The Plumber Knight
. . .
Background:
In the beginning, two brothers would be born as the last descendants of a mythical Mage known as Merlin.
During a family trip, their jetliner was blasted out of the heavens by Kamek under King Bowser and Nox Decious' orders. Fortunately, said wizard managed to save both infants, but could not rescue their parents.
Later on, Merlin brought the two to an island, where he would go on to raise them both. Their names were Mario and Luigi.
Many years after they grew up, the two would spend a considerable amount of time constantly battling against Bowser's attempts at conquering the Mushroom Kingdom. Both brothers eventually purchased a house in the real world after discovering a warp-pipe that could teleport them there, and used it for a vacation.
Upon receiving a letter directly from King Bowser himself in regards to his usual antics, the two had come to realize that their minds were fatigued with the repetitive task of saving Princess Peach, and outright refused to return.
Over a length period of time, Boswer had dispatched multiple henchmen, made a personal appearance, and failed to force their return to the Mushroom Kingdom, purely due to Boredom caused by Mario's absence.
Later on, an ancient sorcerer called Nox Decious would appear, under the command of Ganondorf, who sought to destroy the Mario Brothers and conquer the real world as they knew it. After much trial and error, Mario was finally able to defeat them, at a great cost.
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Twenty years after the final brawl, Peach and Luigi were both murdered by a mysterious being nicknamed the Koopa. These two hardships left Mario to fall into a deep depression before retiring from his responsibilities. He took on Michael Camorelli as a false name and moved into New York City, hoping to live out the rest of his days there.
Talents and Abilities:
- Fire Power: Incendiary spheres that can be formed and thrown from his palms. These explosive projectiles can be enlarged for a more devastating effect at the cost of taking time to charge one up.
- Combat Prowess: Highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, almost to the point one might consider him a superhuman.
Despite being overweight and showing signs of aging, Mario is able to withstand an incredible amount of physical strain.
- Sorcery: Under the guidance of Merlin, Mario has learned several forms of basic magic over the years. Even now, he still seeks to expand his knowledge and become more adept in this field.
- Beam Sword: An energy-based melee weapon made from a beam of compressed photons, able to burn through many objects, obstacles. Due to the brutality of such a device, the Plumber Knight prefers to avoid using it when it's not needed, given its potential to easily sever off limbs or cut someone in two.
Personality and quirks:
At first glance, Mario often acts indifferent and professional when interacting with anyone not in his immediate cycle. Truthfully, he is a selfless man with the heart of a warrior, and a deep sense of responsibility. Anyone who befriends him will earn themselves a loyal guardian.
Appearance & Aesthetics:
At a height of 5’11, Mario can be considered overweight, with black hair and dark chocolate brown eyes.
For his outfit, he wears a crimson red shirt, a pair of black overalls, a matching black cap with the letter M up top, fabric gloves, plus steel-toe boots.
NPC Villains:
Nox Decious -
The long-lost brother of the legendary wizard known as Merlin. There once existed an ancient prophecy, where an alleged Chosen One would go on to save the globe somewhere in the far future. Nox became enraged when being told that it was King Arthur instead, which prompted him to become a servant to Ganondorf Dragmire behind Merlin's back. When discovering the truth and a failed attempt at convincing him to join, he and his brother fought, resulting in Nox having his face burnt. A teleportation spell was used to make his escape.
During their second confrontation, he was able to best Merlin and thought he actually killed him. Only after this event did Decious decide to destroy most of Merlin's lineage, and obliterate their family's grand castle, all that remained was a single wall.
Over nine hundred years later, the corrupted Mage returned to wreak havoc upon the world, revived by unknown means after already being defeated several times. The only thing stopping him would be Mario and his ally(s).
He is a man driven by an unquenchable thirst for power and control. Despite being arrogant at times, Nox Decious can be a brilliant fighter, and see a select few as worthy opponents. Unlike his creation, the Darkness, he's often well composed, even in the presence of his foes.
The Darkness -
An unholy creation of Nox Decious, an entity that was originally made to immortalize, and assist him in global conquest, always residing within him. Over the ages, this being became increasingly resentful towards its maker, who only saw it as nothing more than a tool to be used, a prisoner trapped within his body.
When Mario managed to defeat Decious, the Darkness was released from his corpse. In order to sustain its own existence, it attached itself to the Plumber and eventually left. Overtime, the entity slowly took physical form, which copied Mario's appearance with only a few minor changes. It would go on to terrorize the Mario Brothers for an untold amount of years, engaging them in one battle after another.
