I am currently tossing around the concept of starting a Jojo RP. It's something I've had a hankering for for a while. Things are still in the workshopping stage, so nothing plot-related is necessarily set in stone, but I'm looking to gage interest, even if it's unlikely to start anything up during the holidays. But I tend to be a more ponderous mover in RP-ing, so there's no particular rush for anything anyway.
For those unfamiliar with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, a decent broad premise is that the series largely follows the generational adventures of the Joestar family, which start out as righteous battles against vampires and Aztec gods using the power of sunlight breathing bullshit... before evolving into using manifestations of one's fighting spirit and soul, called Stands, to fight other people wielding the same soul bullshit. Characters in the series have a reputation for being muscular, eccentrically dressed or both, along with being rather "extra" in behavior and often posing for no good reason but flexing. I could try to explain Stands here, but it's honestly easier to just link the wiki, here for now.
Plot/Pitch: The RP will most likely be set in either a full AU or a post-Part 6 AU, given how that ending made just about anything technically viable; I haven't settled on the primary locale for the plot to either start or be centralized. Right now, the primary direction I'm leaning in (and it's difficult to decide what is or isn't going to be spoilers) is that the central -or perhaps overarching- conflict of the RP will be a battle over possession of one of the Stand Arrows. I haven't entirely ruled out the inclusion of vampires/pillar men or the holy corpse parts, but I don't have any plans for them to be overtly relevant either. Maybe the former end up as side/warm up enemies. Who knows.
The cast will consist of OCs. I'm planning for the focus to be on Stands (obviously enough, since the central conflict is one of the Arrows), but I'm open to allowing Hamon or the Spin as primary or supplementary powersets. On the matter of Stands, I only plan to include original Stands. Canon Stands will only be granted to canon characters, and I've no plans to allow canon characters to be played. Since Stands are unique to the soul and individual, that holds true here; so there won't be any canon Stands appearing in the hands of OCs. That goes for PCs and NPCs alike, so expect enemies to have generally unique Stands as well.
Stands: I intend to possibly make some slight RP-specific alterations to how Stands will function in this RP. For one, I want to more solidly define Range, as that is one of the most confusing stats in the entire series. Secondly, I intend for the Stand Stat system to largely entirely represent the Stand's physical capabilities (with understandable exceptions like Developmental Potential). A Stand's Power being E, for example would solely address their physical strength and not (for example) the ability to shoot lava from their hands; unique Stand abilities will largely be entirely self-contained from the rest of the Stand's stats. If necessary, I may institute a "sub-stat" system, where there are extra stats in parenthesis to indicate the Stand's unique abilities. As for what powers I'll allow to Stands, I sadly can't say "anything goes", as some abilities are either just inherently broken, narratively difficult to play with or both. I want to be as flexible as I can, but any form of time/fate manipulation or resurrection -just to start- are completely off the table.
On nonhuman PCs: Vampires -for those that consider them- are unfortunately completely out of the question; all evidence in canon suggests that they are inherently maliciously evil due to the way the Stone Mask rewires their brains, and the act of becoming a vampire would be likely considered equivalent to character death, turning them into an NPC. They are villains, not protagonists. Pillar men are also not allowed. Well, I suppose it would be clearer to say "only humans" are allowed as characters, but that's not entirely true. Multiple times in Jojo, animals with enough sentience to develop a Stand have been featured prominently, so I'm willing to consider allowing them.
On canon relevance: I am waffling heavily on the allowance of any relation to notable canon elements, like playing a Joestar or Brando, despite being an OC. I'm leaning towards "no" for the time being, as I'd prefer all the OCs and their backgrounds to be entirely self-contained. So, no star-shaped mark of destiny for anyone, if only so no-one is basically rocking a "main character" indicator.
[center]Image/faceclaim.[/center]
[b]Name[/b]: [b]Species[/b]: Human or animal. If animal, specify. Animals must be Stand Users and cannot start with Hamon or Spin. [b]Age[/b]: No particular preferences here. Though, species might limit certain options. [b]Appearance[/b]: A worded physical description.
