ways_back_room | DE: It's on the tip of my tongue

It would be hard to get Amascut to admit this out loud, but if it is someone else's memories, sure, memories are yummy. If it is her own, then no. She is very aware of how the past has changed her, and fears that erasing her memories would erase her purpose and undo all the good she has done.

By some measure of good.

You can have Ako's memories when you pry them from her still fighting brain!

She's not really down with that as a thing. Go through enough different shapes thanks to Milliways holidays and you have to put your views on personal continuity somewhere other than the body.

Reducing her issues with blood would be more welcome though.

Thanks to Jenna's brilliant Midsummer Amnesia plot during my first year of playing, I've gone through this with Will.

Will has things that he thought at first he would like to forget, nights in the dungeon, a noose around his neck but in the end they define who he is. Without the terror brought to him by Brand or Amber, he wouldn't have been as close to Atton, Doc or Kate Bishop as he was. Without that amnesia, he and Marian would never have built as strong a friendship on trying to make sense of their scars and weapons. Time has made many of his worst memories easier to face.

Charles has at times helped other people forget as he can do that, but he doesn't do it easily and only if they request it. Memories are such a defining part of who someone is and as a telepath, he's even more aware of that. He would rather help someone accept their difficult memories and grow from them than forget them. One of my least favorite choices in canon is how he messes with Moira's memory, its completely unneeded, a little bit of Jedi mindgames to someone to forget him for a moment, yes, but not that far. I know that's something telepaths do a lot and that I think in comics' canon is a default action for him, I just dislike it and doesn't fit with his movie characterization. The moment where he and Erik connect in a new way comes from when he helps Erik see that he's more than just bad memories and pain. I'm actually working on a fic where an organization tries to reprogram Charles and Erik by wiping most of their memories and blocking their mutations. Its a weird fic but an interesting idea as I'm far less concerned with the hows and whys and more their interactions. How much of who we are comes from our memories and how much from our actions?

Sameth on the other hand would be happy to forget Hedge, his nightmares are better but not fully gone. He sort of knows that they're part of being brave but he's not at the point Will is of accepting that knowing what he's faced does help.

William's in about the same spot as Sameth in that he has a lot of hard memories, but I don't think he would want to forget them. They define his life and his family's life too much, though the one memory he wavers on is seeing his father shot down. I've been reading an interesting book about ideas of Death in William's time period and ideas of a good death and one thing that was so hard for William with his father's death was the quickness and brutality of it. In my headcanon, he told his mother and brother that his father's death was better than it was because that was what you did for deaths in that era. Especially after the Civil War when a good death was harder to get and after, William wouldn't want his family to know the details of Contention. Instead he would tell them that his father died well.

Moist is all about forgetting, he makes people forget him by slipping into the crowd, he runs away from commitment, but he can't get away from his old fears and ideas from Uberwald. If he could erase that part of his life, I think he would as he doesn't recognize how much it defines him. This is actually an interesting part of his two books, the fact he's from Uberwald comes up in surprising and helpful ways.

Jane doesn't want to forget anything, though it hurts, every moment is something that creates change and worth paying attention to. For her there are points that she would like to remember as what she hated most about when Dracula bit her was he took away her memory.

Demeter has forgotten some things by virtue of being a goddess and living so long, memory to her has a different feel than to a human. In terms of great life events, I don't think there's anything that she wants to fully forget as she knows how key all the trauma and changes effect life.

Tumnus doesn't remember much of being a statue, he knows the moment he became one and when he was released. That blank space, which covers he's not sure how long scares him in a quiet way that even the Witch herself could never manage. He would rather remember though some of the cold nights when he was scared and alone during her reign can slip away.

The Pirate King lives very much in the moment and doesn't care as much about what he remembers or others do. He has a past, yes, but he is the Pirate King and that comes first.

In wonderful news and a great way to start the week, my desk is finally set up and I had one student say they liked it.

Edited 2012-12-17 14:22 (UTC)

Well, errrrr, I...I don't remember what his answer was.

I need to rewatch that soon anyway.

