Who: Alyssa, Ned, & Peter What: Mario-Kart Where: the video game portal When: Tuesday Nov 15 (backdated) Warnings: low Status: g-doc
Alyssa’s wings finally started to feel back to normal, which the Netherling appreciated. The healers did their best, but unfortunately it still took time for them to get back to normal. She felt so fucking grateful Kol came to rescue her. More grateful of course that she’d basically been adopted by some of the Mikaelsons at this point. Okay, basically all of them except maybe Klaus.
But that didn’t change the fact that she still adored Ned and Peter. They’d been like her brothers before she’d met any Mikaleson. And Alyssa felt so damn grateful she had so many close friends in this town.
When she heard about the portal, Alyssa knew she needed to check it out with Ned and Peter. Nobody else would have as much fun geeking out about it with her than those two. Although she didn’t love the Mario Kart effect on her look, Alyssa looked forward to racing with items like red shells and stars.
She met them just inside the game. Even watching characters pick their vehicles left her with questions. How did someone like Boo drive?
“Hey,” Alyssa called out once she saw the two of them.
Ned was basically glued to the portal. The hub of the portal itself was simply amazing to hang out in as video game characters from all over came and went. He actually met Sonic. How crazy was that?! A chance to go in with Peter and Alyssa made things ever better.
Materializing in the game, Ned did stock. He paused as he touched his hat. “Aw man. They made me a mushroom person.” It was kind of lame. He looked at Alyssa. “How bad do I look?” Ned had a blue toadstool hat-like thing on his head and a blue vest that kind of like he stole it from Aladdin.
Peter didn’t know what he expected when he stepped through, but the third thing he saw right after Ned and Alyssa in their costumes was the pair of plush white gloves on his hands. He looked down and saw green overalls and his hand immediately snapped to the brim of the hat he realized he was wearing on his head. The trademark “L” for Luigi was embroidered in a white circle at the hat’s middle. A smile blossomed on Peter’s face.
“I’m Luigi,” he said. This was probably one of the coolest outfits he could have wound up with.
Alyssa groaned when she actually looked down at her outfit. “Seriously? Wings and this is the outfit I get?” At least her phone still worked and she snapped a picture. If Alyssa took a picture of Kol and Elijah dressed as Mario and Luigi she owed her friend this photo. Fair was fair after all.
“I’m fucking Parakoopa. You look cute, Ned.” Peter as Luigi made sense to her. At least she still had hands. “The blue is a nice colour.” Alyssa already missed her usual look, but tried to focus on the fun they’d have.
“I’m grabbing one of the motorbikes. What about you two?”
“Parakoopas not so bad. They’re hard to avoid in a lot of games.” Not really in Mario Kart, but that was because it wasn’t a ‘traditional’ Mario game, even if it was beloved. He wondered what it was going to be like on the track. He made a mental note to try Mario Party after this. It definitely helped hearing he looked okay to his friends though.
“Oh man. I wish I remembered the stats to of all of them… Do you think being in a car would hurt less if you get hit by a shell?” He paused, then went down the rabbit hole of thought. “Do you think it hurts to get hit by stuff??” Sure, in the game the characters just sort of ‘wipe out’ for a second, but would it hurt?
He really didn’t want it to hurt.
Peter gave it some thought. “I don’t know,” he said. “I never really thought too hard about it because the recovery times are the same.” Now that there was the real possibility of pain, he had to give it some serious consideration. “I’m guessing cars would be safer…” If it real world logic even applied to a video game like this. “...but I’m not sure if May would be cool with me riding a motorcycle in the real world anytime soon, so…”
This was going to really require some thought!
Alyssa couldn’t really feel concern over whether or not they’d get hurt. Given the characters never seemed to be hurt, she didn’t care the way Ned and Peter did. Of course, given what happened in the Upside Down, getting hit by a shell didn’t frighten her. She tried to get that experience out of her brain and focus on the here and now.
“Just focus on the fun.” She picked out a bike, although unlike in the actual game, Alyssa wore a helmet.
“Do you want me to help pick out vehicles for you two?”
“No, no, I got it. I’m going with the Koopa Clown.” Ned thought it was kind of cool to be in the vehicle that Bowser Jr. uses in several of the games. Maybe he looked a little ridiculous climbing into it - and yes, he wore a helmet too - but he was all smiles. It was like being in a very elaborate theme park.
“Yo! Look, it’s Baby Rosalina! Oh! And Zelda!” He waved to them and they waved back without any hesitation or strange looks which was so wholesome that it was a pleasant surprise. “This was the best idea ever, Alyssa.”
They really needed to have more stuff like this happen and less like the Upside Down.
Peter shook his head at Alyssa. He knew what he wanted to try. "I'm going to try the Mach Bike," he said. Worst case scenario, he could always swap it out next race.
Peter pulled on a his helmet as he watched the other racers strut by. He really wanted to say something, but just managed a wave as Ned called out to them.
He couldn't believe he was actually going to be racing against them.
"Everyone ready?" he asked as he settled down on his bike.
Alyssa waved and then noticed Yoshi who waved at them. “Hey Yoshi,” Alyssa called and he gave his patented greeting. She took a seat, helmet on her head and looked at her bros. “I’m glad we did this. May the odds be ever in your favor. Because I’m going to leave you two in the dust,” she joked.
When the light turned green, Alyssa hit the gas, aiming for the first set of item boxes. Given she found herself in fifth place, the Netherling ended up with a red shell that she used on Zelda. “Sorry!” Alyssa yelled, only feeling slightly terrible. The chaos in her certainly loved this.
