world lying fallow
Mack's eyes fell on the mission briefs laid out on his desk. There were just a handful he'd had pulled out to review in preparation for a new mission. It wasn't pressing, it was important, there was no way that he was going to get it done.
Every time he actually fixed his eyes to the paper they managed to slide over and over and over the papers without absorbing any of it. The more he tried to reign in some focus the less it seemed like he actually could.
The more he wanted to put it all away and just throw his head down on the solid oak over and over again so there was a tangible reason for the aching in his head.
His begged for distraction arrived with a quick series of knocks at the door. It was Piper's rhythm. She opened the door and closed it quickly behind her. In her hands there was a tablet she seemed to use for everything.
"Hello Agent." She gave a small response. A blank face she could manage but he could read the uncertainty in her voice, the small twitch of her hands.
"As you asked I looked into agent Johnson's personel files." Her voice trailed off. He waited patiently knowing while she looked up, then down, then cleared her voice, then finally began.
"I checked the original files as well as the new system. According to the first there was no birth year or even a solid birthday for Agent Johnson. As she had no idea of her history there were a few facts that weren't filled out but her birth year was just left - blank." She tilted her tablet so Mack could see the the photocopy of a shield intake form, to see the blank year, before bringing it back to herself.
"There is an exact date on her newer file though. According to this she would have turned seventeen within the first few months on the BUS crew but by the time that this paperwork was filed under Director Mance she was an adult and so there wasn't anything to be flagged." Mac nodded along while trying to remember if they had celebrated Daisy's birthday during that time.
He knew for a fact that they had all missed one while she was on the run. It was probably her eighteenth he realized distantly. He'd gotten her a soft purple blanket set and had put it for her in her bunk with a ribbon when she'd returned.
It had been the softest one he could find. Bought it because he'd wanted his friend to have some softness when the world seemed to be getting so unbearably harsh. It had probably all burned up. Exploded with nearly everything she'd owned.
Piper broke him from his depressing spiral.
"Director, I wasn't connected to SHIELD at that point. Did that all really happen like how Agent Johnson said. Did the other SHIELD really try and kill one of their own agents for developing powers?"
His SHIELD. He may have chosen to follow Coulson but he'd also spied on them, betrayed them. Fed top secret information to others that refused to trust or even try to meet with Coulson and his crew.
Was it him or Bobbi that had told them were Daisy had been sent? What story would Gonzales have tried to tell him about why they'd shot an agent who hadn't even known there were rival factions got shot by their agents.
His head throbs as he remembered the chaos back then. Trip dead, everyone grieving, and Daisy falling apart into small pieces while no one had any idea what was happening in her mind. The way she'd paced the clear glass quarantine she'd stayed that. That look in her eyes as she was trying to keep it all together.
He had felt so strongly about powers back then, he'd had good reason. Mack had seen first hand what destructive abilities could do, had done over and over again. Within a few years it had gone from complete fiction to something anyone could have. It was terrifying.
After the two shields he somehow became one of the people advocating for their safety. SHIELD had merged, they'd become partners, and Daisy had never held any of it against him. Never held anything against anyone except for the intense hatred she'd felt for Ward. Her 'ex in the basement'. The joke felt even less funny now.
He'd known that she was younger then most of them. For fuck's sake everyone had called her kid as a joke but he'd just assumed she was somewhere in her early twenties. He'd never asked. Why hadn't he asked? It made sense not to pry with her childhood considering she'd always just deflect with a joke and change the conversation. Sometimes it had felt like she just apparated fully formed with a badge on her hip and he hadn't questioned it.
Mack hadn't been the director back then though, Coulson was. What the fuck had the man been thinking? Coulson was too good of an agent to not know something as simple as how old a new recruit was. Had he known what was happening? Had he just chosen not to ask?
His mental tirade was stopped with a bright dinging noise and Piper informing him.
"Agent Johnson just sent a message in saying that she had arrived at her hotel and that she will be back tomorrow. She says that she thinks the news anchor might have compelled her a bit but she doesn't think any of the information was sensitive. She also wants to apologize for getting too personal on camera."
Speak the truth. The interviewer had said that repeatedly and it had seemed innocuous at the time if a bit pushy. It made sense now. Daisy didn't tend to open up like that to complete strangers. Then all of a sudden she was spilling her life story.
Maybe the interviewer was the first person who'd listen. Mack blinked hard at the thought.
