"The song 'If I Had a Hammer' is geared toward people who don't have hammers."

[beatupgrass]

Who: Everyone's favorite trash panda AND YOU
Where: Wonderland's grounds
When: All of June, between events
Rating: PG-13, because Rocket's mouth
Format: Prose/Action (I'll match yours)
Summary: Rocket's dealing with some leftover canon update things and his best bet as far as returning to normalcy is working on his projects, both for himself and for whoever's requested them of him.

The Story:


a. if i had a hammer- peter, paul, and mary

Despite the numerous other projects that have been delayed due to events or Rocket just not feeling it, he's quick to jump on this particular request from Georgia. Not because he's picking favorites or anything, but because the challenge is unique and the results might benefit him too.

He has a motorcycle kicked up on the grounds with tools and odd contraptions sprawled around it, while he diligently works under it, despite the copious amounts of grease now coating his fur. Not far from where he's working, a CD player is blasting a song that he keeps humming along with.

Despite being absorbed in his work and the loudness of the music, if someone investigates the cheesy 60's music and off-key humming, Rocket barely breaks his stride before speaking up. "Got a question for you. How much do you weigh?"


b. you're the inspiration- chicago

Usually, Rocket stays in his room to work on his projects, and that holds true, but it's a really bad idea to test them inside, except when he wants to prove a point to someone over the network, ergo he's taken several out with him onto the checkerboard hills to test their effectiveness against makeshift targets and just work out some kinks.

There's a wide variety laid out around him as he adjusts and reconfigures each and every one before and after he tests them. The spread is varied too- some new prototype aero-rigs built with shoddier material than the ones he made back home, but good in a pinch, a few things that look like landmines, even more things that look like bombs. A few different types of gun, several melee weapons, at least one thing that looks like an arrow. Quite a few of them are things people have requested of him, if you're looking for an update or interested in seeing what he has.

And, of course, his CD player is back and blaring cheesy music. "This song's stupid," you might hear him say when this song first comes up. Later, you might actually catch him belting it.

Well, maybe not belting it more like loudly humming it and occasionally butting in with whatever words he actually remembers.


c. sledgehammer- peter gabriel

At the end of every day, once Rocket has dealt with his projects and put them aside, he can found by the lake, which is a really strange place for him. He's not really a fan of water, in general, but it's a nice, relaxing place to unwind and get the grease off his fur and chill out with his tunes.

...His tunes that are rapidly starting to get on his nerves a bit, though, like mold, most of them are growing on him. It's just that his attempts to get the closets to cough up "Peter Quill's music" has essentially led him to an unwieldy collection of CDs featuring artists named Peter or bands fronted by people named Peter, and he was too drunk to remember what Rip said about what kind of music that shit was, so this is what he has now. Embrace it.

But as far as anyone else can see right now, there's three feet worth of fuzzy raccoonoid sitting at the edge of the lake, trying to get grease off the top of his head with the combination of a rag and his own bare hands, while humming along to some Peter Gabriel. It's disturbingly (and unfortunately, in his case) adorable.

Comments

[beatupgrass]

"And you never will again." And the more he disassociates from the stigma associated with being 'one of a kind,' the happier he'll be or something of that nature.

He looks up from his tablet abruptly and barks a laugh. "What? No. Not even a little bit. Magic's for people who don't know how do things themselves. I overhauled the engine and worked thrusters into it."

[fancylad]

"Oh." Angus feels a little foolish -- and more than a little called out -- at the assessment of magic. But the fact that Rocket is doing things the hard way just makes him even cooler, so he just opts not to mention his own magical studies.

"I barely have any idea of what that means, but it all sounds very cool, Mr. Rocket! Do the thrusters, um... Do they..." Angus attempts to gesture what he's trying to say, as someone who's barely even heard of thrusters before, let alone described what they do to someone. "Do they... go... fffwoo..." He kind of pantomimes thrusters, like, doing the thing, with the fire, with waggling fingers. "Um, h-how do they do that, sir, without magic?"

[beatupgrass]

He almost just starts rattling off an explanation, but then he stops, because well... he's been here before. Half the time he wastes his breath explaining something, only to find out that the person's never heard of a key part of his explanation. And it just becomes a circle of explaining, and that just gets tiring. "They don't have engines where you're from?"

That seems like a good place to start.

[fancylad]

"Oh, don't worry, sir! We definitely have engines! The battlewagons of Goldcliff are famous! I've never, um, seen one, though," Angus explains. If a "battlewagon" sounds like a complete bullshit thing that's definitely just a stand-in for a car, then you are absolutely right.

"But, engines are usually made with magical parts. That's what makes them so valuable. At least, that's what I've read! I also... don't happen to know a ton about them, sir." It's difficult for Angus to admit incomplete knowledge of something. But there's no way he's gonna keep up a charade of knowing anything about battlewagon engines when he can't even describe what thrusters do capably.

So, yeah. It's completely different than whatever Rocket's doing, which is apparently totally magic-less.

[beatupgrass]

"A battlewagon," he repeats with the slow drawl of someone who can only manage utter disbelief. He runs a greasy hand over the edge of his muzzle, smearing the stuff into his already black mask, and sighs.

"Okay, so here's the thing." He's not gonna rip Georgia's motorcycle apart to show him an engine, but fortunately he's got the spare parts lying around to all but build one from the ground up.

He picks up scattered parts here and there, talking as he goes, "An engine's meant to convert one form of energy into mechanical energy- if that sounds like magic to you, then I can't help you." He starts piecing things together with deft movements of his hands. "If you got one like the bike's got, it uses fuel. This one here'll be electric. Now where'd I put that-"

He hunts in the grass for something, makes a sound of delight when he finds it, and adds it to his little gadget, humming a bit. "So if I were to put this little doodad into something, it would convert this-" He presses something on it and it sparks a bit, eliciting a delighted response from Rocket, "that electricity there will make it work."

[fancylad]

Angus watches and listens to Rocket's explanation as intently as possible, nodding along in the correct places. When the part sparks, Angus gasps delightedly. The scientific explanation definitely appeals to his analytical mind, even if he doesn't personally agree that magic would be cheating.

"That's incredible, sir! So it's all to do with energy..." He glances back at the bike, even more impressed than he was before. And he's going to make it fly on top of all that.

"Where did you learn so much? Did you go to a really good school?"

[beatupgrass]

Rocket's ears flick back as he makes a face, turning his little makeshift engine over in his hands. "Nah, I taught myself. The only school I ever been in was the school of hard knocks, kid."

There were things they taught him in Half-World, but they weren't exactly building engines and stripping weapons. They just cybernetically enhanced his dexterity and intelligence and didn't think to themselves about what might happen if he applied it to other, more useful things.

[fancylad]

"That really is incredible... You're just like my magic teacher. He taught himself too."

The tutors hired by his parents weren't like that. They were all classically learned, slightly scary, and hardly as impressive.

"Then... how do you make it fly?"

[beatupgrass]

Rocket's pretty sure his magic teacher was not a runaway lab experiment who had to teach himself on the fly in order to survive, but he doesn't feel like correcting that notion. Especially not when there's more important things to discuss. Like further proof of his intelligence.

"That's where the thrusters come in. They put out enough pushback to get the thing off the ground and work against gravity."