[OTA] shopping or whatever

[st_ripetail]

The 'boutique' was pretty much a nightmare of pink and glittery, at least in places, but the fact that the thing restocked itself was useful as fuck. Sure, you couldn't always rely on finding the same things you did before, but there was almost always something similar. And Rocket was used to repurposing and relying on junk, anyway. Junk was usually free. Nobody cared if you took their garbage, and they didn't care for long after they were blown up by what you'd turned the garbage into.

All of which was why Rocket spent a lot more time in the boutique/gift shop than most people would have expected, given that there was nothing pink and glittery about him. Except, now, a backpack which was still pink but no longer glittery, as the rhinestone-things had been pried off and store elsewhere.

As per usual, he climbed shelves and fixtures, evaluating items and occasionally shoving something into the backpack. There was a heavy emphasis on anything with clockwork or mechanisms, but also postcards, greeting cards, and clothes that had rhinestones, sequins, or beads.

Comments

Vex & Rocket

[st_ubby]

Vex was far more interested in clothes and accessories – a trait she shared with her brother – than souvenirs, toiletries, and other miscellany. That was why she'd taken over supervising the boutique while leaving the gift shop to fend for itself. She wasn't there all the time, but often enough to have a fairly good mental inventory of what was there at any given time, adjusting it as the inn added new and different items.

Just recently she'd noticed someone had an interest in some of the more bedazzled – Vex loved that word, although she couldn't remember now if it was Steph or Caroline she'd heard it from first, it was just perfect for the kinds of things it described – accessories and tops. But she hadn't seen anyone wearing the items that hadn't stayed in the shop for long.

When she came into the boutique today, she thought she would start with the swimsuits, seeing what, if anything, was new, and reorganizing the display for best effect. And also to see if there was anything that would make Percy's jaw drop, because the pool was calling with the weather warming up. What she hadn't expected was for someone else to be in the shop when she arrived, but she could hear them moving around before she could see them.

Oh. The raccoon. She had heard, of course, there was a talking raccoon in the inn. And she wouldn't have been as worried by a raccoon in general as some might. She did have a bear, after all, and Rocket wore clothes and talked and everything, although Vex hadn't met him exactly yet.

"Finding everything all right, darling?" she chimed, watching as he scampered from one shelf to another. Yes, she was standing by that word. Trinket lumbered, Rocket scampered.

Re: Vex & Rocket

[st_ripetail]

"You think any'a this shit's hard to find?" Rocket dangled one of the things - a bracelet seemingly made of thin bright pink rope and oversized beads, tacky as shit - off the shelf before stashing it in the pack. "It practically fuckin' glows. But ya know, I'm also finding I'm not good with the cutesy. Name's Rocket, and I am not, never have been, an' never will be anyone's fuckin' darling."

Re: Vex & Rocket

[st_ubby]

"Nothing 'cutesy' intended, Rocket. Trinket is adorable, of course, but you're no Trinket. You are, however, making yourself at home in the boutique, so of course I would be interested in what you're doing. Especially when you seem to be helping yourself mostly to the cheaply sparkly and shiny accessories and clothing." Vex was also drawn to shiny and sparkly, but she preferred the kinds that were expensive. Also she had something known as taste.

"I'm afraid you won't find much in your size, unfortunately." It was a problem Pike and Scanlan were all too familiar with here. "But Corbie is a very good seamstress."

Re: Vex & Rocket

[st_ripetail]

Oh, good, a bald body who got mildly snippy about somebody having issues with being called things. That was new.

"I wouldn't be caught dead in most'a this shit." Rocket bared his teeth, probably a grin albeit one that promised violence. "Other people might be sometime, though." He held up one of his recent finds, a slinky pair of skin-tight pant things with studs on. "See, this is decent fucking shrapnel. So I'm gonna take off the metal bits and pack'em into an explosive. Or hold onto'em until I need to pack'em."

