Diya

> "*I'm...I'm a... Les....................lesb.................biab.... Les...............biam..............Girls.........*"
> ― Diya
>
>

**Diya** is one of the four main characters in the visual novels *Butterfly Soup* and its sequel *Butterfly Soup 2*. During the events of both games, she is a freshman in high school and is a member of the Baseball Club.

## Appearance

Third grade Diya was shorter than Noelle, but still incredibly athletic, so much so that she was rumored to have a six-pack already. She wore a black Nike baseball cap with a white swoosh, a grey hoodie with pink-and-white striped sleeves and a hood with the same color scheme, long black gloves, grey-and-black track pants, and off-white Nike runners. Her hair was tied up into a ponytail.

Diya has very long eyelashes, golden brown eyes, light brown skin, and wavy, dark brown hair.

Ninth grade Diya is above average height and extremely jacked; she has a six-pack and can run very long distances. Diya's hair is too short to make a ponytail, so she ties up as much as she can, resulting in a small ponytail at the back of her head while quite a lot of her hair stays loose, escaping the hairband. She regularly sports a blue (almost periwinkle) hooded sweatshirt with a pink flower pattern and white drawstrings, a black long sleeve shirt (underneath the sweatshirt) with thumbholes, black leggings, and black gym shorts. Her hoodie is inspired by a specific Adidas x Jeremy Scott tracksuit. Diya still wears the same style cap and shoes as she did in third grade. Her backpack is similar to the Jansport style, although no logo is displayed when shown on her character sheet. At the Baseball Club, Diya is dressed in a black Nike t-shirt with the team's uniform over it; the sleeves and collar of the t-shirt are visible from underneath her uniform. She has fairly long hands as well.

Diya generally has bad taste when it comes to outfits, but she looks good in everything, so she gets away with it. Besides athletic clothes, she also wears her one denim jacket often paired with tacky free t-shirts such as those that advertise car washes and the like. For bottoms, she wears jeans, track pants, and athletic leggings. It is unlike her to wear short shorts or skirts.

Diya is described to have a mediocre posture and slouches sometimes. She slouches a lot when she’s with Noelle because Noelle was taller than her in elementary school and Diya still isn’t used to the fact that she outgrew her.

## Personality

Diya is a sporty, dog-loving girl with social anxiety. She prefers to keep human conversation to a minimum even though she enjoys spending time with her friends. Diya is moreso observant and appreciates her friends' conversations in her head, but she'll pipe in if she has something important to say or if someone asks for her input.

Diya loves two things in the world more than anything else: dogs and baseball. Most of the time when there is a dog on-screen, there is an option to interact with it. She has loved baseball ever since she was little, even playing on a few teams as the only girl. She has a natural talent for sports and is very ripped.

Diya is deaf in her right ear. She got an infection in that ear when she was only a few years old--before she can remember. She's self-conscious about it. This might also be one of the reasons for her socially awkward personality, as she sometimes has trouble making out what others are saying.

When Diya says she’ll just be “annoyed internally” at Akarsha's plan, it's a pretty accurate reflection of how she is when she's angry and/or upset. Diya hates confrontation and doesn’t trust herself to be able to articulate her feelings, so she just glares daggers at everything and looks really sulky, and exercises like crazy to get the bad feelings out.

## Relationships

* Min-seo
* Noelle
* Akarsha
* Jun-seo
* Hayden
* Chryssa
* Liz
* “Sakura”
* “Yuki”
* Ester
* Diya’s Parents
* Pom and Shibe

Diya and Min-seo are dating.

Min-seo is Diya's childhood friend. They have a common interest in baseball, which was how they met. Diya was the only girl on a boys' team, and Min-seo cheered her on as others made comments on young Diya's ability in the sport compared to the boys. After Diya's game, Min personally greeted Diya and gave her a seaweed sheet, much to Diya's surprise. The two became friends after that encounter, and remained friends, doing things such as playing in the park with Min's brother, Jun-seo, and their friend Hayden. Diya also went to a baseball game with Min along with Min's brother and father.

