11th installment of the VGNU.
It's common in the Mario family to make bad deals, but this time it might just tear the brothers apart for good.
Sometimes, there are worse evils than magic turtles and space dragons. For example, corporate greed.
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A month had passed since Nezumi Production Studios approached them at the end of their last showing of their Broadway play. There was a lot still up in the air about their deal, with not much settled, but progress was moving slower and slower every day as Mario and Luigi started butting heads. After several attempts at fleshing out a script, debating whether to make an adaptation or a follow up or a brand new story, they finally sat down in a place they knew well to clear their heads and hash things out properly.
It was not going well...
"I don' like it," Luigi tossed the script onto the table, leaning back in his chair. The pages of it ruffled in the breeze of the open air at the top of the Empire State Building. Other people stood around them and sat in other tables, but they were just background noise to his conversation with his brother.
"I know," Mario flattened his hand across the top of the script, sitting across from Luigi. "Ya didn' like th' last one either." He crossed his arms and glared at his twin. "You keep tellin' me it's wrong, but you're not sayin' why."
"'Cause it doesn' work!" Luigi told him, lurching forward a bit as he spoke. "I didn' agree with th' script ya went with with with-th' with th' play, either. None o' this is anythin' like what we actually went through."
"I know, it's better!" Mario argued. "I already spoke with th' Princess, an she's fine with it! It ain' our world Luigi, an they're okay with it, so wha's th' hangup with you?"
Luigi shook his head. "It just feels... childish, is all. Th' play, this movie script... It's just so... weird, considerin' what we went through was pretty excitable already."
Mario grabbed the script, flipping through some of the pages. Then he sat it back down, staring at the title. Super Mario Bros. "It's not like I wrote this myself," he finally said after a long pause.
"It's not like I didn' say something sooner," Luigi spat. "I' been sayin' since th' beginnin'; I don' like this idea."
"But why?" Mario pressed.
"Because--!" Luigi hung his head, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to think of the nicest way of saying his thoughts. "... We shouldn've... we... We shouldn'a said anythin' in th' first place." He looked Mario in the eye. "Should'a just come home... an an left that place behind."
Mario watched his brother's hands shake as he clenched his fists.
"It wasn' some fun adventure," Luigi said bluntly. "It wasn' some-some... dream y' can just turn into an act."
"Calm down Lu," Mario warned.
Luigi shook his head, sitting back again. "No, ya know what? I haven' signed that contract yet, an I don' think I'm gonna."
"What!?" Mario snorted. "You serious?"
"Y' wanna turn that nightmare into a joke?" Luigi got up abruptly, knocking his chair back. "Have it your way."
