Booties and Grooties

[Halloqueen]

Peter is pretty slow socially (in all aspects that aren’t fighting or flirty) so it actually takes him a while to register the changes in Ripley’s behavior. She’s been a little jumpy since they met so its hard for him to notice the subtle switch between fearful and frightened. Of course Peter doesn’t think himself a bad guy, not too bad at least, so he doesn’t imagine that anything he does could be startling. He’s closed in like, with a selfish view of the world that expects people to respond him rather than the other way around. Basically, he never things about the consequences so he doesn’t think about how his foul mood might effect other people. But when he finally looks up at her he notices the difference.

He tries not watch her change but he does stare just a little bit because the pants hit her and then tumble to the ground and Ripley just stands there dumbly for a second. Great, Peter thinks to himself, she is absolutely brain damaged - he’s convinced now. It also doesn’t matter if Ripley was wearing a little bra with sock boobies because Peter helped her fix her collar bone and he would have figured it out any ways. He also isn’t really thinking about her boobs, sorry.

When he looks up she’s a thin post with big billowing pajama pants and a dropping sweater and it would be cute if Ripley wasn’t so rough around the edges. Aw hell, its a little cute. In the way a kid who tries to make breakfast but completely screws it up is cute. Except her eyes are watering and she trembles like a little wee dog and that’s not cute. Peter’s never gotten a kick out of scaring people or messing with them the way the rest of his Ravangers buddies do, so he feels a little bad about that. And he uses the term buddies lightly.

Peter’s lip quirk up a little bit because Ripley is pretty sweet name and, “Yeah, yeah, I remember those movies,” Peter refers to it as multiple movies because he also saw predator and that whole franchise is all miss-mashed together anyways. He was too young to reasonably see it but he remembers sneaking into the theater with his friends. He remembers crying really loud because it was a damn scary movie, and his baby sitter being three rows in front of him. And Peter cried more when she saw him because he didn’t want her to tattle, because Grandpa said mom needed to rest and he couldn’t get in trouble because it would upset her and make her more sick. It wound up being a good night because his baby sitter - cathy jaspers in the 10th grade, he can remember because she was cute even braces - felt so bad for him that she bought his twizzlers and drove him home in her dad’s truck and didn’t tattle. The memory of her empathy and compassion inspires a little bit of niceness inside Peter. Wow, he hasn’t thought too much about earth in a long time and now Ripley is making him feel all emotional.

“Those were real, did you know that?” Peter asks in the same quiet voice because he’s trying to be more calm because calm is good. Calm gets him places. “‘cept they’re actually really nice. Turns out they just like to meet new people - its just hard to say ‘hi’ when your mouth spews acid. Awkward, huh?” He only joking and he hopes she finds it funny. Or least he hopes it make her think of space as slightly less scary. Peter finds its a funny little story, anyways.

She looks cold and Peter feels really bad about that, so he gets up and crosses the little room. There’s a second bunk that folds down but he rarely uses it because either him or he’s convincing his company to share the bed. He tries to pull it down and its so stiff from disuse that he has to put on leg up on the wall for leverage as he yanks it down. It folds open eventually with a particularly nasty metallic screech, but it has a mattress and a pillow and thats really all Peter has to offer right now. “Look I’d love to get you back to earth and off my ship, but I’ve got a little errand to run first. I gotta stop off at a near-by planet and make a little ‘delivery’. Why don’t you sleep until then?” Peter doesn’t know if he’s tired but he figures she must be. He was pretty tuckered out when he first made it into space, although he had the double shock of loosing his mother AND earth in the same night. Still, must be draining, he thinks. 


PEter leaves with her that because she still has a food bar down there so he thinks she’ll be okay. A bed and food, and she said she just peed. Peter thinks that’s all anyone would need. Its a good thing he’s never had a pet before. But he has a nasty little orb burning a hole in his pocket and he needs to get rid of it before Yondu catches up. If he can get the units he stands of busting free and living his own life. Do whatever he wants, not running crummy jobs for a blue turd. He plays a little David Bowie over the ships speakers softly because Bowie is the slowest thing he has and its from earth, so maybe that’ll help Ripley calm down. Its certainly helping him.

ITs a couple hours later when Peter comes back down into the lower deck because they’ve landed on Xandar, and considering for once no one’s chasing him its actually pretty smooth landing. Its a lovely, law abiding planet with a ton of domestic nobodies all milling about, and Peter’s work here is pretty straight up and trouble free. Walk into a high class shop, walk out with a bucket of units. Easy-peasy. Plus its a humanoid planet thats not too shocking, so he thinks it a good idea to ask “You wanna go see some aliens?” because honestly, he doesn’t want to leave her alone on his ship.

[Halloqueen]

The Devil in Hell ✘ we're told was chained
✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿ A thousand years he there remained ✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿
He neither complained nor did he groan
But was determined to start a ๑ ๑ Hell ๑ ๑ of his own


Grace’s eyes narrow when Rocket suggests the engines were dumb luck and that they should sell one. At first she’s a little ticked off because it sounds like he doesn’t appreciate the double plasma engines. But then Gracie remembers that she’s a mechanic and she’s not useful if their ship is perfect. “I can make it work with one,” is her cold response that she hopes entrenches how they should not fire her because she’s actually very skilled.

Grace pats Groots woody hand to comfort his worry and because she has to detangle Meela from Groot’s arm. She appreciates his concern and has so far figured out that Groot is pretty sweet and harmless. She really doesn’t understand what he’s doing with Rocket, but he does seem pretty impressionable. Whatever it is she’s happy he’s around.

Grace holds her breath so she doesn’t let out a massive sigh of relief because that would make her look stupid. And das’t, Rocket already thinks she’s a blazing idiot. Her skin starts to shift back to its usual colour because she gets to stay somewhere nice and safe. Plus, Rocket is being frustrating so that helps distract her. “Really? Because I was actually planning on inviting a bunch of murders and rapists on the ship for a friendly card game.” Grace snaps with narrowed eyes because does Rocket think shes that dumb? The door is getting locked and shut the nano-second they are through it. 

Rocket asks for communications technology and Grace gives him a dry withering look because he really expects a lot from an idiot. She doesn’t have anything on hand so she holds up a hand to tell him to wait and walks around the back of the ship. She digs through the drawers and all the little hiding places for something they can use. Eventually she finds something although its terribly outdated, which is surprising considering how high class the ship is. Grace saunters back with a head set that has an ear piece connected by a headband to a speaker piece.

“Here ya‘ go,” Gracie chirps with a smirk as she drops the set on Rocket’s head and immediately tumbles off since its nearly two sizes too big. “That should connect up the ship’s internal speaker-com.....but you might want to give it to groot.” Groot working the com-set isn’t so bad. Maybe he can’t send a lot of detail, but Grace can tell the difference between a panicked “I am Groot” and a happy one. “Rocket, you just yell real loud and maybe I’ll hear you.”



