(open) Beware the Forest Mushrooms

[koopacrusher]

Who: Bowser and You
What: February and March Prompts
Where: In various places in the void
When: February
Content Warnings: Overgrowth and what you might expect to result from it

Comments

Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix

[koopacrusher]

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.

[begetblue]

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.

[koopacrusher]

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.

[begetblue]

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.

[koopacrusher]

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."

[begetblue]

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.

[koopacrusher]

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.

[begetblue]

"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.

[koopacrusher]

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!"

[begetblue]

"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!"

[koopacrusher]

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?"

[begetblue]

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!