#renaissance theme

Howdy there, shippers & readers!

The 12th of November marks the impetus of our beloved book club; the very day the server opened to membership and a bunch of us funneled in with our nominations and desire to talk about our favourite fics together. Mingling new faces with some old, we chose to celebrate by hosting a Renaissance round. This meant giving our members the opportunity to revisit some of the OG reads from when we began. With fifteen choices allowed, the vote was in; we read darling it's a faded notion by varnes

We feasted this round. Many members of our club declare this to be one of their absolute favourite fics and with damn good reason. In the delicate aftermath of something unspoken between them, Shane and Ryan navigate the tender line between them just as they're thrust into a circumstance where if they stop touching each other for a second, there's nothing but pain. The book club was unanimous in saying that there really is nothing like the trope of forced intimacy with a rich whipped topping of fake dating and the decadent cherry on top of domesticity without thinking.

Rating: E

Summary:

The sun is too bright and Ryan’s whole body is alight with something that is eating him all the way up from the inside out, but he keeps his eyes open and he makes himself look, and he tells himself that once he finds Shane, he’ll think about it. Once he finds Shane, they’ll make a plan. Once he finds Shane, and only then, he’ll let himself have the thought he’s been swallowing down like bile since he came to: that they didn’t fall.

They were pushed.

OR: Ryan and Shane get cursed by a ghost, and now they can't be not-touching. It's ... not great.

Book Club Thoughts

This fic does so well using the forced proximity to contrast the emotional distance that had been created between them by the misunderstanding(s).

forced intimacy tropes are always gonna be my favourite, and this one is a banger

yeah, the unreliable narrator aspect is done so well. like they're both very certain in their perception of reality, which is why the telepathy aspects later are so impactful.

i really like that [Shane's] skepticism extends to being skeptical of ryan's feelings and whether ryan knows what he's doing

I appreciated how the fic worked at balancing their public and private personas, especially when they were at a point in their relationship when they were less (openly) candid with each other

I love how the landscape, the desert landscape, is described. Love that the fic starts out with a wide lens and a beautiful setting

I think the chief thing i love about this fic is how it makes a dual-POV friends to lovers sing

i like how this fic gets into the performative part of their relationship

god, it's so much of who they are. Shane quibbling in his hipster repression vibes and Ryan outraged because Shane won't share with him as easily. It's all of what I love to read about them

i know pov switching isn't unique but man varnes just. is unparalleled. each voice is so unique, the internal monologues so wonderfully separate.

caravaggio.