Tommy had long grown weary of the human species, bored on his task at gathering information about the stagnant aliens who inhabited Earth. They seemed to repeat themselves, never moving forward, too obsessed with trivial disputes. War, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, nationalities, politics, the lack of space exploration; how did they ever get stuck with such a primitive planet? Honestly, they even referred to those in their own species as 'aliens' just for being from a neighboring country. Such small minded creatures.

Perhaps more bewildering was the social obsession with sex. Tommy had been the oldest in his crew when they had taken on human form, and adjusting to the rush of hormones in going through puberty was blinding. It had lead to his asexual logic being overrun by impulsive and rather unnecessary relationships. Eventually he realized the drama brought on by these self absorbed humans who couldn't even see beyond the limitations of their own small spec in space. He had watched the ridiculous going on of Dick's attempts to adjust to this planet, though he was the youngest and quite juvenile in how he handled things. It seemed his blinding relationship with Dr. Mary Albright had diluted Dick's connection with their origins, and Tommy wanted nothing to do with it. Pursuing relationships was merely a roadblock in his mission, which was what drove his purpose anymore.

Moving on to college made him realize what a joke his public high school education had been, but he absorbed all the information he could, nonetheless. He graduated with a 4.0 within two and a half years, head of his class, but Tommy resisted the idea of a typical human job which would hardly sate his appetite for knowledge. He was uninterested in the trivialities of gaining wealth, this concept of capitalism all so primitive. Instead, always intrigued by conspiracy theories, Tommy sought a military career to see what truths he might be able to unravel.

Dream share had been in the beginnings when Tommy had been introduced to and excelled in it. He hadn't meant to be distracted by the project, but it appealed to him in a way nothing else about humanity had been able to.

When Tommy had first experienced dreaming in his sleep as a human teenager, it had been overwhelming. He had never been the most creative type, enjoying systems and logic, but dreams it seemed were beyond his control and wildly illogical. Adjusting to his human brain had been one thing, but the onslaught of sudden visions in his sleep had intrigued him in a way he'd been disillusioned to.

He began experimenting with lucid dreaming into college, to see just how to manipulate and inform the workings of his own subconscious. It was a guilty pleasure for some time, being so obsessed with learning about a dimension of humanity that wasn't so cut and narrow, so easy to understand. So when the opportunity to expand that knowledge in a before unexplored facet called dream share arose, Tommy found himself jumping at the opportunity before he'd really thought about it.

His education allowed Tommy to appear exceptionally brilliant, and he was quickly accepted to work on the dream share project. His first task had been to design the settings in the dreams, to be an architect. He was exacting and geometric in his designs, wowing his employers with Escher like designs that weren't possible in reality, but seemed so in dream design.

After a while Tommy felt as though the project was stagnating and it lost momentum. The organization he worked for was too obsessed with warfare and working out military strategies. It had its merits for a while, but Tommy was less interested in the violent aspect, the repetitive tactic that humanity had used for resolving conflicts for far too long.

The project gradually lost funding as the scenarios were foiled by projections of the host's mind. Tommy saw the impending downfall of the operation, and so worked his hardest at strengthening his own subconscious. He would spend after hours working away when he couldn't sleep, used to insomnia when he grew obsessed about a subject. The nearing of the project's end, despite the denial of the project leaders, only seemed to further fuel Tommy's need to gather all information possible. Tommy was at the forefront of something groundbreaking, and he wanted to be the best in the business, just in case.

When his organization brought in outside affiliates as a last ditch effort to supplement their lack of advancement, Tommy was unimpressed by Dom and Mal, to say the least. He thought bringing on new recruits at this stage was an obstacle, considering most of his comrades already in the program paled in comparison to his dedication and competence.

That was until Tommy got the chance to teach Mal about the physics of a dream and how to build. She soaked up information and structure with next to no hesitation, and within the first day she was erecting architecture from the streets of France that Tommy had only seen in textbooks. Mal had an eye for detail that Tommy envied a little, though the emotion was one he quickly suppressed. If he was always surrounded by inferior beings how would he ever excel?

