Mark Stefflin (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

Mark Stefflin is a major character in the Blood Over Water, a remake / adaptation of the 2009 Ferris Access Channel miniseries by the same name, attuned to Cataclysmic Gerosha continuity. He is based on his counterpart in Earth-G5, as originally portrayed by Zach Foster.

Early life
Aaron and Mark were both born August 9th of 1985. They led unassuming lives together and apart at various points; hearing about most of the madness happening in the world outside their bubble of an existence near Detroit, yet never imagining they'd be dragged into a conflict with it. While Mark became interested in the business route early one, Aaron became more interested in music industry and video production. It was around late 2005 that Aaron decided to leave behind his community college, and to start attending Ferris State in Big Rapids. From there, he met Meredith Celestine in class, and the two of them quickly fell in love.

Mark, had taken a job at the Sleet Mountain bottling plant in nearby Stanwood, where he became close friends with coworker Chris. Eventually, Mark rose to the level of being an office manager. He and Chris enjoyed drinking, partying, and loose women. However, they also sometimes enjoyed taking a break to go on fishing expeditions - where they let Aaron tag along.

The tubing party
In late August of 2009, a tubing party was held near the Muskegon River, right before Aaron began his final semester at Ferris. He tried to advise Mark, serving as a sort of conscience. Alas, Mark proved to be careless, and disregarded a lot of Aaron's warnings. Aaron leaves when Chris and Mark start ignoring him and the tubing fest completely, to find drunken college girls to seduce. But when a drunken Vanessa Fogsdorn nearly sexually assaults Aaron, Mark steps in to stop her.

Mark finds himself taking Vanessa back to his apartment instead, where Vanessa passes out on the couch. After she wakes up, she is still interested in Mark; and the two have sex. Mark then agrees to take Vanessa back to her dorm. Vanessa offers to be a booty call for Mark any time he's up for one, and he promises her that he'll call her again. Mark meets up with Chris later, and Chris confirms that he and Kylie Drimmon returned to Chris' apartment for a similar reason. However, Chris mocks Mark for offering Vanessa another chance. Chris boasts that while he and Kylie may have gotten each other's number, he has no intention of calling her again.

Hearing rumors of Hebbleskin activity
In mid-September, both Vance and Mark begin to notice that Clyde shows more and more disdain for transparency. Mark shares his concerns with Aaron that "the new management" seems to be hiding something. Around this same time, his coworker Vance Lingolin and his girlfriend Monica begin to notice suspicious vehicles in the Big Rapids area. Yet, no one seems to be able or willing to explain these vehicles. Aaron theorizes to Mark that he believes these are the Hebbleskins, and that someone tipped them off that the Flippos had been in the Big Rapids area.

Aaron asks Monica if she believes the Hebbleskins may have anything to do with Sleet Mountain's new management; and Monica admits to Aaron details about her relationship with Vance. She claims that the two of them haven't heard anything which might confirm or deny; but that all of them should exercise caution. The next day, Aaron asks a DPS officer casually walking around campus if she'd seen any Meethlites behaving suspiciously in the area, to which she denies seeing anything of the sort.

Budding relationship with Ashley
After a fifth session with Vanessa, she reveals to him that she's interested in someone else on campus. He tells her to pursue the other, and to not worry about him. Mark goes to work, and then has a long conversation on his lunch break with Ashley. The two of them connect. Ashley reveals that she and Chris have also been seeing each other, but that she doesn't see much future for herself with Chris.

She mentions Chris pouring out on her various stories about his past, and how tormented he is. Ashley notices Mark's kind demeanor, and decides she can trust him. She warns him that Chris is hardly the first time she's made a bad choice with men, to which Mark admits that he and Chris have both been pretty reckless with women in the past - and that it's a learning experience for all of them. Chris arrives, and the two change the conversation.

Vance goes rogue
A few days later, however, Clyde proposes a big plan to Chris, Mark, Kyle, and Vance: cleanup fraud! They would direct other plant workers to assist with hiding evidence of where the plant would dump its pollution: in a nearby pond. They would forge paperwork for the EPA about pollution cleanup protocols that weren't being utilized. They'd keep the EPA inspectors away from the pond. They'd launder saved funds. Those at the top, would each get rich.

