strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

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She nodded, heading over to where the glasses were kept and retrieving one appropriate for hard liquor. Back home they didn't sell alcohol at the diner and even if they did, she wouldn't be of age to serve it. Here, she was getting used to handling the alcohol even though she had never had any.

Liz placed the glass on the table. "Your name is Rocket, right?" Of course it was. How many other raccoons were at the inn that could talk? "Peter mentioned he met you." A slight pause. "Peter Parker."

Ah, that explained it. The girl did smell a bit like that Peter kid - that happened when homies climbed of each other or whatever. And it wasn’t surprising that Peter was kinda a gossip. He was excitable and how often did you come within fifteen seconds of being shot in the face?

It happened to Rocket a lot. Not so much either of these kids though probably. “Yeah, turns out the kid’s in the room next door.”

She nodded. She knew exactly where Peter's room was. She was there often, though not as much as he was to her room - she had given him her key.

"He mentioned you're from his world." Peter didn't talk about it much, but she knew that much. "Are you, um... adjusting to the inn okay?"

Rocket had to laugh - actual laughter, like she'd just told a great joke. And pour some of his liquor into his new glass, just so the girl knew it would get used. At least once, since he immediately drank what he'd poured. "Yeah, kid. I'm good. It's not really that new to me."

"It's not?" She looked confused. "Have you - have you been here before?" Maybe he had some insight of what happened back home when you returned. She even looked a little hopeful.

“Nah, not here. I just spent a year or two in a place that worked like I hear this one does is all.” Straight from Gotham to here, and remembering that he’d gone from a situation he’d more or less accepted to one that was objectively worse in more than one way meant it was time for another drink.

Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. "There are... Other places like this one?" She tried to figure out what that meant for this place, exactly, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Could they go there somehow instead of home?

"What was it like?"

"It was a city surrounded by sentience-stealing parasites on a primitive shithole of a planet. Which is to say Earth." An Earth, anyway, but definitely not one anyone who hadn't come from Gotham would recognize.

Liz was still trying to wrap her head around the parasite thing when he called Earth what he did and she actually found herself having to press her lips together to refrain from laughing a little. She had never heard anyone describe it like that not even badguys in film.

"You kind of get used to it."

Then it suddenly hit her. "Do you - have you ever heard of the planet Antar?"

Rocket actually thought about it, then shook his head and took a drink. "Nope. Heard of Antares, but that's a star. Got a few planets, though they're all pretty shit."

Despite herself, and the fact he hadn't heard of Max's planet, Liz found herself smiling. "You think a lot of places are, um, not great, huh?"

"Xandar's not bad. I mean, boring, but civilized." Rocket shrugged. "Laxidazia kicks ass at least some of the time." Literally. Trolls had the best bar brawls. "I actually had a lot of fun on Annoval 14, so it's not the worst." Three in the universe, though? "Yeah, a lot of places suck."

Her smiled widened a little. She had, of course, never heard of any of those planets before, but she knew that didn't mean anything. Earth's technology when it came to space was still really under-advanced which was clear just with the Roswell aliens back in the 1940s. "I'm sorry Earth isn't on the list... but I guess I'm kind of biased." It was her home, after all. "But, um. Considering how I know the government treats people from space... I kind of get why maybe it's not your first choice."

“Yeah, that doesn’t help. But no place’s really good with this so it’s not a big thing.” Rocket gestured vaguely at himself, not that he probably had to. It was obvious what there was for people not to be good with.

"I don't know why." The words came out before she really vetted them like she normally did. She paused. "I mean... lots of people look different. It's what makes life, um, interesting, right?"

Rocket laughed. "Sure, kid. Now think about how much people really want shit to be 'interesting'."

Okay, he had a point. "I have some friends from back home... they're not from Earth. Even though they look like they're human, they still have to hide who they are and people still have a problem with them. So, I guess you're right." She paused. "I'm sorry." It wasn't fair, really.

Rocket's ears flattened, briefly enough that he could pass it off as a casual ear-flick. Apologies, bleh. "It's not your fault." It hadn't been her hands on the scalpels or injectors. "An' hey, I get lots of excuses to shoot people, so it's all a win."

Liz's hand absent-mindedly went to her stomach where she had been shot and practically died before Max healed her. It wasn't a conscious move. "I guess that means you like shooting a lot, huh?" She offered a small smile.

"Eh, depends on the situation. Gunfire's a good way to win barfights an' jailbreaks that've gone to shit. For everything else, there's traps and explosions." It was more accurate to say that Rocket liked violence a lot.

For some reason, Liz found herself smiling a little more. She had no doubt that Rocket was being truthful. Somehow, though, the candidness of it all - Michael would really like him.

"I've only ever been around one bomb. Thankfully it didn't go off." Otherwise she and Peter would be dead. "but, um. It's nice you know what you like." That probably sounded pretty stupid out loud.

The girl was painfully polite. Like, it was almost literally painful to listen to her trying to be nice. "Yeah, they take practice."

A sudden thought crossed her mind. She knew Peter and even Kitty would hate it. Still... Liz pressed her lips together. She could maybe be more help to Peter, right?

"... could you maybe show me how to disarm them?"

"Yeah, sure!" That was a great excuse to build bombs. Build them so the girl could take them apart. And if nothing else, thanks to some effort spent on not upsetting Jemma back in Gotham, Rocket knew how to make explosives that were functionally harmless when they went off. Sparkles and shit.

Not as good as real bombs with the fire and shrapnel, but good enough to scratch the itch a little. "Whatever ones I can build here, anyway."

She looked surprised. A part of her hadn't expected him to say yes. Then Liz smiled. "Really? Thank you!" Liz wondered if how easy it was to disarm a bomb. It had looked difficult on the space station. "And, um. I can help you find things you might need, if you like."

[GP/EP] Check-in Day

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