the-lost-writer

[the-lost-writer]

Here are the subnautica Stick Fish!

On the left there is the hoverfish and on the right we have the reaper leviathan!

[the-lost-writer]

There are fic writers who look at a villain and think, What if they just needed a hug and a therapist? And suddenly, the villain is saving the world and having deep philosophical conversations.

[the-lost-writer]

Black Ice - Redemption Dark AU

(Part 4)

Blurb

Stuck in a white box purgatory after his defeat by TSC, Dark sulks. He is the greatest, strongest, and most intelligent stick in the entire universe! And he is stuck here in this… well he isn’t quite sure where but he knows it cannot contain him forever, it’s just taking longer for him to escape without his powers.

One day (if you can even call it day) a glowing orb comes to him with an offer, an offer to get him out on one condition. Dark gladly takes the offer since he will be able to outsmart this being. After all, he is the most intelligent stick in the universe.

Here is the beginning for anyone new: Part 1

Job

Dark walks into the sleepy burger place, the bell tinkles overhead as the door swings closed. There is one stick eating a burger while looking at his rocket phone. Behind the register stands a bored looking deep-violet stick. He jumps when Dark walks towards him.

“Hello and welcome to Wally’s Burger and Fries, what can I get for you today?” He greets Dark automatically.

The orb is floating around the stick's head. He doesn’t notice it at all so Dark decides not to acknowledge it either.

“I’m here for the job” Dark proclaims confidently. This job will be easy, there are barely any customers.

“Ah, are you the new hire? The manager is in the back.” He points over his shoulder at the employees only door.

Dark smirks and walks around the counter and through the little swinging gate. He strides through the employee’s only door and into the back. Technically he’s not officially employed yet, so *technically* this counts as an illegal act, right? PLEASE let it be illegal, Dark will take anything at this point.

The orb zips into the back and explores the kitchen while Dark looks around for the manager. After scanning the room he spots an older looking brownish stick standing at the sink washing dishes. He approaches them and clears his throat.

“Hey buddy, where’s the manager?” Dark asks, intentionally being rude.

The old man stops his chores to look up at Dark and chuckles. On closer inspection he’s not *that* old, maybe mid to late thirties, but to Dark he is ancient.

“Hello. Dark was it? Nice to meet you. My name is Wally” He takes off his rubber gloves and takes Darks hand, shaking it.

Dark snatches his hand away. How dare this old kook take The Dark Lord's hand-!

The brown stick speaks again. “I’m the manager here, welcome to Wally’s Burgers and Fries.”

*Oh.* Dark forces himself to calm down, he can’t blow up at his new boss.

“I heard this was your first job in the city, is that true?”

“It is” Dark responds curtly.

The man smiles kindly. “In that case I will show you the ropes.”

The kindness of this stick figure makes Dark want to barf. Of course *this* had to be the manager, the kind with the ‘infectious positivity.’ Ick. The orb must be shaking with laughter.

He must have made a face because the manager lets out a little chuckle.

“Don’t worry Dark, this is standard procedure. I’m not going to baby you.”

*Oh, you better not baby The Dark Lord* the desaturated dark blue stick thinks to himself. He would have loved to say it out loud, but he can’t blow his cover. Not yet at least. He needs to get his powers back first, then he can be as rude as he wants.

The manager gives him a uniform— A black apron and a hat�� and beckons Dark to follow him. “Alright Dark, come with me please.” The old man walks out to the front, Dark following along while tying up the apron.

The brown figure stops in front of the counter and gestures to the machine on top of it. “Here is the register, this is where we take orders from customers. You will greet them by saying ‘welcome to Wally’s Burger and Fries, what can I get for you today?’ and then enter in whatever they order into the register like this,” he shows him how to enter in an order.

“Remember to be polite and cordial, we don’t want to scare away customers.”

*Fat chance* Dark thinks, nodding and pretending to agree. The orb lazily twirls around his head, and he reminds himself that being nice is a necessity to keep this job. He will have to bear being *polite* for at least a few days. He will figure out a loophole eventually though.

The manager leads Dark back into the kitchen, where three other sticks are lounging around, waiting for customers.

The manager starts explaining the equipment as he passes each one. “Here is the grill, and the deep fryer, and the milkshake machine. You *must* use gloves in this area or whenever you are handling food, it is required by food safety regulations.”

*I will do what I want* Dark responds in his head.

The brownish man continues to explain each workstation, how to use each one, what each order means, and how to assemble them. Dark only got distracted a single time with thoughts about how he could tamper with the equipment.

Once the manager finishes explaining everything, he turns to Dark. “Any questions?”

Dark, being the intelligent and quite frankly genius stick that he is, was easily able to comprehend all of the brownish sticks instructions. The process sounded similar to assembling a robot, but with food instead of grease and gears. Not nearly as complicated. Or fun.

“Yeah yeah, I got it” he answers dismissively. The manager raises an eyebrow in doubt but doesn’t comment. “In that case, your shift officially starts now. Which task would you like to try first?”

“I get to choose?”

The manager nods. “You will get paid the same no matter what task you choose, so you are free to do any that takes your fancy. I will be checking up on you every 10 minutes or so.”

