Hey, everyone! Since we're nearing the 100th episode mark over on Tapas, I wanted to let you all know that I'm planning to host a fanart contest to celebrate! While the official deadline has not been decided yet, I'm announcing it in-advance so new readers can catch up with the story. If you are interested, please read the rules below the cut:
How to participate:
1.) Comment below, make a post sharing Dark Origins, and tag me to let me know you are planning to enter.
2.) Submit one piece of fanart featuring the characters from Dark Origins. It can be anything from your favorite scene, to how certain events in the story parallel some of those in Undertale, to theories or reflections on its themes, etc. You may submit up to two pieces, but be sure to tag me each time so that I see them. Please keep the content of your submissions Rated T for Teens or SFW.
3.) The official deadline is now set: All submissions must be turned in by Saturday, July 11th, 2026. I will then review the entries over the course of the following weeks and announce up to three winners on my socials.
4.) No AI art will be accepted as a submission.
5.) Since not all of the characters have visual references made for them yet, especially as they age up, I'm not going to score anyone heavily on accuracy: I'm more interested in seeing how you bring the characters to life in your submissions. However, if you do want some reference material, I do have designs for some of the characters' original counterparts from Origins fancomic and Something Familiar visual novel (beta) that you can take a look at.
Prizes:
1st Place will win a full-body, full-color, one-character commission with a detailed background.
2nd Place will win a full-body, full-color, one-character commission with no background.
3rd Place will win a half-body, flat-color, one-character commission with no background.
NOTE: If you are one of the winners and you would like to change the details of your prize, I might accept it depending on your request. For example, if you are the 1st place winner and you prefer a b/w style like from my FusionFall fancomic, those tend to require less shading and detail overall, so I could potentially upgrade that to a full-comic page. Just be sure to talk to me so we can negotiate and keep in mind that I will only do pieces that are SFW.
A big thank you to those who've stuck with the story so far and best of luck to those planning to enter!
Silya's eyes were closed as she sat reclined in a chair in one of Dexlabs' staff rooms. Her Eduardo nano, Beni, was crouched on the coffee table in front of her, drawing on pieces of scrap paper as they waited for two of their other teammates to finish their check-ups. It was a rare moment of quiet, disturbed only by the faint scribbling of a pencil.
The room wasn't always so comfortable. The young woman vaguely remembered it once being used for storage. Since the start of the Nano Project, however, the facility had seen a lot more traffic. Checking on the health and growing abilities of various nanos was part of the scientists' responsibilities, so extra space had to be set aside. Now, it was more like a waiting room, fitted with a vending machine, multiple cushy chairs, and a few toys that one would typically see at a doctor's office.
It was just the two of them in there until a familiar face entered. Amit, a fellow research participant, smiled at her as he stepped through the door. Although they saw each other far less often than before due to their separate roles in the Fusion Fighters, they still maintained a close friendship. "Here for an appointment too?"
Silya nodded, then asked, "Where's your team?"
“Already with the scientists. When did you get here?”
"Probably around an hour ago." She checked the time on her nanocomm. Beni's check-up likely wrapped up so quickly thanks to his more agreeable nature and limited powers. He acted as both a medic and cook for her team, so there was little need to test his combat ability. The others would take a while longer still, but she wasn't sure when they'd be finished since it all depended on how many tests the scientists wanted to conduct.
Amit quietly calculated the time in his own head. After a moment, he suggested, "Do you want to take a walk? I heard the bots outside have some new jetbike rentals. Or we could grab something from the convenience store down the block."
Silya cast a sidelong glance at Beni, reluctant. Although someone would let her know via comm when her other two nanos' tests were done, it was better if she didn't go too far. Somewhere within the facility's grounds would be fine, but she was also hesitant to drag Beni with them or leave him by himself. He could get nervous around strangers, so if somebody else walked into the room while she wasn't there, she wasn't sure how he'd handle it.
