Work Text:
Sebastian hummed a simple melody from his childhood as he sorted out the metal parts surrounding him. His third arm carefully cradled Painter against their body, allowing the artificial intelligence to oversee his work.
Despite the occasional scream from whatever expendable was unlucky enough to get caught, the room was quiet and peaceful. The ambient sound of dripping water and creaking metal echoed throughout the halls.
Sebastian snapped two parts into place, finishing the leg of what would soon become Painter’s new body. He shifted his position slightly to stretch his muscles, blueprints and sketches sliding off the length of his tail. “Hey, kid,” he said, “I’m gonna go…slither around a bit. Go for a quick swim before I come back to finish your body, okay?”
Painter looked up at him for a moment before drawing a quick thumbs-up on his screen, “Alrighty! I’ll draw you another landscape while you’re gone. Say hi to Eyefestation for me!”
Sebastian huffed out a quick laugh, lure bobbing at the movement, “Of course I will.” He set Painter at the overhang overlooking his shop, making sure that the glint of metal was completely hidden from view before slipping into the water.
It was murky and dark, but Sebastion was used to working in cloudy waters. Some may even call him…SUB-astion!
…
Okay, sorry. Anyway, after many twists and tight squeezes, he emerged into open waters surrounded with sharp rocks and glinting pipes. The movement of water alerted him to the approach of an oversized bull shark, one with hundreds of glowing green eyes scattered all over their body.
Eyefestation approached cautiously, circling Sebastian once or twice before drifting to a stop in front of him. Locking eyes, the shark sent a telepathic version of a question mark to him.
Sebastian shrugged in return, sending mental images of Painter’s new body to the other. They hadn’t seen each other in a while, especially since he was spending so much time on building and perfecting Painter’s new form.
They were quiet for a while, enjoying each others’ company. Eventually, Sebastian returned back to the flooded tunnels, clambering back into his shop. Shaking himself dry, he slithered over to where he set Painter.
The AI looked up as he approached, scribbled mouth breaking into a proud smile, “Hey, Sebbie! Look what I drew!” He drew up a tab with a gorgeous though slightly blurred landscape on it. “I couldn’t really remember what it looks like, but I know that my creator really liked it there.”
Sebastian grinned, resting a clawed hand gently on Painter’s monitor. “It looks really cool, kid. When we get out, let’s visit that place. Sounds good?”
“Yeah! Then I can paint a better landscape too!”
“All the landscapes you want. But I should probably finish your body first before we can get to that point,” Sebastian said. He retrieved all the parts he had stashed away, organizing them properly on the ground.
So far, the body was nearly completed, with only a wire or two missing from the central cavity. The limbs were finished as well, but Sebastian was particularly proud of how he made the hands. He flipped them over a couple times, the limp metal fingers dwarfed by his oversized claws. The plating had a few dings and dents from where they were accidentally dropped from too large of a height, but were overall still usable.
After assembling all the pieces, Sebastian hesitated. He had to temporarily turn Painter off in order for him to connect with the body properly, and there was always a chance that his memory bank might corrupt…or worse.
The artificial intelligence sensed his concern and looked up at him, drawing question marks on the screen, “Is something wrong, Sebastian?”
He said this in such childlike naivety that Sebastion was reminded that, despite having killed possibly hundreds of people, Painter was still technically a child in human years. He was suddenly struck with a feeling of melancholy for Painter and his future. Even building an entire new form for the AI was just a minor distraction from their likely fate, to stay trapped in the Hadal Blacksite forever or to die in an attempt to get out.
“Sebastian?” Painter tried again.
Sebastian startled, lure flashing momentarily as he remembered what he was doing. “Oh, um-yeah, give me a second,” he turned back to stare at the blueprints and double check everything again.
Painter groaned in boredom, rolling his scribbled eyes in exasperation, “Sebastiaaaaan, you’ve already checked this, like, 20 times already. I’ll be fine, I promise!”
Sebastian sighed deeply before he relented, picking up Painter and carrying him over to fit his monitor onto the body. Claw pressing down on a button, Painter’s screen went dark before a loading bar popped up. Sebastian was tense the entire time the bar filled, tail flicking nervously and nearly knocking some of his precious medkits off of a nearby table.
