OOC: Lunge's app
Character you're applying for: Inspector Heinrich Lunge
Series: Monster
Series' Medium: Anime/Manga
Character's age: Not stated- I’d put him around his early fifties, so 51?
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Otto Jung
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: (NB- italic= I made an educated guess)
Lunge’s early life is unknown. Based on the estimated age he was born in West Germany in 1945 and had a relatively difficult childhood- perhaps his parents were stricter than normal, or perhaps he had an unusual amount of pressure put on him to succeed in life. Whatever the case, an overwhelming desire to meet expectations led to him being a high academic achiever. After graduating from university he joined the police force, married and had a daughter. It didn’t take long for him to rise through the ranks, and before long he had reached the level of Inspector in the BKA (Bundes Kriminal Amt- the German equivalent of the FBI) and created a name for himself, even holding talks and seminars.
Things were to change. In 1986, Lunge was called to investigate the murders of the Director of the EislerMemorialHospital and several of his staff in Düsseldorf with poisoned candy. On the same night, a pair of twins also vanished from the hotel. It was here that he met Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a young surgeon heralded as a prodigy in the field- and the one man with the most motive for murdering the Director. However, after finding that Tenma had an alibi for the evening and after further investigation produced little evidence, he was forced to put the case on hold for the time being. But, even with the case at a standstill, Lunge continued to hold his belief that Tenma was the perpetrator.
Nine years later, Lunge was once again drawn back to Düsseldorf on police matters, this time to look into the break-in and murder of a middle-aged couple believed to be the latest in a series of similar murders in the area. When one of the key suspects for the break-in was discovered to have been in a potentially-fatal road accident, he immediately ordered for the man to be sent to none other than Dr. Tenma for surgery. Barely twenty four hours after surgery, however, the man was murdered- and once again Tenma appeared to be right in the middle of it, claiming that the killer was a man named Johan, one of the twins from the original investigation. Lunge was forced to release him, but his suspicion continued to grow.
A little while later, whilst investigating the serial murders involving middle-aged couples in Frankfurt, the murder of a man nearby took Lunge’s eye. After a thorough investigation, Lunge came to the conclusion that Tenma committed both sets of crimes and immediately returned to Düsseldorf to arrest him, only to find that Tenma had already fled the city. The trail having gone cold, Lunge was left to theorise that Tenma had a split personality: one half was the amiable Dr. Tenma, the other half was the cold-blooded killer Johan.
Unfortunately for Lunge, his life was about to fall apart. One night he returned from work to find his long-suffering wife and daughter preparing to leave him; he hadn’t realised that his wife was having an affair, or that his daughter was pregnant. In the same night it was discovered that his excessive pressure on a witness during a case regarding a scandal with a local politician led to the man’s subsequent suicide. Lunge was removed from all of his cases bar one: the Tenma case.
Time passed. Eventually, an opportunity presented itself; when the murder of yet another middle-aged couple turned out to have been nothing but a copycat, Lunge was quick to blackmail the local press into presenting it as yet another part to the serial killings in order to draw Tenma back to the area, all while ignoring the actual killer.
The plan worked and Lunge confronted Tenma at the scene of the crime, only to be attacked by the actual perpetrator of the crime (who had been convinced by Lunge’s dismissive attitude towards him that he was playing some kind of mind game). Lunge shook the man off and rendered him immobile with a few well-aimed shots before taking off after Tenma again- and promptly fainting from blood-loss against the man’s car. When he regained consciousness he found himself in the car with Tenma, who he immediately tried to handcuff before passing out again. Waking up once again, this time in a barn, Lunge attempted to force Tenma to confess before falling unconscious for the final time. When he awoke again he was in hospital, being told that someone had performed life-saving emergency surgery on him before leaving him there. Lunge was unmoved.
