InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Drake is ugly"

Isabel Evans (antarprincess) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-04-05 20:53:00

Entry tags:

eames, isabel evans

WHO: Isabel and Eames
WHAT: Isabel dreamwalks Eames, and ends up getting quite the surprise.
WHERE: Eames' dreams
WHEN: late evening
STATUS/RATING: Incomplete/TBD

Isabel laid in bed and scrolled through the PDA for what felt like the billionth time before looking over at the clock on the nightstand. It was getting late. If she wanted to go dreamwalking, now was the time to start.

Well, want wasn't exactly the right word. She had to do it. She had been kidnapped and brought to a strange city, and she had no real allies. She didn't know who brought her here, or why, or how. Dreamwalking was the only way for her to get answers, or at least to get a sense of who the city's other inhabitants were. And it was something she could do without drawing attention to herself, without revealing more about who she really was.

Taking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and absentmindedly scrolled through the PDA. When she opened them, she saw that her thumb lay next to a man's picture. Early thirties, dark blonde hair, handsome.

He would do.

She placed her thumb on his picture and closed her eyes, concentrating, waiting to enter his dream.

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antarprincess
2011-04-06 08:20 pm UTC (link)

Isabel watched as the little girl glanced around the mall/airport, looking for someone. When she didn't find them, she headed for a clothing store and walked in. Isabel trailed behind, watching as the little girl grabbed a shirt on display without really looking at it, and then went to try it on. It struck her as odd. Hollow, just like the girl. Because, dream or no, what kind of girl went to try on a shirt without looking at it? It felt...pointless. Like the means to an end.

Isabel stood behind a circular rack, waiting for the girl to come out. And then she felt the dream start to... shift. Change. It was being manipulated, and she had nothing to do with it. Her heart started to beat faster. Maybe her fears and suspicions weren't that far off the mark. Maybe it was Nicholas, or the Skins, or some other alien. Who else could do this? Who else had her ability?

Isabel then spun around to face the store across from the one she was in. She was now connected to the man walking out of that store instead---Dark hair, tall, lanky. How was that possible? She had entered what she thought was the dream of the man on the PDA. But she'd found herself connected to the girl, the shell, and now this new man. Another shell. She could feel it.

Despite the warning bells that had now become sirens going off in her mind, she hurried to follow after him. She had to know.

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dream_bigger
2011-04-07 02:39 am UTC (link)

Eames decided to continue on in the direction he had been going, and he could see the crossroads where he'd originally started from up ahead. An announcer started telling people that the next flight to Mombasa was now boarding, and that Boots was having a three for two offer on multi-vitamins, which was good to know. He had that telltale itch between his shoulderblades that let him know that somehow, he was still being followed.

Swearing to himself, he kept walking towards the crossroads and then grinned when he noticed a collection of food carts out in the middle of the main walkway. Even better, there was a crowd of projections milling about around the pretzel stand, so he ducked in there and shifted into Agnes Winston, one of his first ever clients. She summoned a walking stick and handbag out of nowhere, and turned back the way she'd originally came. She still couldn't see anyone who looked out of place, and yet that feeling would not go away.

Forced to walk slowly due to Agnes' bad hips, Eames windowshopped, using the reflections in the glass to keep an eye on things. She couldn't help but smile to herself when she passed a shop unit that was a curious blend of an art gallery and a hat shop, absently wondering how Neal would cope in a dream.

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antarprincess
2011-04-07 04:23 pm UTC (link)

Isabel trailed behind the man as he headed toward the airport section of the building. Announcements came over the loudspeaker, but she did her best to block out everything but the man. She couldn't lose him---he could change again at any moment. Though, she had a feeling, it didn't matter. They were connected. Shell or not, she was going to keep being drawn to him.

The man walked into a crowded section, full of food stands, and he disappeared. Isabel scanned the crowd, trying to find him, when she felt the shift again. He was changing, she knew it. He could be anyone now.

And then an older woman stepped out of the crowd and started walking back in the direction they had originally come from. It was him. He had another shell. Without a second thought, Isabel started to follow the old woman. Her instincts were screaming at her to end this, to take over the dream, to let her presence be known. But she wouldn't allow herself to. She had to see how far this was going, she had to know more. She needed to know if he was like her.

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dream_bigger
2011-04-12 11:12 pm UTC (link)

She still hadn't got rid of her tail. Shit. She kept windowshopping, pausing outside a shop that sold antique typewriters, a raft and a wall full of mirrors that were slightly distorted or fogged in different ways. Grinning at the thought of her real-life "twin", she gave the dream a little shove and watched in a mirror as a nearby sweets cart suddenly crumpled to the floor, sending "millions" and jaw breakers and hard-boiled sweets everywhere. They rolled all over the floor, various different shoppers losing their balance when they didn't bother to check where they were going.

Still nothing. No stunned people suddenly becoming visible because they had slipped on a few sweets and landed on their arse. No invisible feet making waves through the pile of millions. Nothing. Fuck it.

Glancing down at her feet when something landed against them, she grinned and bent down to pick up the Curly Wurly that had skidded to a stop around her feet. A lovely ornate mirror in the window of Finn's shop allowed her to drop any hint of a Forgery, and then Eames stood up straight. He opened the chocolate and took a mouthful, and then he reached out to turn off all the lights in the dream.

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antarprincess
2011-04-12 11:52 pm UTC (link)

Another test.

