#iswm routes

[moonymoonsiplier]

Backstabber

[seraph-draws-stuff]

pizzaman go brr

[applegoat]

My mind is a circus and there's one sad clown running everything in there...

[ciara-clycone]

Going with the fun idea that Engie was played by Damien that @ricky-tiki-tah brought about. (Fun thought!)

It made me think of the Romance route in ISWM 2.

Where Mark/Engie was saying He can't wait for our second date, since the first one got away from us.

His hair is parted to the right, as Engie and Darkiplier do. So this is Engie/Damien and not Actor.

As for our first date getting away from us. Well... in a way it did.

And Dark did call it a date.

Also the title cards are different, the ISWM one is dark-er.

[0crooked-arcade0]

Fuck, I just remembered something, or I think I did at least-

Does anybody remember that in ISWM, when taking the route that leads you to speaking directly with the narrator, his image momentarily splits into multiple parts-

I don't have the screenshot on hand, but I swear by the fact that one of the fragments was wearing a red velvet overcoat with black lapels.

He was literally wearing Actor Mark's suit jacket and I've seen very few people discuss that fact.

It's likely just a clever nod because originally Actor didn't have a role in the script untill the wardrobe team suggested it, but I can't help but think there's fuckery afoot.

{{Or maybe I just wanna see Actor wear the thing in live action, could be both.}}

((Edit: nah, I think there's gotta be something going on there actually, there's been a trend in the past of imagery relating to him or the man himself showing up where he shouldnt. Most of which revolve around Mark actively wearing actors robe, it being in the background somewhere, or Mark shifting tones to talk to the audience before just, paying it cool.

So If that piece of clothing was both bought and used on set I highly doubt it was an impulse purchase for just that split second frame.

Which also reminds me I own a screen accurate version of Actors robe irl, that was an impulse purchase but that's not the point))

[bugteaaa]

I had a dream where William was sitting at the desk from wmlw and was wearing a different uniform that I didn't recognize (it looked different from what is portrayed in the drawing so I drew the closest thing to what I can remember) and in thee dream I though it was a iswm Route I didn't find and was disappointed with myself then I woke up and was even more disappointed to find out all of this was a dream and there's no new colonel content

[captain-neutrino]

Fuckfuckfuckfuck what if I wrote a ISWM fic based on Captain Neutrino's route

I feel like its the only way to really get across all ideas of how I perceived the events of the movie

[fenneciplier]

ADWM + AHWM + ISWM + EXTRAS self-insert designs (PART 1):

Important info about my sona will be in red.

I don’t care that my sona isn’t human, it’s funnier to think that this is what the viewer looks like in the series. Especially since my sona is like 3 feet tall-

Mark picks it up and carries it during chase sequences bc they can’t keep up <3

This is my usual art sona, they don’t have an official name so their stand-in one is Able, their pronouns are they/them and it/its.

I’ve been drawing the egos lately, and I just wanted to add my sona into the story as the viewer character. And my usual outfit for it is just black pants and a red shirt, so I decided to spice things up for the choice series.

⬇️⬇️⬇️UNDERNEATH ARE THE EXPLANATIONS FOR EACH DESIGN, ALONG WITH SMALL FACTS!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

We got (in order):

FIRST: Able in A Date with Markiplier, it isn’t a very fancy creature, it wears a plain red shirt everywhere and everyday, but it’s trying to be formal for once.

SECOND: Able in the Prison route in A Heist with Markiplier, they’re nervous as hell bc their ass is NOT built for prison. They know they’ll do well in prison, but for all the wrong reasons- Also for some reason, but thankfully, the prison let them keep their gloves.

THIRD: Able in the Pirate route in A Heist with Markiplier, its special interest are pirates so despite the initial fear of all the big pirate guys, they’re very happy during this timeline!

FOURTH: Able in Yandere-Sim, even though I hate that game and its creator but Yandereiplier is another one of my favorites (in a silly way) despite not being an official ego. They’re more feminine in this timeline because of the dress code, but still goes by they/them and it/its.

FIFTH: Able in An Evening with Markiplier timeline from ISWM because it’s just a funny scenario for me. I like to think all the Job/Pornipliers are all different guys in a polyamorous relationship with Able. But like- a real relationship, not just sex, they all love each other :]!!

