#defending staticquake

[daisylincs]

It's time to see what I can do! To test the limits and break through// no right no wrong no rules for meee// I'm freeeeeeeeee (and i was glad lincoln died)

*silence*

*utter, shocked silence*

Well, Birdie, I only have one thing to say to you --

Why Lincoln Campbell Shouldn't Have Died: A Small Essay By Lily [Redacted]

#1. It’s Lazy. There was all this fuss about how “heart-breaking” Lincoln’s death was, and how it was the most shocking choice, and I’m just like... really? Was it? Because frustrating as it is to me, it’s true that Lincoln didn’t have any significant relationships on the show aside from his with Daisy, and he also didn’t have the time/the writers didn’t invest the time to make him a character the audience could become really close to. 

And I don’t see how that’s a shocking choice at all? That’s just taking the easy way out of things. If they had really wanted to make a heart-breaking death, it would have been so much worse to choose literally anyone of the OG team.

Or, heaven forbid, not to make anyone die at all!! (Yes, I hate the Fallen Agent arc. Yes, that’s a conversation for another day.) But think about it: it would have been way more original, way more shocking, to have Lincoln not die, or find a super original/Fitzsimmons-esque way to get past the vision. It could’ve been way more shocking and ultimately satisfying if the whole team had worked together to avoid someone dying, and succeeded in avoiding that. It would have made excellent bonding.

And it wouldn’t have been lazy, because Lincoln staying alive would force him and Daisy to have some tough conversations, i.e. Hive and SHIELD and what’s next. It would also have meant an equal amount of tricky conversations with the rest of the team - especially surrounding the whole Hive debacle and methods used during it (*coughs in murder vests*). It would’ve actually been much harder than just having Lincoln die... and isn’t that what good storytelling is supposed to do? Make the harder choice for an ultimately far more satisfying resolution? 

Because choosing Lincoln to die makes it feel like that was his only purpose on the show, and I can’t help but rage against that. I know that’s how a lot of people actually do see Lincoln, and it just makes me so furious, because that’s actually such a disservice to his character?? He was so much more than just Daisy’s doomed boyfriend, and he could have been even more. Which brings me to my next point - 

#2. Wasted Opportunities. I’ll always believe that one of the biggest missed opportunities on the show was that we never got to see Lincoln properly bond with anyone on the team - it was like the writers started, but then decided he was going to die, and then went all, oh, RIP that. Which, honestly, is stupid - because they created this amazing character that had so much potential, and then decided to drop it just like that. 

And I mean, dammit!! Aside from Daisy, Lincoln had prime opportunities to bond with at least five other characters on the team - May, Coulson, Jemma, Fitz, and Mack, and that’s not even starting on the other Secret Warriors. 

He had a little bit of bonding with May when Lash/Andrew was still a thing - but then, whoops-a-daisy, unequivocally dropped. And like... Lincoln and May could’ve been such a good friendship?? Imagine May initially terrifying the living daylights out of Lincoln, but slowly seeing that he’s not actually that different to Daisy, and he makes her happy? And maybe inviting him to t’ai chi with her, to help control her powers? And him in turn helping give her some closure over Katya Belyakov/telling her that she really did make the only choice? They could’ve developed a mother/son bond just as beautiful as Daisy’s, if AoS had only tried. 

Then there’s Coulson. Daisy’s (basically) dad. We got to see a little bit of this, especially in the 3x14-15 era, but I would have loved to see even more of Coulson not-so-subtly threatening Lincoln, but grudgingly coming to accept him as a good agent (and, though he’d never admit it, kinda liking the guy.) Ugh, it could have been so funny and GOOD!!

Fitz and Jemma, to do them in a package deal, could also have been a GREAT BroTP with Lincoln if they had only actually developed it. I would have loved to see a) FitzSimmons initially distrusting Lincoln and being like “if you hurt Daisy...” and then eventually growing to bond with him over science and, well, adoring Daisy, b) a Lincoln-and-Simmons-specific friendship starting after Maveth, for example, Jemma can’t really be around her friends because they keep pitying her and trying to help and she doesn’t want that, so here’s someone new who’s nice and can also distract her with a common interest, and finally c) Lincoln and Fitz bonding over, oh, Daisy, and being ridiculously in love. Just. C’mon. It could’ve been WONDERFUL - and, just think about it, the picture of a Fitzsimmons-and-Lincoln triple alliance out-science-ing Daisy. FAB.

And Mack!! Someone who’s basically Daisy’s older brother, and, I do believe, another one for the Don’t-Hurt-Daisy pile. But Mack’s also very just, and an excellent judge of character, plus he was literally listening in on their first kiss, lmfao. So I think he’d be that “ugh AGAIN you two stop *eye roll*” big brother, but secretly be very happy for them. (I would’ve LOVED to see it, ahhhh.)

