Disclaimer: I don't own the Girl Genius franchise. Go Foglio's for inventing it, thoug. Yay sparks.

Rant: This isn't even a fully formed idea, just a concept and some characters and creations I came up with. Ybelline, my OC, is a spark with a more necromantic and frankly supernatural bent than our dear Agatha Heterodyne. I like this, and tried to do something with it. Hopefully I will eventually fledge this out into a full story. If not, I hope you enjoy the idea. If you want to use, please PM or leave review to that effect.

[][][][][][][]

Ybelline Grave: raised in a collapsing manor whose grounds are miles of graveyard and dark, haunted forests. She is a spark, a mad genius, and her father raised her alone after her mother's death of childbirth. He died when she was nine, of heartbreak. She read ancient tomes and old scientific texts, as well as attended the local school. She has a slight necromantic bent, and is a master at creating undead constructs (like Frankenstein's Adam, only with more taste and elegance.) She is also skilled at making talking animals with human intelligence. Her love of faery and mythological stories has given rise to many of her more exotic creations. She is scarred and stitched from a terrible accident, and appears much like some of her undead constructs. She's fond of jaegermonsters. She first encountered them when a pair of them had been hanging, still alive, after three days. She cuts them down and invites them to her manor. The jaegers, Heinrich and Kris, stay the night, and continue on. Ybelline's home from the on is open to all jagers. After their home is burned to the ground, she goes to Mechanicsburg to meet with Mama Gikka on the recommendation of Heinrich and Kris. She brought with her as many of the constructs as remained to her. She far more self-aware than many sparks, and always makes sure to program loyalty and liking towards her into her creations, to keep herself from being eaten or something equally terrible.

Some of her creations:

PIXEN: tiny biomechanical pixies created by Ybelline Grave. They have biological aspects to them and can reproduce. They can shoot fire from their hands. They drink blood for energy and food, and she gave them all five senses. Due to taste and nutrition value, human blood is their preference. She programmed them to be nocturnal, thought they can be awake during the day.

A bit on pixen culture: they are matriarchal, and ruled by a queen. Males live shorter lives – though they don't know that yet. They are territorial, and tend to establish a home base if possible. However, they tend to attach themselves in small flocks to humans or jaegers they find interesting or worthy. Occasionally, they will hive off to form a new sithen. They love plants and living in them.

FRAU JOSEPHINE: Undead Frankenstein-like Construct. She is a woman stitched together from various women's bodies. Ybelline, having no racial prejudices, used skin from dead folk of all nations. All of her teeth are sharp and pointy, with a set of sixty-eight teeth – in two rows. She is far more intelligent than most humans, and is a bit of an inventor herself as well as a minor spark. (The brain Ybelline used belonged to a minor spark.) She usually was Ybelline's assistant, at least until she gets a more suitable chief minion. After that, Josephine gets her own lab and minions. She has above-human strength and reactions, and has one crimson eye and one brown eye. Her hair is blonde.

HIGGINS: made in the style of Frau Josephine, he is a stitched together construct. He is well made, with black hair with a white streak, and always looks very dignified. His eyes, slitted like a cat's, are - like Josephine's – heterochromatic: one eye is silver, and the other eye is gold. He is the perfect butler, manservant, and co-adventurer. Like Ybelline, he is fond of the jaegers. His nails are pitch black and can turn to claws. He is far stronger than the average human, and is a marvelous swordsman, and he teaches Ybelline some of his skills. He can see in the dark, and has a superior sense of smell and grand reflexes.

