#everything is arthur and eames

[coffeecupandcorgi]

[valerileygreen]

Been thinking about Arthur's state of mind after inception.

Of course at first he was elated, running the high of having pulled off the impossible and escaped with their lives and sanity intact.

And then the adrenaline wore down and he realized he was finally free to do anything he wanted, but after almost 2 years driven by a single purpose he didn't know what to do with that freedom. A huge chapter of his life had just ended and he felt directionless and empty with nothing to look forward to.

But then Eames was there. Eames who was a forger and knew perfectly well what it meant to lose your sense of self. Eames who knew him so well and could see he was coming apart and held him tight and close till it felt like all his pieces were glued back together and he felt like a whole person once again. And with Eames' help he got re-acquainted with himself, and learned to enjoy life again just for the sake of it. Eames saved him and gave him a new purpose by giving him his life back and his old dreams, everything that had been upended with Mal's death, and even a relatively new dream. A life together.

[mister-eames]

-

Pulled Thread by Anticline/@strangegeology

-

“Roger will be pleased to see you,” Eames says softly.

There is a deep breath on the other end of the line, however many thousands of miles away they are from each other feeling both vast and infinitesimal.

“I’ve missed him. So much,” Arthur replies, a rough patch in his voice that snags on the hope Eames has tucked away in his chest somewhere, a loop of pulled thread that he wants to stick his finger through.

“He’s missed you, too,” says Eames, knowing neither of them are talking about the cat.

[thenwhatthefukcisthis]

Inception 30 day challenge 2024

day 23: if you had to be stuck on a deserted island with an Inception character, who would you choose?

@inception30daychallenge

well,

it’s arthur.

[doggosta]

Some one probably made this but anw my rendition happy 3rd of Inceptiversary!!!!

[fiiiiin]

Happy Inception day, everyone. Even when I’m not in my hyperfixated phase Arthur and Eames are always at the back of my mind. They are the blueprint both for fandom in general but also for myself and my first foray into fandom. This fandom means so much to me and I will always return here at the end of the day no matter what my mind is currently preoccupied with. The most intelligent and gentle and mature and literary fandom I’ve ever been involved in, and I’m so grateful for the film and those involved, the fandom/fanwork that arose from it, and our darlings Arthur and Eames :’)

[bookshop]

And then you can follow it up with *my* favorite (much shorter) fanfic of all time, for real <3

There really is no touching Inception fanfic, and I'm not just saying that because I was also in the fandom for many years. I've just never even seen another fandom, in all my decades in fandom, really do what the Inception fandom did, kiddos. From all the ingenious plots and worldbuilding and mindfucks and complicated layers and expansion and reinterpretation and rejections of the film canon to the delicious, incredible, irresistible, heart-wrenching, beautiful, smoking hot dynamic between Arthur and Eames, to the legendary inception kinkmeme and the enormous, novel-length masterpieces people would just drop into the comments anonymously!!!!, to the way the whole fandom just summarily rejected Cobb as the focal character and instead spent years giving Mal her own complex identity and a backstory and a whole fic trope where she was right and alive, to the incredible amount of supplementary media people created, fanart/fanvids/playlists/meta — there's just nothing else that's come close to the feeling that being in Inception fandom in 2010-2012 gave me. It was just this incredible collective hivemind of energy and creativity and brilliance, and so much passion and love — all playing out in, yes, this vast and unique sandbox where the canon worldbuilding possibilities were endless and intriguing, and a fanon that just kept building on itself by the hour, producing ever more elaborate and intricate sand castles of ideas.

I just can't say enough how much that fandom and how much Arthur/Eames mean to me. In the broad pantheon of OTPs, they are still unmatched.

I was not a dedicated Inception writer for all those years not to give a boost here: If you don't know that Inception as a fandom has some of the best fic in the history of the fanfiction genre, please do yourself a favor and go down the rabbit hole.

(This sounded arrogant, like I'm saying this because I was also an Inception writer, but I don't mean it that way, I mean before I showed up way late to the party, INCEPTION HAD EVERY GREAT FANFIC WRITER PLAYING IN ITS SANDBOX. Never lose the importance of Inception to fandom history.)

(Also not to imply that it's not still going on BECAUSE IT IS AND IT'S STILL INCREDIBLE. But if anyone reading this blog is surprised to learn that Inception has a huge fandom, I just wanted you to know, it goes so many layers down, you'll find yourself in Limbo and never want to leave.)

(You can start, if you're interested, with my favorite fanfic OF ALL TIME, for real, the best coffee shop AU of them all.)

[sequencefairy]

Would you mind sharing the link for the inception fic you mentioned because I'm like 👀👀👀 lol. I forget about inception a lot of the time but when I remember I'm OBSESSED with Eames/ Arthur lmao

Oh man! I read so much inception fic actually, but here's what I currently have in my ao3 bookmarks:

the dry sand of daylight - spqr | 15k, E, complete [or: Arthur is married to Eames for the better part of a decade. Then he wakes up.]

