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fandomweekly2025-11-07 08:56 pm
ecto_one_spengler) wrote in fandomweekly2025-11-07 08:56 pm
Entry tags:
[#274 - Amnesty] reminders (Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey)
Theme Prompt: #274 - Near Death Experience (Amnesty 28)
Title: reminders
Fandom: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey (ft. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) - AU where Fawful doesn't explode during Bowser's Inside Story.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (because of Bowser's potty mouth + kinda poorly implied PTSD from the Dark Bowser fight.)
Word Count: 986 words
Author's Note: Same continuity as Mean Green, just a few years down the line (consider this a precursor to Mario and Luigi: Dream Team in this AU).
Also fun fact I was listening to this during the first half of the fic haha
Summary: Bowser again has trouble with a recurring nightmare about the day he fought Dark Bowser, even after he wakes up, he can't stop thinking about the fact the fight could have ended before it began.
--
Amid a dark swirling wind, there’s barely any light.. The clouds are so thick his claws barely pierce the pitch blackness, the wind so loud he doesn’t hear damn near anything.
Bowser hardly feels the thumping of his own heart, and if he wasn’t straining to listen for something, anything, he wouldn’t have caught Starlow’s desparate last speech to him. Even in the retrospect of a memory he still feels the familiar intensity, just this time on the other side of the battlefield.
“Bowser! I.. I’m scared of what could happen to you.. But that shouldn’t matter! Not now! I.. need to tell you something!”
He strains to listen, feeling with a panic that he’s beginning to slide backwards. Unlike the real version of events, he cannot feel the hands of Cackletta’s borrowed body clinging to the back of his shell - Bowser hates that he cannot feel it, his stomach shaking with what he could easily mistake for Starlow’s shouts.
“I.. need you to hear me as I am now! I’m.. of the stars! And until you changed my view I had this stupid view of those below! I still haven’t thanked you properly for that, Bowser!”
The winds damn near managed at last to tear him off the roof of Peach’s castle altogether, as if he were weightless and alone, the very ground beneath his feet starting to crack under the combined weight of the Dark Star’s power.
“But we haven’t been alone, you and I! And we still won’t face this by ourselves! There’s.. Been someone else within you! They’ve been helping the entire time!”
Bowser.. hears two very faint, familiar voices, this distracting him enough that he nearly slips again. “..Stella..?! STELLA?! WHO WAS THAT?!”
“They’re.. Mario and.. Luigi..!”
The wind grows unbearable, and Bowser can’t see anything anymore, feeling very close to losing his grip entirely. It’s then that something - light, maybe - pierces through and ends the nightmare with one hopeful message.
“Just remember this, okay?! YOU’RE NOT ALONE!”
Just as his sight restores itself, enough to see Dark Bowser’s astonished face from the murder attempt’s failure..
“DON’T FORGET THAT!”
–
He snaps up in a moment, his breath shaking. Bowser .. can still hear wind rushing around him, but it’s not dark, just.. loud, stormy, similar to his nightmare but not the exact same, reminding him that it was likely just indeed a nightmare of the past. The fight with the Dark Star years before this particular storm was harrowing, sure, it was the most scared the Koopa monarch ever was. He’d been beaten within an inch of his life twice prior to going to the rooftop - and as he actually correctly recalls, his newer adopted son of his gaggle of kids had been possessed, the possessor trying to help him for the sake of what’s now both their son, if her currently active ghost is to be believed.
(..It’s.. just a nightmare. Don’t forget that, Bowser,) he tries to tell himself, his stomach churning from the leftover anxiety. (Sure, I almost died for real, but I’m.. still here.)
Last-minute, he decides on a walk around the castle, just for his nerves, only taking one of his leather jackets with him. Outside of Bowser’s main Darklands castle, a storm sends enough rain to make more steam than ashy smoke, obscuring enough of the lava’s glow to resemble what he’d seen of only his second true near-death experience, nearly.. irreversible.
