video;

[neverknocks]

[ yo what's up, Omega. York is in a shiny brand-new suit of armor, bought right in Omega, rather than her usual clunky old Freelancer armor. It's a hell of a lot sleeker than what she used to wear, that's for sure, and she looks pretty damned pleased about it.

But not just about the armor. York's grinning for an entirely new reason today. ]

Everybody settling in all right? Good, 'cause I've got some good news for the thirsty crowd. I just got myself a new job at a bar here in Zeta District, servin' drinks. And this weekend we've got an extended happy hour special goin' on, so if you're looking for a drink, then I highly suggest hauling your ass over to The Quad. I might even slip you a free drink for the trouble.

[ She actually winks, grinning and showing teeth. She tosses her hair out of her face with a quick shake of her head. ]

'Course, if you're more interested in the home security market, I'm still available for installs and upgrades. But I figured it was time to move on up in the job market. Besides, I mix one hell of a Dirty Shirley.

Comments

[soldad]

[ He takes the drink mostly on reflex, watching York with a more open expression - of course, what he's expressing is wariness. He could play stupid, tell her that he doesn't know what she's talking about - but they have known each other a while. She deserves the truth, even if Arthur likes keeping his cards close to his sleeve.

So he takes a drink before he answers her. ]

You really want to know? [ he taps the rim of his drink, leans forward a little to lower his voice. ] In the simplest terms, I was a thief... but instead of stealing physical objects, I stole information and ideas out of people's minds.

[neverknocks]

[ York sets the bottle of midori down behind the bar with a thud, turning back to raise her eyebrows at Arthur. This is serious, man. You got the double eyebrow raise. ]

You know you can't stop there, right? C'mon, Arthur, you're gonna have to explain this to me.

[soldad]

[ Arthur looks at that expression and feels his smile grow wider. ]

Where I'm from, there's this chemical called Somnacin. It was developed by scientists for use with a device called the PASIV. [ He gestures with his hands, brings them together. ] These things used together? They let you create a lucid dream - a shared lucid dream. In these dreams, your mind is infinitely powerful - you can create whole cities with a thought, battlegrounds, scenarios, buildings that don't exist in the real world.

There's a drawback, though. Someone creates the dream, and someone else populates it with their subconscious - creates literal projections of them. And these projections? You can talk to them, find out what the person's thinking. Ideas they have, or information they might know.

And even if they're trying to protect that information, you can trick them into placing it somewhere you can break in, steal it and read it.

[ He sits back, takes another drink of the midori sour. ]

And that's my job, is helping someone do that. See, guys who do that, they're called extractors. They know how to get into your head, how to play you. I can host those dreams, I can design a dream for you, I can find information on your target - but someone else has to extract the information, because that's not what I'm good at.

[ it rankles to admit. ]

[neverknocks]

[ York's eyes widen, because whoa, not only is that a lot of information, but it's a lot of really weird information. ]

Whoa, whoa, slow down there a bit, cowboy. Let me get this straight. You break into people's dreams and steal shit from their minds? I'm on the right page so far, right? And you're...what, you coordinate the whole thing? Lead the mission?

NO SLOWING DOWN YORK WE ARE RIDING THIS CRAZYTRAIN

[soldad]

[ Well - oops, he does like to infodump, doesn't he? ]

Essentially. It's not quite as mystical as that makes it sound, though.

[ At the second part, he gestures with one hand. ]

Not exactly that. I'm more of a point man - I make sure things go off without a hitch, that everyone has the information they need.

EXCUSE ME SIR IS THAT A COME ON

[neverknocks]

[ York nods slowly, mulling that all over. It sounds like total bullshit at a glance, of course, but hey -- they've got some pretty advanced technology in her day, too. She supposes dream invasion isn't the weirdest thing he could've come up with. ]

All right, so if this shared dreaming thing makes you so vulnerable to this kinda thing, why would anyone do it? I mean, if somebody doesn't want you to get in their heads, I imagine it'd be kinda hard to hook 'em up to a machine that lets you do it.

NO OH GOD WASH WOULD CAT LADY ME TO DEATH

[soldad]

You get them while they're sleeping.

[ As simple as that, he makes it sound, but then shakes his head. ]

Or you sedate them, find out when they're going in for surgery and get in while that's going on. Time in dreams is distorted, so you only need a window of five or ten minutes, usually, to do what you need to do.

People know it happens, though. A lot of people make money training people's minds to resist that kind of thing. Militarizing, we call it.

SNICKERS RUDELY

[neverknocks]

[ jesus christ arthur that is some seriously criminal element there

York's eyebrows are still cocked, but she looks more interested than anything else. ]

How'd this all get started, then? Doesn't really sound like a criminal invention. 'Course, most things with great criminal applications aren't.

[ And she hesitates, but then she asks because she's totally curious: ]

I take it you've had that kinda training, too?

Re: SNICKERS RUDELY

[soldad]

[ He might not be as good as Eames at reading people, but he can tell she's at least intrigued, more than scared off. ]

Yeah, I've had that kind of training. I've taken some jobs where that was my job, a few times.

[ He takes another drink, drains his alcohol, but doesn't ask for another. ]

It wasn't. I was in the military, before it happened. They developed the program and the device as a training simulator - for soldiers to shoot, stab and kill each other in real world combat, then wake up and be able to do it again.