All the world is bullet shaped - pushdragon | 76k, E, complete If Arthur thinks that, just by waving enough money around, he can get Eames to risk his life and reputation to rescue him from a death sentence, he's got another thing coming. So Eames sets a malicious, undignified price on his services, one he can be certain that a man like Arthur would never condescend to pay. It turns out to be the first of many mistakes.

The Only Living Boy in New York - witling | 47k, E, complete Arthur and Eames, in limbo. For 47,000 words.

Presque Vu - rageprufrock | 69k, E, complete Or, "on the tip of the tongue." Arthur meets Mal first. He inherits Dom, after. Everything else is on him.

Patience, a Steady Hand - Helenish | 43k, E, complete 821 A.D. Arthur is in the nightmare business. Eames is a thief, a liar, and versatile with a pen.

^ these are all arthur/eames, just re-read the dry sand of daylight tonight again because I like to hurt myself before bed.

play the goddamn part - hardscrabble | 101k, T, complete One simple idea that changes everything: Ariadne, as Cobb sees her - the red-wearing maze designer and Cobb-unraveler - is almost too good to be true. That's because she isn't. True, that is; she's definitely, DEFINITELY good. When her thesis adviser Dr. Stephen Miles puts her in the way of a VERY interesting opportunity (for the low, low price of just one fake ID), Ari decides to go for it and winds up neck-deep in stuff she never knew existed.

When this is finished, she’s going to learn to wear a suit like Arthur, tell a lie like Eames, network like Yusuf, and pull perhaps two per cent of Saito’s annual income over her first five years post-doctorate. She's hung the rest of her life on this job, so she may as well get some off-resume skills out of it.

^ this is like, platonic throuple sort of? it's really lovely, however.

I promise to do a better job of bookmarking shit in the future but one of my sources for good fic, fandom irrelevant, are spqr's bookmarks and there are a BUNCH of good Inception fics in there too!

[the-girl-wh0-cries-w0lf]

You're waiting for a train...(16) - Epilogue

I Dreamed We'd Grow Old Together...

Robert Fischer x reader

description - Robert and Y/n's life over the next five years

word count - 2k

warnings - pregnancy, and an insane amount of fluff

a/n - and so it ends! This fic has been very important to me and has given me such a great outlet. I want to thank you all for your continued love and support for this fic! If it hadnt been for you guys I probably wouldnt have had enough confidence to continue it!

Please like/comment/reblog/follow!!!

a/n pt2 - Also seeing as I have fallen in love with this relationship I will be accepting questions and headcanons on their relationship!

Previous Part Series Master list Master list

Questions and Headcanons on Robert x y/n - here

And so we came together. It felt like the culmination of a thousand dreams.

We went out on many dates. Robert would plan these luxurious and expensive expressions of affection: dinner at the fanciest restaurants, cinemas bought out for our private viewing experience. But we alternated who planned the dates, so when it came to my turn I went for the simplest. Walks on the beach, picnics in the park. One day I even found a crafting class for us, and I could’ve cried on the spot when I saw his eyes light up at the handmade windmills. Of course, he saw it as a happy coincidence when in reality I enjoyed feeling like I was healing his childhood self, one step at a time.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. We were out on a hike which I had chosen. He had grumbled about the idea of getting up early, but I could see the stress leave his body at the first gulp of forest air. I carried on ahead as he went to tie his shoe but when I turned back I gasped. Robert was down on one knee, holding a beautiful diamond ring.

“Y/n Cobb, I have loved you since that first moment I laid eyes on you, and I think even before that.” I walked closer to him so I could hold his other outstretched hand. Tears were streaming down my face and my smile was holding back an extremely loud yes. “I know how much you believe in dreams and so on. And last night I had a dream that we grew old together. When I woke up I knew it had to be my reality. Y/n Cobb, will you…”

I threw my arms around him.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” I placed a loud kiss right on his lips.

“You could have at least let me finish!” He teasingly whined.

“Well I could see where you were going!” I argued back but was halted when he kissed me once more. We pulled away long enough so Robert could slide the ring onto my finger.

Safe to say, we did not finish the hike that day as we quickly went home to celebrate.

I had moved in with Robert before so we visited Dad and the kids for lunch the day after to give them the news. Dad had always been weary around Robert, not knowing if he would recognise him. But it was fine as, in my Dad’s words, ‘when Robert is around Y/n, it’s like the world doesn’t exist.’. Dad still couldn’t stop himself pulling Robert aside whilst Philippa was asking me a million questions about the wedding and if she could be a bridesmaid. All he did was roughly grab his hand and pulled him close and merely whispered

“She’s my precious girl. And I have a gun.”

Safe to say Robert was healthily shocked.

We got married weeks later as neither of us could wait. I told Robert I didn’t care about a big expensive wedding, but he couldn’t seem to accept that.

I got my wish for a small wedding in the garden of my childhood home, with just my closest friends. But everything else about it was still ridiculously posh. Right down to the flower arch we were married under.

James and Philippa were my brides’girl’ and brides’boy’. My father walked me down the makeshift aisle. Arthur and Eames were there as well as Yusuf and Ariadne. They were all worried about the risk of the inceptors being so close to the mark after the heist.

“There’s no telling what could trigger his memory.”

