pluvi app

[mamamias]

OOC Information

Name/handle: rar
Discord contact: rarsneezes
Other contact: rarsneezes
Pronouns: they/them
Permissions link: permissions!!
Other characters played: N/A
Do you have a reserve for this character?: yes!

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IC Information

Canon: Super Mario Series
Character: Mario
Canon point: After Origami King
(NOTE: for those curious, Bowser’s Fury happens AFTER Origami King, so Mario HASN’T SEEN IT!)

Canon intensity:

While the platformer games are generally kind of tame and the stakes don’t get more drastic than “Big bad has kidnapped a damsel, I must do funny platforming through the world to save the day!”, the RPGs and especially the Paper Mario series tend a little darker. Shoutout to Thousand Year Door (in which a sleeping demon queen is awoken, possesses Peach, uses her body to fight Mario, and threatens to destroy the whole world if Mario loses) and Super Paper Mario (in which Luigi is brainwashed into working with the baddies, the entire universe is threatened to be consumed by the void if Mario and co. don’t step up, and the final boss is Luigi fused with an evil clown.) Super Paper Mario in particular deals with grief, lost loved ones, watching up front an entire world be reduced to nothing, prophecies and fate and... the power of love overcoming all, the importance of courage, hope, and doing what you can to save the world, because sitting by and doing nothing at all would make it impossible to live with yourself after.

So, yeah. Mario may be that funny plumber guy who’s good at parkour and sports, but he’s also an everyman hero who steps up to save the kingdom, the world, the universe from certain destruction. He’s used to world-ending stakes. He’s used to close calls. He’s more used to having to fight his possessed loved ones than he would like to be. No, seriously, not a Paper Mario game since TTYD has gone by without either Peach or Luigi or Bowser getting possessed somehow. And it’s often with world-threatening stakes where if he does not win the battle, a battle which might require him to seriously injure his loved one, the world ends. He tries not to think about it, too much.

(Canon itself does not go into detail on how this makes Mario feel, but I would love to explore it, personally. Fuck him up!!!! Make him confront the fears he’s spent several years burying!!! You can’t heal if you keep running from it, Mario!!)

But also, it would be remiss of me to ignore: this is the funny platforming, "has released a video game of basically every sport", "silly minigame parties" series. Mario's been through a lot but the humor and the joy is important, too. It's about the balance of facing the horrible and the strength to still be silly after.

World information:

The Mushroom Kingdom is a modern world that is still bursting with magic and the supernatural. Along with smartphones they have floating platforms, magic-granting plants, ancient demons, vengeful ghosts, AND dimension wizards!

Some highlights:

Communication: the postal service is still fully functional, but much like in the real world, email overtook letters, and then texting overtook email. Of course phones work to make phonecalls, too, and they have video calls same as in the real world! Sometimes the video call involves a hologram, but that’s a little more rare.

Transportation: Most towns are walkable, with cars serving mainly recreational items. Long-form transportation is done by train or boat, or in many other cases, by warp-pipe. Warp-pipe is probably the most common form of transportation in Mario’s world; hop in a pipe, and instantly come out in another pipe at your desired location! You might also find a magic painting that will warp you from one location to another, but these are significantly less common than the warp-pipe.

Deities etc: the people of this world mostly worship the stars, which are very real beings that are known mainly for granting wishes (Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario N64). Is Rosalina, mother of the cosmos, a goddess? Pretty much, but that’s not, like, a big deal to Mario. They’re just pals! He still prays with fondness to the stars and the Star Spirits, however.

Magic: Super common, and shows up in all sorts of forms, but the most common form of magic in Mario’s world is transformation magic. People get transformed into mushrooms, or blocks, or pigs all the time. There’s an entire species whose claim to fame is being able to shapeshift into a near-perfect copy of someone else. Other types of magic Mario has seen include: duplication, illusions, healing, summoning, elemental, etc, etc.

Plants: Mario’s world is FULL of magic plants!! They’re usually quite helpful!! Mushrooms are pretty well known for their healing and transformative properties. Some mushrooms make you grow large. Some make you turn small. Many heal you. Some even heal you from certain death, serving as an “extra life”. Other plants have transformative properties, as well. Acorns can transform you into a tanooki, a berry can turn you into an elephant. Some cherries can create temporary duplicates of yourself. There are also fire and ice flowers, which either create a burst of fire/ice, or when consumed, grant you the temporary ability to create fire/ice yourself. Mario’s hard-wired to consider plants as generally helpful and useful. Very, very few are harmful to touch, and even fewer harmful to consume.

