Chapter Text
This has been a weird week for Mario to say the least. He's just seen the freaking universe tear open like a pair of cheap pants, but it might be even weirder to say that's probably not the worse he's seen.
Not to mention, Smg4 ended the channel.
When Mario heard these news he had a mix of emotions.
Sad that there would be no more adventures.
Scared but excited for the future.
And then there was this one emotion Mario could'nt name. He hasnt felt it before.
Pushing those feelings away, for the first few weeks Mario was doing fine distracting himself from the fact that he channel was ending, but when it was the final week of retirement..
Mario was so desperate for the channel not to end that he may of accidentally... traveled into another timeline where he didnt exist.
But boy oh boy was he sure glad to be back!
And if Mario was gonna be completely honest, he's never seen Smg4 so carefree before without having any pressure to be perfect or have a constant upload schedule. And maybe that was enough for him.
Speaking of Smg4, he hasn’t seen him in a while. Maybe he’ll go visit the Showgrounds today and hang out with his friends? If they were there of course, who knows. Maybe they tried to set another record for pizza?
Mario marched out the front door, his mustache twitching with a mix of hunger and suspicion. If there was one place his friends gathered, it was The Showgrounds. "Maybe they're having a secret party,"
Mario muttered, nearly walking into a Warp Pipe.
"And they didn't invite Mario? That’s-a illegal!" This time he actually bumped into something. The Castle.
Weird, wasn't he just leaving his house a second ago? Mario pondered this for a second before merely shrugging it off, stuff like this happening all the time.
Mario approached and squinted at the main doors. "Hello? Anyone home?!" He got nothing in response. Deciding if nobody was going to let him in, he was going to let him in himself.
Mario slowly backed up.. Before bashing his head straight into the doors and making them fall off their hinges.
Mario didn't know what to expect.
Ok maybe he did, like Boopkins watching anime too loudly, Bob scamming orphans, or Meggy training until her lungs gave out. Instead, the lobby was eerily quiet.
No Tari playing games, no Saiko threatening people with a hammer. Just.. nothing. There was nobody in sight. Just a single, solitary rubber duck sitting in the middle of the floor. Mario poked the duck.
"Tari? You turned into a bird? That’s a weird power up."
Mario then heard a muffled sob come from a room nearby. Curious like he always was, he peeked his head into the room he thought the sound came from.
The room was dim, but Mario could make out a speck of blue laying in the middle of the messy room. Mario connected the dots in his brain and made a totally shocking revelation. Was that.. Smg4?
Mario took another step forwards into the room, worried for his friend. "Es em gee four? Is that you?"
The blue figure shifted, the fabric of his overalls rustling against the floorboards. Slowly, SMG4 sat up, his signature cap lopsided and his eyes bloodshot from a lack of sleep, or perhaps something else.
He didn’t look like the jolly meme obsessed creator Mario known for most of his life. He looked like a save file that had been corrupted one too many times.
"Oh... hey, Mario," SMG4 croaked, his voice cracking. He gestured vaguely at the stacks of empty USB drives and discarded sketches surrounding him. "I didn't hear you come in. I was just... cleaning. Sort of."
He let out a hollow laugh that sounded more like a cough. The room felt heavy, despite having two memers in the room.
"You’re early," SMG4 added, wiping his face with a dirtied gloved hand. "Or late. Honestly, I’ve lost track of the timeline. Is the sun still out there? Or did the sky turn into a 404 error again?"
Mario just stood there, his usually bubbly nature gone in an instant the moment he saw the state his best friend was in.
"Mario doesn't care about the sun, he cares about his best friend looking like a smashed goomba!" Mario exclaimed, throwing his arms up. "Why are you crying in the dark? Did you run out of memes because Mario can make a funny face right now! Look!"
Mario proceeded to pull his eyelids upward and stick his tongue out, vibrating his head at a subsonic frequency.
SMG4 stared at him for a long beat. A small, genuine twitch appeared at the corner of his mouth. The first spark of life in days. "God, you're an idiot, Mario." He sighed, reaching out to pat the floor next to him. "Sit down. I... I think I need to tell you what happens next. Since, you know, there’s no script anymore."
