#they get worked up and do nasty things with each other over crosswords and scrabble and wordle nolan told me so

[mister-eames]

sitting here thinking what made eames snap at arthur “your condensation AS ALWAYS is much appreciated arthur thank you” what’s the back story what’s the hidden angst I’m dying here

This, reeks to me of at least one significant incident in the past of one of them shooting down the others idea shall we say 'gently, with a chainsaw.'

Maybe their last job together, before the Fischer job. Arthur was having a bad day, you know, like a rare and real Bad Day. His brain was too loud, his back was in pain, he had a burgeoning migraine, their extractor had fucked off so now Arthur was trying to fill two roles, his mom is very sick, and he has calculations of her medical bills interfering with actual calculations for the job. You know when you're at peak stress? Like you have 18 things to cross off your list before you can even think about a food break, and you just don't have the time to consider taking a breath, or delegating the tasks, you just have tunnel vision, your blood sugar is low, you just need to get through this and you need a radius of silence around you? I think Eames got in the way of that. He was probably trying to help Arthur out and volunteered an idea for the job and was shot down gently, with a (metaphorical) chainsaw. Arthur probably felt bad for it by the time the job was done and paid Eames some pithy compliment like, 'you did good' and Eames, who has been subjected to a terse and surly Arthur for a week thinks the compliment isn't genuine, is forced, hence the 'condescension' remark. Eames shrugs it all off. He doesn't need Arthur to stroke his ego, he knows his worth. It'd just be nice, is all.

Also, this may sound weird, but I also think it's also a very cute kind of thing that they do. They pick something to attribute to one another and it almost becomes a game. "Your sarcasm, Arthur, as always, is much appreciated." "Your inane ramblings, Eames, is much appreciated, thank you." "Your lack of enthusiasm, is much appreciated." "Your tardiness--" 'Your stubornness" -- and perhaps it slowly, slowly it starts to get kinder. There's a few "Your resourcefulness is---" and "Your creativity is---" until, until.....