This typeset of Pentimento by orange_crushed was created by @teleportbooks for me in the 2022 @renegadeguild typeset exchange! (And bound as part of my Binderary 2023 stack, and look, I am REALLY behind at posting right now, and going to schedule some posts to catch up.)
This fic is a MDZS Wangxian modern AU set in a museum, where Lan Wangji is an art conservator, and Wei Wuxian is an art handler. (Drama! Tension! Meeting after years apart!) One of the joys of a well-constructed AU is seeing how the author recontextualizes canon, and I really enjoyed how the pieces fit together in this fic, as well as Lan Wangji's voice and point of view.
I raided my wife's art supplies for this one (also for the most themed photo op I've done to date) and used two different types of canvas for the book cloth. The lighter cover is just untreated canvas, backed with fusible interfacing and tissue, run through a home laser printer for the cover, and the title on both the cover and spine is acrylic paint using a Cricut-cut stencil. The darker canvas on the spine was gessoed and had a backing on it, and it did NOT want to stick with wheat starch paste, and only held with great reluctance with straight PVA glue. But it worked in the end! The endpapers are some of my wife's gelli-plate printing experiments, for a modern art vibe.
The typeset is lovely and elegant, with a title page set up like a gallery placard, and @teleportbooks included all of the artwork referenced in the fic as if they were colour plates in an art book! Look at this gorgeousness...
I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out overall, and the setting was definitely fun to riff off with the materials used. (Although I will only use that darker canvas again under duress... or for something else where it's the perfect fit, honestly.)
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i guess if i share it i have to link the fic - it is explicit soooo proceed accordingly, but it’s Many Happy Returns by orange_crushed, and the line i’m obsessed with is:
LIKE A PORCELAIN PLATE
!!!!!!
like
what!!!
not at all the thing you think of or associate with cold winter air but the EXACT perfect simile to convey the feeling. flawless. immaculate. 11/10.
i had to stop and be like, is this a known saying? did i miss this somehow? how is this not used in everything?? like, literally i had to be like, am i just stupid? or is this fucking brilliant?? anyway, that’s the kind of thing that revs my engine i guess if anyone is curious.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian
Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Yanli, Nie Huaisang, Jin Zixuan, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren
Additional Tags: Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Cloud Recesses (Módào Zǔshī), Cloud Recesses Shenanigans (Modao Zushi), Friends to Lovers, Romantic Comedy, Kissing, Fade to Black, Mild Sexual Content, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, No Sunshot No War AU, Everything's Beautiful and Nothing Hurts When There's No Sunshot Campaign, Falling In Love, Non-Graphic Violence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Sparring, Harm to Animals, Don't Worry The Animal is Fine Wangji Makes Sure of That, Developing Friendships, Wangji Makes Friends At Summer School, None Of This Makes Sense Until You Remember They Are All Teenage Boys, teenagers in love, They're A Mess Your Honor (And I Love Every One Of Them), Hurt/Comfort, Mild Blood, First Time, Podfic, Podfic Length: 1.5-2 Hours
Summary:
Wangji risks a glance across the aisle; Wei Ying’s gaze is tilted down to his book, a model of diligence. But he’s smiling as he writes, and when his eyes flick over to Wangji’s, just for a second, they’re alight with something beautiful.
This is love, Wangji realizes, right then. This is what it feels like. It's happening afresh even as it dawns on him.
xie’er goes about his business. he has to replenish stocks of herbs and simple powders, he needs some good rope. this and that. he goes slowly through the market stalls, picking up what he needs. he knows he’s being followed. the kid isn’t very subtle.
the old man never was.
The beginning. by orange_crushed
This is playing with reincarnation and healing. It’s so well done. I like the way the author writes these two.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Additional Tags:
Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Parent(s), Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Suicide of a Parent, References to Depression, Anxiety, Therapy, References to Anti-Depressant Medications, Escort Service
Word count: 25.5k
Summary:
His fingers are still clasped between Wangji's. In the mirror Wangji watches him tuck his coat between his thighs so that he can fuss with the tucked-in hem of his shirt, tousle up the side of his hair, all one-handed. "I hope what I'm wearing is okay."
"It's good," Wangji says. "You look good."
"I guess I must," Wei Ying says, and then he smiles and bites his teeth into his bottom lip for a second, devastatingly, and before Wangji can drop dead the doors to the elevator slide open, and the hostess station appears.
[In which lonely businessman Lan Wangji meets the right wrong person and changes the course of his life.]
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Sister, don’t cry anymore; lay your weary head here with me. Rebecca Proctor née Barnes, beloved younger sister to Bucky (and sometimes Steve too). Below are my Top 5 Favorite Stories:
“Roll On” (M, 89k) by jaxington
In 1938, there's a bar in Brooklyn called Sully’s where people are safe to be themselves. Behind the bar, a girl pours drinks. She's always got a big smile for Steve and she says queer like it's a good thing. On a regular basis, she takes his shoulders in her hands and tries to shake sense into him, saying, "When will you do something about that best friend of yours?"
