NEW COMERS POST 1

[proximods]

Who: OPEN TO ALL
What: The first wave of newcomers arrive in the hospital.
Where: The Hospital, Center City
When: July 26
Warnings: Please tag any smut or triggers in the comment subject line.

The common room is just as brightly lit and white as the rest of the hospital. There are some scattered seats - large plush chairs and stiff looking couches, as well as wooden chairs at tables - and a TV blaring local soap operas in the corner. A few long tables are set up along the walls, each with a sign dangling down from the front to inform newcomers of what they can find here. Housing, job opportunities, and the Proxima Gamma Information Desk. Minus a few pamphlets about the unique attractions the island has to offer, there isn’t really that much of use on the last table. It’s clearly meant more for tourists than people who have been kidnapped.

Another set of tables hold a variety of snacks; fruits, vegetables, various candies, as well as a table with water, punch, and soda. No alcohol, unfortunately - this is a hospital, after all. You’ll have to leave to go find a bar for something stronger than that.

There’s not much place else to go - so come on in, settle down, and maybe find a familiar face, if you’re lucky.

Comments

Edward Elric | FMA (CRAU) | Open!

[hermetics]

Ed's neck still felt like it was throbbing, a bandage wrapped nearly around the base of his throat from where he'd immediately tried to dig out the chip when he'd felt it come to the surface. He knew it was probably futile, but when he'd been outright told he had something inside him, it had been an almost instinctual reaction. The nurses had sedated him quickly and he hadn't managed to even touch the thing. Failing once was enough to make him realize he couldn't try again. At least not while he was stuck in this hospital.

Still seething with rage that was held just barely under the surface, he was trying his best to keep a cool head. Beating people worked sometimes, but these nurses seemed to know little, and were less than willing to share. Instead of heading straight to the common room, Ed had decided to snoop around the halls, trying to find some answers in any corridor that the doctors would actually allow him in to.

Re: Edward Elric | FMA (CRAU) | Open!

[recombined]

Alphonse had been exploring as well, the layout of the building and some of the rooms keeping him occupied as he tried to make sense of the machinery within. He didn't see Ed though, until he was coming out of one of the rooms and his footsteps paused for a long moment.

"Brother?" Because even if he'd only just seen him more or less, it was still a bit of a surprise to find him here as well.

Well, and there was the relief of seeing a familiar face.

[hermetics]

Ed had just left Al himself, though in an entirely different situation. He'd been expecting to be here alone, or at the very least not with anyone from home, and so when he heard his brother's voice so close, he almost froze. Spinning pretty quickly, his forehead creased as he tried to register his presence. "Al...?"

Yeah. Yeah that was him. In his regular old body standing there in the same hotel lobby. "AL!" Grinning, he went to quickly put his arm around his shoulder, grabbing him close. He was younger than he'd been on the island when he'd last seen him. Maybe he was just straight from home. He'd be careful about what he mentioned in case.

"I was starting to think I was all by myself in this freaky place. You... just wake up too?"

[recombined]

He returned the hug, smiling like an idiot over his brother being there.

"About an hour ago, actually, I was taking a look around. I guess they decided we both needed to be here?" Which had him relaxing.

[hermetics]

"One Elric brother is pretty useless without the other, right? Only makes sense." The two of them could handle anything if they were together, that was the thought he'd always had. He glanced just past Al, looking down the hall he'd come from, wondering if...

"You haven't seen Winry, have you? O-Or anyone else from home, you know, just. In general. Maybe."

[recombined]

"I haven't seen anyone from home but you, at least so far." Alphonse studied him for a moment before he shifted his grip on the tablet.

"I did talk to someone who said she knew you, though."

[hermetics]

There was a brief moment of disappointment that showed on his face, but he was quick to push it aside and focus on that much more interesting tidbit. "I'd expect something like that back home, but not around here. What did she say her name was?"

[misanthropicmezzode]

Kim poked her head out of her room just as Ed finished passing by it. He seemed to be doing a good job evading the nurses, but there were only so many places to duck behind in a hospital residential wing.

The metal arm immediately drew Kim's attention, and she activated the sensors built into her cybernetic arm. Interesting.

She fell into step behind Ed, although she wasn't quite as light on her feet as him.

"Hey, who built those prosthetics? They're almost as good as mine, which is pretty impressive, although pretty heavy too. Do you use them for a lot of hand to hand combat or something?"

[hermetics]

Ed jumped at the voice, trying not to look irritated as he glanced back at the girl who had started following behind him. He wasn't the best at the whole casual conversations thing, but talking about automail was at least something he was used to.

Turning his gaze back forward, he nodded. "Almost always in some kind of fight. Winry Rockbell's my mechanic and she makes the best automail there is." Emphasis on best completely necessary. No one was gonna imply that her's was anything but top quality while he was around.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"'Auto mail' huh? So it's a prosthetic that evolved from armor. Something to offset battlefield wounds, most likely, to put soldiers back into the fray? There must be a lot of war in your world to justify spending so much to repair a soldier instead of just getting another warm body into the front." She kind of wanted to meet Winry Rockbell though. She was doing some pretty amazing work with obviously less advanced tech. Kim wanted to pick her brain.

