OKAY this is my what if gus was adopted by the galochios and raised his family in that same manner au. or to be more concise what if the aquatos were galochios.
marona and lazarus die. gus goes to an orphanage briefly BUT gets scooped up by the galochios before ford can take him. He's got galochio blood, after all, and he IS psychic. He is family. they raise him as a galochio even going so far as to change his last name.
Despite the fact he was raised as an acrobat (which the galochios despise due to the acrobat-psychic rivalry of the circus) his psychic abilities are strong. However, his strongest ability seems to be hydrokinesis like his aunt, which they do not let him practice because of what happened with lucy. The galochios' performances are more about reading people than they are doing flashy psychic tricks anyways. They train him on clairvoyance, mind reading, and precognition, although without a natural gift for precognition that can only take him so far so his precognition skills are very slight. He is a bit of a disappointment to the galochios, however, especially to zalto who still holds a grudge against lazarus and his own daughter for leaving. Augustus is always wanting to add more flair to their performances. Acrobatics might be strictly banned in this family, but he always throws in psychic tricks that his grandfather especially dislikes.
Augustus ends up with a very complicated opinion of his parents due to his own memories conflicting with things his grandfather tells him. He's also raised to hate the psychonauts as the galochios blame them for taking lucy away as well as thinking that they had something to do with lucy becoming maligula (dodging any blame they might have). The galochios stay in what was once grulovia for as long as possible, reluctant to give up the power and reputation they once held, but they're eventually forced out by lack of money. They join a travelling circus instead.
Anyways they stop in italy, Augustus meet Donatella. Maybe it's the little bit of precognition he can actually summon or maybe it's wishful thinking but he feels like they're destined. He's a lot more somber and reserved than canon gus but that good-natured personality is still there, just buried. Donatella falls for him when some of that slips through his dour persona. The only problem is the galochios don't want gus running around with a non psychic. Or god forbid, get married and have children who aren't psychic. But Augustus has been unhappy for a long time. He feels like the black sheep of the family, not a true galochio. So he does exactly what his own mother did and up and runs away with the love of his life.
They stay working in circus spaces, but too much time has passed since Augustus has been an acrobat so he continues his work as a psychic. Donatella could have easily become an acrobat herself, but Augustus always seems so sad any time he has to be near the big top (and after his family's reaction to her she's a little worried that joining the side that historically has a rivalry with psychics would drive a wedge between them), so she joins Augustus in the side shows. Augustus is finally able to implement more showy psychic tricks which become his specialty, while Donatella goes full bogus fortune teller and cold reads people. The only thing she does that doesn't require real psychic powers is tarot readings, which she becomes pretty good at.
There may not be a curse this time around. But the REAL curse is being haunted by Zalto and the other Galochios. Augustus has heard about all they did to his mother and the lengths they'll go to spite anyone who does wrong by them. He's terrified they're going to come after his family. They move to America, change their names (not to Aquato because that would be too easy. Maybe alstublieft like the lipo doc???) and constantly keep moving so there's no possible way that they can be found. Years pass, they have children (including non psychic children just like the galochios feared), and they keep worrying they might be found. They don't even know if Zalto is alive anymore, but any of the other Galochios could just as easily come after them. Their psychic children don't have the gift of precognition either, so like their dad their performances focus mainly of showy tricks. Their non psychic children join their mother with her fortune telling. Dion has become almost as good as Donatella, but Tala is still a bit too young to take it seriously so she just helps out.
The children are not better off for being able to be openly psychic, they're ONLY allowed to practice psychic abilities in the context of the circus and are forbidden from seeking out any organizations like the psychonauts that treat psychic powers more seriously and not like a novelty. The non psychic children feel inadequate for being born without abilities, and their mother's insistence of pretending like they do have powers to the public doesn't help that.
Their personalities are different to what they are in canon. Augustus is much more serious and very rarely lets himself be off guard, so he's not as playful or fun as he is in canon. Donatella is somewhat similar to in canon but she shows 0 signs of any sort of anxiety or worrying or even discontent at all. She presents as being always in the right because she HAS to act perfectly confident with no flaws in order to sell the fact that she knows all. Dion follows her lead and is way more of hardass know it all. Frazie is a lot less confident and a lot more worried that she's a disappointment because she can't manage precognition for the life of her. The others i'm not too sure of yet
