[application] capeandcowl

Aug 12, 2011 22:36

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Froda
AGE: 25.
JOURNAL: froda_baggins
IM: AIM is frodabaggins03
E-MAIL: frodabaggins [at] gmail [dot] com.
RETURNING: N/A

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Ariadne.
FANDOM: Inception
CHRONOLOGY: Immediately post-movie.
CLASS: Pretty much out for herself/anti-hero.
SUPERHERO NAME: Architect.
ALTER EGO: Ariadne.

BACKGROUND:
Unfortunately, because Christopher Nolan tends to be terrible at creating secondary characters (especially women) with anything like fully-fleshed-out backgrounds, we know next to nothing about Ariadne's life before she enters the narrative of Inception. When we meet her, she's an architecture grad student in Paris, and is presumably from North America judging by her accent. We meet her when Cobb travels to Paris to meet with his former teacher/father-in-law, Miles, asking for his help to find a new dream architect for the inception job. Due to the nature of the job, Cobb demands nothing less than "an architect who's as good as I was" - presumably, Cobb himself set the bar pretty high. Miles claims he has "someone better", and arranges a meeting between Cobb and Ariadne.

Ariadne is a quick learner - she passes Cobb's initial maze-drawing test, and once in the dream world she picks it up so fast Cobb himself remarks that he's never known anyone to do it faster. And just as quickly, Ariadne picks up on the fact that there are some things that are very, very wrong with Cobb's subconscious, even without knowing his dark history. She realizes this to such an extent that she's actually reluctant to continue her training at first - though of course the aspect of "pure creation" leads her back to it eventually. She spends much of the next part of the movie learning - mostly from Arthur - the mechanics of shared dreaming, and how to manipulate the dream space. She even learns a bit more about Cobb's past.

Once Cobb returns from Mombasa, bringing with him the rest of the team - including the forger, Eames, and the chemist, Yusuf, Ariadne focuses on creating the three dream levels that are needed to pull off the inception job. The first level, a city which resembles New York. The second level, a high-class hotel, and the third level a remote hospital. As time passes, and the job gets closer, Ariadne learns more about Cobb's past, and begins to understand how profoundly broken he really is. One night, she spots him going under by himself and invades his privacy by sneaking into his dream. She justifies it by saying that because she has agreed to share dreams with him, the problems he has with his own subconscious become her problems, as well. In Cobb's subconscious, Ariadne meets the shade of Mal, Cobb's dead wife, and realizes the extent he's gone to keep her memory within himself - to the point where she has begun breaking through into his shared dreams, creating a dangerous situation when the shade attempts to sabotage a job.

It is on the basis of this knowledge that Ariadne insists on being taken along for the inception job. When the job starts, things almost immediately begin to go pear-shaped, with a train smashing through the middle of a city street, brought there unwittingly by Cobb. Things get even worse when Robert Fischer's well-trained subconscious goes on the offensive, and Saito, the financier, is gravely wounded. Ariadne is the only one who realizes just how much danger they are all in - not only from Fischer's murderous projections but the potential for Cobb's subconscious to invade and ruin the entire job. Through the second level and onto the third, and Cobb's subconscious does just that - Mal appears, and kills Robert, throwing him into limbo.

When Cobb and Eames are ready to give up on the job, Ariadne suggests an alternative - she and Cobb follow Fischer into limbo, find him and give him a kick to bring him back to the hospital to complete the job. Cobb agrees, realizing that Saito will soon be dead and in limbo as well.

It is only in limbo that Ariadne learns the dark truth that Cobb has buried inside himself - that he had performed inception on his wife, planting the idea in her mind that eventually led to her death. It is this guilt which has made Mal's shade so powerful. When the shade attacks Cobb, Ariadne shoots her, and refuses to ride the kick back out of limbo until Cobb tells her that he doesn't intend to stay with Mal, but instead will find Saito to bring them both back.

With the job completed, back on the first level, Ariadne reassures Arthur that his friend will be all right, and she appears to be proven right when Cobb and Saito awaken on the plane. The last we see of Ariadne is at customs in LAX.

PERSONALITY:
Ariadne is a young woman with a lot of talent, and she is justifiably proud of that talent. She is, after all, studying at one of the most prestigious architecture schools in the world. She's worked hard to get where she is, and she's not the sort of person to turn down a challenge. When Cobb tells her she has to do better, she is determined to do just that - and she manages to impress him very quickly.

