LMAO and I randomly pick the rapeface icon go me
1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Christy
Current characters in Bete Noire: None!
2. Character Information
Name: Diva
Livejournal Username: madamemoiselle
Fandom: Blood+
Image: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/98127345/10842946
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: 174; Appears to be in her early 20s.
History: awww yiiiis. This is a link to my own write up, since the Wikipedia page for Blood+ is pretty much garbage.
Personality: Diva, at a first glance, seems like a fundamentally simple and stereotypical villain. It's really not until the last episode she appears in (or the manga) that her complexity is revealed. While her actions are in no way excusable, with the context of her life, they're not at all surprising, and the writers of Blood+ somehow managed to make the villain of the show much more sympathetic than the protagonist. Well, in my opinion, obviously.
Diva is selfish, childish, and also quite air headed. This is a bit surprising for a person that's going on two centuries old, but quite reasonable when you remember that she was only awake for about sixty of those years, fifty of which were spent in torture and isolation. Unsurprisingly, Diva is not smart by any stretch of the imagination, and what education she does have is dated, since the majority of her education came from early 20th century Russia. While Saya was able to have 50 years of normal life, Diva spent this time locked up, alone in a tower. She spent this time living in filth, poverty, and pain while her sister lived quite comfortably. Her childish nature comes from this lack of mental development, and being forced to ‘grow up’ quite quickly as Diva left the tower. Her selfishness also stems from Amshel, for the most part. After being let out of the tower and being whisked away by her new Chevalier, Diva’s every whim was waited on by him. This continued for the years following right up until her death. Diva is used to getting exactly what she wants and when she wants it. This could mean anything from a cute dress to an actual person.
But to contrast against her sister, after they split ways from the Zoo, both of their lifestyles dramatically changed. Saya was a vagrant with Haji, traveling and looking for Diva so that she could kill her. Diva traveled with Amshel and snowballed massive political power. Powerful people became her Chevalier, consulted Amshel, consulted her, or anything in between. Diva was living the life of the dying class of nobility, but remained in political power through Amshel until her death. So her times spent awake were amongst the highest classes of society, and it reflects in her. She's a very cultured woman in public, especially since she performs opera. Diva has never known anything but the highest luxuries in the world, and is quite happy with that. She's very demure and charming to the public eye, reflecting her position as a cultured heiress.
And as you would expect from an heiress of any kind, Diva is vain. She knows she’s beautiful and alluring, so she's very confident in her ability to seduce any person she wants, and she’s completely willing to. Diva loves this process as well because of her extreme desire for closeness and relationships. This desire stems from her isolation in the tower, and she never grew out of the desire for someone to care for her, even if it's entirely artificial. Because of that, Diva has been objectified by men throughout her whole life, but she really doesn't care as long as she has the intimacy she desires. This is why Amshel can be considered the true villain of Blood+--despite her vicious nature, it's really Amshel that's the one in charge.
Ah, but about that viciousness! Diva may be very sympathetic because of how she's used and the question repeatedly posed about how if she hadn't been in the tower, she would probably be a perfectly normal girl, but she's still a raging bitch. Diva has a complete lack of a moral compass. Killing people for their tennis shoes or raping and killing a young boy to get pregnant doesn't even phase her. She honestly sees nothing wrong with these things, because in her opinion, humans are lesser beings, and her desires come before anyone else's. It's worth noting that she doesn't hate humans, however. She just hasn't spent much time with them positively. When confronted with these moral issues, Diva is genuinely surprised--and that itself isn't surprising. Despite leaving the tower, Diva was still fairly isolated--Amshel kept anyone that he didn't want her to meet away, so she really never developed any kind of morals in that environment of war and Amshel's underhanded dealings.
But that viciousness will change quickly because of her childish nature. One thing may set her off and be an inch from ripping out someone's heart, but when pacified by kind words, she'll be back to perfectly childish and curious.
