Cover art
Lost Memories[]
- Volume 2
- Previous: Lost Memories 6, Electric Sheep In The Cradle
- Current: Lost Memories 7, Message
- Next: Lost Movies 8, Old Movie Star
Overview[]
Roger Smith receives a request from an amnesiac Paradigm employee to find a mysterious woman from a picture for him, with a high-quality synthetic flower as his only other lead. Roger and Dorothy’s search however soon leads them into a bizarre phenomena in the city of people spontaneously losing their memories, which soon even affects the negotiator himself.
Summary[]
A man named Jean is walking the streets with a rose in hand, moving past some men on the sidewalk setting up ad posters on a fashion store’s wall, followed by a monologue from Roger:
“Plants are a precious presence in this world. How many people in the city have ever seen a real flower? Many people interact with artificial flowers in the same way they used to interact with real flowers. Even if something isn’t real, people might love it as if it were real - There is nothing real or fake to a loving heart.”
An elderly couple forgets their request for Roger shortly after arriving to his mansion.
We cut to the Smith Mansion where an elderly couple is speaking to Roger. However, they end up forgetting what they came over to ask him for.
Roger awkwardly states he can’t help clients who forgot their requests, but tells them to contact him once they remember. He’s visibly annoyed, only for Norman Burg to tell him he has another request, before another monologue plays:
“Paradigm Corporation, if you live in this city, you’re bound to get involved with them in some way, whether you like it or not, from small restaurants to even the Military Police, Paradigm Corporation owns almost everything in this city, which I can’t help but dislike. I eventually quit the Military Police out of disgust over this, but I didn’t get that same feeling from this man, who came from Paradigm’s side of the fence.”
We then see Jean, who stays silent long enough for Roger to ask if he too forgot his request. Although admitting he doesn’t know his past, he remembers what he was sent to do: Find a person he cared about long ago, and cites Roger’s reputation for investigating things. Roger internally whines he’s not a detective, before Jean then presents his artificial flower and a photo to the negotiator.
Roger talks with Jean regarding his flower and the woman in the photo.
Jean explains his only clue were these objects. Roger observes the flower is indeed artificial, noting real flowers appear rarely in Paradigm City, yet Jean’s flower looks even better than the real thing. Jean agrees, before then presenting the photo, depicting a woman smiling amongst many flowers, asking Roger to help him somehow find her.
This perplexes Roger, who then explains that with this few number of clues, it could take a while to find the woman. Jean says this is no problem, and claims he can wait forever.
As Jean heads back to his car and waves Roger goodbye, Roger thinks to himself:
“I normally don't want to have anything to do with people who belong to the Paradigm Group, but this beautiful artificial flower and his personality made me accept this request. However, with just a photo and an artificial flower that I don't know where it was taken...I have no clue where to go.”
Roger finds his first lead, Dorothy's bouquet.
Roger is then surprised by the sight of Dorothy with a large bouquet of flowers, which are then handed to Norman who compliments them.
Dorothy states they’re the best ones on the market, and Norman replies this is more than enough for display in the guest room, contemplating also saving some for the office. Roger silently stares at the flowers, concerning Norman for a moment. Before Roger can respond, Dorothy then compares her flowers with the one Roger got from Jean, and deduces his flower is older, but also the same kind.
Roger isn’t amused that Dorothy came to this conclusion first, agreeing with her statement and saying few people can create flowers like these
We then cut to Roger and Dorothy in The Griffon, where Dorothy concludes these flowers are all made by the same person, to which Roger ponders the following:
“If R. Dorothy, an android, was able to identify it, then there is no doubt, after all, wasn’t she also created by humans?”
Roger seeks new lead after the flower shopkeeper forgets who made Jean's rose
Roger and Dorothy then enter a flower shop, the former somewhat bewildered in awe at it’s sheer variety of flora. He notes that, upon closer inspection, you can tell each flower differs from one another depending on their creator. The lady at the shop confirms this, and says the flower Roger’s currently holding is from the current, most popular flower-maker. However, just as Roger is about to ask for details, the woman blushes and admits that, despite working with the flower’s creator all the time, she doesn’t remember who they are.