SIXTH: Able as The Captain In Space with Markiplier, because obviously- It’s a little more serious in this timeline because of the whole mission and them being in control and such. But it’s still a stupid little creature, also SCARED of space so it likely won’t ever choose the “fix from the outside” routes or just willingly throw themself out the ship.

[seraph-draws-stuff]

I hate him <3

[ghiertor-the-gigapeen]

No one:

Me: I think we should add more darkiplier into iswm👉👈

Both routes gonna end up destroying the universe anyway

[buc-eebarnes]

go in as a green light

He clears his throat. “Hi. Um. The crew told me you hadn’t gone to the mess hall to eat yet. I was wondering, if, uh…” he waffles a bit putting his words together, and when he’s finally able to speak, it’s a rush of, “D’youwannagetdinner?”

pairing: captaineer

tags: first dates, second dates, the romance route egos appear but it's comical, post-iswm, hold on ending

rated T || 4275 words

“Ah,” you glance back to where you had crackers and a hastily wrapped block of cheese on your dining table laid out. You’d been feeling sluggish all day and hadn’t wanted to leave your room. “Real food would be amazing right now.” The corner of his lips quirks up, and it changes his sheepish expression. “There’s something really good in the kitchen tonight. Chef says it’s your favorite.”

read on ao3 || buy me a coffee!

[xshatteredreflectionsx]

It was only after being forced to sleep that Morgan realized how much they had missed it. They couldn’t remember if they had ever slept back in the wormhole for more than a few seconds; if they had, it hadn’t been restful at all.  Bone-deep exhaustion had been buried under mania and adrenaline as they continued to chase Atlas across a dying multiverse, and the pace had barely stopped once they had finally put it all behind them. Fortunately –or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it- some of Morgan’s behavior could be written off as hallucinations from sleep deprivation.  Good because that meant that the medical staff didn’t remember; bad because the head doctor had even more of a reason to watch Morgan like a hawk.  Being monitored so closely inevitably lead to the discovery of scars and injuries that weren’t documented anywhere in their medical files. Specifically, the scar on Morgan’s left hand which had, unsurprisingly so, not healed correctly.   The doctor had sent some scar tissue samples off to be tested, holding Morgan in the medical bay for a few more days, the most anxious in recent memory. The tests had come back benign -which felt like a weight being lifted off their shoulders- and Morgan was released under orders to, at the very least, take the prescribed sleep medication.

As fate would have it, they were released at the beginning of the weekend (most likely to encourage them to spend the days resting), and Morgan found themself looking for Atlas. He checked up on them almost every day, even if it was just to examine the heart monitor or IV when he thought they weren’t awake.  Whenever Morgan was fully conscious, their interactions were clipped and formal with only a few anecdotes thrown in (Danny wishes you well.  Brian is as silent as ever, but I can tell he’s worried. Chica chased a bug; things like that). They hated it. It carved a hollow into their chest and made their stomach sink. But this wasn’t an issue that could be solved by just continuing the way they had been, they had to confront it.  

It was just talking.  It wasn’t getting into a shootout with space pirates, jumping into wormholes, or being alone in the dark.  And yet, the closer they got to where thew crew said Atlas was hiding, the more anxious they became.  Morgan was tempted to go back to their cabin and slip on their uniform jacket, at the very least. The heavy cotton was like a suit of armor, in a sense. Putting it on gave people the impression that Morgan knew what the fuck they were doing, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  But approaching Atlas in that jacket would defeat the point. They needed to be Morgan, not Captain. 

“We need to talk.” They signed once they had his attention.

The argument, if it could so be called, was over. Not because one side had convinced the other that they were right, but because one side had greater authority by default.  Atlas would have accepted the “loss” even if Morgan passed out right then and there, despite how infamously stubborn he could be. 

