#standnotes

It will take me time to gather my thoughts and tame my emotions to unravel the tales of two of the most important stands I have met. This is simply my fate, twined with theirs. I apologize if this leads to a scattered thought process in these notes. Something that I am certain will happen, my only real wish being that it does not impair the ability to understand their workings.

There’s a sort of melancholic when thinking back on Semi Charmed Life and it’s user. For the sake of this being kept cohesive, I will focus exclusively on this stand as much as I can help it. Let it be known, however, that it no longer exists. A flower plucked far too early from this world, and this beautiful stand going with it. She is gone. She is gone. Its form, in most cases, was a simple umbrella. I cannot attest to if this would be more effective than, say, a pen, though it suited her. It was used to create symbols in the air, a trail of glowing light following it’s every move. She had them memorized, each one so unique. She’d spend some nights until dawn creating new ones, niche circumstances filling her mind. Each had a set ability, associated in some way through how it was created. Some were shaped like animals, others crafted from the letters in a word. 

There, of course, were quite a few drawbacks to something like this. First being that the range was quite short, due to certain standards. It is not a close range physical type stand, though it’s range could not have been more than say… 10 meters? A medium range, at best. The second being that the impossible can not be made possible. If there is no possibility of something, or a possibility so low it may as well be impossible, it will not be happening. A gust of wind can come to knock them back, though a tornado spawning with no warning is outside of her ability. The earth can crack beneath, but the chasm not as deep as one might expect.

The third is that it does did not work well in the rain, but in exchange is was stronger at night.

None of this matters.

264.4 hours (11 days 25 minutes).

This is the record, officially, of a human being staying awake without breaks for sleep. This was not achieved without severe complications, of course, it’s quite the fascinating case to read up on.

This is the only way I could see opening up my report of the Heartbreak’s resident ‘alarm clock’, Josie Jade Sixx. Her stand, Strawberry Alarm Clock, would benefit greatly from the resolve of the record holder, and may hold a more… unofficial version of it that could not be recorded in a way society would see fit. I lose track of it myself sometimes without ample notes.

Strawberry Alarm Clock could quite easily be one of the more high potential stands in our fold, able to repeat a single day within a city, with only stand users in the limits remaining with memories of the past ones, everyone else going about it in the exact same way each time unless a user can interfere. This being said, it would be quite the feat for a stand like this to go without limits.

There are limits, and often disastrous ones.

The stand can only be activated, not so much controlled, while JJ remains awake without breaks for sleep. Ending with whichever hour the stand is activated on, the last 24 hours are put on a loop, rewinding at the exact second she activates it. Her resolve and ability to stay awake for as long as she does is amazing. This being said, often times she reaches the state the poor record holder found himself in. Completely disillusioned with reality and surrounded by hallucinations. The study preformed with the record holder shows no ill long term effects, which we are very lucky for, but I can’t help but wonder if her often scrambled and missing memories stem from the repeated use of this. After the stand is deactivated she falls into a deep and nail-bitingly long sleep, often leaving us in a slight panic that she might not…

There are very few variables that could lead to me not being as interested in researching a stand with, as far as I can tell, infinite potential. One of these rare variables is the user being Winter Miller, a woman I had not had the strange bemused displeasure of meeting until rather late, according to Vulcan’s records.

Perhaps a bit of story for the head of one of our… Competing organizations. A powerful one, on par with our Heartbreak, see the LUMP entry. Winter Miller, self proclaimed rival of Vulcan Crow, leader of a group she aptly named Soulshakers in between mailing us glitter bombs, likely a jab at the Heartbreak’s name. This organization did not become known to me until much later, after the Italy incidents, which will be detailed shortly. Winter, despite being a thorn in our side since before we were officially Heartbreakers, was never what we would consider a threat for quite some time. A stand with amazing potential that always fell flat once we gathered it’s tricks and managed to make a short list, though recently it seems that… there won’t be much longer before she is on the same level as some of the users detailed in my Italy report.

Winter’s stand is known as The Joker, which we were quite fond of using as joke ammo around the dinner table for quite some time, though it is clearly named for the wildcard it has come to be known as. The number 13 is very key here, as a wildcard can often take place of any other card in the deck if needed. With physical contact with another stand user and a base knowledge of one of their abilities, her stand can make a, slightly weaker, copy of it. She can store up to 13, replacing one when another ability is copied. This is not the entire stand’s ability set, but one piece of it that can act on it’s own. Take for example my stand, how it is able to give and take wounds, though the transactions are different enough functions that, upon catching me off guard with her increased power and new abilities, could give her only my ‘giving’ ability, bouncing back wounds without the ability to take them. This was simple in the beginning, before her group formed and ‘began to throw their stands to her feet’. She originally was only able to use one ability at a time, and in the right hands this alone would be quite exceptional, but with how… exceedingly eccentric she happens to be, it seemed more like a gimmick.

She’s been training, it seems.

Instead of only mimicking one ability at once out of her set of 13, she is now able to combine two abilities that can intertwine into a new ability, making it her ‘own’ in a way. This is far more formidable and speaks to just how limitless this ability could be in the right, or wrong, hands with enough training. She, however, often relies on only a few of these abilities, much to her credit, keeping us from being able to make a complete list. This factor alone keeps us more cautious, only knowing a handful of her subordinates powers to go off of.

Along with the introduction of the Heartbreaker’s youngest member, came the introduction of our cutest member, Bella Manson.

