Ness tapped his finger impatiently against the plastic table he sat at, waiting for the newcomers to clear through security and head his way to be officially added to the roster.  

At this point in time, the magical year of 2008, technology was technically advanced enough that everyone could just be let in electronically but Master Hand was old-fashioned and insisted on doing it on paper. While Ness could appreciate the sentiment, being from the 90s himself, it was becoming irritating to wait for everyone.

The other veterans sat at similar tables next to him, also prepared with stacks of filing papers and writing utensils. Mario, Luigi, and Fox sat attentively at their seats, while Pikachu and Kirby played with their pens and Captain Falcon and Donkey Kong looked just as bored as Ness felt. Yoshi and Jigglypuff were asleep at their seats and Samus and Link were missing, since Link had gotten an update to his appearance and Samus apparently had to re-register as she now had an alternate 'Zero Suit' outfit (with its own separate moveset and everything).

Ness, wedged between Kirby and Donkey Kong, was feeling rather nervous. Melee had been one thing: it was a good start to extending the universe of the Smash Bros. Yet something about this, the new world of Brawl, was making him very anxious. Maybe it was the fact that the roster was likely more than triple its original size (according to Master Hand). Maybe it was fear for being forgotten and removed when he was lucky to even be here in the first place. Maybe it was the knowledge that no one would know who he was and he wouldn't be able to keep up with how advanced and complicated games were becoming.

Thankfully, before he could make himself even more depressed, Master Hand floated down between the veterans and the newcomers. "Welcome, one and all," his authoritative voice boomed. "I am Master Hand. On the behalf of myself and my brother Crazy Hand, we are honored to bring new characters and stages to our once humble series and hope you all benefit from this as well, heroes and villains alike!" A few cheers went up among the newcomers while Mario and Luigi clapped politely. "Before we can get started, however, we must register every fighter, returning or new. Before you are seated ten of the original twelve, all ready to get your fighting information and introduce you to the mansion. Please wait for a veteran to call out that they are ready before moving forward but otherwise, thank you for coming and have fun!" Then, with a dramatic snap, Master Hand disappeared back into thin air.

The veterans all flipped their table signs to 'open' and a handful of new fighters trickled forward, faces appearing and disappearing in the shuffling crowd. Ness' first guest was Marth himself, returning from Melee. "Welcome back, Marth!" he greeted cheerfully in Japanese, which was the base language for everyone in the mansion until fighters declared they preferred another language. (English was basically universal.) The only exception to that was Marth and Roy, whose games hadn't technically been localized by the time of Melee. Ness had heard rumors that Marth's game was getting localized, if not completely re-released, but he greeted the prince in Japanese anyway just to be safe.

Marth bowed slightly. "Thank you, Ness," he murmured in Japanese as well, noble as always. "I believe my moveset and abilities are the same as before." Ness pulled out a 'returning fighter' paper from the pile and started filling out the easy blank spaces like Marth's name and series.

"Good, that's all we need to worry about. The programmers will decide any nit-picky details," Ness explained, not really caring if Marth understood or not. The prince should be used to his self-aware way of talking at this point. "This'll only take a second... Done!" He brandished the simple paper triumphantly. "Easy as cake. Just take this to one of the bots and they'll lead you to your new room. There will be a meeting once everyone is settled in and we can arrange our English lessons again."

Marth smiled softly and took the paper. "Thank you very much. I look forward to meeting you in battle."

"You, too!" Ness winked and grinned. "See you later!" As the Fire Emblem teen walked off, Ness called out, "Next!" and prepared for a new fighter. Time started slipping away as he filled out paper after paper, trying to remember the new names and faces. A new Pokemon named Lucario who could speak telepathically and was a Steel and Fighting type was brought in, alongside an actual literal Pokemon Trainer with the three original Kanto starters, and a new version of Link who was given the nickname 'Toon Link' (and supposedly separate from both regular Link and Young Link??? Maybe Ness needed to stay up to date with the Zelda series...). Then a wolf literally named Wolf (who was from Star Fox and was apparently Fox's sworn enemy) approached him, being rather rude throughout the entire interview process. Ness tried to be patient and understanding, knowing that he was a typical villain so it was just in his coding, but it was still irritating.

Once that was finally over with, someone he did not expect walked up to his desk.

"No way... Sonic? Sonic the Hedgehog?!" Ness cried, standing up slightly.

"The one and only," the famous blue hedgehog replied with a cocky grin.

"Wow! Never thought I'd see you here! Can't believe Nintendo got the rights!" Sonic gave him kind of a weird look at that, but once again, Ness couldn't be bothered to care. Breaking the fourth wall was his thing - maybe it wasn't for everyone but it was super awesome whenever anyone got it.

"Long time comin', amirite?" Sonic said, leaning casually against the table.

