Owner Pose
Ted Kord Ted Kord is again at the Coffee Bean, a local cafe famous for the occasional superhero dropping in. By occasional superhero, they do /not/ include Ted 'Blue Beetle' Kord who is a regular. It is generally known if you don't encourage him. Unfortunately a preschooler and his mom is. The mom sends the boy back to his grandmother at another table. The mother remains to apologize.

"I'm really sorry Mr. Beetle. He LOVES Spider-Man. He thought you were his dad or a relative."

Ted is laughing. "It's fine. Not like he's in the business. I am friends with Spidey. It will be a pleasure to get an autograph. He might even deliver it himself. He's that nice of a guy. Maybe even a photo."

"Oh... thank you Mr. Beetle. He never met a real super..." She trails off.

Ted shoos her back to her table, still smiling. The smile vanishes as he sits back down at his tab... strike that. His table got taken while he was dealing with the mom. He takes his coffee to a counter and perches on a stool.
Stella Roundtree      Stella is forever filling out forms, and it's more fun to do when she's not in a bland hotel room. A coffee shop is a perfect place, the ambiance and white noise making it easier to scribble away at her notepad, looking up from time to time to take in the crowd. The sight of a costumed man is enough to give her pause, and then a spark of recognition. She wasn't sure if the toga she saw him in during the previous evening's Amazon training event was part of his whole... thing.
     "Hey! Blue guy!" she calls! Wow, her voice really travels, really cuts through the noise. "I remember you! You wanna sit here? I'm not using the whole table," she says cheerfully. That might be due to the OSU flask tucked in her coat, and the little splash that made it into her coffee.
Ted Kord Blue Guy? No 'guy' was definitely lower case. Let's see so far today that was Blue Gerbil, Blue-Spider-Man, Spider-Man's dad and now... blue guy.

Ted turns around and... well hacking on a little woman won't make him look good. Nor would her beating on him, which is the alternative. She did sin up for Amazon training. Plus she's soooo cheerful.

Also it is a seat. He takes his coffee and walks over and grabs a chair. "Thank you small woman. Where's the Hobbit you were fighting at? Unscrewing streetlamps?"
Stella Roundtree      "Oh, he was nice and gave me the number of a lady who runs a dojo," Stella says, amply fueled by caffeine. "I think I'm just too far below his skill level, really. I had no idea what I signed up for!" She stacks her paperwork and makes room for him, the logo at the top a tree with the words "ROUNDTREE SECURITY CONSULTING" underneath.
     "Tabitha was something though, huh?" she says. "I just met her, but wow! That's a lot. You, uh... did great, too!" she says as an afterthought. "It was all very distracting, I'm just glad I didn't get squished or projectil-ed." she chuckles. My, someone is in a good mood. Maybe it's because she's been marking invoices as "paid." "I've never been around gods and that kinda thing before," she says. "But it's probably pretty normal for you, huh?"
Ted Kord Ted Kord shrugs. "Not so much gods. Aliens sure. Martians are nice from what I see. Time travelers." He pulls his hood back and then takes his goggles down around his neck. He offers a hand. "My name is Ted Kord. My codename is 'Blue Beetle.' No hyphen. That's Spider-Man's thing. Thank you for the seat. I haven't really known normal my entire life. Uhm, hey could I have a business card? Kord Co. uses troubleshooters all the time." It is not name dropping when it is your name. Besides judging from the number and origin of some payouts, she must be good.
Stella Roundtree      "Oh, huh! So you just say both your name and your... code name? All at once," Stella says. "Oh, so Kord Co! Same?" she asks. "Or do you prefer Mr. Beetle in this interaction?" she asks, teasing him. But she shifts from silly to much more serious when it comes to business, whipping out a card. A rather nice one, the same logo and information on a matte black card with red core, the logo in embossed red and "S. Roundtree" and her contact numbers in white.
     "Absolutely. I specialize in location and removal of electronic surveillance that you yourself did not put in place," she says, offering it up. Her short but manicured nails are the same red as the ink on the card, she must have a fondness for it. "But I can also find any weak points you have and suggest improvements. I'm better at that than I am at fighting off giant dudes. Well, so far," she says. "I aim to get much better at THAT." If she's giddy at the prospect of a big payday, she's keeping it to herself.
Ted Kord Ted Kord looks at the card. "Ted will do Ms. S. Roundtree." If she gave her first name he missed it. "I could certainly use someone to test my defenses. I can have my people call your people. Yeah fighting giant dudes... really sucks. Run for it when you can. I was actually hoping for more sparring with powered people." Hmmm, nice embossing.
Stella Roundtree      "All right, Ted. Stella will do, then," says the brunette. "And I can do that for you. Visual inspection is usually enough, and then you get a pretty report to look over and determine if you want to do the removal yourself, or if you want me to do it," she says. "And I can't get shocked, so it might be better on the insurance," she grins. "Well. I can't get shocked intentionally, I guess," she corrects. "I can also just disable whatever nonsense someone wired up, that's easy," she says. "But yeah! I'm lookin' to spar, too!" she says, back out of business mode. "I haven't been in an actual fight since I was in high school, which is probably a good thing."
Ted Kord Ted Kord raises an eyebrow. "Can't get shocked. Regardless, do not check out Booster's browser. I mean I work in the field with blue collar engineers and still... but oh electrical shock..." Ted scrunches down to about Stella's height and takes a sip of his coffee. He rubs his cheeks furiously. "So yeah, we can discuss removal if you find anything but between you and me, this is easy money for you. We can discuss paying you in Kord tech if you like what you see. I'll give you a laptop if you forget what I said." Of course the cheeks are red from rubbing. He's not blushing! You're blushing.
Stella Roundtree      She snickers, "Oh, Ted. The things I've seen. At least in search histories. Lots of people don't hide anything too deep, not really." She thinks about this, "Honestly, who has two calculator apps on their phones? One of them has to be messages with a mistress, you know?" She takes another sip of her drink, looking back up at him, "But I'm always up for easy money and fun toys. I'm in a hotel right now, and it's fine, but there's so much work here that I'm thinkin' about relocating. But I am now curious about just what you might be hiding," she says, looking him over, leaning forward in her seat, evaluating him- or at least whatever he has on his person- with an intense blue gaze of her own.
Ted Kord Ted Kord leans forward to match her pose. "Only thing I hide... and it's an open secret is Kord Co proprietary technology." Then in a sort of flirty tone he really did not know the origin of, he says, "What are /you/ hiding? A little woman fighting big mean guys. Hey leave some clothes on me. I may catch a cold! Bwahaha." Ted is a network of electronics. There's a phone of course. She saw that the other day. There are comm systems in his hood, control circuitry in his gloves. A mike at his throat and a couple of discs on his back that defy description. It's actually kind of pretty.
Stella Roundtree      It is rather pretty from her point of view, seeing the shimmer of electricity running through his accessories. "Hiding? Me? Less here, I guess. And that guy was nice! Honestly I felt like I was keeping him from the fun of, uh... beating up other people in a controlled manner. Seemed like everyone else got more of a workout," she says, pouting a little.
     "I wasn't really sure how to ask for what I needed in that. I can see and redirect things," she says. The sound of her voice changes. It's not louder, it just seems closer. More controlled, as if directed to his ears rather than the sound being allowed to flow into the room. To anyone else in the room, it's muted completely.
     "Sound and electricity and I think it's called kinetic...s?" she says. "I couldn't exactly ask him to hit me as hard as he could, all Tyler Durden," she laughs. "Then again, not sure I could handle *that*. He looked like he could hit pretty hard," she says. "Now that's all employer-employee confidentiality right there," she says, her voice returning to normal.
Ted Kord Ted Kord waves it off. "I'm sure he was very nice. Whatever. That's amazing. I could study that all day. You wouldn't be adverse to doing some research work in the labs, would you? I could use that ability in any number of ways. So I take t you agree to employment as a security specialist at least? Ah. Why do I wind up employing all the really interesting women I meet? Now I can't ask you out for dumplings, say."

