Confusedriftin - Ze/Zem/Zir

Dreemur siblings solidarity

Wrote a fic based off the ISWM ending.

Spoilers ahead.

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"I SPENT AN ETERNITY IN HELL REBUILDING THIS STUPID MACHINE AND YOU THREW IT ALL AWAY!” Mark shouted angrily.

Didn’t he realize that destroying the warp core was for the best? Or Did he not have no faith in his beloved captain anymore?

“I don’t know if you’re evil or stupid, but if I’m not back there to fix it..”

You watched Mark look back at the machine that he sacrificed so much effort and time to fix. His expression becoming more confused.

“..if I’m not back there…”

The more Mark looked towards the machine and saw that you were still there with him and that the universe wasn’t going kablooey, you realized that maybe, just maybe holding on to him was the right choice. Maybe, just maybe, there is an end to all of this.

“If I’m not back then, the warp core is not back…”

He walked closer to the buttons that controlled that machine. How many times has he pressed all of these buttons and prayed that something -anything- would fix things. He lost count.

“I thought– I thought–” His face went from confusion to sadness and regret.

“I thought I rebuilt it cause you destroyed it.”

Both of you were slowly beginning to realize that Mark was the real reason why everything went to shit and it hurt.

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

He couldn’t believe he was the cause of all of this.

“I built it” He let out a painful laugh. “I built it.”

He didn’t want to believe that this was all his fault. This was a joke right? It’s not like he did this on purpose. He didn’t know what would happen. How much pain and destruction he would cause.

But no matter how much he didn’t want to believe it, he had to. What is done, is done and he had to accept it.

“It was all my fault.”

The realization that Mark was behind everything was overwhelming to you both. This was just as much as a shock to you as it was to him and you tried your best to process this.

He was why everything happened? He was all those lives were lost. It was all his fault but you got the blame for it!

You should be furious at him. Wouldn’t that be how most people would feel at a time like this?

But you just couldn’t. You couldn’t be angry. Especially not at Mark. Not right now anyways . You couldn’t feel much right now. You were tired. So very very tired.

But, as you saw Mark now sitting there next to you, with a defeated expression that matched your own, you knew you had to try. You couldn’t give up on him right there. You placed your hand on his shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze.

“I’m–Captain, I’m tired.”

You gave his shoulder another squeeze, speaking for the first time since you made that choice to hold on to him.

“I know. We’ve both been through hell.” He closed his eyes momentarily trying not to completely lose any composure he had left.

“I don’t know when the last time I slept was…I don’t know if I’ve even slept at all.”

You nodded in understanding. Mark looked beyond exhausted. Hell, you did too and Mark must have noticed this because he asked “Have you?” You shook you head.

Mark knew that your exhaustion was his fault. This whole time you were trying to fix a problem that he unknowingly caused. You did everything in your power to find a solution. Literally everything. You went back and forth countless amount of times and yet you found nothing but more death and despair. And all of that was blamed you because you were the Captain. You saw your own crew give up on you. You saw everyone lose faith in you. Even Mark. He was certain this was all your fault. But he was wrong. So very wrong. And that pained him more than anything.

You were always there for him and he had the audacity to blame you for this. The guilt he felt could be measured. He had to make it up to you, or at least try.

“I’m really sorry, Captain”

He knew he owed you an apology and an explanation. It was the least he could do.

“I thought the only way to stop this, was to stop you, stop all this from happening in the first place.”

He held back his tears and continued on. Restating the sad truth that was discovered earlier.

“But it was me.” He said as he let out another shaky breath.

“It was me. All those mistakes. All those lifetimes. All the people..”

Images of all the different lifetimes you lived through flashed through you mind. It was…alot.

“..I guess I lost hope…” Mark said, continuing once more. He had this immense pain in his eyes that you felt as well. You both were so tired.

“…But you didn’t”. He smiled genuinely at you as he said this.

The moment you decided to hold onto him and not let him go was the moment he realized that you are the best captain that could have been on The Invincible II.

“You never did.”

You both felt rumbling. You weren’t sure why exactly. Maybe cause this was all finally over?

You hoped so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Software Update Complete.

Initializing Wakey Wakey Protocol

Current ship status is: Nominal

You did it. You actually did it.

No more deaths. No more huge universe shattering mistakes. No more wormholes.

You couldn’t believe it.

Your crew was okay? And they were proud of you? All the colonists made it safely too?

You walked closer to the window and looked at the planet your crew we’re going to be habiting in awe.

After everything that you went through, seeing everything going this smoothly felt off. You heard Mark saying something about the crew being excited to get to ground but you couldn’t focus entirely on what he was saying.

It was over. It was all over. Things were going to finally be okay.

“And thank you” Mark said, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“for uh… not giving up on me” You looked back at him, returning a smile.

“Of course. I mean, I think I would make a pretty terrible Captain if I gave up on my favorite cremate.” You told him honestly.

He smiled again and nodded at you. “Thank you”.

More and more recently, I’ve begun to get some people coming to me asking for some clarification on LGBTQ stuff. When I was younger, I had to discover many basic identities and labels by myself, through research of various sources, or pieced together from disconnected blog posts. 

In the year 2019 you’d think we’d have a kid-friendly website that describes all of this in simple terms but… I’ve yet to find one that isn’t primed for guardians/parents of LGBTQ parnets and prioratizes them instead of the LGBTQ kids themselves…. 

So I tried to make a quick graphic to organize everything!

