Inception 30 Day Challenge 2026:Ā Get creative and win prizes!
Create a post, whether it be text, art, music, or any other media, using these 31 items as prompts.Ā Feel free to participate in as many or as few of them as you want!
Copy the prompt into the body of the post somewhere and tag your posts with @inception30daychallenge, #inceptiversary,andĀ #inception30daychallenge. Your posts will be reblogged on this blog for everyone to appreciate!
You earn one entry for every prompt you answer beforeĀ 11:59 PM EDT on July 31 (whatās that in my timezone?). Weāll hold a raffle then to determine our prize winner(s)! More info can be found in ourĀ FAQ.
Prompts below the cut, or atĀ this Google Doc link!
Day 01: Your favorite line.Ā
Day 02: What other media would you like to see in a crossover?Ā Ā
Day 03: A headcanon for how two characters interact (i.e. hobbies, inside jokes).
Day 04: Yusufās totem?
Day 05: A characterās go-to karaoke song.Ā
Day 06: Did Robert Fischer have childhood pets?Ā
Day 07: Recommend a fic with less than 1000 hits!
Day 08: If the roles in the movie were swapped, who would be who?Ā
Day 09: What part would you play on a dreamshare team?Ā
Day 10: A fanart rec! (note: please do not repost art from tumblr artists! just reblog it and tag @inception30daychallenge so we can see it.)
Day 11: Arthurās preferred tie knot?Ā
Day 12: What style of dance does each character prefer?Ā
Day 13: What other movie would you recommend to a fellow Inception fan?Ā Ā
Day 14: A pre-canon headcanon.Ā
Day 15: Ariadneās favorite art movement?Ā
Day 16: Inception Day! Tell us about your first experience with the movie or first experience with the fandom!
Day 17: What would your favorite characterās social media handle be?Ā
Day 18: During a job, whatās everyoneās caffeinated beverage of choice?Ā
Day 19: A headcanon about Saitoās family and/or relationships.Ā
Day 20: Your favorite scene.Ā
Day 21: Do Phillipa and Jamesās names have any particular meanings?Ā
Day 22: A post-canon headcanon.Ā
Day 23: Is āEamesā his real name?
Day 24: What movie does Cobb watch on repeat?Ā
Day 25: Fill out this alignment chart!
Day 26: Whoās the biggest shipper/meddler on the team?Ā
Day 27: What song would play over the credits of an Inception sitcom?Ā
Day 28: What job would your favorite character have if they werenāt in dreamshare (or werenāt a high-powered business executive)?Ā
Day 29: A self-rec! (anything from art to a funny Tumblr post you made!)
Not to be basic but I love the hallway scene so much. Itās just so fucking cool.
All of Saitoās and Eamesā interactions on the second level are so fun. Thereās obviously the one where Eames drops his forge but the moment when Saito accidentally addresses Browning because he thinks heās Eames is also great. Both of their reactions are absolute peak.
And then I obviously love every scene A/E share.
Man ā¦ itās almost like itās a great movie with lots of great scenes. Thereās so many more I want to talk about haha
19. A headcanon about Saitoās family and/or relationships.Ā
Saito feels somewhat unfulfilled in his personal relationships.
Heās prioritised business all his life so he doesnāt have particularly close relations. His relationship with his wife is amicable but distant. Their match was a strategic partnership more than anything else while they tried in the early days, they never managed to find a spark so they came to the unspoken agreement to look for it elsewhere.
The mistress we hear of in the movie is the most recent in a long line of lovers. He enjoys her company but keeps her at arms length.
Saito is by no means lacking options - he has a number colleagues/business partners/acquaintances with whom he goes out for drinks and other activities when heās in the mood for it - but heās missing a confidante.
Heās used to people around him having an ulterior motive so heās constantly on guard and doesnāt let anyone get too close.
A headcanon about Saitoās family and/or relationships.Ā
Hmmm, I can't say I have put a lot of thought in it but Saito strikes me as someone who is married to a person from a good, respectable family, who's able to add to his reputation and will raise their children into well-behaved adults but their marriage is, possibly, one of convenience. They both understand and have accepted that and if Saito has a lover or ten on the side doesn't really matter as long as they can keep up appearances.
A headcanon about Saitoās family and/or relationships.
