#{and groot throwing shade at vossler in the form of blowing raspberries at him}

[tarnishedxknight]

[ Another Time Another Place A Hollow Universe In Space ]

“Yeah. Space.” Quill nodded when Basch asked if he was referring to outer space. “We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy, so we travel the, uh… galaxy?” His eyes widened when Basch told him about the dock. “Wait, really? Shit, I’m so sorry! I’ll make it up to you!”

When Vossler appeared and the guardsmen seemed to stiffen, the Guardians didn’t fully understand who this guy was or why the other men seemed tense around him. He was just some guy, at least to them. When he coldly told the Guardians to leave because they weren’t welcome, they all blinked and exchanged glances. They had been the biggest losers in the galaxy, the rejects, the abused. Vossler’s rude remarks were as effective as trying to fight a hurricane with a sigh. Basch seemed to give the Guardians the benefit of the doubt, however, and they nodded when he told them to wait there.

“Thank you, kind sir,” Quill said, trying to sound formal.

Drax laughed again. “You sound so silly when you make your voice deeper!”

“I’m not! This is my voice!” Quill cleared his throat and rolled his eyes when Vossler spoke directly to him, asking what manner of ship the Benatar was, but then the younger one, Reks, answered for him. When Vossler said they were lying, and not lying well, Quill seemed offended. “Hey! I am a great liar! Not that I exhibited my excellent lying abilities recently…” His statement was met with protests from the other Guardians.

“Two weeks ago you said you weren’t doing anythin’ and played it cool when I woke up to get a glass of water and I caught you singing along to Dancing Queen in a high-pitched voice,” Rocket pointed out.

“The other day I asked you,” Gamora said, “if you were scared of my sister, and you said no before jumping and hiding behind me when she walked by.”

“Fine, fine! Jesus.” Quill held both hands up in surrender and turned his attention to Vossler once again. “Look, what I’m tryin’ to say is that we do, in fact, come from space. If you don’t believe us, sir, that sounds like a you problem.”

“I am Groot,” Groot said cheekily, mimicking Vossler’s condescending tone before producing a fart noise with his tongue.

Quill, Rocket and Drax broke into uncontrollable laughter at Groot’s comment. Gamora shook her head, but a small smirk appeared on her face. Even Mantis, who was feeling unwell, couldn’t help but giggle. But her improvement was momentary. Color drained from her face once again, and she stood still.

“Also…” Rocket, still laughing, turned to Vossler. “I don’t get what makes you think we would lie to impress you.”

“You gotta put up with this kinda attitude often, buddy?” Quill said to Reks, noticing how anxious the young man seemed around Vossler. It was as if Reks feared being left with him, especially since the situation was already tense enough. Then, Quill frowned when Mantis placed Groot on his shoulder. She started to recoil. “Hey. Mantis, what’s wrong?” he asked, in turn placing Groot on Drax’s shoulder.

“Too loud. It’s too loud in this place.”

“It’s not loud.”

“No, I don’t mean loud with your ears, I am talking about a different kind of loud!” Mantis didn’t stop recoiling until her back hit the wall, covering her ears anyway in case it helped. Her antennae glowing with a dim, faint light. Tears welled in her eyes, running down her cheeks. “It hurts! Where are we, Peter?”

Quill, suddenly understanding a little better why Mantis was feeling sick, pulled her into a hug, letting her use his emotions to ground herself as she sobbed into his chest. He gave the other Guardians a look, mouthing ’you know the drill’, and Drax joined them with Groot. Gamora followed. Rocket, though mumbling curses and complaints, approached Mantis as well and grabbed her hand to place it between his ears. As much as he hated the feeling of having someone inside his head, he did it anyway because he knew Mantis needed it, and because his constant nightmares went away mere days after they accepted her into the team… and Rocket knew it wasn’t a coincidence. Once Mantis was calmer and the Guardians gave her some space, Quill grabbed his trench coat and draped it over Mantis’ shoulders so she could wear it, before disconnecting the Zune and giving it to her, placing the headphones over her ears. Mantis threw her arms around Quill’s shoulders and kissed his cheek, her tears gone, replaced with a beaming smile.

