| Up to Speed | ||
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| Summary: Doug, Dani, and Rocket gather to discuss some of the existential dangers present in the city and what it means for their home dimension now that it's linked.   |
Knocking on the door will achieve nothing; there is no response, yet there are sounds of other movements within. The only option is to open the door itself. The rolling sound will be completely drowned out by the music, turned up loud, blasting Electric Light Orchestra's Livin' Thing from a pieced together sound system that looks as if it was assembled from five different machines. In fact, the same can be said for most of the equipment and even the layers of platforming that creates a miniature living area with room on the floor for a workshop. Standing at a workbench, center, is a large raccoon. Arcs from welding cascade from behind the fuzzy creature's shirtless form as his hips and tail sway. Rising to full posture, pulling a half welding mask away from his face, the raccoon sings along with the music, although his voice is barely heard over the vocals of the song. Probably for the best, because the fuzzy thing's voice cracks a couple times. It's...not because he's a terrible singer. ((Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H48j3KGBomU )) The U-Stor storage units are not generally regarded as a great place to stay. For starters, they're not actually designed to be living compartments, but rather large storage lockers. But when Moonstar found out Rocket was staying here, she knew she'd be coming back. Her conversation with the klepto-coon about Ulysses had convinced her that she he was actually from the same timeline as hers, but even if he wasn't, she wasn't just going to leave him in Twisted. That's not what X-men are about, and what's the point of launching a rescue mission if you ignore people that need to be rescued? Dragging Doug along with her, Dani had decided this would be a good time to let him get a good idea of just what Kitty's ex-teammate is like - and maybe impress that there are others trapped here, not just mutants. There's been a nagging suspicion at the back of her head, not Doug's fault by any means, that the mutants-only focus of Krakoa has been letting them all lose sight, just a little, of the wider picture. Unfortunately, only mutants can enter Krakoan portals, so... some other method will have to be employed. That's not her job to figure out. Maybe Doug will have some ideas. Or maybe they should track down Lila Cheney. What does Dani know about any of that? ANYWAY, Moonstar leads her teammate down the hall, moves to knock on the storage door, and pauses. "... Yeah, that's not gonna work." She shrugs and then reaches down and and yanks up on the door, sliding it open to stare at what's within. "...Hello?" She calls at the Raccoon's back, already having seen the area once before. "...Rocky?" Close enough. Doug is listening to music from an entirely different genre out of the speaker on a cellular telephone (don't ask how he does these things... he just does). He's switched to his Chinos and Chelsea Boots and T-Flex t-shirt. "I know a girl from a lonely street, cold as ice cream but still as sweet, dry your eyes Sunday girl...!" He gives a half-turn as they walk into the parking lot. "...He lives in a storage unit?" He asks, "I would've thought an attic or maybe a-" He puts his hand over his mouth and stops short of finishing that joke. In the meantime, he slips his hands into his pockets, whistles a few bars and goes on, "Hey, j'ai vu ton mec avec une autre fille, il semblait dans un autre monde, cours te cacher Sunday girl...~" Among his many talents, he has perfect pitch. Even if he isn't Debbie Harry. "Taking a dive 'cause you can't halt the slide floating downstream, so let her go, don't st-" Rocket's sing-along suddenly stops, the little guy wincing as if he just hurt himself, yet the lyrics in the played music continue on. Turning his head to the side with a shake, face trembling, a glistening stream of dampness drops from one eye just as he hears and peripherally sees he has visitors. "D,dani-!" There's a second of awkwardness, before the raccoon turns his head away to wipe his face while rushing over to turn off the sound system. The only background music left is Doug's selection. "D'ast welder, must'a been too bright for me eyes. One moment..." Saying nothing more, the ringtail rushes off into one of the hidden upper levels where follows soon thereafter the sound of running water. Moonstar and Cypher are left alone with, uh, the potted plant? "...It's no 1407 Graymalkin Lane, that's for sure." Dani sighs and runs a hand through her hair before letting it fall to rest on her hip. She fingers idly at the belt holding her jeans up after a moment, and