Character: Von Pinn

Character Sheet (Von Pinn)

Combat Value: 10

You are Von Pinn. That is your name, and your description. You are no longer entirely alone in the world, but your name reminds you that you are unique.

Your "mother" was Lucrezia Mongfish, may she be damned forever. She was experimenting in the way of her kind: casually playing with life, to see what she could invent and how she could control it. Any Spark can mix two creatures, but she wanted to try something new, combining three different races into a single being. And so she made you. Part of you is Jaegermonster, the foolish creatures loyal to the Heterodyne clan -- from them, she hoped you would gain strength. Part is Geisterdamen, her own personal priestesses, and she planned for you to have their unquestioning obedience and devotion. And the part of you that is human? She always said that was so you would have human creativity and intelligence, but you suspect it was merely for her own amusement.

(That monstrous spirit within her always loved to toy with everything around her. People, creations, anything. The tortures she put you through -- even thinking about them makes you want to tear her, to rip off those beautiful features, to -- no. Control. All is control.)

The original von Pinn family were enemies of the Mongfish, an ancient and noble family that had long protected their people from the depredations of the Sparks that roamed the land. The Mongfishes controlled a nearby territory, and had always wished to conquer the lands of the von Pinn, for no reason other than frustration at there being anything they couldn't control. Finally, Lucrezia Mongfish -- the beautiful but sinister daughter of Professor Mongfish, enemy (and lover) of the Heterodyne Boys -- accomplished what her forebears never could, and invaded your ancestral lands. The villagers were scattered by her Constructs, and the von Pinn family were killed. But never being one to waste material, she reasoned that any family that could hold out against hers for so long had to have some value, and so she saved their blood and used it in her experiments.

And so she created you. She was never really happy with her experiment -- while your strength was beyond even that of the Jaegermonsters you were created from, you never loved her the way her Geisterdamen did. Oh, you obeyed her: you had no choice. When she spoke, it was like divine commandment, and you could never resist her voice. But you hated her for it, and she knew it. Both of you could sense her mistake: you had the blood of the von Pinns in your veins, and while they could be forced to serve her, they would always struggle against it.

Your youth was an unhappy one. She mocked you at every turn: the name "Von Pinn" was chosen specifically to reflect how alone you were in the world, the disfigured scion of a dead line. She stopped beating you before you were ten years old, but even that was a carefully-considered decision -- your skin was so thick that the pain had been almost all you could feel, and withdrawing it was a mixed blessing. At times, you would try to attack her, but she always found ways to torture you that were subtler and more painful than any physical attack could be. She owned you, and you despised her for it. And you were always aware of how utterly alone you were.

(And of course, there was the pain. That has been the one constant in your life. Three races were never meant to be mingled into one, and your very bones struggle against each other, with the agony your one constant. When you were small, the pain simply crippled you, but you worked your way past that, letting it give you focus.)

Your nature has always been at war with itself: the uncontrolled rage and violence of the Jaeger against the precise control of the Geister. Precision and control became your most valued principles, lest a loss of control lead you to foolishness. When you forget yourself, you attacked Lucrezia, and that always resulted in soul-deep pain. In the end, you learned to give her no satisfaction: neither the worship she craved, nor the rebellion that she could beat down. And so, she simply bored of you.

It wasn't long after that when she took up with Bill Heterodyne, her supposed longtime enemy. You were simply inconvenient at that point: a symbol of her evil past that couldn't be easily erased. But you could be shunted aside. You simply woke up one morning, and found yourself Outside. You had never been outside the Mongfish estate, and were completely disoriented -- all the moreso when you found that the people nearby, terrified of you, spoke no language that you knew. You wandered for some time before finding that Lucrezia had simply dumped you a thousand miles east from her own lands, like an unwanted puppy left to go feral in the woods. She hadn't killed you -- that would be an evil act, and of course she had "reformed". Instead, she'd simply washed her hands of you, intending to see you turn into another murderous Construct wandering the Wilderness.

(That was the worst time. The rage, the desire to hunt her down and kill her. You dreamt of it every night. Your soul warred with itself, but only in the manner of her death. The Geister in you wanted to make it slow and perfect -- a month of agony pulling off each fingernail, so that you could savor her death for years. The Jaeger part, though, that just wanted to tear her head off in a moment of pure glee.)