Unbeknownst to Mark, Kyle had already been filled in on this plan early. Yet, Vance was already suspicious something sketchy was afoot. First, there were the rumors about the Hebbleskins. Then, Vance saw a flyer for Gleeful-N'-Young in one of the bathroom stalls. He was skeptical of the outsiders that were allowed into one room on the second floor - that ordinary Sleet Mountain staff weren't allowed inside of.

Vance quickly grows belligerent, leading to Kyle threatening him. Clyde attempts to convince Vance to reconsider his position, and Vance instead quits on the spot. Clyde adjourns the meeting even as Vance is leaving, saying he needs to "take care of" something. Only Kyle is allowed to stay in the room. Chris and Mark head to their own offices, with Ashley inquiring of both what the commotion was. However, only Mark seems willing to tell her anything.

Clyde convinces Kyle that going along with the plan is the only way to fix Kyle's family situation, resulting in Kyle agreeing to meet a man named "George" that Clyde is associated with from outside the company. Clyde then makes a phone call to George, informing him that Vance has "become a problem." He instructs George to wait for further instruction, and remain where he is until then. When Kyle asks what this means, Clyde assures Kyle that George will ensure Vance doesn't say anything incriminating.

Vance makes his call to Monica after he's finished collecting his things, and is on the road. George starts giving Vance pursuit, and Vance knows he's in trouble. He professes his love to Monica, and then warns her of what he must do - and that someone's chasing him. George quickly assassinates Vance after trapping him in a ditch. George then drags Vance's body away, and lights Vance's vehicle on fire. When Monica arrives at the scene, she finds that the damage is already done. She gathers evidence at the scene, and then flees back home.

Growing suspicion
As the days progress, Aaron makes notes of whatever breakthroughs Monica is able to give him about what Monica saw at the scene where she found Vance's blood in the grass, and the torched vehicle. He conveys his concerns with Mark; and notices that Mark begins admitting that he finds the new management increasingly shady. Mark promises to look into it more. He also leaves Aaron a message about how they need to plan a "fishing expedition," and to "check under the carpet under the bed" if "things go south." Aaron writes this down, but is initially confused by what it all means. He tries calling Chris, but Chris denies knowing anything.

Mark begins to grow uncomfortable with Clyde's plan, even though it's already saving the company lots of money. Meanwhile, he begins growing closer and closer with Ashley, to the point that Chris notices. Chris tries to conceal his exact level of jealousy; but he does let Ashley know that he's hoping she'll choose him in the end. Clyde introduces Chris, Mark, and Ashley to George, letting them know that Kyle is going to be working with George on "security details" around the plant. Chris is informed that he may be added to their ranks if need be.

A bit later, Mark and Ashley are sleeping together at his apartment. He reveals to Ashley that Vance was disturbed by the one room, and all the cryptic outsiders that were involved with it. He also informs Ashley that Aaron and Monica believe Vance was murdered - and don't believe the official news report about insurance fraud. Mark suspects a coverup. Ashley states that if anything is fishy at the company, they should start planning ahead to move out-of-state, and find other jobs. Snooping around would only get them killed. Mark makes out with Ashley, to assure her that everything will be fine. However, Mark has already made up his mind what to do.

What they don't notice is the hidden camera that has already been planted inside the apartment bedroom, as Clyde has already guessed that Mark may have told Ashley too much already. George is revealed to be capturing footage of the two in bed via remote production van. Clyde orders George to keep tabs especially on Ashley. Little else is revealed at that moment, but Clyde enjoys a little too much the voyeuristic footage of Mark and Ashley.

Uncovering Gleeful-N'-Young
Noticing it strange that there's no security camera next to the room that the oddly-dressed men enter and leave, Mark seizes an opportunity when everyone is away to enter the room. One of the men was careless, leaving the room's key still in the door. However, Mark's venturing into the room devastates him. He discovers that it's a video archive room, with a small monitor for playback. He learns that Gleeful-N'-Young is involved in the manufacture of every type of illegal porn imaginable, and has kidnapping and human trafficking operations all over the world for this express purpose. One of the most recent videos, which Mark skips to the end of, mentions a "Howard to Cadillac Big Snatch." Mark guesses that to mean some major operation is about to go down from Howard City to Cadillac. Hearing voices, Mark hides himself beneath the floor, in a storage beneath that he discovers was installed in there - where even more illegal porn videos are discovered.

