StarlitDuck
The two are definitely growing closer, and are starting to earn each other's trust.
nintendoscript15
Heh! Yeah. That would be an awesome title to take. And once again, Mario does it alone, because the other character can't surf.
Luigi was actually scared of a Flipbug in the original game. Like, come on! They run away from you! Toad has certainly been training himself over the time period between Sunshine and Galaxy.
I prefer to call the "worlds" domes. We'll move onto the Fountain in a bit, but there's still one more thing left to do.
Amethyst Goldenwind
I don't remember much from when I first played the game back when I was like… 7? 8? I can't quite remember. So for all I know, I might've figured out Megaleg easily.
It's just a thing for early Wii games to utilize as much motion controls as possible. I actually never had problems with said motion controls. It's probably because I grew up with them.
RealLiamTheYoshi
Megaleg never scared me as a kid. If it were as big as say… Diggaleg from Galaxy 2, it wouldn't look all that threatening.
FairyTalePrincess16
We'll get to the Fountain soon… But first we have one more galaxy to cover.
breath20k
Mario and Aster make a great team! Just wait until you see about the latter's past.
Nataly Guardado
Next time a problem like this happens, I suggest using the mobile app.
Aster is seeming to be a bit overprotective as well. He doesn't want Mario to go off adventuring without him even though he did just fine collecting three stars before they met. Then again, those levels were easy. Who knows what dangers approach them in upcoming galaxies. (Well, we do for the most part, but there are quite a few unexpected surprises in store...)
Chapter 14: Rocky Road
[BGM: Angry Bowser - Paper Mario]
In Peach's Castle, Bowser and his son were speechless. Through Kamek's magic, they witnessed the battle between Mario's team and Megaleg. SOMEHOW, Mario and his friend destroyed it and took the Grand Star with them.
"H-How… HOOOOOOOOOW did Mario beat Megaleg?!" Junior rhetorically questioned in disbelief. "That thing was like… a KAJILLION times bigger than him! He should've been squashed and smeared like the bug he is!"
"I… I don't know, son." Bowser really didn't know what to think, but then he noticed something that caught his interest. "Kamek, rewind that!"
Kamek rewinded the vision of the battle as if it were an old VHS recording.
"STOP!"
The wizard stopped at the very moment before the battle. The king looked closely and noticed that his nemesis wasn't alone. Some guy in a purple space suit was standing alongside him. He looked a bit taller than Mario, but Bowser couldn't see his face because his back was turned.
"Who the heck is that guy?" Bowser asked with curiosity.
"Oh yeah. I forgot about him," Junior remembered sheepishly. "He said his name was 'Aster' or something?"
"Aster? Weird name…" Bowser trailed off, and suddenly thought about something. "Huh. I feel like I've seen him somewhere before. But where?"
Kamek turned off the footage.
"It's no wonder Mario survived. That 'Aster' guy must've saved him, and is helping him get through space." Kamek turned to Bowser Jr. "Is there anything else you know about him besides his name?"
"Well… no." Junior shook his head. "Though, he did say he was 'my worst nightmare' and that he'd make me so sorry, I'd go crying to you."
"Oh, so he's challenging us huh? We'll see about that..." said Bowser.
"Your galacticness, I wouldn't start worrying about this guy right away. We barely even know anything about him." Kamek assured. "We just gotta increase our defenses and assure that they don't rescue the rest of their friends."
"Kamek, I don't care who he is. Anyone who's a friend of Mario is an enemy of mine! Well, except Peach, but disregard that. So when I get the chance, I'll crush him into space bits!"
Two Hammer Bros. approached.
"Sir, the second base is nearly finished. According to our calculations, Mario should be headed towards the Space Junk Galaxy next. Should we send some airships over to ambush him and his friend there?"
"Not yet. I need to hire a boss for the last airship. It's tradition." Bowser began thinking about possible bosses. "Junior's already assigned for another ship armada, the koopalings are busy constructing in the center of the universe, I'm already set to guard the second base when it's finished, and I need Kamek here in case someone tries attacking the castle. Grrr! Does anyone want to apply for a boss role?"
