Big sad :(

The Showgrounds was eerily quiet, a stark contrast to the usual cacophony of explosions, high-pitched screaming, and the sound of spaghetti being devoured with reckless abandon. Inside the main hall of the castle, the gang was scattered across the various beanbags and sofas. SMG4 was mindlessly scrolling through his phone, Meggy was polishing her Splatshot with a distant look in her eyes, and Tari was focused on a handheld game, though her heart didn't seem to be in it.

"Is it just me, or is it... weirdly peaceful?" Bob asked, breaking the silence with his signature gravelly voice. "I haven't had to dodge a single flying refrigerator all day."

"Mario is visiting some old relatives or something," Luigi said softly from the corner, his hands fidgeting in his lap. He looked paler than usual, his eyes darting toward the large monitor mounted on the wall. "He said he needed some space."

"Well, I for one am enjoying the lack of property damage," SMG4 muttered, though he looked up from his phone with a frown. "But yeah, it is quiet."

Suddenly, the large monitor flickered to life. A harsh static hissed through the speakers, making Tari jump and Melony wake up from her nap on the rug. The screen didn't show the usual colorful memes or SMG4’s latest edits. Instead, it flickered into a grainy, home-video style recording.

"Hey, who's messing with the TV?" Saiko asked, leaning forward with a scowl.

The image cleared. It showed a small kitchen, cluttered and dim. A very young child, wearing a faded red cap that was several sizes too big, sat at a table. It was Mario, but he looked small, frail, and remarkably quiet. There was no joy in his eyes, only a desperate attempt to stay invisible.

The silence in the room was shattered by a booming voice from the screen. A man, towering and shadows obscuring his face, stepped into the frame.

"You useless brat!" the man roared. "I told you to stay out of the kitchen!"

The gang watched, frozen, as a woman joined him. "He’s just like his brother, only dumber," she spat.

What followed was a blur of violence that silenced the castle. The young Mario was struck, sent sprawling across the floor. He didn't scream; he just curled into a ball, shielding his head with his small arms, a practiced motion that suggested this was a daily ritual. The verbal abuse was worse—venomous words calling him a failure, a waste of space, a mistake.

"Stop it," Meggy whispered, her face turning white. "Turn it off. SMG4, turn it off!"

SMG4 scrambled for the remote, but the buttons did nothing. "I can't! It's locked!"

Luigi turned his head away, burying his face in his hands. He began to sob quietly. He knew. He had always known parts of it, but seeing it laid bare was a different kind of agony.

The video fast-forwarded. Years blurred into a montage of misery. They saw Mario as a teenager, his clothes tattered, his face bruised. They saw him being pushed into walls, mocked by his peers, and coming home only to face more wrath from the people who were supposed to love him. With every passing year, the light in his eyes seemed to dim, replaced by a hollow, vacant stare.

"He... he never told us," Tari sobbed, clutching her metallic arm. "He’s always so happy. How could he be so happy after this?"

"He wasn't happy," Bob said, his voice unusually somber, devoid of his usual bravado. "He was just loud."

The screen shifted again. The background was the familiar Mushroom Kingdom, but years ago. A slightly older Mario, now looking more like the man they knew but with a heavy weight on his shoulders, was wandering through a field. He looked exhausted, his spirit seemingly at a breaking point.

He stopped near a patch of greenery and looked down. There, sitting alone in the grass, was a single, round watermelon.

Mario knelt. For the first time in the entire video, a genuine, soft smile touched his lips. It wasn't the manic grin of a man obsessed with pasta; it was the look of someone who had finally found something pure.

"Hey there, little guy," Mario’s voice came through the speakers, cracked and weary. "You're all alone too, huh?"

He picked up the melon with a tenderness they had never seen him afford anything—except perhaps his brother. He wiped a smudge of dirt off the green rind.

"I'll take care of you," he whispered. "I'll call you... Melony. You're gonna be my best friend. I'll make sure nothing ever hurts you."

In the castle, Melony stood up, her eyes wide and overflowing with tears. She touched her chest, feeling the core of her being. She wasn't just a melon turned human by a deity mask; she was a creation born from the only love a broken man had left to give. He had nurtured her, carried her, and protected her long before she ever had a consciousness of her own. He was, in every sense that mattered, her father.

"Daddy..." Melony choked out, the word feeling heavy and sacred on her tongue.

The screen flickered one last time, transitioning to a modern view. It was Mario’s room in the castle, a place they rarely entered because it was usually a mess of trash and old food. But the camera focused on his nightstand.

There was a picture frame. Inside was a photo of the whole crew—SMG4, Meggy, Tari, Luigi, Saiko, Bob, Fishy Boopkins, and Melony—all laughing during a summer outing.

A hand entered the frame. It was Mario’s hand, trembling. A single, heavy tear dropped onto the glass, landing right over Meggy and SMG4’s faces.

