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

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

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.

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[She snickers, mouth pulling into a wide smile. Man, it feels good to do stuff like this again.]

I don't use them a lot, but that's because I usually run stealth and they fuck me up. But I'd be curious to see what you've got.

Oh don't worry. These are better than landmines. Which is saying something, 'cause I love a good challenge and blowin' things up.

[landmines for him are a pretty good time. he likes the thrill when he avoids detonating them.

he picks up a metal contraption that does look deceptively like a landmine and puts it down between them, gesturing for her to step back several feet. then he places a stick in the middle of it, and runs back to join her.]

All right. Here comes the fun part. [he produces a detonator from his pocket and presses down on it. the result is a sudden pwoosh of energy as the stick goes sky high and lands almost the same place it started. Rocket hits it again for good measure, repeating the process.] Anti-grav mines. They got about a ten foot radius all around. Guaranteed to throw anything in that space sky-high. It's hilarious.

[She watches intently as he sets it up, and while she was absolutely expecting there still to be an explosion, this is way better, and Shepard hollers in laughter as the stick moves.]

Oh shit. Let gravity do the work for you, that's remarkable. And no need to worry about lighting up the area too. Did you make these?

Even dudes with cybernetics feel the hurt when they come down. [he preens a bit.] They're my own invention. I had to set up some traps on the fly, and these ones were good for a quick distraction. I got some electroshock patches too somewhere...

[those ones came courtesy of his own experiences on Half-World. it's a little bit of emotional catharsis even if the people he uses them on have no knowledge of Rocket's personal trauma.] I could've taken out an entire army of Ravagers with this shit if Yondu and his bullshit arrow hadn't gotten involved.

[his ears flick as his nostalgia is marred by the fact that Yondu is dead and that whole chapter is over, but he muscles through it.]

[See, that sounds like a story.]

Somebody took down all your tech with one arrow? Gonna guess it's not the kind you have to fire one by one from a bow.

[That is one thing that never got super techno-enhanced in the future. Everyone kinda gave up on advanced archery.]

Not my tech- me. [He sifts through his work, not quite looking at her.] Yaka arrows. They're a Centaurian thing. They work with sonic frequencies, so, y'know, if a dude can whistle, he can make that thing do whatever the hell he wants it to do and there ain't no way to dodge it.

[he chuckles dryly.] I was just lucky he wasn't aimin' to kill.

[The individual terms go over her head, but the message is the same.]

An arrow you can control by whistling? That seems like it'd be so hard to finesse. Unless it's some psychic linked thing. Damn, I'd love to see some of that tech.

[Sorry, Rocket, she should be... more sensitive about this.]

Uh, I mean, sorry. Sounds like it was rough.

Don't be. It was pretty cool when it wasn't turned on me. [he keeps focused on his tools, pausing to tap his head.] He had a wireless thing in his skull, but mostly it was all him.

[a brief pause.] Took out a hundred of his own men with it after they turned on him.

[and then a sigh.] He was a pretty cool guy.

[She knows that sigh. That’s not the sigh of ‘that person’s not here and I’ll see them when I get out of Wonderland’. That’s past tense. That’s… gone.

She knows he was gone recently. Wonder how soon it was.]

Sounds like it.

[Her old Commander instincts are tingling, and she’s gotta at least ask.]

You alright?

[Rocket runs a hand over his face, trying to maintain some composure. It doesn't work though- the damage is already done.] Yeah. His funeral was right before I got stuck back here. Guess I'm still raw about it.

[Oof. Yeah, that's... that's kind of what she thought was going on.]

I'm sorry. I'd be raw about that, too.

[She thinks about the fact that there was a funeral before she came here, too. Just a few days. But it's been over a year now. Probably wouldn't have hit so hard if it wasn't the love of her life.

Instead, she holds out her hand towards him. Whatever he wants with it, if he does.]

It's alright to grieve. If you feel a loss, that's how you know he was important. That it meant something.

[He hesitates for a moment and then reaches out to lay his hand on hers for a few seconds before pushing it gently away.] I've had time to grieve. I've just mullin' over some stuff he said to me is all. I can't figure out what t' do about it.

You wanna talk about it?

[Honestly, this... feels more natural than most of the conversations she's had here. Reminds her of being back on her ship, talking to her crew. The requests to take some time before their next mission to solve a personal problem. Just asking for a kind word, a sympathetic ear.]

I know the feeling of thinking damn hard about someone who's gone.

[He hesitates before he answers with a flat "no." He's talked about it with Georgia some- mostly about his death and how that affected him, and not a whole lot about the real weighted parts of Yondu's sacrifice and what it meant for him.

And he definitely hasn't mentioned seeing that arrow in the stardust and ashes at the end of Yondu's funeral that was probably just what he wanted to see, but even so, it made him feel like the world was so big and so forgiving, and he'd never believed that was possible before.]

It's just... He was an old man. Lived his life badly by bein' stupid and greedy and pushin' people away 'cause he couldn't trust anyone to really give a shit, 'cause no one ever had. And he didn't think he deserved it anyway, 'cause what kinda person gets treated like dirt by their parents and comes out thinkin' they're worth a damn. So he was mean and nasty, and everyone eventually left him.

And he looked at me, and told me I was a lot like him.... and he was right.

[Yeesh, that's complicated. But she keeps her face from showing her own worry about answering, keeps it simple and apologetic.]

Well... he meant something to you, right? He touched someone. Changed somebody's life.

[Just one, out of thousands. Give just one person the hope to be better.]

Sometimes that's the best you can do, is just to save one person. Save someone from your mistakes. Doesn't always have to be a whole galaxy.

Yeah.

[Yondu died to save Peter. That was his one final act of decency before he died. But there was more to it than that, and Rocket keeps his eyes on the ground, claws raking through the fur of his arm.]

He died to save Quill. I hope he knew he saved me. He didn't exactly live long enough to see if I was gonna listen to him. He just had to take it on faith alone.

[Haha, oh wow, she feels this. Or at least, it’s the thing she’s most afraid of, with Anderson on Earth and could be dead any day. Fighting for his life.]

Sounds like he believed in you.

[Maybe that’s a comfort. Maybe not.]

I don’t think he’d have said anything if he knew it wouldn’t mean anything. Or maybe he just had hope. I’ve seen a lot of things like that built on hope.

I mean he was an old cynic, but... [Rocket huffs.] I guess all he had left was hope that someone else could do better.

[Hope that the world is bigger and full of forgiveness than he could have imagined.]

That's all we have left, when the world's comin' down.

[Hope. Revolutions are built on hope. Or something like that.]

It's your choice if you make it better now. Make yourself better.

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

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