u/DemonFrage

This is really just for a DnD sort of rpg thing I’m hosting and playing with two friends. One of the main villains has dementia. In their story that I have planned they get diagnosed with it while they were quite young, and made a “deal with the devil” in order to get the disease cured. They wear glasses that keep the disease from taking over as in reality it has progressed to such a degree that there’s no more of the character actually left within the body, and that the glasses make up their soul. Their goal is to change the rules of the universe so that diseases like dementia could never be possible in humans again, but they’re a villain because the way they go about this is essentially by forcing the universe to “give up” a winnable battle. One that could result in the loss of all humanity anyway. Halfway through the first “boss fight” of theirs, the glasses are knocked off their face and they fully lose it. After the first “boss fight” they go full maniac mode and tear through whole cities. During the second “boss fight” they lose their mind further and at the end of their rope the “devil” in this circumstance takes over and they essentially become the “ultimate lifeform".

Reason I ask any of this is just because I like writing these sorts of characters. While the world could be just downright insane, and the universe and power system just ridiculous, I like writing grounded characters within them. I don’t really know how to write a character that both has dementia and is possessed by a god though without it coming across as offensive to either someone’s experience or my own down the line. I wanna improve my skills. Advice?

TW: Bullying and Suicidal Ideation

I 20 (M) have only been out of high school since 2023, meaning I’m nearing 3 years since graduation.

In early middle school I met a group of people who I’ll just call “The Oaks” it’s a group of 10-20 people who I’ve known since then. In middle school and high school I would hang around them because they were pretty much all I had, and due to a lot of mental issues and trouble socializing I would stick with them all that time. They were both friendly and not, and I would be bullied by them heavily, and it felt degrading to even be around them. I honestly didn’t like any of them at all. One could even say I hated them.

After we got out of high school a short time passed, about a year where I didn’t interact with any of them. They ended up inviting me to a Fourth of July celebration, and I had a lot of fun. It felt like in a way, all of them had changed as people if not slightly or maybe that I had. Once again afterwards though, another year went by but in 2025, we did a few events, and I felt like each and every one I went to they had changed little by little. At last year’s fourth of July, I felt like they changed to a massive degree and I actually liked being around them. I went to more events after, and my opinions of them only grew and grew every time we hung out.

At one point in around January, I was playing Valorant with two of them B (21) and J (20) when B asked me a serious question along the lines of “Hey OP, what did you think about us (The Oaks) in High School”, and I clarified “Are you sure you want me to answer that question?” And B said “Yes”.

So I told them the truth, because at the time I had been stewing on it for months.

(i just wanna clarify that when I said this it was obvious I was talking about the whole group when I mentioned “you”)

I said “I hated you. All of you.” Some silence followed before I continued. “I don’t anymore but I can’t deny that I wanted nothing to do with you. I would stick around you because I felt like I had to. The way you would bully and berate me every single day was awful.”

B said something along the lines of “That sucks.” And it made me a little bit angry. I replied that “I attempted suicide like 4 times. It was due to other factors sure but you were one of them. You surely didn’t help.”

More silence. And then we moved to another topic.

I’ve been told by a third party since that they don’t want to talk to me anymore, mainly because they feel responsible for hurting me when I was in school, like, they’re worried they’ll hurt me again. Apparently it’s a pretty wide consensus. I don’t really want that though and I want to continue being friends with them. I think they’ve all gone through stuff in their lives to make them improve as people. And it shows.

I personally think I overshared/ should have just given an answer like “Yall were great!”

So yeah.

Also if I’m missing reasons… sorry, this was typed on mobile at work during a time when I should be working.

TL;DR A friend asked of my opinion of the group in high school, I told him I hated them. I don’t anymore, and I still want to be friends with them.