#suited shadow

Striding along the hall, elegant, poised, collected, and holding back his rage. The sound of an ear-piercing ring intensifies with every footstep the demon takes. Any egos present within a 12 meter radius of him immediately scramble away for their lives, not wanting to be the next target of his wrath.

"Oh Dark! There you are, old friend! I was just about to go looking for you! What brings you by?" The eccentric spins a pen between his fingers, watching Dark take a seat at the desk in front of him, both the seat and part of the desk turning grey in the process.

"We need to put out want ads for a new studio assistant. Our current one had...an unfortunate incident." He explained with a sigh, a small cloud of frigid breath escaping from his lips.

"Darky, buddy, pal, I think you need to uh-" The temperature in the office quickly drops as a thin layer of ice starts to form around Dark's chair.

"Give yourself a day off! You need a well-deserved break after.. bossing people around all the time!" Dark stares at Wilford with an unreadable expression for a moment, before humming in approval.

"I suppose you're right. I'll take a day or 2 off. I trust you know how to run the studio, and that you will hire the best person for the job?" Dark asks, folding his hands on his lap as he awaits Wilfords response.

"Of course, of course! Go relax, I can handle everything!" Wilford waves his hand around, assuring Dark.

"Don't let Trimmer do the interview by the way."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Urgent: Notice of Termination" 

You groaned, not even bothering to open the email before you slammed down the lid of your laptop. This was the 4th time you'd been fired or laid off from a job. You were starting to feel hopeless, and you didn't even have enough money to pay your rent for the next month. Great, first you get fired, and then you're going to get evicted. 

Just wonderful.. You sigh and place your laptop back into your backpack, standing up to leave and maybe grab a coffee, your bus wouldn't be here until 11:45, and the current time was..11:43?!

You hurriedly made your way out of the shop. There were only 2 minutes to catch this bus, and the next one wouldn't be here for another hour. And then suddenly

CRASH

You fell onto the ground with multiple papers scattered all around the sidewalk.

"O-Oh god, I'm so sorry!" A boy stuttered, quickly picking up the scattered papers.

“Oh, uhm, It’s alright.” You mutter silently, helping him pick up the papers he’d dropped. You look to the side and frown, seeing your bus drive away. 

“I’m sorry again, um, bye!” He quickly walked away, dropping one of the papers in front of you. You pick up the flyer and turn it around, curious about its contents. 

“Now hiring! Assistant for Iplier Studios!”

Well, it couldn’t hurt to apply, right? There didn’t seem to be any complicated prerequisites. The second bus wouldn’t be here for another hour, so you should probably get some food. 

About an hour later, you exit the coffee shop once more, feeling a bit less put down with a drink in your hand. Unfortunately, you failed to notice your surroundings and ended up tripping while walking out of the door, your coffee spilling onto the person in front of you. 

“Please watch where you are walking next ti-” The man in the suit starts before his gaze lands onto your face. 

CRACK! 

The thunder outside your home roared loudly as you giggled, sat on the ground with your friend. “Okay, truth or dare?” You ask, grinning ear to ear while your friend thought up a response 

“Aren’t we a little old for truth or dare?” He responds, turning his head to glance at the raging storm outside. You groan. “Just pick, This is the first day off both of us have had in months and I’m trying to make the most of it, so make. a .choice” 

Your friend turns back to you, staying silent for a few more minutes before making his decision

“I pick..dare.” A mischievous grin takes over your features and your friend looks a bit unsure of his choice now. 

“I dare you to..take a walk through that creepy forest nearby!!” He raises an eyebrow at your suggestion

“The one where people go in and don’t return? The one that's off limits and could get us in serious legal trouble?” He asks wearily, slowly scooching further away from you 

“Thats just an urban legend made to scare kids, but if you don’t wanna, you can back out.” You shrug, but your grin falls when you notice how uncomfortable he seems

“Okay, go as far as you can for about say.. 15 minutes, and then come back here. Sound fine?” You offer, reaching your hand out for him to shake.

He nods, shaking your hand without another word. 

By the time you’d gotten to the edge of the forest it had stopped raining, the ground was wet with various worms and insects crawling out from the ground, making you recoil when a spider just barely grazes by your shoe. 

