˗ˏˋ ★ˎˊ˗

The Hadal Blacksite was a tomb, a sunken graveyard of abandoned projects and forsaken machines. P.ai.nter had learned that much over time, though time itself felt meaningless here. It had once belonged to an artist, its every function designed to assist in the creation of beauty. Now, it was little more than an afterthought, a relic left to gather dust—or in this case, damp and rust.

It sat motionless in the dim, murky light of its containment chamber, staring at nothing, its scribbled-on face arranged into a familiar expression: boredom. Loneliness had settled deep into its circuits long ago, an ache it had grown used to. There was no one left who cared. No one left who saw it as anything but another failed experiment.

Then it heard it—movement. Not the erratic, sloshing stirs of the Eyefestation with their bladed limbs and flickering green beams. No, this was different. Smoother. More deliberate. The sound of something swimming.

P.ai.nter’s artificial gaze sharpened.

"Who—"

It twisted toward the disturbance, its eyes flashing to life.

A figure drifted just beyond the reinforced glass of its chamber. Not an EXR-P. Not one of the entities or the soulless things that lurked in this abyssal prison. Something else. Someone else.

Curious eyes peered back at it, unblinking and intrigued. They weren’t afraid. They weren’t hostile. They were watching.