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fernsnailz · 1 year

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i love reading your sonic loreposts i was wondering if you could please explain archie charmy to me, i have heard stuff and i am so curious but i am not a comics in general kinda person. the lsd poisoned friend or the brain damage literally just anything that happens to him your pick

hi anon i’m just going to go over everything that happens to archie charmy pre-reboot so i hopefully never have to talk about it after this. i'm sorry i'm so so sorry

Archie Charmy is subject to a lot of controversy and discussion because despite his limited role in the comics, he goes through some of the most batshit insane character and plot beats in the whole series (and that you’ve already mentioned). I’ll be skimming over some of the more boring parts, but the wild stuff I'll go pretty in-depth with.

I’ll also be attempting to explain WHY all of this happens to Charmy Bee of all characters, taking into account the context of the story, what was happening behind the scenes in the writer’s room, and even comic trends in general. I want to try and keep away from the very reactionary “wow archie sonic is sooooo crazy” discussion that happens around this stuff and hopefully provide a little more useful analysis. i talk about comic PSAs for a while so be warned

There are some very, very important content warnings that are coming with Archie Charmy lore: warning for non-consensual drug use and overdose (specifically LSD), child death, genocide, implied ableism, memory loss, implied age regression, breif homophobia mention (not related to charmy)

this is going to be a very long one. charmy lore under the cut

INTRODUCTION - CHAOTIX

Charmy Bee’s first appearance in Archie Sonic is in the Knuckles’ Chaotix special, which adapts the first game he appeared in. This issue introduces the entire Chaotix cast (six new characters) in a mere four pages, so Charmy doesn’t make much of an impression other than “bee who likes to explore and adventure.” He lacks that annoying little brother personality that he has in most Sonic media, and he’ll often speak with language that feels extremely out of character for the Charmy that most people know.

This is because this version of Charmy is based off of his character description from the Knuckles’ Chaotix game manual. Despite the series being based off of the video game franchise, the Archie Sonic writers were often given very little information about upcoming game releases from SEGA when they were asked to adapt them into the comics. Often they had to go digging for the canonical materials themselves - for example, the only way they were able to adapt Sonic Adventure into the comics is because Patrick Spaziante (one of the comic’s artists) had a Japanese version of the game that he bought himself. They had no English translation and zero guidance from SEGA, so they had to attempt to piece the story together without SEGA's help. This was the case with most of the game adaptations, and it was honestly a miracle that they had access to the manual for Knuckles’ Chaotix at all.

There’s just one problem: the manual for Knuckles’ Chaotix describes a version of Charmy that is very, very different from the one we know of today. It describes a 16-year old that is… sophisticated?

(sorry for the low quality, there aren't many images of the manual. also fun fact, there was no age for Charmy listed in the original Japanese manual)

Charmy's differing age and personality will lead to many, many problems, as the writers decided to give the “sophisticated” Charmy darker stories. This brings us to the Knuckles the Echidna mini-series.

The Knuckles mini-series is. Bad. Charmy Bee is certainly there for the first few issues (as are most of the Chaotix), but he doesn’t get much focus until issue 13.

I don’t know how to put this in a way that doesn’t sound extremely blunt: This is the issue where Charmy’s best friend overdoses on LSD and dies.

PART 1 - MELLO

Charmy's best friend is named Mello Bee. This is his first and last appearance in the series.

Mello started feeling strange on their return trip from Happyland, a sketchy theme park that recently reopened under new management. Charmy isn't sure why Mello died, but Constable Reminton (essentially the sheriff of Echidnopolis) reveals that there have been a series of cases similar to Mello's - cases where people were suffering from… Lemon Sundrop Dandelion poisoning.

The Chaotix go to Happyland to see if they can find the source of the poisoning, but what they don't know is that it's actually laced into the food. The manager of Happyland, Renfield T. Rodent, has been lacing the park's chili dogs with LSD in hopes of making everyone addicted to them. However, the amount of LSD he's been putting into the food is too much for most people to handle. This is probably the most insane paragraph I've had to write for one of these loreposts

Unknown to the Chaotix, they all start eating the chili dogs during their investigation (except for Julie-Su and Knuckles, who is absent) and start tripping balls.

Continuing the story into issue 14, Charmy’s LSD trip reveals that he’s actually the prince of a bee colony and has been running away from his responsibilities as a member of the royal family.

Charmy is knocked out for the rest of this arc as he goes through his trip - they have to operate on him and some other stuff happens I guess (Julie-Su gets thrown off of a roof, Knuckles fights some guys in a desert, Vector is a misogynist, stuff like that). At the end of issue 15, Charmy learns from his trip and returns to his family, temporarily leaving the Chaotix to return to his royal duties. Mello's family and his all mourn Mello's death and bury him back at their home.

So. What was the fucking point of all that

In the long-term, Charmy returning home to his family essentially writes him out of the story for a while. Knuckles the Echidna issue 15 released in 1998, and Charmy doesn't really return until 2001. While I'm not entirely sure what the reason for this was, there were so many members of the Chaotix that I honestly think this was an okay decision.

However, there's one very important question left to answer: Why was LSD and a drug overdose included in this arc at all?

When I first read this arc, I had a burning thought that I couldn't get out of my mind:

PART 1.5 - wait is this an anti-drug PSA?

(if you want to avoid me talking in-depth about the abilities of LSD and my ramble about comic PSAs for a while, you can skip to PART 2 where I continue the Charmy lore)

Comic PSAs (Public Service Announcements) and propaganda are a fundamental part of the medium’s history, whether it be to aid their country’s war efforts, give health information to their readers, or warn kids about the dangers of drug abuse. While a comic being used as a PSA isn’t inherently a bad thing, it’s usually VERY obvious. One of the most interesting ones I've found is a PSA that features Green Lantern debunking misinformation about the AIDS crisis. The image quality isn’t great, but the comic doesn’t hold back when talking about how the AIDS crisis is spreading homophobic ideology - if you read this, you know it’s a PSA and you know what message it’s trying to send. Sometimes propaganda can be subtle, but PSAs are usually loud.

(cw: homophobia)

This is why anti-drug PSAs are so common and so remembered - they’re over the top, they’re blunt (lol), and they have a very specific message they’re trying to send. For example, there’s an issue of New Teen Titans from 1983 that introduce a character called the Protector to teach kids about drug awareness where the issue literally starts with the Teen Titans in an auditorium telling kids about a dangerous drug. This issue also includes some bad trip imagery, and it’s uh… honestly i kinda love this

Anti-drug PSAs usually don’t work for this very reason - showing how a drug affects fictional characters can increase interest in the substance, and a single superhero telling someone to stop smoking is not going to break someone’s addiction.

