application @ diadem

[cocanuts]

Player Information

Player: Bee
Contact: sleepcoast or cocanuts, discord upon request
Invitation OR characters played: Newt
Are you over 18?: Yes


Character Information

Character: Giorno Giovanna
Canon: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind, chapter 155
Age: 16
History: Link
Possessions: clothes, wallet, normal wallet contents + picture of his father Dio Brando, Passione brooch, ladybug brooches, and ladybug hairtie.
Weapon: N/A

Powers/Abilities: Giorno is a Stand user, wielding a life-giving Stand called Gold Experience. Stands are the physical embodiment of a user's life energy or soul and typically wield some kind of ability or power. In battle, this intimate connection to the user can be clearly seen as any damage done to the Stand or the user is typically reflected onto each other. (If you cut off a Stand's arm, for instance, the user's arm will be cut off as well. Likewise if you kill a stand, the user typically also dies.) Stands come in a wide variety of flavors including appearances, powers, range, personality, and creation but typically their power is uniquely theirs and only one Stand can exist per user. Although Stands can certainly evolve and develop their abilities. Despite the variety of powers shown throughout the series, it should be noted that no Stand has the ability to bring back the dead if their soul has already departed. Now that you have the elevator pitch of what Stands are, let's dive into Giorno's Stand powers.

As mentioned before, Gold Experience is a life-giving Stand who uses its fists/hands to activate its abilities. Specifically it has the ability to create life from inanimate materials. Turning a suitcase into a frog, a life buoy into a fish, and bullets into a tree to name a few examples. These life forms can exist for a long time and even a significant distance away from Giorno or his Stand and can be freely cancelled at any time to return to its original inorganic state. The speed at which an object transforms varies wildly. Plants are fast, while animals take a bit more time, suggesting that the more complex the organism is, the more time is needed to transform into said organism.

The organisms that Giorno creates can be any sort of plants and small life forms (frogs, beetles, fish, moles, etc.) but once an object becomes that life form, Giorno has no control over it. He overcomes this by thinking ahead what the animal might do. For instance, he transforms a brick into a snake because he knows the snake will seek out 'heat' to find his missing friend. But, because he also doesn't know how an animal might react, this does occasionally backfire on him such as a snake burning itself. If something is used that is part of a whole (debris from a statue for instance), the life form will naturally track where it came from, thus letting Giorno track people/objects to a degree.

Giorno is also limited to creating life that exist on Earth and unable to create life if the environment is not suitable for life such as -100 C temperatures. You could go further with this limitation and say Giorno can only create plants/creatures that he has knowledge of but it is also shown he is a bit of a walking encyclopedia in regards to his creature knowledge.

Giorno is pretty creative when it comes to using his abilities, and discovered that he can create bodyparts from inorganic matter. For an example, after Mista ends up with 18 bullets inside of him, Giorno is able to use those bullets to fill the holes in Mista's body thus repair him back to full health. This process is described as being painful for the recipient because it takes time to grow new organs and body parts. (Remember, the more complex an organism is, the more time it takes for Gold Experience to transform something). Giorno can only use his abilities with his hands however, if both his hands were to be cut off from him before he could make a new hand, he would be turbo-screwed.

While Giorno can help allies recover from even the most life-threatening wounds, he cannot bring them back to life if their soul has already departed. However, he was able to briefly reanimate someone because life still clung to their body, enabling them to "live" for roughly four more days. During that time it was made abundantly clear to Giorno that they were a walking corpse unable to feel pain or eat and slowly fading away from this world.

Giorno also has the ability to sense life itself. He described this as seeing life existing in "clusters." So when he touches someone or something, he can sense other life forms within thus allowing him to check an airplane to see if there are any passengers, or track someone via a brooch imbued with life.

Gold Experience is not considered to be a strong Stand. However what it lacks for strength it makes up for in speed and versatility. It should be noted too that Giorno is a bit passive with his Stand and works better when paired up with another Stand user.