It is also worth noting that while Ariadne has presumably never done anything particularly evil, she doesn't have a problem when Cobb tells her that the job he's offering is illegal. If anything, it makes her even more intrigued - why would a criminal want to hire an architecture student? Still, she has her limits - she voices an objection to manipulating Fischer into believing his only good relationship is a lie.

Ariadne is very curious about things - especially, it seems, people. It's a trait which might be called "nosy" by some, but either way, Ariadne becomes very invested in finding out all she can about Cobb - what his motivations are, what led him to this point - to the point where she's willing to invade his privacy to do so. She knows the stakes are very high, and also understands that the people closest to Cobb (Arthur, in particular) seem unable to grasp how deep his issues lie, so she has no problem taking it upon herself to dig those issues up and force Cobb into confronting them.

Stubborn, almost to a fault, and occasionally capable of getting in over her head, Ariadne shows her more vulnerable side in moments like these, when she realizes she has no power. Her biggest fear is probably the inability to exert some kind of control over a situation, whether that is manipulating a dream world, designing a real-world layout, or confronting the shade of Mal.

Being in a field like architecture, which is male-dominated, Ariadne is used to holding her own in a room full of intimidating men, but even so, it speaks to the depth of her talent and self-confidence that she is able to inspire professional respect in a bunch of hardened criminals, despite being the youngest, most inexperienced member of the team.

She has a quick mind, precise enough to design scale models but imaginative enough to dream up complicated mazes full of paradoxes designed to confuse the unwary subject. She learns quickly and almost never needs to have things repeated to her after the first time.

She also has a playful streak, illustrated by some of the intricacies she builds into the dream levels, and she doesn't even seem to mind when Arthur sort of tricks her into kissing him on the second level - quite the contrary. She clearly has a sense of humor.

Overall, like most of the team members, Ariadne quickly comes to love the almost-endless possibilities afforded by dream sharing. As Cobb points out, reality is just not enough for her anymore.

POWER:
- The ability to enter the dreams of others while sleeping, and while within those dreams, she can manipulate the dream world at will.

- When interacting with others, specifically in person or via video communications, if a character has a dark secret buried in their past, Ariadne will be able to sense it. She won't be able to tell what it is, but she can sense that there is one.

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE: [The video opens on a mass of brown hair. The person holding the device probably hasn't realized it's turned on yet, as the camera angle swoops around for a bit - catching sight of the surroundings, a momentary glimpse of a hand clenched tight around some small object, and then a pale face, with slightly worried brown eyes. Her voice, when she speaks, is matter-of-fact, despite her obvious fear.]

Hey, uh. I'm really not cool with being snatched away from my life and being told I'm going to be a hero. I'm not a hero. I just need to get back to Paris, okay? And somebody owes me a plane ticket, because I missed my flight. I have a promise to keep, and my rent is due in three days.

Unless this is a dream, in which case... [She looks at something off-screen, and a small, hollow sort of thud can be heard, as though she's just knocked a small object over.] I'm in deep trouble.

LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
Designing a dream world wasn't simple. Ariadne had picked it up quickly, sure, but that didn't mean it wasn't challenging. It required a certain kind of precision, something a little different than designing for the real world. In the real world, she would consciously ground a design in other things - the physical surroundings, a certain architectural style, a focus on being environmentally friendly, any number of factors.

The dream world required a different kind of precision, a different kind of knowledge. Knowledge of the mark, what their hobbies were, the sorts of places they often found themselves, environments they would feel comfortable - or uncomfortable in.

Still, manipulating the dream itself, she'd never found difficult. Which was why she thought this must be real. Whether her totem had been tampered with or not.

She thought she'd known the difference. The dream world always felt like... something else. At least, she thought it had, but she was feeling that way now, despite her totem telling her this was reality, despite being unable to make any changes.

Hero? At first, for one wild moment of panic, she thought somehow she'd been caught, that Interpol or the FBI or whoever tracked down dream criminals had found her, and she would be going to jail for a long time, her career over. But no. That couldn't be it, because she would've been greeted with you have the right to remain silent or something like that, not hero.

Ariadne didn't want to be a hero. She wanted to go back to Paris, like she'd planned, like she'd promised Miles. Clutching her totem hard in one hand, she started fumbling around with the device she'd been given with the other. Maybe this thing would have some answers.

FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
None!

what: app, game: capeandcowl

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