Men enter the room after one lectures another about leaving the key in the lock. To Mark's relief, the men don't check the underfloor compartment. They instead drop off some more videos, and joke about the "fun" they intend to have with some of the young ladies of northern Michigan. Once convinced they're gone, Mark takes a picture with his flip phone of the archive compartment, as well as the archive room, as evidence for later. He then leaves the room immediately, pretending to have seen nothing.

Betraying Sleet Mountain
Also taking advantage of Clyde being away for a while, Mark makes copies of documents related to the cleanup fraud scam - and even uncovers evidence indicting George for the murder of Vance! Mark puts the photocopies and whatever else he can fudge into a mock set of folders, and then steals the original evidence by putting it in a manilla envelope and stamping the words "Confidential" over it. Mark then hides the envelope in his briefcase at the first given opportunity, driving home with it. He finds the camera in his room that George planted, and smashes it with a hammer. He then hides the envelope under the torn carpeting beneath his bed in his apartment.

Mark is uncertain of when he should make his move; debating how Chris and Ashley could get hurt. But he knows one thing for certain: the cleanup scam needed to be exposed! Clyde needed to be reported to authorities, some way and somehow. He'd rather his friends get hurt by the plant getting sued, than by having everyone unfairly linked to a porn smuggling / human trafficking ring! Yet, he knew that in time, that too would be exposed. By then, Chris and Ashley could be gone. This would spare them the FBI's wrath, as Mark rationalized.

In spite of this, Mark wondered how long it would be before Clyde suspected that he had betrayed the company. He didn't realize that the camera was still on, and that George was watching the other end. Unbeknownst to Mark, his changing the toner on the copy machine became a clue to Clyde that something was off. Mark didn't normally change the toner on any of the copy machines!

Later that day, the Gleeful-N'-Young exec that left the key in the door to the video archive room is assassinated by George. Clyde gets a hunch to check inventory in that room. When nothing appears too out-of-place, Clyde checks the folders related to his cleanup fraud reporting scam. He notices that two pages were put back in the wrong order, and suspects that Mark may have made unauthorized copies. He knows that the truest copies are digital, and stay with him. At worst, Mark only made copies of partially-redacted files. Still: Clyde suspected that Mark was a traitor!

As Mark reports in to work later in the afternoon the following day, Clyde pretends not to notice anything. However, George and Kyle confront Mark in the bathroom. They ask him why he appears to be so reluctant to celebrate how rich they plan to be. Suspecting it's a trap to get him to confess what he's done, Mark lies; stating that he prefers to celebrate after it's a surefire guarantee. Chris walks up to the group, assuring them that Mark prefers to celebrate with his close circle of friends; and not with those he barely knows. George and Kyle leave, realizing the time isn't right to take action. Chris suggests to Mark that getting cold feet may be a bad idea for all of them. After all: anyone trying to back out could lead to them all getting exposed. Chris makes it clear to Mark that he has no intention of ever going to prison - no matter who he has to throw under the bus to avoid it! Chris also threatens Mark that something terrible could happen if he ever catches Mark mistreating Ashley, as Ashley is the only woman outside of family that Chris has ever truly cared about. Mark assures Chris he has no intentions of harming her, and that Chris shouldn't be worried about a thing.

Messages for Aaron
Mark eventually calls Aaron, and mentions to him that they should go on a "fishing expedition" soon. It would just be the two of them this time; no Chris. He states that something at work is off, and that "if things go south," Aaron should "check under the carpet under the bed." Aaron is confused by Mark's cryptic speech, but saves the message. Naively thinking the fishing expedition may be a literal one, he tries to call Mark back about arranging to go fishing. Mark doesn't respond, leading to Aaron leaving a message instead.

A call from Ashley
One evening, Mark gets a frantic call from Ashley. She mentions that someone broke into her house, and that the only thing that appeared to have been stolen was a folder from her file cabinet. The folder was about her past affair with Rev. Harry Campelli. Mark questions if it's safe for Ashley to be there, and tells her to stay the night with him and seek out the police the next day. She heads over to his place to spend the night with him, after first making a few more phone calls. Mark begins to suspect that George or Kyle may have committed the burglary. Yet, he also wonders why Ashley would be a target.