Decades later after the death of Luigi and Princess Peach, the Darkness was engaged in what was thought to be one final battle against Luigi's son, who trapped him inside a mystical item called the Truth Stone until his Uncle buried it.
The Darkness possesses skills combined from both its creator, Nox Decious, and Mario due to having once latched onto him. He is highly skilled in using Beam Swords, able to teleport, use invisibility spells, take a non-physical form, and survive mortal wounds to an extent.
He is cunning, mentally unstable at times, diabolical, and outright sadistic. Even his own allies are disposed of once they outlive their usefulness. Despite being anything but sane, he is extremely intelligent and calculated, in addition to being able to carry on a conversation and hold a dark sense of humor.
Currently, the Darkness seeks to find Mario, hoping to both physically, and emotionally destroy him at every turn. His end goal is to destroy all structured societies and bring an age of anarchy due to his own twisted ideals. It's extremely common for him to hire henchmen to achieve both short and long-term goals, even if he has to hide under another alias with a disguise.
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Disclaimer:
(My iteration of Mario is based off the web series called The Plumber Knight Returns with my own twist. Please don't feel discouraged, this character is compatible with most OCs and can appear in all sorts of settings/universes.)
Comments
Silvery eyes blinked. Reopening anyone’s old wounds was one of the many things that she disliked doing, and in a way, she hoped that she didn’t just cause that all because of this encounter. Especially for someone that just saved her life moments ago. Cassella wouldn’t disregard that. But as someone who was all too familiar with loss, sometimes, stories and memories to relive are all that they will have. “Luigi, huh?” Her voice was quiet. “You don’t have to answer, but, what kind of person was he?”
As the conversation shifted into something that she was more grounded with, she noticeably grew quiet. Where to begin? “It’s a long story…” The mild, pensive tone only said that she was actually willing to slowly lay out the pieces of this intricate tale should he believe it, piece by piece, in the puzzling scheme of things. She simply didn’t know where to begin, from the questions he asked. While she had her initial misgivings, Mario seemed curious about the matter, he didn’t seem to be the one who will exploit such information either – no, he perhaps was a better man than she will ever be. Cassella just had a hunch, and she has dealt with enough people to somehow spot those who simply meant well.
Who got involved? What did both sides fight for? “Humans. Two sides fought over it, but honestly, I’d say it was an oversimplification. It ran deeper than that. Say… have you ever met a dragon before? Or a winged hydra?”
Come on, Cass, make it make sense. She urged herself to keep going, and she did.
“There were many things that got involved. Beasts, humans, creatures of all sorts, sorcery, weaponry, and machine. All of it… sparked by a vision that a handmaiden and a vassal saw in the far future, where humans were heavily involved. It was bad enough that it drove the vassal mad when the empress refused to hear a bar of it – the hydra turned his back against the empire he’s serving and stole one for himself.” Cassella didn’t seem panicked anymore. If anything, she sounded sad, wistful, as if she herself lived through the entire thing for someone who looked quite young. “It went from there, both sides exhausting everything they got just to tear each other apart. They created many monsters in the process, literal or not, and the cleanup was even bloodier than the war itself.”
She tried to keep that short. Many details were still left out, begging to be told, her lips barely holding that back… but that, perhaps, will take her hours to peel back all the layers. Only time will tell if she would be able to detail things further. “Depending on which side you’d hear it, some would say it’s the Astral War. Dominion War. From me? I’d say it’s a total shitfest like most of them are. So many wrongs that could have been corrected, if only both sides chose to listen.” The brash choice of words was there, her frustration slowly mounting, and yet when she glanced at him, that already dissipated, leaving her twitching up a crooked grin. Metallic eyes twinkled. “I’d be happy to listen since I’m actually curious as to who you are, but how are you so sure that I won’t use anything against you?” This lack of hypervigilance to confide was actually refreshing. “You seem to be very well acquainted with these sort of things. Did you come from a house of mages or anything of that sort? Do you deal with these all the time, or is this just a part-time job?”
The mention of the abandoned property already piqued her interest, and that radiant grin on her face already said her response even before it was uttered. “We can do an inspection, and I’ll see what I can do.”
On any other given circumstance, she would have felt like declining. Not today, however. Either she was hoping to actually investigate and see if this will turn out to be a bigger threat that she will eventually have to deal with, or she was just looking for a distraction from all the things she said, it doesn’t matter. She was willing to help, without much hesitation, and she was pretty surprised with that herself.
This day could end in simple exorcisms, right? What’s the harm?
“Also, can we like, grab something along the way? All that running has me starving, and if we’re dealing with those folk, I need a few supplies.”