Politics: Are played fast and loose. There are several kingdoms and lands, and who knows what trade relations are between them, other than the fact Bowser’s Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom have been at odds up until recently. Turns out the answer to political strife is a little marriage, and if Mario is consort to two rulers, that’s no one’s business but his own and his spouses’. He doesn’t understand the politics at all, though, despite all attempts Peach and Bowser have made to explain it to him. Politics simply aren’t his department!

Death: Mario is from a world where death sort of... doesn’t exist. Like it does exist, but also, not only are there mushrooms that will save you from certain death No Matter What, there’s various of magics to save you from certain death as well. The power of love did that, once. There are permanent endings, and goodbyes, but rarely are these “deaths" as much as they are “simply going Elsewhere, somewhere we can’t reach" or “literally being erased from existence". So like, you CAN die, but it likely won’t be from physical harm.

Ghosts: Ghosts are extremely commonplace in this universe! Only those with a particularly strong attachment to the world – a lost item, a desire for revenge – will retain their form and memories, while the rest become formless and easily swayed by a more powerful ghost. Either way, you’re fodder for his little brother’s vacuum, so Mario is far from scared of ghosts. Neither is he phased by their existence. If one doesn’t open on trying to kill him, or trap him in eternal prison, maybe he’ll even help a ghost out. Finding and returning lost items is fairly easy, after all!

Technology: Making a computer or a robot sentient is fairly commonplace, too. A ship that thinks is far from the weirdest thing Mario has encountered.


Character biofacts:

Age: Mario is functionally ageless and experiences game releases in real-time as we do. He’s physically in his 30s, though, and mentally about the same, even though he’s got 40+ years of experience in the princess and/or world saving under his belt.

Gender: male

Species: human

About the character:

I wrote 2500 words about the silly plumber man and his hidden depths. The Paper Mario games are wild, man. Anyway that’s kind of long to scroll through, so I’ve used a collapsable section about it.

BUT FIRST: wanted to link to this interview from Nintendo about Mario's core traits/personality, because it's also key in how I try and play him. Mario as described in this interview (but with a splash of more trauma).

CLICK HERE!

There isn’t a lot of canon about Mario’s childhood etc., and what little there is contradicts itself. Did he and his brother Luigi grow up on human-Earth before finding a magical warp pipe that took them to the Mushroom Kingdom? Were they born in the Mushroom Kingdom? Were they actually raised by their parents, or by a Yoshi, due to a mix-up with the stork? Did they actually regularly have playdates with Princess Peach when she was a kid? And all these questions complicated by the fact time travel and parallel universes are things Mario’s encountered frequently, both on his adventures and... for Karting tournaments. Seriously where did E. Gadd get his hands on these baby counterparts of everyone? Hello? Who let them drive???

The point is; canon doesn’t have a concrete answer, because it’s Schrodinger’s Backstory, and canon picks whatever it feels like to suit its current needs. So for MY needs, I’m going to choose an answer: I think it makes the most sense that Mario is just a Regular Fucking Guy, probably from Brookyln, the Real World, circa the 80s, and through some weird isekai, he ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom. The only other answer that makes sense to me is that he has always lived in the Mushroom Kingdom, but wasn’t really a celebrity – let alone personal friend of Princess Peach - until after SMB1.

First: Age Caveat. I think time runs differently in the Mushroom Kingdom. Or rather, it runs the same, but people in the Mushroom Kingdom don’t age like normal humans. I just think it’s more fun if Mario is in fact the same guy that has experienced every game in real time as they have released in the real world. He’s a guy in his mid-to-late 30s who has been adventuring for 40 years. He’s a mascot character. It just works like that.

All that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of it.

It’s ’85. King Bowser of the Koopas invades the Mushroom Kingdom, turns its citizens to stone and kidnaps its Princess, the only person capable of undoing his magic. Mario hears of their plight and goes, sure, okay, I’ll help out. Was he transported here from Brooklyn? Did he already live in the Mushroom Kingdom? It doesn’t matter. No one else was there to step up, so Mario did. Of course he did. Maybe he’s just a plumber, a guy who loves to do parkour on the side, maybe he’s nothing really special, but... he can help. He can’t NOT help. He cannot stand to sit idly by when he could do something, so he does something. He couldn’t possibly live with himself if he didn’t.

