[Inception] The Architecture of a Dreaming Mind (PG)
Author's Note: Written for < lj user=" tamingthemuse">'s "Prompt ~#388 ARCHITECTURE". Set pre-canon with a young Cobb just out of the military and about to... well, I'll let the story tell itself, of course.
"Well, part of my reason for joining the Army was for the GI benefits, to help pay for architectural school," Cobb admitted.
Miles sat forward in his chair, elbows on the desk. "High ideals for a pragmatic goal," he noted. "Why architecture? What drew you to it?"
"My father worked suburban construction, so I grew up around building projects," Cobb replied. "Wasn't as interested in the heavy lifting part of it. And part of me got tired of the guys who think of architects as effete snobs who cannot handle tools and who design things that can't be executed in the real world."
This confession garnered a smirk from Miles. "Hence the stint in the military," he noted.
"Thought it a good way to start proving my point to my father," Cobb admitted.
"You cover all the possible variables," Miles noted. "You're thorough, which is something I want to see in a student. Last thing I want is someone who rushes through a design and overlooks a critical detail."
"Oversights can wreck the flow of the structure at best, and cause a critical failure at worst," Cobb said, with a shrug, wondering what Miles had in mind, considering the obviousness of the point. "But what are you getting at?"
"I'm getting at something above and beyond your usual range of projects," Miles said, lowering his voice a tick. "I'm talking about designing dream landscapes."
Cobb lifted his hands in a puzzled shrug. "I've dreamed of building things that haven't been designed before: cityscapes, maybe an office tower. Even a city church or a cathedral."
"Though the reality is, these days, you'll be stuck designing gas stations and attic conversions," Miles said, clearly discontent with this possibility. "But I'm speaking of designing the landscape of an actual dream."
Cobb felt his eyebrows rise and he tilted his head. "You're serious? Dream landscapes. Isn't the human mind capable of doing that on its own?"
"There is a joint project which the medical corps of the U. S and the Australian military is undertaking, involving shared dreaming in a controlled environment," Miles said, his gaze meeting Cobb's, completely serious. "They call it Project Morpheus."
"Named after the Greek god of dreams or his modern manifestation in that comic series by Neil Gaiman," Cobb said. "Go on."
"There's been some experiments involving a new sleep aid for cancer patients, something that doesn't affect their chaemotherapy drugs or react badly with them: it's been called Somnacin, and it's had some strange effects on those who use it," Miles said. "A pair of identical twins was administered the drug, which was delivered on a shared pump system. The twins reported that they had the most vivid dreams they had ever had in their life, and that they also were able to interact with each other while in the dream. The mechanism is not wholly understood, but there have have been some experiments since to explore the possibilities."
"Could it have been a twin thing? There's a lot of stories about twins being able to intuit each other's thoughts, even share pain," Cobb noted, skeptical.
"That's what one doctor, Nigel Hobson, a friend of mine, thought at first, and so he ran a controlled test involving two volunteers, neither of whom had met each other before the test," Miles replied. "I was one of the volunteers, the other was a secretary who worked for one of Hobson's colleagues. We entered the dream, moved about it, explored the landscape... but I found out something else: I could change the landscape, by my thoughts alone. I had been working on a sticky bit of landscape design for an office complex, but I was able to solve it in the dream."
"So you could build in the dream landscape?"
"And with a little experimentation and with practice, I found that I could project whole designs into the dream, even physical places," Miles replied. "Even down to the minute details of the furnishings and the wall coverings, the art work, the rugs, even cracks in the plaster if I paid enough attention to the details."
"So what you're saying is, you want to train me to design places in dreams," Cobb said, getting his head around this.
"Project Morpheus wants to use this new technology as a training ground for soldiers, particularly those going into Special Operations," Miles replied, frowning, clearly not approving of this application. "They need young men like you to design the courses, but I want this to be more than a glorified first person shooter game. I want this to be a tool for the creative to design their dreams, to take the most fabulous and fanciful things their hearts have conceived and make them as real and as vivid as they can."
"You don't have to say any more, I'm your man," Cobb said. "I got military connections already: they'll trust me."
"One reason why I asked you," Miles said.
"And the other reason?"
