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app post (mask or menace)
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Skye [No last name presently]
CHARACTER AGE: 24 [We think]
SERIES: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
CHRONOLOGY: Post season 1 finale.
CLASS: Hero... ish. More like Chaotic Good if we're going by DnD alignments.
HOUSING: Happy to be randomized with other roommates!
BACKGROUND:
Left to the foster system, Skye's life growing up was a never-ending parade of different families and different places. Though she tried hard early on to impress and fit in with her new families, in the end she was always inevitably sent back to the orphanage. It's unsurprising, then, that she soon became disillusioned and stopped caring about her foster families entirely at the tender age of nine. It was not until very recently that Skye discovered it wasn't because she unwanted that she was always sent back. In fact, SHIELD had put in place a standing protocol within the US foster system ordering her foster families to return her-- moving Skye around as much as possible in order to protect her. (From whom or what, we don't yet know.)
At some point during her teenage years, Skye dropped out of high school and left the foster care system. How she supported herself after is unknown, though at some point she made the decision to learn how to hack in the hopes that she could find anything about her mysterious origins. She also met notorious hacker Miles Lydon-- though the cause and effect of this event is not clear. Whether she met him because of her new interest in learning how to hack, or whether her new interest came about because she met him, we're unlikely to ever find out. What we do know is that at some point they entered into a relationship, and that he taught Skye everything she knows, including instilling in her a strict code of ethics surrounding human rights and the freedom of information. It's also around this time that Skye illegally erased her "Mary Poots" identity off the face of the planet and took on the name "Skye". No family name.
Skye (along with Miles) ends up joining The Rising Tide-- an online hacktivist collective who champion freedom of information-- in the hopes that it will further her search for information on her past. At some point, she manages to find a redacted SHIELD document on herself. It was in fact so heavily redacted that it told her absolutely nothing. However, the mere existence of the document itself was enough to give her search new focus: SHIELD. What business did a government organisation have with her origins, and why were they redacted? Again, it's unclear if she uncovers this information while digging into SHIELD while doing work for The Rising Tide, or if she joins them because she found the document first and thinks the group can help further her own ends, but it doesn't really matter much either way-- at this point, Skye had adopted their beliefs as her own.
Two years before the pilot episode, Skye and Miles went their separate ways (it's not stated why), and Skye became homeless in California-- continuing however to dig deeper into SHIELD on her own from inside her purple van. How Skye managed to pay her bills at this point is also entirely unclear; maybe she has money saved up from past jobs. At any rate, she certainly didn't have a job by the time of the pilot episode, and being a full-time hacktivist wasn't paying. Even if it did, Skye wouldn't have taken the money-- part of her ethical code, instilled by The Rising Tide (or Miles), that information should be free and not sold.
Sometime in September 2013 (just slightly pre-pilot), Skye became intrigued by rumours on the internet about a "Project Centipede" that was working to produce super-humans. When all traces of the project suddenly completely vanished from the internet, Skye became even more interested-- thinking this was surely SHIELD's handiwork. Plotting to catch SHIELD red-handed, she tracked the project to a laboratory and began to watch it around the clock. Her dogged determination finally yielded results when the laboratory exploded one day and a man jumped out of it from the top floor-- landing on the pavement without a scratch. Skye recorded the whole thing and uploaded the video to SHIELD's servers with a Rising Tide logo stamped on it and a taunting message.
After a few brushes with danger, Skye decided she would prefer to be trained as a proper field agent instead of remaining the mere consultant she was originally hired as. Henceforth Skye began to reroute her energy and time to training, supervised by Agent Ward. Skye continued to try to hack into SHIELD's more secure servers in her free time now that they were accessible to her, but her focus became more divided. Meanwhile, her guts, abilities and quick thinking eventually won the team over in the following weeks. What Skye didn't count on was them winning her over, too-- initially only intending to use them as a means to further her own ends.
The matter came to a head sooner rather than later when Skye was forced to choose between ex-boyfriend Miles and her team's mission: Miles had hacked SHIELD's Hong Kong database and sold the information to a third party (much to Skye's disgust), which was then used to locate and kidnap a super-powered individual SHIELD had been protecting. Trying to play the field from both sides, Skye tipped off Miles so he could escape, but her treachery was soon discovered by Agent May. Following the mission, Skye was given an ultimatum by team leader Phil Coulson: tell him why she had really agreed to join SHIELD, or leave. Skye confessed to her ulterior motives, and though Coulson was reasonably sympathetic and agreed to help her look into the matter, Skye was also hence forced to wear an electronic tracking bracelet. Said bracelet was unbreakable, unable to be taken off, and tracking her every movement on any piece of electronic equipment-- anywhere. This began a turning point for Skye.
Skye realised she deeply regretted deceiving the people she'd come to care for, and though she apologised to her teammates, hence forth had to work even harder than before to win back their trust. Agent Coulson's promise to use his higher clearance level to help her look for answers comforted her some, but Skye still could not give up searching herself. However, the next time Skye was again presented with the choice between the possibility of getting new information on her past and her team's safety, she chose her team-- a clear indicator of her changing priorities.
If that wasn't enough to prove her loyalty, the incident that followed next was. When Agent Coulson was later kidnapped, Skye redirected all her focus to finding him-- even though she had been thrown out of the operation by the new temporary leader from SHIELD who swooped in to take charge, and even despite her electronic tracking bracelet being rigged to immediately shut down any internet-capable device she came close to. Never the less, she still proved herself resourceful and determined enough to get around both problems, and still ended up being the only person to find a lead on Coulson's whereabouts-- leading to his subsequent rescue. This in turn earned Skye her release from the electronic monitor bracelet, as well as Coulson's gratitude.
