World / Series: Steve Lab
Timeline: N/A
Overall Feeling: Melancholy
AU: Steve Lab
Characters: Rainbow Steve / Rainbow Assistant, Sabre / Prof. Favre (Mentioned), Assistant Steve (Mentioned)
Settings: The Lab
Word Count: 1296

*

Rainbow mumbles some not so pleasant curses at being saddled with the task of cleaning up a portion of the pantry, he was very sure that Prof. Favre had left the job to Assistant, but alas, somehow he ended up with the job. The job that he never wanted to have since the moment he had heard about how catastrophic the pantry organization systems happened to be. Truly, how and why does Prof. Favre has what looks to be an endless supply of materials?

He doesn't even know what any of these things are!

And– he doesn't even want to know why there's so much weapons in the pantry either. He just really doesn't want to know what Prof. Favre had done to collect so much stuff or even managed to get it in the first place for that matter. Which makes him wonder what the Lab funds happen to be...with a shake of his head, he gets started on cleaning up the area closer to the entrance. Thankfully, it wasn't endless, but there was still so much pushed against the wall.

Regardless, he's not going to have a pleasant time dealing with all this whatsoever.

Getting down the walkway and steps, he goes for the first crate and begins working to organize it. Taking note that on the wall were several signs and boxes under it explaining which category each item goes to and by tier levels and such. He wasn't sure how this would be enough for this section of items, but taking a look down the hallways lets him see a similar area with organization stations.

Which means every section is different and he is afraid to know how many levels or how far the hallways go in the first place.

Seriously, how and why did Prof. Favre created this lab, he wasn't sure. He hasn't even seen a single bit of civilization either, safe for the extremely rare occasion that a post officer comes by and that's only assuming he even remotely gets the chance to see them. Prof. Favre always insist that they're the only one to see them and he and Assistant have to agree that Prof. Favre could be lying about their being a post officer to make them less suspicious.

They were already suspicious of the Professor never making any form of communication contact with anyone. Which makes them think that he's the only human around– he flinched when he heard the sound of a box falling and the content of it scattered to the ground. He sighs in annoyance as he turns around to clean up– only to stare at the mess in confusion.

Walking over, he kneels down and picks up the content of the box, in particular, it seems as though the box contained nothing but letters. They weren't normal letters, no, but they were letters that Prof. Favre had received, all of which seems as though had been read by the professor– considering all the letters were opened.

Now normally, he would respect people's privacy, but this is Professor Favre.

He has no respect for that guy's privacy, just enough that he's willing to read these letters without a single care in the world.

So after picking up all the scattered letters, he put it all back in the box, but took out the oldest letter he could find, opened it and began to read it.

Only to frown as he read the content of the letters. He was right to assumed that these letters were sent to Prof. Favre, but it seems as though the sender had been erased, most likely the Professor doing when he had read the letters. And judging by how old the letters are–

Rainbow eyes widened in complete disbelief.

This letter is several tens of thousands years old?! If that is truly the case then...how old is the Professor exactly?! He barely looked like he was more than twenty seven at the very least! Actually, what even IS the Professor? He knows for a fact that he shouldn't have survived so many things.

Like the fact that he and the Assistant had to constantly get rid of all the poisons that the Professor kept drinking. Purposely.

For some accursed reasons.

Looking at the other letters, he continued to read it all, learning more and more about the relationship Prof. Favre had with the sender. Ranging how happy the sender of the letters was happy and how much they cared about the professor and even plans to visit. It was all just mostly happy, little letters. Simple and normal.

A striking contrast to the melancholy professor he has known all his life.

That is, until he read further and witnessed the sudden changed in tone from the letters. Going from what was once happiness to sudden bitter betrayal of anger. Judging by the writings, it was from the same sender, whereas some of the other letters didn't have that bitter anger, but concerning worries. He can never find the name of the writer who was angry, constantly being referred to as 'The Writer of Tragedy', oddly enough.

What is up with these titles? He doesn't know, it was almost as if they weren't allowed to write their proper name or these letters were meant to be secrets. Whatever may be the case– he now knows why the Professor always had that melancholy presence.

He sighed as he put down the letter to read the next one– taking note that the more he read, the more he noticed that the years between the day the letter was sent to the present time was growing smaller. The letter he picked up right now is almost a thousand years old. He had many more to read, but most unfortunately, it seems as though the kinder writers of the letters had grown far fewer while the one with hatred continued to question why the Professor had never answered.

Why they never visited and where they had gone.

As well as questioned whether or not the Professor was alive or not anymore.

Rainbow wants to be angry on the behalf of the Professor! And yet...he couldn't. He can't help, but feel sad about it all. So he continued to read until eventually, the letters went from angry to sadness to fear and...

He picked up the last letter.

It was sent a century ago, it was still brand new, unopened.

He hopes the professor wouldn't mind if he reads it, so he opens it and reads the content– only to be hit by a pure sense of distress, fear and regrets. Regrets of pushing the Professor away to the point that they would rather cease to exist altogether.

No wonder the Professor never answered the letters from the Writer of Tragedy, Rainbow thought to himself bitterly, the other writers understood the Professor and left him to recover peacefully, he can only assume they did so because the Professor actually answered their letters and not Tragedy.

He sighs as he puts the letter back in the box, moving it closer to the door. He would have to ask the Professor about it some other time, he needed a distraction in the meantime. Glancing at the possibly endless amount of cleaning– he supposed that would be enough to keep him distracted until the Professor comes back from their usual day-long outing they do every week.

Now if only he understood what the majority of these items are...

*

I just love how these prompts give me free range to create all sorts of lore for Steve Lab and for Professor Favre. Plenty of angsts to create and some comforting fluff to balance it out afterwards. :D