She's quite shallowness is shown with her slight obsession with fashion and beauty, getting more upset by her dress being torn than getting shot in the heart. Diva also harbors jealousy very easily. She is extremely jealous, to the point of obsessive, of her sister. Diva wants to take away everything that Saya loves, all because Diva never got to have any of that. This shows the deeper layer to Diva, because beyond all the awful awful bitch, she’s really just a lost little child looking for someone to love her.
Which is to say, that without her Chevalier telling her what to do, Diva is agreeable enough. She’s friendly, childish, outgoing, and very direct. Diva is very disconnected to humans, since humans have only mistreated her all her life, so she is very reluctant to trust them. However, it doesn't stop her from being curious, or at the very least, polite. Though what we see in canon is mostly her being an awful bitch, in a normal situation, she's nice enough. Without her Chevalier there to influence her and without her babies to fawn over, she'll be pleasant to everyone she meets. Well, at first, anyways.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Diva is very, very open to sex. She's a bit of a nymphomaniac, and has no problems with sleeping around with people of both genders, but certainly leans towards older men, but she's not that picky. There's a long discussion of the psyche of her sexuality here, if you're so inclined, but basically, she's perfectly open to sex and sexuality.
Powers: Diva is a vampire, though in her series' jargon, she's called a Chiropteran because they are just so original. Anyways, she has the strengths that you would expect of a vampire, like super strength, speed and senses and a very quick healing time for even extreme injuries. She also has quasi-immortality and shape shifting that's dependent on drinking other peoples' blood first. She is just fine with stakes through the heart and garlic, but cutting her head off, setting her on fire and her sister's blood (not really applicable, but worth mentioning) will all kill her for good. Well, relatively. It doesn't seem to be a problem at Bete Noire. She also has a handful of completely unexplained abilities like vague telepathy, siphoning energy from plants and an operatic voice that suddenly makes people give a crap about opera, but I try and ignore these. All of these powers are dependent on how much blood she has consumed, so as she gets hungrier, she gets weaker, but Diva has no moral qualms with getting a meal.
Another major power is the ability to create more vampires--Diva does this by having someone drink her blood. If someone drinks her blood, they become her Chevalier, a lesser Chiropteran, who are psychologically bound to her. This is, of course, not something that I, as a player, will take lightly, and really prefer not to deal with it. But if it comes up, I always make sure that the other player is aware of the consequences and physiological/psychological change that it has.
Reason for playing: Oh lord this could be like a paper of shameless fangirliness, but I shall spare you. I've been playing Diva for what is apparently going on a shameful five years, and I've never lost interest in her. She's a character that is open to character development because of her isolation from people, and one that can be disgustingly sweet one moment and then ruthlessly vicious the next. Her issues and past have been a constant source of inspiration and interest for me because of the potential that she has as a character. Sadly, Blood+ does little in the way of using the potential despite explicitly laying out how messed up she is, but that's what's fun, in a way. I can take all the incoherent pieces and attempt to put them together in a way that makes some kind of sense.
As for Bete Noire itself, I'm interested in playing her here because of how the setting would allow me to play with a different side of her character than I usually do. Previous games I've played her in didn't discourage sex or her other various forms of depravity, necessarily, but I think a setting that actively encourages it would be an interesting one.
I also think it would be very interesting to play her post death, where she'll have to confront how she feels about being so close to having her dream life then being killed off by bad writing. I mean, uh, being killed shortly before she can have it. This event means that she could develop CR in a lot of ways, both positive and negative, since she's not as much of an awful bitch as she used to be, really, but she's still pretty much lacking a moral compass.
The nature of the game will also force her to get closer to people, since her desires relate to sex and violence. Despite her personal views that both of these things don't really matter, other characters disagreeing on that will make her confront people and maybe open up to them. Maybe. We'll have to see about that one.
5. Samples
First-Person: [The video feed cuts on suddenly, but there aren't any faces in view--it's obvious fairly quickly that it turned on when it was dropped. All that's in view is one of the dirty alleys, and two pairs of feet quite close together. One pair is perfectly still, but the other is frantically scraping against the ground, trying to get away. There are muffled noises, but nothing that can be made out.