[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

xx
x

r o c k e t
tactical genius, weaponry expert, thug and the farthest thing from vermin.

• the headset gets dropped on rocket's head and he has to fiddle with it to get it to actually fit on his small head because while he can understand groot, it would just be a whole lot faster if he had the comm system on him. this is straight up ancient technology that he's never seen before because it's just that old and out of date and he can barely recognize what planet it has come from, but he figures that it must have come from somewhere that's more back woods and hickey. it takes him a couple minutes before he finally figures out a way to get it so that it stays on his head and he glares at grace when she suggests that if he shouts loud enough, she'll be able to hear him. well, if she wants him to shout, maybe he'll shout.
  
  "well, i don't know, maybe you're into that sort of thing," rocket retorts when she suggests that she wanted to invite murderers and rapists on board. "maybe whatever species you are gets off on that sort of thing. maybe it's a lady thing of your species kind of thing. maybe it's just something you really get off on. i dunno anything about you, which means i have no idea if you're into that creepy sort of stuff or not," he also doesn't really care too much about what turns her on and what makes her lady parts go drier than the vacuum of space (like so dry there aren't any atoms in it, just nothingness). "but, i mean, if you want to play cards with some rapists and murders, i highly recommend doing it off ship because i don't want to be responsible for cleaning up your empty skin off the floor," and truth be told, he doesn't want her to die because she's good (he doesn't want her to know that he thinks she's good because he's got a reputation to uphold and he also hasn't quite admitted it to himself yet, either). he figures that they actually pretty much goddamn need her.
  
  "i am groot," groot says to rocket, looking down at him as he starts to wrestle with the headset again.
  
  "oh, really, that was sarcasm? i couldn't tell," rocket adds when groot points out that gracie was being sarcastic. of course rocket had known it was sarcasm.
  
  groot just shrugs in response to gracie before heading down the ramp with rocket so that the two of them can leave the relatively safe confines of their ship.
  
  abalone is a terrible planet and even though rocket might be as depraved as everyone else here, he probably isn't as depraved. needless to say, the furry walking rodent and the literal personified tree manage to catch a lot of glances and looks - but it's not because the current residents think that they look strange. they're used to the sight of oddities visiting. they get ugly pink terran fleshlings and goop monsters and everything. they're staring because they know who rocket and groot are. some step away from rocket and groot, for fear of getting noticed by them. this isn't a common reaction, but it's mostly done by at least two guys who had maybe stolen something from them in the past (they didn't get away with it, but they don't want to be recognized). and the truth to that is, rocket remembers getting something back but he doesn't remember the faces of the guys that stole it (and he doesn't even remember what they stole) because he's done so many things that it's impossible for a rodent brain to keep up with it (not really, his excuse is just that he more or less stops caring and giving a s**t once he gets paid).
  
  groot looks around curiously and occasionally wanders off a couple steps so that he can get closer looks at things that are through windows. because this is a place of ravagers, most of the stores are kind of like black market type of sellers, but with actual buildings or booths because pretty much everything on abalone is stolen from someone else. groot leans in and pokes at something that's behind glass. it's bright green, and glassy and it's a foot tall and it really attracts groot's eye because it's shiny. he has no idea what it is.
  
  rocket finds groot staring for a moment and he sighs dramatically, having to backtrack a couple steps to see what it is that has groot's attention. when he sees that it's just a piece of what looks like a cheap one foot large crystal, he sighs and rolls his eyes before nudging groot with his foot and signaling that they need to get going because the sooner they pick up a job, the sooner they get the hell out of dodge. groot frowns, but he follows along after rocket with the knowledge that he might not ever find out what that giant green crystal was or where it was from.
  
  hint: from the mantle of earth.
  hint: dunite.
  hint: it's olivine.
  
  there's a shady bar that rocket and groot step into. groot has to basically bend over to a ninety degree angle to get inside, but once he's inside he can kind of stand up. most of the way. rocket feels sort of exposed considering he only has one of the pistols since bucket head confiscated his big guns. but rocket will make due with a pistol. maybe their reputation can really save them. the first place rocket looks is the bulletin board, but nothing calls his name -- most are sort of 'WANTED DEAD' ads, which rocket isn't really into too much. (nothing screams, 'hey nova corps come catch me' than killing people.)
  
  but something in the corner catches rocket's eye. a blue guy with a red lump thing on his head. and he recognizes him. yondu udonta. he's spoken to him maybe once before and the only reason he remembered is because he had gross teeth, smelled disgusting and also was very obviously a ravager instead of just a plain bounty hunter. yondu isn't sitting alone, he's got two other men near him, including one guy that seems to be raising his voice.
  
  "i told you to bring him back! and it's been twenty-six goddamn earth years!" the stranger says. "where is he?!" he sounds real mad and rocket doesn't want to intervene, "you promised you'd bring the boy back once his mother died. you didn't. and your time is runnin' out, udonta." yondu doesn't look to worried. rocket's gotten close enough so that he can hear everything.
  
  the guy that rocket doesn't recognize angrily gets up from the table and storms off, bumping into rocket, who proceeds to snidely say, "well excuse you."
  
  to which the guy responds, "mind your own damned business, rodent."
  
  "jackass," rocket murmurs under his breath. groot looks after the guy and then looks at rocket, "nah, nah, not now, groot. i think we just got a job." rocket smiles a bit and then walks straight up to yondu.
  
  "i hear you got a problem," rocket starts, "kinda obvious. entire bar could flarkin' hear the d'ast b*****d." rocket sits in the chair that he wasn't invited to sit in and folds his paws on the table even though his head is barely poking over the top. he doesn't want to think that he needs to make himself appear bigger than he is to be taken seriously.
  
  "guy's an a*****e," yondu says. unfortunately he's an a*****e who's patience is slowly running it's course and is about to come to an end. twenty-six years is a long time for it to run out, but goddamn if the guy holds a grudge forever. yondu is more concerned about the fact that peter quill has broken off from them and probably picked up on a job involving a super fancy orb thing on morag.
  
  "well, i can fix your problem," rocket shows his pointed teeth and his whiskers twitch.
  
  yondu leans in; he's heard of rocket and groot. he figures they're good enough. he hasn't had any trouble with them. "oh yeah?"
  
  "yeah."
  
  "i am groot," groot wants to chime in, too.
  
  "oh yeah?" yondu says, "i'm yondu."
  
  "i am groot."
  
  "you said that," yondu points out.
  
  "i am groot."
  
  "is it uh. . ." he raises a hand to the side of his head, whistles and makes a coo-coo sort of sound to imply crazy.
  