Well, you would be damned before you would give her the satisfaction of becoming the wild animal she intended. It was a struggle every day, no less because of the fear you inspired in all the people you encountered. But you slowly made your way west, learning the ways of the people in the larger world and learning to control your own passions ever more precisely. And eventually, you found your unlikely calling, in the raising of children.

You were staying in a medium-sized town, having learned to hide who you were beneath the anonymous robes of the traveler. The inn was near to the town's school, and the times were dangerous -- this was shortly after the Heterodynes had vanished, and the woods were becoming ever more filled with wandering creatures. It wasn't all that unusual that a large Clank wandered into town and began to rampage through it. But people were beginning to die, and you couldn't stand by, especially when it began to attack the school.

Your anonymity was precious, but you had always felt a certain sympathy for children, especially ones in danger. You'd grown up in such hell yourself, and couldn't stand to see it happen to others. So when the Clank began to tear into the school, you dove in. You ordered the children to flee in an orderly way -- to get away from the creature so you could deal with it. And you simply tore the thing apart. It felt so good: you'd never had the chance to use your strength in so useful a way before. And after that, the children came flocking to the strange woman who had saved them.

The townspeople asked you to stay, to protect them and especially to protect the children against the things attacking from the outside. You had nothing better to do with yourself, and it seemed like a fine irony: having been tortured as a child yourself, you would safeguard them now. And both you and the townspeople were surprised as you began to fall into the role of governess for the children: not only protecting them, but teaching and disciplining them. The children didn't always enjoy it, but the parents appreciated your stern rule, especially as it began to teach better discipline to their children. You learned that stern control was often necessary to keep them in line -- most children were naturally rebellious, and often acted against their own good. But your best tool was your face and voice: you never needed to actually hurt a child, if you could simply scare them enough. And so you learned to be very good at that, indeed, since you are fairly sure you could never harm a child the way you were harmed.

You had no idea, but word gradually spread about "the monster governess", and you developed a reputation far beyond the town. And so, a few years later, you were approached by the incoming ruler of the lands, Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach. He had been the "sidekick" to the Heterodyne Boys, and you knew of him through Lucrezia -- he had been her lover before Bill Heterodyne, and you had heard her speak often of him as a strong but lovesick fool. It wasn't a particularly flattering image, and you had not expected much of him, but what you met was a man of real strength. His goal was to bring order to the countryside, bringing down the warring nobles and Sparks who were causing so much damage. This straightforward decency was as different from Lucrezia as you could imagine, and so when he offered you a job, you couldn't turn him down.

The task was the same as the one you'd been doing, writ large. You would be the governess for Castle Wulfenbach. He was adopting a policy that, whenever he estabslished control over a land, he would take custody of the heir -- he would raise the eldest child on board his great airship Castle. Nominally, this was to keep control over the parents: they would not rebel against him so long as their child was held hostage. You had some qualms about this, and made clear that you would not stand to see children harmed. His agenda wasn't really harm, though. It was to raise the children properly, and see that they learned to work together, under his influence, so that their generation would be less rebellious than their parents.

The first of the children was the most challenging, in many ways. Theopholous DuMedd was Lucrezia's nephew, the last of the Mongfish line, and your feelings about him were mixed. Did he carry the evil of his aunt? Could a Mongfish ever be a decent person? But he was just a small child, so you resolved to raise him as best you could, using discipline to keep him in line. You've never been sure whether you succeeded or not -- he did turn out to be a bit of a troublemaker, and you have had to discipline him many times. But he seems to be generally decent, and shows it in the way that, as Head Boy, he turned out to be good at helping with the next generation himself. You secretly hoped that he would someday succeed you as their teacher, if he ever learned enough self-control.

A number of others joined young Theopholous over the years. The most troublesome was Sleipnir O'Hara, daughter of an uncontrollable Irish lord. Her taste for mechanics was never a problem, but her frequent lack of respect was. She would sneak around and make trouble. This only grew worse after Bangladesh DuPree came on board, and began to encourage her foolishness.

Better-behaved were Zami Yahya Ahmad ibn Suliman al-Sinhaji, son of the Iron Sheik, and Princess Zulenna Luzhakna. Both of them had been decently well-raised by nobles who understood how the world worked, and understood a measure of propriety. Oh, they were still dragged into the misadventures of their peers, but they rarely initiated them. Neither needed to be disciplined nearly as often as Theopholous or Sleipnir.