"I try so hard," Mario’s voice whispered from off-camera. It wasn't the "stupid" voice he usually used. It was deep, intelligent, and filled with an unbearable soul-crushing sadness. "I act the fool so they don't have to feel the weight. I let them hit me, I let them call me names, because I thought... I thought if I was the joke, they’d stay happy. But it hurts. It hurts so much more when they do it than when my parents did."

Meggy recoiled as if she’d been struck. She thought of every time she’d lost her temper and kicked him into the sun. She thought of every time she’d called him an idiot or looked down on him.

SMG4 stared at his hands. He remembered every "retarded" video he’d forced Mario to star in, every time he’d used him as a punchline or a tool for views, never once asking if the man behind the mustache was okay.

The recording changed to a direct address. Mario was sitting on his bed, looking directly into the lens. His eyes were red-rimmed and tired.

"If you're seeing this, it's because I finally set the timer on the auto-upload. I’m tired, guys. I’ve spent my whole life being a punching bag for someone. First my parents, then the world, and now... my friends."

He took a shaky breath, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"I love you guys. I really do. You’re the only family I ever chose. But I can't do the 'Mario' thing anymore. I can't be the clown today. I’m going somewhere quiet. Somewhere where I don't have to be stupid, or funny, or a hero. I just need to be nothing for a while."

The screen went black.

The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. The air in the castle felt thick with a collective, crushing guilt.

"We're monsters," Saiko said, her voice trembling. She dropped her hammer, the heavy head cracking the floorboards, but she didn't care. "We treated him like he couldn't feel anything."

"He was always there for us," Tari sobbed, hugging herself. "When I was scared, when Meggy was sad, when the world was ending... he always fought for us. And we just... we just laughed at him."

Meggy was staring at the blank screen, her breath coming in ragged gasps. "He thinks we hate him. He thinks he’s just a joke to us." She turned to the group, her eyes fierce through the tears. "We have to find him. Now!"

"I don't even know where he'd go," SMG4 said, his voice hollow. "He’s been everywhere. He’s saved the universe. Where does a man go when he wants to disappear?"

Luigi stood up, wiping his eyes. He looked more determined than he had in years. "I know. There’s a place... a small house near the old border. It was the only place we felt safe when we were kids. He used to talk about going back there if things ever got too loud."

Melony stepped forward, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword, though her face was soft with grief. "I'm coming too. He saved me. He made me. I won't let him be alone anymore."

"We're all going," SMG4 said, grabbing his hat. "And we’re not coming back until he knows he’s more than just a meme. He’s our brother."

As the gang rushed out of the castle, the sun was beginning to set, casting long, bloody shadows across the grounds. They had spent years looking at Mario, but for the first time in their lives, they were finally going to see him.

The journey was silent. No one made a joke. No one complained about the walk. Each member of the crew was lost in their own memories, re-contextualizing every interaction they’d had with the red plumber. Every "Oof," every scream, every silly dance—it all felt different now. It wasn't comedy; it was a survival mechanism.

They reached the outskirts of the kingdom, where the grass grew tall and the bright colors of the Mushroom Kingdom faded into the muted greens and browns of the wild. Nestled in a small valley was a dilapidated wooden shack. It looked like it would fall over in a stiff breeze, but smoke was curling slowly from the chimney.

They stopped a few yards away.

"Mario?" Luigi called out, his voice cracking.

The door creaked open. Mario stepped out onto the porch. He wasn't wearing his hat. His hair was messy, and he was wearing a simple, plain shirt. He looked smaller without the bravado. He looked human.

He didn't say anything. He just looked at them, his expression guarded, waiting for the first insult, the first blow, the first joke.

Meggy couldn't take it. She ran forward, throwing her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. "I'm sorry," she wailed. "I'm so, so sorry, Mario."

Mario froze. His arms hung at his sides for a long moment, twitching as if he didn't know what to do with them. Slowly, tentatively, he rested a hand on her head.

"You saw it?" he asked quietly.

"We saw everything," SMG4 said, walking up to the porch with the rest of the group. He looked Mario in the eye, his own gaze full of regret. "And we’ve been the worst friends in the world. You don't have to be 'Mario' here. You don't have to be the joke."

Melony walked up last. She didn't say a word; she simply took his hand and placed it on her cheek. The connection was instant—the creator and the creation, the father and the daughter.

Mario’s composure finally broke. He sank to his knees on the porch, sobbing into Meggy’s shoulder as the rest of the gang crowded around him, forming a protective circle of arms and warmth.

"I just wanted to be loved," Mario choked out between sobs.

"You are," Luigi whispered, kneeling beside his brother. "You always were. We just forgot how to show it."

The stars began to peek out through the evening sky. For the first time in his life, Mario didn't feel the need to scream to be heard. In the quiet of the valley, surrounded by the people he had spent his life protecting, he finally felt like he could breathe. The mask was off, the red was no longer a target, and for the first time, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom was finally home.