It was at this point that Agent Coulson finally revealed to Skye what he had learned about Skye's past from his own digging-- the information mentioned here in the first paragraph. Coulson had been originally reluctant to tell her what he had found for some time, worried about how she might take the news. However, instead blaming SHIELD for her childhood upheaval, Skye chose to look at it another way: that SHIELD was the sole reason she had survived to adulthood. That she wasn't worthless or unwanted-- just the opposite. Almost an entire team of SHIELD agents had died to prove it. SHIELD had been her family all along. This gave Skye a new found drive, something that she could really identify with for the first time in her life. From that point on, she became much more invested in the idea of really being a part of SHIELD, rather than a tag-along serving her own purpose.
Unfortunately, Skye's new-found motivation combined with severe lack of field experience and training ended up landing her in more hot water sooner rather than later. Separated from the rest of her team, Skye made the decision to pursue a high-profile target rather than let him get away. Unfortunately this led to her being shot twice by the target and nearly dying. Though her team found her soon after and managed to get her into a hyperbaric chamber before she bled to death, it was only a way of buying time at best. Spurred on by the threat of Skye's imminent death, the team went on a mission to track down the miracle drug responsible for Coulson's own earlier mysterious revival, and after some shenanigans, found it buried so deep underground that no record of it existed in any of SHIELD's files. They injected Skye with it, making her wounds almost instantly regenerate. (Only a one-time cure, so no continuous regeneration powers for Skye-- or anyone else. The team was only able to find one vial of the miracle drug before the secret facility they found it in started counting down to self-destruct.)
[WARNING: major spoilers for both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of Shield follow from now until the end of the history section.]
Unfortunately, the whole debacle is a complete red-herring. After a long and dramatic search, Skye and Coulson figure out that the assumption they'd been basing their search parameters on the whole time was wrong all along: the Clairvoyant isn't a clairvoyant at all. Rather, just a high level SHIELD agent using their knowledge of the team's movements to keep ahead of them.
The reveal comes just as the team-plane's controls are suddenly overridden by someone at SHIELD HQ towing them back to base. Minutes later, Skye decrypts a secret transmission going out over SHIELD airwaves: telling all HYDRA agents to reveal themselves. They're not being towed back to SHIELD HQ, they're being towed right into the middle of a HYDRA take-over. (Side note: HYDRA being the Nazi organisation founded in the 1940s that Captain America defeated in WWII, upon whose defeat SHIELD was founded to protect America from similar threats. Everyone had thought HYDRA long dead, but it turns out they had infiltrated SHIELD right from the beginning and were simply waiting and biding their time as sleeper agents until the right moment.) It suddenly becomes apparent: the Clairvoyant isn't just a high level SHIELD agent. They're a high level HYDRA agent, masquerading as a high level SHIELD agent.
Before landing, Skye realises something even more dire than her life and the HYDRA takeover of SHIELD is at stake: the specs on all the extremely dangerous objects that the team has recovered over the course of the season are right there on the team plane... which is soon about to be overrun by HYDRA agents. Skye sets about backing up every piece of data they have onto her own personal, encrypted hard drive before destroying all records on the plane itself. She then gives the drive to Ward to look after, figuring it's safer in his hands than hers. Having been towed into SHIELD HQ, the team makes a narrow escape from their plane being boarded and disappear into the bowels of HQ with a plan to recapture the base. As per plan, Skye and Ward split off from the others to go find the HQ's control center: shut down HYDRA's communications and electricity in order to give their team and any other still-loyal SHIELD agents remaining a fighting chance. On the way there, hiding from being discovered by a large team of enemy agents, Ward confesses he has feelings for Skye and asks if she'll get a drink with him sometime if they make it out of there alive. Skye agrees to the drink, they kiss, and Ward proceeds on his mission of protecting Skye on her way to mission control. They take it out, the day is saved-- but not before the real identity of the Clairvoyant is revealed: Agent Garrett.
Garrett is apprehended. Ward, professing disgust at how badly he had been deceived by his prior mentor, offers to do the honours of escorting Garrett to "The Fridge"-- SHIELD's top-secret high-security prison, where they keep both prisoners and dangerous objects they've retrieved. (Seem like a bad idea to anyone else to keep both of these things in the same facility? No? Just me? Okay.) However, on the way to the Fridge, Ward shoots all the other guards and frees Garrett, revealing his own true status as yet another sleeper HYDRA agent. Whoops. Surprise. Garrett and Ward then proceed to break into the Fridge together to get their hands on all the high tech dangerous weaponry SHIELD's been keeping under lock and key. Oh and release all the prisoners to make mayhem, you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, back on the team plane, the rest of the group is still blissfully unaware of Ward's treachery. Following the events of The Winter Soldier-- in which Captain America and his team decide that the only way to defeat the HYDRA takeover is to dismantle SHIELD entirely-- Coulson's team now have bigger problems. Since SHIELD has been completely dismantled and revealed to have HYDRA terrorists in their midst, their organisation has been labelled a threat to the US government and no longer officially exists. Not only that, but the US army wants to bring in every single SHIELD agent for lengthy interrogations-- something the team simply does not have time for, with HYDRA agents and now prison escapees on the loose. Opting to skip out before the US army can apprehend them, the team make for a secret SHIELD bunker where they can regroup and perhaps make themselves a new base of operations.
