CHARACTERName: Diana Levone
Age: 18 (6th of Amare, 62 AC)
Species and Gender: Human, Female
Symbol:
Occupation: Advanced combat student. Beacon, first year
Appearance: Whilst of a generally average female height (158cm/5'2") at a place like Beacon Academy Diana just seems to be shorter than her peers, possibly due to slightly poor posture or just her small frame (48kg/106lbs). She has gentle eyes of a violet shade. Her wavy shoulder-length brown hair is usually kept in a slightly untidy ponytail with long loose strands framing her face. Still adjusting to the climate in Vale she typically wears a loose-fitting white blouse with a blue hooded dress that has been trimmed down to ensure it doesn't restrict her movement, her weapon collapses into a holster on her belt. On all missions she wears a white choker that her dad had given her, she has a fire dust crystal that can clip on it to help with arctic temperatures. When around the campus she wears the uniform with some short socks and is more likely to have her hair loose, and occasionally wears some earrings or light makeup.
History: Diana grew up with her family in Mantle, as is often the case for families in the defunct capital they were poor and hard-working. With a brother in the military and her father working in dust mines and her mother in several part-time jobs, Diana started taking on a fair amount of the house chores from an early age. With an image of prosperity literally flying over their heads the city of Mantle was not the most inspiring place to grow up, the one source of inspiration for Diana was the huntsmen and huntresses that would protect the walls of their city, as they seemed fuller of life than anyone in the dying capital. Eventually, her dad would take a management position that allowed him to move their family up in the skies to live at Atlas proper, and for Diana to start the primary combat classes at Atlas academy. Her semblance allows her to combine and move her aura which caught the eye of some researchers. Their curiosity would culminate with her trying to steal aura from someone, which caused her to lose control and attack the person. She ran away from the academy and briefly started studying to be a paramedic but ended up trying to become a huntress again the next year at Beacon.
There is little question that since the great war Atlas has been the center of Solitas rather than Mantle, a seemingly impossible structure that soared over the old capital of the kingdom. However Atlas was not open to all who desired a life in the skies, either due to genuine size limitations or the selfish desires of the elite the city of Mantle remained standing. One family that was still held up in Mantle was that of the Levones, a household consisting of a father (Corbin), a mother (Arcene), an elder son (Allo) and a younger daughter named Diana. The family lived in an apartment over a failing restaurant where the mother worked as a chef and waitress depending on how many clients were there. She also ran her own tailoring business from home, doing patch jobs for pocket change. Diana's father would be gone for the week only returning from the dust mines on the weekend, and her brother who is four years older than her and had left their home to start his career in the military up at Atlas. Whilst the family had to work to stay afloat they were still better off than some of their neighbors who lived in such desperate poverty. Under such living conditions, Diana had to grow up fast, even at a young age she ended up doing a lot of the general housework just to make things easier on her parents.
Diana would often wait on the walls for the transport from the mines to arrive, in part because she was excited to welcome her dad home, though she always got a bit sad seeing how hopeless some of the fanus passengers looked. She also wanted to see the guards of the transports, these warriors always had such extravagant fashion and weapons, compared to the hopeless passengers the warriors seemed to be bursting with life. These were the first huntsmen and huntresses she ever saw. With neither a waitress nor a dust miner being too appealing as career paths she kept dreaming of becoming one of those warriors from the transport, those that traveled the world dedicating their lives to protecting others. She was reluctant to tell her parents of this at first, unsure of how they’d take it, but when she did she got nothing but support and it was all she needed to apply to Atlas academy. Though initially pessimistic about having to leave her parents on the ground she thoroughly enjoyed her time at the academy, especially now that she got to see her brother more often. She was a bit weak when it came to combat (and social) skills but more than made up for it with her weapon design and academic prowess.
