Application
[nick / name]: Shai
[personal LJ name]: kasumi_blue
[other characters currently played]: N/A
[e-mail]: raimeken at yahoo
[AIM / messenger]: AIM: Shaikido
[series]: Inception (movie)
[character]: Arthur
[character history / background]:
Wikipedia Article
In the world in which Inception takes place, there exists a technology that has made sharing dreams between people possible. It was originally developed by the military for use in training soldiers in a realistic environment. The device that controls this process is called the Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device (PASIV for short). The device works by connecting subjects via intravenous tubes and distributing the sedative to put them into a dream state. There are various applications of the technology, though its use is restricted. One such application is in theft.
Using the PASIV, it is possible to interact with a person’s sub consciousness through a dream. The details of the dream can be manipulated to a certain extent by those sharing the dream. By using the rules of shared dreaming to their benefit, someone can enter a target’s dream and extract valuable information that would otherwise be impossible to gain access to. The process itself is called “extraction.”
It is in the middle of one of these extraction jobs that we find Arthur and his partner, Dom Cobb. The job is unsuccessful, forcing them to abandon the mission and hide from their employers. While leaving Tokyo, Cobb is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance by the very man they were attempting to perform extraction on. While Arthur has his reservations about the seemingly impossible nature of the job, Cobb takes the offer.
The job they are asked to do involves planting an idea in someone’s mind instead of stealing one-a process called “inception.” The process is notoriously difficult, even thought impossible, since the mind of the target is very likely to reject a foreign idea. The two assemble their team and begin preparations to carry out the mission. Arthur works mostly in the background, ensuring that everything needed for the job is in place.
The mission seems to start without a hitch… until they run into a few complications. One involves Cobb’s sub consciousness interfering with the mission. In shared dreaming, it’s possible for elements of the sub conscious of any of the people sharing the dream to appear in the dream. Usually the dreamers are able to prevent this; however, Cobb’s guilt regarding his past makes this difficult for him. Another complication is that the target has been trained to defend from extractors, making the projections of his sub conscious populating the dream world very dangerous to deal with. This mistake is Arthur’s responsibility, as he was the one who gathered intelligence on the target.
Despite the complications, the team manages to successfully plant the idea in the target’s mind. Arthur’s role in this part of the operation is arranging a kick-a motion that brings a dreamer out of their current dream state-to wake up the rest of the team from the lower dream level in which they were carrying out the mission. He figures out a way to simulate a falling motion, something integral for kicks, without gravity, thus bringing his team out of the third dream level. In the end, the operation is a complete success.
[character abilities]:
Arthur’s primary abilities lie in gathering information and organizing complicated operations.
He’s well-versed in self defense. He can hold his own in a fight with or without gravity without too much trouble. He’s also experienced in using a wide range of firearms.
[character personality]:
Arthur is the Point Man. His role in extraction jobs is to do research regarding the target and to organize all of the necessary elements to ensure the operation’s success. He gathers information on the target, runs practice tests with his team, and does anything else that is required for the mission. The role requires patience, perseverance, and exceptional attention to detail. As one of the best in the business, Arthur possesses all of these qualities in spades.
In dealing with his long time friend and partner in crime, Dom Cobb, Arthur is patient enough to put up with Dom’s sometimes irrational decisions. The two have an unspoken bond of trust between them that Arthur honors, even going as far as to go along with Dom’s more dangerous decisions despite having his own reservations. His patience is also the result of the respect that Arthur has for his friend’s abilities as an extractor. Generally, Arthur will quickly come to respect anyone who’s proven themselves to be exceptional at what they do, though he’ll rarely voice his approval outright.
The best way to define him would be ‘by the book.’ There is a method to almost everything Arthur does. The first thing to notice about him is his impeccable manner of dress. Suits, ties, waistcoats pretty much define his manner of dress. His demeanor is just as impeccable, as he always carries himself in a very professional manner. Arthur’s facial expressions are best described as economical. If he smiles, he smirks. Nothing more, nothing less. A raised eyebrow indicates curiosity or interest. He rarely exaggerates his facial expressions. When he speaks with others, his responses are measured and rarely overly long. He’ll express his distaste or approval in ways that can mask the intent of the comment.
