InsaneJournal

Eames grew up in London, the only son of a far-too-busy British diplomat and a mother who liked to lunch. As such, it meant that Eames learnt from an early age how best to work a room, who to talk to and how to make friends with everyone. Boarding school was horrific and dull, perhaps even horrifically dull, not to mention boring. He was the annoying boy in the class who never seemed to do any work, and still came home at the holidays with almost perfect marks in his exams. Still, he made a small fortune creating fake IDs from old passports and he amused himself and a few others with impressions of their teachers and other students. It passed the time, after all.

Once he left school, he went to university and studied psychology. Student grants were, quite frankly, rubbish, and his parents earned more than enough money to make him ineligible for student loans. He needed some way of earning cash, so he decided to paint and then sell his own artwork. He'd always been good at art in school, after all. His ability to create accurate replicas was just as useful here as it had been in school, and he soon found himself copying different artists: Dali, Degas, Picasso, Bacon, all sorts. He graduated with a first, and a healthy bank balance.

Soon after graduating, he enlisted with the British army and within a year, he'd applied to join the SAS. He made it through the selection and after a year or so, was part of the first unit to try out dream-tech training on a joint venture with some US military (although Eames had his suspicions, and was privately certain that the yanks were mostly CIA). His skills as an architect were passable, although nothing special, although he was one of the best at discovering secrets his friends had hidden and when it came to disguising himself within the dream, nobody could beat him. His art skills combined with his psychology studies stood him in good stead. That and the fact that he could be a sneaky bugger when he wanted to be.

Soon enough, MI5 came calling and Eames found himself working for the boys in Thames House, gathering up all kinds of information. After some time, he started freelancing and eventually he parted ways with Her Majesty's paycheck. He worked on a number of jobs as both Extractor and Forger, although he specialised in Forging, building up a reputation amongst dream-tech circles. He wasn't overly bothered about how legal the jobs were, as long as the pay was good, and he soon became known as one of the best Forgers, if not the best, in the business.

He worked with everyone, multiple times; Dream-tech was still relatively new, after all. The Cobbs were civilians, freelancers who sometimes worked with the military and mostly stayed on the legal side of things, although Mal looked like she could be more than tempted to the dark side at times; she worked as Extractor, while Dom was one of the best Architects Eames had ever worked with. Arthur, who hadn't been referred to as Arthur when he'd first laid eyes on the kid back in those first days with the SAS and the yanks, and who'd developed into one hard bastard and one hell of a Point Man. Nash, a slimy little weasel of an Architect, but good enough in a pinch. Hisako, one hell of an Extractor, and he mourned her dedication to one side of the game as a loss to his; her Forging skills were more than passable. Sabra, a gorgeous chemist who refused his many and frequent invites to share his bed (and then he saw how she watched Hisako on a couple of jobs, and let it go) and who introduced him to Yusuf after a while.

He relocated to Mombasa after a while, eager to live the old colonial lifestyle while it was still possible, or at least, that's what he told people. Reality was much duller; he just liked the heat. And Yusuf made the most amazing tea on the planet, which was so good, it was worth putting up with the man's cat for.

When Cobb found him in the casino, and invited him to work on the Fischer case, he held out for as long as he possibly could, but soon gave in to the double lure of performing Inception and working with Arthur. The planning all went perfectly, his Forgery of Browning as perfect as usual, Ariadne's different levels all excellent work (and if he was starting to rethink his opinion on who was the best Architect he'd ever worked with, well. That was neither here nor there), Yusuf's compounds were nothing short of chemical brilliance and Arthur's research was (supposedly) impeccable, much like the rest of the man. Cobb headed up meetings and did his own experiments, which was fair enough, and Saito bought airlines, paid for everything and checked up on his investments every once in a while.

And then there was the job itself. Yusuf had sold them out for Cobb's share, Arthur had missed that Fischer had sub-security in the background check, Saito was shot, Cobb was batshit insane and willing to risk all of their lives on this one gambit to get him back to his kids. Still, everyone pulled together and got on with things, inventing gravity and defeating entire armies of bad guys and whatnot, along with a quick trip into Limbo for some of them, and somehow they managed it. Fischer found his pinwheel, Cobb found Saito, Saito made his phonecalls and everything was wonderful. Eames watched Cobb leave with Miles, and then turned to leave the baggage reclaim at LAX, intent on following Arthur to whatever hotel the Pointman was staying in and looking forward to whatever happened, when all of a sudden, he found himself in a very odd (and cold) place indeed.

Eames has quite a strong personality, which you might find surprising for someone who spends a lot of time pretending to be other people, but there you go. He is, to be brutally honest, an asshole. Charming and likable (at times), sure, but that just means he's a charming, sometimes-likable asshole. He's selfish, he lies, he steals and he cons people into believing he's someone he isn't. His self-preservation instincts are high, and he's more than willing to quit a job half-way through if he thinks it'll end badly, and screw the payment - having money is a wonderful thing, but it means nothing if you're dead, or worse. He can be talked round into continuing if the other person is persuasive enough, though.

