Word circulated that repairs throughout the cities were already in progress. Seiji figured he'd check how much had been done in Espoir. Plus, holing up in the building where Kid dropped him off during the flood got old days ago. As he approached the village, he noticed a girl looking around. She wasn't anyone he recognized, but he didn't know every single person living in this world either. From the way she stood around doing nothing, she probably wasn't one of the natives helping with repairs.
"Things're better here than they were before, but it's still nowhere you want to stick around," he said aloud.
"Right," Ariadne replied, glancing over to him with one brow raised slightly. "So you're telling me it was worse here before?" She asked, voice only rising slightly to suggest that she was at all surprised. It was pretty hard to believe that the village in some state of disrepair had been worse before she got there - how long before, she wondered.
Seiji concluded this girl was a new arrival after that first question. "It rained and flooded over a week ago." He glanced around at the village. The repair teams had cleaned up a good amount of the debris, though patches of mud and puddles still remained. Water and rust stained the outer walls of the houses and buildings. "They're still working on things here." He gestured towards some of the taller buildings. "Some of us are staying in the upper floors of the high-rises. Other people moved into the temporary housing."
"Temporary housing?" She echoed, raising her brows slightly. It was pretty obvious that things weren't the way they should be - if this was how it always was, she just felt bad for them all - but all the same, she wondered exactly how long she was going to end up being there. People made it sound like they'd been there ages: weeks, months. Years, even.
"Looks like you guys got hit by something big. Must've been some flood." At least a flood was better than a train.
Kid was doing his usual rounds-straightening signs, dusting things off, basically setting everything back into order-when he suddenly felt the sudden appearance of a new soul in town. This wasn't exactly common since he was hardly ever within the same vicinity of a new arrival, so it still surprised him whenever it did happen.
So he turned around and saw the girl that was certainly not there only a few minutes prior (more like an hour-that was how long he had been where he currently was). After watching her slowly gain her senses, Kid waited a few more minutes before finally speaking up.
"In case you're wondering, you are not dreaming. At least, not in the usual sense of the term." Not really knowing whether this really was a dream they were trapped in or if they were in a completely different world still bothered him, but he had to make do with what he had.
"I noticed that," she told him, rolling her totem's familiar weight in her hand. "So where are we?"
After another cursory glance around, making note of the minute details of the surrounding architecture - village though it was, someone had put some thought into it, even if it was just the people running around rebuilding it - Ariadne glanced over to him. It took all kinds, she supposed.
"And what do you mean 'the usual sense of the term'?"
"Somarium," he simply answered as he finished straightening the sign, taking one last few measurements before fully turning her way so he could properly talk to her.
"Others call this a dream world, and the usual method of entry is when is sleeping. However, I have heard of others arriving in different ways, so I doubt that dreaming is the only method of entry. Whether or not we're all dreaming or actually living in another world completely is still one of the many questions we don't know about this world."
"We're dreaming right now?" A niggling sense of deja-vu, and a nervous thought of Cobb being behind all this; it wasn't the same sort of surprise at sharing a dream with people - that was more than normal - but that there were so many people. Projections wouldn't offer her information like this, and they hadn't even batted an eye at her arrival. There was still a very real worry in the back of her mind: if they were dreaming, how far under were they being kept for not even her totem to tell her that little fact?
But he was still unsure, he said - that it might just be some other world. Just as implausible; at the very least, Ariadne knew how to approach dreams. "How could this be another world? What, like...aliens or something?" Her brow furrowed gently, as if the very idea of that was completely ridiculous. It probably was.
It was a fair question; she had far too many answers for it, and it probably showed as she gave the ground a thoughtful sideways glance before looking up to Hermione. "Have you seen a man named Cobb around here? Maybe a train tearing up the countryside?"
Naturally, Ariadne had a poker face down to an art: she didn't give any sign that she was kidding as she asked, nothing to suggest that she wasn't dead serious about it. Even if her totem said she wasn't dreaming, she couldn't be too safe.
"The Dreamberry," Ariadne echoed, eyes dropping a few inches in thought: the thing that fell out of her pocket after her totem? "Where's 'here'?"
And why does 'here' have a rip-off of a cell phone was her next question, but it could wait. If Hermione took the hint, she'd get the answer all the same, and she'd have it before they parted ways. Even if Cobb wasn't there - another question that would be answered quickly enough - he didn't have to be there for weird things to happen. It just helped.
Was it a coincidence that Harry was out patrolling? Perhaps, but it was more that he needed a break from all the magical fixing he had been doing. He could tell he was getting sloppy and having a house half arsed didn't seem like a good idea.
He paused when he caught sight of Ariadne sitting up from the grass. "Hey, you okay?" He headed over to the brunette. Harry hadn't seen her before though it didn't mean she was new. Harry was sure there were plenty of people in Somarium he hadn't actually met yet. Probably should remedy that actually.
