I’m fine with trans Flambae, but Trans Robert kills me because that would mean this mf CHOSE to become Robert Robertson III. The only other explanation I’ll accept is if his weirdly progressive yet still misogynistic dad found out he was trans and then Legally changed his name to RR3 before he got the chance to choose a name for himself.
(Either that or he just dngaf and decided to name his kid RR3 regardless of sex which I could totally see him doing and did everything in his power to help his son transition while barely being present because dear god did that man want a son but none of the responsibilities that came with having a kid)
Before notes: weird roomate thing going on here, this ‘chapter’ is just robert inviting phm to stay bc hes guilty about letting him loose his job, also robert refers to himself as mechaman in internal monologue. Next one is gonna be phm packing his shit probably
No beta we die like roberts dad
“Hey, Man, im assuming youve heard already” Phenomaman just keeps staring off into the sky. Hes laying upside down on flambaes car this time. he looks a lot like a kicked puppy and mechaman winces a little as he realizes hes talking to him like one. “I wanted to let you know that its not a you thing, there were a lot of reasons that i had to choose waterboy for the team,”
“I know of the reasons you refer to Robert Robertson, i have been made entirely undone by my breakup with the blonde blazer.”
“No, im not talking about your breakup blues, theres practical stuff behind this”
Phenomamans eyes move to roberts and he shifts his weight; making the aluminum creak like an automaton on some midevil streatching rack.
“Ok first of all, my strategy, ive spent literal days of my life optimizing who goes on what jobs where, if i add you to the mix it would be like chucking a brick at a balance scale.”
“Do you really think i could make such a difference in your team if i couldnt even make a difference in my own relationship?”
“No, man seriously, stop that. Youre literally the best superhero of the era; we all have shitty personal stuff happen that puts us out of the game for a while. Its been like what? Three days? Youll be back in no time, thing is though, if i dont take this chance on waterboy, who will? Hes a good egg and he needs expirience on the force before he can start doing anything big.”
“So, you believe that it is enevitable that someone will ‘take a chance on me’?”
Mechaman nods lightly, “yea, man,”
Phenomaman nods back, “okay Robert Robertson. What should i do while i wait for someone to ‘take a chance on me’?”
Mechaman puts his hands on his hips and sighs, “ so the obvious answer is freelance heroing, but i dont really know if thats what you need right now? If you need a place to crash while youre figuring it out you can stay at my place,”
Phenomaman touches his finger to his chin ponderingly, “yes, maybe sharing a domicile with another being would be beneficial,”
“A friend, man”
Phenomaman shows teeth at this, in some weird sad faximile of a smile. Mechaman walks over to the hood of the car and pulls out his notepad and pen. “Heerreee is my address,” he finishes writing and holds out the ripped piece of paper to Phenomaman “take it”
Phenomaman reaches out and takes it between his index finger and thumb.
“Also maybe dont go around compacting peoples cars, flambaes an asshole so he totally deserves it, but its generally not good pratice.”
“Okay Robert, i suppose we will meet again when i ‘move in’”
“Cool, man, ill see you then” mechaman turns on his heel and heads back to the office. Not the worst way to spend his 15 minutes, at least Phenomaman has a place to mope that isnt the parking lot of his old job.
The end of chapter 1!!! Post notes:
I dont have an ao3 so if you wanna repost thats great but lmk so i can stalk the comments
I plan on keeping this thing going until the passion dies so well see what happens
Im not as creative as a lot of you with explicit content but i do have a zinger or two for this one speculative biology is my fav
Au where he manages to keep both sonar and coop by doing some shady shit
User xandar-yee said some shit about robert taking on his family name as part of the mechaman mantle and i was like fuck yea that cooks so im stealing it
Robert is trans because fuck you
Poaching some concepts from alien sex ed because its a literary classic
There will be a wedding very soon!
Robert is friends with both the ladies here and theres a work groupchat/facebook group thing