If I'm remembering correctly, his answer was basically, "Hell no. Our memories and pain is what makes us who we are."

Ahhh. That was in Star Trek V, I thought. When he stood up to Sybok the Hippie Vulcan. One of the few moments of good in a film full of suck.

I will add, however, that Spock DID mindwipe Jim in the next to last episode of the show, when the death of the (android) woman Rayna was so painful to Jim that Spock decided the only course was a memory wipe. His mind-meld "forget" presaged the "remember" moment in Wrath of Khan.

Don't have time to answer for my other pups just now, though. Crazy day already.

Oh you're right. Undiscovered Country was the Klingon one. My bad.

Ben over all would decline but he would be tempted to lessen the emotional impact of the memory of The Master killing Aunt Petunia. Since Ben hasn't been show grieving for her since the story, I've decided it was a mental illusion but Ben still has nightmares from it. He knows it wasn't real and knows he loves his Aunt, thus he doesn't feel tied to the emotional impact and would like it to stop. He doesn't trust anyone to not muck about in other places in his mind though, so he's not likely to do it.

Val says no thank you. Her memories are all she has left of her native timeline/dimension.

Jessica is saying, "Hell no, I've had enough people messing with my memories, thank you very much."

Andrea is tempted by the "reducing the emotional impact", but will likely have to decline due to Order mental conditioning. Can't have your knights giving away secrets under any circumstance now can we?

Thalia is another who will decline. She'd be betraying the people that matter by lessening the emotional impact of the memories.

Hank doesn't have any memories bad enough to be tempted just yet though he would be curious about the procedure.

Palamedes says the same, "No thank you." though he would be tempted to erase the memory of a certain event from his Master's memory.

Enzo's first reaction would be temptation to reduce the emotional impact of seeing the Twin City blow up. If you gave him time for further reflection, though, he'd realize that that was what planted the seed for his decision to become a Guardian, and although he would still have his format, he wouldn't want to risk losing any of his motivation.

Ace: Actually? No, not at all. It gets driven home a bit in DW canon that we are the sum of our memories and decisions, and she won't have anyone messing with that. Not one little bit.

Balthazar: ......... Might agree to lessen the emotional impact of, say, his entire experience with the Spanish Inquisition. But nothing really more than that.

Katya: Is rolling her eyes at this entire question so I'm going to take that as a no before she starts ranting.

Shaz: .......................... oh Shazza. Um. There are so many potential answers to this. The best one being is if she could forget anything she learned after the Guv promised her a promotion by Christmas? She'd be good with that.

Bones: ........ No. Not really. Or at least that's what he says. I still say Sybok played dirty poker to get him to agree to the memory editing he underwent. Horrible, horrible dirty poker. Considering how much he canonically dislikes mind tricks of any sort, for very good reason.

Glorfindel: Already had this happen to him, when he went to Mandos the first time. Most of the emotional toll from his experiences of his first life have been muted considerably - it's the only reason he can go near open flame.

Haymitch: Yes, yes, hell yes, take it all, take it all and be done with it why haven't you started yet?

Oswin: ... I think, really? If she really thought about it? She'd only want to forget the part after she got that door open for the Doctor. Everything else she was handling just fine. He provided a mirror that she can't avoid anymore, even as she tries to get the walls back up.

Aww, Haymitch and Oswin, they should thread more with Charles, he can help with memories.

Gene's whole (after)life is based on him not remembering what really happened to him, or how he created the world he lives in. So that's a resounding 'yes' for him. In his current situation - remembering it all while he's in the bar - he'd like the last goodbye to Alex and his team to hurt less, but he knows he'll forget once he goes home. Or guesses he will, anyway.

Bruce (Banner) - no, absolutely not. The most painful thing about being the Hulk is all the people he's hurt, particularly Betty - but being able to remember that is what helps him keep control, and keep him looking for a cure. If he forgot that, he'd be afraid of losing all semblance of humanity.

Bruce (Wayne) - practically the same as above, I think. At least now he's decided to be Batman. Without the pain of remembering his parents, and his own fear that he caused their deaths, he wouldn't be driven to be what he needs to be. He might have felt differently when he was younger, and wished like anything he could forget - but at this stage, no.

