I've actually tried to run this roleplay before, but for a number of reasons it didn't quite take-off in the way I might have liked. Since then, however, Part IV of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has been released, so I figured - why not take another swing at it? Pleasant Valley Sunday takes place in the early 2000s, and is much in the same vein as Part IV in the sense that it follows a small group of Stand Users in a tiny town.
"... the body was found at 5pm this morning, crumpled on the kitchen floor, face contorted in horror..."
It was plastered all over the news for weeks. Deaths always are, in quiet, idyllic little coastal towns like this one: Pleasant Valley, California.
But it started on June 20th, 2000: that was the day the killings started.
Havana Reddy had been a perfectly healthy, twenty year old repatriated suburbanite, with a loving husband, a plethora of middle-class friends and a stress-free job as a yoga instructor at her local gym. She ate well, and took care of herself.
She turned up dead at 5pm on a warm Tuesday afternoon, sprawled out on her kitchen floor. Her husband had found her clutching a broken makeup mirror, surrounded by the shattered remains of a glass of store-bought "health juice". Her face had been contorted, in abject agony.
Police reported that there wasn't a mark on her, but suspected foul play. They thought her drink had looked suspicious, and took her husband in on suspicion of poisoning: but the toxicology came back negative, and a subsequent autopsy returned no signs of conventional poison.
In the end, they concluded that it was a rare, but not unheard of, case of sudden, unexplained death. It wasn't a common occurrence, but it happened: several times a year in the U.S. alone.
And with that verdict, most people were happy. It seemed feasible to most of the people of Pleasant Valley, and it put their minds at rest to know there wasn't a killer stalking their happy little town...
... but a small, fringe group of citizens knew better.
To most, Havana Reddy had been a spirited, spritely young woman, but otherwise unremarkable: but to a rare few with which she shared a special power, she was known instead to be the wielder of the remarkable, emotional-manipulating Stand, Midnight Oil.
Because Havana Reddy was part of a secret society of less than one hundred, a minority that had come- through the influence of some cursed antiquated arrow, introduced to Pleasant Valley at the turn of the millennium- to possess the awesome power of a Stand, a metaphysical manifestation of her own strength of will, a superhuman power.
And whilst to the rest of Pleasant Valley, her death might have seemed an unpleasant coincidence: to them, it was something much, much more.
No Stand user could be so easily felled, and in the world of Stands, there was no such thing as coincidence. There was no doubt about it: "this has to be the work of an enemy stand!"
But even knowing this, there was a great hesitation about intervening, throughout the whole Stand User community. There was a resounding fear that, should anyone stand forwards and get involved, they might be next.
Maybe Havana Reddy was a one-off? Maybe her death was enough...
22nd of October, 2000. Sunday. Damien Bourke has just been found dead, the sixth victim of this "Stand Killer" in the last four months alone. His stand, Celtic Spring, was one which controlled weather. Now that it's perished, nature struggles to adjust, and the rain makes the sand unto wet clay.
Something needs to be done. That's where you come in.
You are The Boomtown Rats, a group of students from the graduating class of Pleasant Valley High. You stepped up to the plate when the rest of the Stand community buried its head in the sand: because when injustice arises, one can always invest their faith in the recklessness of students.
You all know each other, somewhat. Faces seen passing in the hall, notes exchanged between desks during boring classes. But in many ways, you are perfect strangers. You know only the names of one another's stands, and that when nobody else was willing to bat, you all stepped forwards together.
Your mission: to find and stop The Stand Killer, before your own numbers come up.
But beware, because there are powerful forces working against you. Poking around murder investigations won't make you any friends in the Pleasant Valley Police Department, and making ripples in the Stand Community brings with it the risk of upsetting Pleasant Valley's resident gangsters - a troupe of Stand Users whose Stands suggest The Chinese Zodiac: The Zodiac Killers. They are the current known possessors of The Antique Arrow that gave the majority of Pleasant Valley's Stand Users their powers.
