2014.03.10 - Gifts and a Toast

Monday afternoon. Jocelyn had a busy weekend, and the teenager still hadn't gotten the gift she'd gotten Doug to him. And now she has two gifts for him. Because of very important reasons and circumstances. So she'd decided to crash in the lounge. She completely earned a day off after wrecking Darkseid's planetary defenses, dangit! So she shot Doug a text (yes, she has learned how to text).
Hey Doug. Got something for you. Come to the lounge.
No, Jocelyn still hadn't picked up on the whole abbreviating things via text. She's currently relaxing on the couch, a couple of boxes wrapped up on the table in front of her in generic wrapping paper, complete with bow.
On his way to the lab, Doug slows down as he walks along the corridor, effortlessly dodging in and out between students until he's read the text. 
"Oh right," mutters the young man as he spins on his heel and turns towards the lounge. 
Entering the lounge a couple of minutes after getting the text, Doug scans the room until he notices Jocelyn. Crossing the room, Doug flomps onto the couch into an available spot. "Yo Jo... what's up?" he asks, eyes shifting towards the boxes. "Is that for me...?" 
"I'm taking a day off," Jocelyn declares. "And I got you something, and I just haven't had a chance to give it to you". Jocelyn slides one of the boxes towards him. Doug was into computers and computer games and geeky stuff. Jocelyn figured this would be up his alley. "Thought you might like it".
Inside this box is the board game '7 Wonders'. It's got a picture of a bunch of the Seven Wonders of the World on it.
"I'm not sure if you're into board games too, but it seemed like something you would like. It kind of occured to me I never really thanked you for all the training and stuff you put up with when I was a student, so I thought I should say thanks".
"Oooo." He hadn't been into board games in a while - usually it'd been, well, dice tabletops or video gaming. This was something he hadn't touched in a while. "Thank you," he says, tilting his head. "What make you think of me with this?" Not it wasn't computers, but... a quick look of it made him think a bit of Settlers of Cataan. "Huh..." Doug says, as he turns the box over. "That's interesting." 
Tilting his head as he considers, Doug grins. "Think nothing of it, but... what brought it on?" 
"Oh, I'd started trying to pick up some new hobbies, and some of the strategic board games sounded like fun, so I started going to a place down in the City every so often. Some of the conversation turned to video games and computers and I pointed out I'm still terrible with them, and it was pointed out that some people think of board games as the forefathers of video games. So I thought you'd like it. And I realized I'd never actually really thanked you. Before I came here, it wasn't like I had a lot of people in my corner, you know?" The girl pauses before continuing on. "It's a pretty good game. It's got expansions too, if you end up liking it," Jocelyn tells Doug. "Oh, and it does have a two player variant, even though the box says three players minimum".
Yes Doug. Jocelyn had actually picked up a somewhat geeky hobby.
"This other thing...". Jocelyn holds it in her hand. "Well, I hadn't planned on even getting this, but the situation happened to present itself when I was asked to help out some friends with a problem recently". Yes. Yes that is code for 'I went and put myself in serious danger again'. Which is probably pretty clear to Doug, given Joce's very slight change in body language. And the memory that it brought to the surface.
Eyebrows arched, Doug stares at Jocelyn with a blinking stare, before he starts to smile, a chuckle forming on his lips. The laugh is quickly surpressed, and the young mutant linguist smiles, a smirk very nearly escaping as he regards the box. "Thank you," Doug says gravely, as seriously as he could manage. "I'll have to play it. Actually, we should set it up here, and play." 
The other box now in Jocelyn's hand, however, is met with a curious glance, followed by a quizzical look. "Er... wh... what did you do this time?" 
"Sure, I can teach you how to play," Jocelyn says. She'll wait for Doug to open it up, and once he does, she'll help with the punching out of little cardboard bits that indicate various markers, money, and other tokens.
When the other question is asked, Jocelyn pauses for a moment before continuing on. "Well. I kind of got asked to help out on the assault on Darkseid's home planet," Jocelyn says. She was sure Doug had kept up on the news enough to know who that was. "In the process of wrecking a bunch of the planetary weapons systems, I managed to yank this. The power is dead, but I thought you might be able to learn something from it and maybe upgrade your computer projects from what you learn".
The present contains some sort of advanced networking device, though it doesn't accept standard electricity as power.
"... well, after I look at this," Doug absently replies about the game, his attention on the networking device that was... alien in nature. "Talk about an advanced piece of technology --- this is more Kitty's forte than mine." 
Glancing back up at Jocelyn, Doug grins, a much more wider smile this time. "Thank you. This should be interesting - and you should tell me what you saw on that planet. Knowing more about that place might help me with this..." He holds up the device. "You did put this under decontamination procedures, did you?" 
