i'm always ready for a ( war again ) go down that road again it's all the same. i'm ALWAYS ready to take a life again, you know i'll ride again, it's all the same.
Momentarily stopped by the girl stood directly in the path of anyone hoping to get anywhere on this campus, the redhead took one of the badges and looked over it. “Resist? What do you mean to resist?” she tilts her head.
“i thought it was obvious.” anyone else would have just given ren a straight answer, but not eudora. she just had to get all in a huff, staring back at the other girl like she had two heads for not IMMEDIATELY knowing what the buttons meant. “registration? that whole big thing that’s ruining powered people’s lives? ringing a bell?”
Billy smiled slightly. “Billy Maximoff, at your service,” he said, with a little wave. He knew the last name wasn’t exactly a minor one in the world of superheroes, let alone mutants if you were getting more specific about it. “Oh, sure, no problem,” he said, with a little smile. “This is important, people should be talking about it.”
“a maximoff. makes sense,” in fairness- it really did, now he’d said it. “eudora coulson. my dad’s a fan of your parents.” in fact, phil had mentioned wanda and vision.. a lot more than once. she felt kinda silly now, not to have copped who he was with the mention of android. “we all know why more people aren’t talking about it, though-” well. she assumed so, but if not, dora was quick to clarify- “fear. the thought that if they ignore it, it’ll go away. and probably the most common- ‘who cares’.” she made it sound like a joke, but there was no humor to her expression. there was a touch more care, though, as she offered him the almost full box she was holding, “d’you want this one?- i’ve got another full one in my rucksack, so…”
tova hadn’t registered. even if her uncle and his family had. kill them ? she was essentially immortal. blackmail them with a drop in their grades ? tova didn’t care about her grades enough to feel like she had to register. the lack of people fighting back was almost alarming. she saw some softer and pacifist ways of fighting back but she didn’t see it doing anything. “ a button ? “ she raised her eyebrows. “ sure… “ she nodded.
“button, badge, pin... i’m not really sure what these get classed as, other than blatant insubordination,” eudora shrugged casually like she wasn’t admitting to going against the wishes of just about everyone, and held one of the aforementioned devices of her rebellion out to tova, “they’re nothing special, but.. no one else is doing anything about registration, y’know? at least if you’re wearing one of these you get counted as one of the ‘resistance’.”
Huihana smiled, liking the fact that the young people were being so loud in their protests against it. This she got. This protesting, this being vocal about disagreements when you couldn’t do anything else, this was what she grew up with. “I’ll take a button,” she agrees.
there was a long moment, there, where it was a little touch and go - at least in eudora’s mind. she never would have shown, but she was worried, given huihana’s grand opening, that she might just be the kind to tattle. she definitely had the means to. one word to daisy, and it’d be ten minutes, tops, before coulson was calling to try and reason with her. her smile, her willingness to take one of the buttons, was an out and out relief, and eudora couldn’t have held out the box to her any quicker. “there’s not much option-” read as, there were no options other than the plain white with black writing, “but it’s not like they’re supposed to be a fashion statement, y’know?”
the smirk that fills her features isn’t playful, but the femme is impressed. it took guts to be so openly deffiant. so she nods her head, speaking firmly “always,” before taking a badge and pinning it to the front of her jacket. she was a TA, she was almost certain that such behaviour would be frowned upon, and yet in that moment she couldn’t bring herself to care. “you make these yourself?”
it was a long shot. anyone associated with the school - even just in a TA capacity - likely wasn’t going to involve themselves in the anti registration struggle, and eudora had accepted that even before that morning, when the first teacher had asked her to kindly move out of the foyer and out to the front of the school if she was going to be campaigning like she was. haley taking one - and not just taking one but PINNING IT TO HER JACKET - was unexpected, in a sense, but dora was indebted. “thank you,” it was for more than just taking the button. anyone could do that. actually wearing it, in the position that haley was in, mattered most. “every last one of ‘em. making them wasn’t too difficult- the pins and stuff come ready made, i just had to insert the pictures- but the amount of sneaking around i had to do was ridiculous. i’ve been banned from the computer labs for the next month cause.. well- i got caught- but it was worth it.”
wren happily takes the button with a smile, black leather glove picking the edge of it and keeping careful watch on where her fingers go as to not accidentally touch the other. “happily,” she says with a softer smile for eudora.
“cool,” oblivious to the kind of carefully chosen movements wren was making, dora was just happy to be passing along yet another button to a fellow student. she was alone in what she was doing - but surprisingly, not alone in her ideas. “thanks for being part of the resistance. you’re representing our ideals out there now- you sure you’re good with that?”
