Jemma Simmons (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bravejemma) wrote2016-08-20 08:12 pm
bravejemma) wrote2016-08-20 08:12 pm
eway application
Name: Liz
DW username:dramaturgy
E-Mail: my.husband.makes.movies@gmail.com
IM: AIM - my summers die
Plurk: lizimajig
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Jemma Simmons
Series: Agents of SHIELD (and by extension, the Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Timeline: 3x02 (before episode tag)
Canon Resource Link: Jemma Simmons at MCU Wiki
Character History: Jemma was born on September 11, 1987, in Sheffield, England, UK. She was the first and only child of two adoring parents and, they soon discovered, a certifiable genius. She finished her schooling at a young age, and went on to earn two Ph.D.s (chemistry and biology) by the time she turned seventeen. Always curious and questioning and actively looking for answers to those questions, she then enrolled in the SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology in the pursuit of further knowledge.
Knowledge wasn't the only thing she would find at the SHIELD Academy. Jemma found a best friend, who would first be her bitterest rival. In every class, Jemma and fellow Brit Leopold Fitz jockeyed for the top spot, head and shoulders above their classmates, many of which were a bit older than they were (though Jemma will remind you, Fitz is technically twenty-three days older than her, so there). She respected Fitz's genius and abilities and maybe even he hers, but there was no love lost between the fierce competitors. It changed when they were paired together in a chem lab. And that chance pairing would give birth to one of the strongest partnerships the Academy had ever seen, and a friendship like Jemma had never had. Either one of them could be on the top of the heap by themselves, but together, they were an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. They became so close that they were christened with the portmanteaud name "FitzSimmons," sealing their notoriety.
Throughout their school years at the Academy, they worked together, particularly on developing non-lethal weaponry, but on other tools and gadgets as well. They graduated early at the top of their class, and embarked on what would surely be impressive careers at Sci-Ops, developing the technology and weaponry to protect SHIELD agents in the field and at home. But that wasn't quite enough for Jemma. She had found some answers in her time, but the questions kept on coming. And though she enjoyed Sci-Ops, and working with Fitz in the lab, she couldn't help but feel like they were missing out -- she had a little bit of an adventurous streak. She was driven by her need for answers and desire to make the next discovery or innovation, and find the things that no one else had found. Though they had done dismally on field assessments for the operations division, when the opportunity to go into the field came up, Jemma convinced Fitz that they shouldn't pass it up. They were hand-selected by Phil Coulson to become part of his field team.
At first the two of them were at odds with the other team members -- straight-laced Ward, their specialist, who considered the scientists little more than moving targets for enemies to be protected -- a distraction from work to be done. The former renegade Skye, who didn't much care for the rules. And they were just straight up a little afraid of May. (All right, a lot afraid.) But the team became a family. They worked together like a well-oiled machine, and though it was hard at times, it was also one of the best times of her life -- short lived though it was. Until the organization-wide upheaval of HYDRA, SHIELD's old foe that everyone believed had been defeated, led to an even more hurtful betrayal of the personal sort: Ward was part of this organization. And when she and Fitz would not yield to pressure to turn coat to HYDRA, they were to be killed. Trapped in a medpod, the medpod was then dropped in the middle of the ocean.
Jemma blacked out as they made their drop, and when she came to, they were on the bottom of the ocean, Fitz with a broken arm, and no way out. Their fate was sealed, it seemed, and she thought that all in all, if she had to die... dying with her best friend might not be such a bad way to go. But they hadn't given up yet. Ingenuity brought them escape -- or, Jemma found out, would buy at least one of them escape. Fitz could rig the oxygen tank in the medpod to give enough pressure to force air into lungs against the pressure of the incoming water, but there was only enough for one, and it would be her. At first she refused, insisting there must be another way, because a plan that ended in her surviving when her best friend could not was simply not a choice. He replied, quite to her surprise, that she was more than a friend. He hadn't been able to find the courage to tell her how he felt, and so this last act, giving her escape and a chance to live, would be his declaration. He triggered the device to breach the airtight compartment, and she got the lungful of oxygen she needed to make it to the top -- but she wasn't going alone. She kept one hand tight on the neck of Fitz's shirt and dragged him to the top with her.
