The Rec Room has a whole bunch of games in it to pass the time. The walls are lined with Chalk boards, Pool cues, and various other gaming items.

The room contains an
Air Hockey table,
a Pool Table with a red felt top ,
a Ping Pong table and
Foosball table.

There is also another large 55” TV located on the wall and a mini fridge under the TV.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:17, Thu 09 Aug 2018.

Lois entered the Rec Room to a) check it out and b) make a quick phonecall.  Dialing Daddy's profile, Lois got an answer straight away.

"Hi Daddy, its me."
"Lois, where the hell have you been?  I've had people turning the city upside down.  Those idiot minders of yours are very expensive... NEVER ditch them."
"Uh I've got some important news..."
"It better be good.  I've half a mind to ground you..."
Lois rolled her eyes.  Really?  She was wasn't a teenager anymore.  Of course her father could actually keep her locked in for a bit.
"Daddy, SHIELD has a file on me.  They know names and I'm damn sure they know who gave the orders."
"..."
"Look, I've got a chance to take the heat off you and me.  I've signed onto a team and as long as we don't Mortis anybody else... they'll probably leave things alone."
"You... you did this deliberately.  Lois I've taken care of you, more than anybody else would have.  I covered for you.  And this is how you repay me?  Running off to SHIELD!"
"Daddy, that's a load of crap.  They picked me up.  I'm still coming home and I've more than earned my keep.  Look have a cigar or something... and I'll see you later tonight."
"Lois, don't you tell them anything.  I can call in some favors..."
"Good bye, Daddy."

Terminating the call, Lois felt nervous and yet excited at the same time.  It was rare that she got her way.  She'd still have to watch that Daddy didn't try anything... but he wasn't dumb.

Deedee followed the scent easily enough, the wolfhound's nose was sharp as ever, and she heard the trail end of the conversation as she approached. She didn't make out thge words, she really wasn't paying that much attention. She just wanted to move, and things were always so much better in animal form.

So she poked her head into the room and then trotted in, tail up and wagging slowly as she approached.

She gave a little gruff and sat down, tail wagging against the floor as she looked up at Lois with her mouth slightly open and tongue out a bit to keep cool.

As she finished up her call, Lois noticed a dog in the room.  It looked friendly, so she knelt down to give it a pat.

"Hello there, are we looking for some attention?  Wait a minute... Dee Dee is that you again?"

After today, whenever Lois encountered an animal... she would now assume it was Darwin in disguise.

"If you ever want to quit this place, you could probably do children's parties for some spare cash.  What child wouldn't want to have a Giraffe in their backyard?  You're so lucky to have such a fun ability... all I got was a power that kills people and breaks stuff.  Its a small blessing that the Task Force got to me first before... I don't know, the CIA.  Do you want some water?"

Deedee cocked her head to the side and gave a little whine as Lois bent to pet her, and then as she realized it must be Deedee the wolfhound opened it's mouth in a pant and sneeze to show she was just playing.

But Deedee morphed back into her human form, trying to answer Scythian more complex than 'yes or no' didn't work in animal form. Well, most animal forms anyway.

"Sorry, I just can't help myself sometimes. I like being an animal," she licked the back of her hand lightly and ran it over her hair in a very feline manner, not even realizing she did so. "I got the simple power, Anna got the really special version. But what did you get, if you don't mind me asking that is. You don't have to tell me if it's something you don't want to talk about."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 10:12, Mon 12 Nov 2018.

“Being an animal sounds nice and simple, who wouldn’t want to take a timeout.  Can you do any animal or are there conditions? And who is Anna?”

Lois found herself a comfy chair.  Until others turned up, this was a great time for her and Dee Dee to bond.

“Well I can’t really demonstrate it fully... but my hands will kill a living creature.  Sort of like a bug zapper.  If I use in on an object instead, ‘poof’ disintegration... that’s perhaps a bit more useful.  So obviously I’m not very big on handshakes.  I’ve got it mostly under control... it was pretty rough back in my teens.  But enough hard luck stories... I’m just eager to make friends, enjoy some freedom, maybe do something good.”

"Everything is more simple in animal form. Anna thought that maybe our brains just...swapped out, kinda. There's always the animal side in my head, in the back. Kind of...looking in, trying to make it's own sense of what's going on, when I'm like this. But when I switch, the animal part is up there, and the human side kind of guides it. Maybe. I'm not really sure."

She sat down in a chair as well, pulling up her legs and tucking them next to her, curling a bit.

"I'm sorry about your power. Do gloves help, maybe? And is it just your hands? I mean, like will getting a hug or something be dangerous?"

If objects disintegrated, what would a person look like after that? Didn't bear thinking about, really...