IDAMARIA VALPOLICELLA: She is the half construct, half necromantic creation of Ybelline Grave. Ybelline found an ancient crypt, where within contained the corpse of some ancient, angst-filled vampire. Beside him, she found a journal saying that he killed all of his kind that he knew of, and finally committed suicide to rid the world of the "desolation of damnation." From his corpse, she got a sample of blood and flesh from which she isolated the vampiric strain. An Italian slave-girl in the village was stabbed and left to die by her travelling merchant master. Ybelline finds her bleeding out – nearly no blood left – and asks her if she wants to live. At her agreement, she injects the vampiric strain into the girl. During the three-day turning process, Ybelline tinkers with Idamaria, making her far less flammable and increasing her natural fighting skills. She also, after reading a book on sirens during the turn, gets the idea to give her skills in that area. Idamaria's already beautiful voice becomes hauntingly dazzling, letting her attract prey with it. The strain also subtly improves all of her features, making her more beautiful. After all, vampires are like those who live in Paris – if you're not pretty, you starve. She's the first vampire in four centuries, she turns more vampires as the years go on, and they serve her, and through her, Ybelline. Every vampire makes three blood oaths: to their sire, to their Queen, and to their Creator.

MUNIN: a raven clank named after Odin's raven (munin means memory). Munin is jet black with ruby eyes, and is essentially as spy. It records anything it sees and projects it at its master's – Ybelline's – command. Ybelline gave Munin a mischief loving, magpie-like tendency.

HATTI AND SKOLL: Ybelline found the bodies of two arctic dire-wolves frozen solid in the ices of Scandinavia after her home is burnt by angry villagers. She revivifies them, and gives them human intelligence. The two are a mated pair, and like all the greatest constructs, can reproduce. They can speak and act as guardians and protectors. She made them on her way to Mechanicsburg.

BAST: small, slim talking cat with black fur. Her eyes are tri-colored: rose, gold, and sapphire. She has a grand voice, and loves opera. She's a minor spark herself, but more in the line of alchemical potions.

BUNNICULA: undead rabbits who suck the juices out of vegetables. (this is totally based on a much loved children's story from back in the day)

Here's a little sample of what I have so far. It's not much, but I like it.

Three months after destroying the town of those who burned her home down, Ybelline Grave leaned over the rail of The Night's Embrace. An odd-looking craft, she had a black hull and silver sails. After some fiddling with by Ybelline and Frau Josephine, she was armed with the finest of weapons, and was covered with plants growing and blooming all over. Small trees in raised beds bloomed heartily in the chill winter sun. Pixen lounged among the foliage, playing, laughing, scouting, and sleeping.

Higgins stood in black pants and jacket, with a crimson silk shirt, ruffles billowing in the wind. His hair danced along with his shirt's ruffles, and he cut a dashing figure of a distinguished, piratical gentleman: aged, but not diminished. He bellowed out orders to various Pixen, as well as to Josephine and Ybelline herself in a voice that sounded of rich velvet.

Following orders, she joyously scampered up the mainmast into the crow's nest. She could see all around them for miles, the sea waves dancing and the clouds drifting merrily in the sky. Glancing down, she noticed Frau Josephine angling the sails to better catch the wind. The woman cursed Higgins as she did so, and the Pixen around her giggled as they made minor adjustments to the other sails.

Though she couldn't see him at the moment, Munin flew far over the sea: scouting and recording, seeking land, or storm, or ship. She wondered if he would be okay, as she'd noticed that real seabirds had a tendency to attack him as he flew over the ocean slate-colored water.

Hidden in the holds of the ship – within coffin-like structures that would act as lifeboats if necessary – were Idamaria and two of her vampires. They rested in the day, as above them their rabbit cousins slept within the vegetation waiting for night to arrive.

She loved sailing, and one of her favorite parts of it was being in the crow's nest. Up so high, she felt free and strong, invincible, and immortal. Her hands gripped the rails tightly as she peered into the distance, circling around the nest to get all vantage points. She breathed in the invigorating sea breeze, humming in pleasure as she searched.

An hour passed as she was up there, and finally she spotted something. A small black dot, barely discernable, could be seen upon the horizon. At the sight, she pulled out what appeared to be a pair of brown leather goggles, similar to those of aviators. These goggles, however, had telescope like devices over the eyes, which could act as both telescopes and microscopes at will. Putting the device over her eyes, she moved her hands up to the goggles. After rotating the lens a bit, a black metal raven came into focus.

"Hey," she cried, "I see Munin!"