She suffered a mild bought of decompression sickness when they were fished out of the ocean by Nick Fury (brought to them by a distress signal also brilliantly rigged up by Fitz), and was better in a short amount of time. Fitz's injuries would prove more damaging and longer lasting. After nine days of waiting while he laid in a coma, the damage was able to be assessed more properly. It was hard not to read the reports and see his difficulties as a doctor -- despite not being a medical doctor, she knew what she was looking at and what the long, scary words meant, even when she wished she didn't. But it was also hard to not see it this way, and just be his friend. Never sure which was more or less helpful, and Fitz not being much in a position to tell her led to a lot of frustration on the part of both parties. Even when he began to improve, the failures and shortcomings were what stuck with them -- and sometimes, she wondered if it weren't her fault. And of course there was the undiscussed confession of their last moments in the medpod, which sat between them like a particularly awkward elephant in the room.
Things came to a head a few months after the escape from the pod, and she accepted an undercover position at Hydra. She hated leaving Fitz and the team, she'd wanted to stay, but it was clear to her that whatever she was doing was not helping Fitz recover, and maybe even hindering him. It pained her, but if she left maybe he would do better, and that was really the important thing, wasn't it?
She turned in the SHIELD eagle for a HYDRA octopus and a black lab coat, and went to work trying to infiltrate HYDRA at its deepest levels. She proved her trustworthiness, and otherwise did her best to remain above suspicion while fulfilling her mission for Coulson. Unfortunately, an old enemy of the team's had found Jemma at HYDRA and outed her as a spy. She had to make a daring escape from the laboratory headquarters, with the help of Bobbi Morse, another SHIELD agent who had made it even further up in the HYDRA hierarchy. She was excited to return to the Playground and the team, relieved to no longer be living under the threat of exposure, and dreading facing Fitz again. While it wasn't as bad as she'd anticipated, there was still a rift between them and she found herself at a loss for how to explain why she'd accepted the undercover mission, and why she'd left -- not just to Fitz, but to others.
Things continued to be strained as they moved forward, facing what Jemma considered a new threat -- and one that she had triggered. Superpowered humans, developed long ago by an alien race, had devastated the team by taking out several of their own, including their beloved friend Tripp. Jemma considered it her fault, and cursed her curiosity and devotion to study of xenobiology when she should have been looking for ways to eradicate it, or neutralize the threat -- all the while oblivious to the fact that her friend Skye was one of these humans herself, recently transformed by events in Puerto Rico. She would remain in the dark for a bit longer, as Fitz had doctored Skye's blood test results so that they would appear plain old human. She was more than a little hurt and felt betrayed when the secret came out, moreso for Fitz's deception than Skye's. Though she knows Fitz connected her rhetoric about cures and eradication for superpowered humans to his situation, where he had been changed by an injury and was now different, she would not admit a connection. She acted in good faith and did her best for Skye out of a desire to protect her and everyone else.
SHIELD was turned upside down again -- not this time by HYDRA, but a rival faction of SHIELD, which had embedded themselves in the team for some time. Teammates Bobbi Morse and Alphonso Mackenzie were members of this other group of SHIELD agents, led by veteran agent Robert Gonzales and including a former instructor at the Academy, Anne Weaver. This, as it turned out, became what would bring Fitz and Simmons back into the super pair FitzSimmons. The rival SHIELD group wanted Fury's Toolbox, which Coulson had been in possession of, and they needed FitzSimmons' help in getting it open. Almost independently of one another, with little more than the understanding that remained between them, Simmons made a replica of the Toolbox, which, after an argument that convinced Bobbi and Mack of Jemma's earnestness in helping them with the Toolbox, she helped Fitz smuggle off base to deliver it to Coulson, keeping her copy as a decoy.
With the apprehension of Coulson and his team, the SHIELD units decided to work together to neutralize the growing Inhuman threat -- this team, unfortunately, came to include one Grant Ward. Fitz had boasted to her that he'd nearly attacked him, wanted to kill him even. She wouldn't cry to know Ward was dead forever, no matter by whose hand, but knew at the heart of it that Fitz wasn't a killer -- and he knew it too. But she had a solution -- one splinter bomb at the opportune moment, and no one would ever known the pile of ash she strode through had once been Grant Ward. Ward had taken everything she cared about, hurt the person she loved the most and he had to pay. When the time came, she threw the bomb, but a man working for Ward named Sunil Bakshi jumped in to take the fall for his boss. Thus alerted to her treachery, she was sure Ward would kill her then and there, but she wasn't going to cringe. She wasn't going to beg for her life, or let him toss her aside to waste away. If he wanted her dead, he would have to do it himself and look her in the eye while doing it. But he didn't shoot her. Merely told her she'd changed, like he was disappointed and she was a child who'd had her hand caught in the cookie jar. After all, who did he think was the root of this change? She's not sorry that she tried to kill him, but she's not sure she's completely sorry it failed, either.
