[center][color=00ffff][h2][i][b]Victoria van Dyne[/b][/i][/h2][/color][hr][color=00ffff][b]Location: [/b][/color]Fairgrounds -> Workshop -> Library [color=00ffff][b]Equipment / items: [/b][/color]N/A [color=00ffff][b]Powers / skills: [/b][/color]Synthetic life form, Physics, Data gathering and analysis, Organizational skills[/center][hr]Once Victoria got over the shock of Danni launching an undeclared war on her personal space and the group started dispersing with their new goal in mind, Vicky followed suit. She was now on the clock to address that glaring built-in weakness she had, otherwise she would have to skip out and leave her friends and their friends to their insane adventure. That, or swallow her pride and go ask the Kingston-Greys to lend her that trinket again, which was an option she still didn't entirely believe to not be worse. This she found herself reviewing her research again in her workshop, the mechanical parts neatly stowed, and instead paperwork hanging by laundry string all around the place. She had gone through several times again since. The result? Some neat sparks as a test caused a short in one of her generators that she had to fix, and a cover about her struggles and defiance to accept mysticism as the answer written while she procrastinated out of frustration. [hider] [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04F4xlWSFh0[/youtube] [color=00ffff]There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see One more failed test (Failed test) What did I miss? (Gonna check, gonna check, gonna check now) One, nothing's wrong with it Two, nothing's wrong with it Three, nothing's wrong with it Four, nothing's wrong with it One, something's got to be Two, something's got to be Three, something's got to be But what?! There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see WHAAAAAAT! Mystic shite, ancient lies (Ancient lies) None of it explains the how (Gotta find, gotta find, gotta find out) One, nothing's wrong with it Two, nothing's wrong with it Three, nothing's wrong with it Four, nothing's wrong with it One, something's got to be Two, something's got to be Three, something's got to be But what?! There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see The results have all beaten you The theorem should've made it through The calculations all align Yet magic has left your work behind There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see One, nothing's wrong with it Two, nothing's wrong with it Three, nothing's wrong with it Four, nothing's wrong with it One, something's got to be Two, something's got to be Three, something's got to be But what?! There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see There is something I can't see Magic got rules It's just physics[/color][/center] [/hider] This was going nowhere. Coming to terms that there would be pride swallowing of some kind involved in fixing this on time, Victoria packed up and headed to the library, with two goals in her mind: 1) Find out anything relevant about the Otherworld. If she could not go, she would at least use her sensory abilities and processing power to power through the entire library if she had to in a few hours to give the rest of the group the intel they would need. 2) Find any previous research done on integrating magic and technology. Obviously, all of the local efforts to treat magic as physics and technology have failed, but perhaps there would be some thought, some fork of code, some equation that Victoria did not consider and may nudge her in a new direction a bit more descriptive than Clarke's famous quote. [b][i][color=00ffff]Many time units later...[/color][/i][/b] [color=00ffff]"Well, Ha!"[/color] Victoria pumped her fist as she flipped through one of her finds, immediately looking around in guilt at disturbing the library. She found a copy of a journal of someone who actually went there, and relatively recently too. One 'L. Pevensie', who went there around the 2020s if the journal was to be believed. Everything else she has found was over a hundred years old, if not more. Rather than quickly rifling through this one and letting her mechanical eyes quickly scan the information as the pages flew by, she actually took the care to turn every page, scan it and burn it into her long term memory for future reference. The author described their day to day activities of her party of three traveling though 'Fae Wilds'. Their insertion point was a faerie ring in southern England, which linked to a land that was called Avalon. Yes, the Arthur and the round table Avalon. All real people. That was not as surprising after making the unfortunate acquaintance of the Lady of the Lake. What Victoria took note of was that shrooms seemed to be a way into the magical realm in a different way than getting high. She wondered if these circles mapped onto the geography of the Otherworld in a predictable way. If a mushroom ring could be grown on Earth in a place that mapped onto Old'Percy's cell? [i][color=00ffff]No. Growing mushrooms takes time, even if it worked. And apparently, time is something he does not have.[/color][/i] She shook her head and read further. The next part of the book touched upon a place called 'Starlight Citadel', which seemed to function as some sort of anchor point for multiversal travel, and also a gateway to keep something at bay. [color=00ffff][i]If an Emperor sits there on a golden throne, I will lose my shit.[/i][/color] The next part of the book though! [i][color=00ffff]Dear diary: Jackpot![/color][/i] The author's party traveled to other realms, something they might need to do as well, because she could only guess where exactly they would end up through whatever means they would take to get there, and they needed to reach Old!Percy somehow. There was an itty bitty snag though. [i][color=00ffff]COULD THESE MYSTIC FUCKERS NOT SPEAK PLAINLY FOR ONCE? What the fuck is a 'Hero's Journey'? Is it a roadway? A vessel? A spell? WHAT?[/color][/i] There were other realms mentioned in the journal. Some that sounded like a plain trip: Seventy Seas of Dryador. April would likely be there in her own element, literally. Some realms like 'The pleasure palaces of Roma Regina' sounded like they should probably exercise some measure of caution, lest they bring Slaanesh to life ahead of schedule. And some were outright stated to be avoided, like 'The counts of Sevalith', along with a recommendation to sleep with garlic during travels. [i][color=00ffff]Vampires. Awesome. Things can never be easy, can they? Note to self: Check with Andy whether wooden stakes are also a good idea.[/color][/i] The final notes of the journal touched upon something Victoria suspected may be an issue in magic ever since she read the Inheritance cycle. One of the author's party apparently [i][b]lost their name[/b][/i] to a fae and were called Nameless ever since. It reminded her of another quote. [i][color=00ffff][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9GOqC4zkcU]Words have meaning, and names have power.[/url] Another note: Don't make bets or McLeodian deals while there. In fact, tell the others to create fake names for themselves.[/color][/i] The answers to her second point of search, though, left her with mixed feelings. It took some searching, but eventually, she found a book on dwarves. And while most of the publication dealt with the dwarves of Asgard, one of the chapters touched upon an Overworld population that lived in a realm called Everforge. Apparently, a mountain that walked on its own set of legs! And the local dwarves were apparently skilled in making magic and technology coexist. [i][color=00ffff]So Magitech is not only possible, it actually exists. I'm not on a dead end path. That's somewhat comforting.[/color][/i] That was, however, where the good news ended. The secret was closely guarded, and even if Vicky could somehow convince the dwarves to help her, the fault glared at her openly: To learn how to defeat her weakness to magic, she would still have to visit the magic land. Shutting the book and checking it out to take with, Victoria headed out. She needed a way to protect herself from magic for at least long enough to reach the Everforge. And to know where to find it, which for a [i]walking mountain[/i] meant talking to someone who was in the Otherworld even more recently than Pevensie. And in a small stroke of luck, one just arrived recently.