[Arknights] A Painter's Obsession

14:00. 15/04/XXXX. Rhodes Island Landship.

"You dare ask me for a commission? No. Not at all. What value does my work have for you anyway? That's right—nothing. Hmph…" Dusk talks back to you, knowing that she isn't the kind of person to give away her paintings, or the type to let people commission her things.

"You're getting the wrong idea, Dusk…" You sigh in disdain, how many times have you tried talking to her about this? How long? You already forgot about it for your own work. "I only need one that's about—"

"No! I will never do commissions even if you like my work." Dusk emphasizes her words even though you're as persistent as ever. "The paintings only I understand the true value of that none will ever know. You're taking too much time from my work; I'll go back to work. Goodbye." She turns around and starts walking away from you.

"Tch…" You think to yourself. "Alright, alright! I just want a painting, but you can choose whatever you want to make!" You call out in desperation, not wanting to wait any longer.

"…Hm…?" Dusk glances back at you as you finally get her attention. "Really? Do you mean it?"

"Yes! Just make whatever you want and I'll take it!" You reiterate yourself to make it clear for her to understand, but…

She turns back around, continuing to walk. "No. I will not do commissions from those who-" For a moment, she stops. Her face lights up in awe, then looks back at you. "Come to my room at 11 AM, tomorrow. Don't come to me before then. I'll show you what I have created soon enough."

She turns around to head back to her office. Only the footsteps of her boots echo as you look in shock—she finally accepted your commission, and it's now time for you to wait.

…

10:50. 16/04/XXXX. Rhodes Island Landship

You head towards Dusk's office in curiosity, thinking that it might be a good opportunity to see her paint the work she holds so dearly to her soul. You think about your work today while walking down the empty hallways—it's only a few operator reports from the last operation yesterday. Of course, you also had a promise with Dusk, eagerly waiting for the time where you would finally be able to put one of her works in your office. The exuberance in your mind grows stronger the closer you get to her dormitory—you've been waiting for this moment ever since you've seen her works, what's the worst that could happen to you?

You finally reach her dormitory. The sign on her door reads out "DO NOT ENTER" in bold, strong black ink, painted using a brush, instead of the operator's codename on it. Your mind is racing to see her work created for you—not wanting to wait any longer, you quickly open the door in her room and step inside to see… A vast landscape of mountains and plains, where everything around you looks like environments you would see in Yen paintings—Dusk's paintings…

"Haha… Dusk." You chuckle as you step forward in the room. "You really do have great arts… Literally." You joke around the landscape, admiring the scene of ink and brush strokes. Everything looks vivid and lifelike moving even though it looks as if it's just… ink.

You turn around the way you came to this place to find a way out, but behind you exists nothing but an endless plain that extends forever. You could've sworn that this is the place that you came from, but you don't have time to complain about that, only to find a way out of here, or at least get her to get you out of this place.

"Dusk…! Dusk…! Come on Dusk just let me back into your dorm!" You shout into the shaded sky, still clouds only ignoring your calls. You start to run around near you, trying to find anything that you could use to get her attention, but little did you know, she was already looking down at you intently… waiting for the right to catch you…

The strong smell of ink catches your attention while you walk around. You turn back to see… 'Free'—one of Dusk's monsters inside of her paintings, looking right into your eyes. Both stare at each other, standing still, until 'Free' chases after you, right then you start running into the endless plains of ink where small blades of grass and rocks populate the area you are heading.

You run, not sure where you're headed, into the nothingness in the front of you, paintings have a finite size don't they? You can find a way out of here yourself right? You don't realize how wrong that vision of hope was in this situation. You keep running, but then you trip on a rock in the plains, hitting your head against the surprisingly hard soil and making you lose consciousness. Before you do lose consciousness, for a moment, you think about 'Free' finishing you off in this world, but your time in this place would meet a far worse fate than that… if only you knew…

…

You wake up feeling a bit discomforted by the fall, but you regain full control of your whole body to wake up. But, it isn't what you expect to be below you—Wood. You could've sworn again you set foot on grass the moment you had come into this place, but you look left and right to see what you're standing on and realize—a ginormous wooden table, and you're on top of it, with endless plains stretching beyond the edge of the table in front of you.

"Hehehe… Doctor…" You hear a sly, joking voice behind you, and it makes you turn around. You look back in shock as you see who is talking to you—Dusk, the size of which is only appropriate for the wooden table you're standing on. "You said I would be able to paint whatever I wanted, right? This is what I've settled upon. You're going to follow through with me, and through me." She talks to you with a slight, sly smile across her face. Her chin rests on her arm situated on the table as she leans forward to look at you.

"Wh-what do you mean by that? H-how are you so big? Can you get me out?" You shout in distress over the situation.

"Relax. One question at a time. This is my world, and I can control whatever it is I want, including you."

"So… I really am in your painting huh…" You say to yourself.

"Mhm…!" Dusk proudly replies.

"Then… what about the first question…?" You ask her curiously.

"…You see, when you came to ask me for a commission, I turned it down. But when you gave me full control over what I wanted to make, you gave me an idea… I've always wondered what you would taste like… how much I wanted to savor you then, I couldn't wait for you to come here before the time I told you yesterday…" She blushes as she tells you what she wants to do with you here. "Just think of this as a payment for the commission… and you'll get to take full part in the painting as well. It's a good deal, isn't it?"

"This… this isn't you, Dusk. This can't be who you really are…" You stutter in shock from what you heard.

"What do you mean this isn't who I am? I'm the one and only painter, Dusk, Doctor. Who could've known our conversation except the two of us?" Dusk nonchalantly answers.