"Sir, I think I know someone who could apply. I can give her a call," Kamek offered.
"Sure thing! But before you do that… you mentioned Mario's friends earlier… where did you send that Green 'Stache fellow anyways?"
[BGM end]
?
Luigi woke up. He was expecting that moment with the creepy hand to be just a nightmare, and he'd be somewhere more… peaceful. However, looking around, it didn't look so hopeful for him. The man in green was inside a dark, caged up room. The floor was checkered in a black and purple pattern, the balls were a dark chilling blue, and there also was a bookshelf which was too high for him to jump over. Looking outside, the sky was that same black and blue sky with the rising spirits. The dark dreary colors of this room clearly spoke to him, saying he wasn't safe.
"How nice of you to drop in…" an unseen voice whispered. Luigi took note of this and looked around.
"He-Hello? Is… somebody there?" Luigi crawled around the room, looking for a way to get out. But all he could do was get a tight grip on the bars. "Hey, where are you?! What do you want from me?! Please? Anybody? I don't wanna be here! I wanna go home!"
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it…"
"Huh?"
[BGM: Talking with Ghosts - Luigi's Mansion]
Without warning, a trio of three horrifying Boos popped out of the floor and roared at the poor plumber. Luigi shrieked in terror upon sight of them. All three Boos circled over the younger brother's head as if they were a creepy crib mobile. Luigi was so terrified that he backed off into a corner of the room.
The three Boos enjoyed seeing Luigi like this as they continued to circle the poor thing.
"Haha! Welcome to Ghostly Galaxy, my dear! We're the Bootiful Boo Sisters! I'm Boothany!" the leader with the ponytail introduced herself.
"Guh huh! I'm Boolinda!" the goofy one with the curly hair covering both her eyes introduced.
"And I'm Bootrix!" the last one, who did not have hair, but did have lots of makeup on her face introduced. "What's YOUR name, cutie?"
"L-L-L-L-Lu-Luigi?" the man in green stuttered to even talk to these ghosts. They were GHOSTS after all. Anyone who's met Luigi knew that ghosts weren't exactly his cup of tea. If anything, they were a poison mushroom spiked in that tea.
"Really? You don't sound so sure. Hahaha! What's the matter? Ya scared? Wanna go home to your mommy?" Boothany teased in a sick, twisted voice.
"YES!"
The boo laughed hysterically at Luigi's desperate state. This day couldn't get worse for the green guy. Waves of tears overflowed his vision.
"Alright, girls. What ought we do with our little friend? I suggest we throw him into a black hole and see what happens," Boothany suggested.
Boolinda butted in. "Ooh Ooh! I've got a better idea! How about we blow 'em up with the Bomb Boos?!"
"I say we feed him the Boo Mushroom just to see what he looks like with it. Then, we tickle torture him!" Bootrix suggested.
"Mario…" was all Luigi could think about as the sisters kept conspiring.
[BGM end]
Comet Observatory
[BGM: To the Observatory Grounds 2 - Super Mario Galaxy]
Mario and Aster flew back to the Observatory as the Grand Star flew with them. The Lumas witnessed this and cheered happily as they landed. Just as before, the Grand Star twinkled as it spun around faster and faster, before flying right into the beacon. This made it grow slightly bigger and turn yellow. Mario was expecting some of the darkness on the right side of the ship to be revealed, but that sadly wasn't the case. What did happen, however, was that a blue pipe lit up.
This pipe trailed down the gray pathway with blue and yellow patterns and activated a warp pad that would lead the two up to a newly opened dome. This dome was silver in color with a blue roof, and an entrance decorated with stars. Water gushed out of its sides and fell down like waterfalls. Mario was interested in entering this new dome, but first he and Aster went to check in with Rosalina. A sweet smile spread across her face, looking like that of someone who had been relieved of stress from work after getting a holiday break.
