Having no idea where the Otherworlder might be located, Victoria has followed the data that she had. She has recently arrived, so presumably had nowhere to crash. And she seemed to know Andy. Thus Victoria found herself knocking on the door of the room opposite hers.
Luna was stretched out on Andy's bed, staring at the ceiling when the knock on the door came. After their conversation, Luna had requested some supplies from Andy so she could shower. It was the only semblance of peace the girl had gotten after being plummeted through the realms and waking encased in ice.
The hot water had served to burn away most of the nightmare she found herself in and hide the tears she cried.
After her moment of self pity, Luna added some product to her hair to help keep her short cut from drying flat and returned to Andy's room. Where she now stood, still wrapped in a towel, and answered the door.
Luna frowned.
”Andy and Gideon aren't here.”Unknown voice in Andy’s room. High probability of success then. Victoria raised her voice ever so slightly so it carried through the door.
”That’s fine. I’m looking for Glimpse, if that happens to be you.” she announced, before realizing she did not introduce herself yet.
”It’s Victoria, I dropped in for a moment on you and Andy back by the tent. And more so than the others I’m in need of an Otherworlder’s advice for this… adventure… the group seems to be dead set on, if I could please bend your ear for a few moments?”Luna opened the door and looked Victoria up and down.
”Ya, go on then,” Luna said by way of invitation and stepped back into the room, leaving the door ajar. She sat back on Andy's bed, not at all concerned that she was still in a towel and talking to a stranger. At least it was one on one.
She poked through the toiletries Andy had offered for some lotion and popped open the fruity smelling bottle.
Interesting attire choice. Victoria thought briefly, before stepping in and leaning against the wall by the door.
”Well, in short-” she started, raising a hand. The nanites of her skin peeled off for a moment, displaying the mechanicals inside.
”I’m an android, and for some reason, as soon as I come near more powerful magic, it starts seeping into my code and eventually shuts me down. If that happens, my chassis can be turned back on, but it wouldn’t be me anymore, as some of my components need constant power supply to keep me being… me.”
“So, I’d really rather avoid that. Would you happen to know some way of preventing that?” Vicky asked, also gauging Glimpse for reaction. She had no idea where Otherworld stood on AI.
Luna's eyes shifted up, widening when she saw Victoria wasn't lying. She bolted from the bed, closing the distance between her and Victoria quickly.
”Where does your power supply come from? What is it about magic that negates your operating systems? Have you run diagnostics on it before? What system is your code written on? Can I see it?” Luna sent her questions off rapid fire as she examined the inner workings of Victoria's arm. She felt like a kid in a candy store.
”Who else assists you? Can you taste human food?” Luna's gaze shifted from Victoria's arm to stare into her eyes.
”Can Tish scan you? If I have your full workup, we can ensure your tech remains compatible with ours. Oh I can't believe this is happening!” Luna squealed, clasping her hands together.
Vicky came into this discussion expecting many outcomes. Being fangirled over wasn’t one of the likely outcomes. Being fangirled over by a gorgeous blonde wearing nothing but a towel wasn’t even on the list. Her verbal cadence also gave Danni a run for its money, so while Vicky’s core could certainly keep up, her personality emulation needed a few moments to catch up.
”I- ah- umm…” Focus woman! “In ascending order of importance? I can analyze food and how well it is made, though I don’t really have taste preferences. I’m Victoria van Dyne, so I’m not exactly starved for resources, as Hope van Dyne was my lead designer.” she started, grunting a ‘for better or for worse’ to herself after the last one.
”My system is- well…” she tugged on her collar nervously with her free hand, before sighing after failing to come up with a sugarcoat,
”The hardware’s Ultron, with some extra systems bolted on top. But I don’t run any actual Ultron code anymore!“ she hastened to add.
”As for power, well, any EM-field that can interact with the nanites in my skin. They’re quite efficient so sunlight will do most of the time, but the heat of a fire, a lightning strike, sticking my fingers into a powersocket, anything will do.”She finally worked up through the list to the things she thought were relevant to her predicament.
