InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "A B C D E E E!"

Dream (metamorpheus) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-10-19 14:54:00

Entry tags:

!open, *log, ariadne, dream

WHO: Dream & OPEN
WHAT: Yawns
WHEN: Nowish?
WARNINGS: n/a

Dream was bored. Even with zombies to unmake, nightmares to chase, and cures to inspire (or perhaps because of all these things) he was feeling a little...dejected. Given the pandemic, and students calling in dead left and right, his drama class was a wash until further notice. So he went wandering the halls of his apartment building, like a somnambulist with a camcorder, taking B-roll footage out the windows for an extremely low budget, film school horror movie.

Given his pale skin and listless, inscrutable expression, he could only hope he wouldn't cause any of his neighbors to panic should they happen to step out their doors at any given moment. Or perhaps he was hoping they would, just to see how they might react.

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	labyrinthine 2010-10-20 01:12 am UTC (link)
	"Movies." Ariadne waved her hand vaguely. "Modern zombie classic and a kids' movie. Um, I'm assuming you know what movies are." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." She looked past him out the window and shuddered. "Are you used to this kind of thing?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

metamorpheus
2010-10-20 02:15 am UTC (link)

He nodded. "I know about movies. I just don't get out much." A joke, perhaps, but the funny thing was, he wasn't really kidding. Sad, really, a man making movies when he almost never bothered to watch them.

He lowered the camcorder and studied the young woman. Ah, yes, she was part of the dreaming, all right. "I suppose you could say I am used to it. On a more...subconscious level."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-20 02:24 am UTC (link)

Well, at least he wasn't secretly a medieval warrior who was frightened by the idea of moving pictures. Ariadne leaned against the wall, studying him right back.

Subconscious level? Okay, that was definitely meant to catch her attention. "Do you know Eames?" Because he knew everybody, and she could easily see him talking about shared dreaming to someone. And hadn't he found someone on the network who could do what they did? She hadn't been paying strictly close attention.

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	metamorpheus 2010-10-20 02:35 am UTC (link)
	"I do, indeed," he replied, inclining his head in a half bow. "I've been getting to know him rather well, of late." My, didn't that sound scandalous. "We are, after all, in a similar line of work." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-20 02:38 am UTC (link)
	"You work in dreams?" she asked, peering at him. "On extraction, or - do you do more legitimate research?" He couldn't do inception. They were the only team that had ever pulled it off. Assuming they had. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	metamorpheus 2010-10-20 02:51 am UTC (link)
	"I suppose you could say dreams are my life," he answered, again with that knowing smirk. He could practically taste her mingled curiosity and skepticism. And no little arrogance--but why shouldn't she feel pride for being the only team to successfully emulate the real thing? "I do a bit of everything." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-20 02:54 am UTC (link)
	Not knowing why, Ariadne tweaked the scarf around her neck. It was armor of a sort, not just an affectation, and something about this mildly speaking man was putting her on edge. "Everything, huh? No wonder Eames likes you." She smiled slightly. "I'm Ariadne." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	metamorpheus 2010-10-20 02:59 am UTC (link)
	There. That little gesture. She was beginning to sense the strangeness of reality, wasn't she? If the Dream Lord were given to such things, he might have felt a sadistic little thrill. Who knew? Perhaps he did. "You can call me Morpheus." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-20 03:08 am UTC (link)
	Nobody named Ariadne who was even somewhat intellectually curious could miss that name. One eyebrow went up as she gazed back at him. "Okay, sure. I'm guessing your parents weren't mythology nuts, though." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

metamorpheus
2010-10-20 03:26 am UTC (link)

Nor had Morpheus missed the significance of Ariadne's name, but it seemed she was still thinking inside the box as well. No matter, she would catch on sooner or later. Or he could just spell it out for her.

"What parents?" he asked, arching his brow. I am the son of Darkness and Shadow, sprung from the womb of Night herself, the moment in which your Earth conceived the sweet dream of supporting life."

Perhaps it was a bit melodramatic, but that was the nature of Dream. And why should he conceal what he was? "Or perhaps I'm just another Forger with delusions of grandeur," he amended with a shrug, "But that's all one."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-20 01:14 pm UTC (link)

She took a step backwards involuntarily. The part of her that was a committed skeptic was rebelling, insisting that he was crazy and not serious. The part of her that had seen demons and angels arguing on the network and shot at zombies? That part was just plain scared.

"Morpheus." It was a half-whisper. "So you know everything we can do." Oh, shit, was he going to kill her for messing around in dreams? But he liked Eames. But Eames just impersonated, he didn't build and destroy dreamscapes. Ariadne was truly frightened now.

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metamorpheus
2010-10-20 07:20 pm UTC (link)

"I know all the tricks." It was probably an understatement. He didn't just know about what they did. He felt it. Lived it. He was inception.

He wasn't angry, though it was probably still hard to read his expression, but it was good that she had a healthy fear of him. He shook his head, as if somehow that should dispel her fear. It was people like Cobb he worried about. People who could no longer maintain the integrity of the barrier between their own mind and that of their subjects.

Which was, unfortunately, the downfall of nearly ever other mortal he had ever met who possessed such gifts. But perhaps Ariadne was different. "You recognize the folly of your pastimes," he acknowledged, "You are aware of the consequences and how to avoid the pitfalls. A fascinating paradox."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-20 07:58 pm UTC (link)

Okay, he hadn't melted her brain or cursed her aloud. Yet. She exhaled, looking past him and out at the sky. "It's hard not to be, the way I started out." Her first time sharing a dream, she'd been stabbed by Mal's vicious shade. On her first job she'd nearly been trapped in limbo. How could she not know the danger of what they did? "I don't plan to fly too close to the sun." Mixing her mythology a bit, but she didn't want to give him any ideas about locking her in a maze she had devised.