Roger realizes he's beginning to forget important details too.
Returning to The Griffon, Roger quietly reassures himself he and Dorothy will solve this request soon, only for Dorothy to point out they’ve already checked the area they’re now driving in. This somewhat amuses Roger, who asks when they got lost. That’s when he recalled something Jean told him: When Roger states he might be unable to find the woman in the photo, and the longer he looks, the more money Jean will have to pay.
Jean dismisses this, saying he’d search for her himself if he had time. He also states money’s no concern as he’s managing the signboard business at Paradigm Corporation, which has been taking care of him recently. He hates to admit it, but he’s not concerned with money at the moment.
Throughout this flashback we see the many, many billboards in question, prompting Roger to recall something else Jean said: He and his signboard business recently received many orders from the head office of Paradigm. Roger sees these signs and soon is overwhelmed, saying it’s too much before then talking to Dorothy. He tells her this may sound strange, but he’s forgotten where he’s going, only recalling he’s headed to the creator of these flowers.
However, Dorothy merely states she doesn’t know either, shocking Roger. He stops The Griffon for a moment and asks a pedestrian for help, only to see the person completely silent and with extremely constricted eyes. This spooks Roger back into his car, followed by a panicking man in a top-hat screaming he’s late for something and then approaches Roger.
Roger encounters an amnesiac Mad Hatter.
The Mad Hatter asks for a ride, but can’t recall the name for what exactly Roger is driving, only knowing it’s a “fast-moving thing”. He soon concludes he’s wasting time and is going to be late. Roger puzzled, asks the hatter where he's headed, only for the man to say that detail doesn’t matter, and that everyone must hurry or they’ll be late, which would be bad.
A perturbed Roger looks on in a cold sweat.
They look at the sign reading “Lonestar Premier Petroleum Co. Number 1 In Energy”, and Dorothy then notices something about this sign, along with all the others: It says “Lost Memory” on it. Roger asks what she’s talking about, stating he doesn’t see it anywhere. However, eventually he starts to catch on. (Mostly) eligible examples of these signs include the following:
- Lonestar Premier Petroleum Co. Number 1 In Energy
- Sloppy Joe’s Take-out
- Millet Moon Bakary
- All Hours Mart
- Mex Motel 24hr.Vacancy
- Lou’s T.V.
- Mega Music Factory
- Delicious Treats & Meals At Mom’s Eatery
- Lonsworth. Rimes Morgon Reality
- Soul Closet Men’s Modern Fashion Style
Roger sees the subliminal messaging for the first time, before bumping into the elderly couple from before.
Roger looks on in bewilderment as he sees all the letters needed to spell out “Lost Memories” on every sign he can see, exactly in the correct spelling order. Roger asks out loud what the point of all this is, stating it’s as if these signs are making people’s memories vanish. Suddenly, the elderly couple who was meeting Roger in the beginning of this chapter walk by the negotiator, where the woman vaguely recognizes him, but can’t remember why and excuses herself.
Roger asks what kind of place this is, before then asking Dorothy if she forgot where they were going, despite being an android. Dorothy clarifies she wasn’t built to forget, she just doesn’t recognize the information. Roger yells that in a situation like this, that’s no different than forgetting something. Then, he catches the scent of something.
He follows the smell, initially suspecting a nostalgic perfume, but then recalling it’s the smell of flowers, and notes Timothy Waynewright carefully nurtured one of the few real ones, accompanied by flashbacks of said flowers on Timothy’s vest and Dorothy’s Nightengale Dress.
Roger meets Anne, who gets emotional when she remembers making Jean's flower.
Roger and Dorothy then approach a building, a voice from the other side saying they can come in, the door not being locked. They enter the building, and it’s filled to the brim with the same artificial flowers as before. Roger deduces this was where that scent came from. They’re greeted by an elderly woman named Anne, who credits herself as the flowers' creator. Roger asks for further confirmation whilst holding up the artificial plant, which Anne does. However she then notices something, and asks Roger to bring the flower closer to her, after which she begins to tear up.
