paradoxlol | .009

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.009 | Voice.

[Warden Filter]
As I understand it, the recent attack on [There's a SLIGHT pause, and Arthur's voice goes completely deadpan.] Victor Frankenstein [And back to normal!] was perpetrated through the use of a... "burning machine," as the victim called it.

[Wryly:] Given the lack of retail options on the Barge, I'm going to assume the device was made with found objects. [A beat.] Has anybody taken it apart and figured out where each piece of the machine came from? If they even came from the Barge at all. It could help us figure out where to beef up security.

[He starts to say something else, then stops. Nope, Arthur's not touching all of the recent drama and grumbling with a ten foot pole.]

[Private to Capa]
If you're ready, I have the sample.

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I have...heard. [He didn't want to say what he had heard, because it was only what one could find with a superficial glance over the networks and what could be heard in the hallways. His knowledge wasn't as extensive as it should be...but it would do.]

Hayley offered to show me around when I first arrived. She expressed an interest in my work and so, when I started working in the lab, she requested to be my assistant. I agreed. [Friendships were like business agreements to him. Mostly because he didn't know how to form an emotional attachment to that person.]

[Good, Arthur didn't want anybody dwelling on that. So, moving right along.]

Nice and straightforward. [And not too different from how he became acquainted with her. Now, time for the real subject:] Why don't you believe I can help her? Because it's so unscientific?

[Capa thought about how best to answer that and it took him a good ten seconds to get the words right in his mind before he said them.]

I believe there's science behind it. But there's no hard science to back that up. [Again, he shrugged.] Where's the math in it all? [Because obviously math had to be involved in any kind of science that was done.]

[Arthur smiled in a private sort of way.] There's math involved. [Timing the dream, figuring out how to coordinate the kicks, getting the musical cues just right. Miscalculate even by a second, and you could miss the kick, be stuck in a dream level until the sedative wore off.] The entire process was developed by scientists, originally. The simplified summary just makes the entire thing easier to comprehend.

I'm not really a stranger to complicated explanations. [He was assuming that Arthur would tell him more, as now he had the scientist's full attention.]

But...um...now I'm interested.

It's not really meditation. Where I'm from... [He glanced at the door quickly, then back to Capa as he reached into his jacket to pull something from one of his pockets.] the technology was developed to allow people to enter into each other's dreams. With the drug that you tested, administered through this. [And he pulls out a SMALL BOOKLET, which he offered to Capa.] You'll want to familiarize yourself with the instructions. [Especially because Arthur won't leave the book around for him.]

So, what's the point of shared dreaming? When you're asleep, your defenses are lowered-- mentally, I mean. [Physically, it went without saying.] Not only that, but the absence of any external distractions helps your mind process information faster. [He gave Capa a pointed look.] Have you ever woken up from a dream that seemed to stretch for days?

[After a pause.] There's this... almost seamless integration of conscious and unconscious thought. You know that dreams are strange, impossible, but when you're asleep, it feels real. And when you share a dream, that reality becomes more... vivid. And an experienced Dreamer-- the intruder, as it were-- can use that to create buildings, cities, worlds in somebody else's mind. Meanwhile, the Subject fills that world with the details from their subconscious. People, information... memories.

Originally, the military pushed the development of this technology. It became a training tool for soldiers. Wartime scenarios, conducted in dreams, to get them to kill each other. After all, [He shrugged.] when you die in a dream, you wake up. No risk, no mess.

[It was a little frustrating, having to explain this to what felt like so many people. Without any other extractors on board, he had to rely on the abilities of his shipmates and hope that they weren't the type to spread the word around if he wanted to get anything done with dreams.]

Edited 2010-10-26 04:40 (UTC)

[After taking the booklet, Capa held it close, waiting for this explanation of shared dreaming. The rhetorical question stayed just as it was- unanswered- as the answer itself wouldn't have done anything for what Arthur was trying to prove. Capa rarely slept and, when he did, he dreamed of the surface of the sun and woke up in a screaming fit. So no, he couldn't remember the last time he had a dream that seemed to go for days.]

And so you want to get in Hayley's mind, using this method of...[he searched for the phrase Arthur used] shared dreaming and use her subconscious to take out those memories she's repressed?

Sorry...that sounds...dangerous. And the military doesn't exactly have the best reputation for making things that are safely applicable to civilian settings.

Basically. The process I outlined to her is true-- I only left out the part where I'll be in the dream with her. I'm telling you because, well. It would've been obvious the second I put the IV in myself. Better to get the explanation out of the way now than later.

[Arthur shook his head.] Dream sharing's long been out of the hands of the military. Mostly, its uses are academic these days. [And criminal, but he wasn't going to get into that.] It's safe, it's been tested, and it gets results. The only dangers are if Hayley doesn't like what she sees-- but that's a risk I assume she's willing to take-- or if her subconscious keys into my presence and decides to eject me from the dream-- violently. It's not exactly subtle when it senses an intruder.

Even then, the only danger is that I die in the dream. [He made a slightly amused face, his mouth quirking at its corners.] Not a... pleasant end, but I'll get over it. [He didn't outright say it, but it was pretty obvious he'd been killed in dreams before. It was troublesome at first, and it was always a little irksome when it happened, but Arthur was a professional. It was part of the job.] But her subconscious won't go after her, even if she's with me.

[He paused a little, for that to sink in, then continued.]

And if she thinks of me as just another projection of her subconscious, her subconscious is more likely to accept me. And less likely to tear me to pieces. [HENCE, the lying about meditation, but he trusted Capa to be intelligent enough to put that together.]

[Capa was grasping this little by little. He didn't exactly like what he was hearing, but there seemed to be a science behind it, which he could respect. But the one thing that seemed to ease his mind the most was the fact that Arthur spoke of it like he had done it many, many times before. He was professional, concise and that kind of experience he was giving off was reassuring. So, which Capa might not understand it all, he trusted that Arthur did. And that was very important.]

I'm assuming you're telling me this now, rather than before, so that I won't tell Hayley about it? Because she can't know? [He didn't yet quite get that Hayley had to be ignorant for it to work, but he was starting to figure that if Arthur had lied to her about it, or at least kept part of it quiet, that Capa should follow that example.]

[Arthur nodded.] Exactly. [She could know, of course, but with how mistrustful she generally was-- combined with her inexperience as a dreamer-- Arthur wasn't certain that telling her wouldn't invite more trouble than was worth.] She'd be too guarded if she knew I was in there with her-- am I right? [He arched his brow questioningly, counting on Capa to know her better than him.]

[Capa chewed on his bottom lip to think about that.] Are you asking me if she would be more open to talking to her subconscious than to you? [When did his life honestly get this insane?]

Sort of, although I'm pretty sure the answer's "yes."

Obviously. [Capa looked down tot he booklet he had been given and casually flipped through it. From what little he could absorb from that cursory look, he could confirm that this was, indeed, quite real.]

Arthur. [And he was very firm now.] Can I trust you? [Trust him not to hurt her, trust him not to use this as a trick to possess her mind, trust him not to be lying. If he was going to hold information from Hayley, then he wanted to make sure that he was doing it for the right reason and the right person.]

[He nodded, although not eagerly or immediately. Just one brief, professional nod.] What I'm telling you right now is the truth. I'm not going to hurt her, and I'm not going to take advantage of her. [Really, there were no secrets she would have had that would've interested him.] This is going to be one time, one dream.

[Satisfied with that, he held up the booklet.] Then I'll look through this but...just tell me what I need to do when it's time.

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.009 | Voice.

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