Luigi approaches the mausoleum, where his parents' names are monogrammed, along with a picture of them together underneath them.
Then after a moment, he just walks away, saying, "I don't want to be here anymore."
"Mario?" Luigi asks tentatively as he walks over to the man in red, where he's standing in front of the pipe to the Darklands like he's about to go in but doesn't move. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Mario says. "You?"
"Me?" The question surprises Luigi, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because I'm trying to focus on literally anything but Bowser right now, and you're here." Mario says. "And I really want to know."
Luigi admits, "I wish Bowser was on our side too.", and at Mario's surprised look, Luigi continues, "So he could clarify what the hell he was talking about."
"What?" Apparently Mario wasn't kidding; all of his focus is now solely on Luigi. "What did he say?"
"That the Dream Lab is gonna kill me, and that all the people we wake up are smaller tests for something we can't even comprehend. And that we're all essentially pawns in a game, and that our lives are at stake." Luigi says.
Mario tries to comfort him, "Weeg, come on. If Bowser knew something of that magnitude was going on at the Dream Lab, he would've told me before anything happened."
Later that night, Luigi's listening to the record from his parents again when Spike suddenly stops the record player and plops down in the end of his bed.
"What the hell?" Luigi pulls his knees up before Spike can squash them.
"What's with the record player?" Spike asks.
"Playing a record Molly had from my parents." Luigi says quickly. "Can you go away now please?
"Why are you listening to it?" Spike asks instead, clearly in no hurry to go anywhere.
"Mario said something that stuck with me about Bowser." Luigi replies. "I'll say it again: go. Away."
"Not yet." Spike says, turning to face him directly. "Do you...wanna talk to me about what happened with Bowser?"
"Nope." Luigi doesn't even have to think.
"Then can I talk to you about me?" Spike asks.
"Also nope." Again, it's not even a thought. "Please go away."
"Nope!" Spike says cheerfully, right as suddenly, the record player starts up again, but it's stuck.
"What the..." Luigi looks over at the player. "Do you hear that?"
"Yeah. It's playing the same part over and over." Spike agrees.
"What's wrong?" Pauline asks Luigi, who's staring at her intently.
"Nothing." Luigi replies. "I...am struggling with something and I need your help."
"And you came to me?" Pauline smiles. "That's so sweet."
"Mainly because Mario isn't around." Luigi says apologetically, then holds up the record. "Molly gave this to me. There's a part it keeps skipping on, even though it's never done that before. Can you try and see if it's more than just a typical record scratch?"
"Why not?" Pauline takes the record.
"Are you sure?"
"After Mario, I'm the next biggest genius in all things computers in this lab." Pauline assures him. "Though I don't have a record player anymore, I don't think."
"Will that do?" Luigi points behind, where Spike is dragging the record player to behind her desk, then leaves for the conference room.
"Mm, yes. Before we do anything else, I must speak my piece." Snoozemore tells the team. "In this lab, our goal is to wake up the petrified. But when something like this happens, it can leave things...shaky. I know this has to be quite jarring for all of us, what Bowser did, so I offer you this: we will continue to keep digging into the truth, but first and foremost, we do our job. Spike?"
"Danny." Spike says. "Researcher for a study run by a woman named Nastasia. A promising treatment for correcting the neural pathways in the brain, curing cognitive disorders. Apparently Danny was petrified and shoved off a train."
"Train shows no signs of malfunction, nor a malfunctioning track switch." Pauline adds.
"Could've just fallen off by accident." Luigi guesses.
"Or some ritualistic suicide." Mario says.
"Now we're waking up would-be train victims?" Luigi isn't impressed.
"As I was saying, we're doing our job." Snoozemore says.
"Alright, Danny is in." Mario says as he walks to the side of the Ultibed. "Stations please."
As Luigi comes out in his dreamwalking pajamas, he walks up to Pauline, "Any luck with the record?"
"Sorry, I'm just one person, not a miracle worker." Pauline says.
"Alright, Weegee, bed's nice and warm, perfect time to go night-night." Mario says with a grin.
"Yippee." Luigi says as he climbs onto it.
"Lights!" Mario calls, and as they dim, starts the rounds once more.
"Monitors?"
"Check."
"Biofeedback?"
"Check."
"Sleep Quality?"
"Check."
"Healing Pods?"
"Check."
"Communications?"
"Check." Pauline replies.
"Starlow?"
"Check."
"Never forget Luigi: the genius is the one most like himself."
Luigi lifts his head, "Why is that relevant?"
Mario moves right along, "Lighten up, whiskers. Okay, inducing REM sleep in 3...2...1...GO!"
YOU ARE READING
I've Got the Strangest Feeling This Isn't Our First Time Around
Science FictionLuigi Turner is pulled into another world to "dream walk" through the minds of the petrified, using their dreams to wake them up.