JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an action-oriented series of manga and anime seasons based around the prolific Joestar family, and in the latter part of the series the focus comes to be around them fighting with metaphysical manifestations of their will and fighting spirits, Stands. Chocked full of musical pop culture references and creative over-the-top action, it's fun for a very specific part of the family. This roleplay will follow the basic themes of Part IV, Diamond is Unbreakable, in the sense that it's an action/slice-of-life that rotates around a small, fictional town where everyone knows one another. It'll even lean on the themes of The Arrow and a supernatural serial killer, albeit one that's far more active and a bit more subtle, and both are connected to a bigger conspiracy.
But it'll be a little different because of the Dark Secret mechanic I'll be implementing. Essentially, every one of your characters will have a direct hand in the plot, perhaps without even knowing it. When you're making your character, there'll be a section on the CS labelled Dark Secret. The premise is that you'll leave it blank, but PM whatever heinous secret your character would rather nobody else, especially not their new allies, ever heard. Then I'll tailor it into the main plot, changing minor things so that the story overall is also your character's personal story.
That all said, here's a brief draft of the plot:
June 20th, 2000: slated to be another quiet day in the idyllic, beach-side town of Pleasant Valley, California. That was when the killings started.
Havana Reddy was a perfectly healthy, twenty year old woman. She had a loving husband, and a soothing career as a yoga instructor at the local gym. She was found dead in the late afternoon, without a mark on her, her broken make up mirror clutched in her hand. Her eyes rolled back and her jaw locked, in agony.
At first the police suspected foul play, but there were no traces of poison, no signs of a struggle or forced entry... there were barely even signs of a natural cause of death.
It was eventually listed as a non-suspicious death by the local authorities: Havana Reddy was buried a week later.
And to most of the residents of Pleasant Valley, that was it, case closed. It was a case of instant but unsuspecting death: a rarity, but it happened. A dozen times a year, in the US alone.
But to a small fringe group of Pleasant Valley's locale, it was something different altogether. Because whilst most civilians knew Havana Reddy as a spritely but otherwise unremarkable woman, this small group knew her instead as the wielder of an incredible power: The emotion manipulating Stand, Midnight Oil.
She was one of perhaps one hundred Pleasant Valley locals to cross paths with a mysterious, antiquated arrow that had been introduced to the town in early 1999: one prick from its rusty tip, and a person can be made unto a God... or else killed, instantly.
And because of this shared power, every other stand user knew Reddy's death was no accident. So sudden, so quick: this must have been the work of an enemy stand.
But these same people were scared. If they used their stands to investigate, the public might discover them. Worse yet, the killer might target them!
And so nobody said a word... but the killings continued. It's now October 22nd, 2000, and Damien Bourke- Stand: Celtic Spring- has just been declared dead of "un-suspect circumstances."
Finally, a small group of stand users have gotten together in order to apprehend the killer before their numbers inevitably come up.
Just one problem: they're the graduating class of Pleasant Valley High, a group of young troublemakers who aren't going to make particularly good friends of the proper authorities or Pleasant Valley's seedy, stand-orientated criminal underbelly.
So much for another normal Pleasant Valley Sunday.
I'll probably have the OOC up within a couple days, since the uni semester is coming to an end relatively soon.
But it'll be a little different because of the Dark Secret mechanic I'll be implementing. Essentially, every one of your characters will have a direct hand in the plot, perhaps without even knowing it. When you're making your character, there'll be a section on the CS labelled Dark Secret. The premise is that you'll leave it blank, but PM whatever heinous secret your character would rather nobody else, especially not their new allies, ever heard. Then I'll tailor it into the main plot, changing minor things so that the story overall is also your character's personal story.
That all said, here's a brief draft of the plot:
June 20th, 2000: slated to be another quiet day in the idyllic, beach-side town of Pleasant Valley, California. That was when the killings started.
Havana Reddy was a perfectly healthy, twenty year old woman. She had a loving husband, and a soothing career as a yoga instructor at the local gym. She was found dead in the late afternoon, without a mark on her, her broken make up mirror clutched in her hand. Her eyes rolled back and her jaw locked, in agony.
At first the police suspected foul play, but there were no traces of poison, no signs of a struggle or forced entry... there were barely even signs of a natural cause of death.
It was eventually listed as a non-suspicious death by the local authorities: Havana Reddy was buried a week later.
And to most of the residents of Pleasant Valley, that was it, case closed. It was a case of instant but unsuspecting death: a rarity, but it happened. A dozen times a year, in the US alone.
But to a small fringe group of Pleasant Valley's locale, it was something different altogether. Because whilst most civilians knew Havana Reddy as a spritely but otherwise unremarkable woman, this small group knew her instead as the wielder of an incredible power: The emotion manipulating Stand, Midnight Oil.
She was one of perhaps one hundred Pleasant Valley locals to cross paths with a mysterious, antiquated arrow that had been introduced to the town in early 1999: one prick from its rusty tip, and a person can be made unto a God... or else killed, instantly.
And because of this shared power, every other stand user knew Reddy's death was no accident. So sudden, so quick: this must have been the work of an enemy stand.
But these same people were scared. If they used their stands to investigate, the public might discover them. Worse yet, the killer might target them!
And so nobody said a word... but the killings continued. It's now October 22nd, 2000, and Damien Bourke- Stand: Celtic Spring- has just been declared dead of "un-suspect circumstances."
Finally, a small group of stand users have gotten together in order to apprehend the killer before their numbers inevitably come up.
Just one problem: they're the graduating class of Pleasant Valley High, a group of young troublemakers who aren't going to make particularly good friends of the proper authorities or Pleasant Valley's seedy, stand-orientated criminal underbelly.
So much for another normal Pleasant Valley Sunday.
I'll probably have the OOC up within a couple days, since the uni semester is coming to an end relatively soon.