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Name: Berri
Personal LJ: sugarvoice
Contact Info: AIM; TaiyakinoNaku
Other Characters Played: Furude Rika, Winry Rockbell, Tsukimiya Ayu, Kagiyama Hina
Preferred Housing: n/a
Character Name: Claudia
Character Series: Crimson Shell
Character Age: 20--- though she has not grown since she was 15
I'm okay with her being sorted as either an adult or a child, depending on where you think she would go.
Background: Crimson Shell is a little-known one volume manga drawn and written by Jun Mochizuki, who is probably best known for "Pandora Hearts". The world of Crimson Shell is set in an undisclosed Era, but seems to be more modern than not in terms of having computers and floppy disks. Based on character names, it can be assumed that the series takes place in a Western Society.
Not much is said about the state of this universe. What we do know is that, five years before the present time, an unnamed "Madman" used his knowledge to create a special kind of flower--- the "Premier Rose". He kidnapped various people of ranging ages and implanted a seed from this Rose into their bodies. A host who is compatiable with the rose seed will gain powers from it; the ability to manipulate the rose vines within them, immortally (or at least, they stop aging), and a poison. By licking an open wound or exchanging blood with another, those with the rose seed in them are capable of turning their "Victims" into mindless monsters. The victim's body slowly decomposes and rots away and their sanity fails them, and they fall under the control of their Rose until they die.
And all of this power comes at a price. In order to maintain the Rose inside them, the host must allow his or her Rose to feast on the lives of living humans. This involves the vines coming out of their body and attaching to someone and then draining the life, leaving nothing but a dried up husk of a corpse.
However, there is one Rose who does not have this condition, and only needs to feed her roses when she is criticially injured. Her name is Claudia, and she is referred to as "The Crimson Rose" or "The Rose Witch Claudia". All other Rose hosts are called "Black Roses" and the especially powerful ones are called "Jet (Black) Roses". The Jet Roses take it upon themselves to lead the other Black Roses, and have special marks on their body to prove their worth.
Obviously, the Black Roses are capable of causing a lot of chaos. In deed, they tend to create Victims and feast as they need to, killing and harming many innocents on their way. In order to combat this, there exists an organization called the Red Rose. They aim to fight the Black Roses and their victims, all while researching the poison and trying to find a solution to this growing issue. The only Rose that exists peacefully within the walls of the Head Quarters building is Claudia, the Crimson Rose. She is generally feared by other members of the Red Rose, due to the fact that her roses can still kill people, but there exists a special group inside the Red Rose called the "Crimson Shell" that supports and protects her.
Before the Crimson Shell, Claudia was also an experiment of the madman who created the roses. She is the only one of her kind and was kept locked away, called a "failure" by the Black Roses. It was only once the madman disappeared that she was discovered and brought into the Red Rose. At some unnamed point, she made a contract with a man named Wilhelm and he became her "Thorn". In short, this means they made a blood covenant together and Wilhelm "shares his soul" with her and is like a personal protector. When her roses go berserk and start killing people, Wilhelm is the one who retrieves her.
The Red Rose locked Claudia in a room, which she came to think of as cage, and no one but Wilhelm interacted with her. This was due to the fact that Claudia could not control her roses back then and they would attack anyone who got close enough to "threaten" her. She might have stayed there forever, if not for a young man named Xeno.
Xeno forced his way into the room and frequently visited Claudia. He gave her long lectures on how dumb and lazy and weak she was for allowing herself to stay inside of the room. Claudia learned to control her roses because of Xeno, who recklessly provoked them to the point where Claudia had to control them or risk killing him. Because of Xeno, Claudia left the room and began to make friends with the Crimson Shell members. Xeno gave Claudia a silver bracelet and promised to always protect her and continued to give Claudia the courage she needed.
The story begins sometime after Claudia gets out of her shell. The story also ends in a very depressing manner. To avoid spoiling a very good manga, and because I don't want to pull her from an angsty angsty state of mind, I will be pulling Claudia from the beginning of the short series. She's happy and lives in the Red Rose with her friends in the Crimson Shell. The Black Roses continue to create victims, but cleaning up those messes is something she's used to and it's not particularly traumatic. It's been a while since her roses last went berserk and devoured someone and she is able to control her powers moderately well.
