Astrid was born to and raised by an accountant father and secretary mother, both of whom were hardcore businesspeople and expected their daughter to become much the same. Much to their delight, she did--Astrid practically grew up in her mother's office doing whatever simple tasks her mother had her do. The girl had filing down by age six, and had become a miniature adult by the age of nine. Her parents raised her to believe that business was business, and you had to be ruthless to make it, and Astrid took the ideals they taught her to heart...possibly a little too seriously. In school, she excelled at, well, most things, to be entirely honest. It was clear she was incredibly intelligent by normal standards, picking up on lessons quickly and following the teachings of those lessons to a "t." Before parahumans existed, she was considered gifted, a rarity by normal human standards, and her intelligence only grew as she got older.
And then the world went insane. Astrid had turned eighteen shortly after the bombing incident at the Pokemon lab, and she and her parents watched as people began gaining powers the defied logic, and they learned to adapt. Astrid began learning how to use her own above-average wit to her advantage against people that were much, much more powerful than her, while her parents tried to continue on as though nothing was wrong in the first place. Of course that was when a disgruntled employee who had gained parahuman abilities as a Tinker decided to take revenge on their former employer and blow up their office--the office Astrid's parents worked in. She had just been hired on as an office assistant herself, and happened to be heading into the office when another employee came tearing out of the building screaming something about evacuation and dragged her backwards, away from the entrance moments before the building exploded. A Tinker himself, he'd recognized the bomb for what it was, and had tried to warn those in the building, but very few made it out in time...and Astrid's parents weren't among them. While she had been taught to be ruthless, Astrid wasn't totally inhuman, and though she refused to let it show, the loss hurt her. She'd lost her parents, her job, and what had been her future all in a moment, and all she got in exchange was the man who saved her. That man was, again, a Tinker, and his name was Simon. As a child, he'd been a mail room worker who insisted on trying to teach her the concept of "fun," much to her parents' annoyance, and risen through the ranks of the company--shot through them after he developed his abilities as a Tinker, yet continually tried to make Astrid more "human" than her parents had raised her to be.
In the ensuing chaos, Simon gave her a place to stay since, though she'd never admit it, Astrid didn't want to live alone. At least, not that suddenly. She eventually found a job with another company, but Astrid found that it just wasn't the same as it had been when her parents were still alive. She found herself learning from Simon how to tell if a Tinker had messed with certain things, as well as how to use the devices he made to protect herself. The world wasn't safe anymore--at least not as safe as it had been, and she found herself figuring out how to apply her parents ideals to this new world. At twenty-one, she decided she was going to join Cipher when she learned they were recruiting Parahumans through...less tasteful methods. That, she knew she could apply her then well-developed silver tongue and ruthlessness to, and she did quite well, shooting through the ranks over the years to become the head of parahuman, much to Simon's disappointment. Oddly enough, however, despite her professionalism Astrid has never explained Simon in detail to anyone. Her coworkers know she carries Tinker technology on her, but she refuses to give up the name of the Tinker or how to find him. Simon himself is a solid neutral, and prefers to stay holed up in his miniature fortress of a home, allowing very few through his front door, one of those few being Astrid, as he still designs protective technology for her. The two share a slightly strained almost familial yet not quite relationship with each other these days, Simon continuing to do his own thing while Astrid does her own these days.
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