Inception - Ace Job

Hunter subconsciously pulled at the collar of his shirt as John raised an eyebrow. The last thing he needed was an unwanted hickey on display.

But the sudden question, delivered in a painfully serious tone, threw him for a complete loop. His disgruntled, irritable persona flew out the window in a rush of embarrassment and annoyance.

He was spared the need to answer, though that didn't make him feel any better. It wouldn't matter anyway. No doubt John's only standard when it came to women was "hot or not hot."

Sighing, Hunter took the keys from John's hand and led the way out to the Aston Martin, past a young man vomiting on the front lawn.

"Guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?" he murmured to himself as John clambered into the passenger seat and closed the door. Hunter paused for a moment, staring at the frat house as the party continued on without a care in the world.

Well, it wasn't a complete loss. As he slid into the driver's seat and started the car, Hunter cast a glance at John and almost managed a smile. Research accomplished.

Two days later...

"Right then gents." Trevor clapped his hands together as he took his seat in the home theatre. "Let's get this show on the road. Hunter, if you'll be so kind as to prepare the dream space, mate, I'll be the Subject for our trial runs. John'll monitor the machine until we're under, and then he'll join us inside."

As if summoned by Trevor's words, John stepped into the room and flipped over the chair in the middle of the front row, revealing the PASIV machine underneath it. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you're ready for the experience of a lifetime, you've come to the right place." He quipped cheerily. "Please place your right arm on the chair arm, palm down, and brace yourself for a slight stick."

He waited a moment for both Trevor and Hunter to comply before flipping two of the switches on the machine. A cuff extended from the chair arms where their wrists rested, encircling their arm and connecting the PASIV machine from below. "Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, and enjoy your ride."

John punched the button in the middle of the machine and watched as the two of them slipped into unconsciousness. He twisted a dial, tweaking the flow from the machine a bit and then pressed a third switch. The chair to his left beeped, and John sat down in it, placing his wrist on the arm so the cuff could encircle it and drop him into the dream space as well.

To Hunter's great relief, two days passed by with pleasant efficiency. The inspiration for the first layer had flowed quite naturally the following day - after all, the atmosphere of that frat house had already made him feel like he was in a maze.

Designing the level up on his computer had been fairly effortless, and bringing it into creation on a scale model had come along without much trouble.

When Trevor had entered that morning, Hunter felt ready. Time to show them what he was capable of.

"Putting my safety in John's hands. There's a switch," he quipped under his breath, taking a seat and bracing himself for the sharp pinch of the PASIV before reality sank in darkness.

--------------------

Trevor's subconscious seemed relatively tame. The projections were partying, though on a much more sober level than the party he'd suffered through.

Hunter waited for John to appear beside them, then prepared to explain the dream space.

"The downstairs level is fairly straightforward," he said, indicating the layout. "I put the stairs off to the side for a more open layout so John wouldn't have much trouble spotting the Mark when he enters."

Hunter waved them to follow and climbed the stairs to the next floor, where he paused at the top.

"Here's where things get interesting," he said, smiling. "The top floor is composed of two concentric squares, with the hallway sandwiched between then."

Motioning them forward, he paused beside a mirror halfway down the hall and indicated subtle lines on the wall.

"These walls all pivot out from a command post in the bedroom. Each corridor has a wall that can extend, turning the upstairs into a labyrinth John can manipulate to herd the projections about in case they get rowdy. With any luck, they shouldn't get near us."

He led them around to the back corner of the second floor, 180 degrees from the stairs, and opened the door to lead them into the main bedroom.

"And our piece de resistance," Hunter said, showing them the room. "I took the liberty of stocking some... items, for your seductive needs."

He jerked a thumb toward the nightstand by the bed, innocently pretending he was busy consulting a notepad of the details from the floor and not watching as John and Trevor explored the inside.

[OOC: There's a few more details to add, but I wanted to give you a chance to respond first.]

"I'm not concerned with spotting the Mark." John said as he appeared beside Hunter. "The important part is when the Mark sees me. This layout will work equally well for that though." He continued, nodding for the other man to continue.

As they were lead upstairs, Trevor's eyes scanned over the different elements Hunter mentioned, and he grinned at the revolving hallways. "Now that's properly devious, that is." He said, ribbing John with his elbow. "Can you imagine getting lost in a frat house?"

John coughed to hide a smile. "Yeah, actually, I think I can."

The two fell silent again until they reached the bedroom, where Trevor let out a low whistle and slowly turned in a circle. John, in contrast, took a moment to see what Hunter had placed on the nightstand.

