#poor juan

[jadedontaskwhytoo]

*Somewhere after a race in 1958*

F1 drivers: *getting ready to go to a nightclub* You sure you're not forgetting someone, Taffy?

Wolfgang von Trips: Whoever that is, I'm sure he's not important.

Fangio somewhere in Cuba:

[lucreziagiovane]

JUAN BORGIA + teasing his brother for being a Cardinal "Well, this cleric does both." "Prove it"

[dear-saint-anthony]

Gio and Maria

TW: depression and kind of neglect 

Maria and Gio’s relationship is complicated to say the least. They love each other deeply, being the only present figure in each others lives for a long time, and reflect one another. However, their similarities cause conflict, neither of them enjoying the parts of themselves they see in each other. For a long time Maria was not a stable parental figure in Gio’s life.

Maria has never been able to handle her own issues, even when she was a young girl. She experienced bouts of depression as a child/teenager which her mother chalked up to her being purposefully difficult. Maria would often act out, snapping at her peers, breaking her possessions, sneaking off to perform or, most notably, running away when she was only 17. Maria’s acts of defiance could be seen as a form of self medication, chasing a feeling to subdue what she was or wasn’t feeling. 

Maria’s mother fed into her disillusioned coping mechanisms, it was impossible for her to see that her daughter may be struggling. She blamed Maria for how she felt, pushing her further away.

Maria had a troubled adulthood what with having her fiancé, and only friend, cheat on her multiple times with her knowing, being completely cut off from her family and financial insecurity. After running away from Narciso after becoming pregnant with Gio, Maria faced one of the few instances of debilitating depression she experienced. She had been depressed before while with Narciso, being unable to attend shows or move on with tour due to being ‘under the weather’, but this she had to face completely alone. After giving birth to Gio she suffered post natal depression and found herself unable to truly care for him. 

Throughout Gio’s early childhood he can remember dark patches, when his mother wouldn’t come out of her room, where he was left hungry but too little to reach the kitchen counter. He missed days of school, he itched his skin, unclean but unable to figure out how the bath worked. The dark patches were few and far between, and when Gio was very young, he and Maria never discussed it. One day she would simply come out of her room, pick him up and kiss him, and it was like it never happened. Gio thinks back on it now and wonders if it was just some persistent bad dream he had, as whenever he tries to mention it to his mam she denies it. (Most of these occurrences happened after visits from Gio’s father, or interactions between Maria and her family, which were very inconsistent and were rare occurrences)

These instances were easy to forget as Gio got older, until they were almost unsalvageable from the back of his mind. At least they would have been if not for the death of his uncle. Francesco died in a ‘terrible accident’ although almost everyone knows it was a suicide, no one will admit it. Francesco died, who was the only one to helped Maria in her darkest moments, who welcomed her back with open arms when she came home, who was the only one there when she gave birth to Gio, who let Gio experience what having a dad would have been like. Maria fell into a deep depression, which lasted many months. Gio remembers almost none of it, like one entire chunk of his life was picked from his brain and erased. The moments he does remember were disturbing, crying at his mothers closed door, tugging on her arm to feel sharp bones under paling skin or lying in bed beside her and watching the basin of her collar bone fill and fall with her rancid breath. He remembers this awful dreadful feeling that his mother was going to follow his uncle, that he would lose her too. Strategically, Gio does not think on this part of his life at all. But her remembers the sick rolling feeling that would lull from his little body and into the carpet beneath him, making it sway under his feet when he would attempt to climb the stairs. They would stretch on into darkness, a gaping smelling yawning at the top of the stairs, as the end of the corridor, and inside it his mother. Long black hair, lying on her side in a dim room that smelled like stale air and sleep filled mouths. 

Maria drew herself out of this depression after learning about Narcio’s other sons, her little boy’s brothers, and flung herself into the long process of fostering and adopting Juan. 

(Side note: This may be the only point of contingency Gio has towards Juan’s adoption. He’s always harboured a grudge, not towards Juan but towards his Mother, that Maria was able to pull herself out of her depression for Juan and not for him. Maria was always able to fully parent Juan quite consistently, while Gio never truly got to experienced this.)

When Maria was well, which was most of the time, their relationship waxed and waned. Maria was never quite sure how to raise Gio, and walked a fine line between too strict or too lax. Maria and Gio were extremely close, having only each other, so even as a child Gio shared very similar tastes with his mam, the same music and shows and activities. And with Gio having very few friends, almost all of his time was spent with her. However, whenever conflict arose (Which was quite often as Gio was quite a…difficult… child) Maria found herself falling back on her own mother’s parenting. Shouting and punishing without clear reason, ‘because I said so’’s and frequent silent treatments. Maria wasn’t able to deal with her own emotions, let alone Gio’s, so when tension grew she would simply pretend he didn’t exist until he apologised. 

