This is a second story for @destinggirl. She requested #14 of the first prompt list; “What are we doing this time?” “Want to see what kind of trouble we can get into?” “Oh, God, we’re going to die aren’t we?” “It’s Tuesday, I know how to restrain myself.” This one is a friendly Mark and reader with guest appearance from Ethan.
Man with a Van.
Sitting on your brother’s couch you wait for your movie to start back up. Commercials are the bane of your existence at this point in time. Due to…unexpected turns of event you’ve found yourself stranded in California for the better part of December. It’s not really something you’re complaining about, but you really had been expecting to see your cousin for her wedding instead of being left to watch your brother’s house while he goes to Japan.
You’re glad that your brother is able to take such an exotic trip, but you hadn’t exactly volunteered for babysitting duty. Thankfully your recent endeavor into the employment realm proved to be fruitless. At least, that’s what you’ve been telling anyone that asks. It’s less humiliating then saying you got fired from three retails stores in four months back home.
With a heavy sigh you stare at the remote just out of your reach then the TV again. Do you dare attempt to reach over and grab the remote? Or do you simply watch the cartoon movies currently play its opening scene. Decisions. Decisions.
After a few minutes you decide to grab the remote, turn off the TV, and take a shower. It’s about time you left the house and interacted with other human beings. You’ve been to your bother’s place a few times, watching the house on occasion, so it’s not like you don’t know the area.
It’s just interacting with people.
“Okay, Theo, I’m heading out.” You call to your brother’s Persian cat. He doesn’t even lift his head at his name and you take your leave. The cat doesn’t hate you, but he doesn’t like you either. Which, in you honest opinion, is okay.
Walking around in the bright sun light you take the sunglasses you’d bought before your brother left and slip them on. Somehow it feels off having to wear sunglasses in the dead of winter. You take in the manicured lawns and blossoming colorful flowers. It’s rather peaceful and you decide to put your ear bud headphones in and play a little bit of music to accompany you.
You walk for a few songs, pausing when cars drive down the street before deciding to turn around. As you spin around you literally crash into another person. You both tumble to the ground, trying to make sense of what just happened.
“Oh God, are you okay?” you ask quick to scramble off the young man beneath you. You barely get a glimpse before brushing yourself off, but he looks familiar.
“Yeah, are you? Sorry, I was running after my dog. She got loose.” He responds looking around for said dog. You glance around too.
“Your dog? I didn’t see a dog around here. Are you sure…” You pause when you spot a wagging pale yellow tail just behind the man. Sticking your index finger and thumb into your mouth, you form a circle and whistle loudly, watching the dog’s head perk up. She looks at you a moment before running full speed to you and her owner.
“Wow, that’s impressive.” He tells you grabbing ahold of his dog’s collar and slips the leash on.
“Thanks, back home we have a dog going deaf. I’m the only one that can whistle loud enough to get him to come in.” you say taking a good look at the dog and owner. He is quite attractive, short dark down hair, dark brown eyes, and pale olive skin you wonder if he’s seen sunlight much. And he wears glasses! Oh how you have a weakness against guys with glasses.
“Again, very impressive.” He tells you smiling at you. You can’t help feeling perplexed by his features. Even his voice is familiar to you.
“Do I know you from somewhere? I fee like we’ve meet before.” You say feeling like a sleazy guy trying to pick up someone in a bar. “I’m not trying to hit on you, I just… ah. You look really familiar and it’s bothering me because I don’t know where I’ve seen you from.” You quickly explain feeling even more like an idiot.
He laughs at you, his tone relaying his amusement at your actions more than being rude. “It’s okay. I actually get that a lot, but you’re housesitting for Billy and Thomas, aren’t you?” he asks earning a suspicious look from you.
“Y-yes… how did you know?” you ask deciding to be a little more tightlipped. It’s not that you don’t trust him, but even a baby face like his can hide insidious intentions.
“They told me. When I go out of town they watch Chica for me so I don’t have to put her in a daycare.” He says smiling cheerfully. “They asked that I stop by from time to time to check in on you. You’re Y/n, Billy’s younger sister, right?” he asks and your guards relax a little.
“Oh, wait! Billy said there was someone that would stop by to make sure I didn’t die.” You say feeling a little more at ease. He laughs with you.
“I’m Mark; I live down the street a few houses.” Mark introduces himself, holding out his hand to you. You smile and take it, shaking it twice before letting it drop. You don’t know why it’s so bothering, but you know you’ve seen him somewhere before.
“Have we met before? You really do look oddly familiar.” You push. “How long have you been living around this area?” you follow up with.
“I don’t think we’ve met before, but I’ve been here about a year. I’ve seen your photos in your brother’s house, but I don’t think we’ve met face to face before. Not to sound conceded, but do you watch YouTube?” he responds. You shrug.
