Consider: Merstuck Hal and Brobot.
Those two would so obviously not get along. They would fight and bicker like 25/7.
See and Brobot would be the type of person who thinks it’s responsibility to keep track of everyone and protect them. He’d see himself as like a Warrior or some shit, and he’s aggressively protective over his friends, or the people in his mer group. Hal would know this, and he would exploit the hell out of it. He’d purposely put himself into potentially dangerous situations just to get a rise out of Brobot. Like venture into the deeper parts of the sea, where Brobot can’t follow him, and engage in combat with a giant fucking squid or something. And this would annoy the heck out of Brobot because he wouldn’t be able to ‘protect’ Hal or look out for him. And he doesn’t understand why Hal can’t just stay in one place and be a good little fishboi, neglecting to notice that that is exactly what Hal hates doing.
And on Hal’s side, he would be peeved as fuck because Brobot always carries himself as superior to him. Always telling him what to do and not to do, and Hal hates being ordered around. Brobot is constantly undermining Hal and perceiving him as weaker than he actually is. And for that Hal purposely goes out of his way to irk Brobot.
B u t, then there’s also another side to their constant annoying and underestimating each other. They both obvious care about the other, they’re friends. They’re both in the same mer group, so obviously they don’t out right hate each other. Brobot cares a whole fuckton about his fellow mer group members, Hal included. And Hal likes being around Brobot because he presents a challenge. He can go against him, argue, and even put him in his place. Because, really, Brobot would be amongst the only ones who can physically put Hal in his place. Hal is jellyfish based so no one can really touch him without being poisoned. But Brobot also has a high resistance to poison, so he can actually kick Hal’s ass and put him off his high horse. Which helps a lot because if not for that Hal would just be a raging asshole all the damn time. And the same goes the other way. Hal is extraordinarily smart, and when Brobot is getting it in his head that he’s the only one who can do things properly, Hal will sure-as-fuck remind him that he is not all that.
And along with that, Brobot is Hal’s fail safe. They’re the same age, so obviously Hal would confide in him more than he would Lil Seb. Hal is a very social person. He thrives off attention and conversations,which inversely makes him extremely clingy. When his friendship with Dirk starts to deteriorate, Hal is crushed. Dirk is the first friend he’s ever had, and he was the one who saved him and all that. He was extremely invested in Dirk, but Dirk obviously didn’t want to be around him as much. And this kills Hal. Brobot, of course, is the one who notices first. He confronts Hal about it, and they’d end up having a really peaceful moment where neither of them are insulting the other. It’s just peace, silence, and comforting. Since that incident, whenever Hal is extremely upset he will go to Brobot and they will sit in silence until Hal pours his thoughts out and feels better.
Typically, most of Hal’s issues would be Dirk related and Brobot will repeatedly tell Hal to stop visiting the humans because none of them see them as people and going will only hurt Hal. Again, he doesn’t want that to happen because he sees it as his job to protect everybody. And he doesn’t understand why Hal still persists to go even after being called a monster and regarded as less than a human. But Hal is clingy, and he doesn’t want to let go of his connection to the human world, or his connection to Dirk his first friend. And it would be an endless cycle of insults and pain and comfort and I just. Hrrnnnnghn.