His next move was to take his theory to someone who could verify it- famous criminal psychologist, Dr. Gillen. Unfortunately, Gillen took Tenma’s side in the matter and dismissed his theory completely. Lunge, still unperturbed, continued his investigations alone and began to question Tenma’s old friends from Japan, now businessmen, on his personality, so that he can begin to get into his psychology. While meeting with them in Munich he was called by his daughter, who told him that she had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Lunge agreed to meet the two of them the next day- only to stand her up in order to remain in Tenma’s mindset (since Tenma was described to him as not being close to his family). A Czech picture book titled “The Monster With No Name” bought by the businessmen for the secretary of Schuwald, a local businessman, caught his eye and he began to look into it out of curiosity. Soon afterwards he received a tip-off that Tenma has bought a shotgun and, using Tenma’s psychology, reasoned that he is planning to murder Schuwald at the local university (NB: bear in mind that the REAL Johan is the one planning to kill Schuwald, not Tenma).
However, on reaching the crime scene, he found that a large portion of the evidence had been demolished by a fire and that Tenma had vanished. Moreover, an interview with Schuwald brought up his secretary, a named Johan matching Tenma’s original description, who had also vanished immediately after the fire. Testimony from witnesses presented Tenma as a saviour rather than a murderer. His theory thoroughly shaken up, Lunge decided to take some time out for the first time in his entire career.
Being the kind of man he is, Lunge found himself unable to truly take a vacation without some kind of ‘game’ to play- in this case, he decided to investigate the book that ‘Johan’ had been after, “The Monster With No Name”, and its author in its place of origin: Prague. To him, of course, this was nothing more than fiction- something to chase. But after searching through countless used book stores, talking to publishers and getting an old acquaintance in the Czech police to translate the book for him, he began to find more and more traces of truth in the story, particularly in regards to its author: Klaus Poppe, also known as Franz Bonaparta, a high-ranking government official from the communist Czech Republic. Even a serial murder investigation by the Czech police he was asked for advice on while there further pointed to ‘Johan’, with witnesses speaking of a beautiful young woman, supposedly a man in disguise who matched ‘Johan’’s description.
Lunge continued his search for Bonaparta in the RedRoseMansion, supposedly owned under the name ‘Klaus Poppe’, where he found an old letter hinting at the man’s involvement with the twins from the original case and a government experiment apparently gone wrong. At the same time, however, he received a call from his superiors back in Germany: Tenma, they said, had finally been arrested. Lunge’s response was simple: he was on vacation. His ‘game’ became more and more urgent- in his mind, Lunge was beginning to connect enough dots to understand that, wherever Bonaparta was, it was there that ‘Johan’ was going to make his final stand. After tracking down Bonaparta’s son, he received a postcard with a painting on the back which he traced to a small, sleepy town in the depths of the German mountains by using Bonaparta’s psychology.
He reached the town, Ruhenheim, before things could kick off. Another man there, whom he immediately recognised as the Grimmer of the investigation in the CzechRepublic, seemed to have been drawn to the town for the same reasons as he had: they both knew that this was going to be the site of a mass execution based on the growing paranoia and hysteria in the town. Agreeing to work together, they soon found themselves trapped in the town by heavy rainfall- and just as Bonaparta revealed himself, now a fragile old man, the killings began. Within the hour the massacre was in full swing, with terrified villagers shooting each other out of fear.
Using the reasoning that there must a) be a source from which the villagers had received their arms, and that b) there had to be a head of these ‘sources’ giving the commands, he sets off towards a hotel in which the leader of a group of ‘outsiders’ who had turned up in the town that day was staying. En route, however, he was stopped dead in his tracks- by none other than Doctor Tenma, still chasing after ‘Johan’. In an instant Lunge’s ‘game’ became reality; he was wrong, and Johan was real. He then did the unthinkable: he apologised to Tenma for everything. With that, he continued towards the hotel. There, Lunge was met by the leader- a man named Roberto. The two fired on each other and began to fight, with Roberto attacking Lunge’s relationship with his family. Lunge eventually overpowered the man, but after turning his back on Roberto, thinking him unconscious, he was knocked out cold.
