001 - video (plus spam for Arthur)

[cauchemal]

[Anyone on either side of Mal's room (7.05) will hear a voice calling "Dom?" After a moment, Mal knocks over her communicator, switching it on, and the Barge video feed is treated to a dining-table's-eye-view of a pretty woman looking worriedly around what appears to be the living room of a creatively- and eclectically-decorated Southern California

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Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Arthur smiles a little when she confirms that it does sound insane. At least Mal's got some of her sanity left. He'd probably be more concerned if she had believed him whole heartedly. But then there's the dreaded question. Arthur doesn't want to be the one to tell her, but then, who else would? He doesn't trust anybody here to break it to Mal properly. The inmates would try to drive her further into insanity. The other wardens don't have the best track record of not coming across as confrontational or self righteous.

"You're dead. And you don't know why you're here. Statistically speaking, that makes you one of the people up for a second chance." But now the question is: why is Mal an inmate? He knows what happened, how she framed Cobb, but in a way it feels like the Admiral's condemning her as cut from the same cloth as the genocidal nutcases and killers. "You'll be assigned a warden-- like a case worker, not a jailer. They'll help you sort out... whatever it is you need. When you're finished here, you can go back home." To Cobb and James and Philippa is the conclusion he wants to make explicit, but he doesn't. He doesn't really know what happens to inmates, despite the promises made.

Arthur Spam Thread - I'd like to say I'm giving myself an even bigger headache than the movie did.

[cauchemal]

"But I was trying-" she blurts, then stops herself. I was trying to go back home. She had never told Arthur the truth, and she was fairly certain that Dom hadn't-that she was trapped in a dream that Dom had sworn up and down was real. Some prickle of intuition suggests that continuing to not tell him might be the better course of action.

She turns away from Arthur, hugging herself and looking back out over the rail into the void. She's trembling, but she doesn't seem to be aware of it; she's too lost in her own thoughts. None of this is right, none of it. That leap from the dream ... no, someone must have put her under before she could really jump, for real, then drew her down into another dream space, from which she'd leapt into this, perhaps some other dreamer's Limbo-yes, surely that must be it. She can't be dead. She can't.

She can feel sobs of frustration rising in her throat. "I just want to go home," she whispers. She turns to Arthur, her eyes starting to brim with tears. "And I must work with this ... this warden? Do I have any choice in who it is?" There's a dread now, of a stranger, one who could be a projection, or perhaps another dreamer. This is madness, she thinks for what is possibly the hundredth time since she woke up in that terrible room.

Arthur Spam Thread - Gotta love this canon

[paradoxlol]

Arthur's taken aback by her reaction-- not that he wasn't expecting her to get upset. No, that's a normal reaction to being told you're dead and on your way down something like the River Styx. It's more that he's not sure what to do now that they've reached this point. He's always on point when it comes to jobs, but this is more than that. This is a woman he knew, who he loved as a dear friend, who died and haunted Cobb-- in turn haunting him-- breaking down. It felt like a lifetime ago since he'd seen her, and now she's here and for once, Arthur doesn't know what to do.

"I do, too," he admits, his voice softer now. Now that he's sure she's not a projection, he allows his guard to drop further, although it's hard to forget everything and let it go completely. "The Admiral chooses assignments, but they can change." He reaches out again, not to grab her this time, but to offer some comfort, a stroke of the shoulder. "Hey... If they're not good for you, talk to me. I'll make sure you get somebody else."

He may as well put his point man skills to some use on the Barge.

Arthur Spam Thread - if you've not seen it, remind me to scan in Nolan's hand-drawn dream schematic.

[cauchemal]

"Good old Arthur," she whispers, a note of real affection in her voice. She hiccups a little through her tears, which she's not sure she can control anymore, particularly not when he touches her. She flinches a little, involuntarily, but calms back down again, like a nervous horse. She's still not sure she trusts him, and this dream still makes no sense, but the fact that there's anyone familiar here at all ... that's something to cling to. She doesn't move any closer to him, but she doesn't move away, and more importantly, she doesn't go back toward the railing.

"That room," she says after a moment. She sniffles and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "The room I woke up in. It was just like ... like our home, in California. It smelled like it." She swallows. "Is that where I will live?"

Arthur Spam Thread - I don't think I have. SHOW!

[paradoxlol]

Arthur frowns. He hadn't considered what it would be like for inmates, to wake up in their own homes like that, only to find themselves on the Barge in actuality. His own cabin gave him his share of problems (waking up in a dream world, every single day), but it at least isn't an endless taunt of home.

He nods. "It's a way to... to make you feel at home." But without Dom, without the kids. His brow creases as he considers what that might do to her. Mal's not exactly stable, as it is, and something like that is hard enough on a person. "If you're not ready for that, you can stay with me as long as you need to." Granted, sleeping on the floor would be uncomfortable, but he figures it'll only be temporary, if she even takes him up on it. He thinks for a moment, then continues. "Listen, there are some things I've got to warn you about."

Such as her husband's identical twin.

Arthur Spam Thread - ha, you're in for a treat. will get it no later than Monday.

[cauchemal]

"I don't know yet," she says softly. There's still the whole doesn't-quite-trust-him problem, for one thing. She's faintly afraid to go back, but none of her choices seem terribly easy right now. "Let me think on it."

