Mark knocked before walking into the make shift hospital, Amy at his heels. He made his way into the sick ward, staring at the sleeping King a moment before he looked up to see Jack pacing in the aisle between the cots. "Morning Sean."
"Oh. Hey." Jack smiled slightly as he stopped pacing and turned towards them. "Is it...?"
"Just went live." Mark sighed, turning his attention back to the cot. Amy leaned into Mark's side, rubbing his back as she watched King, with him. Jack slowly made his way over, standing at the foot of the bed to watch with them.
Dark was sitting in the bed in ward one, with Wilford asleep beside him when he got an alert that Mark had posted a video. Without a word, he got up and headed downstairs, but noticing the urgency in his step, Anti got up to follow.
Mark glanced up, making eye contact with Dark briefly but neither said anything as Dark stood at the other side of the bed, both turning their attention to King.
Anti watched the group a moment, circling around them before hesitantly stepping up beside Dark. After a moment, Anti's body glitched intensely. "Is it working?"
Mark sighed. "He's still asleep."
Dark glared at him. "How did you possibly fuck this up?"
"What?" Mark grunted, lifting his head. "I posted the video! I TOLD you this might not be the answer!"
Jack groaned. "Just... give it a moment. It's going to work. It has to."
Anti shook his head. "It doesn't have to."
Dark chuckled lowly, shaking his head. "It has to because they finally feel guilty."
"You think we wanted this?" Jack frowned.
"Mark never wanted us to exist." Dark growled, glaring at Mark.
Shaking his head, Mark looked up at him. "Don't... don't throw that back at me. You KNOW what I meant by that!"
Dark placed his hands behind his back. "Do I?"
Anti's form twisted, glitching around as he glanced at Jack. "Would you rather we were gone?"
"No!" Jack yelped. "I never said that. Don't put words in my mouth."
"Ok..." Amy sighed. "I think we all need to calm down."
"This never involved you." Dark snarled.
"Hey!" Mark grunted. "Don't talk to her like that."
Suddenly King shifted, groaning softly as his eyes opened and Mark's face softened as he looked down. "King?" Everyone's attention was back on the bed, staring intently.
King looked around at the faces, letting out a whimper and pulled the blanket over his head. Mark swallowed hard, leaning down. "Do you know who you are?"
"I'm... King of the Squirrels." Mumbled a quiet voice from under the blanket.
Dark let out a relieved sigh, and Anti giggled, looking over his shoulder at the empty cot where Robbie had been. Jack covered his face with his hands, taking a few deep breaths, as Amy just smiled. Mark gently lifted a corner of the blanket, crouching down so he could see the man's face. "Do you know who I am?"
"Mark?" King asked quietly.
Mark grinned, nodding his head. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired." King mumbled.
Nodding a little, Mark sighed. "Do you... want to put peanut butter on your face and let the squirrels lick it off?"
King stared at him a moment, then yawned, rubbing at his eyes. Finally he answered with a quiet, "No."
Mark's smile faded slightly. "No?"
"I'm... tired." King whined.
Amy placed a hand on Mark's shoulder, squeezing. "Give him some time."
Mark let the blanket drop, standing again. "Dark was immediately fine."
"Dark wasn't as far gone." Amy reminded gently.
"And Dark's been a big softie." Anti giggled.
Dark turned to glare at him. "And here, I thought we were on a truce?"
Anti shrugged, backing up a little and Jack shook his head. "You two are not fighting right now. You have to look after everyone."
"What?" Anti huffed.
Jack sighed. "The video worked..." He looked over to Mark. "Right?"
Mark shrugged, nodding. "I think so?"
"So I have to leave..." Jack looked back to Anti. "I need to go back to Mark's, and we have to figure out videos for everyone else. You two are the only ones well enough to help out here. It's nurse Dark and nurse Anti. Do you understand me?"
"Don't tell me what to do." Anti hissed.
Dark shifted, placing a hand on Anti's shoulder. "Learn to pick your battles."
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Anti turned to glare at him.
"You are worried about the others. If you do not want Marvin to join Robbie, we need to let them make their stupid videos." Dark pointed out.