“Well, y/n spent the most time with him out of all of us and she’s marrying him.”

“We can’t all sleep with him!”

“ENOUGH!”

I then put a rule that there was to be no dream talk at my wedding. My father even gave his own little speech explaining that if anyone ruined my wedding, he would kill them. We all laughed but his continued silence quickly shut us all up.

Robert did not want any family there. And he also didn’t have friends he felt were close enough to warrant an invitation.

One night, whilst planning, I cautiously asked him about inviting his godfather. He tensed up and lowered his eyes. He brushed it off saying it would be too many people. I reluctantly agreed with him whilst looking at the sparsity of his side of the guests.

The wedding was beautiful, and we finished with dancing on the grass well into the early hours of the morning. I got my first dance with my father, a day I thought would never come. Philippa asked Robert to dance, and he graciously accepted, lifting her up onto his feet and they swayed alongside us.

The morning after we were curled up together in bed. My back leaned on his chest as he played with my fingers. The morning sun bleeding into my childhood bedroom.

“Where do you want to live?” His morning voice broke the quiet.

“I thought we were going to move into your house.” I tilted my head to look into his eyes which were trained on a picture of me, my dad and my mum.

“I don’t wanna go back. Being here, in this house, with all the love in it. I just don’t want to go back there.”

“Okay.” I leaned up and planted a soft kiss to his cheek.

“So if you could live in any house, anywhere in the world, where would you live?”

I snuggled myself back into his chest and closed my eyes as I imagined.

“Somewhere in the countryside, with a big sprawling garden that backs onto fields and forests with plenty of walks. The house should be cozy, with a big kitchen with an old fashioned stove that keeps us warm in winter. Wooden tables where I can cook and bake all day long till my hearts content. The house should have big windows so the sunlight can dictate our day. Small bedrooms but big comfy beds, fluffy rugs, open fires. And maybe even an extra room...with a cot.” I met his eyes for the last word.

“Yes.”

“To which bit?”

“To all of it.” We kissed passionately.

A few days later and Robert woke me up and told me we were going on a trip. We bundled into his car and drove for hours until we came to a stop outside a house that seeped with familiarity. I got out, transfixed by what stood before me. It was as real from my mind as if I had created it in my dream. Robert moved to unlock the little gate which led to the front door. He turned to me and held out a set of keys with a little windmill keychain.

“It needs a bit of work and I know I shouldn’t have bought it without showing you—”

“I love it.”

We didn’t need a honeymoon, the two weeks to ourselves spent decorating and filling the house with our love was enough. I drew designs for each room and Robert would do the heavy lifting. I could see how much he enjoyed working with his hands after dismantling his business a week into our relationship. I also was unable to help much as my hand found softly stroked a barely noticeable bump.

We relished in the days of decorating, where trying to paint a single wall would turn into silly games or dancing round to music, intermittent with many kisses and hugs.

Eventually we had built our home out of our house and we relaxed into our sofa, a bottle of red between us. We sealed the night with a kiss and it definitely didn’t end there.

Five Years Later

I stand at the sink washing our dishes from lunch and look out of the window onto our expansive garden. Robert runs about the grass, clad in soft jeans and a ratty knitted jumper. Our three darling children chase around him at varying speeds. Our eldest, Isla, holds her baby sister Aspen’s hand, and Nicholas, the youngest, toddles behind his sisters, excited to be involved.

Arthur runs up from behind and scoops Nicholas up into his arms through the giggling shrieks of the three. He bounces Nicholas up into the air. Isla and Aspen then run over and begin shouting up at their uncle for their turn.

I don’t hear Robert make his way into the house, I just feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist and soft kisses being ladened up and down my neck. I sink back into his body which is warm from the sun. His arms snake down and his hands lay on mine.

“Leave those now. I’ll do them later.” I agree by turning in his arms so we can meet in a proper kiss. His fingers grip my waist and stroke my sides.

Our moment is interrupted by a loud opening of the door. I roll my eyes at the familiar sound and break apart to greet Eames at the door.

“Right! Where are my darling godchildren?”

“I give you a good time to come round, and you insist on coming just before their tea and bath time.”

He laughs and knocks my chin with his knuckle.

“Motherhood suits you.” I bat his hand away and gesture out the door. “Make it quick.”

I turn back to a still laughing Robert who quickly stops once he sees my stern face.

“I’ll ask Eames if he wants to stay for tea with Arthur.” He goes to go back into the garden.

“What you thinking for tea?” I ask his retreating form.

“Chicken and potatoes?”

“Delicious.” He smiles and leaves.

I begin sorting through the mail which still sat on the side. I smiled once I reached a postcard from Dad. He’d taken the kids to Disneyland for a week and sent a picture of them with Goofy. I pinned it up on our cork board.

My peaceful moment is soon interrupted.

“Y/n! Tell Arthur that I’m the favourite uncle!”

“Y/n! Tell Eames that fun does not have to mean dangerous!”

“Mama, mama, Uncle Eames turned me upside down and span me around!”

“See! Dangerous!”

“Honey, where’s the disinfectant? Aspen scraped her knee.”