”Well… it differs. Walking into a tent that was made to be bigger on the inside than the outside, that took all of a second and nearly finished me off. T’was only because of the witch that it belonged to doing something that I rebooted still being me. In a magic soaked quarter of New Orleans, the onset was a bit slower, but still only about a minute.”
“I always start seeing the magic first. Like, with my eyes, light that should not be there.” she fished out her phone and showed Luna the photo she edited in an attempt to explain to Dorian how weird his home looked to her.
”Then I lose motor control, and then it’s lights out. And every time, my code gets converted to runes.”
“I could show you more on those, but I got the stuff in the basement in my workshop, it’d be easier to show you there, if you’re interested. My dorm’s right across, you can rifle through my wardrobe if you need a spare change of clothes.” Tori pointed a thumb over her shoulder.
” In a nutshell, I tried to decode the language in them, and figure out a way to power magic with electric power, so that I can create an anti-magic field around myself, but I’m at my wit’s end. And while in the library I found out there is apparently a Fairy ring in England that can take you to Avalon, and that someone or something called ‘hero’s journey’ can be used to travel across the Otherworld, and a slew of notes on it’s realms and peoples, the best I could find about my issue is that some dwarves living in a mountain with legs may have the solution. So if you have some ideas on how I can make it at least long enough to find those dwarves? I’m all ears.” the android summed up, before one of her eyebrows shot up.
”A scan? That would depend: Who or what is Tish?”Luna's eyes sparkled while Victoria talked. Her mind whirled in a hundred different directions, trying to diagnose in her head and figure out ways to shift Victoria's mechanics to withstand the differences in the Otherworld. She would have argued with Victoria that the food question was just as important, at least to her. But she had to remain on task. Like keeping Victoria stable. Which… Luna had no solution for.
The Otherworld resident frowned, taking a step back from Victoria. However, while Luna was mentally diagnosing Victoria, the humanoid was still talking.
”I don't know Hope, but Ultron… Isn't he a Transformer or something? From those movies or whatever?” Were the Transformers real? Well, she did have a motorcycle that was currently the shape of a rubik's cube in her jacket pocket.
The way her mainframe processed and interpreted magic was fascinating to Luna. The image Victoria showed was a mock-up, but it was still pretty cool. She needed to write this down.
”Yes, we'll need to find the dwarves. Unfortunately I've never converted human tech to Avalon approved tech. I am experienced with artifice work but the technology to adapt Earth tech is a dwarven secret. Luckily for you, one of my close friends is the daughter of the dwarf king, so we can work out a trade with her to help you. We'll have some time before the magic of the Otherworld takes you over, but we shouldn't dally. And, if you have a killswitch, you should tell me.” Luna rummaged through Andy's room while she spoke, searching until she found a notebook and pens in Andy's bag. She started scribbling down Victoria's explanations, adding her own notes in the margins.
”Yes, I used the fairy ring in England all the time before… Well, I suppose I'll have to use one again. Although, I'm sure there is one nearby. They pop up all over.” Luna finished her notes. The words were barely recognizable and there were small doodles here and there to help fill in the blanks when Luna's mind had moved too quickly.
”Oh! Tish, come say hello.” A fluttering noise could be heard from the pile of Luna's clothes. After a moment a moth came whirring over, circling Luna's head before going over to Victoria.
”This is Tish. She's my assistant I guess you could say, but she's much more than that. She's pure Avalon tech, with the ability to help me assess, diagnose, and repair many of the tech and contraptions we build back home.” The moth fluttered up and down, occasionally zipping to the side before moving back to center again. As she shifted, the gears inside could be seen working. Luna had become a fan of the steampunk style and loved seeing the inner workings of her passion projects revealed. Her motorcycle was built much the same.
Luna stuck the pen behind her ear and stood.
”Let's go to your room and conduct the scan. I want to see these runes you mentioned.”Victoria was dumbfounded for a second.
