Luigi coming into the picture wasn't as horrible as Blumiere initially thought it would be.

Make no mistake, it wasn't ideal and things were clearly awkward, but it wasn't horrible.

Luigi surprisingly didn't seem mad at Blumiere at all, actually. He approached the former count with a sense of understanding and made it clear that the past didn't matter, so long as he was trying to change for the better. His kindness and understanding towards the count were something that the count did not expect.

Dimentio on the other hand?

Luigi couldn't bring himself to even look at Dimentio at first. He refused to speak to or even acknowledge the jester, which was nothing short of annoying to Dimentio. He could understand the man in green being upset with him, but he wasn't a fan of being ignored.

From that point in time, Dimentio essentially made it his mission to annoy and tick off Luigi until the man in green would give in and finally acknowledge his existence. 

There were a few obstacles in the way of him properly annoying Luigi. The first one was Blumiere, who was practically obsessed with the idea of being a respectful guest. Whenever Dimentio would even try to approach Luigi while Blumiere was in the same room, the former count would practically hold him back, begging him to leave the poor man in green alone.

Funny, Dimentio thought to himself. You didn't have the same attitude when you and Nastasia were literally brainwashing the 'poor man in green,' and forcing him to fight against his friends and family, count.

The second obstacle was Mario, who seemed to have made it his mission to keep Dimentio away from Luigi at all costs. Not that Mario was all too intimidating, but he was a legendary hero who was partially responsible for Dimentio's demise after the whole Chaos Heart/Super Dimentio catastrophe, and he did have a killer glare, which he gave Dimentio every time he simply breathed near Luigi. In some ways, that glare reminded Dimentio of the glare a mother would give her child when scolding them.

Dimentio couldn't help but feel like he was in some sort of prison with Blumiere and Mario acting as his guards, even though Blumiere was TECHNICALLY supposed to be a prisoner as well. Honestly, he was glad that the count had trailed off from his life of lies and betrayal, but this was just flat-out irritating. 

Irritating, and clearly a desperate act. No one like that could actually change for the better permanently. At the end of the day, bad people would always be bad people. At the end of the day, Blumiere could never take back what he had done and Dimentio could never forgive him for lying and deceiving all the people who sacrificed so much to help him. Even if Blumiere was playing the good guy card now, he was still a villain, born of darkness.

Even if Dimentio and Blumiere somehow managed to get to the Overthere, they surely wouldn't deserve it. Dimentio knew that for a fact and was fine with being remembered as a villain. There was no point in fighting who he was. The fact that they were using this stupid book to get to the Overthere was practically cheating in its own way. It didn't even matter if they were good people or not, so he would appreciate it if Blumiere could just stop trying so hard. He was just wasting his time and energy.

"Hey, L," Dimentio teased, popping up behind Luigi while the man in green silently read a small book in the living room. Blumiere and Mario were talking about some boring, useless topic in the kitchen, so he thought that now would be the perfect time to push Luigi over the edge and get him to finally acknowledge his existence. He knew the perfect way to do so would be to refer to him as Mr. L, which was Luigi's name while he was being brainwashed into becoming one of Bleck's loyal minions back at Castle Bleck. 

He was certain that just hearing the name would surely bring back some unhappy memories, if Luigi even did remember his time there. Honestly, Dimentio wasn't too sure how Nastasia's brainwashing worked. He knew more about the floral sprouts, which would dig into a person's skull and essentially make them subject to the control of the one who planted the seed in their mind. Nastasia's brainwashing was a form of hypnosis, however, which the jester wasn't nearly as familiar with.

As far as he was aware, Nastasia's hypnosis should have allowed Luigi to keep all his memories but would have likely made some appear less relevant, making them easy to push back. It wasn't changing the man in green exactly, just presenting options and gently nudging him toward where Nastasia wanted his priorities to be. Nastasia was able to grasp that darker version of Luigi that the man in green had repressed deep within himself, then bring him to the light, which in turn made him unafraid and slightly rude. Yet, while doing so, she kept some of the regular Luigi qualities, such as his willingness to be a follower and do whatever was asked of him, and his smarts when it comes to mechanics.

