MAKING BEDS & LYING — IN WHICH GIOVANNI ALMOST LEARNS SOMETHING
It’s the test tube baby’s birthday so here’s a lil something to commemorate the occasion.
daddy loves you, Mewtwo
The Pokémon floated in its tank, curled in on itself and strung up on tubes and wires. It'd been growing steadily over the past several months, and Giovanni had been told it was nearly developed enough to wake up fully. ‘It's dreaming,’ Fuji had told him. ‘Not quite aware of the world around it, but sensitive to it. It may be able to feel our thoughts or movements, but only distantly.’
They'd advised him to not be alone with it until they were certain they could control it, but Giovanni made a habit of visiting the lab at odd hours, when business with the League or Rocket brought him near the island and the scientists had finally retired for the night. There was never anything new to see that Dr. Fuji and his team hadn't already informed him of, but Giovanni liked to watch it nonetheless. His creation. He might not have been able to do it without his scientists, but it was his funding and his use of his mother's Mew research that made the Pokémon a reality.
He had been patient during the entire project. Setback after setback derailed their progress until finally they'd had something to show for it. The beginning of a new life that grew and grew until it was no longer merely an idea, but solid and real. It was weak, at times—the life inside it flickered and threatened to die out—but time and again the Pokémon pulled through. Mewtwo. The result of years' worth of work into genetic engineering, selectively recombining the mythical Pokémon's DNA until they'd created the basis for the most powerful Pokémon to ever exist.
It'd been costly—almost unsustainable. He had to cut back drastically, halting plans for a full expansion into Johto and dialing back on most of Team Rocket's activities. The gang carried on but only barely, going all in to support Dr. Fuji's work. Mewtwo would either make them all rich, or it would harm Team Rocket irreparably; either way, their fates were sealed.
Giovanni placed a hand on the glass, lukewarm from the solution within it. He could see it now: Mewtwo at his side, and Kanto crumbling beneath them. It would be the perfect tool to secure complete control over the region and solidify his place in history. He’d never been more proud of anything Team Rocket had done.
Something shifted in the tank, and Giovanni returned from his imaginings to focus on the Pokémon, unsure if the movement had been real or just a trick of the light. He stared into the tank, and sure enough it happened again. Mewtwo's head shook almost imperceptibly. Giovanni stared. He'd been told it sometimes moved in its sleep, responding to stimulus or just twitching reflexively, but he'd never seen it himself.
Fascinated, he watched as the movement became more pronounced. Almost as though it was slowly... waking up. The moment the thought occurred to him, Giovanni stepped back and pulled his hand away from the glass. But as his fingertips left the surface, the restless movements halted and Mewtwo's eyes snapped open, glowing luminescent purple.
The effect was instantaneous. Giovanni felt frozen to the spot, the lab around him lost to darkness. In its place was glass, rising bubbles, semi-transparent fluid, and beyond it—Giovanni saw himself from Mewtwo's perspective, features thrown into shadow.
The Pokémon lifted a hand, looking down at itself and the wires attached to its skin. Giovanni felt a surge of anger that was not his own, and Mewtwo looked back up at him. The moment their eyes met he felt his thoughts fray. Memories blurred by with no rhyme or reason, accompanied by a headache so splitting he might have dropped to his knees if he could move at all.
He could not control the images flashing inside his head but he was trying, scrambling to make sense of what was happening and shove away the rising fear that definitely belonged only to him.
It wasn’t working. Pain washed everything out. Giovanni couldn’t move, couldn’t see. He wanted to cry out but his throat was as immobile as the rest of him, helpless under the control of his creation. He was losing. He could feel it all slipping away. Everything he’d cared about… Rocket and Persian, Silver…
As he thought the word, a flash of his son crossed his mind. Mewtwo's intrusion seemed to falter slightly. The pain lessened and Giovanni latched on to the only relief he’d felt, conjuring another image—Silver holding his hand, Silver playing in his office, Silver laughing…
Silver as a baby in his arms, followed directly by the young Mewtwo, eyes closed and floating peacefully in the chamber. Silver calling him Dad and the young Mewtwo opening its eyes and looking up at him.
The Pokémon lingered on those memories. Giovanni no longer knew who was in control, but there came another: Silver, as he was now, sleeping against Persian while Giovanni draped a blanket over him.
