entrancelogs | [OPEN] Ooo 5, 6, 7, minus 9 lives

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[OPEN] Ooo 5, 6, 7, minus 9 lives

Who: Rocket and YOU...
Where: True Lab, aka The Traumatic Memories Theme Park
When: All through the event
Rating: PG-13 for Rocket's mouth and any mention of his Trauma
Summary: LOOK AT THIS CUTIE... no don't. he will bite your fingers off. (Pretend I have appropriate icons for this. Or just look at pictures of baby raccoons. It's great.)

aka Rocket is unfortunately teensy, is having Half-World flashbacks, and hates everything.

The Story:

ᴀ. ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄʜᴀᴏꜱ, ɪᴛ ᴅᴇꜰɪᴇꜱ ɪᴍᴀɢɪɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

[nononoNO NO NO.

It's all he can think when he first wakes up. It's unusual to wake up to a nightmare, rather than from, but he should have expected this. He knew that stupid message from that Alice kid was going to bite him on the ass. He just didn't know how bad.

He has to take stock of himself in a hidden corner, trying to parse together what the hell has happened to him. He doesn't have any of his augmentations- well, not true. He has a few. His throat is still raw from where they installed the cybernetic implants to his vocal chords to turn his vocalizations to actual speech and the scar over his neck is still raw like they put it in only days ago.... Days? It's been years.

Everything else though... Those came later. Not much later for some, but later, which makes him all but useless. In a place that reminds him a little too much of where he came from, and all these people milling around does nothing to assuage that feeling of fear and dread at the pit of his stomach.

He stays hidden, waiting, and when the door opens, he bolts out of hiding lightning fast- a brown blur zipping by- only to realize he isn't accustomed to his legs working quite like this. It's like atrophy, except they're perfectly healthy legs for a juvenile raccoon, but to someone whose been operating with cybernetic limbs for several years, they're pitiful.

He gets through the door before it closes and then trips, falling flat on his face for a few seconds, before trying to get back up and running to the next hiding space. No one saw that, right?

Aw fuck. Someone saw it.]

ʙ. ᴅᴏ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴜᴄᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ- ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ'ꜱ ɴᴏ ᴏɴᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀꜱᴇ

[The Amalgamates may be harmless according to that network post- which he avoided because he doesn't even want to look at the person responsible for this shitshow when he can't even do anything to them except claw and bite pitifully- but he's still much smaller and dogs and whatever the hell he is (raccoon or otherwise) do not mix well. He's observing someone else dealing with them from the top of some equipment (and hating every second of it, because being this close to some of these things is making him anxious- not that he hasn't been anxious this whole time), and watching what they do.]

Look, I'm the last guy to be advocatin' for not shootin' things that look dangerous, but leave 'em alone.

[It's unmistakably Rocket's voice coming from the shadows of the wall, even if he's blending in really well and too small to see clearly, especially with the fog] They didn't ask t' be made.

ᴄ. ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪ'ᴍ ɴᴏᴛ ʀᴇꜱɪꜱᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ

[Finding the weapons cache is a stroke of luck and Rocket wastes no time in clambering up the wall and picking up something small enough he thinks he can use, only to find that he lacks the augmentations to his skeletal structure to even hold it properly.

Great. He's anxious, waiting for the hammer to drop, and now if any of those white coat bastards decide to crawl out of the woodwork- and he's convinced they will (he knows they will. they always do.)- he can't even defend himself.

Which is why anyone who happens to pass by will get the semi-hysterical, but mostly depressing sight of a tiny raccoon grumbling over a small pistol with way more fury than that tiny body should be able to handle.]

ᴅ. ᴀɴᴅ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪʟʟ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴜʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

[This isn't creepy at all...

The vats are new- nothing like that ever existed on Half-World, at least not that he ever saw. The prevailing sense of dread and wrongness, however, has amped up to eleven and he's wandered so far on so much adrenaline that he's getting exhausted, but now that he's here, he has to find something. He knows he does, deep in his animal hindbrain.

