Introducing Cosmo Perhonnys!

The favored, yet entirely disenchanted son of the noble Perhonnys family. His parents hope to someday secure him an advisory position to the emperor and empress, but he shows little interest in his studies. He is content to enjoy the comforts of his status, and holds great disdain for his brother Judah's attempts to court their parents' favor. Still, he is heavily doted on.

He is fully aware of Judah's intense jealousy and increasingly agitated state, but never imagines anything could come of it...

One night, Judah tries to kill him in his sleep, hitting the upper left side of his face and head with a rock. [Jump to drawing] Cosmo is left with his skull caved in, missing an eye, and yet, he survives, protected by a mysterious magical brooch.

The Brooch

• Originally a birthday gift from his parents. Judah did not get anything similar and it fueled his jealousy. None of them knew of its apparent magical properties.
• It protects the bearer from dying of most injuries and restores the body to its pre-death functionality. However, it cannot truly heal.
• It suspends the state of the injury just before death and numbs the pain. A glowing blue substance is formed in and around wounds, keeping skin, flesh, and bone from falling apart. Where necessary, the substance can reform parts of the body that are missing or beyond repair.
• Although wounds appear to remain open, they are fully protected from dust or debris that could cause infection by a nearly transparent layer of magic on the inside of the wound.
• Cosmo's left eye is reformed, as well as part of his skull and brain. Since the incident, he has thoughts about intentionally bashing the other side of his head against walls or other solid objects. He's not suicidal; he doesn't really know why.

Degradation [Jump to drawing]

Ultimately, he will be driven to seriously injure his head several more times, losing more of his brain to the brooch's parasitic magic. Soon he finds himself losing control of his own body, but still he doesn't dare destroy or dispose of the brooch. His thoughts and feelings seem increasingly foreign. By the time his entire face and head are consumed [Jump to drawing], what little consciousness he has left is seemingly locked out of his own brain, unable to act or communicate with the thing controlling his body.

Parasite!Cosmo

He has never had full control of a body before. Mortal life is alien to him, except through what he has observed from afar. He has no feel for what his new body's limits are, and insists on pushing them to the point of injury. Because he's so disconnected from the body, he can easily call upon hysterical strength (which, upon looking it up, seems to be scientifically disputed? It's real for the purposes of this story.) But like any other human, it can just as easily tear him apart.

He resents sleep, but enjoys eating. Slowly but surely he has come to accept baths as a necessary evil.

Reference

Art

With Beau and Judah

With Judah

with Judah and Beau