“Mummy it really hurts!”

“Mama! Uppies! Uppies!”

I picked Nicholas up into my arms and simply giggled, perfectly happy with my life.

It was now night. Arthur and Eames had left after insisting on reading the kids stories which meant they were roped into reading 3 stories per child. Nicholas had gone down first. Then Aspen and even though Isla had loved staying up with mummy and daddy, tiredness had overcome her quickly. So Robert carried her up and tucked her into bed.

We now lay in bed together, curled up. Simply relishing in the silence that was so foreign in our big house.

“Do you wanna know something strange?” He broke the silence. “That day we met, I had a dream about a girl who I fell in love with. I like to think it was you.”

I bit my lip to stop myself uncontrollably grinning.

“And since then, my dreams have been consumed by you and our little family.”

I tried to meet his eyes, but he was locked in thought and I knew I couldn’t interrupt his thoughtfulness.

“The moment I met you I realised that I wanted to create my own family rather than continue working for one that never loved me.”

I hugged him tighter as his voice shook slightly.

“Well, that’s good. Because your family is about to get a little bigger.” I took his hand and drifted it down until it landed on a subtle bump.

“Perfect.” He kissed my hairline as his hand stroked up and down my stomach.

The silence resumed and we both fell deeper into the stillness of the night. But as I drifted off one thought plagued my mind.

Perhaps the idea never actually took hold.

Perhaps it was me and him.

Us together, that changed his life.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Thank you so much for reading!!

taglist: @jonsncws @h-l-vlovesvintage @theethy @fashionki11a @felicity1994 @bearchermer @idkyoutellmesmh @mimimarvelingmarvel @butterfly-lies-chase-them-away @neotanpopper @deliriouslybi @folklorde24 @thefandomdiaries07 @viarosemcmissile @noirrose21-blog @thepoeticfirefly @xoxo-gothic-girl @skeletonwrite @jellyzelek @kaylamarie306-blog @bloodcanbehot @lazybot @raineeace @thearieunhinged @multifans-things @queenofterrasen418 @bey0ndne0 @justanotherkpopstanlol @iamliterallyspidergwen @frozenhuntress67 @alice2612

[valerileygreen]

It's apparent from the movie that Arthur loves paradoxes. And maybe that's because he is sort of a paradox himself, he's full of little contradictions and I doubt he even realizes it most of the time (but Eames does and it's what made the pointman so interesting at the beginning).

Arthur is analytical and meticulous, he likes precision and details, and makes plans and contingencies; and yet he is so skillful at improvising, and even enjoys it in a way, outsmarting sudden unexpected problems, at least when they're not risking Limbo (so much for having no imagination). But even more interesting is how he presents himself to others as calm and detached and yet he cares so much just about everything.

And more interestingly, while his emotions are always clearly visible on his face (thank you JGL for your expressive afce), he keeps himself on a tight leash, rarely allowing himself to actually act upon it, at least not without passing through some kind of filter of rationality first. That is, unless they're in the direst situations with adrenaline and stress running high.

And unless the person at the other end of the exchange is Eames. Because Arthur too acts different than usual around him.

Arthur, who is always so poised and collected, or at least strives to be, allows himself to engage in the banter Eames initiate, and to just react instinctively to his jabs. And even if most of the time that reaction is based in mild annoyance and competitiveness, it still feels like friendship and trust. Because for once Arthur is letting himself really feel and inhabit it his emotions, something he does with no one else. And then shit hits the fan and we really see just how much Arthur really cares for Eames when he flips in the taxi scene and when he helps him with the PASIV just to exchange a few soft reassuring words that may or may not be their last ones to each other; and how much he relies on Eames, even subconsciously, when he relaxes after the darling comment.

He feels safe enough with Eames to lower his guard and loosen himself up, to show even the most imperfect, less polished, 'ugliest' side of himself, sure in the knowledge Eames doesn't really see him as just a pointman or a mentor or whatever, but as a person and a friend. And it's liberating.

[mister-eames]

Hi hi hi can we please discuss in more detail how eames and Arthur’s love for one another might manifest in their dreams, especially during the PINING YEARS since their dreams are possible their only outlet for this love!! Because when they’re awake, in the real world they have to repress it, seal it away, pretend it’s not a big deal... ahhh! Going insane over this thought! The power of the subconscious!!

Yes!! I keep thinking how pieces of people must show up in dreams, how our subconscious simply can't help but bleed into dreamscapes - even in the most detailed build, even with the most experienced dreamer. It's your brain being used for the foundation, there must be some cross-over! And if it's a powerful emotion like love or hate or grief, well we've seen it in the latter, so why not the rest?

They both take forever to notice it. And even then Arthur, who notices it first, doesn't even see it until Cobb points it out. They're doing a test run in Arthurs dream - and the menu at the restaurant they're not even supposed to stop at has items with titles of AC/DC songs.

While Cobb is astute enough to know that and assumes Arthur has an earworm, what he doesn't know is that on Arthur knows that Eames listens to the band when he works out and taps his fingers to the rhythm of thunderstruck and you shook me all night long when he's restless.