shifts on her feet awkwardly when she realizes they seem to have caught Rocket in an actual display of emotions. Well, now she feels like a jerk. That wasn't hard. "...Guess I should probably have ca--... actually, I don't know if they even have cell servi--" Moonstar manages to interrupt herself twice in one sentence, staring first at Cypher. Then at his phone. "HOW?!" Better to distract herself and focus on the ludicrous nature of Doug somehow having a working cell phone in a completely different dimension than to wonder why Rocket was crying. Doug kills the cell phone with a *doot* and then says, "...A relay?" He shrugs, bonelessly, and then glances around the place. "He's got quite a setup though..." Then he turns and studies the plant. He leans and looks at it, and then he says, "Hey. Is this a juvenile Groot?" He looks up. "Or just a Bonsai tree?" Then he glances back to Dani, and says, "I try not to listen in on people's emotional states, Dani, you know that-- so maybe he just really likes ELO. Remember how we used to play 'Evil Woman' whenever Emma left the room?" After a moment and a half, a composed Rocket Raccoon comes down from one of the upper levels and clambers down a ladder, part of a ladder, maybe from a swimming pool? Eyes, now completely dried and face clean, dart between Danielle and her companion. "Look, Dani, va's cute and all, but she's a bit flat-chested. I fought me dating profile were more specific van 'at." Laughter soon follows and the short stack waves a hand at Doug, dismissing any offense that may be construed at his expense, since it's not really aimed at him personally. "Oh, right-" Suddenly turning around, without a proper introduction yet, the bandit-masked Guardian hurriedly moves over toward a storage bin (in a storage unit) and lifts the lid. This storage bin is fairly deep, even for everything being generally sized down to be appropriate for a critter two and a half feet tall, and this results in his entire upper half disappearing down into it. There is a shuffling of metal things, then a few objects are tossed out of the bin onto the concrete floor rather haphazardlythatsagunandthatistoo. There is a grunt, a heave, a heavy clattering, another gun is tossed out, and then another tugging struggle that results in the raccoon falling backward, onto the floor, amidst all the guns, with two rifle-like weapons in his arms. Standing up, walking back over, a rifle leaning back over each shoulder (both far too large for his frame), Rocky strikes a pose before holding one out to Dani casually. The damned thing is heavier than it looks, but the increased mass helps recoil immensely, presumably, but they do look like scrapyard, uh, scraps hot-glued and welded together with skag-spit. "'ere. As I recall, you wanted a gun wot shot bullets 'at were..." With his free hand, he estimates the diameter of each shell with pinched fingers, "...vis big?" Oh. Remember that? He sure did. "An' 'ere's one for youh friend." "...Oh." Moonstar actually looks vaguely disappointed at the relay comment. That makes sense and isn't way beyond her ability to understand like she sometimes expects of Doug and Sage and... well, to be honest all of the techies. "... What's a 'Groot'?" Okay, so she doesn't know the same kind of stuff Doug knows. She's still useful and relevant! As for Emma, *Doug* waited until she left the room. Dani remembers turning it on when the White Queen *came in*. And the reprimand that kind of attitude earned her, too. Suffice to say, mistakes were made. "Yeah," is all the Cheyenne says in response, though she's grinning just a bit. Hey, she'd do it again now. Frost is still a frigid one - some things you don't get over too easily. "...I was thinking like... a SCAR-H... or maybe an M14?" Dani eyes the scrap-guns warily, having already decided the raccoon wouldn't understand her and viewing this as proof rather than a reminder that she didn't just ask him for what she wanted. Her voice gets quieter, more desperately hopeful. "I'd settle for a scout rifle..." She looks around at the other guns, clearly not feeling a great deal of confidence in a hot-glued shotgun. Doug is still inspecting the plant. Finally, he just reaches in and *pokes* it. "I am Groot!" He says to it, before he shrugs, and turns back, and holds up his hands at the gun. "Ah! Hey, Fuzzbutt, I appreciate the offer but I have had it drummed into me that I am not a front-line combatant. Also, guns and I are kind of like oil and water. But I'm sure Dani will be happy to have *two* guns." He gestures at her with a thumb. "She always did have a weak spot for projectiles that make loud noises." He sticks his hands in his pockets and rolls his eyes upward, looking away. "So! My Mutant Name is Cypher, but my Sapiens name is 'Doug'. ...Most people