blood is constant

Player Information
Player name: Kimi
Contact: revengeance or PMs to journals (embody.
Are you over 18: Y
Characters in The Box Already: N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Dio Brando
Canon: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Canon Point: Before the events of Part 3: Stardust Crusaders.
History: Dio’s History at the JoJo wikia
Personality:
Dio’s a monster. in the literal and figurative way.

Let’s start with the figurative aspect. Dio fulfils many of the criteria for him to be classified as a psychopath and this has been the case since a young age. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist is a list of characteristics which indicate psychopathic behaviour. Dio ticks off many, many points ranging from superficial charm, lack of remorse, a need for stimulation to poor behavioural controls - making him a dangerous and very good villain. And this is before he gets vampiric powers. Vampiric powers just allowed him to extend his ambitions far beyond that of mere acquisition of money or power, and into that of being able to take over the world.

From the very beginning, we see that Dio is highly driven. He comes from a poor family with an abusive father and is driven to escape his circumstances by any means possible and to ascend his station. When the possibility of him being able to claim the Joestar’s considerable fortune presents itself, Dio takes it because he believed that the rich were able to repress those who threatened their position with power and money and thus represented the freedom he desperately wanted. This ambition drives his actions at the beginning of Part 1: Phantom Blood, Dio has no problems killing his father covertly with illegal and invisible poisons to advance towards his goals. He also has no problem doing the exact same thing later in life to kill George Joestar to further hasten his claim towards the Joestar fortune. When he becomes a vampire, his goal switches to taking over the entire world because he now has the power to crush any impediments and evade death, which is perhaps the greatest impediment of them all towards any well formed plans.

He is intelligent and scheming, and has no regrets about actually executing his plans either. When asked how many people he’s killed to bring his plans to fruition, he replies by asking “How many breads have you eaten in your life?” Far beyond being a funny phrase, it goes to show exactly what kind of value Dio places on human life. Humans are nothing more than nourishment, in the same manner that bread is nourishment to humans.

Despite his ruthlessness, Dio is able to charm and manipulate people to do his will or to influence them. He does this under the guise of being the perfect scholar, the perfect heir, the most charismatic leader or the most helpful person on the planet. He knows how to appeal to what people want the most - be it money, power or revenge. To Dio, people are no more than tools, which are kept as long as they are useful. Thus, he has an inability to form attachments to people. Any emotional attachment is merely shallow.

At this canon point, there is only one person that Dio has any sort of emotional attachment to, and that is Jonathan Joestar.

From the very beginning, it was clear that despite Jonathan’s apparent naiveté and willingness to welcome Dio as a brother, Dio rejects this out right and treats it no more than insulting niceties. He proceeds to ruin Jonathan’s life by killing his dog (whose only crime was existing and being Jonathan’s friend), turning his family and friends on him and finally, he steals the first kiss of Jonathan’s love interest so that she rejects Jonathan out of shame. This is the turning point where Jonathan bests him in a fight, for Dio believed that he had crushed Jonathan’s morale to the point where he didn’t fight back and found himself losing for it. He arrogantly underestimated the tenacity of his opponent, and he yet refuses to recognise this.

Dio does not understand ideas of friendship or love. He has demonstrated on a number of occasions that he was forming a meaningful relationship with anyone and rejects any attempts for anyone to attempts to do so, for he believes they’re only out to undermine him - because that is what he would do. He is unable to understand selfless behaviour or the idea of honour, and ultimately this is what allows Jonathan to best him again and reduce him to a severed head.

Dio believes he’s untouchable and this is due to a combination of ego and arrogance. He more intelligent and more capable than most people, so why would he himself get his hands dirty? He has no problems throwing hordes of undead zombies to chase after Jonathan and company rather than eliminating him himself. When he does find himself in a position where he is vulnerable and he gets a reminder that he is not as untouchable as he makes himself out to be - Dio loses his temper. Really badly. He is very much fond of being in control and having his control over a situation thwarted is something that he does not learn to deal with, at all. His rage is uncontrollable and this, coupled with his lack of something to hold him back, makes him utterly destructive. He recognises that much at this current canon point, which forces him to search for someone to help him control his rages.

It’s also worth nothing that the emotional attachment that Dio forms towards Jonathan is ultimately unhealthy. First, when he rejects his humanity and becomes a vampire, he doesn’t kill Jonathan with his own hands due to the fact that they did grow up together and it would be simpler to have him eliminated without Dio ever having to think about it too much. This comes back to bite him on the arse quite hard, as Dio being nice to Jonathan (and this is him being nice) is what eventually undoes him.

