Gregory Vecellio

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Gregory Vecellio is an 11-year-old boy and the User of the Stand In Fact. He is the son of Tiziano and Squalo Vecellio. He is a minor character in Cloud Nine Contrails and the deuteragonist of Starlit Labyrinth.

## Gregory

### Namesake

Gregory and the Hawk (American Singer-Songwriter)

## Profile

### Nationality

Though he's not totally sure of his own actual origin, he considers himself Italian like his fathers.

### Eye Colour

Heterochromia iridus, blue on left, amber on right.

## Favourites

### Hobbies

Drawing, reading, listening to music, looking at fish

## Appearance, Biology and Identity

### Hairstyle

Semi-curly hair which falls over his headband. It's a little longer in the back.

### Markings

Light freckles and a bisected-sigmoid birthmark between his eyebrows.

### Abnormalities

Has a tracheostomy (also called 'trach' or 'stoma') on his neck.

## Psychology

### Dislikes

Yelling, being startled, general ignorance, pollution

### Phobias

Haphephobia, androphobia (to an extent), and a fear of being filmed

### Mental Health Issues

PTSD, Anxiety, possible unspecified AuDHD condition

## Settings and Dates

### Birthplace

Unclear. May have come from Canada, based on his knowledge of French Canadian but not European French.

## Relationships

### Father

Tiziano Vecellio (adoptive), Squalo Vecellio (adoptive)

## Skills and Powers

### Language

English, French (French Canadian and "Franken-French"), Italian, ASL and LIS

## Affiliations

### Religion

Unspecified, but follows Catholic practises of his fathers.

### Allies

Urban Deathgrinds (by default, unknowingly)

## Metadata

### Voice/Voiced by

None of his own; depends on what voice he's using

### Debut

Gregory is a boy with a mostly average frame and light olive skin spotted with tiny freckles. He has a dark birthmark in the centre of his brow. He has curly-wavy strawberry blond hair that reaches down just past his neck in the back. His hair is pushed back slightly by a blue and white patterned headband, and accessorised by a feather (supposedly that of a hawk). He has heterochromia iridis, one eye being blue and the other a gold colour. Though his outfit varies he almost always wears a simple tan poncho with accents around the collar and bottom, bearing a simple symbol by the collar with an overlapping diamond shape and triangle, connected to a stripe constructed of triangles going off to the side. He typically wears long sleeves and long pants, and typically can be seen with moccasins on. He wears bandages that cover his hands and bandages that cover most of his neck; however, his neck bandages are arranged with a gap around his *tracheostomy*, a surgically-placed hole in his throat that allows him to breathe.

## Personality

### Debut

Gregory is a boy who gives a shy impression, and is generally fearful of people and distrustful. He's anxious, and rarely seems calm or comfortable, typically looking visibly stressed or nervous. His quietness is largely a result of his physical incapability to speak without the use of his Stand, but even with the capability to communicate via writing or sign, he typically doesn't like to do so unless he feels it necessary, or is being spoken to. However, his demeanour is different around those he knows, likes and trusts, and though still rather reserved, he's much quicker to socialise or make jokes, and he always appears more comfortable. In strange or unfamiliar places, he is unable to relax and typically feels unsafe, especially with strangers around. He stresses quite easily, and any bouts of sudden confidence are short lived, and often occur in odd circumstances, sometimes when he has made a mistake. When idle, he tends to fidget with his Stand, and will often press the buttons as a way to stim, and when anxious or frightened, he may bite at his hands and by extension his bandages. He has a tendency to hide under his poncho when overwhelmed, and frequently overreacts to sudden movements. He is noted to be fairly clever and particularly observant as he tends to pick up on tiny details that are easily overlooked, and has good reasoning skills. He spends most of his time drawing, but his artstyle may suggest that he has a distorted sense of perception and has a hard time with certain aspects of recognition. He sometimes becomes startled by imagined sounds.

His haphephobia and touch-repulsion appear to be derivative of abuse and mistreatment throughout his childhood resulting in him being unable to distinguish between 'good touch' and 'bad touch'. His androphobia comes from the same source, but is comparatively less severe, as he is tolerant of other men being around him as long as he's not alone with a man, but he generally hates being approached by unfamiliar men and typically tries to avoid them. While he's intolerant of any stranger touching him, he will allow his fathers to make contact, but still prefers the contact not be prolonged.