"The S&M toys," John began, picking up a gag. "Are your projection of my preferences, yes? The fact that you would put them right beside the bed indicates a subconscious urge to please." He sat the gag back on the nightstand. "I bet the women you take to bed are lax to leave it afterwards."

His fingers moved slowly over the other items on the table. "No condoms. You didn't think of them. So, I would assume you're more interested in lasting relationships where they're often forgotten." Without pause, John turned to the closet, and after opening it, he reached all the way to the hanger in the back, retrieving what was there. "Fish nets and rabbit ears. Now that's an interesting twist. The subconscious is usually unable to completely dismiss personal preferences. So, instead, it jams them all the way at the back of the forefront." He turned to Hunter with a questioning look, fish net stockings still handing from his finger.

If it were possible for Hunter's eyes to get any bigger, they'd be liable to pop right out of the sockets. Where was he getting all this information?

"How... what..." Hunter stammered, his face so hot he could probably have cooked on it. No. Bad idea. Letting John talk anymore was a bad idea.

"The... uh... closet," he said, trying to get back on track as he brushed past John, "has monitor to view each of the corridors outside. Should make it easy to manipulate the layout."

What else? What else? Keep it together.

"Chairs! Yes, the chairs," the Architect continued, pointing to them. "You can give us a kick if the projections start getting too close. I've also added an escape hatch in the close up to the attic."

That seemed to be it. Hunter looked around, avoiding the gaze of the other two until he was sure he had nothing else to come up with.

"Uh, so, any questions?" he prompted, daring to finally look them in the eyes.

(OOC: The dream layout is shown below. The red line on the bottom left is to the stairs. The green dots around the outside are the extendable walls. The red lines around the inside are doorways into decoy rooms you can herd the projections through. The red line in the top right is the doorway to the bedroom for the operation. The blue stuff just represents solid wall behind it. Hopefully it's not too confusing. Let me know.

Spoiler:

Trevor just shook his head and grinned at the look on Hunter's face. "Don't let him get to ya. John's always playin a game of cat and mouse with someone."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." John quipped back as he threw the fish net stockings onto the bed and stepped back to the closet to observe the monitors. "This isn't a game. I'm just gleaning information about my associates that I can later use to improve our operational efficiency."

"I think ya just don't know how to mind ya own business." Trevor responded.

"It's a right nice design, gov." Trevor continued, turning to Hunter.

John moved away from the monitors and slowly traveled the length of one wall, running his fingers across it. "Can I get a bathroom right here?" He asked, tapping a spot about midway down the wall. "And put a laundry shoot in it that connects to the broom closet under the stairs, something big enough that any of us could slide down it or be pulled up through it with a rope."

"That's not a bad idea." Trevor chimed in. "Gives us a more direct route to here if we can't make it to the room through the projections."

(OOC: Yeah, the map makes sense.)

Hunter smiled at Trevor's praise, glad to see that they appreciated the fruits of his labor.

Unsurprisingly, John had no such compliments to give, but his suggestions were good ones.

"Right, I'll add those in," he said, making a note of it. "Anything else, or do we think we're good?"

Despite feeling rather proud of the layout, Hunter didn't feel particularly keen on remaining in the frat house - dream or no - and was already imagining getting back to the real world.

"Oh, yes, one more thing," the Architect remembered, indicating a picture on the wall. "I added a safe there as a backup. Even if he catches on, his subconscious should seek to hide the idea in the safest spot. Then all we'll have to do is coerce him into giving us the combination."

That seemed to cover it all. Nodding satisfactorily, Hunter looked to Trevor to await the verdict, already planning out some ideas for the scape of the second level.

"A safe ah?" Trevor asked, pulling the picture aside to look at it. "Prolly unnecessary, but I suppose it can't hurt." He said as he slid the picture back over it.

"Right then, how about we see that 'come to bed' play, John?" He turned to the other man, who was once more watching the monitors in the closet. "I don't rightly think I've ever seen you do try it, and I need to be sure you can pull it off."

John turned back towards the two of them with a grin. "That can be arranged. How about you two head back downstairs for a drink, and I'll join you in a minute. I want to make sure I've got all the ins and outs of these sliding walls so I can recreate them."

"Take your time gov. Hunter and I can go grab a pint and talk about the second layer while we wait."

Trevor motioned for Hunter to step back into the hall, and then followed behind him to the stairs. "So, has John been able to get you the blueprints for the floor of Ace's offices where the presentation room is yet?" He asked as they made their way down the stairs.

