[ Scorched Application ]

[bloodyaria]

Out of Character Information

player name: Taisa
player journal: sinful_lynx
playing here: Byakuya Kuchiki
where did you find us? Play here
are you 16 years of age or older?: Yep!

In Character Information

character name: Diva
Fandom: Blood+; anime
Timeline: Episode 23; before she meets Riku
character's age: 173~

powers, skills, pets and equipment: Diva is ridiculously overpowered. She is what’s known as a Chiropteran Queen. Chiropterans are bat-like creatures who are humanoid in appearance. They don’t really look like bats (though some have wings), but they are monstrous in size, strength and speed, not to mention their regenerative abilities. The Queens are born as twins from one of the previous Queens of the race. Always girls, always twins. They are the strongest of the race and it is suggested that they can only be killed by the other Queen’s blood.

To go more indepth, Diva’s strength is incredible, despite her size. She’s shown to be able to effortlessly throw her sister through a wall and outside, where she lands, makes a dent in the stone ground and with enough force that ground crumbles. She can also take on a Chevalier (a servant created by the Queens, and while not as strong, are incredibly strong themselves) without breaking a sweat. The downside is that all Diva knows is basic. She has never been taught to fight and rarely has the inclination to. She’d much prefer someone else fighting for her than getting her hands dirty.

Diva’s also wicked fast. She can move almost instantaneously. For instance, she’s been shown to be bringing a sword down on her sister, dodging a cello case being thrown at her while the sword tip is almost piercing her sister’s body. It kind of looks like a blue blur in canon. Diva, however, prefers the pampered treatment. She doesn’t use this unless she has to and is usually seen using her Chevaliers as her transport.

Her senses are also beyond sharp. Her hearing, especially, is expanded upon in the anime. The best display of this is during her pursuit of Riku on a ship. Despite all the noises of the ship, the sea and the hundred people on board, all preparing for battle and communicating with each other, Diva was able to listen in on Riku’s heart beat and follow it (having drunk his blood apparently tuned her into his heartbeat?). She eventually finds him using this.

It’s also suggested that Diva has both telepathy and telekinesis. There are several points in canon where she seems to be communicating telepathically with people, usually with her song. In Vietnam, early on in the series, Diva’s song can be heard throughout the jungle, and heard only by chiropterans, certain children and Saya and Haji. None of the humans with Saya were able to hear it, and when her container is opened during this period, she is said to be ‘dreaming’. Also, while pursuing Riku, she seems to be talking to him, even though they’re on different parts of the ship and he seems to be reacting to what she’s saying.

Her telekinesis is only hinted at. She smiles after telling one of her Chevaliers that she wants a boy and the window shatters, without either of them moving. Might also be how a leaf died after falling on her before she tasted the ‘Blood of Awakening’ from her first Chevalier, Amshel. It’s honestly never been seen again, and isn’t a big deal. Unlikely to be used much, if at all, and certainly not in battle.

Diva’s song is one of her big points through the series. Her song, which is an opera song, is always heard by Saya when Chiropterans are present. In fact, that song is how the sisters first met and the reason for her name. This song doesn’t seem all that special, by itself. However, when sung by Diva, this song has powerful effects. It has the power to call Chiropterans to her (and they seem to become docile when they’re listening, at least for a short time), turn humans who have consumed a product made with her blood into Chiropterans and possibly control them.

As a high-level Chiropteran, Diva has the power to transform. She can change her body and voice to match any person she’s drank the blood from, or partially transform by mixing her look with someone else’s. Throughout history, she has impersonated many people to control the tides of war and create more Chiropterans (at the behest of Amshel) without anyone ever noticing. It’s unclear if she has their memories, as well, but seeing as that’s really hard to play out, I’m going to go with no.

