#starbula headcanons can be their own post

[mysterywriter2187]

Miscellaneous (non-Starbula) Post-Vol. 3 Headcanons

The Sovereign are so averse to making contact with "lesser beings" that they don't make physical greetings or signs of affection like hugs, handshakes, fist bumps, high fives, etc. Adam has been gradually learning these gestures since moving to Knowhere.

Phyla calls Nebula Mommy/Mama, Quill is Dad and Drax is Papa. All the other adults are Uncles or Aunts, except Rocket (he's Captain).

High Evolutionary considers most of Quill's playlist "not real music", so Rocket makes sure his prison cell is placed near one of the biggest speakers to annoy him whenever they play it.

Adam thinks Star-Lord is actual nobility, and he addresses Quill as Your Lordship.

Kraglin and Cosmo have built a specially made pen for Mantis' Abilisks on Knowhere, so they can stay there when/if she comes home.

Once they have all the buildings repaired (and any other new buildings/facilities they're planning to set up) Nebula wants to go looking around the other planets for more plant life to put on Knowhere so they can make it look nicer and greener. Groot will be her main consultant for picking the best ones.

When Rocket's new Guardians go on their missions, Phyla always likes to take souvenirs from the planets she goes to and bring them back to Knowhere to show Nebula. It's usually just mundane trinkets or even bits of rock or rubble, but she treats every one she collects like a beautiful treasure.

Adam, Phyla and the other rescued experiments don't know or remember when they were born and have no birth records. So they all share a "birthday" on the anniversary of the day they came to Knowhere and became part of the Guardians family.

Nebula's favourite music groups are Generation X and U2, but she hasn't told anyone this.

When Quill eventually comes back to Knowhere, he'll have caught up on all the trends, songs and pop culture changes that happened during his time in space and want to share them with everyone else. Most of them still prefer his 70's/80's stuff, though.

[cerromoreno]

Ok so I’m absolutely head over heels for canon Starbula, of course. BUT. I was rewatching What If? season one’s “What If T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” episode and got INSPIRED. 

What if THIS Nebula...

...still connected (and eventually got together) with THIS Peter Quill?

Rewatching this episode, it was so fun to see what Nebula with less cybernetic replacements and trauma would be like. But until now, I’d just recalled that this episode's universe ended in a tragedy, with Ego harnessing Dairy Queen!Peter to destroy the galaxy. (I totally forgot that later in the season, we actually do see T'challa save Peter - oops 😅)

Anyway, after my recent rewatch - and before I remembered that T'challa does save the day in canon - I was like…wait a second. This is the MCU we’re talking about, and these characters have faced certain-apocalypses like this a million times before. And season 2 of What If? just showed Peter breaking free of Ego’s control as a kid, so it could definitely happen here. 

So anyway, I started imagining what might happen in this universe to bring Peter and Nebula together, post-episode, and thought the ensuing headcanon was cute enough to share!

Basically, once Ego starts wreaking havoc on earth with a newly-mind-controlled Peter, our heroes Nebula, T’Challa, etc. are quickly alerted to the disaster and fly over to Missouri from Wakanda. In the ensuing fight, Nebula, T'Challa, and Co. realize that Peter is the key to Ego’s power and current destruction, so they try to get Peter away from him. At some point in the fight, Nebula and Peter are somehow separated from the rest of the Ravagers. Maybe when it’s clear they won’t be able to defeat Ego right now, everyone decides to get in their ships to escape and regroup. Peter's next to Nebula, so she grabs him and runs into her ship with him in tow. T’Challa and the others say they'll distract Ego long enough for Nebula and Peter to escape via a jump point.

This basically happens, but maybe Nebula's ship is damaged by Ego in the space fight/escape. So once Nebula and Peter have gotten safely away from Ego, she realizes she's unable to contact the rest of the Ravagers for some reason. Maybe Ego's attack broke her comm, or the ship is damaged enough that she has to crash land on a nearby planet after leaving the jump point. Basically, she and Peter are stuck together on their own for a while, unable to reconnect with the Ravagers.

Initially, Nebula is pissed at Peter for forcing her to separate from her friends and being the cause of this galaxy-level threat (even though, as she learns later, it’s not actually his fault). Poor Peter is totally overwhelmed and freaked out. He’s just had his world turned upside down, is now in space, and this (beautiful) blue alien is yelling at him about how the galaxy is in danger thanks to him.

Over time, however, as Nebula realizes the only way to stop Ego is to help Peter hone his newly-awakened abilities, she starts to warm up to this strange Terran. Peter is his usual charming, funny, and clever self, so as he learns from Nebula about how to survive and fight in space, tries to help her fix the ship, and practices using his powers, he slowly begins to win her over. Lots of cute bonding ensues, and the two eventually become something like the strong and trusting partnership we see in GOTG3.

At some point, Ego finally finds and captures T’Challa and uses him to lure Nebula and Peter back, so he can re-kidnap Peter. (Maybe Nebula finally fixes her comm, and when she does, she learns that T’Challa has been captured by Ego.) Of course, Ego ends up getting defeated by our dynamic duo, totally caught off guard by how powerful Peter has become with his powers. Hooray the galaxy is saved lol

Once they rescue T’Challa from Ego's captivity, Peter watches Nebula run into his arms, the two of them tightly embracing each other in relief. Peter gets self-conscious, realizing that he doesn’t actually belong here in space with them. He belongs back in Missouri, back at the stupid Dairy Queen, not here. There’s no way that Nebula, who he’d been slowly developing feelings for, would ever want to be with him over perfect actual-prince and Star-Lord, T'Challa.

But surprise! Even though Nebula definitely had *~vibes~* in that What If? episode with T’Challa (side note: I think it’s funny that no matter the universe, Nebula is always deeply connected with that universe’s Star-Lord!), during her solo adventures with Peter, she’s realized that she’s actually falling for this goofy Terran. 

So Nebula basically tells Peter that his true home is in space (with her 🥲), and invites him to joins the Ravagers. Maybe they confess their feelings at this point, or maybe the slow burn continues slow-burning longer. Probably the latter lol. But either way, this universe’s Nebula and Peter continue to be badasses across the galaxy together, just in a different way from the MCU canon!

I just think the idea of this version of Peter, who’s never been to space and generally has no idea what’s going on, still managing to charm this version of Nebula…is the absolute cutest. And the fact that no matter the universe, these two will somehow always find each other 🥹

PS As I said before, I totally forgot that later in What If? season one (episode 9), it actually shows T'Challa saving Peter from Ego lol. But after rewatching that episode too, I was happy to see all of those scenes still fit here, so my headcanon is technically still canon-compliant 😆