Dedrick grew up a scumbag surrounded by scumbag friends. That was supposed to continue through college, but instead all his friends ditched him...oh, and also a girl might be living in his head.

Backstory
Dylan's parents were very laissez faire, and let their children do as they wished without much supervision or discipline. Even when he was young Dylan was often out until late at night, playing with neighborhood kids and, when they eventually went home, his brother or by himself. He subsisted on TV dinners and instant meals (with occasional re-heated food his parents made and left), didn't care much for his schooling, and was free from expectation or watchful eyes. Consistently surrounded by the same friends, he allowed himself to be defined by the group he was a part of without ever looking deeper at who he was as an individual.
(cw: sexual assault in spoiler)

By middle school Dylan had a close knit group of friends he often hung out with, many old neighborhood playmates. Practically every second not in school was spent with them, hanging ou at each others' houses or running about outside, working part time jobs together to afford motorbikes and exploring booze, sex, brawling, any and all aspects of hooliganism. They were together through thick and thin. Dylan assumed it would always be that way.

Then he graduated, enrolled in a nearby community college, and was disappointed.

Ongoing Story
Dylan felt he'd been promised 2 things in his future: more days with his friends, and the classic college narrative of booze, chicks, and hijinks. But once high school was over the gang separated. What had felt like solid bonds turned out to be flimsy and empty relationships, quickly dissolved. The only one who kept in contact was his friend Manny, who enrolled in the same community college as him.

Dylan is bitter and resentful. During college he gets a lot rougher and meaner, with most of it being directed at Manny. Not only did he lose one of the only constants in his life, but college brings a lot of change. He's being forced to define himself rather than let himself be passively characterized by the people around him, and while trying to decide his major (& etc) he's becoming uncertain about his passions, his goals, and his identity. Living in his own apartment and away from his older brother for the first time has also caused him to start reflecting on his home life and process his past.  And then Lyla shows up.

Dylan and Lyla attempt to understand what is happening to them, who they are, and how the future is going to look for them.

Narrative Arc:
DEdrick's arc within Did I Dissociate focuses on the hostility of coming to terms with having DID. Wrestling with common explanations and frameworks for DID, none of which feel right, and reacting with alarm at what having DID means for him, his journey involved friction with every step of the discovery process.

Diagnosis is a loss of control, and embracing it means accepting the life (and entire concept of self) he'd imagined for himself can never happen. DID more or less ruins his life, though that life he'd made for himself is revealed to be kind of sucky anyway. He finds something new within the remains of what's been destroyed, but not before going through a lot of pain and denail.

System Specifics

• No internal communication, no memory gaps (co-conscious), heavy denial, little awareness.
• Incredibly new to being plural. Dylan has absolutely no idea anything is happening, while Lyla is at least aware of Dylan being different than herself.
• The system, at least during college, seems to be just two of them.
  • Likely to change once they start addressing and working on their dissociation.
• Stark contrasts between switches, basically no masking. No desire to mask.
• No history of any therapy or medical services, not on disability.

• Lyla: see sidebar "Lyla Dedrick"
• No one else is known at this time

Series Related

Did I Dissociate?
One of the 3 systems the story focuses on. No clue how they factor in yet.