And then there was young Master Gilgamesh, the Baron's son. After he started his "experiment" of you raising the children, he placed Gilgamesh in your care, with orders that no one should know whose son he really was. He was to be raised the same as the rest, so that they and he would develop genuine relationships with each other. You were explicitly told that you could and should discipline him the same as the rest, provided you protected him at the same time -- indeed, you were told to be particularly strict about his behaviour. You were uncomfortable with the subterfuge, but it was not hard to agree to treat him as a child should be treated.

And there were many others, of course, but they were the core. For the better part of ten years, they served as the backbone of the school. Oh, they got in trouble frequently, and you had to impose discipline from time to time -- nothing quiets a child down better than being picked up by the neck for a minute or two and growling in your best Jaegermonster grimace. But they served to pass on that gentle intimidation to the other students, so you scarcely had to discipline them directly at all -- simply the words "Von Pinn will get you" got them into line quickly.

The status quo continued until a few years ago, when Klaus finally revealed that Master Gilgamesh was his son, and sent him away to finishing school in Paris. It was the right thing to do, and you knew that: you could teach him much, but you simply did not have the experience of the world to complete his education. But it changed the dynamic. The others became more restless: seeing Gilgamesh's freedom, they wanted a taste of it themselves. And you found that you missed him yourself. You've never been a mother, and you never will, but you think this must be what it is like to have a son move away.

He returned last year, with that British butler Wooster in tow. They had apparently made friends in Paris, and Gilgamesh decided to hire him on: one of the first adult decisions he has made. In a way you are proud of him, but you chafe at the way Wooster is always around the young Master, intercepting everyone before they can talk to him.

You were just glad that Master Gilgamesh was away during the Skifander debacle. From what you know, this hidden land was where the Baron spent his years away: Gilgamesh's mother is from there. Klaus decided to contact them again while Gil was away, and perhaps surprise him on his return from Paris by presenting him with his mother. For a time, Klaus even seemed happy at the anticipated reunion -- perhaps the only time you have ever seen him happy. But the expedition he sent never returned, and he took that as a sign that they wanted nothing further to do with him. You aren't so sure, though -- that creature DuPree was far too interested in the details of the expedition, and her "interest" never bodes well. Klaus wanted to hear nothing about it, but you consider it one more question that you will put to her one day.

Still, everything went well enough until the Heterodyne girl came on board. At first she seemed innocent enough, if a bit of a slattern: Agatha "Clay" was the lover of a new Spark named Moloch von Zinzer. From the beginning you didn't care for her -- parading around in her bloomers and then claiming that she had been "sleepwalking". She had been stuck in with your students, and you were sure that she would corrupt the lot of them. You thought little of her, until you had a confrontation and she somehow ordered you -- and you obeyed. That was truly disturbing, and you didn't know what to make of it, but you backed off from her for a time.

(And the dreams returned, as soon as you heard that voice. You didn't know why at the time, but the old dreams of tearing apart Lucrezia resurfaced, and the old rage with it. This girl angered you every time you saw her, and regaining control took every bit of effort you could muster.)

Meanwhile, she clearly seduced Master Gilgamesh, who was falling for her charms. You couldn't do anything about it, but you worried -- who was she? More importantly, what was she? Finally, a few weeks later, the truth came out: she was actually Agatha Heterodyne. Her father was the hero Bill Heterodyne, but her mother was your hated creator Lucrezia. That explained why she was able to order you: her voice was close enough to her mother's to command you. But you were sure that, with concentration, you would be able to resist her from here on.

Still, you couldn't stop her from escaping. She had seduced the other children, and they helped her get away from Castle Wulfenbach. You tried to stop her, but Zulenna prevented you at swordpoint. You tried to frighten her into giving in, but she stood up to you, even at your most frightening. It was frustrating, but in a way exhilirating: one of your "children" was clearly growing up. You knew that it wouldn't be long before she grew into her own.

And then, moments later, it all fell apart. That monster DuPree pushing you aside, to "deal" with Zulenna. You weren't all that concerned -- Zulenna was a far better combatant than DuPree. But of course, that is only assuming a fair duel, and DuPree doesn't believe in such things. She swung her sword around -- and then plunged a dagger into Zulenna's heart. You saw red in that moment. For the first time, you had failed one of your charges. Zulenna was dead, but DuPree would follow her. You attacked, and would have had her dead quickly, save that the Baron gassed the both of you.

