Location: The Field (School Carnival) (Agatha's Tent)
Skills: Enhanced Reflexes (Passive)
~First day fit~
Andy entered the tent, and like others before her, she would find that it was bigger on the inside, like it was straight out of
Doctor Who. The space still managed to be cramped though, as Agatha was utilizing both the air and the ground to hold her many witchy artifacts. A gigantic panther hissed at Andy - well, at Andy's
bag specifically - as she entered. The lit candles that were floating idly through the air along with tarot cards, crystals, and other assorted objects, were extinguished by an unseen force.
The old crone at the table looked past Andy with an air of disapproval and displeasure. "I was wondering when you were going to show your face again after that nasty business in Genosha... Selene."
"Oh, don't be such a dumb slut, Aggie!" Selene, the spirit inhabiting the doll in Andy's bag complained.
"Why, you remind me of poor old Lot's wife - just one teeny tiny little peak and she turned to salt. Such a fucking drag." "Should have guessed." Andy sighs and places the bag so Selene and Agatha can see each other.
"Guess that makes my questions easier." She mumbles to herself. Andy looks around the room, taking it all in. She is a little surprised at the space of it all and gives the giant cat space. It might not actually be aggressive toward her, but she wasn't taking any chances. The already irritated Andy slumps in the chair.
At least the bickering in here wasn't directed toward her. Outside, it felt like the backstory to a teen drama movie. If she were lucky, it'd be a John Hughes film. Andy knew better than that. She was not lucky enough for this to be a John Hughes film. However, that didn't stop her mind from casting the group from outside into the parts of
Breakfast Club. That Beanie girl was Molly Ringwald, obviously. The two fairly interchangeable French boys (why were there so many French-sounding people at an American school) were the jock and the nerd kid. She had no idea which was which. She somehow ended up in the role of Ally Sheedy's character Allison. She wasn't certain who Judd Nelson was yet, but if she ended up around the group much longer, she was sure to find out.
Agatha's eyes were focused on the doll, but then they drifted on over towards Andy. "That's an impressive acheron you have configured as... a doll," Agatha murmured. "If I were to guess, I would say it would belong in the private selection of the Sorcerer Supreme. And yet... Here it is. With you." Agatha tilted her head at Andy. The air hummed with magic. "I see. I'm sorry, child, for the circumstance of your birth."
"If you'd like to let me slip on out of this damp little thing, you can investigate this all you'd--" Selene started to say, before Agatha flicked her fingers and some sort of magic duct-tape appeared on the doll's mouth.
Of all the shows of magic, shutting up Selene was the most impressive thing anyone could have done. Andy sat up a little straighter.
"Yeah, it's a bit of a story. I don't know it all because she keeps saying it isn't that interesting. And I ended up with her after Genosha." Andy gives a bit of a shrug there.
"I figured one of us should be responsible. Since she so far hadn't been." Andy didn't even know if her biological father was living or not. At this point, she suspected not.
"I'm glad you're not one of those that are looking for her to free her." Andy knew that Selene had acolytes and followers. It hadn't been nearly long enough for them to forget about her. But Andy hoped the seventeen-year time jump would at least allow her time to get used to her new duty.
Agatha considered that for a moment. She elected to lie to this young girl. Truthfully, she might have freed Selene - if for no other reason than solidarity with her fellow eons old sorceress. Or perhaps one day, Agatha would be the one imprisoned inside an acheron, with Selene walking freely. "She will not be contained forever. Do you have a plan for what happens then?" Agatha asked Andy, attempting to size the girl up, see how much she had thought about this... Agatha doubted she had considered it more deeply than the immediate issue.
Andy can't help but sigh, a little defeated.
"Not really. It took a dozen or so mutants last time. I was only able to buy time to do it. If you have any advice, I'd appreciate it." The anger at the kids from outside was being pushed away for the bigger worry. The whole reason she agreed to go to this school was for training. She needed it. Andy had never been properly trained in a fully mutant setting. Yeah, there had been bursts of it. The time at the gym was the first. Then the bit of time she had had living under Magneto's roof. But everything had happened so fast between that and the end of Genosha. Everything before the gym had been nothing but oppression. Using her powers had been risking prison or worse. This new world where she was free to use her powers in a school setting. It was better than she could have anticipated.
"You could bury her in the heart of a sun, but that would do nothing. You could enchant the acheron with the finest spells in the universe, bid the favor of all the gods, and it would do nothing. Time will see all locks rusted and broken, and Selene has nothing but time," Agatha reasoned. "People like her - people like
us, child... We will always come back. It is as inevitable as the sun rising in the sky or the cool embrace of the moon at night."
"Were I you, I would wash my hands of this situation, and let inevitabilities be inevitabilities... But if you are not willing to turn a blind eye, then the best you can hope for is that you can change someone who is unchanging - that you can rehabilitate Selene and show her a better path."
Well, Andy could dream.
"I might as well try." She shrugged. Andy glanced at the bag. She had a flash of anger as she thought about how much of her life had been destroyed because of her mother. Her childhood. Her time on Genosha. The memory of the bird pecking her until she drained it of life swam to the forefront of her memory. Then, of course, now her time at high school, in what she had hoped would be relatively normal.
"I had been giving these gifts out after the reading, but I believe beforehand is appropriate in this case," Agatha then ventured. She opened up a small portal in the air and stuck her arm through it, reaching and fumbling around, before pulling it back out with a small key. She set the key down on the table in front of Andy. "Should it ever be too much, insert this key into any door, open it, and throw the acheron through quickly. It will send her tumbling into a black hole."
