[The first change is confusion. His gaze flickers as if something is off about the idea that Al suddenly doesn't want to punch him, rather than the other way around. His jaw his still tense, lips pressing together as he takes in his brother's appearance now that they were closer.
He remembers Al like this, but he knows that he's going to be a strange sight to his brother no matter what time frame he came from. When Al reaches forward a survival instinct in the back of his mind flinches, he was just about to punch him, after all. Still, he doesn't resist the hug, letting Alphonse pull him forward and even returning the motion despite the conflicting feelings fighting for the surface of his emotions.]
Al...
[His first instinct is to say he didn't have a choice. He was pulled into Purgatorium without his own knowledge and eventually, over the years wound up here - but he knew that wasn't what Al was referring to. Because the way these things worked, no one knows you leave from home. They'd seen it proven enough times with new arrivals, nothing changed as if their disappearances meant nothing.
Still, it was a question he asked himself all the time. If he'd been taken away from his home world like that, and given the chance to go back- why would he just deliberately throw it all away again? That didn't sound like him at all. Yet, Al had said it happened - that he'd followed after him after Edward left him behind - and here he was again repeating that same conversation, as far as he could tell.]
It's ... hard to explain.
[Really, he wasn't sure how else to start that conversation - but now that he spoke he also wasn't sure how to finish it. Hard to explain was... an understatement, and trying to tell someone you had no memory of the event they had just witnessed with you right beside them pretty much never went well. He was not looking forward to this.]
no subject
He remembers Al like this, but he knows that he's going to be a strange sight to his brother no matter what time frame he came from. When Al reaches forward a survival instinct in the back of his mind flinches, he was just about to punch him, after all. Still, he doesn't resist the hug, letting Alphonse pull him forward and even returning the motion despite the conflicting feelings fighting for the surface of his emotions.]
Al...
[His first instinct is to say he didn't have a choice. He was pulled into Purgatorium without his own knowledge and eventually, over the years wound up here - but he knew that wasn't what Al was referring to. Because the way these things worked, no one knows you leave from home. They'd seen it proven enough times with new arrivals, nothing changed as if their disappearances meant nothing.
Still, it was a question he asked himself all the time. If he'd been taken away from his home world like that, and given the chance to go back- why would he just deliberately throw it all away again? That didn't sound like him at all. Yet, Al had said it happened - that he'd followed after him after Edward left him behind - and here he was again repeating that same conversation, as far as he could tell.]
It's ... hard to explain.
[Really, he wasn't sure how else to start that conversation - but now that he spoke he also wasn't sure how to finish it. Hard to explain was... an understatement, and trying to tell someone you had no memory of the event they had just witnessed with you right beside them pretty much never went well. He was not looking forward to this.]