[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]

He eyes him for a second- actually listening instead of just brushing over it and focusing on his own shit. The thing about Rocket's friendships over the years is that they have been based entirely on an overly macho predilection to not talk about things. And that includes not filling in the blanks on what someone is not saying and holding it out for them to confirm. There was a reason they weren't saying it, you numbskull.

But... in this particular case, it involves a friend. A friend whose general... everything Rocket has swept pretty solidly under the rug, because as weird as Richie's baggage is, Rocket's is just as bad. But that doesn't mean he's not curious. "Richie's, uh... His thing." That sounds better than 'casual vampirism.' "That's a recent thing then, huh?"

Off the look he's liable to get, he holds his hands up. "Look, I'm not judging, but I figure that's gotta be what you're talking about. It ain't rocket science here."

[screwedontight]

Seth isn't sure how many know Richie's life. Maybe everyone in the place, but Seth is circumspect about it. Richie wants to shout it from the rafters, so be it, but no one will hear it from Seth. Not if they don't bring it up first.

So when Rocket calls it that, Seth chuckles even if it is humorless, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, Richie's thing is very recent. Especially to me, since I haven't been here for months like he has." And they never worked things out, just fought constantly.

"And honestly, not to be rude? But I am betting you'd be the last to judge many for it." He as a raccoon! And Seth felt he was doing good never having asked about it.

"Yeah it's what I'm talking about. So life for us isn't over, even if we still can't get along really." He went quiet and then made a face. "He went with her. Yeah I get it. I can't do shit to help him with what he is, but she's..." There was another face made. "It's the past, and I can't change it. This place though? It means maybe I can fix shit."

He wasn't sure he ever could have in their world, but here with just the three of them? He has hope here, stupid as that might sound.

[beatupgrass]

"I figured it had to be since you ain't a- a... whatever you call it." He can only mentally catalog so many species at a time and his head is full of intergalactic races far and wide. He can't keep up with the Earth ones too, gosh. "He kinda implied it's somethin' you become, not somethin' you just are."

Which, incidentally, is why he can't judge. Even if he puts his ears down and looks a little bit affronted (only a little bit though), Seth's right. It's not just a matter of being a raccoon or whatever the word people are using today is. It's about being one thing, and then being something else.

He shrugs. "I don't have family, but I figure if I did, there'd be some level of unconditional bullshit attached to it. That's how it goes, right? You care about somebody, so you put up with all the shit they can throw at you and they put up with yours."

[screwedontight]

Seth snorts, biting back his reaction to that. For Richie's sake, he was going to do the best he could to hold back his feelings on that. "Yeah, it was something he got pushed on him." With a gut shot and a lot of months of being mentally fucked with. "And I'm glad he doesn't have to entirely hide it here. He said it's all good but I just..." New place, new people. He worries, even if he doesn't share that with Richie.

And truth is, not that Seth is good with words about it, he doesn't look at Rocket and think about it. Not after the short time they've talked. Sure, he looked different, but so did Richie when he went all hunger and fangs but Rocket is more like the brothers than most Seth has met. He didn't have to lay on the charm and be someone else.

"Doesn't have to just be family though. Hell, Kate's not family but there's lot of unconditional bullshit there too," he admits. "And so trust me, you don't need family for it." Though given how their conversation's been, he is pretty sure Rocket knows that. "But you're right. I think this place is actually going to make that easier." Or so he hopes.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket had been trying to avoid the whole idea of family-as-a-thing-you-pick, because it would hit too close to the bone, re: the guardians. And Groot, especially. Easier to admit you had no family at all then try to internally debate whether his feelings on Quill, Gamora, and Drax were unconditional. Groot was, definitely- he'd potted a damn twig in the hopes that something might come of it.

He just didn't want to admit it.

And he really didn't want to extend that to some of the people he's met here. They always end up leaving him, one way or another.

"Yeah, I get that. You run into people on the way and they get under your skin." Which is all he has to say on the matter, as he scratches at his neck uncomfortably.

[screwedontight]

Seth was never good at avoiding the things that upset people. Why his life went so well all the time. What with the fighting and the screaming and all. So when it came to saying things that pushed buttons, Seth was the master of it. Never one to leave shit alone.

Thing was, he had spent the afternoon hanging out with a guy with a lot of knowledge about weapons and a lot of opinions on movies, and okay so he looked like a raccoon, there was that, but it wasn't what Seth had focused on. So maybe he wanted to make sure the guy knew he didn't have to face the world alone, even if he had no one here from his world like Seth did.

"We should get back to the movies. But since you know, let's avoid anything with vampires, okay?" He said the word, and it wasn't easy, but putting it out there was for his own sake of not finding himself watching whatever the hell Hollywood had twisted that into.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket flicked his ears and chuckled as he wandered back over to the DVD player to switch discs to something hopefully more entertaining than idiots in love on a boat. "I know too many vampires. It'd be weird. I'll stick with heist movies and outlaws, thank you very much. That's closer to my speed."

And probably closer to Seth's speed, as well. It was a good talk, all things unsaid and considered, but enough was enough. Time to disengage from the shit that was their lives.

[screwedontight]

Seth would probably rather the idiots on the boat than people romanticizing vampires. That he would definitely avoid.

"There a lot of vampires running around your world or..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Let me guess, you don't mean your world."

Here. In Wonderland. Not just Richie. That was not at all reassuring to Seth with what they've been dealing with. Even if they're all different from other worlds. He will still be unsettled by them.

"Works for me. You know, I wonder if one day in my world we'll ever have a movie about the exploits of the Gecko Brothers. I think we deserve one," he said, settling in. "Though they'd probably screw up casting me and I'd be pissed."