James Impala

Impala is a fiercely private individual. He rarely socializes, and prefers the company of himself and his Stand. He is extremely defensive of his thoughts and opinions. In reality, Impala is simply afraid of rejection. He doesn't know how to handle these feelings, so he keeps himself guarded and isolated. On the rare occasion that he does interact with others, he makes a conscious effort to keep his distance.

Impala doesn't really know how to express his emotions, and has a hard time communicating as a result. He's stubborn and impulsive, doing anything to avoid thinking about his negative feelings. There are parts of him that want to connect with others, but he feels like he doesn't know how to act. He has a hard time reading social cues, which often leaves him feeling awkward and out of place.

Despite his closed-off nature, Impala is very empathetic. He cares very deeply about things, but finds it difficult to be open and vulnerable, even with himself. He also has deeply-rooted feelings of inadequacy which only drive him further into isolation. He believes that others are better off without him, and that maintaining relationships is more trouble than it's worth.

During his childhood, Impala was primarily raised by his aunt, Valerie Gardener. His parents were very busy with their work, and would often leave him with her for most of the day. His Stand manifested around this time. Not knowing what it was, Impala thought of it as a companion and interacted with it often. His aunt was excited to know that he was a Stand user like herself, and encouraged him to cultivate his abilities. After an incident where he was injured by his own ability, his parents began to notice his odd behavior. They would become very angry at the mention of his "imaginary friend", which lead to a lot of verbal and physical abuse. This, in turn, caused Impala to interact with his Stand less and less, until he was eventually unable to summon it on his own anymore. His parents stopped letting his aunt see him and filed a restraining order against her, accusing her of "filling his head with crazy pseudo science". He would not find out about this for many years, being told she simply "didn't have time for him anymore". Now that there was no one to watch him during the day, he was often left to his own devices.

Impala became a very anxious teenager, developing poor self esteem as a result of his parents' constant critisism. He started questioning his identity around this time, but kept it to himself. His parents had become very strict and controlling, and would often accuse him of lying, stealing, and other things he hadn't done. At 15, he ran away from home. Having nowhere to go, he ended up spending several nights on the street while attempting to make his way back to his hometown. He was eventually picked up by police and returned to his parents after being caught sleeping in a public park. This caused even more abuse, particularly from his father.

Around the time he turned 18, Impala received a letter stating that his aunt had passed away, and that he was the sole beneficiary to her estate. Among other things, he had been left a small tract of land in the woods, and the small house that he remembered from his childhood. Taking this as a sign, Impala quickly gathered up his things and left without telling his parents. After settling his aunt's affairs, he moved into her old house. Enjoying his newfound solitude, Impala effectively closed himself off to the outside world, only leaving his home for supplies. During this period, he noticed that strange things began to happen. He would leave a room only to come back and find things in places he hadn't left them, small rocks would be left outside his bedroom door, etc. He would eventually come to find that his Stand had began to manifest again. This initially scared him, as he'd been conditioned to believe his "imaginary friend" was a delusion made up by his overactive imagination, but he soon realized this wasn't the case at all.

「Autumn Effect」

Impala's Stand, Autumn Effect, is a humanoid power Stand that has the ability to produce spores that (when inhaled) can cause acute asphyxiation. When in contact with broken skin, these spores can also cause necrosis of the surrounding tissue. This damage varies based on the size and severity of the initial injury.

NOTES

Impala can also be affected by his own ability, but he has learned to keep himself safe through controlled breathing excercises. Even if he were to suffocate as a result of Autumn's spores, his ability would deactivate as soon as he started to pass out. This failsafe ensures that Impala cannot be killed by this aspect of his Stand's power.

However, he can be killed by his Stand's secondary ability, necrosis. If a spore were to come in contact with a wound on his body, he would have to dismiss his Stand entirely in order to keep them from spreading to the rest of his body. This is not particularly difficult, but calling off this ability could be dangerous in combat, as it removes the effect from enemies as well.