Mario plopped down onto the dusty floor with all the grace of a falling thwomp, his heavy boots kicking aside a couple of empty USB drives. He didn't really "do" scripts, and he definitely didn't "do" deep emotional talks, but he was an expert at one thing: being a distraction.
"No script? Good!" Mario exclaimed, slapping SMG4 on the back hard enough to make his hat fall further over his eyes. "The scripts always made Mario do the chores anyway. Without a script, Mario can be the boss! And the boss says we eat spaghetti!”
Smg4 just stared at Mario, already seemingly regretting his decision.
Mario's smiled vanished instantly. Despite lacking most of his brain cells, always knew when something was bothering his friends. “You okay?” he asked in a surprisingly soft tone.
“I.. I think.” Smg4 muttered, turning away from the plumber and looking at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Seeing this, Mario averted his gaze from the memer and reached into his overalls. After rummaging past a crumpled pizza coupon and a stray fireball, he pulled out a slightly squashed Spaghetti Flavored Granola Bar.
"Here," Mario nudged the bar toward SMG4. "Eat this. It tastes like sadness and tomato sauce, but it-a atleast helps the brain meat think better.”
SMG4 stared at the Spaghetti Flavored Granola Bar for a long, silent beat. For a second, it looked like he might actually burst into tears again, either from the sentiment or the sheer health hazard of Mario’s “Protein bar”
Slowly, his gloved hand reached out and took the bar. He peeled back the wrapper with a crinkle and looked at it tentatively, not completely sure if he wanted to risk a trip to the hospital until he saw Mario's wide expectant grin. After a few more seconds of silence, he made a decision. Taking a deep breath, he took a small bite of it.
"Ugh... Mario, this is... remarkably pungent," SMG4 choked out, his face turning a slight shade of green, but he kept chewing. He let out a long, shaky breath, and for the first time that day, his shoulders dropped from his ears. "But... thanks. I think the 'sadness' flavor is really hitting home right now." He gave the plumber a thankful smile.
The red italian reciprocated the smile. “No-a problem Es em gee four! Mario’s just glad you’re-a feeling better now!”
“Yeah, but maybe just now. Not today, or tomorrow.” Smg4 muttered under his breath, putting the protein bar aside for now. And despite Smg4 being as quiet as a mouse, Mario still somehow managed to hear the low whisper.
Mario tilted his head in confusion. “What do you-a mean by that Es em gee four?..” He innocently asked.
Smg4 was a bit reluctant to tell Mario, but after being given an encouraging smile from the red man, he took a deep breath in and told his thoughts.
“You.. you know how the channel ended?” Smg4 started, and Mario already had a feeling of where this was going.
Mario stumbled with his words. “Y-yeah, it's-a kinda hard for Mario to forget.”
“Yeah..” Smg4 said, voice like a whisper. “What an amazing 14 years we had, huh.” Smg4 added, looking towards Mario with what seemed like a genuine smile for the first time in a while.
Mario smiled a little as he thought back on the past few years. “Yeah, Mario still remembers when he made your gloves pink!” Mario recalled, and the two were blinded in nostalgia for a while.
“Yeah.. We’ve really been through a lot, haven't we?” Smg4 said, his eyes already glistening with new tears.
“SOOO MUCH!” Mario replied happily, and he swore, from the corner of his eye, he could see Smg4’s mouth twitch ever so slightly with a smile.
But then Smg4 became serious in a way Mario didn't like at all. “But like, what do we do now?” Smg4 continued, his finger scratching the wooden floor absentmindedly.
“..Mario doesn't understand?”
“What do we do now after the channel ended?” Smg4 bluntly asked.
Mario was stunned for a moment, not expecting the abrupt question.
Smg4’s voice starts to crack. “The channel, Mario. It's done. No more uploads, no more memes or adventures for the fans. Just…us. In a world that doesn't have a script anymore.”
Mario rubbed the back of his head, the gears in his head turning slower than usual. “But.. Mario is still here? And Es em gee four is still here? We still have-a the spaghetti? And the stupid memes?”