Hunter spared a smirk at the suggestion of John practicing his feminine wiles.

"That should be interesting," he thought amusedly as he followed Trevor out toward the downstairs.

"Yeah, he got me the blueprints in this morning," Hunter explained as they made their way down. "I had a chance to glance over them. Should be easy enough to recreate, then maybe add a floor above and below with some staircases to form a closed loop."

Trevor went to grab some drinks, but when he returned, Hunter was already holding a bottle of what smelled to be some strong alcohol.

"John does have a few handy tricks," he said with a smile, taking a sip of the Pellegrino water.

"A closed loop isn't a bad way ta go. Just gotta be sure the Mark doesn't decide ta go mountain climbin." Trevor said as he left to collect a drink.

After a minute or two, he returned with a couple beers in hand, but Hunter seemed to have found his own drink somewhere. With a shrug, Trevor sat one of the beers down on the table next to them and sat down on the couch in the middle of the room. "He does have that. John is somewhat of an enigma. Wouldn't work with him if he wasn't." He fell silent for a minute, taking a few sips of his beer and looking over the people in the room.

"Funny isn't it?" Trevor asked, waving his beer bottle towards the crowd around them, which was in the middle of some form of club dance. "The subconscious creates all these projections of what ya expect to see where you're at, but for some reason, it never creates the people you really wanna see." He pointed the base of his beer towards a girl by the door. "Take that one for instance. Totally not my type, and yet there she is, in my subconscious, cause this is the type of scene where she'd be." He went silent again, taking another sip of beer. "Might be she's someone I've met before, or she could be a combination of traits from several women I've seen."

"That's some crazy theory." A feminine voice drifted from behind Hunter. When he turned to see who had joined the conversation, he would be greeted by a brunette of medium height. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail that fell to just between her shoulders, and she wore a navy hoodie that showed off her good form. Most wouldn't consider her beautiful, but she was in good physical shape, probably from a healthy exercise regimen, and something about her felt familiar, almost like she was the girl that had lived next door since you were a kid.

"Does your friend always make up these crazy theories when he's drunk?" She asked Hunter, turning her big brown eyes in his direction.

Hunter nodded at Trevor's words, peering into the crowd. It was still difficult after all this time to wrap his mind around the intricacies of the human subconscious.

He was snapped out of his musings, however, by the sound of an unexpected voice behind him. He turned around to look - or stare, perhaps more accurately - at an incredibly attractive brunette, her warm brown eyes piercing directly into his own.

For a moment, Hunter was unable to speak. Then, he slowly leaned in toward Trevor, keeping his eyes fixed on the girl.

"I think your subconscious is hitting on me," the Architect whispered, feeling a warm flush begin to creep up his neck. "Should I be concerned?"

The woman's gaze hardened at Hunter's words, and a slight frown crept into her features.

"If'n my subconscious was hitting on you, gov, you'd have a few cracked ribs by now." Trevor quipped back in response before taking another sip of his beer.

"And here I thought women were the ones that wanted to dream a little..." The brunette said, glaring at Trevor and then at Hunter before turning away and stalking across the room.

"Now you've done it, gov." Trevor said, sitting his bottle on the table. The sound echoed in the now quiet room, and every eye was turned in Hunter's direction. "You pissed her off I think, and if you want my subconscious to play nice while we have John do his thing in a bit, you might want to go appease her. My subconscious can be a real pain in the arse when it's pissed off."

Hunter might have been tempted to roll his eyes at Trevor had the entire, silent room not been staring at him. The last thing he wanted right now was to be shanked by an angry mob of projections, so he grimaced and stood up, heading toward the girl.

"Uh, hey," he said, touching her lightly on the arm. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything."

For one moment, all eyes were locked in deathly silence on him. Then, as if by some unspoken agreement, they all turned and went back to what they were doing as if nothing had happened.

"Dodged that bullet," Hunter thought, sighing inwardly. "Or knife. Or blunt object."

"So..." he tried to begin, struggling with the idea of conversing with a projection of someone's subconscious as though it were a real person.

Well, it looked like a real person. And it acted like a real person.

Suspend the disbelief. Go along with it.

"Is this your usual scene?" Hunter decided to go with. "It's okay once in a while, I guess, but I prefer something a bit more mellow."

The woman tensed when Hunter touched her arm, and she stopped short, causing him to run into her back. Her ponytail whipped across his chin as she turned to face him, not backing down in the least. For several seconds, she stood there, her brows narrowed in irritation as she glared into his eyes, but then her face softened a little.

