(Re)Moved
Jun29
O_o
↓ Transcript
Hellena
Bruce, maybe?
Shæd
Oh! Yeah. That was the nickname for the mechanical shark in Jaws. And the shark in Finding Nemo. I loved those movies.
Michelle
What’s a movie?
Shæd
That’s right. You’ve never been human.
Michelle
Of course not. I’ve always been a syren. So have you.
Shæd
Sure, but- Uh…
Hellena
But, we were doing something important. Weren’t we?
Michelle
I don't see how. We've been here our entire lives.
Bruce, maybe?
Shæd
Oh! Yeah. That was the nickname for the mechanical shark in Jaws. And the shark in Finding Nemo. I loved those movies.
Michelle
What’s a movie?
Shæd
That’s right. You’ve never been human.
Michelle
Of course not. I’ve always been a syren. So have you.
Shæd
Sure, but- Uh…
Hellena
But, we were doing something important. Weren’t we?
Michelle
I don't see how. We've been here our entire lives.
I dont know if that was mean or nice of Trey.
Eh, a little o’ column A, a little of column B.
This is mindrape. He’s changed who they are on a fundamental level. Trey just graduated into a big bad, in my eyes.
I’m not sure Trey did anything to their memories deliberately. After all, Shaed and Helena both seem to remember being human, and, presumably, their roles as agents working with Trey, Ace, et al. At the least, they can both remember that Michelle was never human but was certainly once not a syren.
If it was Trey, I’m going to have to agree with forklifter16. If you change who they are physically, and remove who they are mentally, what’s left to them that’s theirs?
If this is temporary, it’s a little less bad. The difference would be comparable to putting someone in a coma as opposed to killing them outright. The only possible justification I can think of would be if there is something really bad that being amnesiac changelings is protecting them from.
So basically it’s justifiable if it’s a temporary thing for something like witness protection, and somewhat excusable if an accident, but otherwise it’s basically murder?
Inflicting total (or nearly total) and permanent amnesia is serious stuff. Memories and experiences, especially foundational experiences from childhood, can influence adult behavior and personality. Imagine someone spiking someone’s drink or injecting someone with something that gives them permanent amnesia. Wouldn’t you say that’s “basically murder” – the murder of who they were?
those two just cannot take a clue! Michelle is trying to keep them from confusing “Bruce,” exposing afterlife secrets, or becoming targets, and they are just lost.
That plays well up until the “We were doing something important, weren’t we?” comment. And then it looks like we’re just seeing the memory loss or syren identities take over completely.
I have to agree with forklifter16 and Foradain: Changing them both physically and mentally is changing them on a fundamental level. And to do both against their wishes…? I can’t imagine a better descriptor than “mindrape”.
Altering their entire life memories is an especially egregious thing to do as it would change personality. Trey didn’t just change what they are, but also who they are.
I can only hope that, like Foradain suggests, this amnesia is temporary. And I have to hope that Trey did not know about this particular side effect.
Considering that they found out that Trey was Ace once and that he’s trying to prevent Ace from blowing up the galaxy, he purposefully suppressed their memories to try and prevent another Once Ace coming into being. I’m sure that it’s only temporary until he returns them to their former forms.
With so little information you are ready to convict.
Could also be a safety feature from up upstairs to keep information from leaking out if minions are stuck on earth. No one want to have to change their codes every time someone gets polymorphed.
This doesn’t feel like fair game to me.
Honestly this is most likely the same thing that happens to all souls when inhabiting a mortal body, the soul knows everything but either doesn’t or can’t tell the mortal brain what waits beyond, the only reason the others recall anything before is because they had mortal lives to live even as agents while Michelle never did, the only reference we have to her mortal life was the fact that she was born as a bird multiple times. Her soul form remembered and she ended up with a phobia of cats even in her non-corporeal life hence why she was working closely with Trey and not working in the field. She may even still have this phobia but not know it just yet.
I started off angry at Trey for this, if not quite as angry as some of the others here, but your post got me thinking.
Trey is a strong soul who has been around for a LONG time, but he is not “a powerful astral, nearly a god” like Mami Wata is. This is also quite likely the first time he has ever tried this. Spooky and Cleo kept their memories, so Trey might have assumed that these three would keep theirs, but missed an extra step that would be needed to keep their spirit memories from fading while they are en-fleshed.
I have to agree with Zengar. Trey would be lower than a snake’s belly if he did this deliberately but accidentally or through lack of understanding? Two things though, first this seems to have just happened. Up until Michelle said they were always Syrens they remembered their previous lives and what they were doing. Second Michelle was effected first and Trey is nowhere near them at this time.
My first thought is that “Bruce” did it, that Michelle accepting him as a familiar by giving him a name gave him access to do this. IDK if he just don’t want them to leave him and go back to their previous lives or if he has some purpose in mind. Zengar’s comment made me think it might be a safety precaution though. They were spirit guides. Maybe someone, Bruce in this case, having access to them/their memories activated a safety feature blocking their memories or their ability to talk about it? Kind of a reach I know but the afterlife wouldn’t like information getting out to mortals. Spooky and Cleo aren’t in the same position since the Syren teaching them already knew about the spirit realm.
Whatever it happens to be, I don’t think Trey is the cause. He is a variation of Ace after all.
Oops, accidental mind-rape isn’t something you just shrug off as a bit of a harmless side consequence. Things like manslaughter as crimes exist to hold people accountable for acts they deliberately take which result in harm to others, even if there was no intent to do harm.
As far as we can tell, these Sirens have effectively been hit with amnesia. This might or might not be permanent. (Or, at least permanent until they eventually die or are discovered and rescued.)
We have no idea how long these ladies will be stuck as Sirens. Wasn’t it mentioned or implied earlier in the comic that Sirens are rather powerful supernatural beings with long (perhaps even immortal) lifespans? Mama Wata is a being of god-like powers and is who knows how ancient. And wasn’t the Siren in Australia who took in the earlier Siren duo hundreds of years old? (Speaking of which, why didn’t the earlier Siren duo believe that they had always been Sirens?)
In the case of a mortal forgetting their previous life when they re-incarnate, this is temporary. They get the memories of their previous lives back after they die. Also, isn’t reincarnation something that the soul chooses? If so, then at least they had a choice. Remember the conversation between Ace and one of the kittens as the kitten led Ace from Mama Wata’s domain back to Earth? Remember how the kitten said that life as a cat is like a soul vacation or a reward?
Okay, Spooky and Cleo remembered who there were (they even attempted to Friend Ace on Book of Faces), butt this? This is so wrong
I highly recommend Spider Robinson’s novel “Mindkiller” as an excellent treatise on the ethics of accidental and intentional memory erasure. Well, really, I highly recommend any of his works just on general principles…