tabularasa_rp | (open) Beware the Forest Mushrooms

In early February, before the cases of Overgrowth begin, Bowser sets out from the Merlaut in the morning. He wears a new outfit the void has given him, which is the garb of a doctor, though he’s currently not wearing the head mirror or stethoscope that came with the outfit. Specifically, the berries that grant immunity of fire and heat, and taste very spicy. His plans for them, however, do not have to do with either trait.

Once he has them, he goes to the Heavenly Blanc, using its kitchen to put the berries into bowls, leaving some unharmed, dicing some into small cubes, grinding others to dust, and mashing some into paste. The altered berries are mixed with various other substances, some with water, or lava, or paint, or whatever Bowser thinks will make some kind of reaction. Some are even set on fire. Though Bowser is no chemist of any sort, his hope is that the void, in its complete ignorance of actual science, will allow the concoctions to work anyway.

After all this, Bowser goes to the volcanic region of the Wyndon Simulation Joint. One by one, he drinks each of the potions he has created, and tries to breathe fire.

"Huh? Uh... morning."

Blue blinks, standing in the doorway of the Heavenly Blanc on his way in to a shift to work the bar. He doesn't expect behind the bar to already be occupied by a very busy King Koopa, clearly cooking up a storm.

After a moment, he continues on inside and curiously sits at the bar to watch him, rather than scold him for using the bar without asking. The guy didn't seem like the type who'd be shamed by it, anyway.... There's various berries scattered about, and he recognizes from the scent the spicy whiff of Cheri berries, just like the ones he'd seen start to grow.

"Whatcha making?"

"Fire potions. I think." Bowser continues his work even as he explains it. He mixes some lava from a bucket into some berry paste in a bowl. Then, he strikes together his new silver-colored bands to produce sparks which set the concoction of fire. "These berries are connected to fire and heat somehow."

"I'm betting it'll let me use my fire somehow." It won't actually work as things are, but Bowser hopes that it will.

"Potions, huh." Well... that was a logical start, Blue thinks, although he doubts Bowser knew anything about the medicinal properties of berries where he comes from.

Would they be the same in the void? Blue has no sure idea just yet, even though he's tested using them in drinks. But maybe if they followed some of the logic of his world, they could help out. Maybe not with fire-breathing, buuut... Hey! He's into experimenting for science.

(Maybe not the paint, though.)

"Back home, these spicy berries are actually used to cure muscle paralysis, of all things. You'd think it might defrost you with its heat, right? Nope...." Blue goes rummaging in the cupboards at the back of the bar, and pulls out the strange, yellow-spotted fruits he'd collected, instead. "These sour ones actually thaw out freezing. And it's the bitter, green ones with the curly leaves that can heal a burn, like a salve."

"Maybe if you try experimenting with those, it'll help out?"

"So these are from your world." It was almost surprising, hearing about something from that world that wasn't directly related to pokemon, after he'd begun to associate the two so closely. Of course, it wasn't as if any dimension truly had a single defining feature.

Bowser hadn't actually considered that any berries beyond the red ones would actually be useful to him. But knowing this, he was certainly going to experiment with more types. "Can't hurt to try."

Blue glances at the berries thoughtfully. "Kind of. They're not alive in the same way back home. Um, the faces sort of creep me out, to be honest."

And he sort of felt bad picking them because of that. He'd leave that kind of carnage to those that could stomach it; he'll just prepare them after they're slain! Same as meat, really, at that point... "But back home, berries are a big part of a lot of Pokémon's diets. And their healing qualities make them really useful."

Setting the basket of other berries on the counter, Blue picks up one of the dry Bluk berries. "These ones back home don't have much of a healing effect, but I heard from Raihan they seem to act kind of like an energy drink, here. The storms seem to make 'em real... sparky. Maybe this'll help?"

Blue's first statement surprises Bowser. "Huh? Plants with eyes are normal in my dimension." Many things do, even inanimate objects, but for Bowser, that's just how things have always been. Picking the berries causes him little issue for that reason, along with a general lack of concern over what is considered moral.

Hearing the other berries could be useful, he resolves to see what they can do. "I'll test 'em too, then. Anything that might get my fire breath back."

Vanillite and Magnemite would be just at home in Mushroom Kingdom, wouldn't they? "I mean, me too, but we don't eat them," Blue pouts. "Speaking of plants with faces, you should meet my Exeggutor, sometime! He's a real friendly Pokémon that's like a walking tree. His seeds can explode, but they're not really fiery."

