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“Wilford, do my makeup,” Dark commanded suddenly as she entered the room without warning, staring intently at the pink ego.
Wilford perked up from his seat, a smile crossing his face. “Sure! My room or yours?”
“My room.” Dark rolled her eyes. “I’m never going back in your room since the last time.”
“Oh come on, it was an accident, I swear! I didn’t mean for-”
Dark held her hand up, stopping him. “We’re not getting into this again, Wil. Just do my eyeliner.”
“Alright,” Wilford said, quickly running towards Dark’s room, not even bothering to wait for her to catch up before he pulled out her makeup kit. It was filled to the brim with all different types of makeup instruments, mostly in the color black. There were a few outliers, but he’d never seen them used before and probably never would.
He had finished his once over of the kit when Dark came up behind him, sitting a chair placed next to a mirror.
“What do you want me to do this time, Darkie?”
“Just the usual,” she replied.
“Aw, nothing special? Come on, it’s the first time you’ve been female with the Jack egos around! Don’t you wanna make a good first female impression?”
Dark levelled him with an unimpressed stare. “I’m not doing anything special for those pathetic egos.”
Wilford shrugged, picking up the regular black eyeliner. He began to steadily outline the tops of her lids, adding a slight wing off the side. He then picked up some eyeshadow, lightly applying it. It was a brown color instead of a black, as Wilford knew too much black would just look tacky. He’d had to pester her about that many times in the past before she finally conceded. He quickly added some light mascara to finish it off before asking, “Any blush this time?”
“No.”
“Aw, come on Darkie. You never let me use the blush,” he whined. “Come on, if you put it on, I’ll put some on myself.” Wilford nudged her.
Dark rolled her eyes, letting out a sigh. “Fine. Just don’t go overboard on my cheeks.”
“Got it!”
Wilford quickly applied a light coat to her cheekbones, then roughly shoved the brush into the remaining blush, making sure it was thoroughly coated, and liberally applied it to his own face.
Dark deadpanned. “I thought I said don’t go overboard.”
“You only said not to go overboard on yourself.” Wilford winked, pointing at her with the thoroughly pink brush, little flecks of powder dropping to the floor.
She rolled her eyes, but Will could see the hint of an exasperated smile on her face.
She stood up, looking herself over in the mirror quickly before nodding and walking over to her closet, pulling it open and looking over what was inside. She contemplated for a few seconds, then pushed aside the collection suits that resided in there, revealing the collection of black feminine clothes hidden in the corner.
Wilford gasped. “Are you going to wear a dress today?!”
“Yes,” she replied succinctly, not bothering to look back and see Wilford almost jumping with joy.
She pulled out a simple long maxi dress with long sleeves, examining it for a few seconds before nodding.
“Get out of my room, Wilford.”
“What, why?” He whined.
“I’m not getting dressed while you’re in here. Go. I’ll be out in a bit.”
Wilford nodded, heading towards the door, but paused as his hand grasped the knob.
“Dark… Are you just gonna let the Jack egos figure it out on their own, or will you tell them?” His voice was twinged with worry.
Dark was silent for a few seconds, before saying stiffly, “I don’t have to explain myself to them.”
Wilford nodded. “Alright. If they’re rude in any way, tell me and I’ll stab ‘em.”
“You don’t have to do that, Wilford. I can deal with it myself. You’ve already done enough for me.” In any other tone of voice that would have sounded rude, but Dark truly meant it with all the sincerity she could muster.
“Okay. I’ll be in the foyer with everyone if you need me,” he said before slipping out.
Dark let out a sigh, walking to the door and locking it just so he couldn’t pop back in- although with the teleporting that didn’t mean much. She pulled off her top, fingers brushing over the bullet wound above her left breast. It was just as fresh as the day Wilford had made it. There wasn’t any way in hell she’d let him know it was still there. She pulled the dress over herself quickly, covering the scar up as fast as she could. She had enough to worry about without dwelling on that.
The dress fit snugly, accentuating her curves and hiding some of the more masculine features she possessed. She didn’t get too much dysphoria from her appearance, it was mostly just the pronouns that people used that really irked her, but it was still nice to look more feminine. It just felt familiar on these days.
She did one last check in the mirror, making sure she hadn’t smudged her makeup at all, then walked out of her room, following the path to the foyer. She strolled in, taking count of everyone that was in the room. It was almost everyone, minus the Googles, Bing, King, Anti, and, surprisingly, Wilford.
Dark narrowed her eyes. “Host, where’s Wilford gone to? He was supposed to be here.”
“Wilford told The Host to tell Dark that he had to go grab something from his room, but he did not expect that she would be out so soon.”
A few Mark egos looked up at The Host’s words, checking to make sure that it was indeed a feminine day. No one really doubted The Host, but they were always a bit wary that one day he’d be wrong and earn the full extent of Dark’s wrath simply because he couldn’t see what the non-binary ego was wearing on a day to day basis. It was a pretty normal reaction from them, and once they confirmed that everything was good, they resumed whatever they were doing before.