Then, of course, the Secret Warriors!! If anyone would listen, I could R A G E for days about how we only had one episode with the Secret Warriors, and that only barely before it all blew apart. But what snippets we had in that one episode!! Lincoln comforting Joey when he gets stressed before a mission. That’s canon. Now imagine Lincoln learning Spanish for both him and Elena (and so the three of them can fuck with Daisy.) And him encouraging them to follow Spanish traditions, because he picked up a lot of “traditions are important” culture from Afterlife. And, of course, them all going to Pride together to support Joey...

My point is just, there is so much MORE AoS could have done with Lincoln’s character, but especially his bonds with the other main cast. Instead of highlighting his relationship with Daisy, I would’ve preferred a lot more focus on his bonds with the rest of the gang. Because, most simply put, he’s a nice guy and loves Daisy - but that’s not all he is, and also, that love for Daisy would mean he WOULD go out of his way to bond with her family. (Point made.)

#3. It Conflicts With The S5 Time Paradox. During the Fallen Agent arc, all we’re hearing about is how time is fixed, and a death is inevitable. And then in season 5, we have the same thing with the time loop... except, they manage to break it then. We’re literally told, “there are many different futures.” And, cool. But, uh... that’s exactly what you guys didn’t say in season 3!!

Because someone saw a death, a death had to happen. My question is just: if the loop could have been broken in s5, why couldn’t the death have been avoided in s3?? It wouldn’t even have been that hard to make it still fit with the vision - Daisy can quake the controls to destroy them, then Lincoln pulls her out of the quinjet, but she leaves the jacket behind. Hive dies, but no-one else - and the best part is, that even still fulfils the original vision, because someone did die. Hive. Click boom.

And if I can figure that out, then, come on, surely AoS could have done so much better!! It just... really frustrates me, hrrrg.

#4. It Becomes A Plot Point To Hurt Daisy. We all like to joke about how much AoS hurts Daisy, but... this is extreme?? Like?? She only just went through probably the biggest trauma of her life, being freaking possessed, and now you want to make her lose someone she loves too? Cruel. 

The only real reason the Fallen Agent arc ever existed was, let’s be real, to force Daisy into that spiral of hurt and depression. And, like... she already had more than enough trauma just from Hive. Nobody would have blamed her for running away then - in fact, how very Daisy it would have been, leaving before she could hurt anyone else she loved.

And then, of course, we could have had Lincoln and the team working together to find her and bring her back, and, heyo, bonding!! It could also have been such a good point for Staticquake’s relationship, what with Lincoln helping Daisy recover after depression/withdrawal, because who better suited, and Daisy slowly forgiving herself and them becoming that much more of a deeply caring, solid ship.

So in short - though, 🙈🙈🙈, I suppose I should really say in long, because it would seem I am incapable of doing anything in a short fashion - I don't think anyone should be "glad" about Lincoln's death. If anything, we should all be FURIOUS, and super frustrated, because if he had only lived, there could have been so many excellent storylines, both bonding-wise and regarding THE ACTUAL PLOT (his powers could have been SO HELPFUL, just, argh). Lincoln Campbell should not have died, and I will stand by that till the day I die.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#ask #you can say a lot of things to me but DON'T say you're glad Lincoln died #cause that's a really downright ARSEHOLE thing to do #and you will get lectured for it #at length #as shown here #and probably not talked to for a while #again as shown here #😤 #**lily rants #staticquake #defending staticquake #queue'll figure it out together

[theclaravoyant]

Quake prompt: The first time Daisy fly's (Power Leaps) while she's Quake and how it feels.

AN ~ thanks so much for the prompt! sorry about the wait. I hope you like it!

partially inspired by this ficlet (platonic Fitz-Daisy) but Daisy-centric (S2-3). Mentions of StaticQuake, & platonic Fitz-Daisy and May-Daisy.

Read on AO3 (~1300wd)

where she could fly

Skye wasn’t sure who was doing it – whether it was Lincoln, or herself, or some unique combination of their powers, but she felt it running through her. It felt buzzing and prickling, out of control, but more like a tickle than the clamouring bees she’d felt before. Lincoln, calm and smiling, remained in control, and she found it easier with every breath to surrender to his confident hand, guiding her around in a simple circle where she hovered in the air.

She focused on his beaming face, glowing in the sunlight. He seemed so happy here, where he could be himself. He seemed so happy with his powers. She wondered if she’d ever get there, and thought about the dancing tap water, and found herself smiling too. Maybe it was possible. Maybe this tickle, this singing sensation, could do more than crack and burst and destroy.

