InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Would you like a jelly baby?"

ariadne (labyrinthine) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-03-24 00:18:00

Entry tags:

!@event, !closed, ariadne, arthur

Who: Ariadne and Arthur
Where: The Dreaming, and then their apartment
When: Sometime after midnight, March 24
What: When you give an Architect complete control over the Dreaming, things are bound to get interesting.
Rating/Status: PG-13 for language most likely; closed/incomplete

The hallway was full of doors. It stretched in either direction as far as she could see, dark wood with brass fittings and dim light. Even though there was no dust the place gave an impression of being unused and forgotten, with only a single set of footprints on the marble floor. It wasn't a place she had built and it wasn't the sort of place she would imagine either; no curves, no twists and turns, no mazes. Unless there were branching pathways - but it didn't feel like they were there when she reached out with her mind, sensing what lay ahead as if it were under her own blueprints. Just to be sure, Ariadne reached for the nearest door and opened it. A neatly lettered plate on the door bore the inscription Enlistment.

Inside was a neatly pressed uniform, with insignia she didn't recognize, hanging from a wire that ran up to the ceiling. Huh. Definitely not her subconscious. The next door, marked Sixth, had a small table with an old rotary telephone sitting on it; it rang, but when she picked up the receiver there was nothing but silence. Five doors down from that was a door marked New Orleans, and the blast of humid warmth that hit her made her realize just how cold the hallway was. Seeing a confusing whirl of color inside, she shut the door and kept walking, trailing her fingers along the wall and not realizing that they were leaving a red trail as they passed, as if she were unraveling a ball of thread behind her.

Further down the corridor was a single figure, slipping out of one room and preparing to open the next. The ruby pendant resting on her chest flashed and she was standing there, looking up and not at all surprised to see Arthur. "Where are we?" she asked, even though she was fairly sure she knew the answer already.

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labyrinthine
2011-03-27 06:13 pm UTC (link)

"I didn't mean to do it!" she snapped back, more confused than frightened. "Do you see a PASIV anywhere? Do you think I just asked Morpheus to drop me in your head for shits and giggles? Jesus, Arthur, you should know me well enough to get that I wouldn't do that." Ariadne took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I don't know how it happened but it was an accident."

She took a step forwards, not sure as she did it if she was going to reach for him or walk straight to the door and out of his room. But as she did the enormous ruby around her neck knocked gently against her breastbone, and she stopped short.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" she asked, more to herself than to Arthur. Lifting the ruby away from her chest and gazing into it, she thought she caught a reflection of eyes that were much darker than normal, with a single flash of light within like a distant star. "Oh, fuck me." Colligo was at it again, it seemed.

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the_pointman
2011-03-27 07:14 pm UTC (link)

Arthur's temper might have subsided at the mention of it being an accident but there was something in Arthur's body that was raging. It was almost as if he could feel his blood flowing through his veins. There was a ringing in his ears, and then he heard the loud pop behind him of the tv screen exploded.

His hands were burning, they didn't hurt, but he could feel the heat seemingly edging out between his fingers. The only thing he could relate it to was electricity. Whatever was in his was causing this. That was about the time that he heard the window in his room start to crack. Now seemed like a good time to get out.

Arthur hadn't realized his eyes were closed during all of this, and when he finally looked at Ariadne, her eyes caught all of his attention. Something was very very wrong. First and foremost, he needed air. The only thing he bothered to grab was his cell before he headed for the door.

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	labyrinthine 2011-03-27 07:34 pm UTC (link)
	The small explosion made her jump, and she followed him without looking backwards or considering her own safety. "Was that you?" She caught up to him and grabbed his arm, trying to get him to at least slow down. "Arthur, running away isn't going to help. It never works that way. Calm down." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

the_pointman
2011-03-27 07:47 pm UTC (link)

"I. Can't," Arthur's voice was harsh, much more then he ever would be with Ariadne. It was scaring him that he might have caused the blowing up of the tv. He didn't want to do it to anything else. Or anyone. He'd never be able to forgive himself if he hurt her.

Pulling away harder then he should have, Arthur stumbled back a little. "I'll be back when I feel like I can hold myself together. I don't want you to become a casualty like the television."

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labyrinthine
2011-03-27 08:02 pm UTC (link)

"Yes, you can. You're stronger than this, come on." Ariadne stood her ground, looking up at him with calm radiating from those strange dark eyes, even darker when contrasted with her suddenly paler skin. "Where are you going to go? Out in the streets and start blowing up cars and fire hydrants?"

His admission left her feeling odd, like she would have blushed but was somehow no longer physically capable of it. The ruby glimmered as she lifted it up and studied it. "Thanks, but if what I think happened has happened, I don't know if I actually can be injured." Had she ever seen Morpheus suffer any ill effects? It wasn't like their dreams together had been dangerous, but he was always untouched by the world around him even in reality.

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