#engineer mark fanfiction

[weirdlyhornyforegos]

Kinktober day 22 -  sex pollen & orgasm delay/denial

MINORS DNI!!!! Day 22 of Kinktober is: sex pollen & orgasm delay/denial - Engineer x amab reader

Hello :3 Finally trying to continue my kinktober from last year ^_^

Also posted on AO3 Kinktober masterlist is here

Wordcount: 900+

Tags/warnings: Sex pollen, handjobs, blowjobs, light orgasm delay/denial

Honestly, the two of you going on a walk alone might have been a slight mistake. You both wanted some time to yourselves, and room away from the crew, so going to a clearing not far from the main camp to just relax on a picnic blanket had seemed like a great idea.

After all, the area had been explored and the plants and growths had been examined and deemed safe.

Or rather, most of them.

Most.

Because the small purple flower that had been hidden beneath some green leaves next to where you were relaxing had not been noted, as its effect would certainly have been noticed.

Ah yes, the effects.

The yellow pollen or dust or whatever it had spewed out when disturbed by Mark and you play wrestling had covered you both, and in less than a minute you were rock hard, and not many seconds after that you had your hand down the front of Mark's space suit, and he had his down the front of yours. You are pressed as close as you can physically go, but still trying to get even closer.

Your suits are barely unzipped, and you still have your helmet on, but you don't care. All you care about is the warm weight of Mark's cock in your hand, how leaky and perfect it feels, how he rocks against your hand as best as he can, all his energy not going into moving his own hand over your cock being sent to moving his hips, and letting out the little choked off whines that you think will be burned into your mind forever.

Not that you haven't heard something like this before, but these moans got an edge of desperation that you haven't heard before, and you fucking love it.

Mark's hand on your cock makes for a divine heat to fuck into, your own cock leaking so much making the glide easy. You're fogging up the inside of your helmet and Mark is gripping the front of your clothes so hard you think they might rip, but you don't care.

All you care about is making Mark cum, you want to feel him coat your hand even more. You take deep gulps of air, mustering up the brain energy to get the words out in betweeen your own moans and gasps.

"Mark, fuck, come on, wanna feel you cum baby, come on, come on, come on!" Your hand not on his cock grips one asscheek an pushes him into you as you speak, and you don't know if it's the action or the words that does it, but Mark spills all over your hand, whimpering both your title and name in between moans, gasps, and shakes.

You let go of his ass to get your helmet off, fumbling a little with one hand and not wanting to look away from Mark for too long, but you manage, taking a deep breath of fresh and sweet smelling air.

"Yes, yes, yes, there you go baby, fuck, fuck." It's the most words you have spoken in the last week, and you are sure Mark in any other circumstance would have commented on it, though he doesn't seem to have noticed as he has set his mind on taking at least some of your clothes off. You take your hand out of his suit so he can push the top half of yours off, and then drag it down enough that he can get his mouth on your cock.

You had planned to lick what was left of his cum on your hand when your arm got out of your sleeve, but instead both of your hands flies to tug on Mark's hair as he takes your cock straight down in one go.

"Mark!" His mouth is warm and fucking tight around your cock, the perfect amount of pressure you know Mark knows you love. His orgasm hasn't slowed his energy down the slightest as he works his mouth over your cock, making the most lewd and wet sounds you have heard in a while. One hand plays with your balls, while the other rests on your hip, seemingly trying to hold you back or something, but it doesn't really work as you buck yourself into his mouth.

The moans you get back aren't a protest, and the vibrations around your cock feels like heaven, so you keep doing it.

You see Mark start to grind his hips down against the blanket below you, in seconds you have the heel of your foot digging into a spot on his back.

"Fuck, none of that baby, you only get to cum for me, I'm the only one that should make you cum, you don't do that yourself, that's my privilege." Mark groans, taking his mouth of your cock to speak.

"Fucking hell." His voice is a little rough as he blinks up at you, and you love hearing him like that.

"Yeah." A second later his mouth is back on your cock, his hips still once more as he works you over, truly putting his soul into getting you off with his mouth.

It doesn't take long for you to spill into his mouth, gripping his hair tight as you spill over his tongue. He moans as you do so, gripping your thighs as he drinks down every drop of you.

But he doesn't stop there, he keeps sucking and you find yourself growing hard again. You could probably come rather quickly a second time in his mouth, but that's not what you want, so you pull Mark off so you can tackle him and grind down on him, determined to make him cum a second time, this time untouched.

-----

When you come back two hours later, it's to wolf whistles and one hell of a report you are really not looking forward to writing.

[theknightmarket]

"We've made it this far."

In which the Engineer and the captain are released from the effects of the wormhole, as they've always wanted. TW: cursing, angst, slight reference to gore Pages: 26 - Words: 9,500

[Requests: OPEN]

“Please, just hold on.” 

After dying so many times, it was weird to be on the edge of it. You’d tossed yourself off the cliff enough to memorize the feeling of falling, of becoming weightless and letting everything go – like a kind of acceptance, even if you were going not of your own volition. It had always been okay, though, because you’d come back seconds later, spat back up from a raging ocean with salt and spray into the arms of that cryo-pod. 

“I can get you out of here, don’t worry, I can do it.” 

But this time, you were looking down, your feet on the ground and the water seeming so far away. You had to make the choice now, of staying on that crumbling cliff, battled by the wind, and forced to stare straight at the fate you were faced with, or letting your feet shift and lose traction. 

“Come on, please, I know you can do it.” 

In theory, it was an easy decision, but you didn’t want to have to work for it anymore. You had done the hard part, the surviving at the peak, and now, you knew that this would be the last time. It wasn’t as though you could take a step back; you would always be watching the tips of the waves snap at you. You didn’t want to watch anymore.

You croaked out a simple, “Mark…” 

Your faithful engineer, kneeled at your side, likely for the last time. He wasn’t going to fall. He couldn’t. 

“No, no, please, don’t do that, just a little longer,” his pleads reached your ears well, but you forced yourself to ignore them, “our medics will be here, just wait.”

“Mark, I can’t.”

“No, you can, you have to!” Guilt tapped at the edge of your mind, you didn’t let it in, and it stayed right where it was. “Please.”

“I’m sorry,” you sighed. You were. You really were. 

“Come on, the- the colony haven’t said goodbye, the crew…” His thought went unfinished, but you understood him. You always did, even when he didn’t understand himself. You were half sure he didn’t know what he was saying, the panic and dread overwhelming him in a fight for majority. 

You assured him, “They’ll be fine.”

“Not without you.” 

“Mark, look,” a cough wracked your upper body like an earthquake, “look at it all, we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?”

You were so damn proud of him, of the whole ship, of everything. You never told him directly, so you could only hope he knew. It would make this whole thing easier if he knew that you were proud of him, that you trusted him. He’d be easier on himself.

“Not far enough! We still have more to do, we- we can’t do it without you. You’re our captain.” A distant memory from just a few days before floated to the forefront of your mind. It was hazy, corrupted by the pain, but it was there. “You’re my captain.”

A deep breath in, as far as the pressure would allow you, before you whispered, “You built the ship, you hired the crew, you fixed the warp-core.” 

And suddenly you wished that you hadn’t been able to take that breath – that you had stayed silent and let the moment envelop you. The spark of realisation that you cherished in Mark’s eyes dug a pit in your stomach. 

“No,” was all you could say with what little energy you had left.

“But—”

“Uh-uh. Not this time.” 

You couldn’t, he couldn’t, neither of you would be able to handle another round of what you went through together. That quality of stubbornness you both possessed would surely fail you, abandoning you to the madness of eternity, worse if you failed.

“Why not!? I know how to do it, and we know how to fix it.”

“We got off on chance, you’re not trying that again, Mark, I can’t—”

Shit. That little energy was becoming smaller and smaller, but neither did you have it in you to let Mark create another wormhole. You couldn’t live with yourself if he gave you a second chance. 

“I’m not losing you,” you muttered, “and, yeah, I know how ironic that is.” 

You wanted to laugh, but all that burning the candle at both ends was catching up to you. The numbness that had crept up on your legs hours ago was lurching onto your torso. It wouldn’t be long before it was biting through your arms and neck, and you wouldn’t be aware of it when it reached your temple. 

“So, hey, just… just give me this. Please?”

The look in his eyes washed away. Leaving Mark like this was not your plan, but when had the universe ever listened to you? You could be thankful that you hadn’t gone insane in a place lightyears from your home, that Mark was not leaving you. You admitted that it was a selfish thought, but you didn’t think you could keep going if you lost him. You’d fought hard, but now you were done fighting. You knew he could do it for you.

And so did he. It was a cold admittance that he wouldn’t be the one to save you, this time. It felt all too much like giving up on the person who had sacrificed themself time and time again for him. Although it left a poor taste in his mouth – bitter, unwelcome, downright painful – you had proven to be steadfast in your decisions. There was going to be no convincing you.

“I love you.” If Mark was given a do-over, no strings attached, that would not be the first time he was saying it to you, aloud, just the two of you, and it wouldn’t be the last. 

And maybe he would have gotten to hear it from you just once. 

Your final breath cascaded against his knees, a waterfall that seemed eons from growing dry but dripped slowly into the grave it dug for itself. There was no sound, no last rites read, except for the heartbroken sob that broke free from Mark’s chest, echoing around the cavern walls.

Seeing the sun after so long in space was strange. Of course, you could look out of one of the many windows that Mark had installed and see a sun, but to stand in the rays of light from the sun of this galaxy? It made you want to brush off your duties, it made you want to throw your jacket off and run into the forest, it…

It made you miss Earth.

After exploring space for so long, you were always surprised that, wherever you landed, you felt homesick in the bottom of your stomach. The feeling slept when you were in transit and reared its head when you started to set up a colony, but it never truly disappeared after that. Hell, not even the visits back to your birth planet fixed the issue. The best thing you came up with was bringing little pieces along for the ride. 

But you didn’t have the time to reminisce. Just as you’d mentioned earlier, you had a colony to establish, and it was well on its way already. A dozen sectors sketched out, concrete paths linking each one to the other. There were still a majority of people left in their cryo-chambers, those that weren’t necessary for building or planning, who were being looked after by Celci. Gunther was on observation for threats – a duty he often groaned about – and Bert was waxing poetic while the rudimentary power generators were being built. So far, everything was looking good. As in, nothing was going to blow up immediately and force you back on that ship.

No, instead, there you were. Standing in front of your growing colony, the sun glinting off the metal of the parked ship, your feet on the ground of a healthy, new planet. How could you not let a prideful smile work its way onto your face underneath the helmet you had yet to take off? You had made it, and, if you squinted, you could practically see the bustling city this place would become. Stores on one end of the street, restaurants on the other, further down would be a sector of houses with a public park and a fountain. Young families would walk to their parents’ house, the group of teenagers would have no problem just talking to each other during dark nights, old lovers would duck from the rain into shaded alleyways to share one last kiss before heading home for a warm bath.

You caught the eye of your head engineer leaning against the head of the ship. 

And not that you knew it, you had also caught his eye, only that was a gross underestimation. Mark had been with you every step of the way on the ship, he’d seen what you could do, what you had done to save the crew and colonists. You’d long ago seized his admiration, and, soon after that, his affection, leading to where he stood in that moment; watching you as you ordered everything that needed to be done to be done, waiting for his own set of instructions that he would carry out perfectly.

Until you made eye contact with him, smiled, and then began to walk away. Mark’s feet were moving before he could process what was happening, and if he started to jog after a few steps, that was between him and the ship wall that he pushed off from. He slid to a stop when he was close enough to you, an unsure half-grin on his face.

“Hey, Captain,” he said as he fell into step beside you.

“Is everything alright, Mark?” was the only reply he got, though that was likely because of his expression more than any doubt you held.

To ease your concern, he tried not to make it too obvious that he was nervous. 

“Yeah!” The barely hidden voice crack did not help, but he continued anyway, “Yeah, it is, I mean- is there anything you want me to do?” 

Requesting work was difficult for him. Not because he naturally took things easy, but because he had been on his feet for the last he-didn’t-know-how-long. Hours, days, he hoped not weeks. It didn’t feel right to not do anything. 

“Why don’t you take the day off?” 

Panic struck him like a physical force. He didn’t remember doing anything wrong, you could have still been angry about the whole incident, but he thought everything had been cleared up on the ship’s bridge. Had you already given him a job and he hadn’t been paying attention? Well, could you blame him if he wasn’t? 

It was in this train of thought that he realized you were waiting for a response. So, you weren’t mad. That was good. 

“Is now the best time?” he asked, “It’s your decision, of course, I just think—”

You stopped short of the next sector, some grid for farming, “Look, you’ve been to hell and back—” and hell and back and hell and back and hell and back, as you were both well aware, “—I think you deserve some time to yourself.” 

‘Time to yourself’. He didn’t want time to himself, he wanted… well, he wanted a lot of things and, to put it bluntly, he wanted some time with you, but you weren’t about to take a rest anytime soon, so neither was he.

“And while I appreciate the offer, Captain, there’s a lot to be done that I think is more important than having a break.”

You watched his face for a second, looked up and down as he started to sweat underneath the layers of his uniform. “Repeat that for me.”

“And while I appreciate the offer, Cap...”

His trailing off made clear the realization he came to. You sent him a knowing look, as he groaned like a kid told he couldn’t have another cookie. Of course, it made you smile, too. His dramatics were the highlight of your day when it wasn’t his stubbornness and jokes.

Today, he was vastly leaning into the former. “Only five minutes!” he demanded, scrolling through his arm-piece to set a timer.

“Ten.”

He scrolled slightly further. “Seven.”

“Fifteen.”

And slightly further. “Twelve.”

Your bout of laughter echoed through the trees around you. “You aren’t getting this, are you?” Mark’s arm was tugged away from him as you swiped through the timer yourself. He might have argued about it more if he weren’t so preoccupied with being close enough to kiss you right now if he had the gall to lean that slight bit towards you.