In 2012, Bucky’s gone, but Steve’s not, and the girl’s hands are too old to shake him. She does her best to make him see sense anyway.
Steve had people who loved him before the war, and it turns out a few of them are still around when he finally comes home.
+ Pre-War to Alt CW. A stunning three part series spanning 300k words. Part 1 focuses on Becca, Part 2 on Becca’s wife, and Part 3 is Post WS to Alt CW from Bucky’s perspective. Bucky Barnes recovers, Found Family, and love true love. It’s not marked as complete, but can be read as such
-☆-
“My Brother, The Hero” (G, 16k) by Odsbodkins
Becca Barnes is eight years old, and her big brother can do no wrong.
The events of the two Captain America movies, from the perspective of one of the sisters Bucky leaves behind.
+ Pre-War to Post WS. Becca adores Steve and Bucky, and is heartbroken after the Valkyrie. Decades later, she reunites with them both
-☆-
“Now! That’s What I Call 90’s Slow Jams” (M, 10k) by deadonarrival
Steve goes home for the wedding of Becca Barnes and while he’s there he runs into his old crush. Her brother. Except now they are both hot as shit. Oh no whatever will happen.
+ Modern AU. Childhood friends reunited, mutual pining, fake (and not so fake) dating!
-☆-
“Geriatric Road Trip, 2015″ (NR, 4k) by what_alchemy
Bucky was the eldest of four.
+ Post WS. Outside POV. Becca’s grandson takes his grandma, granduncle, and grandaunt to see Steve in DC.
-☆-
“There Are Worse Ways to Make Friends” (T, 4k) by Alexicon
Becca Barnes breaks into her brother's apartment through his window. She finds out later that it is not her brother's apartment.
+ Modern AU. Steve bonds with an unexpected guest and meets her hot older sibling
-☆-
-☆- And a freebie! -☆-
“cascades.” (M, 152k) by orange_crushed
“Holy shit,” Howard says, crackling through the speakers. “You alive in there?” Lying is a sin, of course, but Steve’s not sure what else he can do. He’s already lied to the government and Bucky and God Almighty; and himself, himself most of all. He ought to tell the truth. That he’s not quite what they hoped for. That perhaps they should put him back into the ocean.
“Probably,” he says, instead, listening to Howard’s tinny laughter; and waits for the blast doors to unlock.
+ Post Valkyrie. Steve absorbs the tesseract, comes back with teleporting powers, saves Bucky, saves the world. Reposted from All Time Favorites.
++“I know it’s crazy. But this is crazy,” he says, and raises his metal hand. “What Steve can do—that's crazy. It’s all crazy. Our whole fucking lives. I have to,” he says, and whips them around a turn. “I have to believe, he’s—I have to.” Rebecca considers it: considers what she’d do, how far she’d go, if she thought there was a chance—even an inkling. A feeling. A sign. She knows that she would drive to San Diego, to Mongolia, to the moon. She’d leave right now, without a bag, without a dollar in her pocket or a forwarding address. Without anything at all but a fool’s hope; without anything at all but deathless, unkillable love.
-☆-
*More Becca Barnes in the Space, Food Competitions, Alpha Steve, Fake Married, and Christmas Lists
Random, but: have you read orange_crushed's Bellarke fic that Tumblr will not let me link to (All Tomorrow's Parties)? Because she is a heart-rending genius and it seemed like something you might appreciate. Anyway, I love your blog, keep up the good work! :D
Hi, hello, sorry for replying so late! I must have passed out when I saw your ask, because 1) someone very nice messaged me!!! thank, and 2) orange_crushed wrote a Bellarke fic at some point, and I didn’t know, whAT
I’ve read their other things, primarily for SPN, of course - I found Fearson’s Floating Cigarette absolutely charming, the PWP verse gave me a focaccia kink that I will take with me to the grave, and Fata Morgana is, to this day, one of my absolutely favourite s10 fics/demon!Dean fics, along with Kintsukuroi by snarklyboojum (strongly recommended, the way it’s written, demon!Dean’s narrative voice, the scene when Dean sees Cas with his demon eyes? I’m getting shivers just thinking about it, and it’s been a few years already since I read it), ANYWAYS, thank you for bringing to my attention, in the middle of the coronavirus quarantine no less, the fact that the fandom legend orange_crushed has written a Bellarke fic, and it looks perfectly pain-inducing, thank you, T H A N K Y O U
"My number," says Dean, because he's a fucking champion, he's cool, he's collected, he's Captain Smooth of the USS Smoothtania, that's right. He is definitely not leaning against the counter for moral support. Cas doesn't looked seduced or impressed, though. He does not look like a dude who just met Captain Smooth and wants to ride the loveboat. He looks puzzled.
Comments: 9/10. They’re all short and fluffy and hilarious. I love Dean’s inner monologue and they’re disgustingly sweet together. It’s cute and great for a nice pick-me-up!