So. Is Knuckles the Echidna issues 13-15 an anti-drug PSA?

Probably not, but if it is it’s doing a fucking terrible job of it

Some of the main factors of a PSA are the information it's presenting, the opinion it wants the consumer to develop, and the bluntness of its presentation. While this part of the Knuckles series is certainly over the top, the rest of these factors are really muddy. First, anti-drug PSAs usually don’t create a fake drug to replace the one they’re advising against. An anti-weed campaign will just tell you that weed is bad because that’s the opinion it wants you to walk away with. So when Knuckles issue 13 introduces a substance called “Lemon Sundrop Dandelion” and never actually refers to it as LSD, it’s less of a message about “drug bad” and more just a sly nudge and wink that goes “hey you see that? yeah, that’s drug.”

Then there’s the problem that there isn’t really much of a lesson to be had from these issues regarding drug use. Yes, Mello dies horrifically of an overdose, but most of the cast is able to walk off the trip like it’s nothing. Charmy needs to be operated on, but the doctors literally treat it like it’s fucking NOTHING

he's literally talking about how he told a patient that couldn't afford surgery to go to the butcher like HUH?????

In fact, Charmy’s trip seems to help him in the long run - he’s forced to face his past, and eventually returns to his family because of the literal guilt trip he has. It’s a fundamental part of his character arc.

This isn’t to say that I wish these issues were explicitly drug PSAs - I bring all of this up because these issues were released in 1998, in an era where the anti-drug movement was arguably at its peak. The people working on these comics would KNOW its content is similar to and even promotes the anti-drug movement. While I don't consider these issues to be an anti-drug PSA, they can definitely serve as anti-drug propaganda.

With this in mind, considering Knuckles the Echidna as a form of propaganda really opens up how utterly terrible these issues are. These comics can be genuinely harmful pieces of anti-drug propaganda because the way they use LSD to advance they plot is untrue to how the drug actually works and relies entirely on fear mongering. While LSD can be laced into other substances like drinks, it probably wouldn't last long in cooked meat - LSD usually degrades at higher temperatures, and telling comic readers that they need to be afraid of LSD-laced fair food is fucking stupid and likely based on false urban legends. Not only that, but Renfield T. Rodent’s plot to addict everyone to his LSD chili dogs is also fucking stupid because LSD is not considered an addictive substance. It can be extremely dangerous at high or multiple doses, but LSD does not normally lead to compulsive use.

I don’t talk about all of this to be a cinemasins guy or to nitpick a comic from 1998, and I also don't want to imply that PSAs can't spread lies and misinformation (anti-drug PSAs famously over-exaggerate things). I bring all of this up to show an ineffective and possibly dangerous use of something that could be considered anti-drug propaganda. Spreading blatantly untrue information and placing false fears into a reader’s mind is truly incompetent on the writer’s behalf, especially considering that this comic was targeted at kids. And that’s not even mentioning that there’s barely any moral to all of this. There’s no lesson and they never talk about this again.

Do I think this was all intentional on the behalf of the writers? I have no idea. I have no goddamn idea what they were thinking with this one, and I honestly don't think much thought was put into this arc at all. Maybe this was a strange attempt to make a Sonic-themed anti-drug PSA, maybe they were just inspired by the drug PSAs of their time when writing this, or maybe they just did not care. I don't know man. Anti-drug propaganda is stupid and it doesn't work and these comics drive me crazy

alright enough of that. let's talk about genocide

PART 2 - SAFFRON

don’t worry this part will be shorter (cheering and clapping)

Like I mentioned a while back, Charmy is essentially written out of the story for a while after the Mello incident. While living in the Golden Hive Colony, he reunites with another friend, Saffron Bee. Saffron becomes Charmy’s girlfriend, and they’re together for basically the rest of the comic. Usually if Charmy shows up, Saffron is there too.

(image of Charmy and Saffron I stole from... the Shipping Wiki??)

They eventually return to help Chaos Knuckles, a green version of Knuckles who is uh. Kinda going through it. Not much important Charmy lore needs to be discussed here, but some of his actions do eventually lead to him creating a genocidal villain that will cause many problems later. Don’t worry about it.

Things are quiet for a while for Charmy and Saffron. That is, until Eggman attacks their colony and wipes out most of its population.

Charmy and Saffron are the only survivors we see from the Golden Hive Colony. Eggman transforms the colony into a new base and traps its residents in an invention of his called the Egg Grapes - basically, he puts Mobians in these little pods that sap all of their life force, powering his empire. Most people do not survive the Egg Grapes.

The two bees return to join the Chaotix for a little while, and the rest of the Chaotix confirm that the Golden Hive Colony and its residents are truly gone. Espio destroys what’s left of the colony so Eggman can’t use it as a base, and no other survivors from the colony are found.

So. yeah what the fuck

Archie Sonic is known to have a LOT of characters - I’ve talked about the sheer number of echidnas the series has before, but there are a lot of characters that have massive extended families. The arc where Mello died introduced like eight new bee characters, but most of them were background characters that didn’t need to stick around.

Most people cite writer Ian Flynn’s debut to the series as when a lot of these unneeded/background characters were written out or killed off, and I agree since one of his objectives as a writer was to tighten up the story. However, the trend of “Archie background characters getting killed off or written out” started a little bit before he joined the team. There’s the destruction of the Golden Hive, and many echidnas in this arc suffer from the horrors of war - a number die off after Charmy and Saffron rejoin the Chaotix. yeah it's kinda fucked up

This is the second major arc where Charmy has lost people close to him - first Mello, and now his entire family and kingdom. The same goes for Saffron - they only have each other left. I mean the Chaotix are also there but still, trauma is trauma

How could it get any worse?

PART 3 - CHARMY

Remember how Archie Charmy is based off of the Knuckles’ Chaotix manual? The one that said he was sophisticated and 16?

This is about to cause a few problems.

At this point, it’s around 2007. The Knuckles’ Chaotix manual is terribly outdated, and most versions of Charmy within canon are 6 year-old kids. Charmy is known to be the annoying comedic relief, which is the exact opposite from how he’s portrayed in Archie Sonic.

So when SEGA asked writer Ian Flynn to change Archie Sonic to be like his video game counterpart, the solution was uh. well. it could have been handled better

Like how he obliterated the Golden Hive Colony, Eggman’s next target to destroy is Knothole, the city where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters all live. It’s a surprise to all of the residents, and he manages to teleport most of the population into his Egg Grapes. Before Sonic can save them, Eggman singles out Charmy to be used as an example of how the Egg Grapes work.

