Soggy leaves and puddle littered the crowded city streets as Roberta made her way to the strange bookshop where that man with the fiery had been sitting on the first day she saw him. It was near the gym and the park, just around the bend, past the traffic lights, and... There it was! It was a wonderfully creaky old shop, with a black and silver sign saying "Silver Magician booksellers- rare copies, antiques, secondhand books." The door was closed, and a little silver bell rang as Roberta opened the door, and she walked through a bead curtain as she entered the dark little room. The interior was wildly cluttered, reminding her of some kind of magical Wizard's shop. The bookcases were stuffed with all kinds of books, from manga to heavy law tomes. All kinds of odd trinkets, such as clocks and globes, lined the top of the shelves. Dusky red curtains covered the windows and the entire place smelt overpoweringly of incense, making it seem like some kind of mysterious library from the Arabian Nights. Oddly, the walls were white, painted with little cartoon knights and birds, like lineart.
"Welcome, stranger." A voice said. Roberta looked towards the back of the shop, where a desk was illuminated by several Turkish glass lamps. The antique till shone in the gloom, and behind it sat that strange man who'd talked about her aura. His prosthetic hands were steepled under his chin, and that familiar aura glowed around him.
"You're the man who talked about me being a "dormant user..." Roberta said, staring at him with curiosity. "And you've got the same kind of fuzzy aura that I got after pricking myself on the arrow."
Avdol's eyes widened at this.
"The Stand Arrow? So you work at Joseph's old museum, the one now run by Noriaki..."
"What's a Stand? And how do you know my boss?" Roberta asked, thoroughly confused.
"You've got a lot to learn, girl. Let's take this upstairs."
Avdol closed the shop's door and put up the "CLOSED" sign, then escorted Roberta through a door. It led to a stairwell with a stair lift along the side, which in turn led up to a flat above the shop.
"Jean Pierre, we've got a guest! She's just developed a Stand, like that lucky girl we got a few years ago."
A man with tall silver hair rolled into the room in a wheelchair, a pink eye patch covering one of his eyes. He had ink on his hands, as if he was a cartoonist or a artist, and he covered the mirrors in the room with cloths.
"We're dealing with spirits here, Avdol, so we've got to cover the mirrors so they don't get in." He said.
"Good thinking, Jean." Avdol replied.
"Not only is it a tradition for me, it's also practical. Remember that bastard with the matching hands?" Polnareff sighed, and glanced over to a black and white photo of a young woman as he covered the last mirror.
"Anyway, I'm Polnareff, this is Avdol. You are..."
"Oh, I'm Roberta. Avdol said something about me being a "dormant user", and a few days ago I developed a... Stand, was it? Anyway, I've got that aura you two have."
Polnareff appeared to have a silvery-black aura, like a tarnished platter. Roberta's was an eerie green, like those glow in the dark plastic toys.
"Another Stand user! I'll make you a hot drink, then we can fill you in on Stands." Polnareff said, wheeling himself over to the kitchen.
"Get her some mint tea!" Avdol called, taking off his robe and sitting down.
"Oh, she'd probably much rather have hot chocolate."
"Tea!"
"Chocolate!"
"Tea!"
"Oh, fine... Chocolate it is."
Over a hot mug of cocoa, Polnareff explained Stands to Roberta.
"It's your fighting spirit, personified and brought to life. They've got a degree of sentience, but they're obedient to you for the most part. If you get hurt, it takes damage, and a Stand can't kno anything you don't."
"Except for that time Jotaro's stand knew all that stuff about rugby and etiquette!" Avdol added.
"Yeah... I don't get that either. Anyway, us two, Joseph and your boss and his husband went to Egypt in 1989 to fight a dangerous stand user. He was a vampire, but after Jotaro's great grandfather decapitated him, he regrew his body from his head."
"In the fight, I lost my arms, and it's why Kakyoin has back problems. But it's also how I met habibi, so it wasn't all bad." Avdol said, squeezing Polnareff's hand.
"I lost my legs and my eye in another stand battle, and I narrowly avoided being turned into a tortoise. But that's a story for another day, all you need to know is that Stands are fighting spirits, each with their own unique powers. Do you know yours yet?" Polnareff asked.
"That's what I was hoping you could help me with..."
Roberta called out Living Dead Girl, who glided behind her.
"I named her, but I don't know what her powers are yet." Roberta said.
"You know, some say that the power will first arise if you act instinctively." Avdol said, gazing curiously at LDG's bandages. "But I don't want to take any risks, so..."
"THINK FAST!" Polnareff yelled. His stand- a silver knight- emerged, and hurled a canopic jar from a shelf at her.
"JEAN PIERRE, THAT'S FROM THE 25TH DYNASTY, I SWEAR UPON..." Avdol screamed, as Roberta flinched and Living Dead Girl surged forward to protect her user. The Stand grasped the tatty old stone jar with a trailing bandage, and there was a huge flash of green light. What was once a dusty old relic became a brightly painted, intact stone container. Roberta carefully put the jar down, her heart racing.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I didn't mean to..."
She was silenced by the two men clapping.
"Congratulations! I unlocked your stand!" Polnareff grinned.
"I wish you didn't have to throw my artefacts around, but indeed. Living Dead Girl appears to have the ability to reverse the changes created by the lateral flow of time on inanimate objects, restoring them to a pristine quality." Avdol said with a smile.
"Basically, it makes old things new again." Polnareff grinned. "I'll go and get some macarons to celebrate!"
"So if I found an old, rusty sword, she could make it into a weapon and fight with it?" Roberta asked.
"Absolutely!" Polnareff said.
"But how do you know about Stands?" Roberta asked Avdol.
"It's a long story, but it's worth telling..."
Nobody knew where the young boy got the ability to set fire to things from. His parents were terrified by it, but everything changed when the old woman appeared.
"You can call me Marie Saint-Buffy." She said. She had a spirit too, a Kachina doll made of stars that she called "Star Walker", as it let her astrally project. She taught Avdol Tarot, and about stands, and although Marie was long dead, she had been a most excellent teacher to the young boy. The wildfires once caused by his anxiety were now warming hearth fires, as his knowledge of Tarot let him be sure when he didn't know something. Marie had told him that his spirit was called a "Stand", as it would stand beside him no matter what.
"A word of warning, though." Avdol turned to Roberta, and looked her in the eye.
"When Joseph was young, he brought a statue to the museum. Now, under NO circumstances must you use your powers to attempt to awaken the statue!" Avdol said, looking serious.
"You mean all the stuff about the living statue is true?" Roberta gasped.
"Oh yes. As a young man he locked away the Pillar Men, and you must swear to never awaken them! It would spell disaster for..."
In the middle of Avdol's dire prophecy, the doorbell rang.
"Gah, I forgot! Kylie's coming round for Stand training!" Polnareff cried.
"Wait, Kylie? As in my mate Kylie?" Roberta asked, thoroughly confused.
Avdol walked downstairs, and opened the door. Standing there was a familiar blonde with a pink aura.
"Kylie!" Roberta gasped. "You're a stand user!"
Kylie turned her head, to see Living Dead Girl floating overhead.
"Oops, busted! But so are you, so you gotta tell me everything, ok!" She giggled as she walked upstairs. Roberta sat down, and prepared herself to tell a very long story.