THERE IS A STORY BELOW THE DESCRIPTION


The re-release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is a godsend.


Having already finished the game back in the days, on the Gamecube, I am still not immune to nostalgia as I remember loving it back then. It still very much stands the test of time as the best Paper Mario game (IMHO of course), with memorable companions, interesting twists and just some fun ideas. With people gravitating around Goombella (for good reasons, she's cool), I figured I might join in with my own little flavor as I commissioned  xy-merfox for another sequence of djinnification.


(They do take commissions, BTW. Just gotta poke them through notes for details).


Now how come this happens to poor Goombella? Read on and find out!


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GOOMBA GENIE


Goombella wanted an achievement of her own.



She was associated with the Thousand-Year Door incident, discovering its true purpose and helping Mario alongside others in saving the world...yet this had been a shared effort. All this adventure, this danger had granted her a certain hunger for risks and rewards, the heroic plumber certainly inspiring her as she figured she'd be able to do anything she set her mind to after this. Thus why she went to an old haunt of both Mario and an expert in her field, trying to upend them both.



Kolorado was a well-known archaeologist, the koopa having found old ruins and temples, deciphered a great many mysteries and one that did pique her interest back then was the Dry Dry Ruins. It had been the resting place of an ancient monarch by the name of Tutankoopa, a bit of a magician and despot who ruled with an iron fist and who possessed not only an obsession with Chain Chomps...but also powerful artifacts. In his search for what he needed to triumph against the star rod did Mario only search up to a certain point, with Kolorado mostly being fascinated by Tutankoopa and nothing else...yet where did those relics and artifacts go? This was precisely what Goombella wished to solve, to deepen her knowledge and maybe get a little more famous along the line.



The temple had been visited a few times by then, either by tourists or locals due to Mario getting rid of the miscreant inside. While there were a few Dry Bones here and there alongside the captive Chain Chomps, nothing that she couldn't handle stood in her way as she progressed in known locales. Kolorado had written a book on the subject, severely glossing over Mario's contribution yet filled with enough information as to grant some level of guidance. Professor Frankly did grant her some of his tomes and scrolls, completing a lot of the information as hints of the whereabouts of what she sought could be deciphered.



It proved to be a major puzzle, full of cryptic half-hints, subtle intents, double-meanings and the like, all in an ancient dialect from an almost completely forgotten language. Yet she worked hard, double-checked, did the work and as she got to Tutankoopa's resting chambers did she get to a particular stone in the wall. Then did she chant the mystical incantation which was supposed to open the path to the treasury.



“Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start...”



The glow-up of the stone, the sound of mechanisms grinding and the friction of solid material against one another gave way to the response she had been hoping for. A hidden area, a place in which the real knowledge and things of value could be found as Goombella headed inside with a glimmer of eagerness in her eyes. The Goomba gal looked around, seeing statues of the despot all made of gold, power-ups covered in the same precious metal, coins galore in all sorts of colors as this was the vault, the one place which could make her a household name. “Take that, Kolorado...” she muttered beneath her breath, advancing and taking notes. Professor Frankly would never believe this, the sheer opulence perfectly-preserved.



Yet as she did progress one item of note did catch her gaze, something which somewhat made no sense to her. On a small pedestal could be found an object of the most mundane of function, an oil lamp. It was gilded, still as ludicrously luxurious as the rest, yet that it was set apart, on its own little altar seemed really odd to Goombella as she took some extra time to verify what it was, if there were any mentions of such an item being cherished somewhat. The truth of the matter was lost to time, though she did try to understand this given she wanted to be a veritable fountain of knowledge, a true know-it-all.



The secret behind the lamp, not to be found in texts that were still intact to this day, was that Tutankoopa had been looking for the ultimate slave. The lamp gifted magic at the cost of freedom, of independence, absorbing a being inside it to turn into a mighty djinn, or genie in the colloquials of modern times. Whether it would be a most beloved individual or a hated enemy reduced to slavery was yet to be chosen before Tutankoopa forgot, then got defeated by Mario. It hadn't yet fulfilled its purpose and the lamp, an entity with a semblance of will, had grown impatient. The lovely young Goomba gal would do just as well as the object began to pulsate, then float above ground in a showcase of magic.



