Grace blinks, lifting his head up from the cool metal of the lab table where he’s been nursing a headache for the last hour. Caffeine withdrawal, he thinks, having finally run out of coffee four months into their four year journey to Erid.
“Thirty—uh…” His mind blanks for a second, forgetting to calculate the four years he spent in a coma, and the still slightly patchy memories that have come back from his life. “Thirty-six, I think? Give or take a year or two.”
Or: Rocky finds out how long humans live and crashes out.
linked to ao3 here
—
Rocky is being weirder than usual.
Ever since Grace gave him his own laptop (“portable Earth thinking machine, Grace!”) he’s been squirrelled away doing his own personal research on humanity. So far this has included: watching the entirety of Grey’s Anatomy, reading the entire Wikipedia on radiation, which then led to the Chernobyl incident and watching every documentary he could find, and getting frighteningly into Blue’s Clues even though he can’t even see color so Grace has no idea what he gets out of it.
“Grace how old question?”
And he keeps asking questions like that.
(Other questions that have been asked: "Grace healthy before trip?" He thinks so, although he can't remember his last check-up. He assumed he had one at mission control. "Grace healthy now?" Yes, according to Mary and Armando, though there are limits to what exactly they can check. And how long it takes for exposure to radiation to turn into cancer. Not that he tells Rocky this.)
Grace blinks, lifting his head up from the cool metal of the lab table where he’s been nursing a headache for the last hour. Caffeine withdrawals, he thinks, having finally run out of coffee four months into their four year journey to Erid.
“Thirty—uh…” His mind blanks for a second, forgetting to calculate the four years he spent in a coma, and the still slightly patchy memories that have come back from his life. “Thirty-six, I think? Give or take a year or two.”
When Rocky doesn’t say anything, he lifts his head to see Rocky watching him from his xenonite ball.
“Why?” he asks, squinting as pain pulses faintly behind his eyes. He really should go lay down and ask for Mary to dim the lights.
Rocky makes a series of tonal noises that Grace can’t comprehend and Grace frowns at that. It’s been awhile since neither he nor the translator can pick up on Rocky’s words.
“Grace need rest,” Rocky says, which he knows isn’t what he said before. But his head hurts so he lets it go.
“Ugh,” he says, face smushed against the cool table.
“Grace go lay down now,” Rocky says in that firm, no-nonsense voice that Grace has learned not to disobey. The problem is that Grace thinks if he gets up now he might throw up. This headache might be veering more towards a migraine than he thought.
“Gimme a sec,” he mumbles, taking deep, even breaths through his nose to steel himself, finally stumbling onto his feet with all the grace (heh) of a baby gazelle.
“F–fudge,” he pants, grasping on Rocky’s xenonite ball to not fall over.
Usually Rocky protests when he does that (“Am not furniture, Grace!”) but he must look worse than he thought because Rocky doesn’t say anything, instead pressing closer to stabilize him.
“Ugh,” he says, head aching with pain. “Sorry.”
“What wrong? What wrong with Grace?”
“‘S just a headache,” he mumbles as he slowly makes his way to their bedroom, blinking hard against the white spots in his vision.
“Not like other headaches Grace has had.”
Rocky moves with him, keeping his ball under Grace’s hand for stability, and Grace is so grateful for him it hurts.
Grace concentrates on breathing, all but collapsing when he reaches his bed.
“Mary?” he says, muffled against his pillow.
“Yes, Dr. Grace?”
“Dim the lights, please.”
“Of course, Dr. Grace.”
He exhales in relief when the dorm goes dark.
“Grace? What wrong Grace?”
The sound of his computerized voice is blaring and he reaches blindly for the laptop to turn it down lower.
“Yeah, Rock. ‘s a little worse than my usual headaches. ‘S called a…uh.” His mouth feels fuzzy. “Migraine. Just…need some sleep.”
He can feel himself starting to drift and he hears the patter of Rocky’s steps as he slips into his own sleeping area.
“Rocky will watch,” he says and Grace hums, finally letting the sweet relief of darkness take him.
When Grace wakes up approximately twelve hours later, the migraine is gone, leaving behind just the telltale exhaustion and grogginess. He rolls over on the bed and squints his eyes open to see Rocky with his laptop, his screen-reading device aimed at it.
“Has Grace been drugging self question?”
Grace blinks, rubbing his eyes. “Huh?”
“Rocky learn Grace wake-up drink is drug. And now drug gone so Grace going through 🎶🎵”
“Uh, need word,” Grace says.
“When stop taking drug,” he says impatiently and Grace adds the word <withdrawal> to their dictionary.
Which is how Grace finds himself explaining caffeine and caffeine withdrawal to an alien species that doesn’t even like to eat around other people, much less ingest something that is objectively poisonous to their bodies.
“Humans crazy!” Rocky says, spinning in his enclosure in distress. “Humans fragile, delicate, live so little, crazy crazy crazy! Why Grace try to poison self question?”
Grace laughs. “As soon as humans are born, we start dying. You know, there’s a theory that oxygen is actually toxic to us—it just kills us very slowly.” He shrugs. “And with the amount of radiation I’ve probably been exposed to at this point…I’ll be lucky to get ten years more, if that.” That’s if he makes it to Erid at all, which he doesn’t say. He knows talking like that upsets Rocky.
“Grace not die,” Rocky says, stomping one of his feet agitatedly. “Rocky fix. Grace not die!”
“Grace not die! Grace not die!” Rocky sounds more and more upset, the pitch of his voice going higher and higher until Grace starts wincing, the sound piercing to his still sensitive head.
“Rock—Rocky, stop. Rocky, that hurts!”
Rocky immediately quiets and presses up against the barrier, hands splayed as Grace grunts, rubbing his temples to ease the pain.
“What’s going on with you?” he asks after a moment, bewildered.
“Nothing. Rocky fine.”
Grace notes that Rocky has pitched his voice low this time, careful not to trigger another headache.
“Bullcrap,” he says. “You’ve been weird for the past week. Watching me all the time, asking about my health. And don’t give me that excuse about our trip—I’ve still got plenty of coma slurry and food and I’m not even close to starving yet.”
Rocky shifts back on four of his legs, the other still on the barrier, then presses forward again, like he can’t decide if he wants to run or stay close. Another weird trait he’s developed. Grace knows they’re close—too close, some would say—and Rocky has never really known what personal space is, but he’s gotten even clingier lately, constantly checking on Grace and monitoring him and bumping into his legs with his xenonite ball.
“Rocky need to know Grace is okay.”
“Of course I’m okay, pal.” Grace furrows his brows. “I promise most humans drink caffeine, and a lot of us get migraines. Neither are gonna kill me.”
Rocky still seems upset, which Grace would marvel at being able to tell considering Rocky doesn’t even have a face, but right now he’s too concerned, pressing his hand to where Rocky’s is splayed on the xenonite barrier above his bed. Even through the wall, Rocky’s hand feels warm.
“Grace is friend,” Rocky says and like always, those words threaten to make tears fall from Grace’s eyes.
“Rocky is friend too,” Grace says gently. “And friends talk to each other, you know? They tell each other what’s wrong.”
“Grace take long time to tell Rocky that Grace not going back to Earth,” he points out and Grace winces.
“Well, I’ve never claimed to not be a hypocrite,” he says.
“Need word.”
“Uh.” He thinks for a moment. “When someone gives advice or makes a statement that they consider true but they don’t follow that advice, that means they’re a hypocrite.” He should know, he thinks wryly, the coward that he now knows he is.
“Humans strange.” Rocky’s voice is subdued. “Why say what don’t mean all the time question?”
Grace shrugs helplessly, watching Rocky’s little fingers tap on the xenonite. “We’re weird, contradictory creatures who like lying and saying what we don’t mean even though we place a lot of value on loyalty and truth. I don’t know if there’s a reason for it—the state of human nature is something philosophers on Earth have been arguing about for years.” He pauses. “But…truly Rocky. Are you okay?”
