entrancelogs | why don't we sit back mellow again and have a nice afternoon?

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why don't we sit back mellow again and have a nice afternoon?

Who: Jemma Simmons/Julia Smith
Where: Around Storybrooke!
When: Throughout the event.
Rating: Prob PG-13.
Summary: Julia Smith is moderately happy with her life, until she realizes there's a Jemma Simmons who has the life she's always wanted.
The Story:
Day 1: October 24
Julia doesn't have any particular reason to be dissatisfied with her life. She's employed and she even likes her job and most of her students -- the good ones, especially. Teaching could be worse; at least it's a little more challenging than school, which had always seemed to fall short for her and led her to burn off her energy in other ways. Nothing too drastic; her father is a police officer and all that. And she's grateful to still have him around.

Each day has its routine. She gets up, has breakfast, goes for a jog, goes to work, does some grading, and then decidedly takes time off for herself to go to the diner or find some friends to talk to, have a little fun, before it's back to bed and up again in the morning for the same thing over again the next day.

Day 2-3: October 25-26
For some reason, Julia's more excited to go into work today. She teaches her classes, but in the middle of her first one, she gets an idea for an experiment, and she busies herself in all her freetime in the lab. It's been ages since she felt drawn to that kind of work -- there hadn't been a place for it in Storybrooke, really, and then she didn't want to leave her father alone, either -- but here she is, safety glasses on and busily staring at beakers until her stomach growls and she realizes she's well past her usual time to be at the diner.

Feeling kind of strange about it, but oddly refreshed and energized, she makes her way to the diner to see who's around. She might be bubbling over with what she did today, but would anyone want to hear about it?

Day 4-5: October 27-28
The memories almost give her a headache. Could this other person really be her? Could she really be Jemma Simmons, two PhDs under her belt, and years spent at an Academy for secret spy science? Could she really have been a secret agent, doing all those things she sees herself doing? As odd as it is, she desperately hopes it's true. There it is -- the life she's been yearning for all along, and this other version of herself is having it. Or maybe Julia's just delusional. Maybe she's graded one too many lab reports and is stuck in a daydream. Of course they aren't real.

Julia makes a point to go to work as usual and follow her routine, but it's really because she's trying to test out her routine against these memories. Something has to give somewhere, right? Somewhere something's going to snap and she'll know which one is real.

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Jeremy Brandt has been her dad's partner for the past couple of years. The younger man has a bit of a reputation in storybrooke for being a playboy, a rogue, bored even. Underneath it all he's got a heart of gold and is seemingly a good guy.

When she leaves however, she might see a police car and a police officer.

Sitting on the roof of the car.

Staring at the sky.

Julia adjusts the bag on her shoulder, heavy with things to grade and books to prep for tomorrow's lesson, but it doesn't seem so burdensome today. Maybe that's because she has some notes in there on some new experiments, a few breakthroughs she came into today. She'd be more excited if it hadn't felt oddly like deja vu. But she'd definitely never thought about these things before.

She stops to dig her keys out, and then turns toward her car, when she stops. Brandt. Of course.

"Hello, Jeremy." She gives him a warm, tolerant smile. "Not exactly undercover today, are we?"

He blinks at that, eyes open, eyebrows raised, before he offers her a wave and slides easily off the car. Perhaps too easily.

It feels natural to him, "...Watching the kids in the park. I'm just-"

Undercover.

"...Bored. You?"

"Well. I'm glad to see you're on patrol, keeping the streets safe." She rolls her eyes a little, but it's all a friendly gesture.

"I'm good! Heading home, I suppose." But the idea of going home alone seems so disheartening after such a good day.

"Unless... Would you like to get some coffee?"

It's Steven's daughter. Feeling protective is only natural right?

"...Yeah. I could use a cup of coffee. Haven't been sleeping so good. You want a ride? In the patrol car?"

He grins, "we could use the siren."

She smirks and leans in. "I don't think you're supposed to do to that. I'm also not sure you should be having coffee this late if you're not sleeping well. But far be it from me to question your life choices, officer."

She waits patiently at the passenger side of the car, her bag in her hand now.

"I've always kept weird hours." He shrugs his shoulders, "...You should ask your dad, we-"

You'd better call it Coulson.

How was new mexico?