He's probably joking.
Stella Roundtree      "Huh! I guess coffee shops are really good for networking," she laughs. "I guess! I'm allowed to leave the lab, right? This isn't some kind of trap that I've very stupidly walked into? I should know better," she says, drumming her nails along the edge of her coffee cup. "I guess I could do research in a sciency sort of way. I don't know if I'm that smart," she says. "But security I can do!" she decides with a much perkier tone. Food also seems to spur her. "I'm always up for eating out!" Jesus, phrasing. She seems oblivious to this.
     "Back home there was just one Asian food place and it was terrible," she says. "Here there's so much more and it's so gooood," she says, leaning back in her chair, already fantasizing about her next meal. Especially if someone else is paying. "I'm gonna have to really use the hotel gym like crazy. Or actually fight people so I don't turn into a dumpling myself. Going to be harder to climb into tight areas for work otherwise."
Ted Kord Ted Kord hahs. "No you could assist with various mechanical experiments /we/ set up. Magnify forces, direct them better for us. there's a couple NDA and insurance forms to fill out. Disclaimers about power use. Like we wouldn't want an incendiary or explosive power user to be put near explosives or shock sensitive equipment. It's all confidential."

Blink. Blink. "You'll go out with me. I mean great!"
Stella Roundtree      "That sounds like a good time, actually," the brunette says. "I'd never thought of that..." she does think about it now, though. Perhaps realizing that there's a lot she should be doing in this lifetime. "Wait, did I... uh."
     And at that moment, her phone rings. Perhaps it's a savior. And while she is capable of making her conversation private, she says, "Roundtree Consulting. Mmhm, I am available today. No, no, don't say that over the phone, that's admissible. Ma'am, I know you're upset, but we can figure this out. What's the address?" She scribbles one down on her notepad, nodding as if her client can see this. 'Yep. Got it. Give me... an hour. Great. I'll see you then. "Whew. Gotta head out, but keep in touch," she says. Her paperwork is neatly stacked and put back into her messenger bag, and the brunette is out the door.