♦ Until 1885, the diary is in French. Afterwards, a mix of French, American English, Vietnamese, and Japanese.
♦ Joel I is a wealthy man living in Bordeaux, France who fancies himself a scientist. His estate is colloquially called The Zoo because of his many experiments on animals. Really he's just rich and bored, this is evident from his scattered note taking style and lack of technical terms, even ones that would have been common in the era.
♦ After Joel's death in 1883, the diary was continued by his heirs. Around the section in 1883 where he died there is substantial smoke and fire damage to the pages.
♦ Around 1820, an expedition finds a mummified creature in Iceland, along with two cocoons which they believe to be fossilized. It takes Joel until 1833 to secure a way to bring the creature to Bordeaux. He describes the creature as huge and batlike, and calls it Saya. The species is named Chiropterans, after the vaguely scientific name for a bat. He and his research assistant, Amshel, try to dissect it and the cocoons but find them impenetrable.
♦ In April 1833, Amshel cuts himself trying to open one of the cocoons and bleeds on it. After that, it shows signs of life: a faint heartbeat, subtle movement. They splash the second cocoon with blood as well. In August 1833, two twin Queens are hatched. One is Saya, the other remains unnamed. The twins appear human, they theorize that this is because they were revived with human blood.
♦ Experiments conducted on Saya are more benign, Joel bribes and cajoles her into learning various skills to test her abilities. They find out fairly quickly that she needs to drink blood to survive, though he feeds it to her in a glass and calls it "medicine." Saya is never told what she is. The way Joel writes about her it's clear that he thinks of her as a daughter, but the way he describes her is just creepy. He writes about her alternately in language one would use to describe a tool or object, and in overly effusive prose like he's writing a love letter. Reading it is fairly sickening. He exploits her to show off for his rich friends as some sort of proof that he's found the next stage of human evolution.
♦ The unnamed twin queen with blue eyes is stored in a cell in one of the towers. They feed her just enough blood to keep her alive, but very weak. The experiments conducted on her are horrifying. Evisceration, severing limbs, testing how much she can be starved before she nears death, testing different types and freshness of blood on her as well as other concoctions such as acid and preservatives. Essentially they discover that she can heal from anything but the pain of injuries is as potent as a human's.
♦ The twins' blood has an incredible healing factor and reacted violently when mixed. Further experiments on it were not successful, though it was found that the reactivity of their blood diminishes quickly once its removed from them.
♦ In 1883, Saya found her sister, named her Diva, and let her out. Diva proceeded to burn the Zoo to the ground and killed Joel and most of his guests (there was an event that night for Joel's birthday). Amshel, the research assistant, took Diva and fled.
♦ Saya turned her longtime friend Haji by feeding him her blood, and the term Chevalier was coined.
♦ Shortly after Diva's release and escape, Saya began falling into hibernation. When she woke the amnesia was discovered, but there is a cure for it: repeatedly drinking the blood of a Chevalier.
♦ The journal painstakingly lists the approximate death dates and locations of all of the Chevaliers, and due to the organization's tendency to blow up places where Saya or a Chevalier had been fighting to remove evidence there are no known remains. The closest thing to a body available is somewhere in the Ural Mountains near Yekaterinburg, exact location unknown.
♦ Theories for a Queen's hibernation abound. Most prominent is that is could be intended to limit their numbers, as they can be territorial. The theory for the amnesia is that sleeping for so long just numbs their mind until they are nothing but base instincts.
♦ Joel's descendants form and organization called Red Shield and discuss Saya as if she's a weapon for their use in the fight against Diva and Amshel and all Diva's subsequent Chevaliers. Many attempts are made to coerce or outright force her into fighting where and when they want her to. Usually, she complies because she is told it's necessary to protect people. They tap into her guilt about Diva frequently.
♦ As technology progressed over the decades, Amshel was able to use some of Diva's blood to create lesser Chiropterans from humans using experimental serums. These cannot appear human as Queens and Chevaliers do and are essentially in a pure rampage all the time. This is what typically results from DNA manipulation of a Queen's blood.
♦ Many, many attempts were made to create bullets and other weapons using Saya's blood, but anticoagulants and time outside her body render it useless. Saya needs to have direct blood to blood contact with a Chiropteran monster or Chevalier to kill it, and it is presumed that mixing her blood with Diva's would kill Diva, and vice-versa. She was given a sword outfitted with blood channels to aid in killing them.
♦ There is an explanation for Saya's berserk rampage: Red Shield tried to wake her from hibernation early so she could fight some Chiropterans in Vietnam during the war. When they attempted to give her blood to wake her, she massacred the town where they woke her and several squads of soldiers. Estimated casualties were in the hundreds.
♦ There are many, many entries about skirmishes where Red Shield dropped Saya in and commanded her to fight, then destroyed all evidence using some sort of catastrophe or war zone as an excuse.
♦ Diva was able to mate with one of Saya's Chevaliers, her younger foster brother Riku, age 14, and produce new Queens. It is not stated outright but is heavily implied that Diva assaulted Riku. She then killed him by force feeding him her blood.
♦ After having the new Queens' cocoons removed from her, Diva and Saya fought. They both mixed their blood with the other's, though Diva was killed and Saya was not. A Queen's blood retains purity only until she gives birth. The new Queens could not hatch until their mother was killed; when Diva was gone, they hatched immediately.
♦ The journal lists Saya as the last remaining member of her species. There is a note at the end of the journal, listing the name Kai Miyagusuku and an address in Okinawa, Japan. (What happened to the new Queens, Diva's children? Unclear.)
