Art: Stay, thou art so beautiful [Inception]

[motetus]

Art for inception_bang Round 3! I had the huge pleasure of working again with bauble, who has been an utterly brilliant person to collaborate with, and who has written an amazing, beautifully dark story that is full of everything I love. I'm hugely grateful to her for all her ideas (so many ideas! I could have happily kept drawing for another 3 months!), encouragement, critical eye, and gentle prodding until I drew a sex scene (which I ended up thoroughly enjoying!). :D I really couldn't have asked for a better partner.

Fic: Stay, thou art so beautiful
Author: bauble

Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Rating for art: R, NSFW
Warnings for art (highlight): slight violence, major character death (nothing graphic)

Illustrations contain some spoilers for the story, so read that first!



#1

"A demon can live in the shadow of a machine as easily as he lives in the shadow of a candle—as long as shadows exist in men's hearts, so shall they."

#2

The grass Eames is lying upon forms a soft mat beneath his back, and there's the telltale crackle of fallen leaves when he shifts. He opens his eyes to a forest of birch trees all around him, slender white trunks giving way to a canopy of autumn leaves above, ablaze in red and orange and yellow. The air tastes crisp, with the slightest hint of chemical tar burning down the back of his nostrils, his throat—a side-effect of Somnacin that chemists haven't been yet been able to erase.

#3

The man in the mirror changes once more, Eames' face morphing into features that are sharper and leaner, hair forming shapes that seem almost to project outwards like horns. There's something beautiful about what stares back at Eames, something inhuman as well.

The man—the creature—puts a hand over the print Eames left on the other side of the glass and says in a voice that seems to vibrate the very marrow of Eames' bones, "This is not a thing I can teach behind walls."

#4

"Eames," the creature says. When Eames whirls around, he sees not a creature but a suit-clad man, lean of build and youthful. His eyes glow, as if a golden light flickers behind them. "It is so good to see you."

#5

Eames doesn't know who leans forward first, but it seems so easy, so simple to fall into the man's embrace, to close his eyes as fingers sear his skin and lips enkindle something inside Eames, a passion he has been waiting his whole life to pursue.

#6

"Everything's fine up there but not down here, which is why I came," Arthur says. "Now go to the vault. You need both Indira's key and the manager's key to open the lockbox anyway. I'll distract the mark."

"How—" Eames starts, but Arthur shoves him away with a muttered, go.

#7

He loses Arthur to the crowd, briefly, but rediscovers him a short while later in deep contemplation of a large sculpture made up of metal strips which form a cage around a silvery sphere. "The Apple of My Eye" is the rather cryptic title on the sign.

#8

Eames has grown so hard it hurts. He drags Arthur closer to him, seeking as much skin to skin contact as possible. Arthur seems to mirror his desperation, fingers combing through Eames' hair, cradling the back of his neck.

Arthur pulls away from Eames' mouth and stares down at him, dark and intense. "Do you want to come?"

#9

Eames hums around Arthur's cock, feeling it twitch gratifyingly in his mouth. His lip hurts, still tender and sore where it split, but it's no matter, no matter at all. Arthur caresses Eames' cheek, watching him with heavy-lidded eyes, and smiles.

"I can give you anything you want, Eames. All you have to do is ask."

#10

It may be necessary to begin anew, Arthur realizes with a pang of regret. A shame, for he has grown fond of this body, this face and name. Still, this is probably for the best; a new identity will allow for the formation of fresh relationships, untainted by any memories from the past.

He spares a moment to kneel on the bed beside Eames, stroke the curve of his jaw. He is beautiful in repose, his little dove. A pity that wings are so easily broken.

Headers and divider:












Notes:

• As a lot of the story is set before the events in Inception, Eames is supposed to look a bit younger in much of these.
• The setting in #7 is meant to be the Tate Modern, with a number of artistic liberties taken.
• The painting in #9 is based on Taheya Halim's Solomon and the Hoopoe. The scene is a hotel room in Cairo, hence the slightly Egyptian-looking decor.
• The pretentious Latin quotes in Eames' tattoos are ars est celare artem (it is art to conceal art) and fallaces sunt rerum species (the appearances of things are deceptive). The koi tattoo is of course nicked from bauble's previous Big Bang, Amuse-Bouche.