Billy raised his eyebrows, more than a little confused at her response, which he found to be rather confrontational. “I was thinking about the registration, actually,” he said. “I’m a mutant, so is my mom and my sister and…pretty much my whole family, actually. Except my father.” He paused. “He’s an android. So, no, I’m not ‘into this whole thing’. Thanks for the button.” He looked at the box. “Looks like you still have a bunch, though. Need any help handing them out?”
"oh,” was all she could immediately manage in reply, handing off the button without any more hint of her earlier hesitancy and feeling MORE than a little stupid for the way in which she’d chosen to word her statements. she hadn’t meant to be rude- now, she feared she had been. “i didn’t know. if i had i’d have said.. fellow mutants unite, or- something weird like that,” she smiled, wryly, her apology more of the non-kind, her acceptance of what he said about his father only strange if you WEREN’T a student of paragon. she’d heard weirder. “you’re welcome. thanks for taking one,” one down, dozens to go, unless- “i could do with the hand, if you’re sure you’re up for giving it.”
‘ just pretend that we’re talking until the cops leave. ‘ [ from @coulscns ]
“I don’t know what he was thinking! I made it very clear that I’m not the type of girl who would do that on the first date!” Upon hearing her friend’s statement, the brunette had immediately launched into a detailed story, speaking in a higher voice as she waved her arms. “But he just wouldn’t take no for an answer! So I showed him what happens when you mess with me!” she finished her story with a small laugh, before quickly covering her mouth to avoid giving herself away.
“i don’t know what to tell you-” she shook her head as if she was disappointed in the fake man her friend was telling her about, linking their arms as they walked directly past the cops in question and laying her head on the others shoulder, like she was comforting her, “that’s just men for you.” as the distance grew between them and the cops, dora relaxed, some, taking a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure they were completely out of earshot before- “thanks, maddie. i owe you one.”
“Does your dad know you’re organising protests?” Huihana asked. If anything was going to remind her of growing up, it was young people protesting. “I mean, I’m apparently already registered because SHIELD had my details. I’m guessing Mr. Coulson didn’t give them yours?”
“maybe,” dora replied, evasively, giving huihana a casual one-shouldered shrug instead of the actual answer. yeah, phil coulson knew all about her feelings towards registration - and tried, desperately, to change her mind - but the buttons? the flyers she’d put up, earlier in the day? the protests? she’d figured if her dad was gonna freak as much as he had over the gpa hit she was taking by not registering, it was more a kindness to avoid telling him THAT much. “my powers developed during the four years that i was technically a missing person, so... they couldn’t register what they never knew about. since i got back, it’s up to me-” holding up one of the many buttons in her hands, she smiled, “i choose resist.”
Billy looked around as the girl spoke, looking at the button she was offering him. He had been so lost in thought that it took him a moment to realize what she was offering him. “What?” he said, blinking. “Oh, yeah, of course. Okay. Thanks.”
“you looked kinda in a daze, there- you sure you know what you’re taking?” she asked, holding out one of the buttons for him to take regardless of her words ( one more off her hands wasn’t a bad thing ), “it’s anit registration, so if you’re into that whole thing, it might not be the button for you...”
Sid returned her smile, a habit she picked up after many nights spent in the club. “I certainly won’t turn down the button.” Without paying any attention to which button she grabbed, she grabbed one and pinned it to the bag messenger bag she carried. “You need any more hands for the cause? Mutant rights lawyer in training. And a mutant. Stuff like this is what I’m good at.”
the buttons on offer weren’t anything special, really. white background, black font, no pictures to accentuate the cause she was fighting for or variance to the phrase printed on top - eudora had gone for basic more than flashy in design, and to her it didn’t matter what kind were floating around out there, so long as everyone actually had them. “a fellow mutant- nice. i guess if your two hands are willing, i could give you a couple of these, and you could try get them out there- but only if i know you’re for the ANTI-registration cause. i don’t want you taking them and throwing them in the trash.” which she’d already seen done. twice.
“can i interest you in a button?” though she smiled a sugary sweet kinda smile as she held out one of the MANY buttons ( emblazoned with ‘#RESIST’ ), it didn’t reach eudora’s eyes. there was nothing fun, or friendly, about the job she had taken upon herself to do that day. there was only registration, and the hopeful passing of her ideals onto others.
— ✧ KELSEY CHOW ?? no, that’s just EUDORA MAY COULSON !! she’s the TWENTY year old adoptive daughter of PHIL COULSON & MELINDA MAY ( DAISY JOHNSON & LINCOLN CAMPBELL ), and an UNDERGRAD at paragon. i hear she’s PASSIONATE & ADAPTIVE, but tends to be DECEITFUL & SHORT-TEMPERED. her file says that her power is ELECTROMAGNETISM MANIPULATION.
tell me who’s going to save me from myself
when this LIFE is all i’ve known.