just call me Doug." The raccoon scrunches his face and reaches out to take back the rifle offered to Danielle while eyeing Doug. He missed the first comment about his plant, but this one strikes him right in the heart. One eye twitches, yet he says nothing. Yet. First he puts down the gun that Doug doesn't want, then he holds the vertical foregrip of Dani's first offer and pulls on the grip behind the trigger. Something unlatches, the foregrip swivels around to the side horizontally, the barrel expands in diameter, and the stock cocks upward before turning 180. The round chambered (it was loaded the whole time?!) is slid out of place as a new higher caliber round is chambered. "Changes from Duplex t' Full Auto, but kicks like a mule in 'eat." Why the hell would anybody need that kind of weapon spec? Rocky sucks through his teeth before turning away to look over his workshop. One crisis at a time. Hurrying over to a cabinet, yet another container for things, Rocky puts the rifle in his hands on the floor (they wind up there a lot) and opens it. There are a few special guns in this thing. "I fink I get it, Dani. You want somefing like vis, but vis is too much for you. Iden'ified as an M-98 An'i-materiel, it weighs, eh, roughly eigh'y-six pounds and va kick can easily break a normal 'uman arm. 'ad to splice in a new 'eat sink and power source, so it's not as punchy as it used'a be. Still, you want somefing in-between." All the same, he casually holds the gun up in case Dani wants to inspect it. "So, what's wif va sidekick fing? I can hawk guns and talk business at va same time." Just as Moonstar is about to contradict Doug and say "No you're not, you're Doug!" after his Groot statement, she thinks better of it and manages to close her mouth and not embarrass herself further. Doug knows things, she'll look smarter if she just pretends she knows them, too. Her eyes widen in surprise when Rocket starts transforming his rifle, and her left eye actually twitches when he mentions it's a duplex trigger. "R-Right, yes. I want stopping power, but if it puts *me* down, it's not going to do me any good." Wait, maybe she's the stupid one - he built these out of a box of scraps. Crap. Why is everyone always smarter than her? Well, just keep your mouth shut, Dani, they won't catch on. Probably. "Ah...right." Dani realizes she didn't introduce Cypher. It's a good thing he's capable on his own. "Doug here is the smartest person on our team." Somewhere far far away, Sage sneezes. "And technically the boss of me, but don't remind him. He has a talent for linguistics primarily, but he's a fair hand at just about anything else that requires an IQ above 140." Well, if nothing else, Doug will understand that accent better than Dani does. That's a surefire guarantee. "I found him when I was looking for my friends that got lost." They got lost. It wasn't her. Obviously. "He came through the portal looking for us, since we were... late... coming back." "Oh, the Groot have an unique language built around nuances built into the repetition of a syllable sequence which sounds a lot like a declarative statement - 'I am Groot'. So they're just called the Groot." He quirks his mouth and then says, "But think... I have mis-stepped, so I apologize." He rubs his chin, and then says, "Yes. And while there's a sometimes-portal back to our world... only Homo Superior can pass through it. Mutants." He rubs his chin at Rocket, and then he reaches into his pocket and takes out a granola bar. "Peanuts, peanut butter and peanut butter chips. On the island, this is technically contraband." He offers it to Rocket. As an apology. "Sinister hogs them all, so may have *technically* had this stolen out of his stores." Replacing the M-98, Rocket continues to look through his stock of recovered, refurbished, and self-crafted guns. "Oh, wait, right. The- You people. The...stuff." Rocket slumps his shoulders a bit and shakes his head at the offer of recompense. "Look... Doug." Moving a box off of a borrowed barstool, the raccoon hops up onto it so he can be a little closer to eye level, and gestures for the young man to get in a bit closer. "Look, I appreciate wot you're saying and wot you're tryin'a do," says he, almost in a whisper, not to be secretive but to show that he's being very calm and collected. "I...'ave not seen Groot, by me timeline, in a number o'years. It's not va first time we've been separa'ed, but vis 'as been a...special case." Lifting a hand to gesture to Dani, he prefers the door be mostly shut for the moment while they talk, but ultimately for everybody to find a spot to sit or whatever. The place is a mess and there isn't much room for guests, but it's only temporary. "Dani 'ere tells me vere might be a way for me to get back to wot she says is very likely va same universe I come from, but it's not vat simple. Vis place- It's not just some dimensional trash barge wot everyfing winds up falling into. Somefing bad is 'appening." Grabbing a tablet nearby, Rocky manages to dim the lights and bring up a holographic display near his workbench. "I 'ope you're as smart as Dani says you are, because we need big brains working on vis. 