“A beam sword would be very useful at some point. The creature inside that will be very angry if its home is gone.”
It was a peculiar piece of information to drop.
The handshake was eagerly and firmly taken. The relief seemed evident on her face at the thought that they were on the same page. Finally, someone sensible who knows certain diabolical things are better off gone instead of having them saved for later for whatever reason. Her expression softened up as she looked around. “It’s a lovely place, it feels like there were a lot of adventures that were had here. I’m sorry to hear about your brother.” She started walking to follow him, silvery eyes glancing about to take in the details of the place they were approaching. Ferral City was a name that sounded familiar somehow, something that she will most likely look into.
“Not Goombas, no… those men, in particular, were just a small syndicate group– nothing too big. I got a little too careless, however, and they caught me off guard. The tranq dart was pretty clever, though.” She chuckled to herself, rubbing the back of her head. That could have ended badly, and yet for some reason, this little woman wasn’t too nonplussed, finding other things to be worried about. “But that doesn’t end there. I have stolen from the slightly bigger ones for the past four weeks, just a little outside New York. Two boon items, I sent back to my folks for study and safekeeping. Three of this brooch’s caliber, I already destroyed. Ah!” She started fishing around through her tracksuit’s deeper pockets.
While she was being searched earlier on her predicament, all those pockets seemed empty. Oddly enough, she pulled out one small velvet notebook, its cover spangled up by foil in the reminiscent of faded stars. Flipping through the pages showed nothing at first, but as her fingers made contact, it was like ink bloomed through the pages, finally revealing her notes from the illusion. Not only that– they seemed to move. Her handwriting was a seamless yet scratchy cursive, only becoming legible if a moment was spent looking through them. It was a list of locations that she had accumulated from her misadventures ever since this clean-up operation of hers had started. “I tried to map these out through the city-– item locations, known hideouts, and possible recipients to see if there was any pattern, but to no avail. When I said that these items had no business to be here… a bunch of them belonged to two warring sides long ago, purposefully lost in history. They dealt with dangerous sorcery in that war. Both factions have crumbled to ash after that, and a great deal of these things was destroyed or hidden away.”
With how casually this was all uttered, it would seem that Cassella was flippantly spouting this whimsical cover at first glance. The look on her face will betray it and pronounce the truth in that, however. It looked rather haunted, and she seemed worried. “It’s not meant to be uncovered by common folk, not by novice criminals just looking for a buck. Certainly not by some rich people with a taste for haunted oddities, or looking for some weird power-up. For all I know, someone could be tipping that off.”
The young woman shook her head. She was rambling again, it probably sounded hopeless. That head of hers was out of sorts, to begin with. “Sorry– I wouldn’t want to get too carried away with assumptions. I may be wrong… these things do wash up somewhere from time to time.”
“You did say that you are still dealing with some demons…” Her voice trailed off slightly. “Are there other stuff that’s troubling you around here? Unruly otherworldly folk? You did help me when I needed it, after all, and if it’s of that nature, I would be more than happy to lend a hand.”
A warp pipe? She looked at him incredulously, her mouth briefly opening for a question to tumble out, but it didn’t. There was not enough time. She'd take anything else over dealing with a bunch of authorities who will certainly find her involvement in this suspicious, and frankly, she was too out of sorts to make up excuses that wouldn't land her in the police station.
Cassella slid right inside, her petite form not even finding the slightest difficulty to crawl right in, save for the dulling ache and numbing muscle. In that pitch darkness, whatever features she had exposed seemed to cast a very faint glow of white, just enough to illuminate the slightest bit of the path before her. It does seem like a standard metal pipe from the looks and the feel of it, quite stable enough and devoid of any rust.
At this point, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Probably another side of the building just to throw any pursuers off. She took the hand that helped her, allowing herself to be pulled out, expecting another derelict laneway. The look on her face says it all the moment she finally managed to take a proper gaze of the area she was led into. All that greenery met her, a massive contrast to the muggy, dark atmosphere of the city.
What just happened?
It seemed like a place calm enough for a retreat, and the tranquility of it alone already astounded her. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, or any stray presences she had to take note of. For a place this enormous, were they alone? Cassella took her time to digest that, glancing back at the inky depths of the pipe.
Where in the world were they?
The crimson gem stared right back at her, twinkling in its full glory. A hand was held out at first, but it was eventually retracted. For someone who stole the thing from its pedestal earlier, she didn’t even want to touch it anymore. “That depends, Mister. If you’re looking to destroy it as well, then we might have the same goals after all.”
