Prompt Post No. 9
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Welcome to Round 9 of the Inception Kink Meme. This post will be closed to new prompts once it reaches five thousand comments.
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He watches the final dress from the audience, sandwiched between Yusuf and Dom. This performance also served as a free preview for students and faculty of the university, so his main role tonight is to stop Dom from interrupting the run of the show unless absolutely necessary (which, at one point, includes handing Eames's scarf over to Mal to use as a gag. She gives him a look that is far too gleefully approving (which is uncalled for, because the scarf was forcefully wound around his neck earlier in the week, when Eames noticed him shivering) before shoving the green and purple monstrosity into Dom's mouth. A worthy sacrifice, as far as Arthur is concerned).
The show goes well, much better than any of the shows Arthur has been involved in recently. The last production he worked on with Dom, 'Inception', had been post-modernist and scrambled together at the last minute. Each night had been a mad dash to the final line, the tech crew working to keep the set and lights appearing functional and the cast improvising their lines around the constantly changing set. Arthur had been stage manager and had no desire to ever repeat the experience again.
'A Chorus Line' felt equally organic, but had a semblance of effortless control that 'Inception' had lacked, which Arthur suspected had something to do with Mal's presence. Dom was off without her, constantly pushing and putting on a very convincing display of single-minded insanity. (Though Mal's stage whispers (which Arthur could hear from the other side of Dom's mumbling complaints, which was something) during 'Music and the Mirror' suggested that she shared some of her boyfriend's fervour.)
When the lights blackout and the curtain drops, the scraggly audience around Arthur rises to their feet, faculty applauding appreciatively and students catcalling and shouting compliments to their friends. As the drape opens and the company steps forward for bows, it's not hard to see that the enthusiasm of the audience is mirrored in cast and crew alike (alongside looks of relief). As Ariadne steps forward for individual bows, Yusuf yells unintelligible things at the stage and Arthur wolf-whistles, because he's not the yelling sort of person and would have no idea what to yell even if he were. And then Eames steps forward and Arthur really doesn't know what to do and settles for clapping as loudly as possible while attempting to keep the grin on his face from mirroring Eames's goofy one. His eyes meet Eames's and, dammit, he knows his dimples must be showing and he probably looks like a teenager, but then Eames tries to simultaneous turn towards Arthur and bow and ends up falling magnificently on his face.
On stage, Eames is shouting a joke about his character's injury and method acting, but Arthur can't hear because Mal is howling with laughter a few seats down and Yusuf is giving him a conspiratorial smile and Arthur registers that his body is shaking before he realises that he's also laughing, all the tension of production week and confusion about Eames released in the laugh.
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Stumped for any other course of action, he takes it, and realises that, despite the shape, they're not flowers. Rather, they're pieces of fabric rolled around what looks like metal rods from the scene shop and secured with spike tape. Arthur looks up at Eames, who shrugs
"Ariadne said I should get you flowers, you know, to celebrate opening. Mal said I should get you ties. So I tried to compromise." Arthur peers closer at the fabric and realises they are the right size and texture for ties. He can't quite see in the dark of the night, but it also appears that at least three of them have a paisley pattern.
And if Arthur shoves Eames back against the brick wall in a kiss and if they later end up back in the theatre, the edge of the stage digging into Eames's back, Arthur's frantic hands lit only by the ghost light, then, well, that's just their reward for a successful performance.
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"Ties?" he asks Mal, later, since she knows full well that he owns three ties of his own, which are in much more acceptable colours.
"You'll see" she replies, and Arthur does when a week before graduation he gets into a cab with Mal and ends up at a tailor. "Dom and I figure" she says, "now that you're no longer a student, you should get proper professional clothing" Arthur starts to protest that his sweaters, dress shirts, and occasional waistcoats and blazers are much more professional than the majority of his classmates-especially since Arthur alters all of his clothing, so that their fit is impeccable, none of this sagging business-but his student status necessitates that most of his clothing originates from thrift shops and Target, so if Mal and Dom are willing to pay for a suit, he's not going to complain.
He ends up with a dark, heathered grey three piece suit to wear to graduation. However, Ariadne, already changed, stops him before he can leave his apartment and voices her disapproval. Or, more specifically, her opinion that Arthur looks like he's going to a funeral. He disagrees with this view (and he should know. He is the costume designer), but agrees to change his tie, swapping the black tie for a dark red one. When he turns to get Ariadne's approval, she gives him a look that very clearly says: 'you-must-be-kidding' and starts rummaging through his closet to find an acceptable tie. When she emerges, she's holding one of the ties from Eames's bouquet (which Arthur had stored properly-just because he doesn't approve of the colour or pattern doesn't mean he can't appreciate the fabric). Mal enters at that moment and, looking from her crooked smile to Ariadne's determined one, Arthur knows this isn't a battle he's going to win.
Eames’s smile when they show up for the ceremony makes Arthur think that he might just have won as well.
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Sometimes, when money’s tight and Arthur passes lawyers and prosecutors on the street, he doubts. Wonders if somewhere along the way he made a mistake. Then he notices how all their faces have frown lines and their teeth clench as they send angry emails on their expensive smartphones and thinks of the way Ariadne and Dom freely create worlds from nothing, the way Mal composes people on the stage into four dimensional works of art, how Yusuf can build the impossible, how Saito would go to the ends of the earth to ensure the financial foundation for a worthy production, how Robert manoeuvres his father's disapproval into the emotional force behind his acting, and how Eames delights in recreating the smallest details from the most mundane of lives, appreciating the ignored.
Then, Arthur will adjust his pink and green paisley tie and stride down the sidewalk with an energy in his step the businessmen around him lack, a small smile on his lips.
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I'm not the OP, but dear lord does the theater!geek in me want to have your children right now! I love everything, your characters were wonderful and I love how you integrated them into the insanity that is the theater group. I love that everyone did a little of everything, I came from a small school so we all pitched in, made the whole experience a million times more fun. And then the Arthur/Eames scenes of adorable! They were fantastic and Arthur wears awful ties as an expression of his love!!!
I'm flaily and pretty sure this review makes no sense at all, but just know that this fic is brilliant and I LOVE YOU!
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Yeah, my current theatre group is the same way, so it's hard for me to write actors that only act, etc (some of the thing, like the pancakes, the unsafe sets, are definitely based on things we've done)
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<3
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Thank you for the comment~
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The theatre nerd part of your brain is a good part to have satisfied :D
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