Rocky keeps his hand on the xenonite, next to Grace’s, but he tucks the rest of his legs under him in what Grace internally calls a cat loaf. The one time he said that out loud and showed Rocky a video, Rocky didn’t talk to him for a solid 24 hours, so he doesn’t voice the thought.
“Using portable Earth thinking machine to learn about humans while Grace asleep. Lots to learn. Rocky not a scientist like Grace but want to learn about Grace’s kind.”
Grace presses his hand more firmly to Rocky’s, wishing they could touch for real. He wouldn’t mind more marks on his skin to match the one on his forearm where Rocky dragged him along the ship to save him.
“Rocky learn about many things—humans like flow-rhythm-movement like Eridians, like having family. Family different than on Erid, but same too. Humans cruel sometimes—Eridians also cruel. Humans fascinating. Think Rocky would like most of them. But worst thing about humans. About Grace—die. Die die die. So quick. Rocky fix. Grace not die. Rocky just met Grace. Grace no die so fast. Rocky need fix. Rocky need fix.”
Oh. Oh, man.
“Rocky…” Grace starts, swallowing hard.
“One hundred Earth years maybe if lucky. Grace already 36. Seventy Earth years, if lucky. Rocky live almost 400 more Earth years than Grace. Rocky must fix.”
Grace inhales shakily, using his free hand to wipe the tears that have started sliding down his cheeks.
“Well, pal,” he says, laughing wetly. “If you find a way to prolong human life, you’ll have solved a problem humanity has been trying to fix since the beginning of our history.”
“And then you say sick,” Rocky continues, like Grace hadn’t said anything. “You say word we don’t have for type of sickness, but Rocky heard before from Earth media. Sickness humans can’t heal. Take you away even faster. Grace…Grace cannot die. Rocky watch entire crew die. Grace cannot die.”
“Rock—this isn’t the same as your crew. Humans just…we don’t live as long as you guys. But you’ve gotta understand—however much time I have left, the fact that I get to spend the rest of it with you? Not alone? I told you this once and I meant it—you’ve given me everything. I had nothing before you, not really. I had my kids, my students. I loved them, I miss them. I hope they’re okay. And I had a few casual friends, sure.”
He had never been as alone as Stratt had made him seem, but he remembers going home to his silent apartment, eating a still-cold microwave burrito for dinner. The days had been fine—plenty to do, enough people to chat with. But the nights? Not even a dog, Stratt had said.
“You’re my best friend, you know? Not sure if Eridians have, like, levels to relationships like humans do, but you’re it for me, buddy. I picked you. However much time I’ve got—I’m happy I get to spend it with you. Whether that’s ten years or sixty years from now.”
“Is not enough.”
Grace inhales sharply, his hand flexing on the warm xenonite. Rocky’s twitches in response.
“Oh,” he says weakly.
(“Am I expendable? Is that why you want me?” he remembers asking, so long ago.
”That’s not the only reason.” Stratt and a crowd of big-name government people watched him, like he was the little alien bug under the microscope.
”It’s almost like…you don’t care if I die.” A pause, a conference. Stratt’s pale red hair dull in the fluorescent lighting. “Hold on, you have to talk about it?”
“The consensus here is that it would be preferable if you did not die.”)
“Is not enough,” he says again, insistent, and Grace sniffs hard, scrubbing at his face with his sleeve.
“Okay,” he says shakily. “Okay. I don’t—what do we do about this, pal? I can’t make myself live longer. That’s not how it works.” He wants to live—that’s always been Grace’s problem. Even when he had nothing he wanted to live. Now he has Rocky and he’s hurtling towards a planet he might not ever get to, and even if he does, who knows if they’ll be able to find a way to make an environment he can survive in. And still, despite all that, he wants so desperately to live.
Rocky keens softly, a plaintive note that rends Grace in half with its anguish and he bowls over, crying openly on the xenonite.
“S-sorry, I know this is gross,” he says but he can’t stop, some kind of feedback loop between Rocky’s preemptive grief-croon and Grace’s fragile emotional state just making him sob harder.
“Grace want to live too question? Grace not come to terms like said before question?”
“Yeah,” he rasps, nails scratching against the xenonite in the impossible task of trying so hard to hold Rocky’s hand. Wishing he could so badly. “Yeah. Grace want to live. Statement.”
“Rocky will fix.”
“Okay,” he whispers, smushing his wet face against the barrier. Rocky presses up, his carapace resting against Grace’s forehead, like it did when Grace found him on the beached Blip-A. Grace exhales, tension loosening in his shoulders. He still can’t see a way out of this immutable part of being human, but. Grace is selfish. Grace wants to live. Rocky wants Grace to live, with a desperation that borders on fanaticism, a need that awes him. Nobody has ever wanted Grace to live, and certainly not as badly as Rocky does.
“Okay,” he says again, voice thick with tears. “Rocky will fix.”
k but imagine Rocky wanting to learn about how humans became the apex predators of their planet so he has Grace “hunt” him in the biodome as an experiment and during it he thinks Grace isn’t trying or taking it seriously which is bad bad bad because this is for research purposes
only for Rocky to get more and more tired as the experiment goes on just to realize that Grace isn’t which makes him panic so he puts as much distance as he can between them and finds a (hopefully) safe spot to sleep and when he wakes up the human is crouching over him like “got youuu” and Rocky has never shrieked so damn loud before in his life
sooo this inspired me and then prev's tags did too:
so there's a mini fic under the cut I smashed out in like an hour. kinda low effort but whatever. might keep it going on ao3 with more little experiments
At some point, Grace of course realizes it's living in a zoo enclosure. Then comes a Discussion.
"Rocky."
It sat Rocky down and brought up the subject by being uncharacteristically blunt and saying "Look, I would've appreciated a heads-up before becoming a zoo attraction."
Which sent Rocky into a total panic - it told the xenology team to not let Grace know! Now Grace is going to be offended or mad about being a zoo animal! There's no way to sugarcoat this! - and had it screeching out apologies. It won't be able to withstand Grace being mad at it, because the last time Grace was mad at Rocky Grace ignored Rocky. IGNORED. The silent treatment had grated so bad on Rocky's nerves it felt like it was going to go insane.
"ROCKY! CHILL OUT!"
Rocky slows. Grace is still kneeling from where it had settled after first saying 'we need to talk' (worst words in the universe, by the way). Rocky doesn't get any closer, just fiddles nervously with its fingers.
"Rocky, look. This isn't- I'm not mad about it. Honest! I kinda…" It rubs the back of its 'neck' with a hand. "Kinda already figured it out a while ago."
Grace laughs, flashing its 'teeth'. "I mean, we'd do the same thing on Earth if this was all reversed. I get it! I'm an alien, I knew this was a possibility."
"Along with dissection," Rocky grumbles. "And starving to death. Does not mean good thing. Does not mean Grace happy about it."
"But I am! Look, Eridians are learning from me, right?"
Rocky hums a begrudging confirmation.
"Then I'm happy about it! You know me. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Plus, it could be worse."
That is true, all of it. Rocky sighs. "Okay. If Grace is sure Grace not mad at Rocky…"
"I'm sure, buddy. C'mere." Grace reaches forward and wraps Rocky in a 'hug'. Rocky accepts it, reciprocates, feeling the familiar noises of Grace's organs.
"Team will ask more questions," Rocky warns. "Want to do experiments on Solean behavior."
"Oho, boy. I'm looking forward to that."
And Grace isn't lying, and neither is Rocky: within days of the conversation, the xenology team is approaching Grace and asking many more questions about Solean things, especially enrichment and differences between their respective biological functions. They already were, of course, but something seems to have emboldened them.
What everyone finds absolutely ridiculous is Solean hunting, though.
"Sorry," Historian Lilith wheezes out. It's almost laughing too hard to keep going. "You're saying- you- Soleans just walk your prey to death? And you became the apex predators on your planet? How does that work?!"
Every other member of the team present is cackling, including Rocky: Grace alone stands sober, pouting in the way it does when it's offended.