You've got a long way to go, Boomtown Rats. Hah. So much for Pleasant Valley Sundays.
So that's Pleasant Valley, now what about you?
"... the body was found at 5pm this morning, crumpled on the kitchen floor, face contorted in horror..."
"... police are considering this an open homicide case..."
"The victim's husband has denied allegations of foul play, and toxicology reports are coming back negative..."
It was plastered all over the news for weeks. Deaths always are, in quiet, idyllic little coastal towns like this one: Pleasant Valley, California.
But it started on June 20th, 2000: that was the day the killings started.
Havana Reddy had been a perfectly healthy, twenty year old repatriated suburbanite, with a loving husband, a plethora of middle-class friends and a stress-free job as a yoga instructor at her local gym. She ate well, and took care of herself.
She turned up dead at 5pm on a warm Tuesday afternoon, sprawled out on her kitchen floor. Her husband had found her clutching a broken makeup mirror, surrounded by the shattered remains of a glass of store-bought "health juice". Her face had been contorted, in abject agony.
Police reported that there wasn't a mark on her, but suspected foul play. They thought her drink had looked suspicious, and took her husband in on suspicion of poisoning: but the toxicology came back negative, and a subsequent autopsy returned no signs of conventional poison.
In the end, they concluded that it was a rare, but not unheard of, case of sudden, unexplained death. It wasn't a common occurrence, but it happened: several times a year in the U.S. alone.
And with that verdict, most people were happy. It seemed feasible to most of the people of Pleasant Valley, and it put their minds at rest to know there wasn't a killer stalking their happy little town...
... but a small, fringe group of citizens knew better.
To most, Havana Reddy had been a spirited, spritely young woman, but otherwise unremarkable: but to a rare few with which she shared a special power, she was known instead to be the wielder of the remarkable, emotional-manipulating Stand, Midnight Oil.
Because Havana Reddy was part of a secret society of less than one hundred, a minority that had come- through the influence of some cursed antiquated arrow, introduced to Pleasant Valley at the turn of the millennium- to possess the awesome power of a Stand, a metaphysical manifestation of her own strength of will, a superhuman power.
And whilst to the rest of Pleasant Valley, her death might have seemed an unpleasant coincidence: to them, it was something much, much more.
No Stand user could be so easily felled, and in the world of Stands, there was no such thing as coincidence. There was no doubt about it: "this has to be the work of an enemy stand!"
But even knowing this, there was a great hesitation about intervening, throughout the whole Stand User community. There was a resounding fear that, should anyone stand forwards and get involved, they might be next.
Maybe Havana Reddy was a one-off? Maybe her death was enough...
22nd of October, 2000. Sunday. Damien Bourke has just been found dead, the sixth victim of this "Stand Killer" in the last four months alone. His stand, Celtic Spring, was one which controlled weather. Now that it's perished, nature struggles to adjust, and the rain makes the sand unto wet clay.
Something needs to be done. That's where you come in.
You are The Boomtown Rats, a group of students from the graduating class of Pleasant Valley High. You stepped up to the plate when the rest of the Stand community buried its head in the sand: because when injustice arises, one can always invest their faith in the recklessness of students.
You all know each other, somewhat. Faces seen passing in the hall, notes exchanged between desks during boring classes. But in many ways, you are perfect strangers. You know only the names of one another's stands, and that when nobody else was willing to bat, you all stepped forwards together.
Your mission: to find and stop The Stand Killer, before your own numbers come up.
But beware, because there are powerful forces working against you. Poking around murder investigations won't make you any friends in the Pleasant Valley Police Department, and making ripples in the Stand Community brings with it the risk of upsetting Pleasant Valley's resident gangsters - a troupe of Stand Users whose Stands suggest The Chinese Zodiac: The Zodiac Killers. They are the current known possessors of The Antique Arrow that gave the majority of Pleasant Valley's Stand Users their powers.
You've got a long way to go, Boomtown Rats. Hah. So much for Pleasant Valley Sundays.
So that's Pleasant Valley, now what about you?
