[open] you were content to let me shine, that's your way.

[beatupgrass]

Who: Rocket and anyone who wanders into this hot mess
Where: Wonderland's "movie theater."
When: Various points throughout the month of March, except during events. (Catch-all)
Rating: PG-13 for Rocket's mouth, probably
Summary: Rocket doesn't always play Beat the Clock with bombs in the hedge maze or shoot things for fun... sometimes he catches up on Terran pop culture.
The Story:

ᴀ. ɢᴇɴᴇʀɪᴄ ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ

We find Rocket seated comfortably in the first row of comfy couches, a bowl of trail mix situated beside him, which he keeps idly reaching his disconcertingly human-like hands into, as he stares at the scene unfolding before him with the look of someone wondering if the movie is going to actually get good if he looks away for a second.

"Bet he's still alive," he mutters, popping a pretzel in his mouth. Unsurprisingly, the killer gets to his feet, limping along and ready to have one last stab- hah- at the quirky killer. "Dippy broad. You're supposed to shoot his face in before you turn your back."

He ends up going through several horror movies and being continuously disappointed in all of them and their lame excuses for twists. He's probably even figured some out way before the ending, and isn't shy about proclaiming his theories, therefore ruining the suspense. He's a bro like that.


ʙ. ɢᴇɴᴇʀɪᴄ ꜱᴄɪ-ꜰɪ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ

If you thought watching horror movies with Rocket was annoying, then wait until you see how he gets with science fiction. Most of it is yawn-worthy to him, having lived in space. More importantly, it's horribly unrealistic. He spends most of the ones he watches flopped in one corner of the couch with his head on the armrest, rolling his eyes.

People watching with him get treated to a raccoonoid in various states of agony, running his hands over his face, muttering things like, "You can't freakin' do that, jackass. You'll burn up your d'ast engines" or "Did they hand a bunch of frickin' children laser guns? Why can't any of these people hit anything?"

But also, occasionally, he'll perk up and you get things like, "Now that's a nicely designed spacecraft. Y'all can imagine that, but you can't legitimately build it? What a waste."


ᴄ. ʙᴇᴀᴄʜᴇꜱ

It's hard to say where Rocket was when this movie began, but right now he's in the middle of the comfy floor pillows with a blanket over his head, staring with wide eyes at the screen. He may or may not be sniffling a little bit as "Wind Beneath My Wings" starts playing.

Look, the story of an unlikely friendship withstanding the test of time and people being selfish and stupid, only for one of them to die really hits home for him. And while he's too manly to admit why it gets to him so deeply, he's not too manly to admit he can be genuinely moved by the film. God, people. He has feelings too, you know.

He definitely spent the entirety of this one engrossed entirely and threatened to shoot you if you interrupted it. Look, he's been thinking about Groot a lot lately. He was bound to find some way to deal with this.

ᴅ. ᴛɪᴛᴀɴɪᴄ

You probably stumbled upon this viewing because Rocket has spent most of it yelling at the screen, ranging from things like "YOU ARROGANT DICK" to "oh my flark- YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF THAT?" and so on and so forth. It's hard to tell whether he's pissed at this movie or worked up because he actually likes the characters and wants better for them. It's Rocket. He's difficult to read.

As it draws to an emotional climax, Rocket is tugging at his ears and looking somewhere between wanting to yell or cry. Or both. "You both could've fit on that d'asted raft! What the hell, Rose?!"


ᴇ. ᴛʜᴇ ɪꜱʟᴀɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴅʀ. ᴍᴏʀᴇᴀᴜ

This one starts out promising. Plane crash. People duking it out for survival. Iceman from Top Gun is in it. All really great points, but as it goes on, it occurs to Rocket that maybe he should have paid a little bit closer attention to the details. At first, the strange hybrid humanoid animals and the talk of experimentation only make him tense and a little annoyed, but he manages to keep watching, if anything, out of stubbornness, growing continuously more on edge the longer it goes on. He doesn't even make it halfway, however, after a brutal scene involving bringing the Beast Folk into submission through their implants forces him to snarl and slam a hand down on the remote.

Once his fur settles, he tries to play it off. "It was boring anyway."


[OOC: ALSO AVAILABLE FOR WILDCARD OPTIONS if you'd like to force Rocket to sit through your personal favorite movie.]

