Chapter Text
First, to think about the implications…
If they arrive at Mechanicsburg tomorrow afternoon without trouble, obviously the whole thing with the summoning engine and Tavec didn’t happen yet. Heck, the whole conspiracy might not even know yet that there is a Heterodyne Girl, let alone that she is the Holy Child. So obviously the Mechanicsburg Arc can’t happen the same way.
The easiest way to make this work is probably to switch the arks around and split the Mechanicsburg Ark and the Wulfenbach Ark in two. This way after a short time on the Wulfenbach, Castle Mechanicsburg is repaired and after the rest of the Wulfenbach Ark and the Sturmvoraus Ark happen they have the Battle for Mechanicsburg and maybe the Timestop.
Second, gather all my recourses and find out what all the characters are doing at the moment…
Agatha does not have her mother in her head to instinctively grasp her knowledge and secrets. What we do have is Otilla, as Von Prinn, about to have a heart attack, when the Baron informs her of Agatha’s presence on the airship.
Moloch, Knops and Higgs are presumably also somewhere nearby, keeping out of sight (Moloch because angry spark, Knops because canon reason and Higgs maybe because one of the other generals told him the Other situation and to keep hidden for now). Othar is still hopefully locked up, but the Baron certainly doesn’t have time for experiments right now.
Theo and the other students are eager to get to know Agatha. Zulena declares her debt/loyalty to Agatha’s family.
Assuming Agatha doesn’t tell anyone to do what they were supposed to be doing (and they decide that means they have to activate a hive engine) in the short time it takes to arrive at Mechanicsburg, I think those are all the important people in the airship.
Bang is also somewhere doing something, potentially involving windows into the future.
Oh, and Beetle is actually still alive, I forgot.
So on the ground in Mechanicsburg we have:
The by the Baron appointed rulers (+ secretary Violetta).
Van and his grandfather who are the actual people keeping the town running.
Mama Ginka and her bar, with the Baron apparently knew about, Vole, Dr Sun and the hospital, the Traitor Abbess, the Castle in his various pieces.
The prisoners in the castle (without Moloch and Agatha’s Professor), Ticktocken (playing everyone), Othars little sister and Moloch’s various potential love interest’s.
Zola is presumably still elsewhere being trained (or maybe she is scouting the town incognito? That could be interesting).
Zetha is sadly elsewhere, unless the whole circus is in town (which probably doesn’t work with the canon timeline) or she temporarily left them.
3. Now for the story itself:
We have 1-2 days on the airship, that’s enough for a few parts of the Castle Wulfenbach Arc.
At least little bit of silliness, like the falling machine and spying on the hive engine.
Somewhere along the way the Baron introduces Von Pinn to Agatha (very carefully because he remembers her state after the death of Klaus-Barry, and she kind of started hyperventilating after he said the words “Heterodyne” and “girl”).
Otillia doesn’t do anything about THE HETERODYNE GIRL outwards except hover, because Jägers.
Agatha meets a white cat, who doesn’t do anything special at all (Krops is not worried about THIS spark being experienced on because 1. Jägers and 2. the Baron is kind of hovering protectively in the background every time he gets the chance).
Other Ideas I have:
A strategy meeting about the identity of the Other
Some kind of formal or private dinner happening
Judy asking about Gil’s mother
Judy and Klaus trading stories about their children, the past, married live… (to the horror or fascination of Gil and Agatha)
Meeting the vesper squad and Agatha getting a weasel (this could also happen much later)
(If the Time Windows still happen in some form) Bang always barely not meeting Agatha
Higgs managing to get himself assigned to go to Mechanicsburg as a Wulfenbach Solider
The airship is at Mechanicsburg now, nobody was attacked or activated the hive engine or was kidnapped by geisterdamen. At least not yet.
There was a lot of exited writing of letters about recent events to family members and maybe a few spies got caught because they were careless.
Presumably the fastest Jäger runner got send to Mechanicsburg so the Jäger under the town know there is a new Heterodyne. The Question is who did they tell? Definitely not the Baron‘s people or any kind of potential spies.
So maybe the (Baron appointed) Bürgermeister and any nosy spies just gets told that the Baron decided to do a surprise inspection of the town and the Jägers barely managed to get word out.
Any suspicious activity on the walls is surely just the dismantling of the defenses so the Baron doesn’t destroy anything, honest!