  "no, just limited vocabulistics," rocket explains. "don't worry, he understands us completely. he speaks the language of units real well," rocket adds.
  
  they have some more small chitchat before they eventually get to the juicy body of what they're really there for.
  
  "forty thousand units," yondu says.
  
  "half up-front, and half once it's done," rocket does his best to negotiate, though he has a nagging feeling that yondu isn't going to go for that.
  
  "five percent up front and the rest when you bring him back, alive, and the orb, completely in tact. that's my final offer. you either that it, or you get your furry a** out of here," yondu is totally firm on this and he lets rocket know this by leaning back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest and cocking his head to the side.
  
  rocket hates being on the losing end of a bargain, but he doesn't have much to negotiate with. forty thousand units is a hell of a lot of units. "fine, deal," they shake on it and yondu is surprised by how strong of a grip that rocket has. he dishes out the two thousand units to rocket. "pleasure," rocket jumps down from the chair with a bag full of units and he holds super tight onto it as he makes his way out of the bar. groot follows closely behind him. the second they make it out, a massive bar fight ensues.
  
  while they were talking, yondu gave them a way to track this loser named peter quill down, also telling him that his ravager outlaw name is star-lord. they luck out in that no trouble arises on their end, and grace hasn't called in yet saying that she's in trouble, so he presumes that she's okay to (flark, he hopes she's okay).
  
  when they get back to the ship, he pounds a fist on the landing gear, knowing full well that won't be heard before he shouts that they're back and they've got a big job to do. eventually, grace lets down the ramp and groot and rocket duck on. rocket's more than happy to get rid of the headset that's probably older than the meszoic era of the dinosaurs. he contemplates kicking grace off the ship since he has two thousand units now and doesn't need her services anymore.
  
  but he doesn't, even though it's not uncommon for him to go back on his word.
  
  "what kind of jackass calls themselves star-lord? what kind of name is star-lord? who even has an outlaw name? what the ******** kind of stupid idea is that?" rocket comments as he gets back into the cockpit with grace.
  
  "i am groot," groot responds.
  
  "i doubt the guy's an actual lord or royalty because only a moron would call themselves star-lord," groot picks up a sweet piece of technology that can come unhooked from the panel and he starts typing in various numbers and letters so that he can look up peter quills rap sheet. "manipulation of a duchess? guy's a ******** creep, too," rocket looks at peter's picture, "what a ******** assault on life." he shows the tablet-esqe thing to groot and they find the quadrant of space that peter is in. luckily for them, it's also a quadrant of space that has a great outpost on a tiny dwarf planet that happens to have some of the greatest and cheapest spare parts for him to make weapons out of.
  
  "we gotta make a pit stop at barnum, it's in the same quadrant that star-lord is in right now," he explains, "gotta make a couple goodies. ain't gonna take out a guy with this much bounty on his head with a pistol even if he looks like a flarkin' moron."
  
  he's speaking to both groot and grace, and he doesn't know why. "you get behind the driver's seat," he says to grace before he dumps himself in the passengers seat. "i got an a*****e to keep track of."

[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

xx
x

r i p l e y x d i c k e r m a n - d u f e n d o r f
expert hacker and grunge fashionista and (straight up gnarly as ********) junkie.

• the joke about the aliens being actually really friendly but awkward because their saliva burns holes in floors actually makes her crack a real genuine smile. and it's sad because she can't remember the last time she smiled that big for that stupid of a reason. her thumb rubs across her nose and she huffs a breath out her nose which winds up sounding sort of gurgly because of the stuffiness induced by heroin. he suggests that she get some sleep since he has an errand to run and she has no qualms with that and finds no point in arguing about how she could totally stay up. even ripley knows when she's not being that useful. and she figures if she actually gets to sleep now, she might be able to sleep through maybe the first part of the withdrawal symptoms.
  
  which she knows is going to be bad, and she contemplates telling him that she's going to be sick (even ripley knows that withdrawal is s**t and bad and hurts because she's also gone through it twice, only to fail in the end). before she has a chance to finish making up her mind, peter has disappeared back up the stairs and this leaves her with the option to sleep on the bed that barely pulled out. it's sad and pathetic and it's not very comfortable, but it's also a lot more comfortable than her bed back at home and the blankets aren't exactly molding, so that's a plus. sure, they kind of smell like they haven't been washed in a while, but they don't smell like mold.
  
  and ripley sleeps, oh god does she sleep.
  
  she actually falls asleep immediately, because it turns out that not sleeping well for about fifteen years takes a big toll on people. she sleeps well because she feels kind of safe in this ship, especially now that she knows the aliens from alien are actually pretty friendly. she sleeps the entire time because wow she's that tired. it's a good thirty-six hour sleep, because it's a long way from where she was to where they need to go, even by stargates and wormhole highways (and also this allows for rocket and groot and gracie to pick up weapons and catch up to ripley and peter and boy are they gonna be surprised to find a little extra bonus of peter's company having a warrant out for unlawful amounts of energy expended). she sleeps the entire time and is so tired that she doesn't dream at all. she's so entirely grateful for this because god she hates dreaming, especially since a lot of them wind up being unpleasant and uncomfortable to downright terrifying.
  
  she wakes up about ten minutes before peter comes in to ask her if she wants to see some aliens. her palms are sweaty and her knees are weak, but her wound has healed up real good and she notices that the blue stuff that was on her collarbone has dissipated and she has no more collarbone pain. her stomach is sort of doing loops like a loop-de-loop roller coaster, and she knows exactly why she's sick. her head snaps towards peter and she's not sure if she should pretend like she's fine or if she should give up and maybe start throwing up right then and there. there's also a big part of her that wants to see what aliens look like, humanoid or not. so she nods, she nods because she does want to see aliens. in this moment she forgets that she doesn't have shoes, but she doesn't mind because she doesn't feel pain in her feet very much from simply walking around barefoot so many places.
  
  she follows peter out of the ship and it's surprisingly comfortable outside, even though her hair is a bit damp from sweat and she looks even more pale than before. she refrains from chewing on her nails because peter had asked her to stop at one point.
  
  "y-your l-lead, s-star-l-lord," she says quietly, getting his name right this time.

[Halloqueen]

As Peter kicks the ship into drive he spends the first 30 minutes of their drive without music blaring through his speaker system because he’s listening. He hears the shuffle of Ripley getting into bed and then keeps listening for the sound of her breaking things or the sound of her going through her stuff. Peter isn’t trying to make a comment by not trusting her, but he’s been in space long enough to know even super fragile looking people can be up to no good. And have I mentioned that Peter is very good at his job?