After that Arthur can't unsee the things he's picked up from Eames in his dreams. At first he tries to convince himself that of course Eames is just that annoying he infests Arthurs subconscious. A literal parasite.

But then some of his projections have crooked teeth, and he starts seeing more and more of Eames' forges as projections - and the projections that aren't echoes are forges are wearing Eames' watch, or the trucker cap Eames' wears when they're not on the job and he's back at home, recuperating from not being himself. There are little pockets in his dreamscape that are from stories he has heard Eames tell when he was eavesdropping, like the antique store his mum used to temp at during his primary school years. The playground where he got into his first fight. They look innocuous to anyone else but Arthur knows they're from his own imaginings and daydreams. Parasite, he reminds himself.

Every time he wakes up a little more perturbed, afraid of the magnitude of his own feelings. Maybe if he can pretend to loathe Eames in the real world his brain (and body) will get the memo.

One day they go into Cobbs dream and he notices a pair of feminine, cat-eye sunglasses folded and hooked into Cobbs dress-shirt. He points it out and Cobb mumbles something about Mal and Arthur stops listening. His first thought is: I don't want to know.

Then he remembers all of the little details he'd flat out ignored his own dreams. How his subconscious seemed to lovingly envelope itself around such tiny details.

His second thought is: Oh no. I'm fucked.

[thenwhatthefukcisthis]

Arthur and eames is one of THOSE ships where the characters make their relationship everyone else’s problem, no matter the state of their relationship.

pining stage? get ready to hear about how Arthur’s eyes mirror the colour of his brown coffee when sun hits his eyes at the perfect angle or how soft spoken Eames can be when he’s taking to random little animals running in warehouses. Together stage? Not a single job can be done without one of you walking in to a making out session between them and it’s always buy one get one package deal for these mofos even if your team don’t necessarily need a forger. Breakup stage? “Arthur? he’s good at what he does but can he ✨imagine✨?” “We need a forger yes but there are plenty good thieves please ” Make up stage? let’s forget about the mark AND the billionaire client and help each other connecting IVs and kissing each other goodbyes I can’t with them

[kate2kat]

And left so much space for imagination to roam

literally WHAT was it about arthur and eames in inception that made everyone go batshit insane they had like three lines max about each other

[ladysarai]

Inception Big Bang fic! c:

@nutterzoi and I cowrote this MASSIVE fic for @inception-bigbang this year!! We were SO lucky to be paired with @mister-eames! THANK YOU ASH, you have been the best cheerleader!! c:

Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted by Lady Sarai and NutterZoi

Word Count: 56,016 words Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: Inception (2010) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Arthur/Eames (Inception) Characters: Arthur (Inception), Eames (Inception), Ariadne (Inception), Phillipa Cobb, James Cobb (Inception), Arthur's Father (Inception) Additional Tags: Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, it's Mal, And Dom Series: Part 1 of Everything We Always Wanted Summary: Roughly a year after the events of Inception, Dom is killed because he never gave up extraction. As godfather, Arthur is given custody of Phillipa and James. To protect them and keep them safe, he fakes his death and goes into hiding with them. Meanwhile, Eames is mourning Arthur and the chance they never really had together. When he tries to tie up Arthur’s loose ends for him, he realizes: Arthur's already done it. Arthur is alive and Eames sets out to find him. Neither of them ever imagined themselves living a normal, domestic life, or being parents. In the end, Arthur and Eames both need to decide what they want out of life, and who they want it with.

And yes. The title does come from Fools Rush In, this piece of '90s cinematic brilliance:

I am incredibly proud of us for finishing this, actually. c: We started it at the end of April. It's our baby! All grown up and out in the world now!!

Thank you for letting me drag you into this fandom and this ship, and for playing in this sandbox with me, @nutterzoi, my bestie. Everything is better with you.

[commonpigeon]

i could do a timeline or everything i shipped but it would be like 150 ships. i think the most significant (in chronological order) are probably bella/edward, cherimon, phan, klaine, brencer, peterick, thorki, stony, merthur, arthur/eames, cherik, mcshep, janto, wincest, spirk, mulder/scully, newt/hermann, stucky, mavin, the whole of funhaus as an ot7, jaime/brienne, the guys from book of mormon, ice hockey players, katya/trixie, i stopped reading fanfiction for 18 months while i started uni and was dating and clubbing and then the pandemic happened, mulder/scully again, MERTHUR for real this time, DESTIEL big time, WANGXIANNN and nie mingjue/jin guangyao/(lan xichen), xue yang/xiao xingchen/song lan, JOHNLOCK like to an insane degree, Hannibal/will, hawkeye/BJ, those fucking pirates (comedy), guillermo/nandor, Louis/lestat rhe first time, peterick AGAIN, loustat AGAIN, DEVILS MINION. have i missed anything

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 心宅猎人/Psych-Hunter.

Psych-Hunter is a 2020 drama about a hot young amnesiac who, accompanied by a rich psychiatrist with major daddy issues and a rich girl who cosplays as a cop, uses his Inception-style psychic powers to solve crimes that are part of a shadowy conspiracy orchestrated by a mysterious figure.

