Who: Yondu and Jessica When: Early March Where: The Quadrant, Yondu's ship in the junkyard What: A tour of the Quadrant Rating/Warning: Low/some narration about Jessica killing someone under mindcontrol, FTB Status: Complete
The Quadrant was a pretty damn fine ship, or so Yondu felt. Sure she looked aged and worn - the parts had come that way - but there was only so much he and Anakin could do to make it look presentable. And besides, the aged look made it feel more like home.
As he walked up the ramp leading into the ship he realized that he really needed to show Peter this. Well, when he and Anakin were done, anyway. And they were mere days away from that. In the meantime, to distract Jessica from the terror of the dreams she'd had to put up with, Yondu had thought giving her the five cent tour might help. Besides, he needed someone to brag to and impress.
“Welcome, to the Quadrant.” He announced as they got to the top of the ramp and got the first good eyeful of the interior. Everything was mostly rust, rust colored, or gray metal. Ravagers didn't exactly pimp out their ships aesthetically.
Yondu turned off his image inducer now that no one else could see his true form. His blue skin stood out amongst all the earth tones.
The horror of Jessica’s dreams seemed to be, at least a little bit, settling. Kilgrave was dead. He’d been hit by a bus, and Jessica, finally free, had walked away. But not before Kilgrave had made her kill someone. He’d told her to punch the woman, and Jessica did, and she could still feel Reva’s ribcage breaking under her hands.
But Kilgrave was gone. Jessica had survived him, broken but free, and that, at least, was something to be glad about. She didn’t think she could ever atone for what she’d done to Reva, or her husband whom Jessica had never met, but that was in the dreams. She hadn’t done it here.
The spaceship was a pretty good distraction from it all though. If someone had told Jessica two years ago that someday she’d be walking on a bonafide spaceship, she’d have laughed in their face. But here she was. “If you ever want to become an interior designer,” Jessica said, looking around, not exactly smiling but teasing nevertheless, “don’t.”
Yondu chuckled. “Yeah Ravagers don't exactly got the best taste. But this ship is a force to be reckoned with in the dreams. Well, when this was part of my whole ship.” He made a face of “what can you do?” and continued on, slowly so Jessica could take it all in. “Probably for the best anyways, the The Eclector woulda had to have stayed in space somewhere. Junkyard wouldn't have nearly been big enough.” Nor would have several city blocks for that matter.
“Over here is storage.” He pointed as they walked past a room already cluttered with spare parts and odds and ends. That there is the engine room.” He pointed to a staircase that led down into the bowels of the ship.
“So this isn’t even the whole ship?” Jessica asked, raising her eyebrows. She had thought it was impressive as is, the idea of there being a much larger ship elsewhere was something else entirely. Especially if it was as big as Yondu was saying.
She glanced in at the storage room, which, for all it’s sci-fi-ness looked like any other storage room. Guess there really wasn’t much you could do with the concept, no matter where in the galaxy you were.
“The engine room, huh? You going to show me that?” Not that Jessica would be able to make heads or tails of it even if he did. She’d never so much as driven, or gave an engine more than a passing glance.
He paused, having expected disinterest in going down there, and turned around, his Ravager jacket swirling. He was surprised and it showed. A little grin grew, tugging at the side of his mouth. “Sure. Ladies first.” He gestured. Following her down into the cramped but long section of ship he did his best not to crowd her, a tricky task. “Well, this is it. Heart of the ship. Decent set of Quantum nebula engines.” He said, patting the mammoth shaped alien metal next to them. “Capable of jumping through space to any coordinates you set. 'Course In the dreams Rocket set the damn thing for seven hundred jumps. Jackass.” He paused for effect and then said with a raised eyebrow, “body can only handle fifty at a time.”
Like Jessica expected, she didn’t recognize anything down here and she wasn’t entirely sure if that’s because it was an alien spaceship engine or because of her blindspot regarding engines of any sort. But it was still impressively large.
“I take it you managed to stop that from happening?” she asked. She assumed, at least, given that Yondu said he’d died because of Peter’s planet-dad and not because some guy named Rocket set the ship wrong.
“Nope. Rat did it 'fore I could stop him. We survived all them jumps, funny enough. Shoulda seen our faces tho’ - all distorted and funny lookin’ like a cartoon while we was goin’ through. Went back to normal after. Obviously.” And he grinned, gesturing at his own face. “Be a shame if this pretty mug got ruined.”
“I’m not sure we’d notice any difference,” Jessica teased, gently patting Yondu on the arm. “You’re already funny enough looking.”
“Hey now!” he protested, nudging her with his shoulder. “A man’s got a sensitive ego, you know.” But he laughed anyway. He gestured for Jessica to head back up the ladder ahead of him, and as they climbed he said, “Ship’s just about ready to finally fly. Hopin’ to take a test flight with Anakin soon.” Back up on deck, he stopped short, noticing two of the odd googly eyed robots patrolling the hallway, one of them having taken an interest in Jessica. It crawled over to her on its spindly legs, the giant silly eyes scanning her (which looked funny considering the nature of googly eyes and their random movements) before it looked over at Yondu as if for confirmation.
“So, you’re going to take me for a ride once you’re sure it’s not going to blow up in space, right?” Jessica asked. She’d never had any especial desire for space travel, but then again, she’d never thought she’d even have the opportunity to do something like that. Now though… well, it was a little surprising how much her idea of the possible had changed once she’d moved to the OC.
She frowned at the robot, and then over at Yondu, trying to appear nonchalant, though she had no idea what to expect from this thing or what it wanted from her. And the googly eyes were a little disconcerting as well. “This thing isn’t going to shoot me with lasers or something, is it?” she asked.
“Sure!” Yondu grinned. “Between me an’ Anakin havin’ worked on her, she'll be safe as can be.”
He looked down at the robot and said, “She's good. Cleared for entry.” The robot glanced over at her again and then scuttled off. “They're harmless.” He said to Jessica, continuing down the corridor with her slowly. “Anakin begged to make 'em for the ship. They're security an’ diagnostics mostly.” He scratched absently at his chin stubble. He was pretty sure Anakin had said they could do more but he'd forgotten what.
They came upon the Captain's quarters. Yondu grinned proudly and gestured grandly, “An’ here are the Captain's quarters.” They were filled with the same alien furs and chatchkis from the dreams, but not as dirty and messy looking. His dream self didn't have the U.S. Marines training drilled into him that he did. Neatness was muscle memory.
“Oh, the Captain’s quarters, huh?” Jessica asked, backing into the room and grinning at Yondu. “Am I the first one to see it in all its glory?”
His grin matched hers as he followed her in. “You sure are. Whaddya think?” Besides the colorful knicknacks from various worlds lined up on shelves - including some of the 80s things from dream Peter such as the orange haired troll - there was the raised big bed in the middle of the room laden with furs and the industrial styled units flanking it with all sorts of odds and ends in their drawers. The lighting wasn't dim or bright, but the sort of in between that lent itself to the scrappy nature of the ship, helping the space actually feel kind of cozy. Or at least cozy for a space pirate.
Yondu flopped onto the bed and kicked his feet up. Running a hand over the soft brown furs he smirked and said “Finest Xelian furs. Ain't nothin’ in this galaxy like it.”
Jessica ran her hand over the furs. “Very nice,” she said, and shot Yondu a playful grin. “I think you might need to break it in before you take her on her maiden voyage.”
Yondu's grin grew and his eyes twinkled with mischief. “C'mere, darlin’. You read my mind.”