Weary legs finally found a decent spot to rest. She took a seat down against the edge of the pipe, her expression grim. Cassella looked up at him, mercury eyes gleaming. “It shouldn’t be here.” Her voice was faint at first, limned with a sigh. “Well, destroying it should be the easier part-- this isn’t like the complicated ones. But that doesn’t cut it. Nobody else should be able to retrieve this, even, or know where it was."
And that was something that she was trying to investigate in the beginning. The woman did seem to have the full grasp of the item that they were after, and probably the history that it had. More importantly, it did seem like his valid explanation diffused whatever suspicion she had to be able to drop that much information to a stranger. She wasn't expecting to find any other sorcerer in the city but there he was, and it brought a decent amount of relief that maybe she wasn't so doomed today after all.
“My name's Cassella, by the way. Mind if I ask what region is this?" A sweeping look around was finally made, with her pulling herself back up to her feet.
There was a lot of screaming, mostly from the man whose limb just flew off, leaving a burnt stump on where the hand should be. The other could only watch back in hapless horror, now nodding vigorously at the threat given if that meant getting to see one more day. They ran, almost stumbling upon each other. Even the last man who was starting to regain consciousness after being slammed into the concrete was crawling away, the stumble breaking into a full run until all were out of sight.
Cassella was lying on her back, a hand clasped against her chest, messy alabaster locks blown and fanned out like a halo of white. A helpless chuckle bubbled out. While she was obviously bruised and scraped in places, the mirth and the relief clearly showed through. "Ahh, that was close." The woman took the hand that was offered, pushing herself up to her feet with every bit of strength that she could muster. That probably meant that she was starting to sober up. Even the attempt clearly hurt, but she started feeling herself anyway. "I-I don't think I totally broke anything," she mumbled with a sniffle. One foot was prodded to that severed limb on the ground that was still smoking and partly charred. “Thanks a lot, Mister…?” Her voice trailed off, hoping to catch a name.
Now with a clearer sight of this savior of hers who just hacked limbs off and blasted one man on the face, she gradually rubbed her eyes. It wasn’t a common getup, dark overalls, and such, but hey, it worked just fine. She was trying to dust herself down now, one hand still clenched into a tight fist, though she paused when the main objective of this entire thing was finally brought back to light.
"... What do you know about the brooch?" Cassella slowly asked, taking a staggering step back. Perhaps there was the slightest hint of suspicion on the way she said that. “Did someone send you to retrieve it? Are you working for someone else?” Questions hastily piled one after another, and she can feel her throat tightening up at each one, hoping that she wasn’t rescued from one hell just to be thrown to another.
And yet even before that can warrant a proper answer, police and fire response sirens were already ringing out in the distance.
||Happy holidays! Hope you had a wonderful one! (*´▽`*)
Let her go.
All eyes were upon this newcomer now, and Cassella was no exception. "Who's that, gramps coming to pick you up?" Like hell would she know, she can barely even see at this point. Bleary eyes couldn't exactly make up every single detail there was, but she was dead certain that this wasn't something or someone she'll encounter every day. No, no, don't get involved now, she wanted to say. And yet when the flash of fire was actually shot, a burst of light cutting through the dark, her mouth dropped open.
Sorcery.
She felt the release of that, as clear as day. There was a lot of screaming going on, with the man finally letting her go just to claw at his face that was briefly set aflame. Even the others were stunned, backing away for a moment in obvious panic. That caused her to keel over, and back to the pavement, she went, coughing and gasping for air.
That felt like momentarily hacking up a lung, but at least, she can finally breathe. Even before Cassella could properly react, the same guy manhandling her earlier was now slammed into the ground due to the punch that actually connected, smoke sizzling out from a ski mask that was now half-burnt. No, it wasn't a pretty sight, it took her a long moment to push herself away from it, still confused about what was going on. She didn't remember asking for backup, not from any other mage, and she certainly didn't know anyone wielding this glowing beam of a sword. Coincidence, it seems like it. The enormity of the situation seemed to knock the senses of one of them– presumably the youngest, already fearfully took off much to the indignation of the remaining two.
Drumming footsteps came forth as the last two charged, narrowly avoiding her, and their one passed out crony. That was his answer. Cassella tried to prop herself up as much as her numb limbs could allow, instinctively stretching out a foot to trip someone, which succeeded to slow one of them at the very least. “Oh, gods– Mister– watch out!” Her voice was a faint warning, almost muted. The first one was ready to throw a punch, attempting to aim that straight to the face. The other one that tripped was scrambling back up to his feet as he pulled out a switchblade, hoping to get in a few stabs.
