[Fic] Hatsuyume
Mar. 10th, 2011 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
barbarafettTitle: Hatsuyume
Characters: Saito, Ariadne, Arthur, Cobb (Gen)
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,719
Disclaimer: The characters and concepts contained herein are the property of Christopher Nolan and Syncopy Pictures. No money is being made from the publication of this work of fanfiction.
Summary: According to Japanese folk belief, if one's first dream in the new year includes an eggplant, a hawk, and Mount Fuji, one will have good luck during that year. Evidently, this will be an exceptionally fortunate year for one Mr. Saito.
Author's Notes: This is Part 2 of my entry in the Big Bang challenge over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
inception_land.
The cool August evening was alive with the singing of cicadas. Many people walked the red, dusty, rocky mountain trail: young and old, Japanese and foreigners, walking quickly and slowly. The soft light of the full moon fell on the people and illuminated the side of Mount Fuji, which sloped ever onward and upward.
Saito climbed the trail, enjoying the beauty of the scene. A hawk flew by overhead, and he watched it disappear into the distance. Stars twinkled in the sky above. The scene was beautiful and tranquil, absolutely perfect.
Like all the other tourists here, Saito was on his way to watch the sun rise from the highest peak in Japan. Not all of them would keep walking straight through the night; many would stop at mountain huts along the way to catch a few hours of sleep.
The trail continued on, gradually getting steeper. One of the climbing stations came into view. Saito stopped in to get something to eat. The small building was crowded with others who had the same idea. As he looked around the room, what immediately caught his eye was the wicker basket of eggplants sitting on the counter, next to the door. The last of the three signs - Oh.
This was a dream.
Everyone in the climbing station instantly stopped what they were doing. In perfect silence, they left the building and spread out in both directions along the trail, looking for the intruder. Saito followed them downhill, trying to blend into the crowd. No one took any notice of him.
Whoever had created this dream evidently knew about hatsuyume, since this dream was an ideal example of one. There was nothing fortunate about this situation, though; the reaction of the other people here - the projections, rather - clearly indicated the presence of another dreamer, and Saito most certainly did not want to be stolen from, especially not with the success of the inception job still so fresh in his memory. The projections moved faster.
Some of them seemed to be converging around a point a short distance downhill from the climbing station. Saito hurried to pass by the projections and get closer, wanting to see who it was.
"Ariadne?!"
Of all the members of the inception team, she was the one he had least expected to find initiating an unannounced shared dream. On the other hand, if she was here, the others were likely here somewhere too, up to their old tricks again. And yet - hadn't she been the one who had saved the entire job from failure by suggesting that she and Cobb go into Limbo to retrieve Fischer? It seemed so long ago now.
Ariadne was scrambling back down the mountain, trying to get away. Saito decided that, criminal intentions or not, he couldn't bear to see her crushed to death by the projections. Maybe he couldn't control his subconscious, but he did have some control over his dream-self.
He began sliding down the path to catch up to her. This would have been suicidally stupid had they been on the real mountain, but here, he could slide on the loose gravel and remain upright, without faltering once. He sped along as if on skis, easily outdistancing the projections. He shoved his way through the crowd to Ariadne, seized her around the waist, and held on tightly, pulling her along with him.
"Saito!" she exclaimed, more in surprise and shock than fear. "What are you doing?!"
"Keeping you alive long enough for you to explain what's going on!" he answered.
"Hang on a minute! Let me give us somewhere we can talk!"
A cave mouth suddenly opened up in the side of the mountain. Saito steered them both into it, and Ariadne rapidly smoothed over the entrance with earth and rock, simultaneously creating a pair of narrow, upward-facing shafts that led out into the open air, so they wouldn't suffocate. They each took out a flashlight at almost the same moment.
"You came prepared for hiking at night," remarked Saito.
"So did you," said Ariadne.
"I've been to Mount Fuji before. But you haven't, have you?"
"No, but I did do my homework about it. What gave me away? How did you know you were dreaming?"
"The eggplants. They look out of place next to all that packaged food, don't you think?"
Ariadne cast her eyes downward and away. "Yeah. I couldn't think of any other way to work them into this scene. I'm sorry. But listen, this isn't what it looks like, I swear. It's just you and me down here. I created this dream for you, because we wanted to do something nice for you."
"We?"