(That dream was the worst of the lot. DuPree had killed your charge. You had failed, and your failure had a face. For the first time, you had someone to hate as much as Lucrezia. And unlike Lucrezia, this one hadn't vanished. So you dreamed -- dreamed of her dagger piercing your hand, and a thousand more piercing every bit of your body, but you wouldn't stop, as you moved closer and closer to her, and finally ripped her throat out with your fangs, reveling in every bloody Jaeger moment of it.)

When you came to, you were still angry, quite ready to seek DuPree out and strike her down, but the Baron would have none of it. He had brought Zulenna back from the dead, and he would not have you killing one of his agents. He required you to swear not to hurt DuPree for it before he would let you out of the lab. You promised, although reluctantly. You swore that, while you might not be allowed to kill her for this, there would be other excuses.

Master Gilgamesh went after the Heterodyne girl -- he had fallen quite deeply for her, and would not let her go. You even half hoped he would find her and bring her back, if it would make him happy. But his return was quite different. The foolish girl had gotten herself killed, out in the Wilderness, fried by a wandering Clank. Gilgamesh was disconsolate, and has gotten nothing but moreso since then. He has taken to finding every Clank and Construct prowling the woods, bringing them on board the Castle, and killing them by hand. You want to scare some sense into him, but it simply has no effect at all any more: he is so determined to find ways to hurt himself that you can scarcely influence him any more.

Meanwhile, you have to worry about your other charges as well. In particular, young DuMedd escaped shortly after Heterodyne did; Sleipnir tried to do the same, but was caught before she could do anything so foolish. You've been worrying about DuMedd ever since, but all the moreso now, because you're no longer even sure that he is himself.

You first heard about things going oddly wrong on board the Castle about a year ago. Nothing dramatic, but missing equipment, confused messages, things like that. You knew that the Baron was concerned: he doesn't like anything mysterious happening in his demesne, and especially not on board the Castle. It appeared that there was a spy in your midst.

None of this seemed especially sinister or unusual at first, though: spies were nothing new. But then, four months ago, the Baron found out how the missing equipment was being used. When he was in Beetleburg (where he found the Heterodyne girl), he had a confrontation with Professor Beetle, who had long been one of his loyal vassals. Beetle confronted him with a Hive Engine, weapon of the Other. Weapon of Lucrezia Mongfish in her latter days, when she nearly conquered and destroyed everything. Wulfenbach is a calm man, but you know that even he was unnerved by that. Moreso after he had been forced to kill Beetle, and read his notes. Beetle had found the Hive Engine out in the woods, and discovered that it was new -- not one of the Other's decades-old leftovers, but the work of some Revenant still serving her interests. And it was built using the missing components from the Castle.

And your thoughts went to Master DuMedd. He was the last Mongfish, even the nephew of Lucrezia herself. And he had been desperate to get off the Castle. Could that have been why? Was he off to seek his master? Could he be a Revenant?

You've never seen a Revenant, but you've heard about them for many years. The shuffling, zombie-like servants of the Other, taken by the Slaver Wasps that come from the Hive Engines. Normal Slaver Wasps cannot take Sparks, even moderate Sparks like DuMedd. But an ordinary Revenant could never pass as a normal person, and the Baron seemed convinced that this was the work of a new kind. You see red even thinking about it -- the idea that Lucrezia could have taken the will of one of your charges. But you have to know.

(And the dreams continued to change. Now you saw DuMedd as the typical Revenant: a mindless, bloody, shuffling thing that deserved no life -- that was the very opposite of life itself. And for the first time in your dreams, you cried and screamed as you punched through his heart to end that terrible non-existence.)

The Baron has been working feverishly ever since, to create a new kind of Construct that will detect Revenants. You haven't seen one yet, but as soon as they are ready, you are determined to track down young DuMedd and test him. If he is innocent, then you will simply bring him back home, where he belongs. If he is a Revenant -- you don't want to think about what you may have to do.

The benefit here is that the Baron has not been working on his other ongoing project: researching the Spark by probing the brains of Sparks. It is not that you care so much about that per se -- his quest for knowledge is admirable. But you know what few others do -- he is trying to figure out how to share the Spark force with the Jaegermonsters, your violent "cousins". Their near-invulnerability comes from a force they call simply "Life", which they share around between them, but the longer they are on this world, the weaker it gets. This "Life" is closely related to the Spark, and the Heterodyne clan somehow altered themselves to share a bit of "Life" with the Jaegers, but that's been running out. You wouldn't shed any tears over that: the Jaegers are uncontrolled, violent brutes, and you would shed few tears to see them weakening.

