Andrea took the criticism without reaction. Years in corporate operations had taught her that the most dangerous executives were rarely the loudest ones. They were the people who corrected you casually, the same way someone might straighten a crooked painting. Safe to say, Andrea didn't want Magnolia to have to straighten [i]her[/i].

“Understood." She said, simply. Not apologetic. Just an adjustment of course. Mrs. Everest had not climbed to the top of the world by appreciating abstraction from people she had only just promoted. Andrea turned her attention to the brain.

At first glance it was rather unremarkable, aside from it being a literal robot brain. But the casing and other features seemed rather... basic. Deliberately so, most likely. Commodity hardware was everywhere now; millions of androids, assistants and industrial platforms all ran on descendants of the same architecture. Standardisation had made robotics affordable enough that even lower-income districts used stripped-down domestic models.

But people did not keep weapons in plain sight of their subordinates by accident. Especially not people like Magnolia Everest. Andrea leaned closer to it, studying Rooster without touching it immediately. The old instinct surfaced automatically: observe first, interact second. The fact Mrs. Everest had discarded the previous notes told her almost as much as the introduction itself. Either prior handlers had fundamentally misunderstood the machine, or the machine had fundamentally misunderstood them. Everest had always been interested in robotics and artificial intelligence, or so the scream-sheets claimed. But seeing her flanked by several robots shaped like anime girls, and presenting her new Chief of Operations with a thing like Rooster? 

Neither possibility was particularly comforting. Andrea just hoped she would understand it better than her predecessors had. Andrea felt a flicker of something she carefully refused to classify as excitement.

Not because she was naïve enough to think that this was a gift. It was leverage. Responsibility. Potentially a noose. But this... [i]this[/i]... was the first genuinely unknown variable she had encountered in years. Corporate operations at her level usually meant optimising existing systems. Managing risk. Containing disasters before they spread.

Rooster represented [i]opportunity[/i].

“I understand." Andrea said quietly, before raising her voice a little more to speak properly. “It will remain in this room, ma'am. And I won't discuss it with anyone outside this room, I assure you. As far as the company is concerned, she’s another executive support unit, and you just came here to welcome me to the fold.” Her thumb brushed once against the casing. Thoughtful, absent. She put away the proper responses of responsibility and turned to a tack that she hoped Everest would appreciate more, considering much she appreciated robotics. "If my predecessor failed because he treated her like equipment, I won’t repeat that mistake.”

Only then did she lift her eyes fully back to Everest. There was no point asking what Rooster could do yet. If Everest wanted that information shared immediately, she would have shared it. It was up to Andrea to figure Rooster out over the next few days as she got acquainted with her more regular responsibilities. So. Better question would be objectives. Authority. Constraints.

“What would you like me to accomplish with her?” Andrea asked. “And what resources fall under my discretion?”