Luigi ignored him, simply reading from his book as if Dimentio wasn't there. 

The jester rolled his eyes, then peered over Luigi's shoulder.

Dune, by Frank Herbert. A good read. Dimentio was quite familiar with it. It wasn't from the Mushroom Kingdom, though. Books in that style were often written in worlds much darker. It had to be from Mario and Luigi's home world. He had heard Mario state in previous conversations that he and his brother were technically Italian but had been raised in Brooklyn for a large portion of their lives. 

Dimentio grinned.

"In the middle, Duke Leto is betrayed by someone he and his whole family knows and trusts. He ends up dying." Dimentio stated, spoiling a major plot point of the story.

That would be sure to push him over the edge, right? There was nothing worse than having a good book spoiled.

Luigi nodded, then continued reading, only barely acknowledging the fact that Dimentio had spoken to him at all.

Dimentio couldn't help but be slightly taken aback. If he had been in Luigi's shoes, he would have been furious. When he read Dune, the betrayal had completely taken him by surprise. 

"Seriously?!" Dimentio huffed. "Alright, fine. I'm sure you'd also like to know that Paul-"

"Dimentio, I'm friends with Princess Daisy. It's going to take a lot more than simply spoiling the ending to annoy me," Luigi breathed without looking up. "Besides, it's somewhat obvious that Duke Leto's going to die. I mean, they hint at it from the beginning."

"AHA! You do speak!" Dimentio exclaimed, basking in the victory of finally being spoken to.

Luigi had fallen silent once again, licking his finger so he could turn the page more easily while he continued to read.

Dimentio grinned, then plopped himself down next to Luigi, holding The Art of Forgiveness. "I have a book too, you know. Perhaps we can form a book club. Maybe if we're lucky, we can get Merlon and Count Bleck to join, that way they can bring the Light and Dark Prognosticus."

"The Dark Prognosticus is gone," Luigi stated, still keeping his eyes trained on Dune. "Besides, I don't think Merlon would be interested in joining a book club-"

"So you would be, then?" Dimentio asked, raising an eyebrow. The corners of his mouth pointed up slightly with amusement.

Luigi shrugged, continuing to read.

Okay, Dimentio was proud of finally getting Luigi to speak, but the lack of frustration and the complete calmness emitting from the man in green was rather upsetting. He didn't like how quiet and collected Luigi was. It reminded him of Nastasia, and Luigi acting like Nastasia was NOT what he needed in his life.

"Well, don't you want to hear about my book?" Dimentio asked, shaking the book he was holding in front of Luigi's face.

Luigi gently pushed the book away so he could continue reading.

"Blumiere already explained it to me," Luigi stated blandly. "It's called The Art of Forgiveness. It's by an unknown author. For some reason, it has the power to grant you two access to the Overthere if you guys can manage to get forgiveness from one specific person each. Most of the pages are still locked, and you both have no idea how to actually move forward, but you do know that Merlon recognized the book."

"Ah, I see. Count Bleck stole my thunder," Dimentio teased, elbowing Luigi in the side, recalling that Mr. L did use to refer to himself as the Green Thunder.

"His name is Blumiere, actually," Luigi corrected. "He's not the count anymore. He's actively trying to change for the better."

"Seems like a waste of time to me," Dimentio chuckled.

"It's not. It's an honorable thing to do," Luigi replied, finally looking up from the book and at Dimentio.

Oh, Dimentio didn't know that THIS was how he could get Luigi to look him in the eyes. If only he had thought to insult the precious count sooner. 

Why was it that everyone seemed to completely forget that Blumiere was a villain too? Why was everyone so quick to forgive him?