*Oh this is perfect* Dark thinks. *I can choose the easiest job and get paid for doing less work. It’s like free money!*

“I will take the cashier job.” That seems like the easiest task, just entering people's orders into the machine, rinse and repeat. The only downside is that he has to be polite, ugh. At the very least, being nice might convince the orb to give him some of his powers back.

The manager nods again and walks up to the deep-violet stick manning the register and tells him something Dark can’t quite make out. The younger stick raises an eyebrow at Dark but nods to the manager respectfully and goes to the back. *Probably to clean dishes* Dark internally sneers. He steps up to the register confidently and leans against the countertop. Afterwards, the manager shows him in more detail how to operate the digital register and what buttons to press. It is all simple enough for Dark so the manager leaves him to it, patting him on the shoulder (disgusting) and joining the deep-violet stick in the back.

Dark smiles, exuding confidence. This will be a piece of cake! Now he just has to wait for customers to show up and take their orders.

…

Just got to wait for the customers…

…

…

Just gotta wait…

…

…

…

Any minute now…

…

…

…

Is this it?

Darks expression darkens.

He looks around, getting a bit antsy from not even a minute of standing there doing nothing. The cashier task is just standing around waiting? He should be doing something, anything. Maybe he can fiddle with the register, take it apart and see how it works… he can probably modify it to run some simple video game software, maybe even steal-

His train of thought is interrupted by the tinkling of the door bell. A mother and her child have just entered the burger place, the little girl bouncing with excitement. From behind, Dark hears the door to the kitchen open and close. In his peripheral vision he can see the brown hue of his manager standing behind himself. He has an audience now; time to show off how good he is at being polite.

“Greetings and welcome to Wally’s Burger and Fries, what can I get for you this fine midday?” Dark asks theatrically, throwing his arms up at the menu above him.

The mother stares at Dark, a bit put off by his sudden performance, but her attention is pulled away by the child excitedly pulling on her arm.

“MAMA! Can I get a BIG burger? And BIG fries? And MILKSHAKE-!“

“Hush sweety, inside voices remember?” the mother reminds the girl sweetly.

The child stares up at their mother, eyes wide as she completely forgot about that rule. “Mama, can I get a big burger and big fries?” She tries again in a far more hushed tone. The mother nods as the little girl looks up at Dark with glimmering eyes, excited for her meal.

Yuck, children. They look cute and innocent but they are a complete mess and cause way too much trouble. How anyone can stand them is a complete mystery to Dark, and this one has the attention span of a goldfish. Oh joy.

“Sir?” The mother says to Dark, interrupting his thoughts. That seems to be happening an awful lot recently. Does no one have respect for The Dark Lord's time?

Dark forces himself to focus back on reality and pulls his face into a toothy smile.

“What would you like to order m-ma’am” Dark chokes on the politeness of ‘ma’am,’ although it could be mistaken for a nervous stutter.

“I’m sorry ma’am,” the manager interjects, walking up to Dark and putting a hand on his shoulder! *The audacity!*

“This is his first day on the job, and his first time at the register.”

Dark nearly shoots a glare at his boss before stopping himself, remembering that the man can fire him at any moment. He opts for a small, frustrated sigh instead. The manager smiles and nods in what should be an encouraging manner, but it only gets on Dark’s nerves more.

“Err… What would you like today ma’am?” He makes sure to enunciate ma’am so that the manager won’t jump in again. He can do this on his own, why does the manager think he needs to be coddled? And how dare he put a hand on him, Dark will make him pay for that. One day.

“Actually my daughter was going to try to order today, weren’t you honey?” The mother says. The little girl lights up with excitement and starts bouncing in place in a way *less intelligent* sticks would call adorable.

*Oh great, the goldfish is ordering* Dark thinks to himself. The thought doesn’t lighten his mood. It’s shocking, really.

The kid bounces up to the edge of the counter. “Can I have a burger?” She immediately asks.

Dark begrudgingly clicks the burger option and several different burgers show up.

Dark leans over the counter and scowls down at the child. “What type of burger, kid” he asks, grumpy that he has to listen to the orders of a *child.*

He can feel his boss glaring at his back but ignores it.

“Um…”’the kid’s bouncing slows to a stop as she stares up at Dark, looking intimated. She glances at her mother, who is staring at Dark with an annoyed and rather confused expression.

Dark rolls his eyes. “You get a cheese burger with ketchup, because that’s what kids always have.” Dark was just about to start punching in the order when his boss grabs Dark by the arm to stop him. Dark spins on the brownish stick and nearly clocks him on the head, barely resisting the urge to put him in his place.

Seeing the anger in Dark’s face, the manager turns to the mother. “Sorry ma’am, can you excuse us for a moment?”

The manager forces a smile then shouts for one of the other employees to take the register. As a green-yellow figure takes the post, the boss quickly drags Dark into the back. The second they are out of sight of the rest of the restaurant the manager turns to Dark with a frustrated and bewildered expression.

“What are you doing?!” He exclaims in a hushed tone. “I told you to be polite and that was the *opposite* of polite! Were you *trying* to be rude? Audibly sighing, rolling your eyes and speaking in that tone, especially at *children,* will turn customers away!” The manager is getting increasingly flustered with anger.