Alyx is giving this DE meme a death glare for even asking.

Cata and Sam are NOT PLAYING THIS GAME. Cata's already been through it once, thanks; it doesn't matter that everything was still there under Mizzamir's papering-over. And Sam just plain doesn't trust anyone to actually do only what might be necessary, aside from not being sure he really wants to forget anything. He's seen some horrible shit, but it also shaped him.

Claudia would consider forgetting her time in the nuthatch, but I don't think she'd go through with it.

Apollo would cheerfully do without remembering the Daphne incident, but I don't think he'd follow through.

Imp did forget a Very Important Experience for a long time, and he'd really rather not do that again.

Regulus... no. Memory charms are incredibly fiddly, doubly so if you don't know the person you're working on very well. And when they backfire, they backfire BIG - look at Lockhart.

As much as Red would be sorely tempted to forget That Time She Ate Her Boyfriend, she knows she can't. She's spent too long not actually remembering the things she's done as the wolf, and that gives her a reason to keep trying not to hurt any more of her family.
(Ruby: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. AHAHA. haaaaaaa. And then for S2 canon, she's one of the people who helps talk everyone out of deliberately giving up their memories by leaving town, though I'm sure she still wants to travel herself. Remembering and working with that is more important.)

Trowa says no, instantly and flatly.

He had amnesia for a while in canon. It was not fun. In general, Trowa's childhood led him to feel that your skills and your memories are the only things you can count on to keep, so he has no interest in volunteering to lose anything of either one.

Also, he's pretty good at repressing the emotions associated himself! This is neither foolproof nor necessarily healthy, but oh well. Still not a thing that Trowa the control freak wants anybody else assisting with.

River would have to think about it seriously.

She might well opt, in the end, to lessen the emotional impact or fuzz over the details or both for some of her more traumatic Academy memories. She would have been more eager to do that a few years ago, when it was all fresher and more raw, but she still wouldn't really mind. So long as she trusted the person or system doing it, which is a big if.

Regan would also consider it seriously, but would opt not to. (And she'd know from the beginning that she was going to say no, but she'd take a minute or two to pretend it was a decision.) Her most painful memories are the lessons she needs to not forget, lest she make that kind of mistake again.

Thor wouldn't. Partly for Regan's reasons, and partly because his most painful memories are going to be Loki-associated, and he doesn't want to reject anything of his brother, or reject the truths he didn't know for so long, or make it easier for Loki to manipulate him. (It's already pretty easy.) But mostly because Thor believes in truth, and not in self-deception even for comfort.

He's better at self-deception than he'd like to be, and better than he really fully acknowledges, but he believes in truth, anyway.

Also, none of his painful memories are the kind of trauma that you'd want to forget. Thor's been the person foolishly at fault a lot more than he's been an innocent victim of anything.

Clare already has semi-repressed a lot of memories of her childhood. So... that's done! She wouldn't take away any of her memories of Teresa, even her death, and she sees no reason to take away any of her memories of training. So basically, anything that she might choose for this, the effects of trauma on a young child have already accomplished.

(And for past characters, I am looking at Will Stanton and just laughing.)

Edited 2012-12-17 16:40 (UTC)

(And for past characters, I am looking at Will Stanton and just laughing.)

You and me both, cariad.

I have no idea what either of you are referring to. >_>

CORDELIA SAYS HI I MEAN WHAT

Oh gosh. Um.

Ray got stuck at the court of Queen Salmissra of Nyissa for several years during the Stone Angels plot and while he can handle most of that, the sight of certain court eunuchs who applied their daily cosmetics after taking their favorite jungle-derived compounds is something he would really like to be able to unsee. Other than that I'm thinkin' no, for any of mine.

Elle's... answer to this is a whole lot of profanity that doesn't really need to be repeated. Suffice to say, the answer is 'no.'