It could certainly do a lot of that, she found out as time passed. But it could do a lot of both, and there was beauty inherent in that too, she thought.

-

“Do you think you could fly?” Fitz asked one day, his head on hard ground that was trying to be grass, looking up at the sky. He shifted to look out of the corner of his eye at Daisy, laying nearby, and saw her peering thoughtfully upward.

“You mean fly like a bird or fly like Superman?” she wondered, thinking it through. “How does Superman fly anyway? Does his hand propel the rest of him through space, is that what the arm thing is for?”

Fitz shrugged, as well as he could while lying horizontally on flat earth.

“Fly at all,” he said. “I don’t know, it’s just, all flying is is air currents and control, and heat, which is also about currents and control and – and vibration, you know? Seems like something you could do, that’s all.”

“Seriously?” Daisy sat up, looking from the hazy blue-grey expanse above, to Fitz, who was still looking at her. “You really think I could?”

“’S the hypothesis,” Fitz agreed. “Of course, no human’s ever done it before, so the air currents and all could be completely wrong. Maybe you’d have to fly like Iron Man, with both hands out behind you, like a plane.” He gestures the movement. “But I think you could do it.”

“Now?”

Fitz grinned and sat up. “Sure, now, I guess. I can start doing some calculations if you want. And if you don’t mind telling me how much you weigh.”

Daisy rolled her eyes.

“No, I want to try now. Right here. Open space is good right? I can’t crash into any trees. And if I make a complete idiot out of myself you’ll be the only one who knows.”

Fitz studied the space around them, and hesitantly, he agreed.

“You probably won’t get far off the ground at first, anyway,” he reasoned to himself – and he was, of course, wrong.

Daisy gathered the sounds and feelings of the world around her. She knew the air well, but so often as a weapon. There was a sweet, fresh taste at the though of using it as a tool, as her wings, interacting with it like a surfer did the waves – or, pardon the pun, like a hacker-slash-computer-genius and waves of a very different sort. She was growing used to making the vibrations part of herself, but she was used to throwing them away, pushing them outwards with force. This gentle control, over such a fierce force, was a skill that would take far longer to perfect, but if she could at least get something –

Fitz laughed. Bright, like a giggle.

Daisy found herself beaming too as she realised she had in fact moved. She was floating almost a foot off the ground, all her fierce concentration paying off in a slight hover, like when Lincoln had lifted her.

Of course, in noticing it, she dropped it and stumbled forward, but her enthusiasm was only sparked onward. She tried again and again, and though she never quite managed the same balance and finesse, she hopped around the little yard in leaps and bounds. Some of them felt like a flurry of snow, or wind lifting her imaginary skirts and making her laugh at how nonsensical it seemed. Others, though – others made her feel as powerful as a mountain lion, leaping on her prey, or even as powerful as the mountain itself, as if one day she could reach above those trees and do it. She could really do it. She could really –

“Daisy!”

Fitz cried out as she flew above his head, shooting upward like an arrow. He ran forward, into the middle of the clearing as she threw herself into the sky. Looking down to find him, and follow the sound of his voice, she threw off her own balance, and struggled cartoonishly in mid-air before the power of the wind overwhelmed her delicate control and sent her crashing back to earth.

She woke up a few dizzying seconds later, to Fitz kneeling beside her, one hand on her shoulder, his face concerned. Once he saw that she was awake, a smile replaced his anxious frown.

“You did it! Sort of,” he declared. “That was a good twenty feet!”

Daisy groaned. She was not looking forward to moving.

-

Keep moving.  

She had to give it to them, they were relentless. Every time she stopped for too long, they found her, they were there. Part of her appreciated it – their looking out – but part of her hated it. She could stay ahead of them for as long as she wanted to, so long as she kept moving. She could stay ahead of them, but like a curse in a fairy tale, she knew she’d rue the day if she ever, for a moment, was tempted to stay and look behind to where they waited.

So she kept moving, just like she’d once done when her home was a clunky old blue van. She was living in a van again, and in a few hotels and motels, and whatever took her fancy, took her money, and didn’t ask questions. Some days it was harder than others, but all the time, she was succeeding. Surviving. Staying ahead, each day a new game as she pursued and was pursued.

And it wasn’t always Shield that was after her. She had other enemies, too.