'ere. Now." At the moment, the holographic display only shows a mock-up of what appears to be a sprawling metropolis. It's not the same city the three are presently in. "That sounds hard to understand," Moonstar says of the Groot with a wince, "like wookies." She looks between Rocket and Doug - apparently Doug picked up on something while she was staring at the guns. That's just like him. There might not be an easy solution for the portal problem, but they're X-men, they'll figure it out. It'd be nice if they had Forge, though. Just invent a "Get out of Twisted" doorknob, solve the problem easily. That's how Forge works, right? She never really asked, but that's how she envisions his power, anyway. When Rocket points to her, Dani blinks, but when he dims the lights, she gets it and slides the door shut so the holo displays better. Wow, he built a holographic display out of scraps, too. She takes a seat on a piece of scaffolding that is probably supposed to be a bench. Maybe. She peers at the city on display for a moment. "... What are we looking at?" Doug looks at the image and then says, "Well, yeah. I could tell just by looking at the place. Some fundamental universal law of time and dimension is broken here. Is there some sort of parasitic life form attached to this planet, like a celestial egg?" He walks around the display and then adds "Sorry, it's part of the way my abilities work. I can interpret information - though Trevor's better at seeing into the energy spectrum than me. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to bring him here without special dispensation because the place is unstable--" He glances over at Rocket. "Tabby calls this 'Dougsplaining'. Please, go on." "Maybe," comes a reply to Doug. "We'll get t'vat. I will try t' be as clear as I can. Vis is a place wot I refer to as a Nexus. It's where I wound up from being stuck on Earf aftuh we all sort of split up. Again. Ben went off t'chase rumors about some o'vem Fantastic Four wot were presumed dead. Kitty went back to spend time wif family. Never 'eard from Flash and 'is symbiote. I wound up 'ere, in a world where anyfing from all uhvuh Universes is usually documented frough fictional media. Many o'va people vere wot were from uhvuh universes wanted t'go back 'ome. Vere were...some...'oo 'ad va abili'y to create portals. Stable, semi-permament, two-way travel freely. Sounds nice. But, somefing 'appened." The display of the cityscape breaks into a number of particles and multiple holes open up to drain those particles. Stranger still, three-dimensional representations of four-dimensional anomalies appear. The worlds that were open through portals face a similar cascading dispersion. Rather than just one world suddenly ceasing to be, all worlds connected to it also 'fail'. The particles, yet only a few of them, spit free into a cityscape that looks a lot more familiar. A place currently named Mabase. Other particles pop into existence outside the city, in other parts of Twisted, only to disappear again. "Many o'vus wound up 'ere. Only fing we could figure is quantum collapse due to phase locking through va basic exchange of information frough portals. It's why I 'ave never sought to find a way 'ome while being 'ere while I very much did so when I was in vat uhvuh Nexus. Doing so would put me 'omeworld at risk if somefing collapsed even furver." Rocket looks over with a grim smile. "Fankfully, va's one fing wot I can't be blamed for now." "Uh huh..." Dani nods her head as she listens to Rocket and Doug talk. Sure. Celestial eggs. Planetary parasites. At least she gets the fictional stuff, that much she's figured out. And then back to things she doesn't get. Phase locking. Quantum collapse. Is it worse if you put the word quantum in front of it? She's pretty sure from her brief stint with quantum powers that the answer is definitely yes. "Yup. That's exactly what I figured. Glad you cleared that up for Doug, though." While the sarcasm in her words is clear, it's light, not bitter or anything. "Sounds like maybe we don't WANT a normal portal, then, anyway." Definitely need Forge to make that Doorknob. "Well what I mean is that - and this is just a theory - I can see signs that point to *something* extraneous to this planet, and if that entity has a consciousness that isn't tethered to the standard perception of spacetime, up until a moment IS, it might be able to see all the potential outcomes