(..Stars, I’m pathetic.. I shouldn’t be so .. scared over that. It was just some dark starry chump trying to destroy the world I want.)
It’s another reason why he’s wanting to research dream magic, but it isn’t the focus of Bowser’s thoughts as he sits and watches the storm from the balcony closest to his personal quarters and throne room. With a sigh, Bowser tries Kamek’s dumb breathing exercises, feeling his entire self still be as tense and beaten up as the day Dark Bowser’s dark hurricane almost blew him off the roof and to his permanent death, the same day all his pre-Fawful-adoption kids had to face lingering issues back at the very castle he now sits in.
(..I’ll.. check on Fawful later.. He’s the only other one still suffering from this bullshit. Poor kid..)
“Kid”, Bowser mentally amends to “young man”, again remembering that the inventor in question isn’t a child anymore, and his heartbeat slows - almost all his kids are adults now, operating little bits of the Darklands Empire, and they survived the whole ordeal too.
But Bowser detests the damn nightmares, the reminders.. It’s bad enough he remembers all too well what happened at the stupid Palace where the Shadow Queen almost got back to full power, hearing everything just beyond the door while half-conscious. In frustration, Bowser tosses a rock over the edge of the balcony and slumps back down, his hair hanging a little over his head.
It takes maybe half an hour, but.. The tiredness returns from the very interrupted slumber, after just observing the steam and hardening rock below for a while. Finally, his breathing and his heartbeat slow, leaving Bowser exhausted again. Instead of returning to his own room, though, he takes careful steps to his youngest child’s room, intending to curl near Junior like old times, but in the dark he almost misses a few extra shapes on the large bed full of plushies and pillows.
There’s Fawful, and Ludwig, and even Roy and the twins, all sound asleep near Junior and half tangled in the blankets. Bowser chuckles, and has to remove his shell again to have enough space to join them, figuring maybe the others had the same thought he did just in this moment.
“..night, kiddos..” he yawns, ruffling each head with his much bigger clawed hand while his eyes flutter shut again, once more relaxed. At least here, Bowser can be somewhat assured he’ll still be here for the morning.
Title: reminders
Fandom: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey (ft. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) - AU where Fawful doesn't explode during Bowser's Inside Story.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 (because of Bowser's potty mouth + kinda poorly implied PTSD from the Dark Bowser fight.)
Word Count: 986 words
Author's Note: Same continuity as Mean Green, just a few years down the line (consider this a precursor to Mario and Luigi: Dream Team in this AU).
Also fun fact I was listening to this during the first half of the fic haha
Summary: Bowser again has trouble with a recurring nightmare about the day he fought Dark Bowser, even after he wakes up, he can't stop thinking about the fact the fight could have ended before it began.
--
Amid a dark swirling wind, there’s barely any light.. The clouds are so thick his claws barely pierce the pitch blackness, the wind so loud he doesn’t hear damn near anything.
Bowser hardly feels the thumping of his own heart, and if he wasn’t straining to listen for something, anything, he wouldn’t have caught Starlow’s desparate last speech to him. Even in the retrospect of a memory he still feels the familiar intensity, just this time on the other side of the battlefield.
“Bowser! I.. I’m scared of what could happen to you.. But that shouldn’t matter! Not now! I.. need to tell you something!”
He strains to listen, feeling with a panic that he’s beginning to slide backwards. Unlike the real version of events, he cannot feel the hands of Cackletta’s borrowed body clinging to the back of his shell - Bowser hates that he cannot feel it, his stomach shaking with what he could easily mistake for Starlow’s shouts.
“I.. need you to hear me as I am now! I’m.. of the stars! And until you changed my view I had this stupid view of those below! I still haven’t thanked you properly for that, Bowser!”
The winds damn near managed at last to tear him off the roof of Peach’s castle altogether, as if he were weightless and alone, the very ground beneath his feet starting to crack under the combined weight of the Dark Star’s power.
