whats dante like as a child?
OH BOI. I saw this ask and I just...
This is gonna be a lot to unbottle.
TRIGGER WARNING FOR SOME NOT SO PRETTY STUFF.
Reader discretion is advised.
I admit, starting off Dante was the sweetest little newborn personification ever. He wasn’t exactly welcomed by the native Americans of his land (mainly due to his deathly pale skin and crimson eyes), but he was happy.
Yes, he was alone, but it was all he knew so he had no concept of loneliness. He wasn’t aware he was alone.
Things only went downhill once 2P Spain arrived and then Dante was taken under his wing.
2P Spain was a brutal person though and strict to get his colonies inline. Dante - wasn’t exactly treated well (and that’s putting it lightly) but Dante didn’t know anything else, so he started to read this as a sign of affection. And in that way, he loved Spain back in the same way, starting a twisted game of blatant sadism, because Dante thought it was love.
To show you how messed it up it was Dante once famously quoted to 2P America that “As a child I often played hide and seek with my own fingers.” Mainly, because since Dante was disobedient Spain would cut off his fingers and hide them, and also stated that: “Those were the good times.”
It’s only when Dante was grouped with people like Texas and Mexico that he started to realize subconsciously that things weren’t as they seemed. Dante started to realize that only after 2P Texas tried to stab the other boy and 2P Texas has miraculously pinned Dante down.
But by the time that Dante realized that violence was indeed not a sign of affection, he already enjoyed it since it was all he had really experienced growing up. He enjoyed it even to the point of intentionally hurting himself.
So, Spain had turned Dante into a sadist and masocshit.
But Dante was fully aware now that Spain did not love him as he thought so Dante ended up craving something else. Searching for something else to fulfill the loss of his perception on Spain.
This brings in Cali.
Dante is mighty protective of the younger boy and learned to love him, while keeping up a facade so that Cali remained ignorant of his side hobbies. He didn’t want the other boy to know and react badly like Mexico usually did.
And that is pretty much the basis of Dante’s character as a child. The main figure that played a hand in how Dante is today is 2P Spain.
But Dante still loves Spain in his own special little way! 🔪🔪 🥰
TRIGGER WARNING FOR SOME NOT SO PRETTY STUFF.