In the final fight against Diavolo and King Crimson, Gold Experience undergoes a transformation thanks to the use of the Arrow and becomes Gold Experience Requiem (GER), aka the "ultimate Stand." GER retains the abilities of Gold Experience which are greatly enhanced by the transformation. It also gains the ability to nullify the actions and will of anyone who opposes it. Basically it can undo the actions of any opponent, preventing their action/will from becoming reality. This also means that any victim killed by GER has their very death nullified, creating an infinite loop of deaths.

With this transformation it gains an increase in speed and destructive power as well but even Giorno doesn't know the full extent of GER's transformation and abilities. GER itself said this.

WITH THAT BEING SAID I personally feel that this transformation is far too powerful for the setting of this game and wouldn't be something fun to play as or play against. Also GER poses a risk of introducing the Arrow into the setting, which is just one way someone can obtain a Stand. This is chaos that we don't need. If Giorno is accepted, I propose that his stand be reverted back to Gold Experience to avoid the complications GER brings.


Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?
The most important person in Giorno's life has to be the unnamed Mafia boss that he saved when he was a child. Understanding what Giorno's life had been like before saving their life is crucial to understanding the importance of this 'stranger' to Giorno.

Giorno is a victim of neglect and abuse. Born out of wedlock, Giorno's mother prioritized a life of partying and would often leave him home alone at night. So often was he left home alone that Giorno learned at a young age that crying was useless even if he was scared. When he was four, his mother married an Italian man and they moved to Italy from Japan. His new stepfather would often beat Giorno when his mother wasn't around (which was often), and Giorno was also made an easy target of bullies who bullied him for his Japanese appearance and introverted personality. All of this gave Giorno a very low self-esteem from a young age to the point where he himself believed he was trash. Lonely and neglected, this kind of thinking would have certainly set him on a path of a twisted and warped heart.

But then one day he happened upon a man who was lying in an alleyway bleeding to death. Other men approached Giorno asking him if he knew where the man had gone. Feeling that the injured man was just like himself, Giorno boldly lied to the group of men and unconsciously used his Stand powers to hide the injured man with tall grass, surely saving him from certain death.

Then a few months later Giorno was approached by the man he had saved who simply told him; "I will never forget what you did for me." Afterwards life drastically changed for Giorno. His father stopped beating him. Bullies were suddenly kind to him. All because the unnamed Mafia Boss started looking after and protecting Giorno from afar. Though the gangster kept Giorno at length and acted coldly towards him whenever he got close, it was because he didn't want Giorno to become involved in the gang world.

In a way the strangers wish backfired on him because Giorno witnessed this cool man commit crimes and disobey the law and it set Giorno's heart straight. Like a cool breeze blowing through his lonely heart, Giorno changed from a cold and antisocial individual to a charming and righteous one. This silent stranger taught him how to put trust and faith in strangers, shaping Giorno into a confident and solicitous teenager with an unshakeable resolve. He also helped Giorno find a reason for living because Giorno came to admire gangsters. Subsequently, he forges a dream to become a 'Gang-Star" and restore virtue to the corrupt Italian mafia.

Had Giorno not saved the unnamed Mafia boss' life, he would have surely ended up repeating the cycle of abuse that his bio-father Dio went through. Giorno may have become a twisted individual, someone who's selfish, callous, and perhaps hedonistic like Dio. He definitely would not have gone on to idolize gangsters in the way he does now. If anything he may have gotten involved in gang-life for the wrong reasons. The series really highlights on the fact that Giorno's path was nearly set to be twisted at the very least so it isn't hard to imagine that he himself would have ended up a corrupt and unjust person with how life had been treating him as a kid.

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?
Giorno's hopeful determination means that once he has his mind set on something, he will see it through to the end even in the face of adversary or under the threat of his own life. That being said Giorno isn't exactly one the lament over what he could have done differently, it's do or die in most cases. Even when shit hits the fan, he isn't the type to go "damn! if only I had been there a minute sooner!" Instead he will accept his shortcomings and in cases where it's necessary, exact brutal revenge. Here are but a few examples:

When Bucciarati died fighting the Passione Boss in the hand off of Trish Una, Giorno arrived at precisely the moment Bucciarati died and healed his wounds. This allowed Bucciarati to be reanimated and 'live' for another four days. But ultimately Giorno knew something was wrong with Bucciarati because he didn't wake up from his healing immediately. He also saw that Bucciarati did not react to a hand wound that Giorno thought he had missed. It isn't until later that he realizes Bucciarati isn't alive and once he's confirmed that with Bucciarati, he quietly keeps this truth from the rest of the team per Bucciarati's request. Later, when under the affects of the Silver Chariot's Requiem ability, he recognizes that Bucciarati has also passed on for good because he made one last heroic sacrifice so that everyone could fairly fight the Passione Boss and his Stand.

