Maggie4TheWin

Suffering in the Sizzling Sunny Sand 🏜☀️

The change from W1 to W2 was very subtle. The grassy path became more yellow into eventually just dirt for a while... The hills and plants seemed to vanish with time, and before anyone knew it, they were trekking through sand. Sand for MILES. A golden orange color. What is there to say? It's the desert.

Without flowers anywhere, Ludwig's sniffling stopped. Larry's excited skipping stopped. Morton's humming stopped. Everything was quiet, except for foot steps.

"This place is pretty damn empty..." Wendy commented. "Well, during princess nappings, there tends to be more..." Roy spun his hand, trying to think of the name of a SINGLE desert enemy. "People." he finally said.

The heat became progressively more noticeable... At first it was just a bit warm, but it's definitely starting to become HOT. Larry looked behind him. "WOAH! Morty, did you fall into a pool of water??" Morton looked down at himself. "No... I'm just sweaty," he mumbled, unable to even bring any humor or enthusiasm to his words. "Oh what I wouldn't give to be dipped in a pool of water right now," Wendy groaned while rubbing her eyes.

Ludwig kept trying to pat his hair down. The humidity was making strands poke out. Over and over, he ran his palm over it, but nothing could fix the frizz. He soon gave up, whining softly as he accepted this is just how it would be... Everyone's foot steps were becoming sluggish and dragging exponentially, especially as they were heading up a particularly tall hill.

But once at the top, the view down below brought a bit of relief... It was still a lot of sand, yes, but there became more variety in view. A few cacti, (very exciting) and some pyramids, too!

"All in favor of taking a break and sitting on one of those pyramids when we get down there?" Morton asked. And everyone said "Aye." So now their steps were a bit more fast.

Lemmy was the first to sit down, and he let out a little yelp as he did so, having his skin against sun-baked stone. But he quickly adjusted to it, too tired to even care. The others did similar, jumping at the heat at first, but relaxing into it.

Everyone sitting side by side. Except Larry, who began digging in the sand. He pushed mounds out of the way, lowered himself into the pit, and pulled the sand back over him like a blanket. The others gave him weird looks. "In class, I leared this is how desert animals keep cool!"

Again it was quiet, as everyone just relaxed. Eventually, Roy got up, saying "BRB," before walking off to the other side of the pyramid, probably to have some privacy to "do his business." The others could not be bothered to care--they could hardly even move.

The air around them seemed to vibrate, it was so damn hot. "I can't do this anymore..." Lemmy whimpered weakly. Wendy patted his head. "If I had any tears to cry, I would be sobbing right now. This SUCKS."

Lemmy looked up at Morton "Can you wring out your sweaty clothes on me, please?" Morton began to slide off his shell but Ludwig made him stop. Iggy was sitting all the way on the left of the group, staring blankly ahead, not speaking or really reacting to anything.

"Guys, we need to get out of here... I don't care if we go back to the mushroom area or if we keep going, but we can't stay here.." Wendy groaned with what little voice she had left, forcing herself to stand up. Her brothers grumbled and groaned as they peeled themselves off the brick row of the pyramid, and Larry slithered out of the ground. Perusing through the blistering sand yet again...

They continued on. Suddenly, Roy jumped out from behind the pyramid. "Hey dudes," he said with a cheeky grin, seemingly not affected by the heat anymore. He had two pokeys at his side, one arm around each one. The pokeys were as tall as him, with big eyelashes. They both did a high-pitched giggle while clinging to his side.

The rest of the Koopalings just stared at him for a moment. Each of them initially thinking this was some sort of mirage or hallucination, but after realizing they could ALL see it, they... Stopped caring.

And so yet again, the group was trudging through the sand... Roy and his two new girlies were walking way off to the side, talking about who knows what. So really only the main six's footsteps could be heard.

And then only five for a few seconds, and then all was audible was a THUD. The gang paused and turned around, seeing Iggy splayed out on his back. Pupils thoroughly unfocused, his whole face an alarming shade of red, and a teeny bit of foam at the mouth.

"Oh my GOD." Larry yelped. "CALL 911!!! WE HAVE TO GET THE FRICK OUT OF HERE OH GOD!!" Morton dashed over, and despite his exhaustion, he effortlessly picked up Iggy and held him like a princess. ... For like a minute before he slung him over his shoulder and would continue to hold him like THAT.