Diana wasn’t the only Farren where it seemed things were looking up, her brother Allo who was now fully in the military had been selected to undergo additional training to become a pilot. Her father had been promoted to a management position (probably because they wanted to have someone the miners knew that they could talk to, who was a non-fanus, and had two children enrolled at Atlas), after moving to Atlas her mother even had some success in her tailoring business. This seemed like a moment of prosperity for the entire family, except there was something that felt
off for Diana as she progressed to the advanced combat classes at the Academy. Her semblance lets her combine her aura with someone else during which she can leave behind some of her own, not the greatest of combat semblances yet it seemed to intrigue some of the professors extremely. She would occasionally be brought to one of the labs to measure the extent of her semblance. At first, she was excited to have a room full of experts helping her understand her semblance, but there was something about this highly scientific approach to aura that made her uneasy. The culmination of this sensation came when she was collected by some of the staff in the evening and brought to an abandoned building on the outskirts of Mantle. Upon entering she saw a fanus boy tied to a chair wearing a black and white uniform with a red symbol on the back, the uniform of the white fang. Supposedly he was here to start a terror cell in Atlas, however she had a hard time believing that the White fang would send a teenager younger than her up here alone, this seemed like the silly idea of someone acting alone. It was first now it dawned on her why she was there. The researchers had speculated that she could use her semblance in reverse, to steal aura, however they didn’t want to risk testing it on someone at the school. Here they had a “terrorist”, someone no one would miss if anything went wrong. Whilst Diana had no interest in testing this part of her ability and was disgusted by the entire affair she didn't have the confidence to stand up to them, so she quietly knelt next to the boy and began.
At this point it’s important to remember that a person's aura is the manifestation of their soul, the most basic part of what makes someone who they are. By combining her aura with someone else's she could occasionally get glimpses of what was essential to their being. The fanus before her wasn’t evil, she felt his ambition, his strong sense of justice and of duty. However there was one key difference between them, where she was merciful and wouldn’t strike an unarmed opponent he was more pragmatic, if he felt that his opponent was a danger to his people he would strike without remorse. When Diana started to pull on his aura it seems she got something else, for a brief moment their personalities mixed and she experienced his pragmatism. At that crucial moment, all she knew was that before her was someone whose sole purpose for being in Atlas was to hurt her countrymen, her friends, her family, so she acted.
Horrified by what she had done she packed her bags and ran away from the academy the same night. Those who had been there tried to reassure her that she had nothing to fear and that she was still welcome at the academy, but she would have none of it. There and then she had decided to give up on becoming a huntress, she enrolled in a paramedical degree and tried to put her combat training behind her. However anyone who knew her could easily see that it wasn't right for her, she liked helping people but was clearly depressed in that role. Her parents were able to break through to her and suggested that now that their finances were stronger she could study in a different country, one with less of a scientific focus. She applied, and a year after she had originally started advanced classes at Atlas she was now starting fresh at Beacon.
Personality:Being forced to grow up early her personality when moving to Atlas had been on the rough side, not uncaring but she had little patience for games and missed a lot of social cues. It took her some time to make friends but the few relationships she did form were particularly close. Her friends had helped her mellow out a bit and by the time she came to Beacon she was more willing to put herself out there, relax and enjoy herself. That being said she is hardly a social butterfly, she still comes off as a bit awkward at first. Part of the reason for that is that she struggles with her confidence, she will almost always sell herself short, not to be humble but because she both doubts and fears what she can do.
With the ability to get a slight experience of how others see the world she is an exceptionally empathetic person with a tendency of becoming a bit emotional. In her team she is devoted to trying to keep things running smoothly, she’ll gladly take the lion's share of the chores and occasionally bakes or cooks for her teammates. She starts to struggle when there is team infighting, generally staying quiet unless spoken to. An introvert at heart she does spend a lot of her time reading or working alone, and as such she does generally well in most of her school subjects (still she never puts her hand up in a class even if she is certain of the answer). She is also a bit of a hopeless romantic, reading loads of romantic novels but gets extremely flustered whenever anyone seems to take interest in her. On the whole, Diana is a kind and clever person though a bit awkward. She cares immensely for the people around her always encouraging and supporting them, she also completely fails to ever take her own advice.
Aura: Her aura is of a
blue-silver colour, its slightly stronger than that of an average first-year student at Beacon, in part due to the semester she spent at Atlas academy and natural incline towards aura use.
Semblance:Caduceus: By placing her hand on a living creature's chest and keeping it there for 10 seconds she is able to combine their auras. This has a few applications though most used is to transfer some of her own aura to someone else. Transferring is often invigorating for the recipient but it's usually a painful and tiring process for her. Though not strong enough to keep everyone “topped up”, in an emergency or when stumbling upon injured hunters she can sacrifice her own strength to get them in better shape. A side effect of her semblance is that by touching the fabric of what makes a person who they are she gains some insight into what makes them tick, it figuratively lets her see how they see the world. However she has learned not to rely on it as a judge of character as some good people may have some undesirable characteristics that they have learned to overcome, and some evil people may seem like a saint.