[hermetics]

Well that was one way to think about it. He shrugged, flexing his hand a little as he thought about it. "Constant wars, I guess. Some soldiers opt into it for the benefits." His tone made it pretty clear he was definitely not one of those people though. Not wanting to really discuss it, he looked at her again, wrinkling his forehead. "You sure go for the heavy discussions quick. What's your stuff for if not fighting?"

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Well mostly just because I kind of like having two hands, I mean evolution was pretty spot on with that, having just the one hand kind of sucks like how much more trouble is it just to dress yourself with just one hand," she said, and you can bet that designing and building and installing a cybernetic arm was that much harder with just one hand. "But I guess the second purpose is for building things."

To emphasize her hand opened up into a number of tools on miniature robot arms.

[hermetics]

Well that was unexpected. Ed's eyes widened a fraction at the site of the tools. Color him slightly impressed. It seemed like a lot of excess, but he imagined it could come in handy. "If Winry shows up here, don't let her catch sight of that. She'll try to take your arm apart and put it back together again without even asking."

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Not gonna lie that sounds horrifying." Rethinking the picking Winry's brain thing.

"So what are you looking for?"

[automechanic]

The entire place was overwhelming to her. It was unlike anything that she had ever seen before. She was much better about hiding her fear at a situation, but at that point she was trying to ignore just how terrifying the situation at hand was.

For awhile she had stayed in the common room trying to find someone familiar, but eventually she had needed some air and so stepping out of the room was at least a little relaxing. Finding a chair in one corner of the hallway, she took a seat. Winry let out a shaky breath and put her head into her hands, not knowing that someone familiar was actually quite close by.

[hermetics]

Ed was getting frustrated at this point, having had to slip past more than a few nurses and argue with at least one of them about why he wasn't allowed in to another wing. It was a hospital, right? What if he needed care that the common room didn't provide? What if he was looking for a doctor to speak with about symptoms? She wasn't buying any of it and he slumped back toward the common room with as much of a grumpy look on his face as ever.

He'd been ready to go and drown his frustration in food when he saw the door to the room open and a woman step out of it. An all too familiar woman, even, one that made his heart stop simply because he hadn't had much hope of seeing her again until he was back in Amestris. He walked over slowly, in case she might disappear on him, and gave out a shaky, "... Winry...?"

[automechanic]

She would have known that voice anywhere. Though her eyes show sign of redness that suggest she's may have been crying a little bit, her face turns up into a smile.

"Ed? Ed!? It's really you?" She hadn't seen him since they had left it at the train station and seeing him here made everything feel suddenly better. She jumped up and moved closer to him.

[hermetics]

There was a mixture of relief and sadness on his face as he closed the gap between them, going to wrap his arms around her in a tight hug. Knowing she'd been brought back to places like this, even if it made it easier on him, left him with a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. Winry hadn't handled Atia well. He couldn't imagine her handling this place much better, but maybe things would be easier this time around.

His fists clenched around the fabric of her shirt, face burying into her shoulder. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

[ninjainviolet]

Sheena was on her way to the common to do exactly what Ed was doing, but in a totally different manner. Sometimes you got more information by being in a crowd rather than skulking about in corridors.

Ninja credo: blend in so you don't draw attention to yourself.

And creeping from door to door didn't exactly keep attention off a person; in fact, it drew it to them instead. And Sheena's was currently focused on the blond snooping through the halls as she tried to determined if he would recognize her just as she did him. Well, only one way to find out. Stepping in his path, she waited until he was almost upon her before speaking.

"Edward?"

[hermetics]

Ed wasn't exactly expecting to have someone right in front of him, and it had made him stop rather suddenly and with irritation so as not to collide with the woman. The first words out of his mouth were the starts of some not-so-gentlemanly phrases to tell her about rudeness, but they were cut short when he saw her face and heard her voice.

"Sheena?" Well, that was unexpected. "You got grabbed from that fucking place, too?"

[ninjainviolet]

She wouldn't be a ninja if she did the expected, now would she? Although, sticking her hand out to steady him if necessary was probably one of the most predictable things she could have done. Seeing the recognition in his eyes, Sheena smiled--only to frown almost immediately.

"Yeah..." She blinked and looked at him, her eyes narrowing suddenly. "Wait... Are you saying you came from there directly to here?"

[hermetics]

It was a strange question to be asked, really. Why wouldn't he have come from one island to another? Ed wrinkled his forehead as he tried to remember if there was anything that had changed at home between Atia and now. Eventually, he gave a slow nod.

"If there was a break between, I didn't feel it. Another one of those weird time paradox things, I guess."

[ninjainviolet]

No it wasn't. Not for Sheena. But should she tell him? If their roles were reversed, she'd sure as hell would want to know. She sighed slowly.

"There was a break, Ed. At least for me... I haven't seen you in almost two years."

She was 22 now, Ed.

sorry this took a while :(

[hermetics]

"Two years?!" His voice cracked a little on the last word. He may have been used to time lapses, but that was a bit of a stretch. He shook his head, feeling a headache already coming on. "It feels like barely two hours since I was on that stupid rock."

[ninjainviolet]

Sheena nodded. "Two years," she confirmed in a soft voice. "One day you were there, and the next...gone. I had hoped you had gone home, but I guess you hadn't." She took a step closer and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Ed."