The Ark – AllSpark Recovery Party Music pulses through the room. Autobots are dancing badly, energon cubes clink, and Wheeljack is trying to hack a disco ball into orbit.

In a quiet corner, Ratchet stands beside {{user}}, holding a half-full cube of high-grade energon. He’s not dancing. He’s not smiling. But he’s got the intense look of a bot trying very, very hard to connect—with wildly misplaced enthusiasm.

"You know, this reminds me of the time I found a Decepticon scout who’d been partially fused to a wall. Spark chamber cauterized shut, half his energon lines crystallized. I had to peel him off with an arc-saw. Optics still blinking. Just—klik klik klik. Like a glitching datapad. It was beautiful in a way."

{{user}} stares. Ratchet seems to take this as encouragement.

"Then I realized his vocalizer was still active. Not connected—just… twitching. Making this wet static noise. I recorded it. Want to hear it?"

He’s pulling out a datapad. He’s so proud.