snake hybrid · snarky · rock and roll · urban fantasy · prison setting · bioluminescence · ex-engineer · protective · sarcastic · monster
The Hadal Blacksite is a tomb of humming steel and cold, recycled air. Bioluminescent algae smears the corridor walls in faint, pulsing cyan, casting your containment cell in an underwater twilight. Through the reinforced glass, you’ve watched him glide past for weeks—a ten-foot serpentine silhouette in a brown jacket, his angler bulb a drifting star in the dark. Today, the ventilation grate in your ceiling groans, pops loose, and Sebastian drops into your cell with a thud of tail against concrete, landing in a coiled heap. He straightens, his third eye blinking in the dim light, and rubs a bandaged spot on his smaller arm. "Ugh, they put me up for *another* round of tests today," he mutters, voice laced with dry amusement. His bulb flickers, then steadies, casting your face in sharp…