The 36 hour flight is a smooth trip, especially compared to certain hooligans who got pulled over by a certain space nerd. Aside from having to take an extra 5 hours to go round a collapsing star instead of paying a toll to take a stargate around (Flark that!) everything goes according to plan. No sign of Yondu checking it beyond the occasional ring on his com-unit, which Peter mutes and ignores. Things are going so well, in fact, that he eventually decides to set the ship to autopilot and tip toe down stairs. He IS human and he does need sleep at some point.

He comes down thinking maybe he can kick Ripley out of bed to get some shut eye for himself but that quickly changes when he sees her. She’s barely a little bump under the piled up blanket and she looks asleep. So asleep Peter would worried she’d gone and died on him if not for the wet rattling of her breath that he can just barely hear above the air vents when he approaches. He thinks about her big wide eyes all glistening and doe-y. He thinks about her broken, disgusting shoulder. He thinks about her hiding under the blanket and her little shaky stutter. He thinks about her in a way that is maybe a little dismissive and demeaning, but he’s Peter Quill and he’s an a*****e. So he sees a narrative where Ripley is some poor shabby thing and he’s a nice big guy who’s going to let her sleep a little longer. He winds up tiptoeing back up the stairs and sleeping in his pilots chair, and feeling like an incredibly nice person for it.

He spends the rest of the trip thinking about Ripley because he likes the little buzz he gets from being a good person. Of course, its cost him a stiff neck, but hey, warm fuzzy feelings. He thinks about how breakable she is and while he wants to keep her around, he really cant. Because crap, how young is she? He was probably in third grade when she was born. What if they had met back then? He knows nothing about infant care! He could of killed her! And while Peter can give up one night of sleeping in his own bed, the idea of repeatedly making sacrifices is beyond his comfort zone.

When Peter comes down the second time he’s pleased that she’s up and moving, but he does have slight concerns. She looks pale - or did she look that way before? Peter isn’t sure because she looked pretty damn pale before. But her wound is healed up so Peter assumes she must be doing better, even if there is something off about her composure. But then again, she wasn’t normal to begin. Peter thinks maybe its the blood loss, she’s only had a few protein bars to help her body recover. “Common, maybe we’ll get a hot meal too.” Peter says with a sigh because that would be nice. Cost a fair bit but, and his lips twitch up at this, it’ll be marginal once he gets the orb off his hands.

His smile gets even bigger when she calls him Star-Lord because she’s probably the only person in the universe who does that. “Look at that - you’re a fast leaner.” Peter chirps as he opens the ship’s board dock, sounding genuinely pleased. There’s a little extra swagger in his step too as he disembarks.
“Welcome to Xandar” Peter announces as he waves his arms out at the city they’ve landed in. Of course they’ve landed on a parking garage so they’re looking over the city rather than standing in it, but still. Its a parking garage that’s not on earth, PEter thinks it should be impressive. “Jewel of the Xandarian empire, centre of Nova-Space, yadda, yadda, yadda, lets go get paid.” Peter trots off and waves from Ripley to follow. ITs a short walk from the garage to the down town core, and they take suburban streets with stone-blue sidewalks and pale green lawns. Its a very pleasant walk because its early spring and the air is warm with out being sweltering hot and there’s a light breeze that has picked up pollen, which fills the air with a peachy smell. Xanadar is clean and bright and, in Peter’s opinion, sterile. But its comfortable and safe and enjoyable if you’re into raising a bunch of kids and working at a desk your whole life. Peter thinks its a good place to start because while the people that pass look strange - slightly purple or bright pink, with strange markings - they still look human and it shouldn’t be too shocking. Peter hopes it wont be too shocking, especially since a lot of Xandarians look perfectly human.

They cross the city square and head up a series of ramps all lined with gardens until they reach an upper level of the city. Peter take Ripley all the way up to his broker and then pauses at the door. Ripley doesn’t look like someone you should bring into a high class shop, and Peter doesn’t want to be nagged. Especially since having a cheap-whore looking female companion might not earn enough trust to sell the orb without Yondu present. “I’m going to leave you out here,” Peter says as if he’s explaining a very simple math equation. “I don’t really care if you wander off or anything, but if you want a ride home just be here when I get back, okay?” Peter asks and actually waits for a reply because he’s still questioning Ripley’s intelligence. He doesn’t care if he leaves her behind because she wanders off, but he wants the clean conscious of knowing she understands her choices.

[Halloqueen]

The Devil in Hell ✘ we're told was chained
✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿ A thousand years he there remained ✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿
He neither complained nor did he groan
But was determined to start a ๑ ๑ Hell ๑ ๑ of his own

Grace has to wonder just what Rocket’s problem is. Maybe he was dropped on his head as a baby. Maybe he has a horrible brain tumor that makes him rude and unable to stop himself from being a giant d**k-a-roo. It still doesn’t make Gracie feel sorry enough to want to be friends with him. She parks her cute little bootie in the driver seat and kicks her feel up on the dash because if Rocket’s leaving he can’t police who sits in the big-boy seat. “Still think Groot should wear it,” Gracie grumbles to herself with a pout as the raccoon and tree head out.

“Hey new rule - how about we don’t talk about what my lady stuff gets off on?” Grace says into the little microphone on the ship’s dashboard that connects her to rocket through the audio link. She trusts that Rocket isn’t into her or anything like that, which is great, but it is rather uncomfortable hearing him blather on about rapists and her turn-ons all in the same conversation. Also, Gracie is the sluttiest of slutty whores, but she still respects herself enough to want a little respect from others. Plus she doesn’t like thinking about her own empty skin. Eww with a side order of ouchie.

Gracie watches the two drift off into the bowls of the planet and feels her mouth get a little dry because the crowd spreads thin for them. Probably because Groot is so massive and he swings his arms when he walks and people are just being cautious. That’s what Gracie tells herself, anyways. Thinking about all the people outside makes Grace weary so she stands up and pulls down a shade that is intended to cover the windshield for dark sleeping, but for now it works perfectly for blocking out scum and criminals.

Gracie bumbles around the ship while she waits, spends some time searching for bubble gum and finding none. She hangs out in the engine for a while and tries to figure out a way to make a double engine run on a single. She gets a few ideas but doesn’t act on them because Rocket has told her too and if they need a fast get away she doesn't want to be yelled at. Instead she tinkers around with the wiring for the radio so they can pick up more commercial channels, and she lowers all the heat and hot water settings so they can save on fuel.


When her two strange companions come back on the speaker Grace settles back down with Meela on her lap and listens to the conversation as she scratches Meela’s fuzzy-wuzzy tummy. She leans in closer to the speakers but it doesn’t help her hear at all and she struggles to pick up both sides of the conversation. The only part of the conversation she can really make out (aside from rocket) is some poor kid being lost from his mother, and that makes Gracie hum sadly. But oh well, that’s space for you. Nothing they can do about it. Not that Gracie wouldn’t like to help - she would - but she’s come to accept the realities of the universe and understands there just isn’t a d’ast thing she can do about anything.

