Back To the Beginning (Ariadne: Many Miles To Go, Part 2)
Series: Three Is More Than Just Company, AMTBR
Title: Back To The Beginning
Fandom: Inception, mild/moderate Whoniverse
Pairings: Arthur/Eames, pre-Ariadne/Arthur/Eames
Rating: R, for language and implied sexuality
Story Summary: "You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story, you need to go back to the beginning." (The Tudors, Opening Narration). We all have stories. Who we were, what we've been through, defines who we are.
Chapter Summary: Ariadne had a mostly-normal childhood, and there's not much in her past she'd change. But she's never quite felt as though she belongs, and all she really wants is to realize her dreams. She just didn't know how literal an idea that would become.
So I woke up one mornin'
And I put my fears aside
Now look how far I've come
From the back of of an endless line
No, I don't give up easy
I've got many miles to go
But I can't wait to get to
What I see down this road
And all my life I've learned to
Just take it day by day
I'm not there yet
But I know I'm on my way - I'm On My Way, Kellie Pickler
The summer after junior year, Ariadne's at a bit of a loss. So she takes her camera and snaps pictures all around Providence, for lack of anything better to do. She carries a sketchbook too, and draws buildings in between taking pictures of people. She's sitting on a bench, just taking a break, when someone sits down next to her.
“So, do you just like taking pictures then, or is there a point to it?” The person speaking is a blonde girl who is maybe a couple of years older than Ariadne, and from the accent, she's British as well. Ariadne shrugs, looking up into dark eyes.
“Liking it can be the point, can't it?”
“I guess so. I'm Jenny.”
“Ariadne. Are you visiting someone?”
“Why, you don't think I could be from around here?”
“Well... Accent.”
Jenny grins. “You're right, of course. I'm English, staying here for the summer with my brother. He and I usually travel around, but we've run into some problems, so we're spending the summer holidays here.”
“Don't you have school?” Ariadne asks, because she doesn't think Jenny's that much older than she is.
“Oh, yes, I'm home schooled, so we can keep wandering around as we like. It's brilliant, really. So, Ariadne. Have you always lived here?”
They spend the rest of the day talking, and then meet again at the same bench every day for the rest of the summer. Ariadne doesn't have any interest in girls, romantically speaking, so it's not like that. It's just that Jenny is such a... She's such a free spirit, Ariadne's never met anyone like her. She knows all kinds of insane military things - her brother was a soldier, she explains, and since he raised her, she learned everything from him - but at the same time she can be almost like a little girl in her enthusiasm.
They've gotten Blizzards from the local Dairy Queen one day and are eating them outside when Jenny asks, “So, what are you going to do when you're done school?”
Ariadne shrugs. “Probably take up art history at Brown, where my parents teach.”
Jenny frowns at her. “You don't sound very happy about that.”
Ariadne doesn't answer for a moment, taking a spoonful of ice cream instead, enjoying the taste of vanilla and Oreo cookie. Then she sighs, still looking down into her cup. “Well, what else would I do?”
“You like buildings. You're always talking about them, and how one building or another could have been designed better. Why don't you go into architecture? It seems like something you'd like.”
Ariadne bites her lip, then says, “I don't think my parents would like that. They're academics, and they expect me to do the same sort of thing that they do. I can't imagine telling them that I don't want to be like them. It would hurt them, you know?”
“But if you do what they expect, you're going to be miserable. Ariadne, what's your dream? What do you really want to do?”
Ariadne smiles wryly. “I'd like to build things, I'd like to create things that no one's ever imagined before, to be the one who figures out how to make the impossible possible and then makes it real.”
Jenny gives her a steady look, and for the first time Ariadne suspects that her friend must be older than she looks, though Jenny swears she's only eighteen. But the knowledge in those eyes feels like more than an eighteen-year-old can have. “Well, if that's what you want, why on earth would you go into art history?”
It's a very good question, and Ariadne has no answer.
Just a few weeks later, Jenny and her brother leave town. It's the only time Ariadne ever sees Jenny's brother, and the smile he gives her when they're introduced - Jenny's last name, apparently, is Smith, and her brother's name is John, or so they say - is oddly familiar. It takes her a second, because he looks nothing like the man at her father's funeral, but... It's the same smile. Unbidden, her hand curls around the bishop in her pocket. “So, you guys are going to start traveling again?” she asks, keeping her voice steady with some effort.