Diya seems to share a huge connection with Min. Min's impact on Diya's life is extremely profuse even after Min's departure to Florida as a child, evident from Diya dreaming of her and Min at the dog park.

When Min is shown for a brief moment at the school during Akarsha's intentional fire alarm, even though Diya didn't get to fully interact with Min, Diya's yearning and connection with Min was enough for her to recognize them even after all those years apart.

When Min is finally reunited with Diya, they compliment her and makes it obvious that they missed Diya during their time apart. Their attraction for each other continues from where they left off five years ago. Throughout the rest of the game, Diya and Min strengthen their bond and form a romantic relationship.

Diya and Noelle are best friends.

They've both got very strict parents. Diya gifted Noelle a large stuffed snake plushie as a kid because it reminded her of Noelle. Noelle still has it. Diya often eats Noelle's lunch, and they are close enough that she can even take some of Noelle's grapes without asking first. Because Diya eats Noelle's food a lot, they often catch each other's illnesses. This is especially bad because their immune systems are weakened from sleep deprivation.

Diya slouches a lot when she’s with Noelle because Noelle was taller than her in elementary school and Diya still isn’t used to the fact that she outgrew her.

Because Diya doesn't eat beef, Noelle picks out the sausages from her fried rice for Diya during the lunch scene during the game – she’s not sure if they have beef in them, so she has to be safe.

Diya and Akarsha are good friends.

Their parents know each other because they live in the same neighborhood and decided, “Our daughters are the same age! Perfect, they can walk to school together!” without any regard for whether Diya and Akarsha would want this.

It was really awkward at first. Diya was mortified that her parents arranged for her to walk with this random outgoing girl (The fact that they were in the same grade made it even scarier because if Diya somehow messed up, Akarsha could tell their classmates.), and Akarsha definitely would not have pursued a friendship with the nervous girl. Because they have to interact so often, they get used to each other and eventually grow to care about each other.
Diya and Jun-seo are childhood friends.

Diya and Hayden are childhood friends.

Hayden’s had a dog since elementary school, much to Diya’s delight and jealousy. After Min-seo and Jun-seo moved to Florida, Diya and Hayden kept in touch until they went to different middle schools. By the time they met again at the baseball game, they hadn’t seen each other for a few years.
Diya and Chryssa are teammates.

Diya and Liz are teammates.

Diya actually played against Liz in youth leagues before Liz transitioned. That’s why she recognizes Diya and specifically approached her to sign the baseball club form while Diya didn’t recognize her.
Diya and "Sakura" are teammates.

Diya and "Yuki" are teammates.

Diya and Ester are teammates.

Diya's parents have their flaws, but they’re not as bad as Min's or Noelle’s.

Diya doesn’t talk to her parents much because when she does, they’re prone to turning it into a lecture or criticism of her. For instance, if Akarsha were to come up in conversation, they’d go “Akarsha is so outgoing! You should try being more like that.” Obviously, her parents mean well and think they’re doing their jobs as parents, but the little stuff adds up and it all contributes to her social anxiety, on top of Diya already being hard of hearing. Diya constantly worries about embarrassing herself in front of people and being seen as weird because her parents make it sound like she’s almost always doing something wrong.

Because of this, Diya doesn’t say much to them, so a lot of their car rides and meals together are in almost complete silence. Her parents do have some good traits. Despite being homophobic, they’re relatively progressive on gender roles. They support her interests― seeing how much Diya loves sports, they’ve always let her participate even when they’re more male-dominated ones like baseball. As long as Diya keeps her grades up and doesn’t cut her hair short like Min, they pretty much let her do what she wants. They’re open-minded enough that they will change their minds on things, given enough time.

Diya's parents are the only parents out of the main quartet that are fine with Diya joining the Baseball Club.
Pom and Shibe are dogs who were adopted by Diya and Min-seo. Shibe was adopted first, although it is unknown where he was acquired; he is a Shiba Inu. Pom is a Pomeranian adopted from a shelter. She was chosen by Diya out of all the other dogs at the shelter because she reminded her of Min― they're both small and believe themselves to be indestrucitble. Unfortunately, Pom and Shibe die when Min and Diya's apartment becomes engulfed in fire. The two dogs end up in heaven, and their owners remain alive. Brianna Lei's debut game *Pom Gets Wi-Fi* tells the tale of Pom and Shibe's adventures in doggy heaven.

