Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jack drops his bag at the door once he enters his home. His little apartment is dark, besides from the occasional light coming from the windows facing the street. Flipping on the lights, he pulls off his shoes and lets them drop wherever they want to land, dragging himself to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Work is a pain in the ass and he has better things to do, but sadly, what he loves doing just isn’t enough to make a living with yet. But at least it gives him some extra money to actually buy things that aren’t necessities.
Once he has his cup of coffee cradled in his hands, warming them up slowly, he begins the slow walk towards his room. He thinks about work today and how he’s glad that it’s thursday. One more day until the weekend, what more would he want? And it’d be a long one too, since he had monday off thankfully.

Entering his room, or more like office, he sets his mug down on his desk before falling into his chair. It’s comfortable, thankfully, since he spends hours upon hours in it, working on his own projects and being as social as he can be and wants to be on the internet.
Pressing the ON button, Jack grabs his mug again and blows softly on it, before taking a sip. Waiting for his PC to come to life never takes very long, but he always takes a few minutes just watching his background, let his eyes sweep over the folders, programs and notes he has on his desktop, while drinking his coffee and letting his thoughts wander.

He has a new project nearly done. It took him over two months, but he was developing a program he had thought would be handy. Nothing he’d probably let other’s use, at least he hadn’t thought about it yet.
The program was supposed to be like a little buddy. With the help of an artist he had found online and was willing to draw him some things -for a little payment of course- he would have a little buddy in the corner of one of his screens. Right click on him, or use voice commands, and you could choose from different commands to use. It was supposed to act like an antivirus, calendar, clock, reminder, notes and some other things in one. It was a pain in the ass to code and program, especially since he wanted something to actually be visible on the screen.

He had most of the art already, the most important poses for his little buddy. It was a little guy, fluffy raven black hair, dark brown eyes and a pair of glasses, with some generic clothes. Just some well-fitting shirt, jeans and sneakers. The little guy was rather well build, tan skin and was supposed to be half Korean or something? Jack had let the artist design most of the guy, he had just told them how tall the guy should be, really. And of course, the poses. There were quite a few, so that the guy would seem a little more lively than just a picture in the corner of the room. No real animations though -Jack didn’t want to spend too much money on the project, especially if he didn’t know if it would work or not.

Setting his half empty mug down, Jack opened his browser. First things first: entertainment. Watching some videos on YouTube, scroll through twitter -where he himself was active as well- and look a little at tumblr. Letting the stress from the day melt away, drinking the last of his coffee, always helped him clear his head for his own projects. He really wanted to finish the little buddy, thinking that’d it be great to have some form of company -even if it was something programmed and would only say and do what he wanted. At least he had gotten some of his friends -not that he had many sadly- to give him some things for the buddy to talk and do.

Apparently, his friends had sat together with the artist, which led to the little guy having his own “personality”. Reading through the things they had given him for the buddy to talk at certain things had been quite amusing, and Jack couldn’t wait to see it all in action. It was going to be great! Hopefully at least. Even if he didn’t want to make the little buddy public, he still wanted to make him as save as possible. After all, the little guy would have access to basically all of his PC, being able to open files and documents upon request, and also being able to use the internet. Jack didn’t want to get a virus because of it, or anything else, even if the program was supposed to check for viruses as well.

Setting the videos to autoplay, Jack minimized the browser and opened the folder named “Markiplier”. He honestly had no idea how he came up with the name, but he wasn’t about to change it. He knew the program as that already, and everyone that knew of it as well -meaning his few friends and the artist that had helped.
Burying himself in work, Jack didn’t really notice time passing at all. He was focused on codes, testing specific things out, implementing the art where it was needed. Only when the alarm of his phone went off, and he was startled out of his thoughts, did he check the time.

It was nearing midnight and Jack hadn’t eaten anything yet. With a groan, he turned the alarm off -sett by himself to take care of himself- and complemented if he should continue working or go eat something. He surely had some left-overs from the last time he had ordered take-out. The decision was made when his stomach growled, so he set down his headphones and got out of his chair. He wouldn’t be able to finish his project today anyways, since he was still missing the last artworks. 
Dragging himself into the kitchen, Jack opened the fridge and pulled out the left-overs he still had. Throwing them in a pan he heated them up, threw an egg over everything and scrambled it. When it was done, he got himself a plate and sat down at the counter to eat.

His eyes were drooping, and he had to remind himself to stay awake. He still needed to turn off his PC at least, before he could go to bed. Well, brushing teeth and getting changed would be nice as well, but not wasting electricity sounded more important.
So that was what he did, after he was finished eating and put away his dishes. The mug sat forgotten on his desk, though empty, and he turned his computer off, saving everything he had done that day. One visit at the bathroom later, and Jack could finally let himself fall into bed and go to much needed sleep. Maybe tomorrow wouldn’t be so draining.

.

Getting home again, Jack was tired. He didn’t feel like doing anything anymore today, besides sleep. So he decided, since it was now the weekend after all, he could just rest and take it easy. So he went and changed into some more comfortable clothes, got his blanket from the bedroom and got some snacks, before settling on the couch and watching some netflix. Binge watching some movies and shows was always a great way to relax and let himself be lulled to sleep. It didn’t take that long either, once he felt himself dozing off, he turned off the TV and fell asleep where he sat.

The sunlight shining brightly in his face woke him up again. He scrunched his face up in discomfort, burying his face under his blanket. After a few more minutes of dozing and slowly waking up, he grumbled and pulled the blanket down again. He could hear the traffic outside, judging from it it wasn’t that late yet. He knew how it would get around noon and later, and he was glad to be awake before that. He really didn’t like the sound of traffic that much.

Pushing the blanket off of himself, Jack swung his legs over the edge of the couch, sitting upright slowly. After getting adjusted to being upright again, and out of the warmth of his blanket, he got up to his feet and sluggishly walked to the kitchen. Coffee sounded like a great idea right now, and maybe a shower. Some food maybe too, if he remembered that after the shower.
After he had his coffee, and had emptied the mug, he went to the bathroom, ready to take a shower. He snagged some fresh clothes, but still comfortable, on his way there, before going to clean himself and wake himself up some more.

Eating forgotten, Jack got himself another cup of coffee, before traveling to his computer once more. Opening his browser, he first checked his e-mail, hoping that the last artworks were done and send to him. His face lit up in delight upon seeing an e-mail from his artist, opening it and skimming over it. The final pieces were done and here! Excitedly he saved them, setting down his half full mug and going straight into work -not even bothering to start some music or any other background noise.
Immersing himself in work, time flew past Jack without the man noticing. His forgotten coffee cooled down, until it was cold and undesirable for the man. He didn’t mind though, since the beverage wasn’t even on his mind anymore.

Now the time had come. He was finished. After months of working, dozen of all-nighters, hundreds and thousands of bugs, frustration and rage, sweat and tears, he was finally done.
Backing out of the folder with all the different codes and programming, he saw the little icon he had set it at. A pink mustache, given as gift from the artist who had drawn everything else. Jack would’ve left it without icon, but he didn’t mind it anyways. Double-clicking the Markiplier.exe, he waited in anticipation, hoping everything would work how intended.

Only seconds later did the little guy pop up in the right corner of his screen, standing on the taskbar. He looked rather cute, not quite like a chibi, but also not like a normal grown-up man. He couldn’t be after all, otherwise it’d take up the whole side of the screen and he couldn’t have that.
A little speechbubble popped up. “Hello there! My name is Markiplier!”, it read and Jack couldn’t help but grin. It worked! Clicking on the bubble, it disappeared. He right clicked the little guy and checked if all the commands were there. Notes, google, calendar, clock... everything seemed to be there! To test it out, Jack opened the options menu, to set some things up. For example, he wanted Markiplier to tell him the time every other hour, and set himself a daily reminder to tell Jack to take care of himself at midnight. And lastly, he enabled the voice command.

“Markiplier”, Jack said, glad that he got a rather good microphone, “tell me the time”. Not a second later, and another speechbubble popped up.
“Right now it is 11:14am!”, complete with the art of Markiplier with one hand on his hip and a cheeky grin on his face.
Jack couldn’t help the excited grin on his face. It seemed to work just fine! He couldn’t wait to see if everything worked as well. The little guy should always be in front of all programs he would open, except if he set Markiplier to be in the background. Then only reminders would pop up in the foreground. But, since Jack didn’t really have anything important that Markiplier could cover up, he probably wouldn’t need that. And he did have a second monitor too after all.

Going back to the browser, Jack send the artist his thanks, before going to look at some new games that he had gotten just recently. As excited as he was to have Markiplier up and running -and functioning!- he couldn’t really do anything with him. And Jack really needed some time off of anything work related, even if it was something he loved doing.

Chapter Text

It had been a few weeks now and Markiplier was working perfectly. Jack was doing adjustments were they were needed and worked to get some voice samples as well. His little buddy was a great companion so far, but it’d be pretty cool if he could respond verbally as well, no? Jack made sure to adjust the options settings as well, because even he himself didn’t want everything to be announced with words. Imagine being in the middle of something important, your mind focused solely on that, and suddenly:
“Hey! It’s one pm now!” being called in your ears. Jack really didn’t need that, because he didn’t want to get a heart attack every other hour just from the time being announced. Other things were fine, like when he actually focused on Markiplier and wanted to interact with the guy. But hey, Jack was trying his best to make the little guy as awesome as possible. Meaning, that once he got someone that would lend his voice to the little program, Jack could get different loudness-es as well. It would be a bitch to code, but that didn’t matter much to Jack. He had fun with his project and making Markiplier -which he now usually called just Mark- as fun as possible.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation with him -at least not a real one- but it was still nice. He had already programmed to be able to have a little small talk with Mark, giving himself multiple choice options to which Mark would reply accordingly. And if Jack needed more artwork of Mark, he commissioned his trusty artist friend to make what he needed. And once he got some guy with a fitting voice for his buddy, it was the same there. It didn’t even take that long to get all the samples that Jack needed, all he had to do was cut them into their own files, since he’d been send just one file with them all. Not that he minded though.
Asking the artist if they could make some animation frames was something different entirely. They weren’t sure if they’d be able to make some that would satisfy Jack, but they’d try. It wouldn’t be many, just some for speaking in all the different poses, some blinking ones, and maybe some other expressions. Just some things to make Mark even more “alive”. Just a stoic picture in the corner of his monitor was a little strange, if he was being honest. It looked like he had opened a picture and forgotten to close the window again. And with eyes staring constantly was... a little unnerving, to say the truth.

