2832/Drinking a Toast to Absent Friends (Instead of These Comedians)

Drinking a Toast to Absent Friends (Instead of These Comedians)
Date of Scene:	08 August 2020
Location:	Penthouse - Kord Co
Synopsis:	Secrets are exchanged. Deals are struck.
Cast of Characters:	Ted Kord, Douglas Ramsey

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Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord is finishing up his work on a Saturday afternoon. Looking over a printout he calls on his phone, "We need to cut the annual bonuses in half and cancel the corporate retreats for the year. Cut out the performance incentives too. Well, here's an incentive... the company is hurting after losing our big deal, thanks to our former VP's antics. If they do a good job, they'll keep their jobs. We all have to tighten our belts to keep afloat. I already cut salaries for management... they don't have to like it. I... look I don't like it but it has to be done... no I'm not firing anyone. I'll sell the Bug first. Just do it!" He slams the phone down a little too hard. He inspects it and says, "Screw it, I'll buy another of fix it."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"My father is a lawyer." Doug says, "He purposely got a desk phone from the 1970s." He's got his arms crossed and one ankle across the other as he leans in the doorway, "So that he could slam the receiver down as hard as he could without breaking it. Much like vinyl records, there are aspects of outmoded technology that have their perks. You can't violently hang up a cell phone."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord rubs his eyes. "Have your team begin immediate work on a cell phone app to simulated the sound of a receiver being slammed down as well as vibrate the phone convincingly. We might make a few million. Also review that cheesy CapeNewzz service. Give me an idea whether it's worth buying an upgrading. I may have to sell a plant. Ohhhhh man. All this from a prank done by Booster. I... did you ever have an oddball friend... that you knew was your best friend ever?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug tilts his head and then murmurs, "Prank? I'm afraid I'd been out taking care of something and just got back into town - I actually haven't picked up on the news yet." He pauses and then puts his hand over his mouth. "I might know something about eccentric friends, yes. Looks like we're going through a sudden cycle of belt-tightening? Profit projections were looking good this year." He lets his gaze wander off into the realm of memory, briefly.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord grimaces and says, "Mr. Gold's antics have cost us the Kaburagi deal. That was 500 million dollars for a gyrostabilizer for five JDF mecha. He put an ill advised and silly personal ad up for me. CapeNewzz has it on their website. The Kaburagi zaibatsu decided they'd let LexCorp fill the order. Now Booster's gone. I mean he time travels and he goes off at times but I find myself wondering about things I never thought of before." He steeples his fingers and looks at Doug through them.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug steeples his fingers together and then looks down, before he glances back up. "Well, if I was being fair, how could he have known how Kaburagi would react to something as innocent as a prank? It sounds like LexCorp might've been leaning on them hard to steal that contract from you anyway." He perks his eyebrows, and the question mark practically appears above his head, "...Time travels, Mr. Kord?" As if he's never done it before.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord rotates slowly in his chair. "I'm not even angry with him about Kaburagi. Booster never had a malicious bone in his overgrown body. But, he came from several hundred years in the future, piloting an illegally acquired time machine, Not something a slow person could do. His early career and his time with the JLI, he was very competent and the last couple months... he was an almost total buffoon. I almost had to cut his meat for him. He was a constant distraction. He was maddening. If it were anyone else I'd have kicked them out but now I wonder..."

"At first I thought time travel cause brain damage. Then I realized, Booster, in the 24th century, would know whether the historic Booster Gold was a success or not. He never said he did. Why keep at all these schemes? I think... he meant to distract me. He was trying to keep me from doing the wrong things... keep me from harm or worse and now he's gone because he succeeded, or failed, or the Universe decided, none of that stuff, and did something to him. Because... I really feel like he's gone for good this time and... I love the big dope. He was my best friend. At times my only friend."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug puts his hand over his mouth, and says, "Well, Mr. Kord, I understand how you feel. I mean, I really do... but I need to unpack a few things there." He sighs, and then runs the palm of his gloved hand over his hair.

"I'm a mutant, Mr. Kord. I'm one of the lucky ones - I can pass. You'd meet me on the street and never know it. And - for a time, when I was a teenager, I was educated with other mutants... and as I'm sure you understand, being strange and unusual seems to increase the odds of your exposure to the strange and unusual. In the course of my education I--" He laughs, "Encountered an extraterrestrial life-form. My powers enabled me to communicate with him when no one else could. Now, I'm not even sure how to BEGIN unpacking that. How much do you know about extraterrestrial life?"

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord snickers a little and points to the framed Justice League International team photo. "Hehehe. I lived with a Martian for a couple years. Then I hung out with two New Gods, and there was G'Nort. He was a canoid. So I have some knowledge of aliens. Good people I've found... oh... there was Maxima too that b... anyway, go on."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug rubs the back of his neck. "The Technarchy isn't so much a race as it is - a scourge. Technarchs are intelligent, monomaniacal techno-organic life-forms. They're multimorphous, immense, and powerful - and they can consume energy either directly or by infecting organic matter with a techno-organic virus which enables them to absorb it via interface. They are... terrifying. They care nothing for organic life beyond consuming it for sustenance."