“But we haven’t been alone, you and I! And we still won’t face this by ourselves! There’s.. Been someone else within you! They’ve been helping the entire time!”
Bowser.. hears two very faint, familiar voices, this distracting him enough that he nearly slips again. “..Stella..?! STELLA?! WHO WAS THAT?!”
“They’re.. Mario and.. Luigi..!”
The wind grows unbearable, and Bowser can’t see anything anymore, feeling very close to losing his grip entirely. It’s then that something - light, maybe - pierces through and ends the nightmare with one hopeful message.
“Just remember this, okay?! YOU’RE NOT ALONE!”
Just as his sight restores itself, enough to see Dark Bowser’s astonished face from the murder attempt’s failure..
“DON’T FORGET THAT!”
–
He snaps up in a moment, his breath shaking. Bowser .. can still hear wind rushing around him, but it’s not dark, just.. loud, stormy, similar to his nightmare but not the exact same, reminding him that it was likely just indeed a nightmare of the past. The fight with the Dark Star years before this particular storm was harrowing, sure, it was the most scared the Koopa monarch ever was. He’d been beaten within an inch of his life twice prior to going to the rooftop - and as he actually correctly recalls, his newer adopted son of his gaggle of kids had been possessed, the possessor trying to help him for the sake of what’s now both their son, if her currently active ghost is to be believed.
(..It’s.. just a nightmare. Don’t forget that, Bowser,) he tries to tell himself, his stomach churning from the leftover anxiety. (Sure, I almost died for real, but I’m.. still here.)
Last-minute, he decides on a walk around the castle, just for his nerves, only taking one of his leather jackets with him. Outside of Bowser’s main Darklands castle, a storm sends enough rain to make more steam than ashy smoke, obscuring enough of the lava’s glow to resemble what he’d seen of only his second true near-death experience, nearly.. irreversible.
(..Stars, I’m pathetic.. I shouldn’t be so .. scared over that. It was just some dark starry chump trying to destroy the world I want.)
It’s another reason why he’s wanting to research dream magic, but it isn’t the focus of Bowser’s thoughts as he sits and watches the storm from the balcony closest to his personal quarters and throne room. With a sigh, Bowser tries Kamek’s dumb breathing exercises, feeling his entire self still be as tense and beaten up as the day Dark Bowser’s dark hurricane almost blew him off the roof and to his permanent death, the same day all his pre-Fawful-adoption kids had to face lingering issues back at the very castle he now sits in.
(..I’ll.. check on Fawful later.. He’s the only other one still suffering from this bullshit. Poor kid..)
“Kid”, Bowser mentally amends to “young man”, again remembering that the inventor in question isn’t a child anymore, and his heartbeat slows - almost all his kids are adults now, operating little bits of the Darklands Empire, and they survived the whole ordeal too.
But Bowser detests the damn nightmares, the reminders.. It’s bad enough he remembers all too well what happened at the stupid Palace where the Shadow Queen almost got back to full power, hearing everything just beyond the door while half-conscious. In frustration, Bowser tosses a rock over the edge of the balcony and slumps back down, his hair hanging a little over his head.
It takes maybe half an hour, but.. The tiredness returns from the very interrupted slumber, after just observing the steam and hardening rock below for a while. Finally, his breathing and his heartbeat slow, leaving Bowser exhausted again. Instead of returning to his own room, though, he takes careful steps to his youngest child’s room, intending to curl near Junior like old times, but in the dark he almost misses a few extra shapes on the large bed full of plushies and pillows.
There’s Fawful, and Ludwig, and even Roy and the twins, all sound asleep near Junior and half tangled in the blankets. Bowser chuckles, and has to remove his shell again to have enough space to join them, figuring maybe the others had the same thought he did just in this moment.
“..night, kiddos..” he yawns, ruffling each head with his much bigger clawed hand while his eyes flutter shut again, once more relaxed. At least here, Bowser can be somewhat assured he’ll still be here for the morning.