@Eviledd1984 Oh yeah, quick thing, I'mma be editing Kasumi's age to better reflect her backstory. Aging up, as I realize in hindsight that several things look a little head-scratching for someone as young as her to have accomplished in the narrow timeframe she has. Like straight-up, she should be about 22 minimum if she graduated college (which she did)(and speaking of, may make a minor edit in backstory around that bit) unless she managed to get herself admitted early, and she's not really ambitious enough for that.
Then we get into the fact that she is supposed to have been at self defense/martial arts for a while long enough to be either close to or a black belt and supposed to actually have a house (and it takes time to fully get into athlete/fighter shape). Even if we assume she "cheated" a little by availing herself of some unlucky people's (criminals'?) resources to at least speedrun the house part, that's more time sinks that need to be accounted for.
So, as much as I'd like to keep her closer to Lorenzo's age to have a "youthful buddy" she'll be sitting somewhere around 24-27 when I've made my final decision.
Oh yeah, and on another note, I originally didn't ask in case it was meant to be vague, but I realize it probably doesn't matter. Has the serial killer shown any particular "theme" to their kills that the public is aware of? Specifically the method of death? Or do they engage in a variety? (I'm trying to decide if there's any particular way Kasumi's friend died).
@Lewascan2 Well I can fix the stats, didn't know Araki had gave any. But I did know that Araki said Achtung Baby could have a physical form and that we just don't see it, but he didn't definitively answer the question because he's like that. Likewise I took creative liberties considering it had that development potential for a baby as its user that wasn't controlling it at all. If that doesn't pan out then its not a big deal but I thought it was cool.
Anyway, firstly, sorry if the tone of my last post came across as less than amiable.
But yee, Achtung Baby has released stats, as shown by Eviledd above. I honestly hadn't heard that Araki said anything about Achtung Baby's true form, but I don't think in the context of the setting that it would be at all unreasonable for that to happen as Shizuka ages. The only issue was the creative liberties, since from what I've seen, the GM seems to want to steer away from those and stick to full canon. Granted, Achtung Baby is in a weird position though in the premise of this RP, given that it is an immature Stand, so I could see it being allowed some wiggle room other Stands might not. I guess this all really falls back on something I've already brought up to the GM; that being possibly to consider the role the Developmental Potential stat may or may not have in this RP.
On a more funny note, I find it hilarious that with your character in the running, we continue to have Lorenzo as the only team member with a functional relationship with their family.
I'd been taking my time a bit with this, mostly to think about what I wanted to do, but I've got my sheet finished and mostly formatted. I'll probably take another pass over it for editing any mistakes and adding color but this will do for now just to get the important stuff out there.
Name: Alison Fintan
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Ability: Stand User
Appearance:
Alison stands at a tall 5'11" and weighs 152lbs, combined with her toned musculature she is easily mistaken for a professional fighter. She regularly wears make-up, maintains her hair, and dresses fashionably, but one noticeable blemish upon her otherwise immaculate form is the scarring on her knuckles. Some wonder if her piercing red irises are colored contacts but they are actually natural, making her gaze both mystifying and unnerving. Her long, raven hair is similarly all-natural and with the appropriate brand of conditioner can be quite majestic in a breeze.
Personality: Confident, clever, and experienced in her world, Alison Fintan has been around the block a few times when it comes to fighting and to Stands. She had become so effective in her line of work that she eventually came to a realization and swore a vow against killing, but not against violence. To that end she can be quite brutal and cunning, perfectly willing to beat someone near to death or cripple them so long as she keeps herself from delivering a fatal blow. Her experience as a fighter shows in many aspects of her demeanor and how she carries herself but in no way is it more evident than in her eyes. Her analyzing, piercing gaze can almost see through any ruse or plot. Rarely is she not all business but when she is relaxed and her guard is down she can be rather jovial and laidback, even to the point of being a prankster towards allies or even unsuspecting strangers.
Normally, however, she is cool and reserved with what many would describe as an intimidating presence. An observer by nature that isn't afraid to take matters into her own hands to achieve a goal. Due to adversity she has faced in the past she has become quite creative when it comes to solving problems, inherently searching for any "truth within the truth" in whatever situation she finds herself in. By all appearances she seems like a tough nut to crack but under all her layers of cool badass she is wracked by guilt, remorse, and regret. A facet that none have seen so far but always lingers in the back of her mind, in the back of her heart, whispering in her ear all of the wrongs and sins she has made in her life. In spite of this underlying torment she continues to move forward, challenging herself just like she challenges the world around her.