Enemies that hid in the shadows and refused to show their faces to the light. Enemies that wanted to wipe her kind off the face of the earth, but would settle for her. Enemies that showed up one night, loud and violent, and who kept her on her toes as she abandoned what she couldn’t grab and disappeared into the night –

But she couldn’t let them have their victory. Not entirely. The evidence she had collected of their operation may have been burning, but in the firelight of their destruction they must have seen her, conjuring the air and the concrete and the stars and flying. Thirty feet – a stretch, but not too far from the twenty she’d been practicing – she flew, and sailed onto the safety of a nearby roof. And as she flew she felt Fitz’s hand on her shoulder and heard his pride. She felt Lincoln’s gentle touch, and his reassuring acceptance. She felt May, fists raised, standing in front of her a good year ago now, ready to fight tooth and nail to defend her while she struggled to get this destructive, dangerously beautiful power under control. And here it was, saving her life.

The air delivered her onto the roof above, to the cries of dismay from below. Daisy looked back over her shoulder, smiling down at the Watchdogs. They spewed hate at her, but she couldn’t hear it. It couldn’t reach her up here.

Not where she could feel the others, the ones who loved her, protecting her even as she fought to leave them behind.

Not up here, where who she was and what she could do were undeniable, unescapable.

Not where she could fly.

#daisy johnson #aosficnet #aospositivitynet #fitzdaisy #brotp: a tonne of weird crap #prompt me stuff #justinxjohnson

[daisylincs]

Staticquake 20, 13 with enemies to lovers

20 = Teacher AU and 13 = Detective AU. With enemies to lovers!! Oh, this is going to be FUN. 

Daisy is a teacher at Shield Academy, a unique school in that it's specifically for orphans, specifically to help them find a family in friends. For Daisy, an orphan herself, the school's mission means so much. She never had access to something like this when she was stuck in the system, but she knew it would have changed her life if she had. And seeing how it changes little orphans' lives every day means everything to her. 

Then, one horrible day, it comes out that one of the school's top board members, John Garrett, is completely corrupt. The asshole was siphoning funds off people's generous donations to Shield, and using them for his own illegal means. 

Everyone worries that the school is going to be closed down, Daisy more than anyone - this place is her life and soul, and a passion project in the way none of her colleagues can really understand. 

But luckily Coulson, their headmaster, has a kind of grudging partnership with the local police captain, Talbot. So instead of being shut down, they just have to have a detective in each class until they find out who was helping Garrett (because there's no way he was acting alone.) 

For her part, Daisy HATES it. This is a school for helping little orphans find families, dammit, not for freaking them out by having a cop standing over them the whole time. 

And no, she doesn't care how cute he is. 

(Because of course her assigned detective is cute. The universe is unfair that way.) 

That doesn't change the fact that she hates him. 

She has to give it to him, though, he really tries to be nice at first. "I'm Lincoln," he says, holding out his hand for her to shake and offering her a nice smile. 

"Yeah, I don't care," she says coldly, brushing past him and leaving him standing, surprised, in the doorway. 

He doesn't get the memo, and tries to corner her before her next class. "Hey, uh, I don't think we met properly earlier -" 

"No, we didn't," she interrupts, slamming her coffee mug down with a lot more force than necessary. "And I'm not interested in meeting properly now, either." 

She gets up and leaves him gaping after her again (if she's not careful, this is going to become a thing.) 

The next period, he seems to have learned his lesson a bit, and just wordlessly holds open the door for her. (She steps on his toes on the way past.) 

And for the rest of the day, she takes a vindictive kind of pleasure in making him fetch and carry for her the silliest things for her. If she has to have a cop standing there spoiling her lessons, she figures, she might as well make use of him. 

Now it doesn't matter how nice a person you are, eventually you're going to get annoyed when someone keeps sending you off on senseless errands. Daisy knows that perfectly well. In fact, she's counting on it. 

"Why are you so determined to hate me?" a frustrated Lincoln demands when her kids have left for the day, folding his arms and glaring at her. "What did I ever do to you?" 

"You mean aside from scaring my kids and spoiling my classes?" she replies archly. "You're here, and you're a cop. Isn't that enough?" 

"I'm a detective," he corrects. "And what do you have against the police?" 

"That's none of your business," she says, letting her voice bite cold. "See you tomorrow, Sparky." (That last bit as a mockery of the lightning-bolt insignia of his department.) 

The next day (and the next), she makes it her personal mission to make his life as much of a hell as possible. If he thought yesterday was bad, oh boy he hasn't seen anything yet. Computers keep breaking, cables and whiteboard markers keep disappearing, and somehow it's always his job to go find replacements. 

And that's not even the best part. That's when she sweet-talks Nick, their grumpy one-eyed cook, into giving him chilli sauce instead of ketchup with his burger, and salt instead of sugar in his coffee. 

Really, it's no secret that Daisy hates Lincoln. And it shouldn't be all that surprising that he starts to hate her right back. 

And he's a cop. So he has full right to pull her over for questioning whenever he likes. 

