User blog:Johndoe-m9/Al-Saif (The Sword)

Backstory: After Omar Bahir’s (a terrorist working for SOMBRA known as The Sword) death at the hands of the Bureau, his murder weapon was confiscated by Mossad for further examination due to reports of a strange phenomenon happening on the entirety of Iraq involving the sword in question. However, sometime after SOMBRA ended, ROZETTA was able to obtain the sword from Mossad with her methods unknown to them, though she was able to defeat all of the agents protecting the weapon. After this, sword itself is revealed to be sentient, which is actually a Stand made from the very soul of Omar Bahir himself, and is referred to as “Al-Saif” (السيف), being derived from Bahir’s alias in Arabic. Initially seeing ROZETTA as an intruder to his prison, Al-Saif prepared to possess and attack ROZETTA, only to be quickly defeated by her Stand and its secret power, which surprised Al-Saif and prompted him to swear loyalty on his master. ROZETTA was interested in the Stand too due to the exquisite and rare material made to form the blade, so she had him stay stuck on a rock near her former home in case someone attempts to raid it, knowing that they would be greedy enough to steal it before using the Stand to kill the rest of the Conspiracy Crusaders. Even after hearing his master’s death, Al-Saif continued holding his master’s reminder to him, and fortunately enough, one young man was able to draw the Stand sword, now continuing ROZETTA’s influence again...

“''يعيش بالسيف، ويموت بالسيف... You have released me from my grasp, young possessor. Now, I demand something important for you...''” - Al-Saif

Al-Saif (アル・サイフ); Date of Creation: September 11th, 2002, User: Professor Omar Bahir (عمر باهر) (originally), Julian Ramis, Rally Stevens, R101 Officer Irwin, Don Manchez, Martine Meunier, Luan Loud, and various animals and people (possessed), Type: Automatic Stand, Bound Stand, Shared Stand, Namesake: The Sword (السيف) in Arabic

(Former) Occupation(s): Ancient Arabic Professor, War Strategist, SOMBRA Agent (as Omar Bahir), ROZETTA’s Enforcer

Appearance: A bound Stand, Al-Saif appears as a scimitar with a thinner silver sparkling blade curved a bit more, a gold and black hilt with purple shading, and a gold knuckle guard. It also has an inscription that reads the Stand’s name in Arabic and comes with a black scabbard encrusted with blood red jewels. These modifications were made thanks to ROZETTA.

In his true form, Al-Saif takes on the appearance of Omar Bahir, adopting his master’s clothing, facial features, and complexion at the time of his death, but sports violet shattered eyes, a matching symbol on his forehead (referencing his master’s death), slightly pale and cracked skin, neon purple lipstick, and a matching burning aura surrounding him. When someone is possessed by the Stand, they will adopt the unique features same as Al-Saif himself.

Personality: Al-Saif is a brutal and loyal enforcer of ROZETTA who retains the same traits of his former master, only worse and corrupted than before. Contrast to Bahir’s tactically cunning genius and assassinates in secret, Al-Saif performs very brutal and over-violent methods against his enemies and only progresses due to him easily memorizing and adapting to the opponent’s attacks in direct conflict, giving himself pleasure and pride upon each kill. Holding a nasty grudge against Rook for killing “him” (actually his master, as Al-Saif still has Bahir’s memories after his death), the sadistic sword Stand is more than happy to take his vengeance on the detective and everyone he loves. Al-Saif also adopts his master’s contempt for children and teenagers, as he doesn’t care about the safety of Julian and Luan, who both found the sword out of curiosity, and expresses desire of killing the Loud children if they dare stop him before making things personal with them, furiously blaming them for his previous defeats.

Initially encouraging to those who wield him, Al-Saif wouldn’t hesitate to leave innocent people possessed by him to die if they are useless to him and would directly control another person. Al-Saif is also prone to arrogantly gloat and boast about his ever-increasing power, but he can devolve into panic and worry if things don’t go well for him, both which ironically led to his defeat. Those controlled by Al-Saif will display opposite and corrupted versions of their personalities:

Julian Ramis shows the full extent of his personality, becoming more brutal, dark, and wishing harm against others who are either old as or older than him as he was already shunned and looked down by them. He also hardly bothers to hide his sword, meaning that he occasionally sloppy in what things he do. Despite this, Julian shows a sense of honor as he fights face-to-face with Martine instead of attacking her in the back. Despite being encouraged by the Stand, Julian doesn’t improve well during his battle with Martine and fights like a complete amateur as he never used a weapon in his life after his arrest, occasionally battling in a crooked and furious stance and striking Martine in the front quickly and violently multiple times while leaving himself unprotected and exposed to future attacks.

