CANON UPDATE

[thinkin_arbys]

OOC:
Name: Nini
Email: shark in a ditch at geeeeemail
Other contact: AIM: LadyIverin

IC:
Character name: Hot Pants
Character journal: thinkin_arbys
Fandom: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure/Steel Ball Run
Timeline: Vol 20, Ch 77 (her defeat by D4C)

Updates: This is about to get complicated. When last we left the race, Hot Pants was waiting to ambush Diego Brando.

She attempts this, attacking him remotely with her Stand; she's found out just at the moment of attack, though, and he leaps over a wall to try to get the upper hand. It's downhill from there. Though she manages to attack him with her Stand, he grapples her and forces her into her own Stand's effect. With disembodied lips, she reveals why she's attacked: She wants his help retrieving the corpse, and offers news of his father's location in return. Essentially, her goal is to blackmail him. Though Diego is manipulating her, through this proverbial deal with the Devil she gains access to the President, who is holding the corpse's bearer hostage.

They team up and head over to attack the President... who has pulled copies of them from another dimension. Hot Pants understandably freaks out, becoming more frantic about their situation. The horrors had been gradually increasing since the start of the race, and by this point her mental state is shaky; Civil War pushed her to the brink by dredging up her worst memories. When objects from two dimensions meet, they destroy each other, and HP nearly loses her hand. Trusting Diego's words, she sprints for the train, where he soundly defeats their other selves by forcing them back to the other dimension.

There's a reflective moment here, where HP stops, considering what she has done and where she has come from. Knowing what she knows, seeing what she's seen, she realizes how ultimately powerless she is. It's the same powerlessness she's always held in her heart, but she starts to show an acceptance of her fate. What she is and what she has become are outside of herself. She professes to be working not only for forgiveness, but to help the souls and comfort of believers other than herself. This shows she does have some nobility to her purpose, despite the violent and unconventional way she has gone about it. Finally, she shows the ultimate acceptance: she understands and acknowledges that she will likely die for this cause. Everything in this page indicates a depth of thought and intent far greater than we had previously been led to believe. Perhaps, on the inside, she is less a villain and foil than she seems.

Inside, a battle begins to take shape. They locate President Valentine and move to attack him, finding themselves assaulted by multiple copies of him as well. Having not seen this yet, HP is understandably shaken. She trusts Diego to have told her as much as she needs to know. They put up an excellent strategic fight, but they are no match for multiple copies of Valentine. At one point, he and Diego are thrown from the train, and HP sees them both bisected by the wheels. Thinking them dead, she continues to look for the body of Christ.

She finds Lucy Steel. Realizing the girl is bearing the body, she approaches. Slowly, the room around her begins to warp as Lucy's Stand abilities amplify Valentine's powers, allowing him to "move things". She is attacked, and thrown into a window, which his Stand sinks into her skin. As she is attacked, she attempts to combat it with her Stand, trying to force the pieces out of her body. This proves to be futile--she acknowledges such--and horrifies her further as she desperately tries to survive. Thrown from the train herself, she dies of internal injures from the window frame and glass impaling her body.


Samples: N/A. Only her MO and viewpoints have changed.

Anything else worth mentioning: So. The canon is totally ambiguous, and apparently there's some speculation in fandom about her nationality. A case can be equally made for her being of Italian origin (my take) or American. In an attempt to salvage all of my fabulousness, I'd like to walk a line in between. Here's the revised timeline for her:

The incident of her brother's death occurred in her pastoral Italian village when she was roughly 12 years old. Immediately afterwards, riddled with guilt and unable to confess to her family or her neighbors, and she decided her calling (and salvation) were in the Church. She excelled at piety (...yes) and accepted a short trip to the Vatican. Enthralled and inspired, she worked her hardest to be an ideal Sister.

At the age of 16, she volunteered for a mission to the United States, and was accepted for a church in the western part of the country. Ministering to the people and doing odd tasks wasn't that satisfying as she got older, and as she'd been reading various books on philosophy and history, she yearned for something more. She also felt as though her calling was higher than just being a servant of the people.

Approximately 4 years prior to canon start (age 19), the woman who came to be known as Hot Pants left the convent. She settled in California and began to learn the rougher ways of the folk there. She perfected her English, learned the laws of the land, and worked to live properly among cowboys and prospectors and all manner of oddities. Somewhere in all of this, she caught wind of the Vatican's need for a holy crusader, and took up the reins--easier, as she'd been masquerading as a man.

This is where we find her at the beginning of Steel Ball Run.