Katou (katoustheshit) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-23 00:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, doug ramsey (cypher), yue katou |
Who: Katou and Doug
What: Random run-in
When: Early September
Where: The Beach
Rating/Warning: Low/None
Status: Complete!
Katou didn’t swim. He couldn’t swim, actually. He hadn’t learned how before, and as light as his new arm was, he had the sneaking suspicion that since it had attached itself to his shoulder, he’d never be able to learn how. It didn’t seem particularly buoyant, though granted, he’d never really tried before.
It didn’t bother him too much though. He had never really had much use for swimming anyway. It wasn’t like he’d missed it much over the last nineteen years. And besides, everyone knew that the best part of the beach was getting to lay on the sand, have a drink, and check out all the good looking dudes wandering around in their swimming trunks. For now, he’d chosen to forgo the drink in favour of some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and he was trying to ignore the stares he knew his arm was getting. Zatanna had made him a glamour - a wristwatch that he could wear to make his biomechanical arm look like a regular old human arm - but he’d misplaced it that morning and hadn’t felt much like looking around for it. Though, he did worry about whether or not he was going to get a bunch of sand in his wires and fuck up the function of the fake arm..
***
Doug was out wandering, wondering at the weird life he was living. Everything he did seemed to lead to yet weirder adventures, and he was finding himself slowly adapting to that. Hi dreams had stolen his ability to surf, and replaced it with skill with codes, puzzles, computers, and engineering in general. Skill that was growing as he dreamed more.
As time went on, Doug found himself slowly wanting to use those skills. And so it was when he spotted the arm that looked like an advance piece of tech, he found himself studying it. “That is one advanced piece of machinery. Cool arm, dude.”
***
Katou only became aware of someone staring right before the guy spoke. He gave a quick once over, then grinned. “Pretty sweet, ain’t it?” he asked, flexing his arm. It didn’t have any biceps to bulge, but still looked pretty cool. “It’s real advanced. One of a kind, really.”
***
“Looks like dreamer tech, almost.” Doug nodded. “My dreamworld involves a lot of that.” He was unafraid these days, of mentioning the Dreams. A near-brush with death would do that.
He waved at the arm. “Had it long?”
***
“Got it in one,” Katou said cheerfully. Granted, if you were a dreamer it was kind of hard to miss as dreamer tech. He wondered how many normal people actually believed him when he told them his arm was just a prototype.
He frowned thoughtfully, scratching his cheek with one metal fingernail. “Guess it’s been just over two years now,” he said, a little surprised. He could still remember losing his arm clearly, and even when - August when he’d been seventeen - but ‘how long ago’ wasn’t something he really thought about. “Holy shit.”
***
Doug grinned. "My world seems to be flooded with one kind of alien or high tech device after another." He shook his head. Sometimes, he thought the amount of tech there was overwhelming, sometimes not. Now, he knew how to build so much of it, and had started making new things off of it.
Doug grinned as the other guy realized how long it had been. "Been awhile huh? Does it feel, real, I mean, like, to how it reacts, after awhile?" He was curious how that would be.
***
“Oh yeah?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. “What kinda high tech stuff? Lots of cool arms, or are we talking more laser guns or whatever?”
He frowned a little. “I can do everything I could do with my old arm with it,” he answered after a moment. “It took a bit to figure out how to play the guitar, but that came. Pretty much the only thing that’s missing is, you know, actually having an arm to touch things with. No sensation or nothing, it’s just a hunk of metal and wires.” He sometimes still got phantom pains, but not very often. He imagined the lack of them was probably due to the fact that the rest of his body was about as original as his arm, even if it was more organic.
***
“Cybernetic arms, cybernetic people, living machines, artificial intelligence, time travel machines, and more.”
He smiled. “All the high tech.”
Doug nodded, listening. “Maybe someone on the network could work on that, could change it.” He nodded, knowing it was possible, just not how.
***
Katou let out an impressed whistle. His dreams were pretty high tech - who knew angels were into all that technobabble? - but they didn’t have time travel machines.
He frowned a little. “Well, Stark’s taken a couple looks at it,” Katou said. “I don’t know how I feel about people mucking around with it though. I ain’t got the first clue how this thing works, so if someone fucks it up I can’t exactly fix it. And walking around with only one usable arm sounds like a pain.”
***
“Oh yeah? He’s pretty smart.” He nodded. “That’s cool,. I wouldn’t want you to ever do something that could possibly mess it up.” That would suck! Doug hated that kind of thing.
“I wish i had scanners here so I could scan it and try to build you a spare. Maybe someday, if I can get some of those up, I could take a look? Might not be able to make you anything, but its worth a try, right?”
This was Doug, the guy who tried to help everyone. Feel free to tell him to mind his own business. He wont mind.
***
Katou mulled for a moment. He wasn’t naive enough to think that he was never going to need a replacement arm. He’d lost his arm twice in the dreams, and while the steal, leather and wires that were currently connected to his arm were stronger and more durable than his old arm, he knew that there was a very good chance that someday he’d be separated from it just like he’d been separated from his ‘real’ arm.
“Yeah, don’t see why not,” Katou said. “So long as you don’t fuck with the one I’m currently attached to, I’m down for that. Wouldn’t hurt to have a spare if you could build one.”
***
“Absolutely. Like I said. No guarantee I’ll even get the right tech and get it done, but I’ll try, then we can go from there and of course, never do anything you are not comfortable with.” Doug nodded.
Then he chuckled. “Sorry for disrupting your day at the beach.”
***
“Cool,” Katou said. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a slightly beat-up looking business card. He’d never thought he’d have business cards to hand out to people, but the Agency had provided them.
Of course, they card didn’t say that he worked for a top secret government Agency, and really only held his name and contact information, but it was still nice to have. “You can give me a call sometime if you want,” he said. “Though, I was probably gonna take off soon anyway. If you wanted to join me for a beer, I’d be down.”
***
Doug smiled. “Sadly, I work later today, so no drinking for me. But we should hang out sometime else.” Doug gave Katou a card as well, with his name and number, and the college campus logo on the back for UC: I.
“Don’t have too much fun, okay?”
***
Katou nodded, taking the business card. He glanced at it briefly before slipping it into his pocket. “There ain’t no such thing as too much fun,” he said, winking. “But thanks. I’ll give you a call sometime.”