"Maybe just a quick circle around the labs," she compromised. Amit agreed, offering to hold the door open for her as they began to walk out.
Before they could leave, however, Silya heard the rustle of papers behind her. She looked back a second time to find Beni gathering his drawings into his arms in a messy pile.
She raised a brow, "Do you want to come with us?"
He nodded rapidly.
With a faint smile, she momentarily turned back to help him tuck the papers away. Beni's own grin widened and he muttered as he floated close to her head, "Gracias."
Despite this, he kept himself a few steps behind them as they moved. The young woman couldn't help but partly blame herself for the distance. Since he didn't play as heavy a role as some of the others did on the team, Beni was often sidelined—especially when they were stuck in the Future. While her Buttercup, Numbuh Two, and Eddy nanos regularly had fought alongside her on missions, Beni stayed at ration depos where his skills were best utilized. It had been the most logical strategy at the time, but it meant that he got used to being alone. Now that they were back in the past, growing their team and taking on a wider variety of assignments, maybe he could be more involved.
Trying not to exclude him, Amit voiced over his shoulder, "It's been a while since I've had your fries. I've been missing them. Do you still make them?"
His grin growing wider, Beni nodded a second time. Along with the imaginary food he could create for healing, back in the Future, he'd gotten pretty good at throwing together a meal despite the limited resources everyone had. He experimented with more recipes now, but fries were his specialty.
Eventually, they reached a long observation window revealing one of the more public labs. On a normal day, this area would've been open for tours. Today, this specific part of the facility was being used for some of the nanos' tests. A group of Dexbots and scientists guided them through multiple, simple fitness exercises without the use of their powers. Silya and Amit tried to find their own teammates among them, but they must've been with another group.
"Looks like they scheduled a lot of people for today."
"Can you blame them? The research team was practically drooling when we brought those blueprints." The young woman didn't envy the scientists' jobs one bit. Earth's survival hinged on the Nano Project's success and imaginary energy wasn't the easiest subject of study. They'd been working nonstop ever since the Dexlabs' labrats returned from their jump through time.
"Still, it kinda makes me feel bad that we're the only ones getting a break," Amit countered with a knowing twinge of a smirk.
"What break?"
Silya was about to quip at him a little more when an alarm cut her off, nearly making the trio jump out of their skin. Beni squeezed himself against his IE Donor's back to hide. It wasn't the first time they'd heard Dexlab's emergency system—it had actually gone off an egregious number of times since their employments—but it had been a while and it was the first time they'd heard it since joining the Fusion Fighters. The flashing alarm lights and the sound of mechanical locks clicking underneath the blaring sirens as the facility shut down weren't as easy for them to shrug off as the result of a bot gone haywire or DeeDee breaking in.
"Facility on lockdown. Repeat. Facility on lockdown," Computress' voice filtered through an intercom, "All visitors, please follow the instructions of nearby personnel. All personnel near Assembly, please secure doors and remain where you are."
Assembly. That was one of the newer sections of Dexlabs, brought about for the mass production of machines and weaponry following the initial days of Fuse's invasion. At first, Dexlabs' scientists and engineers made a lot more robots and tanks to combat the toxic army of fusion monsters. That had backfired spectacularly, but the automated lines were kept active; fashioning equipment and smaller vehicles for individual soldiers. It was still an integral resource.
Had a fusion snuck in to sabotage the lines? Were they being attacked?
Either way, Silya and Amit rushed toward Assembly. All Dexlabs staff was familiar with the various tunnels, tubes, and passages that connected each section of the facility. Thanks to their experiences crawling around shuttered and dilapidated buildings in the Future, anywhere they didn't get through with their clearance or thanks to the locked doors, they snuck around using the vents. Nothing, however, could've prepared either of the two fusion fighters for the sight that awaited them when they reached the area.