"It's alright. We all say stupid shit sometimes when we're buzzed." She said, finally taking that step back to give him room to breathe. "And no, this isn't my usual scene. The roommate got hosed at the last one of these she attended and missed the entire next day of classes. So, I'm here to keep her out of trouble this time."

"I actually prefer the library." She said, her smile returning. "Or the soccer field."

The line was definitely beginning to blur. Hunter had almost entirely forgotten that this wasn't real, that this girl was just a figment of someone's subconscious.

But that didn't seem to matter because her smile was beautiful and completely infectious, and his own mouth was working into one of its own free will.

"Really?" he replied, acutely aware that his hand was still on her arm. "I actually played soccer in high school. What position do you play?"

It could have been his imagination, but she might have shifted closer. Or was he the one shifting closer? It was hard to keep track of distance when those deep brown eyes were pulling him in.

Her eyes went wide for a moment, and she bit her lower lip, her nose flaring with the effort to hold something back. Then, like a damn breaking, laughter spilled from her lips and her hands went to Hunter's shoulders to keep herself from falling forward. Her head rested against his chest for a moment while she shook, and when she looked up, she took one hand away to wipe her eyes.

"Sorry." She said, still giggling a little. "When you said that, it occurred to me that the proper response for a party like this is something along the lines of 'I could play any position with you tonight', but the mental image of me actually saying that was too weird." She took her other hand away from his shoulder, still grinning. "To answer your question, I'm an attacking midfielder."

It felt like time stopped suddenly as the girl suddenly pitched into him, resting her head against him as she laughed. Hunter desperately hoped she wouldn't feel how hard his heart was hammering at the moment.

"Yeah, I guess it would be," he said, his voice a bit shaky as he smiled at her.

She was still standing close. Very close.

It could be preemptive. He could be misreading the signs. But what did he have to lose?

Hunter's lips were on hers before he'd even fully decided if he should. But he couldn't deny that it felt good - right, in fact. He rarely let himself get out, meet, give himself another shot since...

The Architect pulled away after a few moments, biting his lip anxiously.

"I hope I didn't get ahead of myself," he said breathlessly, opening his eyes reluctantly to see if he'd done right or utterly bombed.

"Actually, I think you might have gotten quite a bit ahead of yourself there, gov." Trevor's voice carried over Hunter's shoulder, drawing the Architect's attention to the man standing behind him. "Most gents would at least ask the lady her name first."

As Hunter turned back to the woman to do just that, he would find a completely different person standing in close proximity to him. "It's John, in case you were wondering, babe." John quipped, giving Hunter a wink before taking a step back.

"And you," He continued, now talking to Trevor. "Owe me two hundred dollars. He totally went for it."

"Damned if he didn't." Trevor responded, looking slightly put-out. "I thought he'd see through it, but you win this one, mate."

Hunter looked as though he had been hit on the head with a hammer. Dazed, confused, dismayed... all giving way to utter horror and disgust.

"Oh my god," he gasped, staggering back, looking as though he might gag. "Son of a..."

The Architect sank into the nearest chair, painfully aware of John and Trevor's laughter and banter. The disgust melded into a stinging embarrassment - no, complete mortification - before giving way into something even worse.

Stupid, so stupid. How could he have fallen for that? He should have known better than to think it would be that easy, that someone so amazing would just waltz into his life again.

Hunter felt sick to his stomach, but he forced a weak smile onto his face to hold it together.

"Yeah, you got me good," he muttered.

--------------------

Merciful reality swept back in, and Hunter was already pulling the needle out before his surroundings had really asserted themselves. Staggering slightly, he made his way over to his work station and grabbed his bag, hastily stuffing the reports John had acquired on Ace's building and his laptop.

"Well, I think I'm going to get something to eat and then work on the second layout back at the hotel," he said quickly, not looking back at the other two men. "I'll show you what I have tomorrow."

With that, the Architect briskly made his way out, looking for fresh air, or maybe a deep, dark hole to crawl into.

The following afternoon...

"He's late." Trevor mused as he typed away on his laptop.

"His reaction to the injection of reality yesterday was abnormal. Facial features indicated a level of disturbance beyond simple surprise and embarrassment. They most closely resembled disgust, but it wasn't directed at me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have averted his eyes." John responded from where he leaned against the wall of the loft, looking out the window.

"You just saying that cause you can't accept that anyone would be unwilling to kiss ya, mate?" Trevor responded, actually looking up from his work this time.

"No." John said, looking thoughtful. "There's some kind of subconscious trauma there."

