A Ridiculous Curse (Mario and Luigi) part 1

[SarahGirl]

Wario entered the Fortune Teller's Adobe, which was currently operated by Kamek, the magical wizard who was excellent at both magic and psychic powers. The fat guy went up to the table that the wizard stood behind.

"Hey, can you tell me about my future?" Wario asked.

Kamek nodded and picked up his magic wand, looking into it and observing what would be Wario's future.

"Yes... you shall be fantastically wealthy, while everybody you know will be comparatively inferior."

"Duh!" Wario said, having heard this fortune (or at least one like it) before.

"People will constantly beg you for a small amount of your money. And yet, you never oblige."

"Why would I?"

"That will be five coins," Kamek said.

"I don't have five coins!"

"You... don't?!" When he heard what his customer said, Kamek aimed his wand at Wario's face.

"While I'm unable to tell whether you are just that greedy or really don't have the money, that is not quite as important as the fact that I must curse you!"

"Curse?" Wario asked. "Ha! Good one, dude. I'm not afraid of a curse!"

"This shall be a special kind of curse. In which case, it is less painful, but more annoying than the average curse. In this curse, every single time you hear your name from anybody close to you, the one exception being yourself, you will involuntarily sneeze."

With that, the wizard's wand glowed. Wario, however, didn't believe a single word he heard from the wizard. He deliberately stated he didn't have the number of coins to pay just to see what would happen. Now that he had figured it out, Wario put five coins on the table, then turned around and left. Kamek was unaware because he had closed his eyes to ensure that his wand would cast the curse perfectly. It was just something all of his kind were expected to do when it came to magic.

Just when he thought it was the perfect moment for the curse to be cast, Mario and Luigi entered the building. At this point, the wizard opened his eyes and accidentally fired some magic rays at both of them. While they weren't hurt from the rays, they were equally surprised from what had just happened.

"Oh. I'm sincerely sorry," Kamek said, realizing what he had done and putting down his wand. "I didn't see you there, Mario and Luigi."

Mario started to say something, but before he could get a word out, he and Luigi cringed at roughly the same time. Since Kamek had said their names, they were going to sneeze, but they didn't try to stop themselves.

"Ahhh... Haaah... Ahhhhhh... Ahhhhhh-CHOOOO!"

Mario and Luigi sneezed at the exact same time, but recovered quickly. Right when they sneezed, Kamek realized what he had done. He had cursed them instead of Wario. Back to the Mario Bros., both of them were pretty embarrassed from their unexpected sneezes. Usually, they didn't just sneeze for no reason.

"Sorry, Kamek. That was a good one," Mario said, rubbing his nose. "Came out of nowhere, too."

"Nowhere? Unfortunately, the reason for which both of you sneezed is linked to the fact that I have accidentally cursed both of you," Kamek responded. "Every time one of you hears your name, you will sneeze. I was planning to use this curse on a certain individual who would not pay, but he seems to have left now. I apologize once more."

"What?! You're kidding!" Luigi said.

"Can't you undo it or something?" Mario asked.

"Actually, yes, but as it is part of a complex spell that only the most experienced, such as myself, can master, it will take several tries as well as several days to successfully reverse the effects of this curse. Meanwhile, you must accept what has happened to you."

"Oh, no..." Luigi was concerned about this.

"It could always be worse," Mario said. "I mean, we'll be fine, won't we?"

"Most likely, yes."

"Okay, see you later."

Assuming this wouldn't be as bad as it seemed, Mario and Luigi simply left the Adobe. Kamek remained and sighed. Casting a spell to undo this curse was going to be challenging, since, despite having cast certain spells that could fix injuries and dispel negative memories, he had never actually fixed a curse before.

"Can you believe what he did to us?" Luigi asked.

"No, but I'm sure he didn't mean it," Mario said, remaining calm. "What's the worst that could happen? I mean..."

Almost the exact second he finished that sentence and kept talking, a female Toad walked by and noticed the two, but only greeted one of them by name.

"Hey, Luigi!"

