crack_van | The Ariadne Triptych, by various authors (PG)

Fandom: INCEPTION
Pairing: Gen; hints of Ariadne/Eames

Title: With Thanks to Apollo
Length: 1,451
Author on LJ:

sour_idealist
Author Website: masterlist of fics on author's journal

Title: Postcards from Naxos (You Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here)
Length: 5,300
Author on LJ:

edenfalling
Author Website: masterlist of fics on author's journal

Title: I Regret Nothing (the Colonel Mustard in the Solarium with the Wind-Up Victrola remix)
Length: 1,199
Author on LJ:

mjules
Author Website: author's fic journal

Why these must be read:These three fics build off of one another in succession to form what I think of as a triptych of stories about Ariadne and her two different lives. The first story is written from the POV of Ariadne's younger sister when she returns home after Inception. It's short but beautifully characterized, using glimpses of the photographs Ariadne keeps as windows into her new life for her sister, and it inspired the second and third stories independently as remixes. Each one is slightly different, but they all fit beautifully together to give us a portrait of Ariadne and her ever-evolving relationships with her team members, her family, and herself. "Postcards from Naxos" is the longest, and forms a series of vignettes around the literal snapshots of Ariadne's life. The final one, "I Regret Nothing," shows how at least one member of the team reacts to her photography hobby, and how they grow closer as a result.

Reading these three fics together is a casual, engrossing journey in characterization and world-building, and not to be missed if you love Inception for its endless possibilities.

Ariadne kicks her legs and watches the two men bicker. They're terrifyingly competent -- she's seen the evidence written in paradoxes, second skins, free-fall kicks, and legions of slain projections -- but sometimes she feels they never quite made it out of adolescence. It reminds her of the way she and Cassandra used to bicker before Ariadne left home.
"Better than television, no?"
Ariadne jerks around to see Yusuf standing beside her, folded newspaper in his hand. He smiles. "You have no idea how grateful I am to see you. Without Cobb casting a pall over everything, these two revert to schoolyard squabbles."
"I heard that," Arthur says without turning.
"You were meant to," Yusuf tells him. "I am going to sit and read my newspaper until you have worked out enough of a plan to tell me what compounds you need. Please try not to take more than a week."
Arthur and Eames look up with matching indignation on their faces. Ariadne stifles her laughter and surreptitiously pulls out her phone. She catches the three of them in one shot, then pauses, wondering how to label the file. They're criminals; she shouldn't use their names, just in case. Time and place might also be dangerous.
Literary references, on the other hand, can mean anything.

- from "Postcards from Naxos"

With Thanks to Apollo ; Postcards from Naxos ; I Regret Nothing