The Emptiness

The Emptiness (ザ・エンプティネス *Za Enputinesu)* is the Stand of Alesana Magnusson. It takes a humanoid form with components resembling a liquid tank, and changes appearance based on its present volume in relation to its overall capacity.

## The Emptiness

* Empty
* Partial
* Full

### Type

Artificial Humanoid Close-Range Power Type Stand

## Appearance

The Emptiness takes the form of a black humanoid with features similar to a tank which indicate that it has a hollow interior, including glass-like "windows" revealing the interior of both of its legs, the centre of its head, its arms, and various other locations on its torso, most notably a large heart-shaped one on its chest; these windows typically display an interior tank containing blood. These 'separate tanks' are connected to each other and to other areas via small, thin tubes, particularly in a harness-like fashion around its chest; these also appear to be connected to two areas on its thighs: long tail-like appendages about the width of the other tubes, which attach at the ends to blades, one shaped like a spearhead, the other more closely resembling a scythe. Both display a vein-like pattern on them when in use, one coloured blue and the other red. It has no mouth or nose, but has two completely black eyes with tiny, heart-shaped pupils, rimmed at the bottom with two ridges which resemble dark circles under eyes in humans. The eyes are connected to the tube border of the central head tank. It has bulky forearms which appear to flare out slightly towards the wrist area, and its hands are claw or talon-like, not entirely unlike the talons of birds. Despite the heavy apparent composition of glass, it doesn't appear to be fragile.

## Personality

Like most Stands, The Emptiness seems to display little to no emotional autonomy and does not seem to display a personality, instead merely acting upon the whim of its user. Though it is noted to have some quirks or idiosyncrasies (such as having a very amusing way of sneaking), it can be presumed that this is just an extension of Alesana's own personality traits being displayed in his Stand's behaviour.

## Abilities

In terms of general ability, The Emptiness is an incredibly powerful Stand in fighting power; its combat power tends to fluctuate depending on its present blood volume. In terms of precision, it is lacking; the shape of its hands are not well-suited for precise motor skills, and are even somewhat unsuited for simple grip.

### Blood Siphoning and Storage

The Emptiness' primary function is the collection of blood by way of venipuncture of the median cubital vein (somewhat alike the medical procedure of blood donation) or, more commonly, through consumption by the User, Alesana; blood-drinking, otherwise known as haematophagia or sanguisugence, likened to classical vampirism. The blood is usually drawn from the external carotid artery in the neck, purportedly the best place to draw blood from non-fatally. The jugular can also be drawn from, however, a puncture to the jugular is unlikely to be survived. Its full blood capacity is unclear; being as it is human in shape and roughly the size of an adult, assumedly, it could contain approximately 5 litres or about 1.35 gallons of blood - the approximate average blood volume of a human adult - however, given that it is completely hollow inside with no bones, organs, or other internals to take up space, it is likely it can contain significantly more blood than a single adult produces.

The blood collected by the Stand is then stored inside its internal tanks, of which it has multiple, or at least multiple compartments. Any blood taken is separated and placed into a proper compartment, generally sorted by blood type; A type blood is separated from B, AB, and O type blood, A+ is separated from A-, and so on. Animal blood is known to cause complications, possibly due to the inability to sort it by the 5 human blood groups, as different animals have different blood types, which, when it comes to human blood, can be dubious in terms of compatibility; drinking animal's blood seems to cause Alesana significant nausea and digestive unrest.

Its combat capability is largely dependent on the volume of blood it contains, as well as certain aspects of its appearance, and, to some extent, the vitality and mental state of its User. The more blood it has stored, the stronger it is and the more vibrant it appears. The vampiric nature of the Stand inflicts a deep craving for blood onto its User. When low on blood, Alesana may be sluggish and dazed, and he's in the clearest mental state when The Emptiness is at full tank. Because of this and the general craving for blood he suffers, when The Emptiness' blood volume is too low for too long, Alesana goes into a dazed mental state and becomes entirely focused on getting more blood, from anyone, at any cost, with little to no restraint.

There have been cases where Alesana, typically in this abnormal state of mind, drains a victim of blood to the point of near exsanguination, yet the victim survives; most notably, Limbo Adkins, who survived the near-complete exsanguination upon being attacked by Alesana.

The Emptiness appears to be able to 'deny' blood for collection, typically for blood containing harmful substances. In doing this, it prevents Alesana from fully ingesting this blood if he drinks it, to avoid adverse affects. Fully absorbing contaminated blood into his own body could result in him getting drunk, suffering the effects of drugs or contracting life-threatening diseases. In a similar vein, because consumed blood is collected directly into the Stand, Alesana typically doesn't face the issue of blood staining his fangs.

### Blood Analysis

When The Emptiness collects blood, it automatically analyses and gathers particularly in-depth information about the blood including but not limited to: blood type, blood sugar levels, blood alcohol content, and the presence of disease, drugs, as well as information about the source of the blood, such as their current blood volume, allowing him to determine an amount of blood loss. Alesana purportedly comes to awareness of all this information "by the taste" of the blood. In doing this, Alesana has a tendency to hesitate for a moment before following through with ingestion, so that he's able to determine whether the blood he's drinking might harm him, typically by the presence of blood-borne diseases (such as HIV, hepatitis and many STDs) or drugs.

Once it's taken a person's blood, Alesana can track them down from miles away, supposedly 'by smell'. He can tell people apart from the smell of their blood, given he's previously drunk from both.

### Blood Transfusion

Because it stores so much blood, and further because it separates by blood type, the Stand functions as a bit of a blood bank. Incidentally, The Emptiness is also capable of doing blood transfusions. So long as it has enough blood of a compatible type, it can transfuse it into a recipient, akin to an IV. Its spearhead tail is typically used for this, stabbing into the recipient (typically in the arm) to access a vein, then pumping blood through. Despite the size of the spearhead tail, it doesn't seem to cause much physical injury in doing this.

### Numbing and Sealing

When in use, The Emptiness apparently stimulates the production of some sort of chemical in Alesana's saliva that, once Alesana is done drinking someone's blood, will numb the area and allow for haemostasis - often sealing or scabbing the wound - comparable but inverse from the saliva of vampire bats, which contains anticoagulants to prevent clotting while feeding. This presents an upside; Alesana can typically help numb and scab an open injury, whether he's responsible for it or not, though it typically involves allowing him to lick the currently-bleeding area.