Butters and Rocket

[st_rutsthepolka]

Butters was too much a child of the Midwest to have entirely suppressed his instinctive "oh god there's a raccoon in the store" reaction, but he got over it quickly. "Sentient space raccoon" was the kind of news that got around, and what the hell, stranger things had happened--if Bob was to be believed, Harry had once bummed a donut off a Billy Goat Gruff. Anyway, he was here on a mission of his own.

"Don't suppose you've run across a tuba or an accordion anywhere, have you?" he called up to the raccoon.

Re: Butters and Rocket

[st_ripetail]

"If I knew what either'a those things were, the answer'd prob'ly still be no." It was a good thing he'd had a couple years in Gotham to get at least a little used to humies just acting like he was a normal thing, Rocket thought. It'd never completely stop being weird, but it made life easier, especially when there wasn't much of a body count to pile up before he was left alone.

But that didn't mean he couldn't mess with them. Rocket dangled a thing off a shelf. "Hey, is this it?" (It was not. It was a glittery pink pen on a lanyard.)

Re: Butters and Rocket

[st_rutsthepolka]

"No, but that's completely fair, I should have asked if they have polka in space. Hang on." Butters did, of course, have a selection of polka videos on his phone. Let's see, the actual polka suit was probably a little... much for an introduction, and while he did have a couple of Jolly Rogers performances because it was always good to know your enemy, screw the Jolly Rogers. Ah, of course, you couldn't go wrong with Al. "Accordion's what the guy in the middle is playing, and the yeti on the right has the tuba."

Re: Butters and Rocket

[st_ripetail]

Rocket watched it for probably longer than was safe for his brain cells (what? what was that? why?) before shaking his head and making a shoving motion at the phone. "Every time I think I seen the weirdest fuckin' humie shit, along comes somethin' new." But because his brain didn't actually turn off very often, and it was an obvious question, he asked, "Why d'you want both? An' if you're gonna tell me there's more than one'a you, consider lying."

[st_arlord]

Quill watched for a minute or two in fascination. He knew Rocket was up to something. Rocket was always up to something.

The pink backpack's a nice touch...

"I'll pay money to see you wear that pink tank top you just shoved in your bag." He said with a smirk.

[st_ripetail]

"Fuck no." It was too big, and that actually was why. In the earliest days in Gotham, before he'd found ways to get actual clothes his size, a lot of the things he'd had to wear had shit like cartoon yellow birds or rainbows or whatever. It sucked being toddler-humie size.

Rocket pulled the tank top back out of the bag to show Quill the letters picked out in sparkly little rocks. "See this? This's shrapnel, Quill. Add enough boom an' it'll tear shit up."

[st_arlord]

"Death by glitter rocks," Quill said with a low whistle. "Definitely a way to go out in style."

He paused.

"You're just preparing, right?" He said with slight narrow eyes. Always good to keep an eye on Rocket when he gets bored

[st_ripetail]

"Eh. We'll see." Currently the only one Rocket kind of did want to blow up was that asshole Alec, but long-term it was probably going to be more fun to just continually mess with him. Let him live, but make it hell.

Glitter bombs could probably help with that, too, if they were of the nonlethal variety. Sequin and glue payload? Maybe. "I sure as shit ain't wastin' lethal ordinance on anyone I don't want dead."

[st_arkintern]

"Need any help?"

Peter Parker might not know all the requirements for being taken off probation as a Guardian, but Quill did say early in their conversation that Rocket'd need to like him.

Peter wasn't entirely sure if Rocket liked him. Then again, Rocket could have easily shot him the first time they met, and he hadn't done that either. Maybe he was just okay with him? Peter wasn't sure.

Still, he wasn't taking chances. Okay was not like. Okay was more like tolerate, and Peter didn't want to be someone that the Guardians just tolerated, like a hanger-on.

"I can carry things," he says. "Lots of things. I'm really good at it."

