Welcome to Edensphere, East.

[child_proteus]

Characters: Teddy/Throne child_proteus, Aziraphale/East tartancakes
Date/Time: Friday, November 28th - early evening
Location: Caesar's Palace, the Wilderness
Rating: PG?
Summary: Is there a worse better place to be born than Las Vegas?

Comments

[child_proteus]

Throne had half a mind to be a complete smart-ass and just deadpan 'Edensphere' at the new guy, but he could tell already by the look on his face that some of the gears were finally engaging and that the reality of the situation -- beyond any and all superficial weirdness -- was starting to set in. Tilting his head to one side, he bent at his waist and peered down into the man's quite-handsome face and looked at him sympathetically.

"If you want to get technical, we're in the Sphere. If you want to know specifics," and here Throne gestured vaguely behind his head toward a row of slots that were chiming out a vaguely familiar tune, "we're in Vegas. And if you want to get kind of OCD about things, we're in the main dealer room of Caesar's Palace." He gave a small shrug and straightened up again, offering a hand out to the hatchling to help him up. With his other hand Throne offered up a set of the scratchy, linen, one-size-fits-all clothing that they gave to every new arrival.

"If not, it's cool," he said, nodding towards his hand and the clothes. "Whatever floats your boat, guy. I'm flexible."

[tartancakes]

It was uncomfortable enough being naked in a very strange place but did this giver of towels really have to lean in so close? He resisted the sudden urge he felt to recoil and stutter about "personal space," and instead listened to the- various explanations.

"What about," he began, accepting the hand offered to him and holding the towel in place as he stood up. His legs were kind enough to not collapse which was very lovely, indeed. He gave the clothes an uncertain look but took them anyway (admittedly a bit gingerly). "What about if I'd like to know why I just woke up naked on the floor of a casino, because it's rather troublesome." He managed a sheepish half-smile and tried not to think too much more about the mostly-naked-in-a-public-place thing.

He really doubted casinos came with dressing rooms, which was a shame. Perhaps he could ask, er- "I'm afraid I didn't get your name."

[child_proteus]

"Ah!" Throne exclaimed, with a waggle of one of his fingers in the man's face, "No spoilers. First things first and then I field questions from the audience, yeah?" He quirked an eyebrow. "I've got this whole deal down to a science, dude. Trust me, it's better this way."

Looking up at the ceiling again, Throne rolled his eyes as far up and back as they would go, just in case the newborn was inclined to change right then and there. In the Hall of the Beginnings it was less of an issue, since it was usually just him and the arrival, or -- worse case scenario -- him, Drake, and them. This, however, promised to be infinitely more awkward, and inwardly Throne didn't blame the guy for deciding to wait until later to properly pull on some clothes. "Funny you should mention names," Throne then said, "cause I was just getting to yours." He grinned again, small but cheeky. "So, how 'bout a little game of I'll tell you mine and you tell me yours, sound good?"

For the second time, Throne offered a hand to the stranger, but this time it was in greeting. In the past, some of the newborns had taken this as an act of aggression -- something lost in translation between his world and theirs, he always imagined -- but the fact that the man seemed to know what a casino was, Throne hazarded a guess that he'd understand the gesture. "The name's Throne. And you are...?"

[tartancakes]

The finger in his face made him lean back suddenly and he wondered if everyone around here typically invaded his personal bubble. Or if he'd just fallen out of his personal bubble and surrendered personal space. That even sounded ridiculous when he thought about it.

"Science. Right. Okay." He paused. "I'm not very keen on dressing here, if that's why you're looking up like that." About to extend his hand again, he hesitated. That tricky thing where he remembered next to nothing and was bothered about it came back, and he considered. He could remember rain, and feeling all sorts of negative things, and someone else or something else that was kind of unclear- and something he was supposed to be doing. Somewhere. A purpose, somewhere, if he were to be so bold. That would do.

He grasped Throne's hand in a handshake and tried to look more confident than he felt. "I suppose you can call me East. It's nice to meet you."

He really did want to know why he was naked in a casino, though.

[child_proteus]

The lean was enough to clue Throne in that -- yes perhaps it was time to reel in his friendliness a notch. Despite all of the empathy he had towards the hatchlings, he had a tendencies to still forget the most important aspect of the situation -- that popping out of a goo-filled sac and suddenly stripped of all memory, did not make people prone to giving up their personal bubble, regardless of how much they may need a friendly face. Giving the tiniest sigh, he shook East's hand again, this time more firmly and smiled again, this time almost knowingly. "Well, I say again, yeah? Welcome to Edensphere, East."

Stepping back to give the new arrival some breathing room, he walked a tiny circle around him, gesturing with one hand at the casino floor around him as he spoke. "Survey says that East isn't your real name, but then again..." and he stopped abruptly to look at East pointedly for a moment, "...Throne's not my real name, either. Survey also says that, if you try and think real hard, there isn't much you do remember...besides, of course, your dream."

Here, Throne paused and turned on his heels to face East again. "You don't remember who you are, and where you've come from. None of us do. For all you know and I know, once upon a time we knew one another but now..." His voice trailed of and Throne gave a small shrug. "Likelihood's small, though. We all come from different worlds, different realities, different times." There was a pause and Throne's expression grew thoughtful. "All of us get born out of one of those things," and he pointed at the cocoon from which East had just tumbled from gracelessly, "and if we die here, if we're lucky, we get born again."

