Inception - TSE ATCAI AELA - Arthur/Eames, PG-13
This story contains character death and mildly-graphic violence. It's not like anything else I've written for Inception. You can consider this a warning. I never thought I'd be the sort of person to warn for that, but everybody has their buttons and I try to respect that.
Inception
Arthur/Eames, ensemble
3500 words
TSE ATCAI AELA
13 minutes ago
Everyone dies eventually. Everyone.
Sooner or later people have to come to terms with this sort of thing.
Kicking and screaming, crying and promising to do better, have never staved off death. Death can't be shot between the eyes. The PASIV device doesn't work on reality. There are no negotiations with your last moments on this earth.
The myth of cheating death is the greatest work of organized religion. Arthur is pretty sure that faith in a god, any god, is for people who are trying to strike a deal with someone who isn't even listening in the first place.
Then again, Arthur doesn't believe in higher powers or greater goods or afterlives. Arthur doesn't believe in anything besides the here and now. And that has nothing to do with his Jewish mother.
Arthur just knows better. He's seen enough of this world to know that death comes for everyone.
And today.
Today it's coming for him.
Today, Arthur is going to die.
4 hours ago
The thing most men don't seem to want to admit is that being hit fucking hurts. It hurts a lot. Movies where people grin after they've been struck; people who laugh after they've been shot -- it's all bullshit. Everything in life is bullshit, but that's real bullshit.
Being hit is fucking painful.
But it's a hell of a lot better than being stabbed with a knife.
Repeatedly.
Especially when the area you're being stabbed in is the kidney.
The right kidney to be precise.
Arthur's pretty sure he preferred it when he was just being punched.
6 hours and 23 minutes ago
Arthur has pretty specific thoughts on being tied up: namely that he is not okay with it unless Eames is the one doing the tying. And only then when they're in the flat. Or a hotel. Or someplace semi-private. And there is no deadline in sight.
He is not okay with being tied to a meat hook in an abandoned warehouse.
No, he is really not okay with that.
8 hours ago
"Did you really think you could not deliver and we would just forget?"
Arthur peers at the man before him. It's hard to see though since one of his eyes is swollen shut and the other feels like his cornea has been ripped halfway off.
He would say something, but the duct tape over his mouth is making conversation a bit hard.
"Mftpht," he says anyway.
Noises are easier than talking. Especially since two of his molars were ripped out twenty minutes ago.
According to Chuck Palahniuk, "On a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone drops to zero," but that survival rate is a lot lower for people who steal for a living. People who do dream heists aren't prone to death by "natural causes" - unless suicide, limbo, unhappy clients, unhappy victims, pissed off partners and the organized crime syndicates of various cities and countries around the world are seen as "natural causes."
Arthur always knew than this life was going to catch up with him someday.
He's sort of surprised that it took this long.
The man laughs derisively. "Cobol Engineering does not forget, Mr. Arthur."
12 hours ago
"I'm going to Sainsbury's for milk."
Eames pokes his head out from underneath his pillow and gives Arthur a bleary-eyed look. "Typically, when people are running out on one another it's 'I'm going to the off-license for fags.' Or bread. Or the latest copy of The Sun."
Arthur rolls his eyes. "There's bread in the kitchen; reading The Sun gives me agita; and if I catch you smoking while I'm out, you're going to wish I'd stayed gone."
Eames sniffs and rubs at his eyes. "I didn't know you cared."
"I don't," Arthur says by rote.
Eames sticks out his tongue. It's horrifically endearing. His face is creased with sleep and when Arthur crouches down at his side of the bed, Eames smiles at him sleepily.
"Go back to sleep," Arthur says, brushing a kiss against Eames' temple.
Eames makes a contented noise. "It's pissing down buckets," he mumbles after Arthur. "Don't forget an umbrella."
4 days ago
"The Seychelles. I want to go to the Seychelles."
Arthur tries to pry one eye open. It tells him to fuck off.
"Fpppt," he says, rolling over and burrowing his head underneath the pillows.
"You said when the job was over we'd go on holiday. You promised."
"I never promise," Arthur tells their perfectly wrinkled beige fitted sheet.
Eames lifts the pillow away from Arthur's face. "You promised me six days ago when I did that swirly trick with my tongue," Eames reminds him.
Both of Arthur's eyes open. He remembers the swirly trick.
He rolls over and Eames is sitting on the bed next to him, hair everywhere, eyes bright, mouth swollen and red, angry scratches along the right side of his ribs from Arthur's nails, which clearly need to be trimmed.