(Oh thank you so much for the detailed explanation! Keep in mind I can always look up something I don’t understand tho, I wouldn’t want you to spend a lot of time giving me context and getting to less replies because of it! LMFAO great idea, it’s pretty in character for Peter Quill to accidentally land on a palace and be like “whoops! Sorry! Will you forgive me if I show you ABBA’s greatest hits?” Vossler, man, if you pick a fight with Rocket “Professional Asshole” Raccoon I can’t guarantee your physical or emotional safety, my guy. But yesss, yeet all the muses at them, canon or oc. For example, yeet Munoh at Mantis and watch her think she’s hallucinating because she’s already feeling sick. Yeet Caelen at Drax and watch him think Caelen is a beautiful woman and buy “her” a drink. Yeet Noah at Rocket and watch the two of them either bond over their anger issues or try to kill each other. Yeet Vossler at Mantis and watch her use her powers to make Vossler suck his thumb like a baby… So many possibilities! Give me all the in-character drama.)

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{ Oh no, you’re fine! It was more a tiredness and a lack of brain issue this past Tuesday, not that I spent too much time on your reply. Burnout from work, basically. I actually had time to write, I was just too tired to focus on long, detailed replies. The only reason I could get yours out was because for some reason I have a rabid amount of muse for this thread, so it powered through the sleepiness, lol.

I think I will throw Munoh at Mantis because I realized that certain things going on would attract them to the area, but… OMG LOL DRAX THINKING CAELEN IS A WOMAN. XD He is a very… pretty man. I’m sure he’ll grow into his ruggedness when he gets older, but at the time of this thread, he’d be in his 20s so… yeah, he’s a very fine-featured young man, heh. And UGH I LOVE WOULD TO YEET NOAH AT ROCKET. They’d either kill each other or really bond. Unfortunately Noah is thousands of miles away in Archadia. And feel free to have anyone and everyone fuck with Vossler however they want, he’s basically there… to be fucked with, heh. That’s the only value of having him in a thread at all. XD }

“‘Tis forgiven. You were not to know, being thrown afar of your intended destination,” Basch said with kind respect. Wherever that might have been. He understood that these people truly hadn’t meant to dock where they did. Maybe it was technically trespassing, and maybe it did raise alarm because of the tense climate of war in which Dalmasca was currently immersed, but clearly it was a matter of necessity and misunderstanding, not malice. Even so, he needed to speak with King Raminas about it before the narrative got away from him via rumors and hearsay within the palace. Or Vossler’s own intolerance.

Although Vossler tended not to be as empathetic as he, Basch knew he would not cause undue issues while he was done either. His longtime friend had a bit of an arrogance issue, but when tempered by those who could point it out to him, Vossler had made small improvements here and there. Perhaps he didn’t have the temperament to be a Knight of the Order of Dalmasca, but that was not his decision to make. All he could do was advise His Majesty and then manage the final results, which he was attempting to do now.

The other guards shrank back a bit, content to let Reks take the brunt of Vossler’s ire, though they did receive a stern look of reprimand from the knight when they began to chuckle at how these foreigners were reacting to him. Reks, however, truly cared about his job and was trying to pay attention and assist Vossler however the knight might need, even if he truly disliked the man.

The more Vossler listened to the Guardians banter among themselves and otherwise childishly disrespect him, the more he simply stared, eyes narrowed. “Idiots,” he mumbled in irritated incredulity. 

“Ser?” Reks asked, not having quite heard him.

“They are idiots, the lot of them,” he said, gesturing towards them. “Listen as they twitter and cluck as though part of some ill-scripted mummer’s farce,” he said a bit louder. “Perhaps I was mistaken. They seem not to possess the intelligence to be thieves or spies,” he said.

“Maybe… they’re just travelers, ser,” Reks suggested.

“When I wish your opinion, I shall solicit it,” he said sternly.

“Yes, ser, s-sorry, ser,” Reks stammered. 

“Mocking a Knight of the Order is an offense punishable by imprisonment, tiny creatures,” he said to the Guardians, looking at Groot and Rocket in particular.