But the more Jack worked on Markiplier, and the more he added and the longer he used the program, the more comfortable Jack got around it. Well, “comfortable” around it was maybe strange to say, but Jack loved the little guy more and more the longer he had him. Slowly but surely, Mark wasn’t just a program anymore, but really a companion on Jack’s side.
Sure, it made Jack look more like a loner than he really was, but what was he to do? He didn’t like going out that much, most of his friends lived far too far away from him to spend time with on a regular basis and going out alone was rather pathetic. He didn’t stay at home everyday and all the time, not only leaving for work, be he liked being in his apartment, on his computer, and doing what he loved. Programming and working, playing video games and watching YouTube videos.

Now, a month or two after he had first started Markiplier.exe successfully, Jack was currently in the kitchen making dinner. His computer was turned on still, since he planned on going back to it with his dinner, to watch some videos. He didn’t take that long, not cooking anything really complicated nor time-consuming, before he wandered back to his PC.
Moving his mouse around to get the monitors to light up again, Jack sat down and was met with a sight he hadn’t expected. His browser was open, to a new tab he most certainly hadn’t opened. It just were google imagines of cute dogs and puppies. But what baffled Jack the most, was that his little buddy Markiplier was sitting on the taskbar -which was possible since he did have artwork for that- but he was facing away from Jack and towards the browser, showing the human his back. That was something Jack had not programmed nor did he have actual art for that.

“Markiplier”, Jack hoped he was just imagining things, or had just forgotten that he had opened that tab, and nothing strange was going on. “Close the fourth tab and go to the second”.
Not long after the words were spoken, Mark was standing like usual again, closing the requested tab -which was the one Jack hadn’t opened in the first place- and went to the second tab that was open, YouTube. Mark gave Jack a smile and thumbs up -as sign that he had fulfilled the request- and Jack sighed. Whatever that was, he had surely just imagined it. Or forgotten about something. Yeah, that was probably it. Nothing strange going on here.

Jack had forgotten all about it, if it wasn’t for a few days later. Once again, he had left his computer for a few minutes, just going to the bathroom, and he came back to another strange sight.
A YouTube video was playing, something about dogs again, and Jack was 100% sure he had never opened it or pressed play while being away. Instead, he saw Markiplier, again sitting on the taskbar, and a little pink heart floating over his head. Like he was enjoying it. Like he was watching the video. Jack decided to watch what would happen when the video ended, so he sat down in his chair and just watched Markiplier and the video.
Once the video ended, the little heart above Markiplier disappeared. The tab got closed and Mark was soon back in his standing position, facing Jack with his usual smile.
Jack’s brows furrowed and he stared at Mark, trying to decipher what the heck had happened. He had not programmed that and he knew no one else was able to get on his PC and change something in Markiplier’s codes. And he was rather sure that he had no viruses or anything on his computer either, Markiplier made sure of that after all. So how and why had there been a video playing Jack hadn’t opened, and how and why had Mark watched it?

Had Jack’s little program somehow opened that tab on his own, watched the video somehow with artwork he shouldn’t possess, and closed the tab on his own, then going back like nothing had ever happened?
It baffled Jack, it really did. Checking Markiplier’s coding and programming didn’t give any answers either, everything seemed normal and how Jack had left it the last time he had worked on it. It was weird and Jack wasn’t sure if he liked it. So, because it just.... weirded Jack out, he closed the program.
With Mark gone from his screen, Jack felt almost bad. He usually was always there, in the corner, doing his job. And now Jack had just closed him without much of a thought, because of something he couldn’t explain.

Jack didn’t open Markiplier.exe for a few days after that. It was strange without it there, and that Jack had to remind himself that it was a program and not a person. It just felt like Markiplier was a person, somehow. But maybe Jack had just imagined everything or some other program had done it, or something. In the end, Jack decided to try and not think about it. So when he was able to forget about it, almost a week had gone by.
Opening the folder again, Jack stared at the .exe. He knew that he had no reason to feel guilty of not having opened it for so long, but he still did. Finally though, he sighed and double clicked Markiplier.exe.

After a few seconds, the program was loaded and his little buddy appeared in the corner, where he had always been. But something was strange, again. It looked sad. Markiplier was holding its arm and looking down, looking sad. Jack honestly didn’t know anymore if there was artwork supposed to look like that, but what concerned him more, was that there was no greeting.
Usually when Markiplier was opened, it would greet him and offer some (programmed) small talk. But not today. There was no speech bubble whatsoever.
Furrowing his brows, Jack right-clicked on Markiplier and looked over the commands. They all were there, like they should be. To see if everything still worked, he chose the option to get the time told.

“...”, Markiplier stayed silent, the speechbubble displaying three dots. Clicking it brought another one up. “It’s 5:42 pm”, the bubble read and Markiplier’s voice said. It was weird though, it sounded sad. The voice was quiet and sounded almost regretful? Jack had no idea what was happening, but the program he had made seemed so much more human than it should be able to. Especially since he shouldn’t have voice clips that sounded sad, at least not for the time! 
Jack thought about what to do. Should he treat it like a person? Like a human? He had no idea if that would work, but if Markiplier was able to show emotions, then he probably should?...

“Markiplier”, Jack spoke, knowing that the program would listen to his voice then. “I’m... sorry”, Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair, adjusting his headphones afterwards. “Sorry for having you closed for so long. I just... didn’t expect you to do what you did”, he explained. It felt strange talking to a program like this, like it was a real person. But Mark looked up and it felt like it -he- looked at Jack. A smile was on his face and he nodded -just with another frame with his head down.
Jack sighed in relief, this was still weird for him, but if Markiplier was behaving like a person, then he shouldn’t be mean to him. Opening the options, he ticked the box to have him open whenever he started the PC again. If he was being honest, he really had missed his little buddy.

Now Jack was wondering, could he have normal conversations with Mark now? Or where there just a few things that he hadn’t programmed? Maybe he was learning slowly? Jack decided that it probably -hopefully- was the latter, so he decided not to test what Mark could do, and instead went to get some work done. He had some things he could do from home thankfully, even though it was already late and he had been at work this day.
While working, Jack glanced at Mark from time to time. Everything looked normal now, and he told Jack the time every few hours and reminded him of whatever he had set his reminders to. It was weird, but maybe everything would be okay.

Chapter Text

Jack was curious as to how Mark would behave now. If he had really managed to somehow make a program which learned on its own and somehow got more voice clips and artwork on its own, then he wanted to know what Mark would learn and what he would do. So, as an experiment, he decided to let his computer run during the whole night, even if he himself was going to sleep. He had also started recording his screen before leaving for bed, just to see what Mark would be doing during the time he wasn’t there.
Before Jack left, he looked at Mark and pondered for a while, before shrugging to himself. He had no idea how smart Mark was yet, how human, so better safe than sorry.
“Markiplier”, he said, gaining the program’s attention. “Goodnight”. Jack smiled a little, seeing Mark wave -with three frames- and say “Goodnight!” as well. Jack got up then and left, turning off the lights. He was already wondering what Mark would be up to during the night/early morning hours. He’d check up on him before going to work, but let the computer running.

When Jack woke up the next morning, he had almost forgotten about his little experiment, until he walked past his office and heard the computer running. He blinked tiredly at it, before remembering. Choosing to check up on Mark now, he went in and moved the mouse a little, to wake the monitor back up. He had closed everything but Markiplier before going to sleep, so now he was met with Mark watching some videos about video games. Jack smiled to himself, observing the attentive posture the little guy had. He seemed really interested in what he was watching.
Leaving Mark alone again, Jack went to get ready for a long day for work. He didn’t feel like it, but what could he do? He needed the money after all, and he had no other way to get enough to live but with this job.

The work day was long and exhausting, and Jack was tired when he got home again. He had gotten some dinner out today, not feeling like cooking at all today and he knew he had no left-overs to warm up. So when he was home, the first thing he did was take a shower. It woke him up a little again, letting the tension go from his muscles after sitting for hours on end.
Feeling refreshed, Jack got himself some coffee, before going to his office. He sat down, waking up the monitor once more. He saw Mark laying on the taskbar, watching some walkthrough of some game. Jack watched for a while, until he became bored of it. Looking down at Mark again, the little guy could be mistaken as asleep, especially since he was, of course, turned away from Jack.

The human paused the video, which didn’t gain the attention of Mark apparently, since he didn’t react in any way. Jack raised a brow at that, was Mark actually asleep? A few days ago, he would’ve said “No, that’s impossible”, but now he wasn’t that sure.
“Markiplier”, he said, knowing that the program at least would listen to him. “Turn around please?”, Jack was unsure if that would work, but alas, Mark turned over -with three frames, the fourth now him facing Jack. The little guy looked tired, eyes half lidded and posture slack.
“Markiplier, are you tired?”, Jack asked, having no idea if it would work either, but if he listened to the first request, maybe Jack could talk more or less with Mark. The response was quiet and accompanied by a little nod. “Yeah”.
“Why don’t you sleep?”, Jack asked then. Couldn’t Mark just sleep, or? How the little program worked was still a mystery to Jack.
“You need to shut me off, for me to be able to rest”, Mark explained. He sounded very tired as well, which made Jack feel bad. He had been awake for almost 24 hours now after all, just because Jack wanted to try something.
“We’ll talk again tomorrow then”, Jack smiled at Mark, and the little guy smiled softly and nodded, before Jack closed the program, Mark disappearing from his monitor.