SECTION ONE OF THREE: BULLET POINT HISTORY trigger warnings for death, arson, injury, murder ( ? )
what would prove to be the most defining moment of dora’s life would actually happen BEFORE she was born. before her mother, daisy johnson, even knew that she was pregnant with his child, her father, lincoln campbell, sacrificed himself to save the world - and he did do just that, but he never knew what it cost him
and, what it cost daisy
had he lived, then there was no question ; he and daisy would have raised their baby, together, creating for themselves the families neither had ever had. they wouldn’t have been ready, not even a little bit, but it would’ve been ok so long as they were in it, together. but he didn’t live, and when daisy found out how her life was going to change in such a huge way a few weeks later.. she panicked
she wasn’t ready. the people that say that all a kid needs is love are only right some of the time - she could love her unborn child with everything in her, but that didn’t mean she’d feel any more confident about what was to come. it didn’t stop the voice at the back of her head, telling her how all of her family, all the people she cared for, ended up hurt or worse because of her. it didn’t stop her from realizing that she couldn’t do it - so she decided that she wouldn’t. but she had been in and out of foster homes for her entire life. she knew how hard and unforgiving the system was, and she couldn’t do that to her kid -
enter phil coulson and melinda may, daisy’s pseudo parents, everything she had ever dreamed that she would have in a family. how it came about involved far too many late night and emotional discussions - all that matters is that on february 21st, a baby girl was born, and on her birth cert she was named eudora may coulson
daisy remained in her daughter’s life, but never as a mother. if anything, she was a hip older sister figure, able to watch her child grow up happy and loved while said child knew nothing of the truth. they bonded over computer programming and video games playing, but dora was never any the wiser. it was just easier, that way. daisy knew that if she ever changed her mind, phil and melinda would allow the truth to be revealed - but even if she’d started to second guess herself as dora grew older, she couldn’t have ever ruined the family unit that they created for her
everyone else in phil and melinda’s shield family were her family too, of course, just as they would’ve been if she’d been raised by her mother. i imagine all the oldest people knew - but it wasn’t the kind of secret that everyone wanted to be the first to tell. it was one that was RESPECTED, if anything, and it wasn’t as if who raised her changed much. eudora was surrounded by an overwhelming amount of love and loyalty, and was a happy child, surrounded by strong people who she was able to look up to and learn from. the only complaint that people had with her was that she was obsessed with shield
it was understandable, of course. her parents being so involved, all of the people she knew being the same, eudora grew up thinking that working with the organization was as normal as working for the post office. she loved the idea of joining up and becoming a hero - so much so that around the time she turned thirteen, she REALLY started to pressure phil and melinda
she wanted to know when she could join, and get her security clearance, and go on top secret missions with them. they’d taught her some self defense, enough to make sure she could take care of herself if needed, but she wanted MORE, now - she wanted to be an agent, and do whatever it took. and of course, they tried to keep her away from that life, for as long as they could. they tried to keep her SAFE
and they kind of became stifling, over protective parents, in the process
and everyone knows what happens, when a young teen feels stifled by their parents. they rebel - and for dora, that took the form of many after school detentions and low tier vandalism and delinquency, until finally, not long after her fifteenth birthday, they got the call that she hadn’t turned up to school that day. they naturally thought she was skipping a couple classes, and would turn up again eventually -
except, she didn’t
when they actually searched her room, they realized that she had took all of her money and things
her dream ? become a vigilante hero. yes, she was one of THOSE teens, who couldn’t just choose one. she thought if she proved herself as capable, she’d somehow prove herself as more than capable to be an agent - and at the time, hitting the streets seemed like the best of ideas. when she was six states away, however, lacking money and a roof over her head, she realized she’d kinda hecked up
but she was stubborn as all hell. she was gonna MAKE IT - or at least, she was gonna do her best to make a name for herself, before they tracked her down. she was good at covering her tracks, but dora knew that eventually, she’d get found. it was a question of when, but for the time being, she tried to do as many heroic things as she could
as in. she walked a lot of old ladies across the road and saved some cats ( and one parrot! ) from some trees. as it turned out, there wasn’t a lot of hero deeds out there for a homeless kid to do
a few more heroics, and a lot of near misses from her shield fam in tracking her down ( listen - they’re the best at their jobs, but the unexpected side effect of dora trailing them for YEARS was that she’d picked up on all the best ways to go on the run ), and we’re gonna fast forward to the second of dora’s defining moments
terrigenesis. i bet y’all thought i was gonna ignore this lil home slice being an inhuman. guess AGAIN !
