Emily Locke

Name: Eve
DW username: eve
E-Mail: kiandra_fire@yahoo.com
IM: AIM: Evil Lifegiver
Plurk: evileve

Other Characters: Sharon Carter, agentxthirteen

Character Name: Emily Locke
Series: Powerless
Timeline: Series finale, right as they realize they might still have their jobs
Canon Resource Link: here!
Character History:
In a world full of superheroes where Lex Luthor has been elected as President, it would be easy for a person to feel, well, powerless. But Emily Locke, despite growing up in a flyover state - literally, she could see superheroes fly over her state without even waving - had a great family who encouraged her to have a positive outlook on life. Like her father always said, "Just because you aren't a superhero doesn't mean you can't do great things!"

With that in mind, Emily decided to leave her soul-crushing job and move to where she could help regular people like herself feel safer in a world where superheroes can't prevent all the collateral damage. That place? Charm City - summed up by a fellow passenger on the train as "It sucks" and described by her new boss, Van(derveer) Wayne as a "taint" and as too much of a "dump" for an A-list villain like the Joker to attack. But Charm City, right across the river from Gotham, is home to Wayne Security, and that's where Emily can make a difference, so that's where Emily goes. Plus, it has superhero and supervillain fights - which impresses and excites Emily until she eventually loses her newbie vibe.

Armed with her copy of Wayne or Lose, an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (6th in her class), and a positive attitude, she starts her first day as the new Director of Research and Development at Wayne Security, which brings you products to give power back to the powerless!

And okay, sure. She only got the job because the previous four people left (one died - i.e., "God fired him"). But Emily is determined to succeed, whether she was the most qualified person or not. Like her dad always said, "If you put in the work, the rest will come!" Unfortunately, being unwanted isn't the only problem she has at her new job: Bruce Wayne has announced that he's going to shut down R&D because it's been so long since they made an effective product (a Joker antivenom. Sold the next year in a different shade of purple). The department has stagnated into figuring out how to reverse-engineer LexCorp designs so they can sell knockoffs.

If the prospect of getting fired on her first day weren't enough, her team isn't making it any easier. They prove difficult to motivate, to say the least. When Wendy asks if she wants them to think outside the box, Emily says she wants them to forget that the box even existed. Only to find out that Ron has been working on, well, the box. Teddy is upset that she can't tell amethyst purple from sangria. Despite her attempts to make jokes with them (that go over horribly), Ron (Head of Engineering, Chief of Childlike Wonder) refuses to get attached to another boss who's only going to disappear; Teddy (Chief Design Officer) doesn't think they need a boss at all, especially not one who's a "people person" and a "motivator" who briefly, thanks to her attempts at humor, had him scared he was getting fired ("Chief Design Officer? But what if you weren't."); and, Wendy (Lead Software Engineer) goes so far as to create a machine to alert everyone when Emily is nearby.

Despite this, Emily, knowing she might have come on a little strong before, tries again to motivate her team. It turns out they come up with hundreds of good ideas, but corporate refuses to follow through on any of them because they're "too expensive," "too dangerous" or "need to be powered by a piece of the sun and that's impossible to get." Emily assures them that she isn't going anywhere, and that's when Van breaks the news that Bruce has decided they're obsolete.

After finding out that they can all keep their jobs if they come up with one good idea to prove their value, Emily convinces the team to come together to create a product that will keep them employed. Calling Wendy's machine "impressive and mean" and talking with Jackie (Van's secretary, who used to be just like Emily before she got jaded and bitter) about how it'd be nice to know when Jack O'Lantern was around, she's struck by an idea. Her dad used to run a flower shop, and Emily could always tell when he was around because she could smell the flowers. What if they rigged Wendy's Emily-Alert to run on scent instead of visuals? Her idea manages to inspire her team - so long as Teddy gets to pick the color (and yes, he wants it in sangria). Together, they create a device to alert people to Jack O'Lantern's imminent presence.