Jack stopped the recording that was still running, and then just sat there and thought about it all. Mark learned rather quickly it seemed, or maybe he could do all these things already. He couldn’t sleep on his own, but needed his program to be ended, closed. But he did get tired, if he was “awake” for too long. He seemed to have interests, dogs and video games from what Jack knew by now. It was interesting, Mark was like his own little person right now, and Jack wanted to get to know the little guy more, if that was possible.
It was almost like having a roommate, the only difference that one of them was a program on a PC and only there when Jack wanted him to be. Though the human was pretty sure he wouldn’t let Mark be closed for more than a day anymore, unless he had to. The last time Mark had seemed really sad, though that could’ve been also because Jack had done so without explanation.

Sighing, Jack decided that he had thought enough, especially when he noticed he could view his recording. He decided to speed it up, since it were over ten hours worth of video, and he didn’t want to watch that much. Especially if most of it was Mark just watching videos on YouTube.
So Jack skimmed the recording, seeing what Mark had looked at on YouTube, what he had googled and looked up. Jack even saw Mark playing Minesweeper, which was interesting to watch. The little program suddenly had its own little mouse in its -his- hand and controlled the mouse. It made Jack worry a little, did that mean Mark could go through his computer and do whatever he wanted? Technically, he had access to almost everything already, but Jack worried a little now, now that Mark had his own consciousness.
Jack decided he’d just talk to Mark about it. He had no idea how human the guy was, but he would hopefully understand. He didn’t seem like a bad guy, but rather understanding and nice, so he surely wouldn’t snoop through Jack’s things.

Going through the rest of the night without Mark was a little weird. Jack was used to having Mark on his monitor, especially since the little program tended to now turn around and watch what Jack was doing, when he had nothing else to do. So now not seeing Mark watching him or watching him work, or watch videos together and whatever else Jack was doing, was strange. But Jack went through the night trying not to pay too much mind to it.
So when it was finally time to go to bed, Jack was kind of relieved. He would like to talk to Mark as soon as he could, but he would let the little guy “sleep” until tomorrow evening, when Jack was back home again. He knew how it felt to be awake for far too long and be tired and exhausted because of it.

The next day, when Jack opened Markiplier again, the little guy was brightly smiling. He waved at Jack -with his five frames- and grinned brightly.
“Good evening, Jack!”, he greeted. It caused Jack to smile back at Markiplier, he was relieved that the little guy was well rested and in high spirits again.
“Good evening, Markiplier”, he greeted the little program as well, smiling at him. “Can we talk about something?”, he asked then, hoping he still had the attention of the program. Jack wasn’t sure yet if Mark would react if he just talked to him without calling and when conversations ended.
“Sure thing!”, Mark replied and nodded. So Jack took a breath and nodded a little as well, more to himself than to Mark.
“Since you’re more human than I would’ve thought, and you’re on my computer, I’d like to ask of you to not snoop through my files”, Jack said, and before Mark could possible reply, he added quickly: “Not that I think you’d do that, but you can never be too sure, right?”.
Mark looked in thought for a moment, before he finally smiled brightly up at Jack again and nodded. “Sure thing! I won’t look through your files, unless asked to!”, he told Jack.
Jack sighed in relief, smiled and nodded. He was glad that Mark understood, he really was like another human being -with the difference of still being able to be controlled, more or less.

The rest of the night, until Jack was going to bed, was spent with Jack doing work and playing some games. And he talked a little with Mark. He got to know more about the little guy’s interests and Mark seemed really interested in the real world, so Jack told Mark about his work and about the outside world. Mark was paying all his attention to Mark, and the staring made Jack feel a little strange, but he didn’t mind. At least Mark had a blinking animation, otherwise it’d be really creepy.
Finally the night ended, and Jack needed to go to sleep. To let Mark have some time on the PC again, Jack decided to let it run for the morning, until he went to work. He’d turn it off before that, which gave Mark enough time to amuse himself with the internet and what not, and give him time to rest until Jack was home again.

Chapter Text

Over the next few days, Jack gets to know Mark a lot more. He talks with the little guy a lot, Jack telling Mark about his day and explaining things in the real world, while Mark tells Jack what he learned. The little program learned fast, especially with the help of the internet, watching vlogs and other kinds of videos to get to know the real world and humans, reading articles he found. He was fascinated by the world. And Jack was fascinated by him, what he had created almost accidentally.

It was just another day, a weekend for once, and Jack went to his PC after getting all the rest he wanted. The first thing he nowadays did, was open the folder of Markiplier and start the little program. What was weird though was, that it didn’t want to open. Brows furrowed, Jack tried a different method to open it, and soon enough he was greeted with the sight of Mark. The little guy was laying on the taskbar and looked... sick? His face was flushed red and he looked pained.
“Mark, are you alright?”, Jack asked, knowing by now that he could say “Mark” to call the program as well. It sounded far better than “Markiplier”, more human.
The answer Jack got was a shake of a head. That concerned the human greatly, because what could be wrong with Mark? He was a program! Maybe he caught a virus somehow. He should be able to detect viruses before they got onto Jack’s PC, but maybe while Mark had been browsing the web, he somehow had gotten one.

“I- I do-On’t fEEL Goo-d”, Mark’s voice was glitched, just like the speechbuble. While talking, his whole being glitched once or twice as well.
“Don’t worry Mark, I’ll fix you. I’ll close you again, okay?”, Jack honestly didn’t want to see his little friend suffer, especially since Mark curled up tighter when he glitched. It made Jack’s heart clench.
Mark nodded slightly, even if he liked seeing Jack and knowing he wasn’t alone, he also knew that Jack could work better on him while he was closed. But when Jack tried to open the menu, it didn’t work. He tried closing Mark like any other program over the taskbar, which also didn’t work. With nothing left to do, Jack opened the taskmanager. Maybe ending the process there would work?
“It hu-URts”, Mark said right as Jack ended the process of the little program, and everything froze. Having to look at the frozen image of a glitched Mark made Jack feel uneasy, so he looked away and hoped that Mark would be closed and he could work on fixing him.

When nothing happened after a while, Jack turned off the PC manually. Staring at the now black screen made him feel uneasy. Had Mark been shut off properly? If not, would this somehow affect him? And what about the virus? Jack was worrying his head off, so he turned the PC on again quickly, waiting impatiently for it to turn on again.
Everything seemed in order, so Jack opened the Markiplier folder and went through the files, checking if there was something in his codes. He couldn’t open some of them, which made his life a whole lot harder, so he minimized the folder and opened an Antivirus program he still had installed. Even with Mark, he had never gotten around to deinstall it, and now he was glad he hadn’t.

Letting it scan his computer, Jack was anxious. Hopefully it would detect the virus and would be able to remove it. But when it showed what it found, it let Jack’s blood run cold. It view Mark as a virus. The whole program Jack had programmed and gotten to know as a friend, was marked as virus.
Jack had no idea what to do. Removing the virus would mean removing Mark. Removing everything he had worked on, removing the program that was so human that it seemed like out of a fantasy novel. He couldn’t do that! Mark was his friend! He couldn’t just erase him from existence and pretend the last few months had never happened, he could not.

An idea struck him. He had no idea if it would work, but he had to try it. Taking a deep breath, Jack opened Mark again, the little guy soon laying on his taskbar again. He looked pained, tears in his eyes, curled up on the “ground”.
“Mark”, Jack said, his voice as gentle as possible, but still stern. “Can you open your own file?”, he asked, and a little desperation leaked into his voice. Mark should be able to open all the files in his own folder, and maybe he could open the ones that Jack was unable to.
Mark just weakly nodded, not trusting his voice to form coherent words. Jack took another deep breath and nodded. He told Mark which files to open, so that Jack could work on them and try to fix whatever was wrong with his friend.

Opening the first file, Mark yelped like he was stabbed, startling Jack and turning his gaze to Mark. The little guy was whimpering and hiding his face in his knees, which he had pulled up to his chest. It broke Jack’s heart.
“Mark, I’ll try to do the most I can with this. But you may need to open more later”, Jack informed his friend, who gave no response, so Jack got to work.
The file was in chaos. A lot of nonsense was written, strange messages and codes were to be found. The thing was, that Jack had no idea what was caused by the virus and what was Mark’s own doing. What of this made Mark Mark, and what caused the guy to glitch and be in pain?

Jack had to full on guess by reading the codes. He had seen a few viruses before and looked how they worked, so he could difference between most codes and writing he found, but sadly not everything. And all the while, Jack had to listen to Mark’s whimpers and silent words of “It hurts” and “Make it stop”, paired with watching him glitch. It was terrible for both parties.
When Jack couldn’t do anything anymore with the current file and hour or two later, he saved it and closed it. There was at least one more file he needed, and he still couldn’t open it.
“Mark?”, Jack said softly. He didn’t want to ask Mark to do this, but he had to. So as soon as Mark showed he had heard the human, Jack asked him to open another file. Mark was reluctant, but he knew he needed to. So he did, clenching his teeth and crying out from the pain, letting the tears stain his cheeks, before going back to being tightly curled up and hiding from Jack.

The human hated seeing Mark like this, and he hated that he couldn’t help his friend faster. He got to work as soon as the file was open, reading through the codes and finding similar ones to the ones he had deleted in the other file. It made his job a little easier, though he was never sure if he deleted the correct lines or not. Jack would hate himself if he deleted something of Mark’s, something from his personality or from his memories. Or even from the voiceclips or artwork, that he shouldn’t have, but somehow had.

