Title: Safely Insane

Word Count: 248

Rating: PG

Characters: Ariadne

Prompt: "Inception, any, reality becomes pale and flat for them, dreaming is the only relief, what is it to grasp something in your hand and forget that it is not real? what is it to forget that you are real?" by kryptic_pear at LJ's comment_fic

Summary: Reality had lost interest for her; dreams were the only relief.

AN: Title and quote from William Dement.

"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."

Despite how horrifying all the events surround Inception were, it still couldn't drive Ariadne away. Reality had lost interest for her now. Why stand there and see what was "real" and dull when she could dream and create whatever she wished?

She stole a PASIV device and began to use it unsupervised, in every spare moment.

The dreams became her reality. She recreated the places she had always wanted to visit - Tokyo, New York, the Pyramids. Touching them was as real as anything, the rough grain beneath her fingers, soft grass, seeing the sky, smelling life.

Part of her knew it was wrong. This wasn't truly real. She was losing herself to a fantasy life. She began to live for those times when she would lie down in her room, plug the sedative drip into her arm, and fall into whatever new and exciting world she had created. Sometimes she forgot entirely that she was dreaming, that the things she touched were not real. It was making her sick, twisting her up inside, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Ariadne knew she could get help. Talk to someone, maybe a therapist. But they would take the dreams away, she knew. She would be back to the faded fantasies of normal sleep, trapped in a dead world. And she wouldn't go back to that.

She was headed down a dangerous road, toward madness and heartbreak, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. She didn't truly want to.