looked at me and asked “Can you take me to it? I’m not used to traveling alone.”

I nodded. This was New York City, after all. “Sure, I guess. I’ll see if Luigi is up to running the shop.”

I went to the back room and told Luigi “I’ll be back in a few. I’m taking a lady to Times Square.”

He looked up from the magazine he was reading instead of doing actual work. “Who are you and what on earth have you done with Mario?”

I rolled my eyes and left the back room. I looked at the woman and said “By the way, I’m Mario.”

“Peach,” she replied. “Thanks for everything.”

“No problem, Peach.” I replied, getting into the Ford Van, making sure to snag my Johnny Cash tape along the way. She looked at the van and asked “Am I supposed to ride in this? How do I get in?”

I raised my eyebrow yet again. “You haven’t been in a car before?” I am sure she would have responded if she were not so busy trying to get in, yanking on the door handle so hard I was afraid she’d pull it off. I walked over, not so sure what I had gotten myself into, and said “Here, You press the button, and then pull.” I showed her by performing the action myself.

She replied with an unthinkable “Wow, complicated.”

I waited until she was out of sight, and slapped myself in the forehead. “Okay, Times Square, next stop. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.”

“How do I do this ‘buckle up’ you speak of?” Peach asked me.

I slammed my head onto the car horn. What was she, an alien?

Another hour later, we arrived. I found a parking spot, paid the large fare, and led her unsteadily across the horrendous intersection to the main Square. My god, she was scared silly, grabbing onto her parasol and running so fast it was a struggle to stay in front of her.

When we approached, she told me “Thank you, you’re a good person.” Those six words made it worth all the weirdness and effort I just went through. “Now I shall be heading home.”

I raised an eyebrow, almost involuntary at this point. “You live here?”

