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Since your adventures with Stelle on Penacony, you've been hanging out with her constantly. And now that she now has her own fancy room on the Express, there’s plenty of space for the two of you to hang out. The other day though, Silver Wolf asked if you would be willing to play a game with her and Stelle. It was a much more casual game than they usually played, so she knew it would be more up your alley than some of the other ones her and Stelle played. After some pleading from Stelle, you eventually agreed.
By the time you had arrived, Stelle and Silver Wolf had already set up the game and were lounging around waiting. Silver Wolf didn’t seem too pleased by you arriving late, “Took you long enough to get here.”
You sigh, “Relax, I was only like 5 minutes late. I wasn’t keeping the best track of time and so I didn’t get here on time.”
“Well here, take your controller and pick your character,” she hands you a controller that looks like a steering wheel. It was very different to any controller you had used in the past.
“Wait, I never asked what kind of game we were even playing?” you just now realized you had agreed to playing this game without even knowing what you were playing.
Silver Wolf responds, “It’s a racing game called Mario Kart, players further in the back get powerups that work as catch up mechanics to help them stay in the game.”
You pick a spot to sit on Stelle’s lap and she shows you what buttons did what on the controller. 2 was go, and B was using your items. And you steer your vehicle by turning your controller like the steering wheel of a car. She was very patient with showing you everything, knowing you don't play many games, which you appreciated.
You then look up at the tv to see the character selection screen to decide what character you are going to pick. Silver Wolf had picked a big monkey with a bandana and Stelle had picked a girl with brown hair and an orange dress. Scrolling through the options you eventually settle on a girl with blonde hair and a light blue dress. She also had a little star companion which reminded you of your Star that was sitting right behind you, or underneath you depending on how you looked at it. Regardless, you hoped that would give you good luck. They do say to wish upon a star after all.
Next came picking a vehicle. While Stelle and Silver Wolf immediately locked in the vehicles with the best stats, you just wanted to pick one that looked cute. Eventually you settle on one that has a massive star emblem on the front for the same reason you liked having the little star with your character. Surely double the stars would mean double the luck. They do say that… um… two heads are better than one?
Now came two options, automatic and manual, and you didn’t have any idea which one you should pick. Thankfully, Stelle picked up on the fact that you probably wouldn’t know what to do, “Fifi, you should pick automatic, it’s a lot simpler compared to manual.” Silver Wolf seemed to scoff at the idea that you would pick automatic, presumably because it was the “easy” mode or whatever she would call it to try and demean you. But whatever, you didn’t really care. You were just here to have a bit of fun with your girlfriend and bestie.
Once you selected your character, then it came time to pick the course. Silver Wolf immediately went to try and pick one of the harder courses, but Stelle stopped her, “Come on Silver Wolf. This is Fifi’s first time playing one of these games. Can’t we start with something simpler like Luigi Circuit.”
“Fine,” Silver Wolf reluctantly went back and picked the course Stelle had mentioned, Luigi Circuit. The preview of the course showed a pretty simple path with smooth turns and wide green pastures. This definitely felt more your style.
Immediately after the starting countdown you see Stelle and Silver Wolf’s characters boost on ahead, leaving you in the back with the computer controlled characters. But you didn’t really mind. There was still plenty of time to catch up and truthfully you didn’t really care too much about how you did. After all, Stelle and Silver Wolf were still far better gamers than you.
As laps one and two conclude, you’re still sticking near the back, slowly getting used to the way the game works. Upon hitting the first item on the third lap, you get an item you hadn’t seen before. Once you use it, you see the screen flash and everyone else becomes tiny and slows down significantly. Silver Wolf didn’t seem very pleased by this, “Who used that lightning!”
“Um… I think that might’ve been me,” you respond. You had to assume the item you used was the lightning she was complaining about. It did look kinda like a lightning bolt, but you didn’t know enough to say for sure.
By the time the effect had worn off, you had managed to get all the way up to third, and were right on Stelle and Silver Wolf’s heels. And the final item at the end of the lap is one you recognize at this point, a mushroom. Using it right at the end, you managed to boost past both Stelle and Silver Wolf on the final straightaway. Somehow, you had gotten first place in your first race.
“No fair,” Silver Wolf started shouting in protest. “I was winning the whole race and you just swoop in right at the end. Ugh.”
