19630/Recruiting Pool

Recruiting Pool
Date of Scene:	07 December 2024
Location:	Penthouse - Kord Co
Synopsis:	Ted Meets Windrose. The bots steal the show.
Cast of Characters:	Ted Kord, Audra Meridian

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Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord has had a peaceful couple of months. In fact he's bored to death. Of course, being Ted Kord, he seeks to alleviate the boredom by doing work and more work. This is the point where many big brained hero types neglect food, drink, and even hygiene (!). Ted, being Ted, sent Bobo (Beetle Overt BOt 01) on a run for Chinese food. He notes on his phone that the faithful Bobo is incoming. He orders the crew of bots to clear the paperwork and projects away and set a table for one.

Audra Meridian has posed:
If there was one nice thing about Audra's line of work it was not always being tied down to one place. Which also meant not always heroing in the same locations either. Kept things a little more interesting. Though right now it was mainly work, it was just easier to fly up herself for atmospheric readings than go through the rigamaroll of trying to track down and rent a helicopter or find someone willing to pilot one if the weather might get a little rough. Needless to say guess where most of her attention is.

You know how scientists are. That's enough for the normally alert woman to not notice the bot to come speeding along as she's essentially drifted into it's path unexpectedly. It smacks into her from behind, the impact briefly knocking out the ion thrusters on her backpack. "Ack!" She tumbles a bit, quickly shoving the scanner she was using back into a pocket to keep it safe, and while the smaller thrusters on her boots aren't enough to keep her aloft they are enough to redirect her fall... And Audra luckly spots a penthouse pool and directs that way.

Hopefully whatever rich person lives there doesn't mind unexpected company, or water damage, because it's going to be a pretty sizable splash!

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord is getting up to eat when he hears the shredding of his pool cover followed by a splash, He sighs and rubs his eyes as Bobo opens the patio door and begins gesturing wildly passing the food from claw to claw.

Ted grabs the food and hads it to another bot. He watches the gestures and noted the ding on Bobo. "Go to your station and run a diagnostic. Bingo, come with me in case someone is hurt. Bongo, you come too." Bingo was already hiding behind Ted. Ted for his part grabs his usual sidearm, juuuust in case. There was that helicopter full of the Madmen who crashed into the pool the one time. But generally, it's a friendly sort and female.

He walks cautiously to the poolside.

Audra Meridian has posed:
Thankfully Audra's tech is well watersealed. It'd be a little hard working around floods and hurricanes otherwise, but that's besides the point. It takes her a moment to get situation and wade over to the edge of the pool, and find a spot that she can nudge back the cover enough to squeeze between and pull herself out. "Good thing I had my goggles on." Though she's got to push them up off her face and hair out of her eyes so she can actually see.

Then she can pull the pack off her back and set it aside, just in case. Not sure how waterproof it is at the moment or if it was even damaged more than the thrusters failing. It's just being careful. Last thing she wants it something going off and doing more damage than her falling through the pool cover did.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord raises his eyebrows when he sees the goggles. Then raises them more at her actions, checking out her gear. He hands the BB Gun to Bingo and gets down on his heels to watch the repairs. "The magnetometer probably got knocked out when my bot rear ended you. Judging from the scuff he left. Did you get a chance to try a restart? I apologize for my bot. On the other hand I do have a magno-spanner if you need one. Or you can try a sharp bang? I'm Ted Kord by the way."

Audra Meridian has posed:
Let's be entirely fair Audra was probably expecting some snobby rich jerk, not someone that actually spoke technobabble. "... Yeah. Something like that." She pulls off a gauntlet because it's too big to reach inside the backpack. "No, I think I can just push it back into the connection... the ion thrusters are designed with emergency shut-offs if the stabilization fails, but they're not -all- suppose to shut down at once." Something audible clicks inside, and the lighting greebles atop the pack flicker back to life. "There we go. Control systems just need a moment to resta--"

You can tell the moment where the name actually registered.