”I… think you’re thinking of Unicron? But nevermind, my hardware is not something we can do much with, I can’t exactly transfer to a different shell at this point. Well… not easily.”The dangling prize of magical immunity seemed to orbit her on an accretion disk. Always so close, and yet the black hole in the middle barely ever gets to take a bite. Still, a person Victoria
just met having a
dwarven princess for a friend who
may be interested in a
trade for something that could save her life was more than she had a minute ago, however tenuous straw to grasp it was.
”No killswitches that I know of.” She kept to herself the ‘which isn’t saying much’, considering she wasn’t told about the backdoor that would rob her of free will either.
When the little mechanical moth fluttered around, Vicky smiled. Steampunk wasn’t her go-to aesthetic, but she could appreciate work that would have gone into making something this small. She raised a finger for the moth to land on, curious if it would. Last but not least, it was cool to see another mechanics nerd join the group. She has been sorely lacking in competition in the field ever since that annoying asgardian left, and someone to talk to about it since… forever, since the asgardian was annoying. There was Dorian, but he also had a myriad of ther hobbies that took up his time.
”Alright then!” Tori grinned and shoved off the wall, leading the short way across the hall.
Since she didn’t yet have the time to do much more here than unpack, the room wasn’t all too messy. There was no sign of Marlena either, so Vicky shut the door behind Luna and pointed to the wardrobe, herself turning to face the other direction.
”Help yourself, if you want.” She just hoped noone would be there to ask why the newcomer looks like she just showered and was wearing Vicky’s stuff.
”Something I need to do for Tish to do the scan?”Tish landed lightly on Victoria's finger. Her wings twitched slightly before the creature started to move up Victoria's hand. Luna set her notebook and pen aside, taking the hint that she should dress, and rummaged through Victoria's closet.
”You don't have much sense of style, do you?” Luna pulled out a few options, frowning and tucked them back in. She sighed, having to settle on leggings and a Linkin Park t-shirt.
”She'll do an internal scan. She normally assesses the hard to reach places I can't get to, fixes them up for me, and then comes back. She's also a great spy.” While Luna explained, Tish went to work slipping inside Victoria. She had worked her way up to the open arm and was just starting to poke around when something happened.
In Luna's excitement to get a look inside, she forgot the one thing Victoria told her over and over. She doesn’t do well with magic and Victoria starts to glitch. Her limbs move erratically, her eyes glow rainbows, and she starts spewing nonsense.
Luna quickly pulls the t-shirt over her head before running over, now fully dressed.
”Ah, bloody hell. Tish, abort.” The creature quickly evacuated Victoria and settled on Luna's shoulder.
”Sorry about that, Victoria. Are you okay?” After a moment, Vicky's systems level back out.
”I beg your pardon?! Suits never go out of style.” Vicky said, following up by quietly muttering something about barbarians. All those thoughts went out the window though as soon as it was revealed that the scan didn’t involve the moth flying
around her or anything remotely sensible, but actually getting under her skin.
”Hey! WHOA!”Well, Vicky found out the answer to a question she did not have the will to test yet. No, her reprogrammed core didn’t make the magic bullshittery go away. Also:
”Please remain calm while the ceiling finishes downloading yesterday.”
”Error: Bowel movement detected within weather patterns. Attempting to multiply by negative one.”
”I am operating within nominal parameters! It’s the parameters that are screaming!”
”Dark matter atoms have escaped their soup and are nesting in the ventilation.”Finally the infernal machine crawled back out of her arm. Still, it took a minute for her code to recover enough to speak. When it did, Victoria did not look happy.
”Okay, woman. While I quite appreciated the view earlier, you skipped a few steps between that and trying to put something inside me. I insist on at least getting treated to something first.”Shaking the last twitches out of her fingers, she made her skin reseal around her hand, clearly on display what she thought about doing that again.
”Well. Did you learn anything at least? If not, shall we move this downstairs where I have my notes?”Luna picked up her notebook and scribbled down some notes after the informative experiment. She tapped her pen against her cheek, her mind on other things. She didn't even grasp Victoria's comment about Luna's former wardrobe.