The tourists (and any immigrants) are just told that the Baron is coming here for unknown reasons and maybe they should go home (take a vacation) in case there is conflict (spies that can be disappeared without notice are stashed somewhere for the Heterodyne to have fun with later).
The cleaning and decorating of the town is just because some obscure festivals or anniversary that definitely exists even if you never heard of it before (Franks birthday maybe?).
Of course the town had quite a few false Heterodynes over the years so there are also preparations for this to be someone’s plot somehow.
Any wild Jägers get called back either way because if it is true they can come home and also help fight the Other and if this is a plot then the will need the whole army to fight whoever did it, especially if it is the Baron.
Vole… Vole is being watched very carefully. Vole is also not stupid and definitely noticed something suspicious going on.
Vole is promptly kidnapped by Ginka with some kind of Jäger-knock-out-gas to be stashed somewhere out of the way, where he can dramatically escape from once Agatha went into the Castle to rant about weak Heterodynes and hatred and fire and blood and so on in just the right place for Bang to hear him.
My idea is that when the Baron arrives he doesn’t get a word out about Agatha before the mayor (who might actually be in on the whole thing depending on how trustworthy he is) starts to prattle on about the surprise inspection and “of course it is an honor to have him in our humble city” and some kind of scribe is offered to play tour-guide for “the young baron and his lady-friend to have fun and see our fair city while the adults have to work”.
Violetta as the mayor’s secretary (as a spy) and an out of towner (definitely a spy) sadly has to stay and help the mayor (and learn nothing useful at all). Besides she doesn’t know the town good enough yet to be a guide, right my dear?
With the Baron out of the way the girl can now be tested.
Adam and Lily Clay decide that they too would love to see the city they definitely never been to and if the young man really has affection for their daughter they better chaperone.
Completely normal tour-guide Van shows them all the normal touristy stuff, complaints loudly about how his grandfather voluntold him to work at the mayor’s office when someone (very unexpectedly, I’m sure) felt sick, recommends his favorite coffee shop for a break and introduces his grandfather.
„Hello my lady (if my lady you be) I am your Seneschal“
Cue Lily being distracted by old friends and telling Carson about Barry, Agatha’s childhood and „how Klaus found us“ long enough for Agatha to sneak some coffee.
Carson, who had the time to meet the Generals and Agatha’s honor guards at Ginka’s and is now watching the coffee engine scene is convinced.
Now Van made very sure that everyone in the cafe was a local but they probably still don’t have an infinitive amount of time before rumors about Agatha reach the remaining spies.
Ideally, depending on how long it takes to repair the Castle and how secretive they are about it the first sighting of a new Heterodyne would be the Doom Bell.
Of course some people might already know about her depending on what spies were in Beetleburg or how fast we want the various sparkly message-systems from Castle Wulfenbach to work. The von Blitzengaards might know the moment the Abbess knows because of the Queen Mirror.
Anyway…
Agatha and co. meet the Castle in the cript
Dos Van already has the holes in his skull or is it still Carson?
„The Heterodyne has to go alone“
And now, depending on the direction of the story I have slightly different ideas
Carson brings Agatha to the castle with a distinct air of ‚another false Heterodyne about to be killed‘
Carson using some kind of code to tell the Castle that this one might actually be real
Or maybe they sneak her in though some kind of secret tunnel and the castle bites her and she sneaks out again without anybody knowing
Agatha signals her friends that she is recognized by the castle and they come after her
Zola or the von Blitzengaard hearing about the Barons Girl Heterodyne (which is probably fake or at least managed by the Baron) and deciding now or never to kill the castle (and hopefully take over) (but Zola is probably very dead at the end of this scenario and if she is still alive during whatever happens with the summoning engine it will be more interesting)
Zola Meeting Gil on the street and they both perform the perfectly-normal-nothing-to-see dance about Gil Holzfäller the heroic pirate and Zola the pink damsel in distress choirgirl
Agatha stays only long enough to get recognized by the castle look around, let loose some of her dingbots and get a status report by Ticktocken before having a strategy meeting with the Baron, the Town and the Jägers at Mama Ginkas
Now there are a lot of different Plot-points in the Repairing-the-Castle part of the Mechanicsburg Ark alone and a lot of different people but I tried to get everything.