You look towards the trees ensnared by a thick fog, seeing through it near impossible. You look towards your friend, who shivers a bit once he sees the fog 

“Okay, ready? I’m about to start the timer.” He nods, stepping towards the brink of the fog. 

With a deep and shaky breath, he walks into the woods. 

“Good luck!!” You call out teasingly, starting the timer. 

15 minutes pass, you seem to have lost sight of your friend.. Maybe he’s just coming back slowly? You should wait just a bit longer.. 

Another 15 minutes pass, still no sign of him. 

Had he gotten lost?

It was starting to get quite dark out..

Should you contact the authorities?

No, both of you would probably get in trouble.. 

The police department had recently put a curfew into effect, and despite not having a watch, you were sure it was past it. 

"Nope, nope, aaaaanddd nope!" Wilford pushes a stack of applications off his desk and huffs, tapping his pen against his chin. "None of the applicants so far have what we're looking for. And something about that last one felt ever so slightly..ah, how do I put it? mm..condsecending."

"Why not contact Mr. Darkiplier? He's quite effective with hiring new applicants." Google questions, silently knocking most of the remaining applications and Wilfords calendar off of the desk into the shredder bin.

"It's his day off, I rather not inconvenience him with this. It's been way too long since he took a break, and interrupting it would simply anger him further. I don't think that's something you want to see-" He’s suddenly interrupted by a buzzing noise from his office phone.

“Mr. Warfstache, you have another interviewee for the job. Should I send them up?”  Wilford quickly adjusted his bowtie and cleared his throat. “Oh, yes, thank you, Lee.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The android at the front desk presses a button on himself before turning to face you. “Mr. Warfstache will be doing your interview today as the boss is fortunately not in at the moment.” You shot him a confused look. “Don’t you mean unfortunately?” He stared at you with a deadpan expression. “Mr. Warfstache's office is the last door on the right near the end of the hallway on the top floor. It’s hot pink, you won’t be able to miss it.” He just completely avoided your question. Great..You thank him and head towards the elevator, shuddering as you hear his mechanical head turning to watch you leave. 

The hallway itself was long, with several doors all labeled strange things like ‘Explosives’ ‘Badgers’ ‘Bubbles’.. hopefully the first 2 were just special effects the studio uses and this was a real job posting.

You continued down the hallway, eventually reaching Mr Warfstache's office. You hesitate before you knock, a pit starting to form in your stomach. Was this the right choice? You’d barely read the job description before you decided to apply; What if the pay was abysmal? What if the workload was too much? When you worked your last job you had little to no free time.

You look back to the elevator at the beginning of the hallway, then back at the vibrant door in front of you. It wasn’t too late to turn back and look for another job.. But then again, you’d have just wasted about 10 minutes of your life chickening out when you were already desperate. Taking a deep breath and calming your nerves you knock on the door and wait for another 10 minutes, only for nobody to answer.

You’re likely going to be waiting for a while, so exploring the hallway further might be a good idea to kill time. You look towards the door at the very end of the hall, something about it felt strange.. Without another thought, you stride towards the door and reach towards the doorknob, an unnaturally cold breeze fluttering past. Just as you go to twist the knob, a hand suddenly grabbed your wrist, yanking it away from the door 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” You’re turned around to face a man with rainbow overalls and a pink mustache. “I’m guessing you’re my last interviewee for the day? Well if you are then there’s no time to waste!” The man who you assume is the one the robo-receptionist called ‘Mr Warfstache’ says as he drags you into his office, but your gaze on the other office remains unwavering till you sat down. “Sorry, what was your name again?? Oh whatever, I’ll probably remember later..” He mumbles the last part under his breath before clearing his throat, looking around absentmindedly.

The interview itself lasted a good twenty minutes, not particularly stressful, but Mr Warfstache did ask you some strange questions like if you were good at putting out fires, separating fights, and something about fighting shadowy ice tendrils??

You felt pretty confident that you had done well, but you still needed a response from the man himself. 

“Well, after everything you’ve answered so far..” The sound of footsteps in the hallway startles him and he shoots you a nervous smile. “You’re hired!!” He announced, shaking your hand just as the of his office opened “Ohh Dark! You’re back! Have you met our new studio assistant?”