What more was there to be said, really? Continuing would inevitably cause them to spiral and they’d probably end up exposing just how deep their self-loathing went.   And then what? The crew would treat Morgan like they were a time-bomb made of glass, waiting on pin and needles for the emotional breakdown that would shred everyone around them into pieces. Atlas already did, and there was a part of Morgan that hated it.  They missed the Atlas that offered an overly enthusiastic hand and jumped into wormhole after wormhole with them, endlessly optimistic even after he was torn apart by blackholes or burned into atoms by supernovas.  The Atlas who mocked Oppenheimer with a giddy snicker and a fistbump while sucking on alien candy.  They wanted their friend back.

But that Atlas was dead, wasn’t he? And Morgan had been his murderer a hundred times over.  What right did they have to demand the “old” Atlas when Morgan was directly responsible for who he had become?  The stilted attempt at light-hearted humor only further emphasized that.  They wanted to call out and stop him, despite knowing it wouldn’t work (all the advanced technology in this universe, and still, still no one could fix Morgan’s broken voice). Ask –not order, ask- him to stay just a little longer and talk at them until they fell asleep. It could have been anything he wanted. Construction of the Colony, the newest recipe Cook was trying with alien ingredients, whatever Chica did that day; anything and everything.  But Morgan was so, so tired and he had work to do. Atlas had an entire team of qualified individuals in the event he couldn’t perform his duties - the senior staff engineer directly below him had Herculean work ethic- so it wasn’t a matter of could he, it was would he. Morgan already knew the answer.

They gave a hum of confirmation at Atlas’s promise and finally allowed themself to stop resisting the medicine.  Later. They’d talk –really talk- later when one of them wasn’t under medical observation.  Somewhere away from duty and obligation where they could talk as people.  Maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn’t, but it would be better than this.

[ironwoman359]

The Secret History of the Invincible II

Chapter 1: Seams Pull Apart

Summary: “How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.”

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you.

It's been months since the Invincible safely landed on a new planet to build humanity's first colony among the stars, and the Captain has been working very hard to ensure that the colony has everything it needs. But now that everyone's getting settled, it's time to sit down with the colony's official historian and give a report to send back to earth about the Invincible's voyage...and the Captain must choose how much to reveal about what really happened

Ships: Platonic the Captain and everyone, with an emphasis on the Captain & Mark.

Content Warnings: Just a lot of discussion of everything that went on in ISWM itself, and hurt/comfort as the characters try to process that and work through it. And guilt. SOOOOO much guilt. Fun!

Word Count: 2,857

A/N: I've had this idea in my head for a long time, of how the Captain and Mark would move on with their lives after everything they went through in the wormhole, and I'm excited to finally start posting it. Enjoy!

*If you like to read on AO3, check the notes for a link!

--- --- ---

With a sucking whoosh and a swirl of blue energy, you suddenly found yourself back in your cryopod. You looked around, heart sinking as the pod’s interface whirred to life in a painstakingly familiar sequence.  

*Software update complete*  

“Good morning, Captain! We are currently *error* years into our journey. Coffee is en route. Current ship status is absolutely catastrophic. In-in-initializing emergency wakey-wakey protocol.”  

The cryopod spat you out and you crumpled your hands and knees on the deck of the bridge. The alarm lights flashed an incessant red and the ship’s emergency klaxons blared in your ears, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. You couldn’t even bring yourself to stand up. It wasn’t over. It would never be over. You’d thought that maybe this time, you’d actually done it, but who were you kidding? This would go on forever. 

“Reviving head engineer.”  

“Captain?”  

You looked up at Mark, who was stepping out of his pod with a frown on his face.  

“Does this feel-”  

The air warped around him and his form glitched between different versions of himself, settling briefly on one with a tattered uniform, skin marred by burns and his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. 

“You let us die, Captain,” he said, his voice low and distorted, before he glitched back into his normal self.  

“-familiar to you?”  

“Mark-” you staggered to your feet, but before you could speak, he glitched again, and Celci stood in his place. 

“It never ends, Captain,” she said, her face covered in frost and her goggles glowing blue. “No matter what you try, nothing can save us from this nightmare, and it’s your fault.”   

“Celci-”  

Her body warped and it was Burt now, digital rain running down his face.  

“I'll tell you what I know,” he said. “Storm clouds are gathering... the wind is gonna blow... the race of man is suffering .” 