What wasn’t a normal reaction, however, were the Jack egos. They stared at her in poorly concealed shock, unsure of what to say or do at seeing Dark, one of the most intimidating egos in the headquarters, wearing a dress and makeup. She was about to snap at them when she was preemptively cut off by Anti walking into the room, his obnoxious presence drawing all the attention to him.
Anti took one look at Dark, and then immediately burst out laughing, glitching slightly as he struggled to reign himself in. “What’d you do, lose a bet? Jesus Christ.”
Dark flinched back minutely at his words, just barely noticeable. What was noticeable was her shell cracking, red echoes surrounding her form sharply.
The room went tense. Dark tried to regain her composure and was about to say something to Anti, but was once again stopped before she could do anything.
“The Host warns Anti that it is not wise to insult Darkiplier. Whether she’s wearing a dress matters not.”
“Yeah, there are plenty of reasons to insult her, but this isn’t one of them.” Dark whipped around, trying to see who said that, but it was impossible to figure out given they all pretty much had the same voice and all of them were acting innocent. She resorted to giving everyone a glare, folding her arms. She’d let it go just this once only because they were backing her.
As she looked back, Anti was holding his hands up limply, glitching slightly. “Jesus. Sorry.” He at least had the decency to look embarrassed. That was actually pretty surprising to Dark, as she was certain when she woke up this morning that he was going to be the one she’d have to knock some sense into.
Before she could reply to him, though, Anti had quickly glitched out of existence, off to wherever he spent most of his time.
Dark sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in annoyance, taking care not to smudge any of her makeup.
Behind her back the other egos all looked at each other, making a silent agreement not to bother her. Even the Jack egos looked at each other in understanding, all coming to the same conclusion about Dark and accepting it in an instant.
“If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the kitchen,” Dark said sharply, quickly stalking out of the foyer to get away from the awkward atmosphere that descended upon the room.
When in the kitchen, she started a pot of coffee, glaring at the machine like that could make it go any faster. She jolted slightly as she heard footsteps coming up behind her, looking over her shoulder.
Jackieboy Man was walking over to her, smiling. Instead of seeming to fear her presence like he usually did, he was surprisingly calm, a sense of contentment surrounding him. Dark raised an eyebrow.
“I thought I made it clear not to bother me,” she said roughly.
“I know, but… I just wanted to say you look beautiful today,” he said, a light blush decorating his cheeks.
Dark blinked in surprise. She opened her mouth, then closed it, not quite sure what to say. The others willingly complimenting her was extremely rare, let alone a Jack ego doing it.
Jackie noticed her staring uncomfortably, then expanded on it quickly. “I just… It’s… it’s nice to not be the only ego here with some, uh, gender issues.” He rubbed his arm awkwardly. “Only the Jack egos know, but uh, I’m actually transgender.” Jackie bit his lip as he stared at her intently, trying to judge her reaction to that bombshell.
Dark just nodded, keeping her expression neutral. There was no way in hell she’d ever judge him for that, but she still had a reputation to uphold.
“Female to male?” She questioned.
“Yeah. Schneep was kind enough to, uh, help with my transition. I didn’t think anyone else would feel the same as me, though. Or, well, at least be under the same umbrella as me, since you’d be bigender.”
“What?”
“Bigender. That’s… that’s what you are, right? I’m really sorry if I got it wrong, I just assumed with the female sometimes and male sometimes thing that’s what you identified as. I’m sorry...”
“Bigender.” Dark repeated. “I like it.”
“Oh, good,” Jackie said sheepishly before coughing and perking up slightly, puffing out his chest. “I mean, of course I was right. I’m JACKIEBOY MAN!”
“Of course,” Dark replied dryly.
“Oh, by the way, Wilford came back to the foyer. No one wants to tell him what happened.” Dark shot him a questioning look. “He’s got a gun,” Jackie explained. “That’s what he was fetching from his room.”
She sighed. “Alright, I’ll deal with him.”
“Okay. Thank you. And… I know you don’t like ‘feelings’, but… If you ever want to talk to anyone, I’m always here. I know what it’s like.”
“...Go back to the foyer,” Dark replied, shooting him a half hearted glare.
Jackie nodded. “Alright. See you, Dark.”
Dark didn’t reply. She turned back to the coffee maker, where the heavenly concoction she needed was finally poured into her mug. She took it out, taking a small sip and sighing in contentment.
That was not the turn of events she had expected when waking up that day with Celine’s influence hanging over her but she wasn’t complaining. Not in the slightest.
There was no way she was ever going to talk to Jackieboy, but the idea that someone else understood what she felt was nice to hear. It took a weight off her shoulders that she hadn’t even realized was there.
Not that she’d ever admit that.
She was Darkiplier. She was strong and powerful whether or not she was male or female. She would make sure no one would ever dare to think otherwise.