Ludwig looked worriedly at Iggy and tried his best not to panic, but the stress and extreme heat were really really not helping...

"I want to go hooome!" Lemmy cried out almost in actual tears now. All while Roy was in the background, continuing to giggle with those pokeys and be of no help whatsoever. 'Roy should be carrying everyone,' all the siblings seemed to think simultaneously.

Wendy stared at the endless road of sand ahead... And she looked up, noticing the sun. It had a face on it. And it looked pretty damn angry. "Uh," she looked around to see if anyone else was seeing it or if she was hallucinating, but no one really seemed to be paying attention.

She looked back up and the sun was giving her the middle finger. Was it doing that the whole time?? She used whatever might she had left and flipped it off right back.

Next thing anyone knew, the sun was soaring down! Everybody screamed and dashed out of the way. Wendy immediately pulled her leg back and KICKED it! The sun went flying back before coming at her again, looking downright FURIOUS. This time she pulled back her fist and let it soar RIGHT into the face of that awful sun.

And POOF. Smoke seemed to fly everywhere, and in a flash of bright light... Suddenly everything was dark. Wendy stared at her own hand, squinting, still not fully convinced she isn't having a full-on heat stroke induced fever dream right now.

She wobbled and fell backward, landing on her behind as her brothers slowly hobbled back over to her. "Did Wendy just kill the fricking sun??"

"Uh..." She rubbed her head and closed her eyes, laying back. Morton slumped down, setting Iggy down too, and now they were all sitting down.

Out of habit, Wendy pulled out her phone, and noticed that the time read "9:32 PM." She blinked slowly. Ludwig peered over to see and saw it, too.

"Guys, I don't think that was the ACTUAL sun. I think that was like...A sun enemy..." Lemmy looked around. "Does that mean it's bed-time right now?"

Larry put his hands together in a begging position. "PLEASE, I want to sleep!" Ludwig stood up, trying to flatten his frizzy hair again. He put the back of his hand over the face of Iggy, still thoroughly unconscious.

"We can't stay here. We need to go before it ACTUALLY becomes day..." he explained with a hoarse voice. "Let's go until we... *Cough.* Reach the next threshold, okay? Then we can take a break..."

Groaning, the kids all got back up and continued, reluctantly, through the sand. Which actually seemed much easier and faster in the cool dark. Onward.

Oh yeah, Roy was still ahead with those two pokeys, who even cares... Taking his time, talking to them.

It couldn't have happened quickly enough, but finally, they reached the end of the desert. Kinda. There was a fork in the road! Two signs. One saying "W4" pointing down a path that led to more sand, and "W3" pointing to a path that curves around a particularly large dune...

"Welp, c'mon gang," Roy said joyously, stepping down the W4 path with the giggling pokeys at his side. "What are you doing??" Ludwig demanded. Roy grinned. "What? We want to get this over with faster, don't we? Let's skip three and just move on."

The pokeys did nothing but giggle and bat their eyes. "If we're doing this, we might as well do it right," Ludwig huffed. "Besides. I do NOT want to deal with more sand, which by the looks of it, is all W4 has to offer."

Morton looked at the W3 path, imagining what could possibly be around the corner. "Let's get to that corner... Nap... And then keep going..." He said while rubbing his eyes, and the rest of the group quietly agreed.

Roy frowned. "But my girls! They need the sand!" Out of nowhere, Wendy suddenly came flying and kicked the head off one of the pokeys, and the other ran (slid?) away screaming. "AGH!"

Wendy looked Roy dead in the eyes with a tired, impatient glare. "We're going this way." She told him. And reluctanty, mostly out of fear, Roy went with the rest of the group down W3.

Around the corner, the path began to get steep, and was wedged between two mountains. Tall walls of stone on either side of them, like an inclining hallway.

They... Would deal with that tomorrow. For now, this little spot at the base of the path would do just fine for resting. The kids all curled up like sick dogs and laid about. Defeated.

Not even sure how much of their adventure ACTUALLY happened. But that part is over, and they're not going to worry about it anymore...

The daunting path sat idly, resting along with them, waiting for them to tackle it. Tomorrow's surprise waiting just ahead...

Ludwig has three friends I GUESS. A crush, a "pet"(?) he doesn't even like, and a character who I SAID was his friend but I have NEVER drawn them hanging out.