Ward meanwhile realises that being given Skye's encrypted hard-drive actually means nothing: the drive is "geo-locked" and as such can only be unlocked at a specific location. A location only Skye knows about-- and it's set to self-destruct if anyone attempts to hack it. Realising he needs Skye to unlock the drive, Ward resumes his cover and rejoins the team in their secret base, pretending that he got to the Fridge too late to stop the attack and that Garrett got away-- Ward himself sporting several (purposefully inflicted) injuries to prove how narrowly he escaped. Not long after, Coulson launches his first mission to apprehend one of the escaped and dangerous prisoners from the Fridge, leaving Ward, May and Skye behind in the secret base-- along with Agent Koenig, the base monitor. (Ward due to his injuries, Skye to see if she can find a way to track the other escapees, and May for personal problems that aren't quite relevant to Skye or this app. Agent May soon takes off to go find a way to resolve her issues, probably figuring that Skye and Koenig are safe enough with Ward to protect them. Unfortunately, she could not be more wrong.)
Once May leaves, it doesn't take Ward long to kill Koenig and hide the body. He then attempts to seduce Skye so he can kidnap her and get the drive password all with Skye none-the-wiser. Unfortunately for Ward, Skye finds Koenig's dead body and figures out in quick succession that Ward is HYDRA and what he's really after. Stuck in a secret bunker with a deadly enemy agent with no means of overpowering him and no means of getting help, Skye does what she does best: improvise. She manages to leave a hidden message for her team informing them of Ward's betrayal, and then seems to agree to go along with Ward's "plan" to leave the base and decrypt the drive ostensibly "to help their teammates on their mission"-- all the while stalling for as much time as she can.
Under the pretense of leading Ward to the special location where the hard drive can be unlocked, Skye takes Ward to a populated diner somewhere in California, continuing to act lovey-dovey with him to lower his guard. However, while pretending to be unlocking the drive, she actually secretly tips off the police. As the cops arrive on scene, Skye reveals that she knows Ward's a traitor and makes her escape-- only to be captured out on the street by Deathlok. (Another of Garrett's agents, his body enhanced to super-soldier levels via serum and robotic additions, forced to comply to Garrett's will as his son is being held hostage.)
In captivity once more, Skye confronts Ward since the game is up anyway, telling him exactly how much he disgusts her. But when later Skye still refuses to decrypt the hard drive for Garrett, Deathlok forces her compliance by threatening to kill Ward (and nearly succeeding). She briefly contemplates letting him die, but decides against it-- not out of any residual feelings for Ward, but because she refuses to become a killer, refuses to become like Ward. Coulson meanwhile manages to sneak on board and free Skye. They make good on their escape, but not before the hard drive has been decrypted for Garrett. Coulson and Skye regroup with the rest of the team and retreat to a dingy unknown hotel. Once there, Skye reveals that all is not lost: she left a trap in the hard drive that would soon infect all of HYDRA's network and delete all her data. The only problem is that it can't be executed remotely: she needs access to one of HYDRA's computers in order to make the final strike.
Coulson's team tracks down a HYDRA base in Cuba in the hopes of finding Garrett and/or activating Skye's back-door trojan. Though Garrett and his operation have since packed up and left, they do manage to find a computer-- but not without a trap of its' own. Garrett has left several more robotically augmented soldiers just like Deathlok waiting there for them. Fighting their way out, Skye executes the program as they get the hell out of there, collapsing the building on top of Garrett's men on their way out. After regrouping, the team decide to conduct their final attack on Garrett's base of operations (found thanks to Agents Fitz and Simmons). Skye's mission is to save the relatives being held hostage for the augmented super soldiers, May's is to go after Ward, and Coulson's to go after Garrett.
Deathlok, having been ordered to stay at Garrett's side to protect him, ends up in fact delivering the fatal blow once he receives a message from Skye that she has rescued his son. In the aftermath, Ward and the augmented soldiers are taken in, and Skye tries to convince Deathlok to reunite with his son (though to no avail). She herself then reunites with her own family-- her team-- shaken but victorious.
PERSONALITY:
Skye might not have a degree, but she comes across to those she meets as confident, smart and witty. A little edgy and flippant at times, but it only seems to add to her charm. She's well-versed when it comes to both pop culture and politics, quick to provide a relevant quip or out-talk anybody. More than anything though, Skye's resourceful. Perhaps because she's used to being the underdog and operating in less-than-ideal situations, or perhaps she's always just been naturally fast on her feet. She can improvise like a pro, and often lies, charms and out-thinks her way out of many a bind.
Skye's also surprisingly warm and empathetic-- despite her deep-seated cynicism towards large organisations and a lifetime spent feeling worthless and unwanted... or perhaps because of it. She somehow still usually opts to see the best in people, and knows there's always more than one side to any story. She's also usually the first to suggest an unconventional solution to a problem, or to approach it from a different angle. More than her elite hacking skills, it's these qualities which makes her such an asset: her people skills and her ability to think outside the box-- two qualities which Coulson's team and indeed it seems most SHIELD agents in general are sorely lacking. See, beneath her flippant exterior lies a person who actually understands others, or makes attempts to do so when she doesn't. She's genuinely interested in people. She's both nosy and caring in the same breath: she wants to know what makes people tick and then fix it. Despite her wit and occasional sarcasm, Skye isn't one to use it to deflect away a serious conversation or shy away from feelings that need to be talked about. She's actually mostly quite in touch with her emotions and relatively self-aware of her own failings, and often tries to engage others in conversation about their issues, too.
