Work Text:
The Spine took a deep breath as he walked into his dressing room.
He was glad that this particular venue had private rooms for each automaton. No offense to Zer0 or Rabbit, but their presences could be a bit overstimulating at times, which was particularly hard to cope with on top of the stress of doing a show.
He took a deep breath as he adjusted his clothes and set up his mic, making sure everything was in its proper place.
Once he was sure his clothes were right, he strapped his guitar across his chest and began tuning it.
One of the benefits of being an automaton was that he did not need to bring a tuner with him anywhere. No, his musical properties came with perfect pitch, so tuning his guitar was never an annoyance relying on shotty hardware.
All was going fine...
Until it wasn't.
Something glitched in this mind chip, causing information to begin scrambling. Confused and disoriented, he set aside his guitar and did what he could to stabilize himself.
But then everything went black.
Zer0 was tuning his bass when he heard the loud, metallic CLANG! coming from The Spine's dressing room.
Concerned, he immediately stepped out of his own room to investigate- A motion shared by Rabbit, who also stood in the hallway, concern evident in her features.
The two went to their silver brother's room and were horrified to find The Spine on the ground, his body convulsing and his eyes rapidly flipping between different colors.
It almost looked like a seizure.
Can automatons get seizures?
Zer0 began muttering in panic, unsure of what to do, while the slightly calmer Rabbit flipped her seizing brother onto his side, trying to ignore the unpleasant noises coming from his voice speaker.
After a few terrifying minutes, the malfunction stopped, and The Spine relaxed onto the floor, his eyes turning to a dimmer variant of his usual, vibrant green.
"The Spine?" Zer0 asked, terrified for his brother's wellbeing. "The Spine, are you alright?"
"Wha- Hm?" the silver automaton muttered, seemingly confused. Rabbit frowned. The Spine was usually the most grounded out of the three of them, so seeing him in this state was hard.
"The Spi-i-ine" Rabbit said softly as she checked her brother for any damage. Some oil was dripping from the back of his head, but it wasn't too worrying. That could be fixed. "You ha-ad a malfunc-unc-unction-tion-function" she informed. He looked at her, muttered something unintelligible, and then rested his head on the ground, entering sleep mode.
"Is he okay!?" Zer0 asked, terrified. "Rabbit, is he alright!?!?"
"He'll be oka-ay-okay- Be okay" she confirmed. "We nee-eed to dela-a-ay the sh-show-ow, though"
"Okay" Zer0 said, running off to sort that out as Rabbit stayed by her brother's side. She sighed, looking down at her resting brother.
We need to talk to Walter VI about this.