[b]Personality[/b]: Who the character is as a person. This doesn't necessarily need to get too in-depth, but at least be sure to convey their vibe. If you like, maybe consider including a "bizarre quirk" or talent, like the tendency to always use so much pepper on food that they sneeze or that they attack anyone who steps on their shadow (Esidisi did not ever explain this, did he, lmao).
[b]Traits[/b]: This section should encompass solely mundane skills, attributes and abilities in the character's arsenal, including notable intellectual specialties or physical prowess. If you're playing a nonhuman/animal, this should also include their physiology as well. This section is also for including any particularly notable [i]disadvantages[/i] the character possesses, like an animal being unable to speak or a human having a long-standing injury that can physically impede them.
[b]Hamon or Spin[/b]: Optional. You can only choose one or the other, and your backstory will have to incorporate a reasonable amount of justification for their present skill level, including details about how and when they were first introduced to their chosen art. This section will include any current or future abilities they have in their chosen art.
Stand: We will only be using original Stands here. No canon Stands or copy-pasted powersets allowed. [hider=Name] [b]Name:[/b] Should be a song or band reference. Double check you aren't using a canon Stand name. Also include the specific namesake you're referencing.
[b]Physical Description:[/b] Only a physical description is necessary, but an image is always useful anyway. Stands can come in nearly any shape or size, so feel free to largely go nuts and use whatever you like (within a certain reason).
[b]Personality:[/b] How does the Stand behave? Passively? Aggressively? What kind of Stand Cry does it shout (if it shouts one at all)? Is the Stand sentient or not? Does it behave a certain way regardless? The vast majority of Stands are not sentient and are merely unthinkingly obedient extensions of the user's will and desires, so I will enforce a cap on sentient Stands if necessary to preserve that rarity.
Stats: [list] [*][b]Power:[/b] A measure of pure physical strength. [*][b]Speed:[/b] A measure of speed and reactions. [*][b]Range:[/b] How far away from the user the Stand can move. (E (0-1 meters), D (2-3), C (4-15), B (multiple of 100 feet), A (measured in miles, even city-wide)) [*][b]Persistence:[/b] A measure of durability and stamina. [*][b]Precision:[/b] A measure of accuracy and skill. Usually inverse strength to Range. [*][b]Developmental Potential:[/b] A measure of what more there is to discover. [/list]
[b]Abilities:[/b] The Stand's unique abilities. Also make sure to mention any of the universal abilities the User is proficient in; however, know those will also cost you Developmental Potential. As far as unique abilities, generally speaking, I'll try to allow most things. However, time or Fate manipulation abilities are complete no-goes unless you can [i]really[/i] sell me on it not being inherently broken or disruptive; it's perhaps telling that those abilities seem to have never ended up in the hands of anyone but enemies, and when they ended up with protagonists (Jotaro), they were heavily contextually nerfed some way or another. Additionally, any form of genuine resurrection is completely forbidden; though seemingly arbitrary, this is a hard canon restriction of Stands, and they cannot bring the dead back to life, not truly. Beyond that, I can't honestly list off every possible thing that won't be an option until/unless it comes up, but hopefully, I won't have to shoot anything down too hard.
When it comes to building a unique Stand ability, it might sound daunting, but you can honestly feel free to start as simple or as complicated as you like. Stands actively grow stronger and evolve over time (especially in combat), provided they have the Developmental Potential to spare. So, if you aren't sure where you want to take things, you can start simple and grow the Stand through experience. As for the ability in question, no matter what you pick, there need to be limits or weaknesses to what it can do, even if it's something as simple as "touch range" or arbitrary limits like "doesn't work on Stands" or "is weak to [insert mundane element here]". It doesn't matter what you choose, just as long as it's not something so niche that no-one could ever possibly exploit it, because a long-standing theme of Jojo abilities is that any power can be defeated simply by outthinking it. "Outsmarting the enemy's outsmarting", as it were. Many Stands even have incredibly niche utilizations that require them to prep a battlefield in their favor beforehand to even compete in combat. [/hider]
[b]Background[/b]: Pretty straightforward stuff. Tell us where they come from, and if they are meant to start with any supernatural abilities (Stand, Hamon, etc), tell us how it went down and how that might have changed their life for the [i]bizarre[/i]. If you'd like them to gain their Stand or other supernatural assets ICly after the RP starts, I'm also perfectly willing to help make that happen, and you can then consider the IC itself to encompass that part of their "origin story".