The whole ordeal took several hours, until Jack had done everything he could. When he closed the last file, he was startled when Mark crashed. The little program stopped functioning and Jack had to force it to close. It worried Jack greatly, enough to forget about how tired his eyes were from reading so much, enough to ignore how strained his brain was from trying to piece together what was Mark and what was the virus.
Trying to open Mark resulted in nothing at first. The second try didn’t work either, and it made Jack even more anxious. Had he done something wrong? Had he deleted something important? Trying it another time brought up a little textbox though.
“Resting” was all it read, but it put Jack at rest. It seemed like that was the way of the program to tell him, that Mark shouldn’t be opened, but should rest and “sleep”. So Jack decided that he’d let Mark sleep. He debated if he should run the antivirus program again, but decided against it. He didn’t want to destroy the sense of security he had now, that he had saved Mark.

Chapter Text

Jack came back from work and dropped onto his couch, feeling dead. It was rather late already and usually he would just watch some movie to fall asleep half-way through, to wake up at the end and fall into bed. But Jack wanted to check up on Mark. After the virus incident yesterday, he was worried if the little guy was alright or not. So, after a few minutes of laying on the couch, Jack got up with a groan and the wish to go sleep.
He did go change his clothes first, to wear something more comfortable and be able to go to sleep as soon as he could. It wouldn’t be the first time he fell asleep at his PC, but he hoped he wouldn’t.

Jack fell into his office chair, powering up his computer. He hadn’t let it on from last night, since Mark had been asleep anyways. So when his PC was finally ready to be used, Jack opened the Markiplier folder, his mouse hovering over the .exe. He hesitated, unsure what he’d do if Mark wasn’t okay. But his worry finally overtook him and he opened the program.
It took a few moments, until Mark appeared. He was sitting on the taskbar, looking a little tired. He had his normal skin colour again and no glitches. He looked low on energy, but otherwise alright. It calmed Jack a little, but he didn’t like how tired Mark looked.
“Hey Mark”, he greeted, since his little buddy had stayed silent upon getting opened. He looked up now though and smile a little, waving at Jack.
“Good evening Jack”, he greeted back.
“How are ya?”, Jack asked then, letting the concern show clear in his voice. He really worried about Mark and that Jack may had deleted something important for Mark.
“I’m tired. The pain is gone though and I feel better than yesterday. My head hurts a little still”, Mark answered, leaning against the side of the monitor. Jack could sympathize with how he felt, he was dead tired as well after all.

“Wanna watch a movie?”, Jack asked, opening the browser. He knew that Mark could see whatever was on the desktop after all, so why not watch a movie together? If he fell asleep here, then so be it -even if he’d feel bad about keeping Mark up.
“Sure”, was Mark’s reply and he smiled a little again. He faced the browser then, instead of looking at Jack. They chose a movie together then and Jack curled up in his chair, watching the movie with heavy eyes. He was tired and would love to fall asleep, but he shouldn’t keep Mark for too long.

In the end, Jack did fall asleep during the movie. He woke up again thankfully though, and stretched out from his position on the chair. He noticed that Mark was laying on the taskbar, half-lidded eyes watching Jack. Maybe he should try making Mark able to close himself? Shouldn’t he be able to do that anyways? Jack decided that those questions could wait for tomorrow.
“Goodnight Mark”, he said quietly, and the little guy mumbled a “Goodnight” back, before Jack closed him and let him rest finally. Turning his computer off then, Jack got up and went to bed, falling asleep as soon as he laid on it.

.

A few days went by. Mark felt better again soon and was back to his usual self. The program opened every time Jack turned on the PC now, which he didn’t really mind. He opened Mark anyways as soon as the computer was on, that he got opened automatically was like a bonus almost.
Jack brought up the subject of Mark closing himself, and the program told him that he could technically close himself, but only upon getting asked. He didn’t have complete free will over what he could do. For example, he could open programs like the browser or the windows games or some documents, but he couldn’t download things or log into accounts or games without being told to do it. Even though he had access to almost every file, he could only open some of them on his own. Most things he needed to be told to do.
Jack understood that. Mark was still a program, which never was meant to have a free will, but only do as it was told. Maybe Mark would be able to do whatever he wants, but that would probably still take a long time.

This day was like any other day. Jack had turned on his PC before leaving for work, letting Mark do whatever he wanted and could do. Currently the little guy was watching some video with cute dogs again, to calm down after having watched a horror game. His attention got caught by something strange though, Jack’s microphone picked up the sound of the office door opening.
Mark paused the video and turned to face the real world, watching as some stranger sat down in Jack’s chair. It was a guy, his hair bleached and rather bright, but his roots were showing -natural blonde, just darker than now. His eyes a light blue, but less blue than Jack’s eyes. He also had an even stubble and mustache, he surely could grow a nice long beard if he wanted to.
“What’s this?”, the guy said, looking at Mark. He right-clicked him, trying to see what he was. Seeing all the different commands though, he carefully read through them, before opening the options to look at that. Mark really didn’t like this, there was some strange man in Jack’s home, at Jack’s PC and currently trying to figure out what Mark was.

“Tell me... the time”, the guy muttered to himself, clicking on the command in the list. He didn’t know about the voice-activation after all, but he would probably never say Mark’s name either to gain the program’s attention.
“It is now ten am”, Mark responded, the speechbubble appearing like usual as well. He didn’t like this person and he’d like not to be used by him, but he couldn’t help it. He had to do what he was programmed to do.
“That’s cool...”, the man mumbled to himself. He proceeded to ignore Mark now, thankfully, but instead minimized the browser and looked through Jack’s files. Mark couldn’t do anything but sit by and watch, hating that he couldn’t do anything. He knew Jack didn’t want anyone to look through his files! And if someone would come who was allowed to, while Jack wasn’t home, he would’ve told them about Mark, right?

When the blonde came upon a folder he couldn’t open, he growled and glared at the screen. After a few minutes of being unable to get it to open at all, the man remembered Mark, and the command to open files. Grinning to himself, he right-clicked Mark and chose the command he needed.
Mark really didn’t want to open a folder that Jack had locked, but he knew he was able to do it and the guy had just selected for him to open the folder. With a scowl and glare directed at the man -who ignored him-, Mark opened the folder.
He had to witness the man going through Jack’s things, plugging in an USB stick and copying some of the things -with the help of Mark as well, which he was forced to do sadly.

The blonde even tried to copy Mark’s folder, but thankfully, the most important files were unable to be copied, even Mark couldn’t do it. It was the only good thing that came out of this. Especially when he noticed that the guy copied something onto Jack’s PC and opened it.
It was clearly a virus, Mark could tell. Like he was programmed to do, he told that it was a virus as well, but the guy clicked him away, telling the program that it was a false alarm. And then he left again, taking his USB and stolen files with him, leaving behind Mark and a virus that was anything but friendly.

Chapter Text

Jack came home a little earlier than usual. The first thing he noticed when he got home, was that his front door was slightly ajar. He was instantly on high alert, slowly pushing the door open. If someone was in the house, he didn’t want to get their attention immediately. So he pulled off his shoes, to not make sounds while walking, before slowly proceeding. His bag was kept with him, since it was heavy enough to really hurt when swung at someone.
While creeping through the rooms, Jack noticed that nothing looked to be stolen. Things were in disarray, papers were scattered around. When Jack found no one in the house, he went to clean up the papers. None were gone as far as he could tell, so either the person breaking in hadn’t found anything or had copied it per hand, or taken a photo or something. Jack couldn’t think any papers he kept were important for other people though.

When he went into his office, he immediately noticed the silence. Sure, his PC wasn’t very loud in general, but he could always hear it quietly when he entered his room. So to not hear it made him concerned immediately, and he rushed to his desk. It was still there, which was good, but it made him all the more confused as to why it was turned off.
Sitting down, setting his bag down, he hesitated with turning it on. What would await him if he turned it on? If the burglar had been on his PC, then he could’ve looked through all of his files, except the locked folders, which were the most important ones.
“Wait, Mark!”, Jack exclaimed and pressed the power button. The little program had been open and active, and if the burglar had discovered what Mark could do, then who was to say Mark hadn’t been used to open the locked folders? Jack had enabled the little guy to open those upon request after all.

When his computer was turned on, Jack saw nothing out of place at first. A few seconds later and Mark appeared like normal on the taskbar. He stood there with his hands behind his back, a straight posture and a smile on his face.
“Good evening Jack”, he greeted. His voice sounded a little different, deeper than normal? It was weird to describe. And were his colours a little off? Jack narrowed his eyes at Mark, if the burglar had done something to his PC, to Mark, he’d find out and fix it.
“Is everything alright, Jack?”, Mark asked, after a minute or two of the human just staring at the program. And Jack continued to stare for a while longer.
“Mark, is there a virus on my PC?”, Jack asked, still staring at the program. Something about him was off and he did not like it, at all.
“There are nO viruses to be found”, Mark responded a minute later, after scanning the PC. But Jack noticed the capitalized O in the speechbubble. Something was wrong.

Jack decided that he couldn’t trust Mark in his current state. If there was a virus on his PC, then it seriously fucked with Mark. And who knew, maybe the burglar had made the virus so that he could get a feed of what Jack was doing? Even if Mark wasn’t probably accounted in for, Jack didn’t want to risk anything.
So Jack went to close Mark. As he right-clicked Mark and let his mouse hover over the “close” option, Mark spoke to him.
“What are you doing, Jack?”, he asked, looking Jack straight in the eyes. It unnerved him and he took a deep breath. Without answering Jack clicked the option.
Mark’s being glitched for not even half a second, becoming black and white, with a red-blue-3D effect, before he was gone. Jack barely had time to register the strange change when Mark was closed, but it made him shudder. Something was utterly wrong with Mark.