And, you were his captain, obviously, who was he to challenge your authority?

“Take the day off, Mark, and that’s an order from your captain.” You left him with a pat to his shoulder, luckily not noticing the vibrant blush spreading on his face that was too strong to blame the sun for.

He muttered to himself when you were a few steps away, “Pulling rank isn’t fair.” And he was certain that it wasn’t. It was a trump card, some ex-machina that you had no right to use on him. 

But he had his own little trick up his sleeve, or, rather, on his belt. You insisted on using some of the old-world commodities, even by Earth standards. The communicator on his hip with the antennae and grating would be his ace in the whole for your dumb day off punishment—

“And no using your walkie!”

“Damn it.” 

You were tired. Really tired. You’d slept a day and a half after the whole wormhole incident, and yet here you were, looking at every slightly level surface with literal bedroom eyes. You constantly had to remind yourself to pay attention, but that just made you think about paying attention and not listen to the person you were talking to – who, in this case, was Celci. As such, you were half sure it was important to the whole colony, relying on her reputation, mostly, because again, you weren’t paying attention, and you were actually imagining lying down on that rock you’d seen half an hour ago with the moss and grooves.

You weren’t listening, again.

“Or I could send you the report for you to look over later?”

When you snapped back to reality, you were none the wiser as to what that report was about, but it gave you time to figure it out. “Oh, yeah, that’d be great, Celci, thanks.”

She gave you one look and then asked, “Captain, is everything alright?” 

The half grin took most of your energy, so you promptly dropped it when you remembered that she couldn’t see your face. “Am I that obvious?”

“If you need a break, I can go and check the excavation site and one of the techs can do the propane levels. I’m sure I could get Mark—”

You immediately rushed to cut her off, “No, no, I’m fine. I appreciate the thought but I-I’m fine, really.” Jostling your body and comically widening your eyes, you made yourself as presentable as you could with a quarter of your fuel in the tank. You dusted off your suit and cleared the screen of your helmet, extremely thankful for the metal that made it a one-way mirror. “See?”

Celci hummed at you. Not a good sign. She was arguably the most responsible on the ship, and if she thought you were putting yourself through the ringer, she would do everything in her power to get you to relax. The only problem she faced was ranking, and it was the only thing protecting you from being forced into a nap. You had to get away before she could figure out how to circumvent your title.

“C’mon, Celci, don’t you think I know my limits?”

Disapproving silence. Even starting to walk away from her, you knew how little she believed you. 

“We only have to get through another three hours of work, and then everyone’ll be able to finish up; myself included.”

“Well, Captain…” And there was the crack you needed. Hesitation. 

“Besides, if we get the thermos running, we’ll be able to house some of the colonists and you can focus your efforts on the desert habitation.” That was her little pet project. When you’d scanned the surface, you found two nearby biomes that would barely receive any rain but stayed in the negative fifties for your entire surveillance period. It was backhanded to bait her with the idea, you knew that, but if it got you out of a glorified grounding, you were willing to do it.

Especially since it seemed to work, if Celci’s sigh and hands on her hips were anything to go by.

“Alright, Captain, as long as you finish as soon as the day ends.”

You exchanged a nod with varying degrees of satisfaction with that encounter, before going your separate ways. In fact, you did get a little jolt of energy out of it, as you waltzed along the concrete path. Any thoughts of taking a break were washed out of your mind by the torrent of work you still had left to do; all the sites to check out, all the staff to organize, all the paperwork to send back to the headquarters. The latter was always the worst part, but it was the price you paid for independence on the planet. Free reign was only yours if you played by your boss’ rules.

“Captain!”

Speaking of boss’ rules, as if on cue, Mark jogged to your side from wherever he was before, falling into step quickly next to you. You wouldn’t deny that seeing him gave you another boost of energy, which you immediately used to pat him on the back.

“How’s your break going?”

“I’d rather be doing actual work, but it’s fine. I appreciate it.”

“Good.”

And it was. You were glad he was taking it slow today. He was important to you, and the colony, and you didn’t need your head engineer passing out in the middle of an important task. Or passing out in general. Or doing anything else bad for his health that you could readily prevent.

He appeared alright, for now, although that wasn’t going to get him back on a job just yet. “Actually, I was wondering if—” he started to say, but a crew member cut him off with the crunch of their boots as they rushed towards you from out the surrounding woods.

Their report was normal enough, a few more pieces of information about the excavation site. They’d found another source of aluminum in the caves, which you noted down in case your supplies ran low. Mark waited at your side while you spoke to the person, half-way between listening and grumbling to himself. You couldn’t help but laugh quietly as you dismissed the crew member.

“Sorry, go on,” you said. The pair of you continued to walk, heading nowhere in particular aside from in the vague direction of the housing project.

He did as you prompted, getting out, “Well, I wanted to know—” before someone else called for your attention. Given you were nearing the first constructions of houses, it made sense that a builder caught up to you – despite that, you noticed Mark’s pout as he averted his eyes from the conversation you’d been drawn into. Just a material substitution you needed to sign off on, it was nothing to get worried about, but it was obvious that wasn’t what he was annoyed by.

You gestured with a grin for Mark to continue. Mouth only somewhat open, he paused and looked around, then rounded to your other side to cut you off from the majority of the workers. It was a futile effort, given that you were fast approaching the mass of houses, but it amused you either way. A combination of that drama and humor you were so fond of.

“I think, considering what we went through—” There was barely a crack of a twig in your ten-foot radius when Mark grabbed you by the hand and ran off the path. He didn’t know where he was going, and you definitely didn’t, but you were going regardless. His boots carved a line from the housing district all the way back to the ship. Hardly anyone was there anymore, only a few cryo-techs were loitering around to survey the colonists, so it was his best bet to get you alone, however creepy that made him sound. 

You weren’t given time to question him when you eventually skidded to a stop in a quiet area behind the ship itself. Mark was talking even before you caught your breath.

“I think that you should take some time off too because you went through the same things that I did, and, yes, I know you’re the captain, but having some time to recover from it all would be just as good as me taking some time, even better, because you made all the decisions back there, so you should just relax and I have some suggestions for how you can do that.” 

By the end of his little speech, neither of you were breathing at a steady rate. You both sucked in as much air as you could handle and then let it go again, minds catching up with the situation. For you, it was processing his words and what he wanted from you – for Mark, it was realizing just what he’d spouted and how utterly unconvincing he was.

It was another challenge to understand that you accepted. “I’m listening,” you said, simply, as if you couldn’t say anything else.

Mark spluttered, not thinking he’d get so far but being so far that he had to continue.

“I say we should take some food packs from storage, find an empty room, and have a proper lunch. We won’t talk about work or duties to be done, or anything else, and we’ll lock the door so nobody will interrupt us.” That last bit came from the depths of his soul, Mark grimacing as he spoke. “The colony will be there when we get back. And, if you think about it, getting some rest will help you make better decisions in the long run.”

“Okay.”

Okay. You’d said okay. You’d okayed it. You were going with his plan. Pride overwhelmed him against his mind’s efforts to keep up with his heart and stomach’s backflips. His body froze in response, giving you the concerning impression that you’d broken him with a single word. Lucky for you, he rebooted himself in a few seconds, though he was still unable to curb his enthusiasm.

“Yes. Yes! Alright, let’s go.”

Mark went to reach for your hand but quickly noticed that he was still holding it from when he’d dragged you with him. Instead, sheepishly, he smiled at you and started to walk towards the ship’s entrance, you chuckling to yourself in tow.

If you were going to take a break, you might as well be taking it with your favorite person. What did you have to lose?

“I’m hoping for cool fish.”

“Nope.”

Within half an hour, the both of you were settled on beanbags, eating soup out of Styrofoam bowls, and drinking the champagne you had left over from the salute at the start of the trip. To you, it was the height of luxury, especially now that you were out of your stuffy uniforms and into more casual clothes. The only ones you owned were your workout gear and nightwear, but you opted for the less sweaty version of a tank top and shorts. You didn’t think it was so bad, but Mark had spent the first ten minutes of the lunch break looking anywhere but you. It didn’t help when you went to get your helmet and jacket because he immediately jumped to push you back down into your seat. Not that you – or, though you were unaware, Mark – was complaining.

Still, you kept the outer layers of your uniform close by in case of an emergency, the chances of you being notified as minimal as they were with both your walkie-talkies having been switched off. It was you who pushed for them to be present, but the compromise made them pretty much useless.

Yet not even the potential of a natural disaster pulled you out of the relaxed state you had entered. Slipped down halfway into the beanbag, spread out as far as you could get, you felt calmer than you’d ever been before. Mark would say the same, had he not been seeing your face for the first time.

By the sun, moon, and stars, you were… downright gorgeous. He never liked relying on rumors, so he had taken the stories of you being handsome and/or beautiful to be one weird game of telephone. Now, though? He was regretting not asking to see your face sooner, but you were still in front of him, and he was going to relish the view for as long as he could, emergency be damned.

“First chance I get, I’m throwing you in an ocean,” you promised, taking a sip from your champagne flute.

“I’m taking you with me.”

“I want to see it. Maybe we’ll find a fifty-foot-long eel with three sets of teeth and mandibles on its face.” 

“You’ll find some cool rocks and suffocate before you could even see the thing.”

Dammit. Just like that, with one sentence, Mark smothered the banter you had going. His jaw clenched, your shoulders heightened, the mood was thrown out the window – poor choice of words, again. He had meant it to be playful, but certain recent events tainted the very concept of losing oxygen, of holding your breath for longer than a minute. Gallows humor had yet to set in, and, based on the glazed-over look in your eyes, he couldn’t help but think it never would.

But you were the one to break the silence. “So, what now?” you asked as you placed the flute gently on the floor, glass clinking even as it stood straight.

“Cap,” was the only mumbled answer you received, though it didn’t deter you.

“I know, it’s just…” you sighed, “we can’t not talk about it?”

“Why not?”

Your gaze shot to meet Mark’s eyes, ready and raring to argue, to question how he can deny it. The flame died the second you saw the look. The watery film that threatened tears dumped dirt over your fury. It made sense that he would want to leave it behind. You had the colony to think of now, instead of the death after death after death you’d both faced in the wormhole. You understood that want to ignore it all, but you couldn’t fall into the trap. You couldn’t face another night with it hanging over your head. The bags underneath those wet eyes of his told you he couldn’t either.

Shakily, you whispered, careful not to set him off, “Because it happened. And it was a serious moment in our lives that we can’t ignore. And- and what if it all goes wrong again and we need to prepare to deal with it?”

“Then we’ll do what we did last time.”

“Get stuck?”

“Get through it.” Distantly, you wondered why you were the one to make that first speech. You were the captain, sure, but Mark made you believe him with just one incomplete sentence. He made you trust him in three words, no matter how much your mind fought to tell you otherwise, your heart did indeed trust him. “I mean, we’ve come this far, how hard can it be?” A weak chuckle. “I’d wager getting Gunther to not shoot the first thing he saw when he got off the ship was a lot harder than what we did.”

You didn’t feel like laughing. Instead, talking about the crew, it made you feel… something else. An intangible well of guilt and shame. You could get through another wormhole, but everyone else? What if they got caught? What if they started to remember all the death and fire and pain? You wouldn’t be able to help them, not like last time. If they remembered, they’d be at the edge with you, staring over the side. How many of them could take it? The crew or the colonists themselves? You would have failed them all. You might not have killed them, but they’d be casualties, nonetheless.

“Hey.” Your head snapped up to see Mark at eye level with you, leaning over to bring a hand to your upper arm. “We’d get through it. I know we would.”

But you still looked forward, unblinking, and it only took a second for Mark to realise he was wrong. If he wanted to be scientific about it, he would have just called it trauma bonding – if he wanted to be emotional about it, which he didn’t but he was going to be, he would have thought that all your time together brought you closer, not only because of the danger you experienced, but the comradery. Seeing you in action, seeing you take care of everyone, seeing you be the captain you were meant to be; Mark was sure he understood you. That meant he could see that guilt and shame as clear as day in your eyes.

He let himself fall forward to flop down next to you in your beanbag. Even though he was slightly uncomfortable, pressed against the strangely stiff surface, he stayed right where he was. Nestled against your side. He couldn’t think of a better place to be.

“I don’t understand why you do this.”

“It’s one of my charming quirks.”

You still didn’t feel like laughing, not even at your own poor joke, so you dropped your gaze to Mark. “What are you talking about?” you asked.

“You pretend like you aren’t the captain.”

“Do I?” Plead the fifth or whatever it was people said, and you didn’t care about the irony of you being the one to deny now.

He narrowed his eyes, barely shifting closer but shifting closer regardless. You felt your breath catch in your throat. “Yeah, you do,” he pushed as the hand that was on your arm circled around to the other shoulder. You resisted the voice in your mind that told you to bury your head in his neck, whether that was to avoid hearing him or to relish in his closeness that you never had the chance for.

You didn’t though, head remaining held high, so you were forced to listen when he continued, “You tried to get a smaller crew, you go in on the explorations yourself, you ignore the medics who try to help you.”

Another voice in the back of your mind perked up to rebuke it all, but you silenced it. What would be the point of lying? Mark knew you, you knew he knew you, there was no reason to fight it.

You sighed. “Well, I don’t know.” Your voice was small, smaller than you or Mark had ever heard it, but the admittance felt like it was enough to send a shockwave through the cabin. The jacket that showcased your title to everyone on the planet seemed to blaze in your mind. “Am I really their captain yet?”

“’Yet’?” Mark parroted you, and that was the go-ahead you needed to spill your thoughts.

