Lorenzo Bianchi

⊗ Ghost Boy. ⊗

Character Info

Name: Lorenzo Bianchi
(Faceclaim: Francesco Totti).
Nickname(s): Enzo, Enz, Ghost Boy.
Age: 32
Height: 5’9” (1.8 m)
Weight: 176lbs (80kg)
Born: Sadler, Texas.
Current Residence: Salem Center, Westchester County, NY, USA.
Religion: Agnostic.
Sexuality: Gay.
Gender: Cis Male.
Relationship Status: Dating @RuthlessWarrixr.
Occupation(s): X-Man.

Fears: Human contact, public speaking, bugs, hospitals, heights, storms, death, losing his family, blood.

Personality: Lorenzo is quiet and introverted. He would much rather keep to himself, and read a book or draw, rather than have any sort of contact with any other human being. He hardly considers himself a human being as it is, but rather as a ghost, because of this. It is difficult for him to build even the slightest of friendships because he is so shy, but should he form a bond with somebody, it is likely he’ll latch onto the person, seeing them as one of the few people who truly cares because they didn’t give up on attempting to form a friendship with him. In these cases, he is very gentle, but also very touchy and affectionate, enjoying hugs and cuddles. He is also very childish and goofy in general when he does form a friendship with anybody, as well. Despite his shyness and anxiety, Lorenzo is still very protective of the few people he considers friends and family, especially those within the X-Men, and few other heroes.

Should Lorenzo have to speak to strangers, he is often shaky, he mumbles and he avoids eye contact. He is also very jumpy in general because he can see ghosts and communicate with them. If he isn’t prepared to speak, especially to a stranger, it is highly likely that the sudden initiation of contact and the expectancy of him to speak will trigger his anxiety. Should an anxiety attack be triggered in any way, he often loses control of his powers, and will become intangible and slightly transparent until calmed.

In his free time, Lorenzo often hides out in his quarters on his own. He enjoys reading, writing, and drawing, and often spends hours on end doing so. He is intelligent - perhaps not as smart as other heroes - but more than the average person, and it shows in the way he acts and speaks (when comfortable), and in the way he speeds through even the largest of books. More often than not, he’ll have music going in the background as well when he’s alone in his quarters, seeing music as a very good distraction from all of his problems. He also has gaming consoles in his room, and he enjoys playing FIFA - it’s the Italian in him. Otherwise, he doesn’t really touch the consoles.

Powers

⊗ Intangibility: The ability to become intangible; the inability to be touched. Using this ability, Lorenzo is able to avoid most, if not all physical attacks, or physical contact of any kind. In its most advanced stages, intangibility may give Lorenzo the ability to levitate and/or fly, and this is something he has been working on for years, however he has not yet been able to achieve it. Should he grab hold of somebody before becoming intangible, he can allow the other person to become intangible as well, however it is difficult for him to do so, especially if he is attempting to pass through solid object such as walls or doors with the other person. Lorenzo will often become intangible if afraid, or if someone he isn’t comfortable with tries to initiate any form of contact. This power requires a strong concentration, meaning coming up against enemies with any other kind of psychic abilities often renders his intangibility useless.

⊗ Invisibility: The ability to become invisible to the naked eye. Lorenzo’s ability to become invisible is often paired with his intangibility, and it is something he does when anxious or afraid. In battle, however, it is sometimes very difficult to manage, because of his shaky and uneasy breathing. More often than not, though, he is focused and calm when in battle, because he has the lives of others in his hands, which is enough to keep him from panicking. Thus, invisibility proves to be useful. Like his intangibility, he can also pass this ability to a second person, should he choose to do so. However, there have been times in battle where his invisibility has failed, and the enemy could still see him one way or another, while no one else could.

⊗ Phantasm Manipulation: The power to manipulate ghosts/specters and their energies. This includes communicating with them as though they were alive and well, like any other person around him. This doesn’t necessarily prove to be useful in any sense for Lorenzo, but rather causes more problems. As a child, the ability made it difficult to focus as so many spirits could be attempting to speak to him at once, however as he’s gotten older, he’s since learned how to control it. Using his powers, he has befriended a few spirits who tag along and help him out, whether in battle, or just when he is having a difficult time. As he’s said time and time again, sometimes he believes he would make a better ghost than a human… He gets along better with them, after all.

⊗ Swordsmanship: Due to persistent paranoia that his powers won't be entirely useful in close quarters combat courtesy of his anxiety, Enzo went so far as to teach himself to fight with swords and knives. He had always idolized gladiators and knights as a child, and his love of history continued well into adulthood, so learning swordsmanship seemed to be the way to go. With the help of of other intelligent mutants, he created a sword that could be compressed to about the size of a pen, and extended with a push of a button to carry with him easily in case of emergency.

