STAR LORD

Part of the secret identity thing meant that there were some facades to keep up. The son of Bruce Wayne was one of them, if not the most important. He was a ‘kid’ with money to throw around and people were interested in that, to say the very least. He couldn’t keep avoiding everything, or that would be far too suspicious. So here he was, letting this place attempt to sway him into a donation. Damian wasn’t shut down on the idea, but he would need some solid convincing. 

He shook hands with the man (Peter Quill,  he called himself) and soon pulled his hand back. Damian hadn’t been quite sure why they called this man, of all people, forward. Maybe he was good at charming people and they hoped he could convince Damian to donate? Or was it something else? “You’re an aerospace engineer?” That did take him by surprise, admittedly. He wouldn’t have guessed as much by first glance. 

Peter is gonna have to have a few words with the administration for putting him in this position....he’s not exactly a poster child for getting donations. Maybe this is some absurd form of punishment for nearly destroying his classroom too many times. Ugh. But for now, he’s gotta make sure to not screw up. 

OK, so clearly this kid knows nothing about him so that makes this even weirder. What the hell have they gotten him into? He offers a small smile, faking as best he can. “Yes, I’m a professor. I’ve got quite a lot of hands-on experience with space technology and its inner workings.”

Peter might trust his associates and respect those that feel safe enough to tell everyone who they are, that’s not exactly what he was comfortable in doing for himself. His rogues would have a field day — especially Kraven. Who wants him mounted on his wall for being a ‘beautiful creature’ as the older man put it once. Ew, so gross.

He’s glad that Quill here is okay with keeping it to himself. “I know the feeling. I feel like it just comes looking for me. Everything has been going smoothly lately except for Rhino rampaging through the streets the other day … it could be worse.” He laughs too, unable to help himself from doing so.

“I guess we’re both troublemakers then.”

Peter is sure the kid has his reasons for laying low. He himself doesn’t really have any enemies on earth, so that could be part of why he doesn’t care if people know his alias. To most people here he’s just a goofy professor with a classic taste in music and a love for space tech.

“Hard to avoid sometimes, for sure.” Peter admits with a soft sigh. “Rhino, huh? Sounds like a real asshole.” He might not know much about the kid’s exploits, but that’s the name of a douche if ever he’s heard one. 

{☆}…..Gamora smiled softly feeling Peter close to her never failed to make her heart feel a sudden calm and happiness. The male was completely too silly to function but for some reason, it worked for him so she hardly minded giving him a soft kiss before leaving for work. Their romance was new but she knew that Peter would want more eventually but he respected her wishes which meant a lot to her.  “Very behind I mean I have a million units and yet they won’t take anything, how strange” She mused before placing her hand on Quill’s cheek “Are you enjoying yourself here?” She questioned softly hoping Terra still held things that made him happy.

“Then we should try the new place, they highly recommended it” She mused softly making a note to google the food while Peter was at work so she had a better understanding of what she’d pick to eat. “Okay then, Shall I meet you after work? Or would you like to change for our date?” She asked knowing he seemed to enjoy when she used Terrian language. 

Peter still has a lot to learn when it comes to Gamora, but it’s a thrilling experience. Discovering what makes her happy, how she likes to be courted, even what makes her want to punch him. It’s all a process, and it’s all wonderful. He couldn’t ask for anything better.

“Eh, they’ll figure it out eventually.” He chuckles, shrugging. The soft touch is one he leans into, sighing a bit. “It’s...comfortable because I grew up here, but I do miss space sometimes.” He grins. “Honestly though I’m happy to be wherever you are.”

She rolled her eyes towards the sky, distractedly watching the sunlight shift through the leaves above them as an afternoon breeze whisked by. 

Maybe, I should leave the bars more often, she thought to herself, basking in the warmth for once as she actually enthralled in sobriety. 