After a few minutes, the bar filled to 100 percent with a quiet clicking sound, Painter’s screen flashing back on to reveal the familiar hand drawn face Sebastian was so used to seeing.
“Woah,” Painter whispered, “I have hands now!” He tested out his limbs before stumbling to his feet like a newborn fawn, with Sebastian hovering around Painter in case he tripped. Slowly, the two made their way around the perimeter of Sebastian’s shop, Painter using his new appendages to interact with things he couldn’t before.
Sebastian felt his mouth curve into a grin, pleased with how ecstatic the other was. Painter was yapping at 300 mph about how happy he was and how he was going to paint Sebastian so many portraits, jumping around hyperactively all the while.
That was until the vent cover leading to Sebastian’s shop clattered, instantly silencing the two. Sebastian quickly tossed a stack of blueprints over Painter and stationed himself in front of the lump, where he usually was when an expendable arrived.
Totally normal stack of paper. Yes. Totally no Painter here.
Internally, Sebastian was feeling mildly murderous. The stupid expendables just HAD to arrive at the right time to ruin the moment. He clasped his hands together and smiled his usual customer service smile, showing just a tad too much teeth than he usually did.
The vent creaked open, revealing a single person who clambered into the room.
“Welcome back,” Sebastian said dryly, “be quick, please, I have some business to attend to.” The fins on the side of his head flicked impatiently as he waited for the expendable to get out of his shop.
They swiftly picked out a couple batteries and a medkit, handing Sebastian some of their research before turning to leave.
That was when the pile of paper shifted slightly, sending a rustle echoing through the otherwise silent room. The expendable turned, staring a bit too long at the lump half hidden behind Sebastian.
The man (fish-man?) in question tensed up for a fraction of a second. Revealing that Painter got a new form would be problematic, to say the least. Not to mention how annoying the higher-ups of the Blacksite would get if they learned of the change.
Casually, Sebastian pulled out his gun to polish it on his coat as a thinly veiled threat, “What? Looking for ghosts? I assure you, I’m not dead. But you may be soon if you don’t get OUT.”
The expendable flinched in terror, taking one last glance at the pile of paper as they scurried into the vent and out of sight. The vent clattered noisily behind them before it slammed shut.
Painter grunted as he sat up, “Hah, you really showed them who’s boss, Seb!”
“Hell yeah I did, kid,” Sebastian huffed lightly in relief, “just make sure you’re careful in that new body of yours. Don’t want any expendables getting any…ideas.” He carefully rolled up the scattered blue prints and lifted Painter to his feet.
“What are you gonna do now?” Painter asked.
“Well,” Sebastian hummed in thought, “I was going to go for a supply run, scavenge some items off the dead bodies around here.”
“Can I go with you too?” Painter asked, he drew a crying puppy beside his pouting face on the monitor. “I promise I’ll stay out of your way, and I can help you carry stuff now!” He flexed his arms to show off his nonexistent biceps.
Sebastian snickered, “Yes, of course, you and what muscles exactly?”
“Hey!” Painter stomped his foot and pouted, “I can still move even without muscles!”
“Ok buddy,” Sebastian pried open the vent, “I don’t fit through the vents, so you should go through first and I’ll meet you on the other side.”
Painter crouched down and began crawling through the dark space. Behind him was the distinct splash of Sebastian entering the flooded halls below.
Clambering out of the exit of the vent, Painter stood up to see Sebastian waiting in front of them, “Soo…where are we heading first?”
“Actually,” Sebastian began thoughtfully, “how about we go see Eyefestation first? I’m sure they would be pleased to know about your evolution of sorts. Besides, you’ve never really met them before either.”
Painter straightened in excitement, “Really? Then I’ll race you there, Sebastian!” He then took off sprinting down the hall, laughing maniacally like the little gremlin he was.
“Don’t trip!” Sebastian called after him, but began to slither toward them, his longer body side allowing him to quickly catch up to the AI.
Eventually, they reached the glass hall where Eyefestation usually appeared. Raising a clawed hand, Sebastian rapped gently at the glass before settling back down to wait. Painter walked up to lean against his tail, rocking back and forth in mild boredom. It reminded Sebastian of how kids with ADHD would act when there was nothing to do. (Could robots even get ADHD?)