True story: Once I couldn't remember the English name of the drama, so I called it "House Haunters," and now my brain insists that's the real English title. If only!

Do not, under any circumstances, labor under the impression that this show is good. It's not. It's incoherent. The writing is bad. The villain is absurd. The vibe is comically melodramatic. People make inexplicable and out-of-character decisions all the time. Countless complex mysteries get set up with no way to resolve them. There's a thin lampshade hanging over it that blurs the line between bad decisions made on accident and bad decisions made on purpose, but the net result is largely the same. This is the show that first inspired my wife to declare something dumb as a guinea pig in a roller skate.

But it's fun. It's a sea of colorful chaos with brilliant pieces that shine through like strange gems. It knows how to work an atmosphere and does so to create some legitimately creepy moments. It spins a wild yarn filled with bizarre and loveable characters. And it has some twists that truly have to be seen to be believed. In the mood for some beautiful nonsense? Here's five reasons that despite everything I warned you about in the previous paragraph, I think this one's worth watching.

1. Psychonauts for Jazz Age homosexuals

Honestly, that phrase alone should let you know if this is the thing for you. But just in case, let me explain the basic premise of the show:

Jiang Shuo, a man who has lost his memory and been adopted by circus folk, is capable of jingling his keys and diving full-body into someone else's subconscious, represented by lovely and thematic dreamscapes. He does this to solve crimes. Sometimes he takes along a handsome doctor who seems like he might know more than he's letting on, by literally tying their hands together with a red string.

Also, when they do this, they get gorgeous steampunk magical girl costume changes, complete with the cutest little pony nub you've ever seen.

This show can be stunningly beautiful. It knows how to manifest dream logic eerily well. Most of these cognitions are gorgeous, and many are done with primarily practical effects, like it's a stage play. ...And it's good it relies on that so much, because the CG it has is kinda cheap and terrible! So, yeah.

(Side note for the DMBJ fans: This is directed by the same guy who directed Sand Sea, which I assume is related to how this both is a visual treat and completely falls apart on the back end.)

The reason I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't taken off more among the creative set is what a great piece of worldbuilding this Psych-diving is. These boys (and, once, the girl) get to short-term manifest bodily in someone else's materialized mental state, where the person whose brain they’re in neither controls the experience nor remembers what happened after it’s done. Were you writing weird Arthur/Eames fic a decade ago? I got a new best thing for you. Can you say freaky dream sex? Because I can.

The base premise should be more than enough to get your gears going. Come ready to get weird with it. There's so much potential here, and so much of that potential is incredibly gay and wearing impeccably tailored suits.

2. Your friendly neighborhood circus family

As I mentioned before, Jiang Shuo lucks into the best possible fate that can befall an amnesiac: being picked up by carnies.

The troupe includes Ventriloquist Man, Really Big Dude, One-Eyed Acrobat, Other Acrobat, Cheerful Fat Girl, Boy Who Looks Like A Kid But Is Actually Played By An Adult So I'm Not Exactly Sure How Old The Character Himself Is Supposed To Be, and Silver Fox Circus Dad, who manages the whole crew. They're a ragtag bunch of performers who all live together in this cute little compound in some very nice slums, and sometimes they open the gates to their lavish compound and put on a circus show for all the common people!

Now: You know this is not going to be the wokest, most sensitive portrayal of body differences, because of course it isn't. But damn, it's pretty not-bad. The show treats all the circus members as valuable people worthy of affection, whose (occasionally exasperating) quirks are no more or less exhausting than those of the non-circus weirdos in the rest of the supporting cast.

I was half-expecting them to disappear after the first arc, but no! They’re a constant fixture through the show! They’re mostly there to support the show’s more comedic moments, but some of them get wrapped up in more emotional plotlines as well. And every now and then you get to see them actually do their circus shit, which is great.

I will admit that my fondness for them is related to how much I generally love fictional Freaks — you know, misfits who have banded together because society considers them unacceptably weird, but together their weirdnesses make them strong. When you find them, they’re usually the bad guys (e.g., the Gung-Ho Guns from Trigun, the Scorpion crew from Word of Honor) whose freak statuses make them formidable and occasionally sympathetic antagonists. But not so here! The Psych-Hunter Family Circus is good guy support all the way through to the final episode.

I know "found family" is a term that suffers from overuse, but that's the best way to describe what's happening here -- really, it's a family that's already found itself even before the show starts, and now they all live together as an unconventional collective of astonishingly flexible people. How did they find one another? Doesn't matter! What matters is that they all love and would do anything for their newest member, and they think it's great when he comes home with his attractive rich friends, who often arrive bringing snacks, which is really the best use for rich people, if you think about it.

3. Two hands, one ring

Now, if you've seen the series already, you know the moment I'm talking about. But if you haven't (and, statistically, you haven't), know that what I mean is the relationship between these two losers.

Together, Qin Yiheng and Jiang Shuo form the emotional core of the series. They're both drawn to one another because of mysterious circumstances that have started to align. Jiang Shuo's memory is missing, Qin Yiheng's dad has vanished, and all signs point to those absences as having something to do with one another.