Arthur rubs his eyes. "The Seychelles, huh?"
"Five words," Eames says. "Mahé Island. Banyan Tree. Hillside Pool Villas. Twenty-four hour nudity."
"That's nine words and a hyphenate."
"I already booked us for next week."
Arthur has to laugh. "Of course you did."
3 weeks ago
"The head of Mega Corporation of Doom wants us to extract what his mistress wants for her birthday," Arthur repeats. "He couldn't just ask her?"
"It is a delicate matter," Saito says, taking a sip of his green tea.
"It's his mistress," Eames says. "How delicate can it be?"
"You obviously have never shown up with a green wool rug," Saito says.
3 months ago
Dom looks good. Happy. Content. "Retirement suits you," Arthur says.
Dom looks up from the mint chocolate chip ice cream he's dishing into a blue plastic bowl. "You think so?"
Arthur's mouth quirks at the left corner. "Don't you?"
Dom nods. "Yeah."
Arthur places another slice of chocolate cake in the bowl and hands the bowl to Dom for another scoop of ice cream. They make a good assembly line.
"Domesticity suits you," Dom says, placing yet another completed bowl on the serving tray.
Arthur looks through the glass sliding doors. Eames is currently playing 'horse' with James in the backyard; James is sitting on Eames' back and using the collar of Eames' plaid shirt to direct him where he wants him to go.
They're both laughing.
"Yeah," he says. "It does."
"What are we talking about?" Ariadne says, walking into the kitchen carrying a wrapped present for James that's almost as big as she is.
"How Eames has domesticated the mighty Arthur."
"I take offense to that," Arthur protests. "I think it should be the other way around."
Ariadne pats him on the arm after she sets the present down on the kitchen table. "Of course you do," she says. Arthur looks from her to Dom.
One day it'll happen for them, too.
He thinks -- hopes -- Mal would've approved.
7 months and 23 days ago
The best flight time from Los Angeles to Mombasa is twenty-four hours and forty-five minutes and requires stops in London and Nairobi. That doesn't even include the time it takes to actually locate the person Arthur is attempting to track down.
By the time Arthur finds Eames he's been awake for thirty-six hours and just wants to take a fucking shower.
Eames opens the door wearing threadbare linen pants and a purple shirt that says Happy Mondays. "Well, this is unexpected."
Arthur is too tired for pleasantries. He pushes his way past Eames and drops his suitcase on the floor by an enormous earthenware pot. Arthur takes note of the exquisite detail work on the pot as he begins stripping off his clothes and looking around.
There's mosquito netting over Eames' bed, which has been pushed to the side, and there are two ceiling fans rotating rapidly.
"Hello to you too, Eames," Eames mocks behind him. "It's lovely to see you. Why yes I came all this way just to strip for you, why do you ask?"
Arthur turns back around and drops his favorite striped oxford on the floor before going to work on his belt. "You told me to dream bigger," he says. "I got tired of dreaming."
8 months ago
FISCHER HEIR TO DISSOLVE FISCHER-MORROW
Press conference to be held today to discuss future of company
Inception can't be done.
Except they just did it.
If A then B. If B then C.
Ergo, if A then C.
Unless A is wrong to start with.
9 months and 21 days ago
"Cobol Engineering," Dom says.
Arthur can feel his forehead creasing in a frown. "Are you sure about this? I've heard less than exemplary things about working for them."
"It's a job. We need work."
This is not true. Arthur doesn't need to work for Cobol. He can get plenty of work on his own.
He's pretty sure that's not the point.
12 months and 29 days ago
"Do not ever work with Cobol Engineering," Eames says by way of greeting.
"Errrph?"
"Ah, I forgot about the time difference in Rangoon."
"Sleeping," Arthur says.
"Dreaming of me, I hope."
"No."
"Sadness and woe," Eames says.
Arthur sighs and turns on the light on his nightstand. "What do you want, Eames?"
"World peace, a cure for cancer and you naked in my bed in Mombasa."
"Good luck with that," Arthur says before hanging up.
18 months and 27 days ago
From: John Smith
To: Jane Smith
Date: Sun, April 23, 2009 at 03:25 AM -600 (GMT)
Subject: (none)
They think he killed her
5 years, 7 months and 13 days ago
"This is my daughter, Mallorie," Professor Miles says when Arthur shows up for office hours. Not that Arthur thinks being summoned to meet with the head of the Psychology department is the sort of thing you can actually say no to.
"Mal," the dark-haired woman says, extending her hand.
Her smile is crooked. She has an accent. Arthur is besotted. "Arthur," he says, shaking her hand.