In a non-combat setting when using her semblance the recipient can use her aura to heal. For example, if someone is bedridden recovering from wounds at 100% aura and Diana is at 100% aura they would recover faster as if they had 200% aura. However since no person can have more than 100% aura this is only possible for as long as she is willing to sit there with them whilst they recover, since there is no aura transfer this process isn’t painful for either party.
She has only made one attempt to use her semblance to drain aura rather than giving it away, the process took a lot longer and in the end she was too distracted to notice if she actually gain any aura. Since that day she has refused to even attempt it again and will lie to anyone who asks, saying that it is impossible.
Using her semblance would take 20% of her aura and fatigue her 25% to give someone else 40% of their aura (Up to but not exceeding 100%).
As for healing recovery would be at a double rate. An injury that would take 20 days to recover from is done in 12-13 if she dedicates all her time (barr sleeping) for the full period (However In total this takes up more time, 12 days for two people or 20 days for one
Combat Behavior: Whilst a strong fighter compared to the general populous at the academy she is perhaps one of the weaker first years. She can confidently handle the basic forms of grim herself, with more advanced forms she’ll try to avoid them rather than fight. She is extremely uneasy fighting any human or faunus opponents, even in practice.
In combat, her emphasis is on supporting her teammates rather than dealing damage, by using the dust functions of her rifle she attempts to lock down (ice) or obstruct the view(steam) of the opponent. In general she prefers to keep her opponents at a medium-range where she is most accurate with her rifle, with her team in between her and them. She has no shield or armor leaving her vulnerable to ranged attacks, relying on cover for protection. In melee combat she utilizes a defensive technique to compensate for her lack of strength, which works against an average opponent however anyone who is particularly physically strong (or with better technique) can certainly overpower her. When she has her weapon in its melee form it completely removes her ranged and dust capacities, making her a lot less effective.
Though she only has some limited paramedical training she still carries a basic first aid kit in a pouch on her thigh with some bandaids, bandages, sterilizing alcohol, pain killers, dust powered ice pack, and a suture kit, though she rarely has any use for them as most wounds are healed by aura she still carries it with her on all missions.
WEAPONName: Eclipse
Primary Form: Rifle
Diana’s weapon is essentially a rifle with two barrels and a bayonet, though as with most handmade weapons in Remnant there is more going on in this simple design. The lower of the two barrels is a single-shot rifle for medium range, here she can fire twelve rounds before having to reload. These shots may not have the stopping power of the other barrel but they still pack a punch and function as her main source of ranged damage. The top barrel is more reminiscent of a bolt action sniper rifle, here she can fire much larger bullets, though only one can be loaded at a time. Whilst it can be a high-impact sniper round, she usually uses it to fire a lower velocity but larger dust rounds to deliver a greater payload.
Secondary Form: Compact & Sword
The pivotal part of the design is that of the circular handle, as both it and the parts around it can rotate. This is most obvious as the weapon is taking its compact form. Here the stock collapses to cover the blade which in turn retracts pushing the handle out of the central ring, this is the form her weapon is usually carried on her belt. The sword handle is protruding for easy access in a surprise encounter, in order to get the full rifle she simply needs to push the handle back into the ring before pulling it off her belt. She designed the sword to detach from the main body of the weapon in order to keep the blade light which is important for someone who isn’t all that strong. As the triggers for her rifle are on the sword handle she can’t shoot when detached.
Dust Functions:The main of her dust utility comes from the top barrel, her preferences are for ice and steam. Using the ice to control the battlefield and lock down opponents and steam to obstruct the line of sight from ranged opponents. Whilst those are her favorites she does still carry a few fire, electricity, and gravity rounds for utility.
History: Diana's weapon is one that has gone through a multitude of variations since its inception. The changes were both to find a design she was effective with, but also to ensure it was reliable in the Atlas climate. Early renditions were too heavy to use in melee until she allowed the blade to fully detach. When fully automatic the cold would cause the oils in the rifle to thicken making it jam, the newer mechanism has a significantly slower rate of fire but is far more reliable. The top barrel was added as she learned more about the application of dust allowing for the use of larger ammunition whilst keeping it reliable by feeding it manually. Some of these limitations could be reversed now that she lives in Vale, however so far she has only removed rubber from the grips since there's no risk of frostbite.