“Not exactly.” She replied and took a deep breath. “You’re not going to believe this, but… The portal back to my dimension is at Times Square.”
I gasped. “You really meant it when you said you’re not from this world, didn’t you?”
She nodded. “I live in the Mushroom Kingdom, in the fourth dimension.”
I fell onto a bench. “Oh my god. Sorry, just give me a minute. I have to, you know, take it all in. I just, I can’t believe it.”
She sat next to me. “I had a feeling, so I am going to do what no one else has done before. I will show you my Kingdom.”
“Your kingdom?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I am the princess and ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Peach Toadstool.”
I swear to God, I nearly fainted. “So, let me get this all straight. You’re the princess of a hidden land in the fourth dimension which no one knows exists?”
She nodded. “Ready to go?”
“Just a minute.” I said, before yelling out “OH MY GOD! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD! Okay, I’m done.”
She laughed. “You are certainly taking this news well.”
I sighed. “Anyway, I can’t wait to see this Kingdom of yours. How do we get there?”
“Simple.” She told me. “We just jump into the moving painting.” And with that, she took my hand, and then took a superhuman leap up 75 feet into the advertisement screen, me screaming all the way, and right when we seemed sure to crash and break every bone in our bodies, we passed through the screen and the giant Coca-Cola bottle displayed on it like a flimsy curtain.
We appeared on the other side in a beautiful, hilly countryside… or at least, 75 feet above it. I screamed again until Peach opened up her parasol and we floated gently down to the ground.
“I have to say, you scare much too easily.” She told me.
“Well, no duh! You just jumped 75 feet in the air into something I presumed solid, and then I fell 8 stories into a land I never knew existed! Of course I’m scared!”
She giggled. “Welcome to my castle, and to Mushroom Kingdom.”
I looked around. Giant Caterpillars roamed distant hills, trees reached unspeakable heights and the clouds all had faces on them. It was really remarkable.
Suddenly, storm clouds appeared in the sky, and a flying ship sailed through the air. “Who is that?” Peach asked.
I looked into the distance to see many more like it. “Oh my god… ma’am, I think your castle back there is about to be invaded.”
She stared at me as if I told her that, say, there was a fourth dimension and that there were worlds in it. “It… it can’t be. We… we have never been invaded before!”
Suddenly, a missile fell to the ground, landing feet away from us and destroying the beautiful large caterpillar I had seen earlier. “Well, it can, and it is. Run for cover.” I told her, really wishing that I had stayed out of this whole inter-dimension mess.
“No.” she said with a gentle firmness. “I am the princess, I stand my ground. For my kingdom.”
I raised both eyebrows this time. See, I can do variety. “Okay, Xena. I guess I may as well, too. I’m dead anyways.”
“No. We shall be victorious.” She said, parasol over her shoulder like a military gun.
“Victorious? You’ve never even been in a friggin battle!” I replied in shock.
“What does it matter!” she said. “If we don’t try, we’ll never win!”
Apparently one of her servants noticed. He ran out onto the moat and started to engage in a desperate conversation with Peach. But I didn’t exactly tune in; I was too distracted by the fact that this guy had a mushroom as part of his head. I mean, where hair should be, there was a mushroom growing out of his head. And don’t get me started on the diaper.
He noticed that I was staring at him, too. “What are you looking at, infidel?” he asked me, giving me the fighting eye.
The princess noticed, too. “Edward!” she shouted. “This is not the time! We are being attacked! Assemble the townsfolk! Gather an army out of any able-bodied man and woman! Get our finest technology together! We must fight!”
Suddenly, a large form leapt from the deck of the first ship onto the ground, feet first. I saw him, and let me just say, I nearly took a spontaneous crap in my pants.
Imagine a turtle, okay? Now imagine a turtle with spikes all down its back. Now imagine it twice the size of you. Now imagine that it had claws longer than your hair. Good, good. Now imagine it charging straight for you.
I blocked its path, only to be thrown into the moat nearly 100 feet in the air. I struggled to keep myself afloat as I saw Peach taken away from me in his horrendous arms. I got out of the water, soaked to the bone and started chasing this Turtle freak. I caught up to him, kicked him in the leg, and said “Face me like a man, you piece of crap turtle!”
With Peach still struggling in his arm, he growled out in a voice that would make Schwarzenegger scared silly “I thought I already taught you a lesson. Pity. I guess you’ll have to be refreshed, you fool.”
“Who are you?” I asked, frightened.
“I am Bowser, King of the Koopas.” He growled. “And you, my friend, are dead.” He finished with an amazing swipe of the claw to my face, and that was the last thing I remembered before…
**************************************************************************
I woke up in front of Peach’s castle, not sure if I was in a dream right about now. I tried rubbing my eyes, hoping to wake up in the shop to a snide comment from Luigi. It failed to happen. I was still here. And Peach was in trouble.
And somehow, that was all that mattered.
I had no clue what to do, where I was going, or how I was going to do it. But I started walking.
I was going to save her, no matter the cost.
I set off in a straight line, humming to myself.
Because you’re mine… I walk the line.

[Ridder]

I'm sorry blab, but with so little interest it doesn't make sense for me to even make the effort

Did my high amount of inturest (high enough to finish my story the day before the original deadline) not mean anything to any of yuse?

>_> Notice how that b**** goes straight to me and not Mic

>_>

[MessengerOfDreams]

I see no special naggings taken towards Mic, just that I made a story that could change my life and you're getting all pi**y over it. >_>

[MICrophone]

I'm sorry blab, but with so little interest it doesn't make sense for me to even make the effort

Did my high amount of inturest (high enough to finish my story the day before the original deadline) not mean anything to any of yuse?

>_> Notice how that b**** goes straight to me and not Mic

>_>

When I say little interest, I mean not enough people…not that in each individual there is not enough interest.

Anyhow, I shall think about writing a story for this…I do have a lot of other things I'd like to focus on at this point (my music and The Cycle, among other things) but I might take a bit of time to do something for this, maybe. After all, I have till July 7, aye?

[Blablob]

Meh. I'll give you to July 10th, 3 days after I get back from my vacation (to get settled back )

[MICrophone]

Eh, that won't make a difference…if I don't have it done by the end of the month I probably won't get motivated to do it at all.