“I don’t not watch it. I just mainly use it for music and learning to crochet and things. Are you a YouTuber?” You ask raising a brow at Mark.
“Yeah, my user name is Markiplier. I do a lot of Let’s Play and some comedy sketches.” Mark tells you. Chic whines at his side before pushing her nose against your hand. You smile at her and give her a few good scratches behind her ears.
“Cool. I hear you can make a good living doing that. Pretty successful I take it?” you ask idly petting Chica at your side.
“I like to think so. I have a kind of sketch comedy tour set up. We’re going around the states before going international for a few months.” You raise your brows at him and nod your head impressed by his success.
“Wow, that’s amazing. Are you happy?” You ask. It’s normal question for you to ask people that are quite successful in their profession. There’s no point in doing something if you’re not the least bit happy with your success.
“It’s a little stressful at time, but yeah, I’m happy. We start the tour shortly after New Year.” Mark tells you.
You nod still quite impressed at what he’s accomplished. You’d remembered hearing a few friends, and younger cousins, talk about YouTube stars they enjoyed. “You’re not much older than me, are you? What? Like twenty-eight?” You ask. Chica pulls away and walks back over to Mark for attention. You frown at the golden hair pooch. “I thought we had a connection!” You moan at Chica. She looks at you with her big brown eyes. “Oh, you wound me Chica.” You mutter looking away from the beauty.
Mark laughs at your antics. “Yeah, a round twenty-eight.” Mark pauses for a moment. “A-are you doing anything tonight? For dinner I mean.” Mark asks almost nervously.
You shrug. “I’m not the best cook, so I thought I’d pop down the Mc D’s or something and get some grease to fill my stomach.” You eye him. “Why do you ask?”
It’s Mark’s turn to shrug his shoulders. “I’m supposed to meet a few friends for dinner, and since your relatively new to the area I thought I’d see if you want to go with me.” Mark asks. You mull over the proposal. It would be nice to see where else you can get too for food.
“What kind of food?” You ask agreeing in your own way to go to dinner together. Mark smiles at you.
“It’s really delicious,” Mark reassures you with a smile you feel instantly drawn too.
“I thought you said it was going to be delicious, not repulsive.” You groan as your meal is place in front of you. You knew you should have turned around and left once it became clear this was a… how should you put it, fan service place. The décor is quite enjoyable.
Comic book pages are pasted to the tops of wooden tables with glass covering them for protection. Large life size cutout of various comic, cartoon, and anime characters line the walls tastefully. It’s like a nerd’s version of heaven… your version of heaven, you correct yourself.
However the food before you does not reflect that heaven.
“It’s good, just give it a try.” Mark tells you encouragingly. You give him a skeptical look and glance down at your food. It’s a stew you’d always thought would be pretty delicious, but looking at it now… You’re glad you have a steel stomach.
“I felt the same way when I first got that. The WestFall stew is quite delicious. It just looks a little hard to stomach.” Mark’s friend Ethan tells you. You give him the same skeptical look before picking up your spoon and give the bowl a stir.
You glance at Mark, he’s already digging into some kind of fried shrimp dish and whisper, “If I get sick from this I’m going to egg your house.”
Mark nearly chokes on his shrimp, laughing when he should be swallowing. You panic for a moment before he coughs, takes a drink of his water, and tells you, “That’s fair.”
“Whoa, don’t kill of the leading man before his big tour.” Alex, another friend of Mark chuckles from across the table.
“So, who all joins Mark in his endeavors?” You ask scooping a small spoon full of soup, carrots, meat, and what looks like mushroom spores. God this better not kill you.
“That would be just about all of us.” Ethan says as you force yourself to eat what is sitting in your spoon. You munch hesitantly as Ethan continues on. “Originally we had a few others planning to go, but they had to bail last minute. Tyler and I will be doing a few sketches with Mark and a few others like Wade and Bob. We all have our own little spot lights but the majority of the tour will be all of us just being jackasses.”
Okay, so the stew isn’t that bad. The mushroom spore things are quite delicious. Taking another spoonful, this time quite a bit larger you listen to the conversation flow around you. You interject and add but for the most part it feels nice to relax and enjoy some good—if not disturbing looking food.
This is the most peace you’ve known in quite a while.
It’s knocking at 6 o’clock in the morning that disturbs your slumber. You curse whoever is knocking on your door knowing what time it is. Granted you’d been waking up at a more socially appropriate time.
Dragging yourself down the stairs you pass a few mirrors and ignore your appearance and throw open the door less than pleased to see Mark’s smiling face on the other side. “I will kill you if this is not an emergency.” You growl at him and notice Ethan behind him with a camera pointed at you. “What are you two doing?” You groan kind of wishing you’d stopped to at least fix your hair…or even to put pants on.