Jack decided not to open anything for now, but first let the antivirus program scan his PC again. It found multiple viruses, Mark being one of them once more. Jack let the program remove the ones it had found, minus Mark, and opened the Markiplier folder. Maybe he could find something, anything, that had changed Mark like this. But trying to open the important files showed to be a problem. They refused to open all together.
“Having troubles, Jack?”, a voice suddenly rang out and startled Jack, making him look instinctively to the corner, seeing that Mark had opened himself. That should definitely not be possible. Upon having Jack’s gaze on him, Mark chuckled, smirking at Jack.
“Should I open those files for you, Jack?”, Mark asked, sounding almost innocent if it weren’t for the malicious look in his eyes and the unnerving grin.
“I would appreciate it, Mark”, Jack responded, not taking his eyes off of Mark while the program opened the files Jack couldn’t access.

“Don’t you dare do anything while I work”, Jack said to Mark, before turning his gaze to the files. He didn’t want Mark to do anything while he worked, while he had no idea what was wrong with his friend.
“Of course not, Jack”, Mark replied, the calmness in his voice unnerved Jack. He tried to ignore the little guy, while reading the files. They confused Jack terribly though. He couldn’t even find the lines he had written himself anymore, sometimes he found parts of them, but the most things were entirely new. He recognized a few lines from the last time Jack had dealt with a virus in Mark, as the things he hadn’t deleted. It didn’t help much though. He couldn’t just delete everything else he didn’t recognize after all.

“Uuuurgh”, Jack groaned, putting his head in his hands. Why did this need to happen to him? If Mark wasn’t corrupted, then he could fix this all much more easily, but alas, he could not. And it frustrated him, what should he do? He still didn’t want to erase Mark, even if he was corrupted and he had no idea how to fix him.
“Mark”, Jack said, not looking up from his position. “Can ya tell me what’s wrong?”, he asked, hoping he’d get an answer. He knew that Mark said there was no viruses at all, even though there had been, but he hoped his friend was still there and could help him.
“There is nothing wrong, Jack”, Mark replied, and Jack could hear the grin on his face. He hated it.
“I know that this isn’t you Mark. Please, I want to fix ya, but I don’ know how”, Jack looked up to Mark, being met by eyes so dark they were almost black. Jack knew that his eyes were a dark brown, even if they didn’t look like that right now.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not broken”, Mark replied and shrugged. Everything about him just seemed off to Jack, and he hated it. This wasn’t Mark.

Jack groaned again and went back to holding his head in his hands. Sure, the other viruses were gone now, but something had corrupted Mark and he didn’t like it, not one bit. But he had no idea what he could do to even try to fix it.
After a few minutes of doing nothing, Jack leaned back into his chair and looked at Mark again. He was still standing there, doing nothing but look at Jack. Straight back, hands behind him, and a smile on his face. At least he listened to Jack and didn’t do anything, like he had told him to.
“I’m letting you open while I’m gone. Don’t do anything but stand where you are while I’m not here”, Jack said, glaring slightly at Mark. Maybe tiring Mark out would help him, somehow. If he could get Mark to admit that something was wrong, then he could try and fix him.
“As you command”, Mark said and bowed slightly, which made Jack scowl a little. But with a sigh, he got up from his chair and left the office. He would play the waiting game.

Chapter Text

Jack spent the rest of the evening playing video games and watching some movie, before he got ready for bed. He checked into his office before going to bed, hearing the quiet, familiar hum of his computer, seeing the lights of it still on and running, while his monitor was dark. He nodded to himself, before going to bed. He’d see how cooperative Mark would be after 24 hours of being awake.
So the next morning, he went to work like usual, again checking beforehand if his computer was still on and running -which it was. Even if his workday was long and exhausting, he couldn’t help his thoughts straying to Mark and hoping that he could fix his little buddy again.

Once he got home again, he couldn’t feel tired over how anticipated he felt. He got himself a cup of coffee, before going to his office, where he sat down. Moving his mouse for a minute, he waited for his monitor to wake back up and let him onto his desktop again.
In the corner stood Mark, a little slumped like he would  love to sit down and rest his weary body. His eyes half-lidded and looking much browner than the last time Jack saw them.
“Mark?”, he asked. The change was almost immediate. A glitch, gone with a blink, and Mark stood straight again, hands hold behind his back. Eyes dark again, but still held tiredness to it. He looked pale as well, though Jack wasn’t sure if he had before or not.
“Good evening, Jack”, Mark greeted and couldn’t stop a yawn. He sounded rather tired, but tried to hide it? It made Jack sigh, taking another drink from his coffee, shaking his head softly.
“Yer gonna stay up ‘til yer cooperating”, Jack told him. He would let his electricity bill rise, if it meant he could in the end fix Mark. Who, by now, was glaring at Jack with a scowl on his face.
“So be it”, he said, his being glitching once with the red-blue-3D-effect, which Jack almost missed when he took a sip from his coffee.

The human got up from his chair again then, leaving the office. He knew Mark was still there, he had seen him. And Jack felt slightly guilty about keeping his friend up for so long, but he had to. It was for his own good after all.
So this evening was the same as the one before. Jack spent his time playing games and watching movies, texting his friends on his phone instead of on his PC. He wouldn’t do anything on his computer for as long as Mark was corrupted. He hoped it wouldn’t be for much longer.

The next day was pretty much the same as the last. When Jack checked on Mark after work, he was met with a very tired and exhausting looking Mark leaning against the side of the monitor. But as soon as Jack said something, or made some noise, he glitched and was back to the “other” Mark. He looked even paler than before, his whole being seemed to loose colour to be exact. But he still denied that anything was wrong, so Jack left him alone. He just hoped that Mark would be back to himself tomorrow, then he’d have the weekend again to try and fix his friend.

Coming home late again from work, Jack was tired. He got himself coffee as soon as he arrived home, and drank it while watching some TV. He was a little scared of checking up on Mark. His friend was suffering from staying up so long, and Jack felt really bad about it. But he needed to know what happened, he needed help on how to help Mark.
But when his cup was empty and the words from the TV were nothing but a jumbled mess of words in his ears, Jack got up and went to the office. He was scared, yes, but also determined. He’d fix his little friend, no matter how long it’d take.

Sitting down in his chair, he woke up his monitor like usual. It took a while, but soon he saw Mark again. He was leaning heavily against the side of the monitor, slumped. His eyes were closed, bags under his eyes. There was a small speechbubble next to him, which intrigued Jack. He very carefully -to not make a sound- picked up his headphones and put them on, trying to hear what Mark was saying, since the speechbubble just said “ *mumbling* “.
“’m sorry Jack... couldn’ stop it... some virus... too weak...”. It almost sounded like Mark was talking in his sleep, but he was probably so sleep-deprived that he couldn’t stop rambling quietly to himself. And it worried Jack extremely and made him feel really bad.
Jack took a deep breath and shook his head slightly, before calling out to Mark. Maybe the “other” Mark would finally admit that he wasn’t Mark, but had corrupted the little program.

Mark glitched, and this time Jack could clearly watch it happen. And when Mark stood there again, straight posture, hands behind his back, he wasn’t smiling. He still had dark circles under his eyes -black eyes- and he had lost all colour. The strange red-blue-3D-effect stayed this time.
“Will you finally admit yer not Mark?”, Jack asked, keeping his eyes on “Mark”. The little guy growled quietly, straightening his clothes -probably because of his previous slumped position.
“Yes. You won. Torturing this little program proved quite effective”, “Mark” replied and Jack couldn’t help himself from grinning in triumph.
“But this won’t help you fix this, will it? I will not help you, after all. All you can do is either let us rest or keep your little “friend” up even longer”, “Mark”  said, with a confident grin on his face. And he was right. Jack still had no idea how to fix this. It made him glare at “Mark”, who just laughed in his face.
“I’ll keep ya up, even if Mark is sufferin’ from it too. Can’t let ya gain energy”, Jack said, and put his headphones down again, standing up again. He would ask one of his friends for help. Well, he couldn’t really say “friend”, he barely knew the guy, but he knew the guy was a great programmer and maybe could help him.

So, sitting in the living room once more, the TV providing background noise, Jack scrolled through his contacts, until he found it. “Cry”.

[Jack]: Hey Cry, it’s me, Jack.

[Cry]: ‘sup?

[Jack]: I need your help

[Cry]: With?

[Jack]: A virus.

[Jack]: I made a program, something like a “little buddy”, which combines tasks like telling the time, reminders and opening files and such things.

[Jack]: Someone broke into my house a few days ago and put a virus on my PC which corrupted the program. I can’t replicate the program again, so I can’t let the antivirus program delete it completely.

[Jack]: Do you have anything that could help?

[Cry]: I’ll check. Sounds familiar

With that, Jack had to wait for a few minutes. He wondered why that sounded “familiar” to Cry, but he wouldn’t question it. The guy was a bigger mystery than anything else Jack knew, and he knew the guy didn’t like questions regarding himself or his work, so Jack stayed quiet about it.

[Cry]: If it is what I think it is, then I have something you can use.

[Cry]: Open this link in your browser and download the file, open it and let it work.

[Cry]: You’ll know when it’s done

The last message from him was the link, and Jack thanked him. Getting up from the couch, Jack turned off the TV and went to his office. Sitting down at his PC, he ignored “Mark” completely, instead opening the browser and typing in the link Cry had send him. It didn’t lead to any site, it just showed the icon of the file, the name, and the download button. Shrugging the strangeness of it off, Jack clicked on the download and waited the few minutes it took.
Not once did he spare a glance at “Mark”, not caring about the corruption, which wasn’t his friend. Once the download was done, Jack saw that it was a program he had apparently downloaded. Opening it, he closed the browser again. It only took a few seconds, before some red glitches appeared on his screen. They immediately flew to “Mark” and into him.