“I missed the construction of the ship and the selection of the crew. The hour that I got onto the thing, everything went to shit, so many things went wrong. I- I don’t know if I deserve this, being the captain, when I didn’t spend any time with the people running the ship. Hell, even without the whole wormhole thing, we were going to be in cryo-sleep for the entire journey. I wasn’t needed.” The flood of words tumbled out with reckless abandon and then stopped like crashing into a wall like a bike going eighty. You didn’t think you would go through with it otherwise. Inner voices or a sense of decorum threatened to overtake you.

And yet, even though you got to the end of your rant, red-faced and breathless, you were knocked more off-balance by Mark’s question. “How many times did you die?”

“What?”

His eyes were trained on you. “How many times did you die?”

“I don’t remember, maybe thirty?”

“So, you died thirty times for yourself?”

Indignation sparked within your heart. “No, I did it for the ship,” you stated bluntly, “the crew and the colonists.” You weren’t certain what his point was, but if you had to use your authority-voice on him, you were going to.

“Repeat that for me.”

“I did it for…”

That was his point, then. Your shoulders relaxed, though you didn’t notice that you’d raised them, and your eyebrows unfurrowed. In return, Mark’s smile brightened, like he’d caught the canary. Caught you, more like. 

You stared deadpan down at him but brought a hand up to card through his hair. Without his beret, it was looser, more befitting of him as a person instead of the head engineer. The corners of his mouth perked up even more. “See, I don’t like it when you use my own tactics on me.”

His laugh reverberated through your own bones, especially when he dropped his head to your collarbone. It wasn’t awkward, in fact, you were soon chuckling along with him at his happiness more than your joke – it felt natural, but you were still aware that this was the closest you had ever been. Relaxed into the beanbag the two of you now shared, trying to avoid knocking over your flutes of champagne, practically cradling each other in your arms. If the wormhole had been like this, maybe you would have appreciated it more.

“Someone who doesn’t deserve to be captain would have left the ship to explode and taken an emergency pod back to the nearest planet.” His speech, like his trailing off giggles, shook your muscles as sparks of electricity. “They wouldn’t have died for them, and you did. You are their captain.”

Hesitation. You saw it as bright at the sun of your new home in the sky. You saw it rise in Mark’s eyes, you saw it crescendo, and you saw it dip into the horizon.

“You’re my captain.”

Whatever thought ran through his mind, it was gone by the time he pushed through the final inch between you, leaving barely a breath in the interim. You could feel the puffs of hot air bat against your jaw, nose and lips. The role he gave you meant more than the legislation, the rule, the empty title. Now, it was trust. Him in you, and you in him.

For a moment, you thought he might bridge the gap, but his mouth opened before anything could progress. That didn’t mean either of your minds had strayed from the idea. He whispered under his breath, as if it would escape the room had he spoken any louder, “Do you want to have dinner tomorrow night?”

“As in a date?”

“Yeah. A date.”

Mark could feel his heart beating faster. He could have denied it and represented it something like the scenario you were in now. There was a part of him that thought he should have; it shied away from the very possibility of rejection and cowered in the clasp of regulations and human resources. But he had already taken the leap, the words hovering in the air. It would be a proper date – with candles and music and something better to eat than soup in a Styrofoam bowl. You’d talk about whatever came to mind, plans for the future instead of the past, and you’d share a bottle of wine as you spoke. The flicker of flame would highlight you from below and he would see exactly what he was describing in your eyes. His future. If the night went well, you’d clear the table together, strangely domestic against the memories of the journey over, and then, with the candlelight still dancing on the table before the fire was snuffed out, he hoped to share a kiss together. He could almost feel it already.

While his imagination was a thing to behold, it could not take credit for that sensation, but while Mark was so lost in his prospects, he failed to notice that the future was coming to pass. Or some of it, anyway.

You weren’t sitting at a table, a glass of wine and wax dripping onto the table; you were closer than before, with your lips pressed against his and your eyes closed.

Mark was knocked breathless. The sensation was nothing he could have predicted; the pressure was soft, gentle, like a silk ribbon, but the texture exposed how you would bite the same places when you were worried. Worried? What reason did you have to be worried? You were the greatest captain he had ever heard of, let alone known. He wanted to tell you just that, but he was preoccupied, for obvious reasons, with pushing you down against the hill of the beanbag. Maybe he was bias – your groan reverberated through his skin – but he didn’t really have a choice – your fingertips skimmed across his hair – and he was sure that you were objectively the best anyway – your teeth grazed over his lips – so it didn’t really matter. He brought one of his own hands to hover over your jaw, barely making contact until a particular hum had him brushing his thumb across your cheek. You leaned into it, as if it were a military ration, and he supposed it must have felt like that. Roles like yours didn’t tend to come with company.

Inwardly, he pledged that he would never let you feel alone again.

Outwardly, in an ill-fated scuffle to reposition himself, a dull thunk and something spilling onto the floor caused the two of you to slowly, begrudgingly, part. A few puffs of air settled between you as you turned to see Mark’s semi-full glass that had fallen over.

With a laugh, you settled your head against Mark’s shoulder, both to stabilize yourself and spare him the embarrassment of a steadily reddening face.

“So, that date tomorrow?” Despite the last five minutes, Mark couldn’t help but be shaky in asking. Either that, or it was aftereffects of his heart going 210 instead of the normal 60 beats per minute.

“As long as,” you whispered before grabbing your own champagne for another sip, “we get to find a large body of water tomorrow.”

“That sounds a lot like an ocean, Cap.”

“Well, if you insist, we can find an ocean.”

With your final poke at his expense, enough to wave away the remaining fog of tension no matter the nature, you downed the last of your champagne and settled further into your beanbag. For once, you didn’t regret taking a break, and you were sure you would need another breather after the excavation the following day.

“It’s my project, it has my name signed on the documents.”

So far, the day had proven successful. Three more biomes were scouted out, one of them being a potentially perfect site for farming, and the first real town had been built. At the beginning, it had looked like one of those places built to test nuclear weapons – but then, just two hours ago, they had moved the first colonists into their houses. You had been there to greet them, shake their hands and pass them the keys, but you had to leave before they could get fully settled. Besides, that was Celci’s job. The whole transfer from cryo operation was under her jurisdiction.

However, now that the residents were all making beds and organizing cupboards, Mark had to deal with her. And by deal with her, he meant argue, because there wasn’t another way the situation could ever turn out.

Presently, the pair were standing outside a section of the colony, Mark’s section, with blueprints in hands and scowls on faces. A slap against the paper was followed by Celci’s gesture towards the energy source.

“That means you were the one who started to involve cryo-tech, and that means I need to have some input.”

Mark scoffed, even though he knew full well that she was, technically, just barely, if you looked at it a certain way, correct. Just the word cold was her full job description, but he assumed he would get away with it if she were busy with other things. How wrong he was. Ever the eye for detail, Celci had searched through all the project applications, filtering for anything below 30 degrees, and then promptly set up meetings with all the leads. She wasn’t aware that it was Mark heading this one until she walked up the concrete path. Mark wasn’t aware that it was Celci he was meeting with until he heard her groan.

Go figure, they had made no progress.

“You know, I would love to prove you wrong on this,” Mark hissed, “but, unlike you, I can’t spend all day arguing about this.”

Was it backhanded to boast about your date and use it to get away from an argument, which he totally wasn’t losing, in one sentence? Probably. Was he doing it anyway? Yes.

However, Celci wasn’t one to give up that easily. Mark barely got two steps backwards before she took one toward him in return. “No, you know I’m right, so you’re running away.”

“Actually, I have a date tonight.” The pride and amazement took over the scowl on his face. For a moment, he forgot he was talking to someone and that he wasn’t just staring into his mirror, trying to convince himself it wasn’t a dream while he picked out an outfit.

“Who with? Your Roomba?”

In any other situation, he would have leaned into the mockery, tried harder to think of a better comeback, but the truth worked well enough. With a grin, Mark corrected, “The Captain.”

A flurry of emotions danced over Celci’s face that Mark was so glad he was able to see. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her confused before, much less shocked, though there were plenty of times she looked at him with endless doubt. They rolled over and over like a broken projector before she finally landed on a stranger expression – bemusement.

“Finally.”

It was his turn to look confused.

She tutted and looked him dead in the eye. “You can’t think that nobody’s seen the love-sick puppy look you give them when they’re nearby.”

The splutter was hard to contain, despite it being very obviously undignified, but it was harder to get back on his feet. So many questions swirled around his mind, most of them trying to preserve whatever image he thought he presented, but he came up blank. It was, annoyingly, likely that she was once again right. But it wasn’t his fault, not when you were, well, you. Of course, he wouldn’t call it love-sick, though that didn’t stop it from being accurate. 

Mark’s lack of response was enough for Celci to know she’d caught him red-handed. Just typical. With the upper hand, she continued, “But I happen to know that your dinner isn’t until seven, so that gives us five hours for you to see reason.” He tried to protest, opening his mouth to ask how she actually found that information out, before she held up a hand. “Or, what, does it take that long to get your hair like that?”

Inwardly, Mark cursed her. He lost his way out of the conversation, and, in doing so, was welcomed by the colony’s rumor mill. What a prize. At least things weren’t spun out of proportion, but he would have preferred the date to be private at first. He could only hope that the crew had enough sense to leave them alone for the night.

Right now, however, he still had to prove to Celci that he didn’t need her supervision.

“I just don’t understand why you want to get involved with this!” he groaned.

“Because it’s a safety issue if I don’t.”

“It’s not gonna explode.”

“You’ll find a way.”

“I’m not doing anything outside of regulations, it—”

A crackle. Something like a fire burning. His heart rate piped up. Celci started to spin, but Mark was quick to grab at his belt. The walkie-talkie was stirring from its sleep in one of the pouches. He preferred the tech they’d designed for the mission, but he wouldn’t deny you your pieces of Earth. Plus, the stickers were always a bonus.

He drew Celci’s attention as he pressed the button down. Silently, he waved away her own smug grin – the one that told him he looked exactly like a love-sick puppy.

“Hey, Cap, everything alright?”

You never stuck with the whole over and out thing. It was the compromise given they had replaced it with a light to show when the other side’s button was pressed down. To Mark, it made more sense and improved efficiency. What was concerning, though, was that the light was on, red and blazing, but you weren’t talking.

He pressed it closer to his ear. 

Just breathing.

“Cap? Captain, are you okay?”

He was struggling to keep his smile.

Especially when your voice whispered through the machine, gravelly and choked, as if there were hands wrapped around your neck.

“Hey, Mark.”

“Captain.”

“I’m, uh—” You were broken apart by a cough, “—prob’ly gonna be late to dinner—” Another cough, “—tonight.”

It sounded like your lungs were being ripped at the tubes and emptied. Mark’s heart felt like it was shattering.

“Where are you?”

Radio silence. The shards cracked further and refracted the light into searing flames through his veins. Just as sharp, he brought his gaze up to Celci.

“Where is the Captain right now?”

“Didn’t make a copy of their schedule?”

It was meant to be banter, a little poke at their relationship, something to get a deadpan look and an eye roll.

Mark looked more scared than she had ever seen him.

“Third excavation site. North.”

And, at the final word, he was gone, sprinting down the concrete path. The wind carried him in subtle support while some of the crew watched the storm rush past them. They had no clue what was happening, but neither did Mark. He only knew that he had to get to you, no matter what. He had to be there for you.

The walkie felt like it was burning in his grip. An omen and a promise at the same time. He pulled it to his mouth, as though just hearing his voice clearer would let him understand everything. “Cap, Cap, come on, what happened?”

Nothing. Silence outside of his body, which itself sounded like a zoo set loose. It was the eeriness of a broken submarine. He could hear the crunching of the water against the sides as it threatened to ball the metal up with the ease of a wad of paper, but there was still a dismal quiet in the meantime.

“Captain!”

And he couldn’t do a damn thing to help.

Some of the pressure released when he heard your whisper, “Cave in.” It was decorated with crackles and pops, but he heard it crystal clear, every single one of your words its own speech. “Do-don’t come, Mark, don’t.”

His footsteps picked up impossibly faster to match his heart rate.

“I swear, I will,” you choked for a second before you were saved with a cough, “I will pull rank on you.”

“You can do that later. When you’re not crushed under rocks. You can do it at dinner.”

“Mark, I’m not…”

“Yes, you are!”

He swept round a corner. The danger signs for the excavation site came into view. Just a little longer. He didn’t know if you had a little longer. Your breathing was already ragged when you called, and it was getting worse. He knew he should have been pouring all of his energy into getting to you – for once, he admitted it would be better for him to shut up and focus – but he couldn’t handle the silence.

“Okay, okay, pull rank on me,” he pleaded, “just keep talking. Please.” You yielded to his request with a smile that he couldn’t see. “You named the colony yet?” His job. Technically, it was supposed to be the captain who named the colony, but you had given that duty to him. You’d argued that he was the one to choose the planet, so he should have been the one to name it. Just the thought of it made him sick to his stomach. It was too early for delegation, you didn’t need to do it yet, and there would be no reason to later because you would be alive and well. You’d do your job and he’d do his. There would be no exchange because a role couldn’t be filled.

But the declaration was fueled by doubt even in his own mind. 

“No, I was waiting for you,” Mark answered.

“You should name it.”

“I’m waiting for you.”

Another cough, as if your own body was working to supply your point. “Can’t wait forever.”

“I won’t be.”

The lack of response stirred something horrible in his gut when he slid into the entrance to the rock site. He pushed past the gates and tape, snagged protective gear from its place hanging off the fence, and immediately rushed to the directors. They were shambling about with checklists in hand and smiles on faces. Mark wanted to laugh, cry, freeze still in his boots. Everything looked so optimistic. This was advancement for a colony of a size like this.

