11945/It's so sticky

It's so sticky
Date of Scene:	08 August 2020
Location:	Common Area - Milano
Synopsis:	A creature is stuck to the Milano, and the crew works together to scrape it off.
Cast of Characters:	Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora

---

Star-Lord has posed:
This time, on...

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"I can't even see much from here," Quill complains from the cockpit. He has climbed up onto one of the pilot seats, hands against the interior of the ship's front upper window (skylight? Is it a skylight if it's space usually, not sky?), trying to crane to see.

The team is attempting to remove something weird from the exterior hull of the ship. It looks moist and purple, but probably isn't alive. Maybe it WAS alive. It sure made the ship fly funny after it hit the front and sloooooowly smeared backwards. "I don't think I see any suction cups, so. Maybe it's a plant," suggests Quill into the comms.

The ship is docked, thankfully, which allows the crew to go climb around on it to see what can be done for the weird 'barnacle' of purple.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
When the collision had happened, there was a slight elevation in the (real) pilot's voice, calling out, "Get it off, get it off.." and for a few long moments, there was some less than 'level' flight, which thankfully in a starship, really can't be felt. Still, it's not right, that thing, and if emotions can be read on the raccoon-like face, it'd be pure and utter disgust.

So, he is //more// than happy to make what he'd consider a necessary (if not emergency) landing. With the gangway down, the diminuative spacer saunters out, his snout up in the air as he steps sideways as he looks warily in the direction where it had initially hit.

"You think it's alive?"

Gamora has posed:
The good thing is, they were able to land to scrape the thing off. The bad thing is, they were going to have to scrape the thing off. Following Rocket down the ramp, Gamora continues forward a bit before turning towards the ship again to try and get a better look. She backs away a few steps more before coming to a halt. Her gaze shifts over to Rocket.

"It does look like it might be stuck on there, though I can't tell visually from here if it's some kind of life form." From what she can see, it just looks purple and stuck. "Someone will have to get in closer. We need to scan it. If it's some sort of organic lifeform and we just try to blast it off, it could release some gas or lay eggs or spit acid in your face. So we need a better idea of what it is before we just destroy the thing. Someone needs to go up there." She slowly turns to look at Rocket.

Star-Lord has posed:
"With all the billions of empty bits of space on the way to Kryzor IV, how you managed to hit the one sticky weird purple space-muppet, I don't know," Quill vents, with a squawk of sound. He lost his footing on the pilot's chair and stumbled some. Fortunately, nobody saw it, except maybe Groot, who had peeked in on him.

"Don't you say anythin'," Quill demands of the talkative tree, before rubbing his poor shin, and then squinting upwards again.

"Wait, I can see ---less of it. Is it moving?" Quill asks, hopping down from the chair on purpose to try to get another angle, using more console under one side of his hip. And then finding some wrappers in the way. "/Rocket./ What is this stuff in here, snacks?!"

Peter picks through some of it. "Sorry, sorry. /I meant/, what is this stuff in here, empty snack wrappers?" Blah.

"Chicky-chews are my favorite." Mournful. All eaten.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
"It jumped out at me!"

Rocket's whiskers quiver as the fur over his muzzle shifts and he looks down from his elevated gaze at his traveling companion and beady-eye-stares for a long moment before he looks back up at the ship dubiously. He's silent, which allows for Quill's voice to come through loud and clear. There's a brief moment he stands and stares into the middle distance before he looks like he's got an idea.

"Hey, Quill!" There's a hint of a chuckle, "Captain!" Is there sarcasm in that yell? Maybe.. "I think this might be up your alley!"

Gamora has posed:
With her gaze leveled on Rocket, Gamora seems determined not to budge. When he speaks up, she tilts her head to the side just slightly. She glances back towards the ship, first at the purple /thing/, then in the direction of the cockpit. Slowly, her gaze comes back full circle to rest on Rocket.

There's the tiniest hint of a smile and her voice rings out over the comms. "Rocket's right, Peter, we could really use your expertise on this." Not it.

Star-Lord has posed:
"While I appreciate the use of my title, Rocket, I feel like I might not like the rest of your sentence. Still, what've you got?" Quill questions, with some exhasperation. He looks at Groot who shrugs, and Quill just shrugs back at him. Yeah, well.