He now respects Jonathan more than ever, for Jonathan is the only person who has beat him. He admires all that Jonathan is, all he stands for and obsesses over him even in the reduced state that he is. When Wang Chung insults Jonathan when he sneaks Dio on to the boat Jonathan and Erina are on, Dio snaps at him to give Jonathan respect. When it is clear that Jonathan is willing to die in order to make sure Dio dies as well, he is shocked. Which is why Dio’s view on life and existence is markedly different when the coffin containing him and Jonathan’s body is found in Part 3.

Dio after his “death” and subsequent re-entry into the world at the beginning of Part 3 is markedly different, yet more dangerous. Having another lease on life is one thing, but having another lease on life through the body of the person who had supposedly killed you that you had an unhealthy relationship with in the first place? That is something that is not to be wasted under any circumstance. He loves that he is fused with Jonathan now, and I mean that in the most genuine sense. He spends most of Part 3 shirtless and wearing tight trousers, as if to constantly at admire Jonathan’s body. He is possessive more than ever over it, enjoying the fact that he is using Jonathan’s body. He refuses to fight Jotaro and crew later in Part 3 due of a combination of ego and a drive to not sully Jonathan’s body.

His ambition is still there to take over the world, but is still “soul searching” (I use the term lightly, if only to indicate the seriousness which Dio treats this with) for a way to do so. A hundred years of contemplation of the bottom of the sea will do that to you.

Items on your character at canon point:
Apart from the clothes he’s wearing, nothing.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
Dio at this point, has fused with Jonathan Joestar’s body but he has not met Enya Gail nor come into contact with the arrow which will give him his Stand. This form of Dio’s is known as Shadow Dio. Based off Shadow Dio’s appearance as a character in the JoJo fighting game Heritage for the Future, Shadow Dio retains most of his abilities as a vampire but has not gained full mastery of Jonathan’s body. He is however, more powerful than he was in Phantom Blood but not as powerful as he is in in the latter part of Stardust Crusaders where he completes the fusion using the blood of one of Jonathan’s descendants.

Abilities
- Vampirism and everything that brings. Vampirism in JoJo is a special thing and requires its own subsection. He is able to absorb the blood of human beings in order to sustain himself and he does this through tentacles that shoot from his fingers.

* Invulnerability. He no longer needs to perform biological processes to survive.
* Further enhancements to his already considerable strength, bringing it to the realm of super human.
* Sensory enhancements. His senses are stronger.
* He can shoot eye lasers. I don’t know how to explain this other than Dio can pressurise blood to shoot out of his eyes that is strong enough to cut through stone.
* Regeneration. By drinking the blood of humans, he is able to regenerate himself to a great degree. This is first demonstrated in the fire of the Joestar Estate where the flames are unable to damage Dio as he was regenerating his body faster than the flames were burning him.
* Freezing technique. Dio gains such control over his body that he is able to lower his body temperature to freeze his own body parts. Most prominently shown as a way for him to counter the Ripple, as he can freeze the blood of a Ripple user to prevent it spreading to him.

- Bio-organic manipulation. In Part 1, Dio is able to use his vampiric abilities to make chimeras that are half animal, half man. He can fuse with other living beings to take control of their bodies. In Part 3, he largely forgoes this but is still able to create “flesh buds”, a parasitic ball of cells that originate from his body that can be used to control others. Dio can spawn these buds of flesh which can take over the body of the host and eventually kill them. They can be removed, but it is difficult to do so as it implants directly into the user’s brain. (Jotaro was able to remove the flesh buds controlling Noriaki Kakyoin and Jean Pierre Polnareff only through the fact that his Stand, Star Platinum is capable of high precision manoeuvres) In certain cases, leaving the flesh bud for too long can kill the host.

- Ability to create zombies. People who have been completely drained of blood by Dio (and vampires in general) are turned into zombies. Zombies have mild vampiric abilities, can be killed by sunlight and the Ripple but are impervious to pain.

Strengths
- Super human strength. Pretty self explanatory, being a vampire just boosted his considerable strength.
- Intelligent. In both his younger years and when he re-emerges in Part 3, Dio is shown to be highly intelligent. He has a great awareness and capacity for learning. In addition, he enjoys reading books and is depicted doing so in his spare time.
- Charismatic. He knows what it will take to get others to work for him. He is able to read people and interact with them on a level so that they will be infatuated by him, fear him or essentially feel whatever he wants them to.
- Resilient. It takes a hell of a lot to kill him.
- Peerless. He will stop at nothing to reach his goals, going even as so far as leaving detailed instructions on how it can be achieved to his confidant Enrico Pucci later in Part 3, in the event that he is unable to do so himself.
- Posing. All JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures characters are seemingly able to pose in a manner that is highly impractical while having mundane conversations.