And – it works. He saves the princess, he saves the kingdom, he saves the day. And... he keeps doing it. He can’t not, of course, we already established that. But it helps that he enjoys it—he enjoys the adventure, the challenge, the excuse to use not his work skills but his hobby skills. He loves to get to jump all over the place! And that jumping all over the place saves the world!!

Plus Mario’s real greatest strength (and, in some ways, his greatest weakness) is that he simply isn’t afraid of anything. Heights don’t scare him, neither do fire breathing turtles. It helps that he lives in a world where it is easy to cheat death, where heights can’t kill someone, but... He has no real sense of self-preservation, either. He takes risks because he assumes just he’ll make it, or because it just straight up does not occur to him that the maneuver is risky to begin with. He’s pulled off so many death-defying stunts before that there is no reason for him to think this one won’t succeed, too.

And he’s seen so many terrifying things on his adventures, so many weird things (Subcon, anyone?), that he’s not phased by much, either. Plants that can move on their own, that want to eat him? Yeah, that’s just a Piranha Plant. There’s an entire group of turtles that make their living throwing hammers at people. A dinosaur that spits eggs out of her nose. Skeletons walk around pretty regularly. There are magic stars that give you power. There is just an endless list of weird shit that’s totally everyday in Mario’s world, even before you get into the wild things he has to deal with on his adventures.

His adventures aren’t all just Princess saving, either. Sometimes he has to save the world from sentient weapons sent from another dimension (Super Mario RPG), teaming up with old friends, new friends, and his nemesis Bowser while doing so. Sometimes he gets kidnapped by a ghost and gets turned into a painting (Luigi’s Mansion). Sometimes he goes on vacation to another kingdom, watches his brother flirt with a Bean Prince, and gets to help Peach outsmart the big bad that rose up to be a pain in their butts (Superstar Saga). And that’s not even the first time his vacation gets ruined by someone, Junior, (Super Mario Sunshine).

And sometimes a funny treasure hunt turns into something real, real dire (Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door). Having long been friends with Princess Peach by this point, never mind a celebrity in the Mushroom Kingdom and its surrounding areas, Mario gets a letter from Peach containing a magical map and an invitation to come treasure hunting with her in Rougeport... and then Peach isn’t there when Mario arrives. Someone else has kidnapped her, and it isn’t Bowser. Mario isn’t scared of much, not when it comes to his own safety, no. But he’s not hard to scare out of his mind when it comes to the safety of the people he loves. He does what he can to hope and trust that it will be okay – it’s been okay every other time before, after all, it always ends okay – but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still scared. Bowser wouldn’t hurt Peach, but some weird cult fanatics might. Ancient demons? Weakening seals? The threat that if the demon wakes back up, she’ll destroy not just Rogueport, but the whole world?. Mario’s not exactly in over his head, but this definitely a huge step up from his usual fair. He’s not used to being scared about Peach’s safety, either. He hasn’t been scared for Peach’s life since the first time he did this, before he realized Bowser was just kind of... a dweeb.

It gets worse. The cult doesn’t want Peach dead, no, but they want to use her as a vessel for the ancient demon - the Shadow Queen - to possess, to use. Mario arrives to the scene of the ritual just in time to see Peach waking up... and she’s not herself. Peach doesn’t smile like that. Peach doesn’t laugh like that, all sharp angles and hidden anger. The Shadow Queen raises Peach’s hand, uses Peach’s body to hurt Mario... and what else can Mario do? He doesn’t want to hurt Peach, but if he doesn’t stop the Shadow Queen then the world is going to end, the whole world is going to end, and he’s the only one who can do anything. Something has to be done now, and he and the friends he gathered along this journey are the only ones here. Sure, his friends aren’t weak, but they aren’t strong enough to do this without Mario himself, and he knows... he knows that if Peach were herself, if Peach were awake in there, she would sacrifice herself so the whole world could live, too. So what else can Mario do? He doesn’t want to, how could he want to, but he can help. He has to help. Not helping would be worse. Sitting back just because he can’t stomach hurting Peach would be worse. So he raises his hammer, and he fights.

It’s okay in the end. The Shadow Queen discards Peach’s body in favor of her own, finding Peach too weak and difficult to use, especially when Peach is actively fighting back. Peach is ultimately unharmed, and the Shadow Queen is defeated. The world is saved. Everything is alright. But nothing haunts Mario more than the sight of Peach, wrapped in shadows, her own hands raised to fight him. He still has nightmares about it – not that he tells anyone about it. He doesn’t want to burden Peach, especially when she’s not about to bring it up with him first. Why would he cause her needless pain? Why would he remind her of something that must have been even worse for her than it was for him? At least he wasn’t the one getting possessed.