Backstory: Unlike most people who come to understand the mysterious force known as Stands, Alison manifested her Stand powers from an extremely young age. She had periodically and unconsciously used her Stand's ability since she was an infant, creating numerous problems for herself and her family along the way. Through sheer luck she was able to avoid the potential tragedy this could've caused until she was six years old when she finally gained a full, conscious control of her power. While neither of her parents had a Stand of their own they had come to understand the general concept and kept Alison's Stand a secret to the best of their ability. Fate proved to have other plans when the Fintan family encountered another Stand user for the first time.
He was the leader of a small gang with big aspirations and he so happened to be collecting Stand users himself to that end. It was by pure chance that Alison was able to see his "ghost friend" in a public park as he passed, and it was unfortunate that he overheard her comments. His gang would attempt to kidnap Alison, only to fail when she used her own Stand ability to escape. The next attempt was through intimidation, threatening to kill her parents unless she would willingly accept their training and join their gang. At the age of eight she ran from home to join a world of crime, horrors, and the supernatural. In time she was hardened by her experiences, going from a scared little girl in over her head to a cocksure young woman that could take on the world. And she did.
By her adulthood the gang had evolved into a large mafia, populated by Stand users and effectively controlling a large part of the criminal underworld in the northeast United States. And her role in this family was a prestigious one: she was the prized assassin that could "solve" any problem her boss requested her to solve. Her Stand was perfect for subterfuge and surprise attacks. Though most of her targets were normal humans she did fight her share of Stand users over the years. Her victims were exclusively crooks, criminals, and genuine villains that the world was better off not having in it... until one night in Brooklyn she was tasked with killing a young girl no older than she was when she began this life. At first she went through with the mission, as this girl was a Stand user that was a danger to the family, but no sooner than when she had finished doing the deed did she realize what a monster she had become. After all these years a switch finally flicked in her head.
Her last kill would be the man at the head of the family, the man that had originally kidnapped her and molded her into his personal attack dog. Though he knew well of her ability it did him no good when had no clue that she had turned. The details of the aftermath largely didn't affect her, as his death created a power vacuum and further infighting that splintered the crime family into a fraction of its previous influence. All surviving members of this family know she killed the boss, but nevertheless she didn't fear retribution as she moved on with her life. Unable to bring herself to reunite with her parents, whom she tracked down to find were still alive, she vowed to never return to a life like the one she just left behind. Her powers must be used for good to make up for all the sin she had committed against her fellow man.
To that end she opened a business. A "paranormal" detective's office, selling itself on the front that she investigates whatever whims and fantasies her clientele come up with. But underneath the surface, for those in the know, she handles matters relating to Stand users. This is a fairly vague job with a wide range of tasks she has undergone for it, from simply finding Stands to mediating conflicts between users on the verge of coming to blows to being the one to come to blows on behalf of someone without a Stand. She barely makes any money, there can be long periods of time between actual matters of Stands, and she rarely takes time off, but every time she does a good deed she feels a little closer to atonement.
Most recently she was approached with a new job, backed by a blank check to get it done. A mysterious, anonymous client wants her to investigate the string of murders going on in New York City. And they are willing to bankroll her to do it. The client knows about Stands and is confident the police will never catch the murderer, and seemingly has exhausted their options before coming to Alison for help. One phone call, one trip to the bank, and Alison Fintan was already on her way to the Big Apple. She had a feeling this was going to be her toughest job yet but even more than the money she wanted to see justice. Perhaps this murderer isn't so different than she once was, or perhaps facing this murderer is just a way to continue facing herself. Either way she was confident when she stepped off her private plane, smirking quite smugly as she made herself disappear into city. She hadn't been to New York since she killed her former boss and she had some catching up to do.
Name: 「Achtung Baby」
Namesake: U2's 7th Album
Physical Description: This Stand is completely invisible, even to other Stands and Stand users. Despite this it does have a form and thus may be detected by other means beyond sight. This form is humanoid in shape but small, no taller than a few feet, and is profoundly ill-suited to direct combat. For this reason it is rarely manifested completely to begin with.
Personality: Whether due to being manifested so infrequently or due to having very little complexity, Achtung Baby has no demonstrable personality to speak of with one exception: as a panic or stress reflex it may activate its ability on its own without any conscious decision from its user, as a means of protecting its user. Beyond that it has no Stand Cry, no capability of speech (its own nor its user's), and no other behaviors or quirks.