"What's so unbelievable about that?! It's a very effective way to hunt!"
Rocky snorts. "Grace lying. No way walking is efficient! Ambush is better. Example!" And Rocky lunges playfully for Grace, relishing the squeal and the scramble backwards. Then Grace stands up taller. "Okay! I'll show you. Who wants to get hunted?"
Everyone instantly steps back, leaving Rocky at the forefront. Figures. All that talk about how it's not realistic and yet they scatter at the idea of being the prey. Frankly, Rocky can't blame them - nobody wants to be hunted, after all, especially by an alien that breathes oxygen - but it raises a hand anyways. "I volunteer. Grace hunt me. Then we know truth once and for all."
The grin that split Grace's face somehow seems even creepier than usual. It goes off to prepare, murmuring about contacting the substitute teacher that takes over when Grace gets sick. Huh?
Rocky disregards that and prepares by simply making sure the atmosphere suit is fully ready. It knows Grace isn't really going to hurt it, but it has to reassure several members of the xenology team and Adrian, who's come to watch, of that fact. "Seriously? It's Grace. Grace won't hurt me. Grace can't even hurt me!" It starts to mutter about how ridiculous they're all being when someone points out that Grace could potentially break the atmosphere suit with the abundance of rocks in the enclosure, trapping Rocky in the deadly Solean-safe atmosphere, which stops Rocky dead.
It's Atmosphere Specialist Superman, well-known to be paranoid even at the best of times. Eridians have no 'faces' like Soleans, but Rocky deliberately rotates towards the idiot just to hammer in the absolute stupidity of what Superman just said, and then smacks Superman so hard several team members have to pull it off of the scientist. It's swearing and screeching the entire time, and it takes a few Earth hours to calm down properly.
The very idea of Grace deliberately hurting Rocky in such a way - when Rocky knows for a fact the scars from the Adrian Incident are still fully apparent to the Solean senses, when Grace spent months freaking out over every little sneeze or cough Rocky made when in the prototypes of the atmosphere suit - is preposterous. Grace would never ever hurt Rocky like that, would never do anything to expose Rocky to its atmosphere ever again even accidentally. They're both so very careful about it. Rocky is still steaming about Superman's insinuations when it walks inside Grace's enclosure.
Grace is waiting by the airlock. Rocky huffs. "Unfair. Go farther. Too close for start, cheater."
Grace holds up its hands in the almost-happy movement ("When I put my hands up like this, this means surrender.") and steps away a good distance. It's still smiling. "Not gonna matter, Rock," it calls. "I'm about to get you back for alllll those times you ambushed me on the trip here."
"Yeah, right!" Rocky shifts, preparing to run. "We see who is better predator."
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
"GO!"
Rocky bolts. The sand is hard to traverse, its arms slipping both from the xenonite covering and the loose grains, but it already knows it's a faster runner than Grace. And when it clicks to see where Grace is, Grace is so far behind it's laughable. Oh, this is gonna be easy.
Rocky reaches the edge of the biodome, a little worn out from the run. Luckily, it just had a sleep cycle, so it won't need to sleep for another few Solean days. Grace is out of range. HA!
It meanders back closer until it can hear Grace, leisurely strolling along the beach. "What wrong, Grace? Too slow?" It calls out.
A ripple of laughter comes from Grace. "You'll be eating your words soon enough." It sticks its hands in its pockets.
Rocky snorts, and decides to continue to be a little shit. It goes back and darts around Grace, mocking it, staying juust far enough away where if Grace lunges Grace won't even be able to touch it. Grace does give chase eventually, but Rocky just carefully climbs up the cliff face. Damn, humans are stupid! Every time Rocky thinks they're not so bad, Grace does something like this. It's not even chasing Rocky! It's just slowly following.
The biodome cycles over to night, Rocky can tell by the click! of the flashlight Grace carries. It settles on top of the cliff, enjoying the sounds of Grace trying its damndest to climb the cliff. Technically it's well past the time Grace should be asleep, but they're both too stubborn to call quits and the xenology team isn't in a hurry to interrupt this glimpse into Solean hunting methods.
Rocky has to run again when Grace reaches the top of the cliff and starts to chase it again. This keeps going, Rocky running and mocking Grace, Grace just continuing on, unshakable. Rocky only starts to worry when night falls again and Grace is still able to catch up to it!
It yells to Grace, who's a slightly shorter distance behind by now. "Grace need sleep."
"Grace has slept." Grace shouts back. "Remember, I can wake up easily. I've been sleeping and eating regularly, I promise."
"Good!" Rocky lets itself feel some relief that Grace isn't neglecting its health for this experiment. Then it goes right back to insults. "Then Grace have no excuse to be so slow!" It makes a 'fart' noise in Grace's direction and scuttles off, laughing at the offended sound Grace makes.
Day comes again, and Rocky gets frustrated. What in the actual fuck?! Something's not right. Grace has been at this for two Earth days and nights now. If Grace was going to catch Rocky, shouldn't that have happened by now? Is Grace even taking this experiment seriously?
Well, Rocky does know Grace is taking it seriously, because Grace is doing it. Hasn't given up. Hasn't called it quits. So the only reason why must be because this persistence way of hunting is, in fact, not effective, and Grace is just too stubborn to admit it! HA! Get wrecked, Grace.
Frustration turns to glee, which then curdles into nervousness as the day still goes on with no sign of Grace stopping the pursuit. They've both been running in circles: the biodome's not that big, all told, and Rocky can't access a quarter of it due to the fake ocean. No matter how long Rocky runs, there is always the inevitable appearance of Grace on the horizon, and Rocky refuses to entertain any other notion than that the reason for it is the small space. The alternative is too scary to consider.
And, even scarier, Rocky can feel a sleep cycle is imminent. It's exhausted. All the running it's been doing must have brought the sleep cycle on sooner. And Grace, last Rocky heard, still shows no sign of tiredness. Urgh!
Rocky pushes itself just a little harder, until Grace is far beyond Rocky's range of hearing and Rocky is well hidden: Grace is still on top of the cliffs over by the outer wall of the dome, while Rocky's down below nearer to the water. Then it finds one of the caves. It knows this cave in particular is the science cave, where the xenology team has been watching on the camera feeds and listening to this whole debacle, and where Grace usually goes to talk to the xenology team about things.
"I have to sleep," Rocky manages. "Can't keep going." It collapses, and the world vanishes. No worries. Grace won't catch up, and if it does, it won't think to look for Rocky here.
When Rocky wakes, it first hears a clamoring from the observation room. Many voices shouting over one another in panic. It sends a spike of fear through Rocky, and it taps at the floor to hear better - and nearly has a cardiac failure then and there, screaming louder than it's ever screamed before in its life.
Grace is standing right. over. Rocky. Looming, really, and it's never sounded taller or more ominous.
"Hiiii."
Then Grace plunges down, wraps its arms around Rocky. "Gotcha!" It opens its mouth and presses it to Rocky's carapace, leaking saliva all over the suit and pressing its tongue to the xenonite as if it's trying to eat Rocky.
Rocky shudders in disgust and cusses Grace out with every word it knows, smacking it lightly with an arm. "CREEPY! Scared Rocky, nearly kill Rocky with heart attack! No no no bad Grace! BAD BAD BAD GRACE!" This is not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time it's struck such raw fear into Rocky.
Grace is laughing, sending vibrations through Rocky's body. "I told you," it says in that light singing kind of voice it likes to do. "I tooooold youuuu! Persistence predators, baby!"
"That no count! You wait until I fall… asleep…" A horrible idea begins to dawn on Rocky. "No." There's no way. There's no way. It's too awful to think of, and yet it's the only possibility.