Death
The day before the fishing trip was to be planned, Mark left work early. As he was leaving, Kyle tried to bully him once more. This time, Kyle let it slip that he knew Mark was going to sell out the company. He offered to bribe Mark once more for silence, vowing consequences if Mark didn't listen. Mark continued to deny the allegations, and fled the premises. He kept an eye open around the road, in case any assassins came for him.

Clyde then called Ashley into his office, with Kyle insisting that she visit. Clyde revealed to Ashley that he knew everything about her affair with Campelli. He also revealed to Ashley that if she wanted to avoid things "getting out of hand," she needed to pay Mark a visit - and to demand that he hand over the stolen envelope. No sooner did she leave the office to visit Mark, then Clyde called Chris into the office. Lying about why Ashley was at Hillcrest, Clyde was able to convince Chris that Mark had been plotting to send Chris to jail the entire time.

As Ashley arrived at the apartment, however, she instead defected to Mark's side. The two made plans on how they were going to run away together - and to where - so that the rest of the company wouldn't find and kill them. Even though they didn't want to lose Chris as a friend, they reasoned that they may have to leave him behind for their own safety. After all: Chris was still all too willing to go along with Clyde's pollution cleanup fraud scam.

The couple embraced, determined to follow through with their plan. Mark alerted Ashley that he'd have to call Aaron early, and let him know there'd be a third party on the fishing trip after all. They'd need to then lay low at Aaron's. At the first given opportunity, they'd need to use Aaron's connections to Meredith in Tennessee. They'd flee out of state, then cooperate with the FBI. As they resolved themselves on a course of action, the couple let their guard down - forgetting that they left the front door unlocked. They began making out on the sofa, and then went to the bedroom to have sex.

An enraged Chris seized the opportunity of the unlocked front door to sneak in, and then used a silenced pistol to assassinate Mark in his own bed. After interrogating Ashley on the matter, however, Chris learned that Clyde had misled Chris about the true nature of the scam. She mentioned the room with the child snuff porn videos, and warned Chris that Clyde's evil plan was going to get much worse. They had been manipulated by a man who was effectively the Devil.

Overcome with shock and embarrassment, Chris relented from his anger. He agreed that Mark and Ashley had made the right decision after all; but he vowed one thing to her: he would only cooperate provided he was assured no prison time. To that end, Chris convinced Ashley that they needed to play Clyde right back. To abscond their share of the money, and then flee Big Rapids together - just as Ashley would've done with Mark. First, they needed to carefully dispose of the body - and clean up any traces of evidence they could find. They would need to bury Mark somewhere, and then send in George and Kyle to search for the missing documents. They'd have to report in to Clyde, assuring Clyde that Mark was dead.

Alas, when the two arrived, Ashley was suddenly abducted by Gleeful-N'-Young operatives. After expressing an affinity for satanic cults, Clyde admits to Chris that Gleeful-N'-Young's operation was the real goal. He tells Chris that Sleet Mountain is now just a ruse; and that Chris could stand to make even more money by knowing his place. As a starter bonus, all of Mark's intended shares from the cleanup scam were now being redirected to Chris' pending direct deposit. Chris pretends to reach an understanding with Clyde; but secretly continues to feel nothing but rage. Not only did Clyde manipulate Chris into murdering his best friend; but he also tricked Chris into betraying the only woman he ever truly loved! Chris vowed to continue Mark's work - but go a step beyond. However, Chris also knew he'd have to be stealthy about it. Much stealthier than Mark was!

Discovery and aftermath
In December of 2009, Mark's shallow grave near the Muskegon River bed was discovered by Aaron. Chris had given Aaron all the necessary information to not only prove the cleanup fraud scam; but to expose the illegal porn room operation as well. Chris waited until the most exact opportune moment to murder George and Kyle, and to betray Clyde. Chris then begins a years-long rampage to take down Gleeful-N'-Young: starting with rescuing Ashley from the brothel in Kentucky that Clyde sent her to. Mark's body was later given a proper burial, in a cemetery in Tennessee.