And you should make some more friends, Bowser. Blue will aggressively force this... someday, but for now he's content to just bug him on his own. Maybe he's aware that Bowser is somewhere a mite above just being a jerk, but he hasn't needed to scold him yet.

"It must bug you a lot, huh. Arcanine's been moping about the same thing," Blue hums, chin resting in his hands as he watches Bowser work. "He's jealous cuz Exeggutor and Alakazam got their telepathic powers back."

Suddenly remembering something, Blue lifts his head. "Oh! Other people here told me they can use magic, so maybe magic potions aren't much of a stretch. Hey, if one of these works for you, let me know! Maybe potions for other powers will work, too!"

Indigo's a fan of the spicy berries herself and can be found near a few of the plants, though her plans for them aren't nearly as ambitious. Instead, she holds one up to the lower part of her brand... and there's a crunching sound as a bite-sized and -shaped chunk of the berry disappears.

She looks up as Bowser approaches, taking in the outfit even as she steps away from the plants once she realizes he has business with them. This guy doesn't have the best reputation around the Void, though at least she's not freaking out about his appearance like some others have; the universe is a big place, with a wide diversity of life. In other words... she's seen weirder.

Indigo gestures at the berries, her reverberating voice soft, almost shy:

"Did ya want some o' these?"

Bowser spends a moment wondering how Indigo managed to take a bite out of the berry, but like with Indigo, he's seen people that have looked far stranger and possessed more inexplicable qualities.

"Yeah. I'm gonna try and use 'em for something. You gonna help or not?"

She's almost cowed by his aggressive language... but no, she's stood up against scarier things before, and it's not like he's trying to hurt her. So she straightens up and kind of shrugs.

"Sure, I don't mind." For now, anyway. That might change if it turns out he's trying to do something bad with them. She holds out a basket she's made with a good stock of the berries inside. "This enough, or ya need more?"

Bowser looks at the basket, seemingly unimpressed and without gratitude, but nods. "For now."

"I'm taking the berries to the Heavenly Blanc." Bowser walks to a spot where he's placed a few more baskets of berries, and picks them up. He then gestures for Indigo to follow him as he walks in the direction of the Bar & Cafe.

She nods in return, willingly following (and finishing the berry she started on the way; with a bite missing from it, it's useless, right? At least she doesn't eat anymore). Despite the stereotypes of her race, she has zero interest in alcohol, so she can't be found at the Heavenly Blanc as often as some others.

Honestly, he's got her curiosity piqued; and more science in this strange little world can never be a bad thing. Experiments are how she got concrete working, after all.

Once they reach the Heavenly Blanc and go inside, Bowser sets the baskets on the bar. He sits at the bar for a few minutes, to rest after the trip. As he does so he explains the next step in the process.

"Pretty soon I'm going to start turning mashing these berries. Make 'em into something like paste."

Indigo bobs her head at that, stepping behind the bar and beginning to look through the drawers. "I can help with that." She looks up, a few various utensils like forks and knives in her hands.

"So can ya tell me what yer tryin' ta accomplish here, or is it a surprise?"

"Fire potions," Bowser says with a grin. He picks up one of the berries, tossing it into the air before catching it.

"These berries have something to do with fire, and the world doesn't really understand any kind of science all that well. I'm thinking if I just mix some berry paste with the right stuff, I'll be able to make something that lets me breathe fire again."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Indigo glances down at the Matter Manipulator at her waist; if only they had access to the things she had collected in it from home, they'd have more fire-related things to experiment with.

Then, something Bowser said dawns on her:

"Breathe fire again? So it's somethin' you do normally?" Well, that would make a certain amount of sense; he had to get the idea from somewhere, right?

Bowser immediately takes the oppurtunity to brag about his abilities "Yeah, I can breathe fire. That's basically my trademark! Any Koopa Noble can do it biologically, sure, but not as well as I can."

"So I need to get it back. I need to figure out a potion that makes my fire breath work again."

"If we had one o' my flamethrowers here, maybe that'd help speed up the world's understandin' of it." Or a fennix, or any other fire-elemental critter... take your pick, really. The point is, she's at least familiar with fire breath.

"Koopa? Is that what ya are? Like what yer species is called?"

"Flamethrowers?" Bowser sounds impressed as he asks it.