Smg4 puts his chin onto his knees. “Yeah, but what's the point? If there's no camera, does the meme even happen? I’ve spent the last fourteen years living for the next daily upload. I don't know how to just… be a person Mario. Meming has become part of my life- heck it was what I was made for! So… What do I do now?.”
Smg4 burrowed his face in his knees, and Mario looked at him with an empathetic look. “Stupid Es em gee four. You always think too much. Just be like Mario! For fourteen years Mario just had to jump in lava, get his pingas stuck in doors, and deal with scary clown girls just because you wanted to make a video!”
Smg4 whimpered at that, but Mario instantly reassured him. “Now, Mario gets to do those things because he wants to. And the same goes for you! You don't have to-a be a crummy meme creator. You can just get to be my-a best friend. That's a full time job, you know. It pays very poorly in coins, but very well in hugs.”
Smg4 stared at Mario, before a small, watery laugh escaped his throat. “A full time job huh?”
Mario slinged his arm over the ex memer’s shoulder, smirking. “Yup! You’re gonna be-a stuck with Mario forever!”
“Yeah.. forever.”
Mario stood up, hands on his hips as he looked towards the door leading into the mainhall. “Well-a cmon Es em gee four! You don't want to be a hobo like Bob do you?”
Smg4 stayed glued to the ground.
Mario’s smile dropped. “Es em gee four?”
“I think I just want to stay here a little longer Mario.” Smg4 whispered, picking up one of the USB’s that had survived Mario’s soccerball match, gently caressing it with his thumb.
“Whats-a so important about that stupid 3D square?” Mario asked, his voice now full of curiosity instead of the panic from earlier.
Smg4 didn't look up. The plastic casing of the drive was cold, or maybe it was just from the sheer amount of lore packed inside the little drive. “It’s not just a USB, Mario,” he murmured, his thumb tracing a small scratch on the surface. “It’s.. it's everything we’ve built. Every memory, every stupid glitch, every time we almost died because you wanted a spicy chip. If I lose these, it's like we never happened.
Mario went quiet again, before he waddled back over and plopped back down next to Smg4. “Well.. Mario's-a still here, isn't he? He thinks thats enough proof to say that those memories are still real and alive, even if they’re stuck in a little drive now. Like they say, its the memory that counts!”
Smg4 cracked a small smile. “Wow, never thought you had the braincells to form such poetic sentence Mario.” he joked.
“That's the-a Es em gee four Mario knows!” Mario cheered. “With his crappy jokes!” he added.
Smg4 pouted and crossed his arms like a child throwing a tantrum. “Hey! That part was unnecessary!” He shot back. “My jokes are top tier thank you!”
Mario looked unconvinced. “Sure a Es em gee four, whatever keeps the cringey memes away from you at night. Your jokes are almost as-a bad as that emo clown that lives in our dumpster!”
Smg4 gasped. “How dare you! Take that back!”
Mario smirked. “Not on the hairs of my nosey nose nose!”
"Oh, it is on now!" SMG4's eyes practically turned into fire emojis. "You think my jokes are bad? One time you literally spent three hours trying to convince a toaster to give you a high-five!"
Mario crossed his arms, his mustache twitching with pride. "At least the toaster didn't try to make me watch a twenty-minute video about a toilet with a face! That's-a 'peak comedy' to you? Please. You’re lucky I didn't call the Meme Police for crimes against humor."
SMG4 set the USB aside and gripped his hat, ready to launch into a full-blown classic "glitchy" tantrum. "That 'toilet face' has more depth than your entire spaghetti-obsessed brain!"
Mario just let out a long, dramatic yawn, leaning back against the castle wall. "Wake me up when you find a meme that doesn't smell like a basement, Glitchy."
“OH YOU LITTLE-”
Before Smg4 could utter another word, Mario started to burst out in laughter.
“Wha- whats so funny about this?” Smg4 yelled asked, and Mario just continued to laugh and roll around on the floor, not caring if his overalls got dirty. They always managed to attract themselves to a stain anyways.
