Daniel Ripley

The more moody and analytical half of a duo with his spouse, Daniel Ripley uses his Stand mostly to con casinos out of money.  In particular, he can "read" other people, making him effective at card games, such as poker.  Their abilities have effectively made them who they are; without their schemes, they're pretty much layabouts.  Daniel is fine with this...to a point.  He can't help but worry about getting caught, especially by another Stand user.  Laurent thinks his ability's made him a bit paranoid.

Known Backstory:

Back when they were just goofy high schoolers out camping, Daniel and Laurent had become the direct witnesses of a space shuttle crash out in the Black Rock Desert (which would also eventually result in Space Oddity's unique existence).  Police and detectives quickly swarmed the scene, and the duo was escorted away to an organization known as the Speedwagon Foundation, where they soon developed Stands.  Turns out, the shuttle was carrying a meteorite of supernatural importance, and it gave them...some sort of space virus?

Gaining superpowers suddenly was a stressful experience, though more for Daniel than it was for Laurent.  Daniel's ability involves seeing into people's hearts and never turns "off," giving him a deep distrust of other folks.  Laurent stayed by his side the whole way, and in his own words, they're the most genuine person he's ever known. Laurent, meanwhile, was susceptible to bouts of depressive moods, but always felt themself cheered up by Daniel's presence.  Having both of their worlds turned upside-down together is ultimately what started bringing them closer.

Since then, they've gotten together and got married.  Being intimately familiar with their abilities by the time of the present day, they earned money mostly from conning normal folks unaware of their paranormal chicanery.  Daniel's ability in particular has made him aloof and mistrustful of others, while he also finds morbid enjoyment over having the psychological upper hand.  He just doesn't think their gig will last, is all.

In-Game Timeline (Act 1):

Daniel and Laurent were actually former high school classmates of one of the player characters.  When the players got interested in the shuttle crash, they tried to track the duo down for details, but Daniel and Laurent wanted to mess around with them first.  The players had heard a member of the Terror was skulking around the casino, could it be one of them?

Daniel and Laurent turned out to be uninvolved, and didn't know what "the Terror" was.  After this misunderstanding-turned-battle, they treated the players to dinner and elaborated on their story, which is how the players first heard of the meteorite's existence.  They departed on friendly terms, and now correspond with the players if they hear any new information that might be of interest.

They were there when the players called together a discussion on the fact that the city could be an illusion, or in a pocket dimension, or something similar.  In particular, the Ripleys mentioned going on a vacation within the past few months...but verifying using a certain player character's Stand, their vacation photos appeared to be fake.  They're not sure what to make of this, but it can't be anything good.  Where WERE they that week they were gone?!

He was seen at Anthony Managuchi's political rally, and admitted he loves detecting politicians' lies with his ability.  Since the rally was cut off with a little assassination attempt and all, he was then hemming and hawing on how to find another way to gauge what Mr. Managuchi's campaign may be really about.  His Stand doesn't work with recordings, so he then had to find a way in at Anthony's next event, which was looking to be privately held--and Daniel wasn't invited.

In-Game Timeline (Act 2):

A mysterious Stand called「Endless Fantasy」overwrote the memories of parts of the city and characters' relationships while simultaneously skipping time forward a couple months.  The players and NPCs were victims alike, and eventually regained varying degrees of knowledge of what had been reset.  After the shift, Daniel and Laurent hung out with Anthony at a party and seemed to get chummy with him--Daniel didn't bring up any of his suspicions at all.  In the end, it turned out this was just a veil that Endless Fantasy had put over him all the same.

According to his own account, Daniel found Anthony messing with a box of items.  He asked if he needed help with it, and then Anthony quickly turned defensive.  Daniel's memory is fuzzy here, but he recalls pressing the issue, as he could detect Anthony was lying about his "box of junk," and then...Anthony summoned some sort of Stand, which stabbed him!  New Order went off simultaneously, so he couldn't get a good look at whatever power Mr. Managuchi may hold.  Knowing he could be in danger, he quickly left his unconscious body at the scene, rushing over to the party, handing them the box, and being unable to explain before he himself fell unconscious.  He has no idea how that happened--he wasn't bleeding out severely, and when he came to, he had a head wound, indicating some sort of blunt force trauma from a third party on the scene.  After that, he was interrogated and tormented by Florence and her Stand, offering him a position at Delta Machine, which he refused.

Around this time, he was even "erased" from history like other victims.  Laurent caught up with the main crew to demand answers, fearing Daniel had actually died.  Luckily, he was able to be tracked down and saved; could this mean anything for any of the other victims of Endless Fantasy's assumed memory meddling?  His memory is still hazy from the event, but he'll let the party know anything else he may remember about it.  Hopefully that box he endangered his life securing turns out to be useful.

Ability: 「New Order」

Integrated, Automatic, Natural Non-Humanoid

New Order is a Stand bound to Daniel Ripley's left eye.  It has the ability to sense people's "hearts," especially in contrast to how someone is acting.  If someone's words or actions are in conflict to what they're really feeling in their "heart," NO will be able to sense them more "loudly," as if their heart were raising its voice.  This dissonance creates a cognitive "gap" that NO can exploit. Once the "gap" is wide enough, NO will be able to latch itself on the "heart" of the target, overriding their consciousness with Daniel's.  During this time, Daniel's body falls unconscious, leaving him vulnerable; otherwise he has full control of the victim's body until he willingly lets them go.  He can still detect if his body is in danger, and might retreat to it to save himself.  NO leaves a "tell" in that the victim's eyes are colored red (right) and blue (left).

His eye has rings of red and blue, with a triangle pattern spreading from it like the straps of an eyepatch.

Other:

• He's named after Daniel Negreanu and Robert Ripley.  In canon, he chose the name himself.
• He's meant to be like a "small" character Araki would draw (Koichi for example).  His real height is probably more like 5'2"; his tininess is pure Jojo Logic.
• His hairstyle/eyeliner is meant to be a reference to 80s goth culture which was prevalent in many New Wave bands.  New Order was not actually one of these.  Go figure.
• New Order and Joy Division were chosen for Daniel and Laurent since the bands directly relate to one another.
• His tie is patterned after his Stand.  His pants have lines reminiscient of a polygraph result.
• Daniel and Laurent's blue/white/black/red color schemes are meant to reference the typical decks of cards found at casinos.
• Daniel's real hair color is red, and Laurent's real hair color is black.  They switched.
• Character art album cover background reference