[open] dreams feel real when you're in them

[dreamesing]

WHO: dreamesing , Open to all.
WHAT: Arrival time! Eames has no reason to write in a journal, so lets have him run into Keep occupants :3
WHERE: First floor barracks and beyond.
WHEN: Presently.

He had to hand it to Robert Fischer's subconscious, it could certainly be creative.

Eames had woken up in a small cell, dressed in the clothes he'd been wearing on the

Comments

[brynkitten]

It was still light outside, and feeling the need to breath in some fresh air, Bryn was heading out to the green to lay in the sun. Well, maybe not sun but in the light. So, wearing just a simple skirt and chemise, and carrying a blanket from her cell and journal in hand, Bryn headed downstairs from the third floor to the first and made her way down the hallway to the exit.

However, when she turned the corner, she saw someone unfamiliar standing there. New arrivals to the Keep were not uncommon, especially at this time of the week, but Bryn still hadn't quite gotten over her initial nerves at meeting some of them in person. It was with some hesitance that she spoke up.

"Hello, did you just arrive?"

okay maybe MORE TAG before I poof

[dreamesing]

Eames came up short when he spotted what he assumed was the projection - a young woman in an Elizabethan style dress, carrying a journal like himself.

He was silent a moment, waiting for her to attack (his clothing was after all anachronistic to the setting) but when she didn't and asked him if he had just 'arrived' he nodded.

Projections were useful for gathering information after all.

"I'm afraid I did, or at least I think so. You wouldn't mind telling me where I am, would you?"

Ahaha sneaky sneaky

[brynkitten]

Technically, Bryn should have at least had a bodice on over what she was wearing, but bodices were a bit too constricting for rolling around on the grass. Her brows knit together briefly at his response, and when she noted that he did have his journal, she tilted her head toward it.

"Holloway's Keep, well, the barracks of Holloway's Keep to be exact," she said, "There's a note from Lord Deior in your record that might help explain a bit..."

:3

[dreamesing]

Eames knew the outfit wasn't pure Elizabethan, but it was close enough for him to classify it as such. As she nodded to his journal, he held it up and flipped it open, finding on the first page the note from Deior.

He raised his eyebrows as he skimmed it quickly, and felt his lips quirk up in an amused smile.

He didn't believe it, of course.

"Holloway's Keep, after the universe being unmade," he said. "That sounds a bit fantastical." Maybe he had ended up in Ariadne's mind. Hell, maybe this was his.

Still holding the journal, his hand slipped into his pocket to feel his totem.

[brynkitten]

A smile wasn't the sort of reaction that Bryn was expecting from the man. She blinked once and smiled tentatively at him.

"It does sound a bit strange I know but I've been here for some months now. Something out of the ordinary has happened to bring us here," Bryn replied. "I...I'm Bryn by the way."

She paused a moment, and then forced herself to hold out her hand to shake.

[dreamesing]

"Oh, I imagine it's quite out of the ordinary. Almost like a dream, wouldn't you say?"

His tone was almost wry, teasing; and clearly not taking the situation seriously. But when she offered her hand he slid his hand out of his pocket to shake it.

"Eames," he said, keeping a firm grip and then letting go. "Bryn... wouldn't happen to be short for Brynhildr, would it?"

Even as he was speaking he slid his hand into his pocket, feeling the totem again. His face went a shade paler as he did. It was heavy metal, the distinct up-down ridge pattern under his thumb.

It had been plastic, in Fischer's head, as it should have been.

[brynkitten]

"It's a little too realistic to be a dream," Bryn replied. "Pinched myself a few dozen times and everything," she added, pulling her hand back after he let it go.

And when he mentioned her name, Bryn took a step back. It could have been just a coincidence that he knew what her name was short for, but it made Bryn a bit wary.

"Yes, it is," she replied after a moment, and then noticed the way he seemed to go tense. Bryn swallowed. "Is everything okay?"

[dreamesing]

Eames didn't respond to her question at first, still turning the chip over in his hand. After a moment he gave a dry chuckle, sliding his hand out of his pocket to run it over his face.

"Castle keeps, young girls running around in old fashioned clothing named after Völsunga - I would have said this was a dream and you were only a projection. But unless I'm in my own head... this is reality."

