snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival

Yeah, there is.
Maybe I'll tell you sometime.

[ Because there's no way that right now, Rocket's ready to go there. Especially with a dude he just met on basically the network. Even if he likes him more than he normally likes anyone. ]

The short of it is that
Any animal I saw on my planet? There was only one of us.
Except the humans. There were too many damn humans.

[Hm. He has his guesses, but he'll hold off. The point is that he doesn't actually know, and ribbing aside, he doesn't actually want to get on Rocket's bad side.]

fair enough
im a thing called a sprite
which is made of other stuff put together
theres a whole story behind that too but whatever its not important at the moment
the point is it means im half crow half human and the rest is just easier to show you

[At which point he swaps over to video and waves a very orange hand at the tablet. He pans the view to give a good look, from the wings down to the tail that forms his lower body instead of legs, before returning back to his face.]

'Sup?

[ Rocket has to admit that when he was imagining half-crow half-human, he mostly did just stick crow wings on the back of a human body. What he didn't imagine, was how completely, non-negotiably orange Davesprite was.

His reactions to this whole thing are easily readable, because Rocket makes no effort to hide the fact that he leans in closer to the screen, even as his paw flips the settings to turn his own video settings on. He doesn't hide how wide his eyes open when he first sees the color orange everywhere, or how he just laughs when the crow human waves.

But that laugh — it feels like Rocket's only just realized that maybe outside of him, Groot, and the others back home in Halfworld, there are other messed up creatures in the galaxy that hesitate to show themselves, and one of them is here, stuck on this planet with him. ]

Sup. [ He says back, his head tilting up in a motion of recognition. Then, after a beat: ] So is your tail part of the crow part, or the human part?

[ There's just a subtle little bit of difference in his tone than what he's been sending in his texts. He treats humans one way, non-humans another, even if Rocket isn't entirely conscious as to how it comes out. And since he's speaking to someone who's half and half, well, there's still a little bit of a difference. Not friendlier perse, but more like ... more like he actually gives a shit. ]

[He takes Rocket's open staring in stride. He knows full well he's weird to look at, but when Rocket's got a mysterious backstory already, he's not expecting judgment. He learned early that he can find solidarity in the other people about who aren't normal humans. And while it's become markedly easier to show what he is to strangers across the months here, it doesn't erase the relief when someone takes it in stride and treats him like nothing is lessened for being like he is.]

That? That's the sprite part. Every sprite's got a tail down there no matter what they're made of. That's why I'm looking like humanoid citrus, too, while I'm at it. Weird colors are just par for the course.

Oh yeah, okay.

[ And his questions are still weird, but you can tell by the way Rocket asks he's not doing it to make fun. Wherever he comes from, it's either accepted to ask these kinds of questions, or Rocket just has no sense of social interaction. ]

Do you glow in the dark? [ There's literally no reason why he should think so, but sometimes orange means radioactive. ] Wait- can you actually fly?

[ And Rocket really has NO IDEA what prompts him to share this, but: ] One of the best creatures I know is a tree. I think he'd like you.

[Davesprite's expression quirks. It's mild—it's always pretty restrained—but there's amusement in the set of his mouth.]

A tree? Sure, why not.

[After knowing a cat that's a living constellation, he'll buy anything.]

But nah, the only part of me that glows is my blood, with or without the dark. And I could fly, but all I can do here is float a couple inches off the ground. Even then I'm probably only allowed that much here because I wouldn't be able to get around otherwise.

[He turns his head to look at his wing as he unfolds it halfway.]

I can flap these all I want and not accomplish much more than looking like a moron. They're not much better than having a big, feathery cape right now.

He's a little reckless, but what's life if you're being reckless, amirite?

[ Yup. That reckless...tree friend. Rocket swears he's real. As for the fact that Davesprite can't actually fly with his wings, Rocket's whiskers twitch a little as he furrows his white eyebrows. ]

Are you telling me that whatever's going on here, it's making it so that you can't actually fly?

[Davesprite snorts. A reckless tree dude, okay. The other question takes importance over responding to that, though.]

Yep. They've got nanomachines in us here; they're what keep us alive against the radiation. But the tradeoff is that any special abilities people have get nerfed down to nothing or near to it. My guess is that the only reason I can still float at all is so I don't lose my tail to frostbite, and I'm traveling with a talking cat who can open doors or zippers with his mind so that he's not totally helpless without people around. But beyond that? I might as well be a normal human, for all I can do.

...

So those nanomachines are real. [ He's sound annoyed more than anything else. But the rest of it makes sense too — how he's somehow shown up with only a few tools, and none of them are working right. ]

So what, can they make us dance whenever they want to? [ A universal they for whoever their kidnappers are. ]

[He doesn't frown exactly, not when his expression is usually pretty even, but it still somehow becomes more subdued with this subject.]

Not necessarily the people in charge—it's kind of complicated. But yeah, they can be used to control us. People have been forced to do some pretty dark things that way.

[ Rocket takes a deep breath as he works through the frustration that's starting to mount inside his small body. This isn't good. In fact, it's absolutely fucked up.

He's been a science experiment once. He doesn't plan on letting it happen again. ]

Let me guess. No one here's found a way out of it. [ And, as if it was truly an afterthought: ] Except dying.

[He shakes his head.]

Death's not much of an escape. People come back, missing things, and even if the loss is temporary it can still be bad. And there's people who stay dead sometimes, but... There's no real predicting it.

[ There's just a bit of silence this time. ]

Well how about that.

Secret of immortality. Just get kidnapped and injected with nanobots and stay in line.

[ Given the tone of voice he's using, Rocket clearly does not expect to stay in line. ]

[network] @ADMIN; Arrival

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