Andy stared at the key for a moment. Could she even trust that she wouldn't be tempted to use it? A part of her was ready to use it now. But that would be breaking the promise she had made. Finally, she leaned forward, picked it up, and put the key into her pocket.
"Thank you." She supposed she should ask a question now. Mostly what she had wanted to know had been answered. Eventually, Selene would be free.
"I'm not sure what to ask. I feel like any of the questions I might have asked seventeen years ago seem silly now. I've met Zari and traveled through time with her; I don't want to know if we don't work out. I want to be happy. I know who my mom is. I know what my future holds, mostly. What sort of questions have been asked so far?" She expected they'd be trite, but maybe it'd give her inspiration.
"Ah, it has mostly been what you would expect. People wish to know of who they will become, what star crossed love they are fated to have, and whether their abusive parents still stalk them from the shadows," Agatha explained. "Most of your classmates are destined for tragedy. Such is the life of a hero."
Andy knew the answers to most of those questions, or at least the variants that matched her life. She also completely expected her life to be a tragedy in the end. That was why she wanted to be happy now.
"Well, I'll become what I must. I'll try to make Zari happy, and if we don't work out, that is sad. I want us to. As for parents...well, we both know the answer to that. Alright, I suppose I'll ask this: Can I make a place for myself among this generation? Will I always feel like I don't belong, or will I find a way to make it work?" Andy didn't want to be an outsider. She wanted friends. She couldn't really call it friends her own age since most of her current classmates had been born after the fight on Genosha. Or in the case of the older students shortly before.
"Have you been educated in the arcane arts, Andy?" Agatha asked. "You have the makings of a sorceress - a pity that you are enrolled here and not at Strange Academy, I see much potential in you..." She trailed off, before snapping her fingers and the tarot cards suspended in the air began to dance. They moved in strange bizarre patterns - glyphs, almost - before three of them settled down on the table in front of Agatha and Andy (and Ebony and Selene, who was trying to speak but was muffled from the magical gag). The three cards drawn were, from left to right:
the Six of Wands Reversed,
the Magician, and
the Queen of Pentacles Reversed.
"Sometimes, the Cards answer a question other than the one that is asked. That is always important to an astute young witch to keep in mind. I have drawn a simple three card spread for you, each representing past, present, and future. Witches work in threes - for instance, Maiden, Mother, and Crone. There are fundamentally two types of cards - the Major Arcana, the Fool's journey, which deals with spiritual forces, things spinning out of your control. And then the Minor Arcana, the cards of the four suits, who detail more commonplace elements of your destiny."
"In the past, you have the Six of Wands Reversed. Wands represent energy, motivation, passion, creativity - they are the burning fire of life. I see here that you have a private achievement, a success that you were unwilling to share with others. It is a sort of confidence that sets you apart from others, one that pushes you to dwell in the shadows. An outsider, an outcast, an exile."
"In the present, you have the Magician - this is a card of the Major Arcana. Recall, this means this is a major spiritual force from the universe. The Magician is the first visited by the Fool, for she holds all of the tools - she can achieve anything that she desires, she is perfectly capable and inspired. In the context of your question, I would say this indicates that you have everything you need - that if you wish to
fit in then it will be so. Do not change yourself. You are sufficient. You are enough."
"Now, the future... You have the Queen of Pentacles, Reversed. Pentacles - otherwise called coins - typically deal with more material goods and attachments. Your
coins are slipping from your grasp, yet they are all you can see. You are falling from your throne, falling from grace. It appears to me that the Cards are warning that you may lose yourself in the pursuit of
fitting in... Be wary of who you choose to trust, Andy. Genosha welcomed Selene and now the island is but dust."
Andy took in what Agatha said. It took her a moment to process it all. She wasn't sure what achievement she had that she was hiding. There wasn't much to be proud of in her past if she was honest. There was relief that Andy could fit in without having to change herself. Something she felt the students here might pressure her to do. She didn't want to change. Becoming friends with Zari had made Andy more comfortable with herself. She didn't fear herself like before meeting any of the Mutant Underground. Zari had helped with that, but intrinsically she hadn't changed. If she decided to be friends with the group she had just met, they might try to get her to conform, according to the third card, that was dangerous. She didn't want to lose herself. She had only recently felt sure of who she was.
Finally, Andy nodded.
"Thank you. That is a lot to think about. But I think it will help me. I appreciate your advice." Andy started to stand. The key weighed heavily in her pocket.
"You said I had the potential for the Arcane arts. It isn't something I have had much interest in. I know it is there in me, but I haven't been trained at all. I am taking the Eldritch Magic class." How could Andy explain that she was afraid of learning magic? Afraid of becoming her mother or a puppet for her. That matched the last card in a way Andy wasn't certain she could express. She glanced at the bag.
"I don't want to become...I don't want to be used." She finally said. It was the best that she could explain.
"There are as many kinds of witches as there are stones on the Earth," Agatha said, after a brief moment of silence. "Even if you were to study in magic, specialize in the dark arts, you would be a witch of your own. No two of us, however seemingly alike, are truly so. And no one can rob you of your power unless you allow it to be so."
Andy nodded again.
"Thank you. I will do my best." That's all anyone could do. Andy picked up the backpack and then exited the tent, the sun and heat reminding her that this was Southern California. She regretted a bit wearing pants instead of shorts.
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