Larry Koopa was sick of Roy. This being a simple sentence that fails to illustrate the hatred in his eyes, the psychotic clenching and unclenching of his fists, it doesn’t present the fact that Larry was also struggling to decide what to do.
He would never be like Roy. More violence was not the answer… hatred was not an emotion he embraced and rode on. He was smarter than that, after all.
“Grraagghh!” Larry yelled, picking up the first thing he saw— a pillow, thankfully— and tossing it whichever way his arm flung… it went out the window. Larry could do nothing but laugh now, because the anger had become so overwhelming that it was becoming hard to think rationally at all! He couldn’t become like Roy! He just couldn’t… To become the tormentor is always the worst choice. It only led to trouble! But… it was so difficult, because in a way, the irrationality was so tempting. It was easy to slip into the mindset— the enjoyment!— that beating the snot out of Roy would fix all his problems.
“Uhhm… Excuse me…” A voice came from his window. A light blue Yoshi held the pillow up and stared at it, puzzled. “I think you may have… thrown this at me? I haven’t the faintest idea why… but uh… you want it back, I’m sure?”
“You’re that Yoshi girl that saved King Dad.” Larry sighed and stood up. He felt guilty for having sunk into even the slightest bit of irrationality— that was a trait of Roy, after all— and mentally beat himself up for having done something stupid. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name…”
“That’s okay. I’m Teela… uh, yeah, the fanged Yoshi that saved your father.” She smiled hesitantly and stuck out her hand. “I apologize, but I don’t remember your name either.”
“Larry Koopa. Cheatsy Koopa, to some. Thanks for saving Dad... uh, life certainly wouldn’t be the same without him.” Larry grimaced… He supposed he was thankful for his father, but didn’t often take time to debate that matter.
“Pray tell, you weren’t purposefully… uhm, trying to hit me with this pillow, were ya? I didn’t want to assume the worst, but yeah. I’d like to know if somebody has a grudge with me.” Teela watched Larry inquisitively.
“No, no… I was just… eh, I just had a momentary slip up. Got angry. Don’t mind me, really.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Teela asked.
“Part of me wants to tell you to kill my brother, Roy, but my rational half just it just wants something done without violence.”
“And I’d listen to your rational half. I was on my way to see Karma.” Teela hesitated for the next bit. “Your sister?”
“I guess. I don’t talk to her much. I spy on her, to get on her nerves, but other than that… I really don’t do much to her besides pranks.” He smoothed back his blue Mohawk and grinned guiltily in recollection.
“Well, I was on my way to see her. Why don’t you come with? I’m sure she can help us with this matter.”
“Us?”
“Well, you certainly don’t seem very happy. I’m guessing he bullies you, and you’re tired of it. Am I right?”
“Yeah, how’d you… know?”
“Eh, insight. Your brother, Roy… Karma’s mentioned him, and from what I hear, he’s not the sort who… well… I’m trying to say this politely, you see, because I’m not the sort to talk bad about people, but he… shall I say, he talks with his fists?”
“Exactly! I’m sick of it! I just can’t live my life with him criticizing everything I do… And I know part of my strength has to come from me, you know, believing in myself, but it just gets so difficult after awhile! You can only take so much.”
“Believe me, I know how you feel. It’s a good thing you know that though, because even that’s hard for some people to grasp. It’s like… living things in general— if you’ve forgotten already, I’m a Yoshi— have the urge to punch whenever someone irks them! Some people… things… just have no sense of self control.”
“Yeah, I kinda never realized you were a Yoshi. King Dad hates ‘em, and I guess Roy does too, but me and my other brothers and, I guess, sisters, don’t stop to really think about it.”
“Not what I hear from Karma.”
Larry looked guiltily to the floor. She was nice to him… Most everyone here wasn’t, even if it wasn’t to a physical extent like Roy exemplified. He was “the squirt” to Lemmy and Iggy, “the idiot” to Wendy, and “that annoying thing” to Karma. Ludwig rarely stopped to acknowledge him and Larry was pretty sure Ludwig thought he was silly. Morton… well, Morton was nice to everyone, but he seemed, well, “out there”…
“It’s all right. I understand. I’ll help you out, but you have to be nicer to Karma. I’m sure she won’t be eager to help you, but don’t worry, she’ll come around.”