Which of course he does. Constantly. 

Everything about him just makes her so irrationally furious. There's the way all her colleagues seem to like him - which, excuse me, guys, he's a cop?? He's literally here to investigate you! And there's that mocking smile he gives her when he pulls her out of class at just the right time to annoy the living hell out of her, the smile that makes her want to slap him so hard because he should not be allowed to look that attractive while being such an asshole. Then there's the fact that he won't stop bugging her about why she's so against the police, which somehow always evolves into the two of them yelling at each other about "stubbornness" and "none of your damn business" and "bloody infuriating!" 

Honestly, their feud is becoming the stuff of legend in the school. She swears she saw one of her older students, a mildly obsessive girl called Ruby, recording one of their shouting matches the other day. 

And it's not just the students. On no less than fifteen occasions to date, Hunter has made it his personal mission to drop into her class and go "killed each other yet? No? Oh, what a shame." 

Mack's in on the joke, too, and teases her relentlessly about it. He's even taken to calling Lincoln her boyfriend, which is the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. It's just Hunter's idiocy rubbing off on Mack - there's no way she and Lincoln would date, ever. He's the worst. And even if he is kind of cute, that's TOTALLY not the point. 

Jemma just shakes her head at the whole thing. "You're acting like an idiot, Daisy," she says in her yes-I'm-right-and-we-both-know-it voice. "Both of you are. And you're going to regret it someday." 

As always, Jemma is right. 

Because Talbot somehow gets it into his head that she, Daisy, is the one who was working with Garrett. 

"But that's ridiculous!" she shouts, and everyone in the room agrees emphatically. "Shield is my life, why the hell would I betray it?" 

It's then that Lincoln comes in. 

And Daisy just thinks, oh, shit. 

Because of course the cop that's been monitoring her thinks she's the biggest asshole in the world. He hates her, and now that she thinks about it, her behaviour towards him could actually very easily be seen as aggression because she didn't want to be found out. 

Oh, shit. 

She's dead. She's so, so, so dead. 

She starts to panic a little. Shield is her entire life - she pours everything she has into this school, into helping these little orphans find a family in friends the way she's found a family in her colleagues. If they take Shield away from her, she doesn't know what she'll do. 

She meets Lincoln's gaze, sure that she's going to see triumph there, but all she finds is confusion. 

"Daisy?" Lincoln asks, incredulous. "You think Daisy's working with Garrett?" 

Talbot nods. And to Daisy's total shock, Lincoln shakes his head firmly. "That's impossible." 

"What do you mean?" Talbot asks impatiently. "She's the computer science teacher, it would be easy for her to steal funds like this." 

"But she'd never do it," Lincoln says, firm. "This school means everything to her. She cares about it and the kids here more than anything." 

"It's not Daisy," he repeats emphatically. "You got that?" 

Grudgingly, Talbot agrees, and the whole room sags in relief. Daisy's colleagues rush to hug her, but all she can feel is numb disbelief. 

Lincoln defended her. Lincoln defended her. After all the asshole-y things she did to him, and all the times she went out of her way to make his life a living hell, he defended her. 

She's still standing there in a state of shock as everyone trickles out of the room. It's only when Lincoln makes to leave that she snaps to her senses. 

Grabbing him by the arm, she pulls him into an empty classroom, ignoring Mack's knowing little smirk. 

"You defended me," she tells him, still holding on to his arm. "Why?" 

"What, you thought I was going to let that moustached dirtbag drag you off to jail for a crime you didn't commit?" he asks archly. 

She shrugs, suddenly feeling like she's really misjudged him. "No, but… you hate me."

"So maybe you're not my favourite person in the world," he says, and that gets a smile out of her. "But it's obvious that you care a lot about these kids. The way you smile when they look at you, and the way they smile back - it's honestly incredible. Very few people will care so much about kids who have so little. I don't need to like you to see that you're an incredible person."

Daisy is genuinely touched. Okay, so maybe she did misjudge him, just a little. And maybe she was a little unfair to hate him immediately. 

"I'm an orphan, too," she admits, properly meeting his clear blue eyes for the first time. "That's also why I hate the police. They were always the ones who pulled me from foster home to foster home. I guess after a while … every bad thing that happened, I just associated with them. It’s an orphan thing, I think." 

"So that's why you hated the idea of a police detective in your class," he says, his eyes flooding with understanding. 

She nods, dropping her gaze. "Yeah. And it's unfair to you, I get that, but…" 

"Don't apologise for having a shitty past," he says, firmer than she expected. "No-one's ever going to blame you for it." 

"I'm not apologising for that," she says, meeting his eyes again. Wow, they really are very blue. "I'm apologising for taking it out on you. That was wrong." 