Supremely confident in his skills, he enjoys his work and all that it entails. He is capable of reading people like books, picking up on all manner of subtle cues and hints to enable him to work out team dynamics at a glance, make more-than-educated guesses at what's never said out loud and identify who's sleeping with whom, amongst other things. He enjoys talking to everyone and anyone who'll reply. It is rare for him to give away anything private about himself during all the chatting, however, even as he carefully studies whoever he's talking with. It helps him to create various different personas when he has to work in disguise. He doesn't always disguise himself as someone the Mark knows; sometimes he'll use a creation all of his own. He has a number of leggy blondes and brunettes in his collection of people, as well as various different men. Each one has their own personality and idiosyncrasies, and Eames is capable of switching between them at a moment's notice.

For all his sarcasm, his sense of humour is often child-like in its simplicity. He enjoys teasing and poking fun at his team-mates, especially Arthur (it's not his fault if the other man is almost entirely humourless, is it?) but once it's time to get to work, he takes his job very seriously. He is extremely hardworking and produces excellent, detailed work. Naturally, he will still find time to annoy Arthur; it's almost second nature to him now.

He does have some good points. His dedication to his job, for one thing. He didn't get to be the best Forger by simply sitting on his arse all day and talking a good talk. He's also very loyal to those that he believes deserve it. Mainly, this means Yusuf, Ariadne (for all that she's new to the team, he's seen the hours she put in during the Fischer job and the obvious concern she had over everyone's wellbeing, and that wins her a lot of points) and most of all, Arthur. All the teasing and general dicking around he does is an attempt to cover up the fact that Eames is in love with incredibly attracted to the man.

Eames is a bit of an all-rounder. A career criminal, skilled at pickpocketing, forging official documents and various small objects, as well as planning large-scale heists, he has also spent a number of years in the British Army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant before branching sideways into MI5. On top of all that, he's also capable of forging works of art and is an accomplished artist in his own right. Eames likes to paint with acrylics or work quickly in charcoal or with pencils.
In the dream world, however, he can become anyone at all. He is adept at studying people in order to discover their body language, way of speaking, etc. In short, he quickly learns all he needs in order to become the person he is impersonating. And he loves a good game of poker.

Yes

First Person Writing Sample

Ariadne, how does it feel for your first job to be the first successful Inception job? We never really got a chance to discuss this while we dicked about in Yusuf's brain for the rest of the time down there, but I would jump at the chance to work with you again if you decide to continue in this line of work. I'll be in touch, don't worry.

Arthur, my sweet, kindly pass my compliments on to your tailor, would you? I was lucky enough to be able to see you passing through customs earlier today, and the cut of your suit is perfection itself. I swear, your arse has never looked better except for when it's naked. Care for a drink later?

Cobb, well done. My love to the sprogs. No doubt, you won't even notice this until four weeks down the line when you finally pay attention to things that are not Phillipa, James, Phillipa&James and "Things Phillipa and James have done", but that's quite alright. I'll forgive you this once.

Saito-San, I am glad we allowed tourists along for this job. If you ever need a Forger again, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm certain you'll know how to find me.

Yusuf, you owe me $200.

Third Person Writing Sample:

He stood in front of the mirror and ignored the sounds of Arthur and Cobb training Ariadne to avoid projections in their own inimitable styles. He'd come down into Arthur's dream hotel so that he could take over one of the bedroom suites to work on his Forgery of Browning, and despite appearances (and any scurrilous rumours to the contrary) he took his work extremely seriously.

He had perfected the physical change a long while ago, but then again, that was always the easiest part of any Forgery. He had an accent to perfect, nervous tells and tiny physical habits to develop, he had a personality to take over and inhabit. Thinking back to his time in Australia, Eames let his eyes shut as he ran through all manner of incidents with Browning. His habit of gesturing towards things with his glasses. The way he confronted things head-on, scaring the utter shit out of grown men with just a few words. The way he was determined that his company would survive the death of Maurice Fischer. His suits that were beautifully made and tailored just right, and still didn't disguise the fact that the man looked like a thug (and if Arthur felt like making any comments about that observation, they would be as water onto a duck's back, naturally).

Eames began talking quietly with his eyes still shut, still running through all that he had learnt in Sydney, and switched to Browning's distinctive twang. "Welcome to the litigation team, Mr. Jacobs, and thank you for joining us at such short notice," he said, repeating the start of the short speech he'd been given when "Mr. Jacobs" replaced a Ms. Kowalski who had sadly been laid low with a rather horrendous bout of food poisoning, thanks to one of Yusuf's nastier little concoctions. From there, he went on to go through his usual voice exercises, and within ten minutes, he had Peter Browning's accent down pat. The physical change then followed, as Eames allowed himself to bulk up and gain a few inches in height. His slacks and striped shirt faded into one of Browning's more sombre suits, and when he reached into the jacket pocket and pulled out the pair of glasses, he was well on his way to becoming the older man.

He spent another hour or two working on his Forgery, eventually reaching the point where he thought it was passable. He'd let Cobb and Arthur know in their briefing later on in the day, and if they were good boys, he might even let them see, but now? Now it was time for him to go and "help" with training Ariadne. Peter Browning melted away, leaving Eames standing there as himself for a few seconds, and then it was Arthur standing there and scowling at himself in the mirror. Eames had been working with him on and off for long enough now that he didn't even need to check to know that the Forgery was perfect. Straightening his jacket, he checked the safety on his weapon and then went out into the main body of the hotel. Time to shoot projections and corrupt young minds! Excellent!