How in the absolute hell it got to MAY before I replied to your comment is beyond me, but it’s been a weird few months and I am just a bit like that, it takes me a while sometimes, I am sorry!
Yes, Eames DOES know him best! But Eames doesn’t think that! And he is EXACTLY who he’s trying to fool. Eames knows all these things about Arthur, but for some reason the explanation is eluding him. Far easier to consider all these little Arthur factoids as isolated facts rather than joining up the dots. And that’s the crux of it, he’s been forging this thing forever now and by now it is just habit. The pithy little things he throws out about forging are as much about his feelings for Arthur (or… actually for quite a lot of things in this instance), as they are about forging, it makes me very happy you liked Eames' pithy rules. And it just seemed like something he would do! I really like theories about forging, but I just feel like Eames would… not be very forthcoming about it. Cagey, depending.
I’m so glad you liked the use of ‘stroppily’! Like, the ways we describe people and things and happenings both as a result of moods and as a defence, how perceptions are in flux and subject to external and internal influence. I started off thinking ‘oh yes Arthur in a Victorian bonnet because he’s sleep deprived and his defences are down, that sounds like fun!’, and while this is still that, they both had slightly more feelings about it all than I anticipated. I felt a bit mean making Arthur have that sort of observed falling apart, but sometimes there’s no stopping it - sorry Arthur, I (Eames) will make it up to you in the second part.
Must admit I did get a bit more Christmas Carol-y as I was going along – in for a penny and all that. But the thought that repeating the same course of action over and over will yield the same result, that’s sort of at the heart of it. Seemed rather fitting for that to be rooted in family and a time of year that can be… well, weird sometimes I guess. Christmas just seems like such a good excuse to explore the concurrent joy and tragedy of life I guess, and… I dunno, it IS sad sometimes, and there are things which are shit, but something approaching humour always seems to be to be in the mix there too. The dichotomies, I am giving you all the gold stars, thank you for saying this. Those are it, they’re the fic. This navigation of all these feelings that somehow are held at arms length and then suddenly won’t be denied, whether they be loss or love or even just laughing uncontrollably at something stupid, and all of those things being part of the mixture.
Writing this in December was definitely A Thing, and while a big chunk of the second part is there, it’s all been a bit reluctant to come together (but then, weird few months, cutting myself a bit of slack probably helps?!). I hope I can stick the landing because I really want to pull it together in a way that feels right. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, I really appreciate it so much, it means an awful lot <3
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Anticline on Chapter 1 Sat 10 May 2025 07:36PM UTC
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