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forestsofpineI enjoy fanfics in which an author with very specific knowledge uses that knowledge to bring their stories to life with interesting and immersive details. It always reminds me of that famous George R.R. Martin quote:
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
I find it really fun to glimpse another life like this. I'm not sure if there's a name for this particular genre of fic, but it's similar to the Take Your Fandom To Work challenge (AO3 tag) and that's how I usually refer to it, although the specialty knowledge doesn't have to be work-related and can be from a hobby, interest, or some other source.
I recced a few fics like this back in July and August, and will rec another in my upcoming October monthly recs post, so I decided to make another themed rec post to gather them all in one spot, and to add a few more from past fandoms. I'll add to this post as I read more (or remember more) examples of this genre.
MDZS Fic Recs
Faire Thee Well, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 77k, teen
Summary: In which Wei Ying does magic tricks, Lan Zhan sells flower crowns, and Mingjue is a blacksmith, because the whole gang works at the Renaissance Faire and no one quite knows how to function.
Notes: What it says on the tin! The gang works as performers and vendors at Renaissance Faires. In addition to some great mutually pining Wangxian, there's bonus Xuanli, Chengqing, and 3zun.
Mud and Canvas, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 109k, mature
Summary: Yiling Laozu was one of the biggest characters on the Sunshot LARP field. He made his own faction, raised an army of the dead, and was single-handedly responsible for destroying the yin iron economy. Unfortunately his actions caused no end of problems for the game runners - so after Yiling Laozu’s death, his player Wei Ying was very firmly asked to leave the game. Four years and a change of management later, and Wei Ying is back! Only difference - rather than being let loose on the field again, he’s crewing now and playing a stream of NPC zombies, merchants and diplomats.
While he's barred from raising the dead, he still has plenty of time for important out of character shenanigans, including but not limited to avoiding his family, poking electrical wires, corrupting the youth, and bothering Lan Zhan.
One year, four events, and a tale of campfires, love and live action roleplaying.
Notes: A love letter to the British LARPing scene, mud and all.
Night of the Living History (an edutainment special!), Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 51k, teen
Pentimento., Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 72k, explicit
Summary: When Wangji was eighteen he’d walked into the first class of his fall semester painting module and there’d been a boy in a hilariously ugly floppy knit hat sitting cross-legged on the floor at the front of the room. He’d had a sheet of canvas paper taped to his board and his board clamped between his legs and a tackle box of brushes and tubes—a real fishing tackle box, with a fish-shaped logo on it that said BASS, not one of the nice art supply storage boxes they sold in the campus bookstore, like the one Wangji was carrying—open beside him. Everyone else had settled into the rows of stools and easels, but that boy had stayed on the floor for the whole two hour and thirty minute studio. Wangji had looked at him and thought, that idiot’s back is going to hurt.
[Former best friends Lan Wangji, paintings conservator, and Wei Wuxian, art handler, meet again and realize... neither of them were actually in unrequited love.]
Notes: A glimpse into the art world as backdrop for an emotional second-chance romance.
The Roots Grow Riotous, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 104k, explicit
Summary: Sometimes Lan Zhan doesn’t work through lunch. Sometimes he makes conversation with coworkers in the halls. Sometimes he goes home instead of spending the last hour trawling through Grindr. But mostly, that’s exactly what he does. The sameness is comforting. His life spools out in easily measured increments: capsule collections, yards of hand dyed textiles, ninety day lead times, sell through figures, cost of goods sold.
Every date in manufacturing can be calculated backwards and forward from a single horizon point: the date that the goods must arrive into the country where they'll be sold. Other than that, nothing else really matters.
Notes: I haven't recced this fic previously even though it's very well-written because it has some elements that I personally find too upsetting (YMMV), so for me it's in a category of "good fics that I'll probably never read again" and the fics I rec on this blog are ones that I would, and in many cases have, read more than once. However, as an example of this particular genre of specialty knowledge (in this case, the fashion industry) used to enrich a story, it's outstanding, and I'd feel remiss if I didn't include it.
MCU Fic Recs
Targeting, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, 149k, explicit
Summary: Steve and Bucky end up playing for rival college football teams.
Notes: A sports AU written by someone who really knows their football! Makes clever use of the sport to follow the canon storyline in a mundane setting.
This Is How You Argue, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, 17k, explicit
Summary: Steve is a very reasonable, down-to-earth architecture student in his last year of his Master’s program. Not like that asshole Bucky, with his pretentious design ideas and penchant for arguing. They don’t exactly get along.
Notes: A fun enemies-to-lovers architecture school AU written for the original Take Your Fandom To Work Day challenge
The Old Guard Fic Recs
Full Fathoms Deep, gen, 9k, teen
Summary: It started on the midnight to eight shift, sometime before three, the witching hour even by ship standards.
Notes: A marine research vessel finds Quynh
I recced a few fics like this back in July and August, and will rec another in my upcoming October monthly recs post, so I decided to make another themed rec post to gather them all in one spot, and to add a few more from past fandoms. I'll add to this post as I read more (or remember more) examples of this genre.
