captainpoppins (captainpoppins) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-26 23:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | doug ramsey (cypher), yondu udonta |
Who: Yondu Udonta and Doug
When: Late August, post Diablo plot
Where: Yondu's house
What: Doug's bringing some fancy tech to hide Yondu's alien appearance
Rating/Warning: Low, a swear or two
Status: Complete
Yondu was blue. Not in the emotional sense that had inspired music genres and reasons to drink (though at the moment he did happen to have a beer in hand). No, Yondu Udonta was quite literally blue.
It was the dreams that had done it, and needless to say he wasn't exactly pleased. He'd woken up like he had every morning, rolling over with a surly growl to slap the spit out of the snooze button on his alarm clock. But the moment he'd caught sight of that blue arm, he'd known what'd happened. A stream of swear words erupted from his mouth then, his voice even raspier than he remembered it being the night before.
Dammit, he had to work. Needed to put food on the table. A roof over his head. He couldn't go out looking like a Smurf on steroids!
Luckily for him this network he was now a member of had people willing to help, and the young man who had offered was on his way.
***
Doug was growing used to this sort of thing. He was glad he had gotten the image inducers months ago, and despite giving one to another scientist, he had also retained one and with his growing computer and engineering knowledge, had managed to reverse engineer it and build more.
He had, he admitted to himself as he drove, not expected to need them. But that was a good thing. Not expecting it but having them anyway? Definitely the best plan.
He smiled as he pulled onto Yondu’s lane, then up to the man’s place, hopped out and headed toward the house, a short blonde young man wearing jeans and boots and a t-shirt with a slight yellowish cast to his skin.
He wore two watches. One that looked standard on one arm, and on on the other that looked bright, shiny, and modern.
Knocking, he waited at the door.
***
Yondu smiled as he heard the knock. Finally he’d be free from being trapped in his house. Setting his beer down he went to the door and pulled it open a crack to hide most of himself. He looked down at the young man who appeared even younger than he’d expected. Geeze, was he just getting that old that everyone looked like a rugrat?
“Heya,” he said with a nod. “Come in.” He glanced up to see if any of his neighbors were being nosy, but thankfully not. He stepped back, pulling the door open wide so Doug could enter. Yondu was clad in an old Police Department t-shirt he had from the town in Missouri he’d served in. Jeans and socks finished the look. He didn’t like walking around barefoot in the house now that his feet were bright blue. The contrast of his new skin against his clothes must have looked odd; to him it did, for sure.
“You want a drink or somethin’? How old are you?” He didn’t want to be serving a beer to someone underage.
***
Doug smiled and nodded as he stepped in. “Hi. “ He examined the man visually, and shook his head. That look reminded him of Henry. He should really check in with the other blue man. Doug offered his hand to shake as the man asked about a drink.
“I’ll take a water for now, please. And i’m 22. I know, I look like a kid. Stupid baby face. Came in handy when I was doing commercials, but now it just sucks.”
He pulled out the image inducer, a watch-looking item, as he spoke.
***
Yondu shook Doug's hand with a firm, solid grip. “Water it is. Though now that I know you're of legal age, you're welcome to a beer.” He laughed at the complaint of Doug's while he set to grabbing a glass from the cupboard and filling it with tap water and some ice. “I thought the ladies loved a baby face.” Coming back with the water and handing it to him he said, “Better’n a blue one.” And he grinned, forgetting momentarily just how bad his teeth were - all jagged and uneven, a mixture of white and gold.
He noticed what he could only assume was the transducer in the young man's hands and said, “That the thing?”
***
“Thanks, but I have some errands to do after this, and want to have a clear head for those.’” Dough nodded thankfully, though. It was nice to be treated as an adult. Many still did not, because of his look, despite his real age. It was sometimes annoying.
“Some do, some don’t, but it makes it harder to be taken seriously.” And Doug laughed. “And that depends on the woman. Some here, would like the blue, I think.” He nodded. And he was not bothered by the blue. Until he had had a lot of work before the pre-Olympics, his teeth had been bad.
“It is. One certified image inducer, care of my world, where a lot of people have mutations which make them stick out. A man named Professor Xavier designed it to help people live a normal live until the world was ready for open acceptance of them.”