It's difficult, however. Every sound sends him scurrying towards the shadows or growling low in a way that his cybernetic vocal chords can't quite translate. Eventually, he finds what he's looking for- a single vat and in it... himself. His better self, he has to agree, reluctantly. He may have hated every minute and never asked for any of it, but dammit he's used to those augmentations now. They're his.

Now how does he break himself out of there...

He tries to climb up on the vat, but the surface is too slippery, and he's past the point of his temper being the first thing that blows when he gets frustrated. Right now, he's just genuinely scared. As he slides off the vat and onto the floor, it's with a frantic, desperate whine, he yells:] A little help here?!

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[Rocket backs up and evades the torrent of goo and grossness by climbing up a cabinet nearby.] Y'know, I didn't really think this through. What're we supposed to do when we get me outta there?

[he balances on the edge of the cabinet and tries to pull open the drawer without falling in. stay focused on the task at hand and maybe he can shake the unease and the urge to run the opposite direction and never look back.] There's gotta be something in here...

There's got to be a way to, I don't know, move you in there, right? That sounds like something a sci-fi dimension would make us do.

[Straight out of some kind of horror movie or video game.

She keeps widening the hole, trying not to cut herself further, but failing from time to time, streaks of red mixing with the goo. Hopefully it doesn't do anything to her if it gets inside her veins. Yuck.]

This is Rick's thing. He said something about, uh... [flark. what did he say? he got distracted between there and here, and you wouldn't believe how easy it is to get distracted when you're this small.

his eyes light on something attached to the vat and he breathes a sigh of relief as it all comes back.] There we go. I just need those things.

[he can't jump, climb, and carry the electrodes in his hands, so he has to grab them in his teeth as he climbs back onto the goo-soaked ground. gross.]

Okay.

[She finally gets the hole wide enough that his body is easy to reach, and she looks confused as she watches Rocket retrieve the electrodes.]

So...what do we do with them?

Good question. [he waits for her potentially horrified reaction before he waves her over- dear god it's not gonna get easier looking at his limp unconscious form from the outside.] Nah. I'm kidding. I got this part- thanks for doin' the heavy lifting for me.

[Sure enough, her eyes widen in concern before her lips screw up into a partially amused grin. If he weren't a tiny, furry creature, she would sock him in the shoulder.]

Not funny! [A beat.] Okay, a little bit funny. But also rude!

[Her eyebrows lift as she crosses her arms over her chest.]

And you're welcome.

Hey, c'mon. I'm the one havin' to jumpstart my own body here. I gotta joke about it a little bit... [which is definitely even weirder close up. at those dinky hands of his can handle the electrodes with a little bit of finagling. this is something he can't ask for help on- it's too personal. too close to... well, that.]

This is so freakin' weird. [he finishes up and looks up at Caroline for confirmation.] Okay. There's a switch over there, and if this doesn't work, I'm gonna be real pissed that my first Wonderland death was in this place, so... Cross your fingers.

Okay, I guess that's fair.

[She didn't have anyone to make jokes with when she came back from the dead, but Rocket's not...technically dead since he's right here. He just has to...switch bodies???

Her thoughts echo his words. This is so weird.]

Not arguing there. [She watches as he finishes the set up, and she hopes he's not expecting her to double-check his work because this is NOT part of her skill set. Either way, she heads over to the switch, taking a breath.]

Alright, here we go. Fingers and toes crossed.

[And then she hits it.]

[he shuts his eyes tightly, bracing himself for whatever happens.

and boy does it happen. it's an agonizing amount of pain, which is probably what happens when you shift your entire consciousness into another body- pain, but in no way that can be described. it's just white hot agony and he half wishes he could die from it, so he wouldn't have to bear it anymore, as completely wussy as that sounds. it hurts a lot and sends an awful amount of painful feedback to his servos, which-

his servos..

he takes a sudden deep breath and tries to stand up as the pain dies down to a dull, sparking throb, ending up slipping on the goo on the floor and landing back on the ground, tangled in the wiring from the system that brought him back. he's incapable of speech right now, still too shell-shocked and waiting for his cybernetics to come back online. in the meantime, his awkward, stiff hands try to reach to yank the electrodes off his head to no avail. dammit. out of one helpless body and into another... for now.]

[A lot happens in a very short amount of time.