“Then forget it!” Larry murmured and stalked back to his bed, taking a seat. “Who said I needed you guys’ help anyhow? You just…” He turned back to Teela, who could tell he was fighting tears, and didn’t know whether to yell or to just stare.
“I don’t like to see anyone unhappy,” Teela began. Larry turned away from her and cried noiselessly; he didn’t need Roy or anyone else hearing at him, because then they’d laugh. Most everyone in the castle already thought he was a crybaby. “I’d like to help you out, and I’m sure Karma can too. This could be a good lesson for her to learn, too. I’m good at spotting possible friendships, Larry. If you’ll let me, I can spot one right now.”
Larry turned to look at her, two tears soundlessly falling off his cheek and onto the floor. His eyes were wide, puffy, and red… but she came into his room, knelt down, and hugged him regardless.
“Friends?” she asked.
“O…okay,” he agreed, and hugged her in return. She wasn’t laughing… or sarcastic… She was being sincere, and this surprised him, understanding. She actually seemed to care. He didn’t know anyone else was capable of kindness aside from he and his mother; This gave him hope. Perhaps there were people he could get along with.
“Now when you’re ready, let’s fly down to see Karma.”
“F-fly? I can’t fly.” Larry said.
Teela winked and Larry found he was levitating off the floor.
“Really? Looks like you can to me.” Teela smiled and led him out the window.
_
“Do you have super powers?!” Larry squeaked as they flew above and around the castle, where Karma’s room was located.
“Uh, I guess you could call it that.” Teela’s expression read they were more “burdening powers”, but she was here to solve his problem, not to share her own.
When they reached Karma’s window, Teela peered inside and found Karma reading. She knocked gingerly and grinned as Karma turned around.
“Hey!” Karma greeted her. She frowned as Larry came floating through the window with Teela, however. “What’s he doing here?”
“Karma, please, don’t have such a negative attitude towards it… I wanted to help him.”
“Help Larry? What’s he need help with? A math problem?” Karma asked sarcastically, glaring at Larry, who shrank behind Teela’s legs. He was a little taller than a foot, and was nearly concealed behind the much taller Yoshi.
“No, he needs help with Roy. You’re not the only one Roy torments, you realize.”
Karma knew that… but she had never really put two and two together. She hadn’t ever thought twice about it, and despite how obvious it was, she simply hadn’t realized that before.
“Yes, good point… So what’re we gonna do? Lock him in the dungeon? Ohhh! Shove his dinner in his face and trip him when he comes running for us?! That dumb oaf’ll never see it—“
“No! Karma, no! That’s not the answer at all…” Teela frowned, scooting Larry forward. “Listen to him. And don’t be so cynical… Just give what I’ve got in mind a chance? Please, what do you have to lose? You can’t be nice to Larry for a bit and see how it goes?”
“He’s never really nice to me.”
“Many people need to be shown what niceness is before they can give it. Sometimes you’ve got to be the bigger person.” Teela retorted. Karma opened her mouth but then fell into a silent thought. “Now listen to Larry, please.”
“M’kay,” the hybrid mumbled.
“Well, I’m guessing Teela wants me to tell you what I had told her…” He looked to Teela for approval; she nodded. “That I can’t sink to his level… because that is what I refuse to do. I don’t want to be just like Roy. That makes me just as bad as he is, if I get violent with him. No matter how much I just want to sock his teeth out, I don’t… because I’m Larry, not Roy. I refuse to be just like Bully.”
“So you just let him beat the snot out of you all the time?” Karma asked coldly.
“I… haven’t decided… what to do yet.”
“So that’s what we’re going to help him do,” Teela stepped in, challenging Karma’s skeptical stare with her own polite stare of reason. “Karma, may I talk to you for a moment outside?”
“Sure…” She headed towards the door, but yelped as she was lifted gently off the floor and carried out the window. It shut itself, which surprised Larry… Was she magical?
“What?” Karma crossed her arms.
“Please don’t have such a bad attitude, Karma. He’s your younger brother, believe it or not. He’s a part of your family, and he’s still so young. I know you’re not his keeper,” Teela stopped Karma before Karma herself could cut Teela off, “and I wasn’t going to suggest you take care of him all the time. But helping him help Roy— yes, Roy can be helped, so please don’t be so negative— can benefit you, in more ways than one. It’s too bad I have to tell you that you’ll get something out of it to get you to comply…” She stopped to see at Karma looking guiltily at the ground. “The only one I can tell you for now is that Roy’ll stop being so cruel to you. You’ll realize the rest of them on your own.”