( She knew it wouldn’t last )

“As far as I’ve heard, Drax sounds like someone who doesn’t have nerves,” she commented dismissively. Thor had really painted a picture for her, huh? Seemed like it was time for her to pull back on her preconceived notions and look at the full picture. “Any idea where he’d head off to? A planet he’s familiar with? A person he’s seeking revenge on?” she asked, then snorted at his mention of ‘terrorizing the galaxy.’ “Let Rocket loose with a quad blaster and some grenades, I’d expect a mutiny as well. And, luckily for us, if that’s so, that will be an easy trail to follow,” she explained with satisfaction, starting to rev herself up for this unfolding mystery.

Valkyrie’s demeanor continues to amuse Peter...these Asgardians are rather full of themselves. He learned that rather intimately thanks to a certain God of Thunder. But he has yet to be slapped or turned down, so all in all, shit is goin pretty well.

“Hey now, Drax has plenty of nerve. Brain...not so much, but nerve definitely.” Peter explains with a soft laugh. He sure does miss that idiot sometimes. At her question, he grimaces. “Well....he doesn’t have family, so I’m not sure, but....” He mentions a planet Drax liked to visit though, hoping that will be helpful.

“What was something?” Belphegor asks, looking around, feeling like she missed something. She doesn’t really process things to know that most people can’t do what she just did.

“My wings wouldn’t have fit through that door frame expanded anyways,” she explains further. If she tried to do it, she could’ve gotten through, but that building would’ve lost its door and a good chunk of the wall.

“No, they don’t.” She shakes her head. “Nothing can get out of Hell without either Lucifer’s permission or some kind of summoning ritual, and no one’s going to do that for a bunch of bats.” She shrugs. “Kinda I guess. I’ve lived there most of my life, but I don’t know everything about it. It’s a pretty big place.”

“Oh, your little like...” Peter gestures with his hands, “roll thing that you did. And got back on your feet. Are you a gymnast or something?” He’s super curious, trying to figure out what it is about this woman that’s so unusual.

“Wait, you have wings? That’s so cool! I want wings.” Peter pouts a little, just thinking about it. I mean he has rocket boots which are pretty damn awesome, but wings...that’d make everything so much easier. 

“I don’t? That’s pretty flattering. Thank you.” She laughs a little. “I guess it’s just a part of my genetics then.” If she got the same powers as her mother, that might be true, but she’s glad she doesn’t have the same abilities as Jiaying. As hard as it was to become Quake, she knows that she’s one of few people who can handle something like this. “It’s not time travel skills exactly,” she explains finally, “as much as it was just a time traveling ship.”

“Me too,” she agrees. “Maybe not as much as you, but music helped me get through some things. I’ve got a pretty big appreciation of it.” When she got her powers, music helped her learn how to control them better. It also helped her block out the rest of the world when she was going through hard times.

“If you need me to, I can vouch for you,” she offers. She’s familiar enough with the owners that she could probably get that discount for him even without him speaking the language well. “But you’re welcome.” She moves up the line with him.

“Must be.” Peter agrees with a soft laugh, eyes going a little wide at the mention of a time traveling ship. “Oh wow! I have a ship but I couldn’t time travel with it. Damn, I must be missing out.” He’s like a kid in a candy store when it comes to talking about space stuff...he lives for the gadgets and tech.

“Yea.” He nods. “Has a lot of sentimental attachment, too. At least for me.” 

Peter winks. “Ah, you’re far too kind. I bet I can handle this, just watch.” He nods confidently, stepping up a bit more but still keeping his eyes on the woman. She’s really interesting, and easy to talk to.

⎊✰

ʙᴀᴄᴋ ɪɴ ᴛɪᴍᴇ, ɪᴛ ɪs ᴛᴇʀʀɪʙʟᴇ; a haunting phenomenon, the taste of the 80′s filling his mouth every time Peter Quill happened to be around from the childish actions down to the laymans’ tongue as if he was Peter Pan refusing to act his age. “I’d never be able to tell,” dripping off his tongue like venom, happening to be tiring of the man-child in front of him, like a fly that hangs around even after being swatted away it comes back. “Did I invite you to sit with me?” Not flinching from the ripple of sound that smacked down on the table, taking a chunk out of the burger in front of him as if nothing was out of the blue, chew and swallowed before he bothered to open his mouth at the jovial insult thrown his way. “Thought you would like the vegan option more,” yet Stark tapped his own paper bag allowing Peter if he pleases to take one of the many burgers from his bag. 