Sonic and friends manage to get Charmy out, but not before the damage is already done. In the limited amount of time the Grape sapped his life force, Charmy’s memory was partially wiped and personality changed forever. After this, Charmy has very little memory of the Golden Hive Colony at all, only seeming to remember Saffron and his friends. His becomes much more child-like, similar to his game counterpart.

the fucking sigh i just sighed

For clarification, Charmy is still 16. The only thing that was altered was his mind, with the intention to make his personality more in-line with his goofy video game counterpart. The problem is that giving a character brain damage to turn them into a comedic relief character is fucked up and unintentionally ableist.

This is something that writer Ian Flynn identified pretty early and openly regrets (I’m not sure what the source of that statement is, I’m assuming an episode of Bumblekast but I’m don’t know which one. I’ll edit this if I find it). Because of this, he mostly kept Charmy out of any comedic situations for the rest of the series. Charmy has a very limited role in the series after this until the reboot, only appearing sporadically and in one Sonic Universe arc. When he does show up, his childish demeanor is usually met with the patience of the Chaotix and their sad expressions.

Although the intention was to make Archie Charmy more like his game counterpart, in practice I honestly think this action only made Archie Charmy even MORE distant from his game character. From the Egg Grape incident to the reboot, Archie Charmy’s trauma never leaves my mind and leaves me feeling strangely hollow.

CONCLUSION - WHAT THE FUCK

I find the Archie Sonic series unfathomably fascinating. While I love the series, I can’t deny that most of the events I went over are poorly handled by the writing team and leave the series with such a strange legacy. With Archie Sonic, it’s often incredibly easy to see the biases of the writers and how they affect the characters and stories, leading to some genuinely fucked up moments that could have easily been avoided in my opinion.

Archie Charmy was really one of the characters that got it the worst, but it's honestly so strange that all of this happened to him specifically. The fact that all of this shit happens to a silly little bee is so, so Archie Sonic to me. Charmy is such a simple character to understand - he's a funny kid who's kinda annoying and hard to handle. So when I look back and see the 3,000+ words I just wrote about Archie Charmy... fucking hell why did i do that

In conclusion. I am sorry and do not become a comics person

thanks for reading if you got this far. as always let me know if i need to tag any other content warnings or if there was anything i got wrong! alright good night tristate area

#PLEASE read all of the content warnings before opening the pandora's box of charmy lore #this one's a hell of a read i am so sorry #sonic loreposting #cw drug use #cw overdose #cw child death #cw genocide #cw ableism #cw memory loss #cw age regression #i actually really enjoyed talking about comic psas and propaganda its very interesting to me #long post

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wilbug · 2 months

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me explaining that the reason i'm so attached to dsmp is because of my memory issues not letting me remember anything about any of my other hyperfixations and dsmp is the one thing my brain for some reason hasn't forgotten outside of important stuff

#sunrise.rant #cw memory loss #dsmp

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whump-card · 1 month

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Forged Divinity Unnamed Sequel: Chapter 2

1446 words

CW: dead body, like a real nasty dead body, dissociation, memory loss, amnesia, anger issues, past TBI

Previous, Masterlist, Next

~~~

Enjolras decided, since Leannan was catatonic, that she need to investigate the body. Some sick, sorrowful part of her needed to know how Phineas had died, and Leannan wasn’t about to tell her. She took one last breath of fresh air before ducking back into the shack.

She avoided the body at first, opening a cabinet on the far wall. There were a couple small sacks of oats, but little else. She grabbed a handful out of one sack, letting it run through her fingers. It didn’t look contaminated, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t – Leannan’s Iowan immune system could handle a lot more than Phineas’ could have.

She cupped a hand under the tap of their water barrel, and dribbled some out into her palm. It looked clear. She couldn’t smell it, though, not with the overpowering stench of the corpse filling the room.

She tipped out the water and wiped her hand dry on her pant leg. Finally, reluctantly, she approached the corpse.

The bloat and maggots told her it had been around a week since Phineas had died. She couldn’t imagine what Leannan had gone through, how thoroughly he must have been in denial, to live next to a corpse that whole time.

She carefully pinched the blanket covering the majority of Phineas’ body and pulled it back. She immediately spotted what she was looking for.

Cloth bound their chest flat, as usual, but more strips were wrapped around their waist, strained dark with old, dried blood. Phineas had died of an injury – a slash or stab to the gut.

Enjolras threw the blanket beck over the body before she could digest any more details – the flies, the maggots, the no, don’t look – and covered Phineas’ mutilated face with it as well. Then she turned, and fled, stumbling out the door and gulping down fresh air, tears stinging her eyes.

If Leannan had been able to bandage up the injury while Phineas was still bleeding, still alive, that meant Phineas hadn’t died immediately. They had died slowly. The thought, the sight, the smell, it all made her nauseous.

Phineas was still a part of her, as horrible as they were. Rapist, arsonist, murderer, yes. Her little sibling? Also yes.

Her eyes settled on Leannan where he sat on the ground, and she quickly brushed away her tears. She couldn’t spare the time to mourn right now. She needed to get Leannan home, before anything else went wrong.

“Leannan?” She touched his shoulder. He was still… gone, his empty gaze resting on the ground. She scooped her hands under his arms and lifted him to his feet, then led him by the arm over to the pickup truck. This, finally, seemed to rouse him.

“Are we leaving?” he asked.

“Yes,” Enjolras said.

“Is Phineas coming with us?”

Enjolras’ heart sank. Something was really, really wrong with Leannan.

“Uh… Yeah. They’re riding in the back. Can you get in?” She opened the passenger door for him.

“Mhm.” He climbed into the cab, and Enjolras shut the door. Then she looked back at the shack.

A part of her wanted to do something – to bury Phineas, maybe. But the ground was dry and hard-packed, and full of rocks, and she didn’t have a shovel anyway. It didn’t feel right to just leave them there, to be scavenged by animals, but there was nothing she could do.

Then she remembered the gun.

She steeled herself, and went back into the shack and looked around. It wasn’t immediately visible, but there were only so many places it could hide. She found it soon enough, tucked behind the cabinet: the Barrett M95 sniper rifle. She slung it over her shoulder, not bothering to search for the ammo. She just wanted to have it, not to shoot it.

It was Mom’s. She couldn’t leave it there.

She stashed it in the bed of the pickup, and glanced back at the shack one last time.

She wished she could make it right. But things had gone wrong a long, long time ago.

~~~

Leannan slept as they drove, leaning his head against the window again. Enjolras couldn’t help but glance at him constantly, trying to take in every detail while still watching the road.

He still wore the clothes he had taken with him when he left Goat Island. They were weathered and dirty now, and too big on him. The scar on his left temple looked like a gnarled lightning strike or tree branch growing out of his hairline. The soles of his boots were peeling away from the uppers. He was tanned and freckled, and his hair was sun-bleached even paler than it had been when they first met. There was dirt under his fingernails, and crusted into the lines of his face.