Mal had a cultured, well traveled and educated air about her, and was a fantastic storyteller. Tommy hadn't laughed like that since his adolescent years, not in a genuine fashion that wasn't condescending. He was so drawn to Mal and began looking forward to their time in dreams together. When the organization began to militarize the dreams Mal met eyes with Tommy, disappoint readable only to him, and in that moment he fell for her. Mal later confided that such violent endeavors were a waste of potential, and Tommy readily agreed, expressing his honest opinions for the project for the first time to another.

Cob on the other hand, Tommy held a great distaste for. Dom was quiet and reserved in a way that made Tommy unable to read him, even though he'd grown well versed in human psychological structures in his time as one. He didn't outright see the value in Dom's presence in the dream share project, and was exceedingly cold toward the other man. Tommy had never seen himself as the type to be trite and prideful until he was confronted with another human who made him uneasy. He had to keep himself in check so as not to try and sabotage Dom's place in the organization. It was only in their first shared dream between he and Cob that Tommy began to understand the man's merits.

Cob had an uncanny instinct when it came to dealing with the hostile projections in a foreign person's mind. Despite his seeming lack of knowledge in military strategies, he took to the unrealistic rules of a dream with ease, like it was second nature to him. Not even Tommy had adjusted to the structural constraints of dream manipulation so quickly.

Then Cob suggested the concept of extracting ideas from a person's mind, and Tommy's whole world was turned upside down. Despite the efforts of the three to pull off an extraction in a very limited set of time, the production was too little, too late. The project had been surviving on the dregs of its funding for two months already, and it was finally squashed out by the higher ups.

Tommy could more feel the moment when the idea of the project's termination sunk into Mal. Her response was a visceral sort of anger which Tommy could tell resonated with both he and Cob quite heavily.

They had been introduced to something quite groundbreaking and it had become integral to their personal being. Mal's ability to create in dreamscapes was limitless, Cob's ability to manipulate and deceive had just been becoming apparent, and Tommy felt a master of the intricacies of dreaming, having become the unofficial director of the dream plots himself.

There was a bewildering emptiness following their parting. They felt interconnected with each other, had seen parts of one another's psyche that was intimate beyond explanation. And now Cob was going back to his life of unspoken corporate espionage, Mal back to France because she felt she didn't fit in in the states, and Tommy was offered a position higher up the ladder in the military hierarchy.

It took Tommy all of five months for him to grow weary of his new position, providing pivotal information for projects he didn't even have the jurisdiction to know more about. Weeks of letter correspondence back and forth to Mal from Paris made him long for the world beyond his desk job. After all, he always told himself he wouldn't end up in this exact professional situation.

Never much of one to spend money on anything luxurious beyond a small collection of rather fancy suits, Tommy secretly began to transfer his earnings into a foreign mutual fund that Mal's father had recommended. His cryptic messages to Mal which privately referred to dream share began to talk of travel and adventure.

When Tommy requested assignment overseas for a specific information gathering expedition, he promptly and somewhat mysteriously died when his helicopter was shot down.

When Tommy died he adopted a new name, and began going by Arthur.
the process he implemented was similar to the one used to introduce the Solomons into existence when Arthur's crew first became human.

Arthur introduced himself as such to Mal when they met in Prague, and she handed him the passport that verified his identity. From there the two kept on the move, visiting major cities all over the world and spending money on what they both considered a worthwhile expedition. All along the way Mal absorbed and sketched and memorized the variation in contemporary and ancient architecture.

They made their way through the les hostile parts of the Middle East, into Southern Asia and up the countinent's eastern shore before moving south toward Australia. They avoided the States, heading to Africa and South America, until Arthur was over saturated with cultural information and Mal had drown in the arts.

