A classic anime

With a click and a whirr, the VCR accepts the tape. The audio crackles faintly in that warm, nostalgic sort of way as soon as Scythe turns the TV on. A studio logo Scythe couldn't hope to recognize flashes on screen, then flickers away.

Showing all the bombast and blind self-confidence of an era that clearly didn't know any better, a loud song influenced by 80's rock plays over visuals of giant robots fighting strange space aliens. It reminds Scythe of something he might have seen on somebody's TV in passing when he was a kid, or that a friend of a friend might have been trying to show him. Maybe he'd seen the thumbnail for a video reviewing this old anime while he was scrolling through, waiting at the bus stop. It's hard to tell. After all, it isn't really a memory. It's the imprint of where a memory used to be.

The warm, intoxicating waves of someone else's nostalgia wash over him. Scythe starts to fall asleep on his feet, his whole body feeling like it's melting away. And then...