“Yeah. You know, you could come with us - couldn't she, John?” John nods, and Jenny gives Ariadne a hopeful look. And Ariadne thinks about her grandfather's stories, about the chance that maybe... But no. That's insane, and she's probably just seeing things. There's no other rational explanation, right?
Rationality aside, part of her wonders. But even if the impossible is true... She shakes her head. “I can't, actually. You see, a good friend once tried to convince me that I should follow my dream, whatever it happened to be. And I have to be here to do that.”
That night, she tells her parents she doesn't want to go into art history like they've been assuming for years. She wants to be an architect, and that's what she's going to study. Her father is bewildered. “Well... Of course, honey, we want you to be happy. I just don't know if it will be interesting enough for you.”
Her mother glares at him, whacking him over the head. “If she loves it, Brian, of course it will be interesting enough. Ariadne, I'm glad you stopped us before we started looking into schools with good art history programs, Now we need to find the good architectural schools, to make sure that if this is what you want, you get the best training possible.”
Ariadne grins, relief making her light-headed. She hadn't been sure how they'd react, but now she feels silly for worrying. She's going to get to do what she wants. And though a tiny part of her regrets saying no to Jenny, she knows it was the right decision.
~ ~ ~
College suits Ariadne. She likes the life, the freedom. Her roommates her freshman year are girls she doesn't dislike, but they don't really get on either. That's all right; as long as they can live together she's not worried. The roommates she gets her sophomore year are the ones that last until graduation. Melanie and Carla are pre-meds, and Kate's a journalism major. Between the flash cards Mel and Carla stick up all over the place, Ariadne's sketches and models, and Kate's video and still cameras (not to mention the two tripods that go with them), their apartment always looks a bit like a disaster zone, but it works for them. They eat pancakes at 2 AM while cramming for finals, make all kinds of crazy sandwich combinations, and generally get on brilliantly.
When it's over, Ariadne decides to go for her Master's immediately, and in true Regan fashion, she's going to go for the best. So she applies to study in Paris. At first it's strange, living in her third-floor walk-up in the neighborhood where most of the students live, but it's not long before she's at home there. She speaks French pretty well already, and after six months she's fluent, her accent fading away. She's friends with the woman who runs the small cafe two blocks from her apartment, where she stops for coffee and a pastry every morning before classes. She goes on a few dates, but nothing serious, choosing instead to focus on her studies.
Professor Miles is easily her favorite professor, and she stops by after class and during office hours to talk to him. There's a photo on his desk, of a couple with two young children. The woman in the photo has Miles' eyes, Ariadne notes. There's another photo, but this one is just the children, a few years older than in the photo with the couple she assumes are their parents.
“Those are my grandchildren, James and Philippa,” Miles tells her when he sees her glancing at the photos. “They live with their grandmother - my wife, we've been separated for some time - in Los Angeles.”
She wants to ask, but she doesn't. But he answers for her. “Their parents are no longer around.” Ariadne thinks that sounds strange, because if they were dead surely he'd just say so, but something about the way he says it tells her that he won't share anymore. But she feels like she ought to give something in return, so she tells him about Percy and Cassie. Percy's a teenager himself now, and following Ariadne's example in that he's not pursuing academia. He wants to be a filmmaker, and he puts all of his amateur videos up on YouTube. Miles find this amusing and she pulls up Percy's channel, enjoying showing off her little brother's talents.
If Ariadne were pressed, she would probably admit that what she likes best about Miles is that he reminds her, just a little, of her grandfather. It's not that he's an older man, it's more... He's steady, like her grandfather was. And his eyes light up when he tells her stories about James and Philippa in a way that they never do at any other time.
Then one day, with three months left to go until she earns her Master's degree, Miles pulls her aside after class to introduce her to “Mr. Cobb.” From the way he makes the introduction, she decides it's best not to mention that she recognizes him from one of the photos on Miles' desk. So this is the father who, for whatever reason, can't be with his kids. He doesn't look like he has problems to her. But she doesn't say that, instead asks if the job he's offering her is a work placement.
“Well... not exactly.”
Ariadne suspects she should say no then, and she knows she should after the maze test, when Cobb tells her that the job's not legal, “strictly speaking.” And yet... It's the same part of her that almost said yes to Jenny, nearly seven years ago now, that agrees to go with Cobb. It's time she takes a few risks.