"Yes I'd already drained it dry while I was wrecking stuff, but I did put it through decontamination," Jocelyn offers. "Umm. Well, to be honest I didn't spend much time on the planet. I'd overloaded and crashed into it from space," Jocelyn offers. "He pretty much could turn that planet into huge weapon with way too many large guns that had to be compensating for something," Jocelyn explains. "I managed to hit hard enoguh to break through the ground and end up in a tunnel full of wiring and computers that controlled that stuff. So I started breaking it," Jocelyn explains. "Draining it and overloading it and that sort of thing".
She shakes her head as Doug's attention turns to the piece of tech and smiles. "The thing I mucked around with the most was the planetary shield. He was using some energy types I'd not seen before to power it and create a shield. I changed the energy in the generators to solar though, so it actually generated a giant solar energy grid instead. It made the Kryptonians in our group happy, and I'll admit I took a bit of satisfaction in seeing his face when his shield was turned into a tool for us," Jocelyn adds.
"Huh... a shield. That's promising, though with something this small, I'm not sure what it will be. Still, learning something about the tech might be useful," Doug muses. He glances up towards Jocelyn. "You managed to stay out of the infirmary this time, though... good." 
"Well, I think it's some networking device, based on where I found it and what happened when I shut it down. The shield was in space, and I got this in the bowels of the planet". Jocelyn shrugs a little. "And I have healing powers. Plus I managed to make myself not appear to be as much of a threat as Wonder Woman or the Flash, so I wasn't usually the main target of the attacks," Jocelyn explains. "Broke my arm at one point, but I was able to heal it when I get a few minutes out of the fight," she explains.
"Oh. And Magneto showed up unexpectedly to attack Darkseid. With his mutant army from Genosha. It was...big," Jocelyn says. "It's actually what caused me to overload. Thousands of mutants all letting their powers go effectively at once". That was a one-way ticket to Overload Central for Jocelyn, for certain. She'd actually gotten a lot better at not blowing up lately.
"Huh. Nice." Doug couldn't really make sense of Magneto at times, but he reckoned that even a villain would rally to save Earth against a bigger menace. Though he did have to shake his head at the notion a bit. "Tsh... overload. That's a -lot- of power to channel." 
Eyes searching Jocelyn, Doug considers. "You've checked out okay, though? No side effects?" He always did wonder what would have happened with such an overload on -that- sort of scale. 
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jocelyn says. "I spent a bit of time making sure I expelled any weird energy to keep anything from happening. If something was going to happen because of the overload, I'd have known by now. I did wreck a perfectly good pair of shoes though," Jocelyn comments with a small grin.
"And yes, I got myself checked out. Nothing weird, though I'm not sure I like having to go into a mission wearing a rebreather," Jocelyn admits. The whole inability to breathe in space was a downer. "By far, any injuries I took were minor compared to others". Iron Man and Booster Gold had apparently died in the fight as well, though Channel hadn't seen their deaths from where she was at the time.
"A rebreather," mutters Doug. "You'd think you'd learn how to channel the energy between molecules and make yourself some oxygen, though I guess you can't channel something quite like that. That'd be verging on fusion/fission, and get really ugly, I suppose," Doug muses out loud. "And no, I'm not letting you try that. You'd probably turn yourself into an atomic bomb." 
Stretching, and sighing, Doug looks towards Jocelyn. "Yeah. You going to be hitting the memorial services?" 
Booster, especially, was someone Doug knew personally, so... sigh. 
"Yeah. Probably in civvies, if I can manage to get in," Jocelyn says with a sigh. The woman didn't show up in costume very often, to the point that the public didn't actually know Channel existed. She'd kept that name off the public radar. But she knew Booster, though not incredibly well. Same with Iron Man. The others, Jocelyn didn't really know much of or about, really.
"I didn't see what happened to them. Booster was assigned to the back door, while I was with Iron Man and the others on the frontal assault. But I was inside the planet when whatever happened to Iron Man happened. He did manage to save Carol's life beforehand though. She'd been hit and he sent one of his suits to save her".
Nodding, Doug runs a hand across his face. "Well then... I dunno about you, but how about we go have a wake and a toast?" the young man says, standing up. Ex-Agent of SHIELD that he was, Doug figured at least he owed it to them. 
Picking up the board game and the chip, the young mutant turns to head for the kitchen. "We'll just borrow some of Logan's beer, and tell him Bobby took it." 
Jocelyn laughs a little. "I think they'd appreciate that," Jocelyn says. And Logan totally owed her anyway. Not that he'd support her taking his beer, but whatever. She'd be twenty in a week. Close enough, right? The woman stands and will follow Doug to the kitchen. Fully with plans to teach Doug the game and probably get her butt kicked within a couple games, but that would be okay, too.
Category:Log