Poet

at the age of six, poe was diagnosed with chronic episodic memory dysfunction which meant any memories he made were forgotten largely by the end of the day, including the names and faces of those around him. the cause was unknown and there had seemingly been no real trigger, which left doctors entirely stumped. they could only encourage poe to do memory exercises every morning and keep a ‘logbook’ about anything he may want to remember about people or events. poe’s procedural and semantic memory were, upon inspection, intact, and his episodic memory wasn’t completely non-existent, it was just dysfunctional.

when he was fourteen, poe was also diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia and autism after he started experiencing visual/auditory hallucinations and persecutory delusions. to treat the schizophrenia, poe was prescribed risperidone, which he takes once a day. usually when he wakes up an alarm goes off telling him to take the tablet & draw a line on his arm so that atticus and his mother can confirm he took them.

poe was a quiet, curious child. he was extremely gullible, very naive and fearless. due to his inability to retain information as well as his then undiagnosed autism, he was often outcasted and considered strange by his peers. he didn’t have any friends until meeting his neighbour atticus, who he then subconsciously clung to. after meeting and being guided by atticus, poe was able to branch out and make friends in theodore, who he saved from bullies when they were twelve.

poe grew up with his brother and mother mostly; after his memory dysfunction diagnosis his father started picking up shifts more often and growing more distant, not knowing how to talk to a son who doesn’t remember him. this just made poe remember him even less though. after receiving his further diagnoses, his father joined the british army and has been away ever since. poe’s medical history caused a great amount of strain onto his mother and while she loves him and his older brother octavius a lot, she also grew a lot more distant and reliant on atticus to take care of poe. octavius has always been extremely protective of his younger brother, but poe often sees him as being overbearing; they’re close when octavius is home, but octavius is rarely home as he tries to avoid scrutiny from his mother at all costs.

poe, alongside the rest of the cast, attended aldeth ce high school and sixth form. poe and atticus had attended st. gabriel’s ce primary school, but were separated for a short while at the start of high school when atticus had briefly moved away. poe befriended theodore shortly into high school and the two became close, picking up the same hobbies and generally staying to themselves. when atticus moved back, the three became a trio and as atticus was pretty friendly, poe got to know a lot more of his classmates who in turn came to understand his memory issues.

befriending salome at fourteen had been theodore’s doing, but poe quickly latched onto her too. soon after sixth form began, poe met priya in their history & english literature a-level classes, and florence in detentions. poe and priya became good friends, but poe and florence were a lot more than friends.

however, it’s not like poe remembers any of this.