"How so? At the end of the day, he's still going to be Count Bleck. Do you really think someone like him, someone who wanted to tear apart and destroy every world in existence, only to leave behind nothing but darkness and destruction, simply because daddy took his secret girlfriend away, could change?" Dimentio asked, grinning.

"I think you've clearly never felt love before," Luigi stated.

"Ouch, harsh as always, L," Dimentio laughed, though the expression in his eyes softened ever so slightly, to the point where it wasn't even noticeable.

"Well, if you did, then you would have a hint of understanding for him. If you did, you wouldn't laugh or grin over the fact that his father took the love of his life away from him. You would have empathy. You would understand that people can change." Luigi shrugged.

"Right, because anyone can change for love," Dimentio said. "That's what all you heroes believe, right?" 

He said it in a taunting, sarcastic manner, knowing very well that the idea was ridiculous. Luigi didn't appear to pick up on the tone, however.

"Yes," Luigi stated with a firm nod. "That's exactly what I believe."

"You're an idiot."

"I know," Luigi shrugged. "Yet, I'm not the one who's technically under arrest. I'm not the one with practically no friends or family to turn to. I'm not the one hiding behind a metaphorical mask of amusement to hide the fact that I'm desperate for something to bring meaning back into my life."

"Again, harsh," Dimentio laughed, though his laugh was just slightly less genuine than before.

This was what he wanted. He wanted to get a rise out of Luigi, so why was he feeling so much less victorious than before? He wanted the satisfaction of pushing the man in green over the edge, he wanted to show that he was the one in control, yet he was starting to feel small once again. 

When this conversation began, he thought he was the one in control. Had he miscalculated? Had he underestimated the man in green?

"Sorry..." Luigi breathed, his tone slightly gentler. "Too much?"

Oh no, Dimentio did NOT want Luigi apologizing for something as trivial as hurting his feelings. That would only make him look like a little kid who couldn't handle hard truths.

"Oh? You didn't think I was hurt by your insignificant words, did you?" Dimentio teased.

"Well, your grip on that book tightened, so yes, I did actually," Luigi stated.

Dimentio looked down at his hands. 

Dang it, since when was Luigi so observant?!

"You think this is because of what you said?" Dimentio asked, laughing a forced laugh. "No, no, I'm simply... ah..."

He paused, trying to come up with a response, an excuse, something! Why was his brain suddenly so empty? He used to be full of comebacks, ready to be used at a moment's notice.

"Right, right, you're frustrated because the book won't reveal the chapters, or something like that," Luigi stated, generously giving an excuse on Dimentio's behalf. 

Dimentio quickly nodded, however, they both knew very well that the excuse was not true in the slightest. Still, Dimentio decided to roll with it. Perhaps with enough reasoning, he could make it seem somewhat believable.

"Exactly," Dimentio agreed, looking down at the book.

"Can I see it?" Luigi questioned, bookmarking his place in the book he had been reading and setting it by his side so he could hold his hands out to Dimentio.

Dimentio frowned, then carefully handed his book to Luigi, not wishing to let it go, but being slightly curious as to why Luigi wanted to hold it.

Luigi opened the journal, then flipped forward to the seventh page. He nodded at the words written, then cleared his throat so he could read out loud.

"January 1st, The moon is bright. It's round and full on this night of celebration, reflecting the sunlight into our darkness. When I look around, I see people smile. I am surrounded by flowers blooming and gentle songs playing. I am surrounded by others who are celebrating another year of joy. Another year of happiness. I, on the other hand, do not know what I wish to celebrate. Perhaps another year of simply being alive. I'm unsure. Is something as simple as that even worthy of being celebrated-"

"Hold up, give me that!!!" Dimentio exclaimed, snatching the book from Luigi. He quickly read over the page, not having recognized any of the words.

It was a new page. The book had opened a new page up to them.

"BLECK!" Dimentio exclaimed, pushing Luigi aside and running to the kitchen. "Count, you have to see this!"