~ ~ ~
After she flees the warehouse - and God, was she wrong about Cobb not having problems! - she goes straight to Miles, telling him everything that Cobb and his coworker Arthur told her about. “So Arthur's still with him?” Miles asks before he addresses her questions. She nods, and he smiles faintly. “Well, that's something, at any rate.”
“But, Professor, what... I mean... This is crazy, Did you know about this?”
He nods. “I was one of the pioneers of the technology, oh, a decade ago now. I used to work for the U.S. government, and that was the last job I ever did for them. I was the one who brought Cobb into the program, and Arthur was the protege of the woman in charge. I left around the time the program became fully viable; I no longer had an interest in it.” It feels like there are things he's not saying.
“I can't go into his head, he's crazy! I mean, one of his - what was it, projections? - stabbed me in the stomach!” And to make things worse, the projection looked just like Miles' daughter. That is something she really wants to ask about, but she doesn't think she has the right to ask. Or at least, the right to ask Miles. The story is painful, she's sure, so she won't ask him.
But now he's giving her a sad look, and it's making her nervous. “What?”
“You could do worse than to work with him, Ariadne.”
“He's not right,” she argues, “and besides, what he does is illegal. How is that a good option?”
“I didn't say it was a good option, but it is better than the alternative. Are you going to be able to go back to normal architecture after this?”
She hesitates, thinking about how she folded the streets of Paris, the thrill it gave her, the sense of power she felt. “I... I don't know.”
“I know what it's like, but I was getting old even then. The thrill held less allure for me, but the others were all young. As far as I know, only two of them have since gotten out of dreamshare, and in both cases they had no choice about it.”
“But, I mean, if the government started this... If I really want to get into it, aren't there legal uses for it?”
“Yes, but I don't think you'd want anything to do with those. Military programs, mostly, some intelligence work. Though you may not have a choice.” He says this last bit almost too low for her to hear, but she picks it up, and frowns.
“What do you mean, I won't have a choice?”
Miles sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, and for once he really looks old. The way he looks at her scares her. “I didn't really leave the agency I worked for. To be honest, no one leaves DESI, not completely. Well... Maybe there's an exception or two, but I'm not one of them. The deal most of us make when we retire is that if we see... promising students, we will recommend them for recruitment. They have another agent keep an eye on us for this purpose. In my case, it's Jules Sinclair, and she was with the original Dreamscape project years ago. Officially she has a liaison position with the French government, but she also keeps tabs on me. She'll have seen Cobb come by, and go off with you.”
“So you're saying, that if I don't work with Cobb, I'll have to work for DESI.”
“Not necessarily, but there's a chance they'll make you an offer.”
“Are we talking an actual offer or a Godfather-type offer, as in 'I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse?'”
“The latter, I'm afraid.”
She clutches the bishop in her pocket, feeling as though it's the only thing anchoring her to reality. “I need to think about this,” she says finally.
Miles' voice stops her at the door. “I am sorry, Ariadne,” he says.
“It's OK. He's your son-in-law, I'm guessing this has something to do with why he can't be with his kids. It's not a surprise you'd want to help him. I just... I need a little time.”
She takes two days. She doesn't go to class, just stays in her apartment, eating the Ramen noodles that her mother sends via care packages or else making grilled cheese and pepperoni sandwiches. She smiles when she does the latter, remembering her years as an undergrad, and how Kate was the one who came up with this particular combo after spending an entire February afternoon trying to get what she called “man-on-the-street” interviews. That same day, Carla and Mel had had a punishing organic chemistry exam, and Ariadne had been bullying her partners for a group project into actually getting the work done.
It's still one of her favorite comfort foods, and she's munching on one of those sandwiches when she realizes that she has to go back. She can't imagine spending the rest of her life designing normal buildings - or at least, not just normal buildings - now that she knows what she can do in a dream. It's ironic, after all her dreams of doing something real, that dreams would seduce her like this. But what she does there is real, in its way. It's just a different kind of reality.
So she goes back, finding not Cobb but Arthur in the warehouse. “Cobb said you'd be back.”
“I tried not to come, but...”
“There's nothing quite like it.”
“It's pure creation.”
She has her first practical lesson in dream architecture that day - paradoxes - and she really is hooked. But whether it's just on the dreams or also on the teacher is in question.
What is not a question is her choice of a totem, after Arthur tells her she needs one. It's obvious; her grandfather's bishop that she's been carrying around all these years. She knows the feel of it as if it was truly a part of her, knows how it's light in her hand though it looks heavy. She modifies it slightly, though, going to a friend of hers who has engraving equipment. On the bottom, she engraves her name - but she does it in, of all things, Quenya. She and her linguist aunt had embarked on a project the summer after seventh grade, learning how to read and write both of Tolkien's Elvish dialects.