Peter can tell he’s managing to piss off the incredible Mr. Stark, and that’s just fine by him. Besides, he’s the one that started this...game, or whatever it might be called. “Did I invite you to fuck with my order?” He retorts with an incredulous laugh, shaking his head. Man, this dude is so full of himself it’s a wonder he doesn’t explode. 

“Yea, no. You thought wrong on that one, buddy. I like my beef.” Peter chuckles, taking the hint and reaching to take one of the burgers. “Thank you. At least you have some manners.” He concedes, unwrapping the sandwich and taking a big bite.

Kate does her best to hide her embarrassment. There isn’t much you can do to cover up the fact that your face just got beat up by peas that you were trying to get specifically to help when your face got beat up. The irony of the situation isn’t lost on her at all, but she isn’t as amused by it as the person who had been watching the whole situation. It’s always funnier from the outside.

“Ha ha ha. Yes, very funny. Laugh at the unfortunate archer and her lost bag of peas.” She said as she pulled at her shirt, letting the peas fall all the way through it. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to pay for the ripped bag too. She wasn’t like a bank full of money or anything. She frowned. “Yeah, I probably should’ve thought of that as an option first.”

An archer, huh. That would certainly explain the random arrows. Peter supposes he’s seen weirder things, particularly in space. “Hey, I’d expect you to laugh if it happened to me, too. Funny is funny.” He explains in a factual manner, walking closer to reach up and grab an un-stabbed bag of peas with very minimal effort.

“It’s fine.” Daisy shrugged. That wasn’t the kind of thing you were probably supposed to be sharing with strangers anyways, but it was a habit of Daisy’s to just make jokes about things that were traumatic for her. Everything about her mother was mostly traumatic from never having her around as a child, to finding out she was a murderer, to having to watch her be murdered in front of her eyes. “And no, I just don’t think I’ve seen anyone getting into music that much in public since … well, since I was in the 70s.”

Daisy glanced over at where the people were making the food. “The cooks are really good people, and they give you a discount if you order in Chinese. Their fried rice is really good though.”

“Ooh.” Peter’s eyes widen a bit when the woman mentions the 70s. He adores that era, even though he wasn’t alive for it. His mother shared so much of the music and culture with him that he feels kind of like an old soul. Nothing compares to the classics, man, and he’ll fight anyone that disagrees. “Wait...you don’t look old enough to have been alive in the 70s, you got some cool time travel skills or something?” 

“And yea, I...really love my music what can I say.” Peter shrugs, trying to not make too big a deal out of it. 

Val’s eyes tracked him as he stood, finding humor in intimidating the galaxy’s greatest dork ( thor’s nickname for the guardian among many others ) until he said the magic word, her ears perking at alcohol as it stumbled off his tongue. She rolled her shoulders back to relax a bit. All he wanted was his family back, herself knowing more than anyone what it’s like to lose one. She decided to give the guy a break…for the alcohol, of course.

“More than a fan,” she remarked. “And, it seems you wouldn’t be stranger to either of the vices as well,” she observed him with a laugh, then sighed as she lounged into the park bench, resting her right ankle over her left knee. “How long have they been gone? And, where did you last see them?”

It doesn’t go unnoticed by Peter how Valkyrie’s whole demeanor seems to change at the mention of alcohol. Man, he sure is glad that worked, cuz he ain’t exactly rich and they don’t accept units or any other form of galactic currency here on earth yet. He relaxes a bit, glad that they’re getting somewhere that doesn’t involve having his ass handed to him.

