orangetoughguy | phone post

[ A gunfight in a library is not the most farfetched likelihood in a dream; Arthur has seen it happen though he woke up in a foul mood afterward anyway. Still, everyone seeming on the same page and bullets the last thing on his mind right now, he pauses only a second as if re-acknowledging everyone (or just noting new details) before climbing the rest of the steps until he's a step ahead of Eames as well, passing through the library entrance.

They have rooms here for this sort of thing, which doesn't make it all that different from other libraries or communal informational centers. Arthur nods and murmurs a well-mannered hello to the front desk agent who smiles brightly in return - probably not used to people saying anything other than 'where can I find--'.

It's a quiet quick pick to one of the rooms and he enters ahead, unshouldering the bag and sliding the laptop out on the table at the far side of the too-small space. ]

If you all plan on sitting, someone grab another chair.

[ This room has two. Arthur would rather stand. ]

[ Eames, not being a generous fellow, takes one of the two chairs for himself, booting up the laptop and pulling one of the two discs from the inside breast pocket of his tweed jacket, sliding his nail under the plastic to pop open the case. Popping in the DVD, he waits for everyone to get situated appropriately - extra chair or no - before starting the video. It's an off angle view but still captures their targets - White and Saya, though more importantly the rest of the room too, where he'd slotted both security camera feeds next to one another on the same screen and attempted to enhance it best he could. Not having the best of programs for it though, and the feeds themselves being so low quality, there was only so much he could do - lightening it up from the dark atmosphere of the bar, sharpening this or that face depending on which he found to be important when originally going through the copies.

Anyway, the scene goes on, Eames only speaking up now and again to point out the bartender's behavior - obvious attraction - and how it ends up barreling into the intent staring that while that itself is curious (and awkward) it's Saya who, while it remains impossible to not notice in general, seems to be perfectly at ease with it. It's particularly after certain points of time where everyone's behavior seems to sync in - increased agitation, figiting, glancing toward Saya and White, and White's eventual departure. Saya, in the end however, doesn't end up leaving alone - choosing one gentleman, then soon followed by others.

The room doesn't seem to settle even after her departure, though, as though something in their mind has been turned on for some indefinite period of time. After awhile further, though, he reaches out to pause the feed with a tap of the key, leaning back in his chair. ]

[At some point he had to openly praise the way the video was cut and enhanced, mentally slotting the specialty away in his mind. Only people who get into a particular line of business know how to do that and he doubts Eames works the information technology divison for law enforcement. Some way or another Freddy also got himself a seat too. It may or may not be one of the more plush chairs from the outside reading areas and not the media rooms. Either way it fit in the media room and now he's in it with one leg over the side arm. He's just about to light a cigarette when that leg comes down and he leans forward.]

Look at that. Did you fuckin' see that.

[Speaking around his unlit cigarette. Orange gestures to the emptier bar and the tail end of a man on his way out after Saya.] Fuckin' unreal, I knew she was up to something.

[He looks over at White now, not saying more but clearly conveying: that could've been you.]

[Seeing as he knows what happens in the video for the most part, Mr. White hangs back. No he isn't going to pop a cap in anyone without just cause even though he's feeling agitated. Fucking City for making things like this happen. It's personal and revealing. What the fuck else are they supposed to do?

He eyes Mr. Argyle who seems to be Eames' back up in case of conflict. That was wise. His mind automatically goes through scenarios of violence. It's how one stays alive. It doesn't escape his attention that Mr. Eames is very efficient at this video editing shit.

Oh. There we go. He leans on forward watching himself leave. Now he gets the whole view of the bar. Huh.]

Kinda like she's some kind of Pied Piper.

[Though it looks like it ain't anything special. Fuck. One positive thing, he sure didn't get drugged or make any kind of moves on her.]

[ Still standing as per his preference, Arthur watches with crossed arms and a neutral expression that gets interrupted at certain moments by a slight shift in his gaze or a pinched brow - what was that -, his mouth pressed thin. It aggravates him to go on nearly nothing, but it aggravates him even more to know that in the scope of a dream's environment they are dealing with the literal incarnation of Everything and Anything.

The way it appears, when Orange comments - on Saya, not the video editing (Arthur rolled his eyes at that) - Arthur agrees with what White says, though that's not nearly enough again.

He reaches past Orange to hit the spacebar, throwing the last seconds of the tape into pause, then straightens again. The glance he sends Eames is brief, easily written off, but there's a question tucked into it - what do you think? ]

Deliberate and multiples.