[BGM: Rosalina in the Observatory 1 - Super Mario Galaxy]
"You boys are doing great!" the space woman applauded. "The beacon has grown even bigger now. When you recover a Grand Star, a little Star Power will be restored, and the beacon will grow."
"Judging by its current size, I say we'll need five more Grand Stars before the beacon reach's its maximum size," Polari estimated.
"And by then, this ship will be able to fly again," Aster added.
Mario frowned. He could tell by this that he wasn't even close to having all the stars to save Peach.
"This is gonna be a long journey…"
Rosalina put her hand on his shoulder.
"Cheer up, Mario. I promise as soon as we have enough star power, we'll be able to fly this ship to the center of the universe, where your special one is being kept."
Mario nodded, knowing that he shouldn't give up. Princess Peach was counting on him after all. Aster looked around and noticed the newly opened dome.
"Hey, the Fountain's back on! I can't wait to go back in there after all this time. It's my favorite dome on the Observatory!"
Aster was about to take Mario to the Fountain. But before they could go there. Mario took notice of a Hungry Luma floating right next to the Terrace. Mario pointed his friend towards the creature.
"What's a Hungry Luma doing here?" Mario wondered.
"No idea." Aster shrugged. "But Hungry Lumas do mean there's a special prize in store for those who have enough Star Bits. I guess the Fountain will have to wait."
Both walked towards the Hungry Luma, feeling a hint of excitement.
"Hiya! Got any tasty Star Bits?" the Luma peered with the excitement of a little kid who was sugar high.
"We sure do!" Aster held out the Star Bits.
"Sweet! I'm famished! I need 400 Star Bits to curb the hunger pangs!"
As Aster fed the Hungry Luma, Mario thought to himself. "Gee. And I thought Yoshi had a big appetite."
As soon as the Hungry Luma was full with stuffed cheeks, he got super excited and spun around rapidly.
"TRANSFOOOORM!"
The Hungry Luma flew off into space. Mario and Aster covered their eyes as a huge blinding light coursed over the Observatory. Once it faded, up in space was a portal to a newly born galaxy. In the Hungry Luma's place was a pink Launch Star.
The Sweet Sweet Galaxy has appeared!
"Well, whaddaya know? The Luma gave birth to a new galaxy!" Aster said, impressed. "Now, since this galaxy was literally just born, I know NOTHING about it, and that excites me! I say we go check it out!"
"I agree! Let's-a go!"
Both Mario and Aster took the Launch Star to the newly born, Sweet Sweet Galaxy.
[BGM end]
Sweet Sweet Galaxy
[BGM: Course Intro - Super Mario Galaxy]
This galaxy was filled to the brim with all sorts of tasty delicacies. Such sweetness consisted of candy bars, gumdrops, frosting, and cakes of many mouthwatering flavors such as strawberry, chocolate, mint, vanilla, etc. Some cakes even had unlit candles on them. Giant forks and spoons floated through the air. Mario wanted to grab those utensils, and eat up this entire galaxy because it looked SO DELICIOUS!
[BGM: Blue Sky Athletic (Mario 3 Athletic remix) - Super Mario Galaxy]
Mario's mouth was drooling like waterfalls. Aster noticed this and slapped him to get his attention back.
"Dude, pull yourself together! What are you, five?" Aster half joked.
"Sorry. It's not my fault this Galaxy looks so darn delicious!" said Mario.
Looking around, Aster couldn't help but kick his lips. The aroma of the sweets was starting to get to him, but then he slapped himself.
"Ha! You can't help it either, can you?" Mario teased with a smirk.
"Shut up," he dismissed. "It looks like we've ended up in level ate."
"..."
"Get it? Level ATE?! Sorry, I'm trying to keep up with modern day humor. Am I good?" Aster cast him a smug expression as he waited for an answer.
Mario took out his hands and counted his fingers, confusing his friend.
"What are you doing?"
Once he was done counting, Mario put his hands down and looked at Aster with a lack of any humorous feelings before speaking.