"Well-" Grace settles back, crosses its legs underneath it and turns towards the window to the observation room: where, by the way, everyone's gone silent with their own realization of what exactly Grace just did. "You guys didn't let me finish explaining earlier. See, a lot of prey animals on Earth are very fast for short sprints, like Rocky here." It gives Rocky a noogie. "But they can only run for so long before they have to stop moving to catch their breath. So humans evolved to be able to endure long stretches of exercise without having to stop for air. We chase an animal, track it using its footprints or the direction it was going in, keep following it, and then eventually when the animal's forced to stop, we catch up and kill it for our food. So that's what I just did!" Grace flashes its teeth again. It's terrifyingly happy about all of this.
Meanwhile, Rocky quite literally cannot move from fear. Grace has sparked fear before: their first meeting, when Rocky had no clue what to expect but it certainly wasn't some squishy cold bag of meat that breathed oxygen of all things; over Adrian the planet, when the ship had been sent into an uncontrolled spin and Rocky had known what it would have to do to save Grace and Earth and Erid all at once even if it meant death; for a few moments when Rocky had been floating in its tomb, the original Eridian ship, and had heard a cracking-thumping sort of noise coming from outside.
All of those instances were tiny bits of dust next to this type of fear. The revelation that Rocky's wonderful and clumsy friend could have, just now, very easily killed Rocky in Rocky's sleep and that its species did so regularly was the singular most horrifying concept anyone could ever have imagined. Grace probably had no idea that the Solean way of hunting was the stuff of the worst Eridian horror stories. Something that just kept going, kept chasing you until you were forced to rest? Fucking WHY?! WHY, of all the aliens Rocky could have EVER brought home, was it a species THAT HUNTED LIKE THAT?! WHY?!
"That-" it weakly starts - still feeling like it was about to, as the Soleans say, 'shit its pants' - "Very… nice, Grace. Thank for demonstration."
It crawls out from under Grace's arm. "Back soon," and lunges for the airlock. It needs… more than a little bit of processing time. That whole thing was fucking disturbing.
Grace just waves, oblivious to Rocky's internal turmoil. "See you later, Rocky!"
Rewatching Book 3 of ATLA and cringing at how dumb the Iroh fanservice plot twists are:
"Iroh lied about killing the last dragon before Zuko was born because he wanted to protect them! They actually deemed him pure of heart and worthy to learn the truest form of firebending🥰" .......... even though he continued to be a violent general in an evil genocidal empire long after that...? I'm questioning the dragons' wisdom now.
"Actually Iroh and all the other old guys in the show are senior members of a super secret society working for the good of the world!!" ..... even though one of them flat out refused to teach the Avatar waterbending for misogynistic reasons, another refused to teach the Avatar firebending for personal reasons, and Iroh was an evil war general barely 6 years ago so I suppose he's only a recent member?
I love AtLA as much as anyone, but yeah it is, uh. Pretty abundantly clear that the White Lotus didn't exist in the writers' room until at least season two, and they didn't have a full idea of its role in the narrative probably until season three. The timeline on Iroh "Did A War Against All The Rest Of You" Azulonson joining and being trusted so high in the membership is also. Very questionable.
Which is all to say I think it would be perfect if we got to the season three end game and realized Iroh was actually still an errand boy initiate in the White Lotus. And Piandao pulls aside the main tent flap to reveal our Supreme Grand Lotus:
Gran-Gran
Canonically traveled the world without Committing A War, thus reasonably having met and networked with most of these other people in a positive way? Check
Saw the Avatar and told her only grandkids to go help that kid ASAP, don't worry Gran-Gran's just going to stay riiiiiight here while you're gone and definitely not relive the excitements of her youth? Check
Would recontextualize Pakku's constant sour grapes face (and his reaction to seeing Katara's necklace) to "my ex left me and now she's my superior, if I don't train her grandkid she will mobilize a global movement to Kick My Ass"? CHECK
A mini PHM comic about Grace growing old. I wanted to explore two ideas: Rocky dealing with Grace’s dementia and Grace wanting to donate his body to science. I spend so much time on figuring out the dialogue (some part still feel clunky to me) but I hope it express my thoughts on where I think Grace’s life would go :)
I cant even begin to imagine how Rocky could even being to understand that humans have sight.
Some Eridian biologist somewhere: What do you mean that humans have specialised light sensing organs that adapted to perceive a section of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum? And they can do "see" to the changes speed and direction of the radiation, after it hits an object? And they have 2 on them so they can use echolocation to percive depth, shape and texture with the radiation?
Honestly trying to understand echolocation as a human would be weird but not impossible because we can tell distance and direction of sound, but to a creature that doesn't even have a basic "light yes/ light no" light sensing organ, this must sound insane.
Wait! No it's worse than insane! I just remembered that they know nothing about radiation! That's so much worse!
URGH. Emmerich Holyblade and I just went to The Ceremony to receive our RPG Job Titles, and he OBVIOUSLY got Chosen Hero Sword Saint. So now he's gonna set out to kill the Demon Lord of Darkness.
Me? I just got Dark Mage. Honestly, it's pretty rare, but the job opportunities are also limited. You either get into covert assassination or dungeon raiding.
God, just because we're the only two kids in The Village, Emmerich Holyblade automatically assumes this makes us friends. He doesn't even realize I hate him and his stupid smug swordsman ass.
URGGHHHH he just asked me to join his Grand Hero's Party. fuck. I can't just say no if the Grand Holy King himself is gonna payroll us to do this shit. Whatever man. Let's rock till the Demon Lord of Darkness is dead, and then I can retire and never see Emmerich Holyblade again.
Help me. I've been trying to quit the Grand Hero's Party but Emmerich keeps introducing me as his childhood friend to all the new fucking party members. I hate them all.
The tank Ferron Shieldson gives me bro fists hard enough to bruise. Sister Savantha Healier has tripped over her habit ten times in the past hour.
Elfdame Woodsworth the beautiful elf archer huntress keeps dragging deer carcasses to camp. I'm so tired of venison.
I've been trying to have the Grand Hero's Party kick me out, but instead of undervaluing my Super Secret Invisible Debuff Technique (which looks like I'm just standing there) Emmerich Holyblade figured out it stacks with his Five Phoenix Absolution to hit the damage cap.
Outside of combat, I've done a lot of very invisible low-tier work nobody really needs, such as managing all of our finances and inventory, yet they keep fucking including me and praising my efforts when they're having a drink at the tavern.
Emmerich Holyblade spilled some beer on my shadowy cloak when he slung an arm around my shoulder. His breath stinks.
I'm so tired of camping, honestly. Random Farmers and Shit keep inviting us to stay with them for the night, but their beds suck and I hate the food.
Our reputation really soared when we stopped one of the Four Demonic Kings of the East North South and West from destroying Capital City of the Holy Church Kingdom Nation.
Emmerich Holyblade insists my 70% Paralysis Debuff clutched the entire encounter despite dealing the Super Cool Omega Finisher, so everyone's asking me for autographs.
Shouldn't he know I hate social interaction if he claims to be my "childhood friend"?? LEAVE ME ALONE.
At least Princess Dowed Verily only has eyes for Emmerich Holyblade and his stupidly sculpted biceps. Weird he insists on ignoring her advances, though. Dude, you could be King. What the hell.
Emmerich Holyblade truly is the worst. Princess Dowed Verily tried to have me exiled before the whole court, saying I'm just a leech on the Grand Hero's Party besmirching my "childhood friend"'s good name and status, but Emmerich Holyblade fucking defended me!!!
He said I'm invaluable to this party both as part of our battle plans, our day-to-day tasks, and as his "dearest companion". GROSS!!!
Doesn't he realize this was the PERFECT chance for me to disappear to another country???
Why did I think this Demon Lord of Darkness-slaying shit was a good idea in the first place?? Surely Emmerich Holyblade's boundless enthusiasm to be a do-gooder can't be an infectious disease??
Another day, another trial. We journeyed to the Yggdrasil Holy Nature Origin Forest because it's said the Elves of the Yggrasil Holy Nature Origin Worldtree have the sacred sword Swordexcaliburn, the only weapon capable of permanently killing the Demon Lord of Darkness for good.