"Close. But we're not one species. We're a whole bunch of related species. MY species is the biggest and the strongest, so we're the noblity and royalty of the Koopa Kingdom."

Shortly after they appear, Bowser begins using the rhythm games at the BATHzone very frequently. The shower and bath themselves are of no interest to him. The only thing he goes there for is to have the highest score.

This is what leads to Bowser standing in front of the scoreboard in the bathing area, wearing only his shell. He stands in silence, looking at the board. The score is certainly good, far better than most could attain, but it’s still far from where Bowser wants it to be.

Turing, on one hand, was thrilled; while the void had taken it and done its own thing with it, the changes in the Wall Market and elsewhere were definitely very similar to zone3. It was nice to have something familiar around. On the other hand, that familiarity just reminded them that they weren't at home, and from the way things were going, they wouldn't be at home for a while yet.

At least there were games now! They hadn't really gone into the bathhouse very often at all because...uh, robot, but today they had ventured inside to take a look at the rhythm games. Honestly Turing noticed the high score before noticing the player.

"Oh! You got a good sc--!"

Tiny robot, meet giant (from their point of view) turtledragon.

It isn't difficult for Bowser to figure out the reason for the cutoff. But considering the reaction is pretty normal, he ignores it.

"It might be good, but it's not my best. I need to crush everyone else. Go so high no other chump could ever hope to take my crown. I can't stop until that happens."

Needless to say, Bowser is very competitive in all things.

Ohhhhh no. That sounded way too much like something they thought Kaiba might say for them to be comfortable, and the only saving grace was that it was about a game instead of something more serious. Speaking of Kaiba, they were pretty sure they had actually seen Bowser there during one of those incidents, but they didn't want to think about that for several reasons.

"So your plan is to demoralize your competition with a very high score and prevent them from trying to challenge it in the first place? I can't say that wouldn't be an effective strategy..."

Turing studied the dance pad. Their legs being shorter than a human's also meant they would be more hopping about instead of stepping to the beat. Hmmm.

Similar as their personalities may be, Bowser would hate to be compared to Kaiba.

"No. My plan's to make it so high they couldn't challenge it, even if they tried. If the score's so high it scares 'em off, that's just an added bonus."

So pure score was the name of the game here, not necessarily mind games. That made the idea a little more palatable. ...Well, at least it did to Turing.

"Then would you mind if I watched you play? I've never played this kind of game before."

This question was step one of their plan.

Bowser was not a supervillain that often made use of psychological tricks, just pure brute force. Video games, usually, were no different.

"Uh, sure." Bowser goes to one of the consoles, and starts the game. There is a chance to show off his skill, after all.

When he does, he demonstrates that, despite his non-human physique, he is actually quite skilled at the game. The combos are nearly perfect, but even so, his performance is worse than his personal best so far.

"Thank you!"

It not only was a chance for Bowser to show off his skill, but it was a chance for Turing to implement part 2 of their plan, which was to memorize the patterns and sequences of notes. Once again, their perfect recall was coming in handy! They looked nonthreatening, but even Turing understood the appeal of competing in a game.

Though in the interest of sportsmanship, they stayed quiet so Bowser's concentration wouldn't be affected.

After a while, Bowser finishes. He's not still not satisfied with his score, but he doesn't show it this time. Instead he laughs as he steps away from the console.

"Gwah hah hah! That's how it's done!"

"You did it! If you would like to improve your score further, I can help with that."

Turing then proceeded to list the exact timestamps for each miss, right down to the milliseconds. Yeah, maybe this wasn't a good idea if they were really going to compete with Bowser, but even that small thing was a kind of balm for the helplessness they'd been battling on and off.

"...those are the parts you need to practice to get a better score!"

Turing listing his mistakes causes a scowl of annoyance to appear. "Paying a lot of attention, weren't you?" Of course, he intends to use the information as well as he can, but for now he's simply angry at Turing.

"I didn't let you watch to criticize how I did. You're probably planning to use that data for yourself, aren't you?"

If that was the case, I would have simply kept that information to myself.

[ Hmph!! Was that a pout on their digital face? Well, maybe. ]

You said you wanted to acquire a very high score, so I wanted to help!

When not doing research, Bowser’s lab coat and a satchel have become parts of his normal outfit along with his shell and spiked bands. However, though he’s only recently regained the lab coat, he ends up coughing blood onto the sleeve while walking through the caverns of Mt Silver. However, he also coughs up a petal, which he catches in the air between his claws.