"A little," he admits. "But hey, I'm not entirely blameless in this, either. I was kind of an asshole, pulling you out of class right when it'd annoy you." 

"Kind of an asshole?" she snorts. "Try the dictionary definition of asshole." 

“And what does that make you?" he asks, arching her eyebrows in a way that should annoy her but is instead making her catch her breath. 

"I don't… know," she says, suddenly sharply aware that she hasn't let go of his arm yet. Oh, and they've also somehow drifted closer during this whole conversation, so that there's now barely ten centimetres of space between them. 

God, this is awkward. And it's only made worse by the fact that Daisy definitely just thought about kissing him. 

She makes to pull her arm away, cheeks burning, but Lincoln stops her with a hand on hers. "Wait." 

And that one word is enough to spur her into action. Firmly closing the last distance between them, she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. 

She kisses him with all the annoyance of a thousand arguments, where she raged at herself for finding him so attractive just as much as she raged at him. She kisses him with weeks' worth of denial and repressed feelings, and hot damn. 

That's a kiss. "What do you say," she says when they break apart, totally breathless, "we turn this into a whole different kind of fighting?" 

"I cannot believe you just said that," he says dryly. "But I'm in." 

"Good," she says, and kisses him again. 

(The police department finds Garrett's mole a few days later - the douchebag-y Phys Ed coach, Grant. But for some reason, Lincoln keeps coming back to the school. And for some reason, Teacher Johnson never yells at him or tells him to leave.

Teacher Simmons just rolls her eyes whenever any of the students ask her about it. "Cluelessness," is all she'll say in explanation, before walking away to go plan their next science project with her boyfriend. 

The whole school figures it out eventually, of course. Daisy and Lincoln aren't exactly subtle. 

But everyone is really, really happy for them.

The End.) 

This is my favourite bullet-point fic yet - thank you thank you thank you lovely anon for this wonderful prompt!!

#tropes mashup #teacher au #detective au #enemies to lovers #staticquake #bullet-point fic

[daisylincs]

Staticquake 71, 61, 70

71 = Twenty-Four Hours To Live, 61 = Love Confession and 70 = Locked In A Room. 

Thank you, anon, these prompts go so well together!I decided to take them in a sci-fi-y, almost dystopian kind of direction, because, firstly, well why not, and secondly, I'm quite interested (a little nervous, I'll admit, but excited) to try something a bit more out of my usual style (though I promise it still has a happy ending.) Hope you like it! 

The world where Daisy and Lincoln live is almost exactly like ours, except for the teensy little fact that it's run by Hydra. (Yes, you read that right.) 

Now, Hydra has always been kind of obsessed with powered people. Unfortunately, they also really really don't understand them.

So anyone who they even SUSPECT might have powers is taken to the Room of Doom and locked up for twenty-four hours. The idea is, if they have powers, they'll escape. If not, well, that's too bad. (Guys, this is Hydra. No-one ever said they were nice.) 

Enter Daisy and Lincoln, two childhood best friends who are honestly just trying to survive in this crazy world. They've both got fairly steady jobs, him in a hospital and her with a programming company. 

Neither of them think they have powers. But apparently Hydra thinks differently. 

"This is crazy," Lincoln says, walking around the room in small, incredulous circles. "This is crazy. How can they think we have powers?" 

Daisy rests her head against the white wall behind her and closes her eyes. White. Why is everything white in here? (Except for the giant red countdown on the wall, of course.) 

"I don't know," she says truthfully. 

"Because we don't," he says, eyes flicking around the room as though hoping someone would come in and tell them, oh, it's all been a terrible mistake, they can come out now. 

"I know that," Daisy says, opening her eyes to glare around the room. "I mean, it's totally ridiculous, right? How can we, Daisy Johnson and Lincoln Campbell, have powers?" 

"Exactly!" he exclaims. Turning to the little fish-eye camera in the corner, he says, "you hear that, Hydra?" 

She shakes her head. "This is such a mess." 

He snorts quietly. "You can say that again." 

After a moment of tense silence, he asks, "We're going to get out of this, right?" and she hates that cornered look in his eye, hates how he turns to her for reassurance when she doesn't have any to give. They always protect each other, and now, well… now, they can't. 

"I don't think so," she says softly. 

It's not like her to be so morose about things. She's always cheerful, and hopeful, and encouraging. A beacon of bright hope, just like her name. 

This time, though - well, she wishes she had hope to give him. But she's always hated lies, ever since her asshole ex-boyfriend Grant, and she won't lie to her best friend. 

He closes his eyes, and she can see the last hint of denial leave him as his shoulders slump. 