Relationships

⊗ Giorgia Bianchi (Mother): Lorenzo’s mother worked mainly a high school teacher, which often resulted in late nights of grading papers, however she did often have even later nights working at a diner for extra cash to make the ends meet and in hopes of escaping her abusive husband and running away with her son. Regardless, Lorenzo was extremely close to his mother when growing up in New York. He showed signs of an anxiety disorder at a very young age, and, as a result, latched onto his mother, rarely ever wanting to leave her side at all costs. Of course, he was teased relentlessly because of this, and rarely ever made friends in school, but it never really mattered to him. His mother ensured that her son, regardless of his disorder, lived about as normal and as happy a childhood as she could provide given the circumstances. She was fully supportive of his powers when she learned about them, repeatedly reassuring him that he was not crazy, or a monster, or anything else anyone seemed to believe he was. She did this behind closed doors, of course, so as not to anger her husband, who was entirely against their son's abilities. Upon realizing that this was out of her control, and with her increase in hospital visits for Lorenzo, she sent him off to Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters practically the moment she was contacted. It was something she was worried she would regret, but her son was safe and would surely be happier with people more like him.

⚠️⊗ James Benn (Father): Lorenzo’s father was the exact opposite of his mother in every sense of the word. He was cold and distant, and he was never afraid to vocalize the fact that he had never wanted a child in the first place, let alone a /freak/ like Lorenzo. His abuse was a main component of Lorenzo’s anxiety disorder. As if being a target wasn’t enough at school, he was a target at home, too. At first, very rarely would he raise his hand to his son, and instead stuck with verbal and emotional abuse, but the more he drank, the more often the physical abuse occurred. At first, Lorenzo was too afraid to do anything but accept the occasional beating, but as they became more frequent, he tried to rely on his powers to escape them. It only made his father angrier and made beatings much worse as they'd be taken to a different extent... He kept it a secret from everyone for as long as he could. After leaving for school, Benn began to turn his attention toward his wife, however within weeks, now that her son was safe, she called the police on her husband and had him locked away. The day he left for school was the last day Lorenzo saw his father, however, he lives in fear of running into him for years after his imprisonment. ⚠️

⊗ Charles Xavier (@VividTelepathX): Charles was the first person at the school to take his time with Lorenzo and ensure that he felt safe and welcome. He realized quickly that Lorenzo would not fare well if he was left to adjust to his new environment on his own, and often feared he would never adjust at all. However, with patience, he began to develop a connection with Lorenzo that eventually become something more of a fatherly relationship. He did all that he could to care for Lorenzo, be it tucking him into bed at night, or letting him sit in his lap and hug onto him to feel safe - the boy had been robbed of much physical affection when he was a boy due to such an awful father and a busy, despite well-intentioned, mother, and Charles quickly learned that the fastest way to calm him down and help him sleep was to hold him; something that lasted for quite awhile after. Enzo seemed to be a special case at the time; a child who required much more of his time and patience, though something he could afford to offer as the school was much smaller back then. As Lorenzo aged and began to become more independent, Charles still offered as much support as possible as he did with the other mutants at the school. They were all like his children, but Enzo was a bit different. It was he who encouraged Lorenzo to become one of the main members of the X-Men as he was fully aware of his power and potential. The two still remain incredibly closed, and Lorenzo still remains rather embarrassed to consider Charles more of a father than his biological father ever was.
⊗ Vigor Maximus: Vigor and Lorenzo met at the school several years after either one of them had moved in. It was siply a matter of having never crossed paths any sooner, however once Vigor did run into Lorenzo, he was immediately captivated by the gentle ghost boy. He made it a goal of sorts to befriend him, which turned out to be relatively easy considering Vigor was one of Lorenzo's favourite football players. Despite being starstruck and shy at first, Lorenzo and Vigor quickly developed a bond that soon blossomed into something more. While they are polar opposites, they work incredibly well together and balance each other out - Enzo can tame Vigor's rage, while Vigor knows exactly how to help with Lorenzo's anxiety. Lorenzo is particularly protective of Vigor as well, considering many of the students and faculty at the school alike fear Vigor due to his strength and rage, while Enzo has seen a whole other side of Vigor. He knows firsthand that Vigor is far from an animal or a monster, and holds other people accountable for judging him before getting to know him- including Professor Xavier.

...

Full Backstory

Lorenzo's backstory includes instances of abuse and may be triggering. Specific sections that include potentially triggering content will be marked with the warning emoji (⚠️) at the beginning and the end. Skip over the section if you may be triggered by it.

Despite his mother’s best efforts, Lorenzo lived anything but a normal childhood. Between endless bullying from his classmates and his father, he was beaten down time and time again, and struggled to come back from it all repeatedly. It was hard, and for several years, his mother was his best friend through it all. However, due long hours at the high school, marking and grading papers, Lorenzo's mother was rarely home until the late hours of the evening.

