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SHIELD Casefile 1973221: Lewis, Darcy
Player Info:
Name: Abby
Age: 28
Contact: AIM/Plurk: nycradiochick plurk; Email: kidlings2@aol.com
Player Journal: scientistwrangler
Character Info:
Full Name: Darcy Olivia Lewis
Goes By: Darcy, Darce, BAMF, The Goddess of Tasers, "Lady Darcy" ("Asgardians are really formal...")
Age: 21
Canon: Marvel Movie Universe
History: Born on September 27 1991, Darcy Lewis is a woman who firmly believes that normal can only be accurately be measured with a sliding scale. While she has always viewed herself as normal (in spite of and in complete contrast to the feelings of the rest of the world!), if nothing else, the last two years have put Darcy into a whole new universe beyond everything she previously thought possible. It's a new wild world of weird and amazing, full of super heroes and men in black who steal ipods and gods from other planets who are really big teddy bears. And Science. Can't forget about science!
The first child of Nathan Lewis - a sheriff's deputy - and Naomi Martin - a kindergarten teacher - Darcy was born and raised in Reston, Virginia, a census-designated-area - not a city or a town - 21 miles away from Washington DC. Born slightly premature, from a very early age it was clear that Darcy was an individual. A very bright child, Darcy took in the world around her and parroted it back, sometimes a bit too much... In spite of her parent's attempts of teaching her what was appropriate and what wasn't, their little girl just didn't seem to get it. "If grownups are allowed, then why can't I?" she famously asked at the age of seven when she'd brought home a story that her cousin Mark had told her. Needless to say her teenaged cousin got into trouble, but it was - or should have been - a sign of things to come.
When Darcy started school she was placed in the same one where her mother taught, but in a different class; her parents requested the placement, thinking that it would help her socially if she wasn't known as the teacher's kid. Well, if nothing else they got part of it right. Not being the teacher's kid made it easier for her to make friends, but for Darcy it also meant that any time she got in trouble there would be a more immediate notification of her parents; without a filter Darcy getting into varying amounts of trouble was a common occurrance. Not necessarily because she was doing anything wrong, but she spoke her mind whether people wanted to hear it or not. For the whole of her school career it seemed to be something that people either liked or hated. Her parents understood - or they did after a time - and people she figured would either get used to it or wouldn't. And generally her teachers didn't - taking the view that she was too smart for her own good, a smart ass; she was both a good student and a distruption. Attempts at toning it down didn't work, and these issues persisted until high school when she finally got into Mr. Everett's English class and he was not only up for a debate and snarkoff, but more importantly he just got her!
High school turned things around and now what had been a disruption - her outspoken nature, her take no prisoners or crap attitude - actually made her kinda popular. It made her unique. And more importantly it made her stand out. She had gained a reputation as someone who didn't deal with other people's drama and instead deflected it. She was friendly, and sarcastic, but possibly most importantly she was a role model of sorts, the "cool sister" of a little brother nine years her junior who her parents named Clark. Admittedly Darcy tried to protest the name at the time but they really wanted to name him for her great-uncle; whether or not they realized got the irony in naming their son Clark Lewis, they certainly did by the time Darcy was done. From birth she decided that her younger brother was just about as amazing as a younger brother could be and at the age of 9 she nicknamed him CK, short for Clark Kent, becuase any Lewis boy was clearly going to do great things!
Darcy's high school career was surprisingly anything but a disaster. Yes she was stuck for seven hours a day in a building with other teenagers with raging hormones (and boys with eyes that she wanted to poke out with pencils) - which by itself could have been seen as its own kind of hell, but she made the best of it. Reputation intact, she got caught under the bleachers with Frank Allen once or twice, she may have cut class a few times in protest of her English teacher who had to be the least feminist woman she'd ever met. And of course there was Mr. Everett's class which was her favorite. In fact she purposely moved her schedule so she could be in his classes her Junior and Senior years. She learned more from that teacher than she did from most of her others. Thus when college rolled around she figured that English was what she should major it!