As soon as he catches the petal, however, it ignites. As quickly as it appears, it is reduced to ash. Bowser looks at what little is left of the petal for a few moments in confusion, only saying the word “What?”

Bowser might not have the best impression of Samuel after he interfered with Kaiba and Iwaizuki's first fight, but the feeling might not be mutual as the sounds of coughing draw the older man near. Enough people have gotten infected by now that he's somewhat aware of what's going on, even if there's not much he can do about it other than run errands for people so they can rest and hopefully fight this off; it's not like there's any real medicine in this world.

When he finds Bowser, his eyes immediately latch onto the blood on his sleeve, putting two and two together with the sounds of coughing earlier; he's not even aware of the petal as he approaches even closer.

"How long have you been sick like this?" His tone isn't quite one of anger; sternness, perhaps, is a better word. There's plenty of genuine worry in his voice too; no matter how many arguments he might get into with the other inhabitants here, he still cares about everyone.

Edited 2021-02-28 06:31 (UTC)

Bowser pivots toward Oak in surprise. "What? Sick?" If Bowser's Overgrowth were more advanced, he might have lied about having the disease. However, for the moment his voice is simply filled with genuine confusion.

"I mean, I've had a cough and been kinda off my game for a few days, but I wasn't coughing up blood or flaming petals until... now."

And he thought spelunking, down in the dark and cold and damp, was a good 'sick with a cough' activity? Sam will keep that particular judgement to himself, though.

"I don't know about your world, but coughing up blood is a very bad sign in mine." Usually that your lungs are in seriously bad shape for one reason or another, and definitely life-threatening. "My professional medical opinion is that you should head home and get some rest, at the very least."

He cocks his head at the second thing Bowser mentions, however:

"Petals? Like flower petals?" That's a new one.

As Oak speaks, Bowser shifts from surprised to annoyed. He's right, of course, but Bowser has no intention of acknowledging or admitting that.

"Look, I'm sure you get how human and pokemon health work, but we Royal Koopas are made of tougher stuff. It's not like I can afford to stop working on figuring this place out because I'm a little sick."

"And yeah, flower petals. Not- not sure what that's about-" Bowser suddenly kneels and starts coughing again, this time more violently and onto the floor. Once again, blood and combustible petals that quickly ignite are coughed up, this time in slightly greater quantities.

Sam crouches down with him, showing no apprehension or fear at the drops of blood flying out of his mouth despite the risk of contagion, the idea that each drop might contain countless numbers of... whatever's making Bowser sick. He's never let a little danger stop him from helping someone before, and he's not going to start now.

Instead, he goes to rub Bowser's back while he coughs, eyes taking in the flaming petals. He hasn't seen anything like that before. When it seems like the coughing has passed, he speaks:

"I see what you mean by petals. If those are coming from inside your lungs, no wonder you're coughing up blood." It's a reasonable assumption, he thinks, that the petals and blood are related; having solid objects inside the lungs is never a good thing, anyway.

"I don't get it." According to Bowser's understanding of his own koopa physiology... "That shouldn't be possible."

Bowser stands back up, ignoring the hand on his shell as he does so. "It doesn't matter. Whether or not I'm coughing up petals, I've got work to do."

"I really can't recommend that. Can't it wait until you're better? Do you really want to take that risk?" It's true that as far as they know, the world doesn't fully understand death yet -- but that might have changed, could change at any time. Sam does, however, have another option:

"You might not be a Pokemon, but I think you're similar enough to a few I'm familiar with that I might be able to help. Your lungs should be around the same place, anyway." He gestures toward the vague area of Bowser's chest. "I could give you an examination, even surgery if we both decide it's the right thing to do."

He really hopes it doesn't come to resorting to surgery, though. They just don't have the supplies to make it safe. Like anesthetics.

Bowser hesitates. He's not willing to rest, to waste time, but understanding whatever's infecting him is something he needs to do. He's still doubtful that Sam will truly understand his physiology, but an examination couldn't hurt. "Fine. I'll let you give the examination."

Sam lets out a sigh of relief, a soft smile across his face. Good, he can keep Bowser from recklessly killing himself for a little while longer.

