Chapter Text
Time passes differently for different types of beings.
For a fly, a day seems so very long, and, by the end, they become old and die. A whole lifetime measured only in moments. For a man, a day passes by in only a few hours, but for his beloved dog, it seems like an eternity has passed before her beloved master returns home…
Yet for a Star such as I?
Days seem to pass in the blink of an eye, gone before we even noticed they have arrived. Or is that what we tell ourselves because it makes us feel more comfortable with our neglect of mortalkind? Because then we don’t have to be so troubled by it. We’re innocent. It’s just our nature! Indeed, how can you blame a being who lives for millennia to remember his friends whom live and died in less than a century?
I hate myself.
I should have been there, anyways.
It’s neglect. Nothing more, nothing less. Unjustifiable. Despicable. Damnable.
Bowser was the first to go. I didn’t expect that. Koopas—especially the fire-breathing variety—live longer lives than most mortals bound to the world below. Even with Mario beating that jerk up every time he kidnapped Peach or whenever he tried, once more, to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom or to take over the world, Bowser should’ve lived for a couple centuries. Instead, he died of a heart attack at seventy, too young, leaving that young tyke to be king. Tragic, too, despite everything he’s done.
I didn’t realize it until six years after.
Perhaps it was all because I hated him. Perhaps that even explains why…why I didn’t…
Notice.
Want to notice?
Did I even bother to wonder why I never caught wind about his wrongdoings or participation in silly sport competitions anymore? Whispers and rumors of his stupid wishes from Starkids? Stories of how, once more, he had lost yet another go cart tournament and set flame to the other contestants?
I just didn't even care... I...I should've, even if just a little...
But, I only heard tale of it when Mario died. Reports say that it was sudden, unexpected. Peach woke up one morning and Mario, simply, hadn’t.
The doctors didn’t know why.
I was away on mission… It was going poorly; communication blackout and all kinds of stardust. The specifics don’t matter, they’ll just ring hollow again to my ears. They do so still, even now.
I missed the memorial services. The parades in his honor to celebrate his life. Everything.
I should’ve been there. But I wasn’t…
I am simply a failure.
I wasn't there for his death. I wasn’t really there for his life. I didn't know when they were married, how many children or grandchildren (or…great grandchildren?) they may have had. I missed it all . In the end, can I even call myself his friend?
Can I, who missed so much due to my accursed fear of mortal shortevity, really say something like that?
I shouldn't have let things go for so long.
That's the gist. The burden. The reality.
This is the reason we tell Starkids not to make friends with those of mortalkind. Do not care too much about the mortal wishes you grant (or don’t) or the mortals whom you are sent to help or protect. Be partial. Be cold. Be distant, at least.
Especially: don’t love those who will be gone well before you will.
Because if you do, they’ll meld too deeply into your soul…they’ll matter .
They’ll make you realize just how awful we are, because they’re persons too. Memorable. Bright. Short-lived.
A flame that flares brighter than any star.
Care for mortals, we warn, and you will soon wish you hadn’t done so. In the end, you’ll hate yourself…just as I do.
Because we live too long. We forget that they don’t. We pretend that they’ll keep going just like we do. It’s easier to lie than to acknowledge the truth. Mortals are gone in an eye blink to us, not because they’re tragic as other Stars may suggest, but because we, simply, live far too long.
But, Mario and Bowser are not the only mortals I have had the privilege to know.
That’s why I’m going back. I need to see them before they’re gone. I need to see them and those lands again…
I can’t neglect them anymore.