Ermes Costello


 * The character featured in this article is commonly referred to as "Hermes Costello"."This 'Kiss' is my ticket for revenge."

- Ermes Costello

Ermes Costello (エルメェス・コステロ) is a core ally featured in Stone Ocean.

Ermes is one of Jolyne Cujoh's strongest allies, befriending her early on.

Appearance
Ermes is a woman of average to above-average height and fit or medium build.

She wears her black hair in locks, and she has long, triangular scars approaching her eyes and lips on her forehead and chin.

She surgically altered her breasts in order to be able to hide money.

Personality
Despite a tough exterior, Ermes is proud, loyal, and headstrong.

She does not shy away from a fight and is willing to do just about anything to put herself in a better situation whether it is taking a bet that could risk her organs to even split her own body parts with her Stand ability despite knowing that they eventually have to be fused back, causing a severe wound.

Ermes shows a severe sense of resilience for she was still on her feet and moving around even after Marilyn Manson took her liver and survived the shared experiences of suicide attempts from Thunder McQueen. She has a good sense of justice but violently punishes anybody who crosses her way.

Abilities
Ermes' humanoid Stand is Kiss, of good melee defense and attack, and the unique ability to duplicate objects on which she plants a removable sticker.

History
When Ermes was seventeen, her older sister allowed herself to be spotted by a homicidal car salesman named Sports Maxx, saving Ermes from his wrath but ending her life in the process. Meanwhile, Sports Maxx was caught and arrested by the police, was not tried for the murder, and was instead sent to prison for tax evasion. Enraged, Ermes purposely had herself thrown in jail, intending to track Sports Maxx down. Her crime was armed robbery and it was not her first offense; her sentence was to be eight years.

Stone Ocean
She first met Jolyne Cujoh when they were held in momentary captivity next to each other. Annoyed by Jolyne constantly banging her head due to her humiliation earlier that day, she yelled at her to pipe down. She was amazed to hear Jolyne confess her innocence to her crime and admired her honesty. On their way to Green Dolphin Street Prison, Ermes warned Jolyne to get her hands on cash, as bribery was the quickest way to escape "prison life". In return, Jolyne saved Ermes from a brutal beating using Stone Free. Although not cell mates, the two have remained somewhat close to each other ever since.

While in prison, Ermes used money as a medium so when the janitor, Thunder McQueen, stole her money, she pursued him after being in the infirmary six times for a fever. Once she encountered the janitor, she learned that he was severely suicidal and due to Highway to Hell, she was forced to encounter similar experiences whenever he attempted it. While she saved him from the attempts on multiple occasions (even offering him her panties as a way to cheer him up), he still found means to kill himself but not before she split his skull using Kiss, resulting in McQueen's death while saving her own.

She later volunteers as part of a search group with Jolyne and four others in order to find two lost inmates. In their search, they encounter Whitesnake's stash of isolated Stand Discs and Foo Fighters, who was designated to protect the Discs. After a hard fought battle, F.F. was liberated of its duties and pledged allegiance to the two.

The following days included an encounter with the gambler Miraschon who bet on a game of catch (that Jolyne and Foo Fighters couldn't relay the ball one hundred times). Ermes persuades Jolyne to agree to the bet (which she won) before Miraschon made another bet for more money. The new bet enticed Costello to not only agree but to put herself into the bet so she could get the thousand dollars. Costello lost the bet and found herself at the mercy of Miraschon's Stand, Marilyn Manson, who took her gold tooth, money from her surgically repaired breasts, and her liver. Jolyne eventually wins the liver and money back from Miraschon.

She remained in intensive medical care after her battle with Sports Maxx and does not appear again until Jolyne escapes from prison. She was one of the final members in the last battle against Enrico Pucci, and dies in the struggle.

After Emporio Alniño manages to defeat and kill Pucci, Ermes' alternate universe counterpart is seen being ejected from a bus for attempting to pay with a fifty dollar bill. The counterpart feels infuriated and even wonders if the bus driver mistook her for an inmate of Green Dolphin St. Prison. She then meets Emporio and asks him for change for the bill. Afterwards, she and Emporio meet Narciso Anasui's counterpart Annakiss and Jolyne's counterpart Irene, who invite them to ride with them in exchange for Ermes' money for gas. Ermes feels skeptical at first, as her older sister told her not to ride with strangers, but the coming rain forces her to give them the gas money and ride with the group. The group later picks up Weather Report's counterpart after refilling the car with gas.

All-Star Battle (PS3)
Ermes makes her video game debut in the PS3 title. She was confirmed for the game along with Jolyne, Josuke and Okuyasu. She's the only non-DLC ally character from Part VI.

Ermes is a very powerful and agile character. Her main gameplay style is based on her Stand ability, stickers. Ermes can put up to two stickers on herself (the first for arms and the second for legs), allowing both her and Kiss to double their attacks and extends their combos on the opponents. She can also use her ability to dash around the stage, as she grabs a piece of pipe and, due to her Stand ability (when a sticker is removed, both copy and the original doubled item will join again), she will dash forward in the opponent's direction, if she's close enough, the original pipe will hit the enemy from behind. Kiss is also one of the few Stands in the game to make a huge wave of combos by itself due to this ability (easily reaching 18 hits).

Ermes' HHA is a counter-attack, where she puts a sticker on herself and if hit, she will kick the opponent and use Kiss to deliver a massive counter combo. Her GHA is her slapping a sticker on her opponent's head, causing their head to split as her Stand rushes them repeatedly, gradually raising them into the air, before snatching the sticker off, causing massive damage as the opponent's head violently merges back into one (similar to how she killed Sports Maxx).

Ermes possesses one alternate costume, which is the outfit her alternate universe version wears.

Eyes of Heaven (PS3/PS4)
Ermes was confirmed as a playable character alongside Jolyne, Pucci, and Weather Report.

She forms a tag team with Jolyne, and their DHA has Ermes attach Kiss' stickers on Stone Free's arms, allowing Jolyne to double the amount of hits in her Stand's barrage as she pummels the opponent into submission.

Tournament
She is paired with Robert E. O. Speedwagon in the Eyes of Heaven tournament, but was eliminated in the preliminaries by Narancia Ghirga and Diego Brando.

Trivia

 * Due to her rather masculine manner and appearance, Ermes was given the endearing nickname aniki (big bro) among Japanese fans.
 * Araki considers the fan nickname a compliment for Ermes because, "It means she looks tough enough to take a real punch and still be in the fight."
 * Both Ermes and Polnareff have a similar reason to fight: Both want to avenge their sisters. They appear together as rivals in one of the All-Star Battle trailers, with their battle named as "AVENGER AND AVENGER".