His professional manner can often come off as stiff. He’s been described as a stick in the mud by one of his colleagues, even. His by-the-book attitude also means that he has a strict definition of what is and isn’t possible. Where others may try and take a chance on something, Arthur is more likely to dismiss the pursuit as pointless. He’s not as imaginative as the others he works with. He’s no architect (the one who designs the settings for the shared dreams), but his position as Point Man usually doesn’t require an extraordinary imagination. That isn’t to say, however, that Arthur is incapable of improvising. He simply has a belief about what is within the realm of possibility and works within the confines of that belief.
Arthur’s primary motivation for staying in his line of work is the uniqueness of the field. There’s nothing else like working within dreams, and Arthur is fascinated by them. Breaking into dreams and stealing secrets presents a unique challenge unlike any other. The moral implications of his work don’t bother him much, either. Rather, he focuses himself on the best and most efficient way to complete each job. He knows he’s good at he does, though he feels no need to boast about it, either.
He is also someone who is defined by his concept of reality. Despite the surreal nature of his work, which involves delving into people’s dreams, he has a very strong sense of what is and isn’t real. He has his totem, of course, which he relies on to confirm when he is or isn’t a dream. Yet he’s also managed to avoid a major temptation that comes with using the PASIV. The temptation to dream deeply and long enough that the dream instead becomes one’s reality. His fascination with the surreal nature of dreams is also what defines reality so sharply for him. He knows exactly what he believes reality to be: a place ruled by logic and a very clear set of rules. In dreams, however, he revels in breaking these rules, as shown by his fondness for using paradoxes like the Penrose stairs in dreams to trick his pursuers. His love for paradoxes such as this mirrors his own paradoxical nature of someone who works in dreams yet follows a set of logic that is strictly bound in a firm sense of reality.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]:
Right as he wakes up from the second dream level into the first dream level during the end of the inception job.
[journal post]:
[Voice]
[The tone of the voice is even, as though the person speaking is holding something back.]
A question for those willing to spare the time.
Is there a tailor within this city?
[And here, the tone shifts to one of annoyance.]
One with experience in fitting suits, that is.
[third person / log sample]:
The die skidded across the table a few inches before coming to a stop. Arthur’s eyebrows furrowed as he studied the number facing upwards. He reached for it and repeated the process. Once. Twice. Two more times. Three more times. The result was the same each time, which was what he was looking for. Or was he?
It was definitely the more interesting of the two possible results he’d imagined. Everything about this place suggested that he was in a dream. The locales that ignored established physical laws. Its residents. The various phenomena that occurred on a weekly basis. Yet the fact that his totem was giving this result said the opposite. He knew it wasn’t coincidence. That was statistically impossible, for starters. The only other explanation he could think of is that the architect of this dream knew the exact properties of his totem. Unlikely, but still worth considering.
His gaze drifted to the gun on his dresser. If anything, that was a last resort at best. He wasn’t particularly interested in the idea of blowing his brains out for the sake of an experiment. Not before he’d gathered more evidence as to the state of this prison, at least. The residents of this city, be they projections or trapped dreamers like himself, were the only sources of information he had. Even the guide that they spoke of was information compiled by residents who had supposedly passed through this place in the past. It would take time to gather enough evidence. It would also be tedious. If he was to find a way back to the waking world, a world whose existence he believed in absolutely, he would have to use every resource he had to figure out the nature of this peculiar dream. It was an interesting challenge, at the very least. One he was very much up to taking on.
He couldn’t help but wonder what Cobb would think of this place. Having not spent any time in limbo, himself-thankfully-Arthur wasn’t quite sure of what to make of the situation. He once again recounted everything that had happened before he’d arrived in this bizarre city. They’d been on the plane. The Inception job. The kick he’d initiated in the second level of the dream had worked, hadn’t it? He knew it had, but then he was suddenly standing in the middle of a city square that he had never seen before. He had no recollection of how he’d been transported to this location at all.
“Just like a dream,” he mused to himself.