Her grip is firm, exacting. Not limp and weak like so many women's. And men's.
"Arthur, I had Mal come by because I think you might be interested in something she's working on," Professor Miles says.
"Really?" Arthur says. "What's that?"
"Have you ever heard of Dream Technology?"
20 years ago
Arthur and his mom have an apartment on the top floor of a three-story house in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Arthur doesn't really mind Bloomfield. It's better than Wichita. And Chicago. And Dallas. The boys don't pick on him as much here. And they're long gone from his mom's boyfriend in Dallas. Arthur really, really hated that guy. He really hated how he made his mom cry. Maybe it's thinking about Mark that distracts him and that's why it happens. Why he misses the step. Arthur doesn't know a lot about dying, but he knows enough to think it's happening when he falls down two flights of stairs and lands on his arm. His chest hurts like he can't breathe and the blood pouring from his nose spills into his mouth.
11 years ago
Arthur's mother dies on a Wednesday. It's a car accident. She's coming home from her second job as the hostess at Sizzler and the guy in the red Toyota Corolla apparently doesn't think traffic lights at four-way intersections apply to him.
10 years, 11 months and 27 days ago
Arthur graduates from high school on a Saturday. The sun is high in the sky and all the graduates are sitting in unevenly spaced chairs on the football field, friends and family in the bleachers. Everybody sweats in their polyester robes. When they call Arthur's name no one yells obnoxiously or blows the boat horns that have made Arthur's ears ring for the last twenty minutes.
His mother has been dead for three days.
10 years, 11 months and 26 days ago
Signing up for the military seems like a good idea at the time. There's no way Arthur's going to be able to pay the tuition for Columbia on his own now, and if there's money from his mother's death he's not going to want it.
4 years and 8 months ago
"I'm going to ask Mal to marry me," Dom says conspiratorially.
Arthur looks up from the research he's been pouring over for the last two hours. There's something he's missing about the patent Xerxes Pharmaceuticals is filing. It's just not right. The i's are dotted, but not all the t's are crossed.
The Special Forces made him even more obsessive than he thought was possible. Thank god that's over.
He takes a sip of his Mountain Dew. He has to stop drinking this crap. "You think she's going to say yes?"
Dom's face falls. "You don't think she will?"
Arthur can feel the smile threatening to escape. "You never know, it is a possibility."
"You think she's too good for me, don't you?"
"Yes," Arthur says with a grin. "But so do you."
"I always knew you liked her better than me."
"Yes, but again, so do you," Arthur says. He doesn't say, "I met her first." He doesn't say, "She loved me first."
But he wants to.
3 years and 11 months ago
"If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"
The window high up on the wall lets Arthur turn around and give his companion the most withering look he can muster at the moment. It's fairly forceful considering that they just got locked in a closet together in Khartoum.
"I will shoot you, Mr. Eames," Arthur says, pointing his Walther right at Eames' forehead.
Eames frowns. "I'm fairly sure that's not what I asked."
Arthur narrows his eyes. "Do you find that this approach actually works for you? Do the high-school girls just swoon at your feet?"
"I prefer my partners to be legal in all one-hundred and ninety-five countries, territories and colonies, including Taiwan."
"Where the hell did Mal find you?"
"Oh, now that's between Mal and me," Eames says. "But if you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you one day."
"Don't hold your breath."
20 months ago
James is seven months old. Mal is chronically tired. She doesn't smile anymore. Dom's anxious all the time. The stress rolls off of them in waves. It's bleeding into everything around them: their work, the house, the car, their interactions with Arthur. Even minor phone calls leave Arthur exhausted.
When Eames calls with a job in Jakarta, Arthur takes it.
That part where they have wildly inappropriate, yet utterly fantastic sex is totally unplanned.
15 months ago
Arthur doesn't like Nash. There's something wrong there.
1 year ago
Arthur calls Eames at a more reasonable time -- namely when he's awake and Eames should be dead asleep. "You called me in the middle of the night," he says by way of greeting.
"Yes, and it was the best phone sex I've ever had."
Damn Eames for sounding wide awake. Arthur takes a moment to rewind what he remembers of their brief conversation. "I will kill you in your sleep, you know."
"I look forward to it."
"Why did you call me about Cobol Engineering?"
"Professional courtesy."
"Eames, can you spell professional courtesy?"
"Certainly. S-u-c-k-m-y-c-o-c-k."
Arthur has to laugh despite himself.
10 months ago
"He's not stable," Eames says, throwing clothes into his leather satchel.
