The Second Try #1: "Her and His Circumstances" (Author's Notes)
Hello, readers! Thank you for taking the time to read this first chapter. This is, in many ways, something of a throwback to my first ever fanfic in AO3: that being "Fade to Black", which I consider a primitive version of the Part 5 remake manga project I mentioned in the description. While I had fun writing FTB in general, I lost all motivation to keep working on it. Mainly because I fell out of love with the project, with the glaring errors and ever-changing prose whatnot. But The Second Try in all its five chapters is meant to "unlock" FTB's potential; even though this is, as I said in the description, set in the continuity of my remake manga.
Yes, it's mainly a writing exercise for me to ease back into resuming JoJo 2029: Stardust Rebel's progress. But with all the newfound experience I've gained in the four years since FTB started, why not practice by going back to where it all started?
Before I dive deeper into the chapter's contents, I'll let you know from the start that: yes, The Second Try will eventually have chapters of their own in the manga proper. Now, let's dive in:
"The Second Try" is named after an Evangelion fic of the same name. It's one of the all-time greats, as far as I'm concerned, even if its purpose is telling the story of a time-travel "fix-it" shipfic. But it's also a fitting title for my fic's story, given it's about Giorno and Trish revisiting their old relationship and starting it anew.
As for the chapter's title, "Her and His Circumstances" is a play on a manga titled "His and Her Circumstances". Most people are likely to recognize it better as KareKano, but I thought it was a nice title to explain in a few words or so the backstory of their broken relationship. Also, switching it up would make it more consistent with their POVs.
Now, to dive into the meat of the chapter, let's establish a few things:
First and foremost, I have gone with trying my hand at a first-person POV prose, something I haven't done since nearly three years. I have stuck to third-person limited since then, but I thought going with first-person would help branch out my skills a bit, as well as add some unique spice to the narration.
Second, given that this work explores the perspectives of both Giorno and Trish and how they feel around each other, I thought it was necessary to make their narrative voice unique. I'll expand upon it later on, but the gist of it is: they're foils of each other, especially when it comes to their characterization and how I interpreted it. And I hope the prose for each of their POVs reflects that well!
Matter of fact, I'm sure it won't be as "high-quality" as my recent work in JJ29 (which I will pull out of hiatus once my remake manga's first chapter is out sometime in December), but I was careful enough to polish the draft of this chapter enough. It took me two rewrites, an extensive editing session, and a final tweaking phase (which I've done at the very last minute). But hopefully it'll all work out!
Throughout the writing process for The Second Try, I knew going into "production" that it would not be compliant to the original Golden Wind. Of course, it's because the fic proper is set in my remake manga's universe where everyone and everything is different, but I was also mindful of the fact that this version of Giorno and Trish had to be familiar with the readers; even if parts of them are different. This was something I nailed during the writing of FTB in general, given that they were the most important characters in that fanfic. So when I got back into writing content for them, the first thing I thought was tap into my mindset four years prior, go back to what I enjoyed about writing them and their relationship, and meld together what I had learned in the years since then. Sadly, it didn't go as smooth as I had initially imagined. I was scared sometimes that I was straying too far into one direction or the other. But while I'm certain that did happen in a few spots, I hope that it still resulted in a final product that satisfies not only me, but readers who will come in and give The Second Try a shot.
Now, to expand on the uniqueness of their characters and narrative voice:
Trish is a beast of her own. She is, as said in the A/Ns of FTB #2, "She is very much a foil of Giorno's unexpressive personality—her arrogance, her explosive personality—everything about her is the exact opposite of Giorno." But I wanted to make sure she was still an immature 15-year-old going through an intense bout of puberty-induced moodiness. Her angst is off the charts and whatnot. Her POV's narrative voice, her phrasings and how she words things... All of them reflect that. Still, she has room for love in her heart, and she decided that Giorno was the recipient of such love; even if she roleplayed it per her agreement with him. "Opposites attract" is a trope I have a respectable fondness of, and something others are fond of as well. So I hope this fic sates those tastes well. At the same time, though, she is hopelessly romantic. She's pined for him hard (not realizing he too, was falling for him), refusing to think it wouldn't end well. And it didn't end well. I felt sorry for her writing this, knowing the pain of having your first love end in heartbreak. But she has nothing to worry about, at least... she won't be so hopeless at the end.
And then we get to Giorno. The one character I stressed to get right, even if I had to make him very stoic compared to the original. Ironically though, removing a chunk of his emotions ended up improving his character. He might appear smarter and more mature on the surface with his sort of 'machine-like' thinking and vocabulary, but he is still the same age as her. His subtle hatred of humans and their vanity, his refusal to form 'external connections' until Trish came into his life... And the stupid decision of self-diagnosing his pain medication, for example; I might go on a tangent here because he could've gone to any doctor. Any fucking doctor, and he just decided to prescribe his own cocktail of medicine for the pain. Wow. Yes, his parents wouldn't allow him to go to a doctor; but as horrible as they were, I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed the self-prescription either. Anyways, back to Giorno... Him being this sort of "wounded animal" is sadly not a somewhat decent focus on his arc in the fic, but I hope hints of that remain the deeper the chapters go.
I thought it was important as well to showcase in this first chapter how much the breakup hurt them. They, again, are 15-year-olds unsure of how to navigate such a relationship. And as painful as it sounds, they've both misunderstood what to do now. A simple conversation laying out why they broke up and the closure they seek would've helped; but, while there would be no Second Try if they did that, it just wouldn't feel right if they suddenly gained the mature mindset of an adult. That's the point of why they've thought of childish things such as Trish going through a year-long "transformation" and Giorno zig-zagging wanting to 'fix' her by brokering the "quid pro quo". They may have justification for their motives in the relationship, but they're still young and inexperienced. As I've said, it'll all end well; but the journey to get there is a tough one to get through.
Some of you might wonder the similar descriptions in some of their narration (i.e. the "When I met X for the first time in a year" bookends, them describing how his likeness was carved into her heart). It would be stupid of me to come up with a 7-page long explanation for this *ba dum tss*, but I'll just say it definitively: they're not coincidences. They're meant to reflect that they love each other to the point of having similar lines of thinking. It's just as Giorno said in his POV: "I guess love could make you do that. Share a few traits, peer at her face..."
While it would've been nice if I actually wrote specific scenes of their backstory, I chose to summarize them with very minimal dialogue, in order to ensure that the first chapter concise as possible without having too much fat.
Next chapter, hopefully we'll get to experience proper dialogue between them for the first time. And in the third, fourth, and fifth, it'll escalate and become-- *sigh* why must I say it like this... "peak fiction".
Once again, thank you for reading this chapter! You'll see these two again next week or so for the next chapter's release!
Sincerely, Your Author
Real_Jorge_Hernandez
andulkaphoto
dededos
janainaart
theartofmadeline
gummygunk
pixelskylines