“This is why we shouldn’t have trusted you,” Gunther’s voice said from behind, but when you turned, it was the alien from the Universal Stability Agency standing there, her clothes torn and blood pouring from her mangled eye socket.  

“It all comes down to bad leadership ,” the alien said in Gunther’s voice, then they continued in their own.  “All those worlds...all those people...gone. Because of you.”  

“Seeing things, Captain?” 

The voice was low in your ear and you whirled around, just in time for the bridge’s main control console to burst into flames. 

“Fire on the bridge! *Error* Life support systems failing. *Error* Automatic fire suppression system offline. *Error* Failsafes offline.”  

Instinctively, you turned towards the fire extinguisher, but found yourself stuck to the floor and unable to move, ice slowly creeping up your legs.  

“*Error* Captain offline.”   

A wall of fire and shrapnel barreled towards you as the console exploded, engulfing the bridge in flames. As the heat swarmed around you, you felt a deep despair settle in your heart, like a physical weight. It didn’t matter that the explosion would kill you. Nothing mattered anymore.  

Not even death could save you from your fate.  

--- --- ---

Your eyes flew open and you gasped, lurching upright to find yourself in your bedroom, safe and sound. Cool night air filled your lungs, a stark contrast to the blazing fumes from your dream.  

Dream? Or memory?  

You pushed the thought away and swung your legs over the side of the bed. You knew from an unfortunate amount of experience that there was no point in trying to get back to sleep after one of these dreams. You slid your feet into your slippers and made your way into the kitchen, overriding your coffee machine’s programmed start time to brew a pot right away.  

“Coffee always helps,” you muttered to yourself as you grabbed a mug from your cupboard.  

And it really did.  

True, coffee couldn’t keep the nightmares (or the memories) from rising up and plaguing your mind, but the strong scent and bitter taste was grounding, as was the gentle *drip drip drip* of the machine in the quiet hours of the morning. The caffeine boost didn’t hurt either, and throwing yourself into the next day’s work was typically enough to silence any lingering thoughts floating inside your head.  

Tonight, however, was anything but typical. 

Normally, you’d instruct your computer to read out tomorrow’s schedule for you, but there was no need; you already knew what it would say.  

*Senior Crew Meeting with Colony Historian – All Day* 

You cupped your mug in your hands, letting the warmth seep into your palms as you leaned against the counter.  

The historian had been nothing but cordial, assuring you that while they’d blocked out the full day for the interviews, it would most likely only take a few hours out of the morning, if that. You hadn’t argued the point, unsure of how to even explain why it might take longer to chronicle the Invincible’s journey than the historian expected. That was if you even decided to give the full, true account of what had happened.  

If, indeed, it had even happened at all.  

You shook yourself and rubbed your eyes. Suddenly, stuck within the confines of your apartment walls was the last place you wanted to be while you waited until it was socially acceptable to be out and about. Still holding your coffee in one hand, you grabbed a jacket from where you’d draped it over the back of a chair the day before and slipped out your front door.  

Your apartment building was one of the first permanent residences that had been built after the initial groundwork of the colony was laid. It stood near the center of the settlement and housed most of the Invincible’s crew, including her entire senior staff. As Captain, you’d been given a large unit on the top floor, which conveniently meant that you were only one flight of stairs away from the roof. 

The rooftop was little more than a barren expanse of concrete and loose gravel, though eventually there were plans to plant a garden, and you could see why. You’d only come here once or twice before, but the view of the colony below and the sweeping landscape of your new planet stretching out beyond it made it the perfect spot to create a cozy little gathering space. For now, though, it would be a decent enough place to wait out the rest of the night alone. 

Or at least, alone in theory. 

Illuminated by the dim glow of the streetlights below, a single figure sat on the edge of the rooftop, their legs dangling over the edge of the building. 

“Mark?” 

He turned, surprise written on his face.

“Captain? What are you doing up here?” 

“I could ask you the same thing,” you said as you approached. “It’s nearly four in the morning.”

“Is it?” He asked, and you nodded. “Huh. Didn’t realize it’d gotten that late. Or, early, I guess.” 

“How long have you been out here?” 