There's another hurdle to clear, though - Van. It turns out he only hired Emily so that she could get the team to come up with an idea so good he'll be called on to work in Gotham. He desperately wants out of Charm City and into the boardroom of Gotham, with all the other greats in the company. But his plan changes when he finds out that with R&D shutting down, he doesn't need a working product. He's going to wind up in Gotham, just like he always wanted. As he says, "If I had known I could have failed up, I would have done it years ago!"

Emily is undettered and proves to her team that she's willing to go to bat for them when she threatens to go over Van's head and take the team's product to Bruce Wayne herself. Maybe she'll be the one with the Gotham office instead. Either she can get the credit, or Van can.

Grudgingly, Van presents the device to Gotham, and Bruce is so impressed that he puts the Jack-O-Lert in beta and decides to keep Van in Charm City to keep inspiring his employees. Not only does the product save the company, but Batman ends up using a similar device to catch the Joker. Batman!

Just because she's had an initial success doesn't mean things necessarily get easier for her. Her drive for success can get her in trouble with her team often, especially since she wants them all to be good friends, even family, but also wants them to be stellar employees when they don't have that same drive. For instance, she says her team will get an anti-rubble umbrella (i.e. rumbrella) ready a week earlier than Corporate wants it. Her team, understandably, doesn't want to do that, as it means they'll get more work with shorter deadlines in the future, and they end up playing Superhero Fantasy League instead. Not wanting to look like the bad guy, she goes to Samuel Greene, the HR head, and convinces him to turn off access to the Fantasy League site. Instead, he turns off access to all of the Internet. She empathizes with her team so they don't know she's the reason they can't check their scores (and can only access LinkedIn), but instead of them focusing their efforts on work instead, they decide to focus on getting the Internet back. Emily tries to get Samuel to turn the Internet back on, but he insists that the only way he can keep his job is if Corporate sees him doing stuff, then threatens to make her watch a six-hour anti-bullying voice. When she's caught by her team coming from HR, she convinces them that she was arguing with Samuel to get the Internet back on because she knew how much they wanted it. Touched, the team lets her into their Superhero Fantasy League and agrees to finish the rumbrella by Friday. Unfortunately, when her team plays a prank on Van and Emily sticks up for them to Samuel, Samuel tells everyone that she betrayed everyone in R&D by taking their Internet away. She apologizes to her team and admits that she should have been honest with them from the beginning, but she wouldn't have done it if they had worked on the rumbrella. They insist they would have gotten it done and walk away, dressing up the dummy like Emily to see if it will survive the usage of the rumbrella. Emily makes amends to the R&D department by watching the aforementioned six-hour torturous anti-bullying video four times back to back. It's broken Navy Seals, but Emily is prepared to do it if it means things will be good with her team again. So long as she watches the video four times, Samuel's HR requirements will be satisfied, and he'll turn on the Internet again. She makes it twenty-four hours before she starts twitching violently and her team rescues her. They end up letting her into the Superhero Fantasy League, where she chooses Crimson Fox (whom she got rescued by on her first day of work) and improves ever-so-slightly at trash talk - or at least, doesn't embarrass herself as much as she could have.

A week before Sinking Day, she gets into an argument with Van over who deserves to be rewarded for sales going up 35% since January, when she started at Wayne Security, and she insists on taking credit. That same day, Van costs them their biggest client, Ace Chemicals, after he forgets to forward Emily a change in the project specs. Emily snaps at him that not all of them have a father to protect them; it turns out to be premature. Van's father arrives, berates him, and tells Van he's lost the last shred of dignity he had for him. He asks Emily for help, and she tells him that she wants a promotion to Senior Vice President and his "Da Boss" coffee mug. They agree to find a new client. Emily does what Van's father did to get clients - she goes through the phone book and gets Atlantis to come meet them to hear their pitch to supply Atlantis with all their security needs, only to find that Van gave up on calling people to write about a song about his dad doesn't love him.