They had been driving for about two hours when Leannan awake with a small yelp, and started looking around frantically.

“Hej, what…?” Enjolras started.

“Where’s Phineas?” Leannan demanded.

Enjolras couldn’t answer. She kept her eyes on the road, her jaw clenched.

“Where’s Phineas?!” shouted Leannan.

“They died, Leannan,” Enjolras said quietly.

“No! No, you left them behind! You left them behind on purpose!” Leannan was working himself up into a frenzy, “You promised! You promised they could come with us! You lied to me!”

“Phineas is dead.”

“Fuck you!” Leannan shrieked, with a level of vitriol Enjolras had never heard from him before, “Fuck you! I hate you!”

Without warning, Leannan grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it to the side. Enjolras slammed on the brakes to keep them from careening off the road. While she was occupied getting the car back under control, Leannan flung his door open and jumped out of the slow-moving vehicle.

“Leannan!” Enjolras shouted. She finally got the car to stop and threw it into park, then jumped out to follow him. He was running back down the road towards where they came.

“Leannan!” She caught up with him easily, between her taller height, better nutrition, and better shoes, and grabbed his arm. “Leannan, stop!”

He swung around and punched her in the face. It was a pretty weak punch, but it surprised her nonetheless.

“I hate you!” he screamed, twisting in her grip, “You always ruin everything!”

Those were Phineas’ words. Enjolras would recognize them anywhere. She pulled Leannan close and wrapped her arms around him, pinning his arms to his sides, his back to her chest.

“I’m sorry, Leannan, but I need to take you home!” she said through gritted teeth.

Leannan screamed wordlessly in return, struggling like a wild animal.

“Don’t you want to see Shannon again?” Enjolras coaxed.

“Not… without… Phineas!” Leannan insisted in between attempts to twist himself free. Enjolras held him tighter.

“Leannan,” she felt a lump rise in her throat, “Phineas is dead!”

Leannan paused his fighting, panting hard. Enjolras could feel his thin body swell and deflate in her arms with each breath, rife with panic and anger. She felt the anger fade.

“I didn’t mean to,” Leannan whimpered.

Enjolras carefully loosened her grip.

“Didn’t mean to what?” she asked softly, already anticipating the answer.

“I just get really angry, sometimes, now, and I don’t know why, and Phineas was being a real jerk, and I just wanted them to stop…” Leannan’s words dissolved into soft, hiccuping cries.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is!” Leannan wailed, “It’s always my fault!”

Enjolras released him fully, turning him around to face her.

“When did you start getting angry?” she asked.

“When I got hit… in the head,” Leannan gulped, his hand going to the scar on his temple, “Phineas says it made me stupid and weird.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

“No,” Leannan shook his head miserably, “Phineas says it was an accident.”

Enjolras tallied up the symptoms. Memory loss. Mood swings. Disorientation. A bad enough head injury, combined with some psychological trauma, would certainly explain everything.

“Leannan, I promise it’s not your fault.”

Leannan frowned up at her.

“You also promised you’d take Phineas with us!”

Enjolras sighed.

“I would have, I really would, if Phineas had been alive. But they’re not, they’re dead, they couldn’t come with.”

Leannan’s red-rimmed eyes drifted to stare past her. For a moment Enjolras was afraid that had dissociated again at the mention of Phineas’ death, but then he spoke.

“What am I supposed to do now?” he whispered.

“Come home with me,” Enjolras offered, “We’ll take care of you.”

He slowly shifted forward and, to her surprise, leaned against her, resting his forehead against her shoulder.

“You’ll take care of me?” he murmured, muffled by her shirt.