He looks distant at that, staring at her with his eyes wide, "...I always did."

Well... It seems Jeremy is staring at her now. Julia gives him a smile from across the car, and then knocks gently on the glass.

"I'll do that just as soon as we get in the car. Are you sure you're alright to drive, Jeremy?"

"Yeah. Yeah sorry. The past couple of days I haven't slept real well." He shrugs, back in the real world, back in the present, "How're you feeling? How's your dad and the um...teaching. Science stuff."

He can't add two plus two on a good day, so kudos to her and her science.

Being asked about what she did today is like a breath of fresh air; she's still riding high on everything that's been racing through her mind lately.

"Excellent, actually. I might have started working on a few things, an invention or two, a serum."

"An invention and a serum? Like what kind of serum?" He glances over his shoulder, backing out of the lot before shrugging his shoulders, "Remove all hangovers ever? Because that'd be a good serum."

She gives a short laugh and leans her head back against the seat of the car, but in her lap, her fingers are twitching with the calculations she's thinking of in her mind.

"No, more like... A sort of weapon, only more like a... freeze ray, but less evil scientist and more humane. A way of stopping someone without injuring them in any way. Completely harmless."

"So like a stun gun." He stops himself, "You said not injuring anyone though. Forget that."

He pauses, "Like a phaser? You know like, "Set phasers on stun?"

"Of course you're not looking to harm everyone you try to incapacitate." She huffs.

"But yes, like a phaser set on stun. No need for brutality of any sort."

After a long day of work, the last thing Marissa ever wants to do is cook for herself, and this day in particular had been a rough one. She shouldn't have even had to go into the hospital today, as she usually has Saturdays off. Granted, she's glad she did, because it turns out that something is finally changing around in Storybrooke.

Marissa doesn't know what it is exactly. She doesn't know why it's happening, why it's now. She doesn't know much of anything, but that excites her.

She can only do so much theorizing on an empty stomach. Her fellow doctors practically forced her to leave as she's been working all day, and so Marissa makes her way to the diner. It's a part of her routine, yes, but right now she's invigorated rather than resigned to her monotonous life.

When she finds Julia there, Marissa doesn't hesitate to walk over. They've always shared a lot in common, and so Marissa gets the feeling that Julia will want to know about what she's seen today.

Manners are manners, though, and so she nods in greeting. "Mind if I sit?" If her face looks a bit brighter and fresher than usual, well, there's a reason for it.

Marissa catches her as Julia's sipping her coffee, and she nearly chokes on her excitement to see Marissa. It's just been such a good day; she was hoping to see her, and if she didn't, she would probably have called her. It's just so odd to have a day as good as this one, to feel as... hopeful as she did today, when otherwise life is just one day after another.

"No, of course not! Please, sit. It's good to see you. I was thinking of calling you, actually. How are you?"

When she takes a second to look at her, though, Marissa seems as good as Julia is today, too. Maybe there's just something in the water. It's a good thing though, she feels.

Something in the water is right. More than just a little something, too, but Marissa will explain that soon enough.

She takes the seat and then quickly orders a cup of hot chocolate from the waitress. She might get some food too, but she's too focused on the subject at hand to spend too much time looking at the menu.

"I'm fine," she replies. "Had a bit of a batty day, but sort of in a good way." At that point, she leans forward across the counter to really get Julia's attention. "Something's different about this place. I don't know how to explain it without sounding mad, but you wouldn't believe some of the cases I saw today at the hospital."

Marissa meant to ask why Julia had wanted to call her, but they can get to that later.

She leans in easily when Marissa does, all too excited to hear whatever it is because she just has a feeling that it's good, as good as Julia's day had been. And it turns out they don't have to get to anything later because that's more or less what Julia had wanted to say in the first place.

"That's what I wanted to call you about! Well, not the hospital, obviously, but that things are different."

The specifics they can get to later, but Julia gives a little wave.

"Go on. What happened at the hospital?"

Things are different for Julia too? That only causes the excitement that's balled up in Marissa's stomach to whip around inside her, leaving her near breathless. She wants to hear what happened to Julia, but she doesn't mind sharing first.

"We had quite a few people come in with odd stories about how they're now able to do things they never could before. Like hear someone writing on a piece of paper from three rooms away, or suddenly ending up in a different part of town without warning."