「Insert Stand Name Here」: The special Japanese brackets that Stand names usually use in canon. If you actually feel like going to the trouble of using brackets at all, this particular kind can be inconvenient to find an offhand copy/paste for, so I'll make one here. You can just insert your Stand's name, and you're done, an easy access to an alternative of the default western brackets.
ゴゴゴゴ : A staple trope of Jojo that roughly translates to either "menacing" or "rumble", meant to evoke the idea that "things are getting tense". Commonly shows up in the intro of some new enemy or threat. I do plan to use this as a tone enhancer when I remember to. :)
Tossing in my interest, been wanting some Jojoing these days!
Mmm, yeessss, my first victim~ I kid, I kid! ^v^
But to get more to business, what kind of character concept are you tossing around currently (if any)? Or are you still in the “brainstorming an unfinished thought” stage?
I'm already brainstorming what musical reference I want for my character.
Nice! Although, kek… I do already have a bunch of Stands premade and ready to be used by enemies and ally NPCs. I should honestly perhaps consider releasing a list of those so no-one else cross-pollinates.
I would say I actually drew a lot of them from this one DS guitar hero game, so that number includes the likes of [Tarantula], [Volcano Girls], [Smashing Pumpkins], [Remedy], and [You Give Love a Bad Name]. And I’ll probably draw even more Stands from that game, as I still have it lying around and playable.
Of the stuff from outside that game, so far, that includes [Senbonzakura], [Die Young], [Barbie Girl], [Camel by Camel], [Take Me Home, Country Roads], [Super Psycho Love], [Fantasy Act 3], [Witch Doctor], [Paper Planes], [Florida Man], [Crazy Kids], [Sugar Rush] and [Alien Ant Farm].
Don't have a character concept in mind yet, a few half-thought ideas from the past years milling around. Probably depend on the final plot.
Well, like I mentioned in the pitch, about the one surefire thing right now is that one of -if not THE- major conflict will be contesting ownership of a Stand Arrow. I’m trying to be a bit vague for now about many direct plot details than that to avoid spoilers, but I’m totally open to fielding questions about world-building. I fact, I definitely encourage them; it may help me better settle on the final product if I have specific aspects of it that can be indicated to need fleshing out.
On the matter of the starting plot, I can say, however, that there is a large chance of it kicking off with a Stand encounter in a museum, where the Arrow had recently become an exhibit and was recognized by interested parties over social media or other advertisements. For those interested, I’m willing to arrange that the ensuing clusterfuck is what exposes them to the Arrow and first awakens their Stands. Although, they are perfectly welcome to be preexisting Stand users. Whatever they prefer.
Is the 'contesting ownership' something akin to different factions vying for it, or more on an individual "gimme that thing" scale?
I’d say it’s planned to be primarily two “factions”, the PCs and whatever organization is behind the main BBEG. There might also be other less important factions or independent and rogue elements that attempt to take it for themselves (ala La Squandra from Part 5), and there may also simply be random enemies that either discover and target the Arrow by happenstance or are responsible for trouble completely independent of the “main plot” the way Part 4 tended to do, just having unrelated Stand user troublemakers cause a problem for one or several of the cast.
For my own part, I will probably be recycling an edited version of a character I once played in another JJBA RP. Definitely looking forward to the chance to use her again. Though, she's certainly due for some tweaks in several places, at least one of which is to tip her motivations in a bit of a more overtly altruistic direction.