Except Elfsdame Woodsworth might be the Holy Nature Origin Princess, or something. I wasn't really paying attention to her dramatic backstory.
After we killed the Holy Nature Origin King (who was really one of the Four Demonic Kings of the East North South and West in disguise), Elfsdame Woodsworth the beautiful elf archer huntress just kinda gave us the sword.
It's sunset right now, and I climbed a tree to just overlook the forest in peace, ALONE, except Emmerich Holyblade "knew I'd do something like this", so now he's HERE. HE ALWAYS DOES THIS!!!!
Blergh. Now we're watching the sun set over the whole Holy Kingdom Church Nation. It's pretty, but that dumbass Emmerich Holyblade isn't even looking at it. Idiot.
By the way, we beat up the other two Four Demonic Kings of the East North South and West, because we don't really have the time to show all this onscreen, you know? Nobody really cares about them anyways.
We've reached the Demon Lord of Darkness's Dark Demonic Castle Keep now, and we're striking tomorrow.
It's my last chance to quit if I don't want to beef it tomorrow (I do not trust Ferron Shieldson to shield me), but Emmerich Holyblade said he can't do it without me. HE, singular?? So everybody else can do it without me??
And to make matters worse, he said he'd tell me something after we beat the Demon Lord of Darkness. Why the hell tell me you're gonna tell me something??? Just tell me in the first place so I can ditch.
And besides, as if anyone could actually kill the goddamn Chosen Hero Sword Saint. At the very least, he's gonna survive tomorrow. Doesn't he realize how stupidly contrived his powerset is?? Dude, as IF.
I told him that, and he ran off. I'm never going to understand him.
One more day, and I'm leaving forever. Grand Holy King better pay up good, or I'm covert assassinating his ass.
Inside the Dark Demon Castle Keep, we had to fight through so many waves of enemies, like Sister Savantha Healier's Evil Twin, who worships the Demon Lord of Darkness instead of the Goddess of Good Stuff.
But mainly I was just standing in the back. Debuffing is a crazy magic drain, so I did get super tired, but the most exciting thing I was involved with was when Sister Savantha Healier's Evil Twin threw her weapon at me in a last ditch attempt to take at least one of us down, but Emmerich Holyblade intercepted it. With his body.
Sister Savantha Healier just healed him after, though, so it's fine. I might've been mincemeat had that hit my squishy self. I'm a proud backliner, okay. But it was still pretty stupid and unnecessary, considering we have Phoenix Blessing Revival Potion Stones.
Demon Lord of Darkness up ahead... Just one more boss and we're doooooone.
Anyways, the Demon Lord of Darkness wasn't even that cool. The orchestra was great though. I gotta see if the piano player survived the Dark Demon Castle Keep's collapse.
Everybody weakened the Demon Lord of Darkness with their own strikes, so Emmerich Holyblade could finish him off properly with the holy sword Swordexcaliburn.
Before he did, he looked at me with these fucking... star-filled eyes and bright smile, which made everybody else also look at me, which made the Demon Lord of Darkness laugh, so I just nodded at Emmerich Holyblade to go kill the fucking Demon Lord of Darkness already.
God, that took so long. I'm taking a vacation. I'm disappearing into a forest without any elves in it and never talking to another person ever again.
At least now I get to know whatever Emmerich Holyblade wants to tell me. It better be good, because it's the last thing he'll ever tell me.
JUNE. JUNE WHEN I GET YOU!!!! aurgh i love these. thank you so much. how did you know i kept imagining emmerich as blonde. AND THE PIANO PLAYER IN THE BACK RHRGH
little doodle for another Flambert fic: Looking Glass by dumpling_dump
Clicked on this fic for the mention of friendship between flambert specifically. And boy did the author deliver! They made me smile a lot here....
edit: the author has a tumblr! @dumplingdumpp Thank you for the lovely fic ^^
the funniest part about danny phantom is that the entirety of the ghost zone somehow decides they have beef with this one 14 year old from illinois in particular. like why don’t you have beef with something that makes sense. like the irs. or the church. like you have all of these cool powers for what? picking fights with teenagers? lame. get a hobby.
Danny Phantom just gets wilder the more you know about it, really.
first of all i gotta say that it's not actually canon that he's from Illinois. the show is just "generic American small city" for his hometown and the fandom took context cues from other parts of the show and decided "Fuck it Illinois makes sense" and just kept that.
But I guarantee you, nothing about the show makes sense when you look at it too closely so take everything with a grain of salt. Yes I'm looking at you, Timeline.
the teenager in question is also kind of a ghost, hence part of the reason why the other ghosts are picking fights with him. He arguably picks a bunch of the fights himself.
it's not just the entirety of the Ghost Zone that get put into the antagonist role in the show either. Danny's other antagonists include:
A literal billionaire (who is also a ghost) (and gets himself elected mayor)
his parents (literally ghost hunters. who also fight the ghosts.)
a circus ringmaster with mind control and reality bending artifacts
Classmates at school who bully Danny
the closest thing we get to an adult who is on Danny's side is Mr. Lancer, who also supports the school bullies
the ghost who impersonated a school counselor and was literally in the role of Danny's therapist for a bit that one episode
A U.S. government agency
a girl he dates was actually being controlled by a dragon ghost and didn't actually want to date him. Have fun with that fallout kid.
the girl he dates for a bit who *wanted* to date him also shows up in costume to shoot him on sight.
his clone shows up and is supposed to be his enemy. he adopts her instead. yes those pronouns are all correct.
she's not really an antagonist but one of his best friends arguably kills him twice. once very much on purpose.
his other best friend and whatever happened in King Tuck.
like it's not enough that this show puts Danny (and friends) against the regular ghosts and the God-Like Being level ghosts and the literal Ghost Tyrant King guy
he can't even catch a break at home either
kid's literally surrounded by people deliberately or accidentally making his life harder, there are no safe Adults, there are barely any safe friends, and he is fourteen and half dead.
and his parents canonically want to rip his alter-ego apart "molecule by molecule" i am not kidding with that one.
Like they made us a sandbox of a Nickelodeon cartoon and just half assed it by grabbing a bunch of two-by-fours, nailing them together... and then sticking them on the beach.
and then people still get mad when the fandom shows up to build sandcastles and dig to china. Yeah, we know they didn't make it That Deep on purpose.
But we're here with the good Tonka Toys anyway and ready to dig.
This post just slapped me in the face (again) with the fact that Danny is just, never safe.
He's never safe.
Home, school, the zone, hanging out with friends, walking down the street, in anotger state; there is nowhere for Danny to go and be safe.
Most ghosts he's met (pretty sure everyone but Frostbite and Pandora), his parents, his friends, Vlad, Jazz; there is almost no one who has not at least once been his enemy.
Can you imagine living like that? At any moment of any day, anywhere he is anyone; even one or both of his best friends, his sister, his mom and dad; anyone could turn around and suddenly become someone he has to fight.
Danny has to be living his life in a perpetual state of adrenaline response. Every waking moment must be spent on a hairpin trigger, ready to fight at the first sign of danger. Can you imagine how much that is going to fuck you up?
My man is struggling and any fics that feature PTSD, cptsd, anxiety, paranoia, or just general mental breakdown? 1000% justified. Canon compliant. More canon than Phantom Planet. (Especially since AGIT retcon'd that trash)
Firm believer that yearning from afar is a dying art and Flambae would be the only survivor left.
Don’t get him wrong, — he could just tell Robert he’s interested.
But he and words don’t get along. If they did, he’d tell Robert he stayed up more than once, trying to map out the constellation of his freckles.
He’d tell him ‘You’re more hero on your five minute break than half the idiots in this city.’
That the world always asked for help. And Robert never told it no. To Flambae, at least, that’s unrepeatable.
But everytime he does, his throat just stops. Because Robert being interested in Flambae’s opinion of him is highly unlikely.
