Strengths of the Heart and Mind is a Dark Fic of Super Mario Bros. written by eeh1229
One day, Mario and Luigi go off to search in the woods for a lost Toad girl, not knowing they are being baited into a trap. An evil spirit known as Conicus has taken interest in Mario's strength, and seeks to take his body to dominate the world. Can Luigi save his brother and everything else?
The story can be found on Fanfiction.net
and Mario Amino, though the Amino version has pictures and is more up-to-date.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: While cap-tured by Conicus, Mario is fully conscious but is unable to control his eyes, voice, or movements in any way (except for when Luigi is in immediate danger). To make matters worse, he can still feel physical pain while Conicus cannot, a fact that Conicus readily uses to his advantage when Mario angers him or refuses to do what he wants.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Multiple characters suffer stab wounds, most notably when Conicus cuts gashes on Mario's arm to break his will faster.
- Darker and Edgier: This fanfic hits full steam ahead with torture, mutilation, breaking of hope, and demonic possession, which even the darkest titles in the games barely touched upon.
- Dark Is Evil: Conicus is a Dark Bonneter and the Big Bad.
- The Dark Times: When the Dark Bonneters ruled the Corona Empire, they ruled by fear, keeping morale low on purpose to make their subjects easy pickings for their possession. Countless victims were possessed and subjected to horrific tortures so their spirits would fade and the Dark Bonneters would have full control over their bodies. These times ended when the Red Berets stormed the capital and killed King Krános, sparking a war which killed most of the Dark Bonneters and forced the rest to set up laws against possessing humans and various other species.
- Demonic Possession: Conicus, as a Dark Bonneter, can attach himself to his hosts' heads and control their bodies. Unlike his more benign Light Bonneter counterparts (like Cappy), he completely assimilates his victims over a grueling process rather than just briefly possessing them, and can do so without being thrown by a user.
- The Empire: The Corona Empire
- Evil Counterpart: The Dark Bonneters are a Downplayed version to the Light Bonneters (Cappy's species). Though not inherently evil, their cap-turing involves torturing the souls of their victims and permanently assimilating them as opposed to the brief, painless possession of the Light Bonneters.
- Fatal Flaw: Conicus's impatience. He could have just sat in a cave and slowly assimilated Mario, but instead he used a knife to cut Mario's body (the body he was going to use to Take Over the World) in order to break his will faster. He also chased Luigi into Peach's castle rather than retreating until full assimilation, resulting in his defeat.
- Flipping the Bird: Mario's spirit does this to Conicus (though Conicus thought it was to rub in the fact he had fingers)
- Freudian Excuse: Conicus' hatred for humans comes from being raised to fear them after they nearly wiped out his species hundreds/thousands of years ago.
- Heroic Willpower: Mario's willpower slowed Conicus's assimilation process to a crawl. Within four days, the victim is usually fully assimilated, but with Mario, Conicus could barely even use his telekinetic magic at that point and had to rely on knives to harm his opponents.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: It's a story where Mario gets possessed and Luigi has to fight him. What do you think happens?
- Meaningful Name: Conicus is a hat shaped like a cone.
- Mind Rape: After enough time in control, Dark Bonneters have the ability to plague their victims with disturbing visions inside their own heads.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Conicus points out that Mario is also guilty of controlling the bodies of other creatures against their will.
- Playing with Fire: Mario possesses the mighty Firebrand technique. Conicus cannot use it without his approval, even while possessing him. After several days of torture, Mario eventually gives him approval in Chapter 8.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Victims of Dark Bonneter possession, as well as Dark Bonneters themselves, have these eyes. Though when the victim's soul is nearly gone, its body's eyes turn completely white.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Conicus is a wizard hat, at least before cap-turing Mario and taking the form of his cap.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The Toad girl is assimilated by Conicus to show how dangerous he is.
- Shock and Awe: Luigi possesses the mighty Thunderhand technique.
- Vestigial Empire: Long ago, the Dark Bonneter-led Corona Empire ruled a large portion of the world. Eventually, rebellion broke out and their territory was reduced to the small town of Varia in the Cap Kingdom. Most Dark Bonneters today are content with their small settlements, but not Conicus.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Dark Bonneters are allowed to possess frogs and even Goombas (which are shown in multiple games to be sapient), but it apparently becomes horrifying the second Conicus possesses a human (Mario). Even though him fully assimilating a Toad girl's essence is also treated as an evil thing, it is given very little focus and not even mentioned again after a few chapters. Conicus is very eager to point this out, mentioning how the humans nearly killed all of his kind out of fear.