It's just a trick, of course - she doesn't need the engraving to make it unique to her. But she suspects that Arthur didn't tell her the entire secret of his totem, and that there might have been a subtle lesson in that, showing that a totem should have more than one special property. That way, someone trying to fool you might mimic one of them but not all of them.
So, with totem in hand, she's ready to go ahead with this crazy adventure.
~ ~ ~
The preparation for the inception is fascinating, on many levels. For one thing, there's the dreaming itself, designing the levels. She spends most of her time working with the dreamers for each level; Yusuf, their chemist, is assigned to the first, Arthur has the second, and their forger, Eames, has the third. The first time she goes into a dream with Eames, to start designing the level properly, she asks him what, exactly, forging is. He grins wickedly at her, and a moment later, she's staring at a perfect copy of herself, and her jaw drops.
“Wow.”
“Indeed, love,” he quips, turning back to himself. “So, shall we get started on this, Ariadne?”
It's not hard to get the measure of most of the team. Cobb's a mystery, but at least she has some idea of the root of his problems. It's his wife, who is dead but still haunts his head like a particularly unpleasant ghost. There's more to it and she's working on that, but... Saito is largely unobtrusive, watching over everything with an eagle eye and asking thoughtful questions. He's the man who hired them, he wants the job done well. Yusuf is nice enough, very focused on his chemicals and his experiments. He reminds her of her family, and so she's easily comfortable with him. She feels bad for Arthur, though, who somehow got volunteered as Yusuf's guinea pig. It's quite likely that Eames was involved.
It's the forger and the point man who interest her the most. Cobb she's worried about, because whatever's going on with him is an issue that she suspects is going to be trouble for them all, but otherwise... He doesn't draw her the way Arthur and Eames do. She's not entirely sure why that is; if she's the plucky young heroine of this story, Cobb is definitely the tortured hero. She ought to be fascinated by him, but she's not. She'd like to help him, if she can, but that's it.
Maybe it's their dynamic. At first, she thought they were rivals and possibly almost enemies, but then came the moment when Eames tipped Arthur's chair when she asked about kicks. True, Arthur's glare was lethal, and Eames' smirk was as smug as ever, but... There's something in the way they interact that makes her think the snark is a cover for something else.
She works more easily with either of them than she does with Yusuf, even though she doesn't have a problem with Yusuf. Eames takes the job seriously, but he still has a tendency to make the occasional wisecrack and startle a laugh out of her. With Arthur, it's the opposite; she's the one who makes him smile when she suspects he doesn't often. She doesn't know why, but she feels very much at ease with the both of them, and to be honest, it's only by giving herself several stern talking-tos that she keeps from developing silly schoolgirl-type crushes on them both. They're so very different, but both charming in their way.
During the job, on the second level, Arthur kisses her, and though it's only a peck, it sends a thrill through her. But not long after, the quick conversation she overhears between Arthur and Eames, just before she falls asleep, has her wondering about the two of them again. She doesn't have much time to think about it, though, with the security on the snow level and then Mal, both there and in limbo, taking up all of her interest.
When she wakes up, she looks at Cobb for a moment, still unconscious, but her eyes almost immediately seek out first Arthur's gaze and then Eames'. She can't say why, only that she did it on instinct. It makes her feel better to know they're awake too, somehow sure that they can handle this, however it ends.
As it happens, all goes well, and when she sees Miles at the airport, waiting for Cobb to get through security, she flashes him a quick smile before heading to the luggage carousel. She grabs her bag and wonders what she's going to do now. Heading outside, she's flagged down by Eames, with Arthur next to him, and soon after, she gets her answer.
In her hotel room that night, Ariadne toys with her totem, deep in thought. She'd never imagined herself becoming a criminal of any kind, much less a mind criminal, but that's what she's just signed up for. She's not sure why, but she suspects it has something to do with who's asking. Part of it is trying to avoid this DESI, whoever they are, but most of it... Yeah. Most of it has to do with the point man and forger who made the offer.
She doesn't know what's going to happen now, but that's all right. She has a feeling that it's going to be fantastic, whatever it is, and that it's going to be unlike anything she's ever imagined. That sounds good to her.