"Wait wait, same Kord as the big industrial tech company Kord?!" Pause. Then an awkward chuckle. "Well, that's not the kind of big splash I would of preferred to make a first impression with..."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord tilts his head a little. "Ah. You need a faster restart. I gave my bots a micro processor for that. I thought I was the only one with ionic thrusters. this is a pretty sharp piece of work."

"Yeah I am that Ted Kord. This is the Kord Co building. You must have missed the blue 'K' on the side. This definitely marks you as an engineer. Nobody else knows much about us. We do very specialized technology. We're not as famous as WayneTech or Lex Corp. Who are you?"

Audra Meridian has posed:
"Let's just say sometimes there's a limit to what hardware one can get their hands on. And to be fair, I was above it," she replied as she set the pack aside to do it's thing and got to her feet. Water was dripping off of her suit but nothing else seemed to be worse for wear. Just a bit to shake off. "I do a lot of my own tinkering and electrical engineering, yeah. Name's Audra." She crashed in middle of his condo, and already took her goggles off, plus he seemed geniunely interested in her tech so she doesn't try to fuss over the whole identities thing. That's mainly for the general public and villains, anyways.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord nods. "Oh. Yeah I hear that. I've been up and down money wise myself. You have a good basic design here. It speaks highly for you. I could give you a hand with some of the bells and whistles I thought up. If you like. Like I said, I thought I was the only one using ion thrusters. They aren't as powerful as repulsor tech that Stark created but they're way cheaper and easier to maintain. Oh here, where's my manners. One of you get me a towel... oh thank you Bobo. Here's the one who banged into you. Bobo."

Ted takes a towel and robe from Bobo and hands them to Audra.

"We were just sitting down to dinner if you want to stay. It's the least I can do. I'll gladly pay for any damages. It being my bot and all." Bobo looks away as he hovers and waves faintly.

Audra Meridian has posed:
"It was easier to derive an ionic vector from electrical resources. Less cumbersome and more precision maneuvering than combustion engines." Not every one can have a minature super-energy core strapped to their chest. Audra accepts the towel, using it to wipe her face and hair so it's not dripping all over. The suit is dying itself out for the most part. Then Audra reachs over to give the bot a light pat on... what's relatively the top of what would be the general head area. You never know for sure with robots. "No hard feelings."

Then laughs a bit. "Some scuffs and needing to realign a part or two, no big deal. It gets put through worse punishment between the stormchasing and the occasions for heroing... But I wouldn't say no to something to eat."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord looks excited. "Oh, heroing?! I do that. I'm the Blue Beetle!!" He strikes a heroic pose then opens the door for her. "Oh, electrostatic water repellent field. Nice. I need one of those. That is clever." The robots for their part have added a second place setting. Some high level AI there! And not a robot rebellion in the bunch.

Audra Meridian has posed:
"Useful for how often I have to work in the rain. Won't repel an entire pool but it does make drying off easier." She made a mental note of the suggestion about improved microprocessors but left it at that for the time being. The pack is set out of the way after following Ted and his robots inside. "Yeah. Mostly crossing with the job and helping with disasters and stuff, but the occasional busting crimes and foiling villains comes up to." She lets out a soft whistle. More at the well behaved robots than anything else. "They're quick on the draw."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord says, "Well they spend aaaalot of time with me being socialized. I make them meet a lot of people and see how humans live. How are we supposed to work together when they don't understand us Bobo is the big brother. He became sentient while I was working on him. Then Bingo -02. Bingo was supposed to do labwork. He's a very good mixologist. The next bot was 10 -Bailey. She... Bailey chose feminine promouns is with our dear friend Joan. Then 09, Bongo, the paramedic. She's a little shy and squeamish. She shuts down at the sight of oil and parts. Once, I swear she tried to vomit. Got coolant all over. This is Bodhi, my copilot. He's the first one starting to talk. I feel they should listen first."

Ted says, "Excuse me a moment. I feel very under dressed. If you want anything -ask Bobo." He gets up and moves into his bedroom door down the hall.

Audra Meridian has posed:
"Oh cool, you have them all learn for themselves who they want to be instead of making them be what because they started as machines." It takes even Audra a few moments to digest all that but she gets through it handily enough to make her own observation. "I went to uni with someone like that. Hated the sight of blood, but instead of hiding from it studied medicine so they could prevent and treat things that would cause it... Oh, sure, take care of yourself."