It was chaos, but not thanks to any monster that had managed to sneak inside the building. It was their boss, Dexter. Their ever articulate, ever stiff and straitlaced leader was swinging from the railings of one of the assembly line catwalks as if it was a series of monkey bars—howling like a wildman with his glasses miraculously hanging onto his face, if barely. His pristine labcoat and shirt were gone. He was missing a shoe. Several meters beneath him, a small crowd of Dexbots had stretched out a tarp to try to catch him if they fell. Meanwhile, a few scientists standing on the catwalk did everything in their power to try to beckon their employer onto the safety of the platform without success.
Silya and Amit absorbed the scene for a minute. Then, Amit raised up his wrist, pressed a few buttons on his nanocomm, and took a quick picture.
Hey, everyone! Just giving a quick reminder that the fanart contest for Dark Origins ends on July 11th. If you've made your submissions, please remember to tag me so that I know you've entered.
Read Dark Origins and more premium Action fantasy Community series now on Tapas!
'Unlike many of the other times she'd seen him, there was a genuine, warm regard emanating from the skeleton for whoever he was talking about. He wasn't distancing himself through humor or acting like a duplicitous stalker. For once, he was laying a part of himself bare.
Maybe that was why his expression was able to break from its usual, unreadable smile. It faltered and he turned away for a moment, as though he had meant to reclaim the mask, but instead pressed on:'
Dark Origins has been updated on Tapas, FFN, and Ao3!
A heads up that, if you are reading the story on FFN, as of Chapter 91, it seems that none of them are loading right--at least not on my system. It really doesn't seem like the devs are interested in maintaining the site at all anymore, so if this keeps up, there may be a massive move of my older stories to Ao3 and other sites.
Read Dark Origins and more premium Action fantasy Community series now on Tapas!
'The room filled with a tense silence. There wasn’t a single mage present there who hadn’t known a period of civil strife. Before the days of the Conflagration, there had been other terrorists, which Monty and Crococus had fought against alongside Madame Valda. There were smaller wars for territory between noble houses, and leaders of insurgencies who attempted to use the conflicts between humans and monsters as a means of increasing their own power. For a moment, all of them seemed caught in one terrible memory or another.'
Dark Origins has been updated on Tapas, FFN, and Ao3!
Read Dark Origins and more premium Action fantasy Community series now on Tapas!
'In their duel of words, Countess Lupa subtly berated them for sneaking into Cape Cilla and stepping around her authority. Castellar argued back that they wouldn't have known to get involved if she'd had the situation under control to begin with. The Arnaud Guild needed to respect the Two Kingdoms' laws, but anything that threatened Ebott's overall stability fell under their domain. She could complain all she wanted, but the mages were within their rights.'
Dark Origins has been updated on Tapas, FFN, and Ao3!!
For those who missed the update, a reminder that submissions for the fanart contest will be due next month on July 11th.
Hey, everyone! First off, a big thank you to followers both new and old who've checked in on this blog and my artwork for secretairesuite over the years. I'm really grateful to all of you who showed an interest in my characters and the little doodles I've drawn of them. Unfortunately, as stated in the title though. I will be having to close thing blog. It's not for any negative reason though: Secretairesuite will live on... but hopefully as its own, original comic!
I've been putting together a short sample piece of five comics for people to pick from, which I'm hoping to finish up relatively soon. Once those are posted, I'll open a vote. I'll then turn the comic that receives the most votes into a full series.
Stylistically, the designs for the characters will be mostly what you're already familiar with from the blog, leaning more on the Cuphead influences. The story, however, will play on a lot of different ideas with mainly the core of the characters from the blog intact. Also, feel free to give the other comics a chance too: It is a competition between them, after all, so another one might interest you more. :)
As for what will happen to what I've already drawn for the blog, most of it is already posted on my DeviantArt, so I'll be combing through anything else to make sure everything is archived somewhere. You can continue to follow me @silyabeeodess on all my socials.
I'll leave this blog open for a while longer, so all of you will definitely know when those sample comics are up. Stay tuned!
Read Dark Origins and more premium Action fantasy Community series now on Tapas!