⚠️His father was entrusted with picking a young Enzo up from school on his way home from work, however the abuse began the moment he set foot in the car, typically remaining verbal and minimal until he had alcohol in his system. Sober or not, his father's hatred remained. He resented his son for being a mutant, being one of the individuals to often express their distaste for mutants and rally for their imprisonment or death. His father often likened him to being "sick dog" that he needed to "take out back and put down," and he wasn't shy about telling him to his face. Though drunk and reckless, he was always careful to beat Lorenzo in places where the bruises wouldn't be visible. And, if any were visible, he ensured that his son was too afraid to tell anyone about what was really going on at home. His mother knew of what her son was going through but, as a victim herself, she feared for her son's life, and couldn't stand up to her husband until her son was safe. Working multiple jobs and remaining out of the house for seemingly all hours of the day was meant to be an attempt at creating a better life for she and her son so that they could get away from her abusive husband, but it ultimately made things much worse for her son. She never did fully comprehend what had been going on when she wasn't home as she never witnessed it firsthand, but she had always assumed he suffered the same fate as her... Though there was nothing she could do without putting both of them at risk. In the few years Lorenzo lived at home, he made a handful of trips to the emergency room with broken bones, bruised ribs, and countless other signs of abuse. But, because he refused to talk about what had happened, nothing could be done. On particularly bad nights, or nights when his mother wouldn't come home until the early hours of the morning due to her second job, the abuse became much worse. Although far and few between, on some occasions his father would take him up to the guest bedroom and molest him - something so traumatizing that Lorenzo could only cope with it by pushing it to the back of his mind and acting as though it had never happened at all until he had completely forgotten it had. Simply put, most afternoons Enzo would head home fearing for his life while most kids his age didn't even understand the concept of death. ⚠️

The name calling was the hardest part of it all throughout the years. Physical wounds healed, but the name calling stuck with him, and made his disorder become increasingly worse. The name calling reached it peak when, from a young age, Lorenzo decided he liked boys more than girls, and didn't like when adults would tease him about girlfriends. His father’s remarks began to really take a toll on him, but he could never speak out about it. He resorted to listening to and accepting the homophobic slurs he didn't even quite understand until his very last days in that household, leading him to suppress feelings about his sexuality for years to come.

It was Charles Xavier himself who contacted Lorenzo's mother to discuss her son's unique abilities. He seemed to know everything about him and what was going on at home in ways she couldn't quite comprehend, but regardless, she was thrilled to have found a safe place for him to go, away from his father, and where he could truly be happy and... /Normal/. She explained what Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters meant for Lorenzo to her son, and he agreed to go, while she told her husband she was sending their son to a boarding school due to his impressive grades. His father had no complaints; in fact, he was happy to have one less nuisance to deal with, in his own words.

Upon leaving, despite having been rather excited at the mention of the school at first, Lorenzo was miserable. He was only seven, weeks short of his eighth birthday, and he was made to leave the only home he had ever known... Even if it wasn't much of a home. He knew he should be relieved to escape his father, but he wasn't very happy to be away from his mother; the only person he felt he could really trust in his life.

⚠️ Within a short time of Lorenzo leaving the household, his mother became the target of his father's drunken rage and abuse. However, it was short lived, as, now that her son was safe and out of the picture, she was able to call the police, though not without escaping unscathed. She had proof of what had been going on all along, - although she never did come to realize the true extent of what Enzo had faced - and there was no way having him locked away could backfire as her son was under the care of Professor Xavier, now. His father was jailed on multiple counts of abuse and even attempted murder; something Lorenzo only learned of as he reached his teenage years. ⚠️

At first, it was difficult to make friends, and it was even harder to even get any rest at night. It felt as though he was stuck in an endless loop of sadness and misery during a time in which he didn't have the capacity to understand depression and what it meant. He had his own room, unlike many of the other students, as it was the best way to avoid triggering his anxiety. He would often wake up in the middle of the night, screaming, until one of the other students went and found Professor Xavier, or one of the other elder mutants.