Roy has zero. He gets one night stands but no friends.

Iggy and Morton share three friends. Three sisters. One is Iggy's girlfriend and the other two are a love triangle with Morton.

Wendy and Larry have ZERO friends.

Lemmy has either Motley or Temmie depending on which AU it is...

I don't normally get involved in any sort of drama. So. I won't. But instead, I'm going to passively support fellow Koopaling self-shippers by posting some of my own self-shipping stuff. :3

I don't post much of my own character because she's one of those very cringe "traumatic backstory a billion superpowers demon Hell princess ahh" characters and it's embarrassing af. But just to prove a point, she gets to see the light.

My Iggy is 13, and SHE is 13. I actually made her when I was like 11 and 13 seemed so old and mature. And now that I'm older than that... I of course keep any art appropriate. If I wanted to make risqué art, I would of course age them up! And I don't think aging characters up to match ages of a self-ship is wrong at all!

I realized that these OC's future mother in-laws have matching color schemes, and I think that's very cute!

Violet has existed for a long time, so I have a LOT of lore on her. Raised three kids all on her own, works as a nurse's assistant, she's hard-working and SO kind. Super polite and quiet. She's seen a Lot. Trying her best. Always just a little bit tired. Best mom, 10/10, her kids adore her. Especially Ozzy, he can appreciate just how much she's done for him.

Kendall is a more recent creation, but I've quickly become obsessed with her. See, I never really thought much about the characters' families but even when I did, I only thought about Marie as having a dad. And eventually a step-mom that she CANNOT stand. Buuut, I would like for at least ONE character to have both parents in their life.

Yes but WHAT are you going to do about it?

I do have ACTUAL swimsuit designs I might post one day if I get around to it, but the post currently linked is good enough for now.

also the random swimsuits appearing in the beach one, gotta love plot convenience

I did tag NSMBU just to kinda get as much coverage as possible if that makes sense, but the world numbers are based off of Wii. And I ASSURE you 3 is Snow and 4 is Beach.

A Bouncy Beginning 🍄

It was a few weeks into Summer Break. With school out of session, finally, the seven princes and princess of the Darklands were free to do whatever they wanted, with endless time on their hands! So, what did they do?

Well, all of them were hardly ever seen. Lemmy played dolls by himself or doodled in his room. Larry always sat on the couch, fully immersed in video games. Wendy laid in bed With a screen time of ~19 hours. Iggy and his chain-chomp were always reading alone. Morton wasn't alone—He had his anime body pillows and box of anime DVDs to keep him company! Roy was ALWAYS out of the house with who even knows, and Ludwig was always playing piano or reading.

Bowser would occasionally stroll the halls with worry. If he ever happened to see a kid it was only because they were going to the bathroom or getting a snack, and they usually had their face buried in a screen or book. That just wouldn't do. It was concerning.

Or at least, that's what he said. He was SO worried. Yeah. Thus, he suggested the kids go out together on an ADVENTURE. A family trip, just the seven of them, isn't that fun! It became pretty apparent what his true intentions were, once the location of the trip was stated.

It had been well over a year since the last princess-napping event. And if the increase in soldiers around the castle were any indicator, another one was coming up very soon. Bowser wanted each of the Lands Mario has to go through surveyed. Killing two jibberjays with one stone, he'd seem like a responsible parent, making the kids touch grass AND have any notable features of his seven worlds reported on without having to go inspect it himself. Genius.

So. The seven kids sat around in an airship which was transporting them to some grassy mushroom plains, teetering on the coast of the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser had given them a notepad to uh y'know jot down anything cool or interesting you see on your adventure! Ludwig immediately handed it to Morton to draw big-breasted anime girls on.

Wendy sat in the comer of the ship with her glittery pink phone, scrolling like three sites at once, all with her phone still on the charger, so it'd stay at 100% until it's time to go... Roy was in the cockpit, undoubtedly flirting with the female pilot in there. Larry and Lemmy, two sleepy kiddos, laid on the wooden ground. Ludwig sipped coffee while sitting on a spinny stool. Iggy sat beside him, slumped against his older brother, looking very sad. Sad to be without his emotional support pet, and really, really not wanting to deal with this nonsense adventure...