The image seemed to pause, then transitioned into one of Mewtwo, still sleeping. As the memories blurred back and forth into one another and the pain faded to a buzz in his head, Giovanni felt a dawning awareness that Mewtwo was communicating something.
When Mewtwo returned to the memory of the word 'Dad' backed by a rush of confusion—questioning—Giovanni thought he understood what it was trying to say.
You exist because of me, he thought.
There was a pause. Then Mewtwo provided several memories—visions?—of its own in short succession: Giovanni standing outside the tank, alone and wearing something different each time. Then came several of Giovanni with the scientists, and then there were the scientists themselves and feelings of fear, of pain that went unheard, of anger that was quickly subdued.
Giovanni took in the memories and felt a cold curl of wrath around his heart. Dreaming. That was what Fuji called it. Mewtwo wasn’t dreaming at all. It was clutching at consciousness, afraid when it was aware. How convenient for that to be left out of every report. What good was the most powerful Pokémon ever created if it indiscriminately lashed out every time it awoke? Giovanni was not going to allow the cowardice of scientists to be the undoing of this project.
Mewtwo's grip on his mind eased then, fading to a lingering presence. Giovanni blinked away the darkness and saw Mewtwo in the tank with his own eyes. Its eyes were open, irises purple and free of their forbidding glow. Giovanni’s hand finally dropped to his side, and he took a stabilizing step back.
The Pokémon’s eyelids drooped, its whole body seeming to curl in on itself. It looked smaller than ever amidst the wires. The attack must have taken a tremendous amount of energy and concentration; whatever drug Fuji’s team had the Pokémon on to keep it subdued was finally catching up. Mewtwo’s eyes flickered, looking up at him once more before drifting closed.
Giovanni exhaled, lifting a hand to rub his forehead. It ached still, a ringing echoing around his skull, but it was no worse than a bad headache now. He was lucky. If he hadn’t thought of Silver… Giovanni didn’t want to linger on the parallels the Pokémon had drawn there. Mewtwo was a tool like all the rest of his team. A powerful one, a valuable one, but a tool all the same. He couldn’t afford to get sentimental about it, not when another outburst like that could prove fatal.
They needed a better way to control it. Tranquilizers were obviously not the answer, and were proving to be detrimental to the Pokémon’s development. They were going to stop that immediately, and focus their resources on an alternative solution. Mewtwo was obviously ready to wake up, and they needed to be prepared when it did.
Giovanni left the lab, already setting up early morning meetings to discuss the situation. He wouldn’t be sleeping tonight, but it was hardly the first time. Despite the close call, he felt better than ever about the success of their project. Mewtwo was immensely powerful—under Giovanni’s control it would decimate their enemies. Team Rocket would become unstoppable. The future he saw was bright as ever, dawning like the sun over the horizon.
SPECTRUM — ON ULTRA VERSE AND THE ORIGINS OF RAINBOW ROCKET
In case anyone was curious about my UV headcanons here’s a big long explanation for how Giovanni pulled off his grandest scheme yet. I mostly wrote it for my own sanity, but if you want to watch me try to make sense out of a story that makes no effort to explain itself then boy are you in for a treat!
Also feel free to message me whenever and I will gladly plot a thread in this verse with your poor, poor muse. They lived a good life, I’m sure.
In this world, Red was never born. Giovanni's problems, however, began the same way as ever. After millions invested into its creation, Mewtwo became too powerful for Giovanni to control and escaped. Without anyone to stop him, however, Giovanni took over the Silph Co. building and intimidated the President into handing over the Master Ball—and control of the company.
With Kanto's largest conglomerate under his control and Mewtwo back in his clutches, Team Rocket's various criminal activities went down unopposed and the organization crept into positions of power across Kanto and Johto. By the time the Pokémon League made an effort to stop them, it was too late. Team Rocket rose up, recruiting those who were willing and shutting down any resistance. Anyone defeated by Team Rocket had their Pokémon confiscated—at best. Further disobedience was met with more severe punishment.