“Oh...who’s to say? It’s easy to lose track of time with a view like this.” He gestured, but not down at the colony or the dense woods surrounding it. His eyes were fixed upward, and when you followed his gaze it was easy to see why. 

Thousands upon thousands of stars dotted the night sky, with nary a cloud in sight to obstruct them from view. The largest of the planet’s three moons was also fully visible, and one of its smaller sisters was just beginning to poke over the horizon. 

“Wow,” you whispered. “They’re so much brighter here than on Earth.”

“No major cities here yet,” Mark responded. “No light pollution to obstruct our view. And it’s gonna stay that way, if I have anything to say about it. What’s the point of a new planet if we treat it just like the old one?” 

You hummed in agreement, before folding your legs beneath you and sitting beside him.

“Yeah...it would be a shame to waste this second chance,” you said quietly. 

Mark glanced over at you for a moment, something unreadable flashing in his eyes before he looked away again.

“You never did say what you were doing here, Captain.”

“You didn’t either,” you countered, and he pressed his lips together in a firm line. 

You were both quiet for a moment, one beat of silence that threatened to stretch on into infinity with barely an acknowledgement before Mark sighed, running a hand through his hair. 

“Couldn’t sleep,” he said with a shrug. “That’s all.”  He looked over at you again, and this time he let his gaze linger. “...could you?”

“Not really,” you admitted. “Too many…thoughts in my head, I suppose.” 

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” he said with a nod. “Have you…” he hesitated, then seemed to steel himself. “Have you been having that problem often, since we…since our voyage?” 

The unspoken question hung heavy in the air between you, and you swallowed down your nerves.

“Fairly often,” you said quietly. “You?” 

“Yeah,” Mark said, sighing again. “Same here.” 

You fidgeted beside him, unsure of how to proceed. It wasn’t like the two of you had been avoiding each other since you landed, you worked together nearly every day of course. But aside from Mark’s quiet “ thank you” when you’d first arrived here months ago, neither of you had even remotely acknowledged what had happened between you in the warp core. You weren’t even sure how much he remembered, and aside from that brief moment on the bridge, Mark had seemed completely fine, throwing himself fully into building the colony without a single sign of discomfort. 

Though maybe , you thought now as you took in the tension in his shoulders and the tightness at the corners of his eyes, he was just very good at hiding it. 

You knew you should say something, you needed to say something; not only were you Mark’s captain and therefore responsible for his well-being as a member of your crew, but you were his friend. Or at least, you hoped that after everything, you were still friends. 

“Mark, I-”

“How much do you remember?” he asked suddenly. “About…you know.” 

“About the wormhole,” you said, because one of you had to say it, and it may as well be you. Mark winced, and you took that as a sign to continue. “Everything.” 

“ Everything everything?” Mark asked, and you nodded. “So…you remember what I did then,” he said, pulling his legs up and leaning his arms on his knees. 

“What you did?” you repeated, and he rolled his eyes. 

“If you’re trying to spare my feelings then I appreciate it, but you don’t have to bother. We both know that I...I caused all of it.”

"Mark, it wasn't-"

"Don't you dare say that it wasn't my fault," he interrupted, shooting you a glare. " I went back in time, I sabotaged both ships, I built the warp core. It was my fault." He laughed, hollow and empty, and for a moment you were back on the Invincible II , watching him fall apart in front of you all over again.

"You were just doing what you thought was right," you said slowly. "That's all any of us were doing. You had no way of knowing-"

"I did though," he insisted. "You told me, remember? You told me not to use the warp core, not to go back. But did I listen? No. I lost faith in you, trusted the word of that alien lady over yours, and I nearly destroyed everything."

It’s not like I gave you a good reason to have faith in me in the first place, you wanted to say, but you thought better of it. As much as you wanted to stew in your own guilt, trying to shift the blame onto yourself wouldn’t help Mark feel any better about his part in it all. 

"Do you know why I told you not to go back?" you asked instead. "How I knew that you would even try? You told me not to let you. You said that you lost hope, but you never stopped trying to fix your mistakes, right up until the very end."

Mark opened his mouth to speak, but he froze, confusion written across his face.

"I...I told you?" he looked down at his hands and nodded carefully. "I…I did tell you."