[ The first part is harder to prove but the tape says enough, he thinks. It's a dry observation, little more, because he's thinking that knowing what happened to any of these guys would be helpful but they don't have any names and the remaining bar occupants are all strangers so it's not like any of them here recognize the gaggle of followers.

Arthur turns his focus to White, a sharp directness. ]

But you...resisted. [ There are worse words, really. ] How difficult was it?

[ As Arthur glances at him, Eames focuses his own gaze right back at him with the sort of intent that could be anything, really, but to Arthur says later. Anyway, leaving the point to address White, Eames slouches forward, bracing his arms on the table as he cards through different timeframes, focusing not on Saya and White but instead on the different patrons of the bar, cataloguing faces - more importantly, the way some stare directly at Saya in a manner that's that chilling sort. It's not, Eames thinks, unlike that of a projection when it locates the dreamer - that sort of deeply internalized sort of want, though in this case much more for obvious reasons than their usual circumstances, when projections want not to get into your pants but perhaps to rip your legs off entirely.

It's happened before, anyway. ]

Did you want her or did you just want?

They looked fuckin' possessed, bewitched, some kind of Serpent and the Rainbow shit.

[Whoa whoa seriously? Okay he knows those are legitimate questions but Freddy can't help looking a little agitated when he hears them. Let them believe it's his lack of cigarette ever since they ventured inside. He'll keep up this charade by playing with the unlit nicotine stick (white column, whatever) and let Larry do all the talking there. It's his testimony anyway.]

[Multiply Freddy's agitation to this questioning and multiply it about fifty fold and you get how the old man feels. His arms remain crossed and jaw tightens. Stick it out, fucker.]

I felt like someone flipped a switch, it was instantaneous. And at first I could shake it off thinking that it was something of a fluke, you know she's a beautiful woman. The more I was there the more I was filled up to the maximum capacity of want. Wanted her, wanted about anything.

[Because that's how he's wired. Already he feels done with this session. The film showed jack shit.One more thing to rub him the wrong way.]

[ Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur notes the frames that Eames stops on, zeroes in on the expressions that he recognizes just as well. It's frustrating that there is little more to go on but this is actually something rather than nothing. If there is anything to be said about what Saya is doing, it's that she doesn't know how obvious she is being or she just doesn't care, both of which are to their advantage as far as intel gathering, none of which is immediately useful because they aren't interrogating Saya now, are they? No.

Even this, hardly interrogation, more a lukewarm inquiry as Arthur nods at what White says (though only after turning his head toward Orange, unsure of the reference, if that's what it is.) ]

Congratulations on your escape.

[ It's not a joke exactly - more an uncritical reply than anything, though the tone is wry as he steps around Orange's chair (the side his leg isn't hanging off of, mind) to turn the laptop slightly toward him, rewinding back through just enough to where Saya herself is leaving. He frowns. ]

But I'm...it could be anything. We'd need to tail her at this point, to know more - what she wants with them, why.

Not sure it's worth it.

[ Though Eames may have to find somewhere new to work.

That's something of a private topic though.

Arthur continues to scowl at the laptop screen. ]

[ Eames just has no bloody clue what to make of it, yet, pursing his lips a bit as Arthur turns the laptop screen toward him - which also serves to turn it away from him by the way excuse you. Still, he rubs his fingers thoughtfully across his mouth, the digits of the other hand twisting and rubbing the pads against each other, some part of him wishing he still had his totem, if only for the use of something to do with his hands. ]

Suppose there's little more to gain from this footage, anyway. [ Other than White's instaboner, as well as the rest of the room's. ] At least she's not directing either of you to any particular ideas, really, if it's something as vague as sexual urges.

How long did it last, by the by?

She denied everything, even told me to go through her goddamn purse for narcotics like I wasn't already thinkin' this is more than fuckin' drugs. That's why we got the tapes, she's maintaining her innocence.

[Er.] It lasts until you take care of it.

[And then some. Orange is interjecting so White doesn't have to speak more than he already has on that matter. Plus, Freddy's experienced it too so he knows firsthand it takes a hand among other things to get that boner down. Oh and just in case Eames thinks he's off the hook or something.]

You kinda got a taste of that. [Feel, he means feel.] Point is you know it, I know it. [That's White and Orange.] And you know it. [That's Arthur and Eames.] What do we do now?

[Sure Arthur doesn't mean anything by his congratulations, it feels like a stab still. And it's going to for a while. That's how shit happens. Huff. Larry gives a glare at the screen like it could give them some information.]

What he said. [Freddy on both the effects of Saya's power and to their uncertainty.]