After the presentation to the Atlanteans, when Emily encourages them to call her directly, Van starts telling them how much he enjoys Sinking Day (the anniversary of when Atlantis sank beneath the sea). At their surprise, he proceeds to tell them that he throws a huge party every year, and Aquaman comes with the seaweed salad. Obviously, none of this is true, but Van ends up inviting them to Sinking Day so they can meet Aquaman. It falls to Emily to point out the logic that Van lied to the Atlanteans, only for her to find out that Van expects her to put on the party for Sinking Day, even though neither of them truly understand the holiday. Upset, she tells him that she'd hoped she could work for someone inspiring, like her dad, but she's now starting to get where his dad is coming from.

She's more than a little surprised when Van shows up to say Aquaman can't make it, but he left gifts for each of them. It turns out Van researched personal details about each of them and took advantage. It turns out the Atlanteans weren't going to accept their pitch, but given Van's trickery, they agree to sign on. Emily admits that she can still learn from him. When she tells him how proud her father would be of him, Van asks if she drove her mother to suicide with all the stories about her dad. Emily more or less patiently encourages him to stand up to his dad.

Later on, the team is pitching their latest project - an indestructible phone case - to her while she reads from a paper. When they finally ask what's wrong, Emily insists that everything is fine. Jackie, though, points out that she obviously wants them to ask her about the paper she's reading, and Emily jumps in to explain that it's a wedding invitation from her ex-boyfriend. And yes, she's already stalked the new girl's Facebook page all the way to 2012. Jackie encourages her to go out and meet a guy so Emily will be the guy's problem and not theirs. Jackie and Wendy spend the rest of the night encouraging her to meet guys, but Emily insists that there are no men there for her. She proceeds to take down each guy there, insisting that she doesn't have to settle, since she isn't even 30 yet. When the guy from Arizona State hits on her, she's "rescued" by Dan, an ER doctor. The two get along great, with Emily putting her number in his phone before telling him she has a good feeling about him.

She shouldn't, though, because Dan is one of the Riddler's henchmen. Emily, not knowing, posts photos of the two of them on Instagram so her ex won't think his engagement has bothered her. The team, immediately recognizing that Dan is a low-level henchman, decide not to tell her until Friday, when Emily comes in asking if anyone has weekend plans so she can tell them how Dan is taking her away to his boss's house for the weekend. They try to convince her to stay someplace public and well-lit, but end up showing her the 5 Signs You're Dating a Henchman. Emily continues to protest, telling them that he's taking her to his boss's house at the top of beautiful Skull Mountain, with a shark tank, and a ruby laser than can shoots all the way to the moon and OH GOD SHE'S DATING A HENCHMAN.

Upset, Emily storms outside three times until Jackie follows her. Jackie advises her to let it go, and Emily says she did that when she found out her ex was cheating on her with his now-fiancee, and it felt like crap. So for the first time ever, Emily Locke is going to take the low road. And could Jackie help her, because it's her first time on the low road. To that end, she wants Jackie to tell her if jack-off or jag-off are worse. Dan shows up, and Emily tells him that she knows his secret (i.e., "Oh, were you working in the ICU? Because I SEE YOU when you lying!"). Dan confesses that he's a henchman and that his real name is actually Reggie. But when Emily says that she has some things to say to him, and he's going to to stand there and listen, Dan has the rest of the henchman show up to tie up Emily and Jackie. He later tells her that he told the Riddler about the cell phone cases, and the Riddler wants to steal them to build a tank to break into Arkham. And he really does like Emily, he's just focused on his career right now.

Emily doesn't know where she keeps going wrong. She has a list in the Cloud of all the traits she looks for in a man, assigns each one a point value, and if the number exceeds 200, follows through. How does she keep ending up with men turn out to be lying sacks of garbage? Jackie points out that Emily is only 25 and that just because she can't avoid dirtbags doesn't mean she doesn't deserve better.