## Quotes

### *Butterfly Soup IGF Video*

* **Noelle:** "Diya, is the camera on?"
	+ "Camera's on. Take 27. Action."
* **Min:** "How about I kiss Diya on camera?"
	+ "Don't wanna go on camera. I'll kiss you later."

### *Butterfly Soup*

* **Min:** "Where is everyone?"
	+ "They.......balcony collapsed. Castle is under construction."
	+ **Min:** "Yeah!!! Heheheh!!! I rescued you!"
	+ "My hero."

* (That was the worst. I'm never speaking again. Time to become a mime.)
* (I want 5 dogs when I grow up. It'll be like having 5 friends.)
* "I already call you Min. No one says DIE-ya."
	+ **Min**: "The substitute teacher does."
	+ "The substitute teacher sucks."
* "사랑해." (I love you.)
* (I didn't realise it back then, but now that I think about it, that was really... Could it be that I'm...I'm a... Les....................lesb............. ....biab.... Les...............biam...... ........Girls.........)
* "Also, do you ever think about how crazy it is that we're friends. In any part of history up until now, we never would've met. And even if we did by some miracle, we wouldn't speak the same language. We wouldn't even be able to communicate."
* **Akarsha**: "They don't speak Hindi in Tamil Nadu. Right, Madrasi?
	+ "Don't call me that."
	+ **Akarsha:** "What's wrong with calling you Madrasi when you're from Madras?"
	+ "What's wrong with calling you an idiot when you are one?"

* (I'M GAY. I'M GAY. I'M GAY!)

* "Snowflakes are actually really, really small. Not like you would think from Christmas decorations."
* "You can make nutella sandwiches and eat them. If you do this three times a day you'll have three meals for like $1.50."
* "I... ....................less....... .............bean. I like a girl."
* **Min:** "You're welcome. I'd kill someone if you asked me to."
	+ "I'm pretty sure you'd kill someone even if I didn't ask you to."

* "I... I want to hold hands with you and cuddle."
* "You know how during metamorphosis, inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar turns to soup? It melts into this disgusting muddled goo slushie. Everyone is a mess when they're growing up. Some people are just better at hiding it than others."
* "If you want to be a butterfly, you have to be butterfly soup first."
* "...And if an alligator attacks you, go for the eyes."

## Trivia

* Diya once held onto an apple core for forty-five minutes because she didn't want people to see her walk across the classroom to the trash can.
* In third grade, there were already rumors that Diya had a six-pack since she's insanely athletic.
* Diya's worst fear is disappointing her parents.
* If Diya had a dog she'd name it Pom or Shibe. This is a reference to another game by Brianna Lei, *Pom Gets Wi-Fi*.
* Diya's morning routine includes lying in bed for ten minutes thinking about how tired she is.
* Diya's username on her social media is just "Diya", and her profile picture is of a Samoyed dog with a funny headband.
* Diya enjoys visiting the Home Depot's light section. It feels like a special place in another world to her, and she has fun pretending to furnish houses and pick out her favorite lights.
* Diya hates bittermelon.
* Diya finally saw a picture of what tiger sharks look like in ninth grade. She was so disappointed she had to lie down.
* Diya likes crunching on ice cubes.
* When Diya goes to people's houses, she's too scared to ask where the cups are, so she goes to the bathroom and drinks from the faucet instead.
* Whenever an assembly is over and everyone's supposed to help carry the folding chairs back, she secretly hopes people will notice how many she's holding.
* Diya would belong to the Hogwarts House of Hufflepuff and play Quidditch.
* As an adult, Diya looks really similar, the only drastic change is that every few years, Diya goes through a phase where she’s too lazy to cut her hair and lets it grow out. Min is the number one fan of this, but eventually, Diya feels that her hair is getting in the way and cuts it back to its original length.
* A car ride with Diya’s mom was actually in an early draft of the game but was cut because despite being enlightening, with Diya’s personality it was pretty boring.

