Ruin Explorer
Legend
That's not "reading between the lines", that's inventing an entirely fantastical and bizarre explanation that the OP doesn't even hint at.Reading between the lines, it sounds to me like there is some degree of bullying going on; if Edward's reactions are really as dramatic as you claim, why would anyone continue to bait him other than for the purposes of getting a rise?
It's not even reasonable as a belief given his behaviour and the situation.
I mean, you're not "showing empathy", you're making an explanation up (not even a plausible one!) and then seemingly trying to guilt trip people on that basis. There's a big difference. And this person is being rude and disruptive, and is an adult.I wonder often what has happened to some people to make them so devoid of empathy.
Given that Edward is clearly quite open and rude about this, and stays upset whilst playing, he doesn't sound at all like someone who is the victim of "bullying" by anyone involved to me. He sounds like someone with a serious social issue - which may well be caused by neurodiversity, but is still something he needs to manage. Especially given he's in his 20s, not a child.
I've met people like this - who were got upset and stayed upset about odd things, and in most cases it was related to neurodiverse conditions, particularly ASD, and assuming that you could fix it simply by changing it to another item, in that case, is foolishness, because you don't know what triggers this. He may well be just as upset by a headband or whatever. The OP needs to talk to him and find out what the issue actually is.In light of that, I think the easiest solution would just be to retcon the spectacles into an item with identical function that doesn't set Edward off.
And also, sometimes people are just really picky and they're not even neurodiverse. Like they've got an incredibly narrow conception of what's okay for their character, to the point where it may be a mismatch for the in-game fiction. I played with a guy (briefly) once, and he was not neurodiverse, but like, if his character got in any way dirty/bloody (even through his own actions) he'd just refuse to accept it, because he had this anime-character-esque vision of the PC. It didn't match at all well with the kinda-gritty Shadowrun campaign we were running.