Dan/Reggie shows up to say that their done, and Emily asks if he's going to let them go now. Turns out, the Riddler has sent them instructions on what to do with Emily and Jackie, but it's in the form of a riddle. Frustrated by the henchmen's inability to figure it out, Emily snaps the answer at them.

Just then, Van comes in late to work. Due to his trying to become the next Robin, he's dressed in a cape and mask and a rubber version of Robin's suit. The henchmen see him, and, fearing that Batman is near, scatter. Van asks why Emily's still there and tells her to get a boyfriend.

In the end, Emily sticks up for herself to her ex by returning the pizza stone she was going to get him as a wedding gift for store credit. Sometimes, it's the little, quiet, passive-aggressive things that Miss Manners wouldn't approve of that really make you feel better.

There are other hurdles:
❤ Project: Emily submits Teddy's heat gloves design for a competition behind his back to boost his self-esteem and beat another team.
★ Solution He loses out to the department that built a life-like robot, but Crimson Fox ends up using the gloves to put an end to Cold Season, when the cold villains come out to play. She ends up apologizing to him nonetheless and telling him that for what it's worth, she's glad she's there with him.
❤ Project: Self-Defense lessons with Jackie when Crimson Fox leaves Charm City.
★ Solution Jackie is actually working a side job to pay for night school, and Emily tries to help only to learn (to an extent) to step back (note: she still pushes Jackie to tell her). On the bright side, Jackie befriends her enough to use Emily as an emergency contact since Emily is the only person who would notice if she were dead. The two agree that despite their differences, their friendship might be beneficial to both of them.
❤ Project: Emily makes her team wait for Dorothy before going on a retreat and must find a way to keep everyone amused when the building is put on lockdown after Dr. Psycho's gas attack.
★ Solution She ends up trying to save the day but is exposed to the truth gas, which makes her cruelly honest with her coworkers (and she curses!), and they have to save her before the gas kills her in two hours. They lure her in with Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" over the karaoke machine. She wakes up with no memory of it - allegedly.
❤ Project: Emily gets tired of not having an office and decides to take one that was boarded up because Van saw a spider there once.
★ Solution He tries to take it away, only for Emily to challenge him to a Green Arrow Darts match. She loses at the last second - after not even trying for the first half due to her team begging her to feed Van's ego. After Van rubs it in too much, she demands a rematch and rips apart his accomplishments - winning a rap battle against Dr Dre, winning a spelling bee (F-A-L-U-R-E), Most Perceptive Baby of 1971, and more. Emily justifies herself by saying they couldn't tiptoe around Van's ego, but Jackie points out that Emily was the one who eviscerated a grown man because she couldn't handle losing a children's game. With that in mind, she goes to talk to Van and point out that his parents spent an obscene amount of money protecting him from feeling failure, and that he really did beat her, and if they can never lose, but do it together, as teammates, it's better for everyone. Things are truly resolved when Van realizes that her wins are his wins, and he can blame all their losses on her.
❤ Project: Emily saves Green Fury and tries to use Green Fury's emergency messenger to show off to the Gotham board when Van uses her as a "yes man."
★ Solution She comes up with the perfect ad for the Wayne Security poncho, with Green Fury providing the needed "cool factor," only to have the board come up with an objectifying version. Emily comes up with another ad, objectifying the exhibitionist Olympian instead and setting up Green Fury as the cool spokesperson who gets to hit her Olympian/ex-husband with green fire.

Possibly the biggest challenge comes when a wormhole opens up, allowing aliens - known as the Blight - through that proceed to attack the Earth, destroying Emily's new condo and hitting Wayne Headquarters. And since the aliens are from the future, Emily's insurance won't cover her losses. All she has left is a decorative pillow and a roomba (that commits suicide by rolling through the hole in the wall left by the aliens). But on the bright side, her team has brought her a care package and has been searching for another apartment for her. She realizes that she didn't lose everything in the explosive - she has a family.