Karma tried to retort, but knew that most of the time, Teela was right when she said that something was going to happen.
“And please, why are you in such a sour mood towards me today?”
“It’s just… Larry, Teela. You brought Larry…” Karma said in disgust.
“He’s my friend.”
“He’ll just blackmail you.” Karma rolled her eyes and laughed.
“Because he’s never met anyone who wouldn’t blackmail him first, Karma. He’s never, like you before me, met anyone who has been kind to him! He’s been all alone, all on his own. He has to fend for himself. Do you realize that? In his own home, he struggles. And he’s been struggling all his life, Karma.”
The Yoshi/Koopa considered this carefully before looking in at Larry sitting against her bed.
“He’s not listening to us, either, Karma, and from what I can infer, that’s what you’d normally expect him to do when you ask him for some privacy.”
“… Yeah!”
“I showed him some respect. He’s returning it.”
“…Oh.”
“So come! Let’s help your little brother.” Teela smiled, putting her hands together and waiting for an answer from Karma.
“Ah… All right, Teela. All right.” Karma smiled in return. She couldn’t help it… Teela had a smile that got into you, that brought flowers, sunshine, and overall joy into your soul, another reason the hybrid appreciated her friendship. She couldn’t be too cruel to Teela, because Teela had shown her acceptance from the start, and that was a rare treasure to find.
_
Teela phased Karma into the room first.
“Why did you bother knocking earlier?” Larry asked, wide-eyed. Teela stopped halfway through, only her upper half within the room, and smiled, laughing.
“‘Cos it’s rude to enter without knocking if you haven’t yet been invited in?”
“Oh. I guess I can understand that. Too bad most people with powers don’t feel that way.”
“Believe me, Larry, Teela isn’t most people… or things. Now, we’re gonna help you with your Roy problem.”
Larry stared into Karma’s face, trying to find a hint of insincerity but unable to find any. He smiled brightly as he realized she was being honest.
“Now wait here. I need some more insight into this, and there’s only one Koopa I know who is as close to all-knowing as you can get.” Teela looked smugly amused and then looked to Karma. “Why don’t you show him some of your sketches?”
“My sketches?! But he’ll—“
“Give him a chance, Karma. Larry, do you like comic books?”
“Do I!”
“So you like good artwork?”
“Yes.” Larry nodded enthusiastically.
“Karma is a great artist. Be honest with her.” Teela winked when Karma turned away. Larry nodded. “I’m pretty sure she has some comics she’s made herself, too. They’re pretty interesting, in my opinion. She’s a very good story creator.”
“You’ll be back soon?” Karma asked begrudgingly as she dug a box out from under her bed.
“Yes. In about ten minutes. Don’t worry, Karma.”
Easier said than done… Karma thought as she pulled out one of her sketchbooks and prepared herself for the worst.
_
Teela went invisible and phased up through the ceiling of Karma’s room. She tried not to disturb the ghosts that slept in the hidden rooms that didn’t have doors— they were sleeping, after all— and carefully slipped into the highest, rickety corner of Bowser’s castle.
The room was filled with the bubbling of various potions, the slithers of strange glass vials, and the murmurings of an older Magikoopa.
“Ahh, Teela! I was hoping you’d pay me a visit,” Kamek, King Bowser’s other personal Magikoopa, said and turned to the fanged Yoshi, smiling. “How are you feeling?”
“Ah, better… I suppose.” She mentally turned off her stern attitude— because Kamek practically did know everything that went on when he wanted to— and became visible. She didn’t need to be stern or witty with him, simply honest. “My stomach hurts really badly sometimes.”
“Your body’s just trying to cope with the fact that all of a sudden you’re not producing eggs, and you’re not going to be able to have offspring. It’s, I suppose I could say, rather surprised your brain is telling your body to mature, to grow up, but your organs don’t exactly have the capacity to… you know, do their function. You do… know what I’m trying to get at without actually saying?”
“Yes, yes, I’ve learned plenty from Yoshi health books. You don’t have to say it. I figured that was why. But… I won’t be, you know…?”
“No. Unable to.”
“Well, I suppose it’s give and take. You can’t have abnormal abilities without giving up some normal ones.” She shrugged. “But otherwise, I’m feeling well, thanks. Yourself?”
“Oh, just getting on in years, Teela, just progressing that old-timer staircase.”