Name: Kasumi Nakano Species: Human Age: 25 Appearance: Standing at 5’8”/172 cm tall and weighing 145 lbs, Kasumi is a curvaceous and athletic young woman that clearly takes care of herself. Her skin is pale and clear with no distinguishing markings or tattoos, but dusted with a rosiness that indicates at least some preference for outdoors activity. Her shoulder-length, pink hair (dyed from black, she claims) lays neatly combed, framing unimpressed gold eyes; though often, she will pull it into a braid or ponytail.
Kasumi's wardrobe is one that rides a line between casual and business. While on the work daily, she dresses in smart, bright button-down tops and black pants and shoes, often with suit jackets and ties. A long-coat is not something amiss in her wardrobe. Under more casual (or clandestine) settings, she is also prone to comfortable darker clothes. Sweaters, hoodies, men-style jeans and sneakers all have their place and time, favoring navy blues and greys. No matter what her business, she is inclined to cleanliness. Even so, when practicality calls for it, Kasumi is far from adverse to shedding the trappings of well-to-do for the sake of convenience, and she expresses a preference for sufficient numbers of pockets no matter her garb.
Personality: Cold, calculating and heartless are only some of the disparaging ways she has been referred to; yet, none can truly claim she is malicious. Kasumi is a spitfire of a young woman with a repressed bleeding heart, who seeks (or so she tells herself) to catalyze her personal freedom and security first and foremost. Self-interested and pitiless towards those that obstruct her goals, she head-strongly pursues her own well-being and fortunes above and beyond all else, the goal being to achieve a peaceful, stable life of comfortable mediocrity. Though capable as a social chameleon, she is nonetheless quickly tired by socialization. An introvert in nature, she has little patience for playing a role contradictory to her selfhood long-term, which results in her attitude often being antagonistic towards those she doesn't need to appease for the sake of her comfortable life. Her loner tendencies are in part fueled by her desire to avoid being overt with her powers, seeking the path of least resistance by avoiding attention and the resulting trouble. Kasumi ultimately has little respect for the law and most societal conventions, willing to do whatever she must to get what she wants so long as she believes she can get away with it.
All that said, buried within her shriveled heart are redeeming qualities. She does have a sense of empathy for the misfortunate. She is not truly apathetic and is demonstrably willing to put her neck out for others, repeatedly reluctantly compromising the sanctity of her peaceful life to address injustice. She despises drugs and other addicting substances, seeing them as net drains on society and human productivity... to say nothing of how they can twist the mind, as Kasumi values few things higher than the sanctity of free will. She lives by the concept of taking one's own life and destiny into their own hands, no matter what tries to stand in your way, and she respects those that showcase similar values... just as long as they aren't at the cost of pointless malice and destruction. Though prone to being prickly and difficult to ingratiate oneself with, Kasumi is all the more loyal to those that she decides to truly trust, a loyalty she may express with actions others might deem overkill. Despite being willing to casually shirk the law, she values order and stability, holding herself and others to a high standard; when the chips are down, she can be counted on to be an agent of justice... if perhaps one willing to go to extremes.
Traits:
Due to extensive experiments with her Stand's healing abilities, Kasumi has a rather unusual pain tolerance, able to shrug off pain that would cripple many others with a dead stare. Although high pain tolerance is fairly uncommon among the determinators that are Stand users, she takes it to an even further extreme.
Kasumi practices martial arts, her focus being a style that prioritizes defense and handling physically stronger opponents, which she intermixes with a form of "ad-libbed" street fighting.
Kasumi carries a lighter, not because she smokes but because she just finds it a useful tool (pay no mind to the fact that it once belonged to a friend and that any who touch it will suffer).
A small canister of pepper spray also lies within her everyday possessions.
Kasumi is a registered concealed firearm carrier and possesses a FN High Power handgun that she usually keeps strapped under one arm; she also carries spare 17-round magazines.
Hamon or Spin: TBD, maybe none.