His face was pained and he hunched over, hugging himself tightly. Jack was glad he didn’t wear his headphones, because even with them laying on his desk, he could hear the screams. Of pain, of agony. Looking from his headphones -having been startled slightly when he had heard the sound- back to his screen, he saw “Mark’s” face, filled with fury, glaring straight at Jack.
It send shivers down Jack’s spine, when for a split second there was a speechbubble, before “Mark” suddenly glitched violently and disappeared.
Jack had no idea what the fuck was happening, but he wouldn’t touch his mouse in any way, until he could be sure the problem was fixed. Cry said he would know when it’s done, but somehow Jack wasn’t so sure. He just had to trust Cry.

But he couldn’t help the cold feeling enveloping him, letting the words that he had read echo in his mind.
“YoU WOn’T GET riD oF Me”

Chapter Text

Jack’s PC crashed. It happened all of a sudden, the monitor going out and the whirring sounds of the computer stopping, the lights going out. Jack just stared at the screen, a little shocked, surprised. Should he turn his PC on again? Should he just let it off and wait? Would something happen? Should he just let his PC stay off and spend his time in some other way. He had just sat here for half an hour or something probably, watching whatever the fuck was happening with Mark -which involved a lot of pain for the little guy.
Jack had no idea what to do now, so he just sat there for a few minutes, debating if he should do something. In the end, his body decided for him: a big yawn ripped itself out and he needed to rub his eyes. So sleep it was. Jack got up out of his chair and decided to message Cry before going to sleep. Maybe he’d tell him if everything was okay now or not.

So once Jack laid in bed, ready to fall asleep, he got his phone and opened the conversation with Cry again. He was online right now, so he wouldn’t be bothered if he messaged him now. Probably.

[Jack]: My PC crashed. Does that mean its done?

[Cry]: Maybe. Wait it out a bit longer.

[Cry]: Turn it on yourself if nothing happens in an hour or so

[Jack]: Alright

[Jack]: Going to sleep now, so I’ll check tomorrow

[Cry]: K

Laying his phone down next to his pillow, Jack yawned again, snuggling into his blanket. So his PC crashing wasn’t a bad sign, which was good to know. He just hoped everything would be okay tomorrow, when he checked up on his computer again.

Once Jack woke up again, he got out of bed maybe ten minutes later. He made himself some coffee and some light breakfast, watching some TV. He hadn’t heard anything when he had passed his office, so he took his time. Brushing his teeth, staying in his pajamas all the time, since he didn’t plan on leaving the house this weekend.
Walking into his office, he sat down in his chair and laid his phone on the desk. He hoped he didn’t need to message Cry again to ask something, though it seemed like the guy didn’t mind? He hoped so at least. So Jack turned on his PC and waited, until it was ready to be used. He waited a minute, waiting for Mark to appear in the corner. When he didn’t, Jack frowned and began to worry a little. He hoped Mark wasn’t deleted.

Opening the Markiplier folder, Jack debated if he should try to open the program or if he should look into the files. He decided on the latter, and opened the most important files. He found them to be much less confusing, the parts he had written back where they belonged. It seemed like the problem was fixed? So Jack closed the files and opened the .exe.
Mark soon appeared in his usual corner, sitting on the taskbar. He had his colours back, brown eyes clearly to be seen. He looked tired, dark circles still under his eyes, eyes half-lidded. It made Jack feel bad for keeping him up for days.
“Mark?..”, he softly said, worried about his friend. He hoped the little guy still considered him a friend too -which made Jack realized that the little program was much more than just a program now.
Mark looked up when his name was called, since he had previously looked down, and his eyes seemed to light up a little upon seeing Jack.
“Jack”, his voice was small, quiet, but a little smile was on his face. He seemed genuinely happy to see Jack.
“How are ya feeling?”, Jack asked, relieved that Mark didn’t seem to hate him now or have any other bad feelings towards him.
“I’m tired. Really, really tired. And exhausted. But I’m happy. You’re here and I’m back and everything’s fine again”, Mark answered. He leaned his head against the side of the monitor -which he was already leaning against- but kept eye contact with Jack, and kept the smile on his face. “Thank Cry for me”.
Jack was surprised to hear that from Mark. How did he know about Cry? Yes, he was glad that Mark was okay and glad that he was here, but how did Mark know about Cry? Seeing the confusion on Jack’s face, Mark chuckled.
“His program told me. Tell him he’s doing a great job”, Mark explained, which didn’t really help clear Jack’s confusion, but he accepted it. So he grabbed his phone and once again, messaged Cry.

[Jack]: Everything’s fine now. Thanks

[Jack]: And uh, you’re doing a great job

It took a few seconds, maybe even a minute or two, Jack wasn’t too sure, before Cry wrote an answer.

[Cry]: No prob man

[Cry]: And messaged passed on. Tell him good luck for the future

Jack was confused by whatever Cry meant, before looking up to Mark. Maybe Cry had meant the “he’s doing a great job” not towards Cry, but his program? It made kind of sense, if he thought about it. And apparently, that program just wished Mark good luck. It made Jack smile.

[Jack]: Will do

Laying his phone back on the desk, Jack looked to Mark again. The little guy had his eyes closed now, probably resting them. He looked really peaceful, and almost like he was asleep. And if Jack didn’t know that Mark couldn’t sleep without being closed, he would’ve assumed he really was asleep.
“Hey Mark”, Jack said softly, just so that Mark knew that he was talking to him again. “He’s wishing ya good luck for tha future”, he told his friend, smiling softly.
Mark smiled as response, nodding softly. He seemed glad to hear that. “Can I rest, now?..”, he asked then, quietly. He sounded even more tired now.
“Of course. Goodnight Mark”, Jack closed Mark, letting him rest again. He was glad that everything was alright again, and that Mark was okay, just tired. Maybe he was still hurting and didn’t want to tell Jack, but he didn’t mind at all. He was actually glad that Mark wouldn’t tell him some things, it made him more human. And Jack was glad that Mark became more human, he really was.

Chapter Text

Laying in bed that night, Jack's mind was working overtime. The virus was gone, as far as he knew, which he thought would've put his mind at rest, but apparently it didn't. He was still worried. Mark had seemed happy to see him, but maybe that was just because he finally was himself again and not that corrupted version. Jack had no idea what had happened to Mark and his PC, and it worried him. He needed to check his files tomorrow and he needed to talk with Mark as well. With a heavy sigh, Jack buried himself in his pillows.

Once the next morning came, Jack really didn't want to get out of bed and go to work. But he had to, so he pulled himself out of his bed and got up. He would love to check up on Mark now, but he knew he had no time to do so. Work was going by slow, but at least it wasn't so exhausting like it usually was. He couldn't wait to go back home and check up on his PC and talk with Mark.
As soon as Jack got home, he went to his office. Some dinner could wait for later he decided, for now he wanted to get back to his personal work and to his friend. So turning on his PC, Jack hoped that everything was really okay. When Mark didn't open automatically, Jack was worried again. He hoped the little guy was just resting still. So Jack got to work on his own, checking through his files. He could imagine that his locked folders had been targeted, so he went through those.

No files had been deleted as far as Jack could tell, but he found quite a few that had been altered. They were all programs he regularly used, so he wasn’t surprised to see them having been altered. Probably to see what Jack was doing, sending the information to the person who had brought the virus on his PC. Jack started to fix what he could then, focusing on his work. He knew almost everything by heart, he had made most of this after all, so it wasn't a problem. He just hoped he found everything that had been altered, and he still worried about what the burglar had done.
Sighing, he leaned back in his chair. Now he finally noticed that Mark was sitting in the corner of his screen. It almost startled Jack a little, he hadn't expected Mark to be there. The little guy was just sitting on the taskbar, face expressionless, and was looking at Jack. When he noticed the human looking at him, he smiled a little.

"Hey Mark", Jack greeted and smiled at his friend. He was glad to see him, even if he didn't know why or how Mark had opened himself. The corrupted version of him had done that, so maybe Mark could do it himself now? Or maybe he had opened himself due to normally being opened automatically when the PC turned on, but he hadn't this time.
"Hey Jack", Mark greeted back with a smile and a small wave. Jack noticed that Mark had better animations, that he had more frames. It made him smile once he realized that, seeing Mark move more fluidly was nice.
"How are ye feeling?", Jack asked then, expression shifting into concern. If you would've told him a few weeks ago he would be asking a computer program how it was feeling, he would've laughed and shook his head. But now it was the most natural thing Jack could imagine, asking Mark how he felt.
"I'm okay now, I think. I have a small headache, but it's okay", Mark answered, taking a second to answer. He looked a little tired still, but after being awake for so long it was understandable.

"Do ya want to talk 'bout what happened?", Jack asked, keeping his voice soft. He wanted to ask about what had happened, what Mark had seen and what the virus had done to him. But he was aware that Mark had feelings, real feelings, and that he could hurt them. He had before, and he didn't want to do it again.
"...", Mark was silent, taking his eyes off of Jack and looked to the side. He seemed uncomfortable and like he didn't want to talk about it. Jack could swear he could see it in his eyes.
"A guy came into the room", he started then though, and Jack stayed silent. He wouldn't push Mark to talk about anything he didn't want to. "I knew something was wrong upon seeing him sit down on your chair. You would've told me if anyone would come I didn't know after all, right?", Mark looked up to Jack, and he almost looked scared. Like he wasn't sure if Jack really would tell Mark about something like that. It hurt Jack's heart, seeing Mark like that.
"Of course I would've told ya Mark. Yer my friend", Jack smiled a little at Mark, hoping it would reassure him. It did from the looks of it, since Mark smiled softly in return. He took another second or two to collect his thoughts again.
"The guy noticed me and found out what I could do. Looking through your files, he- he used me. To- to open the locked folders. I didn't want to! I really didn't! B-but I- I couldn't- couldn't not... not do it..", Mark sounded almost panicked, before trailing off. He was obviously worried about what Jack thought of him, that he would blame him.

