Sakaki "Giovanni" Ito
-"No Rocket" AU of Giovanni from Pokemon.
-Mixture of mainline game, anime, and pokespe lore.OOC Rules and Info: Here
Viridian City's Stalwart Titan
Sakaki Ito, or as he's known colloquially, Giovanni, is Viridian City's Gym Leader, former mayor, and something of a local celebrity for the Tokiwa Titan branded trainer gear company housed in the city besides.In his timeline, the League originated as a series of challenges to determine if someone was strong enough to protect their town, and only in the most recent generations has become a challenge more akin to a sport.These days, with the greater understanding of pokemon and the ever-deepening bonds between them and humans the role of Gym Leader is losing its relevance in the day to day lives of Kanto's, and Johto's, citizens. With the loss of prestige comes other issues...
Despite his advanced age, Giovanni continues to run the Viridian City gym. Aside from a short stint where he was an Elite Four member for about two years, the Viridian City gym has been in his family for three generations... Though it's looking like he'll be the last.In this world, his mother never founded Rocket; She never needed to, being the daughter of an influential family and the next in line to inherit the gym so that it wouldn't fall to someone of lower status. She would be a fierce, difficult challenge to those on the path to proving themselves worthy to protect others.In this world, rather than seeing a need to have an heir in order to take over his Great Work, Giovanni found himself pressured to become both respectable and lauded, even as becoming a Gym Leader became less valued. He turned to business and politics both, becoming mayor long before his mother begrudgingly gave the gym to him.While he was mayor, he set about designing adventuring gear for the new generation of trainers. No longer did the average child fear the creatures they all shared the world with, and they eschewed the safety that came with the old gear in favour of more trendy clothes that did nothing to protect them from the real danger that came with the power of wielding pokemon. So, he set out to design clothing which would both provide safety and appeal to those with an eye for fashion, creating the term "Trainer Class" to describe clothing meant to protect from all the mishaps that come from training super-powered animals who love you but also don't realise you're not immune to fire, as well as made to provide superior durability with minimal loss of comfort.After two terms as mayor, Giovanni retired from politics and created the Tokiwa Titan clothing brand for trainers. With the aid of Ariane, a woman whose family had been with his for generations, and in another world would be the Rocket Executive Ariana, he was able to create new trends and further improve the day to day safety of new trainers.Things seemed to be going well for him... Until four incredible trainers called the Elite Four started to cause trouble. With several young, incredibly talented trainers, Giovanni played a notable role in taking them down and returning peace to Kanto.His mother, pressured by public opinion regarding the E4 event, relinquished the gym to him and he rose quickly in the ranks to become the 8th gym leader - back when gyms were done in a set order.With his new duties, alongside the already standing duties he had to his company and his employees, he never really noticed his youth slipping away. He didn't notice Ariane's glances his way. It never occurred to him he might some day regret all this, not until Ariane announced her marriage to another man and the spell was broken.It had been 20 years since he took over the gym, and he was in his 50's. Was there still any point in getting married? Was he too old to adopt a child? No... No. Any child he adopted would want for no material goods, but just because he had noticed the passage of time didn't mean that Giovanni could simply drop everything. Too many people were relying on him, and he had agreed to a position at the newly-sanctioned Pokemon League.It was with a heavy heart that he realised that it would be irresponsible to bring another life into a situation where there wasn't even time for love.And with that, another 20 years passed and here we are. Giovanni's short stint as a member of the Officially Sanctioned Elite Four was short-lived and once again he is back in Viridian City, testing would be Champions with his ground-type pokemon.And here he is, alone, but content despite the melancholy.
Physical informationAge: 72
Height: 5'8
Blood type: O
Eyes: Black
Hair: Salt and pepper
Complexion: Fair
Posture: Strong and straight, despite his age. Small limp on especially cold days.Scars: Multiple, none visible in his every-day wear. Notable scars include -
- A long, jagged scar that stars on the upper arm of his right arm, and ends on the lower left arm after crossing the body
- A similar scar down his left leg (he limps a little on cold days thanks to it)He is most commonly seen wearing formalwear, business suits and the like. He's long outgrown the orange suit phase, having settled into a fondness for dark gem tones and earth tones. These clothes are all trainer grade so that he can battle at any time without damaging them.When training or out in the wilderness for some reason, he wears fairly standard clothing for older trainers based on the weather.