for what *might be* and then try to bring about the most desirable outcome. ...And if it doesn't see one - say all roads lead to it being destroyed, that it *can't* escape-" "Then it might... try... to collapse space-time. Call it a Chrono Crash." Doug taps his chin. "Time travel's always a mess, I hate doing it, even if I am a court minstrel for Robert the Bruce." "Well, I don't fully understand what 'appened 'ere, in vis place, but not too long ago somefing 'appened. Somefing broke. Badly. Maybe rela'ed to wotevuh vis outside entity is you suspect. Now, you want me t'go back, and va's great. If I 'ave a ticket home, it's more van I could 'ave evuh dreamed. But now 'ome is at risk, and possibly more van I can comprehend." If Rocket has a hard time putting the pieces together, it's very serious. "In allova stories I 'eard in Knowhere, nuffing were even close t'vis. I've been 'ere, now, for, wot... I don't know. Time isn't right 'ere. According to va whole, activi'ies and news events, it's about two years, but for me it feels about 'alf o'vat time. I don't know," he repeats. "Flark me, I don't know, but if vis place collapses...we're all as good as flarked." The image changes again, this time showing a giant clothes iron. No, it's not a mistake. "From Medical Mechanicer being a to'al mystery and 'aving a major part in fings," the image swaps to a water fountain, "to Truce Fountain, a fing almost everybody knows..." Rocket shakes his head. "Vis place is real, but it isn't. We're real. We're 'ere. But 'ere isn't real, or, at least, not in va same sense as we are. We don't operate normally 'ere. You keep dipping back and forf frough vat portal 'ome and you're going'a discovuh a lot of inconsistencies. Problem is, you can't measure va system while wifin va system. You need somebody outside able to look in." "Alliterative!" Moonstar chimes in helpfully after Doug's comment, then scrunches her face up as she looks between the two of them. "So there might be an evil entity outside of space and time that also lives here? And this makes sense somehow because it's not a big space dump truck. Do I have that right, or did I miss something?" Oh, almost certainly. She glances at the Medical Mechanica Iron. "Right, and it makes space-time pancakes." It might. You don't know. "But you also can't measure a system from within another system." Doug says, with his hands behind his back. "Meaning that we need some way to get outside of the - reality envelope - this place's broken spacetime, without going into another reality." He thinks about that, and then drawls, "If Kitty were here that might even give us another place to start, since her power is actually a controlled form of transitioning through the dimensions of a reality, she's just never found out what happens if she lets the process go all the way... and it might kill her." "You know how I can perceive distortions in reality because of the way they affect things around them? It's like that. I can see the way the... whatever it is has affected... is affecting this planet. The same way the approach of a being like Galactus or the Beyonder or a cosmic sinkhole of annoyance like the Impossible Man makes animals run away." He shrugs. "Eye-Boy really would be more useful here than me. Or maybe David. That kid's good at *everything*." "Yeah... I wish Star-Lady were 'ere, too." Rocky backs up the image to the giant iron before bringing the lights back up. He sighs raggedly. "If anybody knows anyfing, it's Medical Mechanicer. Not too long back vere were a scuffle in va plaza, bunch o'skags dropped in, and me microwave gun burst a pipe in va top o'va Truce Fountain. Not 'alf a day passed and va robots from vat Iron repaired it. Completely. Vere's no way to tell it were evuh damaged in va fight. Vey do va same to anyfing else wot 'as a mis'ap. Yet, we 'ave uhvuh oddities wot are nevuh fixed, like vat d'ast streetlamp wot won't stop spinning in place, like some sort of reality glitch. But vere aren't no way inside, from wot I can find." "Now you know me position. Vis place is a ticking bomb." Rocket shrugs with a tight-lipped expression...for a raccooon. Doug's explanation of Kitty's powers causes Dani to blink. "Wait, that's what she does? I thought she just... makes her molecules space out or something." Physics isn't exactly Moonstar's specialty. She listens to Doug anyway, though, then winces at the mention of David. "No, Dougie. Just no. I don't have another car to hit him with if he gets uppity." ...These people only LOOK more normal than Rocket. They're not any kind of normal. Shaking her head, the X-man crosses her arms and sighs. She doesn't get the details well despite the explanations, but she knows what needs to happen in this kind of situation. "Are there people here with special kinds of sight and information gathering skills, Rocky? I've seen lots of weird kinds of people. I don't know most of them, but this is officially a Science!