"Mark…” You frowned. “How much do you remember?"

“Um…everything,” he said slowly. “Or at least, I assume it’s everything. It’s strange…sometimes I can’t pin the memories down quite right. Almost like I’m trying to remember a dream.” 

“I almost thought it was a dream,” you said, leaning back to look up at the sky. “When no one acknowledged it when we landed, I thought maybe it was some side effect of the cryosleep. I asked Celci though, and she said that the brain doesn’t enter REM in cryo. So I just figured I was the only one who remembered.” 

“That’s what I thought too,” Mark admitted. “And it’s not like I could tell someone about it without them thinking I was crazy.” 

“It’s not the easiest thing to explain,” you agreed. 

“ Right? ” he said, so loudly and suddenly that you jumped a little. “How would you even do that, like, ‘oh, guess what, I was transported through a wormhole across space and time and can remember living and dying over and over and have the memories from a dozen different universes all jacked up in my brain! Take me to the looney bin!’” 

He grew more and more animated as he spoke, arms waving around before he finally let them fall back to his sides with a huff, and you swallowed. 

“Mark…you’re not crazy. You know that, right?” 

He hesitated, for just a bit too long for your liking before he answered. 

“I know. It just…it feels crazy. I don’t even know how to begin sorting through everything in my head.”

“I understand,” you said quietly. “Believe me, I do. I’ve been trying not to think about it, but lately I can’t help but wonder…” you trailed off, your gaze slipping from Mark’s face down to the mug of coffee cooling in your hands. 

“Yes?” he prompted, and you sighed. 

“The historian interviews are tomorrow,” you said bluntly. “And I’m not sure whether to tell them the truth.” 

Mark let out a breath, and you glanced over at him just in time to see him rest his chin on his fist. 

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” he admitted. “Until tonight, I wasn’t sure that it was worth the risk. I didn’t want to lose everything I’d worked so hard to build…not again.” 

You opened your mouth to reassure him that he wouldn’t, but you couldn’t quite make the words come out. After all, how many times had the two of you lost the ship, the crew, the colony? How many times had you lost each other? 

“But you know what I think now?” Mark continued, looking over at you. “I think that that’s exactly why we need to tell them what really happened. To try and stop it from happening again, to somebody else.” 

“To somebody else?” you asked.

“As far as command back on Earth is concerned, this mission has been one hundred percent successful,” he explained. “I mean, it sure looks like it on the outside. Everyone is alive and healthy, the ship made it here safely, the colony is thriving. And the Invincible herself was a prototype...if she was successful then there were plans to fully reverse engineer the warp core for other ships, other missions…” he trailed off as your eyes widened, the full impact of his words settling over your shoulders. 

“We can’t let that happen,” you whispered, and he nodded.

“We have to tell them. We can’t…. I can’t let my mistakes be repeated. No matter the consequences.” 

He wrapped his arms around his legs, shrinking in on himself, and you swallowed. Slowly, you reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. 

“Our mistakes,” you corrected quietly. Mark shot you a small smile, and you returned it as best as you could. “I’ll be there to back you up, one hundred percent,” you continued. “And…”

You paused, unsure if you should complete your thought, but Mark made the choice for you, reaching out to return your gesture, taking your arm in a steady grip. 

“And I’ll do the same for you,” he said. “I’m behind you all the way, Captain.” 

You looked at him, his face illuminated by starlight, and for a moment all you could think of was all the times you’d failed him, all the times he’d suffered because of you. But his gaze held none of that anger, that resentment that you’d seen from him before. And if you could trust him, after everything, was it really so inconceivable that he could still have faith in you? 

“We got into this mess together,” you finally said, squeezing his arm. “And we’re going to get through it the same way.” 

Mark nodded as the first rays of sunlight began to peek over the planet’s new horizon. 

“Together.” 