Joel's Diary cw: blood, torture, murder/death, objectification/exploitation, SA of a minor
Date: Apr. 16th, 2023 11:44 pm (UTC)♦ Until 1885, the diary is in French. Afterwards, a mix of French, American English, Vietnamese, and Japanese.
♦ Joel I is a wealthy man living in Bordeaux, France who fancies himself a scientist. His estate is colloquially called The Zoo because of his many experiments on animals. Really he's just rich and bored, this is evident from his scattered note taking style and lack of technical terms, even ones that would have been common in the era.
♦ After Joel's death in 1883, the diary was continued by his heirs. Around the section in 1883 where he died there is substantial smoke and fire damage to the pages.
♦ Around 1820, an expedition finds a mummified creature in Iceland, along with two cocoons which they believe to be fossilized. It takes Joel until 1833 to secure a way to bring the creature to Bordeaux. He describes the creature as huge and batlike, and calls it Saya. The species is named Chiropterans, after the vaguely scientific name for a bat. He and his research assistant, Amshel, try to dissect it and the cocoons but find them impenetrable.
♦ In April 1833, Amshel cuts himself trying to open one of the cocoons and bleeds on it. After that, it shows signs of life: a faint heartbeat, subtle movement. They splash the second cocoon with blood as well. In August 1833, two twin Queens are hatched. One is Saya, the other remains unnamed. The twins appear human, they theorize that this is because they were revived with human blood.
♦ Experiments conducted on Saya are more benign, Joel bribes and cajoles her into learning various skills to test her abilities. They find out fairly quickly that she needs to drink blood to survive, though he feeds it to her in a glass and calls it "medicine." Saya is never told what she is. The way Joel writes about her it's clear that he thinks of her as a daughter, but the way he describes her is just creepy. He writes about her alternately in language one would use to describe a tool or object, and in overly effusive prose like he's writing a love letter. Reading it is fairly sickening. He exploits her to show off for his rich friends as some sort of proof that he's found the next stage of human evolution.
♦ The unnamed twin queen with blue eyes is stored in a cell in one of the towers. They feed her just enough blood to keep her alive, but very weak. The experiments conducted on her are horrifying. Evisceration, severing limbs, testing how much she can be starved before she nears death, testing different types and freshness of blood on her as well as other concoctions such as acid and preservatives. Essentially they discover that she can heal from anything but the pain of injuries is as potent as a human's.
♦ The twins' blood has an incredible healing factor and reacted violently when mixed. Further experiments on it were not successful, though it was found that the reactivity of their blood diminishes quickly once its removed from them.
♦ In 1883, Saya found her sister, named her Diva, and let her out. Diva proceeded to burn the Zoo to the ground and killed Joel and most of his guests (there was an event that night for Joel's birthday). Amshel, the research assistant, took Diva and fled.
♦ Saya turned her longtime friend Haji by feeding him her blood, and the term Chevalier was coined.
♦ Shortly after Diva's release and escape, Saya began falling into hibernation. When she woke the amnesia was discovered, but there is a cure for it: repeatedly drinking the blood of a Chevalier.
♦ The journal painstakingly lists the approximate death dates and locations of all of the Chevaliers, and due to the organization's tendency to blow up places where Saya or a Chevalier had been fighting to remove evidence there are no known remains. The closest thing to a body available is somewhere in the Ural Mountains near Yekaterinburg, exact location unknown.
♦ Theories for a Queen's hibernation abound. Most prominent is that is could be intended to limit their numbers, as they can be territorial. The theory for the amnesia is that sleeping for so long just numbs their mind until they are nothing but base instincts.
♦ Joel's descendants form and organization called Red Shield and discuss Saya as if she's a weapon for their use in the fight against Diva and Amshel and all Diva's subsequent Chevaliers. Many attempts are made to coerce or outright force her into fighting where and when they want her to. Usually, she complies because she is told it's necessary to protect people. They tap into her guilt about Diva frequently.
♦ As technology progressed over the decades, Amshel was able to use some of Diva's blood to create lesser Chiropterans from humans using experimental serums. These cannot appear human as Queens and Chevaliers do and are essentially in a pure rampage all the time. This is what typically results from DNA manipulation of a Queen's blood.
♦ Many, many attempts were made to create bullets and other weapons using Saya's blood, but anticoagulants and time outside her body render it useless. Saya needs to have direct blood to blood contact with a Chiropteran monster or Chevalier to kill it, and it is presumed that mixing her blood with Diva's would kill Diva, and vice-versa. She was given a sword outfitted with blood channels to aid in killing them.
♦ There is an explanation for Saya's berserk rampage: Red Shield tried to wake her from hibernation early so she could fight some Chiropterans in Vietnam during the war. When they attempted to give her blood to wake her, she massacred the town where they woke her and several squads of soldiers. Estimated casualties were in the hundreds.
♦ There are many, many entries about skirmishes where Red Shield dropped Saya in and commanded her to fight, then destroyed all evidence using some sort of catastrophe or war zone as an excuse.
♦ Diva was able to mate with one of Saya's Chevaliers, her younger foster brother Riku, age 14, and produce new Queens. It is not stated outright but is heavily implied that Diva assaulted Riku. She then killed him by force feeding him her blood.
♦ After having the new Queens' cocoons removed from her, Diva and Saya fought. They both mixed their blood with the other's, though Diva was killed and Saya was not. A Queen's blood retains purity only until she gives birth. The new Queens could not hatch until their mother was killed; when Diva was gone, they hatched immediately.
♦ The journal lists Saya as the last remaining member of her species. There is a note at the end of the journal, listing the name Kai Miyagusuku and an address in Okinawa, Japan. (What happened to the new Queens, Diva's children? Unclear.)