Link to the first fic in the main series, Ride Of Your Life: fae-boleyn.livejournal.com/5591.html
Title: Back To The Beginning
Fandom: Inception, mild/moderate Whoniverse
Pairings: Arthur/Eames, pre-Ariadne/Arthur/Eames
Rating: R, for language and implied sexuality
Story Summary: "You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story, you need to go back to the beginning." (The Tudors, Opening Narration). We all have stories. Who we were, what we've been through, defines who we are.
Chapter Summary: Ariadne had a mostly-normal childhood, and there's not much in her past she'd change. But she's never quite felt as though she belongs, and all she really wants is to realize her dreams. She just didn't know how literal an idea that would become.
So I woke up one mornin'
And I put my fears aside
Now look how far I've come
From the back of of an endless line
No, I don't give up easy
I've got many miles to go
But I can't wait to get to
What I see down this road
And all my life I've learned to
Just take it day by day
I'm not there yet
But I know I'm on my way - I'm On My Way, Kellie Pickler
The summer after junior year, Ariadne's at a bit of a loss. So she takes her camera and snaps pictures all around Providence, for lack of anything better to do. She carries a sketchbook too, and draws buildings in between taking pictures of people. She's sitting on a bench, just taking a break, when someone sits down next to her.
“So, do you just like taking pictures then, or is there a point to it?” The person speaking is a blonde girl who is maybe a couple of years older than Ariadne, and from the accent, she's British as well. Ariadne shrugs, looking up into dark eyes.
“Liking it can be the point, can't it?”
“I guess so. I'm Jenny.”
“Ariadne. Are you visiting someone?”
“Why, you don't think I could be from around here?”
“Well... Accent.”
Jenny grins. “You're right, of course. I'm English, staying here for the summer with my brother. He and I usually travel around, but we've run into some problems, so we're spending the summer holidays here.”
“Don't you have school?” Ariadne asks, because she doesn't think Jenny's that much older than she is.
“Oh, yes, I'm home schooled, so we can keep wandering around as we like. It's brilliant, really. So, Ariadne. Have you always lived here?”
They spend the rest of the day talking, and then meet again at the same bench every day for the rest of the summer. Ariadne doesn't have any interest in girls, romantically speaking, so it's not like that. It's just that Jenny is such a... She's such a free spirit, Ariadne's never met anyone like her. She knows all kinds of insane military things - her brother was a soldier, she explains, and since he raised her, she learned everything from him - but at the same time she can be almost like a little girl in her enthusiasm.
They've gotten Blizzards from the local Dairy Queen one day and are eating them outside when Jenny asks, “So, what are you going to do when you're done school?”
Ariadne shrugs. “Probably take up art history at Brown, where my parents teach.”
Jenny frowns at her. “You don't sound very happy about that.”
Ariadne doesn't answer for a moment, taking a spoonful of ice cream instead, enjoying the taste of vanilla and Oreo cookie. Then she sighs, still looking down into her cup. “Well, what else would I do?”
“You like buildings. You're always talking about them, and how one building or another could have been designed better. Why don't you go into architecture? It seems like something you'd like.”
Ariadne bites her lip, then says, “I don't think my parents would like that. They're academics, and they expect me to do the same sort of thing that they do. I can't imagine telling them that I don't want to be like them. It would hurt them, you know?”
“But if you do what they expect, you're going to be miserable. Ariadne, what's your dream? What do you really want to do?”
Ariadne smiles wryly. “I'd like to build things, I'd like to create things that no one's ever imagined before, to be the one who figures out how to make the impossible possible and then makes it real.”
Jenny gives her a steady look, and for the first time Ariadne suspects that her friend must be older than she looks, though Jenny swears she's only eighteen. But the knowledge in those eyes feels like more than an eighteen-year-old can have. “Well, if that's what you want, why on earth would you go into art history?”
It's a very good question, and Ariadne has no answer.
Just a few weeks later, Jenny and her brother leave town. It's the only time Ariadne ever sees Jenny's brother, and the smile he gives her when they're introduced - Jenny's last name, apparently, is Smith, and her brother's name is John, or so they say - is oddly familiar. It takes her a second, because he looks nothing like the man at her father's funeral, but... It's the same smile. Unbidden, her hand curls around the bishop in her pocket. “So, you guys are going to start traveling again?” she asks, keeping her voice steady with some effort.