It's a gorgeous walnut shade; Arthur bought it for him in Rome. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Arthur rubs his forehead. "You don't know that."
"Was I the only one who just saw Mal in that job, because I'm fairly certain that you were right there next to me when she appeared."
"He's stressed out."
"He's stressed out?" Eames says in disbelief. "Arthur, please."
"We've been over this already."
Eames stuffs the last of his shirts in the bag and doesn't even bother to zip it closed. "He's going to get you killed. I am not going to stick around and watch it happen."
Arthur stands up when Eames grabs his bag. "I have to help him," he says.
Eames scrubs his hand through his hair. "You don't have to do anything for him," he says. "He doesn't love you -- I do."
Arthur is still standing in the middle of the abandoned hotel room in Santiago long after Eames is gone. There's a long crack running through the turquoise-painted south wall.
5 weeks ago
"We should get a place of our own," Arthur says while Eames is in the middle of making dinner.
The Ginsu knife (a gift from Yusuf) Eames is using clatters onto the counter. "Can you save the life altering statements for when I'm not preparing dinner?"
Arthur puts his Arsenal mug down on the counter. "Is that a no?"
"No!" Eames says vehemently. "I mean no, no it's not."
Arthur slides up behind Eames and pushes the knife halfway across the counter. "So, can I get an answer that doesn't involve knives and the word 'no'?"
When Eames turns his head, his nose brushes along Arthur's jaw. "Yes," he says. "A thousand times yes."
"I don't need a thousand, I just need one."
10 hours ago
Arthur wakes up in the trunk of a car. He has a spectacular headache, which is what happens when you get drugged with chloroform on your way back from the grocery store. There's plastic wrap around his hands, which are bound together behind his back. His feet are bound together, too, which makes kicking out a tail light to get attention difficult, but not impossible. And then the car stops.
Time for Plan B.
8 hours and 5 minutes ago
Karma. Schadenfreude. Revenge. Vengeance. Getting your just deserts. Payback.
The things you do will always come back to you.
Always.
It's just a matter of time.
5 hours ago
"Your associate Mr. Cobb should be enjoying a similar visit right now."
Arthur's blood runs cold.
"Leave him out of this."
"Oh, it's too late for that, Mr. Arthur. Far, far too late for that."
Arthur narrows his eyes.
The man from Cobol laughs. "You are thinking about all the ways you are going to disembowel me when you are free. I think perhaps you might want to reconsider your plan and thank me for leaving Mr. Eames to his own devices. I could technically consider him a loose end."
Arthur has to correct his original thought.
The phrase "his blood ran cold" does not begin to describe Arthur's reaction to idea of something happening to Eames.
2 hours ago
Arthur is dreaming of a holiday in the Seychelles.
The villa in Mahé is gorgeous. The air is humid and the flora and fauna around them so all encompassing, Arthur could believe they're the only two people left in the entire world. The villa even has its own pool. He does like vacationing in style. He takes another sip of something that has to be around 50 proof and looks up when Eames emerges from the main building wearing the smallest swim trunks Arthur has ever seen.
"Just take them off," he says with a laugh.
Eames beams winningly. "This is why I love you. You're a brilliant man."
"I love you, too," Arthur says with full conviction.
A searing pain pulls Arthur back to reality.
That happens when you get shot in the kneecap.
8 minutes ago
They only take Arthur down from the meat hook so that they can tape him to a chair. It's not like he's going anywhere. He's been shot, stabbed and beaten up so badly, he really can't see anything anymore. He spares a thought for Dom. And then he spares one for the children. For Mal's children.
Every remaining thought, though is for Eames.
5 seconds ago
Arthur is not going to die.
Arthur is dying right now.
He should have been more specific.
Specificity has always been so important to him.
His need for it makes Eames laugh.
It's always made Eames laugh.
He's going to miss that laugh.
Now
Now.
Now.
…
..
.
.
.
.
BODY FOUND IN THAMES
Floater fished from river next to the London Eye
Metropolitan Police were called to the London Eye shortly after 7pm upon being alerted to a corpse in the water by a member of the public. Dozens of tourists were on the wheel at the time of the alarm and were evacuated and held for questioning. The death is currently being treated as "unexplained" and the deceased's identity has not yet been confirmed, police said.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police were called to the London Eye at approximately quarter past seven following reports of a body found floating in the Thames."
Update: Metropolitan Police have now (22:14) confirmed that the body of an unidentified white male was recovered from the Thames by the Marine Unit today.
No further information was offered from Scotland Yard.