"Warlock is a deviant, a mutant among the Technarchy. He lacks his species' monomania. In fact, he's a pacifist. The thought of harming another sentient being distresses him, deeply. So one is like a gray goo scenario - the other is like a gray goo scenario except instead of eating you the goo just wants a hug."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord listens silently and finally asks, "What happened to Warlock?" True Doug spoke in the present tense, but something tells him he isn't the only one mourning a loss.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"...He left to see the world. To find himself." Doug says, before he sighs. "He left me with something, though - there was a recent incident where I lost my arm and --" He tugs off his glove and rolls up his sleeve, revealing his right hand, shiny black and threaded through with gold circuitry that seems to move when viewed in the corner of the eye. He flexes his fingers.

"Warlock and I - fused into a gestalt being several times. We had to confront the question of remaining distinct beings or fusing into a single being permanently. He decided we were better separate, both because he values his individualism, and he valued mine - possibly more than I did. But exposure to a Technarch like that risks infection with the Transmode techno-organic virus. I lost my arm in a recent incident and... this grew back in its place."

Ted Kord has posed:
That surprises Ted. He gets up to examine the technohand. "Wow. So in effect you are part alien. So we both miss our friends. I hope you meet Warlock again. I'd hope Brainiac and Darseid meet his relatives but bad things are always additive. Wow. That hand is something. So you have an enhanced autoimmune system to keep this at bay?"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug shakes his head. "It doesn't normally work like that." He curls his fingers, and then extends the hand out. "The arm is, like Warlock, amorphous and multimodal, though I'm still mastering those aspects of it - and since it draws on MY energy if I used it to form a weapon I might kill myself using it." He shakes his head. "Normally a sentient being infected with Transmode turns into something called a Phalanx - a being with driving imperatives to spread Transmode to as many organic beings as it can, and build a structure called a Babel Spire - a gigantic broadcast array the Phalanx believe will summon their god to Rapture them away - in reality it summons the nearest Technarch so they can consume the planet and everything on it."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord still looks at the hand. "I can give you plans for my BB Gun. It's very energy efficient and nonlethal. Or manufacture mercy ammo for a slug thrower you could create. You might need it down the road. Yeah, this is a big secret Douglas. I guess I have an honest face for you to trust me with this. Did you need help with this? Because we really need to amend your medical forms... privately of course." Swath might be interested too, he thinks, if she ever finishes rebooting in that damned tube he stuck her in. then again, human nanites and alien virii mixed together? What could go wrong? Instead of continuing his banter he goes to his desk and pours a glass of wine for himself and another he hands to Doug. He lifts his glass in a toast.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"If I was going to turn into a Phalanx, it already would've happened." Doug said, "This is - I don't know what it is. It's different. It may be that Warlock really is different, all the way down to the Techno-Organic virus he carries." He rolls his sleeve back down, and then mutters, "As for Booster Gold - I don't know. Have hope that one day you'll see him again." He looks down at the wine and then takes it. "I don't really drink." He says, before he lifts his glass. "I'd - prefer it if you keep my mutancy to yourself. It's not so much that I'm afraid to come out of the genetic closet, it's that there might be consequences for other people."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord stops before giving a toast and says, "It's nobody's damned business. Except on the medical forms which I keep locked up in case of a medical emergency. Read the employment manual Doug, we have firm confidentiality guidelines on unique genetic cases. Unless your power (whatever it may be) places you or others in a dangerous situation, I do not need to know, do not want to know and between us... if Senator Kelly or his thugs come calling that special file I mentioned has a self destruct. Now, a toast ... to absent friends!" He knocks the wine back, not much of a drinker himself.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug drinks, slowly, and then he says, "I'm a specialized metacognate with superhuman pattern recognition and response abilities." He sets the glass down, and runs his hand along his chin. "Short version, I'm capable of communicating with anything capable of communication. Among other talents. That might extend into metapsionics, though I've never developed telepathy or any other high-level ability like that."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord is convinced he has a superhuman power of his own. No superhuman seems to be able to keep their secrets around him. "Interesting. I'm promoting you to head of app designs and computer language research. It is now its own department, congratulations! You need to finish that language I was developing... unless there are flaws within it. But you initially had no problems with it. Eh that's for Monday. Go home and get a good rest this weekend... Mr. Department Head!"

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Doug pinches the bridge of his nose. "I was done with that weeks ago. I've just been pacing what I released to you so you wouldn't suspect something was up. I can send you the whole thing tonight. ...Department head?" Doug looks momentarily surprised. "Well, that's a quick promotion - all right. Also, about your friend?" Doug tilts his head, "...If you have faith in him, that's really all that matters."