MDZS Fic Recs
Faire Thee Well, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 77k, teen
Summary: In which Wei Ying does magic tricks, Lan Zhan sells flower crowns, and Mingjue is a blacksmith, because the whole gang works at the Renaissance Faire and no one quite knows how to function.
Notes: What it says on the tin! The gang works as performers and vendors at Renaissance Faires. In addition to some great mutually pining Wangxian, there's bonus Xuanli, Chengqing, and 3zun.
Mud and Canvas, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 109k, mature
Summary: Yiling Laozu was one of the biggest characters on the Sunshot LARP field. He made his own faction, raised an army of the dead, and was single-handedly responsible for destroying the yin iron economy. Unfortunately his actions caused no end of problems for the game runners - so after Yiling Laozu’s death, his player Wei Ying was very firmly asked to leave the game. Four years and a change of management later, and Wei Ying is back! Only difference - rather than being let loose on the field again, he’s crewing now and playing a stream of NPC zombies, merchants and diplomats.
While he's barred from raising the dead, he still has plenty of time for important out of character shenanigans, including but not limited to avoiding his family, poking electrical wires, corrupting the youth, and bothering Lan Zhan.
One year, four events, and a tale of campfires, love and live action roleplaying.
Notes: A love letter to the British LARPing scene, mud and all.
Night of the Living History (an edutainment special!), Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 51k, teen
Summary: It doesn’t mean much coming from Jiang Cheng, Wei Ying thinks. He’s pretty sure Jiang Cheng has to be coaxed out of his hanfu by the laundry wranglers. He doesn’t even think he’s seen Jiang Cheng suffer a pair of jeans in three weeks. He thinks Jiang Cheng takes home the underclothes and sleeps in them, cuddling the knockoff Zidian like a teddy bear.
Wei Ying lands a job as the Yiling Patriarch at the Lanling Cultivation Museum. Lan Zhan (Hanguang-Jun 4x per week, Sect Leader Lan 2x per week) suffers accordingly.
Notes: A modern with magic AU set in a living history "edutainment" museum about cultivation
Wei Ying lands a job as the Yiling Patriarch at the Lanling Cultivation Museum. Lan Zhan (Hanguang-Jun 4x per week, Sect Leader Lan 2x per week) suffers accordingly.
Notes: A modern with magic AU set in a living history "edutainment" museum about cultivation
Pentimento., Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 72k, explicit
Summary: When Wangji was eighteen he’d walked into the first class of his fall semester painting module and there’d been a boy in a hilariously ugly floppy knit hat sitting cross-legged on the floor at the front of the room. He’d had a sheet of canvas paper taped to his board and his board clamped between his legs and a tackle box of brushes and tubes—a real fishing tackle box, with a fish-shaped logo on it that said BASS, not one of the nice art supply storage boxes they sold in the campus bookstore, like the one Wangji was carrying—open beside him. Everyone else had settled into the rows of stools and easels, but that boy had stayed on the floor for the whole two hour and thirty minute studio. Wangji had looked at him and thought, that idiot’s back is going to hurt.
[Former best friends Lan Wangji, paintings conservator, and Wei Wuxian, art handler, meet again and realize... neither of them were actually in unrequited love.]
Notes: A glimpse into the art world as backdrop for an emotional second-chance romance.
The Roots Grow Riotous, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 104k, explicit
Summary: Sometimes Lan Zhan doesn’t work through lunch. Sometimes he makes conversation with coworkers in the halls. Sometimes he goes home instead of spending the last hour trawling through Grindr. But mostly, that’s exactly what he does. The sameness is comforting. His life spools out in easily measured increments: capsule collections, yards of hand dyed textiles, ninety day lead times, sell through figures, cost of goods sold.
Every date in manufacturing can be calculated backwards and forward from a single horizon point: the date that the goods must arrive into the country where they'll be sold. Other than that, nothing else really matters.
Notes: I haven't recced this fic previously even though it's very well-written because it has some elements that I personally find too upsetting (YMMV), so for me it's in a category of "good fics that I'll probably never read again" and the fics I rec on this blog are ones that I would, and in many cases have, read more than once. However, as an example of this particular genre of specialty knowledge (in this case, the fashion industry) used to enrich a story, it's outstanding, and I'd feel remiss if I didn't include it.
MCU Fic Recs
Targeting, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, 149k, explicit
Summary: Steve and Bucky end up playing for rival college football teams.
Notes: A sports AU written by someone who really knows their football! Makes clever use of the sport to follow the canon storyline in a mundane setting.
This Is How You Argue, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes, 17k, explicit
Summary: Steve is a very reasonable, down-to-earth architecture student in his last year of his Master’s program. Not like that asshole Bucky, with his pretentious design ideas and penchant for arguing. They don’t exactly get along.
Notes: A fun enemies-to-lovers architecture school AU written for the original Take Your Fandom To Work Day challenge
The Old Guard Fic Recs
Full Fathoms Deep, gen, 9k, teen
Summary: It started on the midnight to eight shift, sometime before three, the witching hour even by ship standards.
Notes: A marine research vessel finds Quynh