"Hang on." With a sudden idea, Quill moves to the pilot seat and flicks through a few controls... and outside the ship, a spout of exhaust flares just to the left of the purple sticky 'muppet'. No, that didn't work to eject it.

"Did I get it?" Quill asks, with hope. Such /hope/ in his voice, that he might be the hero. Quill likes being the hero.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
There's a moment when racoon meets green chick, and there's understanding that transcends all... and there's that muzzle quiver again. As he looks back at the gangway, he's about to call out again when--

"Qui--" if a racoon could sputter, there it is. "No!" Now there's a hint of annoyance in Rocket's tones. "Get out here and deal with it, or your ship is going to be grounded." A quick glance is given to Gamora again, and is that mirth in those beady eyes?

"Welcome to ship maintenance for beginners. Step one. Removing space debris and fixing strikes."

Gamora has posed:
"It's definitely still there," Gamora directs over the comms. There's slight amusement in her expression as her hand rests on her hip, but she does look impatient. While there was no rush for their destination, the slowdown was annoying and she makes a face, pulling a device off of her belt before she looks over to Rocket.

She holds it up in her hand. "I'm going to scan it. That means it's someone else's job to clean it off." She states, matter-of-factly before she approaches the ship again, this time angled in the direction of 'the purple muppet' friend the ship had made.

Star-Lord has posed:
"/Grounded/? What are you seeing?" Quill asks, more urgently, some worry coming into his tone. "Fine, fine." He climbs out of the chair, getting to his feet, and moves to the ladder, to head down into the main compartment. He grabs his gear as he goes - automatic to get it - and comes down shortly after towards Gamora and Rocket. He approaches them and then spins to regard the ship, stopping to squint up towards where the thing must be.

"Why are you all still down here? Don't we have a ship..." Quill gestures with both hands to illustrate sweeping. "Scraper-tool-thing?" They must have something.

Gamora at least is seeming to scan or something like that. That boosts his spirits.

Quill looks up at the ship, then frowns a little, unholstering one of his element guns. He kicks on his rocket boost on his boots, and lunges up to the top span of the ship. Quill is many things, but brave? Yes. He'll go look while they 'cower' below. Leadership is setting good examples.

"AUGH," Quill says as it suddenly darts at him, and he shoots it immediately. Struck, it cartwheels off the ship, right at Rocket, weird purple limbs flailing.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
See, now, that's logical right there. Gamora scanning it, which means Quill is going to clean it off while he supervises over a drink. A giant, non-purple colored drink.

Rocket takes a step back, watching Quill's rise up straight in the air, his head lifting a little theatrically. It's when the gun is unholstered that Rocket's expression turns.. dubious once more. The thing was in SPACE. And it might have survived RE-ENTRY. What makes him think--

The moment the thing is shot and jettisons itself off the ship, Rocket's got his own gun out, at the same time activating his thruster. It's a shot, two, three.. which pushes him back before the compensator can, well, compensate, but it does give him enough 'english' to get him out of the trajectory of the purple thing.

Once shot, the 'purple muppet' is pushed back by sheer kinetic energy, back in the direction of Quill and the ship-

Like an alien tennis match.

"That won't kill it!"

Gamora has posed:
It's moving?! Gamora fights the urge to immediately fight it, mostly because her initial impression was to try and make sure it wasn't going to blow up in their faces. So she continues with her original plan, holding up the scanner in an attempt to get some kind of reading on it. Something at all to determine if they could just tear into that thing or if they needed to flee. Even as one hand holds the scanner, though, the other is pulling the knife from the sheath at her side.

"Don't let that thing hit you! If it can latch onto the ship like that and hang on, imagine what it could do if it latched on to /you/!" She might not have a readout with any helpful information yet, but she's reasonably certain they don't want a purple barnicle with wiggly arms stuck to them semi-permanently. Her eyes fix on the creature, so as not to let it out of her sight in case it changes direction.