-end-
TSE ATCAI AELA inverted is ALEA IACTA EST (The Die is Cast)
Beta by maurheti.
ETA: Now with art by amsuhl
Inception
Arthur/Eames, ensemble
3500 words
TSE ATCAI AELA
13 minutes ago
Everyone dies eventually. Everyone.
Sooner or later people have to come to terms with this sort of thing.
Kicking and screaming, crying and promising to do better, have never staved off death. Death can't be shot between the eyes. The PASIV device doesn't work on reality. There are no negotiations with your last moments on this earth.
The myth of cheating death is the greatest work of organized religion. Arthur is pretty sure that faith in a god, any god, is for people who are trying to strike a deal with someone who isn't even listening in the first place.
Then again, Arthur doesn't believe in higher powers or greater goods or afterlives. Arthur doesn't believe in anything besides the here and now. And that has nothing to do with his Jewish mother.
Arthur just knows better. He's seen enough of this world to know that death comes for everyone.
And today.
Today it's coming for him.
Today, Arthur is going to die.
4 hours ago
The thing most men don't seem to want to admit is that being hit fucking hurts. It hurts a lot. Movies where people grin after they've been struck; people who laugh after they've been shot -- it's all bullshit. Everything in life is bullshit, but that's real bullshit.
Being hit is fucking painful.
But it's a hell of a lot better than being stabbed with a knife.
Repeatedly.
Especially when the area you're being stabbed in is the kidney.
The right kidney to be precise.
Arthur's pretty sure he preferred it when he was just being punched.
6 hours and 23 minutes ago
Arthur has pretty specific thoughts on being tied up: namely that he is not okay with it unless Eames is the one doing the tying. And only then when they're in the flat. Or a hotel. Or someplace semi-private. And there is no deadline in sight.
He is not okay with being tied to a meat hook in an abandoned warehouse.
No, he is really not okay with that.
8 hours ago
"Did you really think you could not deliver and we would just forget?"
Arthur peers at the man before him. It's hard to see though since one of his eyes is swollen shut and the other feels like his cornea has been ripped halfway off.
He would say something, but the duct tape over his mouth is making conversation a bit hard.
"Mftpht," he says anyway.
Noises are easier than talking. Especially since two of his molars were ripped out twenty minutes ago.
According to Chuck Palahniuk, "On a long enough time line the survival rate for everyone drops to zero," but that survival rate is a lot lower for people who steal for a living. People who do dream heists aren't prone to death by "natural causes" - unless suicide, limbo, unhappy clients, unhappy victims, pissed off partners and the organized crime syndicates of various cities and countries around the world are seen as "natural causes."
Arthur always knew than this life was going to catch up with him someday.
He's sort of surprised that it took this long.
The man laughs derisively. "Cobol Engineering does not forget, Mr. Arthur."
12 hours ago
"I'm going to Sainsbury's for milk."
Eames pokes his head out from underneath his pillow and gives Arthur a bleary-eyed look. "Typically, when people are running out on one another it's 'I'm going to the off-license for fags.' Or bread. Or the latest copy of The Sun."
Arthur rolls his eyes. "There's bread in the kitchen; reading The Sun gives me agita; and if I catch you smoking while I'm out, you're going to wish I'd stayed gone."
Eames sniffs and rubs at his eyes. "I didn't know you cared."
"I don't," Arthur says by rote.
Eames sticks out his tongue. It's horrifically endearing. His face is creased with sleep and when Arthur crouches down at his side of the bed, Eames smiles at him sleepily.
"Go back to sleep," Arthur says, brushing a kiss against Eames' temple.
Eames makes a contented noise. "It's pissing down buckets," he mumbles after Arthur. "Don't forget an umbrella."
4 days ago
"The Seychelles. I want to go to the Seychelles."
Arthur tries to pry one eye open. It tells him to fuck off.
"Fpppt," he says, rolling over and burrowing his head underneath the pillows.
"You said when the job was over we'd go on holiday. You promised."
"I never promise," Arthur tells their perfectly wrinkled beige fitted sheet.
Eames lifts the pillow away from Arthur's face. "You promised me six days ago when I did that swirly trick with my tongue," Eames reminds him.
Both of Arthur's eyes open. He remembers the swirly trick.
He rolls over and Eames is sitting on the bed next to him, hair everywhere, eyes bright, mouth swollen and red, angry scratches along the right side of his ribs from Arthur's nails, which clearly need to be trimmed.
Arthur rubs his eyes. "The Seychelles, huh?"
"Five words," Eames says. "Mahé Island. Banyan Tree. Hillside Pool Villas. Twenty-four hour nudity."