Name: 「Senbonzakura」 (the Hatsune Miku song)
Physical Description: A humanoid Stand that takes the form of a gynoid-like woman of alabaster hue, clad in a backless cheongsam dress with large slits up the sides that allow free motion of the legs. "Hair" made of linked Sakura petals trails behind the head in shoulder-length waves, often blowing in a light breeze that only the Stand seems to feel. Though they have eyelids, the eyeballs beneath are a pair of cold, pitiless green lenses with an insectile texture to them, and a sprawling tattoo, inked in green and black, depicts a tree made of thorns upon the Stand's open back, contrasted by lush pink leaves covering the branches depicted across the shoulder-blades. The tattoos extend down the Stand's bare legs in the form of thorny roots wrapping around them, before disappearing into the backs of a pair of martial arts slippers.
Personality: Senbonzakura carries an aloof demeanor, often loitering with crossed arms, an upturned nose or half-lidded eyes. It identifies as both a "she" and, indeed, "identifies" at all. Senbonzakura is a sentient Stand capable of speech and independent action; though it has rarely exerted either. In private, it goads Kasumi to be more callous and prideful, while simultaneously encouraging caution and prioritizing survival. Senbonzakura's default state is hostility towards anyone that isn't a proven nonthreat, showcasing mistrust towards the slightest hint of untoward motives. Senbonzakura has no altruistic feelings for anyone but her User and pursues Kasumi's survival and success above all things. In battle, she usually only communicates with Kasumi mentally and verbally punctuates her attacks with aggressive cries of "MIKU-MIKU-MIKU-MIKU-MIKU". Senbonzakura is a highly decisive and ruthless combatant, going for the kill by default unless restrained by Kasumi.
Stand Stats:
Destructive Power: C Speed: A Range: C (5 meters) Durability: C Precision: B Development Potential: D
Abilities: Senbonzakura is a close-range Stand with a fairly flexible operational radius of 5 meters. Physically speaking, while it isn't all that brute-force strong on paper, Senbonzakura is fast, insanely fast, even by the standards of the fastest Stands. Its perception abilities and capacity to react timely to those perceptions are well within the upper tiers, easily reaching -if not potentially surpassing- what is regarded as "lightspeed" among Stands. Combined with its high precision and exercising Kasumi's martial knowledge to maximize the effect of impacts, and even its fairly middling brute strength suddenly gains much quality in quantity. The Stand is therefore still a highly capable close-range combatant, despite its relative fragility. Kasumi is further well-practiced in utilizing the universal capabilities of Stands, like selective tangibility, perspective sharing, and self-enhancement via cloaking her body in her Stand.
The central unique ability of Senbonzakura is to temporarily transform anything (aside from other Stands) that it directly, physically touches into Sakura petals under its telekinetic control or remotely revert them. "Direct" in the sense that it can't touch someone's arm and transform their whole body, only the surface of the body that the Stand makes immediate contact with. This is not directly deadly so much as disabling, as severing a leg doesn't cause the victim to bleed out, just leaves the limb mystically detached. Even if reverted without proper reconstruction, it doesn't cause deadly severance, merely leaving a victim/target nonlethally dismembered, their body/form somehow functioning normally despite the spacial difference/disconnection. Although, they can be manually reconstructed by being picked up and pieced together like a living puzzle, the parts automatically fusing back once correctly oriented.
That said, any wounds upon severed body parts/target portions still affect the whole. A remotely reconstructed and crushed heart will kill the person it was removed from at range, for example. Transformed targets remain in a form of "stasis", which allows wounds and damage to be temporarily prevented from affecting a victim, granting time for treatment to be delivered. It can also be used to "fuse" broken parts back together to heal wounds by deconstructing something, "pinching" it together and reconstructing it. More indirect uses of the power can be deadly, like drowning someone with petals shoved down their throats.
The petals have the same general non-interest in physics as Stands and can be forcibly moved or destroyed only by Stand-based phenomenon, reverting back to what they originally were in an unharmed state. The petals aren't individually strong, but their "mostly inviolable" state makes them very effective barriers if positioned in mass well, even deadly ones depending on how hard they are impacted and if the petals are hit along their flats or edges. They also can thus be used as midair footholds or for pseudo-flight. The Stand is passively aware of the position of every created petal under its control but has no direct sense of their surroundings beyond an ability to "feel things out" with physical contact. Petals automatically revert to what they were transformed from after around 4-14 days (the same length of time mundane cherry blossoms can normally last), but they do not automatically reorient themselves to reconstruct what they were prior. On the flipside, Senbonzakura, if she wishes, can cause the petals to automatically heat-seek each-other -or whatever they were broken off of- before reassembling, which can be utilized as a form of tracking ability. Another technique of Kasumi's is to turn portions of her body into petals and send them away, thus seeding "anchors" from which her Stand can manifest and bypass her normal range limit or attack from unexpected angles.
