The world and it's reality had really come down on Mark hard lately, all the heart wrenching games he'd played for his fans lately, and reminders of the past... And reminders that he had neglected his fans many times though he hadn't meant it, and knew they forgave him, or didn't mind, he did mind. Life was rough lately, he was getting ready for a very low profile gaming convention happening in a few weeks, but wanted to be in the area for a while to get used to the schedule he would soon need to follow. His whole trip was planned from the second he was invited- he would pre-record a bunch of videos, get back on track with his sleeping, keep up with twitter and comments, and research the convention and location.
While this all seemed like the perfect plan, it hadn't worked that way, not really. He'd stayed up all night pre-recording for a week, bringing in a professional designer friend he had to help him with his panel design. It was all fine and good until he passed out while recording three times, catching the worry of his fans. He reassured them to the best of his ability with a v-log, and hoped it would be enough. Many wished him well, others were still concerned. He finally got his panel designing finished, and took out the pre-ordered ticket the convention Guest Administrator had mailed to him. On the day of the flight, he got no sleep, responding to twitter and comments via airplane wifi. When he'd finally got there, the Guest Administrator herself was waiting for him, holding a sign with a pink mustache on it that read Markiplier on it in bold black letters.
She'd shook his hand, and he'd given her a hug thanking her for inviting him. She introduced herself as Marin, and explained the plan for the next couple of weeks as they exited the airport and stepped into what was apparently Marin's car. "Keep in mind the convention is low profile- don't go too out of it with letting fans know about this. We could only get a big enough venue for a few guests to host in, and we wanted a slower start this year, since last year there was damage to the venue and we'd had a lot of trouble explaining this to those who we'd rented the venue from." She warned him, pulling out onto the highway. "I'll be dropping you off at your hotel which is paid for already, because you're here so early, you have three weeks to get settled. For the first week, you'll be free to do your thing however it is you do, explore, and the sort."
He frowned, turning away from the window to face her. "What about the two weeks after that?" He asked in confusion.
"For the second week, you'll be accompanied by a Guest Assistance staff member. They wont be here until the second week, as I told you, it's still early. We don't know who will be alongside you yet, but we'll let you know twenty four hours in advance. You'll have the week to decide whether or not this Guest Assistance follows through for you well, if they don't, they can easily be switched. We have more staff than we do guests." She stated, accelerating at a higher speed now. "For the last week, you will have a few hours a day to hang around the venue, whether that's getting a feel for the place, or helping the designers with your own panel, your assistant staff will also give you a tour of the place. Other than that, it's freelance." She finished, putting all focus on the road.
He turned his attention to the world outside the passenger window, reading the many signs. He zoned out for a long time, he hadn't realized they had stopped until he felt someone prodding his shoulder. "Markiplier? Are you alright?" He turned his face to Marin, smiling and opening the door to get out. "I'll see you then...?" He said with a slight question to it. "Next week, Sunday night. I'll be introducing you to your assistant staff." He nodded, noting that he probably should have paid more attention, or he might have missed that. Not Monday, but Sunday. He shrugged it off, it was a week away, nothing to worry about, it was just a tour guide type deal. Right? Right.
He and Marin carried his bags upstairs in two trips, though he'd told her he could handle it- she refused and helped anyway. When all his stuff was in the hotel room, and Marin had likely driven home, he decided to really focus on his current surroundings. Three rooms, bedroom, bathroom, main room. The main room, where he now stood, had a TV mounted on one wall, a couch and two chairs across from it, with a table of which he guessed was plexiglas in front of the furniture. Against the wall near a sliding glass door covered by curtains was a large desk, lots of space. Exactly what he needed.
As soon as he spotted the desk, his inspecting was over, forget the bedroom and bathroom. He quickly got out his recording equipment which was packed very densely to avoid anything being rattled around, and pulled out a hand held camera. He opened the screen and took a look around the room from the video camera's perspective, before turning it towards him and pressing record. "Hello everybody, my name is Markiplier, and this is not another let's play video!" He chuckled at his clever improvised introduction. "For those who know, I've gone on a trip to a gaming convention... I can't say much, as it's very low profile... and secretive... and mysterious... But no worries! I'll be back in about a month, as I've decided to arrive early to check the place out. I've got lot's of stuff pre-recorded for you guy and I know you're going to love it! So cheer up, you'll still get to have the pleasure of watching play through's of games other youtubers have already played. I know I haven't done a log in forever, so I'll give you a hint to where it is I'm staying..." He then pointed the camera outward and spun, making sure it was just slow enough for them to depict the room, but not much else.
"I hope you got that, because there are no more hints from here on out guys. For those who will ask, I will be on twitter and replying to comments while I'm here, but I may be busy next week and so on. Did I mention my super secret agent spy assistant? I don't get to meet them until Sunday, but I'm excited to meet them, I'll be sure to do a video sometime with my new friend. My name is Markiplier and I will see you... in the next video." He clicked the end button and set the video camera down on the desk. One checklist objective down, many more to go.
It wasn't until he'd had his recording gear and gaming computer set up, and sprawled out on the couch with the TV remote in hand playing some comedy show that he realized how tired he really was from staying up so much. He felt a haze settle on his mind, and he slowly slumped into the couch cushions, no longer supported by his elbows. His head lolled back and jaw slacked, his hand falling limp off the couch and dropping the remote in the process.
He woke up to see his own grinning face only inches away, eyes more of a maroon-crimson than his coal-brown. He blinked, and found himself staring at the ceiling. My god, I'm going insane. He thought to himself with a bitter look on his face, as if he'd just taste tested a lemon. His enter body screamed with protest as he sat up, and he tensed before muttering a quick and pained, "Nope..." Before falling back onto the couch cushions. "Oh god, the pain..." He whined to no one in particular, before waiting about fifteen minutes with his eyes closed only to be denied sleep.