I’ve heard people say that after a while animals seem to take after their owners, or perhaps the owners start to be more like their pet. This in mind, I’ve found that this cat’s stand is rather similar to her owner’s. We’ve given it the affectionate name of Super Furry Animals, in honor of our fuzzy Heartbreaker and the ability. Despite how sparingly the cat likes to use it, we’ve gathered quite a bit of information from Corey and, of course, from situations where she likes to play ‘guard dog’. Some say she is temperamental and a bit rude, but I do think she is quite the good girl.

Rather, more information on her stand.

Super Furry Animals manifests as a patchwork demon/cat hybrid stuffed animal looking creature, for lack of a better explanation, though this form is primarily used as a warning rather than it’s primary function as a fighting stand. Upon touching someone, it can envelop them in a sort of mascot animal suit, animal chosen depending on the person. Once the suit is on, aside from looking quite a bit like something Corey would make, they are rendered rather… useless if the term is not too rude. Able to move and such normally, of course, but with the unfortunate effect of being effectively drained of any physical strength, as well as making a rather adorable squeaking sound when trying to move. Their stand, provided they possess one, will also be put in a similar suit. Quite effective in the restraint department. I have never been put in one of the suits myself, and Vulcan refuses to tell me about his experience to give any more depth to a report.

I suppose being good with animals is not enough to cancel out his intimidating face.

If my last entry would be considered a terrible interaction, then the following pair of entries will be seen as some of the most wonderful and warm ones, if not off to a rather rocky start when meeting another rather… monstrous stand.

Smashing Pumpkins, a stand of a rare type that I had only seen once before, a stand worn on one’s body rather than being a separate entity or object. Upon seeing it, before I came to know the user who is now one of our more trusted, as well as our youngest, resident, nearly had me out of my skin after the previous encounter. Smashing Pumpkins has many different shapes it can take, coming down to a rather simple formula. It can take the form of a costume shaped as a movie monster, think the wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, one that the user, Corey, is familiar with. When wearing the suit of whichever villainous creature he chooses, he gains the same advantages as well as disadvantages he knows this creature to have. Some small restrictions do apply, as well as a few in his advantage- he can use the wolfman on any night, not just the nights of a full moon. The suit, being just that, has a rather large zipper up the back, that when undone, will remove his ‘mask’. Powerful, if not a bit straightforward with niche weaknesses not all faced with the sudden fright would immediately go to- especially in this day and age where horror is more about a random slasher than the monsters that terrified in the past.

Save for zombies, though those are so horridly inconsistent at this point I believe he has nearly three zombie forms.

Despite this, Corey is a very sweet child, well, young adult, and prefers to use his stand to play various roles in the plays of our theatre, Phases and Stages, though I cannot say Vulcan will be a good influence on him in the long run…

There is no doubt that you will be unable to get stand user P.M. Dawn out of your head once she manages to get inside. Despite recently obtained information about the group she works for, which will appear in future reports, it is safe to say that, at the time, she was almost on par with the monster that had all to recently turned our lives at the Heartbreak upside down.

This, being one of my early encounters and happening in the darkest point of my life, will surely grant me the use of a… darker tone.

While the stand is simple, it is relentless. Once it gets started on you it will follow you to the edges of its range which seems to go on much further than you could ever dream, escaping the city one of the few options you have when faced up against Lump. It is a stand that feeds on and amplifies paranoia, doing far more than just getting you blood pumping and heart thumping a tad. While it stalks you in every corner, shadow, every nook and cranny, it also uses its ability, singled in on you, it’s target, rapidly increasing fear. From what I managed to gather after my narrow escape, as I was not very interested in researching it at the time, strange as it sounds, it gives the victim three options. To continue in the adrenaline and fear filled existence until the heart gives out, the mind gives out, or until it’s relentless range gives out.

I’m far too lucky to escape, unfortunately.

As this was my first encounter since a year long break from my hobbies, it was certainly not a welcome wagon I enjoyed, Vulcan…

Well, regardless of this, I have learned that it chases you in it’s main form at most times, which is gruesome and monstrous enough for me to not be able to comprehend or describe, but when it deems that it is in fact ‘closing in’ on you, so to speak, it can morph this form into a more personal nightmare.

How disgusting.

A stand born from hate, from violence. One with enough versatility it left us blind to it’s true purpose. In other hands I’m sure it would have been more than fascinating. Instead it sprung forth from hands stained red for the guilt.

Possum Kingdom is a stand thriving from water, moisture. Each hand has different fingers, one with syringes for injecting more moisture into the target. The other with small, open tips with a vacuum within, pulling it from the target. This was… something I should have taken more note of. Something one should keep an eye on.

I don’t remember the numbers anymore, for to me there was really only one.

Several people disappeared, though it is a large town and few thought anything of it. Even his sister was blind. He was not one for a proper fight either, preferring to do his work quick with little room for retaliation. Had he chosen anyone else that day… I like to think things would have been different.

I wish things were different regardless.

Removing water swiftly from a target, leaving behind a thick dust that coats your lungs with all the force of a desert. Injecting water had… less than savory results, it seemed, as he only did that once to a target. He would use it more around us, the Heartbreak, the people who thought him family. He would keep the flowers his sister did not use her ability on alive just a bit longer. It was hard not to trust him. His voice. His eyes.

Now they make me nothing but sick.

Alanis Baker, if you see these, I apologize. You do not deserve to shoulder his sins.