(tm) problem now." "Oh, no, not Crazy David," Doug waves a hand, "Smug Know-it-All David." He shrugs, "Well, yes and no, at the atomic level stuff like that gets really weird. For instance, how does she not destabilize solid matter when she passes through it?" Then he unwraps the granola bar, splits it in two, gives half to Rocket and then chews on his half thoughtfully. "Do - uh. Do you need a cup of water to go with that?" He asks. "What we need is someone who can hack the programming language of reality and read it. A sorcerer." Rocket has half a granola bar pushed into his hand as he stands there, atop the barstool, lamenting and pondering. Pulled away from his thoughts, his gaze is focused purely on the food item. He didn't want it, but now that he has it he may as well eat it. It's weird that way. "Information gavhering skills? Probably?" Ugh, if it's one thing Rocket doesn't want to admit it's that he's actually competent at scouting and recruiting and pulling a team together. Many times over the Guardians of the Galaxy was a team of one -- him -- and guess who stepped up to gather the misfits back together when things went down the crapper? "Look, I understand more about 'ow unstable and dangerous vis place is van most o'va people living 'ere because I. 'ave. Seen. Some. Serious. Shit." Gesturing around, Rocket emphasizes. "I build solutions to problems. Strange fings just pop into krutacking existence and go on rampages. You won't believe va shifting realities you experience near the edge of Everything and va massively dangerous freats wot come frough and need immediate taking down. Vere is no prediction. I've been building and distribu'ing an arsenal froughout my time spent investiga'ing. I-" The ringtail looks suddenly frustrated. "I can only do so much, but I can't shoot wot I can't target." He throws his arms up. "I'm more van just BLAM, Murdered You!" Yeah, that catchphrase that nobody loves isn't going away anytime soon. "But, flark me, I'm at a dead end by meself." "Oh," Dani responds, looking a bit embarrassed at not thinking of Prodigy, "Right. That would probably be smarter." Than bringing in a mutant already know for fragmenting reality? Yes, probably. She nods at Doug's explanation and shrugs at his question. It's not like she even knows how Kitty puts herself back together again, let alone why she doesn't disrupt... Moonstar's ancillary education with Stevie comes back to her... the covalent bonds of whatever Kitty passes through. Hah! Nailed it. Oh, people already moved on? "A sorcerer? Like Ilyana? Or Steven?" Since when is she on a first name basis with Doctor Strange? "I guess we could ask around. Is 'Yana still off in limbo?" She looks around, as if somehow the inside of Rocket's shed will reveal a sorcerer they didn't notice standing there before. After a moment, her shoulders slump. "Right. I guess this is the part where we go looking." Fun! Looking back to Rocket, Moonstar furrows her brows. "It's ok. The X-men are here now." Right, you've said that before, lady. "You're not by yourself any more. Just don't get all handsy with my tank again." That's going to need context for Doug. Or maybe it would be best if none was provided. For his mental health. Doug looks down at Rocket - and then he says, "Then, thank you. I appreciate the offer of a gun, but I actually remember dying from a gunshot. I've got some lingering trauma issues related to firearms from it. I'm working through them, but I'd be more comfortable if Dani did the shooting." He puts his hands behind his back. When he hears Dani mention her tank, "Last time someone put their hands on her tank uninvited, she broke their fingers, so you're in like flynn. Illyana is always in and out of Limbo. She doesn't tell me her comings and goings and I don't ask. Rocket... it sounds like you could use something to drink. I'm not... much of a drinker, but I'm told I'm a decent listener." With a sudden loud clap of his hands together, Rocky turns and taps the tablet, the display shuts off completely, and he hops down off the stool. "I could use a drink, but not until Dani is properly armed. Especially if you won't be. Fankfully, I can cater to bofe." With a sigh, the raccoon wanders over to a crate and pushes it out of the way before pulling out an attache case. He unlocks it with the touch of a finger, there is a click, and the case opens revealing a padded inside. Within, he removes what looks very small compared to the monstrosities in his workshop. The size of an SMG, probably just shy of 30 inches long, is a short gun with a logo painted on the side that appears to be an orange phoenix in a circle. It's in very