When Quill addressed Reks, the young man didn’t know how to respond. If he said no, he was lying. If he said yes, Vossler would no doubt yell at him for it. “Um…” he stalled, trying to think of a diplomatic response.

“I am his superior. You will address me,” Vossler said to Quill.

“N-no,” Reks said before he could think better of it. “With all due respect, ser, Ser Ronsenburg is our superior. You are an authority, to be sure, b-but not our direct superior. We take our orders from him, not… n-not from you…” He nearly swallowed his own heart as it jumped up into his throat.

Vossler turned to look at Reks, his gaze sharp enough to run the poor boy through. “All knights are superior to insolent grunts like you,” he said harshly. “Or have you forgotten that only but a year ago, you were starving on the streets of Lowtown? If you wish to keep your newfound privilege, you will show respect where it is due, boy.”

Reks wasn’t about to say anything further after that, even if it meant not speaking up to correct something that wasn’t true. It just wasn’t worth throwing away his whole career that he’d worked so hard for. He had a brother to support, after all.

- - - - - 

Munoh could ignore the change in energy no longer. First, there had been the feeling of something shifting, enough to make the Occurian’s magickstuffs pulsate with greater fervor than they had in a long time. A rift, it was. It had been centuries since Munoh had felt something like a rift in time and space, but… there was no mistaking it. It had an energy, a charge, a life all its own, when the very fabric of time and space was torn asunder, and anomalies permitted either entrance to or exit from where they ought or ought not to remain.

Curious, to say the least, but Munoh was loathe to leave Caelen’s side. The young man had been very unstable of late, with his deployment to the Dalmascan/Nabradian border imminent from the way King Raminas had been talking of late. However, when surges in psychological energy began tickling Munoh as well, ones that indicated the mental footprint of either a powerful magic user or an empath or perhaps both, curiosity got the better of the Occurian, and they decided to investigate.

Invisible and inaudible to mortals of this plane, by current choice, Munoh flew through sandstone and marble alike, through the palace. Walls meant nothing to ones without bodies, after all. The rift had occurred high in the sky, Munoh supposed, for that was where the disturbance had felt strongest. But the mental signature was coming from a place far closer to the earth. High for the humes of the palace, maybe, but for an Occurian native to a city far up in the heavens, this was almost ground level. Nevertheless, they located the source fairly quickly, and were downright excited with what they discovered. This… was a powerful being. In distress, certainly, but powerful nevertheless. But what was she…? Munoh had never encountered a being such as her before.

Believing themself to be unable to be seen or heard by anyone other than those chosen by them, Munoh floated very close to the one in distress, peering through the gathering of cronies around her to better assess her energy. Oh. Oh? She carries parts of the stars within her. Interesting. It seemed, upon first contact, that the being was in some way connected to the heavens and beyond, which was nothing short of amazing to Munoh. For now they merely watched and listened, content to observe this strange yet intriguing being for a while.

- - - - -

“Sh-should we bring them to the sages?” Reks asked, seeing how much distress one of the travelers was.

“Nay,” Vossler simply said.

“B-but-” Reks said, but he was quickly cut off.

“We will wait for Ser Ronsenburg,” Vossler said with patronizing annoyance. “Since he is your superior, you can do nothing without his word. Is that not what you said? So, we wait.”

“Y-yes, ser,” Reks said, defeated, although he was happy to see that, whatever was wrong with the odd-looking female, her friends seemed to know how to make her feel better… at least temporarily.

Basch returned rather quickly, not wishing to waste very much time. The guardsmen looked very happy to see him back. Walking up to the Guardian’s ship, he addressed Quill first. “Captain Star-Lord, King Raminas will grant you audience now,” he said with a respectful nod. He looked around at the rest of them. “If any of you wish to accompany your captain, you have permission to do so. If not, you may remain here until he returns. In the meantime, our sages will do what they can for the ill member of your crew. If she is not well enough to walk to them, they can be brought here to her. What say you?” he asked, leaving some of the details to them, as he didn’t know how comfortable they all were with leaving their ship, seeing as how they were a long way from home.

Vossler was silent as Basch addressed the Guardians, and Reks continued to pay close attention, in case his captain asked something of him.