"You… No… B-but this isn't…" You try to comprehend her words with her actions, but it only confuses you more.

"You're really the type to delay people by talking, Doctor." Dusk replies. She picks you up by pinching your jacket with her scaly, thin, green arms. "I'm annoyed by people who don't get straight to the point like you, but you've only made me want to delight you. I really can't wait for it, Doctor…" She licks her lips with the pointy, dragon-like tongue of hers dripping with saliva on her breasts.

"Dusk… let's try some kind of other painting, shall we? I think… this might be going too far for me." You try to jokingly talk it out with her, looking directly into her eyes.

"Too late. You said I could do whatever I want to paint for your commission, so here we are. Prepare to land. Ahhhh~" Dusk opens her mouth to reveal her dragon-like fangs and teeth, and rolls out her inherently long tongue for you to land on.

"Dusk, you can't be serious with this right? Just put me down!" You shout for her to stop what she's trying to do.

"Put you down? I didn't know you're so eager to be put down, Alright." Dusk puts you down on the tip of her tongue as you try to find a way to get out of this place without her help.

"Thank you— Wait. What are you doing?!" You shout as she rolls back her tongue inside her mouth. You reach out your hand outside her mouth to get yourself out of here, but she shuts it closed before you could even react.

You slosh around in the sea of saliva as she savors every taste and texture of your body. Her tongue pins you against her cheeks as you struggle harder and harder to resist being eaten. Yet you've almost exhausted yourself just after a few minutes, though she had stopped tasting you.

"I didn't know you tasted quite delightful. I regretted not doing this sooner, but this is good enough for me." Dusk talks to you while keeping you inside her mouth.

"Huff… huff… huff…" You pant from exhaustion as you try to speak to her. "Now… Dusk… can I please… get out… of here…?" You muster up your strength to speak, your renched body unable to move without slipping anywhere you don't want to end up in.

Dusk lifts up her head and lets all the saliva build up and cover your head as you slip down to the back of her throat. "No. I think I'm going to keep you all for myself. I'm still hungry too." She swallows you intently as the esophagus opens up beneath you to bring you to your demise. Your body passes through the lining of the flesh all beside you with the saliva accompanying your descent, making it easier for the bulge on her throat pass through without stopping to gulp once more. You exhaustingly stay still as the movement carries your whole body in one swift unstopping motion, finally making it into her stomach. The hole into her stomach opens slowly, bit by bit welcoming you and the saliva inside as you wait for the moment you can pass through. The passage opens up for your whole body as she gulps once more, making you hit the stomach's pool of acid unprepared. Bits of food and saliva coat your body here as you lay facing upwards—you're exhausted beyond belief trying to find a way out, only to meet your fate as prey caught by an enormous predator.

You hear from outside her digestive tract. "I've never had food slide down my throat like you do. The bulge in my throat as you passed through was gone so quickly. I wish you would've at least gone a little slower so I can feel your body more fully… Either way, you were a great piece of food and an art subject."

You stay lying in the mixture of mush and half-digested food, the smell and texture of it makes you want to climb up the stomach lining, but you don't have the energy anymore.

"You should close your eyes." You hear Dusk speaking to you, this time a much clearer voice hangs around in your head, unlike her more voracious counterpart in this painting. "Now sit upright, then open them."

You follow through her orders, you open your eyes soon after. This isn't what you came into… was it? You wake up in a chair inside an intricately decorated room—ink paintings hang from every part of every wall with a single nail for each painting, hanging using a string. Some depicting villages while some depicting detailed landscapes and some even depict people. Your eyes gaze at the paintings from every direction, unknowing about the other person inside the room, then you finally see someone in the room, painting on a blank scroll with a brush, elegant hand movements in each stroke—Dusk… but how?

You stand up and come forward to her desk. "Dusk! What did you do to me?!" You frustratingly shout at her.

"Stop shouting at me. You're messing up my work." She calmly replies. "You must be confused at what happened, were you?" She puts down her brush and looks into your eyes, smiling just like what you saw before.

"Goodness… I should've never asked you for a commission… otherwise I would just ask Deepcolor to make one for me." You sigh in resentfulness. "I really don't want—"

"But you're not dead aren't you?" She asks while picking up her brush.

"I… am I really still alive? I thought you just… ate me…?"

"That did happen, there's no denying that."

"Then… how am I…"

"I let you out of the painting before I could digest you whole. I could've let you die in there, but operators would hunt me down when they saw you had died in my room." She explains.

"Then did you really… just…" you stutter.

"Yes. I did. What you saw in the painting's world was me, or rather, a piece of me in the painting." Dusk tells you. "You really tasted amazing… I wonder when I could eat you again…" her face blushes as she says so.

"…You really are an eccentric loner…" you say to yourself.

"Right. Your commission." She puts down her brush and takes the scroll to the side of her. "Here it is. You asked for it." A scroll depicting you held up in the air by Dusk while she opens her mouth, waiting for you to drop inside.

"…I'm not going to take it." You say to her.

"Really? You don't want to? Fine then. You can't ever ask me for commissions if you can't appreciate an artist's work of art." She tells you back. "Now, get out of my room."

You strangely wince in shock of her answer. "F-fine, I'll take it."

"Really~?" Dusk teases you.

"Y-yes! Just give me that…!" You take the scroll from her hand before she puts it back in the cupboard to the side of her, then turn around to leave the room.

"Thank you for the commission." She thanks you while you open the door.

You get reminded of something when you hear her speak. "By the way, what's the price for the commission?" You turn around to ask her.

"Oh, the price. There's no need to pay for that. Just let me savor you if you have a commission for me."