In the meantime, you have a different but similarly difficult task to attend to. When young Zulenna was killed and revived, her father suffered from it. Word came to the Castle a month ago that his heart had failed, and he was barely alive. It was time for her to return to her homeland.

You insisted upon accompanying her. You knew that she would be "graduating" from your care soon, but until she became a ruler in her own right, she was still one of your students, and you needed to protect her. Besides, the Baron had sent most of the younger children home: after the escape of Heterodyne and DuMedd, and the death (even if reversed) of Zulenna, he no longer considered the Castle to be safe and secure enough for them. You had protested that you could care for the children, and he assured you that this was no indictment of your own skill. Still, you could not help but take the matter personally.

So you would go with Zulenna to her new destiny. Sleipnir and Z, the last students left in your care, insisted upon coming along. You were reluctant, but proud of the way they chose to stay with their friend. And so, the three of you set out for Holfung-Borzoi.

Your welcome there was less than perfect, though. You had done your best to make a good impression -- you even added a fine dress to your usual clothing. (The combination of the dress with your usual leather was unconventional, but you liked the style.) But the problem wasn't with you, it was with what had happened to Zulenna. You had always heard that the nobility were strange, but you didn't understand quite how strange. They had their own rules and customs, and one of them was that the Revived no longer counted as belonging among them. For the sin of dying and being brought back, Zulenna had been disinherited. That was why she had been called home: not to assume her throne, but to be stripped of it.

You saw red in that moment: indeed, if Zulenna had not held you back, you likely would have killed the Royal Vizier who was delivering the news. This was so unfair -- a cruel thing to do to a girl who had spent her entire life training for the throne. You knew what it was like to be an outcast, and would never have wished it upon one of your charges. You wanted her to simply claim the throne: you would happily have assisted her, and you are certain that these silly fools would not be able to stop her. But she would hear none of it.

Worse, Zulenna was still bound to the Royal Household -- she was merely considered a servant now, rather than a Royal. And her first task was the worst humiliation: to go find her replacement. She has a cousin, Marie, who had run away to join a Circus years before. And now, because of Zulenna's innocent shame, this Marie would now be Duchess instead of her. So Zulenna needed to find her, bring her back to Holfung-Borzoi, and invest her.

She tried to send you away then: since she was no longer a Royal, she said, your duty towards her was discharged. But you would have none of it: until the Baron himself tells you that she is not in your care, you would ensure that she is safe and served. And again, Sleipnir and Z insisted upon accompanying the two of you.

So the past weeks have been spent tracking down "Master Payne's Circus of Adventure". It has not been terribly difficult: none consider it a secret, especially after you have your way with them. You have finally found them, here in this clearing by a Castle. It is time for Zulenna to confront her cousin, and discharge her duty. You will support her, regardless of what she chooses to do: she has proven herself to be a worthy student, both brave and dedicated. But you hope that she will choose to claim her throne, regardless of foolish local customs. Someone with that strength is surely the right person to defend her land and people.

(And your dreams are mighty, and terrible, and hurt more than you have hurt since your childhood. You see Zulenna, standing gloriously as the Duchess she was meant to be, but looming over the horizon is the wicked grin of the Heterodyne girl, seducing Gilgamesh and killing everyone around her. And you rage and scream at that giant face, and for all of your strength and speed, you cannot reach her...)

Summary

A Construct built by Lucrezia Mongfish (Agatha's mother), who she hates to the core of her being. A hybrid of Jaeger, Geisterdamen and Human. Impossibly strong and fast, with a vicious temper kept in check only by a fierce sense of self-control. Has been the governess for all of the nobles kept in the Castle, raising many of them from childhood, and loves them dearly, but regards fear as an essential part of proper discipline.

Public Info

Personality

You are as you were made: the incarnation of the battle between rage and control. You are almost always angry about something, but you try to maintain control over it. You are terrifying to most people, and you revel in that.

You are a perfectionist, both in yourself and those around you. Nothing is worth doing if not done properly. You expect perfection from your charges, and you are never shy to let them know it. But you are fiercely protective of them: the only thing that can make you you lose control is a threat to them.

Some People You Know (Von Pinn)

Lucrezia Mongfish: Your "mother", the source of all evil as far as you are concerned. A cruel woman, who sowed horror everywhere she went. Of course, that makes you one of those horrors...

Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach: The ruler of Europa. A strong man, who promotes order throughout his lands. You admire Wulfenbach deeply: he is perhaps the only Spark who you have truly respected.

Gilgamesh von Wulfenbach: The Baron's son. You spent years trying to bring him up properly, and he has generally grown up well. But his heart was broken by the death of the Heterodyne girl.

Agatha Heterodyne: Master Gilgamesh's supposed fiancee, daughter of your evil creator Lucrezia. Part of you regrets her death because it caused Master Gilgamesh pain, but more of you regrets it because it meant that you could not show her what her mother did to you. Mixed blood brings a mix of character, as you know all too well. So while she may have had some of the heroic Heterodynes in her, she also had some of her mother's evil. It is just as well that she died before her seduction of Gilgamesh was complete. She surely had something planned to cause him and the Baron harm, and you will not see that happen.

Theopholous DuMedd: The nephew of your hated creator, your first and perhaps most beloved student. You cannot bear the idea that he might be a Revenant, but you must know. And you will do what is necessary, if he is.

Zulenna Luzhakna: What a Princess should be -- strong, courageous, and dedicated. Regardless of whether she become Duchess or not, she has earned your loyalty.

Sleipnir O'Hara: Your most troublesome charge, headstrong and rebellious. If only you can teach her to follow Zulenna's example, and learn to follow her destiny...

Z: The son of the Iron Sheik, who will someday be perhaps the second most powerful man in the world, after the Baron himself. He seems to be growing up well: he was the one who most steadfastly stood by Zulenna during her recovery.

Moloch von Zinzer: Agatha Heterodyne's supposed lover, he turned out to be nothing more than a soldier playing in a game he scarcely understood. He was sent off to meet his fate in Castle Heterodyne; you can't say it wasn't deserved. A man of any real character would have stood up and told the Baron the truth in the first place. Had he done so, the Heterodyne girl might still be alive, and Master Gilgamesh would probably be far happier.

Othar Tryggvassen: An oafish Spark who fancies himself a hero, but scarcely understands what that word means. He constantly acts as a thorn in the Baron's side, seeking to disrupt the fragile peace.

Dr. Tarsus Beetle: The sometime ruler of Beetleburg, and Headmaster of Transylvania Polygnostic University. Beetle was killed the day that Heterodyne and von Zinzer was found. He foolishly believed that the Baron was somehow involved in the creation of the new Hive Engines, perhaps the most preposterous thing you've ever heard. He spent many years hiding the Heterodyne girl, never telling the Baron. What else did he know, and why did he hide it?

Bangladesh DuPree: The Baron's pet killer, who constantly seems to be amused at her own supposed deadliness. But you know the truth: she is nothing without her little surprises. A trickster may be skilled enough to kill an innocent student, but she will die the next time she comes up against you. The Baron has forbidden you to take revenge for what she did to Zulenna, but someday she will cross the line again, and he will not be there to stop you.

Jenka: The most cunning of the Baron's Jaegermonsters, not that that is saying much. She seems entirely loyal, but you are certain that she has been up to something lately. She may be cunning enough to fool the human eye, but not your Jaeger-inherited nose: she smells of deception. Is she out to harm the Baron? Are the Jaegers following their own agenda? They make up half of the army, so sedition cannot be tolerated among them.

Countess Marie: Zulenna's cousin, who is to become the new Duchess of Holfung-Borzoi. Surely, anyone who would flee her duties in order to join something as foolish as a Circus is not responsible enough to become such a high noble! You have to fight to control yourself when you think about the way she is cheating Zulenna of her rightful inheritace.

Wooster: Master Gilgamesh's English butler. Admirably self-controlled, but he has done nothing to assist his master's bleak mood. You may need to take him to task for that.

---

Female Construct (from Comic) (Status: In Game)

Pictures
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/gg101.cgi?date=20051104
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/gg101.cgi?date=20051107

Plots:
Runaway Students (Runaways)
Many Jaegers (Many Jaegers)
The Succession of Holfung-Borzoi (Succession)
People of the Mirror-World (Mirror-World)
The Suspected Revenant (Suspected Revenant)

Items

A Letter (Letter From Klaus) -- Von Pinn,

I am not accustomed to having to be so explicit with my subjects. But it seems that putting this in writing is going to be the only way to get results.