The feet keep squirming, growing less and less intense until they stop moving entirely. And then the body drops to the ground with their back to the camera.]
Ah, that's much better. Now where did that thing go...
[The feet shuffle lightly, but then walk towards the device, and the video moves as its picked up and focuses on the young woman that apparently owns it. She peers closer, looking surprised, but then smiles sweetly. She would look perfectly friendly if not for the tell-tale stream of blood sliding out of the corner of her mouth. She doesn't seem to realize (or just doesn't care) that the video is broadcasting to other people, though, and is just talking to herself]
Ne, it's on, isn't it? What is it that Amshel always says... Oh, get rid of evidence, I think it is! That sounds like a lot of trouble. No, I don't think I'll do that. That doesn't seem like much fun at all.
Hmm~ It's interesting, though. Even though I drank every drop, the heart is still beating. Even we can't do that much. I wonder what happens if I take it out...? Will it keep beating then? I'd get my dress all dirty, though, so I'd better not.
[She giggles a little bit, but then waves at the camera] I'd like to find out anyways, but I had better make sure that doesn't get recorded too. Bye-bye!
[The video cuts off]
Third-Person: She could feel the soft skin of her children, could hear their happy cooing. She could feel the happiness inside her chest and how it felt to finally have that same thing as her dear sister Saya. So this was what a family felt like? What a wonderful thing.
But the dream evaporated, and she was standing on a road. It looked like it stretched on forever, but that didn't seem to matter. Her expression was blank as she looked on at that eternal emptiness, and her hands drifted down to her stomach.
It was still wet and warm from her blood. She couldn't feel the pain of the wound, but she hadn't felt it at all anyways. There wasn't any pain when she turned to dust, just that age old fear of standing right on the edge of death. But it wasn't that scary to die, honestly. It was just darkness and nothingness until eventually you came back into the light. Diva had died a thousand times, so it wasn't really that scary anymore.
The wound wasn't what hurt or what brought her to her knees on that endless road. It was the realization that the dream was just that--a dream. That moment of happiness with her babies, it was just another dream.
She hadn't cried when she had died, but she wept for the loss of her children. Diva was doubled over, murmuring wishes over and over again that she could feel the life in her stomach or to feel their tiny, feeble heartbeats. It was all she wanted.
But she wasn't the sister to have her wishes granted.
Eventually, she wiped away her tears and stood, looking down the long road again. Honestly, it wasn't the dying that was so scary. Dying was fine, because that was a peaceful nothingness. Waking up from death was the worst part, because you could never know what to expect. It was the same as starting to walk down the long road.
As she started to walk towards the city, she made a point of forgetting the road behind her. That was the easiest way to deal with things that were troublesome, Amshel had taught her.
And it was better that way, wasn't it?
Third-Person #2: Diva dipped her fingers into the blood.
Tracing circles lightly in the blood, she then smeared her pinky across her lower lip.
Glancing up to the mirror, it looked like a bright shade of lipstick.
A droplet flowed down to her chin, and she smiled.
"How beautiful."
"Madame, you'll look as beautiful ever in this gown."
Diva just nodded absently as the two maids prepared the dress and its various things for her. She sat in her underclothes in a chair off to the side, looking out the window distantly. The two maids looked at her, then to each other, exchanging nervous glances. Something terrible had happened to their mistress, but she would never give them as much of a hint why. They were rarely allowed to see her at all, since Mr. Goldsmith always had the mistress busy or she simply didn't want any help.
She really looked like an elegant doll, sitting there. Her face was devoid of expression, but still absolutely perfect in every way, and sitting in this big, lonely dollhouse of a mansion, she was the princess. But they couldn't say a word about that. Jill and Claire liked their jobs too much for that. It worried them to see her like this, less out of concern for her, and more out of concern for their jobs.