He dismissed Piper and she quietly closed the door behind her leaving him to his thoughts. He pulled out an old picture of the bus days from before the two SHILEDs had been exposed. Then they had all been learning how to be friends and Fits was still recovering from what happened to him in the ocean and Hunter was trying to break the ice. Hunter had been the one to take this picture he remembered.
She was beaming straight at the camera in a way that he couldn't remember her doing in who knows how long. When was the last time? Before the lighthouse, the framework, Lincoln's death.
In a fit of self pity and punishment he opened up a protected device and started to look at the world response. To see what the world thought of SHEILD. Of Daisy.
@RadSocialGirl
You're telling me that SHIELD grabbed a 16 yr old off the streets and made her an agent. Turned a blind eye when she was being groomed by her supervising officer. Let her go on missions where she almost died. Sent a kill squad after her at 17 and let an agent get away with attacking and nearly killing her at 19. What the Fuck. How the hell wasn't this flagged anywhere!
@worldofpurefrustation
Shield is a group that answers mostly internally. There's a chance that they lied about her age, Also because she had a pretty weird recruitment I could see that fact quietly disappearing. I mean SHIELD has changed radically multiple times in the last four years as well.
@DrGladstonetalks
I have worked as a counselor for many years manly with woman. This interview with Miss Johnson bears many similarities to women I know who were in domestic violence and trafficking situations. Her situation in all honestly is a very good example of these girls. As a foster child she had no support system and no one outside of this organization who has convinced her that she is only worth what she can do for them. She is deprived of love, feels these are the only people who are capable of loving her, and that in order to receive this love she must tolerate that abuse.
@Lily Redd
The fact that she specifically talks about wanting understanding and kindness and trust for other Ka'talka but doesn't seem upset that she herself is denied that.
@Percythepoet
To receive that love she must tolerate the abuse. Jesus. I can't believe she can go through all that and still think they love her.
-1156 replies-
Hello everyone. Today we learnt that the face of shield is a fucking child soldier. I think today is the time to do something about it.
She's like twenty man.
Yeah but she was literally sixteen when a government agency kidnapped her.
Okay but she could have left.
And where could she have went? She literally has nowhere else to go?
Then why is everyone telling her to leave?
@AthenaForeman
I am a former female soldier who was forced to leave the military after I was assaulted. Daisy Johnsons reaction to the support and kindness that Bridget Waters showed her was destroying. The cruelty that victims can be forced to endure in these systems is inhumane and I cannot begin to imagine how much worse than it would be when you are completely isolated and do not have any connection outside of it. So Agent Johnson, from one survivor to another. You are not alone and you were Never at fault. #StandWithQuake.
@Danthewatcher
As an observer of international politics you often see other countries derided for crimes they are not alone in. We have all discoursed about black widow and the tragedy of child super soldiers. Turns out that for years we have had our own black widow who we have glorified, demonized and sexualized in equal measure. How will we react now when we are the criminals? When the victim is a woman of colour who has been at the mercy of our systems since infancy? # StandWithQuake
@Babycakkes
SHE WAS FORCED TO STEP DOWN FROM ACTING DIRECTOR BECAUSE SHE WAS ATTACKED AND THEY VALUED THE ABUSIVE MAN MORE THAN HER…. (not sure there are any circumstances wherein in a teenager should be leading a spy agency but seriously. Making a woman step down because you won't do the bare minimum to protect her… ffs)
@Babycakkes
Hey does anyone remember how Daisy Johnson offhandedly revealed that she was SOLD INTO SLAVERY. I didn't until my second watch through. Everything she said was so horrifyinf I missed the part about a teenager being sold into slavery. EVERYTHING SHE SAID WAS SO HORRIFYING I MISSED THE PART ABOUT A TEENAGER BEING SOLD INTO SLAVERY.
@Ryanschooler
What is the legality of this? Not on SHIELD's side. That was almost certainly illegal but what about Quake. She's like twenty now but she was a minor when she was signed on as an agent (with strong hints of duress). Were the forms she signed legally binding or can she get out of this?
@MorganClearly
I know my followers are asking me about my opinions. As you all know I have complicated views on superhero's and the government. I have complicated views on most things. Right now I want to focus on the the picture in my head that I can't erase. A sixteen year old girl getting kidnapped off of the streets. That same girl at twenty crying from a wound she hasn't even begun to process. I am sorry agent Johnson. I'm sorry that no one saw them take you. That no one called for help and the fact that even if they had nothing would have been done.
