User:Tarmaque/Sandbox

Summary
Agatha (Clay) Heterodyne is the main character and eponymous Girl Genius. She's a strong Spark and mechanical genius, and the last known member of the famous Heterodyne family of Mechanicsburg in central Europa (Europe).

Currently she is attempting to retake the damaged family fortress, Castle Heterodyne, from enemy factions wishing to use it for their own purposes.

Etymology
The name Agatha is of Greek origins, and is generally accepted to have the meaning 'good' or 'honorable.'  From the Greek agathos;  good.

Her name may also be a reference to Saint Agatha of Sicily, (died AD 251) an early Christian saint. St. Agatha was romantically pursued by a Roman prefect, but rejected him. After her rejection the prefect persecuted her for her Christian faith, eventually torturing her to death including severing her breasts from her body. St. Agatha is the patron saint of Breast Cancer Survivors, bakers, and bell founders.

Another connection to the name Agatha is Agathodaemon, a sort of patron spirt of luck, health, and wisdom. It is the Greek version of a Genius in Roman mythology.

The name "Heterodyne" is derived directly from the technical term heterodyne; to mix two frequencies, producing a third frequency. This word is also of Greek extraction. Hetero; different,  and dyne;  power.

Maternity
Lucrezia Mongfish (The Other) is almost certainly Agatha's biological mother, although there is some possibility that the relationship may be slightly different (conjecture; she may be a product of Lucrezia's experiments. Canon is not clear on the subject.)  Lucrezia's minions, the Geisterdamen, worship Agatha as "The Holy Child", second only to Lucrezia herself. Von Pinn, one of Lucrezia's constructs, openly recognizes Agatha as Lucrezia's daughter.

Paternity
Bill Heterodyne is generally accepted to be Agatha's biological father, however this is not a confirmed fact. Castle Heterodyne has accepted Agatha as a Heterodyne heir, and she was raised by Barry Heterodyne as a young child. Adam and Lilith Clay have also intimated that she is a Heterodyne heir, without mentioning Bill directly.

Lucrezia returned to the Geisterdamen with the Holy Child, presumably after her disappearance from Castle Heterodyne, yet nowhere does she mention who the father is. Bill and Lucrezia have only one confirmed child; Klaus Barry Heterodyne (deceased).

Other family
Agatha is raised from an early age by Barry Heterodyne, who returns with her after disappearing along with Bill some time after the attack on Castle Heterodyne. For unknown reasons he leaves her with Adam and Lilith Clay when she is still a young girl. They stand in loco parentis while the rest of her family whereabouts are unknown, and Barry disappears once again.

One or more other family members are lurking about, who are related to Lucrezia through her sister. Theopholous DuMedd is Lucrezia's nephew, although it is unknown where his mother is or under what circumstances. This makes him Agatha's first cousin and closest known relative, excepting her parents and Barry who may or may not be dead.

Agatha's Spark
The Spark is a combination quality of genius and madness that afflicts/defines the Mad Scientist ruling class of Europa. Agatha is considered a strong Spark, and possibly the strongest in Europa. Her parents were both sparks in their own right, and her father is counted among the strongest sparks of all time.

Agatha began to break through as a spark at a very young age (5-7 years). This triggered Barry to construct a Heterodyne sigil locket with a mechanism to retard her development as a spark until she could handle the madness. Although there were side effects, the locket kept her out of trouble until she lost it at the age of 18.

Once the locket was removed, Agatha's genius began to work at an accelerated rate. This began with unconscious work while she was asleep, but eventually became conscious drive to design, build, or improve almost everything around her.

Creations

 * The Search Engine
 * Dingbot Prime, and by extension all its subsequent generations
 * A Fashion Clank
 * A Fashion Clank
 * A Fashion Clank
 * A Fashion Clank

Modifications/Improvements

 * The repurposed and a number of  from Master Payne's Circus of Adventure
 * The repurposed and a number of  from Master Payne's Circus of Adventure
 * The repurposed and a number of  from Master Payne's Circus of Adventure
 * The repurposed and a number of  from Master Payne's Circus of Adventure

Gilgamesh Wulfenbach
Gil is the very sparky son of Klaus Wulfenbach, but who's origin is shrouded in mystery. Agatha immediately takes a dislike to him for killing Dr. Beetle, yet begins think differently about him when he starts to take an interest in her work and ideas. Rapidly this develops into a love/hate relationship when she witnesses his fight with Othar and then their joint fight with Slaver Wasps.

Clearly Gil likes Agatha very much, yet she isn't so sure about him. One minute she looks for any reason to trust him and his motives, and the next she wants to smack him with a big hammer. She thinks he has nice hair. Both turn into complete dorks when talking about the other.