Very early in the show, we see Qin Yiheng pull a "come with me if you want to live" on Jiang Shuo, giving the impression that he knows just what's going on in this crazy city. Except, no, he doesn't. Or does he? No, we're pretty sure he doesn't. Or he does, but he's forgotten what he knows, if he ever even knew it in the first place. Anyway, time to tie their hands together and jump into someone else's brain!

I'd say they're in love, but that's not quite it. Dr. Qin Yiheng, high-class homosexual, is in love with Jiang Shuo to the point where he's about to murder someone (possibly Jiang Shuo himself) out of frustration about it. Jiang Shuo, on the other hand, is much more sticking his fingers in his ears and going LA LA LA YOU CAN'T CATCH ME GAY THOUGHTS while trying get a girlfriend in an effort to pretend that all the shit they get up to together isn't tremendously romantic.

That is, until the scene that leads to the which-hand ring guessing game, at which point the burden of their relationship falls on Jiang Shuo (and the Inception parallels get unignorable) for exactly as long as the show will allow it to, before it freaks out and has to add another girl love interest just to make sure all the homos got no'd.

It's not textually gay, because seriously, have you met Chinese television? But it's pretty gay. Or, rather, I think Liu Dongqin (Qin Yiheng) is playing his character as a dedicated homosexual on purpose, and Hou Minghao (Jiang Shuo) is just ... kinda like that? I mean, everything I’ve seen him in, he gets real dreamy-eyed around strong men who pay close attention to him. Maybe it's just his thing as an actor. I'm not judging.

However, the main cast isn't just the two of them. One of the things that led me to this show was the promise of an OT3. And does it deliver on that promise?

Well ... sorta.

Qin Yiheng, Jiang Shuo, and Yuan Muqing are a pretty standard MFM not-love-triangle trio of Male Bestie, Main Guy, and Girlfriend (respectively). There's about five seconds at the beginning of the series where it looks like Yuan Muqing might be into Qin Yiheng, but no, that evaporates almost instantly and is never spoken of again -- and with it disappears most of their interactions with one another, period. So it's less an OT3, and more a case of bisexual cutiepie Jiang Shuo getting both a boyfriend and a girlfriend in a world where censorship will only let the latter relationship exist textually.

But damn if these boys aren't made for one another. Sure, there's a level of conscious comical queerbaiting to it -- I mean, there's straight-up an "only one bed" moment, so you know the show isn't stumbling into rainbow territory on accident. No matter how sexual or nonsexual or whatever you read it as, though, their dynamic is the spine that holds the story together. Really, it's almost sad how often the relationships are set parallel to one another, because when you do that, it becomes obvious how intense Jiang Shuo's bond with Qin Yiheng is, and how largely lackluster and comphet most of his canon romance with Yuan Muqing is by comparison.

Like so.

sidebar: The Girl

I am not going to go into a full-throated defense of The Girl this time, as I am wont to do, mostly because I think Yuan Muqing is full of potential in concept but so badly executed that there's really no hope for her. Her entire personality is whatever they need her to be in any particular scene. It's just that once in a while, what they need her to be is completely insane -- like, seeing-things-that-aren't-there insane -- and it's so great that it makes me mad! She could have been like this all the time! But noooooo

As it is, she has a perfunctory canonical romance with Jiang Shuo that's about as endgame as anything is capable of being (see point 5), and it actually gets pretty cute when it finally gets to the point where it's not just awkward obligation! But alas, it only does that so late in the series that it's not even worth it getting invested in it.

She is a creation of the show. She has no novel counterpart. Her entire function in the drama is to un-gay the dynamic between the boys. You can tell that she was initially supposed to have a different role -- to be the muscle of this trio -- but the narrative forgets pretty quickly that she's got that skill set, and she regresses to being The Girl. She makes dumb decisions that forward the plot. She gets put into danger whenever it's convenient. She demands Jiang Shuo do manly things for her because that’s what a girl is supposed to do, I guess? And then there are moments where she’s cool and crazy and it’s awesome! But they never last.

So if you are going to watch this, be prepared for the fact that the female lead is badly written to the point of frustration. I feel her actor is doing the absolutely best with what she's got; the problem is that what she's got is pretty crappy. Still, Muqing gets some pretty charming moments here and there, and I think it's worth hanging onto those and imagining the character she could have been, if the writers had cared just a little more, or even at all.

4. Powerfully surreal worldbuilding

I'm not even talking about the way people's psyches are structured according to dream logic -- the "normal" waking world is almost equally bizarre. The story takes place in sort of the real world c. 1930, except that a lot of things are off. For example, Japan and England are real locations, but China kinda isn't -- instead, the show takes place in a Shanghai-like city-state run by this moustachioed generalissimo with a faux Latin American dictator aesthetic. The place has its own flag and government and police force (where all the cops have coordinating surnames) and diplomatic relationships with other countries, so it’s clearly its own thing. But what that thing is? What it’s even called? Look, don’t worry about it. Nobody else is worried, so you shouldn’t be either.

You will, at every point in the series, be wondering if the show is trying to telegraph to you that Something's Not Quite Right Here, or if it's just making weird decisions for the sake of artsy weirdness. But don't worry -- there's absolutely no way to tell the difference between the two! Just roll with it.

