of course, there are songs he enjoys more than others — whole genres of music he enjoys more than others. but, in general, i think he's as excited to clone an olivia rodrigo album as he is to get his paws on some nwa or bts or billie holiday. i don't believe there's any song he dismisses out of hand. i think he considers music one of the most honest things in the universe, and there's something he values in that, no matter the style or artist.

there's only one genre he has a hard time listening to, and it's not because he hates it in its own right. on the contrary, it's the same music that originally inspired his love of the artform. but on the off-chance he comes across some hildegard von bingen or claudio monteverdi or palestrina, i think he experiences a visceral, gut-churning reaction. choral music from any place in the galaxy (including terra, mainly prior to the 17th century) makes him feel small, and naked, and vulnerable, and put right back on the high evolutionary's knee with his skull gripped in his sire's hands. it doesn't matter which song is playing: for a moment, all he'll hear is mo ergaste forn. and he still thinks the singing is beautiful and honest, and maybe that makes it even worse. so he'll either get up and stalk from the room, looking like he's about to be ill — or he'll snarl at someone to turn that off; it's givin' him a frickin' headache.

which is all to say that if you're the type to listen to gregorian chants, there's no shame in that. i'd just keep those songs off the main playlist, you know?

i am not as generous as rocket when it comes to music lol. as my sister likes to say, "if it has a single country twang in it, dae won't listen" (that's an exaggeration — but only a slight one). weirdly, my two "gotta turn this off" songs are not country. one is centerfold by the j. geils band and the other is the distance by CAKE. i fucking hate those songs — thinking about them makes me angry — and i would be perfectly at peace if every single copy was lost to humankind. to be fair, my reasoning is similar to rocket's, so perhaps my headcanon is a bit biased.

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And — yep. Sure enough, you tuck them back safely between your knees: muscles sleek and fat soft against his knuckles once more, every stitch of your inseam coming to life on the back of his hands. Hot chocolate, you tell him, reaching for the mug. With pumpkin-spice this time. Or as near as I could get to it. Pumpkin-spice means nothing to him, but he lets you tilt the straw to his lips anyway, and when he ripples his knuckles against you — testing the springiness of your thighs and committing it to memory, suddenly trying to decipher the exact degree of your body-temperature — he feels you jolt a little too. A smirk flirts with the corner of his mouth. His hands may not belong entirely to him anymore, but he can think of one or two things he’s still got.

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WARNINGS/CONTEXT: comics-based (mostly ewing; dash of skottie young). just like, a ton of mild-to-midgrade smoulder. implications of sexual activity, cursewords in english and intergalactic common?? mentions of space-princesses of multiple genders (including you). rocket calls reader sweetheart 3x.

He blinks, then scoffs. “Just goin’ to Smeth’s. Didn’t mean to bust in on you. I never been to his place before — was just stopping by to warm up between working on the engine repairs.” His narrow face twists into a scowl and his ears flatten further. “I commed him to ask how to get here, but his directions frickin’ sucked.” “Still,” you urge. “There’s no reason to go back out in — that.” His tail is dripping, the lush brush of fur looking all sad and miserable. If the frost in his pelt refreezes, you know it’ll be a hundred times worse. Dangerous. “You can stay — as long as you need. I don’t mind.” You crinkle your nose. “I bet my place is warmer, anyway. Xlomo doesn’t know what he’s doing to insulate himself, poor guy.” He tilts his head, stare narrow — puzzling you out. Something in the corners of his eyes looks… weary. Haggard. “You always let strangers stay in your house?” You shake your head and edge toward your cocoa again. “You’re not a stranger,” you remind him, and your voice folds into something a little more confident — and a little more wry. “Everybody knows who you are.”

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WARNINGS/CONTEXT: mcu post-vol3 vibes, little bit of angst and lots of cozy comfort. is this a romanticized platonic relationship, or a light precursor to romance? you decide. rocket calls reader sugar 1x. unhinged space-weather.

i just love the idea of smart-ass groot and sour grumpy rocket trying to figure out how to navigate life with this actual ball of sunlight who does not have an inauthentic or disingenuous bone in her body and is also funny as FUCK all the time. i think she and groot would actually just be excellent immediate grumpy-sunshine friends. like kamala would probably catch onto groot’s speech immediately, and they’d be such good buddies. and rocket would be like what the hell do i do with this baldbody kid this is the worst until the first time he and groot get into a fight and before rocket can even yell at his son for having such a terrible mouth, kamala full on GASPS and is like groot i can’t believe you talk to your dad that way. he loves you so much.

and then rocket’s like fuck i guess i gotta adopt this girl now

(also join me for a moment in imagining the sheer MAYHEM these three chaos muppets would cause in every single sequence) (and all of rocket’s exhausted single-dad-moments) (and the potential for softness too ugh) (i require at least one scene with rocket in the dad-glasses reacting to the two of them the same way he reacted to groot’s drawing in i am groot s1 e5)

and then once they finally got kamala back to terra, rocket & groot would have dinner with the khan family (who are honestly actual jewels, the best humans that terra has to offer tbh). rocket would be so awkward and trying not to be rude (but he’d be so bad at it) and the khans would be so weirded out but also so grateful that this talking raccoon and tree-thing kept their daughter safe in outer space and brought her back home. and i think just like rocket had sort of inadvertently adopted kamala in space, the khans would sorta adopt him and groot and tell the two of them to make sure they stop by whenever they are in the area and probably send them back to their spaceship with leftovers.