Tarvek Sturmvoraus
Tarvek is the direct descendent of Andronicus Valois, the Storm King, and the heir and prince to the town of Sturmhalten. Unlike Gil, Tarvek is actually royalty with long precedent. He is suave, sure of himself, and in every way a ladies man. He is also a very strong spark in the tradition of the Storm King.

However, Tarvek is also a part of a plot by Duke Strinbeck and Oublenmach to use a fake Heterodyne (Zola) to take control of Europa. He has been raised by Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus who was a loyal minion of The Other. For these reasons he has acquired a conniving and spineless attitude towards loyalty. Generally he agrees with whoever is in charge in the room at the moment while plotting their downfall. And yet, Agatha is attracted to him for his courtly manners, his interest in restoring the Muses, and is obvious intelligence. She does not trust him, but finds herself to need him as an ally at times. Since she does not trust Gil either, the game seems to be tied at the end of the third quarter.

Lars
Lars is a former cheesemakers apprentice who now is the leading man/advance man in Master Payne's Circus of Adventure. A simple country boy and true hero, who fights even when he's terrified. Could be considered Agatha's first true love, although at the time she seemed oblivious to his advances. Died protecting her from Klaus. Honorary Jägermonster.

Othar Tryggvassen
Othar is a traveling self-desribed "Gentleman Adventurer" and wannabe hero. He is highly annoying and nearly indestructible. While not exactly a suitor for Agatha's affections, he does consider her his "spunky girl assistant" and harbors some affectionate feelings towards her. His attitude toward Agatha is somewhere between fatherly and a mentor. He is mad as a hedgehog.

Kalikoff
A plumber in Sturmhalten. Not really a suitor either, but is a pervert with an obsession about Agatha in her  Good for comic relief.

Early life
Where Agatha was born in the subject of some mystery. Her first noted appearance is as a young girl living with her Uncle Barry. The Geisterdamen have told how the Holy Child Agatha was apparently rescued from the Geisterdamen by her uncle Barry, who gave her to Adam and Lilith Clay to be raised. As a young child she began to break through as a spark, so Barry devised (or repurposed) a Locket for her that suppressed her spark.

Agatha did not know that she was either a Spark or a Heterodyne for all of her early life. After her uncle disappeared when she was seven, Agatha lived in the town of Beetleburg, where she went to school at Transylvania Polygnostic University and worked under Doctor Tarsus Beetle.

Beginning of the story
When she was eighteen, she had an exceptionally bad day in which her locket was stolen, she was late for school, had to clean the main lab in a hurry, witnessed the accidental death of Dr. Beetle, and was kicked out of the university. That same day she built her first working clank, the Search Engine, in her sleep, which led to her being taken aboard Castle Wulfenbach.

Aboard the Castle Wulfenbach, Agatha reluctantly pretended to be Moloch's girlfriend, until he threatened to hurt her. After that she worked with the Baron's son, Gil, who suspected that she was a Spark. She got along well with him for the most part, but couldn't entirely reconcile a friendship with Gil with her distrust of his father.

She got along well with most of the other students aboard the Castle, especially her roommate Sleipnir O’Hara, and made friends with Krosp, a large white talking cat she found stealing food from her dinner tray. She surprised them all, however, by facing down the frightening construct nanny Von Pinn. To both Agatha and Von Pinn’s shock, when Agatha ordered Von Pinn to put her down, she did.

She also encountered Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer, who wanted her to be his plucky girl sidekick (she refused) and the three Jäger Generals, who seemed quite interested in her (they could smell she was a Heterodyne and thus knew it even before she did), and were curious as to what she thought about Master Gilgamesh.

When Agatha accidentally ordered sleeper revenant Mr. Rovainen to activate the Hive Engine, she had to help Gil fight off the resulting soldier wasps and kill the Queen. To do this she built a pair of Electric Foils, perhaps her first knowingly sparky inventions. Elated at having killed the Queen (although confused as to why the wasps got out of her way when she ordered them to), Agatha kissed Gil. He was instantly smitten and proposed marriage. Agatha refused, especially when Gil implied that she was incapable of surviving on her own.

Adam and Lilith tried to escape from the Castle with her, but ran into Klaus. Recognizing Adam and Lilith as the Heterodyne constructs Punch and Judy, Klaus (with the help of Von Pinn) deduced that Agatha was the child of Bill Heterodyne and Lucrezia Mongfish. Klaus would have kept Agatha and her foster parents prisoner, but they incapacitated the Baron and sent her on her way to safety, losing their own lives to an enraged Von Pinn in the process.

Escape from Castle Wulfenbach
Aboard a stolen airship Agatha once more had an opportunity to join with Othar (or get killed by him, since he believes all Sparks must die). Not liking either option, she pushed him over the side. When the airship crashed, Agatha was essentially lost in the Wastelands until she encountered Master Payne's Circus of Adventure. The Circus was terrified of the possible consequences of helping a fugitive from the Baron, and sent her on her way. After Agatha helped save the circus from a rogue clank, however, they let her join, and helped trick Gil and Bang into thinking she had been killed.