Jemma was part of a SHIELD contingent that landed at Afterlife, the Inhuman safe haven and headquarters, for what was supposed to be a peaceful meeting, and was outside when Jiaying killed Robert Gonzales, staging it so it looked like he tried to kill her first. She attempted to help, but the Inhumans -- including Skye -- treated her coldly and told her to return to SHIELD. Though she was reluctant to leave Skye, she did as they asked and left, returning to base and reporting back to Coulson.
One last attack was to be made aboard the Iliad, a SHIELD ship that carried an old Inhuman artifact, that Inhumans were going to attempt to steal back. SHIELD had to make their stand, afraid of what this artifact may mean once in Inhuman hands. Jemma was to stay at the Playground, but Fitz was being taken aboard. Their friend Bobbi Morse had been captured and tortured by Ward and Kara Palamas, nearly killed. Seeing Lance Hunter, Bobbi's ex-husband, reminded her of someone else who had once watched at a hospital beside while someone they loved more than their own life fight for their life: her.
Something solidified deep in her stomach; the feelings she'd been trying to sort through for the better part of a year and more were suddenly crystal clear, and she couldn't contain herself. If she didn't tell Fitz, and now, before he left, she thought she might burst into pieces. She found him in the locker room, preparing for departure, and though the conversation was not as graceful as she would have liked it to be, she knew they had little time. Fitz was surprised (maybe a little annoyed?) she would bring up what he said at the bottom of the ocean now, of all times, but she couldn't let it pass by. She was glad the rift had healed between them, and that when he came back, (WHEN, she told herself) they could talk about it. He demurred again, saying there was nothing to discuss. "Maybe there is, " she insisted, hand on his arm. He made a move to respond, but they were interrupted by Coulson. He had to leave, and whatever his response was supposed to be would have to wait.
But return he did, and SHIELD brought the Inhuman artifact with them. It was a large, stone monolith, kept in a large glass case that liquefied on an unpredictable schedule. One day not long after it was obtained, Jemma was taking measurements when Fitz (somewhat awkwardly, but definitely in an endearing manner) asked her to dinner. A date. She agreed, and managed to hide most of her excitement until Fitz had vacated the lab on the pretense of scoping out local restaurants for them to try. Her happiness was shortlived, however, when she discovered the lock on the case undone. At that moment, the monolith sublimated, and pushed out the door, knocking Jemma over, and subsuming her.
Jemma found herself on a planet far away, a desert planet that boasted three moons and a host of stars with no familiar constellations -- and maybe worst of all, no phone signal. Wherever she was, it was a long way from home. Keeping hold of her training, she waited awhile at the spot so SHIELD could come find her. And waited. And waited. Finally, she could wait no more -- she marked the direction she began to walk in search of water if not food, and finally found water after one hundred one hours. She even bested some kind of tentacle plant monster thing that lived in the watering hole and had tried to drown her. She recorded videos and pictures on her phone, speaking to a photo as though she were speaking to Fitz. It made her feel a little less frightened, and kept her hope alive.
Then she met Will Daniels. Well, met is sort of a nice term for it. She fell down a trap made by Will and was kept in a cage by him for a time. She faked a stomachache to escape captivity, but fell and hurt her leg, allowing him to catch up to her. They began talking -- he was an astronaut and had been sent to the planet back in 2001. He had been there for fourteen years, surviving in an underground shelter with just old NASA computers for company, while avoiding the mysterious being that walked the planet, simply called 'It.' At first Jemma, ever the skeptic, did not believe him, but after witnessing It for herself during a sandstorm in what Will called the No Fly zone, she believed him.
But more importantly, she had an idea: using her phone and the NASA computers, they could calculate the location and time of new portal openings. At best, they would be able to slip through back to Earth. Jemma also wrote down a message in a bottle for Fitz, in case they could not reach the portal, which turned out to be the case -- the portal opened up on the other side of a wide canyon. Will shot the bottle towards the portal, but it closed and the bottle hit the rocks. With it shattered all of Jemma's hope of ever leaving the planet alive, that she would ever be found. She admitted the loss of hope to Will. "There is no hope on this planet."