"That's nine words and a hyphenate."
"I already booked us for next week."
Arthur has to laugh. "Of course you did."
3 weeks ago
"The head of Mega Corporation of Doom wants us to extract what his mistress wants for her birthday," Arthur repeats. "He couldn't just ask her?"
"It is a delicate matter," Saito says, taking a sip of his green tea.
"It's his mistress," Eames says. "How delicate can it be?"
"You obviously have never shown up with a green wool rug," Saito says.
3 months ago
Dom looks good. Happy. Content. "Retirement suits you," Arthur says.
Dom looks up from the mint chocolate chip ice cream he's dishing into a blue plastic bowl. "You think so?"
Arthur's mouth quirks at the left corner. "Don't you?"
Dom nods. "Yeah."
Arthur places another slice of chocolate cake in the bowl and hands the bowl to Dom for another scoop of ice cream. They make a good assembly line.
"Domesticity suits you," Dom says, placing yet another completed bowl on the serving tray.
Arthur looks through the glass sliding doors. Eames is currently playing 'horse' with James in the backyard; James is sitting on Eames' back and using the collar of Eames' plaid shirt to direct him where he wants him to go.
They're both laughing.
"Yeah," he says. "It does."
"What are we talking about?" Ariadne says, walking into the kitchen carrying a wrapped present for James that's almost as big as she is.
"How Eames has domesticated the mighty Arthur."
"I take offense to that," Arthur protests. "I think it should be the other way around."
Ariadne pats him on the arm after she sets the present down on the kitchen table. "Of course you do," she says. Arthur looks from her to Dom.
One day it'll happen for them, too.
He thinks -- hopes -- Mal would've approved.
7 months and 23 days ago
The best flight time from Los Angeles to Mombasa is twenty-four hours and forty-five minutes and requires stops in London and Nairobi. That doesn't even include the time it takes to actually locate the person Arthur is attempting to track down.
By the time Arthur finds Eames he's been awake for thirty-six hours and just wants to take a fucking shower.
Eames opens the door wearing threadbare linen pants and a purple shirt that says Happy Mondays. "Well, this is unexpected."
Arthur is too tired for pleasantries. He pushes his way past Eames and drops his suitcase on the floor by an enormous earthenware pot. Arthur takes note of the exquisite detail work on the pot as he begins stripping off his clothes and looking around.
There's mosquito netting over Eames' bed, which has been pushed to the side, and there are two ceiling fans rotating rapidly.
"Hello to you too, Eames," Eames mocks behind him. "It's lovely to see you. Why yes I came all this way just to strip for you, why do you ask?"
Arthur turns back around and drops his favorite striped oxford on the floor before going to work on his belt. "You told me to dream bigger," he says. "I got tired of dreaming."
8 months ago
FISCHER HEIR TO DISSOLVE FISCHER-MORROW
Press conference to be held today to discuss future of company
Inception can't be done.
Except they just did it.
If A then B. If B then C.
Ergo, if A then C.
Unless A is wrong to start with.
9 months and 21 days ago
"Cobol Engineering," Dom says.
Arthur can feel his forehead creasing in a frown. "Are you sure about this? I've heard less than exemplary things about working for them."
"It's a job. We need work."
This is not true. Arthur doesn't need to work for Cobol. He can get plenty of work on his own.
He's pretty sure that's not the point.
12 months and 29 days ago
"Do not ever work with Cobol Engineering," Eames says by way of greeting.
"Errrph?"
"Ah, I forgot about the time difference in Rangoon."
"Sleeping," Arthur says.
"Dreaming of me, I hope."
"No."
"Sadness and woe," Eames says.
Arthur sighs and turns on the light on his nightstand. "What do you want, Eames?"
"World peace, a cure for cancer and you naked in my bed in Mombasa."
"Good luck with that," Arthur says before hanging up.
18 months and 27 days ago
From: John Smith
To: Jane Smith
Date: Sun, April 23, 2009 at 03:25 AM -600 (GMT)
Subject: (none)
They think he killed her
5 years, 7 months and 13 days ago
"This is my daughter, Mallorie," Professor Miles says when Arthur shows up for office hours. Not that Arthur thinks being summoned to meet with the head of the Psychology department is the sort of thing you can actually say no to.
"Mal," the dark-haired woman says, extending her hand.
Her smile is crooked. She has an accent. Arthur is besotted. "Arthur," he says, shaking her hand.
Her grip is firm, exacting. Not limp and weak like so many women's. And men's.
"Arthur, I had Mal come by because I think you might be interested in something she's working on," Professor Miles says.