“Yeah,” she patted his back, “We will.”

~~~

Previous, Masterlist, Next

Taglist: @angst-after-dark, @sunshiline-writes, @flowersarefreetherapy, @thecyrulik

#whump #whump fic #whump writing #forged divinity #cw dead body #cw dissociation #cw memory loss #cw amnesia #cw anger issues #cw TBI

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sour-heart-treats · 4 months

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[Almnesia Was His Name Pt. 4 - CW: Memory Loss - Previous, Next]

The hospital lights were a lot brighter than Almond wished for them to be. Sitting in the waiting room of the hospital Latte had booked him for had the detective more than a bit fidgety. It reminded him too much of the times he was stuck inside waiting for a moment to escape and grab a smoke. Though rather than wanting to escape for a cigarette, he was more worried about his work and the discovery that there could be something wrong with him. His unfocused gaze stared so deep into the floor that he may as well be digging it out, he would only be interrupted from his anxieties by the shifting of his overcoat. Perking up and rubbing at his eyes to get a clearer vision, he'd look to his side and find Walnut trying to slink underneath his coat. "It's cold..." She'd complain lightly, the fact that there were metal arms on the chairs between them making this whole crawling situation more awkward for the both of them.

The older detective looked away for a moment, unsure of what entirely to do. He didn't even realize it was that cold until it was mentioned. Right... what would be the 'mom' thing to do in this situation? "Uh." Alm buffered a response, then decided perhaps it would be better to just give up his coat. It's not like he was wearing it properly anyway, even if the cold got to his body before it got to his brain. "Here, kid. You can have it until you get too warm, okay?" There was a happy little 'yay!' from the kid as she practically snatched the overcoat from Almond's shoulders and put it on herself with practiced ease. Ha. She looked cute wearing something way too big for her.

"Mothers always know best, huh?" The second voice nearly startled Almond out of his chair. Whipping around, he'd practically forgotten that Latte was here. Right... Walnut needed someone to watch over her while he was getting checked on. Whatever that entailed... he wasn't exactly looking forward to it. "Right, yea, Mother knows best," the investigator would echo half-heartedly, hoping that his heart that tried beating out of his chest would calm before he was called back. Right. Since he was here, he may as well pry some information out of his colleague. "So... how are they gonna go about this whole thing? Scan my brain with magic or something?" The medical magical field may be well-researched and strongly supported, but as someone who's run across so many uses of magic malpractice...

"Oh, no, not at all! This place actually uses a lot of alternative methods to magic instead! I know how you are when it comes to medmagic." He doesn't recall ever expressing distaste for it, but perhaps that's just his demeanor giving it away. "There's this one doctor that I've heard hasn't failed a patient yet! I'm surprised I was able to schedule something so soon... and something that matched your schedule, too!" "Sure, 'matched'... If my communicator goes off, then I will have to dart out of here. You know that, right?" "Well, at least you won't be leaving Walnut all alone again!" Almond does not want to acknowledge the multiple times he has forgotten Walnut at the local park or school from having to commit to his duties at his second job. If he has to pretend to be some child's mom, can't he at least pretend to be a good mom? Though... he does feel horrible about it, as much as he wants to push that into the back of his mind and forget about it. It's not as if he could remember the kid's name for more than ten minutes at a time.

"Almond Cookie. Almond, the doctor is ready to see you." Oh. It's time. The detective would take a deep breath and push himself up from his chair, feeling a lingering chill on his hands from the metal bars of the chair's arms as he'd take a few steps then pause. Alm glanced behind him, making sure the two were following before following whatever nurse was going to give him a briefing and whatever else. Height and weight gauging, going over the medical history he had- noting that he didn't have any form of memory issues beforehand. Whilst that was being mentioned, Almond side-eyed Walnut, wondering if she should really be hearing this part. She didn't seem to mind, though, clinging to Latte's side and just enjoying the coat that was far beyond her proper size. It made him... smile. Wally wasn't something he'd expect to care for much, but in fleeting moments like these, he'd find that there was something in his mind that liked it far more than just anyone else's child grinning from ear to ear.

Most general go-overs were a blur. They were nothing important and were promptly treated as such by the detective's mind. It wasn't until his mind was prompted back to focus by a slab of red coming into his vision. Oh... the doctor. Blinking back to take in his surroundings properly, he was sat on the cushioned bed-turned-chair of an examination room. To his side, seats filled by the two ladies that'd come with him. Latte seemed to be staring at him worriedly while holding the kiddo's hand. The little one on the other hand seemed to be curious about her surroundings and staring at the doctor who greeted them all warmly. "Good afternoon! I'm Dr. Cassonade... I heard that you all are here with some concerns about memory issues?" Latte would nod, turning her attention to the medical professional. Red suit, dark brown hair with orange-ish speckles of brown sugar darted through it, dark green tie, and glasses reminiscent of a certain lawyer... This was the one she'd heard about, certainly. "Yes! Yes, I'm certain you've heard about the oddities... We were wondering if you could see if something had gone on to cause this."

The doctor would nod, looking between the two in the chairs before raising their gaze to Almond, who stared back incredulously. "You must be Almond, I assume? It is very nice to meet you!" Such warmth would only be met with a gruff 'mhm'. Cassonade stood awkwardly still at the unfriendly response, though continued to smile and acted as if the moment hadn't happened. He'd head to the other side of the small room the four were all in, poking at some monitor with information that Almond couldn't see from where he sat. Probably a whole bunch of medical mumbo-jumbo he couldn't begin to understand. "Right," Casso would begin, "when it comes to things like this... I would first like to do some prerequisite testing. See what you do and don't remember- along with some general mental faculty tests! Now, most of it was done when you completed the check-in form-" he doesn't remember filling one of those out, but he does remember holding a pen recently for some reason, "-I still have other things I wish to check... Like response time and personal memory!"

The doc would lean out from behind their monitor and look at non-patients with a certain softness that Almond almost read as some form of empathy. "So, for that, I'll need to be alone with Almond here, if that's okay? You can stand outside, I just need the room for us." "Oh, sure!" Latte chirped, gracefully standing up and adjusting her hat with her still available hand. "Come on, sweetie. Mom's going to have the doctor make sure he's all healthy and happy, okay?" "Okay!" The mentioned 'sweetie' would follow behind Latte, though would keep the heavy door open for just a moment as she stared down the medic with something akin to scorn. Though she looked more like an angry puppy than anything else. "You better make mommy feel better!!" There was a laugh from Casso as they gave her a pat on the helmet that Almond found nearly gave him a knee-jerk reaction of a growl. Why would he...? He doesn't know this kid.

Once the door was closed, Dr. Cassonade would take a deep breath and keep that damned smile on their face. They adjusted their glasses, then reached into a drawer underneath the screen that they were using earlier to pull out a whiteboard, marker, and sterile cleaning rag. "What is this, elementary school?" Almond would state with underlying scorn. How is this supposed to show that he has memory issues? "I know, I know... It may seem childish, but I promise it will help! Unless you'd... like to just tell me your answers verbally." "Yes. Yes, I would." "A-ah, alright then!" And thusly, the objects would be put away in favor of some flash cards. Two packs, one with shapes, colors, numbers... and one with people- with the second one looking handmade. Equally as degrading to see. He's not five! He's-... how old was he again? Ugh, that didn't matter! "Now, I'm going to show you some simple images, and I want you to identify them, okay? If you don't recognize one, just tell me and I'll tell you what it is and skip to the next one. Does that sound alright to you?" Almond rubbed at his face, reluctant but nodding all the same. "Sure, sure. Let's just get this over with."

