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Arthur - the Point Man (Inception) (loadedreminder) wrote in utr_logs,
@ 2012-01-15 18:56:00

Entry tags:

ariadne, arthur (the point man)

Who: Ariadne & Arthur
Where: Guildhall & dreamspace
When: Today! Right the hell now!
Warnings: Unlikely.

Being as how they were set up in her office, since it was one of the safer rooms in the Guildhall, quiet and out of the way, Petit had been given the instructions of: 'if this timer goes off and we don't wake up, knock the chairs over, seriously.'
Arthur wasn't expecting there to be any problems, after all, they were only going to a single level down, and only for about fifteen minutes real time. There were very, very few problems that could happen with a situation like that.

They'd decided that it was safer to have Ariadne be the Dreamer, because that way she could change things with impunity, her head, her projections, her free rein, he wasn't about to take that from her.

He'd only gone under once in the time he'd been here, when he was helping Pixel test a new mix, not the one he was using at the moment, because they could do without the eye-searing technicolor, but even after that long he'd still made sure to clean and maintain the PASIV on a regular basis, just so he didn't forget how. He arched a brow over at Ariadne, a small smile catching at the corners of his mouth, "Ready for this?"

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	loadedreminder 2012-01-21 03:56 am UTC (link)
	"Here and there." He said, smiling again as he followed, tugging a knife out of a sheath on his thigh to hack off a branch of bamboo for her, as well as one for himself to act as a walking stick, "Sometimes there's critters in the underbrush." He said, "Just scare them off, you'll be fine." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-21 06:01 pm UTC (link)
	"Yeah, you're going to have to define 'critters'." If they were anything like the plants... She wouldn't be surprised to run across a dinosaur. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-21 07:18 pm UTC (link)
	"Possums, raccoons, feral cats." He shrugged, "Occasionally a wild dog, but those are usually further away from the path, hunt in packs. Might be some snakes." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-21 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	Ariadne stopped to look at him. "Snakes?" She never, ever had been a fan of snakes. Still, she wasn't about to stop exploration just because of a few slithering, slimy, scaly... okay, stop thinking about that now. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-21 07:37 pm UTC (link)
	"Sometimes." He said with a nod, "Little ones, constrictors, no venomous ones." Some of the others had liked that sort of trap, he didn't. He shrugged, "Mostly they steer clear of the path though, since that's where the big things are." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 04:43 am UTC (link)
	"Big things? How big? Just you and the other dreamers, right?" She hadn't taken another step. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 05:16 am UTC (link)
	"Pretty much everything's bigger than the snakes, even the raccoons and possums and feral cats. But yes, nothing bigger than we are, maybe some of the dogs, but like I said, they're usually deeper into the overgrowth." A nod in the direction they'd been going, "Keep heading this way, we'll get to the fence soon, and then the city." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 05:29 am UTC (link)
	She just nodded, getting back to where he pointed, and doing everything she could to not think of snakes. Which, of course, meant she was thinking of nothing but snakes. (Reply to this)

loadedreminder
2012-01-22 05:34 am UTC (link)

It was only another few yards to the fence, and where the park was overgrown but charred, the city beyond was just charred, though it had been some time ago, the infrastructure left to rust.

"Petroleum virus." Arthur explained, shouldering the gate open, "Turned anything petroleum-based explosive when exposed to oxygen. The resulting explosion would spread the virus further and still further. Car engines, gas pipelines, everything. Cities burned for months, years in some places. And the rain finally came, put everything out except for the parts that were still smouldering, protected from rain and wind."

(Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 05:38 am UTC (link)
	"Devastating..." was all Ariadne could mutter, taken back by the sheer scope of the damage. It wasn't surprising when you thought of how much fell into that catagory, but it didn't make the aftermath any less sobering to witness. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 05:46 am UTC (link)
	He nodded, "Been about five years since then, I've got another version that's about six months later, but it's not as hospitable." And was definitely more for survival training than this was. A nod then, heading along the cracked pavement, "C'mon, we'll want to get out of the sun. How are you with heights?" (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 05:57 am UTC (link)
	"Jumped off one in Limbo. Pretty sure I can handle it." Snakes didn't like heights. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 06:02 am UTC (link)
	"Good, because that's where we're going?" Pointing towards one of the half-rusted hulks that had once been an office high-rise. There was still most of it left, most of the glass was even intact, "Going to be a climb. And it's how we can pop back up to the park too, if we can't make it back to the shed." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 06:05 am UTC (link)
	"Well, let's get going." Ariadne figured he had something up his proverbial sleeve to suggest that kind of trek. (Reply to this)

loadedreminder
2012-01-22 06:19 am UTC (link)

It wasn't so much that he had something up his sleeve as that he knew what would happen next, he was just hoping they could get a good vantage point before it did. He wasn't fond of being run down by a pack of feral dogs, and while they were aggressive, they weren't that great at climbing, especially through the half-rusted latticework of a building's frame.

The building was further away than he remembered, but even with that, they were still within sight of it when the baying started up behind them.

(Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 06:31 am UTC (link)
	Ariadne was quiet most of the trip, but finally she had to ask. "Why were they working on a petroleum virus?" (Reply to this)

loadedreminder
2012-01-22 06:40 am UTC (link)

"Never really did figure that out." He said, a flicker of a smile darting into place and away again, "Just seemed like the best idea to cause the most destruction to the template but still have the template in place." His pace had sped, just a little, now that they were closer to the building, "I've come up with a few potential theories since then, most likely it's something we were working on to drop on other people and it got loose, that's how these things usually happen."

There was a maintenance door in the still-intact side of the building that was standing open, rusted into place, "You remember what I said about differentiating the right path from the wrong ones? Up here the triangles are structurally sound." There were stairs at least part of the way, to the third floor before the sheared-off side was visible, the scaffolding and internal support beams visible, getting worse on the higher levels.

Some of the beams were rectangular, or good old-fashioned I-beams, but some of them were more like construction scaffolding, triangles made out of the network of crossbeams.

(Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 06:45 am UTC (link)
	Ariadne just nodded, staying silent as they picked out their way. She'd made her peace with being a criminal during the Fisher job. Honestly, most business seemed to intent on doing their best to blur the line anyway, everyone had to find a place to make a living. But this level of destruction was jarring. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 06:56 am UTC (link)
	The barking was definitely closer, and Arthur cursed, abandoning the stairs, "C'mon. We've got to climb." He knew the path, and he knew that Ariadne didn't, even though he suspected she could find it as easily as anything, already making his way through that network of tumbled, bent beams, working his way higher. (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 07:04 am UTC (link)
	Barking? Oh right. Feral dogs. Ariadne followed behind, climbing the best she could. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 07:10 am UTC (link)
	"It's stable." He said, working his way out along a beam so that he could pull himself up to the floor above, bracing himself to offer her a hand up, if she needed it, "One more and we'll be high enough that they can't follow." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 07:11 am UTC (link)
	She accepted it gratefully, pulling herself up behind him. "I hate to seem like a coward. I can handle guns. Just... animals." She was a city girl at heart. (Reply to this)

	$Arthur - the Point Man (Inception): :\$ loadedreminder 2012-01-22 07:23 am UTC (link)
	"Most people are the same way." He said with a nod, making his way up to the next level, there was more superstructure and less actual structure the higher they went, but the one wall was still intact, and a good portion of the floor, so they'd have somewhere to rest, "Which is why it's dogs, actually, not, you know, Mad Max or something." (Reply to this)

	triednotto 2012-01-22 07:24 am UTC (link)
	"So we just wait them out?" Ariadne sat against the wall, looking at him with confusion. "You said there was a lot of time left." (Reply to this)

	loadedreminder 2012-01-22 07:29 am UTC (link)
	"Two and a half hours, give or take, they'll get tired of waiting when we don't come down and they'll move on. Then we can head back down and explore a little." (Reply to this)

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