I say we count that there's no effect just watching so it ain't something involving sight.

[Which leaves a wide amount of other possibilities.]

...Think that for now we better lay low. Think she'd expect action or more nosing around especially if she got something to hide.

[That's what criminals do, professional ones at least.]

[ To Eames - who doesn't need to stare at the laptop anymore so much as talk to these guys - seriously, Arthur still isn't entirely sure about this pow-wow but it seemed the only way to start at anything. Anyway, even Arthur stares briefly at Eames for the follow-up question. How long did it last? He goes back to staring at the tape. Disc. Whatever. He focuses on Saya's expression - rather static, he thinks, not that the quality of the recording is especially high but the facial expression isn't done that much damage.

Without looking at Orange, Arthur interjects, ] Pretty easy to do when she looks like an attractive woman who can pass it off as male counterparts overreacting.

[ He says it blandly, but that's half to keep his own sense of reality under taps. Saying this kind of thing is patently Ridiculous but this is a ridiculous dreamscape. Magic. Monsters. And a number of human-looking sorts who aren't really. Saya once said she didn't really 'get' something...emotions or...being polite and impolite, Arthur doesn't remember as clearly as he'd like, makes a note to find that conversation later. He wonders if it has anything to do with ...well, whatever the hell this all is.

The next thing Orange says, well, Arthur doesn't bat an eyelash though inwardly he finds himself more annoyed than before. Right.

But not sight, fine. Maybe some kind of pheromone though that sounds - off of a human-like person and controlled - a bit improbable.

Just like...everything else here.

It's a vicious cycle, re-remembering each turn of thirty seconds the degree of possibility they have to account for.

That in mind, White's suggestion isn't bad. Arthur just isn't sure they know enough to be sure of anything being the right course of action so much as a course of action. They could lie low. They could pursue her further. They could shove this from their minds and just keep their collective distance.

And Eames can er work somewhere else.

Implied.

He ejects the disc and closes the laptop, slides it back into its carrier. ]

Gotta wonder what she thinks she has to hide in a place like this.

[ The bag - not a purse - gets snapped shut, well the snaps do. ]

But if she's claiming complete innocence [ A look at Orange, nondescript.] and we've got nothing else to go on...

[ He shrugs. ] I'd say just keep your distance. Not hard to do in a city this size. If you want to.

[ Practical. And based on the way it sounds that White at least is more for waiting it out a pace or so more. They are, naturally, free to do as they please, as ever. ]

[ The way Eames figures, finding another job would just look strange at this point, when he's already made it apparent to Saya he's doubtful of Orange's causations for storming out of the garage in the first place. There's some new mechanic girl she'll be interviewing, at any rate, which should hold her attentions for now while Eames keeps to his own business - or rather, the business of observing, his subject that being Saya. But then Arthur is clicking the laptop shut and putting it away, so he reaches out to pluck the disc from Arthur's long fingers, slipping it back into its case to review again later. He's missing something, he thinks, whether it be supernatural or otherwise he doesn't know, maybe even a red herring, maybe even not remotely important, but it has his curiousity and Eames has always been a bit cattish about such things.

(Also, that how long did it last thing was a totally relevant question, thank you very much. It suggests it's not so much an entrapment of the mind in as much as it might be something related to Saya physically. An aura, maybe. Whatever. Something.) ]

Something to be ashamed of, [ he muses wonderingly to himself, but then promptly shrugs leisurely, turning slightly in his chair to look at the others. ] Suppose that's all I can help you for on this one, boys.

Edited 2011-09-07 06:41 (UTC)

That's what I'm sayin' there are vampires and alien sons of bitches out there and she's holding out to keep this under wraps?

[Orange shakes his head. How long has he worked for her and she couldn't come clean to him? Even now he hasn't told the others the additional thing he knows about her; her deathly fear of water. You don't forget a lady in stiletto heels climbing up to perch on your shoulders during a flood. After all that she still couldn't come clean. Orange isn't about to let on he's a little disappointed too.]

Okay. Lie low. Keep watch.

[He nods because he's curious too, curious and wanting to know what is, why, how to prevent. Though he's got some faith in Saya not to come near Larry in that mode again. But wait a second, he's looking between Eames and Arthur. Orange sits up straight in his seat.]

Where's my copy?

[Of the disc. Duh. Or wait are they not supposed to ask for one in case the Coliseum goes looking for whoever hogtied their security guy and left him in his skivvies? Theoretically speaking of course.]

