059 - Forgetful

Unnatural Entity: Forgetful

Demons who spend extended periods of time possessing animals wind up changed by the experience. Pour water into a glass and it conforms to the shape of the container. Unlike water, demons don’t always spring all the way back. Over time they take on the characteristics of their hosts. Sometimes this manifests as animalistic behavioural quirks and sometimes in transformation into a revenant.

Hosts with brain injuries have a similar effect. Some families are so delighted by grandpa’s restored faculties that they’re willing to overlook the faults he still has in recalling their names and his hoarse demands for Cajun food, so they make easy targets. At first it’s fine, no two brains are ever alike and possession doesn't require an exact match by any means. However in the long-term the serious damage of a CTE or dementia afflicted host rubs off. The demon retains its Urge (mostly) but develops the same issues as the victim.

In some ways this makes them weaker, as the spiritual equivalent of the damage takes hold it erases parts of what has become a Forgetful. Their Urge decreases and the vacuum created by the damage takes on a life of its own. While possessing someone Forgetfuls can’t always recall what they are doing, a successful roll on their Forget identity opposed by their Urge results in a state of fuzzy memory, strange behaviour and lost time. To observers the possessed seems dazed and confused. The Urge still exists and can be acted upon - a demon pining after her dead children might go to their graves - but they might not remember why.

In other ways it makes them more dangerous. As the host's illness rubbed off on the Forgetful their damage rubs off on new victims. Parts of the brain go unused and unstimulated during possession creating symptoms akin to vascular dementia. Repeated exposure to a Forgetful does damage, creating a cumulative negative shift equal to the largest die of a successful Forget roll on future actions related to cognition and recall. In serious cases people lose their grip on themselves and foreign identities start to bleed through. Leftover fragments of their possessor or even the host which passed on the damage in the first place, leaving them acting out poor imitations of other people’s lives.

Forgetful, Demonic Dementia
Wound Threshold: Equal to their Urge stat. Forgetfuls are immaterial like regular demons and revenants, you’ll need specific means to destroy one.
Urge 20-70%: Forgetfuls have an Urge like a regular demon, they just can’t always remember what it is.
Forget 30-80%: Forget is equal to 100 minus the Forgetful’s Urge. If this increases it reduces their Urge by an equal amount. Beyond 80% too little of the original consciousness remains and the demon either discorporates completely or becomes a fragmented revenant.