"That's what I used to think. Then you showed up."
Grief-stricken, and well aware of the tension that had been growing between them since they'd become allies in the fight to survive the planet, Jemma gave in and kissed him. One thing led to the next... really, they were two lonely people on a planet in the middle of nowhere. They only had each other, and it seemed like that's how it would remain. They began to live as more than friends, Jemma slowly trying to let go of her life back on earth and learn to live the one she had now -- day by day.
On the day of the first sunrise the planet had seen in eighteen years, another miracle happened. They sat on a ridge, awaiting the sun rise, and in the distance, a flare shot into the sky. Her stomach jolted. It was Fitz, it had to be. He finally found her. They ran across the desert, storm kicking in -- It was near. Will told her to run, and he drew his gun to give her a chance to follow Leo Fitz's voice as it yelled for her. She ran, following him shouting her name, and she reached to grab on to him, even as he was being pulled back to the other side of the portal he'd jumped through. But she wouldn't let him get away. She just couldn't. She made one last lunge for his hand, and caught on just in time. The ordeal had been exhausting, and she immediately felt the effects of being back on Earth. But she kept awake long enough to sigh his name in relief before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Abilities/Special Powers: Unlike the variety of individuals she has come across in her time at SHIELD, Jemma doesn't have anything that might be considered a superpower -- although her intelligence is far above average, and you better believe she knows it. She's smart and works fast, and it is by far her best and most useful quality. She will defeat you with the power of SCIENCE!
Third-Person Sample:
Before she even fully awoke, Jemma noticed her shiv was gone. That led to a little bit of panic -- it just wasn't safe to be without it. Though it might not protect her against It or even against the other things that lived on this planet, she didn't want to be caught without it.
She came to wakefulness with a start, her eyes flying open, before squeezing shut again. When had the sun come out?
The sun...
She'd been on the ridge with Will, saw the flare, heard him... she wasn't on the alien planet anymore. Fitz found her. "Fitz," his name left her parched lips. Where was he? he had to be nearby, he wouldn't leave her.
She sat up and looked either way, confronted by daffodils for as far as her eye could see on the rise -- except for the castle above her. Well, this was definitely not the alien planet she'd become accustomed to, but neither was it Earth. At least, not any place she'd ever been. Did portals not go back to Earth? Maybe they would drop you not back with the monolith, but elsewhere. Still, if it had taken her, it should have brought him, too. Maybe he was in a patch of daffodils a few feet away, otherwise undisturbed.
"Fitz!" There was no answer, and she crawled up on her hands and knees. The hill became steep enough that she would have considered it climbing anyway, and there was a road at the top. Cobblestone, tastefully lined with little red flowers that bees buzzed over. "Fitz!"
Her voice echoed and no one answered. He had to be here, he was with her just a moment ago. He wouldn't have left her -- she didn't think. And it didn't seem like there had been a kerfuffle, the only disturbance in the field of flowers was the patch where she'd laid, and the path she'd made on her way up. Ergo, if he was here, he likely landed elsewhere and was looking for her as well. Her chest ached, and guilt twinged just a little, below her ribs. I'll find you. I won't give up this time.
First-Person Sample:
[When the video turns on, it's a downward view of whoever is holding the device. Shoes on the path, dirty and scuffed, the sound of gentle breeze blowing.]
Oh, what the -- I never, what sort of phone these days doesn't have a front facing camera...
[Unless it's not a phone? She doesn't remember seeing the familiar phone icon, but she could definitely record...]
Oh, I see, there we are.
[At least it's a decent interface -- intuitive and easy to use. One flick on the screen, and the camera shows Jemma -- still a little dirty, tired, and worn down, but determined.]
I'm not sure what this device is or to whom I may be speaking, but my name is Jemma Simmons. I'm an agent of SHIELD, and was until recently on an alien planet. My team managed to retrieve me, in particular -- in particular, my... Leo Fitz. We left by the portal he entered, and I wound up here.
[She pauses, swallowing. She hopes she is showing herself to be calm, but feels like it might all be written on her face. And to someone especially perceptive, it may be.]
I'm assuming -- hoping -- that he was dropped elsewhere, and that one of you might know where he is, or he might have the same access to this... network that I have.