A small thud and shake had everyone jump up. Right afterward, Roy was sent flying out of the cockpit and landed flat on the floor. "OOF." Everyone looked up to the cockpit door, where a pretty young pilot stood. "You have arrived," Her unimpressed voice said. And so they all got out.

As far as the eye could see, there was luscious green grass and green hills, with a clear blue sky. In a few spots, there were huge gaping pits! All marked with "CAUTION" signs. Huge mushroom platforms sprung up from the pits. Red, yellow, green, and blue, all with white spots. So colorful and pretty... Lemmy's eyes immediately seem fixed on them. Among the wooden "CAUTION" signs, there was one that simply read "W1".

News outlets and tabloids occasionally made up rumors about the Koopalings... Trying to turn them into more of tropey characters for some narrative. It was always interesting to see what they came up with. The funniest idea was that Morton is stupid. VERY stupid. And that he talks in the third person, like a caveman. Morton actually enjoys playing along with it sometimes. It makes everybody laugh. The rumor of Roy being a "Teenage Heartthrob" has gone to his head and become his entire brand. Wendy being a tomboy with beef against Princess Daisy and Lemmy not liking Bowser and wanting to abandon him for the circus were... Interesting takes. Very creative, for sure.

The most interesting portrayal from the tabloids was that Iggy is crazy. NO CLUE where that one came from. Maniacal laughter, IQ of a billion, erratic, were all things they'd said. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Iggy is quiet and sweet and probably couldn't hurt anyone. Currently, he's holding onto Ludwig's hand for dear life, looking as unhappy as a mildly soggy noodle. Then again he kinda always looks like that.

"Wait a minute! I know this place!" Larry ran up to the front of the group and twirled to face them. "This was MY world!" He proudly pointed to an old pile of rubble. "That's where my fortress was!" The others watched him trot around, pointing out minuscule land marks. "Those hills look like butt-cheeks! That's why I named them Mount Buttocks," he giggled, warranting a squint of disapproval from Ludwig.

"Man... I can't believe Dad sent us out here without us even getting breakfast..." Roy complained, crossing his arms. "Oh- here!" Larry jumped away from the pile of rubble and seemed to be... Looking at the sky for a moment. Measuring. Suddenly, with his fist in the air he leaped! Above where his hand was, an invisible block became seen, and out of it, dropped a red mushroom. Everyone stared. "Here ya go!

"Won't that make him big?" Lemmy asked. Larry shook his head. "Only the Mario Bros get that effect." "How did you know that was there?!" Wendy demanded. "Well, when we were here last time, I forgot to bring my DS. I had nothing to do but watch Mario! So l've figured out where all the good stuff is!" He then dashed off, calculating for a few seconds each time before jumping up, hitting invisible blocks, and coming back with it all. Red mushrooms, green mushrooms, and even a few acorns. "Let's have a picnic!"

Out of literally nowhere, Morton pulled a big red and white checkered blanket and set it on the ground. "Let's feast!'" Everyone sat down as Larry proudly placed his gatherings in the center. Roy was still holding the first mushroom he was given, only now biting into it. It had the texture of a foam stress toy, and tasted almost like.. Chicken nugget? An "Mmmm..." escaped his lips, and the others quickly dug in.

The green shrooms were slightly thicker and had a taste more like York peppermint patties. And the acorns, they were like caramel peanut butter toast!

"Maybe this trip won't be so bad..." Wendy muttered while shaking her head before biting into a mushroom. The picnic blanket was comfy enough to sit on, and tall grass at the edges gently brushed against the kids, not bothering them at all. There were a few pretty flowers blowing in the wind nearby. After Lemmy gobbled down his acorn, he quickly got up and began running around, plucking flowers. "They're so PRETTY!" he cheered in the distance.

Sniffe. Ludwig pulled some Kleenex out of his shell. "Speak for yourselves..." He muttered softly. Allergies. Roy wasted no time eating more of the food. "Can't believe this, man, we're living outside and having to hunter-gather-forage typeshit. This is crazy." he said through a mouthful. "| know. Touching grass. Unheard of." Wendy rolled her eyes, warranting a chuckle from the others.