Then she realized that Lois had asked about Anna, and Deedee flushed just a hair.

"Anna...is my older sister. We got similar powers. We both turn into animals, but she could...what's the word...hybrid them. I can shift into normal animals, I haven't found anything I couldn't be yet. But Anna...Anna could mix and match them. A spider with the size of an elephant, a bear with a scorpion tail, a lion with wings. She didn't do normal forms, ever. It was interesting, at first. We played around together, and she tried to show me how to do it like she did. But I couldn't. We even gave each other our code names, just as a joke. She called me Darwin, and I called her Anamosity. I spelled it wrong, to match her name. It wasn't the best name, but she had a temper. Maybe that's why she left, she just didn't like things any more. She never liked being groomed to take the business from daddy, she hated school, she hated...well...everything I guess. So she ended up with some friends that daddy didn't like, and she ran off with them. The man who came to get me to come here told me Anna was getting into serious trouble."

Darwin's explanation about animal thinking made sense.  Perhaps it wasn't all fun for Dee Dee's abilities.  Lois smiled in a self depreciating manner.

"Gloves don't help, except as a sort of mental 'safety'.  My hands just project this field that kills or destroys.  So at least I can still date people."

Lois listened carefully in regards to the topic of Dee Dee's sister, both out of interest and a lingering sense of familiarity.

"I think I would have liked a sibling, maybe.  Ha ha, I like 'Anamosity' though, great name.  Daddy dubbed me Mortis and it's somewhat fitting... I'll probably be using that on the Task Force.  I'm sorry that Anna's in trouble and all angry... do you suppose that its animal thinking at work?  I know the pressure of a demanding father, so anytime you want to blow off steam... my door is open.  What does you Dad do?"

Deedee nodded at the gloves thing, it made sense she'd already have tried it.

"I'd love to think it's the animal side of her doing it, but she's always been nasty. Even when we were kids. Daddy thought he could knock it out of her with private schools and business meetings and even doctors but she never cared."

Deedee sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"It wasn't too demanding of me. Anna had the real push to be the heir. I was just supposed to smile and look cute. I guess daddy wanted to marry me off eventually. He went absolutely spare when Anna and I started shapechanging. He locked me away once she ran off. Embarrassed I guess."

She sighed. "He liked to parade us around. The smart one and the good one. Showed us off to business partners. He owns Deveroux Electronics. Guess he's going to try and find someone else to run it eventually." Deedee gave a half shrug. It didn't mean anything to her anyway. She had her trust fund set up and she was set for money. Money didn't mean anything to her anyway. She didn't do anything.

Lois thought back to a resort opening a few years back.  Finally she made the connection.  Thankfully her Dad hadn’t viewed Anton as a target...

“Of course, Deveroux Electronics... that’s why things seem familiar.  I’ve met your Dad before and I think your sister too.  It sux that I didn’t get to meet you back then, Dee Dee.  Trust me, being paraded around is nothing new to me either.  Anna did seem prickly now that I think about it.  Can’t say that I know what Daddy’s succession plan is... but he’s got time to have a son.  Or adopt one.  Whoever it is, I’ll probably have to kiss their tail and hope for the best.”

She pulled a face that demonstrated how little she liked that idea.

“It sounds to me like your sister can’t be helped until she wants it... probably after she hits rock bottom.  It won’t be pretty.  Just... be ready and do your best.  Daddy’s gone through one of those with his drinking problem.  You know, that hologram of William’s might know stuff about your sister.  Do you want to ask it?”

"I don't want to call any attention to Anna unless I have to. I mean, I know they already know about her, but what if she really is doing bad things? With bad people? This is some kind of task force, I don't want to turn their eyes on her."

Deedee licked the back of her hand again, and smoothed down her hair.

"And I really don't want to get in a fight with her. She'd tear me apart." Deedee shivered just a touch. "She frightens me," Deedee said in a low, soft voice, almost unaware that she'd even said it aloud.

Then she perked up and looked back up. "What do you think we're going to be doing here anyway? And...they said something about training? How do we train the things we can do, anyway? I mean, I shapeshift. Am I going to just shift into different things for them? That seems kind of silly."

=========> From the Aurora, Darwin, Mortis thread

Kevin caught the tail end of Darwin's comments and replied as he entered, "Well, figure a lot of training would be up to you and what you want to work on.  For my part, I'd want to see you be able to maintain your full human intelligence in different forms.  It won't do much good for you to be a fly on the wall listening to a conversation if you only have a fly-level understanding of that conversation."