--- --- ---

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, please consider reblogging, it means a lot to me <3

[erexart]

I agree with ur engie talk! I think like a lot of the egos he's somewhat of a base of a character that has hints and scenes of deeper character to them that we as fans get to go crazy with. I think marks work has a way of like..... beginning as a parody or pastiche of something else (date as a romantic movie, heist as a heist movie, iswm as a Sci fi) that slowly morphs into something deeper and emotionally destructive, ala darks appearance in date as well as heist, heists deeper routes that turn into almost entirely different genres, and spaces secret behind the wormhole. I think engie being both a bit of a blank doll that serves as the caps yes man and then splintering apart to show a deeper character is very much purposeful and a part of the impact of iswm. engies descent as old mark and "dont" and emotional beats of "thanks for not giving up on me" and such are so devastating BECAUSE he begins as such a blank yes man to us I think

Thanks for sharing your thoughts anon! I also saw another person’s tags about this that talks about how engie is singular yet a multitude and I’m glad people are thinking the same thing! I personally think EVERY character is sort of a blank doll too

Like my own interpretation of warfstache is he is a tortured mind with a fragile side, and i focus on the more gentle more tender side to him, dark is the same and i focus on the more heartbreaking more softer side of him. But that doesn’t make the fun-disco-murder loving wilford headcanon wrong! Or dark the cold-harsh-manipulative-red flag entity you wouldn’t date wrong either! Every interpretation is right and inconclusive, none of them are incorrect unless mark himself specifies.

Mark basically made x reader fanfics but in video form😂 and he told all of us “just go crazy with it idfc” and I just think it’s so neat of him

[writinggremlin]

don’t mind me, just nosing in here to second the Slay the Princess recommendation that game is SO GOOD!!! and if you’ve played it yourself, do you have a favourite route? I’m tied between the Nightmare and the Stranger (Mark was so close to getting it, it was such a shame 😔)

~ @ba-bhump

AH!! HI!! HELLO THERE!!!! I'm so sorry for not answering this sooner, I somehow didn't get a notification for this!!!

I've sadly only seen Mark play through it so far, and I don't have the money to get the game and play through it myself atm, but the playthroughs from both Insym and Manlybadasshero are currently on my watch later. Part of me wants to hold off watching until I can play through it myself, though. Hopefully I'll be able to get a job by the end of the year, and I'll be able to play it then!!

Out of the paths that I have seen so far, I really like The Nightmare (especially with the path Mark took through that chapter. I saw Manlybadasshero play the Wraith route, and they're both good, but I think I like the MC breaking just a little bit better), and The Prisoner (I haven't seen what happens when you talk to her, but I've heard of it, and I like how there's clues for you to pick up on. Also, that route is how you get to The Grey, and I'm a sucker for drowning tropes). I also like The Damsel, purely because the Voice of the Smitten is so fuckin goofy.

Also YES!!! SOMEBODY ELSE WHO GETS IT!!!!! SLAY THE PRINCESS IS SO FUCKING GOOD!!!!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE WHO HASN'T EXPERIENCED IT!!!!

I'm a sucker for looping narratives like that in general lol. When In Space With Markiplier came out, I was all over that too. I could easily go on a whole massive rant -- write an entire fucking essay -- about how, if you think about it, ISWM is actually secretly a horror story, or at least, has some really horrific aspects to it. I could go on for so fucking long about the purely unfathomable amounts of death and murder that happen in that story. Genuinely, seriously, if someone is interested, lmk, send in an ask or something, I will infodump and essay the SHIT out of you.

Time loops and adjacent tropes are absolutely some of my favorites. It's right up there with meta narratives-- I love watching characters and stories break the 4th wall. Actually, now that I think about it, Slay The Princess does that too lol.

But yeah! Thanks for the ask!! Glad to see someone else around here who loves that game too!! And sorry again for not answering this sooner, booooo to the notifications for not notifying me. Hope you're having a lovely day/night/life!!!

[conceptuma]

Soooo how did your idea of dark being the captain started ? how different would his role be compared to the y/n captain in iswm ?

Alright... Let's get into it

Question 1: It actually started as a theory that I gradually believed more and more in a short span of time as everyone was consuming ISWM part 1, and when part 2 dropped, it both lead me on further, as well as disproved it. … (but really Markiplier's live stream on it disproved the theories for real) But that didn't really bum me out, because I had been ready from the start for it to not be true, so I just converted it to an AU, because I was projecting my own measure of story/characterization into it anyway.