Answering the cards was a breeze, truly. These were things anybody knew. Animals, shapes, colors, and numbers, all things someone would learn in early years of school. It was almost patronizing how delighted the doctor was to see him succeed at something so simple. Every time they'd write something down, he couldn't help but glower at the medic. This almost felt like being at a pediatric's office rather than being at an actual hospital. "Alright, I'm happy to say that things are going relatively swimmingly right now, but... this may be a lot harder for you." That second set of flashcards seemed to tease him the way it glinted under the room's lights, which were still too bright for him to enjoy. Perhaps he's been taking too many late-night calls and the brightness was becoming adverse for him. The doctor took off the rubber band that held the cards together, picking out the first of what was arguably a very thin deck. "These are people that I've heard you've been close to. Family, friends, coworkers... All of those. Don't feel bad if you don't remember all of them! Heck, even I forget some of the names of the ones I've worked with for months..." The doctor gave a light laugh, then turned over the first card for Almond to look at.

Some dark-eyed person with brown and white hair, looking sleep-deprived in his black and purple garments. Silence fell through the room, a bead of sweat forming on the investigator's forehead from the lack of recognition. "I... don't know." He'd admit in a low voice, trying to hide whatever shame was bubbling in his chest. "That's Cappuccino," the doctor would answer for him, "he's a friend of yours. He's a very famous prosecutor! From what I've heard, you two share case information all the time..." Odd. He should know this person. Hell, he saw those texts a while back with that name! Ugh, at least some of the dots connected. "Next card?" Casso would ask, earning a hesitant nod.

A person with slitted eyes, wearing a cloak with an oversized collar. With glasses like that, some suit that seemed to double as a lab coat... It took a bit too long, but Almond knew this one. "That's... Espresso, isn't it? One of the Parfaedia teachers?" A coworker, albeit one he didn't speak to much. Didn't he work on coffee magic or something with Latte? "Good! Next one!" "Eclair." "Yes! The museum curator. You looked into multiple cases of thieves trying to get into his museum every now and then... And who is this?" "Ruh... Phan..." Almond had to parse through his thoughts for a moment, but gave a proper answer to the expectant doc whose smile looked a little less infantilizing. "Phantom Bleu." "Yes, famous phantom thief! Who wouldn't know them?" Hypothetical question, of course. Especially since the detective barely held any memory of who that was outside of some newspaper bits that he'd read over the past few days... with the exact details missing from his thoughts. "And this one?" "Oh, Latte." "Nice, yes! She came in with you, just like..." Though there was a given hint, the image before him gave a blank. He'd just seen her. He'd given her something to stay warm- though Almond had to reach back to realize that his overcoat wasn't there to remember what he'd given-...

There was a sudden migraine in his head as something tried to claw its way out of his mind. Almond raised a hand to his head, to which the doctor looked at him worriedly. "No need to stress! You know her, certainly..." That didn't make things better. Squeezing a portion of his hair to try and lessen the pain, he'd try to pry out an answer. The little girl with the sweetest smile and ponytail that looked just like her name... what was... who was she again? What was her name? "I..." He didn't know. He didn't know the little one with the helmet and little detective garb, who felt so important in his heart but was lost in his mind. Stress-induced sweat dripped down the side of the commissioner's face before the card was inevitably given a name. "Walnut... you know her." He should. He should, and yet... "I don't... I don't know her." Why did his face feel red? Why did his head hurt so much? Where did this sudden spike of stress come from?

The doctor would write a quick note with his one open hand and approach Almond with haste at the sight of the other's mental starting to deteriorate with the onset of panic. "Ah, it's okay! You are okay, I promise-... Simply because you may not remember your daughter right now doesn't mean-" "How could I not remember my own daughter?! How is that in any way okay?!" The detective's raised voice would cause the doctor to flinch, a few specks of brown sugar falling from their hair before they composed themself and took the patient's hand. Not the best course of action, especially if the patient was adverse to touch- he was- but... "Deep breaths. Your mind may just be a little scrambled right now. We still need to run a few more so we can determine what's wrong with you...! If there is anything-" "Do you hear yourself?! Of course there is! How could I-" Almond paused, breath stifling to the point where Cassonade had gotten worried that his heart stopped. But no... Something had brought a sudden soothing sensation across him. Or- at least- it left him numb. The detective blinked and looked down at the card that was in the medic's hand, seemingly mildly confused. "...and who is that supposed to be?"

"Wally, sweetheart... you shouldn't be peeking in on your mother..." Latte would give a very light scold, looking up from her phone to see Walnut's back with her body pressed against the door. Her helmet was set on the ground so that she could more firmly press against the hardwood and determine what was being said. And though Latte wouldn't get a response at first, the moment she gave Walnut a light touch, the child would rip away from her. Swinging around to face Latte, Walnut would look at the teacher with tears in her eyes. "He... he forgot about me..." She'd whimper, one hand gripping the coat that was practically half on the floor from her lack of height. "Huh? Sweetie, no, he'd never-..."

"He doesn't remember me!! He- he knows you, but not me!" A sob tore itself from Walnut's throat as Latte would kneel to her height. Her hand would hover over the child's shoulder. "I bet mom doesn't even love me anymore!! How- how could he-?!" Latte's heart hurt. How does she even begin to explain the situation at hand? "Mommy still loves you sweetie, it's just that he's... his brain is being a little weird right now." "IT'S BEING MEAN!! HE'S BEING MEAN!!" Walnut whipped off the overcoat, pausing for a moment with the cloth balled up in her hands while her breathing stuttered from the emotional agony that coursed through her. Though it wasn't processing entirely, she knew that she was hurting. Her mother forgot her. Everything they did together- it meant Nothing to him!! With a screeching yell, Walnut would throw the overcoat she'd been wearing at Latte and run off. And though the teacher tried reaching for Walnut, being pelted in the face with the elder's jacket made her unable to see well enough- or at all, for that matter- to catch her. By the time the coat had been pulled off, dragging her hat off with it, Walnut was already turning the corner of the hospital hallway.

"...oh dear." Latte stood herself up, brushing herself off and picking up Almond's jacket to hold as she gave chase. "This is- This is going to be a long car ride home...!"

#latte cookie #almond cookie #bredele de cassonade cookie #walnut cookie #cookie run #crob #crk #cookie run ovenbreak #cookie run kingdom #self indulgent writings #angst drabbles #ask to tag #cw memory loss

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simon-fairchilds-lil-umbrella · 9 months

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I’ll always be amazed by just how well The Magnus Archives captures how fear changes throughout the human lifespan.

Night Night, A Guest for Mister Spider and to a slightly lesser degree, Tucked In are so reflective of childhood, an early fear of the illustrations in your book, or the pile of clothes in the corner that looks a little too human. An early fear that never really dies, only dulls with the help of logical thinking as it develops while you grow.

But for a while, logic isn’t sharp enough to get you out of basic fear. A blanket is truly your only defense from monsters.

But when you grown older, fear gets more complex, and Magnus is so much better than some other media at capturing some of those.

The adolescent fear of an authority figure finding something out about you they can ruin your life over (A Stern Look), the realization that there’s more to your family than what you learned as a kid (The Kind Mother, Distant Cousin), and leaving familiarity and not knowing anyone to go to college or just move away (Lost in the Crowd) are all relatively stand alone examples, but they’re not all.