She looks up at him. "What things?"

Arthur Spam Thread - Fab!

[paradoxlol]

"Take your time," he says softly, then draws his arm back to stick his hands in his pockets. He walks a little closer to the railing and looks out, then turns back to Mal. "It's dangerous here. You have to be careful who you trust. A lot of these people are-- or... were, in life, violent criminals." And the thought of Mal getting murdered by one of them makes his stomach turn. He glances down, thinking, then fixes her with a serious look. "And I'm going to warn you now: there's a man who looks like Cobb. A few years younger, but otherwise..." He shakes his head, somewhat disbelievingly. "The same. But it's not him. It's not even a... projection of him. He's a different man altogether."

He sighs and runs his hands through his hair with exasperation. "I swear this will make sense after a while."

Arthur Spam Thread

[cauchemal]

She feels faintly sick. Dream, it's all a dream, she tells herself, because that's the only way any of this madness can hang together in her mind. And because as long as she tells herself it's a dream, it means there's a promise of a way out, however drastic.

But to Arthur she simply nods. It's probably clear from her face that she's only just managing to take this all in now and will try to process it properly later, and that she's simply grasping at the straws closest to her heart. "And this ... this person who looks like Dom, is he one of the dangerous ones?"

Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Arthur feels some guilt creeping on him. He knows he's not responsible for this, and he's well used to being the bearer of bad news normally, but he's wondering if he's just pushing Mal further and further to the edge by unloading this on her. He shakes his head. "No. He seems normal." Seems being the operative word. "I mean, I don't know. I avoid him, as a rule."

He pauses, thinking, then asks a potentially risky question. "Do you have your totem?" Since Cobb has hers, he's pretty sure the answer's 'no,' but it's worth a shot.

Arthur Spam Thread

[cauchemal]

She shakes her head. "No. I looked everywhere for it, but ..." She must have dropped it, she realises now, in the hotel room. "It's gone. I've never lost it before."

Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Damn. Arthur doesn't even know where he'd be without his. If he didn't have it with him, he'd have gone nuts after the first flood. He doesn't say anything at first-- what can he say, really? It's not like she can go get a new totem when she's somewhere like the Barge, somewhere so challenging to reality that anything from its environment would be untrustworthy. The expression on his face is one of concern, of sympathy, but he doesn't articulate it.

"I know it's not much of a consolation," he says after some thought, reaching into his pocket. He pulls out his die, holding it in the palm of his hand to illustrate. "But I check it. Every day." And then, he closes his fingers over the die. While he doesn't think Mal would touch it-- they were all her idea, after all, so she knows better than anybody else how sacred a totem is to a person-- he still doesn't want to take that chance. "This world, strange as it is, is real."

Arthur Spam Thread

[cauchemal]

She remembers that die. Remembers telling him no, don't demonstrate it to me, don't let me see it. She's more sure than ever now that this is really Arthur, though the fact doesn't make her any less wary, and she's still not sure of the soundness of his assessment of this strange place's reality. She can't check his totem. She has to take his word for it.

Stalemate.

She heaves a heavy sigh, covering her face with her hands, suddenly overwhelmed my every kind of exhaustion. "Arthur? Will you ... will you walk me back to my room, please? I'm so tired, and I don't want to go alone."

Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Arthur pockets the die again, nodding. "Of course." He takes a few steps back, getting started, then casts a conflicted look at her. "It's... good to see you again."

He needs to look at this optimistically. If Mal's here, if she gets her second chance... would it change everything back home?

Arthur Spam Thread

[cauchemal]

"I'm glad you're here," she says. It's true.

She's quiet for much of the walk back to her room, letting Arthur occasionally help her get her bearings, and once they get to the right floor, figuring out which room is hers is easy: it's the one with the door hanging wide open. She stops in the hallway before entering; over her shoulder, he can see that the room is a wreck, turned upside-down in her search for her totem.

"Arthur," she says, finally giving voice to a question that's been nagging at her, "how long has it been? Since you last saw me?"

Arthur Spam Thread - VAGUE RESPONSE THANKS TO VAGUE CANON

[paradoxlol]

"You need to get in the habit of locking your door," he says, as soon as he sees that it's wide open. "Even when you're inside, keep it locked." He keeps his eyes focused on the mess, wishing he could brush aside her question, but knowing he can't. "Several years," he says, his voice strained just a touch, barely noticeable to most people. It's something he can talk about fairly easily with other people, but talking to Mal about life after her death... It's definitely screwing with his head. He continues to look at the room, rather than Mal. "It's been several years."

That's not counting the times he'd seen her projection, but she doesn't need to know about that. He can't bring himself to tell her about the effect it all had on Cobb.

Arthur Spam Thread - works for me! yay, vague canon. :|

[cauchemal]

Years. She can't process this; the layers of dream and reality as she understands them are all folded on themselves now like some kind of devilish origami trick, and she can't find the notch or the flap that will undo it all and make sense of it. She turns away from Arthur, her face blank, and takes a few steps into her room. Then stops. A small choking noise rises from her throat, something worse than a sob, and she slowly sinks down to the floor. For a moment she's quiet, unmoving, and then her whole body starts to shake with silent weeping.