"Well, mostly Cobb, but as soon as he told me and Arthur, we were both on board, too. They're waiting for us topside. It's their PASIV device, of course. We've all been doing so well since the last time we were all together that we wanted to thank you in a way that only we could. So, we created the exact dream that we knew you wanted to have tonight. We hoped you wouldn't realize that it wasn't a natural dream, but Arthur says you're a longtime shared dreamer, so I'm kind of not surprised."
"But they didn't come to share the dream themselves?"
"No. They're not here. It made the most sense for me to come without them, because if they don't enter the dream at all, then you can know beyond a doubt that we didn't come to extract anything. I'm the only one who doesn't know how to do that."
Scrape. Scrape.
They pointed their flashlights upwards. Dirt was falling from the shafts in the ceiling of the cramped cavern. The projections were trying to dig their way into it.
"You know," said Ariadne, "if you just trusted me and really believed that my presence here isn't a threat to you, they would leave us alone. After the inception succeeded, Fischer's projections back in the first layer calmed back down."
"Is that so," said Saito. "Forgive me if I can't do that."
"Fair enough," said Ariadne resignedly. "After all, I'm a criminal, too."
She pointed her flashlight at the wall and started making the cavern expand, burrowing deeper into the side of the mountain with her mind. They ran along the path she was creating. There were more shafts along it here and there, letting in air.
"We can't keep running like this!" said Saito. "There's nowhere to go!"
"I'm just trying to run out the clock!" said Ariadne. "It's better than getting killed!"
Saito wasn't about to argue with that.
Suddenly, they noticed that the walls at the newly-hollowed-out end of the tunnel were glowing with an eerie orange light. Ariadne stopped. "What's that?"
"This is a dormant volcano, remember?" said Saito.
Ariadne looked mortified. "Yeah, that's right. Okay... let's... let's go back the way we came for a bit."
They turned and walked away from the glowing wall, which was now starting to ooze orange molten rock. Ariadne was breathing slowly, trying to compose herself. She brought her dreaming abilities to bear again and restored the section of rock and earth she had just caused to vanish, filling in that part of the tunnel.
"Nowhere left to go," said Saito.
"No," said Ariadne. "Now, we wait. Either the projections will get in here and kill us, or the clock will run out and we'll wake up. I'm sorry this whole thing went wrong."
Saito noticed something. "Look there."
He went and stood under one of the shafts that reached out into the open air. Ariadne followed.
"You can still see the moon from in here," he said appreciatively. "It's beautiful."
Ariadne smiled. "Thank you. It was meant to be beautiful."
They contemplated the full moon for a few moments. Then, a slow and very familiar sound began to fill the cavern: their team's signature musical cue.
"Oh, thank God," said Ariadne.
They silently counted down the seconds, never taking their eyes off the moon, enjoying the beauty of the dream while they could.
* * *
Cobb and Arthur were, indeed, standing over Saito and Ariadne when they opened their eyes. Both men had their hands raised at their sides in the universal "I'm not threatening you" gesture.
"Welcome back," said Arthur. "I take it the plan didn't quite work out."
"You can't sneak anything past this guy," said Ariadne.
"And you both know that," said Saito, "so why bother trying?"
"I just wanted to say thank you for what you did," said Cobb. "I couldn't say it right after the job was finished, so this dream was my thank-you gift to you. Being back at home with the kids makes everything we all went through worth it, a thousand times over."
Arthur nodded. "It's from all of us, really."
Ariadne had been telling the truth. "You're welcome, and thank you for your gift," said Saito. "I appreciate the sentiment."
Cobb and Ariadne smiled.
"So what exactly happened down there, if I may ask?" said Arthur.
"You tried too hard," said Saito. "Mount Fuji by itself would have been sufficient, although the hawks were a nice touch."
"It was the eggplants that tipped him off," said Ariadne. "They just didn't fit into the scene."
"How did you know what to put into the dream?" asked Saito.
"It's not exactly a national secret," said Arthur. "Japanese culture is easy to look up. Happy New Year, Mr. Saito."
"Happy New Year, everyone. It's nice to see you all again. Did you bring the children?"
"Yes," said Cobb. "They're asleep at the hotel. Would you like to meet them?"
"Yes," said Saito, "but can we all get together the day after tomorrow? Believe it or not, I do have a family."
"Of course. We'll see you on the second. Good night, Saito."
"Good night."
The three left Saito alone in his house. It was still the middle of the night, and his family were out visiting a shrine. He had the next day off to spend with them, the day after that to spend with his friends, and the rest of the year to carry on with the task of picking up the pieces of Fischer-Morrow.
It was definitely going to be a good year.