This acceptance of fate happens again when Abbacchio is murdered by the Passione Boss. Giorno recognized that Abbacchio death was too sudden for him to be saved. Because of this recognition he did not try to save Abbacchio despite Narancia screaming at him and threatening him to do so. It is perhaps this acceptance that nothing could be done that helps him discover that Abbacchio had actually left the group the answer to the puzzle they were trying to solve regarding the Passione Boss' identity.

During the affects of Silver Chariot's Requiem ability Giorno and Narancia's souls were swapped with each others bodies. In the chaos of trying to figure out what to do, Narancia was brutally impaled by the Passione Boss. Giorno discovered Narancia had died and like Abbacchio's death, realizes the death was instantaneous. All he can do is confirm the death of his friend by moving his soul between his body and Narancia's body. After returning to his own body, he covered Narancia's body with flowers and promised his friend that he wouldn't let anyone hurt him anymore and that he was determined to take him home after bringing down the boss of Passione.

In all of these examples Giorno did not lament or cry. (Remember Giorno learned from a young age that crying was pointless and had trained himself not to.) He came close to crying for Narancia however. But in none of these examples did Giorno pause to curse the world or wish that his powers could bring back the dead. Even in the case of Bucciarati being animated, he accepts the bitter truth that he only delayed the inevitable of Bucciarati dying. Instead of regret or rumination, he quietly and quickly takes charge of the situation or recognizes the situation sucks.

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting? How might this impact their ability to adapt and in what ways will they confront this challenge?
Honestly the greatest challenge for Giorno would be that he lost his major purpose and has to find a new one. His ultimate goal was to become a Gang-Star and restore virtue in a corrupt world. This has always been at the forefront of his mind throughout the series, and acted almost like a battle cry whenever someone would question his methods or a situation goes south. "I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream that is just!" So coming here with no knowledge of what is happening in the world (or what is happening at home with his absence) would be challenging. How do you find a brand new purpose from square one after being so close to your original goal?

Well Giorno is always forging ahead no matter the challenge. Like I mentioned previously, he doesn't lament. He'll probably think quick on his feet and fall back onto his old skills as a petty pickpocket and scam artist with the focus being on survival to gather information. Information is important in any kind of goal setting after all! If the situation is dire enough, he would probably try to seek out like-minded allies that he can rely on. Especially since his Stand powers are better used when he has a partner that he can rely upon.

I could also see him getting involved with the underground of this setting eventually, basically shifting the goalpost even if (in his mind) it is only temporary until he either manages to find a way back home or receives information from back home. Either way, losing his major purpose is only a temporary setback for Giorno. Basically he's going to dive right in to the setting.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?
The entirety of Golden Wind takes place in one week (and before Giorno's birthday week!). In that short week alone he discovered other Stand users, survived a rough Mafia initiation test, joined the Mafia, risked his life and limb against assassins in all manners of danger, became a traitor to the Mafia, continued risking life and limb, experienced unspeakable horrors, witnessed the death of three of his friends (and countless others), defeated the Boss of the Mafia, and became the Boss himself.

I think it's safe to say that Giorno can hit the ground running in this setting. He has proven himself to be extremely versatile and adaptive to whatever life throws at him thanks to the hardships he's endured growing up. Giorno would quickly try to survive in the setting by reverting to tried and true tactics while adapting them to fit his needs. He could become a scam artist of some kind by offering taxi services and robbing his passengers. Something that would be interesting to explore once he's settled is his involvement with the underground of this setting. Giorno is a sweet and polite kid but make no mistake, he's still a delinquent. His dream after all was to become a gang-star and take over Passione to restore virtue to an otherwise corrupt world of the Mafia.

All of this to say is that Giorno has strong resolve. He will make the most of the situation and come out stronger for it.


Samples

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