All she knows it that it ends in Rocket's real body jerking to life as he takes in a gulp of air, only to immediately try to stand, slip and fall back onto the ground.

Caroline blurs over, hands reaching for the electrodes that are still stuck to his body, pulling them away from his fur before she picks him up in her arms like he weighs less than nothing.]

Relax a minute. I'll get you out of here, alright?

[he winces as the electrodes take a few hairs off his head in the process and growls low when she goes to pick him up, putting up as much as a fuss as he can, which isn't much.] I don't-

[-need help. well, it's what he wants to say, anyway, but it's either this or lay there in slime staring at the limp, immobile form of his tiny self, waiting for everything to come back into focus and put this disaster behind him.

so with those being his options, he relaxes, but he looks miserable about it. even still, he can't keep his eyes off the sad little unconscious creature still on the ground, pretty much dead for all practical purposes.] Heh. It's kinda sad, ain't it?

It's...not real, Rocket.

[That said, her tone indicates that she thinks it's kind of sad, too. It's not like the thing lying on the ground was a person, because the 'person' had moved back into where it was supposed to be. It was, well, just a shell, and the important part was back where it belonged.

It wasn't the same as someone dying. The important part was gone and then all was left was the shell that didn't mean anything anymore.]

It was at one time.

[he doesn't mean that little bundle of flesh and fur down there. obviously, that was never real- it's just Wonderland messing around. it's deeper than that.] It's been so frickin' long, I almost forgot...

[he lifts a hand, the joints still stiff, curling and uncurling his fingers with a degree of dexterity he couldn't manage in that body.] Not almost. I wanted to forget. The worst parts linger, but the little details don't.

[he shifts in her arms, figuring if she's gonna carry him out, he's going to get comfortable and keep his eyes off the little furball.] Crazy, innit, princess? You don't want people seein' how strong you are, and I didn't want anyone seein' me like that. And it's about for the same reasons.

[she doesn't want people to think she's a monster that needs to be put down. he doesn't want to be thought of as a weak animal that needs to be put out of its misery.]

[Caroline understands his words all too well.]

I wasn't always like this either, you know.

[She was human once.]

I used to be fragile. Weak. Disposable. And then something happened to me that I didn't ask for and I've learned to embrace it. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Rocket can't hide what was done to him. It's there for everyone to see, plain as day.]

But most people, if they saw what I really was? They'd think I was a monster. They'd be afraid of me. But I don't want to give it up either. No one can push me around anymore and that matters to me. [The corner of her mouth perks up in the semblance of a smile, but it's more raw emotion than anything resembling happiness.] So I guess you're right. We're basically the same, huh.

[that wasn't something that had ever occurred to him- that this wasn't something she was just born with. maybe he should have considered it an option- very few people are willing to hide aspects of themselves that they came by honestly, regardless of how it'll make people look at them.

it's them, after all. not something someone else inflicted on them for whatever reason people have to do things like that. someone else did this, but they made it theirs, and they can't accept what they'd be without it now.

crazy. when he related to Barnes, it made sense. he's a stoic soldier and looks like it, and their respective traumas were well matched and easy to understand. this is just some Terran kid- a scary Terran kid who isn't even human (anymore)- but still. you look at the two of them and you'd never guess they had anything in common.

crazy is right.] Something like that happens t' you, all you can do is make it yours. You can't control what they did to you, but you can d'ast well control what you do with it.

[and that's why, despite his own misgivings he's had dredged up here lately about how much he relies on what they did to him and the horrific truth of how much of a favor that torture really did him, he's proud of it. it made him cautious and broken, but capable of not being taken advantage of.]

You're a smart kid, Caroline. [he shifts in her arm again, all but curling up there. this whole affair has just been exhausting.] Most people when they get screwed over like that, they get scared when they realize they don't have to be a victim if they don't wanna be.

[Caroline's arm easily holds his weight, letting him curl up where he's trying to lay, the surface soft but solid at the same time.

She barely resists the urge to scratch him behind the ears.]

It was an opportunity to never be a victim ever again. [She wouldn't be human again, even if she could. She likes who she is now.] Besides, I'm good at being this. I have control over it and I can help people.

[She looks down at him.]