When he next came to he was being carried out of the hotel by paramedics- Ruhenheim was surrounded and the massacre was over, with scarcely ten survivors. On the helicopter heading to the hospital, however, he was placed next to Johan, who had sustained a potentially fatal gunshot to the head from a villager. He told the paramedics to fetch Dr. Tenma.
Time passed. Johan survived but remained comatose. Lunge recovered and testified in Tenma’s favour at the trial. After a lot of thinking, he eventually decided to hand in his badge and retire from the force, becoming a professor and the local police academy instead. And, after even more thought, he began to contact his daughter again.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
On the surface, Lunge is more robot than man. From the cool, collected manner in which he conducts his investigations to the almost total poker-face he wears during them no matter what they turn up, it would seem that there is nothing in the world that could move him. Even more so, he just seems so good at what he does- Lunge’s record during his time with the BKA has been outstanding, leaving no case unsolved and no stone unturned. Anyone who has ever worked with him can attest to the man’s almost unrivalled intelligence and skills of observation, not to mention the way in which his mind can process and analyse even the smallest pieces of evidence with seemingly effortless efficiency. In fact, referring to him as a machine wouldn’t be too far wrong; he frequently refers to the ‘computer’ in his head in which he stores all of the information he assimilates (see ‘non-magical skills’). Socially detached and apparently void of any kind of emotion, Lunge very rarely seems to be off duty- as a colleague rightly wondered, when does he even sleep?
But that isn’t to say that Lunge is completely inhuman; in fact, one of his greatest assets is his ability to understand the way people work, to get into their minds based on very little information. Psychologically, there are few people that Lunge cannot unravel. He can read other people like books and excels at asking just the right questions to get the answers he wants from people. Most of the time he comes across as a normal police detective doing his best to catch the bad guy, perhaps even friendly if the situation calls for a less heavy hand. And suffice it to say, Lunge will do anything the situation calls for to push things to their conclusion out of sheer tenacity.
Yet just how tenacious Lunge is- and indeed why he is- is something that very few people ever see. A police officer he may be, but Lunge appears to be completely amoral, taking little notice of the law or even basic morality when the situation appears to call for it; collateral damage for the sake of the investigation, as far as he is concerned, is to be expected. No one is exempt from this logic, either- not an innocent bystander or even his own neglected family. Neither ‘justice’ nor ‘duty’ mean anything to him as concepts. Nothing short of a bullet to the head would stop Lunge in his tracks, but even then the odds are still in favour of him getting back up and trying again anyway. After all, that would be tantamount to admitting defeat and thus admitting that he was wrong. And that would be completely unacceptable.
For him, his identity as a master investigator is all that he has; his family life is a moot point and he has no life to speak of outside of his work. To be wrong would utterly destroy this identity. Persistence is one way of preventing this (so long as his theory can adapt with the situation, as he claims did with the Tenma case, he cannot be wrong), as is his memory mnemonic- his typing gestures. With this little trick Lunge can control (perhaps even warp) every piece of information he absorbs, and in this control he finds comfort that his interpretation will be sound.
This protection of himself isn’t, however, all that Lunge lives for, especially not after the incident in Ruhenheim. At the end of the day, he became a police officer to begin with to find a channel for his own intelligence. He genuinely enjoys being right, taking a great amount of private, personal pleasure from each investigation he closes and every piece of knowledge and truth he unravels from a case. And what’s more, under the apathy is a man who really does care about his family and those around him; his disregard from them isn’t out of spite but out of his way of prioritising them below his work. His emotions are given similar treatment- far from being a heartless monster, Lunge has simply managed to suppress what might otherwise interfere with his investigations. The result is the callousness most people usually identify him with.