Days later, when the clock would strike midnight and Mark would lay in his bed with the sheets askew and pillows scattered, he wouldn’t remember what he said to the workers he spoke to. Whether he interacted with them, or they interacted with him, it didn’t matter. His words were lost to him in the haze of overwhelming urgency and underwhelming panic. Medics arrived and excavators were called over. He only knew that because a few of them went in with him to the mouth of the cave – if some kind of legal body was contacted, he wasn’t aware of it because they never showed in front of him, and they weren’t helping him find you.

One detail he did recognize though was the tug at the walkie from one of the directors that caused Mark to pull back like a feral cat. They seemingly decided not to risk it, and simply slipped another walkie in his belt. Of course, you’d given the rest of the crew those things, instead of the highly modernized tech that would have stopped this entire thing from happening in the first place – but he couldn’t be mad at you. It wouldn’t have been you otherwise. 

They backed off quickly when they were done, and he held the original close to his chest until he was well within the tomb- not tomb, cave. A normal cave.

He had to find you.

The team he entered with was small. You always liked close-knit things, he supposed that was why you went in by yourself. Something about comradery. You were too old-fashioned for your own good.

He would tell you that at dinner, give you a light smack on the wrist and a kiss on the cheek.

“Mark, are you still there?” Your voice through the walkie reminded him of where he was. Where you were. You sounded terrible, considerably worse than last you spoke, but that was to be expected. 

Focus.

“Of course. I’m not leaving.”

“Thank you."

His heart would have melted had he not been so hyped up on the rush of adrenaline and intangible fear.

“Can you describe what you can see?”

“Lotta rocks.” Your laugh turned into a gravelly groan. “I see a light.”

“Don’t go towards it.”

“I don’t have much choice.” Mark was blissfully unaware of your joke because he was also blissfully unaware that your legs had been mangled by rocks splitting apart your bones and muscles, pulverized like the aftermath of an old blender fed with sticks and banana. You were glad he was.

He was able to, instead, drop down off a ledge deeper into the cave, which was very quickly becoming more of a cavern. It had the distinct feeling of being trapped in an ant hill, with some spaces widening and then others trailing off into sharp points. Wherever you were, getting out would be a problem, too, but seeing a light meant that you were either incredibly deep or just by the surface. He was hoping for the latter.

The next drop down was not promising.

Neither was the walkie startling to life again with your voice. “You know,” you croaked, “when we were in the wormhole, I didn’t think it would end like this.”

“It’s not ending like this.”

You let the words sink into metal grating of the machine before you spoke again, “I thought I’d be shot in that noir place or stay frozen in a cryo-chamber for centuries, I didn’t think I’d just be, uh, crushed.”

The way you phrased it was so inelegant that Mark nearly snorted. However, the reality didn’t let it breach neo-daedism territory.

“Seems a bit boring, in comparison.” He couldn’t tell whether you were mumbling for comedic effect, or your lungs were giving up on you. Uncertainty impaled him like a spear through the chest.

Swallowing, he sighed. “But at least it’s not in the wormhole.”

“At least it’s not in the wormhole.”

It felt too much like a goodbye. A final salute to the ship that sailed off into the distance. Firing the arrow onto the raft. It shouldn’t have given him hope.

But it did; the cavern was bathed with the sunshine from a hole in the ceiling, and the light on the walkie was off.

It didn’t take long to spot you, upper half sticking out from the rubble of a dozen large boulders and even more smaller rocks dusting your back. Frantically, he rushed to your side, barely dodging standing on the discarded walkie a few feet in front of you. You held another to your cheek. Mark wished he had more time to tease you about keeping a whole communicator just for him, then you’d tease him about his own, and then you’d win the argument when he decided to just look at you all alive and active and not steadily dying in a cave. He did not have more time.

He hooked the walkie for the director out of his belt and called for assistance, giving a description of the route he took and then turning it off to pay attention to you.

Your grin was bright but shaky. “You come here often?” 

“Captain…”

“Sorry, bad timing.”

“No, perfect timing.” The chuckle that dripped out from his mouth was tainted by tears brimming in his eyes. He took your hand and tried to ignore how cold it already was. If he had come sooner, would you have more of a chance? Would you have survived? Oh, but you were going to survive anyway, you had to. You were the captain. You were his captain.

“Mark, don’t- don’t get yourself worked up.”

“Or what?”

“Oh, you know.”

He wanted to beg for you to continue the joke. His grip tightened as he brought your hand to his lips. He held it there, waiting, not breathing a single puff of air. The fear of disturbing the scene and being the little bit of wind that a rock needed to jut further into your back was buried deep in his bones.

“Please, just hold on.”

“Mark…”

No.

“Mark, I can’t.”

No, no, no, no.

“I’m sorry.”

Was he saying words?

“They’ll be fine.”

Just a little longer.

“Mark, look… look around, we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?”

His mouth was moving, he was sure of it, but the crackle of the walkie filled his ears in place of his own words.

“You built the ship, you hired the crew, you fixed the warp-core.”

The warp-core. He had done it once before. What’s to say he couldn’t do it again?

“No.”

All that pain, all those deaths, he would do it again.

“Uh-uh. Not this time.”

He would do it for you.

“We got off on chance, you’re not trying that again, Mark, I can’t—”

If you would just let him, he could get you back. He didn’t understand why you were resisting. It would be so easy. You would get to live and lead the colony and be the captain that you always wanted to be.

But he couldn’t deny that it was a lot of woulds. And he couldn’t go through with it without your support. The tears in your eyes were not from pain but from fear, and not even for yourself. You were scared for him. Your head engineer.

“I’m not losing you—” Mark snapped back to the present, “—And, yeah, I know how ironic that is.”

It was ironic, wasn’t it? Not only this situation, but that the two of you, as a pair, had gone through so much together, only to get separated when things had finally calmed down. It was as though you had grown so used to danger that you couldn’t survive without it. Domesticity was not for you, nor was it for Mark. In this lifetime, you would never get a break. And that was one of the two certainties he found.

“So, hey, just- just give me this. Please?”

The other certainty?

“I love you.”

Mark kneeled on the dusty ground of the cave with your hand in his. It was just as cold as the air around you, your breath visible as you sighed a single, “I-…” that trailed off before you could get anything out. The words died in your lungs as your eyes dropped shut.

Mark’s sobs echoed throughout your tomb.

[Did you know this started out as straight fluff? Also, I will forever be scared of the leviathan from Subnautica]

[lostcybertronian]

prompts 5 and 34 for engineer mark please?

Love me some angst. Post-ISWM pt. 2

---

Prompt: “I can’t sleep. Can I sleep here?” / “It’s just you and me.”

You didn’t go down to the planet like the others, preferring to stay on the Invincible II where you could see it and protect it. It had been some days since you’d last seen a wormhole, but the creeping feeling that you’d be sucked into another dimension at any moment had yet to fade. You couldn’t eat. You couldn’t sleep. But you could pace the bridge, staring into (literal) space, pretending you were okay.

“Captain?” 

You turned. Mark stood at the door, refusing to meet your eye. He shifted his weight back and forth, shuffling his feet. “I can’t sleep,” he blurted out, when you didn’t say anything. He gestured to his cryopod, just to the right of the door. “Can I sleep in there? I’m . . . more comfortable there.”

You kept your expression carefully blank even as a maelstrom of thoughts crashed into your mind; Mark here, for decades, entire lifetimes, with nothing but himself and the ship, looking for a solution. Looking for you to be a solution.

“Captain?” Mark asked, and you cleared your throat; you’d been silent too long.

“Of course,” you said, hoping your voice was steady. “You can sleep wherever you want.”

For a moment Mark looked so intensely grateful that you had to avert your eyes. You heard his quiet footsteps as he plodded to his cryopod, and thought even those footsteps were exhausted.

“Do you ever-”

You turned. Mark had the cryopod door open and was half-in, leaning out to talk to you. 

“Do you ever think about how it’s just you and me?” He asked. “Just you and me who know, I mean. What happened.”

Of course you did. It was all you thought about.

You paused a moment to compose your answer. Mark’s stare remained on you, unwavering. 

“It is just you and me,” you said carefully. “But it is you and me. You’ll never be alone with what happened because I know, too.”

For the first time since you’d destroyed the universe, Mark smiled. “Thank you, Captain.” He said. “That makes me feel better.”

He climbed fully into the cryopod, its interior glowing faintly as it booted up. As the door shut and latched you turned back out to look at the massive planet below, glad Mark found your words comforting but wishing you felt the same.

[coff33notforme]

hihi my birthday is coming up soon! i was wondering if you could write how darkiplier, damien, or even engineer mark would react of them not knowing and finding out the day of that it’s my b-day! i hope it’s not too confusing…

A/n: HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY ANON!! I hope you have a great one! ^^, I hope you don't mind that I just did Engineer Mark, I was having trouble writing for the other two, but enjoy none the less!

Would feel incredibly bad if he found out it was your birthday and didn’t know

Especially since the whole crew knew and had been wishing you well and presenting you with gifts throughout the whole day, much to Marks confusion 

He’s on his hands and knees for forgiveness right now

He’ll do absolutely everything to make it up to you no matter how much you reassure him he’ll insist, so there's no real point in arguing with him

There's not that much you can do in space, and even if there was there's certainly not enough time when your the Captain

But Mark is determined to make your birthday a great one, anything you want or need he’ll do it for you

Hungary, but don’t have enough time to make something? Marks got you, Necks cramped but you don’t have time to take a nap? No problem

He’ll try to whip something up for you the day of, but it probably doesn’t go as planned, it was a nice thought though

And even when the days done, Mark hasn’t finished everything he set out to do

Before you settle down getting ready for sleep Mark knocks on your door

Confused you open it, immediately skeptical as to what could have possibly brought Mark here at this time of night 

He’ll simply hush your questions and concerns as he leads you to a distant room in the ship

But as soon as he reveals what he was planning to you, you gasp in delight

In the room Mark set up a small picnic blanket, covered with your favorite snacks and homemade desserts, you don’t know how he managed to acquire all of the sweets but frankly you didn’t really care

Marks eyes twinkled as he watched the excitement spread across your face, Mark let out a surprised yelp when you threw your arms around him, before he chuckled, hugging you back with the same intensity, smiling as you held each-other

“Happy Birthday Cap.” 

SPACE BIRTHDAY WOWOWWO

[leighsartworks216]

Markiplier Egos Masterlist

I have too many links on my main masterlist lol

Main Masterlist

AO3

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The Host

Please Stay - The Host x gn!reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, lots of blood, wound descriptions, implied self-h*rm, awkwardness, just sorta the beginning stages of a crush so it's really cute

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Help - The Host x gn!reader

Warnings: hurt/comfort, depression, intrusive thoughts

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Friendship - The Host x gn!reader

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Cuddles - The Host x gn!reader (platonic)

Warnings: swearing, anxiety, awkwardness

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Blanket Thief - Wilford x gn!reader

Warnings: none, just pure fluff

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Warnings: broken glass, panic attack, swearing, hurt/comfort but mostly fluff

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Wilf Welcoming You Back Home Headcanons - Wilford x gn!reader

Warnings: mentions of food and drink

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Warnings: cat

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My Handsome Guy - trans!Yancy x transmasc!reader

Warnings: dysphoria (not explicit), Yancy calls you “doll” in a gender neutral way, period stuff

-

Breakfast - Yancy x gn!reader

Warnings: swearing, slight paranoia (?), slight abandonment issues

-

Star-gazing - Yancy x gn!reader x Illinois

Warnings: none

-

Solitary - Yancy x gn!reader

Warnings: panic attack, claustrophobia, swearing, hurt/comfort

-

Hyperfixations - Yancy x autistic!gn!reader x Illinois

Warnings: slight swearing???, fluff

-

Darkiplier

Just a Little Dark Drabble - Dark x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

A Thousand Awful Days - Dark x transmasc!reader

Warnings: dysphoria, swearing, fluff

-

Overwhelmed - Part 2 - Dark x (implied) autistic!gn!reader

Warnings: overstimulation/sensory overload, being nonverbal, zoning out, swearing, can be read as platonic

-

Damien and Dark ramble - Damien x gn!reader, Dark x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

Grief - Dark x gn!reader

Warnings: grieving, depression, loss of a pet

-

Period Pains - Dark x AFAB!reader

Warnings: talk of period stuff that may cause dysphoria

-

Trauma (Songfic) - Dark x DA!reader, Damien x DA!reader

Warnings: angst

-

Birthday Wishes - Dark x DA!reader

Warnings: mentions of purgatory, fire/matches and a knife

-

Dark Drabble - Dark x DA!reader

Warnings: none

-

Just A Child - Dark & teenage!gn!reader (platonic)

Warnings: Actor is a creep (implied), hurt/comfort themes

-

Panic Attack Comfort Headcanons - Dark x gn!reader

Warnings: panic attack (obvi), mostly fluff

-

Pretty Boy - King!Dark x masc!reader

Warnings: things get a little spicy 😳

-

Gone, I’m Gone (Songfic) - Dark/Damien x DA!reader

Warnings: explicit descriptions of blood, broken bones, starvation and dehydration, swearing, manipulation, extreme angst

-

Papers (Songfic) - Dark/Damien x DA!reader

Warnings: Actor is an asshole, angst, hurt/no comfort, mentions of some events from WKM

-

Illinois

Of Cowboys, Cave Ins, and Crushes - Illinois x gn!reader

Warnings: being trapped in a small area, death, minor injuries that are not explicitly described

-

Partner - Illinois x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

Free of Charge - Illinois x gn!reader

Warnings: illness, swearing, hurt/comfort

-

Reckless - Illinois x gn!reader

Warnings: death, blood, injury, swearing, ANGST

-

Family Reunion - Illinois, no reader

Warnings: none

-

Stay Safe - Illinois x gn!reader

Warnings: swearing

-

Star-gazing - Illinois x gn!reader x Yancy

Warnings: none

-

Careful Not To Fall In Love - Illinois & Indiana Jones

Warnings: none

-

Hyperfixations - Illinois x autistic!gn!reader x Yancy

Warnings, slight swearing??, fluff

-

Damien

Midnight, The Stars and You (Songfic Kinda) - Damien x fem!reader

Warnings: none

-

Damien and Dark ramble - Damien x gn!reader, Dark x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