good condition. Lifting it up carefully, the raccoon meticulously removes a square of padding to reveal a box of ammunition. One item in each hand, he walks over and stands before Danielle. "Most fings wot wind up 'ere are not in va best shape. If you can use vis, well, I suppose vat does more good van being a trophy." It's likely not what Dani is used to using at all, but despite being from an alternate reality, the origins are very much one and the same. An SRS A1 Covert Rifle, perfect for concealment, capable of 1000-yard groupings, and Rocket is even offering a box of .338 Lapua Magnum cartridges to go with it. Something about this act seems rather...solemn. "I 'ave somefing for you, Doug, but I need t'tweak it first so it stops exploding." Grateful for Doug's running wingman on the tank comment, Dani seems to perk up at the mention of something to drink. "Oh yes. Somewhere with real booze, please." Has she still not found the Usual Restaurant? How is that even possible? Well, Rocket is here now. Save her poor, sober existence, Rocket! And then he does. "...Is that a bullpup sniper rifle?" The question is asked in the same tone most people ask "What are you wearing?" and Dani's eyes light up. She looms towards it in that sort of dreamy sense of a woman possessed. Then she stops herself and blinks at what Rocket said to Doug. Twice. "Wait. What do you mean 'stops exploding'?" "You know, I'm never surprised at Dani's responses to instruments of destruction, because I once saw her draw and fire a bow with her *foot* and bullseye a target." Doug puts his hands behind his head, briefly. "I have to admit, I'm also curious." "Nuffing'a worry about, love. Just a kinetic dampener. I 'ave a prototype. Stays charged for about two hours, can be set active for an effective twenny seconds, strong enough to stop a cannonball dead in its tracks. Once. Ven it dies. Like, wrecked completely, never work again, frow it away and buy anuhvuh one. Attempts to overcharge it result in, uh, explo-" Rocket sighs suddenly and gives the gun and box of ammo a shake in tandem. "Dani, flark, just take va damn fing and stop drooling on me. It'll frizz out me fur!" Certainly she can figure out the gun on her own. It has origins from her home planet, after all; just from a different timeline. "Oh, well that probably makes sense," Dani leads in, not willing to pretend she understands what Rocket's saying when she could be putting her hands on the weapon presented to her. "...I promise to hit every target every time and never dishonor the spirit of this weapon." She sounds almost mystical, there. "Even while drunk." Okay. And then she reaches out to take it. Please don't disappear. Please don't be an illusion. Please be real. Doug squints and says, "It'll stop *a* cannonball in its tracks, but would it stop *Cannonball*?" He asks, apparently intrigued at that thought. "Stupid New Mutant tricks to try later." He... pats Rocket on the head, briefly. Not a pet! There's no scruffling of the fur. It's just a pat. "Well I know one thing, you're a mechanical genius." Then he says, "In combat situations, I actually work in close tandem with a--" He looks at the space-dwelling Rocket, and then thinks better of saying the word 'Technarch'. "...Friend." "One condition. You get somefing beh'uh, wevher from elsewhere or from me, I get it back, yeah?" Rocky wouldn't be a bully and deny helping to arm somebody, but... He sighs again. "Let's just bloody well 'ead out and get drinks and-" Doug pats Rocket and his tail bristles. It's not an active action, but pure reaction. When you've been in the places Rocket has been, you learn to break fingers pretty quickly. When he said he'd seen some serious shit, he truly meant it. "Glrk- Eh. Heheh. Okay, okay, we had some touchy-touchy. I love you and I'm sure your friend does, too," retorts Rocky while shrugging off that chill down his spine. Sardonic Good alignment, indeed. "Now, who's driving? I know a place wot serves most anyfing you want. Vey'll put it on me tab, because I'm such a nice guy." With a few drinks in him, Rocket might actually be approachable. "Wait. Uh, I need to put some clohving on first..." "Only if it isn't reliant on being harder than Guthrie's head." Dani's answer to Doug's question is called over her shoulder, and actually pretty hard to argue with - Gladiator certainly had some difficulty with that problem. They just don't make Supermen like they used to. With the weapon in hand, Moonstar takes a slow breath, cradling the rifle to her suede tassel jacket. She is complete now. She is a person again. She gives Rocket a smoky look that may, in fact, be disconcerting. "...Deal. Get dressed, then tell me where you got this over some booze." She isn't asking. | |
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