“Thank you for not being riddlish today.”
“Well, there’s no point in riddling you, haha… Like your father, you’re good at them.”
“Daddy was good at riddles?”
“Oh yes! They tickled him to death… Your mind works a lot like his, but… you didn’t come here to talk about your father, did you?”
“No, I came here about Roy. I know you know everything that goes on in this castle, practically.”
“Oh me, oh my, that’s a broad assumption, isn’t it?” Kamek grinned like a guilty child who had just spilled his oatmeal and tried desperately to pile it under the rug.
“Don’t be coy with me. You’re a Magikoopa with those types of abilities. I know you’ll use them.”
“All right, all right. I don’t share that information though, mind you!”
“Not with people who will use that personal knowledge for their own personal gain.” Teela grinned and leaned against the brick wall. A candle cast her shadow high on the ceiling, over Kamek… He took that as a sign and gave a small smile to the floor, hanging his head.
“Yes, yes… all right. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why he is such a Bully. Something had to have happened to him to make him the way he is today. I want to know his mental weakness.”
“My, my… That’s a tall order, Teels.” Kamek crossed his arms and glared behind his spectacles at the wall. He didn’t like to share such vital information… because information, facts, worked just like potions— they changed things! But unlike potions, most of the time, their effects were irreversible.
“My father used to call me that,” Teela commented. “And I know you don’t want to tell me, Kamek, but I need to know. I want to bring some peace around here, for Karma, and for Larry.”
“For most others in the castle too,” Kamek added. “Roy is a bit… he’s bull-headed to everybody. You ought to see his aura.”
“I want to change it.”
“Well, his new girlfriend seems to be doing just that, in slight ways. Why don’t you—“
“Because you’re right here, and you can tell me what I want to know.” Teela smiled smugly. She wasn’t trying to be cruel, but she did have him cornered. “And I know you’ll tell me.”
“Ai, all right, all right. I’ll show you. How ‘bout that, instead?”
“No funny business, either.”
“Towards you? I wouldn’t dare think it.”
“Yes, I know you wouldn’t want to shatter my trust in the only Magikoopa I’ll probably ever trust.”
“Hehe, I don’t think I’m the last Magikoopa you’ll trust, dear girl. But I’ve said too much already,” he remarked.
“That’s okay, Kamek, I know that’s probably the only riddle you think you’ll be able to perplex me with, the future. But don’t count on it. Because the future holds endless possibilities, really. You can see some of the outcomes, but never all of them.”
“I don’t think your future family will agree.”
Teela stared wide-eyed at him.
“Just kidding, just kidding,” Kamek possibly lied. He grinned and gestured at the table. “Pick up the pink potion with the black shades painted on the bottle. ‘Essence of Bully’, I call it. Drink it.”
The fanged Yoshi did so without hesitating. She didn’t have time to think about the future right now, only to focus on the immediate “issues” at hand.
“I suggest you sit—“
She couldn’t hear the rest of his sentence, but she did sit before her body was swept away in the sudden swirls of colors that had crossed her vision. She felt herself being withdrawn mentally, into her mind, and then through it…
_
Larry really enjoyed all of the… what had Karma called them… “anthropomorphic” cartoons she had drawn. He laughed, but because they were funny. Karma had handed him the folder labeled “humorous”, and they were indeed funnier than most of the joke books he bought.
“Wow, these are really well drawn! And they’re hilarious, too!” Larry looked to her and smiled as he finished the folder. “Got anymore?”
“Yeah, but most of ‘em are serious… I don’t know if you want to see ‘em anyhow?”
“Super Koopa is a serious comic. I like serious stuff too!” Larry said. Karma nodded and dug up a sketchbook from her box.
“‘S a fan comic, about an anthropomorphic lizard and a Neopet named Dr_Death. I don’t know if you play Neopets at all?”
“Naw, I don’t get on the computer at all, but I know a bit about them. I’d like to see anyhow!”
Karma handed him another book and smiled as he looked away. He was being genuine in his opinion, and really did like her work… This was the first time she’d shown anyone other than Teela, and it didn’t seem to be going bad at all.
To Be Continued...
| If you would like to send some feedback
to the author of this submission, please complete this form.
What's your name?
What's your Email address?
How do you rate this submission?
Does this submission belong in Little
Lemmy's Land?
Would you like to see more from this author? Comments and suggestions:
|