“Well, I can’t lie, you’ve got me figured out on that one.” Peter admits with a small smile, seeing no point in being dishonest since the woman knows far too much about him already anyway. Probably Thor’s doing. 

Summer was not Damian’s favorite season. Not that season’s typically mattered to him, but without the shadow of Gotham’s constant urgency, other things were becoming more noteworthy. For instance, the heat of summer. Damian could withstand it easily, of course. He was raised in Nanda Parbat after all, as well as other undisclosed locations (yes, undisclosed even to him. He’d been too young to so much as ask or wonder). So yes, he was used to the heat. It was still unwelcome though. 

The university was trying to score a donation, Damian knew. He knew when he was being played. Well, played, wasn’t quite the word. Their intentions were not nefarious, at least compared to some other places. So, he came open minded as could be. He wouldn’t allow himself to be swayed, he would make a choice. 

He had to admit though, there was something quite endeavoring about being treated like he was someone so special about those who were technically his senior. Damian was used to the disrespect that came with his young age. It was a given, annoying, but a given. His eyes laid on the extended hand only for a moment of contemplation, before taking it. “Damian Wayne.” He replied, making note to remember the other’s name. Peter Quill.

Now that Peter can get a proper look at him, man...this dude is young. How can a kid like this be someone the university is trying to get donations from? Talk about a silver spoon. He’s not high enough in the ‘chain of command,’ so to speak, to question it, though. So...time to bite the bullet.

Wayne, ah, well that definitely explains some things. He gives the kid’s hand a firm shake, trying to keep the incredulity off his face. If he doesn’t play his cards right with this, the dean will never let him hear the end of it.

Peter gets bitched out enough for how often he nearly blows up the school, he doesn’t need it any worse.

After what happened at Lux, Belphegor was trying to stay calmer, but it wasn’t easy. The void in their chest was the largest it had ever been, and their emotions were harder than ever to control. Everything seemed to set them off, and they felt like they were losing themself. They had gone to a book store because people were supposed to be quieter there. They thought they could get some sleep there without having to go home or bother Charlie about it, but their thoughts became the loudest in the silence. They booked it out of there, wanting to get away from the silence, but in the process, they nearly ran into someone. 

To avoid the collision, Belphegor ended up tripping on the ground. She rolled for a second, but by her grace, she landed on her feet. She was almost impressed with herself. “I’m … not injured.” Alright was far from what she was, but the fall hadn’t hurt her much. “I was running, not flying though,” she pointed out, taking his phrase literally. “And bats don’t fly very fast out of Hell.”

Peter is admittedly a little impressed with how the woman does some kind of agile roll and winds up back on her feet. How the hell? Wild. “Damn, that was something.” He muttered, but nods at the other, glad to hear there are no injuries or anything else of a serious nature.

At the stranger’s wording, Peter tilts his head, curious. The way she takes him literally reminds him so much of Drax, it kinda makes him feel warm on the inside. He can’t tell if she does it on purpose or not, but at least he can make sense of it. 

The Spider likes to walk through the city when there wasn’t anything to do far as work goes. He has two jobs or if you want to consider being a hero as another that would make three. He wasn’t sure what to do with his evening off — it would need to be something worth his time.

He knows what it’s like to teach since in the past Peter has taught a class for the X-Men at their school for gifted youngsters. He really enjoyed his time there, but doesn’t do that right now.

When someone steps closer, Peter lifts a finger up to his lips. His identity is a secret to those outside of their circle after all. “I am, surprised you’d recognize me in a crowd. It’s nice to see you again, Quill. Staying out of trouble?” His tone is teasing of course, but couldn’t help himself from making a joke already.

Peter gets the hint, making a mental note to keep the whole Spider-Man thing on the down low. Which is weird...he loves announcing to people that he’s Star Lord. Not that many people here on Earth knows who the hell that is these days, but still. It makes him feel like a badass, and that is definitely Peter’s vibe.

