Jemma Simmons is a terrible liar (needanewplan) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-09-20 08:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, cosima niehaus, jemma simmons |
Who: Jemma and Cosima
What: Cosima gets a somewhat gruesome dream gift.
When: 20 September 2016, morning
Where: Jemma’s flat
Warnings: A partially decomposed human head, some language
Status: Log | Complete
The dreams were getting a little more dire now. Not that they ever hadn’t been, but Sarah had some bot thing in her face, and that alone was disconcerting. But Cosima was also still sick in the dreams. She was watching herself getting worse, but she at least had a makeshift lab set up with Scott. There was also the growing medical grade marijuana that she tended to smoke for her health.
But Cosima wasn’t focusing on herself. There was too much else going on. Sarah having that bot thing in her face. Another clone sister coming into the picture. Delphine was still missing and seemingly presumed dead.
And then Alison had something that could potentially help. A nicely wrapped package had arrived at the hobby store, and Cosima and Scott unwrapped it to reveal that it was Aldous Leekie’s partially decomposed head. It had been more than a little disgusting. But Leekie had the same thing in his face that Sarah did, so Cosima was going to learn all she could about it.
Upon waking up, she grabbed her glasses and peered at the clock. It was early, but she decided to get up anyways and get an early start. She slid out of bed, but got all of two steps before she tripped over something. She stumbled, but caught herself. “What the hell?” She questioned as she turned to see what she’d tripped over. And the package was one that was all too familiar. “Holy shit,” she muttered.
As per usual, Jemma had woken up early and had already done her morning workout and shower by the time Cosima woke up. As was often the case, Jemma hadn’t paid her dreams too much mind. Well no. As a scientist, she was intrigued by the fact that the team was going to Asgard to try and stop an assassination of Odin to save Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but for the most part, nothing too emotionally draining as had been the case with her first set of dreams. That, and compartmentalization.
Walking into the room having dressed already in the bathroom, the biochemist was towel drying her hair when she heard Cosima mutter under her breath.
“Is everything o--” Asking the question as she’d walked to the bed, Jemma just stopped short and looked between her girlfriend and the floor and her girlfriend again. “Is that a decomposing head on my floor?”
Cosima looked up at Jemma. “This is so not what it looks like. I don’t collect decomposing heads for a hobby.” Not that she thought Jemma was accusing her of anything. It was just her natural reaction to the situation apparently. Besides, she couldn’t exactly claim responsibility for killing Leekie in the dreams. She’d just been the recipient of his head.
“To answer your question, yes it is. Let me saran wrap it and then I’ll explain.” Because it was actually really kind of disgusting. Dissection in classes had been one thing. She had no qualms with that. It was an actual human head that was partially decomposed that got her. But she quickly darted out to get some saran wrap and returned and began to wrap Leekie’s head up.
“Not my idea of a gift, but this is actually really useful. You remember in my dreams, Aldous Leekie who was the scientist working with DYAD and was a Neolutionist? Well. This is his him. Or his head, anyway.” Cosima explained, then picked the head up and looked him in the face. She then looked up at her girlfriend. “And recently as my dreams started up, Sarah’s got some creepy bot thing in her face? Well, Alison thought Leekie might have one in his face as well since it seems to be a Neolution thing, so she sent me his head. Turns out he has one.” She turned his head to look at the right cheek.
Even after a year plus together, all Jemma could do was quirk a brow at the comment on how it wasn’t what it looked like. So she just smirked some in amusement, “Well, that’s certainly a relief.” Because really, even with a decomposing head on the ground, it was an opening for teasing her girlfriend some. They all needed some levitity in the insanity that was their lives in Orange County. As if their work and Cosima working on her dissertation weren’t stressful enough.
Jemma had seen enough death thanks to her dreams, the decomposing bodies or melting of the ‘Primitives’. Still all she could do was just stare at the decomposing head until Cosima came back and started to wrap it in saran wrap. So right. Back to towel drying her hair.