Trauma (Songfic) - Dark x DA!reader, Damien x DA!reader

Warnings: angst

-

Gone, I’m Gone (Songfic) - Damien/Dark x DA!reader

Warnings: explicit descriptions of blood, broken bones, starvation and dehydration, swearing, manipulation, extreme angst

-

Sodomy - Damien x male!DA!reader

Warnings: internalized homophobia, religious trauma, hinted emotionally abusive parents, sodomy laws

-

Papers (Songfic) - Damien/Dark x DA!reader

Warnings: Actor is an asshole, angst, hurt/no comfort, mentions of some events from WKM

-

Googleplier

Hug - Google x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

Reader Who Can’t Spell Headcanons - Google x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

First Kiss Headcanons - Google x gn!reader

Warnings: none

-

ISWM

You’re Not The Captain AU

One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Ficlet

-

You’re Another Engineer AU

One

-

Captain’s Log - Ficlet - Addition

-

Dogs in Space Headcanons - ISWM Crew + Captain!reader (Slight Captaineer)

-

Engineer Mark

Kiss It Better - Engineer Mark x gn!reader

Warnings: minor injury, but mostly just fluff

-

Captain, My Captain - Engineer Mark x AFAB!reader

Warnings: period fic, cramps, swearing

-

In My Solitude (Songfic) - Engineer Mark x gn!reader

Warnings: loneliness, depression, possible su*c*dal thought (written in red text just in case), death, heavy angst, maybe a little fluffy at the end but like a sad fluffy

-

I Missed You - Engineer Mark x transmasc!reader

Warnings: being (unintentionally) misgendered

-

#1 Captain - Engineer Mark x gn!reader

Warnings: angst, hurt/comfort

-

Your Captain - Engineer Mark x gn!reader

Warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, loss of identity, overworking

[clemblog]

wawawa captaineer short fic writing

You Can’t Catch Him Now

There’s blood on the side of the ship.

The Captain stood in shock, having watched Mark. Their best friend. Go flying out the window of the ship. There was no time for mourning. The ship was crumbling. They couldn’t save him. They needed to save everyone else.

There’s scratches all over the floor.

They brushed past the markings on the floor where he’d tried to hold on but had ultimately failed. Fixing lift support went off with a breeze.

Shadows of us are still dancing.

They ignored his name on their tablet as they paged the other crew leads. This needed everyone’s assistance.

In every room and every hall,

They promised they’d tell the group what had happened to Mark once the ship was safe. It was hard to focus when they saw him everywhere. Let alone recount what had happened too..

There’s tears falling over the ship,

They explained what had happened, tears rolling down their face under their helmet. Gunther looked like he was going to cry. So did Burt. And Celci. And Tyler. This was hell. This was a nightmare.

You thought that it would wash away.

The group had worked in a sad silence as they got the ship prepared to dock at the nearby habitable planet. Working didn’t make anyone feel better about what had happened.

The bitter taste of his fury,

The Captain laid awake in bed. Tomorrow the rest of the crew would be awakened and they’d have to explain what had transpired on the ship. And who they’d lost. They feared the level of grief that’d run through the ship and any anger that may be directed towards them. They hadn’t saved him…

And all of the messes he made,

They felt guilty for stepping into his quarters. It was an organised mess that was so Mark. They just needed something.. something of his that’d get them through this day.

Yeah, we think that he got away,

It was an emotional docking day onto the planet. The engineering team was a wreck. None of the other crews were much better. They’d only just managed to pull it together to get a camp together on the planet.

But he’s in the trees, he’s in the breeze

The Captain stared fondly at the night sky, the trees covering them mostly from the breeze that played with their hair. They liked this spot. The plantation was a dark red here. Mark’s favourite colour.

His footsteps on the ground,

They found their heart beating a little faster at the sound of heavy footsteps approaching them. Reminding them of Mark. But it was never him. Always just an animal. Or a passing crew member. But more often than not, it was Chica. Their newly adopted doggy daughter.

You’ll see his face in every place,

People with dark hair. Soft brown eyes. Overarching enthusiasm. It was so Mark. They missed him so much. And seeing said individuals made them hurt so much more. But you can’t charge a person for looking like the man you loved. Yeah… The man they loved..

But you can’t catch him now,

They sighed fondly at Chica charging around a field. The Captain held a bag on their hip full of her dog toys. Ever since Mark had… passed… She’d much rather chase the breeze out in the fields and bark at the wind. She never seemed able to catch what she was wanting however. She’d pad back over to them a little downtrodden but with a new determination each time they went back out to play.

Through wading grass, the months will pass,

Chica would slowly start to play with her toys with the Captain, the two wading through the long bladed fields together. When the Captain grew tired however, she’d go back to chasing the wind.

You’ll feel it all around.

Looking after Chica and their crew was slowly healing the Captain’s wounds. Accepting help and giving help was always rewarded with slow walks in the fields and kisses against their skin from a gentle breeze, wiping away their sweat from a busy day.

He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere.

It was a never soft day snuggled up with Chica under the night sky for the Captain. Staring up at the sky that had taken Mark away from them. It was so cruel. Yet so beautiful. It was so… Mark.

But you can’t catch him now.

They hoped wherever the universe had laid him to rest, that he was happy there. Maybe laid in a bed of flowers. Coated in a blanket of leaves to act as the coffin he’d never get.

No, you can’t catch him now.

He was something the Captain didn’t think they’d ever get over until the day they died. Their heart ached for him everyday. But it’d finally stopped hurting at least.

Bet you thought he’d never do it.

The pain had quelled so much that they opened Engineer Park with a fond smile on their face. A statue of their beloved, stood smiling in the centre announcing him as the beloved creator of the Invincible II. The man who’d achieved the impossible. And brought them all home.

Thought it’d go over my head.

They also headed and sorted through his belongings. A lot of it they’d keep. Some would be given to friends. The rest was gifted to colonists who needed it.

I bet you figured he’d pass with the winter.

With the statue in its prized position, every colonist and crew would remember Mark and his story. Children were given first and middle names matching the great head engineers, in hopes of inspiring the same charm and intelligence in them. The Captain was glad he was held so highly in their new home. It was what he deserved after everything.

Be something easy to forget.

The Captain would chuckle fondly, looking at the list of first generation children they’d mentor with M related names. The children’s eyes were filled with wonder that they were ready to nurture and enlighten. To help them find themselves in this new exciting world.

Oh, you think he’s gone cause he left,

There would still be hard days but the Captain would just walk out to the field with Chica, their old girl. And they’d always feel better.

But he’s in the trees, he’s in the breeze,

Time would have its ups and downs. Especially when Chica finally grew too old to play in the field, the two opting to just relax out there instead. It’s where she’d eventually be laid to rest. The Captain would find the wind up there a lot stronger after such, like there were now two breezes passing through instead of the usual one.

Our footsteps on the ground.

The Captain would follow their beloved dog and dear head engineer not long after, being buried alongside their furry friend, looking up at the sky where the love of their life rested. The three united together at last.

You’ll see their faces in every place.

If you sat out in that lonesome field, you’d feel anything but alone as three separate breezes passed by your face and amongst the flowers.

But you can’t catch them now.

[ciara-clycone]

'Paradoxial' Virus: Ch.2 -Weariness.

Ao3: link

Summary:

Strange things are going on in the Invicinble 2. Electronics are acting up. Eerie sightings are happening on the ship. No one knows why this is going on. They try to act like it's nothing serious.

But it's having a strange toll on the captain...

Pairings: Captaineer

Warnings for this chapter: None.

Length: 861 words.

As Mark was walking down the hall, he heard Tyler and the other crew member talking. He was planning on ignoring them and continuing on his way when he heard them mention the captain. Immediately, his interest was piqued.

He walked over to them. “What’s this about the captain acting weird?” He asked.

“The captain nearly took of my head with their Alexa,” said the guy, holding out the offending machine, “They just threw it right at me. I nearly got clocked.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like the Captain.Are you ok? They're pretty strong."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Captain came and checked up on me afterwards. They were sorry about it too. But still, the fact they threw it at me shook me up.”

I gotta find out what what’s going on with them, thought Mark.

“Can I have that?” Mark asks, motioning to the Alexa. The guy hands it to Mark, and he leaves them for the Captain’s quarters. Coming upon the captain’s door, he knocked. “Captain?”

“Just a second….” Came the captain’s response. They sounded tired. A few seconds passed.

What are they doing? Mark wondered as he struggled to hear what is going on in the other room. He only heard shuffling and footsteps.

“Alright, come in.” Called the captain.

Mark walked in and saw the Captain at their desk. Papers were strewn across their table.

“Mark,” the captains said, nodding at him. “What brings you here?”

“A little birdie told me you were having trouble with Alexa?” Mark grinned as he held the Alexa out. “I think you might be missing this?”

“Bird’s the word…” the captain mumbled. They shake their head and blink as if they were trying to wake up.

Mark arched an eyebrow at them. “Captain? Are you feeling ok?”

Blinking again, the captain looked up at Mark and then the Alexa, and growled at the bot. “I thought I tossed that thing out.” They murmured.

“You did. One of the crew had it. Said you hit them with it?”

“An accident!” The captain exclaimed. They looked stricken that it had hit someone. “He said he was ok though? I went and apologized to him and checked on him.”

“Yeah, he’s ok. Just still surprised by it.”

“I didn’t know anyone was coming in when I tossed it,” the captain said. “I just wanted to get rid of the dang thing.”

“Why though? This thing is handy.”

The captain shook their head. “It’s cursed, is what it is.”

Mark chuckled. “Why do you say that?”

“Blasted thing keeps telling me where the nearest graveyard is. Like it wants me to go there or something.” The captain glared at it.

“What?” Mark asked,giving the Alexa a perplexed look, “That’s not normal. Not at all… I can check into it for you, if you want?”

“That’d be great, thanks…”

The tiredness in the captain’s voice caught Mark’s attention. “Hey, Captain? You seem more tired than usual.Is anything wrong? I mean beside this weird Alexa stuff.”

The captain let out a sigh and slowly shook their head. “Just feeling tired…. Didn’t sleep well last night.” They shrug it off.

“Why not?” Mark asked.

“Just didn’t.” The captain didn’t really want to tell Mark they were having nightmares.

And that the nightmares weren’t just last night. But every night. That’d make them sound whiny. And gah they were the captain! They were supposed to be the fount of strength and stability on the ship. That would all crumble to nothing if people found out how shaky they got from nightmares. And there was no reason for them to react that way too, or so they figured.. It’s not like nightmares and unpleasant dreams were unusual or anything.

“Hmm… ok…” Mark said, skeptically. He picked up the Alexa. “Well, I’ll take this little rascal out to the lab and see what’s going on with it.”

“Sounds good. Thanks….” The captain said, nodding. They returned to their work, or at least acted like they were working. In truth, they were still out of it but wanted to look like they were ok. At least while Mark was there.

Goodness! The last thing they wanted to do was fall apart in front of him. It was why when he knocked on the door, they scrambled off from the floor and made it look like they were hard at work on projects or something.

Marl hesitated a moment, watching the captain. He felt something was seriously off with them but he couldn’t place it. And it seemed like something more than just tiredness.

The captain paused in what they were doing and looked up. They raised an eyebrow. “Is there something else?” The question wasn’t sharp sounding, more just stated quietly.

Mark paused a moment. Should he come out and say that he suspected something was going on with them? He wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt it in his bones that there was something wrong.

“Well….”

“Engineering paging Mark. There’s something up with one of the engines. We need you to come down and check it out.”

“Oh uh nevermind…” Mark sighed. Guess asking the captain will have to wait.

[thebowieconstricker]

Here’s a snippet of an angsty Darkiplier one shot I’m writing from the perspective of a Captain that found peace with Engineer Mark in a safe universe! I know you didn’t ask but here it is anyways!

The Captain enjoyed a warm mug of hot chocolate, lounging on their leather couch in front of the fireplace. Mark was putting the finishing touches on some sort of festive treat. He’d been talking it up all day, claiming to be an “expert” at baking and swearing that his latest concoction would knock the Captain’s socks off. The Captain simply laughed at his enthusiasm and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Mark would blush, shut up for a moment, and then pivot to another topic. After listening to his rants all day, the Captain enjoyed the peaceful ambiance of the crackling fire in front of them. They smiled at the warm mug they held in front of them. Mark had lovingly added several tiny marshmallows that were melting in the chocolate-y goodness. “Just because I love you so much,” he had said.

As the Captain took a sip, they heard a knock on the door. They didn’t have the faintest clue who it could be, as they weren’t expecting company this evening. Had Mark invited Gunter over?

“Who’s that, Cap’n?” Mark called from the kitchen.

The Captain mentally crossed out their initial idea.

“I’ll see, don’t worry.” They stood up from the couch, putting down their mug. Now standing, they took a deep breath. They adjusted their attire, attempting to smooth out the wrinkles and brush away the crumbs from snacks they had eaten earlier. Yes, it had been years since the Invincible II had landed on their new home planet, but the Captain knew that their community still looked up to them. They had to present an up-kept appearance at all times.

The Captain walked over to their front door, placing a hand on the doorknob and giving it a twist. They pulled the door open.

Their eyes widened.

They registered the figure in front of them.

Mark’s height, Mark’s hair, Mark’s eyes. But not him, no.

The Captain would recognize him anywhere.

“Y/N.” Darkiplier spoke, staring the Captain down with pitch black eyes.