“Hey, I did my job didn’t I?” Dark retorts, trying to remain aloof. “I was getting their orders in, plus I was bored.”

“No! That’s not- Urgh…” the man groans and buries his face in the palms of his hands. He seems pretty upset but for the most part is trying to maintain his composure. After Dark’s boss takes a few deep breaths, he stands up tall and forces a smile. “I understand this is your first job Dark, so I’m not going to reprimand you in any non-verbal way. Now we know you aren’t fit for the register so let’s put you on dish duty for the rest of your shift, alright? That doesn’t require any social interaction, you aren’t very good at that- no offence.” He places a hand on Dark’s shoulder as the dark blue-and-black stick is left speechless. “Go wash some dishes” he says, then the manager leaves to presumably apologize to the mother.

The dark-blue-black stick is left standing in the kitchen, frozen in shock. The great and powerful Dark Lord just got sent to clean dishes. Like an idiot.

Dark’s blood begins to boil once more. He stomps off to the massive industrial sink and glowers at the mound of dirty dishes, trays, and silverware. All of them are filthy and need to be scrubbed clean. Dark’s fists tremble as he resists the urge to throw all of the dishes onto the ground. Maybe some of them would break or dent satisfyingly, but frustratingly he can’t do that because that would certainly get him fired. He can’t risk any more after *doing his job.*

Dark growls to vent some of his anger, grabbing the sponge inside of the sink and starts to aggressively scrub a burnt pan aggressively. He forgets the rubber gloves but doesn’t care, lost in his angry thoughts.

*Stupid children, stupid boss, stupid job… I deserve better than this, I’m the Dark Lord! King of evil, bringer of doom and destruction! I shouldn’t be cleaning dishes, I should be demanding respect and instilling terror on this city, not cleaning plates for lowly peasants!*

At this point all the baked on gunk has been completely scrubbed off, but Dark doesn’t notice and continues scrubbing, his angry thoughts blinding him to everything else.

“Stupid job, stupid orb-“ he unknowingly mutters out loud.

“Um, Dark?” Someone grabs his shoulder and Dark reflexively swings his fist at them-

But once again it is met with the wall of the white box instead.

“CURSES-!” Dark almost swears, feeling slightly dizzy from switching back into his old (and better) body. How can that blasted ball of light act so quickly?!

“Tisk tisk tisk. Didn’t I tell you no harming others?” The orb says with exaggerated disappointment.

Dark whirls on the orb and fixes it with a glare. “THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT! It’s my #%@$ reflex!”

“It’s still baaad!” The orb sings with a playful giggle. “And no swearing silly stick!”

“ARRRG” Dark lets out a frustrated, furious roar and punches the wall of the box again. The more he puts up with this situation the more infuriating and humiliating it gets! His sickly sweet boss, (was Wally his name?), a job he is severely overqualified for— *and* never asked for by the way— the stupid deal with the orb, the terrible apartment, and he doesn’t even have a computer!

Every fibre in Darks being is telling him to keep punching the wall but he knows he will only damage his fist that way. Instead, he decided to let out his anger by stomping around the room, shoving all his anger and rage into the floor with each step.

“Whatcha doin?” The orb asks in the most obnoxious way possible, reigniting his anger.

“I’m *trying* to calm down, which isn’t easy with the brightest, most annoying bird chirping in my ear every 10 seconds” Dark says through gritted teeth.

“Well, you aren’t doing a very good job of-“

“SHUT UP OR ELSE I WILL HURL YOU THROUGH A WALL!”

“But-“

“ZIP IT. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT.” Dark hisses.

The orb does as it is told and Dark goes back to stomping and pacing and occasionally shouting into the void. After several minutes of silence occasionally broken by Darks yelling, it does begin to help as Dark’s anger starts to subside. Eventually he is only panting as the exertion finally gets to him.

After a few moments of breathing, Dark closes his eyes and goes over the situation in his head again. It's just been getting worse and worse and *worse,* making Dark seem like a complete joke. Frankly at this point it would have been more dignified to stay dead.

...Well maybe not *completely* dignified, getting obliterated by a scrawny nerd after pretty definitively winning is *super* super embarrassing, but it's at least slightly *more* dignified than washing dishes. With this conclusion he opens his eyes and looks for the orb, but Dark doesn’t spot it.

“Hey! Floating lightbulb, where are you?” He shouts. The glowing orb pops into existence right in front of Dark’s face, making him stumble back in surprise.

The orb giggles merrily at its little prank. Dark only glowers at it as he gets up, waiting for the stupid ball to stop laughing.

“What’d you want?” The orb chirps after settling down.

“Take me back” the dark-blue stick demands.

“Not with that tone! You need to say the magic words!” The orb reminds him in a sing-song voice.

Dark grits his teeth. He was hoping the orb would forget the apology.

“Take me back NOW.” He responds.

“Nope! That’s not it!” The orb sings.

“Take me back or else…!”

“Noooo hehehe”

“Uh…” Dark desperately tries to think of a way around saying sorry. “*Please* take me back?”

“No, not that one!”

“… Abracadabra?”