The skeleton’s commanding voice followed the destruction, “By order of the Arnaud Mages Guild, we place those present under arrest for the crimes of smuggling contraband, trafficking, and murder! Cooperate or face immediate judgment!”
The seer rolled her eyes. As the guards to either side of her overcame their shock, they lunged for her. Magic radiated at her fingertips as twin Astral Daggers found their way into her hands. She stabbed one enemy below the chin and pierced the chest of the other. Both dropped at her feet as she cut away the rope at her hips and stepped forward.
“Honestly, Cas. Procedures aside, why do you even bother?”
Dark Origins has been updated on Tapas, FFN, and Ao3!! And with that...
We have officially reached 100 episodes over on Tapas!!
As promised, I'm now giving the fanart contest an official deadline! Mark your calendars, because whatever social you're posting on, submissions will be due on Saturday, July 11th, 2026. Be sure to check up on the original post for all contest rules.
I'm kinda just goofing around here with this, but I've wanted to try my hand at creating bumpers as if FusionFall had existed back in the days of CN City. You know, if I actually had time for something like that anymore... This is about the easiest thing I could do right now, since I actually just removed the background from real footage I took and let simple movements in the game's background handle the rest. Definitely not the best, but then, I spent less than an hour in a cheap video editing system. I have a whole list of ideas: Maybe someday I'll actually get have the chance to dust off my equipment and play around with them.
...Also, please don't actually call the number. I know pretty much all of you know it's fake, but I'm saying it for the 0.00001% that I know is out there that would try it.
Will Dee Dee ever finally properly apologize to Dexter and owned up on what she done?
I don't know if she'd ever directly apologize to Dexter, at least not with words. Being siblings, causing trouble for one another is par for the course, and there's not really a good moment to have a proper sit-down to talk about what happened with the war raging on and their being stationed in two different places. They both know what she did went too far and caused extensive harm this time, but there's no easy way for either of them to address it. That's not to say that she wouldn't try to apologize in some fashion, but it would show more through her actions, such as giving Dexter more space, having a little more respect for his work, and making sure that he's taking care of himself behind the scenes.
She'd actually struggle more with the research participants, since that familial bond wouldn't be there--although I do imagine Dee Dee became close to some of them by extension, getting to know them as she visited the labs while training and early experiments and were ongoing. Her default response would be to not address the accident at all, welcoming them back as if things were normal if not trying to be overly-friendly, so it would really depend on how each of them reacted to her.
The saying went that pride comes before the fall. And, after years spent chasing the sun, Gaster had fallen—deep, deep, deep into the darkest abyss.
The humans that entered the Underground were too few and far between. King Asgore was no killer, not at heart: He didn't have true will to do what needed to be done. Research into the full potential of soul power had hit a wall. With all odds against them, the skeletal scientist thought of an alternative to solve their problem. Perhaps he could free his people not by shattering the Barrier, but by obliterating its source.
Determination: That was the special ingredient that made human souls so potent. It had gone without a name for the longest while, and was believed in centuries past to have been a rare trait exclusive to mages who wielded crimson magic. Temporal magic. Mere legend to most, a closely-guarded secret to few, the strongest of these mages was said to even have the ability to redirect the flow of time itself. He thought his team could find a way to harness it.
The last experiment had completely backfired. Certain details were hazy, but Gaster remembered the alarms, the chaotic pulses of energy they'd failed to contain, his subordinates getting swept up in it one-by-one until... He hoped there was someone left to continue the work.
As for himself, the scientist found that he continued to live in a Schrodinger state. He had become eternal, yet nonexistent. He saw glimpses of everything that was or would happen, yet understood nothing of that truly did. Every now and then he was able to slip out of the darkness, but never with any presence or permanance. He have become a breathing paradox with no escape from the collapsar which had swallowed him whole.
It was impossible for anyone to keep themselves sane in those conditions, but he tried. Floating through a sea of nothing, Gaster held fast to every fragment of identity that made him who he was. While he couldn't keep track of the days, he spent them crawling through his memories, clinging to the visions of faces he refused to forget.