Though after a moment of just herself and the robots Audra rubs the side of her head with one hand. "Wow, you guys and gals are way more advanced than anything I've come up with... granted, other than automating some systems on a TOTO device I haven't really dabbled in that field, either."

Ted Kord has posed:
Bongo floats over to Audra when she rubs her head and she can feel the gentle pings of ultrasonic probes. Well she did take a fall. Bongo's manipulators are more advanced than the other bots' and she gently touches a finger to Audra's neck for a few moments. The bot seems satisfied Audra is all right after her fall and backs away giving a small bob. Bobo deploys three landing legs. The other bots retire to charging stations on the walls.

Ted returns very soon as the Blue Beetle. "Tadah!" One of the bots returns his sidearm to him. Safety on.

"I never had a superhero over for dinner. Well Booster but he lives here and he was usually wearing a bathrobe. If I was lucky."He sits down and almost immediately pulls his hood down and drops his goggles around his neck.

"I love your goggles." Is that a little blush?

Audra Meridian has posed:
Audra Meridian meeps softly at the poke, just out of a bit of surprise. There's nothing wrong to find with the scans though. "I'm fine, that was just a gesture not an injury," she explains to the bot.

Then turns around when Ted returns, fully in costume. "From what I've already seen I would expect you're some manner of gadgeteer type?" A tilt of the head. "Booster?" she asks as they walk back to the table. "Roommate?"

Audra sits down, then reachs up to adjust her goggles atop her head when they're mentioned. "What can I say? They're stylish and practical. And make a decent mask without covering my entire face. People have a natural tendancy to get nervous when they can't see expressions, and that's not a good complication when you're trying to reassure someone during a rescue."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord looks a little crestfallen. "Uhm yeah I'm a gadgeteer. I've been the Blue Beetle for a while now. I even work with the Justice League. Booster as in Booster Gold. He was a big deal in Metropolis a while back... that's his story. He's my brother by another mother. FFFL."

He decides to change the subject. "Uhm Bobo, get Audra one of those Thruster Backup Processors, before I forget... No! No! I don't mean you should give her yours! I know you feel bad about banging into her..."

He looks at Audra. "He feels badly because he didn't grab you and assist in your landing... after he checked your trajectory." Bobo closes his access panel and waddles over to a toolbox.

Audra Meridian has posed:
"Hey, hey, don't look like that. It was an honest deduction. I mean," Audra jabbed a thumb in the direction of where she left her back and gauntlets, "I can't really object to the style now can I?"

"It's impressive that he can feel bad about." Then she realizes how that sounded, and waves her hands. "Not what I meant. Not that he should!.. but expression of emotion is a component of the process of sentience."

Okay, slight subject switch, and Audra laughs a bit. "It's okay. It's hardly the first time I've been knocked out the sky. Tornados tend to do it. Had one throw my into a haybarn once... fortunately missed the manure stall. Or it would of been a real crappy situation."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord says, "Nonono, it's just... you never heard of me? Blue Beetle. Got mangled by Doomsday when he killed Superman. Not my best day. Member of the Justice League? Eh. You're not alone."

Silent for a beat. "I never tried flying in a tornado. That's scary. I mean I have had more than my share of crashes I walked away from. Flying in wind like that on your own power would be amazing. OH I can show you the Bug sometime. It probably could handle a tornado with some prep."

Audra Meridian has posed:
Audra Meridian oooohs. Hehs softly. "Honestly I probably have but just didn't recognize it. Names don't always stick when you don't hear them a lot... and I'm not really helping, am I?" She sighs, shaking her head a bit. "It's okay, I do get how you feel a bit. 'Windrose' isn't very well known despite having worked with the League a few times and all. But reputation isn't the reason for heroics... not that it isn't nice."

Well that got a little awkward. Moving on.

"But I appreciate the advice and the processor tech. It'll help prevent that kind of accidental failure in the future for sure." Audra puts it back on a more positive note.