Saito is married, but in a "I had to get married early in my career to make people think I'm normal in order to get promoted" kind of way. I see him as someone joined the company at the lower ranks immediately after graduating from an elite university (probably the University of Tokyo, although maybe Kyoto University) with an engineering degree and who worked his way up from the bottom (he's far too competent and ambitious to be a nepo baby). Meanwhile his wife has family connections to the company (to the founder or previous CEO), so their marriage happens in a mukoyÅshi marriage kind of sense (even if he isn't formally adopted).
Whether they actually tried in the beginning or not, they keep separate households now, barely see each other, and have an open marriage. He's possibly her beard. I don't think they have children, because Saito is too callous about using Cobb's kids as a bargaining chip and he is far too much of a risk-taker to be a family man.
Cobb wasn't speaking in the abstract when he says "I need to know my way around your thoughts better than your wife" - he's right, she does know him very well, but only because they're too similar to live under the same roof for too long.
The Francis Bacon painting actually belongs to her (it's an original) - she's an art enthusiast, probably an artist in her own right. Even if he doesn't love her romantically, she's still had an influence on him and his tastes. I like the idea of her being the sort of wealthy art patron type having salons and taking younger lovers. Maybe having her in the periphery of his life ensures he keeps his standards high, because he doesn't want to embarrass her by having an affair with just any random woman.
18. During a job, whatās everyoneās caffeinated beverage of choice?Ā
Eames: drinks coffee only for the caffeine, half his cup is milk because he canāt stand the taste, prefers tea and making sure he gets enough sleep
Ariadne: her favourites are cappuccino and chocolate mocha. She likes rich flavours and enjoys dipping biscuits or a piece of chocolate into her coffee. Itās as much about the ritual of making and enjoying coffee as it is about the caffeine.
Saito: espresso (very chic and efficient, just fits his vibe)
Arthur: coffee so strong itās practically undrinkable, looks and tastes like tar. Absolutely no regard for flavour. Drinks it in bucketloads during jobs and not at all when heās not working.
Yusuf: bit of a coffee snob, can taste differences in how the coffee was prepared, will drink anything but complains about the quality of the beans
17. What would your favorite characterās social media handle be?Ā
Social Media doesnāt really go well with their jobs so I donāt think any of them would have a personal account except maybe Ariadne.
Hers is probably a very artsy Instagram account with photos of her sketches and uni projects and aesthetic shots of her coffee at the local cafe as well as random streets, buildings and artworks (especially street art). Itās called sth like aris_little_artworld or study.with.ari.
Arthur has a Reddit account which he would name arthuronpoint if he could but instead it has a generic handle. Sometimes when heās stressed, he uses it to get into fights over peopleās stupid takes on random topics.
During a job, whatās everyoneās caffeinated beverage of choice?Ā
Cobb: triple shot of espresso, black, all the sugar so he can stay awake and spiral as much as he wants
Yusuf: tea with just a drop of milk and half a spoonful of sugar. His nerves are already freyed enough, he doesn't need caffeine to make them worse
Saito: proper japanese tea that he prepares himself bc going through the motions settles something in him and makes him think better on which enterprise giant to buy out next
Ariadne: she shoots back energy drinks like there's no tomorrow (you know, the college student on a deadline way)
Arthur: insists he only drinks coffee that's as black and bitter as his soul, but he's a secret fan of all the frivolous monstrosities with the super sweet syrups and the mix of spices
What would your favorite characterās social media handle be?Ā
Arthur would have a lot of fake accounts with generic handles so he could spy on targets. He wouldn't have one of his own because, even if he did, he'd be a lurker and can't see the appeal of social media until Ariadne finds out and sets up an account for him with the handle "dressed_to_kill". Arthur would change the name to something more generic but Ariadne with the help of Eames keep going into his account whenever Arthur leaves his phone unattended and changing his handle into all kinds of ridiculous things like "mr-specificity", "t00-c00l-f0r-jeans", "defier_of_gravity" and "lethaltwink".
Eames would have something that'd drive Arthur crazy bc it'd be a reference to his profession like "seductiveforger". He'd get bored of it quickly though and change it to a dozen other things like "notthechair", "thesexierEames", "britishdreammaker" and "darlingsnumberonefan".
Inception Day! Tell us about your first experience with the movie or first experience with the fandom!
