video; @star.lord

[nostalgiabomb]

[ INT. Shared Housing, Floor 13, Room 4 – Very Late Night.

We open on a shot of the living space in one of the many shared housing units. It's dark in the messy room, with a couple of red jackets tossed onto the backs of chairs. Nearby, soft snores are audible.

In frame is a small, wooden creature, his giant eyes squinting with concentration as he stares at the screen. An old, beat-up mp3 player and a Sony Walkman sit beside him on the coffee table. The little creature mumbles a tiny, irritated— ]

I am Groot?

[ —in the same tone of voice someone else might use to ask, “How the hell do you work this thing?” He pokes at the screen fruitlessly for a while, but soon enough, his eyes light up as he shoves his hand forward one last time.

Suddenly, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by the illustrious AC/DC shrieks over stereo speakers.

DONE. DIRT. CHEAP.

Sorry about your beauty sleep, Floor 13. And probably Floors 12 and 14.

The sapling yelps, scrambling and panicking to figure out how to stop this crazy thing, just as a sleep-tousled Star-Lord stumbles into frame, flicking on a light. Barely audible over the music, ]

Groot, what are you—?

[ Busted.

Peter picks up the device, sees that it’s recording, and he grimaces. ]

Oh, son of a—

[ Which is when the feed and the music both cut out. ]

Comments

[evite]

Whoa, okay, no. I come in peace.

( two hands up to the camera and everything. )

Look. Aliens... talking trees... it's all really new for me, and I'm basically running on negative sleep, and I have been kind of feeling like I'm playing in some kind of weird virtual reality horror game for the last hot minute since I got here.

I'm not trying to, you know, be a dick to your buddy. Who, by the way, totally looks like a really awesome tree. Not that I super know what trees are supposed to look like or not supposed to, but he looks good? I think?

( she feels a little — okay, a lot — ridiculous, as if she's talking about a child instead of talking to them. and skye remembers pretty damn well what that felt like. aka: it sucked. so she's going to try and raise her voice up a little, just in case mr talking tree in the corner can't hear her perfectly clearly through mr star.lord's network device. )

I don't know how to say 'sorry' in tree but hopefully English works! I'm sorry!

[tetherer]

Hang on.

[They navigate on their phone to a notetaking app.]

Alien and Aliens. What other films should I watch?

[They are taking this advice very seriously, okay.]

[buildsomething]

[Tony can't help but cough out a laugh as he spots it, though he tries to school his expression back into some semblance of innocence. Doesn't really work, but he's trying.]

Yeah, I can see that.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter looks impassively at the camera, letting this person babble themselves blue. When she finishes, he stays silent for a second.

Then, he lifts both shoulders in a blithe shrug.]

It’s cool.

[ that’s it that’s all he offers. Groot, at least, perks up a little, glancing over at the camera, but— considering he’s still pissed off about getting lectured about keeping sane sleeping hours and not messing with stuff if he doesn’t know how to use it and waiting for adult supervision and blah blah blah, he offers a mumbled, ]

I am Groot.

[ before returning to sulking. Peter’s expression pinches – an expression that clearly says, Be nice – but he dutifully translates, ]

Apology accepted.

[ And that’s that. ]

You’re new around here, then?

[latrodectus]

Insults are a matter of perspective, just like everything else.

[ When in doubt, be even vaguer. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter is similarly taking this way too seriously. ]

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, maybe. [ There were a bunch of cool names in that, if he remembers right. ] Footloose might be a good one, too.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He looks a little confused by Stark’s laughter and that poor attempt at hiding it, but a quick glance at Groot, who’s still sulking, doesn’t yield much. ]

... Right.

[ And he drags the word out with obvious suspicion. ]

I’m just saying, you're definitely gonna jinx yourself with that.

It's like saying, “What’s the worst that could happen?” or “At least it’s not raining.”

[evite]

( well, it's better than telling her off, in any case. not exactly a warm welcoming gesture, but she'll take it. )

Yeah. ( a shrug of her own. ) It's really... quiet here. Like, I guess when they told me it was a moon and a pretty chill city that I figured the weird stuff would happen, but I didn't really expect it to be so quiet.

( she glances over her shoulder for a moment, peering out at the black sky through her window. being on one of the higher floors gives her a decent vantage point for observing the grounds beneath, including the occasional person milling about at this ungodly hour. )

I'm Skye, by the way.

[talentedscavenger]

[Well, she wasn't expecting that answer. He was being stubborn though, and a bit persistent. If she were to show him, what could possibly go wrong?

Aside from him losing a limb.

Or accidentally starting a fight.

Or both.]

Not interested. You have, what? Blasters?

[She wasn't really interested in weapons, more so of ships and creating new things.]

You basically aim and pull the trigger, that's it.

[tetherer]

Ferris is a really good name already.

[Type type type. Taking notes.]

Is "Foot Loose" one word or two?

[nostalgiabomb]

One word.

[ before he went to bed did he think he'd be making movie reccs to someone claiming to be a god?

He sure did not, yet here they are, anyway. ]

Start with that one. It's one of my favorites.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter huffs out a quick laugh. He claims he's not very superstitious, but that doesn't stop him from spouting off stuff like, ]

You totally just jinxed it, you know.

