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

[cauchemal]

((Takes place after any other interactions via communicator that Mal might have.))

There's some part of Mal's overtaxed brain that admires the sheer skill with which this environment has been designed, but she's past caring about craft now; she just wants out. Whoever's dream this is, however she has come to be trapped here, she doesn't care; there's only one way to escape that she knows, and while she's aware that yes, it could drop her back into Limbo, it's a risk she's willing to take. So she runs, runs out of her room, down the strange hallway, up the stairs, past confused faces of projections, some strangely familiar-and finds herself, breathless, on the deck of this strange ship, overlooking an ocean unlike any she has ever seen, not even in the most surreally-designed dreams she's ever shared.

Mal grips the railing, gasping for breath. Well, it'll do. She hikes up her skirt and starts to climb over.

Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Most days, Arthur makes a habit of keeping his communicator close by, the volume up. It provides him with a sort of streaming update on the Barge and the daily drama. Today, however, he has it silenced as he's working on some designs for Hayley's dream, choosing instead to fill his room with the music of Madeleine Peyroux. It's frustrating work; Arthur was never particularly skilled at actually designing the dream levels. That's what they have Architects for, after all. Cobb, Ariadne, even a sloppy idiot like Nash or, God forbid, Eames. Their minds were better suited to this sort of thing. As it is, Arthur manages several pages of sketches, possible designs to draw out the girl's repressed memories, before he decides that he could do with some fresh air-- or at least what passes for it on the Barge

Arthur Spam Thread

[cauchemal]

She's got her knee up awkwardly on the railing and is trying to get some kind of purchase to get her other leg up when she hears the familiar voice. And freezes, in that graceless pose, and stares wide-eyed at Arthur.

There are two possibilities. One: this is a projection of the dreamer whose dream she now inhabits. Or two: this really is Arthur; darling Arthur, doing what he does best, keeping things moving smoothly, looking out for Cobb-

She slides back down from the railing, smoothing out her skirt, and edges back half a step.

"Arthur," she says, her tone colourless. "I might ask the same of you."

Arthur Spam Thread

[paradoxlol]

Arthur doesn't want to get too close to her yet. He still remembers how it felt, when the bullet shattered his kneecap. That was the last time. The first time he saw her, she was different. Less sadistic than her later appearances-- at least, up until she pulled the knife out and stabbed him in the stomach, leaving him to bleed out slowly as she searched for Cobb. He was lucky that hadn't happened in the middle of a job; just a test run.

"A job," he says tersely. He looks at Mal, then the railing behind her. "Do you know why you're here?"

[canisayfuckmore]

Hey, uh, are you all right?

[cauchemal]

[She lets out a little shriek and looks around wildly, trying to figure out where the voice is coming from.]

Who's there?

[canisayfuckmore]

Uh, Harry... Harry Lockhart?

[cauchemal]

[More panicked flailing, and then she finally lights on the communicator. She bends down and pokes at it.]

Who are you?

Video

[deusexmechanic]

Oh crap

Hey, come on now, try to calm down all right?

Video

[cauchemal]

[Mal moves off-camera just as he starts to speak; she hasn't heard him at all. There's more noise of stuff being shuffled around willy-nilly and a thump of books sliding off a table.]

Video

[deusexmechanic]

[He raises his voice a little, but still just feels kind of impotent]

Hey! Hey! Be careful there!

Video

[cauchemal]

[This catches her attention. She picks up the communicator again. Stares.]

Another one? Who are you?

Video.

[thegooddrjones]

It's alright, you're safe, just take some deep breaths, yeah?

Video.

[cauchemal]

[In Mal's frantic search for her totem, the communicator's gotten dislodged from the last place she stuffed it (between the sofa cushions) and fallen on the floor, so it's liberated from its prison when Martha chimes in. Mal is sitting curled up on the sofa, at the end of her rope. When she hears Martha's voice, she peers over the edge of the sofa at the device.]

Please leave me alone.

Video.

[thegooddrjones]

You're going to be okay, yeah? I'm Martha, and I'm a doctor here.

Video.

[cauchemal]

[She pulls back out of sight, so all Martha can see now is the sofa.]

I don't need a doctor.