I suppose I'll... I'll be waiting to hear. One way or another.
DW username:
dramaturgyE-Mail: my.husband.makes.movies@gmail.com
IM: AIM - my summers die
Plurk: lizimajig
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Jemma Simmons
Series: Agents of SHIELD (and by extension, the Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Timeline: 3x02 (before episode tag)
Canon Resource Link: Jemma Simmons at MCU Wiki
Character History: Jemma was born on September 11, 1987, in Sheffield, England, UK. She was the first and only child of two adoring parents and, they soon discovered, a certifiable genius. She finished her schooling at a young age, and went on to earn two Ph.D.s (chemistry and biology) by the time she turned seventeen. Always curious and questioning and actively looking for answers to those questions, she then enrolled in the SHIELD Academy of Science and Technology in the pursuit of further knowledge.
Knowledge wasn't the only thing she would find at the SHIELD Academy. Jemma found a best friend, who would first be her bitterest rival. In every class, Jemma and fellow Brit Leopold Fitz jockeyed for the top spot, head and shoulders above their classmates, many of which were a bit older than they were (though Jemma will remind you, Fitz is technically twenty-three days older than her, so there). She respected Fitz's genius and abilities and maybe even he hers, but there was no love lost between the fierce competitors. It changed when they were paired together in a chem lab. And that chance pairing would give birth to one of the strongest partnerships the Academy had ever seen, and a friendship like Jemma had never had. Either one of them could be on the top of the heap by themselves, but together, they were an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. They became so close that they were christened with the portmanteaud name "FitzSimmons," sealing their notoriety.
Throughout their school years at the Academy, they worked together, particularly on developing non-lethal weaponry, but on other tools and gadgets as well. They graduated early at the top of their class, and embarked on what would surely be impressive careers at Sci-Ops, developing the technology and weaponry to protect SHIELD agents in the field and at home. But that wasn't quite enough for Jemma. She had found some answers in her time, but the questions kept on coming. And though she enjoyed Sci-Ops, and working with Fitz in the lab, she couldn't help but feel like they were missing out -- she had a little bit of an adventurous streak. She was driven by her need for answers and desire to make the next discovery or innovation, and find the things that no one else had found. Though they had done dismally on field assessments for the operations division, when the opportunity to go into the field came up, Jemma convinced Fitz that they shouldn't pass it up. They were hand-selected by Phil Coulson to become part of his field team.
At first the two of them were at odds with the other team members -- straight-laced Ward, their specialist, who considered the scientists little more than moving targets for enemies to be protected -- a distraction from work to be done. The former renegade Skye, who didn't much care for the rules. And they were just straight up a little afraid of May. (All right, a lot afraid.) But the team became a family. They worked together like a well-oiled machine, and though it was hard at times, it was also one of the best times of her life -- short lived though it was. Until the organization-wide upheaval of HYDRA, SHIELD's old foe that everyone believed had been defeated, led to an even more hurtful betrayal of the personal sort: Ward was part of this organization. And when she and Fitz would not yield to pressure to turn coat to HYDRA, they were to be killed. Trapped in a medpod, the medpod was then dropped in the middle of the ocean.
Jemma blacked out as they made their drop, and when she came to, they were on the bottom of the ocean, Fitz with a broken arm, and no way out. Their fate was sealed, it seemed, and she thought that all in all, if she had to die... dying with her best friend might not be such a bad way to go. But they hadn't given up yet. Ingenuity brought them escape -- or, Jemma found out, would buy at least one of them escape. Fitz could rig the oxygen tank in the medpod to give enough pressure to force air into lungs against the pressure of the incoming water, but there was only enough for one, and it would be her. At first she refused, insisting there must be another way, because a plan that ended in her surviving when her best friend could not was simply not a choice. He replied, quite to her surprise, that she was more than a friend. He hadn't been able to find the courage to tell her how he felt, and so this last act, giving her escape and a chance to live, would be his declaration. He triggered the device to breach the airtight compartment, and she got the lungful of oxygen she needed to make it to the top -- but she wasn't going alone. She kept one hand tight on the neck of Fitz's shirt and dragged him to the top with her.
