Roko's Basilisk

BASIC HCs:

Full Name: Dr. Herbert Augustus Lankmann. The middle name “Augustus” was something I came up with myself. It’s very Victorian and of German origin so I thought it’d fit him. Probably his grandfather’s name or something. He’s very German, likely stemming from the “German doctor” stereotype and his namesake, Herbert West (from Reanimator). Cool thing is that his first name literally translates to “bright army” (or, interpreted differently, “soldier of light”) which I think is interesting given his role as essentially the front-lines against the Veldigun. “Lankmann” doesn’t mean much of anything outside of “tall man,” and the suffix “-mann” only sometimes means “man.” It also means “husband” depending on context. Clearly Lankmann didn’t get the “tall” part of his name.

Height: 5’5” before Veldigun sickness, 6’3” after. Sometimes I draw him tall, sometimes I draw him short. I think it’d be funny if after getting Veldigun sickness and essentially turning into a sentient mechanical scarecrow, he made himself taller (or got whoever was rebuilding him to make him taller). That or he really does wear heels/lifts. That clicking of his shoes in In Loving Memory is unmistakably heels and I’ll fight on that. /lh

Age: 55 (as of 1996). 1996 is the latest date we get so far in DOAI, so I decided to ball his age around there as for a while I thought it could indicate that’s where the main story ends. Starts in ‘86, ends in ‘96. Nice and neat. 55 suits him; I can’t see him as anything over 60 but it’s kind of absurd when people put him at under 40, and even then I squint when he’s depicted as anything under 45. I swear on my life I heard someone say he’s 35 once. (And, like, if you’re gonna say you’re a Lankmann enjoyer and then put him at under 40, you’re not playing ball. He is upper middle-age 😭)

Birthday: April 13th, 1941. I think it’d be fun if his birthday was the same day Volume 1 came out. This makes him an Aries. Using his headcanon age in 1996 as a reference, it’d put him as a ‘41 baby. He’s not even a Boomer, he’s from the generation before by a solid 5 years. He’s from the Silent Generation. Old man. This also makes him born smack dab in the middle of World War II.

Gender: Cis male, BUT only because he doesn’t know what a “nonbinary” is. If he had any deeper knowledge of gender he’d probably be an agender he/it/they.

Sexuality: Asexual demiromantic. He doesn’t have a gender preference and very rarely feels genuine attraction towards people. Sex-repulsed due to a mixture of disinterest and Catholic guilt but we’ll get into that later. At first he took his lack of attraction in a holier-than-thou way and believed himself to be “unaffected by temptation” but then he realized that Wasn’t Normal and had a crisis about it.

Religious Affiliation: Atheist. Doesn’t believe in God, and even when he did, God never helped him. He was raised Catholic and hated every minute of it. Stopped going to church in college and silently severed himself from religion. He does still have an old rosary tucked in the back of his closet, but that’s only because it belonged to his father. You can fit so much religious guilt in this old man it’s actually absurd.

Neurodivergence: Autism. He’s so obviously autistic-coded that I could write an entire college thesis on it. Incredibly blunt, equally intelligent, absurdly organized and timely. Very easily irritated by inconveniences or shifts in schedule. Overwhelmed by many people, averse to physical touch even as a child, and didn’t start to speak until about 2 years old. When he does speak, he’s articulate and precise and knows an insane amount of words, but also enters periods of complete silence and usually only gestures or hums in irritation if someone insists on talking to him. HATES crowds and people talking over each other. He also has a specific parking spot that’s “his” and feels slighted when someone else uses it. Sometimes his autistic traits can read as narcissism but it’s mostly just him stating what he believes to be fact; that he’s smarter and simply better than the average person. He expects special treatment because he feels like he’s earned it, and sees people treating him as an equal (in his eyes, lesser) as a threat or injustice.

Nationality: German. His parents emigrated to Canada during WWII, and he has dual Canadian-German citizenship. Thanks to being a WWII baby he’s always had a rocky relationship with his nationality, but it’s gotten better with time. German was also his first language, but he lost his German accent both from being around Canadians all his life and purposefully suppressing it. His voice is vaguely British-sounding because it was an easier accent to mask his original with. Sometimes the German accent slips when he’s especially upset, and when he’s frustrated/thinking really hard he might mutter in German.