But either way, he’s not about to spill the kid’s secrets. Not his place or his style.

ɪғ ʜɪs ᴄᴀʟᴄᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴs ᴀʀᴇ ᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛ; rarely are wrong, Tony was awaiting his until Peter would do something along the lines of stupidity at it’s finest, really the guy was a walking meme and Tony had nothing better to do. “Now a fleeting retraction of one,” Tony’s dark hues rolled and if they could’ve rolled him into next week he’d be there already. It was starting to dawn on him that this is a mirror of probably exactly how Harley will turn out - but not even Harley would stoop so low, his gaze disappeared behind curtains of flesh. “Clearly not, have you not heard of the phrase of keeping face or has that not gone past the ozone layer yet.” Really making space travel more bleaker then it already was, not even a slither of doubt if there was more like Peter Quill. “How do you not know that it hasn’t already played out in real life?” Stark decided to just go with it as it seemed it made only add to guy getting irritated. As he watched Peter take his order, Tony decided to do some easy hacking into the that of the order and changing the order completely. 

“Oh so it was a compliment.” Peter replied with a soft laugh. “Guess I should have treasured it more then.” He rolled his eyes, unable to believe the audacity of this nerd. They don’t make em’ cockier than Tony Stark, and it sure as shit gets on a guy’s nerves. 

“Keeping face? Oh I’ve heard of it, I just don’t care.” Peter smiles, clapping his hands together gleefully at Tony’s next words. “Ooh, really? How scandalous. I guess I don’t know for sure, do I.” He shakes his head, thankful that it’s finally time to order food and get away from Tony momentarily.

It’s not until he receives his food several minutes later that he’s realizes it’s been tampered with. 

Taking his tray, he plops down opposite the other man, loudly slapping the plastic down against the tabletop.

A park? She was summoned to a gods damned park, the sounds of children irritating her ears as the light burned her eyes, a startling juxtaposition from her normal cave-dwelling activities. She shielded her eyes as she threw herself into the shade to find the idiot who had summoned her.

Oh, Thor will have a riot over this one.

“Knew you’d summon me eventually,” she called to him, placing her hands on her hips as she looked him up and down. “So, tell me Starlord,” she dragged out the name, “what do you want from me and what the hell do you have to offer for it?”

As expected, Peter didn’t have to wait long to be graced with Valkyrie’s presence. At her comment, he quirks a brow. “You did? Am I really that obvious?” He chuckles, legs crossed as he sits casually. Man, she’s a sassy one. He expected nothing less.

“Well then, right to the point.” Peter decides he probably shouldn’t appear rude, so he adjusts his legs then rises to speak at Valkyrie’s eye-level. “Nothing you can’t easily handle, I don’t think.” He assures, figuring kissing her ass can’t hurt his chances.

OK so this is like....super cool. Peter got a wild hair and decided to check out the magic shop for a show. He’d expected it to be campy and unrealistic and just all-around bad, but it’s actually quite impressive. The show is about 30 minutes in now, and he can’t stop covering his mouth in amazement and just being completely entertained.

“Dude...” Peter mutters, mostly to himself and partially to the person that happens to be standing next to him. “This is wild, are you seeing this shit?” He leans over, not really caring who it is, he’s too engrossed. Once he actually looks, Peter realizes it’s a young woman he’s been addressing.

On occasion, the university has important visitors, usually for purposes of hopefully getting a donation or two. Peter hates those days, because he has to dress up extra nice and act like he properly gives a damn. Well ok, he does give a damn, but the effort is annoying and he hates feeling like he’s under a microscope. Besides, it’s summer, it’s hot, and this suit is awfully stuffy. 

Why they don’t save these visits for only during the actual school year, he’ll never understand. 

Peter has been summoned to the main office to meet one of these business types, (he guesses) and he’s trying to put on a professional demeanor. He has no idea why he in particular has been asked for, but he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. As he enters the room and is welcomed, he offers a hand shake to the man who he assumes has asked for him.