Rally Stevens becomes very violent, rude, and sadistic, as opposed to her calm, patient, and quiet nature. She also considered that she will cut off the team’s heads to make them as trophies with Al-Saif, showing more of her uncharacteristic nature. She also shows more of Al-Saif’s abilities against the team, being able to know Martine’s secret technique from the Stand. However, with Jones’ assistance, he was able to defeat the barber in two moves with his Stand, breaking the sword in two.

R101 Officer Irwin becomes stoic and silent when fighting enemies, only requiring Al-Saif to do the talking. Due to his military training, Irwin is remarkably cunning and is able to maneuver through and destroy multiple traps aimed against him. He also shows Al-Saif’s ability to have his sword recover from damage from powerful punches and is exceptionally deadly when using firearms. Having the Stand faced Jones and knowing King Platinum’s tricks before, Irwin sees Gloria Hayes as no different from the Senior Detective, only to quickly underestimate her due to Gloria’s different powers.

Don Manchez doesn’t show much personality when possessed by the blade of Al-Saif, but he is shown to become very evasive and seemingly cowardly when being pursued by Gloria, despite knowing the fact that he has learned most of her moves. It can be assumed that Al-Saif was in a state of shock from having himself broken at the time and tries his best to escape from Gloria. Unfortunately for the Stand, Manchez was accidentally knocked down by a bus, causing him to throw the top part of the Stand away into distances unknown.

Martine Meunier displays the same destructive and demonic personality similar to hers being possessed by Violet Passion, but becomes more insane, short-tempered, and mad with power, dropping all types of honor and preparing to assault the opponent head-on. With her being skilled sword fighter, Al-Saif can easily catch up with and briefly overpower Martine’s friends at ease. Using both Violet Passion and the bottom broken part of Al-Saif (albeit still working) dramatically increases Martine’s speed and power, making it a death sentence to anyone daring to attack her even if they are incredibly slower than her or try to face the Stand for the second or third time or more.

Luan Loud quickly deteriorates into becoming a more psychotic and remorseless person than herself during her April Fools prank apocalypses, even making offensive jokes about terrorists, murder, dictators, controversial topics, and extremism, showing a sadistic streak on her way more harmful “pranks” (deadly attacks that can maim or kill people with her “Stand”), and manically laughing under bouts of stress and insanity. Luan herself is not much of a trained fighter given her fights with her sisters and has never used a sword before per Lynn (who had done kendo, fencing, and karate before), but thanks to Al-Saif possessing people prior to her and previously fighting the fastest members of the team before, she has developed much of their fighting styles, gains knowledge of many of the team’s moves, and becomes much more physically adept at combat, even combining the broken handle of Violet Passion and blade of Al-Saif together to cover up the Stand’s current disadvantages. What makes her even more frightening is that her altered demon-like physiology allows the Stand to easily abuse both of her and its strength to kill anyone it meets, nearly becoming an seemingly unstoppable duo that both Lynn and Lincoln are forced to face. Al-Saif immediately despises the woman, as he has to hear many lame and annoying jokes inside her mind. To Luan’s point of view, she is completely unaware of what’s happening to her, but is willing to crack a lot of jokes involving her mind and thinks Al-Saif as simply a voice inside her head.

Powers and Abilities: Al-Saif is an extremely dangerous battle-dedicated Stand whose multiple powers support him in direct combat and make him more formidable the longer he’s fought. Although it has to possess someone first to fight, once unsheathed and wielded by an unwitting puppet, Al-Saif is capable of fighting Martine Meunier, Gloria Hayes, and King Platinum toe-to-toe and could defeat either in a straight fight. Even without its powers, the sword is very sharp and Julian was able to cut through a stone pillar with it.

Al-Saif is a surprisingly resilient Stand. Even if the sword is broken, Al-Saif will simply remain active in the largest part of it, retaining its full power. He can also restore himself if damaged parts of the sword are close to each other, making him very difficult to break. This also applies to other swords too, as Al-Saif was able to have his blade connected to the handle of the Violet Passion sword for Luan to use.

Al-Saif is able to control whoever draws it, no matter how strong their willpower is. It also doesn’t matter if the person is wearing gloves, as Al-Saif can still possess them as long they victim is holding him. Those near but not touching him can be easily ordered by Al-Saif to carry him around without question, but they cannot be fully controlled as they are simply given an order.