Characters: Saito, Ariadne, Arthur, Cobb (Gen)
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,719
Disclaimer: The characters and concepts contained herein are the property of Christopher Nolan and Syncopy Pictures. No money is being made from the publication of this work of fanfiction.
Summary: According to Japanese folk belief, if one's first dream in the new year includes an eggplant, a hawk, and Mount Fuji, one will have good luck during that year. Evidently, this will be an exceptionally fortunate year for one Mr. Saito.
Author's Notes: This is Part 2 of my entry in the Big Bang challenge over at
inception_land.The cool August evening was alive with the singing of cicadas. Many people walked the red, dusty, rocky mountain trail: young and old, Japanese and foreigners, walking quickly and slowly. The soft light of the full moon fell on the people and illuminated the side of Mount Fuji, which sloped ever onward and upward.
Saito climbed the trail, enjoying the beauty of the scene. A hawk flew by overhead, and he watched it disappear into the distance. Stars twinkled in the sky above. The scene was beautiful and tranquil, absolutely perfect.
Like all the other tourists here, Saito was on his way to watch the sun rise from the highest peak in Japan. Not all of them would keep walking straight through the night; many would stop at mountain huts along the way to catch a few hours of sleep.
The trail continued on, gradually getting steeper. One of the climbing stations came into view. Saito stopped in to get something to eat. The small building was crowded with others who had the same idea. As he looked around the room, what immediately caught his eye was the wicker basket of eggplants sitting on the counter, next to the door. The last of the three signs - Oh.
This was a dream.
Everyone in the climbing station instantly stopped what they were doing. In perfect silence, they left the building and spread out in both directions along the trail, looking for the intruder. Saito followed them downhill, trying to blend into the crowd. No one took any notice of him.
Whoever had created this dream evidently knew about hatsuyume, since this dream was an ideal example of one. There was nothing fortunate about this situation, though; the reaction of the other people here - the projections, rather - clearly indicated the presence of another dreamer, and Saito most certainly did not want to be stolen from, especially not with the success of the inception job still so fresh in his memory. The projections moved faster.
Some of them seemed to be converging around a point a short distance downhill from the climbing station. Saito hurried to pass by the projections and get closer, wanting to see who it was.
"Ariadne?!"
Of all the members of the inception team, she was the one he had least expected to find initiating an unannounced shared dream. On the other hand, if she was here, the others were likely here somewhere too, up to their old tricks again. And yet - hadn't she been the one who had saved the entire job from failure by suggesting that she and Cobb go into Limbo to retrieve Fischer? It seemed so long ago now.
Ariadne was scrambling back down the mountain, trying to get away. Saito decided that, criminal intentions or not, he couldn't bear to see her crushed to death by the projections. Maybe he couldn't control his subconscious, but he did have some control over his dream-self.
He began sliding down the path to catch up to her. This would have been suicidally stupid had they been on the real mountain, but here, he could slide on the loose gravel and remain upright, without faltering once. He sped along as if on skis, easily outdistancing the projections. He shoved his way through the crowd to Ariadne, seized her around the waist, and held on tightly, pulling her along with him.
"Saito!" she exclaimed, more in surprise and shock than fear. "What are you doing?!"
"Keeping you alive long enough for you to explain what's going on!" he answered.
"Hang on a minute! Let me give us somewhere we can talk!"
A cave mouth suddenly opened up in the side of the mountain. Saito steered them both into it, and Ariadne rapidly smoothed over the entrance with earth and rock, simultaneously creating a pair of narrow, upward-facing shafts that led out into the open air, so they wouldn't suffocate. They each took out a flashlight at almost the same moment.
"You came prepared for hiking at night," remarked Saito.
"So did you," said Ariadne.
"I've been to Mount Fuji before. But you haven't, have you?"
"No, but I did do my homework about it. What gave me away? How did you know you were dreaming?"
"The eggplants. They look out of place next to all that packaged food, don't you think?"
Ariadne cast her eyes downward and away. "Yeah. I couldn't think of any other way to work them into this scene. I'm sorry. But listen, this isn't what it looks like, I swear. It's just you and me down here. I created this dream for you, because we wanted to do something nice for you."
"We?"
"Well, mostly Cobb, but as soon as he told me and Arthur, we were both on board, too. They're waiting for us topside. It's their PASIV device, of course. We've all been doing so well since the last time we were all together that we wanted to thank you in a way that only we could. So, we created the exact dream that we knew you wanted to have tonight. We hoped you wouldn't realize that it wasn't a natural dream, but Arthur says you're a longtime shared dreamer, so I'm kind of not surprised."