The most prominent powers shown in Blood+ has to do with Diva’s blood, itself. The first is her ability to create Chiropterans from humans and the birthing of Chevalier. Not just anyone can become a Chevalier. Typically, the blood is drained from the human and Diva’s blood is given in return. This process is incredibly painful in the beginning and there is a low chance of survival. It seems like it might be something she has to consciously will or only takes an affinity to certain people. Those who survive this process are given incredible strength and speed, regenerative abilities and the ability to transform into a chiropteran and, should they drink the blood of another, other people. These Chevaliers are dedicated solely to Diva. Their instinct is to protect her and make her happy. However, as proven later on in the series, a Chevalier can defy the Queen that made them and even seek her death, despite their love for her.

As for other, inferior Chiropterans, her blood is made to make a special concoction put into treats or blood bags and delivered to humans. Upon hearing her song or being significantly injured or put into a situation in which their Chiropteran instincts are called upon, they will change into mindless killing machines. As Amshel is not in Anatole and there is little chance he could even create it, this part is kind of moot, but putting it in anyway ‘just in case’..

Her blood also gives her amazing regenerative abilities. Diva’s wounds heal almost instantly, making killing her nearly impossible. Stabbing her heart, shooting her in the head... these things won’t kill her. The only proven way to kill her is with her sister’s blood, which is poison to her and causes hers to crystallize, over-riding her regenerative abilities. It is believed that if one falls from a great height or burned or the heart ripped out and crushed, she can be killed. However, she escaped a ship that was blown up and Haji was crushed twice (and supposedly exploded) and survived. As a Chevalier, his regenerative powers are similar to that of his Queen and her sister.

Diva’s blood is poison to her sister, just as her sister’s is to her. For some reason, though being born by the same mother, their blood, when in contact with each other, will crystallize. This also means anyone born of Saya’s blood (her Chevaliers, as she hasn’t been used to make any Chiropterans) will also crystallize and die.

Obviously, Diva can drink blood. This is how she maintains her strength. Abstaining from it will cause intense pain and dizziness. Think of people starving themselves.

I’ll definitely be making up a permissions post for all of this.

The only thing that I’d like to ask for her is the Mist to stop her hibernation period. Every two or three years, the Queens go into hibernation for thirty years. From her canon-point, Diva is a bit over a year from this. While we never know from this point whether she’ll stick, I’d like to cover my bases (mostly because I intend to try and keep her that long!).

canon history: Diva was discovered in the belly of a mummy in Iceland. The mummy, named ‘Saya’ was transported to the Zoo, a several hundred acre plot of land that housed many exotic and rare animals for study by Joel Goldschmidt. Upon dissecting the mummy, two cocoons were found inside. These cocoons could not be penetrated by a blade, but pulsated when blood spilled on them.

In August of that year, two babies emerged, looking like two-month old babies. One was named Saya after her mother, and the other became an unnamed test subject and placed in the top of a tower, behind bars.

For fifty years, Diva was locked in that tower, experimented on, given only the essentials to stay alive. Joel treated her cruelly, and her only company were the birds that flew above, the rats that nested in her tower and her caretaker, Amshel. She had no friends and wasn’t even able to communicate properly.

In 1863, she met Saya. Saya, who heard her song, followed it until she found it coming from the tower. They never met face to face and didn’t know they were sisters, but Saya spoke to her outside of her door often and they became friends. It was Saya who gave her the name ‘Diva’, based on her beautiful singing voice.

Twenty years later, in 1883, Saya let Diva free, upon hearing that she had never been out of the tower. Diva took this freedom and slaughtered every man, woman and child that resided at the mansion,after setting it on fire. Saya stumbled upon her feeding on her ‘father’ Joel and began the hundred year war against her sister and chiropterans.

Diva, at some point after being freed, likely during the massacre at the zoo, made Amshel into her first Chevalier.

During the first World War, Diva woke from her first hibernation period and gave both Solomon Goldsmith and Karl Fei-Ong her blood, and turning them into her third and fourth Chevaliers.