Star-Lord has posed:
"Well don't /shoot it/ at me and the ship!" Quill yells back, pulling his other blaster and sending two quick volleys at the creature while he opens his stance and flips down his face-mask. The helmet flows into place immediately and provides him some additional targeting. Not that he needed it, he shot the thing just fine on instinct.

"Aim AWAY rom the Milano, please," Quill insists. "And not at faces. Gamora has a point; it's sticky. It might be some kind of face-hugger with those limbs, and that was one movie monster I was trying never to encounter during my space journeys, thank-you-very-much."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
Good. Point.

The thing STUCK TO THE SHIP in space and re-entry.. and the last thing Rocket wants is...

Immediately, the raccoon slams down his own face mask, but less for targeting aid than one more bit of something between him and the purple sticky thing.

"What do you mean, not at faces? It's a perfectly valid targ- oh, okay.." and he actually sounds disappointed! Rocket does still have his weapon brandished, and at this point, he's beginning to realize that maybe it's just better to keep it in the air and away from anything it could attach to while, "An idea of how to kill it would be nice, or I'm gonna blow this whole hanger to pieces."

One, two shots are taken at the thing, just enough to spin it around and keep it aloft. "I'm gonna need to see what it did to the ship.."

Gamora has posed:
There's a readout, but by the look on Gamora's face, it's not one she's pleased with. "Okay, so it's not complete because that thing's moving around too fast, but the good news is, it's not going to explode if you shoot it. The bad news is... it's really bad news if you get too close. It wasn't sticking to the ship because it got in the way, it stuck to the ship because it wanted to get in to eat us." Her stance, which was more of a defensive one, has turned into a much more aggressive one as she switches the knife in favor of a blaster. The scanning device is returned to her belt.

"It's pretty sturdy on the outside, that's how it survived re-entry, but it's very vulnerable internally. If you get it to swallow something or even get a blast directly in the mouth and it's probably done for. We have to get it to open its mouth, though." She shifts her gaze over to Rocket slowly.

Star-Lord has posed:
"Great, okay. Rocket, can you come up with something it will want to eat?" Quill suggests, leaping down to a lower part of the ship to get a better angle, with a bright flare of his thruster boots. He only releases one shot this time, just to try to spin the creature, and keep it occupied with the bombardment.

"You know -- that explodes, sooner being better: but I know you know that." Ack, it's coming his way. Quill falls back, with a shuffle of feet, to keep more distance. Quill must look tasty. ...or just has the most mass out of the three options present.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
Rocket has his little black eyes on the 'purple muppet' as it spins its way back towards Quill, and narrowing his eyes, he looks from Gamora to Quill, and back to the purple thing. A long, expressive sigh exits the raccoon before he puts his sidearm away and sets up something a little larger to settle onto his shoulder. It looks decidedly incongruous; smallish mammal type and huge, almost seems to heavy to handle 'personal' bombardment blaster.

"Okay, Quill," and Rocket does //not// sound happy about this, "I'm gonna get into position, so arc it towards me." He's... bite-sized? If anyone calls him 'fun sized', the next blast out of his blastcannon will be at them. And he doesn't miss.

""Hey! Spoo for brains! Over here!"

Gamora has posed:
Gamora adjusts her positioning, moving closer towards Quill to get a better angle as she takes a shot, pingponging the creature into a better location for him to volley to Rocket. "Don't be afraid of it, there are barely any teeth, it's the digestive juices that do all the harm. We've got your back." And, to emphasize her point, blaster is exchanged with knife again, ready in hand to rush towards Rocket should it somehow go horribly wrong.

But it won't go horribly wrong. It never does.

Right?

Star-Lord has posed:
"Digestive-- thanks. Ahhhh. I really feel like..." Quill begins, still backtracking. It likes HIM. "That it's really too interested in /me/. Is it female? I feel like she's female," Quill calls out over the loud din of all the shooting. He opts to stop retreating, and instead leap again, airborne, to jump over it - and clear over Rocket. Hopefully it will give chase, and he can manally ---....

It leaps and grabs Quill's holster as he passes, and with a yelp, Quill stays airborne, hovering. He gets smarter and unclips the holster, hurling the whole mess at Rocket.