[The lingering detail is that all four of these men have something to hide. The kid and the old man have been able to get by revealing as few details as possible about themselves within the City. From how little they know or have heard of Arthur and Eames it's easy to say the same there too. Hmph.]

At any rate, I say we keep all this shit to ourselves for now.

[As for the disc...yeah. Where is their copy anyways? It would be a great misfortune for it to suddenly disappear.]

You [eyes move first to Freddy, then the two other gentlemen] will let us know as soon as you know something, right?

Habit, maybe. [ He suggests concerning the why of Saya's secrecy though it seems a relatively frail reason, even to Arthur - er, well let's be honest, especially to Arthur. Still, he nods at the reiteration of the so-far plan, his focus sliding from White to Orange and back to Eames at Orange's question as if to say the other disc? - that being the one still in Eames' jacket before he pulls the strap of his bag over his shoulder again, pushing one of the vacated chairs in absently. ] Don't see why not.

[ That's...not exactly a 'yes', but Arthur dislikes binding words even verbal promises. This is all - as far as he's concerned - more being done on account of their own interests in it than any kind of concern for those no longer even in the mystery-threat's midst. But it's also true he sees no reason they wouldn't share whatever they find except for their own habits - those being er...not sharing. He decides to think of White and Orange as acquaintances, business acquaintances, because it helps him to fit people into specific roles even if they aren't wholly appropriate; they'll do for now.

He doesn't even have to open up dialogue to know Eames plans on staying on with Saya, which has already put a sourness into his previously well managed disposition (unfavorable though it was before too toward the strangeness of the threat/effect/whatever it is.) So if there's something to be found, he imagines there's no better crab to do it than the forger though he can't forge here the way he ought to be able.

Puzzling. Recurringly so.

He glares again though this time at his bag, fingers curling at the edge. ]

[ Eames wants to tell Arthur to stop that, the whole glaring bit, the way his bag might melt over (they're probably going to have one of those one-sided discussions over this, he bets) but what he does do instead is slip his hand back into the inside of his tweed jacket, taking out the second disc. He was going to destroy it if they didn't bring it up, anyway, so it's good of them to without the simple expectations of it, holding the thin DVD holder between two fingers toward Orange, because he's the closest. ]

You'll be able to watch it off your DVD player.

[ Assuming they have one... which is dubious to say considering they were still mentioning VHS tapes as the main mode of security but hey, some old joints are just like that, and at least they were correct on it. They'll figure it out, anyway. Eames can't see why they wouldn't. ]

I can't tell you when I find out every little thing, Mister White. [ His mouth curls back amicably. ] But I'll let you both know if something of interest and relevancy sticks.

[Freddy wants to ask Arthur "Dude, what's up with you." but people are people and this guy did provide the gear around which they managed to congregate like frat boys watching porn. Who knows what the passing library staff thought. Anyway Larry doesn't seem to be pushing the issue and if it's okay with him to sit back in wait-for-something-to-happen mode then it's okay with Freddy.

Orange accepts the disc from Eames and nods once. At some point his unlit cigarette found its way from his mouth to perch in the crook of his head and ear.]

Thanks. [He knows what a DVD player is, he has one. So sue him for still calling them tapes. Pff. Also he interjects before White can response to Eames.] We'll keep in touch.

[Meeting adjourned? He almost feels like he's back in the meeting room before the day's patrol.]

[Who knows what's working in Arthur's mind. For the moment Larry doesn't care. This is it. They got their copy of the footage.]

Thanks.

[Half-hearted but someone's gotta say it. In case their some kind of an ambush, he decides to open the door first.]

[ Assuming they have one, Arthur thinks about the DVD but assumes even if they don't already own one, they can easily acquire it. ...if they ask for the right thing. Tapes? No.

Anyway.

Everyone seeming to linger a little, Arthur inclines his head first to Orange and then to White after each 'thanks' but further dialogue seems unnecessary. When White moves for the door, Arthur hangs back, presuming Orange will go next, following after that, his hand lingering on the door as he exits - an absentminded kind of courtesy for the last one out, in this case, Eames. ]

[ Eames, for his part, hangs back a bit, though what for isn't readily apparent - filing through his own thoughts, maybe, watching Larry and Orange's statures before finally he gets up from the chair, tucking its seat under the desk. Larry has a way of conducting himself very defensively, Eames muses, not for the first time as he lets White and Orange go fuck off with whatever business they have planned for the rest of the day. As for him, he pinches his thumb and index finger on the strap of Arthur's ~~purse~~ messenger bag. ]

Coffee, then?

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we can just end it here gais or somethin'?