There's a weird mix of universe rules happening throughout, where everything is mostly period-appropriate for a while, and then somebody builds a clock with levitating parts, or causes someone else to have very specific memory loss — or, again, swings some coins in front of a person’s face and gains the ability to treat their subconscious like a VR amusement park.

You can sort of reconstruct the evolution of this weirdness: The book has actual factual ghosts in it. Well, that’s fine for books, but TV isn’t allowed to have ghosts. But TV can have people who imagine ghosts, so long as it’s all in their heads. Okay, but you know jumping bodily into those imaginations isn’t actually a thing real people can do, right? Well, then let’s make it scientific. How can that be scientific? I don't know, it’s psychiatry. I don’t think that’s psychiatry. Look, it could be. Well, it’s definitely not psychiatry in 1930s Shanghai, and that’s the set we’re allowed to film on. Okay, what if it weren’t actually Shanghai? What if it weren’t actually 1930? What if all of this were at best a weird approximation of the period that adheres to no rules except the ones we want?

Once you’ve thought that, the sky’s the limit.

The show has a very inconsistent grasp on reality, and I am listing that as a pro instead of a con because I am choosing to embrace it as a deliberate choice rather than assume it’s the result of craven incompetence. There's something to be said, though, for how pervasively inconsistent it is. It'd be one thing if there were just a few plot holes here and there (and there are), but this is more along the lines of: We woke up in a mysterious boat and got taken to an island with a giant sea monster skeleton on the shore! What's that all about? Couldn't say! Was it real? Maybe! Moving on!

Let the number of "it's fine! who knows!" comments I've made throughout this rec indicate how much this is the kind of show you just have to roll with. If you are a nitpicker or someone who is troubled by unexplained nonsense, this is not the thing for you. If you love artistic magical realism and high strangeness, you will eat this up with a spoon.

And the lampshade that hangs over all of this worldbuilding is...

5. THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE ENDING EVER

Okay, usually I am coy about when I think an ending has problems. I am going to drag this one out front and center: Psych-Hunter has an ending so jaw-droppingly, head-clutchingly stupid that I'm actually listing it as a selling point, because it has to be seen to be believed.

When I first watched it, I suspected the show ran out of time or money or something and just had to slap together the quickest possible ending ever. But no! This is the ending they meant! If you go back to the rest of the series, you can see that this is what they were (kinda) setting up the whole time! They just set it up so poorly and decided to make the twist hit at such a late point that not only is it complete nonsense, it actually renders moot the entire emotional stakes of the show! Absolutely incredible!

Now, as I've said before in other places, I don't begrudge the actual twist itself. I mean, it's stupid on its face, but I think they could have done something with it — if they'd had it happen halfway through the series, when the characters would have had time to adjust to the new knowledge. Instead, they slap it on at the last possible moment, when there's no time to have any reaction to it. It's just jarring and baffling, and then the whole thing's over.

I've seen lots of people say "season 2 when???" Season 2 never, friends. There was never going to be a season 2. The only reason you think this was an even remotely acceptable narrative move was that you were assuming that this would be the midpoint, not the end. You're having the same reaction I did, only I can tell this was always meant to be their spectacular dismount.

(To me, it's clear what happened: They J.J. Abramsed themselves into a cool premise for a mystery with no idea how to solve it, hoping they'd figure it out along the way. When they got to the end and still hadn't figured it out, they simply ... opted out of solving it.)

Now, if you want a normal viewing experience out of this show, watch to the end of the next-to-last episode, close your browser window, and have imagination adventures about how you think all the mysteries should resolve. But you're not going to. You are going to continue on to that last episode, and you are going to realize that nothing I could have said here could possibly have prepared you for this. And somewhere, I am going to feel the urge to cackle wickedly and not even know why. Except I'll know why. We'll both know why.

Want to watch this hot mess?

That baby's an iQiyi exclusive! But you can watch the first episode on YouTube, if you feel like getting a taste that way.

Look, I know I may have spoiled my pitch somewhat with that last selling point. After all, why would you bother watching a series if you know it has a shit ending?

I refute your objection thus: Knowing it has a shit ending changes the whole game, because it removes the feeling of betrayal that hits upon your discovering that the ending isn’t what you wanted. You know that already now, so there can be no betrayal. The ending goes from being an unpleasant surprise to being exactly the unexpected thing that you expected. With that in mind, you can dive right in (ha ha) knowing that you’ll never get the closure you crave, and therefore whatever you make up along the way is perfectly valid.

This is obviously a turnoff if you prefer shows that are like seeing someone start a magic trick, perform it without breaking a sweat, and walk off calmly, leaving you wondering how on earth they accomplished such an amazing thing. Think of this more as someone starting a magic trick, accidentally letting the rabbit fall out of their hat, saying “I meant to do that!” like thirty times, and suddenly vanishing through a trapdoor, leaving you wondering what the trick was even supposed to be in the first place — but they were really good-looking and well-dressed, so at least whatever they were doing was nice to look at while it was happening.

See? They're having fun.