At this the orb giggles with glee. “You really want a way outta this huh? But there isn’t a way! You look really funny when you think hehe!” Dark clenches his fists and grinds his teeth. After a couple of deep, frustrated breaths, he closes his eyes and mentally prepares himself for the intense humiliation.

“I’m sorry.” He states in a frustrated tone.

“Foorrr?” The orb hints.

“I’m sorry for almost hitting-“ the sounds of the kitchen come back “-you.”

Darks eyes snap open and he sees the deep violet stick staring back at him with a look of confusion at Darks apology.

“Thank you?” He responds awkwardly.

Dark silently curses the orb. He shouldn’t apologize to a lowly powerless stick, or *anyone* for that matter.

The deep violet stick clears his throat “uh, I just wanted to see if you were ok.” The stick asks in a monotone voice. “Also you forgot your gloves.”

Dark looks down at his hands, which are in fact gloveless. And covered in soap and food. Great.

“It’s alright. The lunch rush is going to be starting soon, and we need more fries.”

Dark just glares at the stick.

“Aaalright, whatever. I need to show you what to do anyway, so come if you want to keep the job.”

Dark grumbles and begrudgingly and starts washing off his hands. What a day. At least making fries should be easy. He follows the stick.

How hard could peeling potatoes be?

================

Thank you all so so much for the support! I’m so proud of how this story is coming out, and your support means so much to me. I genuinely can’t thank you enough.

Hopefully now the chapters should come out much quicker, so just hang tight!

Once again thanks to @thatonexman for co-writing!

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[the-lost-writer]

MINOR ANNOUNCEMENT!

We (me and @thatonexman ) are rebranding/renaming the Redemption Dark AU

Say hello to…

Black Ice - Redemption Dark AU

Please check part 4 out here

[the-lost-writer]

@ariel-seagull-wings @the-blue-fairie @thealmightyemprex

[the-lost-writer]

Freedom - Snippet

Welcome to Snippets!

These are small creative writing projects that I randomly come up with. Often they are just first drafts so there is probably many grammar mistakes and pacing inconsistencies.

This is my first snippet I have posted to tumblr, so please enjoy :D

“Time alone is time well spent” is what my father used to say, “helps clear the mind.”

Little did I know how useful this information would be to me in my adult years. I was painfully overworked, exhausted, and burnt out. I didn’t know what to do, and I was at my breaking point. I felt completely and utterly trapped.

Then those words drifted through my head like the calm eye of a hurricane. It gave me a little sense of clarity, but I knew I had to weather the other side of the storm first. For the first time in years, I slept peacefully.

The next few months I started working and saving with a purpose. I spent money frugally, ate instant noodles in rotating flavours, and only spent money on the bare essentials.

Soon enough, I was able to set my plan into motion. I sold my car, quit my job, bought a used but reliable truck and camping gear, and set out into the wilderness.

At first I stayed at free day sites, keeping my family and friends updated on my journey. Eventually I had to buy a solar charging battery, which I can tell you was worth every penny. After that, I worked odd jobs, where ever they would take me I would work. I worked fast food, a mom and pop bakery, and even as a farm hand once.

I finally felt like I was living, like I could rest and move or stay at my leisure, not bound by any one thing or place. And the peace and quiet of those nights in the forest, those were to die for. The crickets chirping, the owls hooting, and the coyotes howling lulled me into the best sleep of my life.”

“Is that why you live on the ranch Grandpa? So you can hear all the animals at night?” Little Susie asks.

Grandpa chuckles and ruffles his granddaughters hair. “Yes Susie, that’s why I live in the ranch.”

[the-lost-writer]

I’m working on some stick fish, this time some really special ones from subnautica!

Also on Redemption Dark, I am still working on it, but progress is slow, so thank you for all the patience!

[the-lost-writer]

“How’s your WIP going?”

"Have you made any progress?”

“How close are you to being done?”

[the-lost-writer]

I don’t know what to write, please give me a prompt and I’ll write something.

[the-lost-writer]

Working on redemption dark still! (link to story)

In the meantime here is a little sheepy character I drew

More on redemption dark:

The fifth chapter (yes the fifth not the fourth) is a long one so be excited for that!

I do make a slight backlog of chapters for my own mental peace, it makes me less stressed and allows me to feel free to work on other chapters at my leisure.

[the-lost-writer]

Redemption Dark AU

(Part 3)

Blurb

Stuck in a white box purgatory after his defeat by TSC, Dark sulks. He is the greatest, strongest, and most intelligent stick in the entire universe! And he is stuck here in this… well he isn’t quite sure where but he knows it cannot contain him forever, it’s just taking longer for him to escape without his powers.

One day (if you can even call it day) a glowing orb comes to him with an offer, an offer to get him out on one condition. Dark gladly takes the offer since he will be able to outsmart this being. After all, he is the most intelligent stick in the universe.

New Life

Despite conquering many cities, Dark has never actually been in a city before, at least civilly. Even if he had the desire to, sticks would have fled at the very sight of him! But now not even one stick takes a second glance at him. The city is also too noisy, the commotion and constant hustle and bustle of sticks is a far cry to the solitude in the bay (and box most recently) that he is used to. Kids playing, adults talking, cars honking, street vendors calling out, he just hopes that the apartment has a modicum of peace. He he spots a distracted yellow stick figure talking loudly on a phone with a briefcase in hand walking his direction. Dark instinctually tries shoulder checking the absent-minded stick to get him to stop blabbering-

Aaand he’s back in the box.