Skye's not without her faults, though. She's impulsive to a fault-- as demonstrated several times throughout the series, such as when she decides to pursue a dangerous target without back-up and ends up getting shot for her trouble. She's also, as mentioned above, incredibly nosy. She often-times develops tunnel vision when she becomes interested in something, determined to get to the bottom of it and never leaving well-enough alone. Warnings only serve to fuel her determination-- though possibly that's also tied into her mistrust of authority. Even after she finds out more about her past and becomes more invested in SHIELD as an organisation, Skye still has little care or regard for the system. Rules and regulations are for other people, as far as she's concerned, and she only abides by them when she decides they aren't stupid. If they are? You can forget it. Skye refuses to be bound by anything she decides is dumb-- she doesn't care about protocol. If it gets the job done and saves the day, that's what's important.
See, Skye's motivational levels tend not to have a middle-ground. She either decides to devote herself to something 100% (see also: tunnel vision as mentioned above) or doesn't care about it at all. She lacks the discipline to apply herself to things that either don't interest her or that don't come easily to her-- though she's aware it's a problem and is working on it. Despite struggling with the physical aspect of SHIELD agent training, hating it and questioning its' usefulness, she has been trying harder to apply herself to it with varying degrees of success. (Her motivation was increased rapidly though when she came to understand just how useful it would be.)
Despite her casual disregard for rules, Skye actually has quite a strong moral compass. She won't hesitate to tell others when she thinks they've crossed an ethical or moral line and is well versed in human rights and social justice. It's clear that she actually takes the Rising Tide creed much more seriously than ex-boyfriend Miles, who sold out his ideals for a million dollars-- an act which disgusted Skye and didn't tempt her even for a minute. Though she's much of the opinion that the ends justifies the means when it comes to justifying her disregard of rules and protocol, it's another story entirely if the means are morally wrong. Interestingly enough, rule breaking doesn't seem to count for much on her scale of right and wrong, but everything else does. Overall, she seems to have her own rule book and her own special brand of dedication to the greater good.
Though she's confident in herself, Skye's insecurities lie in her perceived place in the world. She's slowly starting to identify with SHIELD and consider her team her family, but prior to that, she seemed somewhat adrift and apart from society. She takes no family name when she erases her old identity because she has no family she identifies with. Not to mention, she could have just chosen to change her name legally instead of erasing herself from existence-- a rather drastic measure to take just to get rid of a name you hate. It's drastic even for a professional hacker, who should have numerous methods of staying anonymous at her fingertips. It speaks volumes as to just how alone she feels, how confident she is that no-one would miss her if she were gone that she does, indeed, erase herself from the planet without a care.
At least, that's how Skye presents, anyway-- without a care. Though she is sometimes troubled, Skye presents as being mostly unflappable. "If it helped, I'd rage all the time," she muses at one point-- implying that she's of the opinion that anger rarely solves anything. She also seems to take things less seriously than the rest of the team (until Shit Gets Real anyway), and is rarely surprised by much. She takes everything in stride. She doesn't even seem to have much of a life plan, beyond finding out about her past-- nobody's ever had any expectations of her. But it's not all bad. It's this exact quality which also lends her towards being slightly bubbly and goofy on occasion, bringing levity to a team that sorely needs it.
POWER: Cyberpathy.
Definition: Non-canon! A psychic ability to control/interact with electronic machinery and read electronic signals. This would include, but is not limited to: her natural hacking prowess (now amplified, which will probably continue to get better/faster with practice) and the ability to instantly access and store electronic data and transmissions. (Where internet is concerned, this only works so long as she's still connected to it mentally, OR on an internet-capable device within range of wi-fi if not for some reason-- she hasn't become her own modem!!) A power very similar to technopathy, but with more focus on software and devices with electronic signals than hardware/non-electronic devices. When not working through an internet connection, she'll also be limited in what she can control/send/receive by distance from her immediate proximity. She may be able to expand her range through practice, but like most things, that will take time and effort.
Considerations: Skye has no supernatural powers as such (currently revealed) in the show, but her ability to hack may as well be one. See, due to the MAGIC OF HANDY PLOT DEVICES AND LAZY WRITING (and also probably the writers having no idea how hacking actually works), Skye's computer skills and hacking abilities seem more on par with magic than having any basis in the real world. There's seemingly nothing computer-related she can't do. SO I'm opting to make cyberpathy her super power, in the spirit of her canonically having ~magical haxx0r skillz~ :'). Also it just makes my life easier, since if I were to give her a different power, I would then encounter the headache of trying to impose real-world logic on Skye's zomg magical hacking skills that seem to have no basis in reality while still... trying to stay true to the spirit of canon... yeah. It's easier if I just call it a super power and then give her a little extra level-up to suit the game.
Of course, since technology does feature heavily in the MoM setting and this is an ability that can get out of hand with info-modding quite easily, I'll be making sure to liase with players extensively so as not to abuse it or step on toes OOCly, including setting up a permissions post for people to comment to. Obviously I will be assuming that, despite her superpower, all government information that she wouldn't normally be able to access will still be blocked to her! So basically, no info-modding plots for reasons that should be obvious. (Unless of course it's been plotted out that way extensively and on purpose with the mod team/plot-runner in advance, anyway.)
I'm opting not to give her a second or third power at this current point in time, since Skye may have other abilities not yet mentioned in canon. Nobody (including Skye herself) seems to be quite sure what Skye is exactly, but it's been heavily implied throughout season one that she might not be human. She doesn't have any powers right now, sure! But there's every possibility she may get new canon powers when the reveal comes. And while I may not even still be playing her by then (season 2 airs in September but I think we'll be lucky to get a reveal before November), I don't really know how I feel right now about tacking any other powers on until we know one way or another.
