fic: inception

Note: Please note that a rec may not contain all information about a fic provided by the author. We recommend you read either the fanfic header and/or the author's notes concerning the fic before reading.
* denotes work added in past week

A Piece of the Plate (Got Stuck In My Heart), by jibrailis
Rating: Teen and up
Summary: Iron Chef AU. In which there are cooking competitions, ruminations on the length of Eames' penis, professional jealousy, and second chances.
Comments: Seriously, IRON CHEF AU!!! On the surface it's an Iron Chef AU, but looking deeper, it's also about the nature of life, (missed) oppurtunities and love. And that what's makes it such a good read, because it has all these beautiful nuances. It is an amazing read. And very exploratory, and very serious in nature, despite the light tone it's written in. Plus some of the most hilarious one liners ever.
this work was recced by v.

A Puppy With A Closet Full of Dunhill, by amazingly_me
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It turned out that Glee Club wasn’t so much a club as it was three people who were surgically attached to their iPods and wanted Barbra Streisand’s diva notes to make sweet, sweet love to their ears. Which was fine, because that was pretty much exactly who Ariadne was, too. Glee!AU.
Comments: Inception is strange, because the high school AUs are actually good. It's clever and funny and vaguely reminiscent of Glee, but more mature and refined in a sense. Beautifully written.
this work was recced by v.

Crime and Medicine, by eleveninches
Rating: Explicit
Summary: When a simple extraction on Cobb goes haywire, Arthur loses a friend, gains an enemy, falls in love, and finds out exactly who he is -- give or take a new alias or two. In which Fischer is incepted, Cobb's secrets are property of the U.S. government, and Eames teaches Arthur that PVPing is an excellent life skill to have when you're accidentally becoming a bad ass dreamsharing motherfucker.
Comments: This is a most wonderful AR which is founded firmly in canon yet holds so many unexpected many twists, turns and expansion on canon and lots of meta written in as details. It's both profound, yet firmly an action/adventure sort of story with a clear heist element. It's a very powerful reading experience. Well written, with some absolutely charming and hilarious RL jokes.
this work was recced by v.

Deja Fucking Déjà Vu, by weatherfront
Rating: unstated, around M
Summary: Nash is this, Nash is that, but it's far more likely that Nash is just something in between.
Comments: Superb. Wonderful writing, as weatherfront always is. And there’s just something about this story from this POV, where you learn about a story within a story, and that well crafted backstory. Nash is rarely written about in fandom as a main POV character, but this Nash feels real and not just a random bit character. This is the story which shows that a die can have more than six faces. Gorgeous meta about the world they live in. It feels so very, very real and could just slot into canon.
this work was recced by v.

Dream Demolition, by nyxmachina
Rating: unstated, around PG
Summary: Theories about dreamscape demolition (not actual summary)
Comments: This is absolutely gorgeous. Beautifully crafted meta presented as beautifullly crafted emotion and thought and dreams. Very subtle, yet very blatant.
this work was recced by v.

I bet Nureyev never had to deal with this shit, by cobweb_diamond
Rating: Teen and up
Summary: Modern-day AU. Arthur is a ballet dancer recovering from a serious injury, and is lucky enough to land the role of Oberon in Dom Cobb's reimagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Comments: Another truly awesome AU. Seriously, Inception seriously has some really good AU verses. And this one is brimming with characterization and sheer emotion (and of course, a truly good author who knew how to handle the plot and subjtle nuances behind the premise.) and you can’t help but fall in love with the characters and their relationships with each other. Again, brilliant, brilliant detailing of ballet (to my limited knowledge, at least!).
this work was recced by v.

i died so i could haunt you and counting stars on the ceiling, by evocates
Rating: PG-13
Summary: (1st) Robert falls in love with a man in a half-forgotten dream.” In which Robert tries to win Saito, fails spectacularly, and gets his man anyway. For this prompt on the kink meme. (2nd) In which Saito falls in love with Robert’s brattiness, waits for forty years, and comes back and wins him with contracts and coffee. And George Bernard Shaw quotes. The last part is important. Done for this prompt on inception_kink: Saito pursuing Robert. It is not by force but by frequency that the water hollows the stone.
Comments: These stories are not part of the same verse, but it made sense to link them together because in a sense, they are utter contrasts yet exactly the same. It’s a fairly unusual pair in Inception, but the way evocates writes them really makes you want to thin. Of what he feels in 'i died' and why, and what Saito did in 'counting stars' and the extent of their actions as related to their emotions. Because truthfully, the premises of both stories are somewhat disturbing when you look deeply into it, but she handles it so very well. They are both stories about wooing, albeight unconventional. Well worth a read.
this work was recced by v.

In Our Line of Work by enjambament
Rating: PG-13/R
Summary: Arthur wakes up and realizes the last ten years of his life have been a dream. He is nineteen, and he can barely remember where he is. What he can remember is the ghost of Eames’ hands pressed down on his chest trying frantically to stop the blood flooding up around his fingers as Arthur died (as he woke up).
Comments: OH WOW. Absolutely powerful and amazing and the best AR fic I have ever read. It explains the alternate reality so very well and links such powerful emotions and beautiful characterization to a punching plot. I can't explain the storyline, but it is literally like a dream within reality. With A++ backstory. The premise is powerful and ties into a powerful storyline. And so incredibly well nuanced.
this work was recced by v.

Plate Tectonics, by indysaur
Rating: PG
Summary: Arthur is forced to move in with Eames. The world moves.
Comments: This story is one of those very beautiful ones about the evolution of a relationship. And about how things in your life shift your whole world view and whole life, like plate tectonics. It's such a graceful and flawless transition that you didn't quite realize things had changed but yes they had. It's very profound and lovely.
this work was recced by v.

