A small comic featuring my version of Loboto at age 17/18, getting asked about his future career by his mother, though only given the illusion of a choice.
[Note: in this Version his parents had him undergo a brain surgery some years after the lobotomy due to a small residue of psychic powers/ general issues with the after effects of said lobotomy, trying to “fix” him further.]
Because I dig thinking of character backgrounds that include family lines, here's Loboto's dysfunctional family.
WARNING: Ableism in both literal and metaphorical senses, parental abuse and medical abuse. Discussions of dystopic countries and war.
Father: Dr Cesare Loboto- Cesare claims he comes from a well-established merchant family in Italy. Only one of those things is true. His family came from a small fishing village that has survived for generations despite everything else going around them. A big reason for this is a long line of hydrokinetic and zoolepathic psychics. Naturally, the Loboto family hails from this line, though Cesare's parents were already second-generation immigrants.
Cesare doesn't as much hate psychics as he considers their existence just a genetic malformation that modern science can fix. This mentality meant Cesare's family has cut nearly all ties to him, as they still remember the old stories and consider psychics a blessing.
For all his ignorance and cruelty, Cesare has many regrets regarding his son. He knows the lobotomy and the further surgeries all but destroyed Caligosto as a person. As much as Cesare tries to tell himself he did what he had to, he knows deep down that he is responsible for Caligosto becoming a monster.
Mother: Sylvia Loboto (nee. Gresache)- Sylvia's family emigrated to America soon after the Grulovian War. It was a desperate move to escape the Gzar's reign and the monster that he used as his attack dog. Grulovians already had a dim view of psychics but Lucrecia Mux was the last straw for many.
Sylvia grew up hearing horror stories from her mother. Of psychic monsters and of their loyalty to dictators.
As such, Sylvia does not have a son. She never had a son. The thing that walks around carrying her eye colour is nothing more than a demon that pretended to be her son until it was banished. It still tries to pretend to be her son, but Sylvia knows better. This is how she justifies to herself the mental disconnect between her sweet Caligosto and the monsters her mother told her about.
General HCs:
- Though Cesare did not put much resistance against the surgery, Sylvia was the one who pushed for it the most. She hoped her husband was right and it was just a malformation. When Caligosto did not improve but degraded, Sylvia concluded that a psychic was always going to be rotten to their core and could not change.
-If Cesare had been the sole parent, it is very likely he would have never even noticed Caligosto was a psychic, let alone sent him to the surgery. While he saw being a psychic as a flaw, he never feared them. This does not mean Caligosto would have had an easy time and would have likely been dumped into an orphanage.
-Caligosto doesn't know much about his family history, nor has he met any relatives outside his parents. Though he has more important things to think about, he does at times ponder where he comes from.
-Other psychics from the Loboto-line are running about on American soil and in Italy. Caligosto has somehow not run into any of them yet and they would not know he was related to them.
-It should come as no surprise that most psychics of the Loboto-line are fishermen or sailors, though some are pirates or marine biologists. Historically, the family was often associated with privateers and whalers.
- The Gresache line is essentially dead, Sylvia was her mother's only child and any relatives drowned in the Deluge. This means Sylvia clings to what her mother brought from Grulovia.
- A lot of Caligosto's anti-psychic mentality came from the time his maternal grandmother died and he helped his mother pack up her things. Sylvia spent hours just ranting about how awful psychics were. Caligosto did not connect the dots between his powers and the horrid psychics his mother spoke of until the spoon incident.
-Grulovia does not have any changeling myths, Sylvia is just deep in denial. Because Cesare cut off his family and was in turn cut off, she has no idea where the psychic blood came from.
I really like the idea of Loboto being Chloe's adoptive dad and just trying his damnest to be a good Dad. He's not great, but isn't terrible either! And every night he will read Chloe all sorts of Space fun facts as to ease her into sleep (inspired by @bigasswritingmagnet)