"Nice try, Aster. That would be clever if this actually WERE the eighth level. I counted all the galaxies I've been to so far, and this is level SEVEN!" He tapped his hand on Aster's shoulder and nodded his head back and forth. "You're one level short."
"Oh, screw this!" Aster shoved Mario's hand off. "Let's just beat this level before it makes me hungry!"
Mario and Aster walked upon the Rocky Road. The road itself was a conveyor belt made of different types of frosting, such as chocolate, pink, blue, and orange. The conveyor belt also had many circular holes cut into them, with a few triangular ones.
A couple of electric barriers stood in their way as well, but the duo jumped over them with no problem. Mario was able to correct any incorrect jumps thanks to his spin ability. He couldn't be more thankful to have Luma with him.
This was only the beginning, though. Turning right 90 degrees was another set of conveyor belts with holes in them, this time moving sideways right into electric barriers. There was also an additional green frosting, and some holes were house shaped.
Maneuvering around these holes was a bit of a challenge, but challenging platforming was something Mario lived for!
Around the halfway point, both heroes stood on a cookie sandwich floor to get a break from the platforming. Dylan and Jeff stood there waiting.
"How did you guys get here?" Aster asked.
"Oh, hey Mario! Hey Aster! Don't stop here! The Star is just around the corner! Our captain is digging it out of a cake," said Jeff.
"We're on our way!"
Within the third section, The heroes went through a narrow passage that twists and turns. There, the ground was solely chocolate and rotating in a circle, and the holes took on a huge variety of different shapes. The shapes included circle, square, triangle, house, crescent, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, star, plus sign, rectangle, and heart. As they traveled through, Aster thought of something.
"You know, given all the cut holes in this, you think there could be some factory nearby making giant cookies?" he theorized. "Then again, that would be weird given that this galaxy was just born."
"Mmm!" Mario almost felt like daydreaming about eating such cookies. He could've if he weren't focused on keeping his footing.
At the home stretch, Mario and Aster jumped across huge orange squares with round holes, and round pink circles in the same shape as the holes. There were also electric barriers they had to overcome. At the very end, was a gigantic three layered cake. The bottom layer was lemon, the middle was mint chocolate with Star Bits, and the top was strawberry with the Star sitting right on top.
"If it was my birthday, I'd want that cake!" Mario admitted with a drooling mouth.
"Hey, who knows? Maybe you can get a cake like this. You just gotta be-"
Aster was interrupted by the sound of a horn coming from Captain Toad on the Starshroom in the distance.
"Hey! We're going back!" he called out.
"Coming!" Mario saluted.
With that out of the way, the two grabbed the Star.
[BGM: Course Clear - Super Mario Bros. 3]
YOU GOT A STAR!
"WAHOO!"
"YES!"
[BGM end]
Upon returning back to the Comet Observatory. Mario unexpectedly started to yawn and get sleepy.
"Are you tired?" Aster asked in concern.
Rosalina giggled a bit. "It must be past your bedtime back on your planet."
Mario yawned whilst stretching his arms in all directions again before relaxing his body.
"I guess I've… had a long day. I'll need some rest before we go after more stars. You got anywhere I can sleep?"
Rosalina thought for a second on where Mario could sleep. "Well… the Bedroom is unfortunately closed off due to not having enough star power… But I think you could sleep on a couch in the unlit part of the Observatory."
"That works for me," said Mario. Luma came out of his cap and flew off to bed with a wave.
"Have a good sleep, Mario!"
The Toad Brigade walked into their Starshroom to go to sleep. Bob was already asleep on the flower patch even before bed time because… he's Bob. Just before Mario walked into the dark side of the ship to take a well deserved rest, Aster walked up to him.
"Mario, umm… before you go to bed…" Aster cleared his throat. Mario could tell he seemed to be nervous about something, but what it could've been was unknown to him. "If by any chance you wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep, come and talk to me. I've been meaning to chat with you in private when we're… y'know… not off collecting stars. If that's alright with you…"
"Oh, uh, sure." Mario accepted.