Iggy reached his arm out to adjust the picnic blanket, and suddenly, a Waddlewing swooped down, and landed right on his forearm! Le gasp. A chonky, fluffy, marmalade colored creature, twitching its nose. Stunned silence... "Oh my god..." Iggy whispered quietly. Slowly moving his other hand to the Waddlewing's face for a sniff inspection. The little creature sniffed before squeaking and rubbing against lggy's hand like a cat. Heart melting. The Waddlewing then chirped, seemingly looking at the bowl of food. "Hm? Oh! Of course! Here ya go!" Iggy handed it a whole acorn. The Waddlewing chirped happily and flew away.

"Okay. Yeah. Maybe this trip won't be so bad." lggy said softly, as if still speaking to he Waddlewing. The group continued to feast. ... "Where's Lemmy?" Everyone began to look around. A faint, repetitive boing noise could be heard in the background. "LEMMY!" The group rushed over to the smallest, most colorful of the bunch, bouncing from shroom cap to shroom cap. "WHEEEEEEE!!"

Lemmy tended to be pretty precise and on-point when it came to agility. Which is confusing because his is BLIND when it comes to everything else. He can't control where his eyes point and can't really see where he's going, often walking into things, and usually needing to be carried or hold someone's hand when going places. And here he is, doing flips and tricks as he bounces around above a huge, dark pit... His siblings watched in horor.

"Get down from there, are you crazy?!" Morton shouted. Lemmy just giggled and kept bouncing. Nearby, a koopa troopa was walking. And. He fell. A decrescendoing cry was heard as he disappeared into the pit. And it was almost fifty seconds before a final "thud" could be heard as he hit the bottom. Oh god.

"What was that?" Lemmy asked, mid back-flip. Silence. "Larry, go get him!" Roy shoved Larry ahead. "ME?!" He nodded. "This is YOUR homeland, dingus!" Grumble. Larry looked around for a moment before leaping across the pit and onto a yellow shroom. That bounced him WAY up into the air, and he landed on the very edge of a green one, with his foot almost slipping. "EEK" the crowd of watching siblings all seemed to say.

Lemmy was in the middle of an air somersault while Larry was soaring downward. In just a few seconds, Lemmy flew into Larry's stomach. Larry wrapped his arms around his litte brother like a baseball mitt. They bounced against a wide red shroom and finally got catapulted away from the shrooms—Towards their siblings! The Lemmy-Larry ball flung into the other siblings and knocked them all over like bowling pins.

All the boys were now on the ground, in the grass, with the smallest on top, and the others all on the bottom, groaning. Lemmy and Larry slowly sat up and giggled. "Now wait... Where's Wendy?!" The pile of boys dismantled, now looking for HER.

She wasn't far, Iuckily—At a DIFFERENT pit, Wendy was laying on a big red mushroom, taking a selfie. "These shrooms are cute! They look like my bow," she said, seeing her brothers approach."

"Y'all just got a death wish, don't you?" Roy asked. Wendy carefully stood up and effortlessly leaped back onto the grass. "Jeez, girls just wanna have fun," she said with a head-tilt. If she had hair, it would've been a dramatic hair flip, but alas, it was not.

Ludwig's cheeks and nose were noticeably pink now, and he kept reaching for more tissues, sniffling quite a bit. And scratching his arms a little bit, too. "You good?" Morton asked. "Allergies." Ludwig responded simply before sneezing into another tissue, followed by a sniffle. "Oh yeah, laying in the grass and flowers probably isn't helping," Lemmy said innocenty, looking away.

"Well, guys, if I know where we're going next, and I think I do, we won't have to worry about allergies any time soon," Roy announced, putting his hands on his hips. Iggy's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah, shoot, we still have a long ways to go, don't we?"

"Well, gang, are we ready move on?" Larry asked. Morton began rolling up the picnic blanket and pocketing any remaining treats. "LET'S GO!!!"

Larry paraded his siblings through the gorgeous greenery, with the calming, reassuring blue skies never faltering for even a second. The shiny, vibrant mushroom caps always sat just out of reach, and someone had to hold onto Lemmy's scruff to keep him from running off and jumping on them again. Flowers continued to taunt Ludwig with their existence, putting him into many a sneezing fit. At the same time, Waddlewings soaring across the sky made lggy quite pleased. Joyous, even. Wendy walked while cropping and putting filters onto her pictures, and Morton munched on yet another mushroom. Roy walked just behind Larry, ready to take over soon enough. But for now, the 9 year-old is very excitedly leading the herd, feeling important for once.

I was looking through old art and wanting to redraw some AU things... more stuff coming soon. maybe.