She suffered a mild bought of decompression sickness when they were fished out of the ocean by Nick Fury (brought to them by a distress signal also brilliantly rigged up by Fitz), and was better in a short amount of time. Fitz's injuries would prove more damaging and longer lasting. After nine days of waiting while he laid in a coma, the damage was able to be assessed more properly. It was hard not to read the reports and see his difficulties as a doctor -- despite not being a medical doctor, she knew what she was looking at and what the long, scary words meant, even when she wished she didn't. But it was also hard to not see it this way, and just be his friend. Never sure which was more or less helpful, and Fitz not being much in a position to tell her led to a lot of frustration on the part of both parties. Even when he began to improve, the failures and shortcomings were what stuck with them -- and sometimes, she wondered if it weren't her fault. And of course there was the undiscussed confession of their last moments in the medpod, which sat between them like a particularly awkward elephant in the room.
Things came to a head a few months after the escape from the pod, and she accepted an undercover position at Hydra. She hated leaving Fitz and the team, she'd wanted to stay, but it was clear to her that whatever she was doing was not helping Fitz recover, and maybe even hindering him. It pained her, but if she left maybe he would do better, and that was really the important thing, wasn't it?
She turned in the SHIELD eagle for a HYDRA octopus and a black lab coat, and went to work trying to infiltrate HYDRA at its deepest levels. She proved her trustworthiness, and otherwise did her best to remain above suspicion while fulfilling her mission for Coulson. Unfortunately, an old enemy of the team's had found Jemma at HYDRA and outed her as a spy. She had to make a daring escape from the laboratory headquarters, with the help of Bobbi Morse, another SHIELD agent who had made it even further up in the HYDRA hierarchy. She was excited to return to the Playground and the team, relieved to no longer be living under the threat of exposure, and dreading facing Fitz again. While it wasn't as bad as she'd anticipated, there was still a rift between them and she found herself at a loss for how to explain why she'd accepted the undercover mission, and why she'd left -- not just to Fitz, but to others.
Things continued to be strained as they moved forward, facing what Jemma considered a new threat -- and one that she had triggered. Superpowered humans, developed long ago by an alien race, had devastated the team by taking out several of their own, including their beloved friend Tripp. Jemma considered it her fault, and cursed her curiosity and devotion to study of xenobiology when she should have been looking for ways to eradicate it, or neutralize the threat -- all the while oblivious to the fact that her friend Skye was one of these humans herself, recently transformed by events in Puerto Rico. She would remain in the dark for a bit longer, as Fitz had doctored Skye's blood test results so that they would appear plain old human. She was more than a little hurt and felt betrayed when the secret came out, moreso for Fitz's deception than Skye's. Though she knows Fitz connected her rhetoric about cures and eradication for superpowered humans to his situation, where he had been changed by an injury and was now different, she would not admit a connection. She acted in good faith and did her best for Skye out of a desire to protect her and everyone else.
SHIELD was turned upside down again -- not this time by HYDRA, but a rival faction of SHIELD, which had embedded themselves in the team for some time. Teammates Bobbi Morse and Alphonso Mackenzie were members of this other group of SHIELD agents, led by veteran agent Robert Gonzales and including a former instructor at the Academy, Anne Weaver. This, as it turned out, became what would bring Fitz and Simmons back into the super pair FitzSimmons. The rival SHIELD group wanted Fury's Toolbox, which Coulson had been in possession of, and they needed FitzSimmons' help in getting it open. Almost independently of one another, with little more than the understanding that remained between them, Simmons made a replica of the Toolbox, which, after an argument that convinced Bobbi and Mack of Jemma's earnestness in helping them with the Toolbox, she helped Fitz smuggle off base to deliver it to Coulson, keeping her copy as a decoy.
With the apprehension of Coulson and his team, the SHIELD units decided to work together to neutralize the growing Inhuman threat -- this team, unfortunately, came to include one Grant Ward. Fitz had boasted to her that he'd nearly attacked him, wanted to kill him even. She wouldn't cry to know Ward was dead forever, no matter by whose hand, but knew at the heart of it that Fitz wasn't a killer -- and he knew it too. But she had a solution -- one splinter bomb at the opportune moment, and no one would ever known the pile of ash she strode through had once been Grant Ward. Ward had taken everything she cared about, hurt the person she loved the most and he had to pay. When the time came, she threw the bomb, but a man working for Ward named Sunil Bakshi jumped in to take the fall for his boss. Thus alerted to her treachery, she was sure Ward would kill her then and there, but she wasn't going to cringe. She wasn't going to beg for her life, or let him toss her aside to waste away. If he wanted her dead, he would have to do it himself and look her in the eye while doing it. But he didn't shoot her. Merely told her she'd changed, like he was disappointed and she was a child who'd had her hand caught in the cookie jar. After all, who did he think was the root of this change? She's not sorry that she tried to kill him, but she's not sure she's completely sorry it failed, either.