"Great! I'll be sitting by the Fountain."
Aster left and walked over to the Fountain while Mario tucked himself under a blanket on a couch.
4 hours later
[BGM: The Library - Super Mario Galaxy]
Mario woke up, unexpectedly, having to use the bathroom. He couldn't tell what time it was. But it certainly wasn't morning since the sun wasn't facing his part of his home planet, and all of the Lumas were fast asleep. Mario quickly did his business in a nearby bathroom which thankfully wasn't closed off. Since he didn't feel like going back to sleep, Mario walked quietly over to the Fountain to talk to Aster.
Surely enough, Aster was still awake. The space man sat just by the warp pad that would lead up to the Fountain. He looked very mysterious, just as he did when Mario first met Aster (sans the cloak of course). All he seemed to do was stare… stare into outer space. Many people had a fascination with space, but space seemed to be something that Aster was all about. How else would he have known about almost every galaxy in the universe? Better yet, since they met, Mario figured him to be as mysterious as space itself. He is getting along with him, yes, but there's still much to uncover. Still so much he doesn't know.
It's like how space itself is mostly… well… space. Empty space. It takes a lot of exploration and getting to know before you can uncover the galaxies within. Aster was almost like that. As if he was one with space itself. The man seemed so focused in his staring, that he only became aware of Mario's presence by hearing his footsteps.
"Oh, hey. You made it! Have a seat." Aster patted a spot next to him, which the plumber sat down in. "I'm glad you showed up. It was getting kinda lonely here. I ended up getting 'lost in space'. Well, in a way."
"Thanks. So… what was it you wanted to talk about, Aster?" Mario asked with interest.
"Well…" Aster started, once more with generosity, and some tears in his eyes. "First off. I… I want to apologize for my unacceptable behavior back in Good Egg Galaxy. I was being very dismissive of you. Judging you before I even knew you. I'm very sorry. It's just that… that… that…"
Aster's tears took over him for a moment. Mario patted him on the shoulder.
"Hey, pal. It's okay. You can tell me anything," Mario reassured.
"I've been distrusting of other people lately. Ever since Rosie and I were separated, I've… been through a whole lot… I had that sign up back at my house in Good Egg in order to scare away people. To make sure they wouldn't attack me. I… I didn't want to be used again!"
"'Used'?" Mario queried.
"I'll get into that some other time. First I should get into how it all started. How I met… my dear Rosie…"
Mario nodded and began to listen
[BGM: Luma - Super Mario Galaxy]
"It all started around… a thousand years ago, I believe."
"A THOUSAND YE-?!" Mario gawked in surprise before Aster shut his mouth.
"SHHH! It's the middle of the night! Are you crazy?!" Aster yelled in a whispering tone.
"Sorry… It's just… you don't look that old."
"That's because me and Rosalina stopped aging a LONG long time ago."
"How?" Mario wondered.
Aster shrugged. "No idea. It was probably some sort of magic or something. Perhaps it was destiny. Anyways, I grew up in a small village on that planet over there."
Aster pointed down to the Mushroom World, where the Observatory stopped over after Bowser stole its Power Stars. The lights on that planet glimmered to form the shape of stars, which Aster admired.
"My planet?"
Aster nodded with a smile.
"My old home. Rosie and I would visit this beautiful planet every 100 years. Those who lived on the planet would celebrate a festival in our honor. They'd call it, the Star Festival. The festival was originally founded by my beloved late mom and dad, who were famous for being the ones to discover Star Bits."
Mario noticed Aster beginning to shed a few tears out of his eyes, they looked sort of like tiny blue Star Bits. The space plumber could tell that these flashbacks were really bringing his friend back. He was surprised the man could still remember all this despite it having been about a millennium.
"Their names were Apollo and Nebula Galaxium. And just to be clear, the space terms you know in this world were named after THEM, not the other way around. They invented the first telescope, and gave it to one of the Mushroom Kingdom's first kings, King Hickory. Hickory discovered a comet that passed by this planet every 100 years."