Giovanni dismantled the League challenge and shut down various Pokémon research facilities, including those of Professors Oak and Elm. He closed the Safari Zone and raised the price of Poké Balls, intending to eliminate the possibility of organized opposition. Their successes earned them the funds and membership to slowly spread across the regions of the world, and upon securing a Key Stone and both Mewtwonite mega stones, Giovanni became unstoppable. Team Rocket's ultimate goal was realized, utilizing their control over Pokémon to rule the world.
It wasn't enough. In his travels and takeovers, Giovanni discovered the existence of other worlds. The Alola region was closely tied to these parallel realities through the phenomenon of Ultra Wormholes. He discovered the existence of Ultra Beasts and planned to capture them to serve his schemes and solidify his absolute power across any world he traveled to. There was only one problem—the wormholes were unpredictable, in both their appearances and side effects. Those who entered them would return with no memory of their past life, or never return at all. In order to safely enter, Giovanni surmised, one would need a guaranteed way to return.
At the Aether Foundation, scientists were already investigating ways to open wormholes at will. They had acquired a Cosmog that was able to distort spacetime when distressed, and Giovanni commandeered the Pokémon—and their research facilities—to exploit it for his own purposes. Through their studies he made the connection between the region's Totem Pokémon and Z move power, and hypothesized that the source of these abilities was a great power from an unknown location in Ultra Space.
With the combined resources of the world's leading scientists, Giovanni created a device that could detect dimensional auras and harness the power of Cosmog's distortions to travel to the origin of the aura. It could also be used on oneself, to travel home. After several successful tests, Giovanni traced the aura of a Z-Ring and found himself... in Alola.
His plan had worked. He was in a new world, one where Alola was similar but not identical to the one in his home world. He met the alternate Alola's Faba and, familiar with the scheming of his own world's Faba, used him to learn about the events that had very recently transpired between the Aether Foundation, the legendary Pokémon, and a creature known as Necrozma. Faba explained the Ultra Recon Squad's presence and their goal of subduing the Blinding One—Ultra Necrozma. Necrozma had been defeated, but with this knowledge Giovanni formulated a new plan.
In this world, Aether and the Ultra Recon Squad had developed technology needed to control Necrozma. With its power he could travel any of the worlds at will, allowing him to amass an army of Ultra Beasts. With Ultra Necrozma in his power, he would become a truly unstoppable conqueror.
Giovanni returned to his own world and called his organization to action. He renamed them Team Rainbow Rocket in honor of Necrozma's prismatic nature and prepared them for a takeover of the alternate Alola's Aether Foundation. They used Cosmog's full power to open up an Ultra Wormhole and stormed the facilities, a move facilitated by Faba.
Giovanni and Team Rainbow Rocket's arrival in Alola resonated deeply through Ultra Wormhole. His evil intent corrupted Necrozma and its Wormholes, transforming Lusamine's mansion into the Rainbow Rocket Castle of his own world and causing the evil leaders of other Teams and worlds to appear within it. It seemed all was primed to go down exactly as he planned...
But they failed.
A child defeated all of the Team leaders, making their way to Giovanni himself and emerging victorious from their battle. Rather than risk the loss of any more resources, Giovanni chose to retreat. The mansion returned to normal, and the other leaders to their own worlds.
He had been defeated... for now. But the dream of Team Rainbow Rocket would never die, and Giovanni had already begun to scheme for his next attempt at becoming ruler of all worlds.
alright it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: some insights into just how bad gio’s experiences with family have literally always been!! it’s a lot longer than kukui’s was because this is the kinda shit i think about all the damn time [thumbs up emoji]
What is their relationship and feelings toward any major family members? Do they get along with their family? Which family member does your character get along with the best? Who do they get along with the worst?
Giovanni and his mother aren't currently on speaking terms and haven't been in contact with one another in..... 15 years. She might even be dead for all he knows, but he's pretty sure that in the event of her death she'd have shit set up so Giovanni would hear about it. Or. Maybe she wouldn't.
Basically his entire life she never seemed to place much sentimental value on family. She rarely talked about her parents and he never met either of them. The only connections he has to them are his name, which he shared with his grandfather, and a family picture he found with the two of them and his mother. When he was older he tried to find stuff out on his own and learned that there was a lot of painful history there which is probably why MB avoided it so much. I’ll probably make a post on that someday?? We’ll see.