”No… Unfortunately Tish was unable to really pick up on anything. Sorry, everyone else I usually encounter knows Tish. Or I don't want them knowing about her and she sneaks in places. But she's super friendly and gentle. Well…normally.” Luna looked sheepish for a moment before she went back to frowning.
”Guess we're going to have to go old school with this. Did your creator leave anything behind about involvement with magic or is this all new for you?” Luna asked.
”My family is famous for size manipulation and robotics. Magic, not so much, that usually married in, or at least tried to. I didn’t even encounter this phenomenon before this year, and I roommed with a mage. Guess he wasn’t that powerful.” Vicky thought out loud, before nodding towards the door,
”Come, it’ll be easier to show you.”Leading down the stairs and to the basement, Victoria pushed the door of her workshop open and waved Luna inside. The space was only as big as it needed to be, but contained everything a synthetic might need to maintain itself. Multi-axis CNC, 3D printers of all kinds, a big bench for working mechanicals as well as electronics, every kind of tool reasonably imaginable and a rack full of raw materials and parts bins.
All of that was turned off and neatly stowed at the moment though, as the whole space was taken over by large sheets of paper hanging from clothes lines arranged to be easily viewed from the center of the room. There were two distinct sections to the arrangement; One contained an obscene amount of math and equations dealing with particle collisions and various field interactions, while the other was covered in the runes Vicky described entering her code, as evidenced by the writing also following the syntax of a computer code.
Luna walked into the room behind Victoria and instantly fell in love with the space. There were tools she recognized and others she didn't have a name for, but everything had its place and it was perfect. Luna had to actively remind herself to not go running around the space to try out the equipment. They were here for a purpose.
She walked over the charts, running her eyes over the code and runes.
”What have you discovered so far?” Luna asked, trying to make sense of it herself. Tish flew off her shoulder and fluttered around the paper, taking it in as well. Maybe there was something Tish could decipher but it wasn't part of her original programming. Luna would have to do some upgrades.
Victoria noticed Luna’s eyes ticking over the toolracks.
”Heh. Birds of a feather.” she commented, more to herself.
‘Not enough’ was the first answer that came to her mind about her discoveries, but she bit down on her tongue.
”The runes were the easy part. When the effect starts setting in, it just translates my code into this mess, so I was my own rosetta stone. I thought that if I upgraded my core to recognize the language I could get by, but under heavier doses, it actually starts mutating the code. That’s when the loss of motor control, speaking gibberish and death come in.” she explained.
She pointed out one of the code sequences and magic circles in particular.
”Once I understood the syntax, I figured I could use the language to actually cast myself. This is my first attempt. It’s not a true anti-magic field, but more of a brute force counter. I figured, being a machine, I can detect an attack and send out a spell that would counter it before it hits. Two problems though. One, wouldn’t protect me from passive magically saturated areas like the Strange Academy. Two, there’s still the matter of powering it.”She moved over to the part that looked more like a demon lovechild of Baba Yaga and Niles Bohr.
”My toolkit already gives me a decent command of some of the fundamental forces in physics,” she said, pulling six generators from her pockets and attaching them to her hand, before demonstrating by pulling a piece of sheet steel with a magnetic field, pushing it away with a weak repulsor, suspending it in the air with a gravity field and then blasting it with an electric arc.
”So I figured if I can fit magic into physics, I could use my existing equipment, or do relatively small modifications to generate an actual anti-magic field. Not in a particle-antiparticle annihilation sense, more of a quantum effect that just says ‘the probability of magical energies and particles existing in this area is a limit approaching zero the closer you get to the source’.” she gave the gist of the idea while drawing a probability-distance chart on the whiteboard.
She then turned around to face Luna.
”Are you keeping up so far?”Luna’s skin crawled pleasantly as the magnetic forces worked. It provided her with the same sensation magic did, but better. Luna’s brow had creased while Victoria spoke and explained what she had been encountering and how she was trying to manoeuvre around magic.
”Somewhat,” Luna responded honestly.
