Von Pinn

''This article is about a servant of House Mongfish. For other uses, see Mongfish (disambiguation).''


 * "I am Von Pinn. I am in charge here.  You are Agatha Clay.  I have not heard good things about you.  I take the safety of these children very seriously."

Von Pinn is a somewhat mysterious, terrifying construct in Wulfenbach service. Von Pinn is not a Wulfenbach creation, but was built by Lucrezia Mongfish, with whom she shares a more than passing resemblance.

Aboard Castle Wulfenbach
Von Pinn's job aboard Castle Wulfenbach, at the time of Agatha's arrival, is to protect the hostage-students from harm and to keep them in line. Her sharp claws, immense resilience, and violently bad temper help with both responsibilities. Unfortunately for her, these qualities also make her an irresistible attraction for the Jägermonsters, and she's had to maim several for getting too familiar. Among the students, rumors about her origin have ranged from the plausible to the ridiculous, with most believing her to be a revived Lucrezia Mongfish.

Origin in Castle Heterodyne
In fact, she was one of Lucrezia's creations, originally meant to nursemaid her son, Klaus Barry. When Von Pinn's charge was killed in the attack on Castle Heterodyne, she went violently insane and had to be restrained by the surviving Castle staff. She was released into the Baron's service when his sphere of influence overtook Mechanicsburg, around the same time as he finalized his agreement with the Jägers.

History to Present
She appears to have served faithfully for years, until the chaos surrounding Agatha's departure. Her negative reaction to the girl herself is (presumably) incidental; more significant is her violent destruction of Punch and Judy, her inability to move against Zulenna Luzhakna's rearguard action, and her ballistic reaction to Bangladesh DuPree's subsequent casual stabbing of the heroic Zulenna. Klaus had to use D-gas to keep from losing one or both of them.

Agatha's first encounter with Von Pinn foreshadows the use of Lucrezia's command voice. When Agatha shouted at her in anger, "Put me down, you wretched construct!" Von Pinn's instinctive reaction was to instantly obey, apparently to her own consternation. This does not mean that she must necessarily like Agatha or Lucrezia; the Mongfish sigil on her watch appears to have been defaced by sharp claws. Her attitude towards Agatha after discovering that she is Lucrezia's daughter is not clear, beyond a repeated statement that Agatha is "MINE!"

At of Volume 8, she makes a dramatic reappearance at Castle Heterodyne by way of two torchmen, foreshadowing a pivotal role in the next chapter of the story.

Questions and Theories

 * Was it just Klaus Barry's death that sent Von Pinn round the bend, or were there other contributing factors? What could she tell us about that night?
 * What's with the monocle? Did she always have it?
 * Is she a stitched-together sort of construct or is there Heterodyne Jäger technology involved?