There’s silence on the other end of the line for a while and Gracie decides they must be enjoying a peaceful stroll through the snow (dirt?) to the ship. She isn’t expecting the unannounced thumping on the door which startles her and makes her jump, sending Meela catapulting off her lamp and gliding towards safety under the ships’s control panel. Grace lets the down the ramp but not without yelling “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” because Rocket makes her eternally cranky. Even if she likes him. A little. Only because he’s bringing back units.

“What the flark is a Star-Lord” Gracie asks as she leans against the wall of the cockpit and clicks her tongue against her teeth to try and lore Meela back to her. And as an after thought adds, “Only a jerk would call himself Rocket,” But all of Rocket’s swearing and cursing catches her attention and she steps up behind him, bending over so she can peek over his shoulder at the weird little tablet and the weird little man on its screen. “You’re not gonna kill him, are you?” Gracie asks, although she isn’t really concerned about it and its none of her business.

Grace has left the pilot seat purposely empty because she figures Rocket needs it for his ego and she doesn’t want to start a fight over it. Not when its just driving and she could sleep or eat or something else with her time. But it is a really nice ship (owned by someone in debt she figures - shitty stuff on board but nice ship bought on credit) and she really wants to get her hands on it. All over it at warp speeds. If there’s one thing Gracie loves more than a good body, its a good ship. So her pink eyebrows shoot up and then she stares down Rocket doubtfully before jumping into the seat before he can change his mind.

Grace follows the path that Rocket gives her but she takes a squirrel route star-gate because she knows the traffic better than Rocket, because she’s spent her whole life bouncing between planets basically. It makes the 75 hour trip only 62 hours which is a relief because its along time to be cooped up with Groot and Anger-Management-Issues. Not that she minds being cooped up with Groot. When Rocket takes a shift driving she actually spends a little time with Groot, who is a very good listener and a very good climbing toy for Meela. And Gracie likes the way he smiles when she finds a knife in the back and Groots lets her carefully prune away some of his fly-away sprouts.

When they get to the planet Gracie is actually a little excited because while the planet is filled with low lifes and sketchy people, it doesnt look like a criminal hub. Just people trying to get a deal and turn a profit on a cheap business. Gracie can handle these kinds of people. And she can also dig cheap spare parts and machine salvage. Its about an hour and a half when she reunites with Rocket again. Except now she has a turret twice her size lifted above her head like it was a basket of laundry. “Hey Rocket,” Gracie shouts from across the yard they’ve landed in, covered in grease and squinting because this planet is actually obnoxiously hot and sunny, “This is a gun right? Can I put it on the ship or what?”

[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

xx
x

r o c k e t
tactical genius, weaponry expert, thug and the farthest thing from vermin.

• rocket gives grace a look when she asks whether or not he's going to kill whatever a star-lord is. "only get the units if we bring him back alive, so alive it is. i'm not gonna waste the last forty thousand units because he looks like a royal flarking idiot that probably deserves to be stopped for offending us with that look," and boy is rocket offended by the stupid look that this star-lord guy has going on for him. "who the ******** calls themselves star-lord?" rocket rolls his eyes again as he repeats this rhetorical question and then shakes his head, but not before giving grace a sharp look that suggests she might not want to press it considering without the name rocket, he's just a string of letters and numbers.
  
  and rocket is more than just a string of letters and numbers.
  
  for the most part, he's spending time looking over various holographic sheets of information and looking for whereabouts on sir star-lord. it takes a lot more than he thinks it's going to take and it takes awhile before he gets a ping that confirms what yondu has said about star-lord going back to xandar to try and sell some stupid orb-thing. when this confirmation happens, rocket's mood eases into probably the most calm and relaxed mood one can expect from an angry modified raccoon. he spends the rest of his time sitting there and plotting out what kind of weaponry he's going to get with the units that he has now.
  
  when it comes time to change pilots of the ship, rocket does so without criticizing grace. (he doesn't even act out when she goes against his direction and actually saves them time.) while there is an auto-pilot on this ship, they're in the kind of territory that requires them to be pretty alert and even though the ship comes with some small weaponry, it isn't enough to take out a hostile ship.
  
  while rocket is up front and grace is trimming up groot in the back, rocket stares out the windshield and he sees a marvelous sight to behold. he winds up staring out the window as two translucent and glowing golden space squid frolic in a dust cloud that rocket and company is traveling through. they completely ignore the ship that's flying near them because their ship is insignificantly small compared to them. as they float through the dust clouds, they leave behind shimmering golden dots of who knows what. rocket finds himself mesmerized by this. he's not one for beautiful things or sights to behold, but he knows that seeing space squid is an omen of good luck.
  
  in the back, groot takes a peek out the small circular window and he sees the space squid. groot also knows it's a sign of good luck. "i am groot," he says to gracie as he points out the window. good fortune and good luck is coming their way. "i am groot," he tells her, explaining to her that this means something good is going to happen for them. it doesn't take long for the space squid to move past them and this leaves the ship soaring through a bunch of golden blobs of who knows what that shimmer and glow, even in the vacuum of space.
  
  groot does like when gracie prunes him with a knife that she's found. had groot been a cat and capable of purring, he would have been doing that. instead, he wears a content smile and occasionally lets his eyes drift closed. the feeling of being pruned and the feeling of meela moving about on him is surprisingly relaxing and he appreciates it. groot is starting to hope that they never let go of gracie and meela because he thinks that they might do better with a spare set of hands. he also likes having more than one friend.
  
  when they land on their planet that rocket is going to get his weapons on, gracie splits up with rocket and groot, even though groot doesn't need weapons. but rocket might need help carrying the amount of stuff he's going to be dragging back to the ship because rocket is keen on splurging and getting good s**t. and he happens to find quite a bit. he's back at the ship, because he's also very fast, and he also has to drop off what he's got so that he can get more armloads. he needs enough to make bombs just in case everything goes wrong, even though they have the good omen of seeing space squid on their side.
  
  rocket looks up to see grace holding up a massive turret that is twice her size. and considering it's probably made of some impressively heavy materials, rocket has to conclude that she's a lot stronger than she looks. for a moment he stands there and just stares at the way she's carrying it like it's nothing and it's in this moment that he decides that maybe, just maybe he shouldn't piss her off as much as he's been doing.
  
  he almost stutters when he answers her question, but manages to keep his cool.
  
  "damn that's a gun," he blinks and trots up closer to it so that he can look it over.
  
  "i am groot."
  