"Thank you. Can we head outside, do this somewhere with better light?" A cave is not his idea of a good examination table. "I have a thermometer and a flashlight back at my apartment." Even if the thermometer doesn't exactly work completely correctly. With another glance at Bowser's chest, though, he knows what tool would really help: "I wish I had a stethoscope."

An X-ray or ultrasound would be even better, to let him really get a good look at whatever's in his chest causing this, but he knows better than to hope for one of those. Medical wishes can start with a stethoscope.

"A stethoscope? Gwahaha-" Bowser's laughter is interupted by more coughing, but once it's over he continues with what he was saying anyway. "I've got one of those." Bowser pulls a stethoscope from his satchel. Like anything Bowser owns, it features his emblem and some unnecessary spikes, but it nonetheless is a perfectly functional piece of medical equipment.

"But yeah, let's go somewhere with better lighting." Bowser starts walking to the cavern's exit.

Eventually, Bowser moves on from coughing up combustible petals and starts coughing up entire flowers: fire flowers, to be precise. To his dismay, Bowser finds that these flowers don’t have any power-up properties, but whenever he coughs them up, he tries to preserve them. Once one is produced, he quickly buries the roots in the ground, then scoops up the soil and the flower to bring them home to place them in a pot.

However, if he thinks he’s likely to be caught in the act, Bowser quickly hides the flower in his satchel before he can be seen. By now, he understands Overgrowth, at least somewhat, and is trying to keep secret that he actually has it, and tries even harder to keep secret that he’s trying to preserve the results of the symptoms.

Edited 2021-02-26 03:53 (UTC)

In the last stages of overgrowth, vines grow out from inside Bowser’s shell, with any wounds created by the disease covered either by Bowser’s shell or lab coat. There is only one visible wound, which is on his head. From it grows a vine that coils around Bowser’s horn.

Bowser sits at his usual spot in the Heavenly Blanc, eating red berries and drinking hard liquor, not that it actually makes him drunk. If someone approaches, or sits across from him, he speaks slowly and with a hoarse voice, saying “What do you want? I’m not giving you any kind of confession, so if you’re here for that, get lost.”

Edited 2021-02-26 03:53 (UTC)

Bowser's at a ley line in Takoba Beach when he discovers shapes, blue triangles, squares, and circles. At first, he merely things Huh, these are new. they seem to be most prevalent near where he is, and as he gets closer, the shapes become more frequent. When he gets close enough, he reaches an arm out, and they seem to be absorbed into him.

Then, he breathes out a blast of flame. Once the flame is gone, it is quickly replaced with roaring laughter. "GWAHAHAHAHA! CAPTAIN FLAME IS BACK AGAIN!" Having said this, he turns his attention back to the shapes, quickly realising that they are like the magic of his world. He finds he can manipulate them with his thoughts, and use them to cast basic spells. By arranging the right shapes in the right ways, he casts a spell that transmutes a bit of sand into a gold coin, then shoots a jolt of electricity at a nearby piece of metal. He laughs again, then continues experimenting.

Bowser looks at the back of the throne with the list of names with seething rage. He didn't really know any of the people who are gone. Not all that well, anyway. But there are so many. His own name, "~~Bowser Koopa~~" is there, engraved in, scratched out, and then engraved in again, a little deeper now due to the repeat.

But what really gets his attention are the names "~~Ren Amamiya~~" and "~~Goro Akechi~~". Not that he was close with these people either, but because he'd heard that both had gone home, and at around the same time. They probably had some kind of answers, Bowser imagines, that are now locked away from him. Probably forever. Or maybe they'd have nothing, but now Bowser had no way of knowing, no way to ask as he had intended to.

More than that, there are so many people that had been there from the beginning that we gone as well. Aerith, Damien, Tifa, Izuku, Leo, Cloud, Hornet. All people from the beginning. All people he'd only interacted with once. The last of these people he'd even fought. There was some fear, that the entirety of the first generation of void people would be gone and that Bowser would either be the only one left or disappear along with them and be nothing again. However, there was also regret that he had not known these people better. He could have had a good rivalry with one of these people, even made a good nemesis. Or even, just maybe, he could have become friends with one.

The only one of these emotions he lets out is rage. He grips the throne, his claws almost digging into it, and lets out a primal, animal-sounding roar.

(open) Beware the Forest Mushrooms

For Science

omg don't poison yourself Bowser

he's going to eat paint and you can't stop him

noooo

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Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

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Seedling

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Fire Flowers

The Root of the Problem

Magician

Graves