Background: (THE FOLLOWING IS LIKELY A WIP, PENDING REVISION AND LOCALIZATION TO THE CURRENT RP) Kasumi has never truly sought greatness. Born to Japanese immigrants, Kasumi was raised with an American culture at school and a high-pressure Japanese culture at home. However, where most children might have conformed to expectations, Kasumi grew up feeling only stifled by them and increasingly resentful. Where her parents sought greatness for her, Kasumi was satisfied with mediocrity. Pressured for years at home while surrounded outside it with people that had it far easier, Kasumi became bitter and burnt out, extremely envious of the idea of a future carefree work-life balance. A naturally introverted person, she had little tolerance for social networking, and she had no desire to learn to overcome it to boot.
Over time, this resentment grew into a prideful stubbornness, and Kasumi decided that she would have only the life she wanted to lead. She decided she would seek out only a profession and life that she could enjoy comfortably and unstressed, and she knew she'd never have that under her parents' thumbs. Keeping her plans quiet, she made job applications and inquiries, and the moment she had graduated university, she packed what things of hers still remained at home and moved out entirely, cutting off all contact with her parents. Heading out into the wide world on her own, Kasumi obtained a job that allowed her to mostly work from home, performing programming and maintenance for a cyber security company. Unambitiously, she parked herself at a position midway up the ladder that paid well enough to live a decent life and settled into comfortable mediocrity, acquiring a small, cozy home in a quiet suburb soon thereafter.
So went her quiet life... until one day.
On an outing with one of the few neighbors she tolerated, Jennifer Wilson, they were mugged, and though the girls gave as good as they could, they were outnumbered and outmatched... up until an invisible force demolished their attackers. In that moment, Kasumi's Stand awoke and proceeded to enact her will to slaughter the men without hesitation or qualms... with her neighbor becoming quite aware that Kasumi was somehow to blame. In the aftermath, Kasumi would find herself shocked to find her neighbor both not repulsed by what happened and willing to keep it quiet, and for the first time, Kasumi had what she could actually call a friendship, one she couldn't help but cherish all the more for its lack of competition.
Henceforth, she and Jennifer proceeded to do nearly everything together every free moment they had, outings, taking martial arts, learning to shoot and earning firearm licenses, and Jen even gleefully provoking Kasumi into properly experimenting with her strange "punch ghost's" powers. Jen eased her apathy for others, coaxed her into considering other ways of living and was perhaps the only person that could get Kasumi to tolerate getting within 10 feet of a club. And in time, she would even be witness to Kasumi's first -thankfully nonhostile- encounter with another Stand User, awakening their eyes to the reality of the supernatural underground... one Kasumi naturally immediately decided must be avoided at all costs... They were, as the phrase goes, "inseparable", hardly any secrets between them.
Which is why Kasumi was all the more infuriated when Jennifer's corpse was found by police after an uncomfortably long disappearance. It was a raw, red-hot fury that filled her on that day, a motivation to act and thirst for blood that honestly took her off guard. But as she stewed in her own impotent fury, shoving it down to a low simmer, her wrath began to transform into something far more... calculating, as emotion was exchanged for a clinical cold-blooded homicidal determination. As she obsessively dug through every ultimately useless police report she could find, she didn't know how or when she would find a way to make her friend's murderer pay, but she knew she would make it reality. Not just for Jennifer's sake... but for the crime of stealing something from her that she hadn't realized she needed until it was gone.
Tentative idea: 「Year 3000」, with some ability to 'evolve' items / objects / etc into future versions of itself.