Things go back to normal. Mario races go-karts, he plays tennis, he even has dance battles (no, really, there’s a DDR game). He even meets his younger self in a weird time traveling adventure (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time). It’s the same old, same old, with a few new twists, and then oh wow, what a surprise, Bowser has kidnapped Peach again! Except, when Mario and Luigi go to investigate the claim, a sorcerer named Count Bleck shows up and captures the whole lot of them, because it turns out Mario, Peach, Bowser, and Luigi are all key players in a prophecy that could end not just the world, but the entire universe as they know it.

Super Paper Mario is a game a game that takes Mario on an adventure across dimensions. It’s a game where Peach and Bowser get married (but probably not legally). It’s a game about Count Bleck, a man who lost the love of his life, and said he was going to damn the worlds because if he couldn’t be happy then why should anyone else get to be. And that’s not an empty threat at all. The Void is growing the sky, larger and larger every day, sometimes larger just depending on what dimension you’re in, and how close that dimension is to the void.

It’s the game where Mario arrives to a dimension too late to save it. The Void is too close, the antagonist party is hellbent on slowing him down, and there’s nothing he can do. No way to save anyone there. Mario and friends only survive by a miracle, and when they return to collect the artifact that they needed... They’re face-to-face with nothing but endless white expanse. A dimension with no life. Where all the architecture has been reduced to nothing except a few remaining rocks and roof tiles, with the color all bleached away. To imagine that happening not just to this dimension, but all dimensions? Yeah, that’s a pretty scary thing. Mario tries not to think about how if only he’d been faster, if only he’d been quicker, if only they’d split up and someone had run on ahead, if only, if only...

Watching a dimension come to a complete and utter end is a scary, scary thing. The only thing that stops those thoughts from keeping Mario up at night is that he’s got, weirdly, more terrifying things to worry about. Because, it turns out, Luigi isn’t just a key player in this prophecy of doom. Luigi is the cornerstone piece. And so the villains are really interested in keeping Luigi under their thumb. Considering Count Bleck’s assistant has the ability to brainwash people, well. Yeah. Luigi spends most of the game galivanting around under his evil alter ego, Mr. L, and like – Mario is so happy that Luigi is safe, and not hurt, and not dead, but. It’s not easy to get past the fact that your little brother who you love more than anything else not only said he hated your guts but also tried to kill you. With his giant robot. And his own fists. You know?

It’s fine in the end, of course. It’s always okay in the end. Luigi is returned to his usual self, Count Bleck and Mario’s companion Tippi realize that they are each other’s long lost loves and the power of love saves the universe and undoes all the damage that the Void wrought. It’s a story about hope, and love overcoming all. It’s also a story that ends with a magic clown – feeling betrayed by Count Bleck – fuses himself with Luigi and the embodiment of all chaos and that’s the final boss. But, like. Mario does his best not to think about that. No of course it doesn’t give him nightmares! Why would it do that! He’s spent the past five years refusing to admit that he still has nightmares about Peach getting possessed, you think he’s going to admit to it now? Absolutely not.

And if he’s not going to tell his loved ones about it (Luigi doesn’t remember, if he told Peach then they’d have to talk about the Shadow Queen thing,) then like heck is he going to tell anyone else about it. He’s Mario! He’s the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom! The whole point is he does the scary stuff so no one else has to!!

Thankfully his life is otherwise full of normal adventures and shenanigans, of saving Peach from Bowser, of low-gravity space adventures, sports, and parties, and totally normal not stressful crises after that. And if he ever really thought Luigi hated him (he didn’t), all he has to do is think about their Pi'illo Island adventure (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) and that’s plenty to remind himself that his little brother would do absolutely anything to keep Mario safe. So he’s definitely not thinking about the time he had to watch Luigi try to hurt him! That was ages ago! It’s old news!! And why would he even worry about the scare he had when Bowser got possessed by evil blank paint (Paper Mario: Color Splash) – that’s, you know, Bowser. His... nemesis? His rival? His... Okay, sure, his friend. But Bowser tries to hurt him all the time, that’s nothing new. Mario’s totally fine about that. Totally.

And that time that Peach got brainwashed, briefly, (Paper Mario: The Origami King) like... It wasn’t even a big deal! He barely saw her, and he didn’t even have to fight her, so it was scary, yes, of course it was, but it was also okay in the end. It’s always, every time, okay in the end. Getting to the end sucks, sometimes. Sometimes it sucks so much, sometimes it’s like no one else gets that, but... The ending is always worth it.