In accordance to the very start of the manga, Xeno has been off on a mission for a while and Claudia is very excited about him returning.
Personality: Prior to meeting Xeno, Claudia always looks to be in a daze. She is very much like a doll, waiting to be manipulated and following orders. She lives her days locked up in a room with no one to talk to but her Thorn, Wil, whom she trusts unconditionally. However, the introduction of Xeno and her new friends in the Crimson Shell help Claudia bloom into quite the little character. She has some typical tsundere qualities and is very new to the lifestyle beyond her cage.
Claudia is a little child, and not just in body. She's got a decent balance of naiveity and awareness; the world she lives in is quite dark, especially towards her, but she is well protected enough that she doesn't need to fend for herself. Claudia is a touch spoiled by the love she recieves from those around her and tends to react to it in a very tsundere manner, pretending not to enjoy the head pats that Xeno gives her or the hugs her comerades give, but all while ejoying it. Her childish side makes Claudia flare up with anger at the slightest little things and throw little tsunderekko tantrums. She's seen to have a bit of a violent temper as well-- once smacking someone with her hand and another time beating them with a chair. Dia also has trouble expressing herself, in both simple tsun tsun issues ( saying sorry ) and explaining how she feels about Xeno to herself.
Due to the dark nature of her existence, Claudia is also a pessimist. Or used to be.
Now that she is out of her shell, it is more fair to say that Dia is "an optimist in training". A large portion of the story focuses on Claudia trying to balance her doubts with her faith and trust. She has a habit of falling into depressed mindsets where she can't see the good options around her and needing her friends to give her that little shove that reminds her to be optimistic. When Claudia is in a tight situation, she will eventually blossom as a very strong-willed girl with a lot of faith in those around her. Once Claudia has decided something she will stick to it, just as once she decides to trust someone she has unshakable faith (after a short emo period).
Friends are a huge part of Claudia's character and she is very trusting towards them and cares about them all, no matter how long they've known each other. Being betrayed is shown to have a huge impact on her and send her to her emo corner until someone pulls her out.
Dia also hates to hurt people. Even though her duty to the Red Rose is the destroy Victims, Claudia has a hard time pulling the trigger on someone, no matter how bad they are. In the finale of the series, Claudia is being thrown around by her enemy because she can't bring herself to hurt someone. The fact that this someone spills their soul to her and makes her pity them makes it even harder. In fact, the only serious injury she causes it more due to her reflexively pulling the trigger without realizing what she was doing, and then seeming to regret it and feel awful later.
She at least acts like she has some style. Claudia can occasionally act very lady-like and in a very calm and cool fashion. When threatened with a situation, Claudia puts on a very controlling and collected front, acting as though she has in under control. This usually crumbles a bit later. Dia tries to carry herself with some dignity, which can seem a bit awkward given that she looks so young. It's this part of her personality that can also make Claudia come off as a bit sarcastic, critical, and mean.
In terms of how her voice is written, Dia will switch between trying to sound like a refined young lady to occasionally sounding more like a tsuning child. It truly depends on how much of a grasp she has on a situation.
Abilities: Claudia's powers mainly center around the Premier Rose Seed inside of her. Her powers are...
A) The ability to manipulate Rose Vines; they come from inside her. They are typically drawn as coming from her hands or back. Claudia can make them grow and wrap around things or use them as simple whips. In the case of fighting Victims, they devour the victim's body.
Bringing up...
B) The ability to heal herself; This is an automatic response. If Claudia's body in injured to the point that she may die, and therefore starve her roses, they automatically feed on anything and everything they can reach. Vines come out of Claudia's body and attach to the living people and then "devour" them. Claudia describes the feeling as being very hot and nauseating. She absolutely hates it, but cannot stop it.
C) Eternal Life; or at least no aging. Claudia has not aged at all since her Premier Rose Seed was implanted in her five years ago.
Premier Roses are also said to have very tough bodies, stronger than a human. Claudia is very flexible and athletic.
She also carries a gun, for emergencies.