[Other FULL] Paper Mario | The World Star [IC]

"Hmmm hmmm hmm~ A hat for every comrade, a fuse for every bomb, a key for every bombette~" A certain boisterous citizen of Quiet Meadows was waltzing his way back into town with a basket full of flowers hanging from his...side, and humming a merry tune. He'd picked them to replant over the spot behind the Shroomers' shop where he'd crashed as an apology. However when Chester's spritely imitation of skipping took him through the entrance to town he was greeted with a perplexing sight, there was a large group of townsfolk moving through the town in his general direction. "Hello comrades! Chester is back and hoping dis day is treating you well!" The Bob-Omb called out to his fellow citizens heartily, but his greeting was not reciprocated.

Every single person in the group turned towards Chester simultaneously, and for a few seconds they didn't say any thing at all. Then, just as Chester was about to ask what was going on one voice rang out. "There he is!"

"Quick! Get a hold of the little powder keg before he gets away!" Someone else yelled, and that was all it took for the entire mob to begin sprinting at Chester full throttle.

"Eh? No! What is de going on? Today Chester has only-NO STAY AWAY I AM NEEDING OF SPACE!"

Despite his fearful outcry, in his panic Chester ran at the crowd instead of away, bowling over several koopas, a toad, and a few goombas as he charged right through the mob. However, plenty of townsfolk weren't knocked too far off balance and immediately gave chase. "What have you done with Mayor Monty you little exploding hooligan?!?"

"Yeah give us back the Mayor! What will we do without him?!?"

The chase continued for only a few minutes before Chester was cornered while darting from building to building, and several goombas and toads held him down, since the koopas were concerned about being knocked onto their backs after Chester's first frantic charge. Chester shook and kicked his little legs as hard as he could while the mob held him down and shouted various accusations at him, and he claimed all the while he had no idea what was going on. "Chester is innocent! I am always doing many things for Mayor Monty and am always sure to clean up after my messes! Monty is Chester's friend! He allow me into town when so many people are scared of Chester!" The shouting only continued until Chester began to redden and his fuse lit, but the mob was only concerned for justice and held him down even as the impending BLAST drew closer.

Alex marched down a path, heading back towards his house to get ready for the investigation, until a rather surprising sight caught him. "What the – " Alex stopped in his tracks as he passed by a nearby alleyway between some random buildings. He stood there, watching as he saw groups of people huddled around, seemingly grabbing something, or someone. He heard shouting and screaming, and then Alex's mouth opened with shock when he heard Chester's voice among the others. Wait! That's Chester's voice! He was hoping he would find Chester, but not like this. Running towards the group, Alex readied himself to get his hands dirty. "Hey! What're you guys doing?!" He shouted. Alex tried to pry himself into the crowd, but the whole crowd was shaking around trying to grab Chester, who was barely visible among all the people. After a few moments of trying to reach Chester in the centre, Alex had enough, and grabbed a random Toad near him and shoved him to the side. Alex grabbed another fellow, this time a Goomba and pushed him to the side as well. Alex tried to clear the crowd, but it was no use, they just weren't listening. "EVERYONE, STOP IT!!" He shouted, as he had enough and pushed his way to the center where Chester was. "I understand you guys are upset because of the Mayor's disappearance, but that's no reason to attack other townsfolk!" Alex yelled at the crowd who finally settled down a bit. They gave angry and dirty looks at him and Chester, but the good thing was that they stopped their mob-like behvaiour.

"Gerry said it was you guys who did it!" A voice shouted from the crowd.

"Ehhh...Gerry also said we were innocent until proven guilty!" Alex knew he didn't exactly say that word for word, but he did let them off the hook for the time being. The crowd murmured amongst themselves for a few moments, giving Alex a chance for a breather. He looked at Chester. "Aay...you always get into trouble, you know that?" Alex chuckled a bit, as it was a sort of ironic thing to say.

When the mob finally gave Chester some breathing room he immediately rolled away from them and popped into the air to land back in a standing position, starting to run bounce back and forth breathing heavily as his color faded back to dark blue and his fuse snuffed out. "Ehh, hoo! Ches-huh! I am not understanding how dese tings are happening to Chester, I am never hurting anyone and so gentle. Why must people be so full of misunderstanding? Everything is so simple back in Fahr Outpost!" Having finally calmed down Chester gave the mob a glance before looking up at Alex and tilting his head to the side inquisitively. "What is all dis hullabaloo about Mayor Monty? Has something happened? We are only seeing him yesterday I am errrr....perplexed?"