Due to the curse, just hearing this caused Luigi to sneeze. This time, he didn't have that much of a buildup.

"Haaaah... AHHH-Choooo!"

Luigi sneezed, interrupting Mario and somewhat surprising him, but he kept on talking.

"...Bless you. Anyway, I wouldn't really call it a curse."

"But it's really weird," Luigi responded after rubbing his nose once from the sneeze.

"Yeah, but like I said, it could be worse. People could be figuring out what's wrong with us and take advantage of it..."

Then, like an answer to his statement, Wario saw him, walked up to him and immediately talked about what happened to him earlier.

"You'll never believe what happened to me! I was almost cursed to sneeze whenever I heard my name!" Wario said. "And all because I didn't wanna pay! Isn't that stupid, Mario?"

Mario was just about to reply, but since he was still cursed, an intensely powerful sneeze reared its ugly head on him.

"Haaaah... Ahhhhhh..." Mario inhaled involuntarily, but he didn't want to sneeze right now, so he put a forefinger under his nose, not knowing how much it would fail to stop the sneeze.

"Hey, what's up with you?" Wario asked.

"Ahhhhhhhh... I gotta.... ahhhhhhhhhhh... gotta sneeAAAAAAAAHHHHHH...!" Mario attempted to speak, but the sneeze was making it nearly impossible and his attempt to avoid sneezing barely worked.

"Come on, Mario, tell me what you're gonna do!" Wario said.

"He's gonna sneeze because you said his name," Luigi stated.

"AHHHHHHH--! HAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

Unable to say anything in response due to remembering what Mario's sneezes would do, Wario immediately turned and ran. Then it finally happened: Mario sneezed theatrically.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOooooooo!! Ahhhhhhhh-CHOOOOOoooooo!"

The double-sneeze could be heard from a couple miles away, but nothing particularly bad happened from it. Luigi was pretty shocked.

"Wow, bless you," he said.

"He doesn't even believe us," Mario said, rubbing his nose on that same finger. "In fact, nobody will believe us."

"You sure? It wouldn't be much of a bad idea to tell our friends not to say our names near us or else we might sneeze. Would it?"

"Maybe not, but it sounds kind of awkward."

Awkward? Luigi didn't respond at first. Then he came up with an idea that he considered slightly less awkward than what Mario was talking about.

"We can't let ourselves sneeze."

"Why not? They won't mind if we do..."

"But that doesn't mean we have to let them know we're cursed."

At that moment, a Yoshi came walking by and noticed the Mario Brothers. He went up to them.

"Hey, Mario! What's up?"

Immediately, Mario started to sneeze again. While letting out another one in front of a Yoshi wouldn't be so bad, most of the time, he couldn't do it now. He didn't want this one to know. Maybe Yoshi would think Mario was allergic to his own name.

"Hah... hah..."

"Don't say his name," Luigi said. "You're making him want to sneeze."

"I am? That's weird," said Yoshi. "Sorry, Luigi."

The moment that Mario was just about to sneeze was the one when Luigi had to sneeze, too. They proceeded to let both their sneezes out, unable to resist them in the least.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-Choooooooo!!"

"Oh, wow!" Yoshi said as his friends looked at him in embarrassment. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, except hearing my name makes me sneeze, too," Luigi said.

"Really? What happened?"

Mario cringed when he heard that question. He knew he had to tell him the truth whether he wanted to or not.

"We might have been cursed to sneeze when we hear our names," he stated.

"Not that we did anything wrong when that happened," Luigi said.

"Whoa. That's the weirdest thing ever... I'm really sorry."

"Just, please... don't say our names," Mario said. "We'll be off this curse, but it'll take a while."

"Okay, see you later."

With that, Yoshi left. Mario sighed. It was going to be a long "several days." He and Luigi were barely halfway through the first day and neither of them felt like they could go on. It didn't help that they were the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, either.

...It's not finished. I'll post part 2 in a separate topic when I get the chance, I promise.

[riyona_ebooks]

This...is amazing. I see lots of potential!

[sneezymk]

Good job