Culver Univeristy in Willowdale, Virginia saw fit to grant the young woman without a filter access to an education. There on a partial scholarship, the school was close enough to home that she could get back for visits whole living on campus without any real complications and her folks even bought her a used car for transportation. (The car of course needed to be left at home for her freshman year as they weren't allowed to have cars on campus!) So on her first day of classes, Darcy Lewis - against the advice of her advisor - marched into the registration office (having tested out of her writing proficiency) and declared herself an English major! She spent a semester with that and found that she hated it. She hated the reading choices, she didn't like the papers or the format they made them use. It just wasn't clicking. In her head a major should click. You knew you were doing the right thing, doing something that you liked and wanted to do possibly for the rest of your life! So she changed majors, jumping feet first into History! Unfortunately history also didn't really stick. Yes she liked it! She liked it a lot, but it just wasn't for her....
Thankfully having declared the majors in her first and second semesters of freshman year meant that she just cleared two of her gen-ed requirements, Culver being a liberal arts school, so changing them really didn't effect much. Except effecting Darcy herself. But there was light at the end of the tunnel! During summer break, Darcy followed a well-travelled tradition of the Lewis Family spending a few weeks with her Aunt Gloria at her Georgetown townhouse in DC. Gloria Sullivan - Darcy's favorite relative outside her immediate family - was nearly as bad as her great-niece. From a young age she and Darcy would do things in DC like go to Capitol Hill, visit her representative in the House. Geeky political things. It had been her aunt who had introduced her to the show the West Wing, which she had the whole DVD collection of. And it was on that visit that it occurred to Darcy. She wasn't sure why it hadn't occured to her until then, but she knew what she wanted to do! Thus in the fall, when classes were back in session there was another trip to the Registrar's Office and an official major change. Darcy Lewis was official studying Poli-Sci! And this time it stuck!
So it seemed, at least for a time, that she had found her place, that things were at least a bit normal! She completed her general education requirements and worked on her major's requirements, and she had a relatively normal sophomore and junior year! Things were actually somewhat normal. Darcy joined some clubs, went to some clubs, she made friends and hung out at the radio station, she decided that college boys were okay, frat boys were idiots (even if they generally did have great abs!) and that the nerds generally had more clout than anyone gave them credit for! For Darcy everything was going great! Senior year rolled around and she took a light course load, only the classes she needed, and maybe an elective or two. She was right on track for graduation and then she was told that, in addition to a few classes, she was still missing her manditory internship. It was something that would change her life. Literally!
Political Science was a kind of science. No one could tell her otherwise, and it was with that in mind that she applied for an internship with an astrophysicist! Admittedly her advisor thought that she was nuts, but she'd started the process late due to late notification of the problem and by the time she'd gotten to figuring it out there were only so many options left. The Capitol Hill jobs were gone. So Darcy Lewis applied for Jane Foster's internship and while she wasn't at all what Jane may have needed, she was the only applicant and was accepted. (You go to war with the intern you have, not necessarily the intern you wish you had.) Being accepted meant that she'd be spending a semester in New Mexico studying... whatever it was astrophysists studied! The trip to New Mexico meant saying goodbye to her family, packing up her stuff in her dorm and putting it into storage, deferring for a semester and living in the town of Puente Antiguo. It was a six credit internship and while Darcy may not have been the science brain that her boss and her boss' mentor Erik Selvig had been expecting, she was a quick study and soon had picked up enough to translate and do what they needed of her. In fact Jane and Darcy became rather close friends.