Inception. Arthur spun the concept in his mind, as though it were an art piece to be appraised. He’d certainly thought it was impossible. He trusted Cobb, he really did. It was inconceivable that one could work with the man for so long and not come respect him. But part of him wondered-doubted, even. He knew what was at stake for his friend. Arthur was not an emotional person. Still, he could remember the days after Mal had died as clearly as ever. He remembered seeing his friend as a broken man, his life shattered and in shambles all around him. While he’d never experienced the kind of loss that Cobb had, he understood what kind of changes it could bring about in a person. Cobb would do anything to get back to his children, which Arthur certainly couldn’t blame him for. What worried him was whether or not his friend was promising more than he could deliver.
Cobb had claimed that he’d pulled off inception before. On whom? They’d worked together for years, and the job had pretty much always involved extraction. He recalled names of past clients, past targets. None of them seemed likely. Over the years, Arthur had gotten used to his friend keeping secrets. It was infuriating, yet he tolerated it. Everyone had their vices, after all. But in this case, this unknown variable refused to stop bothering him. Was Cobb lying? Had he promised Saito he could deliver what he wanted out of desperation?
He wanted to believe that that wasn’t the case. Despite Cobb’s recklessness, he trusted him more than anyone else. It seemed odd, now that he thought about it. Working with Cobb was all about taking a leap of faith. Arthur , throughout his entire life, had never been the kind of person to do something based on faith alone. And Cobb had done so many reckless things over the years that Arthur had worked with him. His ridiculous Mister Charles gambit was just one example. There’d been times they’d been literally torn apart by hostile projections because of some risk Cobb had taken. Yet Arthur could also recall many times when Cobb’s instincts had saved them in the most hopeless of situations. There had been so many times over the years that he’d looked at his friend and wondered if he was crazy. And maybe he was. But Arthur still felt that firm loyalty he’d held for his friend for all these years.
He’d trust Cobb on this. There was no room for doubt on this job. All he could do is what he always did as the Point Man-put together the pieces necessary to successfully complete the job. Researching Fischer was turning out to be more difficult than he’d anticipated, though that was really the easy part. The bigger concern was the team.
First of all, there was Cobb. Arthur left the brainstorming part of the process up to him. His experience over the years had shown that Cobb was far more creative when it came to plans than Arthur could ever hope to be. Cobb worked on the overall plan while Arthur worked on the details. That was how it had always been.
There was their new architect, Ariadne. She was new to the entire concept of dream sharing, which didn’t concern Arthur too much for two reasons. The first was that the architect rarely needed to accompany the team into dreams in the first place. The second was that he’d seen for himself how talented she was. She had picked up on the concepts he’d taught her almost instantly. Even Cobb had praised her skills as an architect, which was no small thing. She seemed easy enough to work with, so Arthur had no qualms about going over some details with her regarding the models. It’s not as though he would have much to tell her. Creation was never really his thing, anyway.
There was their chemist, Yusuf. He’d be accompanying them into the dream on this job. It was unusual for a chemist, but necessary in this case. If anything, his role would preferably be relatively small. As for his compounds, Arthur had experienced first-hand just how potent they were. That step was already taken care of.
And of course, there was Saito. He was the least experienced of them all. Arthur would prefer if he’d not come along at all. However, he knew Cobb’s reasons for allowing him to get his way. He didn’t entirely trust the businessman, but as long as he didn’t get in the way, his participation was not a huge concern. In the end, it was up to Cobb as to whether or not this man could be trusted. And that decision had already been made.
Lastly, there was their forger. Eames. Arthur had worked with him a few times in the past. Most of the experiences were ones he’d rather forget, for various reasons. The man was exceptional at what he did; there was no question about that. Forging certainly wasn’t easy, and Eames had turned it into an art. His personality, on the other hand… Well, it’s not like you could always work with people you agreed with. Or enjoyed being around.
And then there was himself, the Point Man. He sometimes forgot he was anything but that. Extraction was a profession that provided him with a challenge unlike any other. It required tireless research with no room for mistakes. Dreams themselves could be anything, from impossibly constructed cities to looping rooms that defied all logic. It was the kind of work that was always fascinating. Dreams were the chaotic element to counter the orderly reality he’d built for himself.
Reality was flying first class, enjoying expensive wine, having long conversations with Cobb. Reality was flying from city to city, apartment to apartment, never staying long enough to get settled. Reality was feeling useful. Most importantly, reality was his work.