However, for now, they had to do as they had been told. They held the expensive, vintage dress in their hands as they delicately brushed the fabric to clean and soften it before it was put on her. It seemed to be made of jewels, like the fabric had been dipped in gold and silver, then left to dry in the sun until every light that touched the fabric made it glitter. The long, luxuriant fur coat that went with it was no less impressive, and each of them very carefully prepared the dress.
Jill was the one that spoke first, since she held the dress. "Miss Goldsmith, it's ready. Would you rather go in the bathroom to change?"
They both watched curiously as she seemed to be torn from her distant thoughts, and her both bright and dulled blue eyes met theirs, as if she was surprised to see them. She stood gracefully, walking closer.
"I would. Thank you," she responded politely, but it still felt just as distant and unfeeling. Jill and Claire once again exchanged nervous glances, and Jill led Diva into the bathroom.
"I think it'll look really beautiful on you, dear. You'll stand out at your dinner party for sure!" Jill said cheerfully, but Diva just moved to the counter, starting to busy herself with makeup.
"You think so?"
"I'm sure of it! With as beautiful as you are, you're sure to attract a wonderful boyfriend, or even husband," Jill said. It was, to her, a brave statement, since they were sure that was what was the matter. Their poor mistress was still upset over her uncle dying earlier that week.
"I'm not interested. I don't really like being tied down," Diva said coolly, brushing blush onto her pale cheeks, turning them rosy.
Jill frowned, feeling thwarted, and set the dress over her arm until she finished applying her makeup. Once she turned to face her, Jill was taken aback by her appearance once more. With the colors suddenly applied, it seemed that she was even more of a doll. Her skin was so pale that it was the color of porcelain. She wondered if perhaps she really was ill, but didn't get a chance to speak. Diva had already started to take of the top of her underclothes.
The interesting thing about the dress was that it was both beautiful, and slightly dangerous, in a way. Jill moved the dress to start to put it over her mistress' head, but recoiled, making a pained noise. Diva looked with disinterest, but her eyes widened to see Jill holding her finger.
A small cut had been formed, and bubbles of blood swelled about the light cut. She realized in an instant that she hadn't eaten at all since Solomon had died.
Oh, that was far too long.
It didn't run like water. It was thicker than that, and flowed slowly, almost with leisure, until it finally dripped down the drain. White tiles were covered by droplets of red, making it look like a pattern. It seemed natural to have the bright crimson against such soft ivory. There was nothing usual about that.
But laying on the floor, that was unnatural. Corpses were unsightly, and not nearly as artistic as the blood that spilled from them. But she didn't look at the corpse. The puddles of blood that slipped down the slightest slope, they were the interesting part. She didn't make a noise, just kept the slight smile on her face. She kneeled, and felt the warmth of fresh blood against her knees, staining the light blue fabric that she wore. That was just as unsightly.
"J-Jill!" Claire screamed from the doorway, and Diva looked up with a small noise of surprise.
Silence filled the house once more, and Diva glanced in the mirror calmly, watching Claire's blood slide down her neck, her shoulders, her breasts, all down until it dripped on the floor. She thought that they looked like ribbons, but it still wasn't as beautiful as she would have liked.
She stepped over the corpse, taking a towel and brushing the ribbons away and slipping off the rest of her clothes to go change into her gown. There was an oppressive silence as she moved the fabric across her skin, stretching and twisting to get into it without tearing the delicate fabric. It settled comfortably on her shoulders, and Diva smiled contently.
Diva shrugged the heavy coat onto her shoulders, looking into the mirror once more before she stepped out of her room. Diva realized, distantly, that something was missing. She stepped into the bathroom once more, looking indifferently at the two bodies collapsed over each other with expressions of terror upon their faces.
A distant memory came to her, and Diva smiled absently. Picking up the corners of her dress carefully, she dipped just the very tips of her fingers into the pools of blood. She took all the care as a woman might normally, smearing the sanguine lipstick across her lips as she looked at her eerily smiling reflection in the mirror. A droplet flowed down to her chin, and she smiled.
"How beautiful."