[ardenwritesegos]

The Entity Comes Out to Play

Intro

Every once in a while, the entity gets antsy. It has, after all, been confined to a single manor for centuries. A spell ensured the epicenter of it could never fully escape. It didn't, however, prevent the thing from spreading its madness to the outside world. That much was proven over 100 years ago. But we don’t need to get into the details now. What’s the fun in giving everything away? No, the readers want to see the good stuff; to see the pain, whether it be physical or emotional. And it so happens that the entity can do just that. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started. And who better to start with than a certain guilty engineer.

Chapter 1

It was just another night of work for engineer mark. The googles needed yet another addition to their devices, forcing him–at least, in his eyes–to pull another all-nighter. Chase tried his very best to get him away from his desk, but nothing would do it. Sometimes, not even the threat of carrying him to bed would sway Gin’s stubbornness. The desk was strewn with blueprint paper and coffee mugs. Still, even all that caffeine couldn’t stop his eyes from desperately trying to close. He shook his head in an attempt to keep himself awake. Regardless, his lids were feeling heavy, heavier than they ever were during an all-nighter. Well, there’s a first for everything. Another cup of coffee would surely do the trick. The instant Gin stood up, everything seemed to spin for a moment, before weighing down on him. The weight pushed him back into his chair. He tried again to get out of his chair. The slightest movement up triggered yet another bout of dizziness. What the fuck was happening? Whatever it was, there was no way he was getting out of his chair. If anything, he could probably call for Chase–

No voice.

No noise.

The engineer tried to open his mouth, but found it was bound shut by…something. Certainly nothing he could feel. He was stuck in his chair, slightly lower than one would usually sit. And now, he couldn’t even call for help. This had to be a dream. It had to be. Otherwise, he was going insane. Gin knew nobody with powers in the house would mess with him like this. There was no other explanation than him not being awake.

So quick to think it’s a dream.

So quick to think it’s not real.

You’re wide awake.

Do you know what’s real?

The whispering voices were quick to overwhelm him.

You are here.

We are here.

We can help you.

Let us in.

He felt as if they were burrowing into his brain from his ears.

It’s weighing on you.

The Guilt.

You’ve hurt so many.

You want to forget.

He…he did want to forget. It always lingered in the back of his mind, all of the actions that lead him here. He can hear the crystal powering up.

You can forget.

You can be happy.

Let us help you.

Let us in.

This was insane, he was going nuts. What-? Why did he almost consider it? Why…why wouldn’t he? He wanted to be happy. He wanted to forget. He could open his mouth again.

Your voice is returned.

Say the words.

“I let you in.”

Repeat.

The engineer opened his mouth, speech still a struggle.

“I…I…”

“I let you in.”

Repeat.

The voices increased in volume, but only by a hair.

“I..” He breathed.

“I let..I let you–”

“How’s everything in here?” Chase came in through the open door, making Gin’s soul jump from his body for a moment. Within seconds, every sensation from seconds ago was gone. He turned around, giving Chase a look at him.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Chase could see the pure fear radiating off Gin’s face

“Uh..” Gin hesitated to say what happened, not sure himself what it was.

“I’m..I’m fine. Just a bad dream,” due to exhaustion, and overall fright, he wasn’t trying his best, in terms of lying. Luckily, Chase bought it right away.

“Must have been a really bad one,” Chase replied, quickly making his way to the engineer’s desk.

“You haven’t looked like this for a good bit,” he leaned on the chair.

“Do ya wanna go to bed?” Engineer looked at the analog clock across from him. It read 3:00 am from his bedside table.

“I don’t…I don’t know…” he looked down, resisting the urge to word vomit about whatever the fuck just happened to him. For all he knew, it could’ve just been a–

(So quick to think it’s a dream.)

He shook his head, trying to erase it like an etch-a-sketch.

“Maybe you just need some company right now,” Chase suggested.

“Like, I don’t know, some snacks and a game of ‘who wakes up next’?” he added, trying to lighten the mood. Well, it worked causing a small smile to form on the engineer’s face.

“It’s not that hard,” Gin began.

“It’s always doctor german or doctor ‘you’re dying.’”

“You never know, it could change up,” Chase replied.

[spookieypookie]

"I see the danger, it's written there in your eyes." | Shock | "You in there?"

Word count: 991

Read it on ao3

"Hi Captain."

Before I could even take in what was happening I was knocked to the ground, the pain rendering me temporarily blind.

My vision was blurry and my hearing was unclear.

The extinguisher fell to the ground with a muffled clank as he walked towards me. His boots slowly came into view.

I reached out for support and he grabbed my hand.

"Sorry about that, couldn't afford to let you make another mistake."

Before I could pull myself up, he took pliers, forcefully removing the warp crystal from my palm.

The pain was once again blinding, the shock from it going all the way up my arm.

"Hmm, yeah. Funny thing to say after an eternity of nothing but second chances-"

He twirled his fingers around the crystal. With no other ideas, I reached for it.

He grabbed my hand. "Don't."

His tone was uncompromising. His eyes that were once warm and comforting were cold as they stared into mine. Where had my dear head engineer who was willing to do anything for me gone? He used to trust me with his life and now he wouldn't trust me to make a single decision. It was such a harsh juxtaposition to the conversation I'd just had with his older self. So different from the Mark I was used to.

"You don't have to keep trying anymore," Mark got up from where he was, walking towards the warp core. "There's no time anyway." He giggled at himself, "Another thing I thought I'd never say again. But I'm going to fix the damage you caused. I have a long time to spend rebuilding this machine you broke."

What does he mean? I never broke the warp core, did I?

"A long time, over too many lives… But I know now that this thing does more than just make wormholes." He placed the crystal into the machine. Light and sound emitted from it as it turned on, its power source restored.

"Distance and time are the same thing from different perspectives. That's all these universes are, just different points of view." He stood, walking towards the control panel. "And this machine didn't just bridge a tunnel through our universe. It was bridging all of them." The anger crept back into his voice. "And you destroyed it." He shook his head.

I wanted to tell him I never destroyed it. Wanted to explain. Wanted to change his mind. Stop his monologue. But I couldn't. He was too far gone. He'd made up his mind and nothing was going to change that.

"I can't undo what you've done. Not here anyway. Or at least not now," he pulled the lever.

Warp core engaged.

"If I could go back."

I needed to stop him. It's what old Mark warned me about. But how?

"If I could try again. If I could stop you before any of this even started, maybe I could save everyone."

I wanted to cry. This is what created the paradox in the first place wasn't it? But how could I stop him?

Warning. Paradox detected.

"What? What the hell does that mean?"

I seized the opportunity to throw sand in his face. I could thank old man Mark for that one.

Temporal lock unstable.

"What the hell was that? Is that sand? Who throws sand?!"

I got to the control panel, typing in everything I could. Frantically trying to shut it down before he could stop me.

Paradox detected.

I reached to pull the crystal out the core.

He grabbed my hand, stopping me again.

"Captain no! You'll destroy everything! Again!"

Target arrival date not guaranteed.

The unstable warp core created a wormhole breaking the ship.

We started to float in the air so I grabbed the railing and Mark as quickly as I could.

"Captain, Captain! Don't let go! Don't let go!" Mark screamed in terror as he started to get sucked in.

I was holding onto him, trying my best to save his life. Why has this happened so many times before? Saving him from the black hole from the broken window… we've lived too many lives and they've all been in one big circle.

"Wait. Let me go."

Why was Mark such an idiot? Did he want to get killed? Pulled apart by the gravitational force of this thing? He says that his deaths weren't so bad, that his body can handle it, but he can't! What was he hoping to achieve?

"Captain, please. I can fix this. Look, I don't know what you did."

Well that makes two of us.

"And maybe you didn't mean to, but I have to stop you."

Stopping me won't prevent any of this. Old man Mark 'stopping' me just led to more unstable paradoxes and problems. I wish I could tell him the mistake he's making.

"I have to! God, I wish I had thought of a fake hand or something."

The memories of old man Mark's confrontation were honestly giving me whiplash at this point.

"Please! This is it! This is the end of everything. Everyone that ever existed is going to get wiped out unless you let me go!"

I looked to the warp core. How could I stop it?

"Captain! Please!"

His begging was getting to me. I know he thought this was the right choice. But I knew it wasn't. So I kept holding on for our dear lives.

"I have to keep trying. I have to."

I had made my choice.

"Please! Let me go! I know I can fix everything. I know there's a perfect solution, I just have to find it! Please! Captain!"

I reached for the warp core as best I could without letting my grip on Mark loosen.

"Captain no! Captain, don't do it!"

I ripped the crystal from its machine and threw it into the open chasm of the wormhole.

"Captain!"

It imploded.

Alert. Paradox resolved. Para..dox re..solved. Para…dox …re…solved.

[aceforwhatevenisthis]

Okay, I've got a request. An angst filled Captain (who is also Y/N from Heist and DA from WKM) who is very distraught about not being able to share everything they've been through before the Invincible II with the Engineer because they are afraid to confide in him, because they suspect that this is yet another role of the Actor and they have no idea who to trust. What will come out of this premise is up to you!

omg anon i LOVE the way you think! hehehehe i had fun with this one, definitely came easier to me than fluff lmao

Enjoy!

TW: panic attack, unreliable narrator

----------------

The Captain sat forward in their chair. Their hands were splayed on their desk. Mark stood at the room’s door with his arms crossed and a leg over the other. He looked smug. What else was new?

“A toast?”

“Yeah! We’re on day 241 since the last reset.” Mark smirked as he offered the Captain a glass of red wine. “I counted.”

“Evidently,” said the Captain. They graciously accepted the glass and opened their visor, revealing their face. They had a relaxed smile. “What a life.”

“Well, life is for the living, eh?” Mark said, grinning.

What?

Distantly, something crashed. Maybe fell. 

No. That smile. It’s uncanny. No no no no no no no no no no

“Hey-- Captain? What’s wrong?” 

He can’t be back. He can’t he can’t he can’t

“Captain?”

Why? WHy is he here

“Captain--”

He killed me. He did this he did this he did this it’s all his fault he did this

“Captain!” 

The Captain gasped. They brought a hand up to their chest and could feel their lungs heaving in the sterile air. The walls were cold. Too cold. It felt almost suffocating --- this suit felt suffocating. A suit? A formal suit. One for a party or a business conference or a date or a judicial proceeding--- no, a space suit. With a helmet and everything. Space suit. Helmet? Close it. Done. Check. 

Mark was crouched in front of them. He started to reach out to the Captain but stopped. “Captain, is it okay if I touch you?”

The Captain shook their head.

“Okay. Well-- yeah, that’s okay.” Mark sat down. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Another head shake. No. 

Mark nodded and eventually, as he sat and waited, the Captain’s breathing slowed down enough

“Where--” Their throat felt dry. “Where did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Mark!” the Captain yelled. They banged their face on the metal walls. Mark looked concerned. Then, after a deep breath, in a quieter voice, they said, “...the saying.”

“Life is for--?”

The Captain nodded solemnly.

Mark scratched his head. “I dunno. I think I heard it in some video on the holonet once. I thought it sounded cool. Real poetic.”

Narcissistic bastard--

……

if this is really him. 

“Captain, do you mind me asking why?”

Tell him. He’s your friend. “It’s nothing. I just needed to… ground myself.” 

Not a friend?

Mark looked like he had something to say but the Captain started to get up and he moved quickly to support them. The Captain jolted. Hesitantly, they accepted the help. Mark helped them move to their desk chair. But then his hands grabbed at the Captain’s helmet, mere inches from their visor, and their arms reflexively stopped him, gripping his wrists harshly. 

“What are you doing?” Fear laced the Captain’s voice.

“Removing your helmet? You sounded like you hit the wall really hard and--”

“Who gave you permission to do so, Head Engineer?”

“But. We’re old friends. You’ve said this is okay before--”

“I will not repeat myself.”

Mark gaped. He took a step back and tightened his hands behind his back, maybe rubbing at his wrists while he was at it. He looked small. “Apologies, Captain. Permission to leave?”

“Granted.”

As soon as Mark left, the Captain turned off the lights. In the comfort and anonymity of the darkness, they struggled to stifle a sob.

[warped-au]

You receive a strange tablet designed by the United Stability Agency. A prototype for a guide meant for traveler's of the Multiverse. However, multiversal travel has been outlawed for the common people for decades... You turn on the strange device and it boots up. This is what the welcome message has to say:

“We here at the United Stability Agency are determined to provide all of our travelers a unique and fun experience and so have provided you with this Guide we call The Traveler’s Guide to The Multiverse. Inside you will find all the information you need about wherever you are traveling. As you know space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. Then, of course, you’d know how unimaginably big the Universe™️ is, considering it contains space and well, everything. So you can't even begin to think how absolutely massive the multiverse is. If the Universe™️ contains everything, then the Multiverse contains anything and everything in between. That is to say, the Multiverse is infinite.  Everyday we make thousands of decisions, and with each of these a Multiverse is created in which we make a different decision. In some cases, that Universe may play out a lot like the one you're in, and in others you may somehow have hot dogs for fingers. If you can think of a possibility, it probably exists somewhere in the Multiverse. But of course for how infinitely wide Multisverses are, they also infinitely fold in on themselves, like Russian nesting dolls. This is because stories within Universes also birth their own Multiverses as well. This creates another whole set of possibilities. And within those Multiverses another set of Multiverses also exist (commonly called fanfiction in some Universes).  Sometimes what can happen in these Multiverses is a crossing of different Multiverses causing what we call Anomalies. These Anomalies can look like anything: sometimes objects, sometimes people, sometimes several different things or people at once. The thing about Anomalies is they typically can switch up the way the Universe plays out despite the choices the other characters– sorry, people– make. They can really turn the story upside down, topsy turvy, or get real whacky. You get what I'm saying.  Most of the time, these Anomalies don't even realize it, and most definitely those within the Universe don't know they're any different. Unless, of course, it's a Universe in which they do. Now to tell you little about the Universe™️ you will be traveling through: This is a Universe nestled deeply within the Multiverse known as the Markiplier Cinematic Universe (MCU). But what's more, it is one that crosses paths with a Universe known as the Liskaverse. This is important to note, as there are many different Universes in the MCU 'nesting doll' that cross paths with the Y/N Universe. Some prefer to travel to those Universes and don't particularly care for specific Y/N Universes, which is just fine.  However, if you are interested in still traveling with us, let us tell you a little about the Liskaverse. The Liskaverse is both an infant Universe and very old at the same time. That is to say, it's been cooking for a very long time and has only existed in reality for a very short time. There are several different Liska’s and most are very different from one another. But one branch of the Liskaverse converges with the Y/N Universe which is how it found its way to the MCU. It is the convergence of both of these Universes that has created this unique pocket of the Multiverse.       It can be hard to track all these Multiverses and where they tie into each other or how. Sometimes it can make you feel crazy, like staring at walls covered in red string. You do not need to worry about all that.       With all of this said, we do hope you enjoy your travels through the Universe™️.  Best of luck, –The Traveler's Guide to the Multiverse Writing Team

[neon-aliens]

Blood Covered Apologies

Mark spent an eternity rebuilding that machine. He’s furious when the Captain rips it all away.