Anne notes she’s forgotten everything else, only remembering how to make the flowers as a flashback of Jean’s flower image appears. She recalls long ago there was someone who loved seeing her make flowers, but can’t remember who it was. Before Roger can respond, they hear someone entering the building.
Jean and Anne reunite.
Anne assumes today might be the day the florist came over to pick up her flowers, only for Jean to arrive, having recognized the smell of her flowers. Roger ponders if that scent was caused by a memory as Jean reunites with Anne, the woman in the old picture. It was at this point that Dorothy deduced that Jean was an android just like her, but didn’t know about it.
Roger then goes on a short monologue
“Even if something is man-made, people love it as the real thing. In the heart of love, there is nothing real or fake.”
Big O confiscates the billboards.
On their way out, Dorothy tells Roger Jean was able to find a lover on his own, only for Roger to state they can’t go home like this, followed by a scene of Big O holding a huge pile of the Lost Memory signs, the negotiator noting these need to be disposed of.
However, this then causes Roger to recall something: Jean was in charge of the Sign Board business, from Paradigm’s Sign Board Business, implying these signs might tie to the corporation itself.
We then cut to Paradigm Dome, with Alex Rosewater and Angel talking on the balcony. Angel reports that the black megadeus has removed all the signs from the plot of land they were using for experimentation, as well as the fact Jean, an android they excavated, repaired and put in charge of the Paradigm Sign Board, has requested to leave the company. Alex is fine with this, having already gotten the results of said experiment. He then smugly notes that Roger took longer to do this job than he had expected.
Trivia[]
- Megadeus: Big O
- Locations: Smith Mansion, Floral Shop, Experiment Site Full of Businesses, Anne’s Flower Shop, Paradigm HQ.
- Much like in Chapter 2, Electric Butterfly and Missing Cat, another collective of species that went extinct in Paradigm City was flowers, which now predominately consist of synthetic replicas.
- Dorothy once again is shown to have a keen eye for artificial objects and beings, not only recognizing Jean's flower as aritficial despite it's purported quality, but eventually figured out Jean was an android just like her, which even Jean himself was unaware of. This is similar to the previously mentioned Act 8, Missing Cat, where Dorothy deduces Pero was not a real cat, but a child genetically altered by Eugene into an animal.
- Jean is the third human-like android to appear in this story after Dorothy and R.D., and then followed by Rosco Fitzgerald and the unfinished naked RD2 android from episode 15 of the anime, Negotiations with the Dead.
- It’s presumed Jean and his picture of Anne in her younger years was from prior to 40 years ago, as Angel described that he was excavated and repaired, similar to various other forms of pre-Event technology in this series.
- As stated all the way back in Chapter 1, Memory Thieves, every human and robot in Paradigm City lost their memory 40 years ago, hence why Jean and Anne almost completely forgot about each other, save for a few fragmented memories.
- It's also mentioned in Chapter 1 that people sometimes still lose their memories to this day, which could potentially be related to phenomena similar to what Alex was doing with the billboards.
- The human sense of smell is heavily tied to memory, which becomes a focal point to this story and possibly even Alex’s experiment.
- Much like Lost Memories Chapter 6, Electric Sheep In The Cradle, this chapter features another experiment by Alex that comes at the detriment of citizens of Paradigm City, in this case regarding the inducement of amnesia in humans (and possibly also androids)
- The mechanics of how Alex’s billboards tied to citizens of Paradigm losing their memories might tie into the concept of subliminal messaging, where hidden messages in various forms of stimuli can cause subconscious psychological reactions in people without them realizing it.
- We get another instance of Dorothy stating she’s not designed to be capable of forgetting memories (tying not only into the events of volume six and supposedly the end of episode 9 of the anime Beck Comes Back, but also the events of anime episodes 23 to 26).
- Upon being asked if she too is being influenced by the billboards, Dorothy claims she simply “didn’t recognize the information”, but this prompts Roger to claim that’s no different from memory loss. Assuming he’s correct and this dialogue wasn’t lost in translation, this would canonically be the only time Dorothy ever forgets something in the entire franchise.