Character Sheet: Agatha Heterodyne
Combat Value: 7
You are Agatha Heterodyne, and that was very strange. You can still remember much of Maria's memory, and you're sure that she can remember bits of yours. But you are yourself again. (You may continue to refer to Maria's character sheet for in-depth information about what has been going on.)
Since you're getting this midway through the story, we won't put you through the twenty pages it would take for a fully detailed character history. Instead, here's the executive summary, with all the important bits. Things that are specific to this story are in boldface. If you know Girl Genius well, you can just read the boldfaced bits; if not, you probably want to read the whole thing.
You are the daughter of Bill Heterodyne, one of the great heroes of the age, and Lucrezia Mongfish, his long-time enemy turned wife. You still don't know whether your mother reformed, or was simply using your father to her own ends. Either way, both of your parents disappeared when you were still a baby. You were raised until age 5 by your Uncle Barry, who treated you quite kindly. Then your Spark came through (at an almost unheard-of age), and he didn't know what to do.
He decided to put you in the care of his Construct servants Punch and Judy, who assumed the cover identities of Adam and Lilith Clay. You were all put under the protection of Professor Beetle, ruler of Beetleburg and headmaster of Transylvania Polygnostic University. And you were personally given a locket, and told never to take it off.
You grew up not knowing that you were anything other than ordinary Agatha Clay, a mediocre student at TPU. You wanted to be smart -- you were constantly trying to build things, but they never worked.
Everything changed the day that Omar and Moloch von Zinzer stole your locket. You didn't know it, but that had been suppressing your Spark all those years. You began to wake up.
That same day, Professor Beetle was killed in an insane confrontation with Baron Wulfenbach and his son Gil. It turned out that Beetle had been hiding a Hive Engine -- a tool of the Other, the evil creature who nearly conquered the world 20 years ago. With the death of your protector Beetle, his assistant Silas Merlot took over TPU. Merlot had always disliked you, and he formally kicked you out of school.
That proved a moot point, because the next day you wound up a captive on board the great floating city, Castle Wulfenbach. The previous night, you had built your first successful creation, a large Clank that had roamed through the streets of Beetleburg; this caught the attention of Baron Wulfenbach, and he sought to bring its creator on board for study. However, he thought Moloch was the creator of the Clank -- you were just along because they thought you were Moloch's lover.
You found yourself among a group of "students" on board the Castle -- actually noble hostages, being held to guarantee their parents' good behaviour. You fell in well with most of them. You also found yourself falling for Gilgamesh von Wulfenbach, especially when he encouraged your studies and helped you begin to successfully build things. For a short time, things were pretty good.
That all fell apart eventually, though. Gil proposed to you at the worst possible time -- just as Othar Tryggvassen initiated what turned into your escape from the Castle. In the course of that, you discovered your true heritage, and watched as the monstrous Von Pinn killed your "parents" Adam and Lilith, ripping them limb from limb. In a messy escape, you eventually found yourself flying away in a small airship, accompanied only by your talking cat Krosp, and your first creation, Dingbot Prime.
Landing in the middle of the Wilderness (with nothing but a Really Big Gun to protect you), you came across a traveling circus, Master Payne's Circus of Adventure. On learning that you were on the run from the Wulfenbachs, the Circus originally turned you away, fearing for their own safety. (You haven't told them who you really are -- you are using the "Agatha Clay" name with them again.) But when you saw them attacked by a wandering Clank, you rushed in and saved them; at that point, they accepted you, out of gratitude. When Gil came after you, to bring you back to Castle Wulfenbach, they convinced him that you had died in the attack by the Clank.
In your subsequent travels with the Circus in the past few months, life has continued to get more complicated. You have acquired a trio of wandering Jaegermonsters, for one thing. The Jaegers have been sworn to the Heterodyne family for hundreds of years, and while they can be violent and dangerous, they can also be touchingly sincere. You have grown genuinely fond of them over this time.
You have also become a student of Zeetha, a princess from the hidden city of Skifander. You know vaguely of Skifander -- Uncle Barry talked about it a little from time to time -- but unfortunately you haven't been able to help her find her way home.
The past few weeks have been pretty crazy, for the reasons described in the Circus Bluesheet. Most of the members of the Circus have been held captive in Middleburg, and the remainder of you have been doing what you can to raise funds for their bail. You're nowhere near far enough along, though, so the decision was made to come here to the Castle of Amagog, and see if any opportunities presented themselves.
Embi actually went into the Castle fairly early on -- from what he has said, you gather that he was with your cousin Theo and Othar. He came out with something, but it wasn't clear whether it was compelling enough to serve as the sole ransom. So a couple of days ago, you decided to try your hand at it.
Getting into the Castle wasn't really all that hard. Embi and company had broken several of the initial deathtraps already, and you and Dingbot Prime were able to make short work of the rest. Soon, you found yourselves in the main Castle laboratory, with the large Mirror on one wall. Dingbot ran down your arm, started fiddling with one of the controls, and then everything went very strange. You felt yourself almost being crushed -- you know now that this must have been some system of the Mirror, merging you and Maria together. You would guess that it was a simple self-defense system, but that's just a guess.