Mario might be lying when he says he’s totally unaffected by seeing his loved ones possessed and trying to hurt him, but he believes with his whole chest that generally things turn out okay in the end. He’s seen it a dozen, a hundred times now. It’s always okay in the end. Always.

And even if it wasn’t; he has to try. He’s saved the world, the universe, a dozen times now. What’s one more? It would drive him nuts if he couldn’t do anything, anyway. He’s Mario. What do you mean he can’t help? He has to try.

Abilities:

Pluviosa special

- He doesn’t have plant abilities, exactly, but he is used to eating a plant and it gives him a special power. He’s like. SO used to this. So I want you to be prepared.

Other Abilities

- Olympic-level acrobatics-slash-parkour skills. Wall kicks, back flips, long jumps, you name it, Mario can do it at the drop of a hat... and then do it again to improve his time.

- Generally good at all manner of sports and physical activities.

- Has some sparse knowledge of hand-to-hand combat. Prefers an over-sized hammer as his weapon of choice.

- Yes, he is a plumber. Yes, he can fix your plumbing. It’s wild how rarely he’s actually asked to do this, nowadays.

- Low level fire powers. Can channel fire into his fists, shoot fireballs (fist sized), and withstand serious heat. Yes, even lava. Sure, lava hurts, but it doesn’t kill him, now does it?

- Has fine control over fire in small quantities. Manipulating heat to dry wet clothes is one of his favorite party-tricks.

- Can only do more flashy stuff with fire (anything larger than a fist-sized fireball) when under the effects of an ability enhancing powerup.

- ...or during a combo attack with his brother Luigi, as their bond strengthens Mario’s own abilities.

- Superhuman strength. Can lift, at least, anything of equivalent weight to Bowser. Hammer swings have serious oomf behind them, as well.

- Superhuman endurance/resistance to blunt force trauma. It’s VERY unlikely that a fall from a great height will do more than jar Mario for a few seconds. It definitely won’t seriously hurt him.

- bonus: this video (timestamped, but starting at 5:24) showcases all of Mario's (normal) attacks in Paper Mario TTYD, with the funny bonus "stylish" acrobatics you can do to recharge your special attack meter. My man out here slamming his hammer down and then doing a triple backflip out of it. Hammer attacks start at 6:46 btw.

- minutia: The above video is mostly for Vibes, I care very little about whether or not he has a stomp that lets him shrink people, you know. If it has an effect on an enemy that isn't fire-related, disregard it. I think Quake Hammer (slams ground so hard it quakes a little) and Fire Drive (fire+hammer combo) are the only two I'm super attached to, you know, outside of any "variation of doing different acrobatics of a jump" attacks, which of COURSE Mario can do, you know.


Noteworthy items:

- His signature Hat. It does not provide magical abilities for anyone else (except, maybe, Luigi) but to Mario it serves not only magical protection (he takes x2 damage without it) but also a huge comfort item. He would lose his mind without it.

- Hammer. Its his weapon of choice, besides his good work boots!!

- Smartphone. Even if he cannot use it for texting, he’ll want it for music.

- A handful (3-5) of health-restoring Mushrooms.

- 1 (One) 1-UP mushroom, which will stabilize someone with a fatal injury so they don’t die. At least, in his world, anyway.

- 1 Fire Flower, which will either create a large burst of fire upon use, or grant the user temporary fire-ball throwing powers upon consumption.

- @ mods PLEASE give me reasons for any of these plants in Mario’s pockets to be affected by The Growth in a weird way. And if you want more Weird Plants in Mario’s pockets, we can add ‘em! I wanna see what happens.

Mixed gender room ok?: A-Okay!!!!

Player content notes/squicks:

ABSOLUTE NO: I REFUSE TO COMBINE MARIO AND SEX. THIS IS A MASSIVE SQUICK FOR ME. I don't think this is the kind of game that is going to have sex-based events BUT this is me preemptively just opting out of them. Thank you.

Bonus: Photos of mold. :(


Anything else:

For real the Mushroom Kingdom is ripe with funny magic plants and I think it would be fun if that was Relevant. Or at the least I am handing over to the mods. Funny tool you can use later!!!



Voice samples:

- thread with Alastor
- thread with Mint
- it’s shorter, but I think the thread with Zed is also REALLY good