## History

Gregory was born in 2008 to a seemingly normal mother and father, but the façade of normalcy dissolved very quickly. Following the sudden death of his mother when he was nearly 3, his father began to abuse and exploit him, and this kind of mistreatment continued throughout his childhood.

He was kept to minimal contact with the outside world and was withdrawn from preschool after trying to tell someone he was being mistreated. CPS had come to investigate but, possibly due to negligence or incompetence, nothing of substance was found and Gregory himself was never examined. Following the investigation, he was promptly pulled from preschool and instead kept at home at all times. He was frequently abused, but was not neglected and was in otherwise good health. After a while, he was essentially given away by his father and then trafficked for the next few years. He was moved around and exploited countless times, the development of his Stand seemingly spurred on by the stress and pain he suffered. He witnessed death when he was still young, after another kid in the same situation he was in had tried to protect him and died as a consequence. Their voice was the first voice that would be collected by Gregory's Stand, although he didn't know at the time. Even when given a rare chance to tell someone on the outside what was happening, he never had the courage.

When he was moved around, it would generally be a place in North America (the USA, Canada and México) but eventually he was moved to Europe, ending up in Naples, Italy. It was there, around the age of 8 or 9, when he seemingly snapped under the stress and abuse, activating his Stand in the heat of the moment to protect himself on instinct lashing out at one of his abusers and tearing out their voice, then running to hide, with the abuser ultimately collapsing and suffocating. He then made a run for it, attacking the several other affiliated adults who tried to stop him or get him under control as he made his escape in a blind panic. What was left behind could be called a massacre, Gregory leaving corpses in his wake and just barely managing to escape. Once out on the streets, desperate to get help, and knowing nothing about what had happened except that he had just stolen people's voices from their throats and they appeared as cassette tapes, he did the only thing that made sense to him; try to insert one of the voice tapes into his own throat, thinking that would allow him to somehow know how to speak. Instead, doing this resulted in massive, irreparable damage to his throat, haemorrhage, and intense pain. All of which, in addition to most likely shock, caused him to pass out and collapse, whereby he was fortunately discovered and taken to a hospital.

At the hospital, his larynx was found to have severe physical trauma which could not be repaired, which resulted in him needing a total laryngectomy to keep him alive and consequently a tracheostomy so that he could breathe. Thus, whether or not he *had* had the ability to speak prior, he was now physically incapable of speech. They were able to stabilise his condition, but he would spend the next several days in intensive care.

When asked information about himself, he was only able to answer a few questions through writing, this being his name, birthday and approximate age. When his injuries and prior scarring were questioned, he was unable to provide an answer as he lacked the language to communicate his circumstances. Additionally, he seemed incredibly afraid of everyone who approached him, tried to escape any physical contact but often lacked the strength, and showed severe emotional distress anytime there were other people in the room; especially if any of them were men. There was a struggle to keep him calm well enough that his condition could remain stable and he could adjust to his stoma. Over the course of the several days after the incident, he was unable to eat, instead relying on an NG tube. Crying would make his pain worse, further taxing on his mental state. During the whole ordeal, he seemed unable to relax, being at his least stressed around quieter people who kept a fair distance.

After leaving the hospital, due to there being no way to find or contact a supposed legal guardian or parent, he wound up in a children's home, or, essentially an orphanage. He struggled to form friendships, bonds or relationships with anyone, even other children, and especially adults. In most cases, he wouldn't let any adults get too *close* too him, and if they were men, he'd often go as far as to run away. A big part of his issues making friends with other kids other than general issues communicating was likely stigma regarding his stoma. When he did make friends, or at least was friendly with others, it would be with a group of quiet girls - other orphans - who spent most of their time colouring or drawing; a group who would share their crayons or pencils with him, even though he still struggled to communicate. They didn't seem to mind, he was quiet and kept out of the way, so they seemed to collectively agree to let him be part of their group.