If someone unsheathes the sword, they will hear Al-Saif speaking in their mind, encouraging them to use it against all in their path. Eventually, they will be completely overtaken by Al-Saif himself, allowing the Stand to control their body. Even other Stand users are not immune to this effect - if Anubis controls them, it also takes control of their Stands. Once Al-Saif leaves its host, they regain their senses, as Martine being freed from it demonstrates. In contrast to this, Luan was very was confused of what happened after recovering, unable to remember what she was doing earlier despite her recently fighting with her two younger siblings and being away from her family not long ago, though may be due to her being simply tired.

Despite what Al-Saif tells its victims, it does not appear to improve their actual combat skill as Al-Saif himself completely controls them. Martine noted that Julian wielded his sword like a complete amateur; conversely, part of Jones’ difficulty in fighting Al-Saif was due to Martine’s sword fighting experience, allowing him to wield her new sword in deadly tandem with Violet Passion (another Stand bound to a sword), which would be later passed on to Luan, who became increasingly impossible for her siblings to stop her as well as developing various fighting styles from other characters previously possessed by Al-Saif.

Al-Saif’s oddest ability lets it manipulate where it slices along its blade. For instance, when Martine hid behind a stone column, Al-Saif was able to slash her without damaging the column or even his victim's clothes. He was also able to cut the hands of a person whom it didn’t want to be drawn by, despite the fact that it was still sheathed in its scabbard. However, this said power can backfire if Al-Saif panics or is in rage, which accidentally caused himself to get stuck in a tree decoy while furiously fighting Lincoln and Lynn and quickly phasing through the former and making the same mistake by unintentionally phasing through a wall that lead him to a giant river in bouts of panic.

Al-Saif’s most dangerous ability shown is to remember any attack that is launched against it and counter it. This is truly deadly if it fights someone it has already fought with; the same tactics will not work on it more than once, no matter how well-planned out it is or if the wielded is unaware of it. This, combined with its ability to control people, means it can attack the same person repeatedly, wearing them down by constantly remembering their attacks until they have none left to use. However, unpredictable occurrences like a moving vehicle, a herd of animals, or exploding electronics can easily have Al-Saif stumble and thrown out of the user’s hands, missing the opportunity of finishing the opponent off.

As an apparent extension of the above ability, Al-Saif gradually becomes more powerful as a battle goes on - both Jones, Gloria, and Martine (the fastest members of the team) noted that Al-Saif was becoming faster and stronger by the second during their respective fights against its possessed wielders. Even the user wielding Violet Passion intensifies the speed of the Stand itself, which grows to the point that they quickly leave a trail of purple afterimages, completely demolish an entire building, and barely outmatch the speed of King Platinum himself. It is unclear if this is an actual ability, or if the Stand simply appears to be growing more powerful as a result of adapting to its opponent; either way, Al-Saif could have potentially become one of the most powerful Stands of all had he not been defeated by Lincoln’s adaptive efforts, Silver Chariot’s unpredictability, and Blank’s constant luck - he would gradually become stronger, faster, and smarter with every battle until no one could defeat its wielder in a direct fight. Only an indirect approach such as that of King Platinum: The World or any type of power of environmental effect that leaves no point of attack or vulnerability can confront. For instance, Jones stopped time for five seconds to have King Platinum punch and shatter the sword into pieces out of Martine’s hands and then quickly beating her up to push her away from Al-Saif and Violet Passion before unconsciously cancelling it, due to his near-fatal injuries from the sword Stand, Lars had Silver Chariot use its lightning magic to quickly outmatch Al-Saif in a fight both with unpredictable movements and long-distanced lightning that the sword is unable to deflect and forced to endure (cracking it in the process), and Blank was able to have Al-Saif fall out of Luan’s hands by indirectly causing a chain of events that lead to the Stand getting defeated.

Al-Saif can choose who will draw him from his sheath - it is impossible to draw the sword until Al-Saif is being wielded by someone it wants to possess. Even three strong men pulling with all their might won't budge it in this case. This ability can apply to multiple hosts simultaneously, as seen when the Stand takes control of multiple rats, though whether this extends to humans is unknown. Additionally, it can move itself to a limited extent without a user, being able to sheathe itself after its user was defeated and cut another person while still embedded in a victim’s chest. The blade of the Stand is always protected with a poison coating, and it is impossible for someone besides the user to safely touch it with their bare hands, and the effects of it can slowly worsen if Al-Saif directly attacks someone with the blade, which can lead to the victim dying in about 30 minutes, but the effects can cancel if the opponent manages to defeat the Stand in time.

Stats: (Destructive Power: B (A when developed), Speed: B (A when developed), Range: E, Durability: A, Precision: E, Developmental Potential: C)