CHARACTER NAME: Skye [No last name presently]
CHARACTER AGE: 24 [We think]
SERIES: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
CHRONOLOGY: Post season 1 finale.
CLASS: Hero... ish. More like Chaotic Good if we're going by DnD alignments.
HOUSING: Happy to be randomized with other roommates!
BACKGROUND:
origins
Left to the foster system, Skye's life growing up was a never-ending parade of different families and different places. Though she tried hard early on to impress and fit in with her new families, in the end she was always inevitably sent back to the orphanage. It's unsurprising, then, that she soon became disillusioned and stopped caring about her foster families entirely at the tender age of nine. It was not until very recently that Skye discovered it wasn't because she unwanted that she was always sent back. In fact, SHIELD had put in place a standing protocol within the US foster system ordering her foster families to return her-- moving Skye around as much as possible in order to protect her. (From whom or what, we don't yet know.)
At some point during her teenage years, Skye dropped out of high school and left the foster care system. How she supported herself after is unknown, though at some point she made the decision to learn how to hack in the hopes that she could find anything about her mysterious origins. She also met notorious hacker Miles Lydon-- though the cause and effect of this event is not clear. Whether she met him because of her new interest in learning how to hack, or whether her new interest came about because she met him, we're unlikely to ever find out. What we do know is that at some point they entered into a relationship, and that he taught Skye everything she knows, including instilling in her a strict code of ethics surrounding human rights and the freedom of information. It's also around this time that Skye illegally erased her "Mary Poots" identity off the face of the planet and took on the name "Skye". No family name.
Skye (along with Miles) ends up joining The Rising Tide-- an online hacktivist collective who champion freedom of information-- in the hopes that it will further her search for information on her past. At some point, she manages to find a redacted SHIELD document on herself. It was in fact so heavily redacted that it told her absolutely nothing. However, the mere existence of the document itself was enough to give her search new focus: SHIELD. What business did a government organisation have with her origins, and why were they redacted? Again, it's unclear if she uncovers this information while digging into SHIELD while doing work for The Rising Tide, or if she joins them because she found the document first and thinks the group can help further her own ends, but it doesn't really matter much either way-- at this point, Skye had adopted their beliefs as her own.
Two years before the pilot episode, Skye and Miles went their separate ways (it's not stated why), and Skye became homeless in California-- continuing however to dig deeper into SHIELD on her own from inside her purple van. How Skye managed to pay her bills at this point is also entirely unclear; maybe she has money saved up from past jobs. At any rate, she certainly didn't have a job by the time of the pilot episode, and being a full-time hacktivist wasn't paying. Even if it did, Skye wouldn't have taken the money-- part of her ethical code, instilled by The Rising Tide (or Miles), that information should be free and not sold.
Sometime in September 2013 (just slightly pre-pilot), Skye became intrigued by rumours on the internet about a "Project Centipede" that was working to produce super-humans. When all traces of the project suddenly completely vanished from the internet, Skye became even more interested-- thinking this was surely SHIELD's handiwork. Plotting to catch SHIELD red-handed, she tracked the project to a laboratory and began to watch it around the clock. Her dogged determination finally yielded results when the laboratory exploded one day and a man jumped out of it from the top floor-- landing on the pavement without a scratch. Skye recorded the whole thing and uploaded the video to SHIELD's servers with a Rising Tide logo stamped on it and a taunting message.
shifting loyalties
After a few brushes with danger, Skye decided she would prefer to be trained as a proper field agent instead of remaining the mere consultant she was originally hired as. Henceforth Skye began to reroute her energy and time to training, supervised by Agent Ward. Skye continued to try to hack into SHIELD's more secure servers in her free time now that they were accessible to her, but her focus became more divided. Meanwhile, her guts, abilities and quick thinking eventually won the team over in the following weeks. What Skye didn't count on was them winning her over, too-- initially only intending to use them as a means to further her own ends.
The matter came to a head sooner rather than later when Skye was forced to choose between ex-boyfriend Miles and her team's mission: Miles had hacked SHIELD's Hong Kong database and sold the information to a third party (much to Skye's disgust), which was then used to locate and kidnap a super-powered individual SHIELD had been protecting. Trying to play the field from both sides, Skye tipped off Miles so he could escape, but her treachery was soon discovered by Agent May. Following the mission, Skye was given an ultimatum by team leader Phil Coulson: tell him why she had really agreed to join SHIELD, or leave. Skye confessed to her ulterior motives, and though Coulson was reasonably sympathetic and agreed to help her look into the matter, Skye was also hence forced to wear an electronic tracking bracelet. Said bracelet was unbreakable, unable to be taken off, and tracking her every movement on any piece of electronic equipment-- anywhere. This began a turning point for Skye.
Skye realised she deeply regretted deceiving the people she'd come to care for, and though she apologised to her teammates, hence forth had to work even harder than before to win back their trust. Agent Coulson's promise to use his higher clearance level to help her look for answers comforted her some, but Skye still could not give up searching herself. However, the next time Skye was again presented with the choice between the possibility of getting new information on her past and her team's safety, she chose her team-- a clear indicator of her changing priorities.
If that wasn't enough to prove her loyalty, the incident that followed next was. When Agent Coulson was later kidnapped, Skye redirected all her focus to finding him-- even though she had been thrown out of the operation by the new temporary leader from SHIELD who swooped in to take charge, and even despite her electronic tracking bracelet being rigged to immediately shut down any internet-capable device she came close to. Never the less, she still proved herself resourceful and determined enough to get around both problems, and still ended up being the only person to find a lead on Coulson's whereabouts-- leading to his subsequent rescue. This in turn earned Skye her release from the electronic monitor bracelet, as well as Coulson's gratitude.