"But they didn't come to share the dream themselves?"
"No. They're not here. It made the most sense for me to come without them, because if they don't enter the dream at all, then you can know beyond a doubt that we didn't come to extract anything. I'm the only one who doesn't know how to do that."
Scrape. Scrape.
They pointed their flashlights upwards. Dirt was falling from the shafts in the ceiling of the cramped cavern. The projections were trying to dig their way into it.
"You know," said Ariadne, "if you just trusted me and really believed that my presence here isn't a threat to you, they would leave us alone. After the inception succeeded, Fischer's projections back in the first layer calmed back down."
"Is that so," said Saito. "Forgive me if I can't do that."
"Fair enough," said Ariadne resignedly. "After all, I'm a criminal, too."
She pointed her flashlight at the wall and started making the cavern expand, burrowing deeper into the side of the mountain with her mind. They ran along the path she was creating. There were more shafts along it here and there, letting in air.
"We can't keep running like this!" said Saito. "There's nowhere to go!"
"I'm just trying to run out the clock!" said Ariadne. "It's better than getting killed!"
Saito wasn't about to argue with that.
Suddenly, they noticed that the walls at the newly-hollowed-out end of the tunnel were glowing with an eerie orange light. Ariadne stopped. "What's that?"
"This is a dormant volcano, remember?" said Saito.
Ariadne looked mortified. "Yeah, that's right. Okay... let's... let's go back the way we came for a bit."
They turned and walked away from the glowing wall, which was now starting to ooze orange molten rock. Ariadne was breathing slowly, trying to compose herself. She brought her dreaming abilities to bear again and restored the section of rock and earth she had just caused to vanish, filling in that part of the tunnel.
"Nowhere left to go," said Saito.
"No," said Ariadne. "Now, we wait. Either the projections will get in here and kill us, or the clock will run out and we'll wake up. I'm sorry this whole thing went wrong."
Saito noticed something. "Look there."
He went and stood under one of the shafts that reached out into the open air. Ariadne followed.
"You can still see the moon from in here," he said appreciatively. "It's beautiful."
Ariadne smiled. "Thank you. It was meant to be beautiful."
They contemplated the full moon for a few moments. Then, a slow and very familiar sound began to fill the cavern: their team's signature musical cue.
"Oh, thank God," said Ariadne.
They silently counted down the seconds, never taking their eyes off the moon, enjoying the beauty of the dream while they could.
* * *
Cobb and Arthur were, indeed, standing over Saito and Ariadne when they opened their eyes. Both men had their hands raised at their sides in the universal "I'm not threatening you" gesture.
"Welcome back," said Arthur. "I take it the plan didn't quite work out."
"You can't sneak anything past this guy," said Ariadne.
"And you both know that," said Saito, "so why bother trying?"
"I just wanted to say thank you for what you did," said Cobb. "I couldn't say it right after the job was finished, so this dream was my thank-you gift to you. Being back at home with the kids makes everything we all went through worth it, a thousand times over."
Arthur nodded. "It's from all of us, really."
Ariadne had been telling the truth. "You're welcome, and thank you for your gift," said Saito. "I appreciate the sentiment."
Cobb and Ariadne smiled.
"So what exactly happened down there, if I may ask?" said Arthur.
"You tried too hard," said Saito. "Mount Fuji by itself would have been sufficient, although the hawks were a nice touch."
"It was the eggplants that tipped him off," said Ariadne. "They just didn't fit into the scene."
"How did you know what to put into the dream?" asked Saito.
"It's not exactly a national secret," said Arthur. "Japanese culture is easy to look up. Happy New Year, Mr. Saito."
"Happy New Year, everyone. It's nice to see you all again. Did you bring the children?"
"Yes," said Cobb. "They're asleep at the hotel. Would you like to meet them?"
"Yes," said Saito, "but can we all get together the day after tomorrow? Believe it or not, I do have a family."
"Of course. We'll see you on the second. Good night, Saito."
"Good night."
The three left Saito alone in his house. It was still the middle of the night, and his family were out visiting a shrine. He had the next day off to spend with them, the day after that to spend with his friends, and the rest of the year to carry on with the task of picking up the pieces of Fischer-Morrow.
It was definitely going to be a good year.
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Date: 2011-03-11 02:33 pm (UTC)YEAH, I REALLY LIKE THIS. \o/
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Date: 2011-03-11 11:28 pm (UTC)