"I thought Galileo Galilei invented the telescope," interrupted Mario.
"Who?"
"Uh... never mind. Keep going."
"Right. And whenever that comet passed by, it filled the skies and sent countless shooting stars raining down. The Toads brought the shooting stars to the castle, where they became a great Power Star. My parents dubbed these tiny chunks of stars, Star Bits."
"Hickory's daughter, Princess Rosalina, and I were blown away by this beautiful event. And so, my dad pitched the idea of holding a festival in its honor to the king. The king accepted, and thus, the first Star Festival was held."
"That day…"
More "Star Bits" crawled out of his eyes as he reminisced that day from the distant past.
"That was the best day of my life. All the Star Bits falling from the sky, the Toads playing around, trying to collect as many as they can, me playing with Rosalina and his brother Lockie… I remember having my first Star Bit. The sweet tenderness in every bite. My mouth was tingling with sparkles, and said tingling traveled down my throat as I swallowed the Star Bit."
Mario grew sad hearing this. That could've been how he spent the Star Festival with Alex, Leah, Peach. But no. Bowser had to come and ruin his only chance. Why couldn't he just leave them alone? At least for the holidays?
"After the Star Festival ended, I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to know MORE! I wanted to know where Star Bits came from. I wanted to do more than just look at the stars, nebulas, clusters, and galaxies. I wanted to actually go to them! To see them up close! It was always my dream. And so, Mom and Dad offered to do just that for me. They began gathering materials to build a ship we would use to travel the cosmos. I was thrilled! I couldn't wait for the ship to be finished. Rosalina was excited too, for she had also taken great interest in the universe as well. I had held onto hope that we would break free of this planet and start exploring one day…"
[BGM pause]
Aster trailed off. His smile slowly faded into a rather glum and depressed face. Mario grew worried.
[BGM: Sad Girl - Super Mario Galaxy]
"But then… the dark plague came… A plague came to our village out of nowhere and… those who came in contact caught a deadly disease from it. The plague spread across our village, and my Mom and Dad…"
Aster's vision became so blurry from the tears that Mario gave him a tissue.
"They caught the disease, and became terminally ill! They died two weeks after catching it... And Rosalina's mother, Queen Lucianna, suffered the same fate!"
Aster blew into his tissue before snuffing up and continuing.
"I remember the last moment I had with my dear parents before their unfortunate deaths. I promised them on their deathbeds that I would finish that ship they never finished, and explore the cosmos, no matter what. In turn, they promised that they'd always watch me from above as stars in my favorite constellation."
"And so, once they passed away, the Queen and my dear parents were buried underneath the tree on Rosie's favorite hill. I haven't talked to Rosalina much since. I just focused on finishing the spaceship, as my parents would've wanted. It… took longer than I had expected. Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks. Weeks became months, and then years!"
"Upon turning 21, I had finally finished the spaceship. I named it the Starshroom and took it for a test run. It worked just as I imagined it would. I was set to go out. To travel through space and discover the dark mysteries of the cosmos. But first… I didn't know when I'd be back… or whether I'd be back at all… so I had to say goodbye."
"I traveled over to the Mushroom Castle. Tears were jerking down my face, because I knew this would probably be the last time I'd ever set foot in the castle. To my surprise, Rosalina was sitting on the front lawn. She was looking through the very telescope my parents gave the king. And by her side was this strange star-shaped creature I had never seen before."
[Resume "Luma"]
Flashback…
"Rosie?"
The princess took her gaze out of the telescope and looked over to me. A nice smile had grown on her face upon seeing me again. Given all the years we had not been in contact, I almost forgot how beautiful she was. Her beauty had always shone brighter than even the brightest stars in my opinion, and seeing her again made me the emotional I've been since my parents' passing.
"Aster!" She gave me a warm hug I haven't felt in so long. "I haven't seen you in so long! I almost gave up hope that I'd ever see you again!"
"I'm… I'm happy to see you too, Rosie."
"Is he a friend of yours Miss Rosie?"