You're good at being you, too.

[he snorts.] I better be at this point. I don't know how to be anyone else.

[lame joke, but it's got heart, at least. heartfelt lame jokes are about all his frayed emotions can handle right now. the fact that he's resigned himself to Caroline's arms for the time being is enough indication that he's spent.] And I'll be glad for this to end, so I can be the me that shoots his problems.

Edited 2017-04-03 12:03 (UTC)

[She presses her lips together, contemplating something before she muses aloud.]

...maybe you don't have to wait.

[Which is probably a little foreboding considering she shifts his weight to cradle him over one forearm, moving to lean against the wall. If he's looking at her face, he'll see the shift in her eyes, blood filling the whites as they darken to near black, veins below stirring as she lifts the wrist of her free arm to her mouth.

There's a strange noise as she sinks her own teeth into her skin, feels the taste of blood in her mouth, and then her face returns to normal as she pulls it away and basically...offers it to him.]

Don't freak out, okay? It'll heal you. Or...it should anyway. Not the mechanical things, but you won't be starving anymore and you should get your strength back.

[there have never been a time when the words "don't freak out" have not been met with at least some freaking out. he grabs a hold of her shoulder, somehow managing to not sink his claws into it. the fabric's not going to survive, but it was already a wash considering what it's covered in.]

What the fuck are you doing? I- [the metallic smell of blood makes him snort and shake his head and his first instinct is to plant his feet against her arm and push it away.] C'mon, that's disgusting. It's not that bad.

[except for the part where the muscle strength involved to push her arm away with his foot and stay upright in her arm is a little too much for him right now. stupid strength, betraying him like this.]

Yeah, it is that bad. And it's not that gross, unless you're a vegetarian or something.

[She doesn't relent, but she's also not going to just shove it in his face.]

Come on, I wouldn't do this for just anyone. Think of it like medicine. That always tastes horrible, too.

Yeah, medicine that came out of your body. [IT'S WEIRD, CAROLINE. IT'S REALLY WEIRD, but at the same time he doesn't see how much choice he has. he sure as hell doesn't want anyone to see him being carried like somebody's cuddly pet. his pride is already in the shitter as is.]

If I get any kind of weird vampire thing from doing this, I'm gonna kneecap you, lady. [she'll heal. it's fine. but he'll feel better and it'll hurt. he stops pushing her arm away and once its within reach he... well, to be perfectly honest he has to lick her bleeding wound, which is just awkward all around for everybody.

behold, a way to make casual vampire cliches not in the least bit attractive.

he pauses, offended by the fact that it's WORKING, as if he was sure she was fucking with him before now.] This is the grossest thing I've ever done and I've been in prison twenty-three times.

You do realize how offensive that is, right? I'm doing you a favor. I'm not dirty.

[Her irritation is only half-hearted, though, because she knows how she felt about this sort of thing not really all that long ago.

It really is kind of weird. But it's a good kind, honestly, given what the outcome is.]

Just don't die in the next 24 hours and you'll be good. We don't need real-life raccoon Bunnicula, okay?

I am licking fresh blood off your arm. [And if that wasn't an indication that he's feeling better, nothing is. Rather than the weak protests, he's actually back to yelling.] And I don't know what a Bunnicula is, but I sure as hell ain't dyin' after getting through this shit.

[he runs his tongue over his muzzle and pulls away, feeling like he's well enough to stop doing that. there's only so much blood he can stomach before it starts making him feel a little too primal for his personal comfort.] Thanks, though...

Vampire bunny. Not fun.

[It doesn't take much, and the effects should be immediate and pretty obvious.]

And you're welcome. [A beat.] Think you can stand up now?

[Not that she minds carrying him, but she has a feeling he'd rather not be.]

Definitely. [her clothes are already in a state of disaster, so he has absolutely no qualms in climbing down on his own by going over her shoulder and down her back like she's a perky blonde ladder. it's two-fold- pride and making sure he has the required agility in his less organic parts.

considering he makes it to the ground without falling on his face, he'll take it.] If anyone else saw me like that, I'd have to claw their eyes out and eat 'em.

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persevere - 2017-04-26 20:12 (UTC) - Expand

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