As far as his father goes, Gio literally never knew him so it wasn't situation where he felt like the guy wasn't there for him. He just wasn't there, period. And when he got older, he realized it wasn't even his father's choice not to be in his life. The idea of having a dad was like a childhood fantasy he daydreamed about. Whenever he was unhappy he'd imagine his dad showing up and taking him away on amazing adventures. Basically like dreaming that when you turn 11 you'll get a letter to Hogwarts. He knew it was never ever gonna happen but also a tiny childish part of him thought, “But maybe...”
(The thing about that though is that as he got older he came up with a ton of reasons why he didn't need a father. So in trying to make nice with Silver, it's like all those reasons are coming back turned against him and it kind of makes him Feel Stuff about his dad even though he thought all those issues were in the past.)
But the thing to pick up on here is that Madame Boss was Giovanni's entire experience with family. He literally never had any other relatives until Silver. He and Silver's mother were together at the time, but they weren’t a very compatible couple (read: they were both bad people in different ways) and should never have been together for longer than a few months—instead they had a kid and were basically stuck with one another for years.
Eventually they reached a point where they worked things out so he financially supported her and Silver but didn’t live with her. Which worked out well for them but wasn’t the best environment to grow up in, and things only got worse between them as time went on. Giovanni doesn't consider her family at all and really doesn't give a shit about where she is or what she's doing which is. Realllllly not a good look for him. But if anyone was looking for an in-universe reason why he never talks or thinks about the mother of his child, that's it!
AND FINALLY aside from all the issues with Silver’s mom, Giovanni and Silver used to have a pretty good relationship. Obviously “good” is relative here but he did make some effort to be involved in Silver's life and be there for him and generally give Silv a better experience growing up than he had. Which involved lying to him literally every day but!!!!!!! Yanno!!!
Anyway, he liked the kid and enjoyed having him around and actually probably would have liked being a dad a lot more if everything else about the situation hadn't been so ass backwards. But then he went and fucked it all up and is doing an absolutely awful job of fixing things up. Protip: playing on your kid's past emotional trauma and unresolved abandonment issues and lying about your plans and intentions in order to get them to talk to you again ISN'T A GREAT START!
So as far as ‘best’ and ‘worst’ relationships go..... take your pick, they’re all trash.
Does your character know anyone they consider family but are not actually related to?
Persian. Like, I have no idea how long Pokémon are supposed to live because I honestly can't think of a more fucking depressing question and I'm almost positive it shouldn't be "as long as a person," but hey. Fuck it. Pokémon live forever and they are capable of understanding humans/emotions on a basic level. So Persian is like if your favorite pet could live for 80 years and understand your love for them and fully reciprocate. It's the purest goddamn thing and Giovanni is kinda of the misguided belief that this is a very special relationship that only he and Persian have.
..When in reality this is how most of the best trainers feel about their teams, and if Giovanni had that kind of connection with the rest of his Pokémon, he might actually be the Strongest Trainer. Still, nobody has ever ever ever loved him as much as Persian and she is so supremely special to him. You'd think that relationship would make him think twice about stealing and abusing Pokémon, but instead he's just a massive hypocrite. Nice!!
Also petition to make Jessie and James canon to the group b/c I'm very attached to hcs involving Miyamoto and Jessie being involved in Gio's lil shitty Team Rocket fam. So here have a bunch of semi-relevant hcs for it anyway:
I feel like Miyamoto was one of the few people who could make MB genuinely happy, and when she was happy she was much more tolerable to be around. I think Miya would've had some empathy for Giovanni's situation and might’ve tried to make stuff easier on him, even though she always loved MB most. So he'd dislike her for being his mother's second in command but reluctantly admit that she wasn't all bad. Also I love this art and Gio for sure played babysitter to Jessie when their moms were off in Kalos livin it up or whatever the fuck. Major pain in his ass and after her mum dies and she's put into foster care he isn't too upset to see her go... but later he realizes she got a bad break and when she joins TR he cuts her (probably too much) slack to make up for being a piece of shit and maybe also for letting Miya down by not watching out for Jessie the way she watched out for him.
What’s their best memory of their family? What about their worst memory?