* Diya's first kiss was with Noelle, by accident, when they were under ten-years-old. Diya doesn't remember it, but Noelle still does.
* Diya's idea of a perfect date would be going to a dog park or animal shelter.
* Diya eventually finds out the real meaning of "sarang eh" sometime after she and Min start dating. After she finds out, she uses it for the actual meaning.
* In the future, Diya has to call Min to tell her about the fire in her and Min's apartment, causing the loss of their dogs at the time, Pom and Shibe, because Min is out of town at the time of the fire. Diya, and eventually Min when they are back in town, sleeps on Noelle’s couch for a bit. Noelle and Akarsha aren’t living together then and Noelle has a nicer, cleaner apartment. It sounds like a really miserable process, but Min and Diya are okay in the end.
* Diya and Min probably manage to break into minor league baseball and eventually the MLB.
* Diya has seen some basic anime like *Pokémon*, *Digimon*, and *Yu-Gi-Oh!*
* The initial vision of the game was in Diya's POV the entire time.
* Diya loves all dogs, and her preference always changes depending on her mood. One of her favourites is Samoyed dogs (the breed she uses as her chat avatar) because they're large and fluffy.
* In the future, Diya gets many more dogs after Pom and Shibe.
* Despite not being as book smart as Noelle or Akarsha, Diya is enrolled in all honors classes and has to try extra hard to keep up sometimes. So both times we see Diya wake up in the game, she’s fallen asleep studying. She rarely has to do this, though.
* Diya is a Harry Potter fan, her favorite movie being either *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* or some dog movie.
* Diya eventually teaches Min to say "I love you" in Tamil.
* Diya's MBTI personality type is probably ISFJ-T.
* Diya self-identifies as lesbian.
	+ Diya is also demisexual, which is part of the asexual spectrum. Demisexual describes someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction unless a strong emotional bond is formed first.
* At their wedding, Diya and Min get WAY too into kissing during the ceremony and Noelle clears her throat loudly to remind them there are children watching.
	+ Diya tosses the bouquet and Akarsha catches it.
	+ The wedding cake is artificially blue colored AND mango flavored. Diya single-handedly eats about 1/5th of it.
* Diya has excellent vision, like at least 20/12. Compared to the average person, she’s really good at detecting motion and has good peripheral vision. This is partially why she’s naturally so good at sports (along with being buff).
* She has this "talent" of accidentally getting her hand stuck in things. For example, she’s gotten her hand stuck in a salsa jar, vending machine, milk jug, etc. Once she’s tried and failed to get her hand out, she’ll just be stuck and accept her fate until someone like Noelle or a teacher sees.
* When Diya feels even slightly sick, she immediately tries to sleep it off. And when she really is sick, she sleeps all day. She heard once that sleeping is good when you’re sick and really took it to heart.
* Diya is Hindu, which is why she doesn't eat beef.
* Diya and Noelle watch Min and Akarsha dare each other to eat ghost peppers and go through a shared experience--questioning why they're in love with these people.
* *Hachi: A Dog's Tale* is the kind of movie Diya would love to watch.
* In Dungeons & Dragons, Diya would be a Ranger because the Wiki on 5th edition says: "The Beast Master archetype forges a connection between civilization and beasts, allowing the character to interact with animals in certain ways including gaining an animal companion to control." Fighter and Knight are also plausible options.
* Diya has never tried smoking weed.
* Diya's never played a first-person shooter before, but when playing *Overwatch*, she sees the dog helmet on Pharah’s Anubis skin and instantly unlocks it, automatically setting her as a Pharah main. Diya is the type to happily choose Pokémon based on cuteness instead of practicality, so this is typical Diya.
	+ During a game, Diya manages to get a triple kill with a concussion blast through sheer luck before accidentally killing herself with her own rocket. In the kill feed, Diya has managed to accidentally kill herself again with Rocket Barrage. Eventually, the match ends in defeat but Diya got POTG for her triple kill.
* Diya will play *Mario Kart* at other people’s houses but doesn’t regularly play games. When playing *Mario Kart* with Min, Min always lets her play as Luigi.
* Before presenting in front of a class, Diya dreads it starting from the night before the presentation and has trouble falling asleep due to anxiety. As the time to present approaches, she gets more and more nervous and sweaty, to the point that she doesn't have an appetite and her stomach hurts. During the presentation, if she has note cards or a PowerPoint to read off of, she stares at that the whole time and reads at lightning speed. Diya has to write down what she’s going to say word for word--she can’t just put chunks and phrases on note cards because she won't be able to construct a coherent sentence. Her life flashes before her eyes whenever she stutters or messes up a sentence. If she doesn’t have anything to read off of, she stares at inanimate objects instead of the audience, completely blanks out, and sometimes when she can’t recover from that, she panics and tries to end the presentation prematurely by suddenly going back to her desk. Just bad all around.
* While trick-or-treating on Halloween, Diya and Min match, with Diya as Red Riding Hood and Min as the Big Bad Wolf.
	+ A few times, Akarsha runs ahead of the gang and jumps out at them from behind bushes. Diya reacts by jumping backwards.
	+ One house’s decorations are too good and Diya gets scared.
	+ Diya got most of Noelle's candy because Noelle didn't want it.
* Diya doesn’t have a dog yet in high school – she’s always begged for one but her parents knew they’d be too busy to handle it. So their house has a fish tank with guppies.
* Diya's favorite color is light blue.
* Diya is an only child.
* Diya gets a bit scared even during tense bits of regular movies. So she clings to Min in fear almost the entire way through actual horror movies, jolts at jump scares, buries her face in Min’s side, etc. Min really enjoys watching movies with Diya because of this. While she doesn't scream, she just stays silently scared.
* Diya and Min live together when they are in college. They occasionally visit Noelle, who is about an hour away. As with Akarsha, they would have to take a plane if they wanted to see her.
* In the future, Min and Diya do not have children, and if they did, they would probably make their toddler children hang by a curtain rod while taking a picture. They end up owning dogs instead.
* The main quartet's name together spells D.A.M.N. in the order of Diya, Akarsha, Min-seo, and Noelle.
* Diya likes to jog to Owl City with dog and cat sounds.