Jemma was part of a SHIELD contingent that landed at Afterlife, the Inhuman safe haven and headquarters, for what was supposed to be a peaceful meeting, and was outside when Jiaying killed Robert Gonzales, staging it so it looked like he tried to kill her first. She attempted to help, but the Inhumans -- including Skye -- treated her coldly and told her to return to SHIELD. Though she was reluctant to leave Skye, she did as they asked and left, returning to base and reporting back to Coulson.
One last attack was to be made aboard the Iliad, a SHIELD ship that carried an old Inhuman artifact, that Inhumans were going to attempt to steal back. SHIELD had to make their stand, afraid of what this artifact may mean once in Inhuman hands. Jemma was to stay at the Playground, but Fitz was being taken aboard. Their friend Bobbi Morse had been captured and tortured by Ward and Kara Palamas, nearly killed. Seeing Lance Hunter, Bobbi's ex-husband, reminded her of someone else who had once watched at a hospital beside while someone they loved more than their own life fight for their life: her.
Something solidified deep in her stomach; the feelings she'd been trying to sort through for the better part of a year and more were suddenly crystal clear, and she couldn't contain herself. If she didn't tell Fitz, and now, before he left, she thought she might burst into pieces. She found him in the locker room, preparing for departure, and though the conversation was not as graceful as she would have liked it to be, she knew they had little time. Fitz was surprised (maybe a little annoyed?) she would bring up what he said at the bottom of the ocean now, of all times, but she couldn't let it pass by. She was glad the rift had healed between them, and that when he came back, (WHEN, she told herself) they could talk about it. He demurred again, saying there was nothing to discuss. "Maybe there is, " she insisted, hand on his arm. He made a move to respond, but they were interrupted by Coulson. He had to leave, and whatever his response was supposed to be would have to wait.
But return he did, and SHIELD brought the Inhuman artifact with them. It was a large, stone monolith, kept in a large glass case that liquefied on an unpredictable schedule. One day not long after it was obtained, Jemma was taking measurements when Fitz (somewhat awkwardly, but definitely in an endearing manner) asked her to dinner. A date. She agreed, and managed to hide most of her excitement until Fitz had vacated the lab on the pretense of scoping out local restaurants for them to try. Her happiness was shortlived, however, when she discovered the lock on the case undone. At that moment, the monolith sublimated, and pushed out the door, knocking Jemma over, and subsuming her.
Jemma found herself on a planet far away, a desert planet that boasted three moons and a host of stars with no familiar constellations -- and maybe worst of all, no phone signal. Wherever she was, it was a long way from home. Keeping hold of her training, she waited awhile at the spot so SHIELD could come find her. And waited. And waited. Finally, she could wait no more -- she marked the direction she began to walk in search of water if not food, and finally found water after one hundred one hours. She even bested some kind of tentacle plant monster thing that lived in the watering hole and had tried to drown her. She recorded videos and pictures on her phone, speaking to a photo as though she were speaking to Fitz. It made her feel a little less frightened, and kept her hope alive.
Then she met Will Daniels. Well, met is sort of a nice term for it. She fell down a trap made by Will and was kept in a cage by him for a time. She faked a stomachache to escape captivity, but fell and hurt her leg, allowing him to catch up to her. They began talking -- he was an astronaut and had been sent to the planet back in 2001. He had been there for fourteen years, surviving in an underground shelter with just old NASA computers for company, while avoiding the mysterious being that walked the planet, simply called 'It.' At first Jemma, ever the skeptic, did not believe him, but after witnessing It for herself during a sandstorm in what Will called the No Fly zone, she believed him.
But more importantly, she had an idea: using her phone and the NASA computers, they could calculate the location and time of new portal openings. At best, they would be able to slip through back to Earth. Jemma also wrote down a message in a bottle for Fitz, in case they could not reach the portal, which turned out to be the case -- the portal opened up on the other side of a wide canyon. Will shot the bottle towards the portal, but it closed and the bottle hit the rocks. With it shattered all of Jemma's hope of ever leaving the planet alive, that she would ever be found. She admitted the loss of hope to Will. "There is no hope on this planet."