Then, at a point when he'd come close to embracing oblivion, he heard a voice cry out from afar:
"For the love of all that is holy, can't you people leave me alone for five minutes?! There's hundreds of papers here I have to fold and two others on the job doing nothing—stop forming a line! It's not flattering when I'm the only one anyone asks for help!"
Well, it was less of a cry and more of a furious, stressed scream into the Void.
Gaster forced himself not to react at first. Something in the back of his mind told him not to get involved; that whoever or whatever this individual was, they were clearly frustrated and might make it his problem. A part of him doubted that the voice was even real. His own memories of past events could've been resurfacing as hallucinations.
However, this feminine voice was not one he was familiar with. He didn't recognize the being that finally took shape in the shadows either: A small, red, two-tailed fox.
“They are standing right in front of you... So help me, if you don't look up from your computer—!”
The words didn't match her mouth movements. It seemed to be a form of telepathy or mental projection. The only genuine sounds that made it past the vulpine's fangs was a series of loud, angry geks. Considering how little pause there was between her complaints and each one left little open-ended, he didn't think she was engaged in any real dialogue. It was as if she appeared there for the sole purpose of blowing off steam.
Once she'd calmed down a bit, the fox finally noticed him. It wasn't hard, given that they were the only two individuals hovering in the emptiness. She lost whatever sensation of gravity she'd enveloped around herself, tipping somewhat as she blinked up at him, and slowly closed her mouth.
"Oh, hi!"
The scientist didn't have the same grip on his magic that he had before the accident. Even if he was in top form, his condition didn't offer him many reasons or opportunities to practice with it. Nevertheless, he attempted an appraisal spell. The information he desired did appear, but it was all nonsensical. He couldn't get a real reading on the fox. That in itself told him almost everything. This was by no means a monster nor a typical animal.
He'd once studied ancient records of external entities that could manipulate the very fabric of their reality. Those tales were part of what inspired his drastic course of action. Why did outsiders, who had neither a physical body nor strong attachment to his world, hold such sway over it? Moreover, this empty, in-between plane should've been of little interest to such a being. Gaster knew, on some instinctive level, that it had come for him. To think that one would appear before him at his lowest—it didn't really seem fair.
"Leave."
The chilly order left him before he could consider feigning politeness. The warnings were clear. If there was one thing you didn't want to do to these living anomalies, it was catch their interest—though maybe it was far too late for that. He could still try to shake her off though: He could act so obstinate that she would have to give up on whatever she wanted from him eventually. He turned his back to the creature, preparing to wander off into the shadows.
"No! Hey, since you're here, I got to ask you something!"
Stars above, Gaster could tell by her lackadaisical tone that she was going to be a pain in the neck. "You'll find no purpose or amusement here, spirit. Return to your own world."
No chance. He could sense her following after him. He might've tried attacking her if he thought it would do any good, except they couldn't be injured any more than they could understand what it felt like when the winds of this realm brushed against their skin. Without a vessel of their own, what he saw may as well have been no different than a hologram. However, if she so chose to lash out at him, it would likely feel very real.
For better or worse, the fox didn't resort to violence either. She never tried to touch the skeleton at all, instead always keeping a few paces from his back. It was impossible to guess for how long she tailed him, or how often he thought she'd left only for her to manifest at his side once again. Stubbornness incarnate—just like many of her kind.
"I won't keep repeating myself," he sneered under a breath, "and you can't force me into compliance, can you? If you could, you wouldn't keep pestering me, meaning either you lack the authority or it goes against your nature."
Gaster avoided looking back at the fox right up until that moment. Her eyes narrowed and she seemed to be pouting. Good. He hoped that would be the final word.
It wasn't. "That's cute, but don't pretend that you didn't break the rules."
Knowing exactly what the entity was or what she was capable of didn't prepare him for the vulpine's directness. The unknown was staring right through him.
