Welcome to Edensphere, Fullme- wait, what did you say?

[child_proteus]

Characters: Throne/Teddy (child_proteus), Fullmetal/Al (rustyarmor)
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 17th. Evening.
Location: The Wilderness as a Shoe Outlet.
Rating: PG.
Summary: Fullmetal returns to the Sphere and Throne is there to greet them. Only, they don't recognize one another anymore.

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[child_proteus]

Throne winced sympathetically, forcing half of his face to pucker as he watched the new hatchling fall forward onto the floor and utter a small streams of what sounded like "ow"s before blinking up and around at his surroundings. "Sorry about that," Throne said apologetically, squatting down a little ways behind him and peering with him at what was left of the torn cocoon from over the new arrival's shoulder. "Somebody didn't really think of the logistics when they decided to stack these babies up on shelves." Throne looked at the guy with an expression that said sorry about that. He was probably Throne's age, give or take -- and with a small nudge with the side of his wrist to a goopy shoulder he offered the new guy a folded up towel for him to clean himself off with.

Straightening up, he offered a hand and nodding over his shoulder to the shelves of cocoons behind him, Throne said, "they're kind of wet for eggs. We like to call them cocoons. And yeah, you sort of just popped out of that one. So welcome to your new life. This is Edensphere." He smiled, as best as he could, feeling how tired the muscles of his face were, but knowing that ever little bit counted in these first moments.

[rustyarmor]

He started a little when someone, somewhere behind him, began to speak. When he turned around to face whoever it was, he was greeted by a young blond guy. He was beginning to sense a pattern it what was going one... Fall, meet a blond guy, fall again, meet another blond guy. He was kind of hoping it wouldn't repeat after this.

He was a little confused when the stranger offered him a towel, having somehow ignored the fact that he was covered in a strange goo of some kind. And then there was the fact that he was naked.

....

His face turned crimson as he drew his legs up in front of him, throwing the towel over his head to try and hide his embarrassment. That, and he felt that if he couldn't see the other guy, somehow the other guy couldn't see him.

"J-just born huh? I guess if you're just born, you won't be wearing clothes, right? Haha..." He laughed nervously, scrubbing furiously at his head with the towel, trying to remove as much goo as possible from his long blond hair.

He peered from under the towel at the stranger, searching his face. He immediately began to feel badly for the guy; he looked tired and depressed, his smile not spreading up to his clear blue eyes. "Are you... are you okay?"

[child_proteus]

Throne's smile flickered down into a frown for a moment and then back up again before growing wider, slightly more genuine as it settled onto his face. Nobody, no hatchling he'd ever greeted or seen greeted or had ever heard about before had ever actually done this -- dropped into a brand new world, only to ask their guide if they were okay. He figured that if the new arrival -- whatever he'd be named -- could tell, that he probably looked pretty damn sad, which wasn't a good sign. Shaking his head, Throne gave a small laugh which was quiet and private. "I'm fine," he said and nodded once, "it's just life being like life, I guess," and shrugged, looking back down at the hand that he offered to the guy. "I figure, soon enough, you'll learn all about it so let's not start off your birthday on such a low note, yeah?"

With his other hand he held out a small bunch of clothes, urging for the guy to take it as he politely diverted his eyes and looked off and up towards the ceiling. "You know, that's really a question I should be asking you, you know," he said, clasping in hands in the small of his back and rocking back and forth on his heels. "I mean, you've probably already realized that you can't really remember anything. Well, except your dream. I know it's kind of disorienting at first," he made his expression as sympathetic as he could, even though he wasn't looking at the new guy, "and, well, it never really stops being disorienting, but at least we're all in the same boat."

[rustyarmor]

He couldn't help but feel sad for the guy standing in front of him. He wanted to tell him to cheer up, but something in the way he had laughed and spoke suggested it wasn't that simple. He tried to think of something to say-- anything, really-- that might help the guy focus on something else.

Before he could come up with anything suitable, however, he was handed a set of clothes. He took took them with a small "thanks", at the same time accepting the guy's other hand and pulling himself up. He was grateful that the stranger had chosen to stare up at the ceiling at this point, seeing as he was already pretty embarrassed to be naked in front of someone he didn't know.

"That was a dream, huh? I guess that makes sense, it was a little unusual." By now he had wriggled into his clothes and was attempting yet again to clean his hair. He listened carefully to what the other guy was saying, his expression becoming more and more concerned with everything he heard. "No one has any memories huh..." He looked down, letting the news sink in. He then looked at the other young man, his face brightening. "Oh well, I'm sure there's a way to get them back!"

[child_proteus]

Optimism. Now there was something Throne hadn't seen or felt or heard in a really really long time. Even the brightest of people, the ones that he knew faced each day with a spring in their step and a kind word for everybody, had been worn down by the hurricane. Dull smiles, tired faces, worry lines at the corners of everyone's mouths and eyes. So this young guy, this new arrival with this goopy long hair and his smiling eyes, was the closest thing that Throne had come to feeling hope in a good long while.

And so, Throne smiled again. Really smiled, this time, in a way that he felt not only in his face and his cheeks, which suddenly felt warm, but also in his chest, sending tiny little flashes of relief throughout this body. It was an oddly visceral reaction, one that Throne didn't really quite understand for a moment, before he realized that what he was feeling was relief -- the tiniest moment of release as a week's worth of tension and pain and regret suddenly relaxed, and for a moment, Throne actually felt that he was happy.

"You know," he said, openly grateful, "we could use a couple more yous in this place right now." He nodded and then took a step back, nodding for the hatchling to follow, so that he wasn't standing in a puddle of lung-goo. "There are ways to get your memory back, yeah, these things -- they're crystals that this place occasionally spits out and we find and touch and then ta da! instant jog down memory lane." Throne waggled his head back and forth for a minute; he was getting ahead of himself and it was always best with these sorts of things to start small and work his way up. "Anyways, first things first. Your dream -- remember it okay?" He let a small seriousness pass through his eyes to emphasize this point to the new arrival. "It's the only thing that you have left for whatever live you once came from. And so..." And Throne flashed a quick smirk, "...the moment of truth. You get to pick yourself a name. Any name, but try to make it good -- make it meaningful. Got any ideas?"