“Well, I do like when these items are useful. But yes, I remember.” The next question that didn’t need to be asked was why was the literal head of DYAD, or...former literal head? This was weird. Either way, there was a question as to why Cosima had it and why the dreams felt it necessary to show up. On her bedroom floor. Not that the answer really made much more sense. “And…. Alison has his decomposing head because….?”
Yes. Bot thing in face bad. And something that she felt would be necessary to check Sarah for at some point. But the question still remained why did Alison have the head in the first place.
Cosima took the teasing in stride. Really, she had left the door open for it. But considering she’d only just woken up and had the surprise of tripping over Leekie’s disgusting head, she was trying to gather her wits about her. Which was complicated by getting the head wrapped so she could put it in some container to transport it to the Agency. She needed to get the bot out of his face, and she needed to analyze it. The Agency should have it on file in the event anyone from Neolution showed up here and tried to start shit. And if Sarah had the bot in her face here? Well, she definitely needed to analyze it to help her sister.
Then came the obvious question, the one Cosima had expected. Luckily, she had the answer to that question. And it was one that made her want to laugh on some level because it was kind of hilarious. Everyone would have suspected Alison to be the one who’d killed Leekie, but no. It was Donnie. And then they’d apparently gone all mafia on how they disposed of the body.
“Alison had it because her husband Donnie kind of accidentally shot Leekie in the head and killed him.” Yeah, Cosima may have chuckled a bit because it was comical. “And apparently instead of trying to report the death with a spin on what happened or anything, they decided to bury Leekie’s body. Under the cement floor of their garage.” And then there was a laugh because seriously. It was like something out of the Sopranos. “I shouldn’t laugh, but man it’s really kind of comical.”
Just because Jemma was more restrained and ‘proper’ didn’t mean she was incapable of taking openings when she saw them. Or the pranks at the Academy. Those had been fun. Not of consequence here, but really. She usually came in at the unexpected moments, tended to be sarcastic and blunt. It was just her style.
But yes. The obvious question did need to come. Because well…. There really was no other question to ask. It was going to be the pressing one until it was cleared up. Not that the answer really made much sense. So all she could do was just quirk a brow as Cosima explained the way Leekie’s head came to her possession as they already knew the benefits.
“I…. see. Well, we can look for the bot when we get to work.” Since obviously this was going to be something that needed to be transported. “I believe I have an ice chest we can transport it in.” Because of course she did.
When Alison was involved, things didn’t really make sense. Yet they also did because Alison was a little on the unhinged side of things at times, but they all were at one time or another. Their lives were insane, and if it wasn’t being hunted by their creators, it was something else. But either way, Cosima did appreciate Jemma’s sense of humor. Even when it was at her own expense.
“Yeah, definitely. This is going to be the project of the day. It’ll be awesome to analyze this with top of the line equipment. I only had the somewhat makeshift lab with Scott in the dreams. So this should provide answers, and knowledge to the Agency of what this does. I mean, it’s actually kind of cool because it can be formulated to do almost anything. Changing DNA, fighting off any number of diseases and illnesses. It’s useful in some ways, but it can also kill you in the blink of an eye with one wrong move.” That wasn’t the best thing to think about, though.
“So this is something we need to have on file in the event any Neolutionists show up here, or if Sarah gets a bot in her face. Because she has one in the dreams and we’re trying to remove it without killing her.” That was the plan anyway, to remove it. Then Cosima lifted the now saran-wrapped head and looked at Leekie. “Who’s the science now, bitch?” She seriously couldn’t help herself with that one, and quoting her dream self in the process. It was a good line.
Letting Cosima explain the significance of the bot, Jemma quirked a brow. That was certainly something. You know, minus the whole it could kill you in the blink of an eye with one wrong move. That certainly made it a bit more troublesome and necessary to figure out. After all, it could be quite beneficial… if they could reverse engineer it and get rid of that pesky killing bit. Or just in case they showed up in an Orange County fashion and they were required to remove them.
“Agreed.” Because of course the two were on the same wavelength when it came to the necessity of having the research on this bot. There were too many risk factors involved, no matter the good it could do. “But that is definitely unsettling. I wonder when it was implanted.” Meaning, should they wait to see if Sarah dreamt that far ahead or do the exam now once they had information on the bot.
