[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_igmatized]

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.

Comments

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

Rocket's feelings on seeing Quill were a little more... complicated. That being the case, he held up one hand (hold on) and used the other to pour a not-insignificant amount of booze down his throat. What? It gave him time to process. Also it was a dick move, which Quill probably expected.

That greeting meant Quill had no idea that his time and Rocket's time were different. Had to be. No way Quill would pass up a chance to fake-responsible rant 'where the hell have you been we were worried sick and what about your baby tree'. And yeah, sure, Rocket had missed the hell out of his friends - mostly Groot, but gun to his head (not a suggestion) he'd admit Quill was second-most on that list. Quill was fun. He actually was happy to see Quill, amongst the practical-factual thought-garbage.

Quill didn't know it'd been a year or two. Hell, it was entirely possible there was shit Rocket didn't know about on Quill's side. That was the way Gotham had always worked and the Inn was the same but smaller and even more primitive. Wouldn't all of that be a fun conversation to have while shitfaced?

And thinking time over, he lowered his hand and (carefully!) set the bottle back down. At least he hadn't passed through cheerful drunk into I will bite your eyes out if you don't stop looking at me. "Quill! I haven't talked to any spiders, so anything they told you is... probably completely true but you gotta tell me what so's I know what to admit."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

Quill stood there with a hand on his hip patiently weighting with a vague air of annoyance. He knew Rocket was doing this on purpose. Some things never change.

"He's a kid. Peter. Good name." He explained. "Pretty sure he's going to start a fan club for us here. We'll probably become celebrities. No big deal."

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

Game didn’t generate units directly, but... yeah, Wuill wasn’t wrong. Rocket laughed. “He tried to call me ‘Mr. Rocket’! That’s a special level’a dumb.”

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

He made a Star Wars reference. I like him already.

"Wow," He said, even looking a little stunned. "I can't even imagine calling you that - and I can imagine calling you a lot of things."

Quill decided to take a seat. He sat down across from Rocket.

"You make any other friends since you've arrived?" Quill asked. "I met two hot chicks. Mary and Sunny. But from the looks of this place, here's a bunch of good looking people so we'll clearly fit right in."

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"You will, yeah." Rocket had a lot of advantages. His looks weren't one of them. "I met a redhead in the kitchen. Emma." There was Snow and Regina, too, but explaining them to Quill seemed almost too complicated. And yet, if Quill wasn't warned, one or the other would shoot or burn him. "Know a coupla others from before, Snow an' Regina. Snow's got a bullet necklace an' she doesn't talk much. Regina's... well, I met her when she set flying monkeys on fire. A year or two ago, I dunno."

His ears flattened briefly. "Look, Quill. Time's fucked around here. To me, it's been that year or two since I last saw you, an' it was right after Xandar. Dunno where you stand there."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"Dude, that's like..." Quill said as he did the mental math. "Like four years!"

Quill had a look of utter confusion. He did not like this new information. It made him uneasy.

"You really don't remember meeting my dad?" He asked, "Or watching Groot grow up?"

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"Nope. Groot was still tiny in his pot when I got... I dunno, taken." Most of the time, Rocket didn't think about Groot in any real way. It was a confused ball of grief and longing, now well on its way to being something like a second Lylla. "Instead'a that fun, I was stuck in a shitty city on an even more primitive-shithole version of Earth. With sentience-eating parasites."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

Sentience-eating parasites... Huh

"Wow. Alright," He replied, "There's definitely a story there."

Quill wasn't dumb enough to think Rocket was going to tell him everything. He hoped one day he might hear the whole story.

"Is this place the same?" He asked, "Stuck with a bunch of people and no where to go?"

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"Pretty sure yeah. Smaller an' even more primitive. So, y'know, that's worse." It was, especially so considering that he'd fucking bonded to some of those bald jerks in Gotham. Rocket took another slug of booze, then waved the bottle slightly. "On the up side the food's better here than there. An' I'm not stuck drinkin' homebrewed rotgut."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"You do know I'm human, right? I take personal offense every time you make disparaging remarks about us." Quill said, feigning hurt.

Even after he learned about his father, Quill still considered himself more human than anything else.

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"I stand by what I said. If Earth wasn't a primitive fuckin' shithole, you'd've visited before a pile of pink bricks forced you." Rocket waved a hand. "So suck it up, Buttercup."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"Oh yeah, well, jokes on you," Quill retorted. He somehow felt like he needed to impress Rocket, or at least make his friend acknowledge how cool he was. "I'm actually half Celestial."