“Yeah. You know, you could come with us - couldn't she, John?” John nods, and Jenny gives Ariadne a hopeful look. And Ariadne thinks about her grandfather's stories, about the chance that maybe... But no. That's insane, and she's probably just seeing things. There's no other rational explanation, right?
Rationality aside, part of her wonders. But even if the impossible is true... She shakes her head. “I can't, actually. You see, a good friend once tried to convince me that I should follow my dream, whatever it happened to be. And I have to be here to do that.”
That night, she tells her parents she doesn't want to go into art history like they've been assuming for years. She wants to be an architect, and that's what she's going to study. Her father is bewildered. “Well... Of course, honey, we want you to be happy. I just don't know if it will be interesting enough for you.”
Her mother glares at him, whacking him over the head. “If she loves it, Brian, of course it will be interesting enough. Ariadne, I'm glad you stopped us before we started looking into schools with good art history programs, Now we need to find the good architectural schools, to make sure that if this is what you want, you get the best training possible.”
Ariadne grins, relief making her light-headed. She hadn't been sure how they'd react, but now she feels silly for worrying. She's going to get to do what she wants. And though a tiny part of her regrets saying no to Jenny, she knows it was the right decision.
~ ~ ~
College suits Ariadne. She likes the life, the freedom. Her roommates her freshman year are girls she doesn't dislike, but they don't really get on either. That's all right; as long as they can live together she's not worried. The roommates she gets her sophomore year are the ones that last until graduation. Melanie and Carla are pre-meds, and Kate's a journalism major. Between the flash cards Mel and Carla stick up all over the place, Ariadne's sketches and models, and Kate's video and still cameras (not to mention the two tripods that go with them), their apartment always looks a bit like a disaster zone, but it works for them. They eat pancakes at 2 AM while cramming for finals, make all kinds of crazy sandwich combinations, and generally get on brilliantly.
When it's over, Ariadne decides to go for her Master's immediately, and in true Regan fashion, she's going to go for the best. So she applies to study in Paris. At first it's strange, living in her third-floor walk-up in the neighborhood where most of the students live, but it's not long before she's at home there. She speaks French pretty well already, and after six months she's fluent, her accent fading away. She's friends with the woman who runs the small cafe two blocks from her apartment, where she stops for coffee and a pastry every morning before classes. She goes on a few dates, but nothing serious, choosing instead to focus on her studies.
Professor Miles is easily her favorite professor, and she stops by after class and during office hours to talk to him. There's a photo on his desk, of a couple with two young children. The woman in the photo has Miles' eyes, Ariadne notes. There's another photo, but this one is just the children, a few years older than in the photo with the couple she assumes are their parents.
“Those are my grandchildren, James and Philippa,” Miles tells her when he sees her glancing at the photos. “They live with their grandmother - my wife, we've been separated for some time - in Los Angeles.”
She wants to ask, but she doesn't. But he answers for her. “Their parents are no longer around.” Ariadne thinks that sounds strange, because if they were dead surely he'd just say so, but something about the way he says it tells her that he won't share anymore. But she feels like she ought to give something in return, so she tells him about Percy and Cassie. Percy's a teenager himself now, and following Ariadne's example in that he's not pursuing academia. He wants to be a filmmaker, and he puts all of his amateur videos up on YouTube. Miles find this amusing and she pulls up Percy's channel, enjoying showing off her little brother's talents.
If Ariadne were pressed, she would probably admit that what she likes best about Miles is that he reminds her, just a little, of her grandfather. It's not that he's an older man, it's more... He's steady, like her grandfather was. And his eyes light up when he tells her stories about James and Philippa in a way that they never do at any other time.
Then one day, with three months left to go until she earns her Master's degree, Miles pulls her aside after class to introduce her to “Mr. Cobb.” From the way he makes the introduction, she decides it's best not to mention that she recognizes him from one of the photos on Miles' desk. So this is the father who, for whatever reason, can't be with his kids. He doesn't look like he has problems to her. But she doesn't say that, instead asks if the job he's offering her is a work placement.
“Well... not exactly.”
Ariadne suspects she should say no then, and she knows she should after the maze test, when Cobb tells her that the job's not legal, “strictly speaking.” And yet... It's the same part of her that almost said yes to Jenny, nearly seven years ago now, that agrees to go with Cobb. It's time she takes a few risks.
~ ~ ~
After she flees the warehouse - and God, was she wrong about Cobb not having problems! - she goes straight to Miles, telling him everything that Cobb and his coworker Arthur told her about. “So Arthur's still with him?” Miles asks before he addresses her questions. She nods, and he smiles faintly. “Well, that's something, at any rate.”