OTHER HCs:

He went to Harvard and has two degrees, a PhD in Neuroscience and a Masters in Clinical Psychology. Neurology’s been his special interest since he was young; he’s always been fascinated with the brain and human behavior. While getting these degrees he actually moved to the States for a while in Cambridge. His father was reputable (and rich) enough that he got in pretty easy, not to mention his GPA and insane SAT/ACT scores. The Neuroscience PhD was to get him into the field and working, the Clinical Psychology was half for fun and half because he wanted to see people and their mind’s in action.

He’s a Vietnam veteran. While he was living in the States, he got drafted (he was 28 at the time). He’d pretty much just finished getting his first degree and within a few months was pulling bullets out of people and stitching up wounds in the middle of the forest. Solidly the worst time of his life— Veldigun sickness was a close second. It contributed to how jaded he is and also let him amass plenty of medical experience, especially under pressure. He may be unethical as hell, but he can ration supplies like a champ. Unfortunately it also gave him PTSD.

Speaking of PTSD, popping noises and fireworks scare the shit out of him. It could be a car backfiring in the parking lot, it could be New Years or Fourth of July. It could be anything. It will make him flinch and he will go quiet for the next few hours. He’s seen and heard far too much.

He doesn’t curse unless he’s pissed. He’s overly formal in most situations, very proper and precise with his verbiage. Unnecessary profanity, to him, is crass and makes one sound less intelligent. When he’s slightly irritated or inconvenienced, or like, stubs his toe or something, he may throw out a “damn” or “god dammit,” but he very rarely genuinely swears. “Fuck” is a sign to run. If he starts swearing in German? Pray. It’s all you can do.

He has some small ophidian mannerisms. Snakes were one of the inspirations for Lankmann, or at the very least for ARG Lankmann (I believe this was stated in a stream somewhere), which I’ve transposed onto his canon version. He draws out his “S” sounds for a little too long. Sometimes he makes hiss-ish sounds when he’s irritated in place of a grumble or hum, like machinery expelling steam. When he feels threatened or otherwise nervous he kind of curls in on himself. And, of course, his new mechanical eyes allow him to see in new light spectrums, namely infrared— essentially, he can detect people via heat signatures, and can also see in the dark.

He has body dysmorphia. His entire physical appearance was essentially stripped from him, and part of his identity along with it. He doesn’t recognize himself in mirrors. He acts indifferent to his appearance, but it bothers him far more than he’d admit.

SPECULATIVE ANATOMY:

When I say “speculative anatomy,” I’m referring to Lankmann post-Veldigun sickness, in his fully mechanical form. This is essentially trying to figure out how he works in such a weird body. Dissecting him, if you will.

He can’t eat, as he doesn’t have a stomach (as seen in concept art). Presumably, then, he gets energy from other sources. He likely has to charge his body in one way or another; I think plugging himself into a wall occasionally is funny, so that’s what I go with. Just a socket in the back of his neck. It directly connects to his spinal cord and nervous system, thus charging it.

He has hearing problems, as his ear canals closed due to Veldigun sickness. They had to be manually repaired, but the damage was done. Part of the reason he keeps the asylum so quiet is because if it was too loud, he’d literally be unable to hear people talking to him. Cannot hear for SHIT.

However, his vision is absurdly good thanks to his eyes being screens now. He’s got all the bells and whistles; of course infrared sensors as mentioned previously, but he can also sense very slight movements that he previously didn’t pick up on. He can also lowkey flash-bang you because they dim/brighten both manually and involuntarily. His eyes tend to be dimmer when he’s down or tired, and brighter when he’s excited or energized.

He physically can’t cry. His tear ducts closed due to Veldigun sickness. When he “cries,” it’s all hiccups and shivering, with no actual tears. I think if he cried hard enough it could tear the ducts back open and he’d end up crying blood, though that’s a severe situation.

He doesn’t have a tongue either, and his jaw barely moves. Most of the “words” he says are his voicebox attempting to stitch together assumptions of words based on the movements of his throat. As a result, he talks somewhat slowly so that it interprets his words correctly.

The only organs he has left are his heart and lungs, which are both transplanted. His body upon developing Veldigun sickness was barely salvageable. His brain is remarkably intact, but it’s a miracle he didn’t lose that or become braindead. Everything else was either scrapped or replaced by an artificial alternative.