Comments

[beatupgrass]

Is it really romantic when one of them is doomed to live alone and loveless for the rest of her life? Speaking purely as someone who has endured prolonged loneliness of a nature he does not speak of, it seems like a crapshoot either way.

"They could take turns! I'm just saying there are a lot of reasonable alternatives that Mr. Survivor over there could have probably finagled." That's the part he takes the most offense to. That Jack labelled himself a survivor and then somehow DID NOT SURVIVE. "And here's an idea! Maybe if ROSE had stayed on the flarkin' BOAT, Jack could have gotten his own door to float on. They would've found each other eventually." Humans are stupid.

[demonstrate]

... Well, okay. Iris can gracefully admit that's a sound, if not terribly unsentimental, point. "In times of distress, we don't always leap to what is most reasonable. I'm not saying it was smart, but I understood it. If there was no guarantee you'd ever see the person you love again, wouldn't you want to follow them?"

Come on, Rocket. Give her something.

[beatupgrass]

This is the sentient lifeform who tried to talk Groot out of his moment of self-sacrifice, despite the fact that it was either Groot or probably everyone on the ship. (Okay, not even probably. They would have died. Xandar would have died. Everyone in the galaxy would have eventually died.)

However, this is also the sentient lifeform who fled Half-World the first chance he got and left a lot of people behind. And would have abandoned his other friends to go find a quiet place to wait out the death of everything. Being a selfish pragmatist makes one very, very unromantic.

"No, I'd have faith that the other person knows what they're doing and hope we both end up alive at the end of it."

[demonstrate]

Iris never wants to take that kind of faith for granted. Unlike Barry, she has no superpowers. She can't go back in time to change something, and she doesn't know that she would if she had the chance. She's already seen the consequences to those kinds of choices.

"Your happy ending would've been a lot better than Jack's, then."

[beatupgrass]

He misses the point astronomically, especially considering it's a pretty big risk, but he's good at risks. His whole existence out in the galaxy is a risk- less so now that his criminal record has been expunged, but still.

"Exactly! Real life's got enough tragedy in it."

[demonstrate]

Iris can't help but agree with the sentiment. Life is hard enough as it is. She smirks softly said agreement, stretching out her tub of buttery popcorn in offer, should Rocket want some now that they're sharing this Titanic experience~ together.

"... Okay, even I'll admit that was dumb."

She wouldn't part with a diamond necklace that looked like that, no matter who it came from.

[beatupgrass]

He's gotten a mouthful of said popcorn by the time Old Rose tosses that thing overboard and he chokes. "Are you kidding me? That thing was worth a mint?! Who cares if she's three seconds from death and ain't gonna use it no more. That's just wasteful."

That's the true tragedy of the movie- the stupid necklace being lost to the ocean. FOR NO REASON.

[demonstrate]

"At least they find it again. I think?"

Rocket's sparkling personality has admittedly kept her from paying attention to the movie too closely, and it's been a while since she last saw it. "Not sure how realistic it is that they did." The ocean's fucking big. "56 carats, though."

Wearing it must've weighed down even a fierce binch like Rose.

[beatupgrass]

"Fifty-six carats," he repeats, dragging his hands over his eyes in exasperation. "I don't even know how much that would translate into units, but it's gotta be a fortune. You shouldn't even be wearin' it."

Not because it's heavy, but because it's just asking people to knock her out and rob her blind, and that's putting it delicately.

[demonstrate]

Iris will now offer Rocket some of her chocolate in consolation. This is clearly distressing.

"I think the moral of this movie is you have to suspend all belief to be able to enjoy it," she answers with a pert little nod, and a sip of her soda. She doesn't appear to be as bovvered as Rocket, but then, she was able to make peace with it the first time around.

[beatupgrass]

He accepts the chocolate but doesn't actually eat it, choosing to sniff it experimentally instead. "I live on a spaceship. I once nearly got blown up from the inside out by a freakin' magic rock. My disbelief is pretty d'ast suspended as is."

But throwing away a fortune in jewels? That's just ridiculous.

[demonstrate]

Pre-Flash Iris would've stared at Rocket as though he'd sprouted a second raccoon head. This Iris has had to field the impossible for several years now. Her future husband is a superhero, and one of his closest friends is an actual alien. Her expression isn't disbelieving, is what we're saying here.