Hello everyone. As you know I am a blog that attempts to dive into the nitty gritty of shield. As a spy agency anything they have done post Hydra has been notoriously hard to track. I have gained a few pictures over the years of SHIELD and avengers but in light of what happened today I wanted to try and find some pictures of Daisy Johnson.
First off I think I know who her original SO was.
Daisy said her first SO was a HYDRA agent who tried to groom her and was about thirty at the time. One of the most horrifying sentences have ever had to type out. There was however a really high profile case involving a man of that exact description. His name is Grant Ward, his brother was a senator.
Because SHIELD's files were dropped I could see some things. For example Grant Ward was highly skilled, noted to be antisocial and was sent to some team called the BUS a few months before the Hydra reveal. There's not a lot but according to an internal message he was noted as being assigned to train an agent in the field. This doesn't really make sense because agents were sent to training academies or transferred in so this must have been a special case.
The agent was called Skye, no last name. She has no birthdate was acquired to the team during the first mission and was weirdly listed as both consultant and training agent but no real paperwork within that. Her name is also linked with an acquisition form for a very specific piece of tech. Shield developed a type of bracelet that was able to shut down any and all technology the wearer tries to use and lets Shield know their location at all times. This is something they do with the most advanced hackers. I won't go into the ethical ramifications of this kind of control especially being exerted over a 16 year old with no record of why but I will say that this is a level of proof as Daisy Johnson has talked about hacking before.
The other reason I think that Daisy Johnson originated on the bus is because of the mention of a couple who she had to save on occasion. The Bus had two doctors on board, one who specialized in biomedical and one in engineering. Their names were Dr Leopold Fitz and Dr Jemma Simmons. Neither were cleared for the field and both were rising stars in the scientific world and went dark with Shield. According to some Stem Friends they have since published. I cannot find any proof that they were romantic. According to what I know they were same age and there is no proof that they either of them were in relationships with anyone else.
The most damning is the fact that there is a message from the BUS group to a SHIELD medical center saying they were arriving with a critical condition agent who had received a GSW to the abdomen and had lost a significant amount of blood. They were being treated on the way by Dr Simmons. Patient was also identified as a young female meaning it was likely Skye.
This is mostly subjective without confirmation I cannot say for certain however the overlap with the people she mentioned and the gunshot injury makes it seem likely.
Comments
Hey, as someone who has worked in bioengineering Fitzsimmons are well known and revolutionary in certain academic circles. They always publish as a team but never discussed their relationship. They lead the medical industry's understanding of inhumanism and terragenesis and their patented inventions are often very specific but are adapted for a variety of uses. They released work before the fall of Shield and after it was relegitimized.
Would make sense if they were working with an inhuman before terrrigen was exposed to most people.
Am I the only one who thinks putting a tracking bracelet on a 16 year old that doesn't let them use the internet is the most insanely fucked up thing?
From what I can tell they only used this as a method of punishment but not for people that worked for them. Whatever happened there's no filing for it. No matter what that is incredibly messed up when you add in the other things that happened to her.
Remember that she got shot on her tenth mission. Remember she got groomed by her SO. They didn't want her able to contact the outside world. She wouldn't have become Quake if there had been one concerned adult looking out for her.
Thank you so much for your investigation. Being able to do anything to validate her story is incredible. I also agree with the above. Shield dropped literally all their data and they were notoriously anal about everything, you can find acquisition forms for pencils so the lack of files about this team that we see here is suspicious at best.
Did Shield regularly not list the age of the people they were working with? If not then there was something happening.
Back at the hotel Daisy sluggishly went right to her room and flopped face first into the bed. She should probably just check out and go back to SHIELD but by god she was tired.
She'd accidentally spilled her guts on live television and cried for the first time in weeks. hell it may have been the first real cry that she had had in months. She felt.. raw. Like when you scrub your skin too hard and sink into a steaming hot bath.
The last few weeks had been spent doing mission after mission. Doing whatever she could to grieve Coulson and honour his memory. To try and keep going. Now she felt like she was stopping. Like she was gonna sink into the bed and stay there forever.
As for the interview fallout. Well she'd already sent a message to Mack and he'd probably respond later rather than sooner. Far as she knew she didn't say anything dangerous. Right now though she was a little too drained to care.