"Yeah," she replied softly, glancing around the village for a long moment before dragging her eyes over to him. It didn't look like France - maybe a small town, but how would she have made it all the way over there from Paris? - and the fact that he had a British accent told her that she was probably a lot further from home than she initially thought. That still didn't answer the question of where the team was - Cobb, Saito, Fischer, at the very least; if she was awake, Arthur, Eames, and Yusuf should have been there too. It couldn't have just been her that had been inexplicably whisked away.
"It's a place called Somarium, a dream world." He smiles reasuringly. "You're probably new here I'm guessing." Harry holds out his hand. "I'm Harry, Harry Potter."
It always seemed to happen around this time of the month that people would show up. He wondered at it, but he'd never really found an explanation for the odd phenomena either.
"You're kidding," she murmured, glancing to his hand before accepting it in a firm shake. "Ariadne."
A dream world. Not a dream, specifically, but an entire world made up of them? Or was it like the dreams she'd entered with Cobb and the team? "What do you mean it's a dream world?"
Sasuke enjoyed taking walks. They helped clear his mind and on days like this when he'd done nothing but try and fix the huge house that had been left to him, the walking was a pleasant change. He hadn't asked for help though he had received some regardless. Really he wasn't going to complain. He couldn't help but feel a little bad that many of the possessions inside the house had been ruined, but Sasuke wasn't a stranger to life going bottom side up, and this was just another difficulty he'd overcome.
He hadn't planned on talking to anyone, but something about this girl laying in the grass caught his attention. Hence he stopped, and stared quietly and curiously at her.
Ariadne knew she was being watched, even as she pushed herself up to sitting; her gaze flickered in his direction, wary of his intentions, but she said nothing. If she didn't know better - if her totem hadn't said it wasn't a dream - she would have wondered if he were nothing more than a projection, sensing the unfamiliar presence of the dreamer. But the fact remained that she did nothing more than simply exist in this place, and no projection had any business harming a dreamer - however unwilling they may have been - who was doing nothing.
"Not really. Being lost implies that I have a destination that I can't find," she told him plainly upon his approach. "So I'm not, because I don't have a destination."
Besides home, but what was that really? The mission was over - she hoped, at least - and then it was...what? Back to school? Probably.
Comments 138
"Things're better here than they were before, but it's still nowhere you want to stick around," he said aloud.
Reply
"Where do you recommend I go, in that case?"
Reply
Reply
"Looks like you guys got hit by something big. Must've been some flood." At least a flood was better than a train.
Reply
So he turned around and saw the girl that was certainly not there only a few minutes prior (more like an hour-that was how long he had been where he currently was). After watching her slowly gain her senses, Kid waited a few more minutes before finally speaking up.
"In case you're wondering, you are not dreaming. At least, not in the usual sense of the term." Not really knowing whether this really was a dream they were trapped in or if they were in a completely different world still bothered him, but he had to make do with what he had.
Reply
After another cursory glance around, making note of the minute details of the surrounding architecture - village though it was, someone had put some thought into it, even if it was just the people running around rebuilding it - Ariadne glanced over to him. It took all kinds, she supposed.
"And what do you mean 'the usual sense of the term'?"
Reply
"Others call this a dream world, and the usual method of entry is when is sleeping. However, I have heard of others arriving in different ways, so I doubt that dreaming is the only method of entry. Whether or not we're all dreaming or actually living in another world completely is still one of the many questions we don't know about this world."
Reply
But he was still unsure, he said - that it might just be some other world. Just as implausible; at the very least, Ariadne knew how to approach dreams. "How could this be another world? What, like...aliens or something?" Her brow furrowed gently, as if the very idea of that was completely ridiculous. It probably was.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Naturally, Ariadne had a poker face down to an art: she didn't give any sign that she was kidding as she asked, nothing to suggest that she wasn't dead serious about it. Even if her totem said she wasn't dreaming, she couldn't be too safe.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
And why does 'here' have a rip-off of a cell phone was her next question, but it could wait. If Hermione took the hint, she'd get the answer all the same, and she'd have it before they parted ways. Even if Cobb wasn't there - another question that would be answered quickly enough - he didn't have to be there for weird things to happen. It just helped.
Reply
He paused when he caught sight of Ariadne sitting up from the grass. "Hey, you okay?" He headed over to the brunette. Harry hadn't seen her before though it didn't mean she was new. Harry was sure there were plenty of people in Somarium he hadn't actually met yet. Probably should remedy that actually.
Reply
"What is this place?"
Reply
It always seemed to happen around this time of the month that people would show up. He wondered at it, but he'd never really found an explanation for the odd phenomena either.
Reply
A dream world. Not a dream, specifically, but an entire world made up of them? Or was it like the dreams she'd entered with Cobb and the team? "What do you mean it's a dream world?"
Reply
He hadn't planned on talking to anyone, but something about this girl laying in the grass caught his attention. Hence he stopped, and stared quietly and curiously at her.
Reply
Reply
"...You look lost."
Reply
Besides home, but what was that really? The mission was over - she hoped, at least - and then it was...what? Back to school? Probably.
Reply
Leave a comment