His best memory isn't even all that good really? He was 11 and his mother took him on a cruise to celebrate a big job Team Rocket pulled off. And it was a very new experience not just because of the cruise but because they were there together. She didn’t have to bring him, but she chose to and she'd never done that before. And most of the time she spent with Miyamoto her executives and he was kind of just a tag along but it was the closest to ‘normal’ he'd ever felt.
And his worst memory is probably this since it was so traumatic and MB really did nothing but make him fixate on it even more. But since family isn’t really the main focus of that one, second-worst is probably the time MB left w/o warning for like 3 weeks. No one knew what was up, if TR was over or if she’d ever come back, and 13 y/o Gio kinda had to face the fact that she left without him. She did return and tried to make him feel like he’d overreacted and that there was nothing to worry about, but he knew she was lying. It really broke any remaining trust he had in her and taught him not to rely on anyone else.
With his Nidoking at his side, Giovanni was clearly marked as a trainer. Aboard the S.S. Anne that fact drew a lot of attention from bored passengers looking for a bit of excitement, so it wasn’t surprising to receive a challenge from one of them. The compliment didn’t hurt either, and Giovanni smiled unabashedly when he turned and saw his challenger.
Her long red hair was drawn up in a ponytail, bangs brushing against the top of her reflective shades. The Dewgong beside her suggested either experience or wealth—either way, its presence cemented her appeal.
“It would be my pleasure,” he said, withdrawing a Poké Ball. “Three on three?”
She tapped her chin with a Kalosian tipped nail, an appraising look on her face. “Sure… if that’s all you’re up for.”
She clearly didn’t know who he was, a feeling Giovanni had grown unaccustomed to. Most people in Kanto had heard of the hotshot Viridian Leader and his unstoppable team of ground-types, and were sufficiently awed upon meeting him. He’d given out several autographs on this cruise alone.
“If you want to fight my full team, you should come by my gym instead.”
She tilted her head slightly at the mention. “A gym leader, hm? Maybe I will, then.” She smirked, placing a hand on her hip. “Consider this a warmup.”
Her confidence was amusing—and, admittedly, alluring. Giovanni found himself hoping she would be able to back it up as he stepped back to make space for his Nidoking. A well-trained Dewgong was a not-inconsiderable threat to his team—best to take it out as soon as possible.
“Whenever you’re ready,” he said, bracing for an Aurora Beam. Nidoking would attack in the opening after the Dewgong made its move, and hopefully finish it in one blow. His Pokémon stood at the ready, aware of exactly what Giovanni had in mind.
“Ice Beam!” she called, catching Giovanni off guard. The Pokémon was much stronger than he’d been expecting, and as a blast of frigid blue energy shot out from the Dewgong’s horn he found himself rapidly reconsidering his strategy. There was no way they were going to take Dewgong down in one hit, not if it was experienced enough to know a move like Ice Beam, and Nidoking wasn’t going be able to withstand a second attack.
The ice hit Nidoking hard, leaving it dangerously close to a knockout. The Pokémon staggered but refused to fall, righting itself to go on the offensive. “Focus Blast!” Giovanni commanded. A ball of energy formed between Nidoking’s claws and it took aim at the ice-type, throwing the ball with all its might.
Giovanni stared intently as the attack zeroed in on its target, but the Dewgong was faster than the blast. It slid out of the way in time to narrowly miss being hit, and its trainer called out for another Ice Beam. Damn.
“Focus Blast, again!” He had to at least try to damage their opponent; unchecked, the Dewgong would shred through Giovanni’s two other Pokémon, regardless of which ones he chose.
Both Pokémon readied their attacks, firing them at the same time. This time Nidoking’s aim stayed true, connecting with the Dewgong even as Nidoking took the second Ice Beam hard on the chest. It stumbled again, but Giovanni had already withdrawn its Poké Ball. A disappointing performance, but it had managed to do something, at least. He called it back just as Nidoking hit the ground, fainted.
With the Dewgong sufficiently weakened, Giovanni was certain Nidoking’s counterpart could finish it off. He called out Nidoqueen, and the blue ground-type let out a roar that turned heads around them. Giovanni grinned, and across from him his opponent did the same.
“Thunderbolt!”
“Dewgong, Rest!”