Ned played a lot of Mario Kart, but he wasn’t sure he was considered any good when put up against other people. He and Peter were always going back and forth on who won when they played. He guessed he’d see now how he’d do ‘in real life’ even though that was an ironic statement to think.
He didn’t manage to get the little extra boost at the start, but thankful figuring out the controls wasn’t as hard as he thought it’d be. He let out a ‘woah!’ when his kart started to go since it moved pretty fast.
“Really? A coin?” Ugh. The worst. Though he did speed up when he used it. Where the coin went? He wasn’t really sure. “Ah!” He had been thinking too much about the coin and ended up getting ‘attacked’ by a piranha plant on the side of the course. He shut his eyes and tensed when it happened only to feel… nothing. It didn’t hurt at all! He exhaled and kept going, feeling more confident now he hadn’t been hurt by the game, even if he was out a few coins now.
“Whoa!” The bike jolted so powerfully when he finally hit the gas that Peter felt his heart in his throat. And then he was off, trying his best to nab every coin he could from the track. If he could get 10 of them, he’d hit max speed. Right now, with only a few coins under his belt (where were those coins going??) things already felt really fast. A small part of him wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to handle the bike going faster, but unless he got really lucky with the item randomizer, he wasn’t going to win the race only collecting a few coins out of fear of the increased speed that came with it.
Unfortunately, hitting those coins proved more difficult on a vehicle that was far more narrow than some of the hulking cars that had been available to him at the beginning. He was forced to make some tight turns that sent him leaning a little closer to one side than he felt comfortable doing. His efforts paid off, though, as he was virtually nose-and-nose with Alyssa.
Alyssa noticed Peter and yelled, “Not bloody likely!” with a grin on her face. She let up on the gas just enough to make a sharp turn, collecting a coin she didn’t intend to take, but it did bring her to eight coins.
She did feel a touch bad when she sent a green shell flying backwards, but Alyssa didn’t want to lost third place to anyone, not even Peter or Ned. Of course, if they passed other characters, she’d mind a whole lot less. Her bike just edged past Yoshi’s.
Ned was a little behind, but that was okay. It was kind of cool watching Peter and Alyssa fight it out in front. He managed to turn a corner while drifting and Ned let out a “fast and furiousssssssssssssssss” shout before colliding with another coloured question mark. Then he found himself holding a boomerang. He sure hoped they were intuitive.
As a Goomba tried to pass him, Ned threw the boomerang. It hit him and Ned shouted “Sorry!” Despite closing his eyes, the boomerang found its way back in his hand. Of course closing his eyes was a terrible idea and when he opened them it looked like he was about to go off the map.
Only somehow Ned’s luck didn’t run out and he found himself taking a hidden path, only to end up beside Peter and Alyssa now. “Uh, hey?”
Yep. He totally meant to do that. Though he couldn’t quite bring himself to boomerang either of them.
“Hey!” Peter shouted back over at Ned. Racing was surprisingly loud, especially when you factored in the music, which was actually really playing while they raced.
“Do we wanna play as a team?” he asked. “I can slow down and take out anyone who comes up from behind you.”
He was going to let Ned and Alyssa battle it out for first and second.
Alyssa couldn’t stop the grin on her face. This type of chaos made her blood run and sure, it made her a little item using happy. “Hey yourself!” she shouted over the rather annoying music.
“Yes. We should definitely work as a team.” The chaos in her might want Alyssa to win, but she really just wanted as much time with Ned and Peter on Mario tracks as possible. Plus, once she left she knew Kol and Elijah might murder her for the picture she took. Might as well enjoy her time on the Earth for however long she had left.
“Shit!” Yoshi pulled ahead. “Ned, keep going. Peter and I have this.” Her red shell hit Yoshi.
“Uh, are you sure?” Though he said that as he zoomed by which was partially on purpose and partially because Ned was a little worried he didn’t know how to stop this thing without wiping out. Driving was definitely harder than it looked. Or maybe driving at high speeds on Mario tracks was hard.
The last box was coming up and somehow Ned managed to get the super horn. He held onto it with one hand while driving which was definitely harder, but Ned remembered that the horn was a good item, even if it didn’t always seem that way.
“Wait a minute… am I first?”
The spike shell coming his way seemed to say so. Ned closed his eyes and braced for impact while activating the horn. Somehow, he did it at the right time without looking and negated the shell. When Ned opened his eyes, he realized he was sailing through the finish line. “I - I won??”
The kart suddenly seemed to go on autopilot. Ned turned around to look at the others, excitement lighting up his face and his arms reaching out into the sky. “I won!”
Peter let a banana fly behind him, just in time to stop a Koopa Trooper from catching up to him and Alyssa. The Koopa spun out behind him, just in time for Rosalina to plow into him and slow down.
Peter sped up, nearly (but not quite) catching up to Alyssa. She sped through the checkered line just before him and he neatly pulled through in third place.
“Yeah!” Peter let out a whoop of excitement. As much fun as Mario Kart was to play, it was even more fun actually playing it in real life, even if the unknowns had made it a little scary at first. “Seriously, we need to do this again!”
Alyssa grinned at the second place finish and Ned’s excitement felt contagious. “I’m game to go again!” She’d had so much fun and couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
“Oh, I so want to go again! Maybe we can pick Rainbow Road next time??” Even if that one was harder and probably scarier with all the drops and stuff. They wouldn’t plummet to their death, right? It would probably be fine.