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metamorpheus
2010-10-20 08:10 pm UTC (link)

"I know." It wasn't that he was being purposefully creepy. But was hard for anyone, and dreamer, to keep secrets from the original. Especially Eames, whose open admiration, and eagerness to learn from his idol made him that much easier for Morpheus to read.

"As long as that remains true, you have nothing to fear from me," he said, "And as I told Eames, I can see that there is little stopping you. The least that I can do is try to ensure your safety. And that of the Dreaming at large."

Perhaps it would be good practice for the day he began to train his son.

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labyrinthine
2010-10-20 10:24 pm UTC (link)

The pressure in her chest lifted, and Ariadne gave him a very small smile. "I'll try to bear that in mind. Not like I don't have enough object lessons to learn from." She paused, thinking over what he'd said. "The Dreaming? So - they're all connected? Is what I do dangerous? Like, for longer than the dream lasts?" Even if she wasn't sure she could stop, she might have tried if it was endangering something bigger. Ariadne had enough trouble with the idea that they might have wrecked Fischer's mind permanently; if there was something more connected, could she really justify destroying it?

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	metamorpheus 2010-10-20 11:51 pm UTC (link)
	"The Dreaming," he said, "Is a vast realm of dream space filled with a menagerie of...dreams. Creations of my own, stories that I have collected from others. It's where I govern and watch over the dreams of all living things." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-21 12:49 am UTC (link)
	"So they're not separated. We just think they are." She leaned against the wall, considering. "And the PASIV is more of a backdoor into the Dreaming rather than the thing creating the shared space?" Ariadne couldn't help but be curious. Even if she still didn't entirely believe that she was having this conversation. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	metamorpheus 2010-10-21 01:07 am UTC (link)
	"That's one way to look at it, I suppose," he said, "Though most individual dreamers never leave the realm of their own subconscious. And, yes, it can be dangerous to dissolve that barrier--as I'm sure you have experienced. It can be...a train wreck." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-21 01:12 am UTC (link)
	Ariadne wasn't sure whether to giggle or shudder. "That's one way of putting it. Is that why projections get violent? They resist the barrier being breached?" Now she was as tempted as Eames had been. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	metamorpheus 2010-10-21 01:24 am UTC (link)
	"Quite so. The dreamer senses the presence of a stranger in their mind, and the mind instinctively tries to protect itself. But this you already know." His expression was shadowed with concern. "That is why I have to remain so vigilant. To keep talented dreamers from driving themselves--and everyone around them--utterly mad." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-21 01:32 am UTC (link)
	"I always thought it was just about the invasion, not... that we're not used to sharing dreams." She had too much experience of just how badly a talented dreamer could go. After all, what was Cobb if not a warning and object lesson? "So should I be keeping an eye out for you when I'm under?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

metamorpheus
2010-10-21 01:49 am UTC (link)

"You're not used to it," he agreed, "But some say that dreams are the mind's subconscious way of sloughing off extraneous information and stimuli. To have someone inside your subconscious, altering things while you are dreaming?"

He shrugged. "It takes finesse to do it without causing trauma, and most people don't have that." He knew. He had the finesse to slip through unnoticed, or to turn someone into a slobbering, catatonic vegetable living one constantly recurring nightmare. "But don't worry. If I do look in on you...I promise I'll be...gentle."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-21 02:10 am UTC (link)

"Some say." One eyebrow raised slightly. "Do you think that's true, or do you not believe in psychology?"

Finesse. That was one way of describing the skills she and her erstwhile teammates had. Her mouth curled into a curious expression. "Thanks, I appreciate it. A lot." She might have sounded flippant but her tone was very serious. Gentle was probably the best she could hope for from whoever or whatever he really was.

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metamorpheus
2010-10-21 03:03 am UTC (link)

Dream shrugged his shoulders slightly. "I try not to limit myself to just one perspective," he answered, touching the front of his shirt as if feeling the absence of a certain pendant that used to hang there.

"After all, we could both look at the same gemstone and behold two very different facets." He smiled at the expressions that crossed her face. "I like you," he said frankly, referring to the whole team. "It gets lonely, wandering the dream space, passing through, but never touching."

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	labyrinthine 2010-10-21 11:41 am UTC (link)
	"I guess you probably couldn't," she countered. If he was really a god of dreams then that sort of limitations would be impossible, wouldn't it? The smile was more reassuring than it should have been. And yet still not comforting. "Is that good or bad?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

metamorpheus
2010-10-21 09:48 pm UTC (link)

"For now? I would say it is a good thing." For now, the dream team were only able to access the dreams of others through the help of their somnacin, or at his discretion with Sands of Sleep, which made them marginally less dangerous than other dream vortexes he had encountered and eliminated. He hoped he would never have such need to deal with them so . "If you ever find yourself in trouble...you may call upon me."

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labyrinthine
2010-10-22 02:05 am UTC (link)

"Thank you." She was surprised, and understood that this meant more than she could probably comprehend at this moment. But for now, it was enough to know that this was a very great honor. "I'll remember that." She nodded slightly, curbing the impulse to bow - how incredibly stupid would that have looked - and glanced away. What more could she say? This conversation had already turned her brain inside out.

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	metamorpheus 2010-10-22 03:26 am UTC (link)
	Dream smiled, knowing how awkward it must have been for her at that moment, and deciding to allow her some reprieve. "I should...let you be about your business. I was good to meet you in person." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	labyrinthine 2010-10-23 02:02 am UTC (link)
	"Yeah, I'm gonna.... yeah. It was good to meet you too." Ariadne gestured vaguely - good? Good wasn't quite enough of a word for what it was - and backed away before slipping into her apartment again, leaning against the closed door and fighting the urge to hyperventilate. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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