It really was groundbreaking work, at least from what Darcy understood of it (which was more and more - at least on a basic level - as her time with the brains continued). It involved a lot of sky watching, telemetry, and big science-y words that Darcy would break down into English for her own understanding. And driving. There was a lot of driving the desert at night, Darcy generally behind the wheel while Jane did her calculations. And then it happened. One night there was a storm, tons of activity, and then suddenly a man fell from the sky! Looking back Darcy can identify this as the moment that life went from her little corner of normal to a whole new level of weirdness. Sometimes it really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Long story short, Darcy Lewis with her mighty battery operated taser took down the God of Thunder after Jane hit him with the van... and then they took him to a hospital. It was a whirlwind of a few days with the introduction of real life Men in Black that stole ipods and scientific research data and servers, secret government organizations, fire breathing not-robot things, and warriors and a villian who spoke as if they were in a Shakespearian play. Jane fell for Thor, who then had to go home, Erik left to go work on the Tesseract and Jane and Darcy were left trying to find a way to reopen the Rainbow Bridge (not really it's name but Darcy coined the term and refused to call it anything else!).
Much of the town had been destroyed in the battle with Loki, and with their data having been taken by SHIELD it was only thanks to Jane's memory and what few things they had left that they got to even try to start over! It wasn't even really about the six credits anymore, or the requirement, now it was different. Everything that had just happened changed Darcy. Her perspective was different, everything was new and shiny and filled with people that could do things like summon thunder from MewMew... The hammer, thing. Yes she had grown up on stories about Captain America, her dad had some ancient comic books from the war that he said would be worth something some day, and Tony Stark had just come out as Iron Man. But this had happened to her. And there was no going back. She knew that.
Fortunately, or unfortunately - depending on your point of view - Darcy wasn't the only one aware of this fact. Once you knew there was no way to turn back the clock. And now both she and Jane Foster were on SHIELD's radar. Reflecting on it later, Darcy would note that yes... after all that, it would have been hard for them NOT to be at that point. They had confiscated all their stuff after all... Still, with their equipment and notes gone and the internship was basically over, whether Darcy wanted to or not she needed to return to Virginia to square everything with Culver. She promised Jane that she'd be back - she wasn't abandoning her now, new world to work with, Norse god to find, there was too much to do for her to just go back to school full time.
It was thus that Darcy returned home, seeing her family for the first time in several months, her brother coming up to her and asking what adventures she'd been on, but all she could tell him was that New Mexico was a lot less boring than she thought it would be. She wasn't in any real rush to give up her family time, but the paperwork would need to be filed immediately if she was going to stop semester's payment. However when Darcy got back to Culver and handed in the documents she was told something surprising. She'd been put on an extended deferment. There was no explanation, the person behind the counter told her that they'd gotten her paperwork via fax, that everything was in order and that she hadn't needed to come in. To Darcy none of this made sense. She asked questions but the Registrar didn't have the answers, and when she asked - just out of curiosity - if they could change the setting she was told that it was locked in, couldn't be changed...
So Darcy had some time on her hands. She didn't know why. She didn't know how. But she used it. She went home for a few weeks, spent time with her family, she hung out on campus and saw her friends, she went down to DC to visit Aunt Gloria. But she had all this time and with Erik probably working in some super secret sub-basement away from all forms of natural light, Darcy knew she had to get back. She met up with Jane and started working with her on the mysteries of the Rainbow Bridge (still calling it the nickname!), now working for on SHIELD's dime, which, the more she thought about it, could explain the sudden mysterious paperwork at her school. This lasted for months. They were making headway - and by 'they' of course she meant Jane was making headway and Darcy was making sure nothing blew up - and then New York happened.
Jane and Darcy woke up at the research facility where they'd been working/living to several well dressed SHIELD
Personality: There are many words that could be used to describe Darcy's personality: she is loud, opinionated, she tells things like they are, she doesn't take crap, she's addicted to her IPod - or was while she had it! - and she's very close with her family. All these things could be used, and all of them would be correct, but they are - in truth - just words. And for Darcy, words aren't enough. Darcy is a woman of words and actions. She is more than willing to toss her hat into the ring for something she believes in and is more than a little bit impulsive and emotional at times, but that is who she is. She lives on her emotions, they fuel who and what she is, its just a matter of what she allows to surface.