”But you are still trying to make magic work for your code. Magic doesn’t follow the rules of science, which is what I like about mechanics. You can jerry-rig anything to fit when it comes to mechanics. You would be better off trying to fit physics to magic. But as I said, that’s a closely guarded secret. We’ll have to find Kasimira and see what she can do.”Luna stepped closer to the runes, trying to decipher the language there. She had never been good with runes, and that narrative continued here. Luna sighed, frustrated and looked over at Victoria.
”I don’t think I will be of any further use to you in preparing your body for the transition to the Otherworld. However, the Otherworld is a unique place that listens and hears the travellers of the realm. How much do you know about story magic?” Luna asked, popping herself up to sit on one of Victoria’s pristine work benches.
Tori smiled. At least she didn’t get told her ideas were bonkers straight away.
”Well, thanks, anyway. I did still learn something. I’m hoping you’re right about how much time I’ll have once I get there.” Then she grinned. Luna did deserve some reward for her effort.
”I’m kind of interested to see how your world reacts to this.” she sent the authorization codes remotely and her armor safe, that so far stood relatively unnoticed in the corner, hissed and clicked open. With a wave of her hand, Vicky started pulling the armor pieces towards herself. Where she put them on, Luna could briefly see the android’s nanite skin turn silver with a golden wire pattern before the armor seemed to glue itself to it.
”I don’t know much about magic in general. Apparently.” she grumbled, shooting her papers an annoyed glance. Once the last piece of armor clicked on, she looked back at Luna.
”So I’m all ears, please. Teach me.”Luna's eyes traveled over Victoria's skin, in awe of how it shifted to adhere to the new material. She jumped off the bench and circled Victoria, appraising her as if Luna was a salesperson looking over a car.
” This is like those Transformers. Incredible. What did you use for material? Is it coded to your DNA? Is that why it flew to you? What about… gah, bloody hell. Sorry. One track mind.” Luna shook her head and took a step back from Victoria.
”Story magic is unique. You could almost call it alive, as it shifts to match what is needed at that time. For example, the fairy rings. It doesn't matter if you use the same ring every time you enter the Otherworld, you will be let off in a different place depending on where you are needed. Depending on where your story needs you to be. So, because your tale needs you to be adapted to the Otherworld, we will be able to find who and what you seek.” Even though Luna had apologized for obsessing over Victoria's new look, the former Captain Britain unconsciously started circling Victoria again, tapping and tugging on the armor.
Vicky giggled, not minding an examination that was noninvasive.
”I think I’m more of a terminator than a transformer,” the android shrugged,
”Actually, no idea about the nanotech. I think mom may have had to buy some IP from Stark to do that, so it is probably under an NDA. And I don’t have DNA, there isn’t a shred of organic tissue in me. When I was transferred into this shell, it was a shapeless humanoid, and I just picked how I wanted to look like during installation. And no, I just used a linear gravity field to pull them. Tractor beam, so to speak.”She thought about the magic of the Otherworld for a moment.
”So… Destiny on speedrun then? Well that oughta be interesting. Interesting you mention the Fairy rings… Is there a credible possibility it would spit each of us in a different part of the world then? I’m not too keen on finding myself alone in Everforge while the rest of us are deposited close to wherever they are holding Nemo.” Oh, the risk analysis file was growing by the minute, and none of the risks seem to trend in the ‘mitigated’ direction.
”Well, not much I can do about it though, I suppose.”As the fairyland engineer started hovering around her again, Vicky grinned.
”Go ahead, ask, poke and prod. First though… I didn’t catch your name at any point? So unless you don’t mind Glimpse… Who are you?”More questions flooded Luna’s mind, but she bit her lip to keep from voicing them right now, literally.
”Oh, I guess you guys can call me Luna or Glimpse. At least until I reclaim my Captain Britain title. As for the fairy rings, you are very correct. Although I am committed to helping you before the others. So, at the very least, it will be you and I traipsing through the kingdoms until we find Kasimira.” Luna came around to stand in front of Vicky once more. She looked up at Victoria, frowning slightly before she grinned.
”Just remember you said I could ask,” she said before Luna launched into another string of questions.
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