In 1918, Diva took on the appearance of Grand Duchess Anastasia in Russia. The reasons for this are not explained, but it likely had something to do with the Russian Revolution and Grigori ‘Rasputin’ Efimovitch’s (her second Chevalier) experiments. Grigori took on the appearance of a girl named Sonya and died fighting Saya while Amashel hurried Diva from the scene as her hibernation approached.

In the second world war, Diva lived in Berlin, Germany and impersonated an important Nazi Party member, Martin Bormann, to influence the war. She made James Ironside a Chevalier during this time.

It was unknown if Diva was awake and conducting usual business during the Vietnam War, but due to an extreme outbreak of chiropteran and Diva’s song (heard by Saya), it was suggested that she was there. She had no major part to play, other than haunting an amnesiac Saya with her song in her flashbacks.

Diva awoke in 2005, in Vietnam, however. She was inside her container on a research farm when Saya arrived and was transported away when her sister arrived. Diva was given the ‘Blood of Awakening’ by Amshel in Paris, and was then taken to the Zoo upon hearing Saya would be going there.

personality: Diva is selfish. It’s probably the first thing anyone will notice about her. Diva wants what she wants and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt to get it. There are several examples in canon. It’s mostly all you see of her. She will even demand a person be brought to her, regardless of that person’s wishes just because she wants them. It doesn’t matter what she wants them for, as long as she gets them. In later canon, she is given everything she asks for, but destroys it all because what she really wants is Kai, Saya’s adopted brother, and is in a clear bad mood because she hasn’t gotten him yet.

She also likes and expects whatever she wants to be done for her when she wants it. When done playing with a doll, she claims she doesn’t like it and what she really wants is Riku, Saya’s other adopted brother, and she wants him right now, leading her to go off on her own, without permission, and pretty much ruin the surprise attack plan on Red Shield Headquarters. She doesn’t fight often, because that is why she has Chevaliers. They take her everywhere and do everything for her and this is how Diva expects it to be. Everyone should love her and she should be the one in the spotlight. That’s how she views the world.

As previously stated, when she doesn’t get her way, she destroys things. When she’s bored, she destroys things. Ripping apart toys, breaking everything in a room, destroying her possessions, she doesn’t care. She’ll just get new ones, so why does it matter? She’s never cared much about anything or anyone.

Diva also has a problem with obsessing. When she picks a target, she does not give up until they are hers. Twice in canon she does this, both with Saya’s brothers. Upon drinking Riku’s blood, she does not stop trying to get him until she finally does and ends up killing him in the end. Kai follows after. Diva seems to focus on people close to her sister, and no one was closer than those two. However, if she focuses on someone, you can be sure that she won’t stop thinking or wanting them until she has them, in whatever way she so chooses. It’s never a good thing to be wanted by her, especially if you aren’t fond of her.

She doesn’t seem to show much care for those who do love her, though. She will make superficial statements, but she never seems to show any real emotion for her Chevaliers or her sister. This is likely due to living the first fifty years of her life under confinement and being treated so poorly, only to be raised by a ruthless and cunning man who also only saw her as an experiment. Diva doesn’t love anyone, not until her daughters are conceived and only by then does she begin to change.

The truth is, Diva really wants a family. She wants to live happily with her daughters, away from conflict, in a peaceful place where she can smile and laugh and raise them. Because she’s never had these things, she is desperate to have them and so, she makes many Chevaliers, surrounds herself with people that will have to love her so that she doesn’t have to be alone anymore. It doesn’t matter to her that it isn’t real love, just as long as she feels that it is. She even endures Amshel’s experiments and wishes because he promises to make a world for her to flourish in.