"Really?" Arthur says. "What's that?"
"Have you ever heard of Dream Technology?"
20 years ago
Arthur and his mom have an apartment on the top floor of a three-story house in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Arthur doesn't really mind Bloomfield. It's better than Wichita. And Chicago. And Dallas. The boys don't pick on him as much here. And they're long gone from his mom's boyfriend in Dallas. Arthur really, really hated that guy. He really hated how he made his mom cry. Maybe it's thinking about Mark that distracts him and that's why it happens. Why he misses the step. Arthur doesn't know a lot about dying, but he knows enough to think it's happening when he falls down two flights of stairs and lands on his arm. His chest hurts like he can't breathe and the blood pouring from his nose spills into his mouth.
11 years ago
Arthur's mother dies on a Wednesday. It's a car accident. She's coming home from her second job as the hostess at Sizzler and the guy in the red Toyota Corolla apparently doesn't think traffic lights at four-way intersections apply to him.
10 years, 11 months and 27 days ago
Arthur graduates from high school on a Saturday. The sun is high in the sky and all the graduates are sitting in unevenly spaced chairs on the football field, friends and family in the bleachers. Everybody sweats in their polyester robes. When they call Arthur's name no one yells obnoxiously or blows the boat horns that have made Arthur's ears ring for the last twenty minutes.
His mother has been dead for three days.
10 years, 11 months and 26 days ago
Signing up for the military seems like a good idea at the time. There's no way Arthur's going to be able to pay the tuition for Columbia on his own now, and if there's money from his mother's death he's not going to want it.
4 years and 8 months ago
"I'm going to ask Mal to marry me," Dom says conspiratorially.
Arthur looks up from the research he's been pouring over for the last two hours. There's something he's missing about the patent Xerxes Pharmaceuticals is filing. It's just not right. The i's are dotted, but not all the t's are crossed.
The Special Forces made him even more obsessive than he thought was possible. Thank god that's over.
He takes a sip of his Mountain Dew. He has to stop drinking this crap. "You think she's going to say yes?"
Dom's face falls. "You don't think she will?"
Arthur can feel the smile threatening to escape. "You never know, it is a possibility."
"You think she's too good for me, don't you?"
"Yes," Arthur says with a grin. "But so do you."
"I always knew you liked her better than me."
"Yes, but again, so do you," Arthur says. He doesn't say, "I met her first." He doesn't say, "She loved me first."
But he wants to.
3 years and 11 months ago
"If I told you you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"
The window high up on the wall lets Arthur turn around and give his companion the most withering look he can muster at the moment. It's fairly forceful considering that they just got locked in a closet together in Khartoum.
"I will shoot you, Mr. Eames," Arthur says, pointing his Walther right at Eames' forehead.
Eames frowns. "I'm fairly sure that's not what I asked."
Arthur narrows his eyes. "Do you find that this approach actually works for you? Do the high-school girls just swoon at your feet?"
"I prefer my partners to be legal in all one-hundred and ninety-five countries, territories and colonies, including Taiwan."
"Where the hell did Mal find you?"
"Oh, now that's between Mal and me," Eames says. "But if you ask nicely, maybe I'll tell you one day."
"Don't hold your breath."
20 months ago
James is seven months old. Mal is chronically tired. She doesn't smile anymore. Dom's anxious all the time. The stress rolls off of them in waves. It's bleeding into everything around them: their work, the house, the car, their interactions with Arthur. Even minor phone calls leave Arthur exhausted.
When Eames calls with a job in Jakarta, Arthur takes it.
That part where they have wildly inappropriate, yet utterly fantastic sex is totally unplanned.
15 months ago
Arthur doesn't like Nash. There's something wrong there.
1 year ago
Arthur calls Eames at a more reasonable time -- namely when he's awake and Eames should be dead asleep. "You called me in the middle of the night," he says by way of greeting.
"Yes, and it was the best phone sex I've ever had."
Damn Eames for sounding wide awake. Arthur takes a moment to rewind what he remembers of their brief conversation. "I will kill you in your sleep, you know."
"I look forward to it."
"Why did you call me about Cobol Engineering?"
"Professional courtesy."
"Eames, can you spell professional courtesy?"
"Certainly. S-u-c-k-m-y-c-o-c-k."
Arthur has to laugh despite himself.
10 months ago
"He's not stable," Eames says, throwing clothes into his leather satchel.
It's a gorgeous walnut shade; Arthur bought it for him in Rome. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Arthur rubs his forehead. "You don't know that."