Shortly after news broke regarding the discovery of his body, the missing body of Vance Lingolin was also recovered - vindicating the testimony of Vance's surviving girlfriend, Monica. Authorities and news outlets, bitter that their plan to write off Vance's disappearance as insurance fraud had blown up in their faces, still nitpicked Monica's sleuthing methods as a way to railroad her into jail out of retaliation.

Personality
Mark is shown to be morally weaker, more cynical, and less altruistic in this version, as compared to his more-saintly incarnation in the original miniseries. In spite this, he genuinely cares about Chris, Aaron, Ashley, and even Vanessa - to a limited extent. He is not one who likes to make waves. However, when Vance goes missing under highly suspicious circumstances right after Clyde began the cleanup fraud scam; this causes Mark to question where his loyalty truly lies. His love triangle involving Chris and Ashley further shows that he and they are very complex characters. This is in contrast to their much-flatter miniseries counterparts.

Like in the series, Mark is a stuffy office worker. However, he likes to engage in some risky behaviors outside of work, to alleviate work-related stress. Mark requires glasses to see, unlike Aaron. The reason for this, just like in the miniseries, is never explained. Also similarly to the miniseries, when frightened, Mark prefers to remain as calm as he can and take the rational approach. This is in contrast to Aaron, who is far more emotional and impulsive.

Trivia

 * How Mark is assassinated was redone for the webcomic from how it was portrayed in the miniseries, to capitalize on the versatility of using The Sims 4 to depict events, and to improve on the dramatic value of his death scene.
 * Showing him being assassinated mid-coitus revealed that for Mark, lust truly was a deadly sin.
 * The project being dubbed Blood Over Water has two meanings: Chris choosing friendship and families over a water-themed company and money being the expression "blood is thicker than water" is the most common definition. The second is that blood was shed over water - the need by Clyde to keep what he was doing with the water pollution cleanup fraud a secret.  Having Chris blow Mark's head off with a gunshot blast makes the latter definition seem more fulfilled.  In the original, "blood" may have been in the title.  But with no blood depicted onscreen, the title felt unearned.
 * The original script called for Mark to be wrestled to the living room floor and knocked senseless with a backhand blow from Chris. At that point, Chris was to pull out a gun and blow Mark's head off.  Instead of seeing the bullet trajectory, a cutaway to blood spatter hitting the wall was desired.
 * In the comic, the scene is made extra cruel by having Mark be shot while helpless in his bed, with Ashley having been tricked into serving as a diversion to make him even less able to fight back.
 * The comic also makes Chris' use of a silencer on the gun explicit, leaving no doubt that Chris under the influence of Clyde's greed is capable of absolutely inhuman deeds of wickedness.
 * The reasons varied that the miniseries didn't depict Mark's execution in this gory a fashion.
 * First off, real-life Chris Wilson had his real-life apartment in Big Rapids double as Mark's apartment for shooting purposes. Because of this, fake blood on the walls would stain about as thoroughly as real blood - which would result in Chris losing his security deposit.
 * Secondly, a fake silencer would have been deemed "too much trouble" to assemble for the fake gun.
 * Thirdly, nobody wanted to spend the money, time, or do the research necessary to concoct fake blood and do a spatter pattern with it. Therefore, a very cheap "strangling" effect was used to depict the murder.  Mark's fading out of consciousness was a cheap focus ring trick on the camera, using practical effects to substitute for the high-budget effects that were out of the question in 2009.


 * Mark's treatment of women in the comic is a reversal of how Zach wanted Mark and Aaron depicted in the miniseries. In the miniseries, Aaron was the "cool guy," and Mark was "the prude."  In the comic, Aaron is engaged and is saving himself for marriage.  Mark, however, seems to have no problem with sleeping around.  That he has two casual sex encounters with Ferris student Vanessa Fogsdorn before committing himself to Ashley seems to be proof of this.  It's implied he's had numerous one night stands before Vanessa.


 * Details of Mark's life not in Blood Over Water itself are instead mentioned in the mock-gossip magazine Blood Over Water: Dirty Laundry.


 * Much like with Aaron, Marks' AI art features in The Gerosha Chronicles, According to an AI. Alongside are clips of his Classic Gerosha counterpart, portrayed by Zach Foster.