No Lane or Raphael on the list of cast starts for the Man Of Honour dlc 🥲 but I am still holding out some hope that Damiano and Ruggero, or at least Damiano alone, will make an appearance, even if it is for a super short minute at least. The world needs more Damiano content and I crave it. I am so excited for this dlc either way though.
This art is spectacular too 😍 so beautiful. I do hope that this is the cover art for the dlc - which I assume it will be.
Even the iron still fears the rot - Damiano Bastoni and Corrado Bastoni's childhood
Please take in consideration english is not my first language<3
Cw: mentions of severe illness, bleeding, infection, religious guilt, sick children.
Damiano has a rabbit stuffed animal, never named it, couldn't think of a proper name that would stick, he tried for a while but ended up changing it every time until it was simply coniglio.
He doesn't remember when he got it, not sure if it was before or after his mom.
What he does remember is that Coniglio was his friend, the one who stayed with him and corrado when they fell ill.
Disease still made his skin itch, not that he was still ill but he can't help the sensation, he swears he can feel the hives forming on his thighs and elbows when he remembers it.
He was 6, Corrado was 9.
They were laying on their beds, separated since they feared they kept contaminating each other since they seemed to have different afflictions, Corrado developed a high fever, so high his skin burned and blisters plagued his mouth no matter how much water he drank, he could barely move and he couldn't see, well, one eye was fully bandaged, every so often some milk would be slowly poured on it to keep the infection away or so they said. Damiano doesn't quite remember who treated them, he doesn't remember if it had been a doctor or a priest, with the madness and despair of Massimo could've been either. He does remember the constant prayers, they felt just as ill as he was, bleeding into his brain, drying and crusting in the deepest places of his memory.
His father, his beloved father wasn't a good man, of course he wasn't but he loved both of his children with all the madness his body had, all of it went to his sons, some pieces went to Ruggero and some very tiny fragments went to his friends and then there was nothing left for the rest of the world.
His mother, his mommy had been dead for a year now, his memories of her were very blurry but he knows he misses her, he needs her, corrado needs her too. Massimo will survive without her but Damiano is not sure Corrado and himself can.
His body was so heavy, he wanted to get up and play but his body wouldn't cooperate, he could feel the weight of his own bones inside his body and they dragged him down when he moved, his skin felt too sensitive, when daddy tried to hug him it was painful but he never told Massimo to pull away, he cried when he pulled back.
Corrado wasn't doing any better, his eye had gotten infected and it continue to grow worse, Damiano had only been brave enough to watch his brother's eye without the bandage once and he almost fainted, that brown eye that always looked at him like he was made out of pure sunlight was now cloudy, something similar to a milky white all over the eye mixed with the raging red of his inflamed veins, slimy and thick yellowish white pus so close of bursting from under the eyelid and around the corners of the skin.
He didn't dare to look again, he only sobbed against Coniglio because Massimo was holding Corrado's hand at the moment that attempt to disinfect.
Coniglio. The fabric he was made of wasn't particularly soft, the stitching was uneven, stuffing was lumpy in some places arms were too long but it was his, Massimo had tried to give Damiano other stuffed animals but he always broke them or threw them away, crying that he would never replace Coniglio, he only stopped breaking them and throwing them away when Corrado suggested them as friends for Coniglio instead of enemies trying to take its place, that got a teddy bear and another bunny, Damiano's reasoning was that the other bunny was Coniglio's brother and the bear was their father, no logic behind a bear being the father of bunnies, just what made him happy.
He used to dream he was having adventures with coniglio outside of this room filled with the stench of infection and disease, far away he was a knight in a shining armor like the ones in the stories mamma used to tell and then Massimo took over that duty since they were too small to read for themselves yet.
Sometimes he was Prince Damiano with Sir Coniglio, Corrado was a prince too but these days they were too tired and out of it to play together other than whisper promises of future playtime and recovery. If he felt good enough he slowly, with weak and wobbly steps grabbed a paper crown his mom made for him before she passed, put it softly over his head, not too hard to not break it and sank in his fantasy world where he was a pretty prince and his brave bunny knight kept him and his brother safe from vile demons.
His daddy said their disease was demons, punishments for his sins and god chose to leave his sons to suffer attacks from the depths of hell.
Sometimes his fantasy world failed, it cracked when the desperate prayers and pleadings to god, to San Gennaro for Damiano and prayers to Santa Lucia di Siracusa for Corrado.
He knew it was bad to ignore prayers, to ignore god and the saints but he just wanted to imagine a better world.
Sometimes he imagined they were mafiosos like Massimo, Don Coniglio and his consigliere Damiano but in his better world mafiosos were not criminals, they were heroes who kept the people safe, fearless men who killed the demons and sometimes took money from people, as a payment to protect them, in his 6 year old mind it was fair and good.
Corrado eventually and miraculously healed, the infection had gone back enough for him to be able to stand, walk and even run just a little, getting used to his new world without half of his sight gave him headaches but Damiano always cheered for him from his bed.
Corrado started talking to Damiano more, now that the throbbing pain in his brain had eased. Damiano's disease didn't spread so corrado was allowed to spend time with him.
They cuddled, Corrado encouraged Coniglio's stories and even made some of his own to cheer up Damiano, helped him eat too, in the darker days he pressed a cloth with vinegar and wine against Damiano's bleeding gums or held his head so he didn't choke with the blood coming from his nose.
Before Damiano got too sick he did what he could for Corrado, mostly got him food and helped him eat or drink when he was in too much pain to move on his own, hugging him and kissing his forehead before letting corrado rest.
Now he had to take care of his baby brother who only seemed to grow worse.
"Corrá?"
His voice was thin, high pitched and dry. Corrado reached to get him some water.
"Sí, Amore?"
If corrado was being vocally loving towards him the situation was dire.
"ti fa male l'occhio?"
He asked softly, worried about him despite his own agony. Corrado didn't lie and nodded.
"sì, ma sta migliorando"
That was enough to make Damiano smile a little, his thin almost white lips curving sweetly, Corrado missed the pink in those lips.
"bene, allora potrai raccontarmi altre storie?"
Corrado chuckled and nodded, helping Damiano sip some water.
"Coniglio?"
Damiano nodded.
Corrado made up another story, he preferred the knight ones, where Damiano was a little prince and didn't face any danger, Coniglio being the brave knight who went on funny adventures.
Corrado wouldn't mind being the knight too if he could defeat his brother's pain.
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I will probably do something about this but better structured soon<3 I just really needed to write this one. Idgaf it's historically inaccurate for damiano to have stuffed animals, he deserves them