It's Valentine's Day, 2017, and I'm alone with my cat in my single-bedroom apartment, reading some random X-Men fanfic set in sorta Inception AU. So I'm like, "hmm, I used to love Nolan, how come I've never watched this movie". And I google it, and there's Tom Hardy in it, and I'm like... "yeaaaah, not a big fan of Tom Hardy's face, prob that's why didn't watch it" and "oh lookie there's a ship apparently, and there's a ship manifesto on LJ, should I..? Naaah, got enough ships on my plate, still didn't get over CACW & Tony/Steve heartbreak, I don't need this."
but it's Valentine's Day, and I'm alone with my cat, and the fic I'm reading is getting a bit tiresome without all the required knowledge about how incepting&stuff works, so I literally - and this is a quote that's going to be stored in my head for decades to come - tell myself:
"yeah I don't need another ship, but I'm gonna give it a try anyway."
A not-exactly pre-canon headcanon: Arthur had plans with Eames before he got mixed in the whole inception thing. When he says in the movie that he's going to go stateside he's lying and will actually go meet Eames so they can have a smal vacation together, but well, now that plan is out of the window. It's why Eames seems so salty when Cobb goes to find him in Mombassa and why he keeps snarking at Arthur and trying to annoy him. kinda like: we could be having Muai Thais at the beach right now but you just had to go and get yourself mixed up in Cobb's bs again.
An actual pre-canon headcanon: Arthur and Eames have kissed in the past . It was only once and they were both still high on adrenaline. It wasn't just a simple kiss either because once they started they couldn't stop until someone interrupted them (probably Cobb, which would explain Eames' dislike of him). They've never talked about it and have tried to not get themselves into that situation again (re: Arthur has tried) but they are both still thinking about it by the time of the canon. Of course after the movie ends Arthur seeks out Eames (it's easier to find him than the other way around) and they (re: Arthur) finally take that leap into exploring what's that thing between them.
Inception Day! Tell us about your first experience with the movie or first experience with the fandom!
Somehow I had managed to completely avoid watching the movie and everything about it (except Cobb's famous squint memes) until two years ago. I didn't even know a fandom existed or how big it used to be until I started talking with @ladyvaderpixetc. I ended up watching the movie bc I wanted to understand who her little dream crime guys were. We were talking via text while watching the movie and she, angel that she is, kept explaining all the things I didn't understand and answering all my questions while feeding me lore and AE tidbits. By the end of the movie I had unlocked a new ship and a new hyperfixation. What can I say, Arthur and Eames stole my heart.
Lady Vader does get all the credit for incepting me into falling for her dream criminals though ā„ļø
I was gleefully surprised to find the fandom was still alive and thriving and it's all because of all of you who mod our events and keep the interest and love going.
To my dear friend, the mods and everyone else who's still creating or otherwise sharing their enthusiasm over Inception and AE, thank you for the bottom of my heart. Being a part of this fandom has been a joy all around ā„ļø
everyone say thank you to joseph gordon levitt and tom hardy for imbuing their characters in inception with so much chemistry that it gave the impression of a tangled history of failed romance and repressed love and the desire to reignite the flame between them. and they did it for literally no reason. in 2010
16. Inception Day! Tell us about your first experience with the movie or first experience with the fandom!
My first experience with the fandom was seeing this post in October 2024. I watched the movie a few years after it came out but I hadnāt seen it in ages and yet I immediately went āthat take is so valid, I should rewatch the movieā and then immediately did just that.
HAPPY INCEPTION DAY!!! (day 16: first experience w movie or fandom)
I donāt really remember my first experience, I think my art teacher recommended it to me and I remember enjoying it and thinking Arthur was hot and also played by keanu reeves (unrelated facts) cuz i recently watched the matrix at the time??
But i REWATCHED it several years later when I saw a youtube video that showed all the levels of the heist in real time and Iād forgotten most of inception so i decided to rewatch it!
ā¦
After watching it i immediately ran to ao3 to see how many arthureames fics there were and the rest is history.
I posted inception fanart 2 months after my first rewatch and I remember it was of art of text convos that someone and @/mister-eames hadā¦ i remember being REALLY SCARED to interact w the inception fandom because fandoms were incredibly intimidating to me but now I know better!!
Arthur joined the military very young with the intention of financing his education and the possibility of rejoining after college in order to qualify for student loan forgiveness. Education is very important to him and he always dreamed of pursuing higher education but there was just no way he could afford it otherwise. Scholarships were pretty much out of the question because his grades werenāt good enough since he was already working at lot during high school. While in service he got assigned to a top secret dreamshare project and then one thing lead to another and he became a highly accomplished criminal instead of a college student. Sometimes heās still bitter about it. Especially because Cobb is from an academic background and can be insufferable about it.