Sometimes it's just a little too many enemies on a single night, all the while hindered by a sedative. That can already put down a horse, one would say, it should have been able to shoot down a petite woman out of commission within moments. And yet this intruder was still a whirlwind of white and phantom-like arms, able to set fire into anything she ever touched, walls, furniture, bodies included. The objective was to steal something that she has been tracking for days, one that has no business to be in this particular spot of East New York, to begin with.
For Cassella, it was a personal little mission that has started many days ago. From gathering information and personally verifying what she can get, to the surveillance and preparation of various things, in a way, she had expected the fight. It felt peculiar to gaze upon a glaring object that she once laid her eyes upon a century ago: a splendid pendant brooch, boasting a substantial blood red diamond set in intricate twists of gold and platinum, crusted by a full, fanning halo of gems. Truly a dazzling thing to behold even beneath the crummy radiance of cheap, flickering fluorescent lights, its charm just as sinister. The jewel will certainly sell for quite a hefty price for anyone who retrieves it… knowing its history and its abilities, however, was that really the only thing there was?
The first phase was successful – it was definitely secured. The second phase, however, didn’t turn out to be so smooth. One thing was for certain, however – the arsonist wasn’t going down without a fight, and that prompted the armed chase and the periodic bursts of combustion and cremated remains. She was a fleeing trail of destruction headed for the outskirts, anyone with the affinity to such element will notice it a mile or two away.
It has been a long, overcast night, all frigid and bitter, and there were still four of them left.
“Think the boss will want this bitch alive?”
“Oh, I would! Just look at her!”
“You trying to get your dick roasted, man? She just tore the fucking place down, how the fuck did she even do that?”
They were murmuring frantically amongst themselves now, their voices a jumbled set of words that a clouded head can’t comprehend. Combustion? Sorcery? Ghosts? All of those would probably make her laugh out loud if only it could register properly. If it doesn't hurt so much to do so. Looming over this young woman who was sprawled against the pavement, it only took one man to force her up to her knees, gripping her into a chokehold with little to no resistance, a metal pipe held against her throat. Bruised, utterly drained, and scratched all over, this gaunt prize of theirs was a delicate thing, a whole lot less sinister in that state up close. At least the tranq did wonders to block away most of the pain, all she had to worry about right now was how to move, and how to stay awake.
Her vision was already blurry. Street lamps above were now just spangles of warm light, the sinister figures overhead just silhouettes blocking what's left of what she can see. It certainly felt weird to be at the wrong end of the blade, but Cassella would be lying if she said it was the first time it turned out like that. For a moment, there was the brief recollection. Apparently, even with lives and deaths in repeat, she was still hardly immune to that. It was a moment that brought her back, to clearer faces of old friends, of family, that she wasn’t too fond of but were now resurfacing anyway– her sweet, darling Abraham, how the hell will he even take the news of her death like this? Choked and knifed away, tossed in a nearby creek, over something so stupid, at that?
She can feel the priceless metal within her hand. A diminutive thing that stayed suspiciously cold, even in her heated grip, even with the layer of gloves. almost inviting and pleading to be used once more after a long while of stagnation. Any lesser person might have caved in to the demand right off the bat, but to her, at this rate, self-destruction felt like a better route. A slow, cautious breath was taken, with her trying to refocus whatever’s left to get her properly started.
Tear this earthly vessel away. Shine the light and take all these with you.
Her captors' hands fumbled to pry hers open, and yet those fingers held on like a vice, a small gloved hand balled into a tight, digging fist to clasp a small object inside. The effort was futile, the presence of pain only tightened this further, and it was clear that she had no intentions of letting go. Another searched her over, for weapons, any form of identification, and there was none to be found. Just one fragile woman in her late twenties, clad in soft shades of gray and black. One man scooted down in front of her, holding out a hand.
“Hand the brooch over.”
Glazed eyes squinted, a lopsided grin made its way to her face. On any other normal day, she will negotiate. In between gasping breaths, she squirmed, her voice slightly a pitch higher. “Nope~ Get fucked.”
That’s the wrong answer, apparently. Signed a death warrant, starting with how the grip on her neck tightened. The night air seemed to shimmer with heat, the temperature ever so slowly rising up.
“Off with her fucking head then!”
|| I am, and thank you! I'm still entirely new to the Plumber Knight series, but I'd love to write with you! Would it be alright if I sent you a message to plot/brainstorm? (*´▽`*)
||Hello! Thank you for accepting, you've got an interesting character! (´ ∀ ` *)
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