It was definitely a good line and Jemma just shook her head in amusement. She admittedly had said something similar. Though that had been while she was on Maveth and had killed something so she could eat that had been trying to eat her.
It was better to be prepared than to just keep this bot to themselves and then have them show up in Orange County style and be screwed. Cosima, however, was intensely interested in the science of the matter, which went without saying. She was the geek monkey, the one who followed the science and studied the biology of the clones as much as she could. This bot was no different, even if the ramifications of removing it wrongly were dire.
“I don’t know, and I don’t think even Sarah knows. I examined hers in the dream, obviously with it still in her cheek. It’s both creepy and fascinating because it seems to be organic in some fashion because it acts like it’s alive. It can move on its own, mostly wiggling in place.” Cosima looked at Leekie’s head another moment before she stood upright.
“This is the part of Neolution that kinda freaks me out, but also intrigues me. I mean, the fact that they can not only create human clones, but also have this technology that’s both organic and artificial is kind of mind boggling.”
Jemma may be bad at improvisation, but she was a master of preparation. She was a fan of being prepared. Be it for going under cover, or for anything that might show up. Admittedly it was hard to know what might come forward from the dreams and how to prepare, so that just meant… prepare for everything. And this bot? This bot was definitely going to be a good thing to study.
“Hmm. Well. You’ll probably want to reach out to her about it. It’s never easy to figure out if or when something might happen. But I would think that once she dreams about the bots would be a good time to do an examination.” Not that Cosima wouldn’t reach out to her sister anyway, but it was still something to figure out in terms of science. And them having the information on hand beforehand? Even better.
“It is quite fascinating. Dangerous, but fascinating.” Wasn’t that always the case? That sort of power in the wrong hands…. No thank you. “We’ll see what we figure out at work.”
Preparation was something Cosima could do well. She at least had a good idea of where to start on researching the bot thanks to her dreams. And with the top of the line equipment in the lab, it wouldn’t be long before they could uncover the secrets of the bot. It would be far easier to study it here as opposed to the dreams. No one was hunting them or wanting to keep this knowledge out of their hands.
“Yeah, I’ll definitely be asking her about it. This isn’t something that should go unnoticed for very long.” Especially with how volatile the bot could be, and Cosima didn’t know exactly what could trigger it killing the host. It could be as simple as accidentally biting your cheek and it’d kill you for all she really knew.
“Just wait until you see this once we get it out of Leekie’s cheek.” Then they’d have to find something to do with Leekie’s head once the bot was out. It was possible that they needed some things from him yet, such as DNA samples and to better understand how or why the bot changed someone’s DNA and such.
“No, no it isn’t.” Jemma might not know much about the bot, but from what Cosima had said? This was definitely something that needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. It still didn’t answer when they should look into it as they didn’t know when the bot itself was implanted even then, but it was a situation which the two would need to monitor.
“Believe me, I am looking forward to it.” Because of course she was. Dead things didn’t actually bother her in a scientific fact. She was a scientist, she needed to dissect things! It really was the fact that the decomposing head was on her floor. And new science. That was always something that would make her excited.
“I’m going to finish getting ready.” Admittedly she had less to do to get ready than her girlfriend, but that was irrelevant.
It was somewhat time sensitive, and Cosima knew if Sarah had it here, she’d be more than anxious to get it out sooner rather than later. So there was need to quickly research the bot, and ensure what Sarah knew. It wouldn’t do well if Sarah hadn’t dreamt up to the same place Cosima had.
Cosima grinned at Jemma. “Then this shall be our project today.” It was definitely a good thing that she was going to be working at the lab today anyway, it wouldn’t screw up her schedule for working on her dissertation.
“Alright. I’ll go put Leekie in the ice chest, then get ready.” Cosima could make it quick. Well, relatively quick. Quick shower, but her make-up tended to take the longest of everything. But that was besides the point. There was work to be done, so Cosima would cut her time needed to get ready down.