Stelle, by contrast, was being far more supportive, “Good job Fifi! Way to go!” She always had a way of making you feel good. Even if your win was probably just some beginner’s luck, you’re still proud of the fact you managed to beat both Stelle and Silver Wolf.
You then see the points leaderboard show up on screen, and that’s when you realize this isn’t just a one race ordeal, “Wait, how many races are we doing?”
“There’s 4 in a set,” Silver Wolf responds, “There’s no way you can get lucky on every one of them.” Regrettably, she was probably right, you’re still shocked you managed to win one, or even do well in one for that matter. But even if she won in the end, you still had the small victory of winning this one race.
“I think for the remaining three we should let everyone pick one track each,” Stelle suggests.
Surprisingly, this seemed to be the first thing Silver Wolf agreed with her on the whole day so far, “That seems like a reasonable suggestion.”
Stelle then rests one of her arms on your shoulder, “Well then Fifi, which one do you want to do?”
“Silver Wolf, can you just flip through the courses until I see one I like?” you ask.
“Sure thing,” and so, Silver Wolf starts flipping through the courses. Going through the first row there doesn’t seem to be any course that sticks out to you. But at the start of the second row you see one you like.
“Can we do that one?”
“Which one?”
“Peach Beach, that one looks pretty,” you respond.
“Is that the only thing you’re going by?” she asks, as if appalled by the fact you would solely pick a course based on its aesthetics.
But her question kinda confuses you all the same, “Well yeah, it’s not like I know anything else about the courses.”
Silver Wolf begrudgingly picks Peach Beach. And it seems like you made a good call. The route seems very simple, though this time it's on a beach with water. You can assume pretty safely that you don’t want to drive in the water without a boost.
“Hey Fifi,” you hear Stelle say behind you, “make sure you watch out for the ducks, they will launch you up into the air if you hit them.”
Silver Wolf scoffs, “They’re called Cataquacks, Stelle.”
“Yeah, and Fifi wouldn’t know what I was talking about if I just called it a Cataquack.”
Their banter stops right as the countdown to start the race begins. And the beginning of the race seemed to be largely the same as the last one. Though this time you were staying a few places higher for most of it, hovering more around 7th than 11th. Somehow you had managed to avoid all the ducks, or Cata whatever Silver Wolf had called them. You didn’t really care cause to you they just looked like ducks.
This time around hitting the first item box on the final lap you got a different item you were more familiar with. A star that gives you invincibility when you used it. You turn it on immediately and just a few seconds later you see your screen flash like it did when you used the lightning last time and see a lightning bolt strike your character. However, it doesn’t shrink you like it did to everyone else last time. And that makes sense, cause the star gives you invincibility.
This seemed to be even more effective at getting you into first place than just using the lightning did last game, especially because you were able to use the invincibility from the star to drive straight through the water that cut off part of the path. In fact, by the time your star ran out you had quite the lead over Stelle and Silver Wolf and were all the way in first. And while they might've made up some ground by driving better lines in the last turn, it wasn't enough for them to catch up. Somehow, you managed to snag first once again right at the end of the race. Just like last time, Silver Wolf got second and Stelle got third, slowly increasing the gap between each of the three of you in terms of points.
Silver Wolf seemed even more upset by this win than your first win, “Seriously how do you just keep getting so lucky, there’s no way you should be getting first in this game.” She seemed to severely doubt your gaming ability, not that that was coming much in handy here regardless.
You decide some light teasing might be in order, especially considering how rude she had been due to how competitive she was getting, “I don’t know, I see you lower down on the leaderboard than me. So maybe I’m just better at the game.”
Now this really got Silver Wolf into a rage, she looks like she was about to attack you when Stelle stops her, “Silver Wolf. Relax. It’s just a game.”
Silver Wolf throws up air quotes and says “It’s just a game,” before sitting back down in her chair and locking in for another race. “Well Stelle, I’ll let you pick this time. What track do you want to play?”
“Let’s go with Coconut Mall,” she responds. Upon loading into the course, you can immediately see that this one looks far more complex. This would be the greatest test of how much you had gotten used to this game’s controls yet. While the other two courses had felt like rather simple race courses, this one had you driving through a mall.