He shifted to stand so he could show the man how it worked.
Doug put it on his wrist as he talked. “You strap it on your wrist like a watch, and then press this dial. It scans you and asks if you want a standard appearance. If you say yes, it asks what color hair, skin, eyes, that kind of thing, you want, and less than five minutes later, sets that as standard, and anytime you press this button…” He pointed, then pressed a button and his form shimmered and appeared to become a little taller, thinner, with black hair and blue eyes.
“To go back to your current self, take off the inducer or do this.” He then held down the same button for a few seconds, and became his normal self again.
He pulled the inducer off and handed it over.
***
Yondu was very impressed. The dreams had afforded him with having seen a lot of things across the universe - all sorts of fancy technology, alien races, crazy ships and worlds - but he had to admit this was top notch. “How's it gonna know what I looked like before?” He said as he placed it on his wrist. “I don't need no Ken doll look.” He pressed the dial and let it scan him, before playing with the settings a bit. His image flickered from hairless to blue skinned with a full head of messy blonde hair with blue eyes, to being taller with tan skin, green eyes, and dark, short hair. Yondu had no idea what he looked like and wandered over to the nearby bathroom, poking his head in to look in the mirror. “Nah, this ain't right.” And pushed the button to shut it off. His image was replaced by the blue alien with the short, red mohawk and fierce red eyes. Yondu frowned. “I just need to be me, kid.”
***
“If you give it time, and basic parameters, it will match up. Skin color, hair color, eye color, that sort of thing. Your skin, while it is a new color, probably is about the same shape, right? That should make that part easy. It might take a few tries, but it can get there. Also, any pictures of yourself you have will help. It can scan those, too.”
Doug smiled. He knew this could work. He just hoped the other man had the patience for it.
***
“Hm,” Yondu went into his Ravager jacket that was hanging on the coatrack by the door and rummaged through the pockets. “Still gettin’ used to this here jacket and all it's damn pockets. Handy for thievin’ - in the dreams, mind you - but hell tryin’ to find yer wallet.” He finally procured it and grinned - savage pointy teeth on full display. Flipping it open he showed the kid his ID he used for bounty hunting. “Will this work?”
***
“Yeah. That will.” Doug pointed the scanner at the id picture and started the scan, it ran a small beam of light and imaging across the picture and then projected, for a moment, a hologram upward as it built the same image, slowly, in 3-d. When it was done, Doug smiled.
“How’s that?”
***
Yondu’s eyebrows raised and he grinned. “Well...wouldya look at that! Ain’t that somethin’?” He nodded, clearly in approval. “Yep. That’s me all right. So now what?”
***
“Now, you put it on, and let it scan across you again, select that image when it pops up on the screen and it will map it to your face. That way it will be the right size to fit over your current head and body.” Doug offered him the watch again, hoping it would work out this time.
***
Yondu put the watch back on and followed the young man’s instructions, letting it scan him first. At first he was unsure of how to find the image (he’s old, all this fancy technology is for the kids these days) but then as it popped up, he selected it. He waited, and looked to Doug. “It workin’?”
***
Watching him work, Doug silently cheered, but then he asked so Doug nodded. In response, Doug pulled out a mirror, brought along for just this occasion. He held it up and grinned.
“You tell me? Who is that handsome crazy man in the mirror?”
***
Yondu had to do a double take as he saw his human face, pre-dreams, in the mirror. He touched it, and in the mirror saw regular, human hands. He grinned. Normal teeth. Blue eyes, blond hair.
“Holy shit, kid, you did it!” He laughed. “C’mon, you can have a beer with this crazy old man before you head out. It ain’t gonna kill ya.” He clapped Doug on the back with a hearty thump.
**
Doug laughed and shook his head, but nodded. “Alright. And I’m glad it is working for you.” He smiled and was rather pleased. “Once every few months or so I will need to check it to make sure it is still running one hundred percent for you. But otherwise, you should be all good.”
He grinned wider, happy this had worked out and more determined than ever to make sure this was something that was developed right.
***
“Every couple months, got it. C'mon kid, let's crack open some cold ones. This is worth celebrating.” Yondu laughed, heading into his kitchen with his newfound friend.