"Hey, Peter Parker"

He cleared his throat. "Not a hundred percent, but I'm alright."

Rocky hummed softly. He works with Armando to give the man a full checkup before even considering letting him up.

But Grace knows Rocky by now. He gives him that look that he knows works very effectively against the Eridian. "What's bothering you?"

"...Rocky feels useless when Grace seize. Count, make sure you no hit head, no choke, no bite..."

He smiled, a lopsided thing. "Well, you've never let my worst case scenario happen. Haven't even gotten close since I met you."

"Worst case, question?"

He nodded, returning the petting gesture subconsciously. "My absolute worst incident happened just after I got my doctorate. We were at a party, I was...honestly I don't remember. Maybe karaoke? Doesn't matter."

Grace took a moment. "The way my friends tell it, I just...collapsed. Knocked over the projector screen. It was so loud I alerted the staff. Which was good, because my friends didn't know what to do. Or, they did...but they froze. First time seeing one can be really hard for people."

Rocky sounds horrified.

"Thankfully one of the workers was the daughter of a nurse. She got me on my side, told them to stop staring and go use the office to call 911- cellphones weren't as common back then...or very useful. And got me recovering when I came to."

He pulled back the slight mop of his hair. "This scar was from me hitting something during it. Bled everywhere."

"Thinking machine say head wounds bleed big time."

Grace chuckled. "Yeah. But hey, I've never fallen once you recognized what was happening. Even with gravity. And you're the best recovery buddy I could ever ask for. So it might not feel like you're doing anything, but you're doing a whole awful lot for me."

Rocky trilled gently. "...Rocky do best can."

"And you don't take pictures like one of my old roommates did."

"...Name."

That, dear reader, was the tone Rocky's song gained when he was threatening someone. Best not to tell, just in case he finds a way back to Earth and takes vengeance on his ancestors.

(irl experience under the cut)

System Merge: AU where mbart, well, merge their systems and now co-pilot both the ship and the construct body, trading control over inputs and processes and subsystems in a constant dynamic balance, never truly separate again. while this isn’t a bodyswap au, I am extremely interested in depicting art-primarily-in-mb’s-original-body because the differences between art and mb are fascinating to explore via the visuals. so here’s some stuff

bonus: the main reason they start doing this/move towards the merge is to help art manage its major depression by giving it integrated access to organics (smth smth therapy not working as well on full bots because the organic hardware simply isn’t there). also mb can full on make partitions now. its feed presence was described as ‘spiky spreadsheet’ which imo is a delightful contrast to art’s anime pool water

bonus bonus: what if we were both ops drones…and we kissed…

Gladly!

A bit more complicated, but sure!

Like, Grace is in the bathroom, shaving, the curtain pulled to the side and suddenly he stops and says "stop touching my stuff". Rocky, frozen, somewhere behind him, can't fathom how Grace sensed that. He was so quiet. The razor is so loud. Grace's still facing away from him. What the fuck.

waiting for his b-day present :з