"Eh..." Ness didn't really agree with that. "Sure. Would've preferred someone from my own series, but you being here is cool, too!"

"You have a series?" Sonic looked dubious. "Kid, I have a series. Nobody's even heard of you."

Something about the way Sonic said that rubbed Ness the wrong way. "Just because it's only two games doesn't mean they're not a series. My games are plenty popular in Japan," he found himself muttering before he really thought it out.

"Yeah, in Japan," Sonic snorted. "Everybody's popular in Japan. Don't mean anything."

Tension grew in Ness' expression. "Y'know, life isn't about popularity. Quality over quantity is much more important in my mind." He was gripping the pencil rather tightly, almost tearing through the 'new fighter' paper with how hard he was pressing.

"Numbers don't lie, kid."

That was it. Ness slammed the pencil and paper down and shoved them across the table. "Don't call me kid," he snarled. "And fill out your own freaking papers if you're so confident in how great you are." Then he stormed off without giving Sonic a chance to defend himself.

It was one thing to constantly call him a kid when their games were barely a few years apart. It was another thing entirely to outright insult his series just because it's not well-known. It had been almost 15 years since Ness' game's initial release and he was still sore about it. He didn't always react so harshly to it but Sonic's cocky attitude was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"I'm not filling out any more newcomer papers," Ness said bluntly as he stood in front of Mario.

The plumber raised a bushy eyebrow, passing a completed paper to some realistic-looking guy in camouflage. "Need-a I ask...?" Mario caught sight of Sonic the Hedgehog looking confused at Ness' table in the distance and sighed. "I know Sonic-a can be... a handful, but-a we really need-a all hands on deck." Ness glared firmly at him, refusing to budge in his opinion. "He-a insulted your game, didn't he?" Mario guessed, sounding gentle.

Ness huffed and nodded his head. "I'm sick of people walking all over me just because they don't know who I am! I won't take it anymore!"

Mario frowned sympathetically but once again looked out at the large crowd of new fighters. After a moment of deliberation, Mario said, "One-a more." At Ness' dubious look, he explained, "Just-a register one more fighter, then you can-a go... take a break or-a whatever. Also, send-a Sonic over to my table - I know how to-a deal with him."

Pursing his lips but softening at Mario's sincere compassion, Ness relented and walked back to his desk. He was very blunt when informing Sonic that he should go talk to Mario, though. The hedgehog scoffed and walked off, but Ness was glad to see him go. He would deal with that later.

"I can take one more person!" he shouted in the direction of the unregistered fighters, preparing his pencil one last time. A few people in the group, none of which he recognized, shuffled in place uneasily but otherwise didn't move. Perhaps he had come off as a little standoffish... Before he could amend his phrase, however, one person broke off from the crowd and hurried over.

It was a rather... peculiar looking child, early teens at the oldest, rather stout and similar to what designers nowadays would call 'unappealing'. His blond hair didn't move as he shuffled forward, stuck firmly in place by either really strong hair gel or the power of friendship (as seemed to be the case with kids like that these days). His blue eyes darted around nervously, body language screaming 'uncomfortable introvert'. Besides that, he was extremely nondescript: young, white, friendly-looking... standard protagonist appearance. Ness' first thought: Kinda looks like me? But not. Ness' second thought: Great. Another blond-haired, blue-eyed protagonist, and his brief excitement faded.

"Name," Ness said, also in Japanese because that was the rule.

"Uh, Ryuuka," the newbie replied in a somewhat subdued, quiet voice.

Ness scribbled in the kanji. "Last name?"

"I... don't have one."

He marked a line through the 'last name' space. That area was usually left blank, for whatever reason. Developers didn't like to give their characters canon surnames, he guessed. "Age?"

"... I don't know."

Ness raised an eyebrow. "Weird. Most protagonists these days have ages."

"Yeah, I guess..." Ryuuka mumbled.

"Hometown?" Ness continued without preamble.

"Tazumiri Village."

Ness' one eyebrow raised further. What an oddly Japanese yet also English name. "Any assist trophies or items with you or your series?"

"Um... no, I don't think so..." Ness was about to cross those spaces out, too, when Ryuuka exclaimed, "Oh, I have Rope Snake!"

"You've got - what?" Ness jerked his head up to see Ryuuka pull a reddish-pink snake with big cartoony eyes out of nowhere. Ness and the snake stared at each other for a moment before the snake opened its mouth and said, "Hello. I'm Rope Snake."

For the first time since Nintendo announced he would be a returning fighter for Melee, Ness was at a loss for words. "... Uh, hi. Item, then?"

The question was directed at Ryuuka but Rope Snake answered quickly, "Item, but I'm only lettin' my buddy here use me. I'm an item with dignity, you see."