Maria deeply feared that Gio would turn out the way she did, so she used strict demands to keep him from following her path. Forcing him into classical music extracurriculars, church twice a week, confession, confirmation, alter serving, all devices to be handed into her at whatever hour she felt. As Gio began developing odd behaviours and conversations, Maria read his diaries (This probably let to a lot more secrecy from Gio, he never truly forgave her for that.) She would change her rules at random, leaving Gio to struggle to catch up, never confident in her own parenting. 

Besides the strange bouts of strict parenting (Mussolini treatment in Gio’s words), Maria could flip very easily into being a very lax ‘cool’ mam. Despite the conflicts that arose from their similarities, there was a lot of solidarity there. They shared an odd sense of humour and a general distain for their neighbours and people at Gio’s school. Maria would swear around Gio, and allow him to do the same, she’d let him wander to the beach whenever he fancied and together they amassed an impressive audio library of any and all music. She would let him read any books he got his hand on, and even encouraged him to pursue his own literary interests over whatever his school set him. (Maria had a long history with Gio’s schools, always defending him no matter the behaviour, they share an unpleasant attitude towards organisations and neither like to be told what to do.) She never pushed him to make friends, knowing he hated the idea.

Maria’s ability to flip from being completely chill and relaxed into extremely strict at the drop of a hat always left Gio confused, never knowing what he could or couldn’t say to her, likely leading to him keeping things from his mam, in order to keep the peace. Even now, he keeps secrets to not distress her, knowing any wrong thing could send her spiralling into distress or anger. Gio has many mood swings that reflect his mams.

To say the least, when things were good between them they were vey good, and when things were bad they were very bad, neither Gio or Maria do things half way, so their relationship is a pendulum swing of extremes. 

When Gio thinks back on his childhood with his mother he can never make up his mind about how he feels, to him his mother was both his best friend and his dictator (He’s very dramatic). He’s made his peace that they’ll never go too long without arguing, that he’ll never truly make his mother understand his perspective on things, and him hers, and that there are things that happened when he was a kid that he knows shouldn’t have. But he knows that at the end of the day his mam would shout down teachers for him, would spend whats little left of her money on anything to make him happy, that she’s just scared and unwell and wants whats best for him, even though her ways of achieving this may not always be the best. 

tldr:

Maria and Gio are not ‘half arsed’ kind of people and their relationship reflects this.

[agir1ukn0w]

ideal candidate for poor little meow meow status

[tennis-kittens]

Juan Martin Del Potro • Madrid Open 2024

[gear5luffy21]

Drunk Juan my cutie.

[katlimeart]

Made in 2024

If you’ve seen this anywhere else, I posted it back on my deviantArt when it was made.

Peach cosplaying as Christine Daae from The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

[pain-to-my-auchocolat]

you’re seriously telling me we won’t have juanki slaying in carlitos box at the Australian Open ?

[foxy-kitsune]

ollie in the points. juan in the points. my boys, i am a very happy and proud bean today🥹

[melissa-leaf]

from Getty

[dicktat]

Dyimg Lgght

[lucreziagiovane]

i really find cesare and lucrezia's intense and destructive relationship so interesting and captivating. their love for each other fed off all the energy from the people who ever loved them, they even pursued substitutes as lovers as they were unable to attain what they truly desired - each other, with cesare taking ursula's love and affection, lucrezia taking paolo and alfonso's innocence, and both of them alienating juan by pushing him away and making him feel lonely and excluded. it's almost like they didn't rest until all of them were dead. their narcissistic and extremely dangerous love led to tragic outcomes, leaving only each other behind.

[sportsallover]

It was so impressive. Juan Ayuso attacked, and like half of Jumbo followed!

[stromuprisahat]

Rodrigo: *questions fairness of poverty and uppity behaviour of the rich* them: Is this a riddle?

[dougielombax]

Don Giovanni falls down an impossibly and comically long flight of stairs.

Living Statue of a dead Military Commander: THIS IS GETTING MONOTONOUS!!!!!!!!!!

[samurairobotics]

Dino Cazares (Brujería), Mike Patton, Juan Brujo and Greg Werckman @ Armadillo Bar, San Francisco, CA. Feb. 1992.