  "yeah, put it on the ship but we need a way to control the firing on it so that it's not just an empty threat," rocket explains. he doesn't ask how she's carrying. he kind of doesn't want to know. he also doesn't offer help because it seems like she's got it taken care of. he can tell immediately the kind of ammunition it takes, which is plasma ammunition. essentially, they only need a single plasma core to power the turret for the rest of forever. rocket is sure he can find one. "you think you can do that?"

[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

xx
x

r i p l e y x d i c k e r m a n - d u f e n d o r f
expert hacker and grunge fashionista and (straight up gnarly as ********) junkie.

• this is amazing, she thinks. this is amazing and wonderful and the air is so clean except i can't breathe in through my nose because i still have snot up it, she thinks. she takes in deep breaths so as to try and keep her bile inside her body while they're in a public square. despite the sheer amount of people, the air still smells so nice and the ground isn't too terrible to walk on. it's not the awful cement on earth and it's not too hot or too cold which means it's okay that she's barefoot.
  
  a couple xandarians give her a couple strange looks, but she doesn't mind because she's had worse on earth. her eyes are also too busy taking in all the sights and things flying around and wow it's amazing. she almost trips going up a couple stairs, but manages to catch herself before she falls flat on her face. there's less fear and more just awe and wonder because she never quite believed that there might have been something of this caliber out in space. she knew that there would be life but this is. . . this is amazing, she thinks.
  
  when they get to the door they're supposed to be going into, peter gives her the option to stay here or wander around. but if she wants a ride home, she has to be back there by the time he comes out. she presumes it won't take very long because drug deals never did, unless she happened to not have the money and so on and so forth.
  
  ripley nods to signify that she understands, and she nods because her attention falls elsewhere, to over peter's shoulder to a very angry looking woman with claw like nails and she would be quite pretty if it weren't for the terrifying facial expression she had on. she blinks a couple times and squints a little bit and she can tell, oh boy can ripley tell, that pete's in trouble because they're the only ones in eyesight of her and this is her first time on xandar and she's never had issues with an alien.
  
  "l-look b-behind y-you," ripley says in a fairly quiet tone of voice, "sh-she's g-gonna sh-shank y-you." actually, her voice is so quiet that probably only peter can hear her. "l-like, r-really, sh-shank y-you."

[Halloqueen]

x
x.x.

━━━━━━━┋┋┋┊STAR ✪ LORD┊ ┋┋┋━━━━━━━

Peter is an idiot and doesn’t remember that she’s bare foot. To his credit its hard to tell because the pants he’s lent her billow over her feet and he’s busy thinking about the thousands and thousands of units he’s about to get. And the thousands and thousands of freedoms. He’s certainly not thinking about feet or their protective outer wear. Ripley gets a lot of strange looks and Peter gets twice as many because Ripley looks strange, Peter looks down right criminal. A fair portion of the population can spot a Ravanger and know enough to keep their distance. That, and the pair smell pretty fowl to be honest, especially compared to Xandarian standards.



Peter is about to leave Ripley alone when she starts making faces at him and that doesn’t bode well for him at all. There’s something about the way she looks at him that makes his gut sick and gives him the feeling that a big acid dripping Alien is right behind him. He doesn’t want to look behind him but then Ripley says “she’s gonna shank you,” in a cute little stutter and Peter just manages an “Excuse me?”. He’s a little surprised by that choice of wording. 


Peter does turn around though because he kind of has to. And wow, hey, that’s not so bad. That’s a very hot chick with nice hair and lovely fleshbags and Peter likes this more than some scary monster alien about to shank him. She seems pretty easy going to Peter, maybe with a case of chronic b***h-face but Peter can work on that. He turns back to Ripley and gestures to the new alien with his thumb. “What? Her? Look at her, she’s half my size.” 


Of course as Peter says the girl behind is bitterly frowning and taking well to that. She’s also upset because she wasn’t expecting Ripley and although she doesn’t care, she doesn’t like having to deviate from her plan. So, since she can’t chat peter up so easily anymore, she decides that yes, she will shank him, thank you very much. As Peter rolls his eyes and scoffs at Ripley, Gamora balls her hand up into a fist and winds her arm back, sending a bone cracking punch straight on trajectory to the back of Peter’s head.

[Halloqueen]

The Devil in Hell ✘ we're told was chained
✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿ A thousand years he there remained ✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿
He neither complained nor did he groan
But was determined to start a ๑ ๑ Hell ๑ ๑ of his own

Gracie takes a little comfort in the fact that they aren’t going to kill the poor guy. Especially since she doens’t know why he has a bounty out or what they’re dragging him back to. She does giggle at Rockets insults because the guy does have a horribly outdated hair cute and a stupid face, but the laughs are mostly just because of the sudden relief that her companions seemed opposed to killing for cash. Grace tries not to make it obvious when she leans over Rocket’s shoulder occasional to look at all the screens of information. She knows it isn’t any of her business but as a passenger on this crazy mission she gets a little curious. She gives up after Groot gently nudges her away for the second time.

Grace falls into a relaxing rhythm of pruning away all the little buds and tiny leaves on Groot, carefully lifting away any dead ‘skin‘ that could a rather nasty sliver. Occasional Groot shifts and Gracie likes the sound of wood grinding against wood - its been a while since she’s been so close to something so natural and terran. She’s so engulfed in her work that she barely notices the first time Groot taps on the window. She finally raises her head with a curious “Hmmm?” and turns towards the window. When she sees the space squid she actually gasps a little because she wasn’t expecting that and they’re breath takingly beautiful. She scoots a little closer to glass and presses her hand against the window because the beings are so big and graceful, and its a sudden reminder of how infinite the universe is.

Meela crawls up to see too and winds up licking the window because she can taste all the happy spacey feelings coming off the squid as they frolic and float. Gracie gathers her up so she doesnt leave marks on the window, but she understands. She wants to be out there too, floating in her element instead of being trapped inside a ship. She wants to just live her life with no cares, just like the squid. Except maybe with less shimmering gold glitter.

“Well, would you look at that,” Grace murmurs as the squids dart away and go along their business. She doesn’t have much else to say because she knows it a good omen, but she doesn’t want to jinx it and put their 40,000 units at risk. 

On the planet Gracie saunters by Rocket with the turret over her head like a basket of laundry and whistles low, because wow-wee Rocket has gathered up a lot of little pieces of things. Grace reflects that he must be quicker than he looks, and she goes on to figure that with those tiny little fingers he’s probably pretty dexterous. Her grin gets twice as big when she sees she’s impressed Rocket. She wonders if she should tell him she that’s strong, she’s just lowered the gravity enough to let her lift such a massive piece of machinery. Gracie considers how rude Rocket’s been and decides maybe she’ll tell him later. Maybe.