[st_ripetail]

Rocket hopped down from the fixture he'd been climbing on, down to the ground. His ears flattened briefly, as he wondered what the kid was up to. Who sucked up like that, for no reason? But then he remembered that 'eager to please' was basically his whole experience of Peter Parker, so it was just Spider-Kid being Spider-Kid.

So he tempered his initial 'fuck off!' into something else. "Need, no." It wasn't okay to need help. Do things for yourself or they didn't get done. "But if you're offerin', I might take one or two'a these rack things. Metal's always useful an' I bet I could find a way to cut it up."

[st_arkintern]

Peter looked over at the racks, not sure if the inn would actually replace them the next day. It might. But it also might not.

Peter frowned, worried.

If it were only one or two racks, though, they probably wouldn't be missed, right?

Peter clears one of the racks, moving the merchandise not pillaged (or not yet pillaged) by Rocket elsewhere. He doesn't want to make a mess here, even if Rocket doesn't seem particularly concerned about tidiness.

Peter easily picks up the cleared rack.

"Anything else?"

[st_ripetail]

Now Rocket did bare his teeth a little. "Okay, I'll bite. What's your game here, kid? Nobody sucks up like this for no reason."

[st_illsinging]

"Somehow I think the lady running the boutique might have a word or two for you if you keep making a mess." Scanlan, the 3-foot Gnome, looked more amused than anything else though. "Good climbing technique"

That was one way to get over the height problem.

[st_ripetail]

"Pretty sure I don't care about that. Besides, if you think about it I'm doin' her a favor. Alleviatin' the fuckin' boredom." To prove it, Rocket dropped an unsatisfactory skirt thing on the ground (too plain) and jumped to the next rack over. "You don't climb to get stuff? What d'you do instead, ask? 'Oh please sir-stroke-madam will you get that thing for my tiny ass?'"

[st_illsinging]

Scanlan was so going to let Rocket dig the hole with Vex rather than warn him. It would be far more fun to sit back and watch the show, anyways. Talk about relieving boredom!

Scanlan sang the words 'Bigby's hannnnnnd' and a big purple hand showed up in the middle of the room. "Usually I get this guy to do my work for me. Or an unseen servant." He paused. "I have tricks up my sleeve."

Kitty & Rocket

[st_alksthroughwalls]

Blended into shadow, Kitty watched the cybernetic raccoon climbing the shelves and fixtures in the boutique. Alec had mentioned him and he was clearly connected to the Guardians, so sue her, she was curious. After awhile, a pattern emerged in what he took, and she was...curious.

"What do you want with the rhinestones and beads?" she asked as she stepped out of shadow and phased to visibility.

Re: Kitty & Rocket

[st_ripetail]

Rocket's only concession to surprise was a brief ear-flattening. One of the down-sides of a small group confinement situation was that it took actual effort and attention to figure out when a scent was current or historical in the high-traffic public spaces like the boutique. Everybody passed through, so everybody stayed there in a way.

But there was no need to let the female know he was startled. That was how reputations started to tank. "What's it to ya? Maybe I like glittery shit."

Re: Kitty & Rocket

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Maybe. I thought that was more of a magpie thing than a raccoon thing, but you'd probably know better than me," Kitty replied, not looking at all bothered about talking to a raccoon. "That is, unless you're not a raccoon and just look like one."

He kind of reminded her of someone, although she wasn't entirely sure who just yet.

[st_makemeastone]

River had, well, drifted was probably the word, into the boutique on bare, silent feet and was touching things here and there without any real intent to take them. She paused next to the raccoon wordlessly and watched with a puzzled expression on her face.

Next to being probably closer than most people might stand, she's not good at personal space.

[st_ripetail]

"What?" It was weird, a humie being so quiet. Even the ones who moved quiet (and there weren't many) tended to open their yaps and let words fall out. But this one moved quiet, and stayed quiet, and even the way she held herself was off, somehow. "You need somethin'?"

[st_makemeastone]

Most people found her offputting, not always but eventually. Even Simon. And Sam.

"I do not require anything." the angle of her head changed as if considering him anew.