Now that the Tenma case is over, Lunge has been left with a lot of soul-searching to do. Because underneath the theorising, he has had to admit something he never, ever wanted to admit: he was wrong about Tenma. True, he got the result he wanted, but at the end of the day he made a mistake that nearly cost a great many lives, all because of his own inability to give up on his own theory. Apologising to Tenma was not only one of the most difficult things he has ever had to do but also the most demoralising. Compounding this, his encounter with Roberto ended up highlighting a side of him he didn’t realise he still had- his attachment to his family. With the space he’s had to reflect it’s just starting to dawn on him how distant he is from his daughter and grandson, and, more importantly, how much he feels as though he’s missed. Lunge spent years chasing shadows to reaffirm his identity. One night in Ruhenheim left him questioning whether that identity was one he really wanted to call his own.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Lunge is a tall, slim man with a sallow complexion and dark hair with a receding hairline. His face is a little on the gaunt side and he has narrow pale blue eyes, a largish nose and thin eyebrows. Usually he is completely expressionless.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I’d be taking him from a short time after the end of the series but before he decides to retire. At any point before this he’s simply too independently minded to consider working with others, which would kind of be a problem in an RP centered around working with people, but at any point after this he loses much of his drive and is starting a new life. Taking him from between these points would therefore be best for the sake of having a set personality to go from and giving him room for development.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: None.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: Doesn’t apply.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: In addition to having very strong investigative skills and a highly analytical mind, Lunge has a virtually photographic memory, to the point at which he can repeat people’s words back to them months or even years after first hearing them. He triggers this by making a typing motion with his right hand as though he were accessing or inputting the information on a computer. He is also a skillful hacker, extremely well-read and can wield most firearms, on top of which he is also in very good physical condition for his age.
Additionally, Lunge excels at using psychology to get into other people’s heads. He can tap into someone’s state of mind based on very little information and use it to predict their movements or temperaments with startling accuracy; for example, he was able to predict Bonaparta’s whereabouts purely from the smallest amount of personal information he’d gleaned from one visit to the RedRoseMansion and his picture books. This usually involves him literally “becoming” them; whilst tracking Tenma, he immersed himself in Japanese culture and constantly recited the mantra “I am Tenma” to himself.
How about improbable appendages?: Nope.
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Lunge’s main course of action will be investigation, investigation and then more investigation. Instead of focusing on anything combat-based (protecting people, taking down enemies) he’ll be looking into other aspects of the Institute (searching for records, gathering information through interviews, looking for patterns, etc). In particular, he’ll apply his psychological skills to the situation and try to analyse the key players in the Institute, especially the Head Doctor himself. All of this would move towards developing theories and ideas about its purpose and methods and, eventually, how to bring it down. If this involves working with other people then so be it; he’s far too logical to refuse to work in a team purely because he prefers to work alone.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: Lunge’s immediate reaction will be to revert back to Inspector mode; the Institute will present itself to him as yet another code to crack, another case to get to the bottom of. He’ll probably start off as more than a little blind to anything but his own investigations into how to get out and the people behind the place, which, as far as he is concerned, will not stop until he is satisfied. If anything, he’ll treat it as an opportunity to not only atone for his mistakes in the Tenma case but also to reassert his identity after the beating it took. This will be is chance to prove himself right once and for all: he is the master investigator. The urge to do so will be particularly strong due to him being taken from the aftermath of Ruhenheim, which, arguably, occurred because of his own refusal to admit his mistakes. While he doesn’t feel guilty about what happened personally, he certainly understands that it was in part a repercussion of his actions. On top of this, though, even if the more inhuman, ruthless edge to his style is lost (see below), investigating the Institute will give him a thrill he thought he would never experience again: the quiet, personal pleasure he had received from solving every case to date until Tenma.
Just whether this ‘thrill’ is entirely a good thing, however, will be yet another question for him to answer. His investigations will end up as little more than a distraction from the internal confusion he was going through before arriving at the Institute- the more he looks over this aspect of his situation, however, the less he will be able to avoid it. Without the immediacy of the Tenma case surrounding him on all sides he will find himself starting to, for once, think about himself- and if the drive he feels to get to the bottom of the Institute is motivated by the same flawed reasoning as before. Although he will outwardly remain the same man to most people, internally he will start to question his method and whether the end truly justifies his means. Just how healthy is his involvement in his work?