Nidoqueen roared again, thrusting its head forward. A blast of electricity shot forth from its horn, fast as lightning and just as deadly. And rather than shutting its eyes and regaining its strength, the Dewgong stared wide-eyed at the oncoming attack, wailing as the electricity hit it.
Its trainer clenched her fist, but called the Dewgong back after it fainted on the deck. “Nice moves,” she said. “See how you like this!” She released her next Pokémon, and a Kingdra appeared to hover between them.
For someone who didn’t know who he was, she certainly had a read on counters for his team. Thunderbolt was no longer the best play, and Giovanni didn’t have any dragons of his own to take hers down. Nidoqueen would have to do for now, and Giovanni would have to hope she was out of water-types.
“Surf!” she called, spurring her Pokémon into action. The Kingdra conjured a giant wave of crystalline water, and Nidoqueen widened its stance to take the impact. Water surged over it; Giovanni lost sight of its blue scales as it took the brunt of the attack, but when the water faded down it was still standing, hurt but not incapacitated.
“Earthquake, now!” Giovanni called. A golden glow surrounded Nidoqueen before sharp rocks erupted from the ground beneath Kingdra with a booming crack.
The Pokémon cried out, but its trainer was undeterred. “Finish it with Surf!” she commanded, pointing directly at Nidoqueen. Kingdra began to gather energy for another wave, and Giovanni pulled out Nidoqueen’s Poké Ball.
It would undoubtedly go down as Kingdra’s trainer had said if he left it in to take the hit. He didn’t have many options; most of his team had a double weakness to water, and those that didn’t were liable to go down instantly if luck wasn’t on their side.
With no time left to make the call, Giovanni withdrew Nidoqueen and sent out Marowak, just in time for the Surf to crash down upon it. Marowak was knocked to the ground, washed around by the residual current. “Get up!” Giovanni commanded.
Their opponent barked a short laugh. “You can’t seriously expect it to—” She stopped mid-sentence as Marowak staggered to its feet, supporting itself with its club.
His gamble had paid off, and Giovanni wasted no time in taking advantage of it. “Use Bonemerang!”
Marowak sent its club spinning at the Kingdra with all its focus, collapsing on the deck the moment the bone left its hand. It hit the Kingdra hard with an audible crack, and—as its trainer cried out, “No!”—came spinning back around it whack it across the back of its skull. The Pokémon fell from the air, collapsing on the deck, and Marowak reached a paw up to grab its club as it returned.
Their opponent wore an agitated look as she called the Kingdra back. In its place she released a Sneasel, and Giovanni had to hold back a victorious grin. Even with both his Pokémon weakened, he could win this. She must have been out of viable counters; how disappointing for her.
“Finish it off,” she said. “Icicle Crash.”
Marowak didn’t have a chance. A dozen pointed icicles appeared in the air above it and came crashing down, knocking the weakened ground-type out instantly.
Giovanni returned Nidoqueen to the field, and the dual-type glanced over its shoulder at him. He gave a nod, eyes narrowed, and Nidoqueen returned the gesture before facing its opponent once again.
“Icicle Crash!”
The attack repeated, driving Nidoqueen down to all fours. Its shoulders shuddered, but Giovanni didn’t need to speak a single word to encourage it to rise. It stood on its own, a low warning growl in the back of its throat.
“Earthquake.”
It was over in an instant. The quake knocked Sneasel to the ground, and the resulting stones crashed down upon it. When they vanished, the Pokémon was left sprawled out on the deck, unmoving. Its trainer recalled it brusquely, then closed the distance between herself and Giovanni.
“Nice job,” he said, recalling his own Pokémon.
She shrugged. “Could’ve been better. You got lucky with that Marowak.”
“I did,” he agreed. He’d been unlucky with Focus Blast, but he didn’t feel the need to bring it up. “Still want that rematch?”
She pushed up her sunglasses so that they rested on top of her head and revealed a mischievous expression. “Eventually. Right now I’m wondering if you have any plans for tonight.”
Her eyes were sapphire blue, as vibrant as the ocean around them. Giovanni moved closer to her, shrugging and cocking his head to the side. “I believe do now,” he said.
In return he received a quirk of the lips and huff of laughter. “I’m Victoria. Nice to meet you, Stranger.”