He won’t tell Robert ‘Just eat something good. You get to, now.’ But he will leave home cooked meals in the fridge and write ‘4 Bob Bob, do NOT touch’
He won’t tell Robert ‘I love your dumb jokes. You sound happy when they work.’
But he’ll laugh the loudest at the punchline over comms.
He doesn’t tell Robert ‘ You look tired today. I got you.’
But he picks up groceries on patrol, claiming he just needed retail therapy and over did it.
He picks up Robert’s favorite snacks. Not because Robert told him, but because Flambae kept an eye on his vending machine purchases.
He gets Beef fancy treats. He leaves his car keys on Robert’s desk, because he made a joke about the seats looking comfortable.
And Robert is oblivious to it. Until he realises Flambae isn’t doing these things for anyone else. “…You know, all you had to do was ask.”
And Flambae, surprisingly, does part his lips. Maybe to deflect, or puff his chest and move on.
But he scoffs, averts his eyes. He’d stare at Robert forever, if he didn’t. “…I fucking forgot.”
“You forgot to ask me out?”
“Fuck off. You looked… Happy. Like you were enjoying yourself.” He defends. “I like watching you live, okay? I’d do that even if I wasn’t dating you.”
And Robert doesn’t speak after. Maybe because his voice would give up in the middle. He grabs Flambae’s hand instead.
“I like Mexican.”
“I know. You like that shitty burrito with the jalapeño sauce. Your stomach is gonna fucking explode one day, — BOOM, death by Taco Bell. What am I gonna tell Beef? Do you even think about this shit—“
And Robert listens, because he is interested in Chad’s words, actually.
The hanahaki disease is rare, so rare it doesn't have a cure yet. The only thing that works is being loved back. And Robert just got rejected.
He caught the unrequited love disease AFTER the guy he loves made it clear he will never loves him back. Robert can't believe his own luck. He always knew he was cursed, but this was so on another level he could just laugh at how cartoonishly evil it is.
He's doomed.
He will die, at the moment in his life he want to live.
Flambae doesn't change his behaviors after the rejection. He still talks about his hook-ups in comms, and he still makes out with a lot of guys when the team goes out (a part of Robert thinks he's doing it more than before, but he's super biaised and sensitive now so he knows he imagines things)
Each time Flambae's with someone else, each time it's painfully clear he will never love him back, the flowers manifest themself and crush his organs.
Robert doesn't know what to do. He looked anywhere he could for a solution but there's nothing. He doesn't want to die. He doesn't want to die. He can't tell anyone bc it will come back to Flambae and it will be an even messier shit show and it'll help nothing.
One day, he meets again an old acquaintance. A sorceress. Not exactly a friend but he helped her in the past and she knows he needs to talk. She's not in his circle and sometimes her understanding of humans is on pair with Phen's (but a lot less lost and awkward) despite beinng born on Earth (probably), so Robert tells her everything. He doesn't fear being judged or pitied, or that she'll spill anything to anyone.
She tells him there's a solution. Not a cure, but something that can let him live. It's to give her his heart. Not metaphorically, literally.
Robert doesn't accept. All his human instincts screams at him it's a bad idea to just give up a vital organ, even if she solemnly swears she'll never hurt him with it. He doesn't outright reject her offer but says he will think about it, with the intention to never do it.
But there's a surprise at work. Flambae got a boyfriend. A sunny, muscular, sexy hero - so much better than him - who works in the same branch. Robert can't miss them, can't just avoid team outings, he has to see them all the time.
At home, he pukes blood and flowers on the floor. Where Beef is watching him. Worried. Who will lose his father if he dies. He already made his decision.
He calls the sorceress to tell her he accepts her offer. She warns him he will lose all feelings for his beloved. Robert doesn't care.
Because I agree Elliot would have been an astounding hero!
Imagine, though, how SDN would pan out.
Robert wakes up from the coma and is not only met by Eli but Chase - Track Star - because OFC Chase came to see Eli once he heard that Eli had been made to come to the SDN side. And then he heard about Robert. And then Chase decided that they were two idiots who needed to be looked after by someone who has some sense of self-preservation.
("You literally ran yourself into old age, Chase."
"Shut the fuck up, old man! At least I have more than instant noodles, energy drinks, and Twinkies in my kitchen!"
"Hey! ...you forgot the coffee and tea. And Beef's food. I'm hearing myself a little now.")
So Chase is back in their lives being the voice of reason. Doesn't move in but does make it his mission to swing by once a week and organize grocery delivery. Will steal Beef because he knows that Robert's biggest weakness is his dog, and Elliot's biggest weakness (like Chase) is Robert.
Robert also probably comes out of the coma, knows that he can't return to hero-ing right away, and also goes to SDN because he feels guilty about making all of this Eli's problem. Elliot defends that Robert did the same, but Chase is immediately going to Blazer like "yeah he can be in the desk next to mine. We needed to back-fill for the Z-Team anyway."
Robert isn't locked into the same contract stipulations as in cannon, but he's mentally made it his mission to fix the team.
And the team is rough at first, but they've had Eli as their tech guy for a month and do like him. He's weird, he's a bit insane, but they also know that he hacked SDN and stole money. He's one of them in a way.
So when Eli says to them to try with Robert, they do give a little more.
And Robert is absolutely down to clown. He's been dealing with Eli's craziness for years. He can keep up with the Z-Team.
(Blazer was being pressured to cut someone as the metrics weren't great, her own break up with Phenomaman driving her to shake things up, but, when Robert has his first perfect shift with the Z-Team before the end of the week, she thinks that maybe this was the shake up that they all needed. Someone who was a hero, but also someone who could genuinely take a villain - or just someone morally grey - and bring them up with them.)
Are you in my head or something? Because 100% yes!
I'll keep the Z-team talk for another post so let's talk about:
The death of Mecha Man, again
Mecha Man Blue died pretty similarly than in canon: he blew up mid flight.
But this time, it was intentional. The mission was one of the secret ones, the kind Robert does when Elliot had passed out from exhaustion. But it quickly became overwhelming, Robert had jumped right in the middle of the HQ of the villains whol killed the Brave Brigade. He needed some backups.
"I will never hear the end of this..."
Thankfully, Seer came online halfway through the mission, had been woken up by the emergency alarms indicating that the suit had passed the limit of damages it could reasonnably take. It's a all-hands-on-deck type of situation, but it's hard when there are only four hands available.
"No backup is coming, Blue. But we can do this. I upgraded your bubble shield."
And everything gets worse, because this was a trap. A lot of major heroes had been ambushed by this gang as a distraction. The big plan is to send a sattellite in space to control all the tech, which is bad. If it reaches its destination, nothing can stop it.
"I... might have an idea."
"... Blue?"
Robert has an idea. Eli and him were working on a new plasma blades for the suit, but the Astral Pulse was overheating from it. Which means... if they can get out of the trap... catch up the satellite... Robert could overheat the pulse and make the suit explode, destroy the satellite in the explosion.
"... are you insane?"
It's a risky move. Robert has to eject himself at the very last moment because the pilot being ejected means the Astral Pulse will be disengaged. Eli doesn't want this plan, doesn't even want to think about why Robert is considering the idea of exploding himself... But even Seer can't stop the satellite.
"Yep. You are insane."
"Any no insane idea?"
"..."
"It'll be fine, I promise."
So, Robert explodes in the sky.
The satellite is destroyed. The debris fall back on the boss' hideout. The heroes stop the whole gang. The city, the world, is safe.
But Eli isn't happy. He isn't celebrating like the rest of the crowd outside or the journalists on the tv.
Because Robert failed to eject himself. Because what was left of the suit fell back on their warehouse. Because the plasma blast at the impact absolutly destroyed the appartments in front of the warehouse. Because Robert fell into a coma and was admitted into urgent care.
The world just lost the third Mecha Man. But Elliot Connors lost the person he respected the most, cared about the most, a third time. But this time it's worse. Because this respect and care was mutual.