Or

The Captain gets beat UP

Word count: 4.4k

TW: warning for violence, Mark loses it on the Captain and they get their shit rocked pretty hard.

Also on AO3

“Hi Captain.”

Mark only sees the wide eyes of the Captain for a split second before the fire extinguisher he’s swinging slams into the side of their head with a satisfying thunk. Some dark and twisted part of him lights up as he sends them sprawling to the floor, the impact more than enough to stun them motionless.

“Sorry about that Captain.” He speaks in a voice laced with mockery, sneering at them as he carelessly tosses the fire extinguisher to the side. A harsh metallic noise rings out when it hits the floor, making the Captain wince. “But I couldn’t afford to let you make another mistake.”

Mark moves quickly and approaches the form still lying half dazed on the floor, wasting no time in crouching down in front of them as they struggle to sit up. He doesn’t give them the chance to recover though, snatching their hand and pulling it towards him while he fishes a pair of pliers out from his jacket pocket with the other.

In one smooth motion, he violently rips out the crystal embedded in their hand. Flying sparks of electricity erupt from their palm as the Captain cries out in pain, clutching their wrist and jerking away from him. They stare at him in disbelief, bright red blood running down their hand from the deep indent the crystal left behind, the remaining wound ugly and raw.

Mark doesn’t return their look. Instead, all of his attention is drawn to his own hand, where he holds the crystal in an iron grip. He watches it carefully, like it would disappear into thin air if he didn’t have a constant focus on it. The soft blue glow it gave off was now slightly dulled by the streaks of blood that coated it. “Yeah. Funny thing to say after an eternity of nothing but second chances.”

Out of the corner of his eye he notices movement. It’s the Captain, who’s started to make a pretty sad attempt at taking the crystal back, their hand reaching out for it in a slow, sluggish gesture. Mark almost scoffs at them. Maybe it’s the fact that they have the audacity to try and ruin everything that he’s been working so hard towards that makes him react as aggressively as he does, but he grabs their wrist as hard as he can and snarls at them.

“Don’t.”

He knows that his grip is painful, Mark can see it in the way the Captain’s face screws up from the bruising force, but he still couldn’t really bring himself to care. He was angry. Fuck, he was more than that. He had spent more lifetimes than he could ever hope to count stuck in this cold void of a room, and now they had the nerve to try and undo everything he’d done right after he spent an eternity trying to fix it?

Yeah, screw that. Maybe they deserved to feel something that was anything close to the pain they’d inflicted on everyone else. All the death and destruction in thousands of different universes that they had directly caused. A long time ago Mark wouldn’t have believed the Captain was capable of such a thing. Before, he would’ve defended them to the very end, insisting that it all must be some big misunderstanding. The Captain would obviously never do anything like that without a very good reason.

He knew better now. He had seen it all firsthand.

Mark pulls back and releases their hand, keeping his eyes closely trained on them to watch for any other sign of movement as he stands back up. “You don’t have to keep trying anymore. There’s no time anyway.” At that he really does scoff at his words. “Another thing I never thought I’d say again.” The Captain opens their mouth like they’re about to say something but Mark cuts them off, pointing his finger at them sharply. “But I’m going to fix the damage you caused,” he says with a hard determination in his tone, walking over to the warp core and clutching the crystal tightly in his hand. Damage might actually be an understatement to what they had done, but the Captain still had the nerve to look shocked at his words. What, did they think that they could abandon him in this empty room for an eternity while they went out and destroyed countless universes for fun, and he’d be just fine with it? Maybe the Captain was more egotistical than he thought.

Or maybe they just thought so low of you they assumed you would blindly follow them anywhere, an ugly voice in his head hissed.

He shook his head at the thought and tried to focus back onto the task at hand, shoving down all the quickly rising anger at his past admiration of the Captain. Save the universe now and emotions later. “You see I’ve had a long time to rebuild this machine you broke.”

He pauses at that. After a few beats he adds, “A long time, over too many lives.”

Mark tried his best to ignore the memories that came rushing back whenever he thought about the warp core for too long. The endless cycle of waking up in this room over and over again, left alone to slowly rebuild the warp core over god knows how many years. No one ever came to help him, none of the doors ever slid open, it was just him and the dull hum of the ship engine. He clawed at the walls until his fingers bled and he would pass out only to wake up and do it all over again. He would scream for it all to stop until his voice was hoarse, and even beyond that until his voice gave out completely and he couldn’t scream anymore. Mark did everything he could think of to try and find some way out of here, but no matter where he went or what walls he kicked at, nothing in the room ever changed. It was always the same. Too quiet, too bright, and far too lonely.

He thought about the Captain more times than he’d like to admit now. He spent a long time wishing that just maybe they’d show up and help him, tell him what to do or how to stop the hell he was trapped in, something. That was their job as the leader of the ship after all. They were supposed to give him guidance, and that was a role that Mark trusted them to do. Some days that was the only hope he could hold onto, that the Captain would somehow show up, rescue him, and find a way to fix everything that he couldn’t.

But they never did. Mark was left to rebuild the warp core by himself with nothing but his thoughts and the maddening silence to keep him company. He bit the inside of his cheek at the reminder. That wasn’t something he wanted to think about right now, not when he was so close to finally stopping the Captain and repairing everything that they had so carelessly undone. Mark took a deep breath to steady himself before speaking again. “But I know now that this thing does more than just make wormholes.”

Kneeling in front of the warp core, Mark narrows his eyes as he watches the Captain grasp the railing closest to them and try to pull themselves to their feet. He used to admire their dedication, but now it just frustrated him to no end. They really don’t know when to give up, do they? He wishes that they did. Maybe it would’ve made all of this less difficult.

When the Captain finally makes it up, they’re only barely managing to stand upright. They have to lean all of their weight onto the railing for support, but they still glare at him like they don’t look like they’d fall over at the slightest push, which Mark briefly considers doing.

He chooses to ignore them, turning his concentration back onto the machine in front of him. Mark sees the Captain jolt when he places the crystal in the centre of the warp core, the device beginning to stir as a faint whirring noise fills the room.

Standing back up, Mark walks over to the control panel, shrugging off the feeling of the wary eyes that follow him. “Distance and time are the same things from different perspectives. That’s all these universes are, just different points of view.” His movements are frantic now, gesturing wildly as he explains everything he’s pieced together since this all started. “So, this machine didn’t just bridge a tunnel through our universe, it was bridging all of them.”

He stops and sets his hard gaze on the Captain. “And you destroyed it.” Mark spits out his last few words through his teeth before turning back to adjust the controls. He needed to make sure everything was in perfect working order. He couldn’t mess up now, he'd come too far for that.

“I can’t undo what you’ve done. Not here anyway.” He places his hand on the final lever. “Or at least, not now.”

He pulls down hard, fully activating the warp core as it rises to life.

“Warp core: engaged.” The computer notes the updated status and Mark nods his head in acknowledgement before spinning back to the Captain, who was still half leaning on their support railing and staring at him with a strangely horrified look. Stepping away from the controls, he starts to advance towards them instead. “If I could go back, if I could stop you before any of this even started—” He doesn’t let up, moving forward until he presses into their personal space, making the Captain take a hesitant step back away from him. “Then maybe I could fix everything. Maybe I could save everyone.”

“Warning: paradox detected.” What? Mark stops getting closer to them and turns to the warp core, giving it an uneasy glance.

“What does that mean?” he mumbles, mostly to himself. He’s so caught up with this new development that he’s slow to react when the Captain uses the railing to push themselves forward. Snapping his head back to face them, he’s met with a blinding pain in his eyes and the feeling of the Captain shoving past him.

“What the hell was that?!” he yells, hands flying to his face. “Is that sand? Who throws sand?!” Mark was blinking hard, trying to wipe away the stinging sensation from his eyes as he was more than aware of the Captain scrambling over to the controls. Leave it to the Captain to have something up their sleeve, he knew he shouldn’t of taken his eyes off of them for a second. Where did they even get sand anyway?

He clears his vision just in time to see the Captain, unsure and hovering over the control panel. Luckily they probably couldn’t do too much damage at this point once the machine had already been turned on. They were a Captain after all, not an engineer. They didn’t know how to use the controls.

Mark reassured himself with that knowledge for all of two seconds before they make a sudden break for the warp core itself. Shit.

He lunges towards them, slamming his body against theirs and catching their outstretched hand, desperately trying to hold them in one place. “Captain don’t! You’ll destroy everything, again!” They struggled against his grip, and though the Captain had always been stronger than him, they couldn’t free themselves this time. They were still too unbalanced from the blow they took to their head, their stance wobbly and uncoordinated.

Even with their disadvantage, the two of them were at a standstill. Mark couldn’t manage to fully pull them away from the warp core, but they couldn’t get any closer to it either. It was probably only sheer determination that was keeping them upright so that they could destroy the entire multiverse. Mark would've been impressed if it wasn’t so horrifying.

Neither of them get the chance to gain the upper hand, only struggling in place as the warp core announces, “Target arrival date not guaranteed.” before suddenly exploding in a burst of blinding light, the blast almost knocking them both to the ground. A far too familiar swirl of blue forms on the ceiling, and faster than he could process it everything that’s not bolted down starts to get sucked into the wormhole… including Mark. He yells in alarm as the feeling of weightlessness takes over, his feet leaving the ground as he flails around to try and find something secure to hold onto.

Maybe it’s just a reflex that, despite everything, he still calls out:

“Captain!”

And maybe it’s just a reflex that, despite everything, they still jump and grab his hand, catching him and planting their feet to make sure that he doesn’t fall into the wormhole.

“Captain! Don’t- don’t let go!” Mark clings to them, suspended in the air as the pull of the wormhole threatens to drag him in. Their hand is the only thing keeping him tethered right now. If their grip falters and he slips, he’d fall into the wormhole again and then he’d—

Wait.

“No, let me go!” Mark pleads with them, his voice strained and desperate. “Captain, please, I can fix this!” He tries to wrench his hand away from where the two of them are connected, but the Captain only tightens their grasp, holding onto him with a grip far stronger than he thought they were capable of in their condition. If they would just listen to him and let him go then he could try again. He could find the perfect solution, a way to put everything back into its proper place. All they needed to do was let him fix it.

Mark can see the small flicker of hesitation in their eyes and it pushes him forward to keep pressing, pleading with them in the hope that there was something inside of them that still cared about the fate of the universe. He wanted to believe that they were still a good person, that deep down they never meant for any of this to happen in the first place. He wanted to believe that so badly. “Look, I don’t know what you did, and maybe you didn’t mean to, but I have to stop you! God, I wish I’d thought of a fake hand or something…”

The Captain still looked indecisive. Their eyes were darting everywhere in that familiar way that meant they were trying as hard as they could to come up with some kind of plan. If Mark didn’t know better he’d say they looked scared. He tried again. “Listen, this is it! This is the end! Everyone and everything that ever existed is going to get wiped out unless you let me go!”

Mark almost thinks that it works in the way that they take a deep breath and look at him with a soft expression.

Really, he shouldn’t have been that naïve as to believe that the Captain would ever do anything that he asked them to.

As quickly as it came their sympathetic gaze disappears, changing into something harder as their brows furrow and they readjust their grip on him to make sure he doesn’t slip before they turn towards the warp core. His blood runs cold as he realizes what they’re doing. “Captain, no! Wait!” he begs to ears that don’t listen, a brand new look of determination on their face as they reach out for the crystal. Mark yells and thrashes in their grasp, frantically writhing around as much as he could in a last ditch effort to free himself.

In the end, he could only watch in horror as the Captain grabs the crystal and throws it straight into the wormhole.

For a moment nothing happens, and Mark feels a slight hope in his chest that maybe he could still find a way to fix this. Of course, he doesn’t get to think that for long before the wormhole abruptly collapses into itself, a wave of energy throwing them both to the ground. He’s stunned for a few seconds, his head still reeling from the feeling of meeting the floor so suddenly, but all he has to see through his slightly blurred vision is the Captain standing next to the warp core for him to scramble back up to his feet and rush over to them.

“Paradox: resolved. Para…dox… resolved...” The computer clings to life and repeats its last few words a couple times before the garbled automated voice gradually dies out and the warp core shuts down. It was broken. Again. Mark can feel his breathing start to pick up. It was gone. Everything he had worked towards for… he didn’t even know how long. And they ripped it away like it was nothing. Like he didn’t leave a piece of himself behind repairing that fucking machine. He could only gape at the lifeless warp core, ghosting his fingers over the cold metal as he spoke in a hushed tone.

