unholey | info; purple haze

{ what is a STAND? }

A Stand is a supernatural power in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, introduced in Part 3: Stardust Crusaders and featuring heavily in all subsequent parts. Stands are viewable only to other Stand users (at least in canon — this may differ in different game settings!). They are described variously as a person's fighting spirit or a representation of their psyche. Whatever they are, they protect their users (with a few notable exceptions) as well as representing them, in a way vaguely analogous to (but less understood than) the dæmons of His Dark Materials or Personas of the eponymous franchise.

When Stands are hurt, so are their users, and vice versa; when a Stand dies, so does its user, and vice versa. Stand users have been known to see ghosts, presumably due to their connection with the spirit world through their Stands. There are several types of Stand.

{ what is purple haze? }

Purple Haze, is a close-range, semi-independent Stand whose abilities are a reflection of Fugo's personality and state of mind. Fugo and Purple Haze are inextricably linked together; Fugo even goes so far as to think of Purple Haze as "the other me". Fugo can manifest Purple Haze within a 5 meter (~16 feet) radius of his body. Like most close-range Stand users, Purple Haze is very powerful from within that range; they also share injuries. If Fugo hurts himself, that injury would be reflected onto Purple Haze and if Purple Haze gets injured in a fight, that injury would be reflected back onto Fugo.

Unlike most close-range Stand users, Fugo does not have complete control of his Stand. Instead of responding to direct orders, Purple Haze appears to act on his own based on Fugo's emotions. Although he's not intelligent and isn't capable of speech, Purple Haze has his own personality, thoughts, and opinions about things. For example, he hates messes and, even in a situation where Fugo's life is in danger, will be distracted by being horrified by his own drool and will drop everything to clean it up. Purple Haze is a vicious, furious, and incredibly dangerous Stand—especially for his user, who Purple Haze rarely acknowledges in a fight.

Purple Haze's specialized power is his ability to spread a highly contagious and indiscriminately lethal flesh-eating virus. The virus is contained within six capsules: three on each hand, fixed in place between his knuckles. Once the capsules are broken or ejected, the virus is released as an airborne contagion; victims can also be infected by touching inflected flesh. Victims who are infected by the virus are devoured from the inside out as the virus rots and melts their innards down to the bones. Death can come as quickly as thirty seconds for anyone unfortunate to inhale the virus. Although it takes just moments for the virus to do its dirty work, it is an incredibly hideous and painful way to die. If a capsule is cracked or otherwise removed, it takes 24 hours to regenerate.

The virus will infect anything it comes into contact with, including animals, people, Stands, and even Fugo himself. There are currently only two ways to survive being infected by the virus: quickly excising the infected flesh or creating antibodies to fight against it. (Note: Giorno is the only one who has done this so far. But it is theoretically possible!) Thankfully, it has one very pointed weakness: exposure to any sort of light will weaken and eventually kill the virus. Although bright sunlight is the best, the virus can be weakened by any sort of light--even a lamp in a dark room is enough to stop its advance. As of Purple Haze Feedback, Fugo appears to have gained a little bit of control over how strong the virus is; at its strongest the virus will devour itself, so he actually has to "pull" his punches to fight effectively.

{ what does it look like? }

Purple Haze is a furious, hideous nightmare brought to life. He's too tall and too thin, with knobby knees and brittle-looking fingers; his skin looks like some kind of patchwork, just barely held together with loose stitches. His yellow eyes are wide, bloodshot, and constantly darting about. He drools constantly from his stitched up mouth. Although he cannot speak, Purple Haze is never silent: he wheezes, he snarls, he howls. His movements are deceptively stiff and jerky; while Purple Haze does not have fine motor control, his reactions are lightning-quick within his five-meter range. Purple has three golden capsules on each hand, fixed between his knuckles.

Fugo almost never approaches Purple Haze any closer than two meters. Purple Haze very rarely acknowledges Fugo's presence. He's much more preoccupied with finding threats (which is everything and everyone) and freaking out about messes made by his acidic drool. Fugo does his best to put himself between friends and Purple Haze and keep them out of his range. When he first appears, Purple Haze is often seated in a tightly-folded position with his face tucked into his knees.

{ opt-out }

Purple Haze, as you might have gathered, is really fucking terrible and gross. Death via the virus is a very visceral and disgusting process, which I will always make sure to content warn for and ask permission if Purple Haze comes up in play.

Thankfully, Fugo almost never uses his Stand unless he absolutely has to and hates even talking about him. So it's very easy to avoid this aspect of his character! If you're uncomfortable at all with Purple Haze, please let me know by filling out the following form and commenting here. I've got comments screened for privacy!

Player Name: Character(s) Played: Discussion of Purple Haze: [If you're uncomfortable with discussion of Purple Haze and his abilities, let me know here!] Interacting with Purple Haze: [Please let me know if you don't want your character to have to see/interact with Purple Haze! The potential for this is largely in combat/life-threatening situations.]