Weaknesses
- He is unable to be exposed to sunlight, as that would kill him immediately. The Ripple force, as used by Jonathan, Zepelli et al would also kill him if he is exposed to enough of it. In the fighting game All Star Battle, Dio is one of a number of characters that can only be battled in indoor or evening stages until certain requirements are fulfilled.
- His fusion with Jonathan Joestar’s body is not complete, and thus will avoid sustaining too much damage to his body unless absolutely necessary. To complete the fusion, it is necessary for him to absorb blood from a Joestar.
- Emotional detachment. Though Dio is superficially able to relate to people in order to manipulate them, he has a pathological degree of emotional detachment to others. Throughout his life Dio is only shown to make a meaningful connection to one person besides his obsession with Jonathan and their relationship is nothing short of odd and is tenuously a “friendship”.
- Arrogance. Ultimately it's his arrogance which allows him to be defeated in both Part 1 and Part 3, underestimating his foes' resilience and humanity.
- Temper. Dio never really fully masters his temper and it can get the better of him.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:
[ The video feed flickers on and one would not be mistaken in thinking that it wasn’t working, for the screen was still displaying black.

It takes a little longer before it becomes apparent that someone is moving in the blackness, someone who has their back to their camera so that the only thing the lens picks up is the outline of someone’s back, and if you squinted hard enough you may be able to see an unusual birth mark in the shape of a star on his shoulder. ]

Tedious.

[ There’s no question that the voice is coming from the shadowy figure. ]

That is a life without books. It is increasingly difficult to find reading material in this place.

[ The shadowy figure seems to be moving, yet with such darkness on screen - it is hard to tell. ]

The library has no more fruit for me to pluck, how unfortunate. For those of you who have books in your possession, I have my doubts that they are used in a manner that befits them in your hands.

[ Dio turns sideways so that he is now looking directly at the camera. It is but one eye, but one eye glaring with anger. ]

I will relieve them from you in due course, and any attempts in resisting will be useless.

Prose Log Sample:

He flicks though the small pile of books that appeared outside his residence by those who were frightened by his broadcast on the network. It’s sufficient to keep his attention away from other matters for a little while longer, but these books are of seemingly low quality. Yet he cannot turn them away, for it would be a waste to do so. Once he is done with them, then disposing of them becomes an option.

The unassuming cover and title “Eighty Shades of Grey” led him to believe that it would be some sort of examination into colour. He wondered whether any human could truly experience colour as it appeared to him, as his eyes were stronger than any human’s could ever be. The world appeared more different after a hundred years, and not just in advancements in human progress. The world was bathed in a light that he had never experienced before - he learned that this was due to "electricity", a natural phenomena that was now harnessed to power machinery. His natural aversion to light meant that he avoided it, but it seemed like it caused less harm than sunlight.

Dio sat down in the armchair and flicked open to the first page. He scowls almost immediately. The prose is of low quality and utterly vapid. He continues reading several chapters and it doesn’t take long for him to lose his patience with the book, for it offered him absolutely nothing! It was useless! Absolutely useless! It was not even entertaining in its horrid quality, making it as useless as Jonathan’s dog. It doesn’t take him long before he is very well tempted to create a hole in the book to render it unreadable.

It takes him a minute of gripping the book tightly, the pages barely staying connected to the spine with how Dio was holding them before he sets the book down on the table once again. It is two steps away from being destroyed.

There is much to be said of books of low quality, for they indicated truly, how low humanity had sunk. In his younger years, he longed poured over the Greek classics and the cultured writings of the Renaissance. Even writings that were meant to be of entertainment for the masses were undoubtedly tailored by minds of such superb knowledge that they provided levels of understanding for those who were cultured enough to understand them. Shakespeare was reviled by the boys in his class and he dismissed those lowlifes immediately with a few punches to the gut when they had interrupted his reading time.

This show of nostalgia was something he was not used to. In his time confined under the sea, he barely gave a thought to his past, his thoughts were elsewhere. But it was perhaps the varied environments he was exposed to that brought back the sensory stimuli that had long been absent these past years.

"Jonathan." he hissed, holding his shoulder. The nostalgia would always return to one person, and that would be him. He takes a moment to admire the shape and musculature of Jonathan's shoulder before picking another book (a title he recognised this time - The Aeneid) and settling to read it.