Mark smiled as King moved a corner of the blanket, watching him. "Where am I?" The man asked sleepily.
"The hospital." Mark explained. "Do you remember?"
King hesitantly looked around. "I don't know."
Sighing, Mark patted his arm. "You're King of the Squirrels, and that's all that matters, alright?" King smiled slightly, nodding in response, and Mark looked up at Dark. "Can I trust you with this?"
"Of course." Dark growled. "I would never take out my issues with you, on them."
Mark hesitantly nodded. He decided it wasn't the best time to push against Dark. Jack was right, they needed the dark alters to take care of everyone else in the hospital while they made videos. "Let me know if something happens with Yandere... immediately. Got it?"
Dark sighed. "I will."
Anti rolled his eyes and Jack patted his arm. "Please? Take good care of them. I'm just asking for this one favour. How often do I actually ask things of you?"
"I don't owe you anything." Anti muttered.
Jack groaned. "Anti!"
"Fine!" The glitch hissed. "This ONE time."
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Jack nodded. "Thank you." He looked over to Robbie's empty cot, and then to Marvin before turning to Mark. "We have to go."
Mark nodded, leaning down to King again. "I have to go, so I can help everyone else, ok? Dark is going to be here with you. Do you remember Dark?"
King hesitantly nodded, peering over the edge of his blanket at the dark ego. Dark forced a smile, giving him a small wave.
"Good." Mark nodded, then looked to Dark. "As SOON as something happens."
Dark grunted. "I understand." He tilted his head, staring the man down. "If anything happens to any of them, I want to be able to hold you completely accountable." He smirked.
Mark sighed, simply taking Amy's hand to lead her out, and Jack followed them. Sitting in the back seat, Jack closed his eyes as Mark drove, Amy patting Mark's knee in an effort to help calm him. Taking a deep breath, Amy looked back at Jack and smiled. "Thank you for taking care of them for so long."
Jack slowly opened his eyes and smiled. "Some of them are my responsibility anyway." He pointed out. "Besides, it wasn't too hard. They're all pretty... sedate."
Mark shifted in his seat, placing one of his hands over Amy's on his knee, keeping his other firmly on the wheel. Amy glanced at him, before looking back at Jack. "At least we know how to fix it now."
Jack smiled. "Yeah." He shifted, glancing out the window and Amy sat back, watching Mark a moment before she looked ahead of them. The rest of the drive was silent.
As they headed into Mark's house, Jack let out a relieved sigh, contently trying to pet the dogs as they raced circles around the three.
Mark watched Amy walk off towards the kitchen before he turned to the other man. "What are you thinking?"
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, standing up as Chica pawed at his leg for more attention.
"I assume you want to do something with the magician? I'm still figuring out what to do for a Yandere video." Mark groaned. "I guess I could play Yandere simulator again... in costume."
"Oh." Jack nodded. "Actually... I was going to play a zombie game. If I can think of one."
Mark frowned. "Do you think that'll work?"
"I have to try." Jack sighed.
"Alright. Uh... I played a zombie game awhile ago... it's a pretty simple one. You could make a short video on it? It's one of those io games." Mark shrugged.
Jack tilted his head back, thinking. "Ohh... I remember that. I think I played it on the channel before... it's like a battle royal?"
Mark slowly nodded. "I think there was a battle royal version. Did you play the normal one? You could do that one... mix it up a bit." Without giving Jack time to respond, he headed towards his recording room. "Come on, I'll give you the tour of my set up." Jack simply followed and as Mark sat down and started turning things on and pulling up programs, Jack just sighed and watched. "Alright, so nothing makes sense and there's wires everywhere. Cool?" Mark looked over at him.
Jack laughed. "Sounds great."
Mark grinned, getting up and patted his chair. "I know it's not as fancy as yours, but-"
"Why doesn't it have arms?" Jack chuckled, sitting down.
"I... didn't like them..." Mark explained, clearing his throat. Jack rose an eyebrow, shaking his head and Mark shrugged. "Anyway... if you need anything, just ask, alright? I'll just be planning out what I'm gonna do."