“You destroyed it. You destroyed everything.” He whirls around to face them, heart pounding in his ears. “This was our last chance to fix things and it’s gone.” His voice grows louder and louder with each word he speaks, matching the searing rage that was coursing through him. The Captain steps back with a worried look on their face, their hands raising cautiously in front of them as they do so.

Mark follows each one of their steps, not letting them put any distance in between them as he moves closer, his hands balling into fists. “I spent an eternity in hell, rebuilding this stupid machine, and you threw it all away!”

He screams at them and lunges forward, seizing the collar of their jacket. They make a noise of alarm at the action, eyes snapping down to where he was gripping their jacket so tight his knuckles were turning white. Mark doesn’t even feel like he's in his own body as he harshly shoves them against the wall behind them, the air leaving their lungs with the force. The Captain looks at him with their eyes blown wide open and starts to push against him with their hands, struggling to get him off of them. He slams them against the wall again when they try to speak and he vaguely registers a cracking noise in his anger. Good.

Before he could realize it Mark was pulling his arm back and smashing it into their face. He feels a crunch under his hand and blood comes rushing out from their nose as they cry out from the impact.

Something snaps in him, and all of a sudden he can’t stop hitting them over and over again. The Captain shifts their head to try and block their face from his blows but it doesn’t help much, not when he’s got them trapped like this. Mark screams at them, throwing his fist into whatever part of them he could come into contact with as hard as he could. When they start to slump, he kicks at them a few times, slamming his boot into their ribs before he yanks them back up by their jacket so that he could hit them again. Mark couldn’t think, all he could feel was the white hot anger that shot straight through him, burning sharp and wild. The emotion blinded him, and the only thing he could hear was the ringing of his ears as his vision went red.

Mark doesn’t know how long he spent doing that. It could’ve been a few minutes or it could’ve been hours, time blurred together for him in his blind rage. The Captain had stopped making noise for what felt like a long time ago, but he didn’t really even notice that either. He couldn’t hear them over his yelling anyways.

“I don’t know if you’re evil or just stupid,” Mark hisses, voice shaking with anger. “But if I’m not back there to fix it—”

He stops.

“If, if I’m not back there to fix it…” Wait, no. That doesn’t make any sense. He cranes his head around to look at the warp core, hands slowly loosening from their jacket until he finally lets them go and they collapse to the floor in a heap. Mark barely registers it though, his thoughts are preoccupied now. Something’s wrong. Why isn’t he back there?

“If I’m not back then… the warp core's not back…” He stumbles over to the control panel, mind whirling. “I thought- I thought I rebuilt it because you destroyed it, unless…” His voice dies out as he looks up, staring into empty space.

“I built the warp core? I sent it back?”

He leans against the control panel, suddenly drained of all energy, and exhales a shaky breath. “It was me. It was my fault.” Mark shuts his eyes tightly. He feels like crying, or screaming, or maybe some combination of both, but right now he couldn’t find it in him to do any of those things. It was him. He was the one responsible. All those lifetimes, all those people, it was because of what he did. He spent… so long rebuilding this machine. But it turned out to be the very thing he was trying to prevent. He laughs bitterly at that. God, of course it was. What fucking irony. And then on top of that he had to go and blame it all on…

“Captain?” He looks over their unmoving form laying on the ground and feels sick. There was so much blood. It painted their clothes, his gloves, even the wall, the bright red an unnerving contrast to the plain metal. Mark takes half a step towards them.

The Captain flinches back.

Hard.

Somehow the crushing realization of knowing that he almost destroyed reality as they knew it was nothing compared to seeing his Captain being scared of him. He could deal with anger, or hatred, or any other justified reactions to what he had done, but he couldn’t stand seeing them curl up in a ball and shield themselves from him. Mark had never, not once in all the different universes, seen the Captain afraid of him, and it felt worse than any other guilt he had. Earlier he thought that seeing the fearful panic flash over their face had felt good, that it was something that they deserved after everything they’d done. But looking over their crumpled form now Mark couldn’t find any of the blazing anger he held before, only the numb realization that they had just been trying to help.

He was the one who almost destroyed the universe, not them. All they did was follow behind him so that they could fix his mistakes. Mark didn’t… he wasn’t thinking straight.

Mark slowly approaches the Captain, ignoring the way they press themselves against the wall and brace themselves. He swallows the lump in his throat, trying to push down the pangs of guilt that threaten to break him in half as he crouches down in front of them, placing a hand on their shoulder as gently as he could. They still tense up anyways.

“Hey, Captain? Cap?” No answer. It doesn’t surprise him. Mark looks over the Captain and sucks in a sharp breath when he sees the way blood seeps through their fingers as their hands clutch at their face, their head tucked between their legs to protect themselves the best that they could manage in their state.

They flinch again, from fear or pain Mark wasn’t quite sure, when he gingerly picks up their head. Their breaths are uneven and ragged, it seemed like every breath was painful to them, and their hands still don’t leave their face. He’s hesitant, there’s no part of him that wants to see the damage he’s done to the Captain but he thinks he needs to know. He has to know how badly he messed up.

Holding their head in one hand and softly prying their own off of their face with the other, Mark gasps at the utterly wrecked state their face is in, broken and swelled up. Bruises were already starting to form all over their face, and their nose was sitting at an awkward angle. He suspects that it was even worse without all the blood covering it up.

Mark can only stare at them in shock, horrified at the awful condition they were in. That he put them in.

After a while the Captain peeks their eyes open the slightest bit, wincing as they do so. Seeing their eyes meet his, staring glassy and terrified at him, completely shatters whatever was left of his composure. Mark’s body moves faster than his head and he finds himself scooping the Captain into his arms as gently as possible, trying to be mindful of their injuries as he buries his face in their shoulder.

“I’m sorry Captain. Fuck. God, I’m sorry. I- I thought- Captain, I didn’t- I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Mark keeps repeating apologies over and over again, like if he says them enough times they could somehow undo everything that he had done to them.

Eventually the Captain wiggles their arm out from under his grasp and wraps it around him, rubbing soothing circles onto his back. Mark lets out a weird sounding high pitched laugh at the idea of the Captain comforting him after he just beat the shit out of them.

His throat tightens, and Mark notices with a jolt that his face feels wet. He didn’t even know when he started crying.

Mark feels the room shake as dust starts to rain from the ceiling. The two of them probably won’t be in this universe for much longer, which hopefully means that the Captain won’t have to be in pain for too long. Maybe that’s just what he tells himself to feel better. He sighs, turning his head out to look at the warp core. The broken machine looms over them both as he stays wrapped around the barely moving body of the Captain. Mark never wants to see it again.

“I’m- Captain, I’m tired. I don’t know when the last time I slept was,” he whispers. His voice sounds horribly strangled and broken, even to himself. "I don't know if I've slept at all." He looks back at them. “Have you?” There’s a pause before the Captain gives a slight shake of their head, curling a little closer to him. He didn’t really expect any other answer.

God, he was exhausted. Mark places his head back onto their shoulder and closes his eyes.

There’s a moment of silence before everything blows up around them.

[lostcybertronian]

Egotober - Day 9

Prompt: Antlers

Prompts by @tracobuttons

---

“Captain’s log, stardate one point- actually, Mark. What’s the date?”

Mark scoffed. Planted his hands on his hips. Leaned forward in that way he did when he was utterly convinced he was right. “This isn’t Star Trek, Captain.”

You turned and waved both arms at the eerie world in which the wormhole had spat you into. “Isn’t it?”

“Captain.” Mark said from behind you.

“I mean-” You gestured to the curled, blackened trees littering a gray landscape piled with ashy dunes. Fog pressed in around you; you couldn’t see anything but your immediate surroundings and the trees, even with the luminescent glow of the portable wormhole generator. “This is totally a Star Trek episode.”

“Captain!” Mark pawed at your arm, forcing you to spin-

And see exactly what he was going on about: a gigantic figure was rising above the trees, swathed in gray and black, a magnificent deer skull with empty, gaping eyes bearing down on you while around its head wove massive antlers that stretched so far above they disappeared into the sky.

You gawked, while Mark squeaked out, “I think we need to get out of here.”

A giant hand, spindly and clawed, swept from the fog, reaching toward you, and you snapped out of your awe. You began slapping wildly at the wormhole generator stuck to your hand. “That’s a great idea. Let’s leave.”

But it wouldn’t respond. You poked at it, clawed at it, all the wild Mark clung to you, all but climbing you like a tree. “Captain, Captain-”

“I got it!” The hand was getting closer, seeming to move in slow motion. It was bigger than you. Bigger than you and Mark combined. “Fuck! Work, you damn thing!”

Finally, it did, and the wormhole opened, a great mass of whirling blue-black that swept you away moments before the hand passed through the spot you were standing.

You and Mark tumbled to the deck of the Invincible II, right in the middle of the bridge. You lay on your back, panting, the adrenaline surge pounding in your ears, while Mark rolled over onto his stomach and made noises.

“That was not the fucking warp core,” you muttered when you eventually regained the ability to breathe.

“Definitely not a Star Trek episode.” Came Mark’s reply. “Shit was too scary for that.”

You gasped out a laugh. “I never want to do that again. I quit.”

Mark managed a snort. “And I’ll be right behind you.”

[clemblog]

Clem’s Markiplier Oneshots

•••

Mack wants his partner, Y/N, to take a break. Mack always gets his way.

——

[ciara-clycone]

'Paradoxial' Virus: Ch.2 - Weariness

Ao3: link

Summary:

Strange things are going on in the Invicinble 2. Electronics are acting up. Eerie sightings are happening on the ship. No one knows why this is going on. They try to act like it's nothing serious.

But it's having a strange toll on the captain...

Pairings: Captaineer

Warnings for this chapter: None.

-----

As Mark was walking down the hall, he heard Tyler and the other crew member talking. He was planning on ignoring them and continuing on his way when he heard them mention the captain. Immediately, his interest was piqued.

He walked over to them. “What’s this about the captain acting weird?” He asked.

“The captain nearly took of my head with their Alexa,” said the guy, holding out the offending machine, “They just threw it right at me. I nearly got clocked.”

“Really? That doesn’t sound like the Captain. "Are you ok? They're pretty strong."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Captain came and checked up on me afterwards. They were sorry about it too. But still, the fact they threw it at me shook me up.”

I gotta find out what what’s going on with them, thought Mark.

“Can I have that?” Mark asks, motioning to the Alexa. The guy hands it to Mark, and he leaves them for the Captain’s quarters. Coming upon the captain’s door, he knocked. “Captain?”

“Just a second….” Came the captain’s response. They sounded tired. A few seconds passed.

What are they doing? Mark wondered as he struggled to hear what is going on in the other room. He only heard shuffling and footsteps.

“Alright, come in.” Called the captain.

Mark walked in and saw the Captain at their desk. Papers were strewn across their table.

“Mark,” the captains said, nodding at him. “What brings you here?”

“A little birdie told me you were having trouble with Alexa?” Mark grinned as he held the Alexa out. “I think you might be missing this?”

“Bird’s the word…” the captain mumbled. They shake their head and blink as if they were trying to wake up.

Mark arched an eyebrow at them. “Captain? Are you feeling ok?”

Blinking again, the captain looked up at Mark and then the Alexa, and growled at the bot. “I thought I tossed that thing out.” They murmured.

“You did. One of the crew had it. Said you hit them with it?”

“An accident!” The captain exclaimed. They looked stricken that it had hit someone. “He said he was ok though? I went and apologized to him and checked on him.”

“Yeah, he’s ok. Just still surprised by it.”

“I didn’t know anyone was coming in when I tossed it,” the captain said. “I just wanted to get rid of the dang thing.”

“Why though? This thing is handy.”

The captain shook their head. “It’s cursed, is what it is.”

Mark chuckled. “Why do you say that?”

“Blasted thing keeps telling me where the nearest graveyard is. Like it wants me to go there or something.” The captain glared at it.

“What?” Mark asked,giving the Alexa a perplexed look, “That’s not normal. Not at all… I can check into it for you, if you want?”

“That’d be great, thanks…”

The tiredness in the captain’s voice caught Mark’s attention. “Hey, Captain? You seem more tired than usual.Is anything wrong? I mean beside this weird Alexa stuff.”

The captain let out a sigh and slowly shook their head. “Just feeling tired…. Didn’t sleep well last night.” They shrug it off.

“Why not?” Mark asked.

“Just didn’t.” The captain didn’t really want to tell Mark they were having nightmares.

And that the nightmares weren’t just last night. But every night. That’d make them sound whiny. And gah they were the captain! They were supposed to be the fount of strength and stability on the ship. That would all crumble to nothing if people found out how shaky they got from nightmares. And there was no reason for them to react that way too, or so they figured.. It’s not like nightmares and unpleasant dreams were unusual or anything.

“Hmm… ok…” Mark said, skeptically. He picked up the Alexa. “Well, I’ll take this little rascal out to the lab and see what’s going on with it.”

“Sounds good. Thanks….” The captain said, nodding. They returned to their work, or at least acted like they were working. In truth, they were still out of it but wanted to look like they were ok. At least while Mark was there.

Goodness! The last thing they wanted to do was fall apart in front of him. It was why when he knocked on the door, they scrambled off from the floor and made it look like they were hard at work on projects or something.

Marl hesitated a moment, watching the captain. He felt something was seriously off with them but he couldn’t place it. And it seemed like something more than just tiredness.

The captain paused in what they were doing and looked up. They raised an eyebrow. “Is there something else?” The question wasn’t sharp sounding, more just stated quietly.

Mark paused a moment. Should he come out and say that he suspected something was going on with them? He wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt it in his bones that there was something wrong.

“Well….”

“Engineering paging Mark. There’s something up with one of the engines. We need you to come down and check it out.”

“Oh uh nevermind…” Mark sighed. Guess asking the captain will have to wait.