But then he straightens up, opens his eyes, and looks squarely at her. "If we've only got twenty-four hours left to live, we better make them worth it." 

Daisy's exhausted - bloody Hydra wouldn't even let her rest after a day of work, oh nooo it was straight to the Doom Room. But now she tilts her head and grins up at him. "Sounds good to me." 

He crosses the room to sit next to her, knocking her shoulder lightly with his. "D'you remember when we first met?" 

"How could I forget?" she returns playfully. "You walked into the girls' bathroom with a bag of popcorn, of all things." 

"In my defence, I was six years old," he says, raising his hands. 

She snorts. "Yeah, I was six, too, and I never went into the boys' bathroom with popcorn." 

"Whatever," he says, but he's grinning. "We became friends anyway, didn't we? Well, right after you finished chasing me out brandishing a hand-towel." 

She rolls her eyes at him, but she's smiling, too. This idea of his, spending their last moments reliving their best ones? She'd never tell him, but it's a good one. 

"Do you remember," she asks instead, "that time we went to China?" 

"How could I forget?" he echoes her, dryly. "As I recall, you first of all got us both banned from ever going near any elephants again, second of all nearly got us both killed with acupuncture needles, and third of all put me off chow mein forever." 

"Hey, that was a brilliant prank!" she defends. "Jemma's face, oh my God." 

"Okay, it was pretty brilliant," he admits. "But also really, really gross. I can never hear the words chow mein again without shuddering, thanks to you." 

He's grinning at her, and she's grinning back, and for a moment if feels normal. Nice. Like they're just two friends out chatting, the way they've done a thousand times before. 

Then she sees the big red countdown out of the corner of her eye, and that wonderful daydream shatters. 

She tilts her head to look at him. His face has gone serious, too, and he's frowning as he tilts his head to look at her. 

"Do you think we might actually have powers?" he asks, and out of everything she'd been expecting, that was pretty much bottom on the list. 

"Well," she says hesitantly. "A day ago, I would've said no. But now we're here." She gestures around them at the white room and the big red countdown - 22:34.

"Jemma's theory," she says slowly, mulling it over, "is that powers are tricky. How can you use them if you don't know you have them?" 

"Hydra thinks they can scare us into discovering them," Lincoln says, resting his head against the wall. She hums low in her throat, agreeing. 

"Let's not give them the satisfaction," he says suddenly, turning to face her. "I'd rather die down here with you than be one of their powered slaves."

Daisy has to smile. That's simultaneously one of the most morbid things she's ever heard, but also one of the most romantic. 

She reaches for his hand, lacing their fingers and tipping her head to smile up at him. "Me too."

His gaze drops to their hands, and he swallows. "Daisy," he says, hesitantly, "there's something I need to tell you." 

She rolls her eyes, but there's only affection behind it. "I already know," she tells him, squeezing his hand. 

He blinks up at her, surprised. "You do?" 

"I mean, you're not exactly subtle," she says dryly. "Every time Grant came over, you glared at him so hard I thought his head would explode." 

"In my defence, he turned out to be a total asshole," he says, raising their joined hands and dropping them into his lap. 

She shakes her head at his dramatics, but she can't argue that. "You know I like you too, right?" she asks instead. 

His gaze softens. "I hoped," he says. 

Daisy shifts so she's facing him more fully. "I was being a bit cautious because of, you know, Grant," she admits. And because she can't help it, she mutters "lying snake" under her breath. 

"Anyway," she says, directing her attention back to the situation at hand. (At hand. Ha. She glances down at their laced fingers, rolling her eyes at herself. Terrible pun.)

She takes a quick, bolstering breath, because this next part is serious. "The point is, I was being very cautious. Too cautious. And I'm sorry for that." 

"Why are you sorry?" he asks, genuinely confused. "It only makes sense that you'd need time." 

"Yeah, but not that much," she counters. "If I had gotten my act together sooner, we could have had time." She doesn't mean to, but she finds herself gesturing sharply at the red countdown. 22:19.

"Oh, no, don't you dare blame yourself for this," he says firmly, cupping her chin in his hand and making her look at him when she tries to duck her gaze away. "I know you, Daisy. I know you always blame yourself for everything that goes wrong. Well, since we're going to die today, I'm going to tell you the complete truth: it's ridiculous. You're the best person I know, Daisy. I mean that - you're amazing." 

She leans forward and kisses him. (In her defence, that was a really nice speech. In her defence #2, he's really attractive. And in her defence #3, they're going to die soon, so why the hell not? If she has to die, she might as well go out doing something she enjoys.) 

Only, it doesn't happen quite like that. (No, the kiss part goes just fine, don't worry. It's when they start trying to do more that the hiccups start.) 