From then on, Maria was in the pilot's seat, so see her character sheet and memories for what has happened since. It's time for you to re-examine what's happened so far, now that you really understand who you are again. There are a lot of people around here, and it's not clear what all their agendas are. You've had firsthand experience with what can happen in that Castle -- now, the question is what everyone else is trying to do with it...
Some People You Know
Gilgamesh von Wulfenbach: There was a time when you were sure that you were in love with him, but he can be so infuriating sometimes! There are times when his arrogance is kind of charming, but not as often as he thinks it is. And you just can't be sure whether he follows in his father's ruthless footsteps. It really hurt to leave him thinking you were dead, though -- he seemed to be in so much pain.
Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach: Gil's father, ruler of pretty much everything. Sometimes he seems quite decent, but some of the things you saw on board Castle Wulfenbach were just horrifying. He is capturing Sparks, and experimenting on their brains! Can such a man ever be trusted?
Wooster: Gil's butler. A nice enough person, but rather bland.
Bangladesh DuPree: Some sort of agent of the Baron's, she came with Gil when he was looking for you, and she pretty completely terrorized the members of the Circus. You don't know much about her, but she seems pretty scary.
Moloch von Zinzer: The soldier who started this whole mess. You last saw him on board the Castle, and don't know what happened to him after your escape. He was confusing and complex: he could go from very friendly and reasonable to violent in a flash.
"Emperor" Krosp: Your cat. Or are you his human? He was bred to be the King of all Cats, in an ill-conceived experiment; now, he's simply the world's only talking cat. You accidentally let him believe that you had sworn homage to him a few months ago, and he now considers you his vassal. Sometimes, you seriously consider just letting him make the decisions -- if nothing else, it would be easier.
Dingbot Prime: Your first fully successful creation, a small Clank who is very attached to you. You are constantly fiddling with the Dingbot and upgrading it, as well as building other little Dingbots. Because of your close connection, you can understand its rather odd language of gestures and mechanical noises.
Von Pinn: The "headmistress" of the "school" on Castle Wulfenbach -- really, more a jailer than anything else. She is a hideous creation of your mother Lucrezia's, and is terrifying at the best of times. You can never forgive her for killing your adoptive parents. But you do have one advantage: you discovered, quite by accident, that your voice is enough like your mother's that you can give her orders if you are firm enough about it. You wouldn't want to abuse anyone, but you won't let her hurt those you love any more.
Theopholous DuMedd: Your cousin, a nephew of Lucrezia's. At this point, you are each other's only known living relatives. When you escaped from Castle Wulfenbach, Theo said he would follow after you; from the reports you've been getting third-hand, he's clearly doing so. He's a minor Spark, as were most of the Castle hostages.
Sleipnir O'Hara: Your roommate on board Castle Wulfenbach. She's something of a tomboy, but a very skilled mechanic and a good friend.
Z: The son of the Iron Sheik, one of the greatest heroes around -- your father had an adventure with him, that has been immortalized in the story "The Heterodyne Boys and the Race to the West Pole". Z is a bit straightlaced, but a good man.
Zulenna Luzhakna: Princess of Holfung-Borzoi, and she never let anyone forget it. You didn't like Zulenna much: she came across as incredibly stuck-up, looking down on anyone who wasn't nobility. But she came through in the clutch, making your escape possible by single-handedly facing down Von Pinn -- your family had saved hers, years ago, and she made clear that she was going to pay that debt whether you liked it or not. You hope that she is okay.
Othar Tryggvassen: Another legendary hero, who turns out to be a lot stranger in real life. You originally rescued Othar from the Baron, assuming that the Baron had captured him because Othar was the hero and Wulfenbach the villain; Othar then adopted you as his "plucky sidekick". But it turns out that Othar has a life's mission to kill all Sparks, including you and even eventually himself. He's not evil, but he's not exactly sane, either. He's trying to convince you that you are destined to be a "hero" like himself, at the same time that Master Payne tries to teach you that heroism is too dangerous a job for the real world.
Professor Beetle: Your mentor at TPU, who was always a good and decent man to you. You still can't understand how he could have been harboring a Hive Engine -- he couldn't have been a servant of the Other, could he?
Professor Silas Merlot: Beetle's nasty assistant, who always looked down on you and anyone else he could feel superior to.
Professor Hugo Glassvitch: Beetle's other lead professor, and a much nicer one than Merlot. He was always kind, even at the end, but he couldn't keep Merlot from kicking you out of TPU.
Dimo, Oggie and Maxim: Your three "pet" Jaegermonsters. Now that you are getting used to them, you're almost finding them a bit sweet, if a real handful sometimes. They are astonishingly strong, and not nearly as stupid as they are often made out to be.
Zeetha: Your teacher -- she tells you that you are "Kolee-dok-zumil", which in the culture of Skifander apparently means that she is the teacher and you are the student. In practice, she spends every morning hitting you, running you ragged, and generally terrifying you. She assures you that she is teaching you to become a warrior, and that this will serve you in good stead -- but that's assuming the training doesn't kill you first.
See the Circus bluesheet for basic information on who the other members of the Circus are.