"As for you," he told Mortis.  "I'm less interested in your powers than in your background and interaction skills.  As far as I can tell, you're not, like, a ninja or thief or something.  Your targets had to let you get close enough for you to do your thing.  So, you were able to get smart, somewhat paranoid people to trust you enough to get close enough.  That's going to be a lot more vital than the ability to make folks go *poof*"

"Figure most of what we do on this team will involve finding people with abilities who don't want to be found and getting them to trust us so we can help them as need be,"  Kevin told them both.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:31, Wed 14 Nov 2018.

Lois knotted her hands together briefly as she recalled her own misdeeds.  Sometimes those faces came back to her in the quiet hours of the night.

“As someone with a bit of experience doing ‘bad things’, having someone step in to stop you... can also be lifesaving.  You can sometimes get in so deep that it looks impossible to get back out.  But it’s up to you Dee Dee, just don’t be afraid to seek help if or when you decide to get involved.  I’m not exactly sure how the task force will work... but William seemed to sell it as a investigation and prevention job.  As for training, maybe you could learn animal karate?  I was thinking...”

Lois hushed up as Darkstar entered the room and began talking.  Being that he had team experience, she thought it prudent to hear him out.  Lois found herself nodding along to most of his observations.

“We have names, Darkstar... and I don’t *poof* people.  That said, you make a lot of sense about using all our skills... and finding ways to establish trust.  The hardest part to me is determining whether these gifted people will run, talk, or open fire at us.  Sounds like the fly on the wall option might save us some grief.  I don’t suppose Dee Dee could wear a GoPro camera or something?”

Her corrections were curt but not negative.

"A camera?"

She blinked, then shook her head.

"Wouldn't work. Anything I'm wearing just changes with me. Otherwise I'd be leaving a pile of clothing everywhere."

She did have to pause then.

"Although I don't know what happens if I'm wearing something in animal form and then shift. But I'd hope it does the same thing. Otherwise someone puts a collar on me and I choke to death."

"That would be something to find out during training," Darkstar told Darwin.  "Maybe try a collar as a bear and turn into a dog.  Big to small to avoid the choking thing."

"As for names," he turned to Mortis.  "Names are kind of an iffy thing among Supers.  You're probably not going to get Spider-man to tell you his real life name.  It's not rudeness so much as he makes kind of a point of fighting... crime.  And crime is very willing to fight back by hurting or killing the people in his non-super life."

"Beyond that, when you're in the field, you're going to want to be in the habit of using code-names when communicating even if it comes off melodramatic or a little silly," Kevin told them.  "Now, if you want me to use your actual names in private, I will.  You can call me, "Steve" if you want to."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Wed 14 Nov 2018.

"Point taken, Steve.  Privately you can call me Lois, outside I'll be going with Mortis.  I promise not to badger Spiderman for his secret identity."

Given that it was just the three of them, Lois decided to continue the Q&A.  Maybe Allison or Cassie could catch up later... unless they had found something better to do (entirely possible).

"So if we want to learn basic training stuff, who should we seek out?  Do you have any other recommendations for new people like us?"

"Figure Jocasta might have some self-defense or combat routines she could coach you on," Kevin told Mortis.  "Beyond that, a lot stuff is going to be do-it-yourself.  We aren't SHIELD.  We don't have a massive support staff.  If your toilet gets clogged, you don't call "Maintenance."  You grab a plunger and go at it."

"This base used to be SHIELD's, so its amenities are set up for normal humans.  Highly trained, well-equipped normal humans, but still.  It isn't set up with weights designed for people who can lift 10 tons, or targets for people who shoot energy comparable to a LAW rocket.  There is a Shooting range which triples as a close-combat training area and general gym," Kevin noted.  "The thing to remember is that this Task Force is maybe two weeks old, so a lot of stuff hasn't been developed yet.  But that also means that you get to help develop it."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Tue 17 Nov 2020.

"Deedee. I guess I'm using Darwin in the field, I'm kind of used to it in my head."

A collar and going smaller would work as a test she figured. Just in case. But even if it did work, it would be a pain in the field since she couldn't shift into anything that wasn't the same size if needed. Oh well, time to consider that later.

"I might try the shooting thing, maybe. I mean, I can probably hand to hand fairly well as an animal, but I guess it would be a good idea to learn to do things without shifting?"

She really wasn't sure of this, but she wanted to give it a try. The team thing, not the shooting thing. Although she could try that too.

Lois digested the tips that Darkstar had to offer.  Unfiltered advice was sometimes the best sort of information.  At the very least it gave her (and Dee Dee) some confidence...

“Guns are the last thing I want training in.  I’ll consult the hologram later on... and see what things she can teach.”

Aware that she was approaching a potentially touchy subject, Lois spoke softly and tried to read Darkstar’s body language.

“Can I ask about Laredo?  William implied that something went wrong or that the threat was bigger than expected.  Should we expect to meet this D’Yspare in the future?”