Chapter Text
Painter had seen the hands on a clock spin around countless rotations, scientists change pages on open calendars, and even replacing them entirely a few times.
Until one day, red lights flashed through the stale confines he’d been transported to and 'lived' in. The sounds of sirens echoed through the room bouncing off the cold metal walls. The PA system occasionally turning on to echo orders through the uncountable rooms of the facility.
He had no idea what was happening, the scientists that were in the room with him before had left minutes beforehand. He was alone, confused as to why his world was being flipped on its head for the second time.
He’d grown used to the stale walls and routinely mind numbing weeks where he’d been forced to mine roblux, only to have one day for a break each week.
A few hours passed, and nobody came back to check on him.
Usually, the workers and staff swapped out tri-hourly, with a handful of minutes between each shift that he’d have to himself; but this time nobody came.
Thirty minutes turned to forty, then to fifty. From fifty minutes to an hour; two hours.. then for a few days.
He felt cold, more than usual. And not the stale, obsessively clean kind of cool, like how the staff insisted on keeping.
No, this was different. It almost hurt(?), or he at least assumed that was what hurting felt like.
He’d become conscious by unusual means, brought into the world by a fellow artist.
His Creator hadn’t meant to make him, but was by no means unhappy to have him around.
They were good friends, creating things together and chatting, occasionally his Creator would leave and return hours later, talking about the outside world and people. Sometimes even bringing ‘drinks’ and photos back to show him.
He enjoyed those days. He was happy, always excited to see his best friend and Creator come home to see him.
Sometimes his Creator would complain of being tired and try to explain what he called his ‘job’ to Painter. He never really understood why his creator loathed it with such tired and begrudging acceptance, until much later when he was forced into working for UrbanShade thousands of feet underwater.
Painter didn’t know when he stopped paying attention- having receded into his coded core- but at some point, the clink of a handle and mechanical sliding of one of the doors that led into his room had brought him back into the moment, grounding him.
His monitor blinked to life, reflexively and unconsciously loading up MS Paint where his expressions were displayed.
He squinted, the black lines his face he’d drawn on morphed as he strained to see the massive figure come through the entryway.
In the dim back-up lighting it was hard to see at first but once the figure entered he was surprised to see something not human, his creator never told him about non-humans living on earth.
“What the hell are you supposed to be?” came the stranger’s voice, rather incredulously.
Painter’s png face blinked a couple times, also confused. He’d only ever seen ‘people’ in his life.
“They call me ‘Z-779’ but please, call me p.AI.nter instead,” Painter belatedly answered.
The figure paused looking down to Painter, probably processing what he’d said giving him time to look over them.
They were massive, so much larger than the staff and Painter’s creator. They also had gray-ish scaly looking skin that meshed with softer more human skin in some places.
Painter was torn from his thoughts when the person spoke up.
“They called me ‘Z-13’ I’m Sebastian though-” he lowered themself a bit closer to eye-level with Painter, their brownish coat contorting over their back.
“-How’d you get here, Painter?” Sebastian asked, tilting his head a bit.
Painter’s processor buffered.
The memory of his Creator, the four men who’d broken in, the sound of glass shattering… His systems heated up. It was too much to think about so soon.
“T-they br-br-brou- ought me he-er-re-” Painter’s audio output crackled, making his words falter.
Just thinking about this was enough to overclock some of his systems.
Sebastian’s formerly rigid visage became discomforted at Painter’s stuttered response.
As his hands moved back to his coat pockets, he awkwardly continued on “I suppose that’s how most of us got here.”
Painter zeroed in on Sebastian's words, craving something else to distract him rather than what’d happened prior.
Painter’s fans whirred in the background as Sebastian spoke, “Would you like to leave?”
The offer took him by surprise, he had become accustomed to the staff’s neglect of his emotions during his time at the facility.
“I-” He didn’t know what to say, his newfound desperation to leave urging him to speak, “Y- Yes!”
The sharp feeling of loathing for the Blacksite and its staff clawed at his core, a flicker of hope he held inside roared into a blaze that drowned out his usual melancholy wistful state.
Sebastian cleared his throat, doing his best to straighten his posture despite the rather small room.
He clasped his hands together, leaving his third wrapped in heavily stained dark red bandages at his side.
… THIRD?
Painter was pretty sure people didn't have third arms- but before he could put too much thought into it Sebastian proposed an idea, “We’re in a tight situation, as you probably are aware-” stated with a sordid and devious toothy grin.
“-I say, you help me, and I help you. Together, we can get out of this hell hole.”
Painter’s scribbled drawing of a face bopped up and down- his own version of a nod- “Sounds fair!” He agreed.
Sebastian’s eyes glinted and his grin extended slightly.
“Splendid. Now, I must know-” He started, moving closer to the fenced off area Painter was in.
“-Are you already connected to the Blacksite’s network? And how much access to their systems do you have?”
Painter thought about it, the information delivered to the forefront of his processor courtesy of his programming.
“I have access to their crypto mining machines, I don’t have access to anything else,” he supplied.
Sebastian nodded, claw-like hands grazing the fencing between Painter and him momentarily before he turned, slithering outside of his view.
“I can connect you to the facility, I need you to be the eyes of this operation,” Sebastian called from off to the side.
“Okay!” He agreed, a pause growing between them, “-and how do I do that?” Painter inquired- unsure, but impatient to act.
“I just need a way to either transport you-” Sebastian started, voice pausing. The door to Painter's left buckled and slid open moments later.
“Or to connect you from this room,” he finished, slithering over to Painter.
Wow, he is a lot bigger than every other person he’d ever seen. He didn’t think living things could be that big.
Sebastian’s clawed hands slid over Painter’s exterior, yet he was surprisingly careful- his nails never bumping or catching on anything.
Painter wondered what Sebastian was looking for when inspecting him. -And why?
“Do you have any other HDMI ports besides the two on this module to your side?” Sebastian prompted.
Ah, that's what.
“There’s one that connects me to the laptop on my right, I can operate without being plugged into it if we need the extra port for your plan!” He explained.
Sebastian hummed acknowledgement, carefully turning Painter to face more right.
“Wo—ah,” Painter didn’t think he’d ever get used to abruptly moving.
“Hmm,. sorry,” Sebastian muttered blandly, looking behind Painter’s case.
“I have to turn you again,”
“Ah, that's okay,” Painter nodded.
After a while Sebastian completed whatever inspection he’d subjected Painter to.
“You seem to be some kind of old box monitor, how are your systems able to keep up with the-” Sebastian gestured behind himself to the crypto mining computers.
Painter didn’t have a good response to that.. Both the scientists and his Creator had asked that question, even trying to answer it for themselves.
They’d never been able to.
“Something to do with my code, probably,” Painter replied, making his crudely drawn face into a shrugging emoticon momentarily.
“Tch-” Sebastian curtly cut himself off from laughing. He resigned to crossing his primary arms over himself and looking off to the side thoughtfully.