“What?! COME ON! SERIOUSLY?!” Dark exclaims in frustration, suddenly becoming lightheaded. Apparently switching bodies on the fly is very disorienting.

The orb cackles with glee. “No hurting other sticks! Not at all!”

Dark grumbles and huffs, shaking his head to clear it. “You are making this unbelievably difficult you stupid…” he grumbles more before he says something else he will have to apologize for.

The orb twinkles with delight at the sticks frustration. Dark watches, seething with hatred. “What if I accidentally bump into someone and they fall? What then?” Dark challenges the self proclaimed god out of frustration.

“Oh, hmm… well I guess that’s ok.” The orb replies.

The rules can change? A brilliant plan starts forming in Darks mind. Why not just manipulate this lightbulb of a god into changing the rules enough so that he can be free? Then no one can-

“So are you gonna apologize now Dark?” The orb interrupts his train of thought.

Dark glares at the orb and let’s out the most irritated sigh he can muster. “Yeah yeah, just put me back.” He takes a deep breath, ready to fight himself to get the words out.

“Sss-sssoorr… sorry. Ok let’s go-“

And he is standing where he was before, just about to run into the distracted yellow stick. He hurriedly dances around them and avoids the collision, the stick finally noticing and dodging as well.

“Woah! Watch where you are heading buddy! Are you ok?” The stick says, concerned for the disoriented Dark. Dark just glares at him and walks away, leaving the stick mightily confused.

Phew. Now where did that orb go? After a few moments of looking around he spots the glowing ball up ahead, rounding a bend and disappearing out of view.

“WAIT! HEY WAIT UP!” Dark calls as he runs after it.

=================

After many twists and turns, the orb halts in front of a pretty average looking apartment building. It looks slightly outdated with patches of different colour bricks randomly cobbled into it as if it has been renovated many times. The alleyways has barely enough room for a dumpster considering how crowded the buildings are here. It now makes sense how the orb was able to afford a room here. Thankfully this street is much quieter than the main road he was just on, giving Dark some relief.

The orb phases through the old wooden door, leading Dark inside. Dark follows after, turning the old metal door handle and swinging the door open. He is immediately hit with a wave of musky air; this place is full of dust and mothballs. Darks face scrunches up as he waves the dust away, coughing as he steps on the old and worn carpet beneath him.

“Name?” The gruff voice of the building doorman asks from the booth beside Dark.

“Um… I’m Dark” the confused stick says.

“Dark Blue” the orb corrects him.

“Dark Blue” he echos.

“Ah, I see. New resident. Fourth floor, here are your keys, room 404. Elevator is broken” the dusky purple stick speaks roboticly, having done this several times before. Dark takes the keys with a nod, uncertain for the first time in his whole life.

He follows the orb up the stairs and to the fourth floor, almost missing his door tucked away down a hall. He struggles with unlocking the door damned old lock. He eventually forces the stubborn door open and takes in his new home…

If you can call a closet a home. There is just enough room for a small bed and a desk, and one other door for a washroom. Nothing else. It’s cramped and cheep looking, and the tacky peeling wallpaper doesn’t help with that ascetic. The room looks like something a grandma would have found fashionable 50 years ago.

Dark starts fuming again. That orb thinks it’s so funny putting THE Dark Lord into this microscopic apartment! The only good thing is the relative silence of the street! Dark will relish that fluorescent bulb’s death… as soon as he can figure out how to kill it, but that’s all in due time.

He takes a breath coughing up more dust and forces the door closed with his shoulder, locking it behind him.

“So how do yah like it? I think it’s good for the price I got it for!” Did you buy it for the price of pocket lint? Dark thinks sarcastically. “And you can pay the rent with the new job!” The orb squeaks cheerfully.

The angry stick lets out an exasperated sigh. Right, the job.

“What job is it?” Dark grumbles, no longer trusting the orbs judgment at what is ‘good’ or not.

“You’ll be working at a fast food place!”

Fast food? Not a very classy job, and definitely not fit for The Dark Lord. At least he should get some free meals, and besides how hard can cooking sloppy meals be? If some dweebs and losers can do it an ex-conquer (soon to resume) should be able to do it easily. Dark starts poking around the room as the orb talks.

“It’s a beginners level job so you aren’t making a whole lot of money, but you are making enough to save up for something that you want! Isn’t that awesome?”

Dark only nods, half listening. Then he realizes something extremely important is missing from the room. “So where is the computer?” Dark asks through gritted teeth, already knowing the answer.

“Computer? Oooh! Oh yeah, woopsie-doopsie!” Dark chokes slightly. “I forgot to say that apartments don’t come with computers, you are gonna have to buy that yourself!” The orb is obnoxiously cheerful about this. Meanwhile Dark is once again giving it a withering look. He has to figure out how to kill this orb as soon as possible, he doesn’t know how much more of this torment he can take.

“OOO OOO! What if you saved up money to buy a computer? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” The orb trills at this idea.

“Well I guess that’s what I will have to do now thanks to you” Dark growls.