The dreamer had tried one thing after another---looking for Isabel (as she now understood), switching from shell to shell to lose her, and now this. A candy stand had toppled over, its contents littering the floor. And the dreamer's shell watched in a mirror, waiting for her to reveal herself in some way, to trip, to leave a trail of some sort. But she had control here, a fact she kept repeating to herself to get her heart to stop feeling like it was going to pound its way out of her chest. She was in control.

And then Isabel felt that shifting feeling again, and the shell was gone. All that remained was the real man, the dreamer she had chosen from the PDA. She wasn't sure how to take that. Was this his way of saying he gave up, was this an end to the tests?

Then the lights went out, and she had her answer.

Reaching out with her mind, she turned them back on and, without giving herself time to second guess again, revealed herself.

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dream_bigger
2011-04-13 01:25 am UTC (link)

Cheeky little minx! This was his dream, not that unknown girl's. He smirked at her, raising his Curly Wurly to her in a mock-toast, and then turned to go into Finn's shop.

It felt a bit like coming home after a long day at work, and he almost paused to look through it, but he had no time for that. Heading to the fire exit at the back of the shop, he shoved it open and stepped into the back of Sirius' shop. Unexpected, but he didn't bother questioning it. From there, he walked into Ariadne's shop, but it just took him to Arthur's shop which was next door, so he went back through and pulled the door over to the right a bit, and when he stepped through the next time, he found himself in one of the bits of the Dreaming Ariadne had built. The Fantasy Novel garden with the singing spires, and the lavender bushes all over the hills. He spotted the tree Ariadne had sat in for a while and headed down towards it. Once he was settled in their tree, he thought up a cup of tea and a lit cigarette, and waited on the intruder showing up.

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antarprincess
2011-04-13 01:45 am UTC (link)

The dreamer didn't even bat an eyelash when Isabel revealed herself. Instead, he toasted her with some sort of candy, and then took off. She was pulled by the invisible thread between them, being urged to follow him, but she held back. She was sick of following him, sick of playing his games. He might have power here, but so did she. She had been dreamwalking for as long as she could remember, and the ability was strong. She just needed to trust it.

And then hope that her trust wasn't misplaced.

In an instant, Isabel was standing before the man. Their surroundings immediately began to change. Her instincts told her to create something she knew, like the school or the desert, but she didn't want to reveal anything about who she was to this man. Instead, she placed them on an empty Golden Gate Bridge, the sun beating down on them, the water reflecting its rays.

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dream_bigger
2011-04-13 02:22 am UTC (link)

"Good God, woman, will you let me finish my tea, at least?" he grumbled, turning round to look at where they were. Huh, no projections. No comfy tree, either. Bugger.

"This is all very nice, but really, sweetheart, gatecrashing like this? Terribly rude. You didn't even look at the spires, and my girl took ages to make those just right, never mind the fact that you just showed up in the middle of my dream unannounced! Incredibly forward of you, and I don't even know your name," he rambled, wandering around her bridge as he spoke. He took a long drag on his cigarette and blew a few smoke rings, and then wandered back over towards her, drinking his tea as he did so. Honestly, he was a little freaked out by how quickly she'd found him, and by her building skills. It was second nature for him to act like nothing was bothering him, though.

"So, I'd quite like to know your name and why you're in my head, changing my dreams, without even asking permission. If you wouldn't mind, pet. That'd be lovely."

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antarprincess
2011-04-13 03:06 am UTC (link)

The dreamer grumbled and rambled, but he couldn't fool Isabel. She was tied to him, to his emotions, and she knew he was wigging out. She could only guess that it had something to do with her taking hold of the dream, of manipulating it to look the way she wanted it to. And, after everything she'd been through lately, it felt good to have the upper hand.

Isabel wrinkled her nose and then snapped her fingers, the cigarette disappearing, "Disgusting habit---even here." She paused, changing the subject, "And it doesn't matter who I am. It's all just a dream, right?" But both of them knew that wasn't true. "You weren't supposed to know I was here. But even when you couldn't see me, you sensed me. And the way you shifted from person to person... What are you?"

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dream_bigger
2011-04-14 10:23 pm UTC (link)

"I'm a man of wealth and taste," he replied, his smile completely devoid of anything even beginning to resemble good humour. He turned away from her after that and started walking, reaching into his jacket pocket for the packet of cigarettes and lighter that were always there when he wore his own skin. "I'm going to break into your flat, you know. I'll break in, and redecorate it without asking you first, while you watch me," he called back to her as he lit up again, "and I'll take your dinner away from you just as you're about to eat it, and I'll ask you incredibly personal questions and get really pissed off when you don't want to answer. And even then, it won't be anywhere close to being as rude as what you're doing right now."

He wanted projections. Where were the bloody things? His projections were lethal when they got going, and the amount of crap this gatecrasher was pulling out of her arse meant that his dream should have been a bloodbath by now.

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antarprincess
2011-04-15 12:32 am UTC (link)

Isabel walked over to the side of the bridge and shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand, looking out at the view. A light breeze kept her from getting too warm, and made her long blond hair dance about. "Like I said, you weren't supposed to know I was here. No one else would have. But then it was as if you could feel my presence... And then you jumped from the girl, to the other man, to the old woman.... I had to make sure..." She had to make sure that she was going to be safe in the city, that he wasn't a threat to her. In fact, she was still trying to figure that out. And she wouldn't apologize for it, not after the last few years of her life.

"As for being so pissed off that you want to break into my apartment and redecorate, if it will make you feel better, go for it. After what my roommate's done, it could use a fresh coat of paint." Or possibly a hazmat team.

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