“Mario got you to stop being so depressed!” Mario answered, still laughing. Smg4 didn't know what was so funny about that, but he couldn't help himself but giggle too.
Then those giggles turned into a full on guffaw, as Smg4 joined Mario in the laughing parade.
“Man.. I really miss having moments like those, it's been a while since we really got to escape all the chaos and villains.” Smg4 said, moments after the laughter subsided. Mario just hummed in response.
“Well now that your-a channels over now, we’ve got plenty of time to escape the chaos! Or… we could create it.” Mario deviously grinned, and Smg4 just shook his head in disappointment.. And pride.
Mario saw this reaction and smiled softly. “Mario always knows how to cheer up his friends, doesn't he?”
“Yeah, yeah you do Mario.” Smg4 reciprocated the smile. “You’re really caring when you’re not just thinking about food.”
“Well Mario’s-a getting bored! Anything to do around here?” Mario looked and rummaged around the room, only finding a pile of dirty clothes and leftover food that was probably a week old.
“And.. you’re back to being Mario.” Smg4 sighed, but this time not out of annoyance, just pure happiness.
But Smg4 thought about it. That was a good question. The only thing they’ve done for the past hour was have this depressing conversation and a few laughs, but they needed a break from all this sappy stuff. After a while of thinking, Smg4’s eyes finally sparked with a classic Smg4 idea.
“I think I know what we can do Mario.”
Mario’s interest was piqued. “Really? What-a is it?”
Smg4 slowly lifted up his hand, showing the USB drive that rested in his palm. “Let's have a little movie marathon, shall we? It's been a long time since we had one!”
Mario looked at the USB and then at Smg4 as they both smirked, already knowing what they were doing for the rest of the night.
Approximately, 2 hours later.
The fat italian and blue meme guardian stood right in front of Smg4’s laptop, rewatching some of his best moments and bloopers.
The two kept laughing at some specific moments in the video, pausing the video just to take a breather.
Smg4 wiped away a singular tear from his eye. “Man! What was I on back then?”
"Mamma mia!" Mario wheezed, clutching his stomach as he doubled over. "You were on 120% pure stupidity, SMG4! And it was-a glorious!"
SMG4 wheezed, hitting the spacebar to resume a classic clip of Mario getting launched into the sun for the fifth time in a single episode. "I think my brain cells were just vibrating at a different frequency back then. Look at that editing! It’s chaotic, it’s messy... it’s perfect."
Mario put a hand on Smg4's shoulder. "No-a need to compare yourself to that little stupid boy back then! You're different now, and we dont care if your work is perfect or not!"
The retired man gave a small smile to the plumber. "Thanks Mario."
Silence filled took over again as the glow of the laptop screen illuminated the room, littered now with empty spaghetti bowls and discarded chip bags. It was a rare, peaceful moment of nostalgia in a world that usually involved eldritch horrors or world-ending memes.
"Hey, look-a!" Mario pointed a greasy finger at the screen. "That’s the time you tried to teach me how to breathe! I still don't think I'm doing it right."
"Mario, you’re literally breathing right now," SMG4 chuckled, though Smg4 secretly wondered if the laws of physics even applied to his red-hatted friend anymore. He leaned back, the blue glow reflecting in his eyes.
"You know, seeing all this... it makes me realize how far we've come. From simple bloopers to, well, whatever the heck we are now." He said with a hint of sentimentalness.
Mario grabbed the USB drive, tossing it up and catching it with a smirk. "Less talking, more-a laughing! What’s the next video on the meme-ory lane?”
Smg4 started to laugh again, clutching his stomach as everything started to hurt from how many times he’s laughed today.
Man, he really needed this. Maybe everything would be fine, if he just had Mario and the rest of his friends.. Where are they by the way? He was too caught up in his “depression arc” that he hadn't noticed they hadn't visited the Showgrounds in a while.
Well he’d need to find that out later.
The blue man in white overalls turned to meet Mario’s eyes. “Hey Mario?”
Mario looked back at Smg4’s ocean blue eyes. “What-a is it Es em gee four?”
“Thanks for being the bestest friend a guy could have.”