Disclaimer: Full Metal Alchemist belongs to Arakawa Hiromu, Square Enix, Funimation, and others whom I have no idea.

A/N: Scheizska and old age. If by up to this time you have no idea who she is (and you should know, whether sub or dub)…Shame on you. XP Concrit, please.

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Once in the not so distant past, she prided herself on her wonderful ability to memorize the largest documents to the last word, while others praised her talent. It was the only thing about her worth praise.

Her husband disagreed, always quick to mention the intimacies shared under the sheets. He wondered if the bookworm he married read more than just educational texts, inciting furious blushes and half-hearted punches from his spouse.

Still, before she married the man, before she could even hold down a proper occupation, that amazing memory was the only thing people could find of her worth anything. That ability helped numerous people, whether it was to simply recite a forgotten recipe or jot down lost research histories.

It was a shame that she was beginning to lose that talent in her old age.

She was no longer the naive young bookworm who spent obscene amounts of time theorizing the possibilities of alien conspiracies within the government of Amestris. She was wiser now, and had become one of those who laughed at such theories in public, but still pondered them just for the fun of it in private. She was also nearly seventy, living off a retirement pension, and probably undergoing the first stages of senility.

Her photographic memory was running out of film, and she was all out of spare flashbulbs. Her brain just could not keep up to the usual standard of memorization anymore. She actually had to read the same page of a file several times, and even then she could not remember even a paragraph. Her memories of pages and passages were no longer crisp and clear, now blurring together and some even disappearing into the blank spaces of her mind.

Old age sucked.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. She considered herself lucky that she was never once mighty in her whole life, which meant she fell from a significantly lower height.

Then again, perhaps that wasn't entirely true. Once, many years ago, she felt as though she could have surpassed Atlas in strength, and carried the whole world with only the palm of her hand. Those many years ago, she could not have felt more elated then when her pervert of a boyfriend offered her a proposition: a marriage proposal.

Somehow, even though everything else was starting to dim and fade, her memories of people, places, and events remained resilient against the rushing tide of the forgotten. She remembered her mother, acquaintances, coworkers, enemies, friends, her husband, their children, towns and cities, restaurants and parks, reading when she should have been working, being fired on multiple occasions, finally being given an occupation that stuck…None of those pictures were hazy or distorted. None of them stayed as underdeveloped film rolls.

It was like having a massive photo album with an infinite number of slots. She could summon up a memory as easily as though she were giving a command. She could repeat past conversations word for word without hindrance or hesitation.

She could forget the words, but not the experiences.

With her memories and family to keep her company, the prospect of going senile did not look so bleak. After all, she considered it as simply going through a second childhood.

And at the end of it all, oblivion.

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A/N: The husband can be anyone you want. I didn't have anyone in mind, but strangely the only two male characters I've seen her paired with are Farman and Havoc.