Better Off Alone is a Super Mario Bros. fanfic by PerfectPinkWater (formerly The Great Chicken Miasma). It started off as a simple one-shot story, but ended up growing into something totally epic!
The story follows Vivian, who's constantly abused and put down by her older sister, Beldam. Beldam eventually assigns her the task of being The Mole to Mario and his partners to find out their weaknesses and steal their Crystal Stars. Vivian proceeds to do her job after accidentally helping Mario out and decides to join their group, being both the Mole and a partner, which she's torn apart about, since she starts making friends with everyone, especially Koops, but at the same time is terrified of Beldam.
Vivian eventually decides to join the party, and as secrets are exposed, relationships are forged and dark intentions are revealed, she finds the strength to take care of herself and moves on with her life.
It can be found here
. The sequel has been deleted from PerfectPinkWater's Fan Fiction account; for posterity, the original link will remain here.
WARNINGS: This story contains abuse, blood, a swear word, violence and some mature themes. Slightly NSFW.
Better Off Alone provides examples of:
- Action Girl: All the female party members, but Vivian especially.
- Adaptational Badass: Koops is a lot less cowardly than he was in the game.
- Apologises a Lot: Vivian, both before and after leaving Beldam.
- Berserk Button:
- Koops flies into a huge rage when Vivian is killed."YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE!"
- Don't you ever do anything to hurt or upset Vivian! note Lillian will make you PAY.
- Koops flies into a huge rage when Vivian is killed.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Koops.
- Big Eater: Waffles.
- Blatant Lies: Several times. When Vivian gets beaten up by Beldam while her teammates aren't around, she'll shrug it off as "nothing". A good example is when Beldam forced Marilyn to punch Vivian in the stomach, hard. When Koops asked about it, Vivian said it was just a cramp.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: Sort of. Koops and Vivian bond over their missing mother and sister, respectively.
- Character Development: Koops goes from an unsure, scared Koopa (just like in the game) to possibly the biggest badass in the series. Vivian goes from timid and constantly apologising to cheerful and pleasant. The latter is even lampshaded.
- Cowardly Lion: Koops like in the games, though he grows out of this over the course of the fic.
- Dark Is Evil: Beldam and the Shadow Queen, naturally.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Vivian, Marilyn, Lillian.
- Deliberately Cute Child: Vivian, but only because Beldam forces her to.
- Disney Death: Vivian at the hands of Koops. She later gets revived following the climax.
- Disney Villain Death: Beldam, in her true form, being thrown into a pit by the remaining partners during the final battle.
- Famous Ancestor: Koops, Goombella, and Waffles all have famous ones, them being the Stalwart Koopa, the Wise Goomba, and Nero the Yoshi of the Four Heroes (though Nero is an original character).
- Subverted with Mrs. Mowz. She really is the same Boo of legend with Unfinished Business, taking up a disguise to continue her task. She disappears following Bedlam's defeat, her tasks finished.
- Happily Married: As the sequel shows, Koops and Vivian are both still very much in love with each other well into their married life. Koops even notes that if he starts thinking about her during work, that tends to mean he's getting very little done that day.
- Headbutting Heroes: Goombella and Ms. Mowz, though Goombella headbutts a bit more. Goombella also seems to be this with Waffles.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Vivian. She gets better.
- Jerkass: Waffles treats just about everyone like crap. Vivian especially, at least at first.
- Not a Morning Person: Vivian, but not in the dangerous way.
- Older Than They Look: Vivian was a baby one thousand years ago.
- Only Sane Man: Koops, in a sense. Vivian and Goombella would also be qualifiers, minus their worrying and arguing respectively.
- In the Four Heroes arc, Goombertha is lampshaded at this when Kevin and Nero get into a fight and Aaron walks in
covered in bird feathers.
- In the Four Heroes arc, Goombertha is lampshaded at this when Kevin and Nero get into a fight and Aaron walks in
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Cheerful, often-timid Koops explodes with rage and absolutely slaughters Beldam when Vivian dies.
- Put on a Bus: Mario, after the first part of the story ends and he returns to the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Long Bus Trip: He doesn't return. The story after defeating the Shadow Queen focuses on the partners.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Waffles is the red. Everyone else in the group is the blue.
- In the Four Heroes story, Kevin (the Stalwart Koopa) and Nero are red. The others are blue.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: The sequel, which takes place in the future, shows that Koops has become mayor of Petalburg, is married to Vivian, and has two daughters.
- Shoot the Dog: Koops, who has loved Vivian for the entire arc, has to kill her to defeat Beldam. Don't worry, she gets better.
- The Silent Bob: Mario. Goombella can translate, at least, though it's not clear if the others can.
- Switching P.O.V.: Switches between Koops and Vivian. In the Four Heroes arc, switches between Kevin and Lillian.