Alex looked at Chester and frowned a bit. "...It's a long story." He glanced around and saw the crowd still talking and discussing among themselves, with a few people giving them looks. "Let's get out of here first, I'll explain while we walk." Alex nodded at Chester to follow him through the crowd and back on to the street where it was a bit quieter and less busy. As they started to walk, Alex took a deep breath as he thought of how to tell Chester the current situation. "Pretty much, the Mayor has been determined to be missing, and everyone is thinking we are behind it...or at least know something, or something to do with his disappearance."

Chester walked with Alex and tried to wrap his head-body around the whole problem. "So, we are suspect-types in Mayor Monty's disappearance? Wait...MAYOR MONTY IS GONE?!? WE MUST BE FINDING HIM!" Chester was about to run ahead at full speed but stopped short when he remembered the mob, if he just ran ahead of Alex they might think he was involved after all and was trying to flee. He stayed behind Alex silently for another minute before something occurred to him and he bounced several feet into the air and his fuse straightened to almost look like an exclamation point. "Chester is finding a light-bulb! What about de creepy hood-men standing in town square yesterday? I remember knocking one of dem over when I left shop to talk to mayor about Alex and Billy-boo, Chester is thinking all they did all day was stand dere for something. Maybe dese people would have seen what happened to de mayor?"

Alex stopped in his tracks and looked at Chester. "Wow, that's actually some good thinking." Alex put his hand on his chin and began to think. "I talked to those guys too...they did seem a bit weird, yes." Alex closed his eyes trying to think harder, until he nearly blew out some brain cells. "Oh wait! One of them asked me where the Mayor's house was!" He exclaimed. Alex looked at Chester with his mouth wide open from excitement. "I think you are right! Maybe they saw what happened to the Mayor before he disappeared!" They were finally getting onto something, until a slight frown came over his face. "But...I think they were tourists." Alex shrugged. "We don't even know if they are in town anymore." He looked at the ground shaking his head in disbelief. "But on a good note, Caitlynn and Nina have agreed to help us investigate his house, for more clues on what could have happened to Mayor Monty." He smiled a bit, as all hope was not lost.

"Good, good!" The Bob-Omb gained a happy bounce to his step as he followed along Alex. "I'm sure they will be of much help! Miss Caitlynn is so nice and is good at picking out important items that may help her find clues! And...well...I am sure Miss Nina will also be of much help...if she is working and not 'entertaining' us with her fanciful tales. So, where should we be going first? Chester is having nothing in need of packing so I am ready to go now."

"Well, I need to go get ready and stuff, 'cause I have no clue how long this investigation is actually going to take." Alex didn't really think about how long the 'stake-out' would be, but he assumed it wouldn't be a simple 20 - minute task. "But we are going to meet up at the Mayor's house in about an hour, so meet us there on time. Sound good?"

Chester nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, is good plan! Okay, Chester will head off to de Shroomer shop and see if Miss Caitlynn and Miss Nina are needing any help. I will see you at the Mayor's house Alex!" Without waiting for an answer Chester dashed off in the direction of the shop, leaving a small trail of dust behind him in his excitement.

Watching Chester run off back to the shop, Alex chuckled a little bit. Chester wasn't so bad. Maybe a little weird, but he certainly had his quirks. Alright, back to the old house. He sighed as he spun his body around and marched right back up the path that led to his neighborhood, getting ready for their investigation.

Stompe: Kids These Days...​

Opening his door, a foul stench emanating throughout Stompe's house. He gagged upon entering, finding it a bit hard to breath, and yes, Dull Bones need to breath too.

"Gah! What is that HORRENDOUS odor?" He yelled, muffled by his hands covering his mouth and nose. The source of the smell came from the dining room, which Stompe soon found out. It turns out he had left out his lentil soup from the day before for too long, which is surprising, considering he had come back home after his shift to take a nap. Stompe figured he must've been a bit too sleepy to deal with his leftovers. He picked it up sheepishly and poured the brew into the trash.

With that out of the way, Stompe picked up his shovel and lantern from the coffee table in the living room, which is where he had left them after his shift the night before. He then walked back to his kitchen and opened his refrigerator. After browsing for a while, he took out some Shroom Broth he never got around to eating and warmed it up before pouring it into a glass jar. This would hopefully keep it warm.

With everything with him, he stuffed his supplies into his hollow shell(which works quite well as a storage compartment) and was ready to be on his way. Stompe headed out the door and made his way towards Monty's House. Although confident that everything was going to be ok, Stompe couldn't shake off the feeling that something big, for best or for worst, was going to happen, no matter how hard he tried.