As the days went on and the nightly routine continued, Professor Xavier began checking in on him before bed and often throughout the day, just generally spending time with him. He knew Lorenzo felt alone and afraid, and although Lorenzo didn't know of his powers or just how the elder man knew how he was feeling, he was appreciative of the help he offered, even if at first he was afraid to trust him. As the nights progressed he found his nightmares lessening when Charles would come by his room and put him to bed as father would, and occasionally stay for awhile to ensure he slept peacefully. The feeling was foreign to Lorenzo, as his own father had never so much as played catch with him, or even really had a conversation with him, the two formed a bond rather quickly. Charles made him feel safe, and ensured that he knew he would always be protected from anyone who wished to do him harm by Charles himself. He felt silly for looking up to Professor Xavier so much, considering surely many of the other children felt the same way - Charles was a paternal figure to many of the kids here who had no family, why was he any different than them? And so he kept his feelings to himself, unaware of the fact that the elder man had known all along and, in fact, had begun seeing Lorenzo as something of a son to him, as well. Of course, the school was smaller then, and with fewer students to deal with, Charles was happy to spend time with Lorenzo to ensure he felt better, and develop such a bond with him.

As the years went on at the school, Lorenzo found his anxiety lessening from what it once was. There was less to fear, and more to learn - and he did love learning. The longer he was at the school, the more he learned about himself and the rest of the world, and the more he learned to control both his disorder and his powers, so that neither had such a hold on his life. He learned to control and strengthen his powers, and he learned to control his anxiety, so that he could become a hero as well.

Upon growing older and eventually being too old to attend school, Lorenzo instead became one of the main members of the X-Men. He had no intention of going home, as some mutants did. Here, he fit in just fine. And he was enjoying it, quite frankly. At first, it tested him. It tested everything he had worked so hard to achieve. His control of his powers, his anxiety, his strength, his courage… And, frankly, he missed his mother, too. But with persistence, and his new friends, it was just another obstacle he was able to overcome, until he himself was a member of the team. He went so far as to teach himself how to handle knives and swords so that he would always have something to offer in battle. He’d never even dreamed of becoming some sort of superhero, but, through attending the school, it had so easily become a reality, and he was thrilled to have come so far.

Today, Lorenzo works with the X-Men as often as possible, having grown proud of being a mutant through attending the school. He no longer has such debilitating anxiety attacks, but they do happen, especially if he is touched without consent, or if he must talk to somebody he isn’t familiar with. In the field, his anxiety isn’t a problem at all. With help from fellow mutants, he has since learned to focus his mind in battle, so that anxiety is rarely ever a major concern. In addition, he finds that being able to wear a helmet with his suit when out in the field lessens his anxiety as well, as his identity is unknown.

Interesting Facts

Lorenzo speaks very little Italian, only because his mother would use the occasional phrase, and teach him a few things here and there. His father was a firm believer in the whole “You’re in AMERICA, speak ENGLISH” point of view, so speaking Italian regularly in the household was not an option. Since leaving for school, Lorenzo has slowly been teaching himself, however. It is just especially difficult because he has no one to help, nor does he have anyone to converse with in order to practice.He was born and raised in a small town by the name of Sadler in Texas. The town has a population of less than 500 people, and said population is overwhelmingly white, cisgender, heterosexual, and Christian. It wasn't the most welcoming place, and was plagued by bigotry and hatred for "the other." Enzo rejected this, of course, but his father was in full support of these ideals, and this, of course, made him hate his son even more. He still makes a point, even in New York, to fight bigotry where he can simply because he knows it is wrong and perhaps somewhat in spite of his father.Lorenzo has never left the United States, though he’d love to go to Italy someday… If he wasn’t afraid of planes. He’s never been on a plane, but he assumes he would be afraid. One of Lorenzo's few escapes as a child was football. He'd always play during recess, even if he did so alone, his mother would buy him cards to collect whenever she could, and he'd sneak into the living room to watch matches on TV whenever his father had blacked out. As an adult, he does still play football for fun, sometimes even with some of the other mutants. He is a defender, which he feels is very fitting concerning his character. He has very good ball control and footwork, though, and he is especially skilled when it comes to freestyling. The football field is one of the very few places in which he is entirely anxiety-free. Lorenzo is ambidextrous. It was self-taught when he was young, as it was just another way to escape his terrible life. He is secretly obsessed with Pop Tarts. It was introduced to him by another mutant, and he has kept a stash in his quarters ever since. Charles is not aware of his stash, as he isn't a fan of junk food in the school and Enzo fears he would confiscate his beloved snacks.Lorenzo is a very skilled artist, and enjoys sitting outside and drawing strangers and his environment on occasion to keep his mind occupied. Lorenzo still clings to the teddy bear his mother bought him at a very young age. The bear’s name is Orso, which he learned was the Italian word for bear when it was given to him. He brought Orso with him when he first left home, and to this day, Orso still has a place in his bed.⚠️ Lorenzo does remember much of his father's abuse, but absolutely none of the instances of molestation. His way of coping as a child was to suppress the memory altogether. The only person who is aware of this is Charles, as he once delved too far into his mind when he was a boy. ⚠️Lorenzo is very much for following the rules at all costs. Although he is an adult and almost always in full control of his powers and can therefore leave the school if he pleases, he rarely ever does unless necessary.