Jack nodded, sighing heavily and turned to the computer. He stared blankly at the screen for a moment, then looked up at the camera. "I guess I should make sure everything's recording." He mumbled.
"I did." Mark promised, watching him closely. "Sean? Are you alright?"
Placing his elbows on the desk, Jack leaned in face in his hands. "Yeah... I just... my heart's not in it. I don't want to be here, doing this... I want to be there, making sure they're alright."
Frowning, Mark put a hand on his shoulder. "THIS is how you make sure they're alright."
Jack let his hands fall, staring at his face on screen, then looked back at Mark. "I think this might be the first time in a long time that I just really don't want to play games."
Mark swallowed hard, looking at the screen, then across the room and smiled, looking back to Jack. "What if I played with you?"
"What?" Jack sighed.
Mark wandered to the other end of the desk. "I'll... set up this computer... if you just give me a couple of minutes... and play with you! I mean... it's an io game, we can... probably play together."
Jack shook his head. "You have to-"
"I'll figure it out after. We still have... lots of time. I don't have any ideas for yandere videos anyway." He sighed, connecting wires and moving things around.
Jack narrowed his eyes. "It's... almost painful watching you do this."
Mark chuckled. "Can you do it better?"
Jack held his hands up, shaking his head. "No! No... by all means... you do... whatever it is you're doing."
After about fifteen minutes, Mark finally had the second computer running and connected to the internet. He smiled, pulling on headphones and setting up his second mic. "Ok. So... I won't bother recording... because I don't think this computer will handle it... I'll just join you. Sound good?"
"Perfect." Jack smiled slightly. "Thanks Mark."
Mark grinned. "What are friends for, if not gaming with." He smirked. "Ok, you should sync."
"Right." Jack chuckled, double checking everything was ready, and doing his syncs. As he finished, he started the game and so did Mark, making sure they chose the same server. "I'm Toss Boy."
"Of course. I'm Markimoo." Mark grinned. "Where are you?"
"Oh... uh... there's..." Jack glanced over at Mark before looking back to his screen. "A tree here... and a rock."
"Shit." Mark laughed. "It might be kind of hard to find each other. Just uh... just stay where you are, I'm gonna run around randomly and see if I find you."
Jack shook his head, chuckling. "Oh good. So we'll be playing by tomorrow then?"
"Give me a chance!" Mark huffed.
Jack looked up to the camera. "Robin, you can probably cut this part out."
"You're sending this to Robin?" Mark asked.
"Yeah... probably." Jack shrugged. "He's a lot better and faster at editing than I am."
Mark nodded. "It has been really nice having Lixian edit more and more for me."
"Really frees up time." Jack smiled.
"I see you!" Mark squealed as his charter ran over, running circles around Jack's.
Jack grinned. "Whoo! Now... what do we do?"
Mark shrugged. "We uh... we zombs.io. We gather resources, and base build and survive zombies... that might come soon. We better move fast."
"Oh shit." Jack chuckled.
As the two men played, back at the hospital, their dark alters were trying to care for the others.
Dark was staying pretty close to the sick ward, keeping a close eye on Yandereiplier, and interacting with King to monitor his recovery. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired." King yawned. "Just like five minutes ago."
Dark smiled. "Am I being over bearing?"
King nodded a little, squirming in his bed. "Where did Mark go?"
"You know how he is." Dark grunted. "His channel is always more important."
Anti had been heading to the kitchen and hesitated, leaning in. "You were telling me we had to pick battles and now you're throwing him under the bus?"
Dark smirked, shrugging his shoulders. "He has no idea what I am saying now."
"I... have so much to learn." Anti mumbled.
Dark chuckled. "I would imagine so." He cracked his neck. "How are the others?"
Anti's form glitched more violently for a moment. "Not... great."
Dark only nodded, watching as King drifted back to sleep. "They had better move fast."
Anti looked over towards Marvin, hesitantly nodding as he left the room, heading for the kitchen again. Dark sighed, looking over the cots, wondering how things had gotten so out of his control.