Jemma Simmons is a terrible liar (needanewplan) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-01-01 11:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, cisco ramon (vibe), jemma simmons |
Who: Cisco and Jemma
What: Running tests, figuring some things out
When: 21 November, a bit after midnight
Where: The Agency
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Cisco was tired of being in pain. Some days were worse than others, so it wasn’t crippling, but it was making life difficult and unfun. Tonight was one of those worse times, so he’d reached out to Jemma. One of these days he’d talk to her without some sort of issue going on , but for now he was just glad she didn’t treat him like a burden for it. The uber he’d called had certainly taken it’s sweet time, Cisco was impatient.
The young engineer finally got his way to the agency around twelve-thirty, dressed in half pajamas. A Star Wars shirt and sweats. At this rate who knew, he might end up sleeping there. He was already tired. Not to the point of worry, but tired nonetheless. It was late, he hadn’t exactly been sleeping but damnit if he was going to bother getting dressed fully. He grabbed a backpack with a change of clothes and ipad in case he just ended up sleeping there after the fact. If he was in constant physical pain he was going to try to have at least one comfy thing. He wore a dark colored hoodie, it was starting to get cold at night.
He made his way to the usual testing area and sank into a chair. For a moment he just waited, a hand on his forehead, resting his elbow on his knee. Yep, it was worse moving around. He felt dizzy and looked a little more pale than usual.
---
Jemma had been finishing up an assignment when she had gotten Cisco’s text and after a brief moment of confusion on why she would have left for Thanksgiving already given it wasn’t for another day and she was British (though her wife was American but Cosima wasn’t that big on the holiday), she had moved on. And was concerned. How could she not be when Cisco said that pain was making him lose track of time?
So she had changed out of her pyjamas and made it to the Agency. She wanted to be upset at Cisco for not saying something sooner, and part of her was. But seeing at how she had kept the whole dying thing from people until she’d fallen into a coma, she really couldn’t say all that much on the matter. It was simply a learning situation that it seemed Cisco would have to learn from as well.
Having gotten to the Agency before Cisco, Jemma had gone to her office to pick up some things and then headed to where Cisco was.
“How are you feeling?”
---
Cisco hadn’t been all that aware that the pain was linked to his powers, but when she called him in and he had no choice but to sit there and think about it-it made sense. “Like I’ve been run over by a truck..” He responded when she appeared again. The discomfort was getting worse and over the counter painkillers weren’t doing anything.
“Ever since we went to that club, it hasn’t stopped. Stiles thought I got drugged, honestly so did I.” The way he’d felt, it was like nothing he’d ever felt before. “I passed out and since then that pain stays.” Sometimes it was dull obviously, he wasn’t just passing out all over the place, but it was present and it was starting to interfere with his life. It forced him to call several early night, but he didn’t want to go to a hospital. They wouldn’t know what to do with weird dream stuff. Hell, he didn’t know what to do with it. “Drugs would have worn off by now I’d think.”
---
While there were plenty of medical reasons Cisco might be having migraines, Jemma was all too familiar with Orange County to assume that was the only explanation. Especially because they had already verified that he had dark matter in his DNA. Which to her meant that this was more to do with that and less to do with a medical concern. And if in the end it was medical, she’d probably have him go to Martha and the medical division.
But that was why there were tests to be run. And why she needed as much information as she could get while she got him set up to the EKG machine. At least it wasn’t going to be blood samples this time given the nature of his pain.
“And how did it start? What seemed to trigger it? I’m going to need you to be as specific as possible.”
Because given he was at a club? There could be any number of triggers. Scent. Lights. Sound. Touch.
---
“It’s kind of fuzzy...” He watched as she began preparations to hook him up. He wasn’t phased by most medical procedures since he knew how they went. He knew they had meaning, they weren’t just scary unknown things to him unlike this-whatever was happening. He was calm enough while she did what she needed to do and he tried to remember everything.
“We’d forgotten to pay tab, I was pretty drunk..So this bartender followed us and grabbed me by the arm. I don’t remember too much after that accept being afraid of him. To the point of passing out, like some kind of fit. I was fine before then, we were just talking and having drinks but he touched me and it was like everything went silent. I saw white. Everyone always talks about seeing red..I saw white and hit the floor.” He’d seen nothing but white noise, and then from there everything went to hell.