It was here where he discovered the proper use of his Stand to allow him to speak despite his lack of a larynx. But his speech was incredibly underdeveloped and the voice tapes he had tended to trigger a negative response mentally due to them almost all being his abusers' voices. When he did start use the voices, the only person he ever spoke in front of was a little girl in the group of girls who never said much herself either, who Gregory considered the only person he'd ever actually trust at the time. Even still, his speech was heavily fragmented and nigh indecipherable. While at the children's home, he did manage to pick up some sign language to communicate with others thanks to a particularly invested caretaker, and some of the girls he hung around picked up on it too, given he would barely interact with the adults.

He would remain at the children's home for a few months to around a year, until one day he and the group were approached by a man- who they initially mistook for a woman. It was unlikely Gregory would have let the man get so close had he thought otherwise. It became very clear very quickly as soon as he spoke as he had a very deep voice. Although Gregory was immediately off-put, he at least felt a slight sense of security around the girls. Despite shying away, he decided against fleeing, an odd behaviour likely commented on by one of them. Though the interaction was somewhat brief, Gregory would soon be adopted by that same man, Tiziano, and his husband, Squalo. Some legal complications of the system were quickly overlooked, somehow, allowing it to happen.

He would eventually get used to his new father and feel safe around them with significant difficulty after what he'd suffered. The first few nights were difficult, and on the first night he spent at the Vecellio household, he'd panicked when approached by Tiziano, and attacked him with his Stand. But Tiziano managed to calm him down, and tried his best to assure Gregory that no harm would come to him under their roof. Largely because of this interaction, he settled in more easily, and decided to trust Tiziano. He gravitated more towards him initially, as he was quieter, calmer, and less physically inclined. But he eventually warmed up to Squalo as well, particularly deciding he could rely on him when he'd rushed in to protect him during an incident at a park. After a while, he decided he finally felt safe, and started calling Tiziano and Squalo 'papi' and 'papa' respectively. After about a year of being with them, they moved from Italy to America, ending up in Detroit. Gregory would finally be started in education, but due to his lack of prior formal education, extra steps had to be taken to make sure he could catch up to his grade level, and he didn't formally entre public school until a little before he was 11, starting in 5th grade. He quickly found school unpleasant, as bullying and general ableism was immediate. He was made fun of for not only being quiet, but alienated because of his stoma and scar, which prompted him to start bandaging his neck. He actually managed to do fine academically, with most issues seeming to come from teachers who seemed simply incapable of grasping the concept of him being mute because he *didn't have a larynx,* not because he was ignoring them or simply nonverbal. His parents, being very protective of him, were quick to solve that particular issue, but nothing could really be done about the bullying and alienation aside from comforting him when he got home. He was encouraged to, should the bullying become physical, not hesitate to use his Stand to protect himself.

One day near the end of spring, while at the park with his fathers, he happened to find another kid in his usual hiding spot under the playground castle, a girl who seemed equally surprised to see him as he was to see them. Though his instinct was to retreat, the other kid took the chance to try to talk to him. Though he of course couldn't respond much, without anything to write on and only knowing Italian Sign Language, he still decided to sit with her and “chat”. He found out that their name was Stella, and he shared a snack with her. She seemed to pick up on the fact he was mute, so tried to keep any questions yes-or-no. After a while, when he was called back out of his hiding spot so he could go home, he waved to the other kid and left, surprisingly eager to talk about his new “friend” to his parents on the way back. Not even Gregory was totally sure why he felt comfortable enough with Stella, a stranger, to interact with her to such an extent, but it certainly was a great development in his healing process, mentally. He would see Stella out in the city a few times and actively approach them to ‘talk’, but Stella always fled before his fathers could really do more than catch a glimpse of her. Still, even with their limited interactions at first, Gregory grew quickly attached to Stella and actively hoped to see her when he was out and about.

At one point, Stella had somehow wandered all the way out to Gregory’s house, where he saw through the window and recognised her and was more then eager to run out and say hi to her.

