APPLICATION (El Nysa)

[kissintime]

OOC

Handle: Marion
Contact: canarycry | Marion#8374 on Discord
Over 18? 21+!
Characters Played: None

THE CHARACTER

Character Name: Ermes Costello
Series: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Canon Point: Part 6 Stone Ocean Chapter 139: The New Moon's Gravity
Character Age: 21
Background: Ermes wikia
A summary of Stone Ocean, relevant to Ermes up until New Moon's Gravity. If you need a summation of Ermes' actions in specific let me know!

Personality:

In every "part" of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, there's usually one wild, stubborn and often hot-blooded friend in the mix to compliment the personality of the protagonist. Ermes follows the tradition of being said friend in terms of her traits, yet has a very cold worldview due to the trauma she experienced. But more on that later.

Having been in and out of the prison system a couple times, Ermes tends to view life from the lens of an inmate than a free woman. She approaches people with brash language and confidence because people who lack that in jail will be devoured quickly. It's every woman and man for themselves when you're locked up, and this is the mindset she carries throughout the entirety of Stone Ocean. It only ever shows cracks as her friendship with the protagonist, Jolyne Cujoh, begins to grow, but never dissipates with even a positive influence for the first time in years.

You also need to be willing to do anything to survive in harsh environments. Ermes isn't the type to shy away from taking risks if it means improving her circumstances. That goes double for when her life is on the line. Yet her risks are not just done without thought behind them. If anything, all her risks are calculated bets that she makes with her own destiny on the line. Even if the gain is small, if it's worth undertaking she'll absolutely go for it.

Speaking of money, it's always illustrated as a major point that Ermes will take any risk or bet to get more cash. Having cash in the system means getting to bribe guards, buy luxury items, and gain loyalties. If cash is king, then Ermes wants to be the one holding the crown because it'll always improve her standing among the prison community. She even goes so far as to surgically operate on her breasts to create empty pockets within them, so that she can hide money without it being detected. It isn't really about money, as much as it is about general survival and comfort behind bars. Money is just a means to that end.

Still none of this detracts from her nature, which is to be boisterous and bluntly honest. Ermes will always say something straight up to someone's face, good or bad, and doesn't steer herself from conflict. If anything, she generates it with her no nonsense attitude. She tries to help Jolyne get accustomed to prison life because she sees someone down on her luck, but doesn't sugar coat how tough things are in the slammer. That doesn't stop her from laughing at dirty jokes, playing games to pass the time or getting nervous when she has to do something unpleasant. While she's rough around the edges and will tell people to piss off without fear of consequence, Ermes is still intrinsically a good person. She cares fiercely about those she befriends, and will always fight beside her allies without hesitation.

Conversely, she is relentless against those she perceives as an enemy. She doesn't believe in being merciful to enemies, because kindness can lead to death if you turn your back on the wrong person. When a fight rages on, Ermes often refuses help if its offered and charges in head on once she feels confident in her game plan. Often times she improvises, but more often she'll make a tactic up and go with it in the heat of the moment. Her streak of independence can be her own detriment, and she knows it, but she charges ahead regardless. It's ironic that Ermes will always come to the aide of her friends, and then turns around and refuses their aide when offered. No matter how much her body is tattered, whether she's electrocuted, or her head is split open, Ermes has a resilience that refuses to waver so long as she can stand.

All this culminates to Ermes' true reason for going to jail: revenge. The desire to get even, to get justice, drives Ermes to the brink of destruction. At the age of 17, Ermes' older sister Gloria is killed after witnessing a crime committed by the gangster Sports Maxx. Her elderly father soon dies after, leaving Ermes alone in a cruel and unjust world. Sports Maxx is sent to jail, but only on tax evasion, and the fires of revenge light in Ermes' heart.

She cannot forget what happened to Gloria, cannot forgive Sports Maxx, and feels the only thing that will give her peace is to kill him. It's pointed out that she could have testified against him, but that wouldn't give her the justice she truly wants. Gloria's life was cruelly stolen from her, and true justice to her would be the death of Sports Maxx. Since the day Gloria died, Ermes has had nothing in her future planned but taking this revenge. Armed robberies were simply her ticket into jail to pursue her real goal, knowing the only way to take him down in prison would be to be a prisoner herself.

The lengths Ermes goes to make sure she pulls this off perfectly, from watching his movements in the shadows, to waiting until he's alone to strike, and not relenting once she has him in her sights - she puts every chip she has into making sure Sports Maxx pays for his crime.