“But, Professor, what... I mean... This is crazy, Did you know about this?”
He nods. “I was one of the pioneers of the technology, oh, a decade ago now. I used to work for the U.S. government, and that was the last job I ever did for them. I was the one who brought Cobb into the program, and Arthur was the protege of the woman in charge. I left around the time the program became fully viable; I no longer had an interest in it.” It feels like there are things he's not saying.
“I can't go into his head, he's crazy! I mean, one of his - what was it, projections? - stabbed me in the stomach!” And to make things worse, the projection looked just like Miles' daughter. That is something she really wants to ask about, but she doesn't think she has the right to ask. Or at least, the right to ask Miles. The story is painful, she's sure, so she won't ask him.
But now he's giving her a sad look, and it's making her nervous. “What?”
“You could do worse than to work with him, Ariadne.”
“He's not right,” she argues, “and besides, what he does is illegal. How is that a good option?”
“I didn't say it was a good option, but it is better than the alternative. Are you going to be able to go back to normal architecture after this?”
She hesitates, thinking about how she folded the streets of Paris, the thrill it gave her, the sense of power she felt. “I... I don't know.”
“I know what it's like, but I was getting old even then. The thrill held less allure for me, but the others were all young. As far as I know, only two of them have since gotten out of dreamshare, and in both cases they had no choice about it.”
“But, I mean, if the government started this... If I really want to get into it, aren't there legal uses for it?”
“Yes, but I don't think you'd want anything to do with those. Military programs, mostly, some intelligence work. Though you may not have a choice.” He says this last bit almost too low for her to hear, but she picks it up, and frowns.
“What do you mean, I won't have a choice?”
Miles sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, and for once he really looks old. The way he looks at her scares her. “I didn't really leave the agency I worked for. To be honest, no one leaves DESI, not completely. Well... Maybe there's an exception or two, but I'm not one of them. The deal most of us make when we retire is that if we see... promising students, we will recommend them for recruitment. They have another agent keep an eye on us for this purpose. In my case, it's Jules Sinclair, and she was with the original Dreamscape project years ago. Officially she has a liaison position with the French government, but she also keeps tabs on me. She'll have seen Cobb come by, and go off with you.”
“So you're saying, that if I don't work with Cobb, I'll have to work for DESI.”
“Not necessarily, but there's a chance they'll make you an offer.”
“Are we talking an actual offer or a Godfather-type offer, as in 'I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse?'”
“The latter, I'm afraid.”
She clutches the bishop in her pocket, feeling as though it's the only thing anchoring her to reality. “I need to think about this,” she says finally.
Miles' voice stops her at the door. “I am sorry, Ariadne,” he says.
“It's OK. He's your son-in-law, I'm guessing this has something to do with why he can't be with his kids. It's not a surprise you'd want to help him. I just... I need a little time.”
She takes two days. She doesn't go to class, just stays in her apartment, eating the Ramen noodles that her mother sends via care packages or else making grilled cheese and pepperoni sandwiches. She smiles when she does the latter, remembering her years as an undergrad, and how Kate was the one who came up with this particular combo after spending an entire February afternoon trying to get what she called “man-on-the-street” interviews. That same day, Carla and Mel had had a punishing organic chemistry exam, and Ariadne had been bullying her partners for a group project into actually getting the work done.
It's still one of her favorite comfort foods, and she's munching on one of those sandwiches when she realizes that she has to go back. She can't imagine spending the rest of her life designing normal buildings - or at least, not just normal buildings - now that she knows what she can do in a dream. It's ironic, after all her dreams of doing something real, that dreams would seduce her like this. But what she does there is real, in its way. It's just a different kind of reality.
So she goes back, finding not Cobb but Arthur in the warehouse. “Cobb said you'd be back.”
“I tried not to come, but...”
“There's nothing quite like it.”
“It's pure creation.”
She has her first practical lesson in dream architecture that day - paradoxes - and she really is hooked. But whether it's just on the dreams or also on the teacher is in question.
What is not a question is her choice of a totem, after Arthur tells her she needs one. It's obvious; her grandfather's bishop that she's been carrying around all these years. She knows the feel of it as if it was truly a part of her, knows how it's light in her hand though it looks heavy. She modifies it slightly, though, going to a friend of hers who has engraving equipment. On the bottom, she engraves her name - but she does it in, of all things, Quenya. She and her linguist aunt had embarked on a project the summer after seventh grade, learning how to read and write both of Tolkien's Elvish dialects.