The fear of aging parents and making descisions for those who raised you is incredibly well displayed, something that comes in adulthood and stays for a long while. Melanie and Martin’s stories both deal with this, two different but common sides of the fear that comes with getting older.

Then come the fears that come with children of one’s own, whether it be the desperation for their safety as seen in Burnt Offering or the shock and unimaginable fear of losing them that as seen in Freefall.

And Magnus even tackled fears near the end of life, namely the loss of agency the statement giver fears in A Sturdy Lock, and the themes of dementia we see a few times, but most notably in Recollection.

Magnus truly recognizes and demonstrates how life can shape fear in a way that not nearly enough things do.

#the magnus archives #tma #TMA meta #the magnus archives meta #martin blackwood #Melanie king #cw memory loss

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drfrankensteinvsthequeerborgs · 5 months

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memory loss!Dean is very important to me, because the main thing he forgot was his fear, without it and the toxic masculinity that is its symptom, he's so soft and trusting, just chock full of love, this is the Dean Cas sees underneath, the one who forgets to hate himself

#dfvq liveblog #dfv queue #dfvq spn #spn12x11 #cw memory loss #meta #dean winchester #everything you have ever done the good and the bad you have done for love #toxic masculinity #there'll be peace when?#dean studies

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lemurious · 7 months

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Forgetting

(in memory of my grandmother-in-law slowly slipping into forgetting now, and my own grandmother having done the same a few years ago...)

You start with dates. The wedding anniversary’s the first you notice disappear, Then birthdays, first dates, funerals, Proposals, Christmasses and Easters. Who knows on which day Easter falls each year?

You think of spring, of chocolates and meadows, of births and graduations, (Your children’s birthdays, how could you not remember? Do you remember having children?)

You are not so sure. Too used to memory that is a team sport.

As in, you know the time when? As in, but you remember? Not then, before, of course, I think it was the spring, the skies so blue, and so much sunshine.

It needed both of you, or jumbled pieces would never form a puzzle. A game of snakes and ladders, but ladder rungs are missing, and snakes are fat with swallowing your days, one by a juicy one.

Your favorites go next. The favorites of true importance: cereal with milk or yogurt? What kind of toothpaste? The one that whitens or just amps up the shine?

When was the last time when you bought each other flowers?

(Now, only succulents. For they can be forgotten, for a while.)

Your future plans will follow suit. You’ve always wanted to repaint the kitchen, to start a garden, To make a shopping list. To cook, to eat, to say that by the grace of God, we are…

(The words of grace have been forgotten long ago, somewhere between festivities and names of nephews).

The pleasantries will leave you afterwards. The thankyous and the pleases, welcomes and farewells, The pet names, though you’ve never liked them anyway, and will consider them good riddance.

The loveyous on the phone, squeezed to a single word. The sorries when we failed despite our best attempts, The minor squabbles, the anger and frustration. (With time, they’ll be forgotten too. And you will miss them just as much as joy.)

So much is left.

So much is left to be forgotten still.

The squeeze of hands while watching television. The hug goodbye, as many times a day as one of you was leaving. The scars that mark your old adventures and the ones that never healed. The trinkets that should have disappeared in the beginning, but stubbornly held out unto the last. The rings, the photographs. The ribbons and the paintings. The recipes. The wedding cards, now stashed in cupboards, stained with grime.

(So are the memories).

When all is gone, what will be left? The kind of love that never followed the instructions, not even those that are engraved with such precision in the stone.

In peace, it’s written.

They tell you, he rests in peace, and shake their heads, impatient with the repetition, with the reminder you require every day.

(And you, what peace is there for you?)

It would be easiest to stay in utter silence (of the grave, you do not add, it would be impolite.)

You do not speak.

Because the words themselves will be forgotten, in the end, like pebbles falling through the fingers.

(But do not worry: you may forget, but he remembers. The afterlife is kinder.)

#lemur writes #poetry #original writing #cw death #cw memory loss #(but also hope)

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vocesincaput-arc · 9 months

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@saunteringserpent liked for a starter [x]

He didn't know how, why or when he had appeared, wandering around the streets with nothing to whatever name he was supposed to have. Not even clothes upon his back.

Luckily, someone sympathetic had found him and taken pity. Giving him some clothes and food. Unfortunately, they couldn't keep him under their roof or give him any medical aid for his apparent lack of memory and so took him to a homeless shelter.

He had been living there for some time on and off, sometimes on the streets. Now he was sat on the side of a mostly empty street. Hair unkempt and a short beard upon his jaw. All hope of remembering anything about his past or who he was had left him and he was spending his day as he come to the past week or so.

Staring off into empty space as the world passed him by.

He was so lost in the emptiness that he didn't realised he was being watched.

#ic #muse: gabriel #saunteringserpent #saunteringserpent: gabriel #verse: gabriel : memory loss #tw: memory loss #memory loss tw #memory loss #cw memory loss #cw: memory loss #memory loss cw

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vocesincaput · 6 months

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OPEN STARTER: Izzy Hands

Each and every night for over a week, a seagull would land upon the makeshift at the head of a grave. Until one night, the top layer of earth began to shift, the disturbance in the soil growing more and more until fingers could be seen clawing out.

Frantic fingers became hands, became arms until finally the mans face appeared with gasps for air. Coughing up dirt that had filled lungs and nose as he dragged himself out from beneath the ground to lay sprawled out on the ground beside where his body had once led.

Both arms and both legs tired and pained from the chore of digging himself out from a grave.

Confused, delirious and in a panicked state, the man crawled along the ground until managing to make his way up onto his feet and looked around with unfocused and bleary eyes. Fingers pushing through his hair and clasping at his head, the man stumbled away and into the woods.

No sense of what had happened, where he was going or who he had been.

Word had spread throughout the pirates of the death of the legendary Izzy Hands.

So when the man was found stumbling around with no memory of who he was or what had happened to him before he had had to dig himself out from the ground, no one suspected that he was the great First Mate.

The group of men that came upon him saw the benefit of having someone with a completely blank slate that they hoped they could mould into someone to work hard. Someone they hoped they could control. And so they had acted like they took pity upon the man, offering to take him with them, give him a place amongst them. A home. To which he, with no other option, agreed.

Time passed and the man became an almost integral part of the crew. Working hard and gradually being seen as more than someone they could manipulate.

Though the Captain still saw him as something to be controlled. As leverage against others...

One day, the ship docked in what remained of The Republic Of Pirates and the man exited with instructions to gather supplies before returning to the ship. Orders from the Captain to not talk to anyone who he wasn't purchasing things from.

And so the man was walking through the streets of the Republic Of Pirates. With his hair cut short and beard grown long, dressed in the same clothing as the rest of the crew and with two legs... no one looked at him twice.

No one showed any recognition, not even to his easily recognisable voice.

The man had almost purchased all the needed supplies, some in the bag over his shoulder and some sent straight to the ship, when he felt eyes upon him. Shaking it off, he started to head back towards the docks.

