Nolan, et al., own Inception.
Happy holidays, whatever those happen to be, if they happen to be. I'm gonna go get myself into a fortnight-long food coma with my family.
Arthur stared down into his hands, which loosely clutched a large gutted envelope and a Christmas card. The card was handmade, a fine pencil drawing washed with watercolor in a range of blues. The drawing showed an elevation and two floor plans of a multilevel igloo; it had two floors, one maze, and three paradoxical pathways. There was an Eskimo taking a ride down a gravity-defying loop-the-loop slide. The Eskimo was smiling a lopsided smile.
It was at that moment that Arthur realized that Ariadne was never going to give up shared dreaming. He wasn't sure whether he was concerned or delighted. Arthur breathed in slowly twice, consciously not sighing. He traced the correct path through the maze with one long finger. It took him longer than it should've; Ariadne was that good.
She belonged in this business, she really did. An architectural talent that strong, paired with a mind that creative, had no place in reality. Outside of the dream, Ariadne would have to wait years for just one of her ideas to be allowed off the page, and any idea so allowed would be watered down into something tepid and unrecognizable. She didn't deserve that.
Nor does she deserve to be shot at and pursued by people like Cobol, Arthur added mentally. He frowned and tapped the igloo card irritably against his left palm. Nor be cut off from family and real friends by secrets too big and dangerous to be shared.
And yet, wasn't it too late? Didn't this card prove it was too late? Ariadne was reminding him of what he himself had taught her in the dreams. Miles and Dom and he, himself, were responsible, if so. Hadn't she visited the Thigpens and Dom in the Paris flat daily for the week they'd been there – hadn't he skipped the visit for that very reason? Hadn't she strongarmed Dom into getting the card into Arthur's hands? What was this except hard evidence that she had taken the space and time Arthur had insisted on giving her to make a decision of this enormity and just made it?
So now she'd chosen. A good five months early, but this was Ariadne, and she was making her choice clear. And she had proven time and again that she wouldn't be ignored. When one ignored Ariadne, she tended to make it impossible to continue.
Well. One could be both pleased and worried at once, couldn't one?
Arthur allowed himself one little selfishness with a slight nod; he smiled and leaned the card against a stack of folders next to his laptop and made a mental note to get Dom on the phone in the morning.