The ultimate manifestation of this change will be his feelings towards his family, namely, his daughter and the grandson he has never met. After years of all but ignoring them Lunge may start to actually think about them- in little ways at first, like being reminded of them occasionally and the distance between them. If it progresses far enough, he may, to his great surprise, start to become more and more aware of the fact that, in actual fact, he would actually genuinely like to see them. This is the stage he reaches by the very end of Monster- hopefully the development he undergoes in the Institute will move him gradually towards this stage.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: On top of have a virtually unshakeable disposition, Lunge is a very experienced BKA agent and has seen more than a few unsettling cases in his time on the force. More than anything, Lunge’s dealings in the Tenma case have steeled him psychologically for anything Landel’s could throw at him. Ruhenheim alone is testimony enough for that.
Third-Person Sample:
It was raining today.
Lunge glanced away from the window and to the foot of his bed. Strange to think that only a few days ago before he had been fighting for his life. Stranger still to think that all he had was now the white noise sprawling out before him - an endless stretch with nothing to fill it. No case, no struggle, no ghosts to chase. Only himself. It was as though the mirror that had been held up to his face for years had finally become clear enough to see into.
So far, seven of his colleagues had come to visit him, usually in groups of two or three that huddled awkwardly by the bed. The meetings were short, perfunctory and almost entirely composed of small-talk barely worth the breath it took to say. How are you doing? I hear you’ll be out by Tuesday. Do you need anything? One or two threw in a tired attempt at humour regarding hospital food. None of them brought flowers, for which he was grateful.
Only one had held any significance. A man he had worked with a few months before in Düsseldorf- stocky, nervous-looking. A fear of hospitals, perhaps? No, it was more than that. Whatever the case, pleasantries were exchanged and then the detective began to shuffle in his seat. Ah.
“Is there something you came to tell me, detective?”
The man stared at him. “Uh… if you don’t mind, sir,” he said, carefully examining his loafers, “we contacted your daughter. I thought you should know.”
For a moment he felt something sink in his chest, like an iron ball dropping into his stomach. Nonetheless, the answer came unflinchingly. “When?”
Lunge already knew the answer, but whether out of guilt or under the steely force of his stare the man eventually found the courage to look him in the eyes and deliver it personally. “The day before yesterday, sir.”
There might have been the slightest pause but Lunge’s expression didn’t flicker for a second. “I see. Thank you.”
The detective looked away again, abashed, and a silence descended upon the room. After what seemed like an age, he finally cleared his throat, forced out a smile and asked, “Do you need anything?”
The man left him to his own company once more a little under five minutes later.
At first, Lunge hadn’t noticed. This wasn’t the first time he had ever been kept in for observation; he’d been injured on the job more than enough times to warrant a hospital stay or two, and they certainly hadn’t had the same affect on him. But perhaps now that the initial rush of morphine and flutter of doctors and nurses had worn off it was starting to become more and more apparent that, for the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to do.
Wearily he lifted his typing hand, staring at it. He had one of the greatest data banks in all of Germany at his disposal, after all. But what good was running a search when he didn’t know what he was searching for?
There had to be a logical course of action to take. All he had to do was re-evaluate the evidence and make a fresh deduction. The incident at Ruhenheim. ‘Johan’. The true identity of the late Wolfgang Grimmer.
And Tenma. Tenma, who was innocent.
His hand fell against the sheets and he looked back to the window again. It was raining today. And it would be raining tomorrow, too.
The day afterwards was far less certain.
First-Person Sample:
[Funnily enough, I don’t think Lunge would keep a journal. His memory is good enough that he wouldn’t need to organise his thoughts on paper in order for them to be useful to him.]