Not knowing the voice he heard was calling him....

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redd956 · 1 year

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Whumper + Memory Loss Trope

Or anything similar that could potentially swamp Whumper’s alignment

I love this trope for Whumpers

Something happened to Whumper and now they have no memory of their actions, maybe they are quite stunted memory wise and it has caused a swap in personality (such as forgetting their motivations in the first place)

Does it happen in front of Whumpee, where Whumpee is possibly the cause of the memory loss. How do they react to a lost and disoriented Whumper, who doesn’t remember Whumpee or what they did. Imagine a Whumpee who refuses to accept that fact, and takes advantage of Whumper’s current state.

Or maybe Whumpee feels extremely sorry, and brings Whumper to tag along in their journey of recovery. Maybe Whumpee is so overwhelmed or apathetic to the matter and just leaves Whumper behind, only to run into them again some other day.

What happens if Whumper ever retains their memories. Does whumper become ashamed of themselves? Or does Whumper take this as a chance to return back to what they were up to? Maybe they continue to pretend not to remember things either to protect themselves or to deceive Whumpee.

Imagine a Caretaker caring for Whumper without telling them anything, and one day Whumpee can’t take it and let’s something slip.

Maybe a left behind Whumper becomes a Whumperee by someone other than Whumpee.

Maybe Whumper’s personality and health took quite a big hit too, and they require someone else to heal, after all amnesia can be quite dangerous and usually is paired with a plethora of other afflictions.

Whumper who can’t remember shit.

#cw amnesia #tw amnesia #amnesia #cw memory loss #whump #tw memory loss #whumper #whumperee #whumper turned whumpee #memory loss whumper #memory loss trope #mind controlled whumper #whump prompt #whump rambling #whump ideas #whump stuff

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rinnysega · 1 year

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Broken Glass - A Gus and Andres Drabble

cw: memory loss

Gustavo usually enjoyed his Sunday afternoons. He loved his weekly ritual of spending time with Bruno Madrigal, but on one Sunday in particular, it left a horrible taste in his mouth. It wasn’t Bruno’s company that did it, but rather who approached him after he left.

After Mass earlier that morning, his day started as it had every week. Ozzy kissed him goodbye on the steps outside the church before escorting his sister and her family home for a visit with them. Gustavo accepted the Eucharist from Padre Flores to take home to his sick mother, and then he and Bruno sat in the garden of the church to talk. It was an all around pleasant day, and when Mirabel arrived to walk Bruno home for lunch, Gustavo stood up to start his own journey toward his mother’s house.

His steps were careful, his right leg more tender and susceptible to aches in the cooler months. He had to be careful not to slip on a cobblestone, or catch his cane between cracks, or else he’d never hear the end of it from his loved ones.

The last thing he wanted was for his freedoms to be taken from him. He enjoyed the freedom to come and go throughout the Encanto as he pleased, and he feared one mistake could mean Ozzy going overboard in wanting to make sure he was properly cared for with an escort at all times.

“I promise, I’m fine,” Gustavo would tell him over and over again when he needed to take more frequent stops to sit down. “Just a quick rest that’s all.”

He could tell Ozzy wasn’t buying it, the way he side-eyed him with such worry, but compromising on using his wheelchair at parties where alcohol flowed like a river was enough for him to feel better. Ozzy loved him after all, and the last thing he wanted was to make Gustavo feel like he was crossing a boundary in his independence.

Gustavo couldn’t help but smile to himself at the tender care of his amor, and he knew one day he would need Ozzy when his leg was completely stiff and he’d be unable to walk at all. That day would come in due time, but for now, Gustavo would continue to exercise and hope that day would be far off in the distant future.

Those thoughts were what he focused on when his Sunday took a turn for the worst, and Andres Acosta crossed his path at the intersection of an alley.

“Pardon, Pinheiro.” He held onto a satchel of empty bottles to keep them from hitting the other. “Almost had ourselves an accident there, eh?”

“Heh, right. You were walking so fast around that corner, I didn’t even hear you coming.”

So far so good, which was a rarity for Andres, but of course, the next words out of his mouth were akin to the Andres he knew.

“Would’ve been a shame if I knocked you down and dropped all these bottles around you. Broken glass and all,” he emphasized.

“Yeah, good thing that didn’t happen then. Excuse me, I have something to bring to my mother.”

Gustavo struggled to walk as quickly as he could but Andres moved his body slightly to block his way.

“I’ll say,” he continued. “Imagine how that would look for me to have all our friends and neighbors come out and see poor, old Gustavo Pinheiro on the ground covered in broken glass? And me standing over you as if I’d done it on purpose.”

“I would have assured them it was an accident,” Gustavo said to him. “Please excuse me.”

Once again he attempted to go around, but Andres only blocked him once more.

“Not like your word or anyone else’s would mean a damn.” He cocked his hip to the side, a stance of arrogance as he asserted himself against him. “I already know the people of this village have it out for me, no thanks to you and the rest of that council. So best be careful to avoid me and avoid any more potential accidents, eh, amigo?”

“Is that a threat, Senor?” he asked.

“You would know one, wouldn’t you? You’re no better than me after all.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t know what makes you think you’re so innocent, but you, the Madrigals, you’re all just as sinister as you make an outstanding man as myself out to be.”

“The hell are you talking about?” Gustavo’s grip tightened on his cane, hoping for once he did have someone with him, but it was only the two of them in that alley. His eyebrows must have furrowed deep at those accusations because Andres seemed to take joy in making him mad.

Andres smirked. “Because you’re still just as hot-headed and selfish as you were when you were bullying Bruno Madrigal.”

“That was a long time ago - before you even showed up around here. Bruno and I are friends now. I don’t care what stories you’ve heard, but I’ve changed.”

“Not from where I’m standing.”

“I changed,” Gustavo reiterated with a heat rising in his voice. “When I go visit my mother, and I see photos of me as a young man, I have no idea who that is.”

“Maybe on the outside, but not the inside.”

“I don’t have time for this.” Gustavo went to walk away from him, but again, a quick turn of his body, and Andres had stopped him.

“All you have to look at to know the truth is your relationship with Senor Gomez.”

At the mention of Ozzy, Gustavo snapped his head up to stare straight into his eyes. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

Andres had a playful smile on his face as he continued his taunting. “A little bird told me that fall in 1930 did a lot more damage to you than just your leg. Word is your mind is slipping.”

“That’s none of your business.”

“But it’s Oswaldo’s, and you’re not telling him. Why is that?”

“None of your business,” Gustavo repeated.

“See?” He chuckled. “You’re such a bad guy.”

“No I’m not!” Gustavo stamped the butt of his cane down on a stone and shook as he did his best to remember how to be intimidating. Like second nature to tower over the man smaller than himself - to forget his cane and broaden his shoulders to seem like the strong, fighting, athletic boy he used to be. Not that it worked - Andres only seemed to take more enjoyment in the show.

“You’re really going to say you’re not a villain the way you willingly let that man fall in love with you? Knowing you’re going to forget him one day soon?”

“You’re crossing a line, Andres.” Gustavo’s voice dipped low.

“So?” Andres stepped forward and pressed his face closer to his. With his own voice dropped low to match he said, “You probably won’t even remember this conversation by morning.”

Andres then spat on the ground beside them and sauntered off with his bag back to his home. He didn’t even so much look back at the man he left behind.

Gustavo stood there, panting heavily out of anger before taking a seat on a bench nearby. He rested his head on the handle of his cane, gripping it in trying to calm himself down.

He’s wrong, he told himself.

He’s wrong.

@prismatoons @thebiggestnope

#arcilla au #gustavo oc #andres oc #rinny drabbles #cw memory loss

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