The money he could have used to start buying tools and start making more vira bots- new and improved of course- will have to go to buying a computer so Dark can start coding. He lets out another exasperated sigh before pausing. A thought drifts through his mind; Will I have to be good to get enough money to buy a computer? The thought seems practically nonsensical.

Him? Good? He wouldn’t allow it! It’s simply inconceivable that he could even conceptualize the smallest ideation of him being good! So why should he-

“-Earth to Darkie? Are you theeere?” The orb sings.

Dark snaps out of his thoughts and instinctively takes a swing at the orb for daring to use that nickname. He immediately gets sent to the box but he is too furious to care.

“NEVER CALL ME DARKIE!” He thunders.

“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!? You keep going ON and ON about how WONDERFUL this whole situation is, how it's just oh so lovely how you've locked me in a crappy apartment too small for a rat, with a minimum wage job and NO computer. Well sparky, this might sound crazy to you, but MAYBE THAT'S NOT SO WONDERFUL AFTER ALL!! YOU MUST HAVE BEEN BLINDFOLDED SEARCHING FOR APARTMENTS BECAUSE THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST OPTION YOU COULD HAVE CHOSEN FOR THE DARK LORD!!”

Dark pants heavily after his tirade, the anger still ringing in his ears.

As his rage fades, he notices that the box is awfully quiet. There isn’t another sound at all, and that sentient lightbulb is nowhere to be seen. Did he hurt the orbs feelings? Well good, it can be as sensitive as it wants. He certainly doesn’t care.

As what feels like minutes tick by, the silence makes itself more known. Every moment that nothing happens Dark gets more and more frustrated.

*That stupid orb sure is dramatic isn’t it?* Dark thinks to himself.

“Oh I’m sorry, did I hurt your feelings?” Dark spits sarcastically, partly to fill the silence. “Would you like an apology with a side of sorry?”

The glowing orb flickers into being in front of him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called you that name again. You don’t have to apologize but I thank you that you did.”

Yeah I bet you are sorry. You should’ve known better than to anger The Dark Lord. And I didn’t even apologize you dim lightbulb, I made a sarcastic remark! Does that mean I don’t have to be sincere…? Dark grins wolfishly. There isn’t many pieces to the plan yet, but it is coming together. To make sure he is understanding the orb correctly he tests his theory. “Why do you think I said sorry?”

“Because the words came out of your mouth, you said sorry” the orb sounds confused.

Perfect. He just has to say sorry, even sarcastically, and it will count.

“Alright, now take me bac-“ before he is even finished the word he is standing in the exact same place as before. Dark takes a deep breath, inhaling the dust and coughing once more.

“I’m going to have to deep clean this place” he grumbles.

“Okay! But maybe later, it’s almost time to go to work now!”

“What?! Work starts today!?” Dark isn’t ready for this! He barely explored the city and found his apartment, now he has to do his job today?

“Mhm!” The orb answers happily. “In… ten minutes! Better start walking!”

“TEN WHAT!?” Dark stumbles back and nearly trips on the corner of his bed. In a flash he grabs his key and races towards the door. He has to get there RIGHT NOW if he has any hope of being able to buy a computer. Dark starts fighting to open the door again.

“What cha doin’?” The orb floats above his head unhelpfully.

“I’m leaving to go to work right now” he growls back as the door creaks open. He kicks it closed and locks it behind himself.

“Why?”

“Because if I get lost there will be enough time for me to find my way back!” Dark shouts while racing down the stairs.

“Oooh, smart!” The orb starts leading the way out of the door and into Darks new job. As Dark races after the orb he thinks about his plan; stall long enough to get his powers back, then manipulate the orb into giving him control or (preferably) killing it. If this is what he has to do to become all-powerful again. then so be it. It is only temporary anyhow.

Besides, how hard can flipping burgers really be?

=================

Thank you all so much for your support! It’s really motivating to see how much you all like it. As a surprise, here is what Redemption Dark’s new body looks like!

Thank you to my editor and co-writer @thatonexman for helping me write these chapters! More on the way soon!

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[the-lost-writer]

Two more stick fish! This time they are a red rock crab and a blob fish! The reference I used for the blob fish had spots so I added them!

I couldn’t figure out what to do for the head of the crab so I made a little crest for it. I’m very proud of how the speckling turned out.

[the-lost-writer]

More stick fish!!! A red and white shrimp and a damselfish (Acanthochromis)

Edit: I just realized I forgot the damselfishes ear fins, I’ll fix that later.

[the-lost-writer]

After a hiatus here are two more stick fish, a narwhal and a red betta fish!

[the-lost-writer]

Redemption Dark AU

(Part 2)

Sorry if this isn’t that good, this is my first AU for AB

Blurb

Stuck in a white box purgatory after his defeat by TSC, Dark sulks. He is the greatest, strongest, and most intelligent stick in the entire universe! And he is stuck here in this… well he isn’t quite sure where but he knows it cannot contain him forever, it’s just taking longer for him to escape without his powers.

One day (if you can even call it day) a glowing orb comes to him with an offer, an offer to get him out on one condition. Dark gladly takes the offer since he will be able to outsmart this being. After all, he is the most intelligent stick in the universe.

