Rocket spread his arms in a 'look at me' kind of way. Because yeah - people saw a cute little animal, or some weird thing they didn't have to take seriously. Until he made them, applied gunfire, explosions, and violence to the problem. And then they saw a terrifying little monster thing, which was a little better and usually the best he could do. (Quill and Groot were the only ones who'd ever seen him right, from the start, until Gotham.)

"I been doin' my thing all my life, kid." Most of it, anyway. The parts that weren't the labs or the fuzzy indistinct blob of nonsentience before that. "It ain't a deathwish, it's just the only way I can go an' still be someone who likes livin'. So I figured we're the same, there."