"Your ambition: you're not one to let the grass grow under your feet, not because you've chosen this field for the prestige, but because you're in this for the creativity. You're a creator, it's in your blood."
"Gives me ample opportunity to follow my natural inclinations."
"Well, part of my reason for joining the Army was for the GI benefits, to help pay for architectural school," Cobb admitted.
Miles sat forward in his chair, elbows on the desk. "High ideals for a pragmatic goal," he noted. "Why architecture? What drew you to it?"
"My father worked suburban construction, so I grew up around building projects," Cobb replied. "Wasn't as interested in the heavy lifting part of it. And part of me got tired of the guys who think of architects as effete snobs who cannot handle tools and who design things that can't be executed in the real world."
This confession garnered a smirk from Miles. "Hence the stint in the military," he noted.
"Thought it a good way to start proving my point to my father," Cobb admitted.
"You cover all the possible variables," Miles noted. "You're thorough, which is something I want to see in a student. Last thing I want is someone who rushes through a design and overlooks a critical detail."
"Oversights can wreck the flow of the structure at best, and cause a critical failure at worst," Cobb said, with a shrug, wondering what Miles had in mind, considering the obviousness of the point. "But what are you getting at?"
"I'm getting at something above and beyond your usual range of projects," Miles said, lowering his voice a tick. "I'm talking about designing dream landscapes."
Cobb lifted his hands in a puzzled shrug. "I've dreamed of building things that haven't been designed before: cityscapes, maybe an office tower. Even a city church or a cathedral."
"Though the reality is, these days, you'll be stuck designing gas stations and attic conversions," Miles said, clearly discontent with this possibility. "But I'm speaking of designing the landscape of an actual dream."
Cobb felt his eyebrows rise and he tilted his head. "You're serious? Dream landscapes. Isn't the human mind capable of doing that on its own?"
"There is a joint project which the medical corps of the U. S and the Australian military is undertaking, involving shared dreaming in a controlled environment," Miles said, his gaze meeting Cobb's, completely serious. "They call it Project Morpheus."
"Named after the Greek god of dreams or his modern manifestation in that comic series by Neil Gaiman," Cobb said. "Go on."
"There's been some experiments involving a new sleep aid for cancer patients, something that doesn't affect their chaemotherapy drugs or react badly with them: it's been called Somnacin, and it's had some strange effects on those who use it," Miles said. "A pair of identical twins was administered the drug, which was delivered on a shared pump system. The twins reported that they had the most vivid dreams they had ever had in their life, and that they also were able to interact with each other while in the dream. The mechanism is not wholly understood, but there have have been some experiments since to explore the possibilities."
"Could it have been a twin thing? There's a lot of stories about twins being able to intuit each other's thoughts, even share pain," Cobb noted, skeptical.
"That's what one doctor, Nigel Hobson, a friend of mine, thought at first, and so he ran a controlled test involving two volunteers, neither of whom had met each other before the test," Miles replied. "I was one of the volunteers, the other was a secretary who worked for one of Hobson's colleagues. We entered the dream, moved about it, explored the landscape... but I found out something else: I could change the landscape, by my thoughts alone. I had been working on a sticky bit of landscape design for an office complex, but I was able to solve it in the dream."
"So you could build in the dream landscape?"
"And with a little experimentation and with practice, I found that I could project whole designs into the dream, even physical places," Miles replied. "Even down to the minute details of the furnishings and the wall coverings, the art work, the rugs, even cracks in the plaster if I paid enough attention to the details."
"So what you're saying is, you want to train me to design places in dreams," Cobb said, getting his head around this.
"Project Morpheus wants to use this new technology as a training ground for soldiers, particularly those going into Special Operations," Miles replied, frowning, clearly not approving of this application. "They need young men like you to design the courses, but I want this to be more than a glorified first person shooter game. I want this to be a tool for the creative to design their dreams, to take the most fabulous and fanciful things their hearts have conceived and make them as real and as vivid as they can."
"You don't have to say any more, I'm your man," Cobb said. "I got military connections already: they'll trust me."
"One reason why I asked you," Miles said.
"And the other reason?"
"Your ambition: you're not one to let the grass grow under your feet, not because you've chosen this field for the prestige, but because you're in this for the creativity. You're a creator, it's in your blood."
"Gives me ample opportunity to follow my natural inclinations."