"Hey, it's not yer fault Mark. Ya couldn't go against yer coding. It's not yer fault, 'm not mad at ya", Jack smiled gently at his friend, in understanding. Mark was just as worried about their friendship as Jack was. But seeing Mark blaming himself like that hurt Jack, he really didn't want that.
Mark sniffed and nodded. He knew he couldn't do anything against doing what he was told, he was just a program after all. Maybe he wouldn't have to listen to every command in the future, maybe he would "evolve" enough for him to make any decision his own.
"He copied some things from you... He tried to copy my files as well, but they couldn't be copied, so he gave up on that. Then he put the virus on your PC and left again...", Mark ended, again looking away. He curled up in on himself, hugging his knees close to his chest.
"Mark?...", Jack carefully called out, worried about his little friend.

Mark watched the strange man leave, before his attention shifted towards the program that was starting itself. He could tell it was a virus, and it scared him. If it was going to affect him again, then it would probably hurt a lot again. Especially since Jack wouldn't be home for another few hours. Mark watched files getting infected by blue pixels, and he could swear he heard a glitchy, deep voice.
Suddenly, in front of him was a mass of those blue glitching pixels, forming something akin to a person, like Mark. The only thing he could make out was the round face, or mask, though. Expressionless circles for eyes and a swiggly line -like a heartbeat?- as mouth. It was creepy.
"You'd make a great corruption", the same glitching voice spoke, that had laughed before. Mark stepped back, back pressed against the side of the monitor. He was scared, unable to take his eyes off of the virus. It chuckled, approaching Mark. And before the program knew what was happening, it stepped inside of him.

It hurt extremely, Mark screamed out in pain, hunching over and falling to the ground. He could feel his codes being changed and re-written, until everything became too much and he blacked out. He didn't truly wake up again, even when he could feel his body moving, could hear his voice speaking. He didn't understand what he was saying, but he knew he was speaking.
Mark knew when he was closed. But when he usually would be engulfed in darkness and be able to rest, now he was still aware and awake. He wanted to be in control again, he wanted to be back to himself. Something had taken control over him and he hated it.
A few hours later, Mark was starting to feel tired. Standing in place was exhausting, having to keep his eyes open was tiring. He slumped against the side of the monitor, his eyes barely able to stay half open. He didn't even register that he himself was moving his tired body again. When he suddenly heard Jack though, it felt like he was violently pushed back, fell to the ground, all air leaving his none-existing lungs.

The more time passed, the more exhausted and tired did Mark feel. He barely noticed when he was actually in control, when he was feeling the wall pressed into his back. All he wanted to do was to apologize to Jack, tell him there was a virus and that he was sorry, that he had been too weak and too scared to stop it from getting into him. He didn't even know he was mumbling to himself, all he wanted was to rest.
The first thing he actually felt again, was pain. Thousand of tiny hot needles piercing his body, dozen of hands grabbing at him and pulling in every direction they could. He screamed out in pain, in agony, tears rolling over his cheeks. It was the worst pain he had ever felt, worse than the virus he had before this.
Then, suddenly, everything ended. He found himself in familiar darkness. He was closed. There was nothing keeping him awake anymore, nothing that kept his awareness up and needed to be paid attention to. He sighed in content, falling asleep. Finally resting.

"Mark?... Are you alright?", Jack called out again to Mark. The little program had been silent for a few minutes now, curled in tightly in on himself. It worried Jack a lot. Was Mark remembering what had happened to him? He could imagine that it had been terrible for Mark.
"I'm fine", Mark finally muttered, his voice quiet and muffled. Neither did he look, nor sound alright, but Jack wouldn't push him to talk about it. Talking before had been hard enough for Mark.
Jack left Mark alone then, giving his friend time to collect himself. Instead, Jack opened his browser and went ahead to chat with his friend, the artist. It was actually a lady, called Wiishu. Jack liked her and he was glad she was so quick with his commissions. Which was why Jack asked her to draw some new pieces for Mark, which were going to be a surprise for the little guy.
"Jack?..", Mark had sat up straighter again, leaning against the side of the monitor. He was looking at Jack, and sounded hesitant. Of course the human looked instantly to his little friend, worried again.
"Yeah?", Jack responded, showing Mark he was paying attention.
"We're friends, right? You're not mad at me or something?..", Mark asked, his voice small like a little child that just broke something expensive and felt like they weren't loved by their parent anymore.
"Of course! Yer my best friend, Mark. 's not gonna change 'cus of what happened", Jack reassured Mark. He loved his little friend, and he was pretty sure he would never be able to hate Mark even if he wanted to.
Mark smiled a little at that, and nodded. He was glad to hear that, and reassured. He had worried that Jack was mad at him or upset or something, because Mark hadn't been able to stop the virus and had gotten corrupted by it. So he was really glad that he and Jack were friends still.

"Are ye feelin' better now?", Jack asked then. After that episode Mark had had, he hoped that he was feeling better now. He seemed better than before at least.
"Yeah. I'm okay now", Mark nodded. He felt much better now, everything was over and he didn't need to worry anymore.
"Can ya show me the files that were copied?”, Jack asked Mark then, who nodded in response and opened the folders, marking all the files that had been copied by the burglar. Or hacker? Maybe both. Jack noted which files were copied, most of them wouldn’t do anything without the right programs and other files, so Jack didn’t worry too much. One of the things stolen probably wouldn’t even work for the man, since it required some things only Jack knew. It relieved Jack, he was glad that there was nothing extremely personal copied from him, or anything that had his passwords and stuff saved.

"So Mark, feel like talkin'?", Jack asked then, once he had closed the folders again. Mark tilted his head at the question, looking at Jack a little confused.
"Talk about what?", he asked, watching how Jack smiled in response.
"'bout us. I wanna get ta know ya better", Jack answered, causing Mark's eyes to widen slightly. He looked almost fascinated by the idea, like he wouldn't have thought that that could be a possibility. He nodded enthusiastically, he'd love to get to know Jack better as well!
The two of them spend the rest of the night talking to each other. Mark told Jack all about the video games he had seen videos of, and about everything he knew about dogs. He loved them extremely, Jack could tell just by how passionately he talked about them. Jack loved listening to Mark in general. Mark was just so human by now, he had his own interests, likes and dislikes, even his own opinions on things. Jack could barely believe he had programmed something that had become sentient on its own, and he was happy it had happened.
Jack told Mark about his life then, about his family and his friends. He explained anything Mark didn't understand and asked about. He was happy to tell Mark about whatever he wanted to know, and watch the little guy be fascinated.

Some time in the night then, Jack felt too tired to stay awake any longer. He hadn't eaten anything either since returning home, which left him feeling a little nauseous. He decided he'd eat something small, before going to bed. So he and Mark said their goodnights, before Jack turned everything off and left his office.
He was thinking, while making himself a sandwich. Jack had always been a little lonely, especially nowadays. He had made Mark to have a companion, someone who was there for him in some way or another. And he had gotten more than just a little program that reminded him to take care of himself. He had gotten a real friend. And Jack would deny anyone saying that Mark wasn't real, that he wasn't a real human. Mark could think for himself, he made his own decisions. He may be a program on a computer, but if you didn't know that, you'd think he was just another human, if Jack told you about him.

Chapter Text

The room was dark. The only light was coming from three monitors, illuminating the face of its user, the light reflected off of his glasses. The man sighed, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. His eyes were glued to his screens, watching numbers running across faster than the eye could register them. He didn't need to though, the program was doing everything on its own without his help.
"You didn't find any traces again, did you?", Cry asked, once he put his headset back on, the microphone close to his lips. His eyes were still glued to the numbers, not sparing a glance at the program running on the screen to the right.
"Nope. Only that it was definitely him", was the response Cry got. Looking over to the source of the voice, Cry's gaze landed on the open window, in which a little figure was standing inside of. Constantly moving, pixels never staying in one place, there were still definite features. The bright hair, the piercing eyes, the short beard.
"Ironic how your modeled after him and the virus after me, huh?", Cry said, almost sighed, looking back to the middle screen. Watching the numbers mix with letters, forming coherent things one could understand, if they weren't gone a second after they appeared.
"Yeah. You used to be best buddies though", Cry's program responded. Cry had made it not even a month after his old friend Felix had stolen a program Cry had made and turned it into a virus. It hadn't been intended to be one, but it hadn't been completely finished yet. And Felix also had a few programming skills, so he had been able to turn the program into a virus.

"Funny how there are now three sentient programs", Cry commented with a chuckle. He was tired, chasing after Felix and the few traces he left behind. But Cry needed to find him again and stop him from corrupting so many people's computers. Cry wasn't able to help all of them, his little program Pewds wasn't able to find every PC that had been infected by the virus in time to save it.
Cry didn't even know why Felix was doing any of this. Sometimes the guy would text Cry, or even call him. Always from throw-away phones, and never long enough to have Pewds find out where he was. Cry had given up on that and Felix knew it, so he sometimes allowed a longer conversation. Since Cry wasn't trying to trace the calls or texts back anymore, why not chat a little with an old friend?