It's just a trick, of course - she doesn't need the engraving to make it unique to her. But she suspects that Arthur didn't tell her the entire secret of his totem, and that there might have been a subtle lesson in that, showing that a totem should have more than one special property. That way, someone trying to fool you might mimic one of them but not all of them.
So, with totem in hand, she's ready to go ahead with this crazy adventure.
~ ~ ~
The preparation for the inception is fascinating, on many levels. For one thing, there's the dreaming itself, designing the levels. She spends most of her time working with the dreamers for each level; Yusuf, their chemist, is assigned to the first, Arthur has the second, and their forger, Eames, has the third. The first time she goes into a dream with Eames, to start designing the level properly, she asks him what, exactly, forging is. He grins wickedly at her, and a moment later, she's staring at a perfect copy of herself, and her jaw drops.
“Wow.”
“Indeed, love,” he quips, turning back to himself. “So, shall we get started on this, Ariadne?”
It's not hard to get the measure of most of the team. Cobb's a mystery, but at least she has some idea of the root of his problems. It's his wife, who is dead but still haunts his head like a particularly unpleasant ghost. There's more to it and she's working on that, but... Saito is largely unobtrusive, watching over everything with an eagle eye and asking thoughtful questions. He's the man who hired them, he wants the job done well. Yusuf is nice enough, very focused on his chemicals and his experiments. He reminds her of her family, and so she's easily comfortable with him. She feels bad for Arthur, though, who somehow got volunteered as Yusuf's guinea pig. It's quite likely that Eames was involved.
It's the forger and the point man who interest her the most. Cobb she's worried about, because whatever's going on with him is an issue that she suspects is going to be trouble for them all, but otherwise... He doesn't draw her the way Arthur and Eames do. She's not entirely sure why that is; if she's the plucky young heroine of this story, Cobb is definitely the tortured hero. She ought to be fascinated by him, but she's not. She'd like to help him, if she can, but that's it.
Maybe it's their dynamic. At first, she thought they were rivals and possibly almost enemies, but then came the moment when Eames tipped Arthur's chair when she asked about kicks. True, Arthur's glare was lethal, and Eames' smirk was as smug as ever, but... There's something in the way they interact that makes her think the snark is a cover for something else.
She works more easily with either of them than she does with Yusuf, even though she doesn't have a problem with Yusuf. Eames takes the job seriously, but he still has a tendency to make the occasional wisecrack and startle a laugh out of her. With Arthur, it's the opposite; she's the one who makes him smile when she suspects he doesn't often. She doesn't know why, but she feels very much at ease with the both of them, and to be honest, it's only by giving herself several stern talking-tos that she keeps from developing silly schoolgirl-type crushes on them both. They're so very different, but both charming in their way.
During the job, on the second level, Arthur kisses her, and though it's only a peck, it sends a thrill through her. But not long after, the quick conversation she overhears between Arthur and Eames, just before she falls asleep, has her wondering about the two of them again. She doesn't have much time to think about it, though, with the security on the snow level and then Mal, both there and in limbo, taking up all of her interest.
When she wakes up, she looks at Cobb for a moment, still unconscious, but her eyes almost immediately seek out first Arthur's gaze and then Eames'. She can't say why, only that she did it on instinct. It makes her feel better to know they're awake too, somehow sure that they can handle this, however it ends.
As it happens, all goes well, and when she sees Miles at the airport, waiting for Cobb to get through security, she flashes him a quick smile before heading to the luggage carousel. She grabs her bag and wonders what she's going to do now. Heading outside, she's flagged down by Eames, with Arthur next to him, and soon after, she gets her answer.
In her hotel room that night, Ariadne toys with her totem, deep in thought. She'd never imagined herself becoming a criminal of any kind, much less a mind criminal, but that's what she's just signed up for. She's not sure why, but she suspects it has something to do with who's asking. Part of it is trying to avoid this DESI, whoever they are, but most of it... Yeah. Most of it has to do with the point man and forger who made the offer.
She doesn't know what's going to happen now, but that's all right. She has a feeling that it's going to be fantastic, whatever it is, and that it's going to be unlike anything she's ever imagined. That sounds good to her.
Link to the first fic in the main series, Ride Of Your Life: fae-boleyn.livejournal.com/5591.html