Hrmmm... I'd need to see a more in-depth description of how you'd expect this to play out in practice, but I would actually consider this one of the very few situations where I would potentially allow a time-manipulation-type/adjacent ability. Since Fate is a very confirmed and active thing, in Jojo, there's no such thing as a merely "potential" future. It's all ultimately predestined, outside abilities that can actively manipulate Fate. So, an ability that taps adjacently into that wouldn't be subject to quite as much chaos or unpredictability as one might think.
I was thinking of it less as time manipulation and more...
"See this gun? Now it's a future gun." and similar
If it's actually effectively grabbing "blueprints" of something truly from the future to transform the present with, then the Stand must inherently be doing something to perceive and... at least "skim" off of time/fate to do this. That just seems like a logical conclusion.
But really, it sounds more like what you want to do is effectively just have a power that transforms targets into an "enhanced" state, that is better, faster, makes us strongerdistant dubstep noises, etc. It doesn't need to be a power that makes things specifically "from the future" then as much as an ability that simply makes things "futuristic" with some generalized guidelines on what it can enhance and how. This would be based more on the "idea" or a caricature of the future, rather than the reality, with no need for time or fate to be involved whatsoever. If executed in that manner, I don't think I'd find any problems with it as a concept (fine details pending, of course).
Well, yeah, I'm not trying to 'gotcha' my way into a busted ability or anything. It's only tentative anyways, I can't form a full character concept off half a vague idea of the plot and not even setting to go off of.
Well, yeah, I'm not trying to 'gotcha' my way into a busted ability or anything. It's only tentative anyways, I can't form a full character concept off half a vague idea of the plot and not even setting to go off of.
Oh, not what I was implying, no worries. It would just be a somewhat troublesome ability to manage in some ways if it actually relied on time/fate to function is all. And I do realize that the setting still being workshopped is a bit of a hurdle. Eheh...
Alright, as far as workshopping an actual plot premise, bit of a long one, but...:
In the twilight hours of a forgotten time and place, a mad priest waged the final stage of a generational grudge match, seeking [Heaven] and to put an end to the family of heroes that had opposed his tyrannical self-styled god that he called his friend. Yet... if would be in the reliance on that bond with his friend that foiled him. The last "Son of God", drawn by the call of their blood as surely as any of his brothers, finally arrived upon the cusp of victory. And as the priest reached [Heaven], the son chose to deem him unworthy. In the end, the son could not truly undo what [Heaven] had done, what the priest had started, but he still foiled the priest's attempts to dispose of the heroic rivals of his friend. The disturbed course of [Heaven] resolved, and the world was irrevocably altered.
In essence, Giorno was implied to have been in Florida during Stone Ocean but didn't arrive in time. In this AU, he arrived near to the final battle, shortly after Pucci attains [C-Moon], and though I'm using Eyes of Heaven to say Requiem wasn't enough to nullify or revert the Time Acceleration/power of Heaven with Return to Zero, [Gold Experience Requiem] still had the raw physical stats to oppose even [Made in Heaven's] insane speed, and its healing prowess kept nothing from truly sticking. The result is that no-one from the gang died except Foo Fighters and Weather. Similarly, just as when Emporio defeated Pucci canonically, killing him doesn't stop Time Acceleration from operating; it just stops it from reaching Pucci's desired result and resets the universe one last time... except things come out "wrong" and different.
This altered course leads to the universe resetting as something that could theoretically be called an "alternate Part 7", except very much not. The characters of Part 7 do not exist; there's no Johnny or Valentine, for example. In exchange, somewhere out there, the Joestar family has survived and -in a sense- finally truly ended to eternal grudge match with DIO once and for all with the act of his last son making peace with them. Though, while the Joestar and Brando no longer bear any destined fate to clash, those that bear the star-shaped birthmark upon the back of their shoulder still find themselves generationally drawn into bizarre troubles time and time again.
