(no subject)
Falling: it's what happens when you make a bad jump, when you walk off a cliff, when the ground that was below you just isn't there anymore, when the pipe you went through leads you to a pipe that juts out of the ceiling. That's the sort of falling Mario's used to.
What he isn't used to is the sort of falling that comes with a flash, that takes him from solid ground under a sunny sky to dark sky and a fast approaching ground. Game overs tend not to happen this way. Yes, he's lost lives in strange ways before, but at least he had seen it coming.
For the most part. There was that time where he lost a life just jumping in the air and...no, he didn't get it, either. It certainly did not involve any flashes of light, he's certain, and he always ended up right back where he began, which -- no, this isn't where he began at all.
He lands on the ground with a hard thud. It doesn't seem to hurt him at all, as he merely rises to his feet to brush the dirt off his jacket. He turns his attention to the blue shoulder back he's wearing, which, in turn, is wearing a nice, dark, wet stain. He opens it, frowns, digs in and extracts a can of soda. A crushed, leaking can of super soda.
That's just great. He's lost a can of super soda, all his other items are wet, soon to be sticky, and he hasn't a clue where he is.
(But the narration does!: somewhere just outside the safe zone.)