Her good mood disappears when Chairman West appears. Because of the attack on Wayne Headquarters, Wayne Industries needs to make some cuts. He and Van need her to fire someone on her team. Emily, in an effort to keep her new-found family together, makes enough budget cuts to meet Chairman West's expectations - using Van's hand while he's in the midst of his breakdown to sign it without him reading it. Unfortuantely, this shows Chairman West how profitable the Wayne Security R&D Division can be, and they're promptly sold off to LexCorp. Turns out, Wayne Security had been looking to sell the division for a while but couldn't convince anyone to take it until Emily's budget made them look like they could turn a profit.

Emily, her team, and Van are called to LexCorp. Though they all expect to be fired, it turns out LexCorp is creating a division just for them - anything their "big brains" come up with, LexCorp will make. But LexCorp doesn't hire assistants, meaning that Jackie won't be staying with them. Despite Emily's protests, the team and Van are fine with that. They have jobs in a place that serves free nachos, a spa, dolphins to swim with, and- HOLY CRAP IS THAT WORMHOLE?

After finding the wormhole releasing the Blight into the world, the team is taken captive by the LexCorp employees, led by their tour guide, Russell, who intend to kill them so the group can't alert the Justice League. But they're promised that their deaths will be painless, and their bodies will be turned into cheese (throwing the nacho cheese from earlier into a different light). Fortunately, Teddy and Ron were trying to create another version of the Flash, and it works - on Jackie, who stepped into their vats of chemicals while getting struck by lightning.

All in all, things end great. Jackie admits she follows Emily on twitter (just like Emily's family!) and unplugs the wormhole. And when they notice that Chairman West is giving voiceovers to a tree, they realize he might actually not be part of Wayne Industries after all. They might still have their jobs!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand scene/season! Emily's history is done!



Abilities/Special Powers: None, but she does have a cheerful personality and a killer wardrobe!



Third-Person Sample:
Emily Locke may not be meant for greatness like Superman or Batman, but when has that ever held her back? And okay - yes. She's been sucked through a wormhole - or kidnapped, depending who you ask - to a place called Wonderland. But look on the bright side! This place is way nicer than any apartment she could find in Charm City. That place in Mu-To (i.e., Murder Town, gentrified) with the drains in the kitchen for washing away blood. Or her condo that had been attacked by the Blight and still had multiple holes in the wall.

Better still, this place has magic. Which means Emily can create the place of her dreams. The rent-free place of her dreams. And yes, there are some challenges. She's not strong enough to move all the furniture out of her closet. But she can handle that! And there are so many nice people in Wonderland, like, genuinely nice. She's sure finding someone to help her won't be a problem!

And Emily's going to meet them. She has just the thing. Because everybody likes karaoke, right?

She works for the better part of the day, singing along to the karaoke machine in the corner that she's testing out for later (yes, that's the reason, yes), and she's done by nightfall.

Standing back, she surveys her work. She'd figured that people who have been here longer than she has been won't want a Wonderland or magic theme, so Emily has chosen Superheroes. Because who doesn't want to be a superhero? Plus, it won't hurt to remind people that just because they don't have powers doesn't mean that they can't feel powerful!



First-Person Sample:
[ The device is easy enough to figure out. Her dad used to have a Palm Pilot like this. She doesn't have to be any sort of engineer to understand how to make a post.

Oh! And there she is, looking back at herself as she records her message. It's like FaceTime! This really is easy-peasy. ]

Hi! [ She waves cheerfully to the network and smiles brightly. ] I'm Emily Locke. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that President Luthor planted another wormhole somewhere in Charm City that I got sucked into somehow. I mean, I don't remember it happening, but he put the last wormhole in Charm City, too, so it's not completely impossible, you know?

Jackie, Teddy, Ron, Wendy? If you guys are here, let me know. I promise to keep hugs to a minimum. Except with you, Ron! I know how much you like hugs! And Van, too. If you're here, let me know.

[ She runs over a checklist of things she should say, and her jaw drops. And... nope! Her name, check. Looking for her friends, check. ]

One last thing! How great is it that the wormhole sucked us into Wonderland?