Just as she reached to set a phone alarm the light up. It was May. Almost instantly she accepted the call.
"Hey May." She greeted.
"Hey Daisy." May's voice was soft, calm… Patient..
"You saw the interview." She groaned out, half flopping on the bed.
"I did. Would I be wrong if I guessed that the reporter had found a way to compel you to tell the truth?" Of course May would figure it out instantly .
"Ugh. It just all, came out. Like I couldn't stop telling her everything. Thank god she just wanted personal trauma's and not classified information. We should honestly consider recruiting her for interrogations.
"I doubt that a woman who spends her entire life wearing heels and smiling at celebrities could handle a SHIELD interrogation." Daisy snorted at the idea of a mob bossed being met with a Bridget Waters. Then she sobered up.
"How bad do you think I embarrassed myself by crying my guts out on national television? Was I ridiculous?" She was expecting a firm response but May just hummed and took her time.
"You were brave. Most people couldn't talk about all that and just walk away." Daisy made some noise of acknowledgement and relaxed into the silence.
"Daisy. I need to tell you- when Phil brought you on-. I could tell you needed something, a purpose, a family. I thought Phil could-. I knew you were keeping your secrets but I chose to let you keep them. I didn't press. I don't know if that was the right choice." Daisy didn't think she's ever heard May being so Open about everything. Never heard her being so unreasonably guilty.
"May. Without SHIELD nothing good would have happened to me. I was going down a bad path and Miles would have been pushing me down it." Her badass mentor made a frankly hilarious grumbling noise at the reminder of her ex.
"You wouldn't have," She said it like she knew Daisy better than herself. There were times when she did. A beat passed
"I know I don't say it often but I am proud of who you've become." Daisy let herself feel that moment. How warm it was. Blinked back the tears and tried to make light of it
"Jeez May, what turned you into such a massive softie." They both stayed silent for a moment suddenly remembering why. Daisy wondered if she should apologize but May said.
"Well I have to say it enough for the both of us. He really loved you." Daisy swallowed, feeling the shaking in her chest that had nothing to do with her powers and everything to do with her weakness.
"I know. I think it was the one thing I never really doubted." Coulson had loved her. Gave her her first chance. Gave her his last chance. Saying loved in the past tense didn't even feel right. All that love couldn't just stop or go away, even if he wasn't there.
"There's something else I think I need to apologize for-" Daisy tried to cut her off.
"You don't." May ignored her.
"I do. Listen, when everything was happening….. When I came back I knew Fitz took out the inhibitor but we were all so focused on the edge of the world that I didn't reach out. I never even checked on your injury cause I thought that Simmons…" May trailed off.
"She had a lot going on. We all did." Her gut clenched on instinct as she remembered all the panic, accusations, guilt, of that time. The half anger as she felt like everyone around her had gone insane.
"But no one was there for you." May took another pause, another breath before speaking in a tone that was sure and knowing.
"Pushing things away. Pushing yourself through. That works for a while, for getting though missions and the end of the world but when that's done Daisy, you need to sit in it, process. I know that's incredibly hypocritical for me to say but maybe you can learn it now instead of taking forty more years to figure this out." Daisy sighed. May had grown so much lately. She was incredibly proud but she didn't feel ready to catch up. So she pivoted.
"I dunno. They want to send me on the mission to recover Fitz." The dark cold of space, no idea what was going to happen. Her and Jemma and the stars.
"I see." May said in a voice that was saying a lot.
"I know you love Shield Daisy and I know how much you love Jemma but I need to ask you. Can you look out yourself and make sure that going to save him isn't going to hurt you?" And because it was May and May alone Daisy let herself think about it.
She wanted another big mission. To keep going and going and going. Another part of her, a part that was small and simple and young, was tired. That part was crying that she just wanted a body that could stay still and not buzz with the world, could sleep through noise and alarms.
"I'm not sure. I will think about it though."
"Okay. I know it's probably pretty late where you are so I'll let you go."
"What's it like there?" Tahiti. She hadn't left yet.
"Beautiful. Sunny. You should come visit sometime." She smiled. It was a nice thought. Her and May and nothing to do. Tai Chi on the beach.
"I love you May."
"Night Daisy." May didn't say it back. She didn't have to.
That night she let herself set the alarm for longer than she thought she should and just went to bed unaware of what was going on in the world. In this moment she was warm and someone loved her enough to call and the world wasn't ending. Daisy let herself sleep.