Mrs. Luigi Vargas

UNO Reverse Kidnapping
The traditional courting rituals of Bowser's Kingdom weren't really known by those who didn't hail from within its borders. What even fewer knew was that the whole kidnapping thing King Bowser did was based on one of the last vestiges of said rituals, pulled forward by circumstance, convenience, and because some people are more of a romantic at heart than what they'd have you believe.
Understandably unaware of all this, Mario lays in the grass outside his home and wonders about the feasibility of kidnapping Bowser, for a change.
It turns out it's more feasible than Luigi insists it is.

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Mario, Peach, Luigi, Bowser
Relationships: Bowser/Peach, Bowser/Luigi, Bowser/Mario
Additional Tags: Humor, Pre-relationship, Accidental Courting
Length: 3,957 words

I was introduced to the Royal Plumbing Polycule, aka Mario/Peach/Luigi/Bowser, about a year or so ago. It’s been swirling around in my brain ever since. It’s very silly, and it’s largely an interesting vehicle to explore a Peach & Bowser reconciliation process. Or at least that’s what my mind’s settled on. I might write down all my thoughts about the ship at some point, but for now, this is my first venture into writing them.

The plot is partly inspired by Return to Ithica by Useless19, in which it is posited that the kidnapping Bowser does is a remnant of his kingdom’s courtship rituals. I was also inspired by a different story idea post or two swirling around where Bowser is the one getting kidnapped for a change. So I mashed those ideas together; if kidnapping Bowser is equivalent to courting him, then how would he feel about it? Flustered, I bet. And that’s the backbone of this fic!

We Launch in Five
Mario and Kamek have a chat on the deck of Bowser’s airship.

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Kamek, Mario
Relationships: Mario & Kamek
Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Spoilers
Length: 992 words

This fic was written for the Paper Mario Zine 2024! It released in anticipation of the Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door remake and can be found here. Honored to be a part of it!

This WIP had been in my drafts for a while, so I was happy to dust it off. Really wanted to contrast Mario, who’d never really thought about Bob-ombs blowing up, and Kamek, who has seen hundreds if not thousands of them die in the name of Bowser’s Kingdom and is more or less numb to it.

The way I was thinking of it, all the soldiers are technically expendable (aside from super high-ranking ones like Kamek I guess), but the Bob-ombs are uniquely expendable in the sense that they're mass-produced and literally designed to explode (and therefore die), lmao. I feel like Kamek's been at the castle for so long, and he's seen so many Bob-ombs explode over the course of his life, that he's more or less numb to it now. Sure, there might be some deep-buried place in that cold heart of his that still kinda goes "aw man :/" when Bob-ombs start exploding, but they're all soldiers, you know? It comes with the territory. Every group of soldiers has a skill set to rely on, and a Bob-ombs's main skill is the power of its kamikaze explosion, ha. That sort of viewpoint probably passed to Bowser, in some fashion. Though sometimes I wonder whether the Bob-omb's culture of going out with an impact came from the Bob-ombs themselves in the factories when they realized how fragile they actually were — and then maybe got warped to serve the Army's needs — or if it was actually from some kind of propaganda campaign that promoted that sort of mentality from the moment the Bob-ombs stepped off the assembly line, so they would feel less wary about exploding to death for the goals of Bowser's Kingdom, that then melted into the aforementioned culture over many years of oral traditions. Or maybe both options reinforced each other. Or maybe I'm being too negative about it XD

Tiny Adventure
“Either that spell I’d cast was more powerful than I’d realized,” Kamek slowly said, “Or I somehow managed to shrink myself, instead.”
“...”
“I’d shrunken myself, didn't I.”

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Kamek, Mario
Relationships: Kamek & Mario
Additional Tags: Humor, Shrunken Character
Length: 2 chapters | 5,246 words

This WIP is coming to you from January 2021!

Firstly, it was very nice to write my blorbo!!! Especially when he’s being a bit pathetic, and nicer than he’ll admit, hehehe

Secondly, it was really nice to write a fic with the trope of someone shrinking and then someone else taking care of them until they grow again. It’s hard to find fics with shrunken folks on AO3 that aren't either vore or a Borrowers fusion. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places...regardless, now I have my own fic to add to the hidden-to-me pile! Hopefully one day I’ll find other fics like it!

And Finally, I really like writing Kamek and Mario’s dynamic. There’s something about it that I can’t explain. Cranky prideful old man & younger optimistic hero-type. They’re a fun contrast. (Quote: “Despite his best efforts Kamek is endeared, Mario is too stubbornly kind for him not to be.”)

Also, here’s a drawing I did in MS Paint to track Mario and Kamek’s path during the fic:

Icon table generated by Chlor's Icon Table Generator

arospecfanworksweek

Lost and Found
Sunny skies and friends by his side...in Mario’s opinion, it was all the perfect setup for a perfect vacation!
...Too bad his brother up and disappeared partway through it.

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Mario, Peach, Luigi, Bowser
Relationships: Mario & Peach, Mario & Luigi, Luigi/Bowser
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Humor
Length: 2 chapters | 7,035 words

This fic mostly came together while I was writing An Egg in a Trying Time; I was really trying to iron out the timeline, and specifically why Mario and Peach couldn’t rescue Luigi Right This Second, and then I figured there was enough there to flesh out into its own fic. I do love the idea that Mario handles him and Luigi being separated way worse than Luigi does. And also I had a vision of Peach attempting the movie!verse Forehead Touch and failing, but managing to cheer Mario up, anyway. And, of course, there’s the iconic moment when Mario realizes that his brother has a crush on Bowser, of all people. I put a little of it in the end notes of An Egg in a Trying Time, but writing it out in full was fun, too.

A Burning Secret
Almost half a year after the universe was reborn, Bowser Junior lets Rosalina in on a secret.

Fandom: Super Mario
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Bowser Jr, Rosalina, Bowser
Relationships: Bowser Jr & Rosalina, Bowser Jr & Luma, Bowser & Bowser Jr, Bowser & Rosalina
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Length:1,995 words

All the way back in 2020, I saw a post on Twitter (link to Instagram) about the ending of Super Mario Galaxy, pointing out that during the scene where Mario catches Peach as she’s falling from the airship, Bowser Junior is also falling from the airship, and he streaks right past them as they twirl around all happy-like. So, they’d said. What if Junior hit the star behind them and died? And then when the universe reset, he got caught in it and dumped into Toad Town Square alive and intact? I thought That idea was fascinating and had been looking to do something with it ever since. Well, that day is today, because I finally got this fic done!

This was my first time writing Rosalina, and I think I did okay? She’s a bit aloof, but a touch motherly, but kind of wise. Or something like that. Maybe I’ll get the chance to write her again someday.

The Luma’s characterization is wholly inspired by the Mario Movie. Although it's played off as a joke, I really liked Lumalee’s attitude toward death. It felt like an attitude that made sense for Lumas to have, given the nature of their life cycles. Also, I figured it would be a funny thing to have the Luma act wholly inappropriately upon hearing that a child had died a mildly gruesome death.

I also appreciated the chance to write Rosalina and Bowser in a scene together, bonding about being parents. Being the only parent characters that are also (arguably, in Rosalina’s case) in the main cast, I wish they had more opportunities to connect in that way more. To my knowledge, only the Mario & Rabbids series draws that line between them, and it does so indirectly through the main villains the Megabug and Cursa.

Junior will tell Bowser eventually. Everyone will have Feelings™, but it will all turn out fine.