Under the surface of their travels had been the pursuit of certain persons of interest who Arthur had gathered the names of while still part of the dream share project. Of course, if the United States were developing such an advanced procedure, then there was value to it for other countries, especially in development for the black market.

Mal was under the impression that dream share should be like an open sourced software, free for others if they so desired to test and develop it. Arthur was a little more weary, but figured if they could unearth other people trying to make dream share a success, why not exchange information for information. After all it was the most valuable thing he knew of.

In Berlin they'd met a small group of independent technology enthusiasts who were trying to build their own dream device. In exchange for a comprehensive explanation of what was necessary to make a shared dream a reality, Arthur and Mal received contact for a team relatively near their home base in Paris.

The group expressed the desire for advice building the machine, but Arthur simply explained that was up to them since they had no experience actually putting one together. Of course, he had memorized the schematics that the United States government had employed, but at the start of this Mal and he had made a decision. They would not share more than they needed to gain loyalty, and the information to be shared last would be the actual building of the machines. That was not actually something they had experience with, but we're sure they would be able to build one without much difficulty.

The point was not to share that information until they themselves had time to create their own device, so as not to give too much advantage to the competition. Besides, if these individuals could not reach the ability to dream share in their own ambition, perhaps it was because they weren't yet meant to.

And so Arthur and Mal moved forward. In Stockholm they met a couple obsessed with lucid dreaming and the ability to be someone else in a dream. They had theorized that if one invaded another's subconscious they could potentially pass themselves off as another person entirely with enough practice. Mal explained to them a theoretical potential for actual dream share, hinting that it could be done. Intrigued, the couple began researching further, and introduced Mal and Arthur to a scientist in Singapore they might be interested in visiting.

The scientist was apparently exploring how to best sedate an individual for prolonged dreaming, and had a whole research division under her guidance. Intrigued, Mal and Arthur requested that they be put under with the drug, and then offered to become future clients of the product, whether it was legal or not. She introduced them to some of her brightest pupils, and the pair left with an extensive list of ingredients for what was later termed somnacin. They never had been able to secure the sedative used in the states or a list of its components.

Their travels continued in a similar fashion, from Dubai to Tokyo, Moscow to Seoul, Sydney to Cape Town. Arthur and Mal traveled the world creating their own private dream share network. Sometimes they would share clients names with one another, expanding the available collaborators and ideas in the community. As they got to know one group, the name of another would arise, until a number of preexisting connections became apparent.

Nearly two years later, Mal and Arthur were exhausted and ready to settle down once more. They moved to a fresh place in Paris, sleek and minimalist for Arthur with small historic accents for Mal. Upon contacting her father, Mal was reminded of several correspondence from Dom Cobb urging that he would like to come see Mal. After a short break, she made a few day trip to England to visit her father, and came back assured she'd found the next step in their expedition. She wouldn't fill Arthur in, but when he read Cobb's letters he seemed to hint at having built his own passive device.

Not two weeks later Arthur opened the door to Cobb at their doorstep.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked none too sincerely.

"Arthur," Cobb responded shortly. "Is Mal in?"

"Dom!" Rang Mal's voice from inside, and she brushed by Arthur to extend her arms for a hug. "How were your travels? You must tell me all about them."

"From what I've heard you and Arthur are the ones with stories to tell."

"Are we ever," Mal said cheerily. "Come, let us toast. This is an occasion for celebration! Non?"

Dom smiled softly, the way Arthur had only ever seen him smile around Mal. It was heartfelt and ate at Arthur a little, but as the night went on and high class wine was shared, he lightened up. Dom seemed to loosen a little as he spent more time with the two of them, as if for the past two and a half years he hadn't shown anything but a professional demeanor.

Arthur never thought he was capable of connecting on a deeper level with other humans. Mal and Dom tore down those barriers and dug themselves in, deep.

And so began their notorious development and exploits at the head of dreamshare.