Extraction
An Inception Fanfiction by Heaven's Archer.
Part of the Dreaming Series
I own nothing. R&R.
XOXOXO
Extraction is arguably the most important part of the heist. How can a heist succeed when there is no one to take?
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Extractors are a dime a dozen. They come out of the woodwork whenever someone calls, crawling over one another in an attempt to be the most recognised. In an attempt to be great. To become something larger than themselves.
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Good extractors are difficult to come by. They wait in shady bars, in darkened corners. They hide in amongst the dregs of society, amongst the rich and powerful. They slip in between the shadows like they are one themselves. They leave behind naught but whispers and memories.
The good extractors are almost silent. They are talked about in revered tones amongst the dream sharers. The good extractors can choose who they work with, because they know that if they decline a job another is already on the way. Until then they hide. They hide away because they know that they don't need to beg for the recognition.
They know that the good are barely mentioned at all.
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The greatest extractors are ghosts. They aren't mentioned at all.
That's how they know they are better than the others.
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Extraction is the art of taking.
Ideas, emotions, dreams.
It takes a strong person to be an extractor.
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The ways of extraction are as diverse as the dreams themselves.
Most extractors have a particular method, sometimes unique, sometimes so generic that it's almost laughable.
However, it is the extractors who can switch their game as the situation calls for it that become great. It is those who can do it flawlessly and never be caught that become the best.
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An extractor can't just be able to take. They must be able to run, fight. They must be able to dream themselves.
Sometimes, the others concede that the Extractors are the most human of them all. After all, they are the ones that need to know the human mind the best.
You need to know the mind to be able to take its secrets. The others don't need that.
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Some of the best extractors refuse to work with others.
A good many have stumbled into the role after working as architects, point men and, in one notable occasion, chemists.
This all effects their method.
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Many extractors say they are nothing without their team.
More know that their team is nothing without them.
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An extractor's job doesn't begin until they are within the dream. So it often falls to them to ensure the rest of the team works together while they plan.
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In any moment, an extractor may find themselves helplessly alone inside the dream.
In this way, an extractor must be adaptable and able to move with the changing tides.
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In any moment, an extractor may find themselves helplessly alone inside the dream.
In this way, an extractor must be steadfast and immovable.
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There are 5 main methods of extraction:
Torture.
Trickery.
Seduction
Stealth
Speed
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The best extractors mix more than one method at the same time.
It makes them the best because it is hard to do.
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Dom Cobb was one of the best.
He fell.
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Most extractors fall.
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All extractors fall eventually.
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Extraction is the hardest part of the heist because of the pressure. What everyone else did leading up to the point of extraction is inconsequential if the extractor doesn't get the information.
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Extraction is the hardest part of the heist because...
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Most extractors start with beliefs and morals.
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All extractors start with foolish beliefs and childish morals.
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Many extractors will loose these morals eventually.
Those that don't won't last.
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It is hard to be moral when you are ripping apart a person's deepest secrets.
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It is harder to see the same person you were when you look at yourself in the mirror.
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An extractor's totem will almost always be an item from a loved one. It reminds them that someone still thinks that they are moral. Someone still remembers the beliefs they had once upon a time.
Failing this, it always be an item that can be controlled. Control is something central to an extractor.
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The subconscious will always attack an extractor second to last. Eventually, it always realises.
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The best stealth extractors are never realised til they are already gone.
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Extractors always die the most painfully when caught by the projections.
Always have. Always will.
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Many an extractor has gone mad.
Even dream-pain can break a person eventually.
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A gunshot, a snapped neck. Those are the best ways to go in a dream. Quick, almost painless. The best alternatives to a kick.
The projections never use either.
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It is an extractor who first began teaching people how to militarise their projections.
That extractor died fast.
It wasn't a dream that they died in.
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Extractors are the ones that try the hardest to have a life outside of dreams.
It is the extractors that succeed the most.
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It is almost easy for an extractor to detach themselves from the dream. They have to devote almost no time at all.
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Most extractors don't share anything with one another.
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The best extractors share almost everything.
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Most extractors will lose themselves eventually. It's inevitable.
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Torturers and seducers will lose themselves first. They are the ones that lose themselves the most within a dream.
One can only lose so much before there is nothing left.
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Tricksters go next.
They always end up tricking themselves.
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The fast and stealthy never lose themselves. Not completely. They change, they grow weary, they lose their faith, they run. But they remain them.
The other extractors think it must be nice.
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Most extractors will have a go-to team. Most dream thieves in general have go-to team.
Eventually they all discover the benefit of having those that they trust there to prepare, to catch them, to back them up as the dream shifts.
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The extractors that have no go-to team lose themselves faster than the rest, regardless of method.
It's hard to keep hold of who you are when there is no one there to remind you of who that person is.
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In many ways forgers and extractors are the same. They both need to become different people in order to do their jobs well.
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In some ways, extractors have it worse than the forgers. A forger has a new mind to go with a new face.
Extractors have to change minds and keep the face.
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It gets harder to remember which mind was yours, and not the 'extractor's'
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The extractor is just one part of a team.
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In the business of dream heists, its all about who you are teamed with.
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The weakest link will destroy the entire team. Will ruin the entire team.
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It's up to the team to ensure they have no weakness.