I looked down. That young and sweet voice came from the star child that accompanied my friend.
"Aster, I'd like you to meet Luma. He's my new friend who lost his mother."
"You lost your mother?" I was suddenly reminded of that awful plague that took away my parents. I grew chills on my back just thinking about it.
"Yeah. She's coming for me on a comet. But years have passed and she still hasn't come." The creature named Luma had a tear dripping down from his little black eyes. He looked so cute and innocent that seeing him cry hurt more than being stabbed in the chest.
"I have a feeling that we'll be waiting until I become an old lady. I wish we could just go out there and find his mom ourselves."
And so, the idea struck me. Knowing that this poor little creature needed my help, I offered to take them with me.
"I think I can help you."
Present
"After packing enough supplies, including the telescope, a butterfly net, a stuffed bunny, bread, milk, jam, and apricot flavored tea, we took off for the stars. Days passed by, traveling through nothing but asteroids and Star Bit clusters. My bond with Rosie grew as we travelled the stars, waiting to find Luma's parents."
"Eventually, we caught up with the turquoise blue comet that only came to our planet once every 100 years. Upon landing on the icy comet, we couldn't find Luma's mother, but we decided to settle on the comet. Using some space materials, the three of us built a home upon that very comet. And… well I think you can guess for yourself. The house was nice, but… it was awfully too big for just the three of us…"
"Then one day, while we were having tea, I felt like I had stopped aging. My appearance hadn't changed one bit since we left earth, and the same applied for Rosie. We wondered why up until we met a whole colony of Lumas. All of them thought that WE were their parents. I was confused, but then I realized that I was meeting my destiny. These Lumas saw me as a father because of my passion for space, and how brave I was to not give up on my dreams. Rosalina and I went with it and named each and every one of those Lumas, one by one."
"Through emotional touches, and the discovery of a Luma's own destiny to transform, Rosalina and I came to realize that we were meant for each other. The two of us married upon the Comet Observatory, and we all became family."
"And that was our story. Ever since then, the Lumas on this ship treated me with as much parental love as they did for Rosalina, because I loved them ever so, even after they transformed into planets, comets, galaxies, you name it. But… since I've been separated so long… it seems like the Lumas on this ship have… forgotten their father…"
[BGM end]
With his story finished, Mario had so many "Star Bits" coming out of his eyes.
"That was… That was so… sad, and… beautiful… I… I don't know what to say…"
"You don't have to say much. But thank you for listening all the way through. I really appreciate having another human to talk to besides my wife. I've wanted to share my stories with the universe for awhile. I even wrote a book about the history of the Star Festival. I'd show it to you, but… the Library is closed off due to a lack of Stars." Aster grew tired himself, as signified by his yawn.
"By the way… what caused you to be separated from Rosalina anyways?"
That one question Mario asked made Aster have a complete change of tone. From calm and collected, to frightened and mentally scarred. Aster sat there, muttering to himself. His eyes were smaller than Star Bits as he embraced his knees in a hug and began muttering.
"No… no… no… no. No. No. No! No! No! NOOOOOOOOO!"
Mario was taken aback by Aster's sudden mental breakdown. All he did was ask a question. What could've happened that made him go into a mental breakdown?
Aster got up in an annoyed mood. He gave a glare at Mario, which frightened the Mushroom Kingdom hero a bit.
"You know what? I'm tired of this conversation. We need to get up early in the morning to get more stars. Good night." Aster walked into the Fountain in a cold dismissive manner.
"Aster, I'm sorry! I just…"
"GOOD NIGHT!" Aster screamed from inside the Fountain. Mario was both frightened and worried about Aster. For something seemed to be bothering him.
He wanted to talk more, but approaching him didn't seem like a wise decision. Besides, he needed some sleep, so Mario went back to the couch and slept for another 4 hours.
Fun Fact: Galileo Galilei inventing the telescope is actually a common misconception. A few inventors created prototypes prior, though Galileo made some extra tweaks to make it more powerful and lead to how it works today.