But in the end, Diva doesn’t find those things and she hates it. She hates humans for locking her away and treating her like an animal, hates them for fearing her. She hates feeling things, hates being vulnerable. She keeps herself at a distance from everyone, even her Chevaliers. It drives Karl to seek approval from her and when he doesn’t get it, he tries to find love in Saya. It drives James, later on after his body has been destroyed and replaced with fake chevalier parts, to destroy the Schiff. Diva’s lack of true affection actually drives almost all of her Chevaliers away from her and she doesn’t realize it. It’s important to point out here that, at one point, when shown in the burning ruins, on top of pile of dead party-goers, Diva shows no emotion after killing them. She is, infact, expressionless standing there. No joy at killing the man who treated her so horribly, no elation at being free. Nothing. Because she doesn’t feel any of that. She doesn’t know how to feel. She just knows, at that point, that she is free and she’s exacted her revenge and it wasn’t as sweet as she thought it would be..

She’s very childish. She plays with children’s toys, likes wearing dresses and laughs about silly things that most people her age wouldn’t find funny. She even says things like ‘Look! Solomon’s got a booboo!’. This is likely due to encouragement from Amshel, who wants to control and study Diva and children are easiest to manipulate with promises and simple things.

The problem is, this comes out whenever she fights. She’s very childish when confronting enemies and taunts them a lot. She calls humans ‘yummy things’ and has little regard for anyone’s feelings on that matter. She throws her own temper tantrums in the way of destruction or storming off and clings to Amshel’s arm like a little child. She even lets herself get shot on purpose so she can get a new dress.

Of course, Diva knows how to play the part of human. Amshel’s taught her very well. If she needs to, or has the inclination to, she will pretend, but it’s obvious she doesn’t care for it. At one point, she even says to Amshel, ‘You want me to be just like a little doll, don’t you.’ She even complains in that same conversation about having to eat human food. But Amshel can get her to do even the things she doesn’t want to, because he can give her what she wants.

Her relationships aren’t much really. In particular, the relationship with her sister is incredibly strained. At first, they were friends, but after Diva slaughtered everyone she cared about, Saya decided to wage war against the Chiropterans. Diva didn’t understand her sister’s hatred, after all, they aren’t humans. Diva even mentions once that she would like to live with her sister, but continues to say that even more than that, she’d like to kill her. Diva’s jealous of Saya, who lived with people, who was taught love and was loved by those around her. Saya had a family, people willing to be there for her and she realizes that her bonds (though a lot of it her doing) are thin threads. She wants what Saya wants, and I feel that is why she chased Riku and Kai in particular, seeing as they show so much love for Saya, and she shows so much back.

Diva loves taunting her sister the most and doesn’t care if she’s hurting her while calling her friends and family ‘yummy’ or talking about ‘eating’ them ‘alive’. Truthfully, Diva seems to want to hurt her sister in every way to show her pain. In the end, she’s bitter towards her sister and her sister’s hate and decides the only way to deal with it is to throw it back.

However, it’s pretty clear Diva doesn’t want to kill her sister, no matter what she says. She’s given opportunities and simply ends up walking away even though she can easily do it. She’ll claim she’s bored with it and leaves. Instead, she orders her Chevalier to do it instead, refusing to get her hands dirty. At the end she tries to kill her sister and herself, but she fully intended to die with her (not realizing her blood lost its potency when she became pregnant) and not kill her alone.

She does have some good qualities, though! Diva often bonds with others who’ve suffered similar fates to her. She’s likely to bond with anyone who’s been imprisoned by something or wrongly treated for being different. These people are the ones she’ll talk to and seem a little more mature with. They’re also the ones she’ll ask to turn into Chevaliers and won’t be mad (as long as they still like her) if they refuse.

Diva can be mature, too. Not often, but in particular, when discussing things such as imprisonment, Diva seems to feel some empathy towards it and doesn’t make light of another’s pain. Of course, anything else it out the window, but that’s Diva.

Honestly, Diva’s a spoiled brat who makes games out of killing people, especially her sister, and doesn’t care who she has to hurt to get who or what she wants. But even she has her moments where she can legitimately care about someone and can be hurt. She just doesn’t like to show that to anyone.

Anything else? I’m likely going to downplay her bloodlust a bit to make it so... well, so the city isn’t a bloodbath! So she’ll probably play pretend a lot more than she does in canon, or it might make her a little hard to play.