ARTHUR (INCEPTION) APP FOR scorched - RESERVED
Out of Character Information
player name: Chels.
player livejournal: noblefour.
playing here: N/A.
where did you find us? Used to be a member!
are you 16 years of age or older?: Y.
In Character Information
character name: Arthur.
Fandom: Inception.
Timeline: Post-movie.
character's age: 28-30.
powers, skills, pets and equipment: In his canon, Arthur's as human as they come, so I will be giving him an illusion-based ability. This will be a slow-developing ability, but at his best, and once he's actually discovered that he has this ability, he'll be able to "trick" those who aren't immune to illusions into seeing objects and/or scenes that aren't actually there/happening. He'll only be able to create non-physical illusions, of course, and like I said, it will take him a long time to fully develop this power. He'll be arriving with the clothes on his back, the PASIV Device, one loaded red die, one fully-loaded 3rd Generation Glock Model 17, and extra ammunition. As for skills, Arthur's a military man and is extensively trained in both hand-to-hand and long-range combat -- and he's an excellent planner.
canon history:
"Reality? Those kids, your grandchildren, they're waiting for their father to come back home. That's their reality. And this job, this last job, that's how I get there. I would not be standing here if I knew any other way." Cobb, Inception.
Here! And, just to be safe, I'll give you a quick rundown of Arthur's role in the movie:
Arthur's first spotted on a job with Cobb, working two layers deep in the subconscious of the wealthy and powerful Mr. Saito. The job goes badly, and when they attempt to flee the country under threat of death from their employers, Cobol Engineering, they're stopped by Saito, who offers Arthur and Cobb a job and an escape from Cobol -- and for Cobb especially, a way back to the United States.
Saito wants Cobb and his team to plant an idea in the subconscious of Saito's corporate rival, Robert Fischer, to keep him from overpowering Saito's company. This tactic is called inception and is thought to be impossible by most people in the dream-sharing business. Regardless, they accept the job and form a team of six people, consisting of Cobb, Arthur, Saito, Ariadne, Yusuf, and Eames. For the job, which is built of three layers, the entire team goes under, with Yusuf on the first level of the dream, Arthur on the second, and the rest of the team on the final level.
TL;DR: Saito is shot and ends up in limbo, Fischer is also shot and also ends up in limbo, Arthur has to fight a slew of armed men to keep the rest of the team safe from harm, and Cobb and Ariadne go to limbo purposefully to retrieve both Fischer and Saito. In the end, they barely pull off the job, and Cobb gets to go home to his kids. Meanwhile, Arthur stands around and looks totally hot in a suit.
SO, BASICALLY, Arthur plays the part of the very disgruntled babysitter of the primary protagonist, Dominick Cobb. He's not actually his babysitter, sure, and he's nowhere near responsible for him, but he is seen hovering warily over Cobb's shoulder for about 90% of the movie.
Concerning Arthur's history prior to Inception, not much has been revealed. Most likely, Arthur's been working with Cobb for many years, and if he didn't immediately flee the States with Cobb following the unexpected death of Cobb's wife, Mallorie, he met up with him at a later date to resume his work with him. Arthur is Cobb's designated "point man," and he serves as the planner of the group -- he's the man who ties up all the loose ends, who digs up the dirty little details his targets don't want him (or anyone else) to know about. In the Fischer/inception job, there were three levels to the dream, and Arthur played the biggest part in the second level: he distracted the projections of Fischer's mind and kept them occupied while Cobb and the rest of the team completed the job on Fischer.
Arthur was also well acquainted with Mallorie, given how he (briefly!) speaks of her to Ariadne, and how he reacts/responds to Cobb's projection of her.
Post-Inception, Arthur's back in the States and no longer working with Cobb. His future in the dream-sharing business remains unclear, but given how much he enjoys his work and how fascinated he is by it, it's doubtful that he'd retire with Cobb, despite his professional attachment to him.
personality:
"Arthur. You're still working with that stick-in-the-mud?"
"He's good at what he does, right?"
"Oh, he's the best. But he has no imagination." Eames & Cobb, Inception.
