an elegant solution
Blurb: Ariadne ponders on each of the team's totem.
A/N: After seeing Inception today, I instantly knew that I needed to write something about it. It is BRILLIANT – and I'm sure that I will watch it more than twice. Enjoy!
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Arthur:
He doesn't really seem to be the sort of person to believe in luck, and so she wonders why his 'little piece of reality' is a die: a loaded die at that. To Arthur, it seems that luck is too uncertain a thing to bank on. He wants hard, solid facts – not wanting to base something off a rumour or hearsay. Yet, when she thinks about it, his totem makes perfect sense. Normally, rolling a dice is about taking a chance, but with Arthur, there is no room for chance. It's loaded. He knows the outcome. He plans everything meticulously; making sure that every kick and everything inside the dream is planned and researched to perfection. Apart from that kiss – that was definitely unprecedented, but sometimes taking a chance can be a good thing.
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Eames:
Eames' totem makes perfect sense – he's a gambler, a forger, a thief. He thrives on chance and a poker chip is exactly the perfect symbol for it. The biggest theft can be robbing someone of all their money on a cards table – something that Ariadne can see that Eames' knows perfectly well. It's a bright red colour, indented with white marks all the way around: something that wouldn't really stand out to the untrained eye. And that's just the reason why he chose it, she supposes. Eames is not really supposed to stand out. It's his job not to, and it's something that he does fairly well, despite having somewhat of a reverence for the words 'bigger is better.' On second thoughts, the only thing that is noticeable about the chip is how the white marks have gradually worn away over time, from constant rubbing against the palm of his hand. It seems that even he can't let go of the dream world, sometimes.
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Cobb:
His totem really goes without saying. It's clever, slick yet so anchored in his past that she's surprised that the top still manages to spin. But, it's strange nevertheless. He was the one who advised her never to let another person touch her totem, for it 'defeating the purpose' of it. She knows that Cobb likes to break his own rules, to cross his own boundaries. …Occasionally, she wonders if that was what Mal had said to him all those – however many – years ago, stuck somewhere between limbo and reality. Yet, if she did, he still has it which begs the question as to why. She has never seen him spin it again in front of her, like she's seen Eames brush his hand past his chip, or Arthur roll his die. Maybe he doesn't want to, or maybe it's because he's scared that the top will keep spinning and he'll realise that the walls around him aren't what he thought them to be. The top, so childlike in its appearance (and maybe, that's what makes it all the more meaningful to Cobb,) should really be an anchor, she thinks. Or a sign - as she knows, just like the rest of the team does, that all he wants to do is get home.
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As for herself, her chess piece was an elegant way to keep track of reality. But it's also more than that – it's an oxymoron. The pawn, seemingly the weakest amongst all the others, is in fact the strongest and one of the most important pieces on the board. The designer, the architect – shaping and designing the way for the other pieces to move: the first to move. Chess is a game of logic, of strategy, so to make mazes that defy all logical thought and theories makes her feels somewhat safer inside a dream with her totem. To remind her of what's real and logical, even when she wakes up.
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