Thank you to all who participated this year! You all crushed it!!!!

A Horse With No Name by @shrekgogurt with art by @artsyunderstudy

Simon Snow is a gunslinger, a ranger, a dangerous man set to keep other dangerous men in line. However, when a twister rips through his resources, Simon finds himself riding an unfamiliar horse into an unfamiliar town filled with unfamiliar faces. Well, all except one very familiar face offered up like a prized hog at auction. After making a temporary truce with his famed foe, Simon is forced to face his prejudices as he gets to know the mysterious residents of Watford Bend. a Revisionist Western AU, presented in CinemaScope

2. Magical Creature Ambassador by @a_charmed_life (on AO3) with art by @rimeswithpurple

Four and a half years after Watford, Penelope Bunce finds herself with a Bachelor's degree, a fiancé she barely knows, an overbearing soon-to-be mother-in-law, and an ocean between her and her best friends. In a month, she will be married to Micah, her perfectly lovely partner. When a big fight threatens to break their engagement, she may be forced to reevaluate the relationship and what she truly wants.

3. You’ve Got Mail by @bluedahlia912 with art by @nonsensicalollie

“I forget, have you met Simon before?” Niall asked, diffusing the tension a bit. Baz fixes me with an assessing gaze, his lips pressed together, his eyes scrutinizing me. I am suddenly self-conscious of my joggers and t-shirt, wishing I had thought to change into something different. He’s literally wearing a bloody waistcoat and trousers. (I thought he was late because he stopped home to change, but his brogues are so shiny I could see my reflection in them.) “No, I don’t believe I have,” he says, then takes a sip of his wine. That’s it. No “hello.” No “nice to meet you.” He’s such a smug bastard. Why is he so attractive? Why is he here? “Hmm, I thought maybe you would have,” Dev says. “You two live in the same building.”

4. You & I Will Always Be Unfinished Business by @aristocratic-otter with art by @rimeswithpurple

“I think Agatha’s in love with Baz. And he’s not even here! He should be here.” I’m so frustrated and exhausted that I’m losing control over my magic once again. I can feel it rolling off of me in waves. Penny sighs. “Agatha’s not really in love with Baz. She’s just looking for something that sticks. It’s romantic to be in love with a dead vampire.” My heart stutters in my chest. “Dead?” is all I manage to get out, though a hundred responses to Penny’s statement are suddenly swirling around my head.

5. Through Dangers Untold by @carnationgreen by @lovelettersto-mars

Kent, England- Summer 1986. Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, Simon Snow must fight his way to the castle beyond the Goblin City, and take back what the Goblin King has stolen. Simon must learn that he cannot rely on sheer strength and reckless determination alone to make his way through King Basilton's Labyrinth, where nothing can be taken for granted.

6. Just A Stage Kiss by @lovelyladzzzz with art by @cccloudsss

Every year in Watford's Department of Theatre Arts goes just about the same way. Simon Snow gets the lead, Agatha Wellbelove plays the love interest, and Basilton Grimm-Pitch is stuck with the villain. A tale as old as time and type-casting. But what happens when Miss Possibelf decides to switch things up in their 8th year and casts Simon and Baz as lovers? How will Agatha cope with taking on a much brighter place in the spotlight? How will Simon put up with Baz's constant plotting and manipulation? And most importantly, how in Aleistar Crowley's name is Baz going to survive having to kiss the hopeless idiot he's in love with onstage? OR Simon Snow getting to be the theatre kid he was always meant to be.

7. The Great War by @prettygoododds with art by @carnationgreen

Baz would like nothing more than to walk away from a fight over a crown he doesn't want, but a certain knight in shining armor has him captivated and stuck in a house that doesn't understand him. Simon never thought he'd live this long, let alone become a top knight in the King's regime.

8. Simon Snow and the Sands of Time by @martsonmars with art by @talentpiper11

Simon Snow Cadwallader is looking for answers and hoping not to find them. His father's notebooks with him, he roams the world trying to prove that the supernatural isn't real. That there are no prophecies, no Chosen Ones, no hidden meanings in the history of humanity. Basilton Grimm-Pitch is tired of asking the wrong questions. Stuck in the basement of the British Museum, he looks at decades of stolen history piling up around him and knows that there is something more concealed inside forgotten crates of dusty terracotta. When Simon's quests lead him to seek Baz's expertise, they soon realize that maybe they've been looking for the same thing all along.