It was at this point that Agent Coulson finally revealed to Skye what he had learned about Skye's past from his own digging-- the information mentioned here in the first paragraph. Coulson had been originally reluctant to tell her what he had found for some time, worried about how she might take the news. However, instead blaming SHIELD for her childhood upheaval, Skye chose to look at it another way: that SHIELD was the sole reason she had survived to adulthood. That she wasn't worthless or unwanted-- just the opposite. Almost an entire team of SHIELD agents had died to prove it. SHIELD had been her family all along. This gave Skye a new found drive, something that she could really identify with for the first time in her life. From that point on, she became much more invested in the idea of really being a part of SHIELD, rather than a tag-along serving her own purpose.
Unfortunately, Skye's new-found motivation combined with severe lack of field experience and training ended up landing her in more hot water sooner rather than later. Separated from the rest of her team, Skye made the decision to pursue a high-profile target rather than let him get away. Unfortunately this led to her being shot twice by the target and nearly dying. Though her team found her soon after and managed to get her into a hyperbaric chamber before she bled to death, it was only a way of buying time at best. Spurred on by the threat of Skye's imminent death, the team went on a mission to track down the miracle drug responsible for Coulson's own earlier mysterious revival, and after some shenanigans, found it buried so deep underground that no record of it existed in any of SHIELD's files. They injected Skye with it, making her wounds almost instantly regenerate. (Only a one-time cure, so no continuous regeneration powers for Skye-- or anyone else. The team was only able to find one vial of the miracle drug before the secret facility they found it in started counting down to self-destruct.)
[WARNING: major spoilers for both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of Shield follow from now until the end of the history section.]
agent with a cause
Unfortunately, the whole debacle is a complete red-herring. After a long and dramatic search, Skye and Coulson figure out that the assumption they'd been basing their search parameters on the whole time was wrong all along: the Clairvoyant isn't a clairvoyant at all. Rather, just a high level SHIELD agent using their knowledge of the team's movements to keep ahead of them.
The reveal comes just as the team-plane's controls are suddenly overridden by someone at SHIELD HQ towing them back to base. Minutes later, Skye decrypts a secret transmission going out over SHIELD airwaves: telling all HYDRA agents to reveal themselves. They're not being towed back to SHIELD HQ, they're being towed right into the middle of a HYDRA take-over. (Side note: HYDRA being the Nazi organisation founded in the 1940s that Captain America defeated in WWII, upon whose defeat SHIELD was founded to protect America from similar threats. Everyone had thought HYDRA long dead, but it turns out they had infiltrated SHIELD right from the beginning and were simply waiting and biding their time as sleeper agents until the right moment.) It suddenly becomes apparent: the Clairvoyant isn't just a high level SHIELD agent. They're a high level HYDRA agent, masquerading as a high level SHIELD agent.
Before landing, Skye realises something even more dire than her life and the HYDRA takeover of SHIELD is at stake: the specs on all the extremely dangerous objects that the team has recovered over the course of the season are right there on the team plane... which is soon about to be overrun by HYDRA agents. Skye sets about backing up every piece of data they have onto her own personal, encrypted hard drive before destroying all records on the plane itself. She then gives the drive to Ward to look after, figuring it's safer in his hands than hers. Having been towed into SHIELD HQ, the team makes a narrow escape from their plane being boarded and disappear into the bowels of HQ with a plan to recapture the base. As per plan, Skye and Ward split off from the others to go find the HQ's control center: shut down HYDRA's communications and electricity in order to give their team and any other still-loyal SHIELD agents remaining a fighting chance. On the way there, hiding from being discovered by a large team of enemy agents, Ward confesses he has feelings for Skye and asks if she'll get a drink with him sometime if they make it out of there alive. Skye agrees to the drink, they kiss, and Ward proceeds on his mission of protecting Skye on her way to mission control. They take it out, the day is saved-- but not before the real identity of the Clairvoyant is revealed: Agent Garrett.
Garrett is apprehended. Ward, professing disgust at how badly he had been deceived by his prior mentor, offers to do the honours of escorting Garrett to "The Fridge"-- SHIELD's top-secret high-security prison, where they keep both prisoners and dangerous objects they've retrieved. (Seem like a bad idea to anyone else to keep both of these things in the same facility? No? Just me? Okay.) However, on the way to the Fridge, Ward shoots all the other guards and frees Garrett, revealing his own true status as yet another sleeper HYDRA agent. Whoops. Surprise. Garrett and Ward then proceed to break into the Fridge together to get their hands on all the high tech dangerous weaponry SHIELD's been keeping under lock and key. Oh and release all the prisoners to make mayhem, you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, back on the team plane, the rest of the group is still blissfully unaware of Ward's treachery. Following the events of The Winter Soldier-- in which Captain America and his team decide that the only way to defeat the HYDRA takeover is to dismantle SHIELD entirely-- Coulson's team now have bigger problems. Since SHIELD has been completely dismantled and revealed to have HYDRA terrorists in their midst, their organisation has been labelled a threat to the US government and no longer officially exists. Not only that, but the US army wants to bring in every single SHIELD agent for lengthy interrogations-- something the team simply does not have time for, with HYDRA agents and now prison escapees on the loose. Opting to skip out before the US army can apprehend them, the team make for a secret SHIELD bunker where they can regroup and perhaps make themselves a new base of operations.
