ArchivedLogs:Surprise Robots

Surprise Robots
Dramatis Personae B, Bruce	2015-08-10 "I'm /pretty/ resilient against death-by-information."
Location <NYC> Stark Tower - Midtown East
A gleaming beacon of modern architecture shining bright amidst the industry of Midtown, Stark Tower serves as headquarters to one of the largest tech corporations in the world. The offices and boardrooms of Stark Industries and any number of satellite companies, subsidiaries, and nonprofits are homed here. To the public what draws most visitors is not the business but the science -- the first two floors of the building hold an extensive museum dedicated to technological innovation. As well, guided tours three days a week are open to the public, to be shown through both the museum and, more notably, through (select parts of) the dozen floors dedicated solely to R&D.The building itself is as eye-catching inside as outside. The soaring lobby atrium extends upwards, bright and glass-walled with perpetually bustling balconies ringing each floor. All visitors must pass through the lobby security checkpoints to be signed in. The technology integrated into the building, from the interactive holographic displays that help guide visitors to their destination to the quiet AI that remembers visitors' preferences upon repeat visits to the basement arc reactor that powers the entire building, are quiet reminders of the company's dedication to innovation. One of the many dedicated R&D testing floors, this roughly cubical room would rival many a high school gymnasium for size. Extensive rail and hardpoint systems travel across the ceiling and floor as well as the walls, between panoramic blast-resistant windows to control rooms and observation balconies. Though resilient and meticulously cleaned, the gleaming alloy walls and floor still show faint marks from projects past--scrapes, dents, and star-shaped blasts. With no active testing underway at the moment, the control and observation rooms stand abandoned, leaving the testing floor itself open to use. Bruce wanders out onto the well-lit floor, gazing up and around in undisguised awe. His wavy black hair looks just a touch unruly, subject to a whole day's entropy, and a five o'clock shadow falls heavy and early across his face. He wears a white dress shirt with muted purple pinstripes, a gray tie with a subtle cubical motif--in an impeccable full Windsor knot--and gray slacks. Black dress shoes, well-worn enough that a discerning eye could see the microfiber fraying, click on the metal floor as he walks. Then stops, dark brown eyes drawn inexorably to a single soft robot, white silicone, five-armed, starfish-like, lying abandoned near the door through which he just entered. One of the robot's arm's lifts. Kind of. Almost. Just a very small twitch at its end that soon falls back downward with a kind of defeated sag. The robot lies, wilted, on the floor, in a still and quiet droop. From a short ways behind Bruce, just slipping through the doorway, a quiet voice: "... more impressive when things work." B is dressed in black jeans, liberally hung with silver-edged straps and adorned with many zippered pockets; chunky grey and pink platform velcro sneakers, strappy elbow-length armwarmers, a ribbed sleeveless pink tank dotted with silver pyramid studs around its collar and armholes. There's a tablet held in hir hands that hir enormous solid-black eyes are mostly focused on, though after a moment ze looks up at the sad defeated starfish. Then at Bruce. Then back at hir tablet. A cobalt blue metal dragonfly is humming quietly along behind hir shoulder, lights glowing softly in the tips of its wings and bottoms of its feet. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't know there was any testing in--" Bruce starts speaking before he turns to look at B, though when he does his voice dies in his throat. He doesn't stare for very /long/, but he does stare. "Sor--" He catches himself this time. "My apologies, that was rather rude." His eyes snap back to the robot. Awkwardly. "I'm new," he finally offers, weakly. "I ah. Can leave. If I'm in the way." "There's not." B's stylus taps quickly against hir screen. "Not officially, anyway. I'd just had a thought -- didn't pan out." Hir claws flick out towards the stationary robot in indication. Ze looks back towards Bruce, huge eyes tipping up to look over the man. "That's okay. You get used to --" There's a very faint flush that dusts hir cheeks, a sudden small flutter of the gills that line hir neck. "... surprise robots. You're not in the way." Though hir dragonfly is humming forward, flitting a little closer to circle Bruce from new vantage points. "Surprise robots. Right." Bruce removes his glasses and cleans them--with an /actual/ lens cloth that he produces from a back pocket. "If you use the word 'impressive' the same way Tony does, maybe it's luckier for me it didn't pan out just now. There'd be--" He gestures at a faint blast mark on the nearby wall. "Sor--ugh. That was meant to be a joke. Not..." He watches the dragonfly only a /little/ warily as it orbits him. "...implying that you are reckless in your testing procedures." He has his glossy fresh employee ID clipped to his belt. It reads, 'Bruce Banner' and 'Senior Researcher', but does not specify a department. "Or, for that matter, denying that recklessness has its place in R&D." "I /usually/ only explode things --" B leans on that word juuust a little bit, tipping hir tablet up to hug it to hir chest, now, "-- when I'm working with Mister Stark." The dragonfly dips a little closer; lower, higher, finally returning to take up its position behind B's shoulder again. "But anyone can make something /explode/. Making something actually work, now --" Hir hand lifts, fingertips brushing very lightly back over the body of the dragonfly. "That's way more exciting. -- What're you doing, here?" "I usually only explode things when working with him, too." Bruce's thick black brows wrinkle as he puts his glasses back on. "Huh. I