James Iwata

James Iwata  is a youth living in the city of Kōwan during the *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Gates of Heaven RP*.

Orderly, composed and rather binary in his thinking, James is a boy that really believes and takes seriously the Japanese ideal of harmony. He moved to Kōwan at the age of ten with his family to help care for his aging grandmother. His Stand awoke three years ago during an attempted mugging, and though his parents can't see it, his grandmother can. He has been trying to learn to control his Stand ever since the incident.

## Appearance

James is of a fairly average build with a mostly caucasian skin color, though he is slightly darker than most caucasians. James has long arms with some fat on the upper arms. He has lanky legs that contain most of his height, and are somewhat muscular from his love of running. James has hazel eyes which consistently seem bloodshot. His hair is black and kept off of the collar, though it seems to curl at the end. James tries to be clean shaven, but always seems to have a bit of fuzz he can’t get with a razor.

During school hours, James will wear the assigned uniform in a pressed, clean fashion with no accessories. He wears a dress shirt and khakis under the assigned sweater vest. During off hours, James will change into a casual outfit usually consisting of jeans and a t-shirt in the summer, and a long sleeved shirt in the winter. He tends to wear bright colors. For formal occasions, James will wear a sport coat and khakis, but will do anything to avoid wearing a tie. James will have an American flag lapel pin on his left lapel, and a Japanese flag lapel pin on his right.

## Backstory

James was born in Des Moines, Iowa to a Japanese father and American mother. His father was part of the Speedwagon Foundation until 1992, when he quit to be closer to his family. His mother was a notable runner in her own right, winning several major competitions. The Iwatas moved to Kowan in 1996, in order to care for James’ aging grandmother. James has been going to Hanashobu High School after two years in middle school. James’ Stand awoke three years ago during an attempted mugging. His parents do not seem to be Stand users, though his grandmother is, allowing her to see James’ Stand. Her Stand’s powers have faded with age, meaning she only uses it for mundane tasks such as making tea or getting the phone. She discovered James’ Stand two years ago. James has been trying to learn how to control his Stand ever since. He is currently a third year student.

## Personality

James seems to take the Japanese ideal of harmony very seriously. He will try to be polite and downplay any emotional outbursts. He doesn't really get sarcasm or use it much. James tends to view things in binary. Something is either right or wrong. He would need to require convincing to change that. Even in private, James tends to be relatively unemotional.   He prefers things to be orderly and fixed whenever possible. In messy areas, he’d try to clean things if he can. James respects authority and the law by default. If an authority figure is blatantly doing something illegal or threatening, only then would James take action against them.

He views his Stand as a burden to be borne. He is reluctant to use it unless pressed. James will often try to be in the background of a Stand fight, using his ability to fight stealthy. If there is a more direct stand user in his side, he'd try to create an opportunity for them to attack. His weak stand requires him to try and be cheap and unfair in fights, something he really doesn't like. James tries to avoid conflict if possible. His binary view of life would drive him to act against those he deems wrong. If James found out a friend was shoplifting, he'd probably turn them in.

James usually only has a few friends, but he can be on polite terms with anyone he perceives as lawful. Once he deems someone an enemy, it will take a long time for him to change his mind, if ever.

James is slowly developing a fear of the dark, as more and more bad things seem to happen to him there.

## Talents & Abilities

### Stand

Moonshadow is a humanoid, long range Stand with Shadow/Object Manipulation Abilities. The Stand has two modes. It starts out as the User’s shadow. The stand is able to “deploy” and seperate from the user. It can travel up to 50 meters away from the user as a humanoid shadow. A small hairline shadow “string” visibly connects it to the user. The stand can grasp an object’s shadow and physically manipulate the object that it comes from. The object can weigh no more than 35 kg and exceed no more than 1.5 meters in length, nor can the Stand manipulate an animal/human. The stand is visible to the naked eye of any Stand user when in this state. The Stand can only manipulate one object at a time doing this. An impact of sufficient force can knock the object out of the Stand’s grasp. The Stand will have to find another object to do this. The Stand can transform into the outline of another object’s shadow to hide in it, but it takes 7 seconds to transform between shapes. It cannot manipulate any objects when assuming a different shape. The stand also requires a 7 second time to “deploy” onto the field and transform from the humanoid shape into the shadow shape. The stand normally hides within the user’s shadow. Finally, the stand can take the user’s shadow and manifest as a humanoid stand similar to punch ghost Stands. The Stand is unable to manipulate shadows and any objects it cannot reach in this state. The user will not have a shadow when the Stand assumes this form.

The stand would not be able to directly fight against a dedicated physical stand like Crazy Diamond or Star Platinum, who would break through it almost instantly. In a room with no shadows, the stand would be completely unable to manifest. Finally, directed UV light can dissipate the stand and make it vanish, requiring a 20 minute “cooldown” before it reappears. When this happens James becomes incapacitated and unresponsive to the outside world until the Stand reappears. Any Stand user can try and find the hairline shadow connecting the Stand and User. The user would then have to recall the Stand and run.

The Stand normally tries to attack enemies discreetly, going around them to hide and get in a cheap hit from the back. The user also tries to remain hidden from enemy eyes and be covert. The stand is intangible, but any object it grabs can be knocked away. It can pick an object and use it to defend the User against attacks, and it can try to grab enemy weapons away from them, assuming it gets in close.

The Stand will try to attack covertly, generally using backhanded attacks based around physical items it can grab. If in humanoid form, the Stand can use a decently fast stand rush and will try to use techniques the user knows.

### Personal

James is a novice Ripple user who has learned how to do the zoom punch and is currently exploring just what abilities the Ripple will give him. Moonshadow is incapable of using Hamon and will vanish as if it were exposed to directed UV energy if James tries to run Ripple energy it.