“I remember he had a knife, he’d killed someone. But he didn’t. Not there. Not with us.” Cisco’s brows furrowed as he tried to explain it the best he could. Focusing on it made him feel ill. “Someone else ran into us on the way out..I remember being afraid.” Of what, he wasn’t sure. But that was all he could remember. ‘’It felt like that entire building was crushing my chest when I woke up, I couldn’t breathe.” On his phone, he quickly found the story that he’d seen on the news just a few days past. Nightclub shut down, murder, greed and corruption sited as blame. “I saw this on the news after.” The murder weapon described as a knife,and the same bartender had been found guilty of it. “This was the guy who approached us.” He pointed at the bartender’s picture who was now going to be serving life.
---
Jemma listened intently as Cisco described what it was that had happened. Yes, it definitely seemed like it was more to do with the dark matter as opposed to a medical condition given the fact that it seemed to have started once Cisco was touched by the bartender. Which...not the strangest thing she had heard. Between Robin being able to see the future, and her father being able to see the death of someone if he touched them…..
“I see.”
Looking down at the readings she was currently getting, it definitely seemed that the dark matter had be activated.
“I want to test a theory….” And while she wasn’t really the type to share a lot about her Dreams unless asked specifically or because they were just so….exasperating (like ending up in space and the future, or heroes and their bloody civil wars) that sometimes comment was necessary…. She figured it was the easiest way to tell. Assuming her theory was correct. No matter.
With Daisy...Skye… it was hard to keep straight at the moment, well, with her ex and best friend in town and on the network, Jemma had taken to examining the senses inhibitor she’d woken up with to see if she could figure it out should Daisy wake up with her own even though that was tied to powers instead. Best to be prepared. But because of the trauma and general strong residual emotional energy attached to it, it seemed the best test subject.
“Here, I want you to hold this.”
If it was touch based and if her theory was correct, then Cisco would undoubtedly see things that only she could verify. And if not, well… she would cross that bridge when they got there.
---
Currently all the readings were stable and everything was fine, nothing erratic showed up on the charts while he was fiddling with his phone. But, that phone belonged to him. It had no trauma tied to it unlike certain other dream related items he hadn’t touched yet. He hadn’t thought to bring the sunglasses with, he didn’t know what they could do yet for him. The dreams had dropped them in his lap, but the only thing he knew was they looked kinda cool. He’d left them as decoration on his counter.
Then as he put down the phone and Jemma was handing him something, he raised an eyebrow. “Okay but I don’t see what this will prove. The last time it happened it was a person-” Cisco couldn’t finish his words once the item was in his palm. He’d gone silent and rigid. He’d entirely stopped breathing for a moment in time, but his eyes were still wide open. The intensity the small item flooded his head with consumed him. He couldn’t see or hear anyone around him, he’d entirely forgotten where they were and his vitals dropped rapidly.
Only they didn’t just drop, they scattered. Like they were confused at where to filter through so his entire nervous system was overloaded. The tiny item fell from his hands after to him what seemed like eternity, and to her what probably was under a minute-he also fell forward. The dark matter in his system was entirely confused, it had nowhere to properly be filtered out. Cisco blacked out, but his breathing and vitals began to regulate on their own again once that item was out of his hands.
---
It was true that her theory might not have worked given the fact as Cisco mentioned that when it had happened before, it was a person and not an item. However she also figured that it was worth a shot because like it or not, there was a lot tied into the inhibitor and it would be something that she alone could verify if her theory came to be true. Then he stopped mid-sentence and Jemma blinked.
“Cisco?”
The readings from the EKG machine were definitely unusual, the dark matter seeming to go haywire. Which was why she had it recording, especially as she quickly moved forward to stabilize Cisco and keep him from falling to the ground. She probably should have anticipated that as well but too late now.
Right now it was making sure that Cisco was okay, and a look to her ipad which was recording everything seemed to indicate that his vitals were returning to normal now that he no longer had the senses inhibitor in had.
---
For a good while, he wasn’t able to say anything at all. His entire system had just gone into shock. All the Dark matter scattered about pinging various nerves and things that were tied to that machine. He didn’t respond until it stalized, and he looked up in pure confusion.
“Wha--?” He couldn’t get a full sentence out, but his eyes began to flutter and react once the dark matter dissipated and calmed the fuck down. It’d caused a sort of seizure like reaction. “Where am I?” He was confused, Jemma was holding him upright in a lab of some kind. Most labs looked the same.
Oh.
“Did I pass out again?” He frowned as he attempted to stand upright but ended up just needing to sit back instead.
