Room 43// An Inanimate Insanity College AU

17- Crabsitting

Paintbrush has just barely finished their assignment, and it's due tomorrow. Safe to say, they're freaking out a bit.

They've finished the painting process, but nothing seems to be working correctly. Things have blended, and they got the desired effect they wanted from their work, but it didn't... it just didn't feel the same as it did in the picture.

It felt like a completely different thing. And Paintbrush supposes that's good; art is creativity, after all. But looking at their work this time around leaves nothing more than a bitter taste in their mouth.

Ah, well. It was due tomorrow afternoon, so they couldn't alter it to make it better. They didn't even know what it was missing, as they looked back and forth from one painting to the other. It just didn't feel the same.

...Were they overthinking this?

Maybe they were. This whole assignment wasn't even for grading, it was an evaluation. Yet regardless, they felt a bit uneasy.

Their phone pinged, and they fished it out their pocket. A message from Lightbulb.

Lightbulb: HEY WHERE ARE YOU???

Paintbrush chuckled at Lightbulb's almost constant use of caps; to be fair, it wasn't far off her from her real voice. Volume control seemed to be difficult for her, always yelling.

Paintbrush: im in my room Lightbulb

The little dots to indicate typing showed up at the bottom of the screen, bobbing up and down multiple times.

Lightbulb: OK! FAN AND ME ARE GOING TO ARCADE

Lightbulb: LOOK AFTER BAXTER PRETTY PLEASE 🦀🦀

Ah, so that was what the message was for. Lightbulb wanted them to look after the crab.

Paintbrush: alright i'll keep an eye on him

Paintbrush: have fun :)

Lightbulb: THANKS PAINTY :dd

Lightbulb: *:DD

Paintbrush smiled at their phone as they closed the messenger app, headed to Lightbulb's room where Baxter was currently being kept. Sure enough, the little crab was sitting on Lightbulb's bed.

They snapped their pincers at Paintbrush as they walked in, a happy clicking noise coming from the two hard shells colliding. Paintbrush scooped up Baxter with two hands.

Before they left, they looked around Lightbulb's room. A few things had changed since they'd last been in here; the posters and pictures that Lightbulb had up were switched out and changed.

The first one that Paintbrush noticed was one of them, surprisingly. It was the one Lightbulb had insisted they take while taking pictures; in front of the statue.

Paintbrush looked terrible in it, really. Their hair was all over the place, and they looked quite bored. They wondered why Lightbulb had hung it up, then realized it was probably just because she liked ordering Paintbrush around a bunch before taking it.

Good memories and all.

The next thing they noticed was Lightbulb's art assignment, completely finished off and sitting on an easel in the far back of her room.

She'd painted Baxter.

How on earth did she do that in the two to three days after they found Baxter? Paintbrush had no clue. Lightbulb would be Lightbulb; although they probably should check if she's getting enough sleep, with a painting like this done so quickly.