Hello! This is a long-overdue Catnip, for the second prompt of this fic.
Thanks for swinging by.
I have to say that a romance/slightly noir fic involving Giovanni is surprisingly something I haven’t come across before, though given how suave he is, it does follow for the character.
I do like to try new angles, glad you liked my efforts.
Although it seems like this is set in the real world, due to Gio and all his mafia members speaking Italian, and mentioning Italian youth? Not sure how Viridian and Kanto fit into that picture, unless it’s in Kanto Japan or something.
So minor spoilers, but the mon world was once our world. Things went pear shapped, massive social and geological upheval occurred (detailed in prompts "the world" and a plot point in this stories incomplete sequel "companion") so while italy doesnt exist as a country the language and people persist anf most rockets consider themselves gruddging italian expats to kanto.
Its actually considered a social stigma to associate with your pre catasttophe culture in kanto/johto. Dated gauche ect... not that gio cares...
I like that you have Giovanni as a public figure in this world, rather than a more private shadow-figure.
Right now he is, partially under duress part for coverstory. Later events, right before silvers abduction, will coax him to drop the public front.
It’s an interesting take on the character I haven’t seen before, and I think the framing of the story, which starts out by seeing him through the lens of the public and media, helps frame that he doesn’t really have much going on below his pursuits—public or criminal.
In later sections the familgia contact Orn dryly points out to Grace how damn lonely gio was. Part of Graces story arch was to shake gio out of this cycle a bit...
To that end, I also like that the story isn’t so much about him romancing her at first as much as it is this strange game of cat and mouse – she’s basically out to be a thorn in his side, and despite his immense political power and reputation, she manages to keep him on his toes despite also, apparently, being somewhat ignorant of her own power and what she’s messing with.
Nice catch. Grace really has no clue. She gets a clue later and thats explored in further segments... and at first, the point of this fic isnt romance, but more exploring this gatsbyi-am nitch of the mon world. Gio and Graces romantic status take back seat to that.
I also like how you convey the cutthroat tone of the business world that Giovanni exists in, and how he navigates it almost effortlessly. Feels very mafia lol.
Snorts. Well it is, so there is that...
I particularly liked the detail that he likes keeping the streets stable and well-funded, because it’s bad for business when they aren’t.
Pragmaticism thy name is Gio. And it matches his manga persona well. He is, underneith it all, a man very invested in the human condition. Its just that he wants his top dog status to keep his personal assets cozy, and the power to manipulate things for the "better" as he sees fit.
I also like a lot of the background politics; it feels like a very rich world that we only see a little bit of through all Giovanni’s connections and the legal quibbles and companies. To that end, I have to commend you for your effortless, cohesive worldbuilding. Having existing mafia politics to draw from helps a lot here, I imagine!
Glad you liked it. Theres more expansion later in. But this fic gives out a bit of a taste of the scope and shape of things.
The other thing I have to praise is the interactions between Giovanni and Grace; you really do nail their dynamic well and paint characters that seem realistic.
Thank you characterization is a challenge nice to see i naik we it
It does get a bit sitcommy for my taste in places (particularly, the Arcanine scene)
The arcanine scene was a prompt that i plugged in (humor). It was silly, and sitcomish, but it does tie into his work later on when he has to field simular gym flavored jobs like it. The idiot trainer and his moewth caught in a tree becomes something of a running gag in later pieces. And he does stints like it for his public persona, and other fics. (And he hates every second of it)
Some of the sitcomish tho was p.r. manipulating things to make his escapades run like a 'com. He fires them and it does tone down a little.
, and there are times when I feel the story kind of just glosses over major events or doesn’t particularly explain them in full detail, but it is fun to watch them go from fighting each other to helping plan their exit from messy celeb drama (and also become romantic along the way?).
Some of the issue is that this is still i.p.
There were some quick scenes that didnt grt a lot of weight due to it bwing a gio centric piece.
if grace were the main p.o.v. her tipping point would of been the scene in the med lab, where she realizes "yikes there are things wrong w this guy, he's got wounded growlithe vibes like mad", as well as her being scared out her mind adter the paparazzi/zoroak situatiob that gio spends... one line on.
For him its a hohum day to day.
For grace it was a catalyst that made her realize she needs help and gio was the only person who was offering.
I will say that some of the drama feels a tad causal for someone of Giovanni’s calibre, though it seems he might not be the head of Team Rocket at this point, so I can buy him being a bit younger/inexperienced than the version of him we see in Red/Blue.
Gios in a weird place. Hes powerful as a buisnessman amd legally top of his game, in kanto/league and stretching his resources outside kanto for funsies. But in the mob he's middle tier at best. He came from the top but was the unfavored son of the capi de capi, so he has experience with the upper levels, but he had to claw his way from the bottom to where he is now. Hes got a ton of social clout in the system but hasnt got official approval to promote and therefore has to deal w issues on all levels below and above his paygrade.
The biggest thing that pulled me out of the story at points is that sometimes, the prose and dialogue would feel a bit awkward? Sometimes the metaphors just didn’t really land for me (“rabid mightyena” was a good way to describe the press, though “mating (I assume “meeting”) a starved sharpedo” felt a bit unnecessary),
No not meeting. It was mating. Basically it was a nod towards skitty waillord joke. And it was about as
wrong as an analogy i could think of to mirror the insanity of the press w a slice of ew, ick and yuck as a side.
nd sometimes there were dialogue choices that seemed overexplainy (“ms ‘too much floof are we channeling a connection today’” is quite the mouthful!) In all these cases, I guess, it felt like these things could have gone—or did go—unsaid, and so the story didn’t really need to lay it out again in the actual text. It’s a minor quibble, though one I feel could have made the prose a bit more elegant.
Fair enough.
There were also just straight-up a lot of misspellings in the text that were distracting. I wonder if this was written on mobile?
Yeah. Without spell check or grammerly. Appologies i'll have to pop a note on the top to warn further victims/reviewers.
I really do love most of the description, though—lines like “There would be a swarm of media comparing it to a banette’s smile. All stiff and dead, with curiously flat eyes” tell me so much about Giovanni in just a single line, and you have a knack for characterful prose and one-liners like that.
One tries. Preens.
I did read everything in the spoiler blocks, though I’m really not sure why they were in there. I initially thought they were author’s notes or deleted scenes or something, but it just seems like the rest of the story? I’m genuinely not sure why it was separated like this.
Basically my phone fries when something is too long. The spoiler blocks let me read it without risk of screen hopping. By the sounds of it you read the first few chapters and the i.p section...
Overall, a fun read! My biggest closing thought is that I think this feels ripe for expansion beyond a prompt, if you wanted
Funny you should mention that. This started as a prompt fill out, but between this and headcanons (another short atory archive) i realized i had enough gio stories to make a series set pre transversal/roost (this giovannis home stories). I'm planning on completing the second drafts in this format. Polishing. And rereleasong them in final format later down the line thats much more concise.
Once i can net some labtop time that is.
– I think you captured your interpretation of Giovanni really well, and you’ve created a lush (if a tad abstract) world that you could expand really well. I liked the Italian mafia inspo a lot; TR is styled after mafia but tends to feel more like a militarized criminal unit than a proper crime ring. As it is, this did feel a little bit muddled on the edges, but gets across the core idea well and tells a coherent story. I would just wonder if it would be worth taking the subsequent parts out of spoiler boxes, since that’s a pretty significant part of the story and some might miss it if they aren’t curious enough to open them.
Great job though, and until next time!
~SparklingEspeon
Thanks for your kind words and kinder review.