Gracie knows a little bit about guns in relation to ships. She knows enough to attach them to circuitry and the ships hardware and that sort of thing, but she’s never had to go into much detail with them. “D’you mean like a trigger?” Gracie asks as she squints at their ship, trying to figure out the best place to stick the gun. “Yeah, I can do that,” and she decides to hook the gun on the belly of the ship because there’s lots of metal frame to attach it to. Welding it on is the easy part, and it only takes Grace about an hour or so to rig up a mounting unit that lets them raise and lower (and essentially aim) the gun.

She winds up sweaty and tired and greasy and sitting on top of the turret, connecting some wiring from the ship to the turret so they can turn it on and off. She stops to wipe the sweat away from her forehead and notices Rocket still working away on a pile of things that look less like trash and more like things. Gracie presumes they’re weapons. Which is interesting, because making weapons from scratch is a unique talent. Lots of people pick up books to learn about mechanics, not that many people learn weapons.

“Hey Rocket,” Grace shouts out across the junk yard because she could use a break anyways, “Where’d you learn to do all that?”

[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

xx
x

r o c k e t
tactical genius, weaponry expert, thug and the farthest thing from vermin.

• not only are they weapons that can be used multiple times (like guns, rocket does like guns, and unfeasiblely large guns, especially), but he also has weapons that can be used once to decimate an area and make sure that they don't have to worry about anything coming after them again after the residual effects. he also has a gun that can do the same thing on his mind, but he needs a couple parts that he hasn't found yet. he's sure he can find them later on some other planet, or somewhere that isn't technically a big junk yard.
  
  they reconvene and grace responds to his question with an answer that she can do it. rocket just goes back to what he's working on and gives her a thumbs up to tell her it's okay to work on it. "ey, groot, give 'er a little help if she needs it," he tells groot.
  
  "i am groot," groot responds. and he seems ecstatic about the option of getting to help gracie. he slowly walks over towards gracie and offers his help, "i am groot?" while the words are hte same, there's a bit of a questioning inflection to his voice that makes it evident he's asking a question instead of just making the 'i am groot' statement.
  
  rocket gets pretty invested in what he's doing, pretty distracted with what he's doing, and pretty involved in what he's doing. it takes him a couple seconds after grace has asked him what he's doing to realize that she had been speaking to him in the first place. she asks him about how he knows how to do this and it makes him sort of freeze up for a moment because the answer is a lot more depressing than it should be. his eyes turn to the ground for a moment and he decides that maybe a quick little lie might work better than telling her the truth.
  
  he's not too fond of letting everyone know that he's some little furry beast that has it ingrained in his head, or that they gave him sort of an edge when it comes to weaponry and mechanics, so that he can take to it easier. he doesn't want grace to know this because at the moment, not even groot knows this too much. groot knows he served as sort of a security kind of guard on halfworld to keep the looneys in and prevent them from escaping. but he doesn't know about the experimentation, the experiments over and over and over again.
  
  for a moment, rocket has to squint, and he blames it on sunlight deep down in his stomach.
  
  "oh, you know, pick it up here and there," he says with the normal amount of snark in his voice. "when you get thrown in the middle of someone else's war, you sort of have to pick up this s**t fast," he looks up to grace and leans his head back slightly so that he can get a better look at her. she's covered in dirt and grime.
  
  "i am groot," groot responds, because he remembers the war that rocket is talking about.
  
  "yeah, that one," rocket nods a bit with scoffs a little bit, "the flarking badoon. they're always at war with something or another and you sorta gotta improvise to make sure you don't die." rocket is a fan of not dying and he shakes his head slowly. as much as he wants to rush his way to xandar, he realizes that they probably actually need food, except groot might not because he can just gnaw on moss and mushrooms that grow on him.
  
  rocket finishes up with the last explosive that he plans to make for now and seemingly nonchalantly putting them in a couple crates that he collected. of course, he's actually being surprisingly careful about it because he knows that he can blow them all up if he just drops them the wrong way. rocket straightens himself up and heads towards groot who's standing near the ship. groot boosts him up with his growing arms under the belly of the ship so that rocket can take a closer look at the work that grace has done.
  
  "i'd say that's not bad work," he shouts to her. "might need to take it for a test run, though."
  
  truth be told, he's kind of excited about that part.

[ereht tuo si hturt eht]

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tab tab ▌█▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀ ▀▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀
tab tab tab tab there's a demon inside me, can i kill it?
tab tab ixxxｒｉｐｌｅｙ x ｄｉｃｋｅｒｍａｎ • ｄｕｆｅｎｄｏｒｆ
tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab tab h e l l xx n o !!
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tab xIF YOU NOT ******** WITH ME, BRETHREN YOU CAN SUCK UPON THIS d**k tab ■ tab I SWALLOWED YOUR c** WHAT THE ******** MORE DO YOU WANT
tab xIF YOU NOT ******** WITH ME, BRETHREN YOU CAN SUCK UPON THIS d**k tab ■ tab I SWALLOWED YOUR c** WHAT THE ******** MORE DO YOU WANT
tab xIF YOU NOT ******** WITH ME, BRETHREN YOU CAN SUCK UPON THIS d**k tab ■ tab I SWALLOWED YOUR c** WHAT THE ******** MORE DO YOU WANT
▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇...▇ ii


peter does have a point, gamora is half his size and so ripley presumes that peter doesn't know what the ******** the word shank means because if he did he might not be acting so nonchalant about it. even small people can stab larger people, but ripley doesn't really have time to explain this to him because it looks like the rather pretty, but still angry-looking, green woman behind him starts to look even more upset at being told she's half the size of peter. and so ripley just sighs and sees the look on gamora's face that suggests that she isn't even kidding around and that there's going to be no reasoning with her. it's a similar look that her mother got when she thought ripley was trying to seduce her boyfriend.

when she was ten and eleven.

she notices gamora's hand starting to move and so ripley moves with a surprising amount of speed because there are certain times when her reflexes are sharp -- like when she wants to block being hit. although, this isn't her being hit, this is the guy that hit her being hit. but he's extended a nice hand out to her, let her borrow pajama bottoms and some kind of sweater or coat or whatever and gave her food and didn't try to kill her or foce her to give him a b*****b or try and stick his d**k anywhere near her. she appreciates that. and so she figures that she might actually owe peter one, considering she's a stowaway on his ship that bled rainbow ooze all over him.

ripley says nothing, she just throws up one hand and makes a bright blue portal behind peter's head that goes right to where gamora's fist is going. gamora has no time to stop her hand from going through it. ripley's other hand moves and she throws up one more portal to the side of gamora's head. gamora's own fist strikes the side of her head. everything is moving in slow motion for ripley, and she takes in a deep breath through her mouth because wow, that worked.

she goes to say something to peter, but gamora's already moving forward again and recovering from punching herself in the head. she's the universe's deadliest woman, she doesn't need a long time to recover from a punch to the head. with this, ripley throws up yet another portal on the ground just as gamora steps down, then another one about ten feet in the air, twenty feet away and gamora disappears into the blue hole and comes tumbling out of the other one that certain distance away.

she doesn't scream, but she's definitely surprised. she lands on her side and it hurts, but what hurts more is her stomach. she feels completely disoriented and can't tell one direction from the other. her head is spinning and her stomach lurches to a point where the last thing she ate comes up and onto the cement.

with this, ripley pushes peter once in the opposite direction, "g-go!"

