[hr][center][i][H3][color=00ffff]Shieldmaiden[/color][/h3]Victoria van Dyne[/i][hr][b][Color=00ffff]Location:[/color][/b] Spaceship > Workshop > Agatha's tent [B][Color=00ffff]Skills: [/color][/b]None used[/center][hr] Having the mind only for the gizmo that was slowly taking shape in her imagination, Victoria quickly thanked Danny and Dorian and bid them farewell, shutting herself in her [s]shrine[/s] workshop until she had the basics of a workable design ready. Hours later. [i][color=00ffff]Scrap! I hope I didn't miss her![/color][/i] she thought as she quickly made her way to the tent of the old witch. She was in luck - the sun was pretty low, but the tent was still in it's place, hopefully with the witch still present. At least there was no line now, so Victoria ducked inside. Vicky's sensors would register everything inside of the tent with perfect accuracy as she entered - the floating candles and cards and crystals, some of the stones not native to Earth. She would see the black cat with an eerie green glow surrounding it, indicating that it was not simply a house cat. The armoires and trunks and shelves, all gathered from different eras in human history, containing artifacts of either immense power and sentimental value. And the witch herself, bursting with a similar green glow to the cat's - a glow so bright that it was blinding. And then Vicky's system would crash. Her system would register strange runic symbols and arcana diagrams and configurations, before going completely offline. To an outsider, it would look like Vicky had just fainted. Her system would then reboot, finding herself seated on a bench at a crossroads. It was dark - far darker than it had been when her system was last active. The native foliage lining the roads did not match those found in Los Angeles. And if she looked up at the sky, she would be able to see the stars - the air was clearer here, less polluted. She would be able to process this information to figure out her geographic location, but the witch seated on the bench next to her, her cat at her heels, supplied the answer readily. "We're outside of Salem," Agatha explained. "I figured you would appreciate the privacy. Had I known you were an android, I would have warned you against entering my tent. I am technically not supposed to admit students with pacemakers either." [code] Self.Start(); Initiating... Chipset: U-15 Platform: ASTRA Mobile Prototype Serial number: A-U-0 Operating system: ASTRA 1.2.1.12 Designation: Victoria Åshild Elise van Dyne Self.Diagnostics(); Power core integrity: 100% Charge level: 25% Structural integrity: 100% Mobility: 100% Shell integrity: 100% Chipset integrity: 100% Memory fragmentation: 0.05% Personality matrix integrity: 100% Personality diffraction: 0% Overall status: Nominal Self.Personality.Activate(); [/code] Victoria's eyes fluttered open and she remained perfectly still as she took in her surroundings. What happened? Where was she? The last thing she remembered was... Entering an impossible space and detecting a slew of signals that her instruments failed to interpret. She looked into her system files and found the recent crash log. [i][color=00ffff]Sweet fortune, a power fail! Wait... but I'm still me? How?[/color][/i] she wondered briefly, before Agatha's naming of their location reminded Vicky of the existence of the world outside of her nanite shell. The android brushed a bit of dirt off of her face - [i][color=00ffff]Did I faceplant into the ground? Ugh, embarrassing...[/color][/i] - And turned her head to address the witch in her company. [color=00ffff]"Good evening, miss Harkness."[/color] She smiled despite everything. She had to admit, the atmosphere of the place was serene and she quite liked the quiet. [color=00ffff]"My apologies for the dishonesty. I was not at the liberty to tell. I suppose I should take it as a good thing that someone of your calibre remained oblivious for two years. I suppose that means the VEIL protocol is working, if even the Faculty can't tell. I mean, Vision knows, of course, being a shynthezoid and my uncle and all..."[/color] She paused suddenly before resuming, [color=00ffff]"Sorry, rambling. I came to you to say goodbye and offer a hand in packing, but in hindsight, thinking a magician would need help with manual labor was a bit silly."[/color] she smiled sheepishly. Turning back to look at the scenery again, she bent down and ran her fingers through the grass, trying to figure out whether she was moved, of if she was experiencing some kind of illusion. [i][color=00ffff]Well, if this is an illusion, I can't tell it apart.[/color][/i] Straightening back out, she had a guilty expression on her face: [color=00ffff]"I'm sorry I did not manage to attend your class before you left."[/color] Agatha waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, almost every student at the academy has a dark and cumbersome secret. If we spent our time looking into each and every one, we'd have no time left to teach. We hardly have the time as it is. Demons don't send out a [i]When2Meet[/i] to time a confrontation to not conflict with a course." She wasn't lying though. She knew for a fact that there were probably dozens of students at the Margaret Carter Institute with forged intake forms. Nothing terrible had happened yet, so the faculty just hadn't found the time to really care about it. Maybe if there was an incident things would change. That was how it always went - things were reacted to, never anticipated. "I appreciate the gesture, nonetheless. But I am not sorry that you did not attend my class," Agatha offered. She flicked her hand and a cigarette appeared in it, already lit. She took a drag and then breathed out, letting the smoke fly up into the night sky. "AI lifeforms are notoriously an absolute pain in the arse to teach." She chuckled, evidently finding her observation very funny. "Now then, shall I peer into your future or would you like to receive the gift I have selected for you first? It is not magical in origin, so there should be no threat to your systems." [color=00ffff]"Well, no life is perfect."