Trevor frowned at that. "Will it have an effect on the job?"

John shook his head. "First instinct is that it won't, but I'll be able to tell after today..."

Facing them would be painful; not facing them would be worse.

And so the door to the warehouse opened and Hunter entered, striding briskly to his work station.

"Afternoon," he said, not looking at either of them as he removed his things from his bag. "Got a lot done on the second level, though I'll need to test it out three-dimensionally to make sure it all flows properly."

It was all business today, it seemed. He immediately started at his tools, cutting and drawing lines to build out his model.

"I'm sure it will be all set to go tomorrow," he added, still bent over his work.

As Hunter laid down his things, back turned to the other men, Trevor and John exchanged a quick glance. John frowned and shrugged. Trevor nodded towards Hunter, but John shook his head and pointed back at the Extractor, who grimaced, raising a finger to point at himself. John nodded in silent approval before stepping over to the bar and sitting down his empty glass.

"Sounds like I've got some free time then." John said, making his way towards the door. "Call me when we're ready for a trial run."

The soft click of the door closing behind him was barely audible over the sound of Hunter sifting through papers and scribbling down outline notes, but only a moment later, Trevor's phone rang. With a sigh, he picked it up and answered. "Bash."

"Definitely trauma there." John's voice came across the line. "He avoided any eye contact with either of us, but when he turned to work, his back was specifically towards me. That means you're the one that's gonna have to bring it up if you want answers."

"Bloody Hell..." Trevor groaned. "That's not in my job description."

"Yeah, well, if you want answers, it is today. He has to be willing to acknowledge our existence to get this job done, and right now, he's not doing that. So, do something and deal with it, boss man." John quipped back. "I've got some surveillance to setup. It was on my agenda for later this evening anyway, but you'll make more progress if I'm not there right now." He finished, hanging up.

Trevor listened to the beep and then pulled the phone away from his ear, glaring at it in disgust. "Bloody Americans..." He growled, stuffing it into his coat pocket. "I knew there was a reason it took me so long to leave Europe..."

He opened a new email, turned on his laptop's camera, and sent John a photo of him flipping it off before closing the laptop and sitting it on the coffee table.

"Sorry about that, gov." Trevor said as he moved across the room to where Hunter was working. "Some of the people I do business with can't clean up their own messes."

"So, this is the layout then?" He asked, sliding one of the papers on the desk at an angle so the he could see it better. "What are you putting on the floors above and below? Just cubicle space?"

Hunter nodded vaguely at Trevor's excuse, not really listening to his words. When the Extractor started to examine his work, he sighed to himself and reluctantly turned to see what Trevor was looking at.

"Hardly," the Architect said, pointing out the odd designs and symbols in the rooms off the corridors above and below the conference room.

"Each room has a different trick we can use to deal with any aggressive projections," he continued, indicating a few of them. "This one has a maze to lose them in. Over here we have a room with no floor, except a small ledge on the side of the doorway, so any pursuing projections plunge off the end."

He tapped a pencil over the stairs on the end of each floor to give a brief layout.

"Left stairs function normally on each floor. Right stairs are a bit different. Top right stairs loop to the bottom. Middle right stairs are penrose stairs. Bottom left stairs loop to the top."

Hunter sighed and sat down, taking a moment to rub his eyes. He'd spent the rest of the day yesterday and a large chunk of the night formulating the whole layout.

"Anyway, we'll see how well it works in practice once I get this up," the Architect finished, grabbing the rapidly cooling coffee on the side of his desk and taking a sip.

Trevor's gaze moved across the different plans as Hunter described the ins and outs of his layout. "The stairs might be a bit complex. I'll have to take a closer look at them me-self to know for sure."

He pulled one of the papers closer and tapped the center of it. "Where does the pitfall go? It's on the bottom floor of the dream. So, there shouldn't be anything below it to fall into." Trevor said, sounding slightly uncomfortable. "Does that mean anything that falls into it just drops into limbo?"

Hunter raised a brow at Trevor's statement before going back to his work.

"Yes, that would be the idea," he said flatly. "The more complicated, the better chance we have at staying one step ahead of the game."

But when Trevor mentioned the pitfall, the Architect paused to consider the layout. Brow furrowed, he gazed at it a few moments before shrugging.

"I suppose it will. I hadn't really considered it," he admitted. "There's no need to use it or every trap in the layout though. With any luck, they won't be needed."

Yes, if all went according to plan, they should be in and out before the Mark's subconscious began to target them as anomalies.