"Shoot her!"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
Gamora's on the move, trying to help Quill get positioned, and Rocket is staying pretty much put, hovering where he is so she's not having to guess ever step. Once she's in place and taking that pivoting shot, it glances and waggles its appendages in the air as it spins.

It does like it's quarry, though. "Heh.. apparently it likes humies. Who knew you could attract acid drooling space creatures." Rocket sure as hell won't let him live this one down.

Rocket isn't really that happy, however, when it makes a graceful snatch for //his// Quill, however, and he whips out a quick side-blaster while balancing his cannon and gets a hip shot off. He's got to keep it of balance!

"C'mere, you denebian castor wart.." is muttered, "Come to Rocket.."

It's in the same heartbeat that Quill yells 'Shoot her!" in what could only be, to his ears, sheer terror (that's his story, and he's sticking to it!), he's pulling the trigger. There, in the spacedock, comes a *thoom* as matter meets anti-matter and a large bolt of concussive blast emerges from the raccoon's blastcannon. The fuzzy pilot is thrown head over feet backwards as the suit attempts to compensate for the blast, but it's a little -too- powerful a blast. It slams the raccoon against the back wall, knocking everything around him off the wall, and clattering onto the floor. At least the stabilizers are keeping him there... like a fur-rug tapestry..

Gamora has posed:
Nothing's going wrong. Everything's fine. First with the purple muppet deciding to try and be friendly with Quill, then with Rocket playing Rocketeer and rocketing himself against a wall. Gamora was ready to go after the creature, but plans change. Her gaze shifts to Quill quickly to make sure he's fine and to check and see that he'll handle whatever's left of the creature. The knife returns to its sheath as she moves quickly towards the smaller furry being's side to check and make sure that he was at least uninjured.

"Rocket? You alright there?" She reaches over with a hand to make sure he's concious and aware of things.

Star-Lord has posed:
Quill was busy circling, and looking at the smoldering pile of muppet. Quill pauses, to look at Gamora rushing to Rocket's side. He missed the part where she glanced his way. "I'm fine," he calls over at her back. Clears his throat.

He lands near it carefully, picks up the hull-scraper tool (so that's where it was), in order to poke at it.

So far, no movement. Poke poke.

"Rocket?" Quill asks, as well. He does care! "I think you got her."

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
*groan*

The thrusters are keeping him aloft, which spares him the indignity of sliding down the length of wall, getting caught on random bits of spacedock, only to land on the floor.

"Whu..?"

Okay, let's try this again.

Rocket shakes his head quickly, trying to dislodge the spiders that are trying to cast their webs in his head, and blinking large black beady eyes, it almost appears that he's looking right through Gamora, as if he can't believe it's actually...

A heavy, fuzzy-fingered hand changes up the flight controls, and it slowly takes him away and down. "Did I get it?" There's a quick glance at Quill, and a twitch of the muzzle before he looks back at Gamora, his expression briefly turning to that 'stuffed animal' quality- just to piss Quill off.

*cough*cough* A theatric bark of air comes from deep in the raccoon's throat as he takes a breath again,

"Yeah.. I think I'm okay.."

Gamora has posed:
"Yeah, you're okay," Gamora agrees, assessing Rocket's state before moving back away from him. "And look, you saved Peter." Her amused smile is carried over as she looks from Rocket back over towards Quill. "And good job for playing the bait. It was a very important role I think you're uniquely suited for." Her expression returns to normal as she takes a glance towards what's left of the creature before moving over to check it out for herself.

"We should dump this somewhere away from the ship. It seems dead but Peter has a point, if it's a female, it could have eggs."

Star-Lord has posed:
"Rocket, do you need me to use this scraping tool on you?" Peter calls over helpfully. "Happy to save you in return, buddy." It's teasing, but not really entirely sarcastic. In a way, it's testing how healthy Rocket actually is: how much snark Peter is going to be afforded in return as he raises the scraper. The monsters stuck to it a little and it makes Peter jump when it suddenly lifts in his peripheral vision.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah," Peter says, disgusted, shaking it free of the scraper, and trots towards the ship. "I vote we just leave. C'mon everybody. Groot, INSIDE. Nice of you to join us, though."