When he pulls her onto his lap, she goes eagerly - but on the way, the floor gives a little shudder. 

They share a look - that's odd - then unanimously decide that right now, who cares, kissing is way more important. 

Then a few minutes later, when her hands slip under his shirt, the lights in the room flicker on and off. 

Okay, that's definitely a little weird. Daisy shifts, squinting up at the ceiling. Surely their time hasn't run out yet? 

She checks the opposite wall - no, they still have over twenty hours left. 

Then what…? 

He presses a kiss against the soft skin just below her ear to distract her, and Daisy finds herself biting back a happy grin. They might be about to die, but she's giddy on smiles and kisses, and she's just glad they have this time to do whatever the hell they want. (Also, if they make some low-level Hydra techie blush at his screen in mortification all night, well that's a bonus, too.) 

This time when the floor gives a shake, she knows it's a happy one. She also knows it came from her. 

"Lincoln," she says, putting her hand on his cheek and giving him a kind of breathless grin. "I did that." 

"Kissed me?" he asks, eyebrows flying up. "Well, yeah, I'd hope so." 

She rolls her eyes and slaps his shoulder. "No, you idiot," she says. "Well, I mean, yes, I did that, too, but that's not what I meant." At his confused look, she explains, "the floor. That was me." 

His eyes widen as he gets it. "Wait… you think you…" 

Mindful of the camera, she leans forward and kisses him again, but it's quick, distracted. "Don't say it," she warns. "We need to figure this out without Hydra realising what we're up to." 

Lincoln nods, and closes his eyes like he's concentrating. A moment later, the lights flicker on and off. 

Daisy can't help her incredulous little laugh. "Who knew," she marvels. She reaches for his hand, lacing their fingers, and a few sparks tickle their way up her arm. 

"Hydra was right," he says, flipping their hands over to trace her knuckles. Tiny sparks follow his fingertips over her skin - it feels so weird. 

She looks down at their hands for a second. "No," she says decisively. 

He blinks. "Uh, what…?" 

"Hydra wasn't right," she says firmly. "Their room - this whole doom setup -" she gestures around them with their joined hands "- is not what got us here."

She looks up at him and smiles. "We did," she says simply. 

"Hydra didn't discover our powers," she explains, feeling a low tingle of excitement start in her belly. "We did that. Not Hydra - us. You and me, together."

"And," she says, feeling her excitement spill over into something almost tangible as she pulls him to his feet, "Together, we can get out of here." 

His eyes are shining, caught up in her excitement. "You're right," he says, "you're right!" 

"First things first," she says, nodding at the camera. 

It takes him a moment, but he gets it. Closing his eyes, he holds our one hand and concentrates. 

The little camera explodes in a shower of sparks. 

Daisy stretches up on her toes to give him a quick kiss in congratulations - and if she's honest, part of her still can't believe this. 

She pushes that part down - this is real, and it's her turn now. She turns to the door and listens, harder than she's ever listened before. 

And… she can hear it. It's like a little buzz in her head. 

And with a quick tug, she pulls it out. 

The door crashes open. 

"Let's go!" she says, grabbing Lincoln's hand. Together, they sprint through the empty, creepily white hallways of the Hydra base. 

Predictably, there's a whole squad of guards waiting for them at the exit. 

But Daisy has had enough of Hydra for one day. First they pull her out of her job, without even letting her shower, then they stick her in their Room of Doom, and now they want to stop her from escaping with her new boyfriend? Page not bloody well found. 

And to make things worse, they didn’t even have time to finish kissing, for God’s sake. Yeah, Daisy’s really mad. 

Lincoln is obviously having the same kind of thoughts. And in the kind of perfect sync two people can only have after years of being best friends, they simultaneously blast the Hydra guards away from the exit. 

Those poor Hydra guards. They never stood a chance against the devastating shockwave-lightning bolt combination that was fired their way by two very pissed off ex-prisoners. 

And as for Daisy and Lincoln… 

"Hey, Daisy?" he asks her later that night, when they've found a place to crash and, er, sleep. 

"Mmm?" she hums, lying contentedly against him. 

"Fancy taking down a government?" he asks, as one does. 

She chuckles against his shoulder. "You know what, let's do it." 

And they do. Spectacularly. 

The End. 

(P. S. - when they're quite finished ridding the world of evil dictatorships, they find themselves a little cottage in Perthshire with the loveliest neighbours. Their little Liam and Fitz and Jemma's little Felicity grow up as the best of friends. 

And if they want to follow in their parents' footsteps one day… well, Daisy and Lincoln couldn't be prouder.

Now it's the end.) 

#tropes mashup #locked in a room #24 hours to live #love confession #staticquake #bullet-point fic