“…What are- oh.” She stiffens up, stocky little body tense and wheels preemptively starting to spin before they stop, and…the caress is apparently accepted. The cheekguards are nothing special, just designed to protect her faceplates during an impact, to frame her jaw to look interesting, but they’re seldom touched. It feels a little weird. Okay, that’s kind of nice. Leaning her helm into the touch.
She looks down at him for a startled moment, before he clarifies- and crouches down, legs folding tightly under her. “…If floors are uncomfortable for that, you’re doing it wrong. Just saying.” Chuckling awkwardly, moving to gently stroke the underside of his helm again. She feels buzzy, detached, too relaxed for the situation and her sensory suite is trying to compensate. “That does feel pretty nice…you should give helm massages for shanix. You’d make a pretty tidy sum.”
Honestly, he is curious enough to be interested. He’s not going to suggest anything because he’d rather not scare Saddleback off and end the petting, but that would probably be fun. Just maybe not in public, people are weird about that for some reason.
“Mm… I probably could, though people tend to be rather intimidated by the excess optics and lack of a ‘proper’ face. I suppose I’d have to find rather tolerant clients.”
Rather than potentially be intimidating, he adds another servo to the helm rubs, stroking both her cheek-fins and moving to the audial fin he hasn’t touched yet. Mm. Very nice texture under his fingertips, and, oh, lovely petting.
Rumbling softly, he tilts his helm up to allow for the petting, optics dimming pleasantly in enjoyment of every bit of sensory input. Ahh, yes. He hasn’t had this sort of attention in far, far too long, and it is very pleasant. Mouth falling open just a fraction, he purrs and lets the tip of his tongue loll out, knowing that it probably looks stupid but really just not caring.
(actually, it’s kind of adorable, even if his tonguetip is more tongue than most people have in their entire mouths)
“They’re paying you to sort out kinked wires in their helms, not to get looked at.” She says, before cutting off and realizing exactly what she’s said, backpedalling verbally. “I mean- you don’t look bad at all, just different, not the weirdest face I’ve…seen…I’ll be quiet.” Sighing, then sighing when he touches over her audials- she’s ready for the sensation this time, and she shivers, instead trying to focus on petting him still, studying the tip of his glosssa.
It is, frankly, adorable.
“You are quite welcome to be blatant. I have seven optics, no other facial features, and no need to open my mouth to speak. What passes for my face is weird.” Gravescratch rumbles, sounding a bit like someone pointing out the weather, and leans a bit further into the petting. Which means his tongue hangs out just a tiny bit more. Which is considerably more adorable than before.
And, more interestingly, what sounds like a brief transformation sequence makes itself known, followed by a thwap-thwap-thwap noise as a long, whippy tail thumps against the ground. It’s normally used only in his alt mode, to help him steer at top speed, but it evidently has a transformation sequence independent of the rest of him.
Which means that the mech petting Saddleback’s cheeks and audial fins now has his optics mostly closed, a long tail whapping against the ground, and a fairly considerable amount of tonguetip hanging out. It’s adorable. Weird, but adorable.
“…nnh. Well. Forgot about that tell. Excuse m- ohhh yes-”
That is a far-too-good spot, and Gravescratch rumbles happily, accidentally kicks both pedes against the floor, and tries (semi-successfully) to push himself into Saddleback’s lap. Not quite intentionally, that’s just a very good spot that evidently causes something of a double-sided leg twitch.
Whoops?
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