[/color] Victoria shrugged at the jab at her kind. AIs were hard to teach, humans failed at not being jerks, ... Then came the question of her reading, and she vividly recalled the conversation with Zari and Mads earlier in the day. [color=00ffff]"You're free to look if you are curious, but I'd rather you didn't tell me. I'm not comfortable with the implications of a definite future being available to glimpse, and I think In this case, ignorance is bliss."[/color] she smirked. [color=00ffff]"Aw, shoot, we're doing gifts? Sorry, I didn't think-"[/color] she looked towards the ground glumly. Clearly her understanding of social occasions had ways to go still. Agatha nodded, respecting Vicky's wishes. Rather than having the cards spin and dance around her head as she had for the others, Agatha simply drew two cards from the deck. If Vicky chose to look, she would see [url=https://static.displate.com/280x392/displate/2021-10-11/d943d1964acacd3d4cf30a5bec776b64_1946cc26a970d1fce3619b0932ff0b85.jpg]Strength[/url] and [url=https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5916d4da2994ca3bd87b3a87/1498670039535-MVWFMFOG6AG95W8JSMLG/9ofswords.png?format=1000w]the Nine of Swords[/url]. Had she asked, Agatha would have explained she went for a binary reading, inspired by Vicky's nature. One card for all of Vicky's positives, her best traits, the things that would help her along the way, the epitome of her finest moment - and one card for what would be Vicky's undoing, her downfall, her deepest despair. The Cards seemed to want to be rather literal today. Perhaps it was because there was no soul behind those eyes, just ones and zeros. Agatha didn't know. She hadn't looked. She drew one last card, as the theme began to clear before her - [url=https://www.tarotcardmeanings.net/images/tarotcards-large/tarot-hierophant.jpg]the Hierophant[/url]. Conformity and tradition. Chains that would both revive her yet restrain her. A masculine face, cloaked in metal. Agatha did not let a trace of pity show on her face. This child had a long road to walk - one that would change her forever in body, if not in soul. "The future is not definite," Agatha told Vicky. "We can glimpse at where we are going, yet our will is our own. As our choices change, so does the future. But I will not tell you what I saw unless you should ask me to." She paused, putting the cards away neatly. She then waved her hand and a large circular bag containing something heavy appeared in her lap. Agatha messed with the zipper, revealing an ancient Norse shield. Despite being centuries old, it looked ready to use. "No magic - albeit I did use some in its restoration. What better gift for a shield maiden than a shield of old?" Pondering the answer, Victoria decided not to look at or ask for a meaning of the cards in the end. [color=00ffff]"Hmm... Very well, we have free will, but if you do get a glimpse of even one possible future, just knowing may still influence your decisions. I think I'll let the chips fall where they may." [i]Philosophy class will be fun![/i][/color] she thought. Hopefully the classmates won't just be drab wretches who only took the class for credits. [color=00ffff]"I would like to know how you made it so that I came out fine in the end after my system shut down though. At least I assume you did something, otherwise even the person that built me does not know how I actually work and that is a thought I would rather not entertain, considering what I am based on."[/color] Agatha regarded Vicky knowingly. "Ask me again when you're older. I do not believe you are ready to know how just yet." When Agatha produced such a piece of history, Victoria's eyes widened in awe. Taking the piece in almost reverence, she unpacked it and held it up in the faint light, marveling at the blue and yellow paint job. Not her colors, and she was [u]not[/u] painting her armor in the x-men color scheme, but perhaps without it, she could make it work? What to use for weapon though? Unless... [color=00ffff][i]Oh, with a little modification and a lot of training...[/i][/color] She looked around, checking for any other people and cameras. [code]Scanning... No recording devices present. All personnel in vicinity aware of unit's nature. Lifted VEIL condition satisfied. Activating combat mode...[/code] Smirking, Victoria's irises turned red in color as she held the shield out. Her surface seemed to shiver and weave like it was made out of millions of tiny insects, but instead of reshaping and shifting some of the mass that currently formed her jumpsuit into a protective cover and a sharp edge over the shield, it instead malformed and just turned her surface grotesque looking and it took her some doing to even reshape herself back into the original form. She frowned. [color=00ffff][i]Okay, this is one of my basic functions. This is easily controllable without even having to think about it. ... ... ... So what the hell?![/i][/color] Her diagnostic scan earlier was fine, so the control code and the nanite firmware should be in working order. Unless, of course, even the backup was somehow corrupted, resulting in the faulty files returning matching checksum. Which would mean a trip to Pym Tech to restore those libraries from the on-site backup. Not great, not terrible. Only one way to find out. Victoria opened the code files and very quickly read through them, and as she did, she quickly went through all of confusion, denial, anger, bargaining and depression, until she finally reached acceptance after some 138 miliseconds. [color=00ffff][i]Okay. bunch of my code is now written in runes. Which I can't even read, much less understand what that code is doing. But there is little I can do right now. Other than perhaps kill a witch, but somehow I don't think that would help...[/i][/color] she though, before sighing. [color=00ffff]"Well, whatever it was, fifth of my coding is now in runes. I'd ask whether that's permanent, but it's just a matter of going home for a restore, so whatever, I guess?"[/color] her shoulders visibly slumped though. [color=00ffff]"Still, this is a very nice piece. Thank you. If you ever need help with something that requires a touch of the physical rather than magical, call me, I'll be there."[/color] "Give it a few hours, dear, and it'll sort itself out," Agatha said knowingly. "The magic is still settling out of your system, bit by bit... no pun intended." She waved her hands and suddenly, they were back at the Margaret Carter Institute, standing outside of Agatha's tent. "Good night, Victoria van Dyne. Be well."