Marissa had been skeptical at first, of course. Any good scientist has to possess a good balance of skepticism and openmindedness, as far as she's concerned.

"I was't sure what to make out of it at first, but we ran some tests and a lot of it checked out." Marissa hasn't noticed anything physically different about herself, but her mood is definitely on the up-and-up because of all this.

"You can't be serious!" But Julia is far too excited for the alternative to be true; she desperately wants Marissa to be telling the truth because this is the kind of thing that's been fueling her all day. Not exactly the same kind of thing, but just ideas for different kinds of devices or serums that she never would've thought of before.

"Have you been able to tell what's causing it? Is there something... infecting people, for lack of a better term?" But not in a bad way, obviously.

It's entirely possible that this is something they shouldn't be excited about. What if these people are sick, and the side effects will start to show themselves soon? But right now Marissa can only process the excitement of something so wonderfully unexpected.

"Well, we've run all kinds of tests, trying to look for a correlation between everyone. We haven't been able to pin anything down yet, but we're working on it." That alone has been enough to keep her attention all day, and the only reason she left the hospital is because she'd been more or less chased out by her coworkers.

Marissa's hot chocolate arrives and she takes a sip of it, then studies Julia across the table. "How about you?"

That's fascinating, and Julia wants to help very badly, even if her training doesn't technically run in that direction. She spent most of her day mired in biochemical research, though, gradually getting more advanced than her college training had actually taken her until she'd come up with some interesting designs first for a compound, and then a kind of gun, despite her specialities lying elsewhere.

"I was trying to plan my lecture, when I got this... idea, or the seed of an idea. I think I could develop this into a sort of... Well, not really a weapon, but a way to freeze someone, incapacitate them without doing any harm."

It sounds stranger saying it out loud, and so Julia pulls a napkin over and takes out a pen, quickly sketching out some notes and chemical compounds.

"It's quite -- well, not simple. It's actually quite complicated, but once it's worked out, it ought to work." It just seems so simple to her; even now, the notes she's sketching seem to fly out of her, like she's already done this before.

A gun that can stun someone without harming them? It's a rather random thing to get a sudden epiphany about, and Marissa tilts his head in curiosity, hiding her mouth behind her mug of hot cocoa as Julia sketches everything out.

Similarly, her expertise lies in anatomy and diagnosing patients, rather than anything as complex as biochemical engineering. Still, she takes the piece of paper and puzzles out what she can.

"I have complete faith in you," she says with a bright smile when she hands it back. "I'm not sure what kind of use it would have in Storybrooke, though. Are you thinking of selling the idea to the highest bidder, once it's fully developed?"

Julia could make a fortune on something like that. This might be the big step she needs to get out of this place and find her true calling, and Marissa's thrilled on her behalf, practically beaming with it.

She seems almost startled by the idea. She had turned her thoughts to practical implications, but money for herself had not been included among those thoughts. With money, though, she might be able to get out of here, and make sure her father was comfortable.

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose. Mainly I was thinking about what it might mean to have weapons like these replace guns in police departments, for example. Why would you need a real weapon against another person, even if they are armed, if you can incapacitate them so easily?"

She shrugs, turning the napkin back around and smoothing a finger over one of the curling corners.

"Money would be nice, though. I'd buy myself a first-class ticket out of here." She smiles briefly at Marissa; it's not an unfamiliar topic of conversation for them.

That would be a good use for such an invention, although Marissa can't quite help the cynical though that the police already have tasers they could use, yet they usually end up using their guns anyway.

"Well, it can be a helpful change in the law enforcement system and also a way for you to make some extra money," Marissa points out. The best of both worlds. She would like nothing more than to see Julia succeed.

Especially if it means that she can get out of Storybrooke. Marissa's eyes light up and she smirks, partly joking, as she says, "If you're going to do that, then you'd better take me with you!"

In reality, it would be rather depressing to have the person in her life that she feels understands her most leave her here.

"Of course! That would be ideal." The hardest part of imagining a life outside of Storybrooke is that she would have to leave people behind -- her father, Lawrence, Marissa -- and that seems too... unfortunate, though she wonders what she would do if she were really given the choice. So far it just hasn't happened for her; too much has held her here, but if she could leave, would she? Would she hang back, or would she get out of here without them? She's almost afraid to say yes to that because what would that mean for her friends and family? Does it mean that she loves them less?