Ward meanwhile realises that being given Skye's encrypted hard-drive actually means nothing: the drive is "geo-locked" and as such can only be unlocked at a specific location. A location only Skye knows about-- and it's set to self-destruct if anyone attempts to hack it. Realising he needs Skye to unlock the drive, Ward resumes his cover and rejoins the team in their secret base, pretending that he got to the Fridge too late to stop the attack and that Garrett got away-- Ward himself sporting several (purposefully inflicted) injuries to prove how narrowly he escaped. Not long after, Coulson launches his first mission to apprehend one of the escaped and dangerous prisoners from the Fridge, leaving Ward, May and Skye behind in the secret base-- along with Agent Koenig, the base monitor. (Ward due to his injuries, Skye to see if she can find a way to track the other escapees, and May for personal problems that aren't quite relevant to Skye or this app. Agent May soon takes off to go find a way to resolve her issues, probably figuring that Skye and Koenig are safe enough with Ward to protect them. Unfortunately, she could not be more wrong.)
Once May leaves, it doesn't take Ward long to kill Koenig and hide the body. He then attempts to seduce Skye so he can kidnap her and get the drive password all with Skye none-the-wiser. Unfortunately for Ward, Skye finds Koenig's dead body and figures out in quick succession that Ward is HYDRA and what he's really after. Stuck in a secret bunker with a deadly enemy agent with no means of overpowering him and no means of getting help, Skye does what she does best: improvise. She manages to leave a hidden message for her team informing them of Ward's betrayal, and then seems to agree to go along with Ward's "plan" to leave the base and decrypt the drive ostensibly "to help their teammates on their mission"-- all the while stalling for as much time as she can.
Under the pretense of leading Ward to the special location where the hard drive can be unlocked, Skye takes Ward to a populated diner somewhere in California, continuing to act lovey-dovey with him to lower his guard. However, while pretending to be unlocking the drive, she actually secretly tips off the police. As the cops arrive on scene, Skye reveals that she knows Ward's a traitor and makes her escape-- only to be captured out on the street by Deathlok. (Another of Garrett's agents, his body enhanced to super-soldier levels via serum and robotic additions, forced to comply to Garrett's will as his son is being held hostage.)
In captivity once more, Skye confronts Ward since the game is up anyway, telling him exactly how much he disgusts her. But when later Skye still refuses to decrypt the hard drive for Garrett, Deathlok forces her compliance by threatening to kill Ward (and nearly succeeding). She briefly contemplates letting him die, but decides against it-- not out of any residual feelings for Ward, but because she refuses to become a killer, refuses to become like Ward. Coulson meanwhile manages to sneak on board and free Skye. They make good on their escape, but not before the hard drive has been decrypted for Garrett. Coulson and Skye regroup with the rest of the team and retreat to a dingy unknown hotel. Once there, Skye reveals that all is not lost: she left a trap in the hard drive that would soon infect all of HYDRA's network and delete all her data. The only problem is that it can't be executed remotely: she needs access to one of HYDRA's computers in order to make the final strike.
Coulson's team tracks down a HYDRA base in Cuba in the hopes of finding Garrett and/or activating Skye's back-door trojan. Though Garrett and his operation have since packed up and left, they do manage to find a computer-- but not without a trap of its' own. Garrett has left several more robotically augmented soldiers just like Deathlok waiting there for them. Fighting their way out, Skye executes the program as they get the hell out of there, collapsing the building on top of Garrett's men on their way out. After regrouping, the team decide to conduct their final attack on Garrett's base of operations (found thanks to Agents Fitz and Simmons). Skye's mission is to save the relatives being held hostage for the augmented super soldiers, May's is to go after Ward, and Coulson's to go after Garrett.
Deathlok, having been ordered to stay at Garrett's side to protect him, ends up in fact delivering the fatal blow once he receives a message from Skye that she has rescued his son. In the aftermath, Ward and the augmented soldiers are taken in, and Skye tries to convince Deathlok to reunite with his son (though to no avail). She herself then reunites with her own family-- her team-- shaken but victorious.
PERSONALITY:
Skye might not have a degree, but she comes across to those she meets as confident, smart and witty. A little edgy and flippant at times, but it only seems to add to her charm. She's well-versed when it comes to both pop culture and politics, quick to provide a relevant quip or out-talk anybody. More than anything though, Skye's resourceful. Perhaps because she's used to being the underdog and operating in less-than-ideal situations, or perhaps she's always just been naturally fast on her feet. She can improvise like a pro, and often lies, charms and out-thinks her way out of many a bind.
Skye's also surprisingly warm and empathetic-- despite her deep-seated cynicism towards large organisations and a lifetime spent feeling worthless and unwanted... or perhaps because of it. She somehow still usually opts to see the best in people, and knows there's always more than one side to any story. She's also usually the first to suggest an unconventional solution to a problem, or to approach it from a different angle. More than her elite hacking skills, it's these qualities which makes her such an asset: her people skills and her ability to think outside the box-- two qualities which Coulson's team and indeed it seems most SHIELD agents in general are sorely lacking. See, beneath her flippant exterior lies a person who actually understands others, or makes attempts to do so when she doesn't. She's genuinely interested in people. She's both nosy and caring in the same breath: she wants to know what makes people tick and then fix it. Despite her wit and occasional sarcasm, Skye isn't one to use it to deflect away a serious conversation or shy away from feelings that need to be talked about. She's actually mostly quite in touch with her emotions and relatively self-aware of her own failings, and often tries to engage others in conversation about their issues, too.