9. A Pitch With Wings and a Bloodthirsty Chosen One by @roomwithanopenfire with art by @lauillu

Simon Snow grew up with large red wings and a devil's tail. A interesting choice for a Chosen One. His magic isn't much better. One day, he messes up a spell that swaps his magic with Baz's—wings and vampirism included. So now Baz has wings and a tail and can't control his terrible magic, and Simon has magic that works perfectly fine... but he's now got fangs and thirst for blood. How will Simon and Baz fix this? And what will happen as they grow closer together...?

10. What Comes After by @larkral with art by @argumentativeantitheticalg

Every time I see someone at risk, I run down a list of questions: 1. Can I save them? 2. Will I put anyone else at risk by saving them? 3. What comes after? Penny says that she used to think that whenever someone entered into your life, if you took your relationship with them seriously enough to, for instance, save their life, that you became responsible for them. That it was like picking up a piece of litter. If you see it and you don't pick it up, it's not your problem, but if you pick it up, you can't just drop it again. That makes you the litterer. Or something. I don't worry much about litter anymore. No one is coming to empty the bins, and saving someone's life isn't a contract. It's a Tuesday.

11. No Time to Mourn Roses (When Forests Are Burning) by @the-beard-of-edward-teach with art by @bachusekart

"Something is wrong. This is the same lesson as yesterday. I’ve always been ahead in this class. Nothing the Minotaur says is really new to me. But this is different than usual. This lesson isn’t familiar because I know the concept: it is just the exact same as yesterday’s. I wouldn’t consider the Minotaur to be a necessarily great teacher, but it isn’t like him to repeat a lesson verbatim. I steal a glance at Snow—he still looks like he’s just discovered that the world isn’t real."   In this Watford-era fic, Simon and Baz are stuck in a timeloop--a residual effect of a humdrum attack. Slowly the decide they need to work together and form a begrudging alliance. Will that truce morph into something more?

12. As Long As You're Mine by @bookishbroadwayandblind with art by @iamamythologicalcreature

Simon Snow, the Wicked Witch, is dead. Basil Pitch, the Vampire, is nowhere to be found. But Princess Agatha the Well-Beloved still has a story to tell—of the years they all spent together at Shiz, and the love that formed between them. OR A Wicked AU about dreams, differences, and those denied a happy ending.

THANK YOU ALL AND SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR!

Just rewatched the movie yet again, less than two weeks after I did the outfit study. By the way, the love on that was overwhelming and so sweet, thank you to everyone who read through that whole mess <3 Anyway, I rewatched again because I’m home and wanted to make my mom watch it. It really was a wake up call to my own insanity. She’s sitting there like “who is Saito again?” And I’m sitting there like “wait that frame would’ve been a better screenshot for Outfit Five” girl. You are a crazy person.

I’m gonna ramble about this movie because I can and I need to. The ending, man, it always fucking gets me. The way that Cobb is still trying to convince himself that he can leave Mal behind, that he knows he has to. I wonder if Cobb listens to Conan Gray. “There will always be parts of me that are yours.”*

I want to mostly talk about Eames and Arthur, because of course I do. Credit where credit’s due, a lot of these ideas start from a post by @thenwhatthefukcisthis about Eames’ particular fondness for Arthur despite his coldness to the rest of the group. Wow, they were so on point with that observation. Eames has a magnetizing flippant attitude toward the job and its success. Yes, he wants to see it succeed, but that’s mostly out of some sort of curiosity. He has no investment in Cobb getting back home. In fact, to me, it seems like he doesn’t really care for Cobb all that much. I have theories on that, but to talk about that, I have to talk about Arthur and Cobb first. Trust me, I promise I’m going somewhere.

My theory about Cobb and Arthur’s relationship has evolved drastically over time. I think I touched on it in my outfit post, but lately I’ve developed the idea that there is some real animosity between these two. In my mind, the two of them used to be close. I’d even subscribe to the idea that Mal and Cobb are the reason Arthur got into this life in the first place. Back in the day, I imagine Mal, Cobb, Eames, and Arthur all did jobs together. The movie kind of implies that they didn’t get around to stealing until after Mal’s death, so I’m not sure what the nature of these jobs would be, but I’ll put that aside. Either way, I think everything changed when Mal died. Before then, the four of them were a happy little team connected by more than just work. They were all real friends. I’d even go so far as to say that Eames and Arthur probably had “something” going on, though I haven’t really decided if it was explicitly romantic or even sexual yet. But then, Mal dies, and their worlds get flipped upside-down. I think Arthur was faced with a choice: accept that he must grieve, and do so with Eames, or run away from the pain with Cobb. Obviously, he chose Cobb, which deeply hurt Eames. Along the way, Arthur painfully had to realize that Cobb is not the man he used to know. He is now a man wrecked by grief, destroyed by guilt, haunted by memories he cannot change. Cobb is cold, Cobb is cruel, Cobb is now clearly “the leader” and Arthur the underling who will get dragged across the globe. Arthur can leave at any time, I think he and Cobb both know that, but he doesn’t. He still has loyalty to him, love for him, for his friend that isn’t really even there anymore. So they prance around the world, Arthur following Cobb and trying to get him back home. Maybe, if he can help Cobb get back to his family, he can finally grieve. He can finally get his friend back. But, for now, he keeps on running. Maybe the two separate for a few weeks at a time, but Cobb is always back with another job, always drags him back down under.