Arthur's stuck inside his own head.
But who isn't?
There's no one who can tell Arthur what to believe, and the people who can are the people he already trusts with his life. And there aren't many people he trusts with his life. He trusts the loaded die he keeps in his right pocket and the loaded gun he has tucked away in the back waistband of his pants. They're the only assurances he'll ever need, especially when he's asleep and two layers down and the world around him cracks and falls to pieces. He doesn't trust anyone, least of all himself, because it's a lot of a lot harder to get burned when there's no one around to burn him.
Obviously, he makes friends very easily. Except not really.
That's not to say that Arthur doesn't get along with people. He can be a damn good conversationalist, when he wants to be, when he meets cute, wide-eyed brunettes with an endless array of questions. But when you're on the run from jobs gone bad and from the men and women who would like very much to arrest you and throw you in jail for the rest of your miserable life, you don't really have a lot of time for coffee shops and idle chatter, so Arthur doesn't like to waste time on people who aren't going to do anything for him. And it's not that he's a cold person; he's what his job has made him, and that's adaptable and very, very careful.
Arthur's a man who puts logic before emotion, who accepts reason before passion and instinct. He's extremely grounded in his beliefs and his sense of reality, to the point where he'd much rather keep a careful eye on Cobb's disintegrating grasp of what's real instead of worrying about his own sanity. Even when Cobb is the asshole who doesn't listen to him when he very clearly tells him that the man they've targeted knows they've targeted him, and he ends up on the other side of a gun because of Cobb's inability to listen, he's not going to do much more than shoot a withering look in his direction. Because he told you this would happen, you giant douchebag. Look at your life, Cobb, look at your choices.
Arthur's most notable fault is his unquestioning loyalty to Cobb. In fact, the only reason Cobb fucks Arthur over is because Arthur's stupid enough to let him, and when it happens, Cobb skips away from the situation scot-free, sidestepping all repercussions for his actions because no one really calls him out on it, no one holds him to his shit. But Arthur is loyal, certainly, and he obviously believes in the ideals of loyalty and honesty where it counts. He definitely has an integrity that he care for very much, and though his history isn't sparkling clean and spotless, he does have his own set of morals and values that he follows and takes very seriously.
See, he's not a bad person; he's actually a pretty chill dude who does some really shady shit.
But even when his days sucks, even when he takes a bullet to the knee because of some selfish jackass, it's okay. Arthur knows how to roll with the punches, knows how to keep moving even when it's bad and it hurts, when everything goes horrifically wrong. He doesn't have to worry about Cobb's bullshit, because he's not ensnared in a mess of his own memories, and he doesn't see the point in escalating a bad situation with nasty, angry words when he knows that words don't fix shit.
The only time Arthur has a temper is when someone manages to push one too many of his buttons one too many times a day, and even then, he's not going to waste his breath on a pissy tirade. That someone might get a right hook to the jaw, or a few choice words ground out in their direction, and that'll be it. If there's one thing Arthur loathes, it's idling away time on meaningless, petty endeavors. You want to pick a fight with him, fine. But don't expect him to draw it out.
He doesn't linger. He doesn't hesitate. He gets what needs to be done, done, down to every last tiny minuscule detail, and then he moves on, and you can either move the fuck out of his way or wait for him to move you.
But you'll move, one way or another.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? Like I said above, Arthur's adaptable. He may question the reality of his situation in Anatole, at first, but he'll wedge his skinny little arms into everything once he chills his shit. Arthur's world is a dangerous, unsafe place, and he's proved on multiple occasions that he's more than capable of taking care of himself -- and of other people, if need be.
Writing Samples
Network Post Sample:
Sample 01 @ guysandolls
Sample 02 @ dear_mun
Also, this isn't a post of Arthur's, but this is a decently sized thread involving him, if you need a better idea of his voice. :')
Third Person Sample:
Sample 01 @ the_devils_see
Sample 02 @ guysandolls
Anything else? I was seriously blanking on prompt ideas for a third person sample, so let me know if you'd rather see something written up! Thanks so much.