Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: Skin Deep
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Categories: AU, drama, hurt/comfort, pre-canon
Length: Long (16,613 words)
Warnings: author rated as Mature, though there's a sex scene that may warrant an Explicit/NC-17 rating, references to (canon) suicide, brief violence

Author on LJ: starlingthefool
Website: Starlingthefool / The Index of Doom

Summary:
A story that starts with a spiral (Fibonacci), ends with a fire (arson), and is stained with ink and blood (tattoos) in the middle.
(In other words, a tattoo shop AU that totally took on a mind of its own.)

Review:
This is one of my favorite Inception fics! It's such an enjoyable, intelligent story, starting out completely AU with Eames as a tattoo artist in San Francisco, Ariadne as his apprentice, and Arthur as his occasional client. I love the tattoos Arthur gets and the conversations they have about them. The story unfolds like origami, adding layers of complexity and characterization, with threads of hurt/comfort and hot sex, a bit of organized crime violence, and a happy ending. As the story goes along, it dove-tails beautifully into canon compliance; I can totally imagine this as the characters back-stories.

Skin Deep
Originally posted in inception_kink here
Also available as a podfic read by anatsuno.

Title: In Our Line of Work
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, (Cobb/Mal)
Categories: action/adventure, angst, drama, post-canon
Length: Long (15,713 words)
Warnings: OC character death, though despite appearances, this fic does not contain major character death

Author on LJ: linckia_blue (formerly known as enjambament)
Website: Masterlist of Fic; linckia blue

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).

Review:
Upon waking to realize that he lived ten years in one day, with no idea if anyone else in his dream was real, Arthur escapes from the military and tries to figure out what to do with himself. Mentally twenty-nine, but actually nineteen, he has to work his way back into the extraction business, tracking down leads to find out if the people he cared about were real and what happened to them, particularly Eames.

In Our Line of Work is a brilliant exploration of the possibilities of the Inception universe and a clever take on the idea of Mal being right. It's a gripping thriller, with action and suspense, drama and romance, with fun cameos by Ariadne, Cobb and Mal. But it's really Arthur's story, with little hints of Eames throughout.

In Our Line of Work (AO3), (LJ part 1, part 2)
Also available as a podfic read by podcath & crinklysolution.

[ETA: included AO3 links]

Title: In Our Line of Work
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, (Cobb/Mal)
Categories: action/adventure, angst, drama, post-canon
Length: Long (15,713 words)
Warnings: OC character death, though despite appearances, this fic does not contain major character death

Author on LJ: linckia_blue (formerly known as enjambament)
Website: Masterlist of Fic; linckia blue

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).

Review:
Upon waking to realize that he lived ten years in one day, with no idea if anyone else in his dream was real, Arthur escapes from the military and tries to figure out what to do with himself. Mentally twenty-nine, but actually nineteen, he has to work his way back into the extraction business, tracking down leads to find out if the people he cared about were real and what happened to them, particularly Eames.

In Our Line of Work is a brilliant exploration of the possibilities of the Inception universe and a clever take on the idea of Mal being right. It's a gripping thriller, with action and suspense, drama and romance, with fun cameos by Ariadne, Cobb and Mal. But it's really Arthur's story, with little hints of Eames throughout.

In Our Line of Work (AO3), (LJ part 1, part 2)
Also available as a podfic read by podcath & crinklysolution.

[ETA: included AO3 links]

Title: In Our Line of Work
Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, (Cobb/Mal)
Categories: action/adventure, angst, drama, post-canon
Length: Long (15,713 words)
Warnings: OC character death, though despite appearances, this fic does not contain major character death

Author on LJ: linckia_blue (formerly known as enjambament)
Website: Masterlist of Fic; linckia blue

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).

Review:
Upon waking to realize that he lived ten years in one day, with no idea if anyone else in his dream was real, Arthur escapes from the military and tries to figure out what to do with himself. Mentally twenty-nine, but actually nineteen, he has to work his way back into the extraction business, tracking down leads to find out if the people he cared about were real and what happened to them, particularly Eames.

In Our Line of Work is a brilliant exploration of the possibilities of the Inception universe and a clever take on the idea of Mal being right. It's a gripping thriller, with action and suspense, drama and romance, with fun cameos by Ariadne, Cobb and Mal. But it's really Arthur's story, with little hints of Eames throughout.

In Our Line of Work (AO3), (LJ part 1, part 2)
Also available as a podfic read by podcath & crinklysolution.

[ETA: included AO3 links]