... But, yeah. I get what you mean. Pretty sure this is the longest I've ever stayed in one spot since I was a kid.

[ It's been... nice. Mostly. Kind of. Running around outside the wall for his work with the Perimeter Guard tends to keep things lively, but otherwise, this is a lot more peace and quiet he's experienced since he was living in Missouri. ]

I'm Peter Quill. Folks call me Star-Lord. [ no, they don't. Not unless they're making fun of him, humoring him, or just plain don't know any better. ] And you already met Groot.

[nostalgiabomb]

You say that like there isn't an art to it.

[ He's one hell of a marksman, if he says so himself. ]

Sure, anyone can pull a trigger. But that's like saying "anyone can use a knife." Sure, it's true, but that doesn't mean you do it well.

[ But he shrugs after a second. ]

But, hey. What do I know? I mean, I've only been using these guns for, like, two-thirds of my life.

[buildsomething]

Hey, give me some credit.

[He gives him a look of mock affront.]

I know better than that, at least.

[tetherer]

[They smile, taking note of the single word. F-O-O-T-L-O-O-S-E.]

Okay. I will absolutely do that.

[talentedscavenger]

[A roll of her eyes.]

There isn't much of an art to them. [Especially when the Stormtroopers using them couldn't hit--which is a good thing. Just, better someone aim away from her and her friends.]

So...you're been using it for twenty years then?

[Is she calling him old? ....Possibly. Just...maybe.]

Do you know how to use anything other than blasters?

[evite]

God, I did, didn't I? Damn.

( a shake of her head, and skye laughs under her breath, brushing her hair out of her face with a quick flick of her thumb and forefinger. )

Peter, okay. And Groot, right, of course. That's not gonna be a name I forget.

( she's not going to outright call him out on the nickname thing — because she could be wrong, maybe somebody calls him that — but she's not going to believe it with much gusto, either. peter's a reasonable name, anyway. no reason not to go with it. if he really didn't want people to know the name, he wouldn't bring it up. )

Did you move around a lot? As a kid, or...? ( it's kind of a personal question, she knows. it deserves a fair return. ) I was a foster kid, so. I get it.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He takes a breath, readying a response, but—

... listen. The real story doesn't tend to go over well. "Hey, you know those stories about folks and cows getting abducted by flying saucers? Kind of true, as it turns out!"

He hesitates, then decides to go with the easier answer: ]

I, um. I left my home planet as a kid. Hadn't really been back after that. Mostly lived on space ships.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Yeah, a lot of his initial excitement is slowly wearing off, the longer this conversation goes. ]

Guns are sort of my thing. I can basically use whatever you put into my hands.

[talentedscavenger]

[Peter's excitement may come back in full swing if Rey showed him the lightsaber...she had ruled it out, but she was becoming curious about the weapons he used.]

Uh-huh. [Yeah he's not getting his hands on her saber.]

But they're very.....one note? [Kind of? At least from what she's seen.

Okay, they should do a cultural exchange. Start with weapons and then work to...food maybe.]

Okay maybe if you show me what you can do....I'll do the same.

[evite]

( they are on the moon. skye has met other aliens thus far. you'd think she'd be prepared for this sort of answer, but every time, she finds out exactly how completely not prepared she is. )

That's — I'm sorry, did you say space ships? Like, pew pew, 'oh hey that's Mars, what's up Jupiter' space ships?

( maybe she's just too tired to handle these things normally. )

Jesus. And I thought moving states was a pain in the ass.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ That.

Actually startles a laugh out of him. ]

Yeah. Exactly like that. Saturn’s pretty nice this time of year, too, but man, you should see how those rings look when they change colors for fall.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He looks a little skeptical for a second. But, well, he always takes his chance to show off, which is why he unholsters the blaster from his hip. He points the barrel skyward, his finger resting against the trigger guard to avoid any accidental firings. ]

Main barrel is plasma. Bottom barrel is electricity. I can fire them off individually with these two triggers— [ And he indicates them with his free hand. ] Top one’s lethal force, bottom is for stunning, obviously.

But I can use both triggers if I’m facing someone really nasty. The shots pack a bigger punch, that way.

[ He’s not going to fire the guns off in a public park, though, which is why he returns the blaster to his holster. ]

I’ve been trained with rifles and blasters basically all my life. I’m kind of an expert.

[evite]

But you're from Earth, right? ( because he looks like he's from earth. but then again, so did some of the other people she's met here who are from different worlds, so maybe she shouldn't assume. ) Or no?

( she wonders if it's technically still fall in space. do seasons work the same way when you're not on the same planet? )

I didn't think people could breathe on other planets, I mean.

[nostalgiabomb]

Yeah, I’m from Earth. Missouri, specifically.

[ St. Charles, even more specifically, though that’s probably not a necessary distinction to make. ]

And it depends on where you go. Like, obviously there are a lot more places with atmospheres filled with chlorine, but there are habitable planets, too.

For the toxic places, I have a mask. [ And he taps on a metal trigger tucked behind his ear – not deploying it, but in demonstration. ] Air filtration and a rebreather. Never leave home without it.