Eyebrows climb up to her hairline all the same. "Sounds like one hell of a magic rock. What did you do to piss if off?"

[beatupgrass]

"I didn't do shit!" He protests this vehemently, because he would like it on record that he never touched the stupid rock. And it is remarkably difficult to get him to not touch shiny objects. But he is definitely not stupid enough to touch something that nearly blew him up once.

"Quill touched it, and it's too powerful for a frickin' humie to just grab onto like that, so we all just sorta... helped him share the insane amount of cosmic power that was coursin' through him 'til he could let the d'ast thing go."

It's complicated. So very complicated.

[demonstrate]

Pardon, Rocket. Iris has been in your presence for only hours, and she can already tell you are not the sort that 'doesn't do shit', so she had to ask. Her eyebrows climb up even further. She doesn't know who Quill is, but she knows a good story when she hears one.

"Wait. Sidebar: let me guess. A humie is ... ?"

Voice trailing off, she points to herself, from the crown of her head to the tip of her toes.

[beatupgrass]

"Got it in one." Oh look, a human who understands context clues. He thought he'd never live to see the day when his weird slang and cursing would be understood even partially. "Quill's one of the few humans out in the greater galaxy right now."

[demonstrate]

"And this Quill guy was your ... " her voice trails off as she keeps in mind Rocket's tangent about him and the mystical thingamabob. It's not unlike one of Harry's rants about Barry or anyone else in the team. "Friend?"

What? Raccoons can have friends, guys.

[beatupgrass]

He hesitates a bit. Friend is a strong word- he has used it to describe Quill and the rest of the Guardians, though mostly Groot, who is less 'friend' now and more 'adopted child,' depending on how this shakes out. The problem is that friend also implies a lot of trust and things he doesn't know he necessarily feels.

But that's overcomplicating the term, just because he's hesitant to label something that can turn on a dime at the right moment, and, anyway, Quill and the others aren't even here. "Yeah. We kinda got this whole team thing going."

[demonstrate]

Iris gives a decisive nod. "I've got one of those."

Of course, her team doesn't go traipsing around the galaxy in possession of magical stones, but they do protect a city Iris loves very much. The identity of some of those in her team are secret, so she doesn't offer up too much information, but she does understand. "It usually does take a village. Are any of them around?"

[beatupgrass]

"Nope." The word is flat, emotionless, and devoid of all the real feelings Rocket might have on the subject. Quill and Gamora were here once, but they barely left a ripple, and sometimes he thinks he imagined the whole thing. It was so long ago and Wonderland can play tricks on you.

"Been that way for a few years now. It ain't so bad being solo again." That's a lie. Being solo without Groot is a nightmare, but it's on top of the other nightmares this place inspires. Background noise at this point.

[demonstrate]

If Iris detects a hint of self-deception, she doesn't point it out. She's only just met Rocket. It's not her place to prod. Sometimes people need a gentle nudge, and sometimes that nudge only makes them clam up further. "Well. The solo gig does have its perks, but I can't say I regret finding a movie companion. Maybe next time we'll get something less dramatic."

Yes, there will be a next time.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket snorts. "Is everybody hurting for people to watch dumb Earth flicks with?" It's not a protest, so much as it is disbelief that this is entirely because he's such a great companion. Either he's pathetic or they are.

"Sure. Next time I'll dig out something that don't have snuggling humans on the cover."

[demonstrate]

It's a little bit that Rocket seems to clearly miss his team, even if he won't admit it. It's also that Iris is inexplicably charmed by crotchety personalities, so long as they aren't needlessly cruel. Besides, his commentary is kind of hilarious.

"Maybe you'll like the Fast and Furious movies. Things tend to go boom in them."

[beatupgrass]

His ears perk up and sits up a little straighter. "Well, the title alone's promisin'. I like both those things." Fast and furious. It's like two things that describe his base personality! Clearly, they are made for him.

[demonstrate]

"Now see, that's what I thought."

Iris likes fast, too. She does end up marrying a speedster. But also, it never hurts to look at Vin Diesel.

"Til next time. Try staying out of trouble."

She gives a small wink and then she is off. Clearly, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.