Entering someone’s mind is not an easy task.
It takes something extraordinary to make an impression that sticks in your brain.
For example, a profound experience could lead you to develop a surprisingly new way of thinking and become a core memory that finds a home within your mind.
But all memories fade away.
It’s the effect that time has on the mind.
The neurons in your gray matter that once held those memories safe attach to new synapses created by experiences and sensations, leaving those old memories vulnerable.
Then, instead of merely fading away, an invader takes over and alters your precious memories.
The joy and wonder of that experience morphs into something entirely different, and you find yourself enduring pain and turmoil.
You’ve become the victim.
A martyr.
And what you thought you remembered has been forgotten.
Brain tumor patients often experience profound hallucinations or disturbances that can culminate with them saying or doing something so alarming to their loved one that it changes that person’s perspective on who they are.
Graham’s brother experienced just that.
A tumor had grown in Graham’s brain, and the surrounding edema was pushing up against his skull, causing immense pain and negatively altering his personality.
Graham had become a victim of his affliction.
He needed an urgent craniotomy, and after I explained the risk of memory loss, his brother consented to surgery as his proxy.
I marked my target, drilled open Graham’s skull, and entered his brain.
My mission was to lead those wayward cells to exodus, providing Graham a path to salvation.
I successfully removed the growth from his cortex, but when Graham emerged from anesthesia he looked at his brother from a different perspective.
Though the decreased swelling in Graham’s brain allowed for his symptoms to resolve, his memory of his brother had been removed with the tumor.
Graham’s brother had been forgotten.
You fancy invading others’ minds, Grimskull.
You preach these intrusive ideas towards these poor souls who have nothing better to do than endure your bullshit.
It’s your words that stick in their minds, covertly poisoning them as they unknowingly nurture that single idea and grow it, morphing it into something entirely different and profound that it changes their perspective on life.
You negatively affect others.
Well, at Clash 306 the doctor is in, and you’re about to get a taste of your own medicine, because even a skull like yours isn’t impervious to invasion.
I can enter your mind, Grimskull.
I’m going to drill into your cranium and remove whatever is poisoning your cortex so that you will never be able to spread your disease to the masses of wayward Arcadians that you target.
I’ll lead you to exile from your current affliction, morphing you into something entirely different, something you’ve always wanted to be:
A martyr.
Because I’m an extraordinary surgeon.
And you’re my next victim.
Arcadia’s memory of you will begin fading away soon after I finish operating on you until you’re forgotten to the sands of time.
It’s time for your craniotomy.
Now take a deep breath, and close your eyes…
See you on the other side, Grimskull.