"Was I the only one who just saw Mal in that job, because I'm fairly certain that you were right there next to me when she appeared."
"He's stressed out."
"He's stressed out?" Eames says in disbelief. "Arthur, please."
"We've been over this already."
Eames stuffs the last of his shirts in the bag and doesn't even bother to zip it closed. "He's going to get you killed. I am not going to stick around and watch it happen."
Arthur stands up when Eames grabs his bag. "I have to help him," he says.
Eames scrubs his hand through his hair. "You don't have to do anything for him," he says. "He doesn't love you -- I do."
Arthur is still standing in the middle of the abandoned hotel room in Santiago long after Eames is gone. There's a long crack running through the turquoise-painted south wall.
5 weeks ago
"We should get a place of our own," Arthur says while Eames is in the middle of making dinner.
The Ginsu knife (a gift from Yusuf) Eames is using clatters onto the counter. "Can you save the life altering statements for when I'm not preparing dinner?"
Arthur puts his Arsenal mug down on the counter. "Is that a no?"
"No!" Eames says vehemently. "I mean no, no it's not."
Arthur slides up behind Eames and pushes the knife halfway across the counter. "So, can I get an answer that doesn't involve knives and the word 'no'?"
When Eames turns his head, his nose brushes along Arthur's jaw. "Yes," he says. "A thousand times yes."
"I don't need a thousand, I just need one."
10 hours ago
Arthur wakes up in the trunk of a car. He has a spectacular headache, which is what happens when you get drugged with chloroform on your way back from the grocery store. There's plastic wrap around his hands, which are bound together behind his back. His feet are bound together, too, which makes kicking out a tail light to get attention difficult, but not impossible. And then the car stops.
Time for Plan B.
8 hours and 5 minutes ago
Karma. Schadenfreude. Revenge. Vengeance. Getting your just deserts. Payback.
The things you do will always come back to you.
Always.
It's just a matter of time.
5 hours ago
"Your associate Mr. Cobb should be enjoying a similar visit right now."
Arthur's blood runs cold.
"Leave him out of this."
"Oh, it's too late for that, Mr. Arthur. Far, far too late for that."
Arthur narrows his eyes.
The man from Cobol laughs. "You are thinking about all the ways you are going to disembowel me when you are free. I think perhaps you might want to reconsider your plan and thank me for leaving Mr. Eames to his own devices. I could technically consider him a loose end."
Arthur has to correct his original thought.
The phrase "his blood ran cold" does not begin to describe Arthur's reaction to idea of something happening to Eames.
2 hours ago
Arthur is dreaming of a holiday in the Seychelles.
The villa in Mahé is gorgeous. The air is humid and the flora and fauna around them so all encompassing, Arthur could believe they're the only two people left in the entire world. The villa even has its own pool. He does like vacationing in style. He takes another sip of something that has to be around 50 proof and looks up when Eames emerges from the main building wearing the smallest swim trunks Arthur has ever seen.
"Just take them off," he says with a laugh.
Eames beams winningly. "This is why I love you. You're a brilliant man."
"I love you, too," Arthur says with full conviction.
A searing pain pulls Arthur back to reality.
That happens when you get shot in the kneecap.
8 minutes ago
They only take Arthur down from the meat hook so that they can tape him to a chair. It's not like he's going anywhere. He's been shot, stabbed and beaten up so badly, he really can't see anything anymore. He spares a thought for Dom. And then he spares one for the children. For Mal's children.
Every remaining thought, though is for Eames.
5 seconds ago
Arthur is not going to die.
Arthur is dying right now.
He should have been more specific.
Specificity has always been so important to him.
His need for it makes Eames laugh.
It's always made Eames laugh.
He's going to miss that laugh.
Now
Now.
Now.
…
..
.
.
.
.
BODY FOUND IN THAMES
Floater fished from river next to the London Eye
Metropolitan Police were called to the London Eye shortly after 7pm upon being alerted to a corpse in the water by a member of the public. Dozens of tourists were on the wheel at the time of the alarm and were evacuated and held for questioning. The death is currently being treated as "unexplained" and the deceased's identity has not yet been confirmed, police said.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police were called to the London Eye at approximately quarter past seven following reports of a body found floating in the Thames."
Update: Metropolitan Police have now (22:14) confirmed that the body of an unidentified white male was recovered from the Thames by the Marine Unit today.
No further information was offered from Scotland Yard.
-end-
TSE ATCAI AELA inverted is ALEA IACTA EST (The Die is Cast)
Beta by maurheti.
ETA: Now with art by amsuhl