Skye's not without her faults, though. She's impulsive to a fault-- as demonstrated several times throughout the series, such as when she decides to pursue a dangerous target without back-up and ends up getting shot for her trouble. She's also, as mentioned above, incredibly nosy. She often-times develops tunnel vision when she becomes interested in something, determined to get to the bottom of it and never leaving well-enough alone. Warnings only serve to fuel her determination-- though possibly that's also tied into her mistrust of authority. Even after she finds out more about her past and becomes more invested in SHIELD as an organisation, Skye still has little care or regard for the system. Rules and regulations are for other people, as far as she's concerned, and she only abides by them when she decides they aren't stupid. If they are? You can forget it. Skye refuses to be bound by anything she decides is dumb-- she doesn't care about protocol. If it gets the job done and saves the day, that's what's important.
See, Skye's motivational levels tend not to have a middle-ground. She either decides to devote herself to something 100% (see also: tunnel vision as mentioned above) or doesn't care about it at all. She lacks the discipline to apply herself to things that either don't interest her or that don't come easily to her-- though she's aware it's a problem and is working on it. Despite struggling with the physical aspect of SHIELD agent training, hating it and questioning its' usefulness, she has been trying harder to apply herself to it with varying degrees of success. (Her motivation was increased rapidly though when she came to understand just how useful it would be.)
Despite her casual disregard for rules, Skye actually has quite a strong moral compass. She won't hesitate to tell others when she thinks they've crossed an ethical or moral line and is well versed in human rights and social justice. It's clear that she actually takes the Rising Tide creed much more seriously than ex-boyfriend Miles, who sold out his ideals for a million dollars-- an act which disgusted Skye and didn't tempt her even for a minute. Though she's much of the opinion that the ends justifies the means when it comes to justifying her disregard of rules and protocol, it's another story entirely if the means are morally wrong. Interestingly enough, rule breaking doesn't seem to count for much on her scale of right and wrong, but everything else does. Overall, she seems to have her own rule book and her own special brand of dedication to the greater good.
Though she's confident in herself, Skye's insecurities lie in her perceived place in the world. She's slowly starting to identify with SHIELD and consider her team her family, but prior to that, she seemed somewhat adrift and apart from society. She takes no family name when she erases her old identity because she has no family she identifies with. Not to mention, she could have just chosen to change her name legally instead of erasing herself from existence-- a rather drastic measure to take just to get rid of a name you hate. It's drastic even for a professional hacker, who should have numerous methods of staying anonymous at her fingertips. It speaks volumes as to just how alone she feels, how confident she is that no-one would miss her if she were gone that she does, indeed, erase herself from the planet without a care.
At least, that's how Skye presents, anyway-- without a care. Though she is sometimes troubled, Skye presents as being mostly unflappable. "If it helped, I'd rage all the time," she muses at one point-- implying that she's of the opinion that anger rarely solves anything. She also seems to take things less seriously than the rest of the team (until Shit Gets Real anyway), and is rarely surprised by much. She takes everything in stride. She doesn't even seem to have much of a life plan, beyond finding out about her past-- nobody's ever had any expectations of her. But it's not all bad. It's this exact quality which also lends her towards being slightly bubbly and goofy on occasion, bringing levity to a team that sorely needs it.
POWER: Cyberpathy.
Definition: Non-canon! A psychic ability to control/interact with electronic machinery and read electronic signals. This would include, but is not limited to: her natural hacking prowess (now amplified, which will probably continue to get better/faster with practice) and the ability to instantly access and store electronic data and transmissions. (Where internet is concerned, this only works so long as she's still connected to it mentally, OR on an internet-capable device within range of wi-fi if not for some reason-- she hasn't become her own modem!!) A power very similar to technopathy, but with more focus on software and devices with electronic signals than hardware/non-electronic devices. When not working through an internet connection, she'll also be limited in what she can control/send/receive by distance from her immediate proximity. She may be able to expand her range through practice, but like most things, that will take time and effort.
Considerations: Skye has no supernatural powers as such (currently revealed) in the show, but her ability to hack may as well be one. See, due to the MAGIC OF HANDY PLOT DEVICES AND LAZY WRITING (and also probably the writers having no idea how hacking actually works), Skye's computer skills and hacking abilities seem more on par with magic than having any basis in the real world. There's seemingly nothing computer-related she can't do. SO I'm opting to make cyberpathy her super power, in the spirit of her canonically having ~magical haxx0r skillz~ :'). Also it just makes my life easier, since if I were to give her a different power, I would then encounter the headache of trying to impose real-world logic on Skye's zomg magical hacking skills that seem to have no basis in reality while still... trying to stay true to the spirit of canon... yeah. It's easier if I just call it a super power and then give her a little extra level-up to suit the game.
Of course, since technology does feature heavily in the MoM setting and this is an ability that can get out of hand with info-modding quite easily, I'll be making sure to liase with players extensively so as not to abuse it or step on toes OOCly, including setting up a permissions post for people to comment to. Obviously I will be assuming that, despite her superpower, all government information that she wouldn't normally be able to access will still be blocked to her! So basically, no info-modding plots for reasons that should be obvious. (Unless of course it's been plotted out that way extensively and on purpose with the mod team/plot-runner in advance, anyway.)
I'm opting not to give her a second or third power at this current point in time, since Skye may have other abilities not yet mentioned in canon. Nobody (including Skye herself) seems to be quite sure what Skye is exactly, but it's been heavily implied throughout season one that she might not be human. She doesn't have any powers right now, sure! But there's every possibility she may get new canon powers when the reveal comes. And while I may not even still be playing her by then (season 2 airs in September but I think we'll be lucky to get a reveal before November), I don't really know how I feel right now about tacking any other powers on until we know one way or another.