Blogging While Paused

I thought Luigi was the one who got stuck all the time. I’d be willing to venture that being lost inside a structure is the same thing as being stuck there.

It started when I was, uh… escaping—I mean, attending, uh, leaving—a business meeting with some locals in the alleys. As I waited around a corner for them to run by, I ran into an old green rapper lady. (I think she was a rapper anyway; she spoke in apparently pre-meditated rhymes.) She showed me a treasure map and said it led to rare stuff that is incredibly difficult to find. I was a bit skeptical that eggs and ice (real ice, not diamonds) were rare treasures, but she assured me that they were really valuable. I bought the map, loaded up some supplies for the trip, and took Wario to the place the map said to start: an old witch’s lair at the top of a mountain. The bridge needed to be fixed, so Wario had a lot of work to do before we could even start looking…

We knew we were lost as soon as the map said “straight ahead”, and there was a statue of the lady who sold me the map in front of us pointing to our left and right. I handed the map to Wario as I pondered the situation. I resolved that I would definitely never buy an eleven dollar treasure map in a back alley again. I asked Wario to hand me the map so I could see if we just made a wrong turn or something. I figured we were doomed when I saw that Wario was chewing and swallowing a piece of parchment.

Since then we’ve been wandering about, trying to figure out which way we came in. You’d think re-tracing our steps would lead us out, but even when we turned around there were junctions! Not only is it confusing, but it’s a dangerous place. Some of the danger you’d never see coming. When a tombstone stood up and ran invitingly toward us, we ran for it right away. I mean, yeah, some of the dangers are obvious. I told Wario not to smash a beehive when it was surrounded by bees! Of course, that’s not to say I’m not guilty of causing him to slip off of a dock into piranha infested waters, but come on! Piranhas aren’t supposed to bite things that are alive! Everyone knows that!

Oh, yeah, and get this. Remember the lady who sold me the map and then was a statue pointing our way? She keeps rhyming at us as we wander around being lost. We also found a fairy lady, and it looked like “Oh, good, here’s someone who can help us!” Sounds good, right? All she did was tell us about her sister’s disgusting secrets that I can never un-hear! Can you imagine how little I care right now that she hangs her dirty underpants from her ceiling and takes them to bed with her when she sleeps on a pile of treasure or in a dumpster?! This is useless knowledge!

This place brings up the age old question of how villains survive in their own lairs. We’ve gone from a sandy dry desert, to a freezing frozen tundra, to a room full of boiling lava in less than a minute! I can’t figure out how you’re supposed to dress around here! And did I mention there are rooms you have to swim underwater to get through? It’s crazy!

After a while, we sat down and went through what supplies we had. Now I’m not sure what kind of venture Wario thought we were setting out for, but clearly we weren’t on the same page. You wanna know what I pulled from his supplies? I found a pound of bricks, a bowling ball, some rope, a shovel, Toad, mayonnaise, more rope, and a handful of Kwerky brand turkey jerky between two slices of bread. It’s no wonder he ate the map.

One of the rooms we walked into looked like a peaceful wooded area. As we were taking it all in (and hoping to get our bearings), this giant blue bull charged me in the back! Wario quickly beat it into submission. About a minute later, the stupid thing attacked me again! Wario was able to wrestle it down. After an hour or so, we decided it wasn’t going to stay down, and evacuated from the area.

After that, we walked into an area that had a board-game style floor in a game-show style room. We thought the way out might be beyond it, but as soon as we set foot on the first square, our famous green rapper lady started rhyming a question to us. We quickly found out we didn’t know anything. After a few lucky guesses, we hit one square where she asked us a question about one of the revolting secrets the fairy told us! Once we spotted a square with a skull that had glowing eyes on it, we decided to bolt. We certainly didn’t come in this way, so hopefully the way out isn’t that way.

Our current status is that we’re getting tired, the ropes are broken, Toad ate Wario’s jerky, all of us hate bulls now, I’ve forgotten what the sun looks like, and none of us have any idea which way is out. Sounds about like par for the course, to me…

I must be having a run of bad luck. First I got stuck in the trapdoor to the basement. Then I got stuck in a castle while rescuing the princess. After that, I wound up stuck in the background plotting revenge against DK. Well, it’s pretty ironic this time. I’m stuck in the trapdoor again. Yeah, the one that goes to the basement.

I thought I filled this hole with cement! I mean, yes, evidently I was wrong, but seriously! Do you know what it’s like getting caught in the same impromptu trap twice?! Call it frustrating, aggravating, humiliating, and just not very pretty. I was just catching up on some reading, set the book down to close the window, and BAM! The floor boards on an axle give way beneath my less-than-stellar weight.

There’s quite a bit of regret spinning through my mind right now. If I had gotten that window closed, I wouldn’t be up to my mustache in snow right now. There also wouldn’t be a squirrel in my refrigerator eating the pie I baked last night. It was even this awesome recipe for apple rhubarb pie I found on http://apatheticthursday.net! Lousy squirrel can’t appreciate the skill and effort that went into constructing it. Bothers me more than the snow. What’s a squirrel doing out and about when it’s snowing, anyway?

I wish I had that book back, too. I was just working my way up to the climactic scene! It was bothering me for a little while, but after I’ve been away from it, the ending is starting to become pretty clear to me. I’ve got it narrowed down to three possibilities. I figure that Professor Peru is going to come forward and admit to murdering the ambassador. If that doesn’t happen, that means the zoo keeper has been running an illegal brewery under the mountain, which will turn out to have been a land fill long ago. If neither of those cases are true, we get a big reality change, because that means the entire middle chronicle was really a dream imposed by the warlock, who turns out to the real deal after all. The only problem then is that I have no idea what kind of clue the arrow with a stone head found in the graveyard was. It’s pretty bizarre, but there isn’t much left that can surprise me.

*Sigh.*

You know, I’m remembering something out of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga right now. It’s RPG-style, and they have standard statistics like HP, Attack power, Defense, and all that good stuff. Then there’s the odd-ball statistic: ‘Stache. That’s right, as you go, you can improve your mustaches. There’s even a nice coffee shop—Star Beans—where you can buy coffee that improves your mustache further. Actually, there were going to be guest appearances there by folks like Link and Star Fox and Wario and Captain Olimar, but they got cut. Link was even going to give you the Triforce, but they renamed it the “Great Force” instead. My point in all this is that a frozen mustache probably isn’t that high up there as far as statistics go.

Thinking back, I know I saw a cement truck come by and start pouring cement. Now I’m afraid to find out where it ended up. Next time I’ll make sure it goes to the right place. The only thing I wonder is how I’m going to get out of here and fill the basement up without Mario finding out. This time he’s only gone for as long as it takes to come back with a newspaper. This time, even if I slip through, though, the trampoline I used to get out is gone. This is going to take some serious brain power…

If anyone has an idea they can get to me before Mario gets back, I’m all ears.

The citizens of your city need jobs! Build Commercial or Industrial zones closer to Residential zones and check the transportation grid to make sure your mass transit lines are used efficiently.