The year is now 2020, over a hundred years since the universe was reset to the late 1800's. While the people have changed, the course of history and the nations and events that formed from it have largely gone unchanged simply due to being fated to occur, regardless of the reset. Entire generations have come and gone, and those that remember the madness caused by the bizarre event that altered the very course of history are long gone. The Universe Reset and the immediate aftermath looms in the distant past as a mysterious source of terror for the supernatural community; for it was not merely those directly involved with contesting it that remember it. Of course, the universe reset ending early largely erased the existence of many people, because they were simply not allowed to be reborn to begin with, but those like Stand Users remembered and survived, thrust into an unfamiliar time and place and forced to rebuild their lives, even with history retroactively altered to support their continued existence. Those born after them in the century leading up to the present sometimes have some vague subconscious recollection of the Universe Reset, but the existence of that event has largely been consigned to myth and legend, given the lack of tangible proof remaining to support it.
Beyond that, elements of both eras have merged into coexistence. The Stand Arrows were still created from the remains of an uncovered asteroid, but they were created in even greater numbers. And furthermore, the material of the asteroid was used to create even more artifacts than them, other weapons and devices that all possess some capacity to "test" people and judge their Worthiness. Hamon and the Spin have both developed independently and are -in some ways- considered rival sects of the supernatural; between them, the Spin is considered the "younger" and more "modern" art with its reliance on Steel Balls that can rarely be made practically without special equipment, along with a greater understanding of physics. The Stone Masks and the Pillar Men are no longer a thing of the past, as the twisted history has led to the resurgence of their existence; they have naturally held a long-running rivalry with Hamon users, and both have made attempts to exterminate the other whenever the opportunity arises. And all the while, somewhere out there... the Holy Corpse Parts lurk, just waiting to be assembled to grant unlimited power.
Stands are far more prevalent than they once were; as nearly all Stand Users survived the Universe Reset, there has been an entire century for their genetics containing the potential to be a Stand User to further spread out in the world. Despite this, due to their lack of physicality, Stands have managed (if only barely) to remain unknown to the wider public consciousness. The utter inability to detect or study them scientifically has sharply limited any attempts to prove their existence, even by those that do notice. This has, however, led to the growing existence of secret mundane organization (both legal or otherwise), dedicated to uncovering the supernatural and bringing it to task; some of these organizations have even lucked out and acquired the backing (willingly or otherwise) of Stand Users or other supernatural inhabitants. In the modern digital age of cameras and various high-quality records, it is growing increasingly difficult for Stand Users to conceal their bizarre nature and get away with their "shenanigans"-benign or otherwise- without consequences.
With all that said, to reiterate: it is the year 2020. The modern digital age is in full swing, and all the countries we know and love (or otherwise) have finished redeveloping according to Fate's design, regardless of the Universe Reset. While the exact location is still somewhat undecided, the lean is towards a seaside locale in an original city named Stoneridge, located in the north-eastern USA. On the surface, this city is fairly unremarkable, but to those that live there, it is known to be a hub of gangs and social unrest teeming under the surface. The criminal elements have greatly corrupted much of the city's legal infrastructure, even to the point of influencing elections. Gangs and criminal empires constantly jocky for influence, whether it be martial, material, legal... or even supernatural, and several are known by those more in touch with the supernatural to have multiple Stand Users or other wielders of the occult in their pockets.
Recently, the wealthy owner of a large property passed away under mysterious circumstances, and with the lack of any proper inheritor for his possessions, they were "repossessed" by the city. Among those possessions, the owner was discovered to be an avid collector of what seemed to be many exotic and expensively old art pieces... amongst which was found a certain golden arrow. An appraiser identified the value of the object as having significance worth historically preserving, and the item was donated to a local museum as part of several new exhibits. And during the advertisement campaign for those exhibits... several interested parties recognized the Arrow for what it was.
It's into this brewing mess that your characters arrive, largely unaware of what is to come. For one reason or another, they are on a trip to the museum. Perhaps they're out for a day with a relative. Maybe they're on a school trip. Or maybe they're a Stand User with designs on one of the exhibits. Whatever their reasoning, they're about to be drawn into a much larger conflict over an asset that could either liberate the city from the darkness choking it... or plunge it irrevocably further into its grasp.
