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.
"No," she replied, just as serious. "I mean, not unless you're talking about religion. But there's more of those than I can count, and I get the feeling that's not what you're talking about."
She had to frown though, as she pondered what he offered. "How do you collect souls?"
"Once a person dies, their soul is left behind. Normally they will disappear on their own, but anyone can take a soul. However, it is forbidden to consume an innocent soul."
He could go on about the different types and what would happen, but that could come later.
"Souls are important in my world, and witches and death gods also exist there. Not as myths or fairy tales, but living, breathing, and existing just just like other humans." And in the middle of the war, but again, no need to go into great detail about that unless asked.
It sounded more than a little ridiculous to her, but then again, so did dream-sharing when Cobb had initially pitched it: taking someone's soul was impossible, just like inception. If Ariadne opened her mind for a minute - and it certainly was open - then perhaps the idea of other worlds and souls weren't so far-fetched.
"So how does all this tie together into a 'dream world'?"
"If it is possible for there two be two different worlds-mine and yours as examples-is it not also possible for this place to be its own world as well?"
"Of course," he continued, "this is just a theory, and it is possible that this world exists only in dreams or is somehow connected to it."
"I guess so." Did that make this place like limbo, then? A world in and of itself, virtually impossible to escape unless you managed to find a particular kick or someone else came to get you, like Cobb was doing? His second comment made her frown slightly, still unsure of exactly what to think about this place.
"If this were a dream - just a regular dream - we should be able to find a kick and just ride it back up until we wake up."
"Yeah," she replied, losing some of the tension that had sat upon her shoulders since she opened her eyes. "A kick is what we call that feeling of falling - as long as inner ear function isn't impaired, you can always wake up from a kick."
Of course, that still begged the question of why her totem had lied to her.
"That's what I'm wondering. Obviously a flood didn't work, or I'd be the only person here, but has anything like an earthquake ever happened?" Excitement began to grow in her eyes, one hand shifting subtly in a toned-down version of talking with one's hands. "I mean, if we could build a big enough kick, we might be able to wake everyone up all at once."
He's looking a little bit uncomfortable at that idea.
"I have heard of other disasters striking Somarium, but I don't know the details of them. But again, that is assuming that such a kick would work here. Others have 'woken up' or left this world, however you want to think of it. But no one knows how or why."
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.
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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'?"
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"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."
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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.
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"Do you have witches, death gods, or anything involving soul collecting where you are from?"
There was no hint of humor in his voice or expression. On the contrary, he was looking at her with a casual, yet serious look.
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She had to frown though, as she pondered what he offered. "How do you collect souls?"
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He could go on about the different types and what would happen, but that could come later.
"Souls are important in my world, and witches and death gods also exist there. Not as myths or fairy tales, but living, breathing, and existing just just like other humans." And in the middle of the war, but again, no need to go into great detail about that unless asked.
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"So how does all this tie together into a 'dream world'?"
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"Of course," he continued, "this is just a theory, and it is possible that this world exists only in dreams or is somehow connected to it."
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"If this were a dream - just a regular dream - we should be able to find a kick and just ride it back up until we wake up."
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Of course, that still begged the question of why her totem had lied to her.
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"So if you want to wake up from a dream, you use this 'kick' to wake up from it."
...Very interesting.
"But is that only limited to your world or could it be applied in others..."
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"I have heard of other disasters striking Somarium, but I don't know the details of them. But again, that is assuming that such a kick would work here. Others have 'woken up' or left this world, however you want to think of it. But no one knows how or why."
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