⚂ [ p o l y c h r o m a t i c ][ AUDIO (open to all, 4th wall)

[specifics]

[ There's a conversation going on but it's not picked up clearly at all and seems to get clearer halfway in: ]

I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong person.

I don't know anyone named Tom.

Well, I do, but he doesn't look like me. At all.

Sorry.

[ There's some insistence on the mystery other party's side and then the sound of someone - Arthur

Comments

audio;

[thisjane]

They must be very worried about finding that Tom fellow.

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[specifics]

They don't seem worried. Just...very sure that I'm him.

But I'm not.

[ Slight sigh goes here....what is up with people today? He...hasn't experienced this before. But he'll later figure that's true of plenty of others. ]

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[thisjane]

I can only think that there must be a pressing reason as to why they would be so forceful with that assumption.

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[specifics]

Some people just think they're right. Even when they aren't.

[needsthemanual]

Wait there's another on of us?

1/A FEW I AM SOBBING ALREADY

[specifics]

A f---

[specifics]

[specifics]

If he's a clone, even fifteen years off he's...not....right...at...all....

[atthemercyof]

[ There's a man leaning against the wall of the building, dark shades covering up his face, mouth set in a firm, thin line. Charles is - off somewhere dealing with someone, or at least that was the vague little passage he'd reeled off before disappearing.

And now Erik - apparently new little lapdog - is waiting, well, lurking is more precise. He sees the man pass, metal briefcase in hand, and for a moment he wants to tug it out of his grip for something to do, to play with the humans like a cat surrounded by indulgent little mice blind to his whiskers.

He lifts his wrist only to find that his watch has stopped ticking, probably because of his own mind, and so he pushes off the wall neatly.

Well, Charles is always telling him to test himself - and so he does - on the man's watching, working on unbuckling the wrist-strap without him noticing. ]

[specifics]

[ It so happens that the attache Arthur is carrying around while aluminum isn't the PASIV device, though it reminds him of it and it's not lost on him the fact that this may reek of issues he would rather not address in the first place. A need for familiarity or habit, the idea of knowing what's going on in a place where it's impossible to actually know much of anything, except maybe who you are, and maybe - maybe - what you want.

Still, he didn't get to where he is (or was? he wonders if it's an accurate tense to use, as he's not on Earth supposedly, in this dreamscape of sorts - it's not even really a dream; that's the confusing thing, the part he rejects the most) by being unobservant with something like having his watch lifted. Needless to say he notices and without setting the case down, grasps onto his own watch as it threatens to slip away entirely.

Then he glances around, brow pinched, looking for what might be causing it. ]

[atthemercyof]

[ Erik is looking the other way, face tilted to watch a couple wander down the street arm in arm. He seems like any man enamoured by a display of affection, perhaps thinking of his own lost youth in the sunshine.

But he's not. He can feel Arthur's hand on the watch, stopping the metal tug away from him. It's frustrating that he can stop a bullet, but the fiddly little things still elude him just that far. Charles would call him out on it, he's sure. Would force him to move cog after cog.

Arthur's watch is now ticking away at an alarming speed under his fingertips, face whirring around and around. ]

[specifics]

[ Frowning outright now, Arthur watches the hour and minute arms on his watch spin fast enough that the truth is it looks as though he might be in a movie, where they can do these kinds of tricks. Well, or a dream and that thought hits him closer to home of course and the frown smooths into an unreadable expression, composed and quiet as he tries to source out the cause again.

His gaze pauses on the stranger leaning against the building but he has no real reason to suspect anyone over any other person, so he goes with another approach; he lets the watch go and keeps his eyes trained on it, sharp, planning to follow where it gets pulled to. ]

[wouldbeakick]

[ Sitting perched on the edge of the desk, leg crossed over her knee, heel kicking impatiently, Eames is only half listening in. Eavesdropping is something she excels in, relishes, but Arthur's conversation does not hold juicy little tidbits nor any kind of information she would need, so it's attention that's only half delivered.

Even so, she sounds bright when she starts speaking, gaze firmly fixed on the phone in her lap. ] Don't worry darling, you don't seem much like a Tom.

[specifics]

[ Ever since meeting this woman earlier today, this woman called Sophia Eames, Arthur has had to reevaluate his own mind and the potentiality of what it's been rounding up without him noticing. She's blond, which means there's a possible link to Eames' forgery, but he's not sure. Yet she knows all of the things that the Eames he lives with would know.

That's what has kept him from walking away from her so far, or at least from losing her altogether. He glances over at her, his communication device loosely held in his hand. ]

Good thing too. Considering I'm not.

[wouldbeakick]

[ Her expression is curious when she finally looks up, eyes a little wide, but the same shade as the real Eames. She taps her phone against her knee in time to her jiggling foot and gives him a grin. ]

You look like you're about to bolt from the room, love. I know, I know. A creature like me - with ovaries - god forbid. I'm surprised you haven't just fainted away. [ Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. ] You can test it, you know. Look for flaws, figure out if I'm who I say I am. Or if you've made me, should I be extra irritating to prove your wrong, or would sweet make your mind up?

[specifics]

[ He eyes her carefully, appreciative of the openness of disclosure and yet still completely ....uncertain on how he does want to handle this. In a way he finds himself wondering what would happen if she and Eames were in the same room, if they would cancel each other out like negative and positive charges. Pausing, he glances away. ]

I'm not sure whose dream this is. It makes it slightly more complicated, figuring this kind of thing out.

But I'll keep that in mind.

[ Another pause but he adds, because he feels it's warranted: ]

Thanks.

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[shifts]

Did you just walk away?

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[specifics]

That's possible.

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[shifts]

You're-

No. Nevermind.

Colour me unsurprised.

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[specifics]

Like you can judge.