Abilities: Achtung Baby has the power to turn its user completely invisible. This invisibility is flawless and leaves no shimmer, fuzz, nor any other visual cue. In addition: this invisibility can be spread one of two ways. The first is by contact with the user or the Stand itself, allowing anything else to be made invisible too. This includes objects, living things, and even phenomena such as smoke, steam, etc. The range of Achtung Baby is small so generally things will have to be pretty much within reach of the user regardless of whether its the user or the Stand that is making something else invisible. The second way is through a radial area-of-effect that spreads from the user and turns anything within that radius invisible. This has considerably more range than the former but is still very limited relative to other Stands, perhaps only being able to reach several meters at max. This can be done manually but also reflexively by Achtung Baby itself in order to protect its user. Anything made invisible by this power will remain invisible, regardless of distance from the user, until the ability is disabled manually or the user is knocked unconscious. Anything made invisible is still tangible and may be detected by other means such as sound, smell, or touch. Likewise anything that comes from inside an invisible person or object, such as blood, will not automatically be invisible once it leaves the invisible person or object unless it is made invisible directly through Achtung Baby's power as it would become visible, allowing it to remain invisible with such precision that it never became visible in the first place.
Stand Stats:
Destructive Power: D Range: D Speed: D Durability: D Precision: A Development Potential: A
Misc: Achtung Baby can pick up small objects and hand them to its user, though anything even remotely heavy is too much for it to handle.
Misc: Alison is very strong and fast for a human, so much so that she can perform her own kind of "Stand Rush" with her fists. This won't hold up to any close-combat Stands but their users may be in for the beatdown of their lives if Alison can get her hands on them.
Pretty much every stat on the Stand except Development Potential is wrong here unless we’re looking at different wikis, and I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to be using fully canon Stands and abilities thereof (at least starting out). Also, Achtung Baby has no physical form as a Stand. It’s completely bound to the user’s body.
@Lewascan2 Oh wow, you're right. That's pretty cool! It should make for a very complex group dynamic. Exciting stuff!
They've really got that "trio dynamic" going for them at the moment, huh. It'll be interesting to see what else gets added by 1 or 2 more people. Right now, they really have that energy that everyone is bringing something unique to the table, all of them doing several somethings the others don't. It's great.
Also i noticed that Lorenzo is the youngest of the trio. Which will make for some interesting interactions.
Heh. I wonder if we'll get anyone older or younger than the current range...
<Snipped quote by Lewascan2>
That looks super cool.
Thanks! I might even write out a conclusion for that little noncanon blurb later if I get struck with the motivation. It's got a couple ways it could end.
So something like them monologuing in their head planning out all of their actions? I would be done with that being a thing. It could be pretty fun.
In my head, my posts might go something like this:
(this segment assumes OOC consultation with GM to be aware of and incorporate environmental factors before posting)
Kasumi dashed around the corner in hot pursuit of Illuso and came to a dead halt, quickly jumping back, as an empty alley presented itself.
Shit, where...?
Hand twitching towards her concealed firearm, her eyes trailed up, but no-one revealed themselves. Frowning, her eyes narrowed, as she slowly crouched to the ground, summoning Gold Experience. One hand reached out to touch the mouth of the alleyway, extending Gold Experience's life sense forth, and her scowl only deepened.
There's nothing living beyond a rat. He's gone... No, he must be in a mirror. That's what happened to the others. He's not that fast, and he's injured. There's nowhere else he could go that quickly!
Peeking around the corner, her Stand's vision scoured the darkened alleyway, but not even a blood trail showed up.
He must have turned the mirror to disappear his trail as well, which means it's either facing the mouth of the alley from when he propped it up or lying flat after he entered. I don't know how small a reflection he needs, but it could be miniscule... I could go the long way around and enter from the other side, but that might not help...
Biting her lip hard enough to nearly draw blood, she grimaced. There was no other choice but to face Illuso on his home terrain. But if she did, he wouldn't pull her in unless he could separate her from her Stand, so how could she...? Ah. That's a gamble, but she'd take it. There wasn't really an option here. If she ran, he'd find her later, and he'd have already picked off the others. The enemy had her dead to rights; the only path left was head-on.
Bring it, motherfucker.
After a brief detour, she dashed into the alley at a dead sprint.
Gold Experience is made to start preloading her handgun ammo with several contact transformations (insert list here), to be unleashed in sequence when she fires. Having not used her handgun up till now, Illuso shouldn't know to exclude it when he grabs her, and she'll be able to bring a piece of Gold Experience's power with her.