Keep in mind - this is based on MY experience and the terminology I have grown up using. Everyone’s experiences may differ - and I tried to simplify in some places to make it easier to read. (For example… I didn’t really go into detail on non-binary identities… but I may make a seperate graphic for that someday because that’s its own box of pears.) 

If you have feelings about this, feel free to go more in depth in the comments! 

The Oh-So Mighty, Captain. [ISWM HC]

| this contains engineer!mark x tall!captain. the idea came from an anon and you can check it out here! | [extra] this has mark being all gushy and being a simp for the tall, and oh-so mighty captain, including the other main crew. the other crew-mates are just either fascinated or in disbelief by how tall and strong the captain is. this also includes the helmet that wug made them, making them communicate with emojis rather than just the eyes that wug normally has. [tw] intentional lowercasing, the main crew being simps, mainly mark x captain though, somewhat muscular captain, wug using he/him pronouns, is romantic not platonic. [i’ll make a platonic x captain soon!!]

• when mark welcomed you on aboard, he had to hide his face nearly all the time so you wouldn’t question why his face was so red. • he often made comments about you under his breathe, but you could faintly hear him muttering, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. • when you meet gunther [since i think he was the first introduced??] he complimented how strong and tall you were. like, you literally towered over him n the entire crew like dAMN!! • on the outside he was cool and his usual attitude towards you, but bitch he was freaking out over how cool you look!! • burt casually complimented your muscles and asked if your helmet was okay. your helmet was cracked, only showing one of your eyes and some of your hair [aka this is your old helmet lawl] • he said that he could probably fix it up but you told him it was fine! you honestly didn’t mind the crack in your helmet, it made you look badass,,, • mark ofc, agreed that you did look badass. what a simp /hj • celci was overwhelmed by how tall and strong you looked, she felt like you could crush her at any given moment. • but you didn’t. which she let out a sigh of relief. her cheeks were red but you didn’t really care since you just thought she was cold since the cryo-room was definitley a cold area. • but her n mark argued, especially bc mark saw celci’s blush and got jealous by how nice you were to her and you were giving her attention. • this man is just a puppy istg /lh • gunther, burt, mark, and celci all really liked you. you of course thought nothing of it because you just thought they were being nice! • when wug saw your broken helmet, he took out a spare wug helmet and placed it in your arms rather harshly. you knew he meant good though. • he said, ”wug not like that your helmet broken. wug take broken helmet and you take prototype wug helmet!” from his communicator. you simply just nodded, since you didn’t wanna hurt his feeling and didnt want him crushing your bones for not accepting such a gift from wug. • when you took your broken helmet off and gave it to wug, mark couldn’t help but stare at how beautiful and/or handsome you looked. • ”woah,, captain i-“ ”yeah, i know, heheh. got an ugly face dont i?” ”NO! i mean- no! not at all. you literally look so,, so,,,,” • his crimson and troubled face gave you an answer on what you were trying to say. • you chuckled, patting his shoulder and nodding at him to which he just gulped and nodded back quickly. • your face had scars from the previous time-loops, your helmet not being able to save you from the pain, but they recovered quickly to be honest! so, that was good. • when wug taught you how it works and to put it on, mark just clapped when an emoji with a ’:]’ on it’s screen popped up. ”it worked, captain!” • you and him thank wug, before glitching to the USA. • when the crew saw your new helmet, they immediately complimented and gushed over how cool it looked. mainly gunther and mark, celci and burt just said it looked cool and they liked that you now had a better and NOT broken helmet.

• when the main crew all gathered up to hear your speech to them, after listening to your other speech for the whole ship, you took off your new helmet and let them look at your features. • let’s just say they were surprised, mark mostly being flustered, at how attractive you looked. • since the captain is also canonically attractive, i just decided to add that in aklshfalhgl • you told the four of them that you appreciate them, and that you shouldn’t take credit for what they all did to save this team. they all flushed up, looking the other way embarrased or were flustered. • celci was the first to speak up, clearing her throat, ”but captain, it was you that told us to help save the team. without you, we would all probably either be lost in space and dying slowly, or the ship would get blown up. you helped too, don’t forget that.” • the men beside celci all nodded and agreed. your tears ran down your cheeks as you pulled them all into a hug. you wouldn’t ever know the flustered break-down they all had, but you let them go as quick as you were to hug them, afraid to squish them and not allow them to breathe because of your muscular arms. • when celci, gunther, and burt left, you stopped mark from following them.

• you asked him to join you to look at your new home, him walking over with his coffee cup in hand. ”thank you, for not giving up on me.” you said, looking at him with your helmet still off. • ”i should say that to you, y’know.” mark laughed, blushing and rubbing the back of his neck. • you stepped to him, which caught his attention, and quickly but also slowly grabbed his face and kissed his lips. • mark was surprised to say the least, but kissed back. you two backed off for some air, to which you chuckled, • ”too late, i did it first.” you grabbed your helmet and put it on, activating as you left the room leaving a flustered and surprised mark by himself.

[again, thank you anon if your reading this for the ideas!! :] <3]

this has been bothering me this whole time but. the way we act as captain in space is distinctly different from how we act in date or heist. yes, the tone is different, but we move so stiffly, almost mechanically, while all the crew seems to react fluidly around us.

combine that with the single flash we get of seeing the captain awake in their cryotube, apart from us, also the captain.

combine that with mark, terrified and rocking, “that’s not me.”

combine that with dori[e]ne asking, “do you even know who you are?”

because i don’t think we do, actually.