This vendetta between yourself and Bangladesh DuPree must stop. It is spilling out and interfering with my work. She is every bit as valuable to me as you are, often moreso. I won’t pretend that she is a good person, but she serves a vital purpose, and this internal strife does not. You know how I feel about warring principalities – I am no kinder to warring subjects.

So let me be utterly clear: you are to stop trying to kill DuPree. Moreover, you are to make sure that she stays alive. Moderating her methods a bit is all right, so long as she remains effective, but I want to stop hearing about internal battles beyond that.

                                                          Wulfenbach

Abilities and Disabilities

Intimidation (Intimidation) -- You are a person with a powerful personality. As such, you have the practiced (and sometimes reflexive) ability to command others through intimidation.

To intimidate someone, show them this card and spend one Point. Rant at them with power and fury for at least one minute -- try to scare the hell out of them. You are powerful, and dangerous, and not someone to be crossed. You may then give them orders, which they must follow for at least ten minutes, until their nerves calm down a bit; until then, they are keyed up and scared.

There are limits to this ability. Other strong personalities, as well as certain others, are able to resist Intimidation; it works better on normal people and weak Sparks than it does on, eg, powerful Sparks. And you cannot order someone to do something that is counter to their own basic principles, such as (in most cases) kill someone -- if you try to do so, they may spend one Point to defy you.

You may not use this ability on any given player more than once, nor may you use it overall more than once an hour.

If you have this ability, and someone else tries to use it on you, you may counter by spending a Point and going into Intimidation mode yourself. This should result in a towering argument at top volume, but neither of you winds up scaring the other.

Obeys Agatha (Obeys Agatha) -- You were made to be utterly subservient to Lucrezia Mongfish; hate it though you did, you had no choice but to obey her every command.

Her daughter, Agatha Heterodyne, looks and sounds much like her, and you instinctively react to that voice: when she gives you a direct command, you obey it reflexively. However, you intellectually know that she is not her mother, and that gives you some ability to resist. When she gives you an order, you may spend one Point and roleplay a bit of internal struggle; after that, you may resist her orders for the next hour.

Strength in Pain (Strength In Pain) -- Pain is your constant companion -- not your friend, but so eternal that you have had to make it an ally in order to survive.

When you are injured in combat (that is, when you lose a combat round), you get more focused and fiercer. At any time during the combat, you may spend a Point to focus and use your pain for the rest of the Combat. For the remainder of this fight (regardless of how many rounds it takes), while you are still injured, and will have to recover afterwards, you can turn your pain into strength. For every point you are down in actual damage, you instead gain that point in combat. So if you are down -3 in injuries, you fight at +3 until the combat is over. This only continues to the end of this particular fight: at that point, you have to recover from your injuries.

This comes at a cost, however: you cannot maintain your precious control indefinitely. The more injured you are, the fiercer you get. By the time you get to -3, you are getting positively bestial, and you hate that.

As normal, if you are injured enough to be subdued, then you go down. This ability is not invulnerability, merely the ability to use your pain for a limited time.

Superhumanly Strong and Fast (Superhuman) -- You are insanely strong and fast -- vastly more than any human, and more even than any Jaeger. This is partly reflected in your high Combat score. Out of combat, it may be applied at other times when it makes sense: you can pick up extraordinarily heavy objects (not unlimited, but you can, eg, pick up one end of a fully-loaded wagon), duck anything coming at you, no matter how fast, and so on. Roleplay this as appropriate, and consult a GM when the results seem to be in doubt.

Next Time

• Recent continuity has established that Von Pinn is actually 200 years old, and that Lucrezia was merely her most recent Mistress. Decide whether we care enough to rewrite her. (Probably not -- the drama works nicely as currently written, and this is a Heterodyne story, so I'm not worrying too much about getting the history correct -- but at least think about it.)
• This refers to Gil's identity being revealed before he went to Paris; newer continuity has made clear that this revelation wasn't until later, and that indeed, most of his friends from Paris still haven't made the connection. Probably worth fixing.

---

Historical Background

The following were notes while the character was evolving. They do not necessarily represent the way it came out.

The keeper of the Hostage Squad. She is treated as a sort of boogeyman by the various students (especially Sleipnir), as seen [here] among other places. Note that the threat is specifically to tell her that one of the students mistreated another -- clearly, part of the discipline she imposes is that the students are not allowed to harm each other. Does she feel at all maternal, under that psychotic exterior? She certainly cares about [what people think about] Gil.