Presque Vu, by rageprufrock
Rating: Mature
Summary: Or, "on the tip of the tongue." Arthur meets Mal first. He inherits Dom, after. Everything else is on him.
Comments: It might be strange to call a 70k fic a one shot, but this is what it is. There really is no other way to read it. Absolutely gorgeous, and literally one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. There is such beautifully rich characterization and a such in canon plot, it's amazing. And the IMAGERY. THE EMOTION. It's a fic where you will laugh and cry and smile and feel anguished, all in one go. You will hate and love and everything in between. It is absolutely powerful.
this work was recced by v.

Steinway!Verse, by toomuchplor
Rating: Explicit
Summary: The alternate universe where Arthur's a pianist and Eames is a lyric baritone and their love is so lieder, omg. Blame Lately for this whole thing. *waves hand over assorted fics*
Comments: There are over ten fics in this verse, but I know a lot of the verse is not very plotful, so to speak. The ones over 10k are beautifully written, full of explosive and emotive plot. It is a rich and absolutely beautiful AU, and one of the most real feeling I have ever read. And musicians! They author clearly knows what she is talking about, and the use of great background details has always appealed to me.
this work was recced by v.


The Breeze You Carry With You, by anon
Rating: PG
Summary: Unaware projections in love (not official summary)
Comments: GORGEOUS. IT IS THE POWER OF THE DRABBLE. Seriously, this is everything a drabble should aspire to be. It’s very short, but manages to capture so much in so little. And so much emotion and expression in the way it is written. It is highly elegant writing.
this work was recced by v.

The Wrath of The Whatever From High Atop The Thing, by amazingly_me
Rating: PG-13
Summary: “Pictures of Dom tonight, Eames,” Yusuf replies from the doorway, “or I swear to you, I will point out to Arthur that he has a stalker with no shame and a thousand dollar camera.” From celebutaunt's prompt at the kink meme, "Cobb is the presidential candidate, Ariadne is his running mate, Yusuf is campaign manager, Saito is the sponsor, and Eames is the campaign photographer who spends way too much time taking picture of Cobb's speechwriter, Arthur."
Comments: A brilliant, brilliant political AU. Behind the romance are wonderful glimpses of the political landscape and the human condition, the way of the sheeple as well as the power of the media. Snappy dialogue, lovely writing.
this work was recced by v.

We Used to Wait, by chibi_lurrel
Rating: R/NC-17
Summary: The first time Dominick Cobb meets Arthur, he is 22 and the boy is 14. The last time Eames meets him, he is 34 and Arthur is 29.
Comments: THIS IS EPIC, WONDERFUL SCI-FI. It’s from inception_bang, which was SO GOOD (and ate up my time), and also by chibi_lurrel, who hasn’t written something I haven’t liked. It’s like an AU and AR at the same time, but mostly an AR. It has gorgeous imagery and it fits perfectly into canon, like a puzzle piece. Characterization is A+ and the plot is one beyond imagination. Background details beyond imagination. Also has wonderful art, because it’s a bigbang fic, and they always have art. This is the first fic I ever read from inceptiondaily (you didn’t need to know that).
this work was recced by v.

Weltschmertz, by cobweb_diamond
Rating: Mature
Summary: How to come to terms with the unsatisfactory nature of physical reality.Warnings:  This fic is intended to be as canon-compliant as humanly possible, but portrays Arthur as female-to-male (post-transition). I guess this may not be a concept that works for everyone. (warnings copied off author on LJ. Highlight to read, because it spoils the story. And honestly, I think it’s nicer to read the story without the warnings because there’s realizations and stuff you get from the story- a newer perspective. It’s not past M rated, but if you like to know the general idea of a story, read the warning.)
Comments: Sometimes there are stories written about very unconventional parts of the human condition that make it the absolute centre of the story. This is not one of them. It explores one aspect of a person (in this case, Arthur) and how it’s a big aspect of his life, but not what his life is built around, which is what many stories do (and it’s such a shame that they do because you don’t have to write about a topic to write about it. If that makes sense). And it’s done amazingly well- very sensitively and maturely.
this work was recced by v.

Wherever You Will Be (That's Where I'll Call Home) [The DomesticVerse], by gyzym
Rating: From Teen to Explicit
Summary: No author summary of the main verse, but it’s basically a post-Inception Arthur and Eames story.
Comments: Eight fics, about 75K in total. Absolutely, absolutely gorgeous. Still incomplete verse, but it’s enough to keep you satisfied forever, seriously. It's one of those rare, well written stories which chronicle various little parts (and some big parts) of a relationship which you might not consider important, but actually are. It's about ordinary life, and how it can be so extraordinary in all the ways you don't consider. I actually read the sixth one first, and it was one of the first fics I ever read in Inception fandom. I think the order you read them in isn't particularly important, but the middle ones are much more impactful.
this work was recced by v.

Crossover fic for Inception

Skybird, by cradle_song, a crossover with White Collar
Rating: PG-13
Summary: From this lovely prompt: Arthur and Eames adopt a kid and raise that kid into Neal Caffrey.There are three arcs in the Skybird universe (the title of which is quite unimaginatively and very shamelessly taken from this song). Spoilers for Inception, and written with up to 2.9 of White Collar having aired. Total wordcount around 34k.
Comments: Even if you haven’t watched White Collar (you definitely need Inception though), you don’t need to. This is pretty much a classic, clever crossover- a flawless infusion of two fandoms and so effortlessly done. A lot of thought into characterization and backstory. Very emotive and good, too. Very good characterization on the Inception part, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into making this crossover work.
this work was recced by v.