A dark shape loomed over them, the shark’s many eyes focused on Painter.
“Woah,” Painter whispered, stepping closer to the glass. The green light from Eyefestation’s many eyes tinting their screen a neon green.
“You’re cool,” Painter declared after a few seconds, “I’m gonna draw you.”
Sebastian nearly burst out laughing at the look on Eyefestation’s face. It was both simultaneously confused and amused, clearly unused to communication with anyone other than Sebastian.
Time passed fast, faster than Sebastian expected it to. He snapped out of it when the sound of echoing footsteps reached his earfins.
He tapped Painter’s shoulder, who was currently holding a deep conversation about the rights of seabunnies with Eyefestation, “I know you two are in the middle of an amazingly important conversation, but people are coming toward us.”
“Aw.” Painter looked so disappointed that Sebastian felt a spike of guilt shoot through his heart. He didn’t want to deprive Painter of things to do. Even if they were friends, talking to the exact same person for years wouldn’t be a very productive social life.
Lowering his voice to sound a bit more gentle, Sebastian continued, “C’mon, kid. We can go talk to Eyefestation tomorrow, but I still need to restock my shop. We need as much research as possible if we want to get the people who put us here in jail after all.”
Painter sighed, “Fine. But Seb, promise me one thing?”
“Yeah?”
“Promise me…that we will really get out of here, okay? I just wanna paint the sunrise again.”
“...I promise, kid.”
This arrangement went on like this for a while. Get up, sell stuff to the expendables, take Painter to talk to Eyefestation, restock, and sleep. Sebastian was also rather pleased to see that the other had gotten significantly happier with his new body.
As research accumulated, their hopes of escaping the Blacksite grew. There were definitely enough documents to condemn everyone in Urbanshade Corporations to a lifetime in prison.
…
It was a couple months after Painter had gotten their new form. Sebastian had left them in his shop while he went to collect supplies. He was carefully dropping a couple batteries into his pocket when his walkie-talkie buzzed and came to life with a crackle.
“Hey…what’re we doing?”
Sebastian was sure Painter wasn’t talking to him, so despite his mounting worry, he stayed silent. However, he crawled into the vents that led directly to his shop. Something was wrong and Sebastian would rather die than let anything happen to Painter.
Meanwhile, the walkie-talkie continued to spout Painter's worried voice, “What are…YOU doing?”
The rustling of fabric echoed in the cramped space of the vents as the expendable presumably stepped closer. Sebastian bristled at the thought, spite powering him to pull himself through the duct faster, claws leaving little scrapes in the metal.
The next lines caused his blood to run cold.
“W-wait, I’m sorry.”
“I’m SORRY okay?! I’ll stop!”
“Help…HELP!!!”
“SEBASTIAN, HELP ME-”
The shattering of glass reverberated out of the walkie-talkie before static fizzled and the audio cut out. Sebastian swore as he clambered through the last few hundred meters of the vents to his shop. Each second passed like an eternity, panic climbing through his veins as the sound of glass breaking repeated itself over and over in his head.
Dropping into the room, he was met with the sight of a partially destroyed screen. One of Painter’s eyes and half of his mouth was still visible, though it was flickering heavily. One of his legs was crushed, apparently stepped on by the expendable from earlier.
Painter was sitting against a wall, limbs limp and sprawled around him. As Sebastian rushed over he said, “H-hey Seb…I didn’t think it would end up like this…” Painter’s voice repeated bits and glitched throughout the sentence. It was clearly taking a huge toll on him just to speak, let alone move.
“Stop. Stop talking,” Sebastian hissed, pointedly ignoring the pressure of tears building behind his eyes, “Painter, you’re going to be FINE, okay? I’m gonna fix you up and you’ll be alright again.” His voice cracked as he desperately tried to convince himself that everything would be okay.
“Seb! Just…listen to me. Please?” Before Sebastian could say anything, he barreled on, “When I die…promise me that you will get out of here. For me.”
“I know I won’t make it until we get out of this place, so…”
“Paint the sunrise for me, Sebastian. I’ll miss you.”
Sebastian sat there in shock as Painter finally powered off, cold tears tracing their way down his face.
His last friend, the one he swore he would get out of this hell.
Gone.
Sebastian would never be able to talk to him again.