Traveling with the circus, Agatha was given the role of Lucrezia Mongfish in the plays, which she performed well. In the town of Zumzum she rescued three Wild Jägers, who recognized her as a Heterodyne and stayed with her as bodyguards. After a crisis at Passholdt, where the circus was attacked by monsters and Agatha showed her naive sense of heroism, they came to the town of Sturmhalten.

After a command performance for the ruling prince, Agatha was invited to dinner with the royal family, who drugged her into confessing her lineage. She was then nearly subjected to one nefarious experiment, only to be saved for another.

She was imprisoned with several Geisterdamen, including their leader Lady Vrin. Vrin revealed that Lucrezia Mongfish was their goddess, as well as the terrible Other who had terrorized Europe &mdash; and that Agatha was their "Holy Child" they had been seeking for nearly two decades. While newly-minted Prince Tarvek tried to get her out of the castle, the Geisterdamen managed to use the Summoning Engine and download their goddess into Agatha's brain.

Agatha spent the better portion of the next day or so effectively unconscious, only able to gain control for an extended period of time once her music-making Dingbots were functional. She despaired of understanding the machine that had effected her, claiming that not only was she still little more than a student, Lucrezia was slowly winning the battle for control. She determined to do the only thing she felt she could under the circumstances: tell the world the identity of the Other, and give herself up to Baron Wulfenbach.

She built a holographic recorder/projector to display her message, but before it could be used she was betrayed by Tarvek, who wanted to make us of Agatha to establish himself as the Storm King. Lucrezia was once again in charge, and Agatha only permanently restored to herself when Lucrezia, having wasped the Baron, put on her locket.

Lars sacrificed himself to keep her from getting killed by a very angry Klaus, sending Agatha over the edge and deep into the madness place. She activated her Battle Circus and did serious damage to the Baron's forces before a calming pie and a trick of the Circus's allowed her to escape.

In Mechanicsburg
While the Circus went to England, Agatha went to Mechanicsburg as Lilith had instructed her, where she encountered a false heir, and the former seneschal, Master Heliotrope né Carson von Mekkhan. While Carson von Mekkhan was initially skeptical of her claim to the Heterodyne lineage, a sparky building session in a coffee shop and her standing up to the Castle helped persuade him.

She is currently inside Castle Heterodyne, pretending to be a prisoner. Her goal is to repair the links between the Castle subsystems and its main brain, once again allowing the Castle to defend her town. She has just (briefly) crossed paths with Zola "Heterodyne", who has sent the other prisoners after her to kill her. Agatha herself is running towards the main library, with a bewildered Moloch von Zinzer (who claims that he's not her minion) in tow. She's also run into her old teacher, the (former) head of TPU, Silas Merlot.

Character analysis
When she first appeared, Agatha was kind of scatterbrained and kind of a spaz, much of which was due to the effects of the Locket on her brain. When it was removed her spark began to once more assert itself, and she has become more confident and formidable ever since. Even when her spark was repressed, she was far from weak: witness her defense of herself against the brothers von Zinzer and - just after she has lost the locket - her determined attitude when cleaning Dr. Beetle's lab. As the story progresses, Agatha becomes much less naive and quite tough, due to the circumstances of her life as both a spark and the last known Heterodyne, and also due to the teaching of her friends and allies. Krosp and Zeetha, in particular, give her much needed perspective.

She is very sparky, and like most sparks, she has a tendency to lose a certain sense of perspective when she gets going. Like her father, she has the "true heroic impulse," which leads her to head, without thinking, towards danger in an effort to help. As in other areas, she has been learning that the thinking and planning stage is not to be overlooked. She has also realized the importance of having a position of strength so she cannot be used as a pawn.

Her recent life has been rather traumatic, as she has witnessed the deaths of her teacher, foster parents, and one of her friends. She has gone from being considered damaged to being considered too valuable to be allowed to roam free. Both Gil and Othar tried to persuade her to team up with them for her own good, although they each meant "team up" in a very different way. She has instead consistently chosen the path of independence and self-reliance, even though it has entailed a rather steep learning curve. Perhaps most life-changing for her so far, however, were the events in Sturmhalten, where she was possessed by the mind of The Other and caught between the machinations of at least three parties. Her of situational analysis shows how mature she has already become from the incident.

Outside Information
Agatha's appearance is based on the way Phil used to draw Kaja Foglio. Kaja explains in this old Livejournal post how Agatha was initially designed and why her hair is such a vibrant red-blonde color.

Agatha's "heterodyning" -- the humming/singing noise she makes while thinking Sparky thoughts -- was partly inspired by Doc Savage's famous trill (in the works of Lester Dent). Doc would unconsciously produce the sound while thinking or fighting.