People came in to design courses. Then we started playing around with the dreams, discovering what you could do with them. Discovered you could make dreams within dreams, things like that.

[ He shrugs his shoulder artfully. ]

They shut the program down, and then some complications happened in my life. I ended up leaving the military. One guess as to what I ended up doing.

[neverknocks]

Gee, I wonder.

[ York sounds amused, but still -- holy shit, Arthur. She takes a second to process all that, mulling it over. It makes sense, in a weird way -- and she's heard weirder, that's for sure. This isn't all that hard to swallow. ]

So...not an accountant, then.

[soldad]

[ Arthur's usually got the bonus of a PASIV on hand when he tells this story - that, or it's someone who already suspected the device's existence. He watches York curiously. ]

No. I can fake one well enough to get hired, though.

[ He offers this with a hesitant curl of a smile. ]

[neverknocks]

[ York squints at him for a moment, peering at Arthur's face, as if she's trying to decide whether she should be mad at him for lying or not. They have known each other for a while. But eh, in the end, she decides it's not worth the effort to hold a grudge, and she likes Arthur too much, anyway. She gives him a curious look, pursing her lips. ]

So these jobs you pull, the...dream heists or whatever -- that's gotta be some pretty good money, right?

[soldad]

[ Arthur would't blame her if she wanted to hold a grudge. He didn't see the point in blowing his cover on Sacrosanct, not wanting to attract attention from Hypatia.

He nods after a moment. ]

A lot of money. It's not exactly blue collar crime we're talking about, here. It takes a lot of planning, and someone has to be willing to fund that.

[neverknocks]

[ She squints at him still, because for all it makes sense, she just never imagined Arthur as stupidly rich. And if he's as good as he says he is -- and she'll believe it -- he's gotta be rich. ]

Man, I was so born in the wrong universe.

[soldad]

[ He's not exactly rich. He saves money, but smoothing over his partner's problems - well, money paves the way, so they say, and none of the work of others comes cheap.

But he doesn't know that she's thinking that, so instead he laughs after a moment. ]

You sure? I can play around in minds, but you've got the high-tech armor.

[neverknocks]

You mean the clunky two-ton suit that I tossed in the closet the second I could get my hands on somethin' sleeker? I mean, yeah, the healing unit was pretty nice, but here's the problem with our high-tech armor -- the enhancements and all don't run half as well without an AI in there.

[ And of course, York is Delta-less. So it's not even as useful as it could be. ]

Besides, Freelancer was an experimental program. It paid okay, but it's not like most of us ever got the chance to even do anything that money. And, uh, y'know, from what I hear from my buddies in other timelines, most of us wind up dead. Your universe sounds way more fun.

[ Playing around in a dream? Come on, are you serious? Lucid dreaming. There are things York could make happen in a lucid dream that she's only...well, dreamed of. ]

[soldad]

Two-ton suit's a lot more impressive than something most laymen mistake for a teenager's science project.

[ Still, Arthur hears what she's saying, especially with the dying part. ]

Yeah, I kind of like you in the realm of the living. [ This gets a quiet scoff and a small smile. ] And I won't deny it's really fun. Being able to build what you want...

There are dangers, though, besides the obvious ones. [ Like your own mind turning against you. ] If you mess around in someone's mind too much, their mind catches on and tries to make you leave - easiest way to do that is to kill you.

But if you're careful you can avoid that.

[ He taps his fingers on the bar. ]

If I had one of the devices I'd show you how it works.

[neverknocks]

[ It sounds dangerous, sure, but that's part of what makes it sound so fun. York's eyebrows go up, and her whole face lights up with interest. ]

Man, that'd be a trip. I'd kill for an opportunity like that.

[soldad]

[ Arthur smirks. ]

Well, if I ever get a hold of a working one, I'll be the first to contact you.

[neverknocks]

Yeah? That'd really be something.

[ She laughs, though, because odds are it'll never happen. ]

Guess you must miss it, huh?

[soldad]

I kind of wanted to take a vacation for a little bit when I left, but now?

[ Arthur exhales quickly. ]

Yeah, I miss it. Miss the people I was working with, too.

[ He's silent a moment, then, ] Eames worked in the field, too.

[neverknocks]

[ Of course York remembers Eames. He wasn't exactly the forgettable type. Honestly, she wishes he'd stuck around, longer. She knows it'd been hard for Arthur, and York had taken a genuine liking to the guy in no time. But that was the cruel logic of...whatever this was. Being stranded in some other universe, never knowing when you're going to come and go.

There's sympathy in York's voice, and she sort of brushes her hand over Arthur's shoulder in a light pat, a gesture of solidarity. ]

Somehow, I'm not surprised. Come to think of it, he did seem awful amused about somethin' back then.

[soldad]

[ He looks up at the touch and then down a little, letting down a small laugh. ]

He thought my cover story wasn't any good. Business as usual. [ That Eames may not have said as much in words didn't matter, it was easy to see. ] He thought you were pretty neat.

Thanks. [ He gives her another smile, friendly. ]

[neverknocks]

[ York laughs a little, quietly, but she just shrugs. ]

I liked him, you know? It was nice havin' him around.

[ She can't say he'd be better off here, because like as not, he wouldn't, but still. York would've liked to get the chance to know him better. ]

[soldad]

He would have liked knowing that.

[ Arthur says it while looking at his shot, and then looks up and smiles again. ]

Can I have another? I think I need, and I've got the credits for it.