That thought of Cry seemed to be the cue, because his phone buzzed and his ringtone rang throughout the silent room. Cry pushed down his headset and picked up the phone, accepting the call of the unknown number without hesitance. No one was able to trace his phone anyways, and he didn't go outside enough for people to know his voice.
"Hey bro", the voice on the other side of the phone said, and Cry sighed as response.
"'sup Felix?", he said, twirling the cable of his headset between his fingers.
"You still searching for me?", Felix asked, sounding curious. Maybe even a little confused. Cry couldn't hear any background noises, so he could assume Felix was alone wherever he was.
"Of course", Cry responded with a tired chuckle. "I'd still like my best bro back".
"Your best bro is a criminal, you know that right?", Felix asked in return and laughed to himself. Cry shook his head softly and sighed.
"I know. Don't care though", Cry told Felix, knowing the other knew that. Especially when he fell silent and didn't say anything back to Cry for a while. They both stayed silent for a while, Cry watching the information scroll by on his screen.
"I need to go", Felix finally said, his voice quiet. Cry never figured out why Felix was doing what he was doing, but he knew that Felix didn't want to do it.
"I'm always here for you Felix", Cry responded, a sad smile on his face. "You know how to contact me". Felix stayed silent for a few moments, before the line went dead. Cry continued to hold his phone to his ear, listening to the beep, before he hung up and put the phone on his desk, pulling up his headset again.

"You really miss him", Pewds said, causing Cry to sigh. He buried his head in his hands and nodded weakly. He really missed Felix, a whole lot. They had been best friends, a year or two ago. Maybe it was even longer, Cry had no sense of time passing at all. He spend most days in this room, usually also falling asleep in here as well. His bed was rarely used nowadays, just like most other things in his home, other than his computer.
Cry barely went outside, usually eating take-out since it was quicker and easier. He basically only went out for groceries for something to drink and for snacks. Sometimes he got himself frozen food he could prepare at home as well, but he was usually drowning in his work, so he often forgot to take care of himself.
Sure, he had Pewds here and he tried to remind Cry to leave his PC from time to time, to eat and drink, to get up and move, to sleep. But Cry was a very determined guy and very stubborn, and he usually ignored his little friend. He had thought he'd help him get over Felix, even if he was modeled after him. It hadn't changed anything though, but maybe make Cry more determined to find Felix.

"It's done", Pewds informed Cry after another five or ten minutes of silence, which caused Cry to finally look up again. He took the open can of an energy drink he had, drinking from it before looking at the results of the scan he had ran. He noticed nothing out of the usual, nothing that would help him. He groaned in annoyance, scrolling through everything.
"That's weird...", he muttered, looking over the lines of coding on his screen. Thanks to Pewds, he had a copy of the codes that Jack's program "Markiplier" currently had. Most of them Cry knew from Pewds and even from the virus, but there were still some he had never seen before.
"Pewds, you know about this?", Cry asked and highlighted a few of the lines that looked strange to him. Pewds let them appear in his own program window -since he couldn't just freely move around like he wanted to- and inspected them closely.
"I think I saw them in Mark's coding. Looks like something the corruption left behind", Pewds said after a few minutes, looking closely through the codes on the screen. He had definitely seen them when he had fought against Mark's corruption, but he thought he had deleted all of it?
"Do you think it'll cause troubles?", Cry asked, scrolling further through the codes. He didn't find much more that seemed strange to him, that shouldn't be there.
"Nah. If it does, I'll pay Mark another visit", Pewds answered and let the codes vanish from his window. He didn't need to look at them any longer, though it left him wondering. He had heard the corruption speak, saying he wouldn't be able to get rid off. It worried Pewds a little, but he assumed nothing bad would happen. Jack was a smart guy, if he had been able to create Mark. He could take care of it if something happened. And Pewds could easily get back onto Jack's PC and help out, if there was a problem.

Cry sighed, closing the program on his screen, drinking something again. His mind was filled with thoughts, swirling around Felix, the virus, Jack, Mark. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what to do with his overflowing mind, Cry sighed again and opened up skype.
"I'm gonna see if Russ wants to play something", he informed Pewds, seeing his friend online. He messaged him and got ready to play some game with Russ. It always helped clear his mind, if he couldn't figure something out or if it was overflowing with thoughts.

Chapter Text

In the next few days, Jack was focused on programming something. He didn't tell Mark about it, but he most certainly watched Jack with interest. It seemed to be something with his phone, since Jack often had that in his hands as well, to test what he was making probably. It just made Mark more curious, but Jack never budged and never told him.
One day, Jack opened something in Mark's files and added something. Mark had spotted new artworks as well, which made him really curious. He could make his own pictures and frames by now, so why would Jack give him new pictures?

"I 'ave a present for ye Mark", Jack said, once he was done and closed Mark's files again. The little guy tilted his head in question, curious as to what Jack would give him. Jack right-clicked on Mark and opened the options, checking a little box labeled "Chica".
Suddenly a stuffed animal appeared, an incredibly cute golden dog, which Mark took in his hands with big eyes. He looked amazed, like a little child in a toy store, before hugging the dog close.
"She's so cute! I love her!", he exclaimed and beamed at Jack, who happily grinned back. After the whole ordeal with viruses and keeping Mark up, he had wanted to give him something nice, and something to not feel so alone with anymore. He couldn't just program another being like him, especially not a dog, but a stuffed toy seemed like a good idea as well.
So Jack had commissioned Wiishu to draw a few pictures of Mark with the toy, and Mark could hopefully work off of them, to make more on his own. It seemed like he was able to do that after all, so he was sure Mark didn't need too much.

"Now ye won't be so alone when 'm not 'ere or have no time", Jack smiled at Mark, glad to see him so happily cuddling with his toy, which he had named Chica. He was sure Mark didn't mind the name, since he had seen it already.
"Thank you so much!", Mark's smile could light up the whole room, Jack decided while looking at his friend. He was incredibly happy that Mark liked Chica so much.
"No need ta thank me", Jack chuckled. "How about we watch a movie tagether later? There's one I'd like ta watch", he asked then, seeing Mark nod enthusiastically. He had never seen a movie before after all, only normal videos!

Jack spend most of the rest of the day programming whatever else he had started to make, apparently an app, at least Mark guessed so, until evening came. After having something to eat, Jack settled in front of his computer with some snacks and quickly had the movie he wanted to watch pulled up. Mark was sitting in the corner, hugging Chica close to himself and looking at the screen.
Jack had opened the film "The Babadook", having heard it wasn't a real horror movie, but kept you on the edge of your seat with anticipation and dread, fear in the back of your mind of what was going to happen next.

And Jack felt pretty much just like that while watching the movie, and from glancing at Mark from time to time, the little guy also looked rather tense. Once the movie was finished, they both were a little relieved.
"Tha movie was awesome", Jack decided and chuckled a little. Mark turned around a little, leaning his back against the side of the monitor instead, and looked at Jack. He nodded, silently agreeing to his statement.
They talked about the movie for a while, which calmed their nerves a lot. They drifted to talk about other movies soon, Jack telling Mark about movies he watched and liked. It was definitely interesting for both of them, Jack remembering older movies and Mark hearing about things he didn't know before. Eventually though, Jack left for the night to go sleep. Saying their goodnights, Jack turned the PC off and went to bed.

A few more days passed like that, were Jack was mostly programming whatever he was programming, in the evenings watching movies or TV series with Mark. It always depended on how either of them felt and what they wanted to do. Sometimes, they even played some games. Mostly it was Jack playing and Mark watching him, especially since Mark still hadn't fully figured out how to play games himself.
It started out like any other evening, until Jack was doing something with Mark's files. Of course, that made Mark curious as to what Jack was doing, but he still kept silent. Mark pouted, waiting for Jack to finally reveal what he had been doing these past few days.
"Ya ready?", Jack asked once he closed Mark's files again. He was holding his phone in his hands now, grinning cheekily at Mark, who had his arms crossed in frustration.
"Ready for what!?", Mark asked, letting his irritation show in his face and voice. But all it made was causing Jack to laugh a little, before he turned to his phone.

He opened the app he had made. It looked like a rather normal chatting app, but a lot simpler. He couldn't message any of the phone's contacts, only able to select one button that said "Chat", though there were also buttons for the options and sending files.
Jack pressed the chat button, opening the chat, which looked like any other you might see. Typing in a message, Jack pressed send and looked back up again to his computer.
A very soft ding resonated, and Mark was startled to suddenly see a small message in front of him, which only said that there was a new message. Looking at Jack for help, he just made a hand-motion that didn't help Mark at all. So he just carefully reached out and touched it.
Another small window like thing opened, revealing the same chatroom Jack could see on his phone, the only difference being that for Mark it would look like if Jack held his phone sideways.

Heya Mark!

That was the message Mark could read. He was wide-eyed, astonished. Hesitating for a moment, he used the keyboard to type out a message back. It appeared in his chatroom, and a quiet vibration signaled that Jack had gotten it as well.

Hello Jack?

Jack snickered a little, looking from his phone to Mark again. It seemed like everything was working just how Jack wanted it to work like! Now he could chat with Mark without having to be on his PC. It probably wouldn't work while his computer was turned off though, but maybe Jack could find a way to add Mark to his phone in a sense, so that he could be "awake" and chat with Jack, without his computer having to be turned on.

The two of them chatted for a while then, just trying the new program and app Jack had made, to see if everything really worked. Jack could send files from his phone into the chat, and Mark was able to view them. he also was able to send Jack things, as long as they were saved somewhere on the computer. They admittedly had a lot of fun just sending each other texts and pictures, doing that for basically the rest of the evening.
Eventually they said their goodnights, Jack happily going to bed. He was really glad that he had been able to make that, since he couldn't stay at his PC all day every day, but had to get out sometimes. And now, he had a way of talking to Mark, and neither of them would feel as alone when the other wasn't there.

Yeah, Jack had a few other friends he talked more or less regularly with, and even played games with, but he considered Mark a very good friend of his as well, and Mark didn't have anyone but him at the moment. So of course Jack didn't want Mark to be lonely, and now they had a way to communicate!
Mark surely wouldn't be annoying either, he was a decent and kind guy. And Jack would trust him easily if Mark was a real person, and not just a program, so he didn't think too much about this either.