--
With Jemma making sure Cisco was okay, it was definitely a good thing that the readings were being recorded so that she could get a better look at them once things had calmed down and she was certain that Cisco was okay. So when he was able to even form a full sentence? That was when Jemma relaxed even slightly.
“We’re in my lab.”
And she remained beside Cisco as he tried to stand up (something he really shouldn’t be doing at that exact moment) and nodded at the second question.
“You did. The dark matter in your system had a very...intense… reaction to touching the senses inhibitor that it shut down your body by putting you into shock.”
Even without doing a full diagnosis of the reactions, that much was clear.
---
He wanted to be able to stand on his own, to prove that he was able-but his footing was unstable. He was forced to sit back down behind them. His hand touched his forehead in pain. “Explains why everything hurts.” He frowned a bit as he gingerly touched his eyes. Then they traveled down toward the small item she’d handed him. “All that because of this?” He didn’t dare reach down to pick it up himself though, not yet. He was afraid to.
With good reason. Moments after his nose started bleeding again. He felt it touch his skin and moved his hand to stop it from dripping all over the place. “Christ on a cracker, not again” He tried tilting his head upward so he didn’t bleed all over the place. “Got a towel or something?” This happened the last time too, like his body didn’t know what to do with the dark matter so it was trying to reject it.
--
Jemma had been about to respond when Cisco’s nose started to bleed and so instead went and grabbed him a towel, handing it to him.
“All because of that. There’s...strong emotions tied to it,” It seemed so innocuous but what it stood for, what she’d been forced to endure while it was implanted...well, it was what it was. “ and if my theory is correct, strong emotions or impressions seem to be what is triggering this whenever you touch a person or item.” Such as someone being a murderer as well.
While waiting for the bleeding to stop, Jemma replayed the recordings. No rhyme or reason to how the dark matter was responding, no focus. The trick would be in figuring out how to get the dark matter to stabilize so that this didn’t keep happening. It was a matter of control. Just as Daisy needed the gauntlets to focus the vibration manipulation so that she didn’t keep fracturing her arms in the Dreams.
---
At least he’d been expecting that part to happen, it’d happened earlier on with Stiles too after one of those ‘visions’ or ‘vibrations’, whatever they were. It felt like he was getting a vibe off someone, vibrations to be more specific. He sat there for a while just listening to her talk and applying the pressure as he stared up at the ceiling and waited for it to stop before he responded.
“The same thing happened last time.” He offered with a frown, the same damn experience. He’d rather it didn’t keep happening, it would make it hard to have friends. Not being able to touch anyone.
“I saw you, and the blue people... Who’s Ben?” He didn’t know how to explain it, nor much about it except that it must have been bad for her. It felt awful. It felt like he’d seen something he shouldn’t.
---
While Jemma really didn’t like talking about what happened in the Dreams, even with Cosima, she had used the senses inhibitor on the theory Cisco would pick up some things from what had happened in the Dreams while she’d been unable to hear.
“The blue people are a race of alien, the Kree set on domination. Earth had been destroyed and they were enslaving humans while selling Inhumans in gladiator type tournaments. Ben was an Inhuman who decided to help my friend and me when we needed to tell the same story to believed that we were the only ones from the past. He was killed for that. The item was a senses inhibitor. It ensured I was unable to hear anything except Kaisus’ voice, which is how he planned on catching us in a lie, except Ben was a telepath. So he could project thoughts to me so that I knew I was on the right track in the story that my best friend was telling.”
Nothing like trips to the future with destroyed planets and being enslaved. Just one of the many things Jemma tended to compartmentalize.
---
“Oh.” unlike Jemma he couldn't compartmentalize as well as she could. Just hearing that had made him regret asking her. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. “ he felt bad, but finally it seemed the bleeding slowed to a stop and he lowered the towel. “Sorry. “ he touched his nose gingerly, everything was sore.
He was forced to lay back, his body ached. He really was some kind of freaky meta then, only he didn't get a cool power like Barry. He didn't know what this was. “What's wrong with me? “ He asked, but it wasn't really a question, it was more of a disappointed statement.
--
“It’s fine. It’s one of the reasons I chose that item for my theory. It had to be something that only I would know.” Well, Cosima would have known some facts given the fact she was her wife and had needed to deal with the fact Jemma had been deaf for months here thanks to the senses inhibitor. Still, if she had wanted to make certain her feeling that it had something to do with residual energy or emotions or however one wanted to put it, then she needed something personal like that.