The first month is tough. Because Eli keeps hoping that Robert will wake up in a few hours. Or maybe days? ... weeks? He knows that after a month of coma... there is little chance for the patient to wake up. And if they do, the consequences are heavy. He would know.
After this month of basically camping in Robert's room, Eli has to start planning. Their savings had been drained by Robert's hospital stay, Eli is out of furniture or tech, and people are starting to ask questions about Mecha Man Blue's state. And he will go crazy if he doesn't occupy his brain with something.
Eli hates crowds. Seer hates journalists. Elliot Connors hates hypocrites. So, the plan is simple: claim that Mecha Man Blue died to save the city and avenge his father, use all his connection to find any kind of odd jobs... and hacks into SDN's systems to snatch some money for the hospital bills. They can spare helping LA' greatest hero.
But Eli has... more than a few flaws. He is a control freak, he is dry and cold, he is too curious for his own good and is way too arrogant. So, when he catches a glimpse through the office cameras of alk the tech they have in their labs... He can't resist. It's like letting a kid let loose in a candy shop.
"Holy mother... they have plasma stabiliser here?! And lightning launchers?! Oh oh oh! This is Christmas!"
He breaks in SDN. He isn't really a field guy, but had done it a few times already. Breaking in, breaking out, pick up driver, teammate for a fight... working with Mecha Man Blue forces you to be multi-talented.
But not talented enough to break in the offices of a superhero agency. Royd and Mandy catches him easily. Royd knew the hacker would come back in person. No science nerd could resist SDN's lab and piles of confiscated supervillains' equipements. And Seer's work is 100% on the science nerd side.
"You're one smart little bugga!"
"I am not little."
It is a bit awkward, Eli feeling like a kid caught the hand in the cookies jar. But the discussion between Royd and Eli quickly shifts from "we have to put you in jail for your thefts" to "holy shit you are the guy who created the Astral Pulse?!". Blonde Blazer is stuck between two genius who missed rambling about their very specific fields of expertise.
"Bruddah, that's crazy! The contain cell is awesome, but where did ya find the stellar core?"
"That is the tricky part. I didn't find it. It fell near my appartement thirty years ago, a little piece of meteore who travelled through the galaxy or even more! Without that specific material, Astral, no more Astral pulse."
"Yeah but how did you do the whole pulse?"
An agreement is made between SDN and Eli: he will work for them as Z-Team tech guy in exchange of a salary and SDN taking in charge Mecha Man's hospital bills.
"And as an disabled worker, I want flexible hours. Plus the right to have a pass to come down in the labs whenever I want."
"... disabled?"
"Almost no hearing, no taste or scent, severely insomniac and tendency to depression. I have a whole file and a therapist who followed me for years as a proof. Ripping out an homemade implant of your brain will do that to you."
The next morning, Chase is greeted by the sight of Elliot Connors, high on caffeine, working like a maniac in SDN' lab on some kind of oxygen mask. It takes Chase back at a time when the Brave Brigade was at its prime, Elliot working tirelessly on the augments he promised he would made for every member. Chase almost considers the idea of pinching himself to make sure he isn't dreaming.
"Holy motherfucking shit... Eli?!"
"Mh? Trackstar?! What are you doing at SDN?"
"What are YOU doing at SDN you fucker?!"
It's... a weird reunion. But it's a happy one. Chase is happy to see Eli again after everything that happened, happy to have another ex-member of the Brave Brigade back. And Eli is strangely relieved to see Chase again, the annoying teen who pestered him for augments and gadgets. Even if Chase doesn't look like a teen anymore.
Eli isn't surprised, he has kept an eye on Trackstar out of duty so he knows what happened to him. Which Chase is mad about for approximatively twenty seconds.
"You motherfucker! You knew my adress but didn't send even a birthday card?! You own me a coffee."
That's how they catch up: at the coffee machine at the early hours of the morning. And of course, the first subject is: Robert. Chase was worried sick when he heard that Mecha Man Blue was declared dead. Thankfully, Eli reassured him quickly that if Mecha Man was dead, Robert wasn't. For now.
"He... he is in a rough shape. You saw the images... But he will be fine, he is tougher than he looks."
Elliot hesitates to give Chase the informations for visiting Robert, he is protective. But Chase is ready to strangle him for it. They are very similar about Robert, they were his guardians but not at the same stages of his life. And now Robert isn't here and they are together without him.
"... how is he?"
"... he still loves twinkies."
To distract themselves from their worries, they start talking about Eli's new job and more importantly about the Z-Team. Eli - or more precisely Seer - is their new official tech guy, the oxygen mask is for the one named Invisigal.
"They are fucking villain fuckers who can't even fucking handle their fucking job!"
"Wow. Lots of big feelings, uh."
Chase trash-talks the Z-teamers to his heart content, knowing full well that Eli has a very inflexible mindset about criminals just like Robbie had. And that gives them the idea of Eli being a mole.
"Think about it, old man! You are known as Seer as a villain. And as a their tech guy they are forced to trust you with their weakness. You could pretend to be one of them and make sure they don't backstab us!"
"That make sense... Just one detail."
"Mh?"
"Never call me old man ever again. I'm barely 50."
"Damn you're old!"
What Eli didn't see coming is Chase absolutly inserting himself in his routine. Chase is visiting Robert at the hospital. Chase is taking lunch in the lab even if Eli doesn't eat. Chase is waiting Eli at the end of the day to walk a bit together. Chase is knocking at his still devasted appartement's door like it's a wellness check. Chase brings groceries. Chase takes care of Beef and Runa (Eli's black cat, adopted as the same time than Beef). Chase bullies Eli to take care of himself to be healthy and ready to help Robert when he will wake up.
"When was the last time you took a shower or laid down again?"
"Not that long, leave me alone, brat."
"You wore this Mecha Man Blue hoodie for two weeks straight.:
It's... nice. Having someone who cares enough about you to work passed the resentment of hiding stuff from him for years is an amazing feeling.
"Hey, Chase! Do you want... do you want drink something at my place?"
"If you actually bought an acceptable chair and if it's not one of your weird energy drink!"
"Don't act like a princess, I know you are coming only to see Beef and Runa."
"Your fucking cat scratches me last time!"
"She is an angel and you said it yourself."
When Robert wakes up, when he can't move, when he can't even remember how to talk, when he realizes he lost a leg and chronic pains for life... He has his two most trusted persons at his side, supporting him for each step of his recovery.
"Come on, kid, one more step!"
"Yes please, I need to study if the prosthetic leg I made for you is steady and comfy."
"Fuck off, nerd, it's about him, not your toys!"
"Guys come on! Don't you want to see your baby's first step?"
When he is discharged, Chase insists to celebrate at his place. Because Elliot barely finished to sweep all the debris and glass shard and only ones one bean chair, a computer, and animals furniture.
"I thought about something... Eli, you work at SDN to pay my hospital bills. Because of me. I... can't let you continue doing it. And since I can't be Mecha Man anymore..."
"No way! You need rest! I can make it work with my own salary! You own me nothing."
"Hey come on, Elliot, don't be so protective over the kid. It's a good thing to want staying active. A routine and a purpose will do him some good instead of playing video games all day. Which reminds me that Blazer is searching a new dispatcher for the Z-team..."
"Oh fuck no. I won't let him interact with such criminals."
"Now you sound like a mother hen!"
"Don't tease him too much, Chase. He is sensitive."
Functional but still doomed AstralShroud family AU
Elliot tries to join the Bridge Brigade and nobody wants him on the team. Except, surprisingly, Robbie Robertson the 2nd. Who supports Elliot behind the scenes and genuinely tries to get him on the team. But eventually, Robbie pushes for a vote and it still ends up being a “No”. Elliot appreciates Robbie’s support but can finally now walk away and try to be a hero somewhere else. Robbie doesn’t want him to leave yet, but doesn’t want to string him along and set up expectations that will make Elliot resent him one day. So he offers to make him his full time mechanic for the MechaMan suit. He doesn’t push Elliot to take the job, since he still clearly wants to be his own hero. But Elliot sees the genuine care and respect Robbie has for him, deciding that maybe his destiny to help save the world lies somewhere else.
