I was originally born in California on June 13, 2001, but later moved to Montana when I was around four years old. It was also around that time when I played my first video game to my knowledge - God of War (2005). It was the first game I was able to play on my own, and I began getting into more games such as WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2010, Jak & Daxter, BioShock, Devil May Cry, LittleBigPlanet, and more. However, when my mother purchased Dead Space (2008) in the year 2009, it quickly became my top favorite game, and I played it so often that I quickly memorized every aspect of it.Shortly after, when I was in second grade, I began studying astronomy and physics, all thanks to Dead Space's influence. Around the same time, I felt inspired to create my own science fiction story. Thus, in November of 2009, I created a very short story simply titled "Cole". The story followed a teenager named Cole, who found a pair of alien gloves and went on to fight off an alien invasion single-handedly. Everyone I shared the story with loved it, which encouraged me to create sequels. Eventually, the Cole series ended with a fourth installment, in which the titular hero finally died. After its then-completion, I moved on and forgot about the series, instead focusing on playing God of War III when it released and anticipating the upcoming release of Dead Space 2.In fourth grade, however, I randomly remembered the Cole storyline and decided to revisit it, adding another sixteen installments to it and renaming the series to "The Invaders Series", encompassing twenty short stories that told the tale of an interstellar war between humanity and the aliens that invaded. But my creative mind continued working despite its then-completion, so I kept expanding the storyline until it had reached one hundred installments in length by the time I was in seventh grade. Soon after, I divided the series into seven chapters to keep better track of it, began referring to each short story as Episodes, and dubbed the series with its final and current name - The Invaders Saga.In eighth grade, I was inspired by various YouTubers, namely DanTDM and jacksepticeye, to create my own YouTube channel. At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I eventually decided to start by posting gameplay commentary videos. I went through multiple name ideas throughout my planning process, starting with the name “The Black Sword.” However, further research revealed the existence of multiple channels already using the name, so I scrapped it and settled on “Fyre Ren”, inspired by the then-new Star Wars villain Kylo Ren. But after realizing that viewers could mistake my channel for a Star Wars content channel, I scrapped that name as well. Later, while working at my local McDonald's, one of my coworkers suggested the username "The Absent Darkness", which I still use to this day. After researching screen recorders and settling on Fraps, I posted my first video on February 19, 2017, titled “DEPTHS OF THE SEA – Subnautica #1.” From there, I uploaded on a weekly basis, releasing one video every week.However, the device I was using was a quite old laptop - a Lenovo IdeaPad U430, to be specific. Because of the outdated components and my family’s poor financial situation, I found it increasingly difficult to record, edit, and even upload to YouTube. Thus, in September of 2018, I uploaded my final video at the time before going on an indefinite hiatus. I would continue to upload inconsistently afterwards, infrequently getting a surge of motivation to upload before disappearing due to the continued problems I faced. However, soon after uploading a Minecraft let’s play with two friends, my close friend JUKEBOXBRAWLER purchased and sent a more powerful desktop PC to me - one that was capable of running most video games with ease. After setting it up, I recorded and uploaded the first part in a short-lived playthrough of Dead Space (2008), a game that was previously unplayable on the IdeaPad laptop.Sometime after recording various new videos, including ones on God of War: Ascension and Phasmophobia, I took another hiatus to work on saving up for a vehicle, but I found it difficult to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down my primary position of work. In my free time, I continued to refine my story projects. At that time, I had created well over a dozen unique storylines and decided to have each one set in separate multiverses, soon dubbing all of my creations collectively as The Blackout Reality. Shortly after, I revisited The Invaders Saga and reorganized the hundred episodes into five Chapters instead of seven. However, on my 21st birthday, I was able to return to YouTube with a new appearance and new motivations. I live streamed with Jukebox, revisited Happy Wheels three years after my previous video, and began releasing music on the channel, including my remix of DAGames’ Solitaire song “Hail to the Jester Queen & King.”Some time later, I discovered a short video from Adult Swim’s YouTube channel titled “Come and Learn with Pibby!”, which was released on the day before Halloween of 2021 and was rapidly growing in popularity at the time. Finding the concept both interesting and entertaining, I eventually joined the Learning With Pibby fandom as a fellow fan and began posting fanart. During this time, I ran a short poll on r/Pibby on Reddit, asking fellow members how they would like a fan-made comic series based heavily on Dodge Greenley’s original concept. Based on the positive and encouraging feedback, I soon announced that I would begin work on what would later become Pibby: Singularity.However, in late 2022, I was contacted on Reddit by a fellow fan known as WeirdBoi-85, also known as KrazyGuy-85, inviting me to share Pibby: Singularity on r/Greenlight_Pibby. What began as a supportive way to share my work quickly unraveled when I discovered that WeirdBoi had been creating unsettling and inappropriate art featuring Pibby-inspired characters. After learning of other concerning behaviors, such as "proshipping" and self-inserting into romantic pairings with Pibby characters, I chose to leave the subreddit, removing all my content and notifying my audience.The situation escalated further in early 2023 when WeirdBoi lashed out with false accusations, personal insults, and even death threats directed at me and my supporters, eventually culminating in a massive public falling out. Rather than stay silent about the ordeal, I documented the experience to both warn and inform others, choosing to uphold my own integrity and protect my friends and community. I also documented the entire incident on this very website, so people could have the entire story if they need it. The incident ultimately became a turning point as I gained a rather significant following as a result of the drama, which only encouraged me to continue with my personal projects.However, my personal life began to suffer due to circumstances beyond my control. In June of 2025, I announced another indefinite hiatus due to said circumstances and heavy burnout, which has either significantly slowed or altogether halted the development of my projects. While I have returned by now, I'm still rather slow and tired when it comes to working on projects - but I do feel energized enough to work on things a bit more.