Raising his eyebrows, Throne looked at East as if to say, any questions? There was still more to his song and dance, of course, but he figured dropping the Motherload always called for more questions.

[tartancakes]

East followed Throne with his eyes as the other spoke. He considered the things being told to him, noting that, well, if this Throne fellow happened to be lying, it wasn't as if he remembered anything to prove he was being lied to. And that supported the idea that all of this was true and not just a ridiculously vivid hallucination.

He sighed. It was a lot to take in after waking up for, technically, the first time. Made his head hurt, or perhaps that was the lights, but regardless it was a lot of information that sounded entirely impossible but apparently wasn't and East had to shift the clothes into one arm to rub his temple with the other hand to make sense of just about everything he'd been told. It continued to not make enough sense for his liking. But, he reasoned, he could ask all kinds of circular questions and wind up with, probably, a larger headache... Or he could just decide, for the moment, that the situation couldn't be helped. Perhaps he should make the best of it, and puzzle over things in depth later.

He looked at Throne again. "All right," he said. "That's, er, that's all very nice, then." He wanted to ask 'What in the world are we all doing here,' with a bit of 'What does an assortment of amnesiacs need a casino for, don't they have more important things to think about,' but- "I suspect you'll go on to tell me what exactly I'm supposed to do now? Er, please?"

[child_proteus]

Throne shrugged at East's request, perhaps a lot less helpfully than East would have liked him to. It seemed like a simple enough question, but he knew that at the heart of it was something infinitely more complicated. He had been here -- how long? -- and Throne still had no definitive answer to that. "Welllllll," he said, drawing the word out as long as he could in one breath, "that's kind of a tricky question. I mean, I can give you the rest of my spiel and point you in the right direction, but, other than that, it's kind of completely up to you." He shrugged again and rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. "Which, okay, okay -- probably not the answer you're looking for, but its the only one I've got. If it makes you feel any better, we all had the same one as you. Just takes time to figure out our own answer, you know?" Another lopsided smile, this one, apologetic.

Giving a sigh, Throne fumbled with the two remaining items in his hands. The first he tossed to East in an underhanded lob -- a tiny pouch full of chips of metal and wood that jangled softly. "Pocket money," Throne said matter-of-factly with a nod. "Yes before you ask, despite the fact that we live in a huge tree that yes currently seems to house all of Las Vegas in its basement, we are required to pay for things. Which means get jobs all around the tree or, if that doesn't fly, maybe on one of the islands." He paused. "And yes before you ask, I did say tree -- which yes is huge -- and is surrounded by floating islands, and which sometimes has Las Vegas down below, or sometimes a huge pinball machine or an epic shoe store. Oh, yeah, and it's all in a huge fishbowl...can't forget that part."

Throne raised his eyebrows after that last sentence. "Tell me, did I totally just lose you just then, dude? Cause I'm about to get to the best part." He smirked again and held up the last thing remaining in his hands. It was book, simple and leather bound, which Throne shook, back and forth beside his face as if to show it off. On the surface it was less than impressive, but this was always his favorite part of the whole deal -- the journal. Most of the time he cut to chase about it, but this time around things turned out to leave it the best for last. "So? More questions? Or journal time?"

[tartancakes]

"A point in the right direction is more than nothing at all," East said with a half-smile. "I imagine I'll have time enough to figure out the rest." He decided it was probably best to drop the, er, philosophical aspect of this place for the moment. Especially when a pouch was coming at him and oh dear he had to catch that. He opened the pouch and peered inside as Throne spoke.

The giant-tree-in-a-fishbowl part threw him for a loop. He hoped he didn't look entirely baffled when he looked up from the coins. "So this is only a temporary house of vice, and people aren't usually waking up naked on the gaudy carpet?" He considered what he'd just said and shook his head.

"I mean- All right, so: large tree, floating islands, random...things, and a fishbowl. I don't know why I'm believing this, but, I believe it." He gave the journal a scrutinizing look. He had an urge to take it and study it and make sure it was in mint condition and assure it no one would hurt it- Except that that was more ridiculous than anything he'd experienced as of yet, which was saying something. He settled for directing a curious expression at Throne.

"It appears to be a book. Books are all well and good, but- Well, I'm sure there's something fantastic and magical about it, isn't there?" He smiled benevolently.

sorry, yesterday was a bit hectic for me. :O

[child_proteus]

"Rule number one about this place, man," Throne said holding the book towards East and flipping it open to a page. He tapped at where a new entry was quickly writing itself in a sharp, jagged-looking hand. "Every thing here's got something fantastic and magical about it..." Throne smiled knowingly. "...even you." Snapping the book shut he held it out to East, nodding at it so that he would take it. "And not in the whole we're all snowflakes, isn't that nice kind of way, dude. Trust me on this one too."

Once East had taken the book, Throne gestured towards it with one hand. "That's your journal, everybody's got one." He fished through his knapsack for a moment before pulling out his own. It was roughly identical to East's, except for perhaps being a bit more worse for wear. "Don't lose it," he said with some force, before continuing on -- casually. "It's the way we communicate around here, technology is sparse in some places in the tree. You write in it, and everybody sees it -- that's the way it works. So don't use it as a diary unless you want everybody to know your dirty laundry. Oh, and no ripping out of pages. Cause they still work."