"Just think what we could accomplish if we had a real wealth of resources, not just what Storybrooke can offer us." She smiles wistfully, though it's probably better not to get lost in this kind of daydreaming.

As serious as Marissa is about leaving (and she is rather serious), she has things that are holding her back too. It's hard to imagine abandoning all of her longterm patients, for instance, but an even larger factor is Benji. He is not her responsibility -- logically, she knows that, and yet she's not sure that she could handle the guilt of leaving him here. Maybe she can convince him to come along too, somehow.

"We'd take the world by storm, I'm sure of it." Marissa can't help but feel that their talents are being wasted in this place. They could be meant for so much more, and they won't know until they try.

"You never know, Julia. This may be the first big step toward something real." Something's happening here in Storybrooke, and Marissa isn't about to let it pass her by.

Later in the day Monday, Julia will have a knock on her office door. Lori's senior prank has gotten her in trouble, so guess what? It's mentor time! Plus something really weird happened that she needs to get off her chest in a safe environment...

Julia's just putting in the motions today at work; class had been kind of a disaster, as she'd been distracted, until finally she pulled an assignment out of her arse that'd kept them working quietly at their desk. She rubs at her temples in her office as memories pop up here and there of someone named Jemma wearing her face and having a very different experience at university. The knock startles her, but she's almost grateful for the chance to focus on something and someone else.

"Come in," she calls, trying to sound cheerful. She straightens up and tugs on her shirt.

Lori pops her head through the door, trying for a smile herself. "Hey, Jul. You got a minute?"

Not even waiting for the answer, she comes in and flops into a chair, dropping her book bag on the floor.

"So you know that prank idea I had that you told me in no uncertain terms not to do? Well, I did it. Aaaaaand I got suspended." She tries to rush through the last sentence, hoping Julia won't pick up on it. "But something even weirder happened, something crazy and kind of sciencey, and you're probably going to think I'm going crazy, but I really need to talk to someone about it."

Oh, dear. She already has a feeling that this isn't going to go well, but she is glad to see Lori, nonetheless. The girl has had her troubles, but it's hard for Julia to say that she isn't sympathetic. This town is stifling. She does have something to say about being suspended, but before she even finishes sucking in the breath to talk, Lori keeps going.

And now Julia is both concerned and very interested.

"What happened?"

"Iblewsomethingup." She's so excited to finally say it out loud that she rushes through the sentence. "Like, not with explosives or anything, just with my hands!" Hands which she is currently waving about excitedly.

"I was angry about being suspended and I was walking home, and so I just kind of went 'Ugh!' at this garbage can on the street and it went 'BOOM!' and blew up!" She looks at Julia pleadingly. "I'm not crazy. Tell me I'm not crazy, Jul."

"With your hands?"

She remembers what Marissa had told her about people coming into the hospital with powers, and Julia leans forward, very interested. And also concerned, of course; blowing things up is never really a good thing, especially only with your hands.

"I don't think you're crazy. Did anyone get hurt? Were you hurt?"

"Yeah! Just..." She makes a small gesture, and thankfully nothing on Julia's desk explodes. "...Like that."

She rakes a hand through her hair. It's a huge relief that Julia believes her, but she's still stressed out over the whole thing. "No, that's the thing. It felt great. Like, like, I dunno, like I was supposed to be doing it."

Simmons quickly considers her options and what's smart, but then makes up her mind.

"Is it something you can control? I'd like to see it, but not if it means we're going to blow up a building or set the woods on fire."

Lori pauses to think, and then nods. "I think so. We might want to go outside, though. Just in case."

She doesn't want to get in any more trouble today.

Controlled fires are the better kinds of fires, in Julia's opinion. She nods and stands, and she wads up a few pieces of paper she doesn't need, tossing them into her trashcan, which she picks up.

"Out we go then. Let's go to the west field. It's nice and empty."

"Alright."

Lori follows Julia out of the building to the field. She stands, clenching and releasing her fists, nervous about trying to blow something up on purpose. But at least Julia doesn't think she's crazy, so there's that.

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why don't we sit back mellow again and have a nice afternoon?

Day 2.5

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this is before their memories come back, right?

Yeah.

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Oct 25

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10/27

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