Ryuuka must have taken Ness' dropped jaw as a sign of horror or something equally negative because he was quick to stammer, "Sorry, I know my game's kinda weird, just-" while tucking the snake behind his back. "- he can be rude sometimes, and -"

"That's amazing," Ness interrupted, staring at Ryuuka with a newfound sense of awe.

This caused Ryuuka to pause as well, before ducking his head in embarrassed joy. "Uh, thanks..." he murmured sheepishly.

Shaking his head quickly to remind himself of the task at hand, but now filled with renewed vigor and interest in this fascinating boy, Ness quickly scribbled down 'Rope Snake' under items but added 'Ryuuka use only' next to it. "What's your attack style?" he asked, not really needing it for the paper but just curious.

"Uh, I'm a pretty tanky physical attacker but I deal in some special attacks, too," Ryuuka answered, meeting Ness' gaze for a brief moment before looking away again. "I'm originally a healer but I guess this game isn't suited for that, so I've learned some offensive styles I wouldn't normally use."

"Nice, me too!" Ness replied eagerly. He was also glad for Ryuuka using terminology that he recognized. It was becoming increasingly harder and harder to have a conversation with someone who didn't stare at him like he was speaking another language (another another language - man, being bilingual was confusing sometimes).

He finished adding a few more details like general appearance and personality before saying, "Y'know, you're the last person I have to help right now... How about I take you over to your new dorm and get you settled in?" he asked, trying not to sound too eager. Now that he was in a better mood, he should probably stay and help more newcomers but he did get permission from Mario and he just really wanted to learn more about this Ryuuka kid.

"Uh, sure," Ryuuka said quietly, looking at the floor again. He seemed a little taken aback at Ness' sudden interest, on top of his already shy demeanor, so Ness made a mental note to tone it down a bit. He had a bad habit of overwhelming prospective friends with his overly open attitude and scaring them off. Still, Ryuuka had said yes, so it was a start.

"Great!" Ness signed his name where it asked for a veteran's approval and handed the paper to the other boy. "I'm gonna lead you to the sign-in bots, where they'll assign you a dorm room. I'll take you there, and, if you want, I can give you a tour of the mansion! It's gotten bigger over the years, so there's lot to see." He stood up and immediately started heading past the welcome gates and into the actual mansion property, where floating robots with clipboards waited.

Ryuuka seemed to hesitate at the mention of robots but immediately froze in place upon actually seeing them. It took Ness a moment to realize his ward had not continued following him. The blond boy looked incredibly off-put, clearly not wanting to approach the robots.

"Hey, it's okay," Ness encouraged. "I know they look weird but they're just robots - y'know, machinery with artificial intelligence." He assumed Ryuuka's hesitation came from not knowing what a robot was, like with the Fire Emblem characters.

Ryuuka frowned. The expression was equal parts angry and sad, in a way that only hardened war veterans thinking about their trauma should look like. "I know what a robot is," he muttered, almost too quietly for Ness to hear. "I don't like them."

"Oh." Ness waited for Ryuuka to elaborate but he didn't, leaving Ness in the dark as to why the blond didn't like robots so he tried to continue, "These robots won't hurt you or anything. They're just there to assign you a room and lead you to it."

Ryuuka still looked uncomfortable, so Ness took the initiative and gave the robots his papers, explaining whose they were and that he would lead him there himself. The robot, basic in its programming as it was, simply scanned the papers presented and listed off an available dormitory, wishing Ness a happy stay. Ness just smiled and rolled his eyes - maybe one of these days, the robots would be expanded on and given a better purpose.

He returned to Ryuuka with a complementary map of the mansion, handing it over. "Your bedroom is in the northwestern wing," he said, pointing to where it was on the map. "Most of the new fighters are rooming there. I'll take you." Aside from giving the assistant bots a wide berth, Ryuuka thankfully followed him this time.

"So what game are you from?" Ness asked, casually trying to start a conversation. He still wanted to learn more about this kid. He seemed similar enough to Ness that he might give his series a try in his free time.

"Oh, you wouldn't know it, it just came out a year or two ago," Ryuuka dismissed quickly.

"Well, yeah, that's why I asked," Ness joked, giving the blond a sidelong glance.

An embarrassed blush spread across Ryuuka's already rosy cheeks. "No, really, it's a Japan exclusive, it's not gonna be localized anytime soon and it has a weird history..."

"Do you not know the name?" Ness asked genuinely, trying to be understanding. "It's okay if you don't, a lot of characters first joining don't, especially if their games aren't self-aware. We call it breaking the fourth wall, it's either an old trait or really, really subtle-"

Ryuuka responded in a voice so quiet while he was rambling that Ness almost missed it, once again, but what Ryuuka said changed Ness' life forever.

"I'm from a game called Mother 3."