Stored transformations focus heavily on plants, leaning into damage reflection to stop Illuso's escaping by tearing through them. And if she's really lucky, she can actually hit him and have the plant grow from the inside-out, tearing him apart.
She also stores one or two transformations to clone new hands of her "real" self inside the mirror to see if she can artificially make a backdoor for her Stand to summon itself into the mirror realm; she isn't relying on this portion, but it'll be nice if it works.
She'll take the time to transform several cars into frogs, which she'll hide in her pockets. Once inside the mirror, she'll use them as artillery, throwing frogs and having GE remotely revert them midair to drop cars on the vastly physically weaker Stand and user. Ideally, this will crush him, but if he can manage to "cloak" himself in his Stand for protection, it should still trap him well enough to either shoot or further trap with summoned plants. Better still, if Illuso tries to smack her frog projectiles away to evade this plan's premise, he'll provoke the damage reflection there too.
@scrawls Honestly, I'm loving this crew so far. It's something I've noticed going on that, by apparent coincidence, all three of the current team members are studies in contrasts.
Kasumi being a woman vs Lorenzo and West both being men. West using a long range Stand vs Lorenzo and Kasumi's short range. Lorenzo being religious vs West and Kasumi being very much the opposite. Kasumi's selfishness and cold pragmatism vs Lorenzo and West's altruism and justice. West's exuberant extroversion vs Kasumi and Lorenzo's far more private or reserved demeanors. Lorenzo's loving relationship with his family vs West and Kasumi's cutting ties with their relatives entirely.
I could possibly go on, but there just seems to be this neat pattern of each of them having particular traits that are inverted by the other two in some way. It's very nice, makes the group feel like it's "hitting more beats" on the whole, makes them feel more "legit", like a properly balanced character cast. And it's definitely making me excited to see who else may potentially round this trio out! :D
Four would be a good even number. More then that and i would be too overwhelmed.
Heh. I guess I can see that. Given that this is presumably going to be people familiar with Jojo, there's likely to be a lot of 5D chess big brain maneuvers being thrown around, which could get... chaotic in group fights. XD
Speaking of, I've been considering ways to really live up to that aspect of Jojo fights and how I'll post to incorporate it. I'm considering making combat posts where I'll have the "public" actions taking up the main body of the post while having a hidered section at the bottom explaining the "big brain" intention of the above acts before the results are acquired. Rather than explaining their thought process in the main body, just writing how they are trying to outsmart their foe in summary outside the main narrative, and then the responding posts can be made with that in mind.
Okay let me think about it. I just want to keep things balanced for the shake of the rp. I was thinking of introducing a Hamon user later on, so their is a possibility of them interacting.
Yee. All understandable. Honestly, I'm just brainstorming right now, but this whole thought project is kinda rooted in the nature of Developmental Potential and the ability of Stands to just spontaneously gain new abilities as long as it roughly aligns with the theme of their powers. May be something to consider deciding how you want to approach before it comes up, the possibility of canon Stands developing non-canon abilities/techniques.
As an aside, seeing as activity here seemed a bit lacking with just the two of us passing the ball, I dropped a rec for this RP in one of the discord servers I frequent, so you may see some more interest around here soon. Seems like you may have got another bite that's interested in potentially taking The Hand as a Stand, which I'm sure would be... interesting in hands outside of Okuyasu's.
Mmm let me think about it, because i am unsure how powerful both GE and hamon would be together. Unless you say your character is already a hamon user, i guess that would be a good way to explain it.
Eh, I don't really see how having her start with Hamon would make it more feasible, to be honest, as the premise of my musing was that even outside what other Stands might require to channel Hamon (which isn't confirmed), GE seems uniquely suited by its ability to be an exception to the general pattern. Honestly, I'm not really interested in adding another layer to Kasumi's backstory. I'm not looking to tack another thing on this early; after all, Gold Experience on its own already has a lot going for it. I'm just brainstorming.
To clarify, I'm not posing this as an ability that GE would start off with (by which, I mean just mimicking Hamon straight-up). At most, on a base level, it could detect Hamon, feel it flow like any other life energy. Maybe generate it roughly but not actually shape it into functional techniques. Actually duplicating Hamon abilities would probably take time and training, even assuming GE grants the user a natural leg up/"talent" Jonathan-style for power-leveling it. They'd still likely need a decent teacher or specific opponents (ie, Vampires or Pillar Men) to push them to develop it seriously. I'm just proposing this is something that feasibly makes sense for Gold Experience to exert that really high Potential stat on down the line, just like any other Stand that develops new abilities as a series goes on.
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