“Put pants on! We’re taking a trip!” Mark tells you in a tone that sounds slightly crazy. You glare at him then to Ethan.
“What? I don’t want to go on a trip with you, Mark, or you… Seriously, what is going on?” you ask ready to slam the door on Mark and Ethan.
“Did you not remember you were going to do a video with me today?” Mark asks breaking character. You frown.
“No?” you respond as a conversation for three days ago finally connects everything. “Wait…you never said we’d be starting at 6 in the fucking morning! God, why didn’t you call or something to see if I was awake?” You ask glaring at Mark again. He’s smiling the dorky smile that makes you want to be his friend all over again.
“This would have made the video a bit more genuine.” Ethan pipes up. “But really, you should get some pants on. People are walking their dogs out here.” He adds smirking at you. You glare at him and close the door loudly.
“Are you saying no?” Mark shouts through the door.
“No, I’m getting clothes on!” you shout back and hurry up the stairs to your bed room. It only takes you a few minutes to change and get your morning routine taken care of, but you draw it out a little longer just to make the pair wait. Grabbing a yogurt cup and some granola you head out the door to find the pair talking on the front porch.
“Wait! Ethan get back in your spot. Okay, Y/n close the door and open after I say, “huh? Guess they’re not coming.” Got it?” Mark directs as you roll your eyes and close your door on him again. You can’t help your smile and wait for Mark to mutter his lines.
You’re giggling by the time he’s finally in character and have to compose yourself as he says lines. You spare a few seconds to eat your mixture of strawberry yogurt and vanilla crumbled granola cereal. Letting your spoon simply hang out of your mouth you open the door to a slightly surprised Mark before he starts to laugh.
“What?” You ask taking the spoon out of your mouth. “You didn’t give me time to eat my breakfast.” You offer innocently.
Mark quickly composes himself and quickly takes off pass Ethan. He shouts for you to follow and after exchanging worried glances with the camera and follow after Mark. You’ve never filmed anything before, so this is going to be interesting.
Mark laughs manically in the driver’s seat and you look back at Ethan and the camera then to Mark again. You have your lines to say and thankfully you’re not doing too bad.
“Mark… Ah, what are we doing this time?” You ask a little hesitantly even as you want to laugh your ass off at the look on his face.
“Want to see what kind of trouble we can get into?” Mark asks with a look in his eyes that’s a bit too convincing.
You look at the road a head of you, there is a green screen before you and the lovely white van is on a small platform that will simulate that it’s moving. Even with the van on idle you don’t quite trust Mark in this moment. “Oh, god, we’re going to die aren’t we?” you ask looking back to Ethan and his camera again. He shakes the camera to simulate confusion.
“It’s a Tuesday, I know how to restrain myself.” Mark responds and you give him a wide eyed look.
“Is Saturday!” you shout as he presses on the gas. The van’s engine reeves in your ears.
“My point exactly!” Mark shouts. Holding his pose a few more seconds before he breaks character and laughs. You and Ethan laugh along with him. You have no idea how that’s all going to fit together but it was really fun to do.
“Mark, you are really selling the crazy guy very well.” Ethan remarks from the back seat. You nod in agreement. Mark smiles and looks at the pair of you in turn.
“You guys did great. I have a few more shots to make but this was fun. Y/n, I’ll take you back home and get in touch with you in a few hours. Ethan and I are going to go through the video and see if there is anything else we need from you. Thanks for your help, by the way.” Mark says.
Everyone exits the van and the tech that helped you set up helps break everything down and gets the van on the pavement again. You’d already taped everything that Mark needed from you at various other locations. This had been the last scene he’d needed you for.
Marks texts you later and says he doesn’t need you for any reshoots and will forward a sneak peek to you once their done with the editing. You tell him you’ll look for the email and go make yourself dinner. If you had plans to stay in Cali, you’d definitely like to do more sketches with Mark and Ethan. It was quite a lot of fun and the process itself was fascinating.
Maybe you need a change of scenery and start a new chapter in your life. You’ll talk to Mark tomorrow about that. For right now you want food.
Idk if anyone has mentioned this yet (probably have but I haven't seen it so, sorry!) But the whole thing about the Mark's New Car series (otherwise know as the 'mark has lost it and idk if he had it to begin with' series) The thing about it being filmed before the tour or before wkm Is either, disproven by this, which is the most likely option or else this was a very very in depth plant and mark is planning something big Idk just thought I'd put that out there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I doubt he's purposefully trying to throw us off from what time it was filmed, but the main reason I think he /would/ do that, if he were going to, would be to make use of the castle footage from WKM, and wouldn't that be a bit of a shock?