"That's what I used to think. Then you showed up."
Grief-stricken, and well aware of the tension that had been growing between them since they'd become allies in the fight to survive the planet, Jemma gave in and kissed him. One thing led to the next... really, they were two lonely people on a planet in the middle of nowhere. They only had each other, and it seemed like that's how it would remain. They began to live as more than friends, Jemma slowly trying to let go of her life back on earth and learn to live the one she had now -- day by day.
On the day of the first sunrise the planet had seen in eighteen years, another miracle happened. They sat on a ridge, awaiting the sun rise, and in the distance, a flare shot into the sky. Her stomach jolted. It was Fitz, it had to be. He finally found her. They ran across the desert, storm kicking in -- It was near. Will told her to run, and he drew his gun to give her a chance to follow Leo Fitz's voice as it yelled for her. She ran, following him shouting her name, and she reached to grab on to him, even as he was being pulled back to the other side of the portal he'd jumped through. But she wouldn't let him get away. She just couldn't. She made one last lunge for his hand, and caught on just in time. The ordeal had been exhausting, and she immediately felt the effects of being back on Earth. But she kept awake long enough to sigh his name in relief before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Abilities/Special Powers: Unlike the variety of individuals she has come across in her time at SHIELD, Jemma doesn't have anything that might be considered a superpower -- although her intelligence is far above average, and you better believe she knows it. She's smart and works fast, and it is by far her best and most useful quality. She will defeat you with the power of SCIENCE!
Third-Person Sample:
Before she even fully awoke, Jemma noticed her shiv was gone. That led to a little bit of panic -- it just wasn't safe to be without it. Though it might not protect her against It or even against the other things that lived on this planet, she didn't want to be caught without it.
She came to wakefulness with a start, her eyes flying open, before squeezing shut again. When had the sun come out?
The sun...
She'd been on the ridge with Will, saw the flare, heard him... she wasn't on the alien planet anymore. Fitz found her. "Fitz," his name left her parched lips. Where was he? he had to be nearby, he wouldn't leave her.
She sat up and looked either way, confronted by daffodils for as far as her eye could see on the rise -- except for the castle above her. Well, this was definitely not the alien planet she'd become accustomed to, but neither was it Earth. At least, not any place she'd ever been. Did portals not go back to Earth? Maybe they would drop you not back with the monolith, but elsewhere. Still, if it had taken her, it should have brought him, too. Maybe he was in a patch of daffodils a few feet away, otherwise undisturbed.
"Fitz!" There was no answer, and she crawled up on her hands and knees. The hill became steep enough that she would have considered it climbing anyway, and there was a road at the top. Cobblestone, tastefully lined with little red flowers that bees buzzed over. "Fitz!"
Her voice echoed and no one answered. He had to be here, he was with her just a moment ago. He wouldn't have left her -- she didn't think. And it didn't seem like there had been a kerfuffle, the only disturbance in the field of flowers was the patch where she'd laid, and the path she'd made on her way up. Ergo, if he was here, he likely landed elsewhere and was looking for her as well. Her chest ached, and guilt twinged just a little, below her ribs. I'll find you. I won't give up this time.
First-Person Sample:
[When the video turns on, it's a downward view of whoever is holding the device. Shoes on the path, dirty and scuffed, the sound of gentle breeze blowing.]
Oh, what the -- I never, what sort of phone these days doesn't have a front facing camera...
[Unless it's not a phone? She doesn't remember seeing the familiar phone icon, but she could definitely record...]
Oh, I see, there we are.
[At least it's a decent interface -- intuitive and easy to use. One flick on the screen, and the camera shows Jemma -- still a little dirty, tired, and worn down, but determined.]
I'm not sure what this device is or to whom I may be speaking, but my name is Jemma Simmons. I'm an agent of SHIELD, and was until recently on an alien planet. My team managed to retrieve me, in particular -- in particular, my... Leo Fitz. We left by the portal he entered, and I wound up here.
[She pauses, swallowing. She hopes she is showing herself to be calm, but feels like it might all be written on her face. And to someone especially perceptive, it may be.]
I'm assuming -- hoping -- that he was dropped elsewhere, and that one of you might know where he is, or he might have the same access to this... network that I have.
I suppose I'll... I'll be waiting to hear. One way or another.