It is generally not difficult to tell what Darcy is thinking or feeling at any given moment from the look on her face. While she doesn't exactly wear her heart on her sleeve - she's been burned in the past - it doesn't take much to get her to like you. She is a friendly and loyal person who is more than a little stubborn and simply does not have a brain to mouth filter. You're either born with it or you're not... This has led people to fall into two categories: those who find Darcy refreshing, charming or enlightened (yes that phrase has been used) and those who just want her to shut the hell up. The categories are not strict, there are people she knows who fall into both at once, but what no one can fault her for is that she speaks her mind and is not afraid to let the rest of the world know what she has to say... Especially since she's posting to Facebook and social media on such a regular basis!
Darcy is bright, sarcastic, quick to pick things up and doesn't try to fit into a pigeonhole. This generally makes people view her as independent, which may be true, but she just sees it as her living and surviving and being herself. She has learned the hard way that life can reward you or throw you a curve ball - although both of these things she knows can just as easily be caused by secret government organizations that aren't supposed to exist. By all accounts Darcy is someone who you want to have in your corner. She susists on a diet consisting of coffee pop tarts and more coffee, which at one point caused her friends to try switching her to decaf with horrible results. She can generally be bribed with chocolate, coffee, cake or gummy bears (she keeps a stash of gummy bears in a container in her old beat up used car from college), but if it comes to Jane and keeping her friend from dying by SCIENCE-overdose, bribes will be taken but services will not be rendered. ("Thank you for your donations. Now shoo.")
Above all else, Darcy is a woman who - when she latches onto something - puts her heart and soul into it. It doesn't matter what the "it" in question is. It can be a project, helping a friend, carrying out some kind of top secret assignment. She has a big heart, one that she generally counterbalances with witty reparte so that she stays on top of the game. When she latches on and she is all in, she will stay until the job is done, and will be crushed if something happens.
3 Interesting Character Facts:
1) Darcy has had three different majors at Culver University and she hasn't even graduated. When she changed the first time she debated between Psych and History. She ultimately chose history becuase one of her friends pointed out she'd be the worst school psychologist ever, possibly making the kids cry by being bluntly honest... It did NOT seem like a good fit.
2) Darcy wants her Ipod back. Everyone knows it. She says it all the time. but she's come up with a plan. Instead of wining and bitching about it, she's just going to bill them for it: the cost of an ipod plus 13 dollars. What? They were leagally downloaded songs!
3) The thing that Darcy likes the most, above hanging out with Jane or Thor or Erik, the thing she likes the most is having the ability to go home and see her family. For all her brashness, Darcy's center really is her family, blood and extended, and there's nothing she likes better than being able to come home, have her brother run up to her with that big smile on his face and ask her if she's seen any heroes while living in New York. He loves heroes. The hardest thing, as it happens, is having to lie to them about what it is she actually is going to be doing in this new job. Hell, she isn't even sure yet, but she is pretty sure that it involves feeding Jane copious amounts of Pop Tarts... just in another state.
Powers: Darcy doesn't have any powers. At least none that she knows of. She'd fully aware that SHIELD is capable of some really freaky shit but at least at present she hasn't been part of any experiments... At least none that she's been aware of. Occasionally she remembers that she needs to ask Jane whether or not exposure to the Rosen-Einstein Bridge can cause things like cancer or manifestation of powers - but the last time she asked her friend looked at her funny and went back to SCIENCE-ing without really answering. What? A girl needs to know!
Special Skills: Ace with a taser in her hand, Darcy Lewis has a near-BA in Political Science and a Masters in Snark and Sarcasm. Darcy isn't great where science is concerned but she has picked up enough to be a scientist-to-English dictionary for Jane and Erik when the need calls for it and she was the first to make the connection between Thor and the Rainbow Bridge (as she's started calling it, much to Jane's annoyance). She does understand more than she generally lets on, but it's like being thrown into a language intensive course in Spain or Pakistan: you need to learn in order to survive where you are. Science as a second language! It works! Darcy has amazing people skills and when she wants to she can even be polite and professional... in her own special way. It's one of the things that makes Darcy Lewis Darcy Lewis.