This would explain Eames’ resentment towards Cobb. Eames doesn’t see a man who’s grieving. He sees a man who ran off with Arthur, with the man he had started falling for. Eames loses all three of his friends at once, and he’s left to mourn by himself. I’d even say that Eames was the only one of them at Mal’s funeral. He has the bear the loss, he has to face it, he has no dream to run to. So that animosity grows, and Cobb becomes just a co-worker. So when he calls on him to assist with Inception, Eames is sort of like, “what the hell, why not?”

I think Eames has some animosity for Arthur at first, especially in that conversation with Cobb when he’s first introduced. I think they probably haven’t seen each other since Mal died, though they’re clearly keeping tabs on one another. “You’re still working with that stick in the mud?” You’re still dragging him around country to country? You’re still using him? You’re still keeping him from me? But once they’re together again, all bets are off. They’re right back to their usual ways.

Hence, what @thenwhatthefukcisthis talks about in their post and what I saw overwhelmingly during these last two rewatches. Arthur is the only person Eames gives a flying fuck about during the entire mission. He really doesn’t give Ariadne any attention, and I can’t even remember if they speak any lines to one another directly. He seems to have a bit of fondness for Saito at the end, but that seems to be more out of respect for Saito’s determination than anything else. He seems amused by Yusuf, but there’s not much else there. But Cobb? Oh, he still does not like him. He still resents him, still doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore. When the mission is all but lost, and Cobb is lamenting his failure, Eames doesn’t really give a damn. He’s upset that they almost “had it,” but he doesn’t care that Cobb won’t get home. And why should he care? Cobb abandoned him when he needed him most, and he took Arthur along with him. Eames may even read Cobb’s running as abandoning Mal, though Cobb really had no choice but to run. And yet, despite it all, Eames cares for Arthur.

It really is in everything he does. During the meetings, he’s always paying attention to Arthur. Kicking his chair, giggling at him, bickering with him. Sure, you could read that all as hazing, but there’s warmth to it that he doesn’t present with anyone else. In fact, Eames presents as pretty cold and intellectual to the rest of the group. Typically, most fans (including myself) imagine him with a playful, snarky attitude full of jokes and goofing around, but he’s really only like that with Arthur. He’s the only one on this job who he trusts. Repeatedly, when the job starts going wrong, Eames reverts back to “every man for himself.” He says he’ll sit the mission out, that he’ll make the kick with or without everyone else, and yet when it’s Arthur at stake, his attitude changes. He warns him, he tells him to “be back before the kick.” He doesn’t give a damn if anyone else wakes up, if the idea takes in Robert’s mind, if Cobb gets home. He cares about Arthur. If it’s just the two of them alive by the end, Eames would still take that as a victory.

I’d like to think that at the end, Eames is standing around in the airport because he’s waiting for Arthur. Maybe, just maybe, they can pick up where they left off.

In a series of fics I wrote in the past, I had a more positive outlook on everyone in the team’s relationships. I imagined them all sticking together and continuing to work. I still love that series, and that interpretation is still very warm in my heart. But I don’t think it’s as realistic as what I imagine now. I think Cobb probably goes back to his family and stays there. No more dream thievery, no more inception. He gets his happy ending with his family, and I want that for him. Sure, I’ve just written three paragraphs about how Eames hates his guts, but I still like Cobb a lot. His story is fucking beautiful, and he deserves to live a peaceful life with his children. As for Yusuf, I think he’d go on continuing what he was doing prior. Mixing chemicals, rarely joining the field. Saito goes back off to his company and reaps the rewards of Robert dismantling his future. Ariadne’s got a taste for this now, so I can’t imagine she’d stop dream sharing, but maybe she wouldn’t do illegal things with it. The building was always the most interesting aspect for her, after all. Arthur and Eames, in my wildest dreams, shack up and live peacefully in some cabin out in the middle of nowhere. I think that they’d still work in dreamsharing sometimes, and hell, maybe even with Ariadne and Yusuf. But Cobb? I don’t think that’s his life anymore. I do, optimistically, think that eventually, bridges would be mended. After all, Arthur still cares about Cobb, and that could rub off on Eames. With some time and some forgiveness, maybe they could be friends again. Not how they were, as they’ll always still be three instead of four, but they could try to get close.