Apologies

Dark awakens with his face down in the mud. His head is throbbing and moving requires a Herculean effort. It feels like his brain has been liquified and is sloshing around in his skull. He winces as he stands up, holding his forehead.

*Ow my frickin’ head, what happened?* His memory gradually returns; He remembered being in the white box, trying to escape, then there was the irritating glowing nuisance-

Right, now he remembers. His lips curl in an evil grin. He’s free, and now that orb can’t stop h-

“HIYA!” The orb materializes in front of his face.

Dark flinches, not out of surprise of course, but because of the disgusting language the orb uses.

He folds his arms, puffs out his chest and fixes the orb with a glare.

“Do yah like your new body? I put a bit of flare on it, I hope that’s ok!”

*New body?* Dark looks down at himself and almost throws up. Every trace of his fabulous bright red hue has been replaced with a dark desaturated blue and the ends of the limbs fade to black. Surrounding his body is a white outline! White! Not at spec of his beautiful evil red anywhere!

“My body! What have you done to my body?!” Dark touches his face frantically. His face has been disfigured as well; where his circular hollow head used to be has been replaced be a generic head. He has been transformed beyond recognition, he is now just a *normal stick figure.* Darks blood starts boiling as he turns to the orb.

“Your name is Darkie right? So I made you dark!” The orb says in its typical gleeful voice.

“You… you ruined my beautiful body! And my face! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FACE!?!” Dark lunges at the orb and throws a punch-

And he connects with the wall of the box.

“!#@%.” He swears as he shakes out his fist.

The orb is giggling hysterically.

“Now you have to apologize” it laughs.

Dark looks at the orb with a withering glare. He doesn’t like this anymore. He feels like a plaything to this seemingly omnipotent being. At the very least in the box he is back to his normal self.

“Come on Darkie-“

“MY NAME IS NOT DARKIE” he shouts in fury. “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I AM THE DARK LORD AND YOU WILL SHOW ME SOME RESPECT! NOW RELEASE ME FROM THIS INFERNAL PRISON DAMN IT!!”

The orb is silent for some time.

After a few minutes Dark starts sulking. The puny god — if they are even a god — can’t take a simple command? Anyone would jump at the chance to serve him out of fear alone. That insufferable ball of light, it left him here after it promised him freedom! Now he has to live without his looks *and* powers. That double crossing-

“If I apologize will you apologize?” The orbs voice suddenly interjects from behind Dark.

Dark jumps up in surprise, almost throwing another punch.

“What? Why? What do I have to apologize for?”

“For trynna punch me of course.” The orb giggles.

“Fine. After this you will put me back right?” Dark huffs. He can’t believe he‘s agreeing to this.

“Abso-toot-ly!” *Barf.*

An idea forms in Dark’s head. “Does this count as a ‘good act’?” He asks smugly.

“No silly! Apologizing is just a normal thing to do” the orb teases him in a sing-song voice. His smugness is replaced with annoyance. The Dark Lord shouldn’t have to apologize for anything!

The orb inhales and speaks in a sad voice “I’m sorry for calling you Darkie.”

*I’m really going to have to do this, aren’t I?*

Dark tries to muster up all the fake kindness he can, taking an excessive amount of time to clear his throat. Finally he forces a smile and spits out what he can. “S-s-sore- sorrrre- suuhh-“ Dark grumbles some people obscenities and tries again. “Ssssoooorrrr… ARG, this is STUPID! Why is THE DARK LORD apologizing to a TALKING ORB?!”

“So you can be free from this place and get your powers back!” The orb chirps ‘helpfully.’

Dark grinds his teeth in an attempt not to punch the voice into next Sunday and tries again.

“Ssss- sssorr,” the orb is giggling at Darks struggle, “sorr… SORRY? SORRY! Ok I said it! Now put me back.” Dark finally spits out, ashamed that he has to do this.

The orb is pleased. “Yay! You did it! That wasn’t so hard now was it?”

Dark clenches his jaw but before Dark can retort he finds himself standing back in the forest. His head aches again but it’s not as severe now, so he is actually able to fully process his new body. He looks down at himself and only feels like gagging a little this time. He is gaunt, weak perhaps, and a little bit taller. Dark liked his old body, it was perfect; proper hight, the correct shade of evil red that made it perfectly intimidating. How is he supposed to intimidate anyone looking like a scrawny nobody?!

“I gotcha an apartment and a job as well!” the glowing light says, “So you can start living a normal life!”

What? A normal life?! The Dark Lord doesn’t live a normal life! He lives in his ominous fortress and crushes anyone that dares to oppose him! Not living in an apartment with noisy neighbour’s, and serving under someone else at a job no less! What kind of Dark Lord would he be if he lived a life like that?!

“What if I want to live in the woods?” Dark challenges in an attempt to foil the orb’s plan.

The orb just laughs. “That’s silly! You can’t live like that!”

Dark has to admit that was true, it would be even more humiliating for The Dark Lord to be living homeless, scrounging around like some sort of animal. If he had his powers back he could easily build an isolated cabin fit for his needs, but nooo he must do a good deed (ew) to be able to earn them back. He shouldn’t have to earn them back, they are HIS powers! They rightfully-

“You make a funny face when you think” the orb gleefully observes.