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"Okay." That actually was pretty cool, which was why Rocket's ears stayed pricked instead of flattening as they generally did when he was genuinely on the mean train. But Quill sometimes needed reins on his ego, and Drax and Gamora weren't around to pick up their shares of the load. "So you're only half from a primitive shithole. That does put you over the rest of the bald bodies. But see, fifty percent's still a lot, so I think you still gotta suck it up."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"Alright, fine, but I think you still got to-" Quill said and trailed off momentarily as he wasn't sure how to continue with the comeback he had started on impulse. "...should bathe more."

Quill held his chin up as if to say he stood by his comment completely.

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

Rocket laughed. "Someday you're gonna learn not to start an insult unless you know how you're gonna end it, Quill. We'll have a fuckin' party." Odds were, of course, that Quill knew any number of ways to insult Rocket, but he also knew that they were all too real for this kind of thing. (And Quill generally avoided those even when he actually was mad.

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"What was wrong with that one?" He asked slightly defensively, but also quite curiously. "People usually like to smell good."

He humphed. It was for show. Then sighed and conceded.

"Are you just planning to get shit-faced drunk on your first day here?" He asked. "I mean, no judgement here because - respect. I'm just wondering if that's not maybe a tactical mistake. Have you ever gone for a walk to make sure everyone here is telling the truth?"

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

“Quill, my nose is so much better than yours it’s like you ain’t got one. I smell fine.” Duh. Despite the no judgement, Rocket took another slug. “An’ yeah, I’m plannin’ on way past shitfaced today. Maybe tomorrow too. Then I start teachin’ a girl how to make bombs an’ puckin’ up other allies an’ shit. I know to to do fuckin’ prison, Quill. Number 25’s the kind where ya hafta play nice t’get anyplace. I’m not doin’ that sober today.”

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"You're teaching a girl have to make bombs?" He asked. "Is that - Did you at least check to make sure she's not some crazy psychopath?"

Quill took a second and then shrugged.

"You know what, it's probably fine." He said as he took a seat because standing was tiresome. "I met this hot chick named Mary. She seemed nice.... for a mom."

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

To be friendly and also because it wasn’t like he couldn’t get more, Rocket poured Quill a drink. Somehow he’d ended up with multiple glasses when he hadn’t needed any, but it came in handy. “I met Spider-kid, a redhead in the kitchen, an’ a few others. Bomb girl. Whatever. You’ll do okay here pretty sure. So far most people‘ ever done okay with me.” And Rocket knew he was way harder to get along with than Quill.

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

Quill would normally ask if the red-head was hot, but he didn't. He took the list of people in and filed them away even though Rocket's descriptions were unhelpful.

"Are you saying people here might actually like you?" He asked with interest and a slight squint for emphasis.

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"Right? Fuckin' morons." Rocket went to a fair amount of effort not to be anything resembling charming or likeable. "But yeah. At least four... and a half people. Could be higher, I dunno." The spider-kid, bomb girl, Snow, Pike probably, and the half was Regina. Because she liked bitching at him and vice versa.

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"That's got to be a record, dude." Quill said, almost proud. He smiled and added with praise as if for a child, "Look at you and your personal growth."

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

Rocket rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm a regular social whatever fuckin' bug that is." He decided, in that moment, not to mention that he'd had at least that many, if not more, contacts and friends back in Gotham, but only two of them were at the Inn.

Of course, it probably was true that he'd gotten soft-ish. He blamed Sanctuary for that shit. "Don't get the wrong idea, Quill. Some places you gotta threaten to tear apart anybody who looks at ya funny, an' then do it a coupla times. This place don't work like that. S'too small."

Re: OTA

[st_arlord]

"No, of course," He said in a serious tone with a 'this is me being serious' face and a nod. "You're still a bad ass who hates most people. I won't forget that, don't worry."

Quill couldn't help wanting to smile. Maybe here Rocket might be happy. If only Groot would appear.

Re: OTA

[st_ripetail]

"Don't you worry either, Quill, you still get ta be the nice one. I'm sure I'll piss people off eventually." Sooner rather than later, historically speaking. But that was Quill's role - he was the nice one, the charming one, the one everybody liked just enough to keep everybody in line.