Question 2: I don't have 1 answer for this! Either a complicated one, or one that enables any kind of headcanon… Answer A: The captain's choices and behavior doesn't change because we are sharing a body with Darkiplier('s parts) -- I just really like the idea of "What if we (D/A) stayed with Dark" and how that would be like a dramatized version of DID (of which I have! /info) of the "D/A" part (us) (…on top of likely forgetting the events of WKM due to AU stuff, but then remembering after gaining the multiverse abilities of the paradox…) forgetting or not knowing what Dark is doing in other timelines, (my favorite characterization idea of Cpt.Dark is that he's fronting in the routes where he throws Mark around or generally leads us to demise that might benefit him in the looooooong run- aka how he somehow canonically "finds" the paradox gem for the box at the post-credits) … while the Captain chooses to get along with Mark in other routes, doing something childish as sharing candy, which is much closer to my personal "D/A" characterization, not at all what Dark would be doing ahhaha

Answer B: If I wanted a timeline to occur differently from the "Canon" events of ISWM, to characterize Captain Darkiplier as separate from Canon Captain… well, Dark could just do about anything he wanted,

(from here onward is rambling, not relevant to the question!:)

… if he could .. If he somehow escaped the inevitability of the causality of meta-narrative events of what has and will occurred in ISWM via the writing of Market Plier- lol Kind of like how Damien and Celine can't outrun their fate or Actor's bullshit as seen at the end of DAMIEN, which I think holds some thematic power or significance over the future events after the "seal" is broken on the multiverse stuff- aka everything After WKM. … Mark has said a lot in live streams but one thing that stuck with me is how he explained the "timeline" noting that moment when Dark picks up the staff , as the exact moment where the events of DAMIEN is condensed. IIRC. And then for this AU I kind of added more onto that- AHWM ISWM ADWM could have happened in a condensed fashion similarly… The glass breaking in the first video of ISWM, the ice breaking in DAMIEN twice… The lines Head Engineer speaks at the canon ending mirroring the lines spoken by Damien and Celine at the end of DAMIEN… It's as if it's like, a loop, or pocket, or spiral, some kind of non-linear shape… Whichever way it is, I guess the most important point is that it's non-linear. I like to call it wobbly time (a theme in my OC's as well) It's not essential to consume nor understand a story by understanding how its universe works. After all, we as people in real life don't know how our universe is shaped. Is it infinite, or does it loop? (Can you tell I'm a bit autistic about space?) But the desire to adventure and discover what's out there is sometimes commendable and a beautiful instinct of human life… other times, not so much. We could all learn from Head Engineer's mistake. But yea, Dark is powerful but not God of this Universe powerful… I think it'd be funny that if Dark tried everything in his power to defy the laws of the universe, once he finally got a hold on the time paradox that literally allows him to traverse the multiverse to find any timeline that gives him an upper hand on his #1 Enemy, when he travels to literally the ends of the universe, Mark (The Real Life Author) is like "no" so Dark has to go back to the main story line (or at least close to it, there's plenty of legroom for fanon things to occur around the "main timeline") Dark's like "ugh fine" and completes the ending of ISWM like it's a videogame to gain back his agency splitting from D/A (You and your choices in the "videogame") again, and to get away from Head Engineer- even though he's one of the more tolerable Marks, I GUESS- (Frenemies trope x The Unlikely Friendship trope x Doomed trope, and some other dynamic or development that can't really be similarly labeled as a trope, which hopefully I will be able to share to everyone who will want to know about it) I also like to think that's why he's dangling the box in front of us in AHWM instead of actually using it for anything. He can use us to get what he wants quicker than by doing it alone. Using the anomaly gem in the box for his own needs a second time would not work nor worth the risk of ISWM 2.0

What I love about Markiplier's cinematic universe is that it involves both distortion of identity and distortion of time/space- anything and anyone can happen. I relate to it and my chaotic (and also very analytical and ""DeeP"") creative style is very compatible with it. :)

Thank you for the questions !! Feel free to ask as many questions as you like about what I said here if it didn't make sense, because damn it's compact. It could be explained better if paced out (or storytold?) instead of all dropped into one post heheh