guess he has that kind of effect on a project. It's very elegant--" He gestures--almost shyly--at the dragonfly. "--the drone. Your creation?" His hands slip into his pockets, shoulders hunched. "Here? I'm meant to pick a project that appeals to me, or create one, but I haven't yet. First day. A bit overwhelming." Eyes defocusing for a moment, thoughtful. "Biochemistry is my field of expertise--that and high-energy particle physics. But I'm thinking about taking a break from the squishier science." He strokes his stubbly chin with the back of his knuckles. "Something to do with force fields, maybe..." "One of mine, yes." B's smile, small and closed-lipped, is shy as well. A gesture of hir hand brings the dragonfly to land on hir shoulder. "I'm in robotics, primarily. I've been doing a lot of work with evolutionary robotics. A lot of the systems that help my hive learn and navigate helped to inform the work that went into getting our cars on the road this past year --" Hir cheeks flush, head ducking apologetically as one hand lifts to circle hir gets. "{Sorry}, that's not -- very. Bio --" Hir head tips to one side, small-shy smile returning. A curious light sparking in hir huge-dark eyes. "Force fields? Have you studied those, much?" "Oh no, I'm utterly fascinated by AI, and I generally keep up with the literature. Though recently ah..." Bruce unpockets one hand to make a circular gesture in the air, a sort of sloppy 'wheels turning'. "...I've been on the road. But yes! The cars--splendid work, that." He takes his other hand out of his pocket, too, his entire posture becoming more animated. "I have studied the better-understood sense of the term, as in a /field of force/, but--and I should have specified that I meant this--not as much in the ah, more /speculative/ sense of...well, 'deflector shields', shall we say?" His excitement appears to have banished his shyness for the moment, and indeed his discomfort with B's appearance. He starts pacing. "Still! I have a number of ideas about this--a static repulsor field seems promising, for example, but I would love to take a more novel approach, if it proves feasible. Oh!" Coming to an abrupt halt both verbally and physically, he shakes his head. "Begging your pardon, I'm /continuing/ to be rude. My name is Bruce Banner. And you are...?" Another small flick of claws sends the dragonfly humming back into the air, this time over towards Bruce, again. "I made the repulsors these use to fly, you know." Shy again, though now there's a note of pride in B's voice. "We use them all over -- now. But if you /did/ want to take some time and dabble in, um, speculation -- I know someone who --" For a brief moment, hir lip catches between very sharp serrated teeth. Smallnibble. Smallhum. "Oh -- oh. Apologies." One slim (blue) (webbed) (sharp-clawed) hand extends towards Bruce. "I'm B. I lead a team down in robotics but I'm kind of -- transitioning. I'll be moving to college this month, I -- think." Bruce blinks, pushes his glasses up. "Fantastic! I'd love to pick your brain about repulsors sometime. Figuratively. If you don't mind. And yes, I absolutely would love to indulge in speculation--keep the dreams big, as it were." He chuckles, a touch self-consciously. "Oh, if you know someone involved in energy shield research or somesuch, please do introduce me. I can come on a bit strong, but I truly do respect other people’s processes." He comes up short yet again, looking down at the offered hand. Then extends his own, faintly trembling. "Pleased to meet you, B." His grip is firm, and his smile is faint but genuine. "Minds like yours bring new life to academia, and I hope you find it a rewarding experience." B's hand closes around Bruce's, grip firm and skin considerably cooler than most to the touch. "I'm nervous," ze admits with a small laugh. "But it should be fun." Hir hand drops back to hir side, fidgeting with one of the straps on hir jeans. "I know someone -- who can produce energy shields. And might be willing to -- come in and talk." "I'm afraid you'll to run into some awfully calcified people, no matter the university. Same goes for anywhere, I guess, but the ones in the Ivory Tower tend to think much more of themselves for it." Bruce relaxes visibly once he has his hand back. "/Produce/ energy shields?" His brows furrow again, deeper, puzzled. "I'm amazed I haven't read about it, but still, that's marvelous! Yes, I would /love/ to have a talk with him, or her, if--ah, they're willing." "It's not contagious," B has a very small curl of smile as Bruce relaxes, though hir eyes are focused now somewhat -- downwards. "The blue, I mean. And they'd have fired me long ago if I were in the habit of attacking my coworkers. The claws are --" Ze breaks off with a faint blush, lifting a hand to press against the side of hir neck. "Well. You're mostly just in a lot more danger of me talking you to death if you get me started on genetic algorithms." The smile is a little more secure, this time. "And it's my dad. He's not /quite/ as much of a nerd as I am. But I'll ask him." "Sorr--" Bruce cringes and tugs at his tie knot. "That really takes some getting used to. I apologize. I'm not afraid that you'll attack me, or turn me blue, I swear. I just--" He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter, in any case it's no excuse. Long past time for me to get over it." Rallying with a visible effort, he smiles again. "On the other hand, I'm /pretty/ resilient against death-by-information and, like I said, AI fascinates me. If you'd like, we can grab lunch together sometime before you leave." His smile goes just a touch crooked. "I'm fairly confident I'll survive." "That's why I like sign." B circles her fist over her heart. "The muscle memory helps remember." She calls her dragonfly back with another gesture, stooping after to pick up the inert starfish from the floor. "I'll be around a few more weeks. I think I'd like that. I want to hear more about your --" Her smile is quick and warm. "Force fields."