He takes the job and the two become closer over the next few years. So close that they end up married, and having Robert not long after. Elliot becomes part-time stay at home dad, part-time lead mechanic for MechaMan and some of the Bridge Brigade. Chase becomes the unofficial babysitter for Robert when Elliot is called out on emergencies, which he tries his best to keep at a minimum. He doesn’t feel comfortable leaving their son for too long, since Robbie does still have a tendency to leave on hero missions for stretches of time. But Robbie does try to do his best to be there for his husband and son, when he actually gets time off. For the most part, they’re a genuinely happy and healthy family.
Until around Robert’s 13th birthday, when tragedy strikes. Something, Elliot doesn’t know what exactly, goes haywire in the Mech suit and it causes a major malfunction. The MechaMan suit explodes in the middle of a mission to protect the city from some major force. Robbie’s dead body is found in the wreckage. Elliot does everything in his power to make sure Robert doesn’t see the news footage.
A few weeks pass after the funeral, Robert has sunken into himself and Elliot is trying to keep himself from falling apart. The loss of Robbie has rippled through this once happy family, and it’s still not over. The Bridge Brigade want to hold a vote to see who should be the next MechaMan. There are murmurs that they plan to place Robert as the new MechaMan. Elliot becomes outraged at the idea. His own teenage son, taking up such a huge responsibility!? He’s not letting his little boy face the same mortal danger that took his father away from them.
Instead he decided to take up the position himself, as MechaMan Gray
What did Chad think of his new stepfather at first?
Credit goes fully to @jackalopc for this beautiful writing. They gave me the go-ahead to share this, and it is my definite canon for Chad's first impression of Robert
Unhealthy Flambert relationship. Emotional manipulation. Angst. Hurt/comfort. Fairly happy ending because I don't want total angst.
I got mild food poisoning and am feeling angsty again.
Robert, as a rule, was great at compartmentalizing his feelings. It came with the job, the expectations, the legacy. It was a coping mechanism in a machine that kept his cogs turning, the world spinning; kept him from breaking under pressure. It was a necessity. Alas, every machine had its moment of obsoleteness.
Robert's moment came slowly.
Flambae had perfected ways to keep him around. He was hot, loud, and efficient. Generous with his affection, generous with his attention. When it was convenient for him.
Robert was content for a long while. Content with stolen moments in-between calls, before it after shift. Hours spent at Flambae's apartment while Prism was out shopping it doing whatever else. A rare full day granted after a brutal dispatching shift when half the western seaboard briefly dropped into the hell dimension.
Always earned. Always conditional. You can love me if you're good. I'll be generous if you make it with my time. I'll fuck you if you beg, if you really need it. But the next time will be on my terms and there will be strings.
The next moment, Robert would be insulted, quipped at, backtalked to with zero regard. There were no warm hands at the office. No dates in the park. No invitation to meet family.
Slowly, Robert thought that he was going crazy. Was it something he was doing wrong? Did he not do enough? Why was Flambae frustrated with him today when yesterday was the same and he was fine?
Nerves became a constant. Appeasing - an unconscious second nature.
"Sure, I'll come with you to the bar. No, you can flirt with whoever you want, I know it's not serious. No, of course I'm not jealous. W-wait, no it doesn't mean I want you to fuck other people. You're not a whore. I know you just like to express yourself. Sure, I'll go get you another drink. Sure. Yes. Yes... ...ok."
Hot and cold. Pushing and pulling. More and more often, Robert felt like his relationship with Flambae was a blast, sailing a rocky ocean. One wrong turn, one wrong move, a wind from a new direction and it would all sink to the bottom. But Flambae kept coming back, right? They just liked chirping at each other, that was their thing. Flambae was always mean, Robert wasn't an angel either. He was difficult, with his nightmares and weird eating habits, debts, issues...
"You should be grateful, Bobert. Who else would love you enough to put up with you, huh? You fumbled Blond Blazer and she was a fucking angel of a superhero. Couldn't even get it up for Invisibitch. Hell, you even make Phenomaman more depressed when you talk to him. I'm so fucking good for putting up with you."
He's right. Hell, Robert knows he's right. Months of this and he's still not sure why Flambae is even with him. If he even truly is. They only ever go out together to bars. The team doesn't know, or if they do, they don't care. Their ranking keeps rising. He's put his name as Mecha Man on the line. Robert gets a paying job. He gets fucked into the bed. Sometimes, when the weight of the world seems too much and he climbs to Flambae afterwards, he gets cuddles against a warm chest while the other scrolls on his phone, three fingers pressed pointedly against his back.
That's good. That's good.
Right?
So why is it that want happens next hurts so much. Robert is clutching the lip of Flambae's kitchen sink when the door opens to let in a man who looks so much like his partner, only older, more sturdy, and somehow kinder. Who takes one look at the man in the kitchen who hasn't even noticed him yet, takes in his form, and sucks in a breath.
"Come on dad, keep moving, you said you wanted those vinyls?" Comes Flambae's voice, immediately startling Robert into a frantic motion. His hands flirt over the sink rim, desperately looking for something. Hollow brown eyes track the man that entered the apartment second.
"Chad. What the fuck have you done to this poor kid?"
Robert stops and stares at that. Takes in the long salt and pepper hair, the down turned frown, the handsome face. Notes the resemblance. Blanches. Because he knows who this is. Had never met him, despite asking Flambae a few times. Had seen his smile on the photos in the dining room.
Flambae sputters. Throws in some nonsense. Tries to hurry his dad into the apartment without sparing Robert more than a frustrated look. He doesn't get far when an arm like a steel band stops him.
"Chad."
" I didn't do shit to him, baba! He came this way, ok? Mecha bitch is just~!" Flambae doesn't get to finish his sentence before a palm almost as large as his face claps over his mouth. The fire inside his eyes dies. The hand falls away.
Robert, for the first time in his life, sees Flambae look ashamed. He doesn't know what to do with that information.
"He took my fingers, baba. Threw me in jail. So I thought I'd get some use out of him. Didn't think he'd get that attached."
Something breaks. Robert isn't sure what it is. But it sounds just like the mech creaking under the strain of holding itself together after the explosion and failing. Clarity is... Startling.
He thinks he sits down. Thinks he tries to breathe. Knows he's failing. He hears raised voices. Arguing. Hears flames shooting past his head. Absentmindedly notes the door crashing closed.
Then, there's a large hand on his head. Drawing him into a warm chest, breathing for him. Forcing him to move his lungs along with the ones expanding underneath the black shirt beneath. Robert thinks he can hear a voice but it takes him a few minutes before comprehension catches up.
" I'm sorry. I'm sorry, kid. He had no right. Stupid, cruel boy, he had no right to do this to you. He should not have been like this," is being muttered above his head, warm large hands running over Robert's back in a pattern.
Robert forces his eyes up, pushes away from the comforting embrace and stares at an older version of Flambae. Who stares back with the look of someone steeling themselves, though a slightly crooked smile is on his lips. Robert has never seen a look of this much regret on Flambae's face.
A hand cups his head, bringing his forehead forward to thump against the other man's.
"He was cruel. And I'm sorry. You don't have to forgive him. What he did was wrong. And I failed him. He hurt you. It should not have happened. You didn't deserve to be treated the way he treated you. You deserve better than my son." The words are bitter. Sincere. Apologetic. Everything Robert is starting to realize he has heard from Flambae. Chad, apparently.
"He didn't even tell me his name" whispers the former hero, pulling back to stare at the man holding him, pupils blown wide. "All this, I didn't even know his name was Chad..."
The man curses, spits on the ground. "Stupid, cruel boy", he mutters. A weary sign breaks through and molten gold stares resolutely at brown.
"I'm Cirus Anwar. Chad's father. I'm afraid this is the end of your relationship with my son."
"Robert. Robertson. The third... I think I'm ok with that"
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