“No need to apologise.” At least not as Jemma saw it. It wasn’t Cisco’s fault that he got a nosebleed thanks to his abilities. As for his question on what was wrong with him?
“From what I can tell by your readings, it’s as if the dark matter doesn’t know where to go. There’s no focus. I’ve seen similar things with some Inhumans in my dreams. Such as one person giving themselves fractures because of the force of power exerted based on their abilities so I created gauntlets of a type to help focus the energy to keep them from hurting themself.”
As was often the case when presented with a problem or query, Jemma herself was laser focused and so had missed the disappointment in Cisco’s voice at the question and instead focused on why his body was reacting as it was based on her experiences with Inhumans. Really, it was fascinating the similarities between Inhumans and Metas. Still, the example with Daisy was the closest she could come with at the moment since Abby and Flint had just needed more confidence and something to imagine and so there hadn’t been this sort of physical response.
---
“No focus? Like no direction for it?” He gave that some thought, it distracted from the moment of self pity he was feeling. Any distraction from that was a good one, he didn’t want to be depressing or worry himself to death. He really couldn’t now, he had too many things going on-but given the nature of things, all of it slipped just a little. He was still a bit down, science aside. Try as he might to pick himself mentally back up, it wasn’t working that night. He just listened with a nod as he gingerly touched the towel to his face again until the bleeding stopped for real.
“Like they need a filter?” He questioned as he looked up at her, chewing at the inside of his lower lip for a moment. “The dreams gave me sunglasses. At first I thought they were just more lab equipment, but maybe they have something to do with all this.”
He rested his head back against the wall nearby for just a moment as he tried to regain his sanity over the situation.
---
“Exactly, and so it’s all over the place and thus causing the pain you’re feeling.” Answers. Jemma liked having answers, and if having something to focus on helped Cisco? All the better. Because she was like that herself. Instead of dealing with whatever trauma was going on in her life, Jemma just found something else to focus on. Maybe it wasn’t healthy and was bound to bite her in the long run but it was still how she coped.
So when Cisco mentioned the sunglasses?
“I think that’s highly likely. As a rule, the items which tend to show up seem to have some sort of significance to them.”
Sometimes of the taunting because of emotional trauma (at least in Jemma’s experience, that and dangerous items that took up a lot of the vault) or ones that just had some sort of emotional tie to it. But often it seemed things that also could be of use and help here depending on the situation.
“I know when I woke up infected by an alien virus, I had also gotten tissue samples from said alien so I could make an antiserum.” Given it wasn’t like it was a known quantity in this realm. Just as she had helped Ruby make an antiserum to save her uncle with venom from their dreams. “So if the glasses showed up recently as have your abilities started to manifest more, it stands to reason that they have something to do with managing your abilities.”
---
“Maybe I’ll bring em in. Run some tests. See what they are before I put them on my face.” Anything with skin contact now was getting tests run on it, he was a little spooked. It did give him distraction enough to not just be afraid though, so it wasn’t entirely a bad thing she redirected him. Answers meant less fear of the unknown. Less fear was good.
He tossed the towel into a nearby trash can and laid back on the bed for a bit. “...Can I sleep here?” It was more comforting than being alone anyway, even if she had other things to do in the place, someone was around.
---
“I think that would be a good idea.” It was important to make sure in situations like this, however it was clearly an issue that needed to be rectified sooner as opposed to later. So the sooner that Cisco figured out the glasses to see if they would need to come up with something themselves or not, the better.
As for sleeping there?
“Of course.”
While she hadn’t meant to come in this early...late...it was hard to tell now initially, she was here now so there was plenty of work Jemma could get done while Cisco got some much needed rest.
---
He’d been curious to just put them on, but the fear had held him back. Maybe if he was able to do so with Jemma around he wouldn’t be as afraid. Discussing things with her had helped put some of those worries at ease as it were, so he laid back on the table and looked up at the ceiling.
“Thank you. I’ve been internalizing everything. You being here..it helps.” Cisco had worried himself to the point of exhaustion, even if he wasn’t in a proper bed it seemed he could sleep anywhere just then. His eyes were already closing.
--
While Jemma compartmentalized and rarely spoke about her own issues, she knew that talking things out could help. It helped her when there was a problem that needed to be solved and so really, this was just both of those things.
“Of course, I’m glad I could help.”
Not that Cisco probably heard her since he seemed to be falling asleep as he spoke. Which was fine. There was plenty for her to work on both from before as well as figuring out what they could do in the interim to deal with everything. But at least he was getting sleep.
---