Muttering to himself he rolled off the couch and stalked into the main room in his usual morning-slump kind of way, running his fingers through his hair and muttering more about the bedhead he'd managed to create. It wasn't even a bed, it was a couch! He argued mentally to no one, and receiving no answer felt unusually sulky and sad. What was he expecting, someone to laugh at him and call him a 'loooser'? No... He sighed, whispering over his breath, "Maybe..."
With much grumbling, mumbling, and muttering, the oh holy Markiplier of youtube decided to finally change clothes. He wanted to go out and explore even just the block a bit, say hi to people, maybe call Marin about this assistant person, he'd need to be 'presentable'; well, youtuber style presentable anyway. It was only after he had warred with his hair to the point of it's surrender- except for the many strands that still refused- cleaned his glasses, and checked his tweets when he stopped everything to look at the time at the top of his phone. It was four thirty in the morning.
"DINGUS DAMMIT!" He yelled, switching off his phone and slumping onto the couch. "God, can't the time move any faster? I've been up for half an hour and it feels. Like. Daaaaays!" He whined, yet again to no one, this time not caring quite as much about whether or not he got a reply. He simply sat there for a while partially sulking, partially pondering. He finally decided to play The Worlds Hardest Game 3, the worst rage game he'd played after I Am Bread... But still nothing compared.
"THIS IS NOT FAAAAIR!" He cried in exasperation, yelling in frustration when he died once again. He checked the time to see it was now seven thirty, and late enough for him to leave the building and explore without worrying about not disturbing people with his loud demeanor.
His day was rather simple- he left the building wearing his white fedora, Markiplier shirt, black shorts, and a thin black jacket. Few people really approached him, recognizing him no doubt from youtube, but he had noticed others watching him so he suspected they just weren't sure about approaching him as those few had been. He stopped by Starbucks and ordered a smoothie, he didn't really drink coffee but he did enjoy their smoothies. He'd sat there for practically an hour, poking at his phone, texting Bob and Wade, even checking out some fanart. He immediately refused to continue with the last choice when he ran into some Markimash fanart... Eugh, gross; he loved his fans, he did, but sometimes they got out of hand.
After exploring the area more, he headed back to his hotel suite around one o'clock and finished the day by gaming and watching the television. This time, he actually got up and turned off the TV before he headed into the bedroom to sleep. His days repeated like this, nothing really interesting- he had become acquainted with one of the baristas at the Starbucks he'd found himself going to every day that week.
He woke up on that Saturday morning feeling well rested and excited to find out who his assistant would be, stretching before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and finding a voice mail waiting for him on his phone. He leaned over to sweep it off the nightstand, pressing the play button on the message and pressing it to his ear.
"Ah- Mark, hi! It's Marin, I know it's really late and you likely wont get this until tomorrow... But, ah- uhm, your Guest Assistant caught an early flight over, we will be at the local Starbucks in town around twelve thirty. If you want to maybe accompany us you can, otherwise you'll meet her tomo-" He cut off the message by turning off his phone and dropping it on the nightstand, it was already twelve!
He quickly changed quickly, throwing on black pants and a red plaid shirt. He ran his fingers through his hair quickly before using his fedora to hide the unruly strands, rushing out the door after grabbing his phone and glasses. He half jogged, half walked to the cafe, finding that Marin was already in line.
He jogged over to find her talking to a girl beside her that he instantly recognized- it was Jennet. When he'd finally grown out his hair and went to get it styled and whatever else, she'd been the hair dresser that tended to him that day. They'd become friends after many conversations about video games, about both his and her line of work. She'd explained that she originally dreamed of being a designer, whilst he told her of his engineer job.
Although she didn't understand his previous work much, she did try to. After she was done, she showed him some examples of her designing, which he complimented. She said she'd check out his videos some time, and taking one of the cards at the front desk he told her he'd call her to get lunch some time. They both had a busy life, he had a tight schedule of which he had to stay focused, and she had a job she had to go to for most of the day, the entire day- not to mention helping out her younger sister whom was having a hard time adjusting to her new life off on her own.
They made time, though, and found themselves making time every week to catch up. They would go to some cafe or stop for fast food, go for a run together even. They were good friends- he even introduced her to Bob and Wade, who had adopted her into their small group as well. He however, wouldn't be honest to anyone but his two closest friends, about her existence.
He wasn't dating her at the time, it seemed unnecessary to make them aware of his new friend- it wasn't like they were dating. Until they were, of course. He'd known of course, that girls found him attractive, and Jennet joked with him about it all the time. He also knew that Jennet's jokes were quite honest, and she'd learned much about him from their times together and watching his videos here and there. But he hadn't expected this.
Hey guys, sorry I know it's been a while, but I really put a lot of thought into this chapter and the foreshadowing of it. I always leave hints~ No references here today, really, but there will be many to come. I'll always announce that there is one at the end of the chapter, and then say what the reference was in the end of the next chapter. I'll try to update this every week, I'm so eager to get to my plans! I've been playing with the ideas for a while, and I've got something real solid (get your mind out of the gutter) and original for this story. Anyone see the livestream on Saturday? I was the one yelling about the purple switch in the forest... Yeah, I still have my SNES and all the games fully functional~ Maybe I'll send it to Mark, I never play it anyway. He really needs to take practices on systems like the SNES that he hasn't played in a while... he was pretty bad w Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I look forward to seeing old and new faces in the next! Please only constructive reviews, feel free to leave ideas if you like, and don't ask for spoilers! I won't have none of it!
Thank you all for reading, and as always, I will see you... in the next chapter. Buh-Bye! -Adamented (Adamant