it had taken an age, but dora had reached san diego - and at the diner she worked at ( shoutout to the people who had no issues in hiring an underage girl w no papers ), she overheard something that led her to what she thought would put her name into the young heroes hall of fame for life. it seemed like an arms deal. that was what it SOUNDED like, anyway. lots of “we meet at midnight”’s and “make sure to bring the gear”’s and blah blah blah, she kinda tuned out for the most part, but her sweet lil innocent mind had gone straight to GUNS instead of drugs, which probably woulda made more sense
she tailed the guy when he left the diner, managed to sneak her way into the warehouse after him, and watched as he met with just two other guys- two? two! that made THREE altogether, and any vigilante hero can handle three assailants
they didn’t have any guns with them, though. or bags of drugs. just a small wooden box, which they were, she assumed, trading for the briefcase full of cold hard cash. she wasn’t about to tell the guy she’d tailed he wasn’t getting his moneys worth, though. she didn’t question it - as they held out the little wooden box she had appeared, taking out the guy she’d followed with a sweeping move, and then- yikes
one of the others had reached for his gun. he was raising it towards her, when they all realized at the exact same time that the little wooden box had toppled from the third guys hands in the commotion. it was sailing towards the floor, they looked like if they weren’t already destined to being too slow they’d have shouted, or tried save it, but they were all stuck and she was wondering if it was a bomb and then-
the wood splintered. the crystal inside shattered. the explosion of what seemed like dust enveloped all four of them, and the last thing that eudora thought was - dying thanks to asbestos fucking SUCKED
she doesn’t recall what happened next. she was too young, to go thru terrigenesis - and it’s been long since proven that anyone unprepared, or too young, or BOTH, will suffer consequences. for eudora, it was coming to exactly three days later getting wheeled out of a back alley on a gurney, the noise of the ambulance going right through her skull, the flashing lights killing her eyes. some lady had seen the passed out teen and panicked thinking that she was dead, and honestly, eudora wasn’t ruling it out as an option
she couldn’t remember anything that happened, after she had gotten to the warehouse. zilch. nada. nothing. which was kinda good, i suppose, considering the last thing she’d seen before terrigenesis took her was the petty criminals before her crumbling to dust. and also kind of bad, because when an EMT tried to lean over and check her eyes with another annoying torch, she, uh...
electrocuted him
it was p bad
the other EMT’s screamed smth about her being a freak or whatever, and she was DEFINITELY freaking out, and it was a good job they hadn’t thought she’d be much of a threat and hadn’t strapped her to that gurney because she was fucking outta there like a flash, even though when they came to their senses, they tried to stop her
things were uh . how you say... not good !
she was alone, she was scared, she was going through changes that she didn’t understand - now would be such a good time to ruin her some more, but finally, something went right. a bystander from the whole ‘maybe killing an EMT and injuring three others’ thing followed her ( it’s not as creepy as it sounds ), and just.. well. happened to be a member of a very special group i can’t wait to namedrop
enter: a teeny tiny san diego based branch of the brotherhood of mutants, left mostly to their own devices. their scout brought in what she thought was another newly displaying mutant - and in her humble defense, after a display of their powers, eudora didn’t have any real. reason. to DOUBT she was a mutant
it wasn’t like she knew she was an inhuman. because.. she didn’t. and she couldn’t remember what she’d gone through to get her powers, because, plot convenience. and really. it was a case of mistaken identity on like. both their sides
things looked up, immediately. the mutants she ran with for the next while were more than helpful at showing her how to use her powers, and under their leaders wing, eudora learned more about mutants and their struggles and .. more about herself, or at least, that’s what she thought. she was a mutant ( haha ). she was a part of the unfairly treated minority, now, and eudora had always been a passionate, strong willed, and STUBBORN girl. she fell RIGHT into their ideals, accepting them wholeheartedly, and
well
remember when i said things would go right
i meant they’d go right for like a few months, tops, and then i’d ruin it again
she was pretty powerful. especially in the tiny group that she ran with. and once they realized that, and realized that she was on board with them - hook, line, sinker - it got easier and easier to wind her up and watch her go. she started carrying out jobs for them. sometimes it was getting money, when it was low and they needed the cash to get by. sometimes it was help in burning down a warehouse containing weapons that they’d been tipped would be used at the next pro-mutant rally. sometimes, it was hurting people. twice, it was a lot more serious than that.
