application ( ryslig )

[digiorno]

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Anne
Contact: passiones
Are You Over 18?: Yes
Other Characters: None

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Giorno Giovanna
Age: 16
Canon: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Part 5: Vento Aureo)
Canon Point: One month post-canon, May 1, 2001
Character Information: History @ Jojowiki

Personality:

From a young age, Giorno came to associate negative experiences with his civilian existence and positive experiences with the power and privilege of gang life. With that in mind, it's really no surprise that he developed a dream to join the mafia. More specifically, he wanted to rule and reform the powerful gang known as Passione. Giorno never had much power as a child, and to him, power connotes invincibility. Further, though, Giorno wants to restore Passione to his criminal ideal, an organization that improves people's lives even while necessarily working outside the law. It's about ruling and creating a perfect criminal society that protects people rather than hurting them.

Originally Giorno's goal was to conquer Passione on his own, an impractical but not incomprehensible thought. Giorno never really had any friends; he was ostracized as a child, and people only really started talking to him after his gangster patron made them. But starting with his work with Bruno Buccellati's gang, he became deeply invested not only in the societal but the familial structure of Passione, and this is where Giorno really begins to blossom as a leader.

Giorno knew that he wanted to and would have to lead, but didn't know what leadership actually entailed. Makes sense: he was at that point a socially maladjusted 15-year-old kid with big dreams and a bafflingly weird superpower. It was only through the influence of Buccellati's gang, a found-family structure full of orphans and rejects, collected by Bruno and kept safe in exchange for loyalty, that Giorno learned how to lead. Buccellati's gang taught him that leadership means supporting, encouraging, and valuing subordinates for their individual strengths while staying aware of their weaknesses and, above all, valuing their safety, just as Giorno's patron gangster valued his.

Buccellati's gang also taught him the invaluable skill of diplomacy, also known as "dealing with assholes". To get an idea of the dynamics of the gang, consider this: Giorno came into the gang after it was fully-formed and firmly established, essentially an outsider being foisted upon a very tight-knit and naturally suspicious group of young men. Nobody was thrilled about this. One guy peed in a teapot and dared him to drink it. So what did Giorno do about it? Well, beyond drinking it (he absolutely drank it), he did what he had to do. He adapted. He learned how to handle tense situations, when to be deferential and when to push his authority, when to cooperate and when to insist that he be listened to. He learned, in other words, how to gain the support of others, even if they're hostile, without driving them away. He learned how to be a diplomat, a skill which he uses heavily as don.

All of that being said, his intuition didn't form in a vacuum. More like a crucible: neglect and abuse left him a quiet and observant child, reliant on his ability to read others (especially his violent stepfather) in order to get his basic needs met. This tendency formed out of necessity served him well, but also led him to seem just a little unsettling to those he focuses his attention on. The people he pays attention to feel seen, and his intuition rarely fails him. Above all things, Giorno is an excellent judge of character because he really didn't have the option not to be.

Unusual people skills aside, Giorno would be a good PTA mom. His moral compass is totally skewed; he never learned how to fit into law-abiding society. And honestly? That's fine with him. He never wanted to, because law-abiding society never did anything for him. He has a moral code, but it doesn't align with the law.

Some of his less-than-lawful traits could honestly be attributed directly to Dio. Giorno possesses an intense ruthlessness that verges on terrifying at times. He's also deeply charismatic; in fact, his charisma is often the first thing people notice about him, as it's strong enough to almost be a physical force. He uses his charisma as a tool, seeing no problem with using it as a way to further his goals, which is directly in line with Dio's goals.

Unlike Dio, Giorno is mostly in good control of his emotions. He tends to be level-headed and analytical, with excellent problem-solving skills. Then again, maybe he's a little too in control. This, like his skill at reading people, is adaptive. Showing emotion never got his needs met and often led to physical or emotional pain, so he learned how to put it away. Throughout his arc, he hides his vulnerable emotions, especially fear, grief, and sadness. In times of great stress, he subsumes his emotions so thoroughly that he trembles, but doesn't make a sound. When his teammates are literally screaming with sorrow, he cries, but his voice remains fairly even. Control is all well and good, but Giorno's deliberate distancing from his own negative emotions is a vicious and self-defeating cycle that can make it difficult to be honest with himself, let alone other people.

On the flip side of the emotional coin, when Giorno gets mad, really mad, there's no containing his anger. He will find you, and he will hurt you, and you probably won't recover from his rage anytime soon. The prime example of this is Diavolo, the former boss of Passione, who hunted down Buccellati's gang and annihilated half of them. It wasn't enough for Giorno to disable him; it wasn't even enough for Giorno to kill him. No, Giorno ensured that Diavolo will keep dying over and over again, forever. In other words: don't fuck with Giorno Giovanna or his people. You will regret it.

Of course, Giorno isn't all bad, even if he doesn't act like a law-abiding citizen. But there are a few things about Giorno that tip him over from being an antihero to a true hero despite his criminal tendencies. While Giorno is too complicated to really boil down to one aspect, he is ultimately a force of life, rather than a bringer of death, like Dio. This is clearly reflected in the nature of Gold Experience, which creates life. Gold Experience, in other words, frames Giorno as a creator rather than a destroyer, one who brings instead of taking away. It's telling that Giorno not only has a deep (if often concealed) kindness and compassion for people, but for animals, too, even the ones Gold Experience creates; one of his first scenes is defending one of Gold Experience's frogs at great danger to himself.

Along his journey, Giorno discovers a tendency to get attached to people quickly and deeply. Further, his quick attachment, in combination with his self-confidence, his big dreams, and his charisma make it easy for people to trust him, to follow him, to believe that he will take care of them. And he does. He's good at taking care of people in a way that he himself was never really taken care of, giving them guidance and structure and boundaries and love, protecting them from danger while allowing them to make mistakes. It's what makes him a good don; it's what makes him a good friend.

Above all, Giorno is defined by his desire to make the world a better place. Admittedly, he goes about this in a different way than most people would, but honestly? If he were normal, he wouldn't be a goddamn Jojo. Giorno's story is about overcoming cruel legacies and making your destiny your own. He does this a little bit obliquely, but in the end he succeeds, and at the tender age of 16, he finds himself in a position not only to reform Passione, but to reach out to kids like him who never had any support and influence them in a (mostly) positive way. He's driven by the belief that people have limitless potential to change their fates and the desire to give everyone the same chance that he got.

5-10 Key Character Traits:

🐞 power-hungry
🐞 idealistic
🐞 intuitive
🐞 leader
🐞 charismatic
🐞 morally skewed
🐞 controlled
🐞 wrathful
🐞 compassionate
🐞 easily attached

Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? Either, please!

Opt-Outs:

🐞 werebear
🐞 slime
🐞 arachne
🐞 troll
🐞 vampire
🐞 gargoyle

Roleplay Sample: one | two | three