“W-woah!” Goombella said, startled by this sudden manifestation as the lamp turned on its own axis, pointing its spout and tip in her direction and before she could flee or understand much of what happened, a sweet scent began to invade her vicinity. A transparent, thick kind of fog went on to slow down her thoughts, her body, her feet feeling like lead yet her brain sensing a dizzying euphoria. A cavalcade of sensations all working together, sometimes seeming conflictual to her yet all working in concord to produce a paralyzing kind of effect. “W-whu-...what is ha-happening...”



She slurred those words as the fog became thicker, swirling around her, connecting to her pores, her hair, to her entire compact form as colors began to tint this phenomenon. A light kind of green, her nostrils having breathed that funky smell, her mouth hanging open in a daze as her own mind was being filled with that substance. Her eyes wide open, her body limp, she felt doll-like, unable to properly move on her own as her thoughts went through a similar process. Her eyes swirling, filled with dull and numb energy did spiral as she began to float above the ground too, carried by the manifestation of the lamp's power.



Helpless, powerless, soon flooded by an uncanny sense of bliss did Goombella feel herself begin to drift away. Disconnected from her original goal, her memories hazy and her focus stolen from her, her feet began to stretch and dissipate into mist as they were absorbed by the spout. Reduced, turned to a pinprick was her lower body sucked within as the rest went on to follow. Her smaller size making the process all the faster, soon was her face and then her hair absorbed within this strange vessel as mindless euphoria filled her gaseous form contained within the receptacle that had claimed her. Confined, comfy yet restrained did she wander and twirl without aim, the lethargy afflicted on her giving her no clear goal, not even escape or understanding.



Such a lack of information, knowledge and curiosity was by design, for Goombella would be rewritten from near-scratch. First and foremost were her goals and ambitions shifted, the desire to serve, to submit imprinted and burned deep within her subconscious. She would be a slave, the one whom she'd surrender her autonomy to not yet decided yet the parameters were clear: whomsoever would rub the lamp. The item figured it would be Tutankoopa, ignorant of what had happened to its owner, yet destiny would eventually say otherwise. Search for fame and fortune was a forgotten end-game, replaced by creating happiness and satisfaction for a chosen being.



A proper mindset was but one aspect of import, the other being a legitimate appearance. The one unleashing this Goomba would need to think her pleasant to look at and though she was cute for her species...things could be better. A deep delve into observations, collective-consciousness and many more approximations of this caliber went on to put on display people thought to be pretty, to be attractive. Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom...Princess Daisy of Sarasaland...a pattern emerged and thus did the lamp feel potent and content enough to replicate it as the new Goomba genie was unleashed through a torrent of brown, red and green. A trio of twirling smoke that coalesced into a proper, much different form emerged as Goombella was much changed now.



“Master? Mistress?” she asked, her eyes still swirling, though the shock and numbness were gone in favor of a much more content expression. A smile on her face, her hair still the same, her mushroom-like being had been altered to a more humanoid form with extended limbs, a taller appearance and curves in different places. Clad with a few upon her head, wearing a green vest and pantaloons twisted into a genie tail, she had a red bra and an accompanying crimson sash around her waist as she was a much more exotic being now. Her new midriff showing, her shoulders bare, her bosom slightly unveiled, the small vestiges of her past Goomba shape were in her skin tone and the small tooth which protruded from her lower jaw as she looked around for one to serve...yet there was none. “Any wish to be my command?”



Yet before any other such ideas were to be manifested, communicated out loud, the lamp sucked her back in as by now this was a symbiosis, a true relationship between genie and vessel. She'd need to learn much, to assimilate her role, her status, mannerism, important skills, how to employ her magic...the whole works. The lamp thought that Tutankoopa would be back in time to enjoy his newest genie, though as the door to the secret treasury closed down was Goombella lost amidst opulence and luxury, a prisoner to the lamp. Kept in euphoria, rendered docile and different, she'd be waiting for an owner to command her, to serve with all her heart and soul. This was her dearest wish.



The same as the lamp.