Mama Mia! Big Notifications! (Preview) (Patreon)

Mei looked back at her phone, and scrolled down to the comment below. Like before, the comments were the usual upvoted ones she saw all the time. Everyone was hyped, talking about how good it looked, joking about Princess Elephant fan art, and more.

Wonder what’s new? She tapped on the Newest button and started to scroll through those. There was a lot of hype, trolling, grammarly-disinclined discussions, and the expected comments there. After a while, they all started to blur as she swiped through them.

Then, she stopped. Her eyes fell upon one particular comment with a few upvotes from “Nintendo of Amerca”. It simply said, “Click the link to get new notifications on the game here” and followed by a link.

Sweet! Mei clicked it right away.

SHIT! Instant regret set in, followed by complete, utter embarrassment. Why did I just click it?! Actually looking at the commenter's name for more than a second showed that America was misspelled. Plus, why would Nintendo put a link promoting the game in a comment and not in the video description itself?

She didn’t have long to think about it. The moment she clicked the video, something opened up and the screen went white. Something was loading and no matter how many times she tried backing out, closing the tab, or even turning the power off, nothing changed.

Stupid stupid! I’m an idiot! She gritted her teeth as she pounded her fingers against the screen and side buttons. I can’t believe I fell for something so-

Bzzzzzt. Her phone vibrated. A pop-up very briefly appeared at the top before vanishing. The white screen vanished, returning her back to the video comments.

Noticing an alert for a new message, she hesitantly opened her texts and followed the message. “Thank you for subscribing to our premium service! We’ll be sending you hot photos of the new Mario until the game’s release!”

Just greeeeeeat. Mei groaned, sliding a hand down her face. Just wonderful! I screwed up. How many viruses and spam texts am I going to get every day now?

The thought alone made her groan even more. “Yep yep,” Mei mumbled, “Gonna block this number now and hopefully stop some-”

Bzzzzzt. Her phone went off again. A new text had arrived for her, but this one was different. It was an image.

In particular, it was of Elephant Mario from the trailer just after he transformed.

Mei huffed. Wait… this… this is the hot photo of the new Mario? This is just a screen grab from the trailer! I could do that in half a second! This is so goddamn stupid!

She internally grumbled more  about the picture. In that grumbling, she failed to notice something. Materializing out of the ether it seemed, a Mario Hat appeared. It landed and sat upon her noggin comfortably and snug, not ruffling or putting a hair out of place despite its mysterious appearance.

Well, I’m not dealing with this anymore. Mei shook her head, her new hat staying put. Definitely blocking you now!

Bzzzzzt. Just as she tapped the number at the top of the screen, popping up the block button, vibration struck her phone again. A new text appeared. It was another image.

Instead of a screen capture, this time it was Elephant Mario from the game box. The guy was stuck in a classic green pipe, trying to push himself out but he was far too big.

For the briefest of moments, annoyance went away. Mei’s eyebrow arched as she stared at him. A small smile came to her lips. Like when she first saw the cover art before, the image of the elephant hero was greatly amusing to her.

Heh, he’s so big and tubby. Mei chuckled. So big and girthy with such a large tummy… all that chub and softness…

Her thoughts trailed off. A creeping warmth came to her cheeks as she stared at the cover, a hint of red to them. She stared at Elephant Mario in that pipe, eyebrows still arched. Still arched and looking thicker, a hint of blackish brown to them now.

…still! Mei blinked her eyes a few times. Nothing I haven’t seen before. Backing to blocking before any-

Bzzzzzt. A new text appeared and it was yet another image of Elephant Mario. This time, it wasn’t anything like she had seen before. It looked official with its design and color, depicting Elephant Mario waving ahead to some kind of audience.

Mei blinked her eyes a few more times. Her eye color slowly brightened with each blink until her irises were a lovely, shining blue. Wow… this is impressive. It looks like it came from Nintendo itself.

Her head tilted as she stared longer, fully scanning the image. That texture is too good for some fan-made model. Her complexion looked off. There were some tints of gray all around her face and even other parts of her. But I guess it could be a really dedicated fan too. Hard to say.

Her shoulders relaxed, growing broader. Her sleeves tightened on her, yet she noticed not a thing. Still, impressive! If they didn’t make this, I wonder where they got it?