This time, the race seemed to actually be going a lot better for you despite the increase in difficulty. In fact, you managed to stay in third the whole time. A decent ways behind Stelle and Silver Wolf, but still ahead of everyone else. On the last lap, you pretty much followed exactly where Stelle was going, though admittedly a bit sloppily, so you still lost time on her overall. However, a few good items from you and Stelle were able to keep all three of you pretty close together.
Right as you were nearing the final section with the cars, you hear Silver Wolf scream, “FUCK! A BLUE SHELL!” Shortly after this you see a blue explosion where Silver Wolf’s character formerly was and the two of you pass her. You’re still happy with second place. The first two races were massive flukes, and you didn’t expect to do anywhere near this good.
But right at the end, Stelle slightly misjudges the pattern of one of the cars heading back and forth on the road and runs right into it, causing her to fly into the air. In the end, the final results for this race ended up being the same as the other two. You got first, Silver Wolf got second, and Stelle got third.
Silver Wolf definitely was not happy about this result, and she was thrown into a rage. Immediately upon the course select screen showing up she rushed all the way over to the difficult courses and picked one before you could even see what she had picked. Stelle clearly did though and she called Silver Wolf out, “Wait, Silver Wolf, why did you pick Rainbow Road? Fifi’s going to have no fun on this one.”
“I’m tired of her winning! She shouldn’t be winning and there’s no way she’ll win on this one!” She screamed back. Clearly she was a bit upset. More than a bit upset. You knew Silver Wolf was a competitive gamer, but this was a whole different level from anything you had seen from her before. She doesn’t seem to be very used to losing to someone she would consider bad at video games.
The course loads in and you can clearly tell why she picked this one. It looks very challenging. There’s no railings on most of the course and the whole thing is hovering in space. One wrong move and you could be sent very far back. You weren’t ready for this but you were going to try regardless. Challenging games weren’t really your thing but you were already this far in so you couldn’t stop now.
The first lap goes about as you expected from looking at the course. You were falling off constantly and were in last by a considerable margin by the end of it. Looking over your shoulder on your right you could see that Silver Wolf was locked in not paying attention to any of her surroundings.
Something starts to click as you enter the second lap and suddenly you’re not falling off any more. With the help of a few items that look like bullets that basically drove the course for you, you’re able to make up the massive gap to 11th, then 10th, then 9th, then 8th. And finally you’re back in the pack with the rest of the racers. Well… the rest of the racers besides Silver Wolf and Stelle. But then you stop being able to make progress, being stuck at 8th.
As you’re nearing the second half of the final lap, you hear the noises of Silver Wolf and Stelle finishing the race. Based on the quick pop off you hear from Silver Wolf, you imagine she won the race, with Stelle coming in second. But her pop off ends quickly as she becomes intently focused on how your race is going. You don’t know how good you need to do to still beat her, and honestly you don’t really care. At the end of the day you’re just here to have fun. But that doesn’t mean you’re just going to let Silver Wolf win, especially considering how rude she's been today over this game. Having fun still means giving it your all.
But you’ve been stuck in 8th for a whole lap at this point. How are you supposed to make progress? But that’s when something changes. As Stelle finishes the race, you can feel her set down her controller and start running her hands through your hair. You don’t know what it is about this, maybe it has a way of calming you, but it meant you started gaining placements again. Suddenly you were up to 7th, then 6th.
And then, right at the final item set, you get one last item. A red shell. At the finish line, you manage to use a red shell to stop 5th and overtake them. Getting 5th in the race. One question remained as the three of you sat there with your eyes glued to the screen. Did you still manage to beat Silver Wolf?
As the leaderboard appeared and the points were added to the players’ tallies, the final score was 51 points to Silver Wolf, and 52 points to you. You still managed to beat Silver Wolf by a single point.
This only made Silver Wolf even more mad. She had done everything she could possibly think of to stop you short of taking your controller out of your hands and in the end she still lost. She throws down her controller in rage, with it splitting in two upon hitting the ground and storms out of the room. This leaves you feeling a bit sad until you hear your Star speak up to lighten the mood.
“Good job Fifi. You did it. You won,” she didn’t say it in an excited voice, but a calm one as she continued stroking your hair. Which honestly is exactly what you needed at that point.
You turn around to face Stelle and give her a big kiss, “I did it all for you, my Star,” and she smiles after hearing you say that.
While your gaming session may have ended with one girl storming off in rage after losing, it also ended with the winner laying down in bed for a cuddle session with her girlfriend as a reward for a job well done.