Ermes: "Listen, Jolyne. This is between him and I.
'Course, some people would say killing him wouldn't bring my sister back.
Others might say forgiveness is what matters most.
They don't get it. I'm sure as hell not going to live my life forcing
myself to forget how my sister was thrown away into a fucking gutter.
Besides... I've already made up my mind!"
Jolyne: "You can't be thinking of dying with him?!"
Ermes: "Revenge is how I'll settle the score with my fate!"

And she kills him, breaking down into tears afterward without a single regret. Ultimately that sums up Ermes perfectly. She doesn't move away from danger, but runs toward it. If the world throws shit at her, she'll throw shit right back. Any choice she makes is one she knows she can live with, because she wants her hands to be on the wheel of fate. She won't let anyone else decide what her choices means, or what is "right" or "wrong" for her to do. Ermes is headstrong and moves to her own sense of judgment, at least knowing that any path she takes is of her own choosing.

Powers/Abilities:
Special Skills:
-General combat ability. Ermes isn't a trained fighter by any means, but she can give and take punches and kicks without issue. It's additionally stated she was involved in Cross Country Running in high school, and was even being considered for a scholarship to university for it.

-She had surgery on her breasts to create a compartment where she can hide small objects, like dollar bills. The only way for her to get into these pockets is by cutting her flesh, but even so she basically has a pocket of empty space on the sides of her breasts for storage.

-Bilingual. Born into a family of Mexican immigrants, Ermes can speak both English and Spanish.

Now for her special ability:

STAND: [KISS]
An Explanation on Stands and what they exactly are.
A summation of what Kiss can do.

However links aside, I'll give quick summary.

General Information on Stands:
[O] Physically manifestations of the user's soul. The user can choose whether to bring out their Stand, or hide it away, at will. If a Stand is damaged in combat, the user suffers the same injuries simultaneously. Death for the Stand = Death for the user as well.
[O] Stands cannot normally be seen by those without one. I'll be nixing this in the game for better ease of threading.
[O] Kiss is a Short-Range Stand. This means Kiss will never move more than 2 meters away from Ermes in all directions.
[O] Short-Range Stands are physically very strong, but may often lack precision except in cases where precision is an inherit ability. Kiss is packs a punch and is agile, but may not always be accurate with their hits.

Sticker Ability Summation:
[💋] Ermes and Kiss are capable of creating pink stickers that come directly from their skin.
[💋] When applied to any object, that item will duplicate itself immediately beside the original. The difference between the two objects is indistinguishable, with the noted exception being that the replica will have the sticker on it while the original won't(*).
[💋] The sticker can be used to replicate both regular items and body parts. It cannot replicate extremely large objects, like buildings.
[💋] When the sticker is removed, the objects will immediately be drawn to each other in order to refuse. No matter how far apart they are the replica will begin physically moving at fast speed, even ignoring gravity as a factor, in order to fuse back to the original.
[💋] Upon refusing, the original will either fissure (making it physically weaker) or break entirely depending on what the item is.

(*): Sometimes this changes depending on how the writer feels for plot convenience, but for consistency's sake I'll be writing the ability as though the replica is the one with the sticker in all cases.

Example of how the ability functions:
[💋] Ermes uses a sticker on a glass jar. The jar now replicates, and an identical copy is created directly beside the original.
[💋] The two items are indistinguishable from one another, with the sole exception being the replica has the sticker on it. The replica functions exactly as the original too.
[💋] As soon as the sticker is removed or destroyed, the replica will immediately move to fuse back into its original. When they recombine, the item will either fissure and become weakened at best or be entirely destroyed at worst.

You could, perhaps, say that the items are kissing each other when they fuse!!
(ok that's not exactly why the stand is named kiss. jjba's creator just loves naming his characters after american musicians. "ermes costello" being a reference to "elvis costello" for instance.)

Power Nerfs (if applicable): I don't believe any nerfs need to be necessarily applied to the sticker ability. I'll be toning down Kiss' physical strength just because Stands are so ridiculously strong, but her main power to duplicate items via sticker isn't gamebreaking.

For safety sake, let's say that there may be some items out there that the sticker can't recreate even if its small enough that under normal circumstances there would be no issue. What these items are can be determined by the mods and the plot of the game. If it ever feels like it goes too out of hand let me know!

Inventory: She won't have anything other than her clothes and some money she has hidden away in her breast pockets.

Incentives:

-The safety of her living friends, particularly Jolyne Cujoh and Emporio.
-Monetary gain. Ermes is a true believer of money being king, and she's always prepared to take risks if it means getting money that can be used to her benefit. If they offer to give her some kind of currency that could be put to good use, Ermes will take it up.
-The promise that her sister, Gloria, will be returned to life via compliance. There is very little Ermes wouldn't do if it meant her sister would have a second chance at life.

SAMPLES

TDM Toplevel which has a few tag-ins