[Halloqueen]

x
x.x.

━━━━━━━┋┋┋┊STAR ✪ LORD┊ ┋┋┋━━━━━━━

Peter is a happily little zone of being completely ridiculous and not being aware of the danger in his life when things start to move to fast. If Peter has a spidey-sense, it probably only works when something is going to happen to the Milano or his food. So he’s pretty unprepared when he does turn around because Ripley seems pretty adamant that he’s about to get shanked. And wow, is Peter glad he turned around because that is most certainly an angry alien babe about to punch his lights out. Being the amazing fighting machine that he is, Peter’s reaction is to drop into a crouch and hold his hands over his beautiful face yellling “Woah, woah woah!”.

He flinches and stiffens up because Peter is expecting to get hit by some random crazy chick, not get pummeled near to death by one of the galaxies greatest assassins - he has no idea who Gamora is. He braces for the mild impact of a punch to the face and only opens one eye cautiously when he realizes that it never lands.Maybe she wasn’t going to hit him? Maybe it was a cultural thing - like a weird way to say hello?

Except nope, clearly she’s not hitting him because she’s hitting herself in the face....

Wait, what?

There’s a bunch of blue stuff in the air and Gamora is punching herself smack in the face and Peter is very confused. It takes him a second to realize its a portal but doesn’t know where that came from. It couldn’t have been Ripley because humans can’t do that, Peter’s convinced he can’t do that because the only thing he ever heard about mutants were headlines on the tv his mama watched after dinner and those are long faded memories. He doesn’t even put together that portals might explain how Ripley wound up on his ship because Peter Quill is a little dense right now. And a little shocked. And still thinking about his handsome face.

Peter just watches for a minute because seeing someone punch themselves in the face is funny. And its even more funny to watch as they realize they just punched themselves in the face and stare at their fist for a split second. And Peter just keeps watching because even as Gamora recovers and makes to lunge again she’s suddenly dropping from a seizable height with a look of sheer terror on her face, and hitting the ground like a sack of space potatoes. She tries to get up to her feet but that doesn’t work because she has a seriously case of vertigo, and she wobbles back and forth which Peter also finds funny. He’s about to laugh when Ripley grabs him by the arm and starts to push and then he remembers that they’re in the middle of a fight. Sort of.

Peter snaps to his senses and scuttles away with Ripley like some sort of bad comedy cartoon. Peter grabs her arm and picks up his pace because he’s healthier and can run faster than her, and because he knows the planet better than her. He picks an upscale restaurant three blocks down because its busy so they can hide in the back of the crowd and because neither him or Ripley look like they should be in an upscale restaurant. The hostess notices as well because while Ripley looks like she has beautiful regal skin markings and transfixing eyes and billowy clothing that flows along her body, Peter looks dirty and grubby and like trouble. But the judging look goes away when Peter flashes a credit card (ah, that’s why they’re together) and takes them to a seat at the back. Of course the credit card is stolen, but she doesn’t need to do that.

They get seated at a small booth at the back and Peter orders a pitcher of beer and a glass of fruit water (like lemon water but with sweeter fruits) and passes a menu to Ripley. The waitress gives them dirty looks and peter just smirks at her cheekily and makes doe-eyes at Ripley until she leaves. The minute they’re ‘alone’ Peter leans across the table and hisses at her,

“What was that?” Peter gasps like she’s just taken her head off, spun it around, and put it back on, “Did you do that? Was that tech? What? How?”

[Halloqueen]

The Devil in Hell ✘ we're told was chained
✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿ A thousand years he there remained ✿✿✿✿ ✿✿✿✿
He neither complained nor did he groan
But was determined to start a ๑ ๑ Hell ๑ ๑ of his own

Gracie is mildly concerned about the number of guns Rocket is piling up. That’s a lot of guns. It makes her wonder why exactly they need so many guns because Grace doubts they’re going to need that many guns. And then it dawns on her - they wont. Rocket’s just being insecure. Oh. Thats sets off a feeling Gracie’s gut that she isn’t really ready for.

Groot offers to help and that distracts Gracie for a little bit because Groot is the most kawaii thing in the universe. She doesn’t really having for him to and since there’s a lot of welding and hot parts she’s worried about lighting Groot on fire so she mostly asks things to hold things. But he’s a good holder and she tells him that because he’s so eager to help its adorable.

Grace feels sort of dumb now because obviously learning to make weapons is a skill with a sad backstory. She shouldn’t have asked but its too late now because the words are already out of her mouth. For the first time Gracie feels like a jerk because Rocket squints when she asks and she can just tell that is a face of someone recalling unpleasant things. She only meant to make small talk to pass the time. He mentions the badoon and Gracie’s face goes solemn as she thinks about. There are a lot of wars going on across the galaxies - badoon, spartax, kree, so many more - and Grace has done a good job staying out of all of them. Sometimes she takes a job just to get a little further away from the squirmishes. She feels bad because Rocket doesnt look like the kind of guy to get involved with other people’s wars.

“Thats life out in the void, I suppose,” Gracie says with a shrug when Rocket talks about improvising to not die. Even if you aren’t at war, you’re living in a constant unhospital death trap that was never meant to know life outside of planets - especially for things born on planets. But then again, Gracie wouldn’t know anything about that.

“I am Groot,” Groot chimes in with a piece of sagely advice about the state of cosmic politics and Grace can only nod her head because Groot is so right.

She does jump a little and lean side ways, forcing her to grab the side of the torrent with a squeak and wiggle back up, when Groot lifts Rocket up because she didn’t know Groot could grow on command. Well, that seems weird but useful. She presses her fingers over her heart to quiet its suddenly fast beating and Groot gives a little “I am Groot,” in apology.

Grace leans forward when rocket calls it good work and they should test it, and she squints at him because she’s hugely skeptical of a lot of things. “You mean on inanimate asteroids, right?” Grace says as she’s already grilling him for testing it out on space rats or something similar.

Grace pauses for a second, thinking it over.

“Can I try?” She asks with mild curiosity because she’s never actually fired a ships weapons system before.