"I'm not judging you for it. You've got counterparts that keep opening new doors for me and everyone else that likes this world, so it's not like we'd have the right to anyway," she continued, "You're just in a unique position and I need someone to fill a role that I can't on my own."
Every word she poured into his skull was beginning to grate on his nerves. She didn't even try to hide that she had the advantage, but if there was something she wanted from him, something that she was willing to argue with him for this long over...
He'd have to play his cards carefully. "You need me?" he asked dubiously. Maybe it wasn't wise to be so blunt, but he doubted that acting clever would work in his favor right now. He was simply answering candor with candor.
"Yes and no..." she hummed, appearing to take a seat in the groundless void. Her ears pinned back and she pulled her gaze away from his own. It took a moment for the fox to piece her next few sentences together, "There's someone's story I'm following, a few important extras are missing, and there's a limit to how much I can get involved. You technically can. Basically, you still fit within the world's law of probability."
The law of-? It took Gaster a second to process that she was acting as though she was talking about a book or a play. He felt another spark of irritation. His voice was colder than before, "Why me? Isn't there some other abomination you can ask?"
"With certain conditions, sure, but you already tried to insert yourself into the plot."
He'd tried to alter history—the distant past, to be more specific. There was no need to destroy the Barrier if the Barrier had never raised. Gaster never actually intended to play a direct part in the events that preceded its spell. Ideally, he wanted to change the conditions that established the seven mages' success, to be a distant hand reshaping that event. That age was before his own time: The plan was risky enough and he knew he had no place there. He didn't have one now.
Though, he supposed it was still considered an obstruction of the natural order. Maybe that's why the world saw fit to remove him from its history entirely...
"I don't know how to get you out of here. You're basically a ghost wherever you go across time and, no matter where you travel across space, you'll still be trapped under the mountain. But I can give you a front row seat to what's happening outside." The fox stated the facts and laid out her terms without restraint. "I can also set up a scenario to give you a chance to change things. You'll only get the one opportunity, but I won't interfere with whatever you try to do."
Gaster turned his face away as a sudden light erupted in front of him. Once his eyes adjusted, he marveled at what appeared to be projections of various scenes playing out before his eyes. They played out no differently than had he been watching them from the screens in his lab. He saw the king and queen in their youth, monsters and mages studying alongside one another, and—
The war...
He swallowed. Ever the logical man, he knew that the offer was too good to be true. However, could he afford to reject it? He'd thrust himself into this horror by impossible means: It would likely take something just as powerful to get himself out of it or to at least see his life's mission through to the end. He considered all variables. If he succeeded, he may prevent some version of himself from ever needing to experiment with time. If he failed, it didn't sound as if it would cost him any more than said experiments already had. There was just one point that bothered him:
"I don't see what you get out of that arrangement," the scientist glowered. She wasn't offering him the kind of deal he'd often read about, where accepting her help meant giving up part of his own free will so that she could root herself into the world's affairs. He'd come too far to let himself be tricked.
The fox leveled a steady haze at him. Although there was no sign of malice or deception in her stare, it was such an unflinching look that it rattled him. Gaster detested this creature. If the situation was different, if he had the liberty to do so, he would've devoted himself to manipulating such an entity before it ever thought to play around in his world. No, he'd aim higher—at whatever power gave her the right to enter in the first place. Maybe it was his pride talking, maybe sheer foolishness, but the idea of tackling that sort of challenge ignited a fire in him like nothing else.
That flame was only stoked further by her answer, "I'm betting on you to fail. A single person's actions aren't the only ones that matter. Good or evil or in-between, those in the past made their choices for their own reasons. You can't change fate so easily."
Hearing this, Gaster drew his hands into such tight fists that he may have ground his fingers to dust if he dug them any deeper into his palms. Oddly enough though, a thin veneer of a smile crept onto his face. He felt like he was playing right into her hands, but standing against a declaration like that, what was he to do?