It then became routine for Stella to wander out to his house to visit him, despite the distance, and he would often share food with her when she did. They soon became best friends, though their conversations were limited. He was often confused by her quick retreat anytime she saw one of his fathers open the door, but could at least in part relate to the action, so never brought it up. However, throughout the summer when she would most frequently visit him due to summer break, her condition seemed to be less than ideal, often turning up with injuries or bruises, though actively avoiding discussing them. She did at some point, however, mention her foster father, Marvin. The situation concerned Gregory, so he did the only thing he could think to do; tell his own parents. Unfortunately , there was little they could do with her actively avoiding them and not wishing to talk about her foster father or home situation. Her avoidance of them came to a quick end when she one day collapsed when she came to visit, to which they brought her inside to make sure she was in stable condition. When she woke she was practically forced to talk to Gregory’s parents by circumstance, to whom she was quiet and meek, a very different demeanour than she usually had with Gregory, which in turn concerned him further. Though they offered to call her foster father so he’d know where she was, she begged them not to, and made it very clear that she had to be home quick. Though none of them liked it much, with her being in stable condition and very adamant about returning home, there wasn’t much they could do but drive her home at risk of otherwise technically be kidnapping if they made her stay.

Stella didn’t turn up at the Vecellios’ household for a while afterwards, and when she did return, she didn’t look much better. Due to her not having a phone, he couldn’t really check that she was alright unless she was there to visit, causing his eager anticipation to see her to be plagued with an additional anxiety that she might not return. However, when the school year started back up, he was happy to discover that Stella was in the same school as him, and the two would typically sit together at lunch, though Stella was usually doing schoolwork for most of the lunch period. It eased his anxiety as he would see her every day at school, and would then know she was alright. Stella eventually got comfortable enough with Gregory’s fathers that she wouldn’t run when she saw them anymore. As things progressed over the next couple years, she practically became a part of the family.

## Skills

### Stats

#### Physical Strength

Gregory is surprisingly strong for his stature, but likely could not hold his own well in a fight, partially due to his breathing situation.

#### Mental Strength

Gregory’s mental strength is variable. While he has gotten more bold over time, his triggers can still quickly debilitate him.

#### Reflexes

Gregory’s reflexes are sharp and acute, for better or for worse.

#### Endurance

Gregory is actually quite fragile, as fighting is anything but his strong suit, and as a result, he has no built-up tolerance for pain; but when pushed to, can take a lot of damage before collapse.

#### Speed

Gregory is quite fast when running, able to quite easily outpace his family; but he does everything else quite slowly, as he’s rather shaky at times.

#### Technique

Gregory has little to no experience in fighting, so his technique is practically nonexistent. However, when it comes to his Stand, he is incredibly skilled.

#### Cooperativeness

Gregory can work fantastically with others, especially as he can be somewhat useless in a fight on his own and must work with others to be effective.

#### Intelligence

Gregory, despite a slight learning delay due to lack of schooling in his childhood, is incredibly clever and can often come to conclusions about situations quickly and under pressure.

#### Stamina

Gregory’s stamina is quite bad on average, as he can only breathe through his neck, meaning it's harder to catch his breath. While he's very fast and can sprint, he can only sprint short distances before struggling to breathe. However, when able to use his Stand, his stamina is noticeably quite good.

### Skillset

* **Vocal Imitation:** The entire purpose of his Stand. He’s also learnt to pick up on inflection and speech quirks to perfectly imitate someone.
* **Musical Inclination:** Gregory can play piano and sing. Singing is one of his favourite hobbies, though he feels as though using other people’s voices is cheating and can't sing around most of his peers because he's known to be mute.
* **Script Mimicry:** Gregory doesn’t have a single static handwriting style and his handwriting can change between sentences. Sometimes he can copy other peoples’ handwriting. He’d be great at forgery.
* **Artistic Inclination:** Gregory spends much of his time drawing. He has an incredibly unique artstyle which borders on abstract.

## Trivia

* Though his use of French Canadian as opposed to European French implies he's from Canada, there's a good chance he was born in America to at least one Canadian parent, likely his father, and picked up on French Canadian from that parent.
	+ He can't actually speak it terribly fluently, because he never formally learnt it and was only exposed to it for a few years of his very early life.
	+ He's better at his and Stella's amalgamation of European French and French Canadian (dubbed "franken-french").
* Between Stella, Pierre, and himself, Gregory would theoretically grow to be tallest, taking into consideration Pierre and Stella's malnutrition throughout parts of their childhoods.
* His least favourite part of being sick is how it feels to sneeze or cough since all respiration is now done through his neck.
* He was taught to play piano by Tiziano.