Work Text:
Walter Manor was a beautiful space, really it was.
It had a beautiful outside, and a beautiful inside, and the people in it were beautiful. The humans were beautiful.
Humans.
Humans could truly breathe oxygen through fascinating things called lungs, and they had not a bit of metal in them! Well, many didn't. Some did. And that was fascinating as well.
Humans could simply do a miraculous thing called 'sleep' when they felt the need to. It took hardly any time or effort, and it seemed to be a pleasant experience for most. Some did not find It pleasant. This was fascinating, too.
The humans inside Walter Manor could breathe and sleep and eat real foods without needing to clean their inside machinery afterwards to prevent damage. And the humans outside Walter Manor could do that, too.
But the robots inside Walter Manor couldn't.
They didn't sleep, or breathe, or eat food. They could walk and talk and laugh and shout and sing and yet, they were not human.
This was a fact that everyone in Waltor Manor knew. And oh, how The Spine loathed it.
~
"Rabbit?"
"Yeah, Th'Spine?"
"Rabbit, we're robots."
"Oh! W-w-wow! I didn' r-realize!"
"No, that wasn't what I meant. What I meant is...Well, we're so...different. From humans. We look like them, and talk like them. But we aren't them."
"H-H-Haha, dat's hilarious, Th'Spine! O' course we aren't humans! You g-gots spines! I gots copper errywhere! Jon had-d-d gold errywhere!! Hatchy's got himself a ha-ha-hatch! We'se unique!"
"Yeah, I know. But...hasn't it every troubled you? I mean...haven't you ever wondered what it would be like? Being a human?"
"W-Why wouldya wanna b-b-be a human? Dey're all s-so...not unique, y'know? Dey're all squishy an' weird an' dey only last a little w-while!"
"....I dunno, Rabbit. Haven't you gotten curious, though? We've been around for at least 100 years...surrounded by them."
"C'mon, Th'Spine, yer ac-ac-actin' like a dummins. Bein' a human would be borin'!"
"...I guess."
"Haha, s-since when does Th'Spine ever just s-say 'I guess' ta Rabbit? Ya feelin' okay, bro?"
"I'm fine."
"If-f-if ya say so."
~
He was fine then.
It was safe to say that The Spine was not fine now.
He looked at himself in the mirror, glaring at his own reflection with the intensity of...well, a very intense glare.
He opened his mouth and slowly repeated what his older sister had said to him.
"H-H-Haha, dat's hilarious, Th'Spine! O' course we aren't humans! You g-gots spines! I gots copper errywhere! Hatchy's got himself a ha-ha-hatch! We'se unique!" The man of titanium managed to copy his sister's dialect and voice perfectly. Like he has recorded it.
He turned his body sideways, keeping his head facing forwards to see the mirror. Now he could see them clearly.
His spines.
"You g-gots spines!" The voice echoed in his head.
"O' course we aren't humans! You g-gots spines! O' course we aren't humans! You g-gots spines! You g-gots spines!" It turned into a taunt, a demonic chant. "You g-gots spines! You ain't human!"
The Spine shut his photoreceptors tightly, in a futile attempt to stop the voice of Rabbit as it became more and more unnerving. He brought his hands to his head and covered his ears.
"You ain't human! You ain't human! H-H-Haha! You ain't human!"
"Stop it." The Spine told himself. Or more, told that disgusting voice.
"You ain't human! You g-gots spines!"
The man of silver metal opened his photoreceptors to look in the mirror again. At his spines.
If it wasn't for those things, those awful weapons that just seemed to slide out seamlessly even when he didn't want them to, he could feel more human.
The first step to truly becoming human.
He just needed to get rid of them.
~
Rabbit kicked her feet, sitting on a bench in a random hallway she didn't know the name of and petting what appeared to be a large stuffed bunny. She sang rather loudly, her melodious voice carrying through the halls.
She had sat there to brush her hair and talk to her cute bunny (which she had apparently decided to name Isabella), but had managed to lose the hairbrush (It fell under the bench). So she decided to sit and talk and sing.
And the she was so rudely interrupted by the sound of screeching metal and screaming.
"Aw, it mus' be a Thursday!" Rabbit joked, tugging on her bunny's ear.
Then the screeching and screaming got louder.
"Friday?" Louder still.
And this was when Rabbit decided to drop Isabella the bunny and find out what was making this terrible noises.
After all, yesterday, not today, was Wednesday, the designated 'Screechy-Screamy Metal Day'.
~
The Spine held, in his trembling hands, one of his spines.
It dripped oil and dug even into the titanium of the robot's palms.
He looked in the mirror.
He had pulled it out.
One down.
Only a few more to go, right?
He reached behind him and grabbed onto one of the bigger spines, that more noticeably jutted out on occasion and was easier to hold.
He was careful to make sure his hands would not slip.
His grip was firm.
The Spine let out a strong yank. The pain was unbelievable. The sound of metal scratching against metal filled his audioreceptors and the horrible feeling of warm oil running down his back gave him chills. But the spine was not out of his back yet. So he did not stop yanking. He let out a cry of pain of the blade cut through other metal parts nearby it as it shifted and tugged and jerked about.
The metal blade was torn out of The Spine's back with a sickening crunch, a spurt of oil, and a hissing sound from The Spine himself. Another down.
~
Rabbit rushed down various hallways quickly, increasing her speed as a second chorus of screeching metal and screaming arose.
She was closer, thank God, but this all sounded so agonizing. She turned and entered the Hall of Mirrors. This was a newer hall that not even she had been able to explore yet.
The glitchy robot Rabbit gasped in shock and horror as her photoreceptors took in the grim scene.
The Spine - her brother, hunched over and leaning against a mirror for support as he held one of his own spines in his hand.
He had ripped it out.
No.
Nononono.
What happened?
Why?
How?
When?
"Spine!" Rabbit cried, rushing towards him. She was shocked when he shoved her away violently, oil dripping from his eyes like tears.
"You said it yourself. I-I-I'm not human. I had - HAVE these a-awful spines." His voice began glitching, which was never a good sign if your name was The Spine.
"Spine, S-Spine n-n-no! I-I didn't m-m-mea-mean it l-like that!" Rabbit took the spine from her brother's hand, but hissed as it cut through her thumb like butter and forced her to drop it.
"S-Spine!!" She cried once more, grabbing onto her brother's shoulder.
He fell to the ground, twitching some.
She knelt down and shook him. "Th'Spine! Th'Spine, p-plea-please!" She sobbed.
There was no answer.
He had stopped twitching.
She sobbed harder and shook harder.
"Brother..."