## Gallery

Diya's Chatroom IconDiya's CardReference SheetDiya AnnoyedDiya AwayDiya Happy AwayDiya BlushDiya DelightedDiya HappyDiya NeutralDiya ShockedDiya SurprisedDiya WorriedDiya Worried AwayBaseball Diya AnnoyedBaseball Diya AwayBaseball Diya Happy AwayBaseball Diya BlushBaseball Diya DelightedBaseball Diya HappyBaseball Diya NeutralBaseball Diya ScaredBaseball Diya ShockedBaseball Diya SurprisedBaseball Diya WorriedBaseball Diya Worried AwayUpdated Young DiyaShibe and Future Diya's AppearancePomSample Diya's ShirtOutdated Reference SheetConcept ArtFlashback Concept ArtOutfits Concept ArtStyle Test Concept ArtAU SniperDiyaMinDiya's Jacket InspirationAdult Diya Sketch
## References

1. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/tagged/my+post/page/4
2. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/167063187464/butterfly-soup-asks-17
3. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/168404468849/butterfly-soup-asks-19
4. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166099484839/butterfly-soup-asks-11
5. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166240505359/butterfly-soup-asks-13
6. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166727493239/butterfly-soup-asks-16
7. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166346368104/butterfly-soup-asks-14
8. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165753625584/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-6
9. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/ButterflySoup/comments/lsz76n/bs\_wiki\_information\_sources/gov7u3d?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
10. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165643187249/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-5
11. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165771377569/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-7
12. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165996723949/butterfly-soup-asks-batch-10
13. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166166079834/butterfly-soup-asks-12
14. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166487755089/butterfly-soup-asks-15
15. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/167577525429/butterfly-soup-asks-18
16. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/169291192839/butterfly-soup-asks-20