Silya Beeodess

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.

Why was he like this though?! Dexter always seemed like the type to consider anything that wasn't an academic pursuit a waste of time. It took weeks before he even remotely loosened up around her and the other research participants—and only because they had roped him into their fun against his will. Now? It was as though he'd been possessed by the ghost of Jungle Jim! 

"Is there some kind of chemical spill in here that we need to worry about?" Amit questioned almost at the same moment a similar idea entered Silya's mind. He followed after her. "Did he breathe in some weird fumes?"

Computress was quick to put both of their imaginations to rest. She met them at the top of the ladder and shook her head. "Please remain calm. Physically, Dexter is fine. This is merely a stress response." 

In contrast to her steady voice, the entire catwalk rattled as Dexter swung himself over to another support railing, making chimp noises as he fled from his subordinates. 

Silya was stressed just from watching him. While their employer might not have been the stereotypical geek incapable of doing a single push-up, he wasn't a top-tier athlete either. If they didn't find a way to settle him down, there was a good chance he could hurt himself.

"How much stress do you gotta be under to turn into that?" Amit pressed further, "It's like his brain's completely shut off!" 

The young woman scrambled to come up with any ideas. After half a minute, she turned to her Eduardo nano, "Beni, Papas Fritas! Quick!"

"How are french fries supposed to help?"

"We have to try something!"

They didn't have any of the imaginary food on hand. It would take a little time for Beni to make them. He flew off into an isolated corner to get started while the two research participants rushed over to help pull Dexter to safety. Dexter jumped before either of them could climb around the railing to grab him, somehow landing in a roll atop one of the assembly's conveyer belts and riding it until he reached an automated lift.

There was a tablet lying on a nearby command panel. As he picked it up, his voice pitched in a similar, forebodingly sing-song manner as his sister's, "Ooo~! What does this button do~?"

It disengaged the lock mechanism on a crane holding up a tank barrel. A Dexbot standing beneath it whirled out of the way as it fell to the ground with a booming clang. Even though he was cause of it, the noise seemed to startle Dexter like a wild animal. He bounced off the lift and began to tumble across the assembly lines.  

Amit and Silya climbed over the railing to pursue him. As they landed on the moving platforms, Amit spun at the hip to yell at the others, "Turn off the belts!"

They fought to catch themselves as everything jerked to a sudden halt. Halfway across the large room, Dexter lost his own balance. He fumbled for a moment before giving in to gravity, hurling his body toward a metal chain. He grabbed it mid-fall and resumed swinging around like a simian once more. 

One of the scientists hurriedly took control of the crank the chain was connected to. He tried to carefully lower it toward the floor while Amit and Silya closed in. They were just over three meters away from Dexter when he abruptly took off again, this time heading straight for the open vent that the research participants had entered from.    

Silya grimaced. If they lost him in the vent system, there was no telling where in Dexlabs he'd end up or how much trouble he'd cause. Worse, there was no way that Dexter would ever live it down if his addle minded outburst became public news. She could practically see the headlines already: Fusion Fighter or Fool? Army's Leader Makes a Monkey Out of Himself.

Amit dove past her, charging at their boss at full speed with a loud shout. He football tackled him from behind, dropping Dexter to the floor right before he could escape. Those nearby ran over to help Amit keep him down. 

Silya made it over almost at the same time that Beni did. He'd bundled the fries in a crumbled piece of paper. Dexter was still acting wild, making the nanos too nervous to approach. Silya grabbed a couple of the fries and quickly shoved them path her boss' teeth.

Dexter briefly froze. It seemed to take him a few seconds to register the taste before he erupted into motion again, reaching for the rest. Beni dropped the fries in the inventors' lap and he immediately started shoveling them down.

One of the scientists jogged away for a moment only to return with a can of herbal tea. He passed it over to their employer to give him something to wash the fries down with. The group was relieved to see Dexter slowly relax at he ate, unable to believe that the snack really worked. 

When Amit gave her a questioning look, Silya could only shrug in answer. Brainfood...

By the time some awareness finally came back to Dexter's eyes, Computress had fetched his sweater and lab coat. He was so embarrassed by what had happened that his face turned almost as red as his hair. The group gave him another few minutes to compose himself, the Dexbots and scientists gradually returning to their tasks while Silya and Amit remained by his side. Dexter wouldn't look at either of them, hiding his face with one hand and clutching the can of tea in the other.

Amit sat on the floor beside him. He took a deep breath, averting his gaze as he debated what to say. He was about to show off his nanocomm—likely to tease Dexter about the photo he took earlier—when Silya motioned for him not to with a swiping gesture at her throat.

Revealing that he had evidence would probably just make things worse... 

Amit relented, but still said, "You know, you really owe us an explanation after giving everyone the runaround."

Dexter just shot him a look.

"Since the time travel incident, Dexter has experienced fatigue, frequent headaches, increased irritability, and muscle tension." Finishing her announcement that the lockdown was now lifted, Computress hovered over to their side. Her creator opened his mouth to protest, but she continued, "Symptoms elevated upon Fuse's invasion, then temporarily lowered following the jumpstart of the Nano Project. I believe spending so much time on his recent experiments with the Spinal-ARCH is what elevated them again. I have warned him about the necessity of rest. My advice was ignored."

"Computress!" Dexter turned even redder in the face than before, if that was even possible.

Sitting on the opposite side from Amit, Silya cupped her chin as she rested her elbow against her knee. Well, it made sense. There was no telling how much hot water Dexlabs had been in following their disappearances, and then Dexter was made the key figure for the war effort. And for all of the Nano Project's success, there was still a lot to manage. If the work didn't stress Dexter out, the heavy expectations everyone probably did.

"Come on, Poindexter..." Amit smirked, lightly hitting him in the arm, "I mean, that's the kind of thing us labrats are here for, right? To help you work out all of the kinks before launch day."

Silya felt Beni sit down on her shoulder. By the time she turned her gaze back to Dexter, she nearly missed the searching look in his eyes that he tried to hide. She gave him a reassuring grin of her own, nodding to Amit's words.

"I mean, I'll take my check either way, but you might as well let us do our jobs."

If Dexter caught the joke, he didn't laugh. Nevertheless, after a moment's hesitation, he nodded back.    

END OF TRANSMISSION

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.