It is clear (v3, p111-112) that not only has she never hurt anyone in the Hostage Squad, she cannot do so. This appears to be at the level of programming for her. She can be quite fierce with them, but it looks like physical harm is out of the question. Why? What is the extent of this restriction? Moreover, when DuPree hurts Zulenna (v3, p114), Von Pinn completely wigs out.

There is a [persistent rumor] that she is really Lucrezia. This isn't necessarily contradicted by the fact that Lucrezia was in some sense the Other. I could easily believe that, eg, Von Pinn was built from her dead body, possibly unrelated to the part of her that become the Other. What we do know (from the same page) is that Von Pinn does not like to talk about the subject.

She is strong, and extremely violent. Threatening people with death is [not terribly unusual]. However, she is still a Construct, and a sufficiently powerful Spark (such as Agatha) [can command her]. Hm. I'd been under the impression that Agatha's ability to command Von Pinn was more specific than merely "a powerful spark" - that it's related to the Command Voice which has unusual power over Lucrezia's priestesses. It seems to behave similarly (an involuntary body-obeys-despite-the-mind thing), as opposed to the more general populace which reflexively obeys riled-up Sparks out of fear / emotional response. --Darker. ETA: [this page] seems to support that notion. Justin: Yep, you're probably correct here. This implies that she was in some fashion created by Lucrezia. Possibly she's a former revenant? (Insofar as there might be such a thing as a "former revenant".) Haven't gotten that far in my re-read, and I'd forgotten that nuance entirely. It implies that the other two Agathas probably have the same effect on her. Man, that's likely to make her very cranky. I do wonder what Mirror-Agatha's relationship to her Von Pinn was like? Note the implication that she clearly is not Lucrezia, despite the common theory about her.

She has some sort of [super-speed]. She is fast enough and strong enough (v3, p105) to simply pick Adam's bullet-force rivets out of thin air. We appear to be talking Wonder-Woman-grade bullets-and-bracelets reflexes here. And she is strong enough (v3, p106) to rend Adam limb from limb. She is almost certainly the strongest non-Clank in the story to date.

She and DuPree [don't much like each other].

She has an artifical red eye, which is covered by a [purple crystal monocle]. She carries a pocketwatch, and is [fanatically punctual].

One does get the impression that she rather likes Jagers, [at least when they are in full battle mode].

Von Pinn's plot seems to be implied by the current state of the Hostage Squad. We have reason to believe that some of them ran off -- certainly at least Theo, arguably whichever others we care to state. It would only be logical to have Von Pinn assigned to return them to the Castle for safe keeping. So really, all we need to do is assert that there is reason for them to be here -- either they were spotted, or there is something about the Castle that would attract one of them -- and she has reason to come along. Of course, Gil doesn't necessarily share in her priorities. LATER: See the Runaways plot for her recent paths. She is not here with Gil, she's here with Zulenna and company, and should be as surprised as anyone to see Gil here. Note that she is not directly under Gil's command here: she's operating under standing orders directly from Klaus.

A possible connection: we don't know what Von Pinn is, but it's entirely plausible that she's a human/Jager halfbreed, given what we know of her. Which means she's probably related to one of Agathas Jagers. Which, in what way, and how do they all feel about that? (Keep in mind that, with Anna playing her, she absolutely must not involve a romance plot.)

Justin 1/8: Von Pinn was created by Lucrezia as a grand experiment. She is an equal mix of human, Jager and Geisterdamen, with an eye towards creating a being with the creativity of a human, the strength of a Jager, and the obedience of a Geister. Her human progenitors were the last of the von Pinn family, a noble human family who had fought with the Mongfishes for decades before being finally wiped out by Lucrezia. She was never given a personal name; Lucrezia simply referred to her, slightly scornfully, as "Von Pinn", and she eventually adopted that name with pride. She obeyed Lucrezia (she had no choice), but never loved her, so their relationship was always rocky.

She was a servant of Lucrezia's until she went away and was subverted by the Other; eventually, she threw in with Klaus, and become fiercely loyal to him. Her complex nature is due to the war between her chaotic Jager side and her disciplined Geister side -- the bondage theme reflects this constant struggle to keep herself under control.

Her odd fondness for children reflects her absolute lack of a decent upbringing herself. She wants -- indeed, needs -- to give kids the protection that she lacked as a child herself. She knows how dangerous the world really is, and that no one sane really wants to be alone in it.

Amount of Character Potential: Good (Needs plot, but a strong roleplay character, and much requested.)