Asami doesn't really understand the notion. She does have some pretty bad memories, but she's also pretty effective at... managing the emotional impact things have on her, so she doesn't really need such a thing. She also doesn't like the idea of somehow limiting her scope of knowledge/perspective. At some point in playing through her canon, she might wish there was some information she didn't have, but she wouldn't take it that far.

Leslie... well, she knows adversity makes her stronger, but she's not sure all the memories of things like her boyfriend inviting her to a picnic and breaking up with her there before telling her to leave because another girl was coming soon, or her boyfriend having his mom call her to break up with her, are really giving her much "strength." Of course, I'd argue to her that they do lend her compassion. But she's a little more willing to believe there are some memories she could live without.

Manny doesn't really have enough in terms of traumatic memories to make this relevant to him. Which may seem weird, considering he's dead, but there's nothing that comes to mind for him.

Marceline, like Elle, has also had some bad experiences with losing memories, including one instance where an ex-boyfriend forcibly removed a memory of their breakup in order to get back together with her, and... there are enough people I know around here watching Adventure Time for the first time that I won't say the second yet, but I'd imagine anyone who has seen it knows what I'm talking about. So while it's not quite as emphatic as Elle's, her answer is still rather firmly "No."

Interesting, to me, bit of Millicanon regarding Raph:

Bar is holding a vial of Lethe Water for him. It was a gift ages ago, and had he had access to it in his early days of being trapped in Olau, he'd have drank it to erase his memories of his relationship with Death of the Endless.

There was a few times post break up with Mel that I pondered having Mike gifted that same vial for a similar reason, but never did.

Bean wants to know what this emotional impact you speak of, is...

Max Epper doesn't have any particularly traumatic memories.

Erik Selvig has nothing he wants to get rid of. The hard stuff he's been through has made him who he is today.

Alfred has nothing he'd like to get rid of. He'd have strongly recommended Bruce to take the softening the impact of Thomas and Martha's deaths, though...

Jack. Unquestionably the most complex of my pups, in this. He'd think about it, definitely. He'd consider the times when his father was harsh to him and his mother and sister, during his childhood. In the end, though, I think he'd say no thanks. Those memories are part of what has made him who he is, and a heavy part of his reasoning for doing what he's doing. To forget them, or even lessen their impact, leaves him with very little reason for his recent actions. So, in the end, nope, he'll take life as he is, thank you very much.

Mark will probably, for a while, want to forget ever seeing his father tear the oldest-living superhero on his world in half. Later, when he realizes that without having seen that, he would have gone on without knowing the truth about Viltrum, he'll be glad he found out when he did.

The purchase being a good one, but the price being unwelcome, as it were.

And as they so often are.

Leela -

eyeeyecaptain - Yes, I think she would, not realizing the repercussions it would have on her life. Luckily, in her universe there's always some variety of UNDO button.

Porthos -

srspirate - Porthos would turn to much older, more proven methods of forgetting bad memories: wine, women, and song. He'd be more apt to the lessening of the pain than the removal of the whole memory.

Grace Augustine -

donthidemycigs - Grace is sticking up her nose at this question, which isn't exactly a yes or no, but she does love to carry grudges and resentment. So draw your own conclusions.

Renee Walker -

whathastobedone - No. In a moment of weakness she might be inclined to say yes, but not ever wanting to get to that point is what will prevent her from it. Carrying your bad memories makes you a better agent. We will never forget.

Ray Carling -

flickedmethevs - Haaaa. This is a great big ol' yes. Similar to Gene's answer above, Ray's whole existence revolves around forgetting painful memories.

Lily Bell -

maidenofthewest - I think Lily wouldn't mind forgetting, but reasonably sees it as a fancy, an easy way out, and one cannot be as strong as she must be taking the easy way out of things.

Zoë Washburne -

someonetocarryyou - No. Memories are worth fighting for, even the bad ones.

Regina Mills -

happilyneverafter - Yes. >:(

Clementine's would flat-out be her molestation.

Juliet's would be either everything to do with Yang's kidnapping her or stuff about her dad leaving.

Dix doesn't have one. Everything rolls off her back.

Pinkie's would be everything related to Gummy's party.

DE: It's on the tip of my tongue

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