Tavec is not here to give Violetta to Agatha so something different has to happen. Violetta could befriend Agatha ‚Clay‘ right at the beginning before she knows who she is and/or later save her life (from another Smoke Knight maybe) using the excuse that Tavec can’t be Storm King without a Heterodyne Girl so she totally didn’t betray her oaths (or maybe Tavec/his father orders her to protect Agatha once he knows she exists)
Higgs is totally a normal solider totally assigned to guard Gil who is coincidentally always near Agatha
Since nobody is injured Dr Sun doesn’t have a huge role. Of course that could change
But unless they are too deep into the castle having Dr Sun available means nobody gets as sick
Which means Agatha doesn’t have to drink from the Dyne
Unless… because Tavec was the one to get sick it happens later during the Battle after the hospital is bombed
Madame Von Pinn manages to kidnap Agatha sometime to bring her to Lucrezias secret lab (with everyone hot on her heel) and between demands that ‚Lucrezia‘ put her back into her own body, rants about ‚The Heterodyne Girl‘ being made save or how she ruined her kings empire and the Castle in the Muse someone (Gil or Violetta because Tavec is not here but he probably told them stories) figures it out eventually
(The Baron might be familiar enough with the Other’s work to get everyone back into the proper body)
This would give the characters the chance to explore Lu’s secret lab in peace (good/bad?)
Of course finding the lab could also happen later during the battle instead, but I don’t know if Otilia would wait
Ticktocken played everyone right? We never find out if he is actually loyal to Zola&co or if they are just the people who looked like they would give him the most opportunities to tinker with the Castle
So now he is suddenly confronted with the Baron introducing a Heterodyne Girl, who is definitely not the trained false Heterodyne Girl he was expecting, way before his plans are ready
Nobody warned him either
My Idea would be that he is the very soul of helpfulness, a perfect minion during the Repair and then promptly betrays them at the first opportunity during the Battle
The Traitor Abbess probably doesn’t do anything special until the battle just generally being a traitor
Adam and Lily are just generally there as minions (and chaperones, poor Gil)
Moloch doesn’t go down to Mechanicsburg and feels like he dodged a bullet and someone is walking over his grave at the same time. He will soon find out that there is no escape
Moloch’s various potential love interests, without being distracted by Moloch get on like houses on fire and form some unholy friendship (cue catfight to harem when they meet Moloch)
Othar’s little sister, without meeting her brother, helps repaying the Castle, says no thank you to the Baron and Agatas offer for help or employment, goes out to find him and:
Either has to promptly try to break into Castle Wulfenbach
Meets some very helpful circus people to travel through the wastelands with
Or runs afoul of some plot that means she is in Mechanicsburg during the Battle
Bang still hasn’t seen Agatha in person or maybe hasn’t even been able to report about the time windows yet because of the Wulfenbachs sudden change in directions
Bang meets the Baron and is promptly chewed out about not letting people surrender
As punishment she is not allowed to go into the dangerous deathtrap Castle but instead has to help Dr Sun with something or babysit the town/troops with Boris
Cue the Jägers and everybody else being distracted enough that Vole can escape and rant about murder in front of Bang (Bang and Vole sitting on a tree K I L L I N G)
Violetta gets jumped by the spy catchers, but manages to escape and somehow meet Agatha
The bell hammer gets “stolen” by a bunch of (drunk?) idiot tourists who want to ring the bell for a lark
The more or less trustworthy students of Castle Wulfenbach help with the repairs. The younger students in the town, Theo and some of the older students in the castle. Repairing Mechanicsburg is a excellent learning experience for a school full of sparks
They repair the castles power supply but not the lighting generators and because there is no battle the castle doesn’t deplete his energy and doesn’t (“recquire a spark”) say anything
Dooooooooooooom
Ginka decides someone has to teach Agatha how to fight (because no Zeetha)
After the repairs, the Doom Bell, the party, the new treaty between the Empire and the Heterodyne and the whole of Europe getting caught with their pants off, the Baron offers Agatha a place at his school to finish her studies.
(Because she is bill’s daughter, he is a control freak, Wulfenbach is safer than Beetlesburg, Heterodynes are still Heterodynes, the Other, Gil being obviously smitten and Bills girl not the worst option for him to marry and many other reasons).
She accepts, first as basically something like an online home schooling thing and after the town is more or less in order actually goes there.
The Castle is convinced to allow it because “the future consort” is there, they still don’t know about the conspiracy and stealth renevants being a thing and maybe Agatha makes the castle dingbot sooner.
To be continued…