I’d like to write a longer fic with this interpretation at some point, but I have no clue when. I already have another AU idea for when I’m done posting my current fic, so I’ll get to this idea in roughly a thousand years. It’s not like I won’t still be obsessed with this movie by then. There is something so special about it, I can’t take it. I could watch it every day. I cannot wait until my mom gets out of her confused, dazed state and starts asking me questions.

Also, during the scene where Arthur is helping Eames go under in the hotel, my brother looked at me and said, “Why are they flirting?” So. There’s that.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend! I’m at a bit of a loss today, and I really can’t think of much to say other than that.

I’ll just share some excerpts. First is from the second chapter of All Too Familiar, my fic where Simon has spelled himself into Baz’s familiar. Here they’re on their way to a pumpkin patch with Baz’s family, for Reasons:

He made me wear the shearling jacket again—I don’t know when he fetched it back from the shed—and some kind of expensive-looking jumper that has blue and violet coloured snowflakes knit over the shoulders and chest. When he pulled it out from his wardrobe, I didn’t want to put it on because it looked itchy, and Baz physically wrestled it over my head to prove it isn’t. I felt like a child, and I’m still narked about it, if I’m honest.

“Settle down, Snow. There’s worse things than having to look halfway decent for a curated rustic outing,” Baz sneers as he pulls into the circular portion of the drive in front of his house. His parents are corralling his siblings into a sleek black Range Rover, and I’m surprised to see Malcolm Grimm fussing with a baby seat.

“I’m not upset about looking nice!” I huff, folding my arms over my chest. “Wait, do I look nice?”

Baz turns to look at me now that the car is in park. His lips are twitching as though he’s amused and fighting not to show it. “I don’t know, Snow, do you? You’re the one who said it. My compliment was far more anaemic.”

“Ah ha!” I raise a finger and point it at him—he pushes it away. “So you did compliment me!”

Baz laughs. “Well, it wouldn’t be difficult to improve on your normal effort, Snow. Over-washed t-shirts and shapeless trackies do no one any favours.” I glance down at the jeans I’m wearing. He made me wear these too—said the jumper was making my trackies look like they were social climbing—but at least they’re my own. When I look back up at Baz, there’s a funny expression on his face. I’m used to him glowering at me as if I were a pimple on his otherwise unblemished skin, but there’s something softer in his eyes right now. Fondness might be too strong a word. I wonder again if it has something to do with the spell. If I’m his familiar, is he compelled to like me? Is that why he keeps making sure I’m fed and dressed nicely—because the spell is making him soft on me? Baz clears his throat. “Snow, that jumper is serving champagne and your ripped-up jeans brought the Ribena,” he scoffs.

Next is a bit of my CORB fic, which I’m really excited about! Simon is being very normal about Baz (again: for Reasons):

I bet she doesn’t have that issue with Baz. I mean, look at him. He’s all legs, and his hair always looks perfect, sleek and softly waved around his face. His only flaw is the little bend I gave him at the end of his long nose back in third year, and he even makes that work to his advantage. Jammy bastard. It’s like that Japanese concept Penny’s been telling me about, wasabi or something. Beauty in imperfection. Of course Agatha would have no problem getting handsy in a broom cupboard or sneaking off into the Wavering Woods with fucking Baz. He’s probably in the bathroom picking dirt and leaves out of his hair right now.

Last but not least, a bit from Time Will Lie Down and Be Still, the COBB project I began with @rimeswithpurple far too long ago. The next chapter is actually finished, but I’m not posting until I get at least a good chunk more of the one after, done (yes, it is already going one chapter over what I expected—I’m predicting one more and an epilogue). The following doesn’t seem like much, but if you’ve seen the movie Practical Magic, which the fic is based on, it’ll probably seem important:

The older girl—Mordelia, if memory serves—leans against the kitchen counter beside Baz. He drapes an arm over her shoulders. “What kind of scones are they? Chocolate chip?”

From the way Baz rolls his eyes, I can tell this is an ongoing family argument. Dev has appeared in the doorway now as well, barefoot and carrying Swithin in his arms. He’s got on an old Sex Pistols shirt that keeps slipping off one shoulder. “No,” I say as Baz takes a spatula to the scones, carefully heaping them onto a plate. “I found the fruit in the freezer and felt like experimenting. How do you feel about sour cherry?”

Baz and I exchange an alarmed look as his sisters all begin screaming at once. Chocolate chip next time, then.