“What? N-no I-!” Dark splutters, shooting eye-daggers at the orb.

It just chuckles before exclaiming “Now let me show you your apartment!”

“Wait, hold on. How did you even get an apartment?” In retrospect this probably should’ve been his first question.

“Well I used your voice of course! It had to be a small apartment but I think it will work” the orb chirps and zips around his head.

“Lets-a-go!” It shoots off in the approximate direction of the city, leaving the desaturated blue stick standing in the middle of the forest.

Dark is completely stunned at what just happened. He… he died a horrible death what felt like a day ago, made a deal with a god to bring him back to life, and now he has to be a *good guy* to regain his powers and get back on track with world domination?

Dark growls. He has no powers, no technology to tinker with, no evil sidekick to do his bidding, this couldn’t end well, not at all. The orb, whatever it’s name might be, is just tormenting him for its own enjoyment, this cruel torture was going to be the end of him…

“Relax” Dark tells himself. “Its only for a little while.

He takes a deep breath before looking into the trees. He just has to bide his time, figure out how to outwit that glowing idiot, and maybe get some of his powers back in the meantime. Heck, if he gets enough of his powers back he might be able to outright kill the god. That seems like a good plan. Simple, not much can go wrong.

Hopefully.

Dark sighs sadly, thinking of all those glorious days filled with chaos and anarchy. With hope of world domination at the forefront of his mind, the rail thin stick figure follows after his guiding light.

Thanks for reading part 2 of this AU! The amount of likes I got on the last one encouraged me to post this part although I was pretty unsure about posting to tumblr. Thank you everyone!

And a special thanks to @thatonexman for being my co-writer and editor!

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[the-lost-writer]

Redemption Dark AU

This is my first ever AU for AB so sorry if it isn’t the best.

(Part 1)

Blurb

Stuck in a white box purgatory after his defeat by TSC, Dark sulks. He is the greatest, strongest, and most intelligent stick in the entire universe! And he is stuck here in this… well he isn’t quite sure where but he knows it cannot contain him forever, it’s just taking longer for him to escape without his powers.

One day (if you can even call it day) a glowing orb comes to him with an offer, an offer to get him out on one condition. Dark gladly takes the offer since he will be able to outsmart this being. After all, he is the most intelligent stick in the universe.

A Deal

Dark is laying on the floor, his breath ragged from excursion. Once again he tried punching out of this infernal white prison, and once again he didn’t leave a mark.

How could he, the great, all powerful, and handsome Dark Lord be contained by such a pathetic white wall?! It was utterly infuriating, not to mention humiliating.

He used to break every obstacle, ever barrier, every stick, that dared to get in the way of his complete domination with his buddy, The Chosen One. *But nooo, apparently doing that wasn’t fun anymore. TCO became my obstacle, and he forced me to fight him! The gal! I was totally winning too before that orange idiot kid…*

Dark shivers. He doesn’t like remembering the pain of that moment. He refocuses his anger on the wall, using it to muster the strength to stand up. He has to get out, he has to… to… what? What would he do? Everything is destroyed, he would have to start from scratch. It would take years. He doesn’t even have his powers anymore.

That reminder makes him incensed. His powers, his glorious powers, all gone. The rage starts boiling, and he lets it out.

“SOMEONE LET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE!!!” He roars into the void furiously.

“I can get you out!” A voice, annoyingly cheerful, squeaks.

Dark spins around with a punch but his fist only met the wall. His hand flairs up with pain yet he still looks for the voice.

It giggles behind him and he turns, growling “who goes there?”

“Well you can think of me a god” the flutey voice says from in front of him, emanating from a small orb of light.

“And you can get me out?” Dark asks suspiciously. If what it says is true then it’s worth a shot.

“Yep-a-doodle!” The voice says. The phrase makes Dark nauseous, it’s so cutesy it’s physically disgusting.

“Alright, then get me out” he demands, putting on his scary voice.

“I am The Dark Lord, conqueror of the inner and outernet, destroyer of family’s and cities. Unless you want a grizzly fate to befall you I suggest you release me immediately” he announces.

The orb laughs uproariously at this. “You and what powers? Yes Darkie,” if there was anything in his stomach he would have thrown up, “I know you lost your powers, but even then, I am a god. I cannot be killed. But I can let you out on one teeny-tiny condition.”

“What is it?”

“You can’t do anything bad or evil.”

Not being evil? At all? Well that’s just not possible, but no matter, being free is being free.

“That’s it?” Dark fully has no intention of complying to these rules. He can easilyoutwit this puny god.

“Yes, you have to be good or else you will be sent back here until you apologize. And to sweeten the deal when you go out of your way to do a good deed I’ll give you powers-“

“Deal.” Dark interrupts the god. This will be easy, he just has to preform some charitable act (yuck) or something along those lines and then he can kill this god with his regained powers.

“Alright then, let’s go!”

Dark steps forward to shake the orbs “hand” but suddenly feels really dizzy. The world around him tilts and starts to fade. He is out before his head touches the ground.

Thank you for reading! If anyone is interested please leave it in the notes and I might continue!

Edit: I have continued it! Tysm for all the support. The next part is here:

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