He took his own step away from her, glancing around.

"I haven't had the time to create my own projections if it's limbo. Where the hell am I?"

[brynkitten]

Bryn's eyes widened a bit. So, he was familiar with Wagner. That was it. Not someone sent after her by her parents. Awesome. Bryn visibly relaxed, and well, tried to make sense of what he was saying.

"I'm...pretty sure we're not in your head," Bryn said. "I mean, I might worry about that as well, that I'm dreaming, but there are too many things here I'm convinced I've...never been exposed to. Besides, many of us have been here for months. As far as any of us have been able to determine, we are where we've been told. Holloway's Keep, wherever this is."

[dreamesing]

Eames was more than familiar with Wagner - as well as the fact that he spoke German in it's entirety, but that was neither here nor there yet.

He noted that she'd tensed and relaxed, but it was in a distant way - too preoccupied just yet to turn it over in his head for what it might mean.

"You would say that if we were in my head anyway," he says flatly, fingers going to rub at his pocket again. "And even if it was a dream we all shared, we could be here years and never know it - " he stopped talking. If it wasn't a shared dream, there was no reason to tell her about what it entailed yet.

Minutes beget hours beget years. Shared learned knowledge came into play - if you didn't know it, someone else might have and you could learn it.

"Holloways Keep. A refuge from what, the imminent destruction of the universe?"

[brynkitten]

Okay, he's talking about this as if it's something he's familiar with. There were a lot of classic theories people might come up with. They were dead. Dying. Dreaming. Or had really been rescued.

But Eames was talking about the dreaming as if it was something he was familiar with. Her lips pursed briefly, but there wasn't really any way to prove her real existence if he thought he was dreaming. Hell, it wasn't as if Bryn could prove that it wasn't just a dream. Considering the nature of reality was just going to make her head hurt, though, so she let it go.

"Universes, as far as I've heard. My world, yours, and several others have already...ceased to exist. As if they never existed in the first place, apparently," she said finally.

[dreamesing]

Eames reached up to rub his forehead, already wondering if it was his own brains he was scrambling. Damn Cobb, Yusuf and their fucking little secrets. He knew the job was arse over teakettle from the get go - and he had been so positive about the inception taking.

At her explanation he stilled. Ceasing to exist in the first place.

"And we've been rescued from this apparent erasure? Bloody lovely."

If this was his brain, his brain was warped in ways he hadn't even begun to imagine. And if it wasn't....

If it wasn't, that wasn't any better than being stuck in a decades-long dream.

[brynkitten]

"I know, it's a lot to take in," Bryn said sympathetically, and shifted the weight of the blanket in her arms to the other side. "If it helps any, sometimes one or two people from others worlds show up here as well. It's possible a friend or family member may be saved soon enough and join you."

Not that anyone had for Bryn. Of the limited pool of people Bryn knew, the only one she'd welcome would be her little brother, Gunn. Bryn wasn't holding out too much hope that he'd arrive, but it was always there in the back of her mind.

[dreamesing]

That's an understatement, Eames wanted to snap, but refrained from. It made no good to piss off his only source of information so far.

He couldn't decide if that was better or worse, if that would make him believe it wasn't a dream or make him believe it was if some or all of the team showed up.

"One can only hope, I guess," he finally said. Glancing around, he spoke again. "What can you tell me about the Keep? Amenities and such. I thought I spotted a washroom on the way out but it certainly didn't look modernized."

[brynkitten]

"Well, it's not very modern. You'll find some appliances here and there. There's a washing machine and a fridge...I heard the stables had a taxi once," Bryn began, "The clothing is all like this though. Elizabethan period I believe?"

She paused, debating whether or not to give him the same warning she had others, regarding punishments.

"But for the appliances, the Keep is very archaic...in many ways. You shouldn't hurt others or the buildings or you'll be punished," Bryn said, quite seriously.

[dreamesing]

"And where would one go about obtaining clothing?" Fine, he could deal with the style of clothing - even if he had to do some mixing and matching. But he'd need to know where it was before his started getting a bit rank.

He could handle cold water baths. He'd rather be clean and dressed than smell.

Eames hesitated when she warned him. "I've no intention of hurting others, but what kind of punishments are we talking here? You don't mean to tell me they operate on the noose and rack as well?"