but eudora was among who she thought were her friends and allies - and in a way, she was, but that didn’t negate the fact that she was young and impressionable and wholly in over her head, and they took advantage of that fact
she was starting to do more and more questionable things, and it was bad
REALLY bad, in fact
there was an anti-mutant rally planned to happen the summer after she had turned eighteen, and eudora was their main event. from the sidelines of the huge stage those against her kind spoke from, she focused all of her power on the electricity lines. the microphone, the speakers, the lights - everything exploded. the wires went up in flames. the wood of the stage caught, the people on top were heading towards fiery deaths if they hadn’t dove in time -
thankfully, shield turned up.
a camera had caught eudora and some of her friends scouting the area in the early hours of the morning. facial recognition tipped off the team, and they had rushed to get there as soon as they could. if it hadn’t been for their presence, everyone on the stand that day would have died - thanks to eudora. not that they realized that, at first
her friends scattered and she was too stunned at the sight of her mom and dad striding towards her to do the same. the family was reunited in the chaos, but she had always been told that honesty was the best policy - and she told them then and there her involvement in what had happened that day. they didn’t take her back on the bus as their kid.
well. they did.
but she was also under arrest
#yikes
in a story full of yikes’ i really hate to end, but here is where i must. it goes without saying that they were able to have her freed and her record wiped, after a few call ins of favors. and with her back, they got some time together before they decided that maybe sending her to the academy would benefit her - she’d picked up a lot of extreme ideas while she had been away, it seemed, and they wanted their daughter back
but much as they wanted her back, she couldn’t just reappear from nowhere. and eudora HAD changed. she was different. she was a mutant - and yes, they foolishly allowed her to keep on believing that because she had already been through so much, adding in that her almost sister slash aunt was actually her mother would have been too much, full stop. and she knew what it was like, for mutants
she still wanted to help the brotherhood
so once at the academy and away from her prying parents eyes, she reached back out to her friends-
and that’s where we’re at w eudora coulson! she’s an inside man that aint nobody suspecting!
SECTION TWO OF THREE: EXTRA DETAILS
her quick stats page, which includes personality tidbits, can be found HERE
eudora isn’t bad. i feel like after all my talk of her brotherhood dealings, i needa clarify that. she ISN’T bad. or evil. or whatever else you’d apply to a typical ‘villain’. she’s misguided - especially given that she thinks of herself as one of their own. her first experience with mutant kind after her change was a very extreme mutant kind, and she’s adopted their ideals as her own, and wants to work with them, to help them. but that’s because she thinks she’s doing the right thing. all she’s ever wanted to be is a hero. she still thinks that in a way, she’s being one
she has a single, self done tattoo, on the inside of her left wrist ; roman numerals that she typically covers up with a very large bracelet, which make absolutely NO sense to anyone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for. they’re coded coordinates for the exact whereabouts of the san diego branches safe house - and an identification mark, for if she runs into anyone affiliated with them.
she used a codename while running with the brotherhood group that she ran with, which was HYADES - not just a cluster of stars, but also the name of the sisterhood daughters of atlas in greek mythology, of which one is named eudora. when she was little, she used to have a mythology obsession that everyone actively encouraged, because knowledge is power and all that jazz - it was the very first name to come to mind, and she ran with it for as long as she ran with them
she wasn’t always rly short tempered. that is .. tragically .. another terrigenesis side effect, on top of the whole ‘losing all the time immediately during and after the change’ thing. there’s just.. so much going on in her head, now. a lot of extra power flowing in her veins, etc, etc - all her emotions are heightened but its mostly when she gets mad that people realize, because eudora goes straight to RAGE.
SECTION THREE OF THREE: WANTED CONNECTIONS
one connection i REALLY want, and will probably put a wanted ad in for, is one that’s ,, a bit much to explain, but makes sense in my head. i want eudora, a self called HERO, to have her own ARCH-NEMESIS - and everyone knows that the best of those are the ones that the hero created, themselves. i’d love if one of the people doing the terrigenesis trade had ALSO been a dormant inhuman, and i’d love if they had gone through the change with her. i imagine that they’ve been out there not too far from her all this time, and are p angry about the whole ‘she kinda had a part in their friends deaths’ thing - n also maybe the whole ‘definitely having a part in them gaining powers that they mightn’t have wanted’ thing. i’d LOVE that kind of hero/villain dynamic, so if ur interested. pls. hmu
FRIENDS ! literally any and all kind. she dropped off the face of the earth for about 3 years, but before that she probably had plenty of all types of friends, and since then, she’s probably made more. i just want her to hav some connections, ya know?
looks to the shooting stars n wishes for a daisy johnson
i dont kno ive been typing for two hours im so tired