Misc. Lore
In this world, gym leaders often take on “gym names” within Japan. The original purpose of this was so that the family of any given leader could not be easily targeted, as most Leaders had no familial ties to the position outside of Kanto. In modern day, the tradition is carried on as a form of performance name, and is used in merchandising contexts.In this world, Ariana is known as Ariane. Proton is known as Lance. Petrel is known as Lambda. Archer is known as Apollo.Lance and Lambda are still criminals, though they are in opposite crime families and there’s quite frankly a deeply uncomfortable amount of unresolved sexual tension between them considering they both really want to murder each other.Apollo is the vice president of SilphCo. He once worked for Devon, but decided that the company wasn’t cutthroat enough for him, taking proprietary knowledge with him to Silph. Due to the care he took when he left, no legal wrong-doing could be proven, and Silph’s investors enjoyed the windfall from his deeds. He single-handedly lead to a modern corporate culture of “move fast and break things” within Japan’s tech companies. Giovanni hates the man with a passion.In this world, Red and Blue (F) ended up getting married. They have three daughters and the whole family goes on chaotic adventures.Green Oak is publicly assumed to be a permanent bachelor, but in private he has a loving relationship with another man. This isn’t kept secret due to any concerns of homophobia, but because of concerns that people will invade their privacy. Green took over for his Grandfather as Kanto’s main Professor, specialising in the study of regional differences – not just regional forms.Yellow is a famous artist who travels the world, learning the hearts of pokemon. Despite being quite prolific, as well as well-traveled, sightings of her are scarce as she doesn’t like the attention. Yellow grew up being friends with Giovanni. He was training under his mother at the gym, which is near the entry to Viridian Forest where she lived, so they had many chances to talk. Giovanni can’t help but think of her as a niece of sorts.In this world, Gold and Crystal are married. Gold is on the tournament circuit, while Crystal is Johto’s leading expert on the sleep-wake patterns of pokemon as well as being the region’s primary Professor.Crystal and Kotone are twin sisters who took on the Mask Of Ice with Gold. Kotone grew up with their father in New Bark, while Crystal grew up with their mother until Crystal left to gain control of her life.The current Tohjo champion is Kotone. Her Elites, in ascending order, are Will, Koga, Karen and Clair.The Ito family has been the protectors of Viridian City for ages.The Ito family home is hundreds of years old and is built in a traditional style that has been added on to over the years. The home qualifies as a mansion, albeit humble by mansion standards. There is a devoted care team to make sure the house is kept properly.The Ito family has a tradition of naming its sons after sacred trees and its daughters after flowers.Sakaki (Giovanni) has a twin brother named Sawara. His uncles were named Kouyamaki, Sawara, and Hinoki in that birth order. His mother’s name was Himawari. His paternal grandfather’s name was also Sakaki.Kouyamaki’s name is rarely mentioned, as Giovanni’s grandfather would take to drinking whenever he was brought up, leading to terrible anger and lashing out. Even though his grandfather is long-gone, he instinctively never mentions his name.Kouyamaki was killed during an attack from a Tyranitar that came down from the mountains. His armour had been sabotaged by Hinoki, leading to his demise.Uncle Sawara was murdered in cold blood by Uncle Hinoki. Himawari watched from a distance and was later the person who brought Hinoki’s crimes to the forefront. Hinoki was executed for his crimes. Himawari would go on to take over the gym.Himawari, being a woman, was not intended to take over the gym at any time despite being the best trainer in the family, as for generations the gym had passed from father to son and the tradition was not to be broken. When she took over, she chose to be a normal-type leader, becoming the most powerful trainer in Kanto of her generation. Her father told her upon her taking over the gym that she had best marry soon and have boys to pass the legacy on to the moment they were skilled enough to do so.Due to how hard it had been to inherit the gym to begin with, she held on to the gym until pressured to by the public. She had wanted to pass the gym on to Sawara, but as the young man had no interest, she had to pass it on to Giovanni when he became hailed as a hero of Kanto. Himawari was well into her 50’s at this time, and it wasn’t typical for a Leader to be that old.There was clear favouritism in Giovanni’s family. Himawari favoured Sawara, while the elder Sakaki favoured Giovanni. This caused a great deal of resentment between basically everyone except Himawari and Sawara. It was only after learning of his grandfather’s life-long scorn of his mother and her capabilities that Giovanni was able to forgive his mother. While they were never close, he came to believe she showed love in the only ways she knew how – favouritism or not.Giovanni has two nephews and a niece. His niece is named Sakura, and is set to inherit Tokiwa Titan when he passes, as she’s been in training to take over for quite some time now. His nephews are Obonki (named after the tree bearing the citrus berry) and Lumuki (named after the tree bearing the Lum berry). Obonki is a contest star in Hoenn, while Lumuki is a pokemon surgeon. Sakura is the oldest at 45, Obonki is 43, and Lumuki is 38. Giovanni also has grand-niblings, ranging from age 14 to 23. I will NOT be making a family tree for this because I am running out of culturally important trees and am not comfortable in my ability to make more from pokemon berry trees.Ariane’s family and the Ito family have been long-entwined with each other, and she grew up with both Giovanni and his brother. Ariane married Sawara after having given up on Giovanni noticing her romantic intent with him.Sawara (twin) was temporarily the chairman of the Kanto branch of the Pokemon Fan Club. He was not, in fact, the guy who REALLY loved Rapidash – however he was just as intense about his Pigeot. It’s often joked that you can tell what year someone became a trainer based on which Fan Club leader they remember.Giovanni and Professor Oak are actually friends. They were originally rivals with both each other and Agatha, despite their age differences, but as all three went their own ways, the rivalry between Giovanni and Oak became simple friendship.Miyako, Giovanni’s head maid, has a Persian, as well as something of a long-standing crush on Giovanni himself. Their Persians keep having clutches of eggs. No one is amused by this fact.