The Rec Center #110
Welcome to week two of Femslash February! We’ve got Supergirl recs from guest reccer Queersintherain, plus your usual assortment of fandom news and Weird Internet Ephemera. — Gav
new stuff
“How Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program toys with the passions of fandom” by Kaitlyn Tiffany at The Verge
“When I die, I want Ticketmaster Verified Fan to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.”
“Review: The new ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ novel ties into Captain Kirk’s childhood” by Gav at the Daily Dot
The latest Star Trek: Discovery novel is about Tarsus IV, an event that appeared briefly in the Original Series, but looms large in the fannish imagination. Essentially, it’s the basis for Captain Kirk’s tragic backstory in A LOT of fanfic. This got me thinking about fanfic vs. official tie-in materials, and how they fulfill different needs. (Oh, and this works as a regular book review if you’re a Trek fan wondering if the Tarsus IV book is worth reading.) — Gav
“Affect in Context: Fans and K-pop Idols in Tokyo’s Koreatown” by Miranda Larsen at The Learned Fangirl
An exploration of K-pop fandom in Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo neighborhood.
older stuff
“On queer friendship, fandom, and negative capability” by havingbeenbreathedout
When we included this meta in a very early edition of The Rec Center, many people got in touch to tell us how much they enjoyed it, so we thought we’d share it again, two years later. A meditation on the liminality of queerness, in fandom and in life.
tumblr & beyond
Black Sails Max/Anne fanart by Kambarbay
This ~classic post by someone who painstakingly translated the “alien message” on Poe Dameron’s flight vest.
BASK in these tags from The Exorcist’s AO3 page.
This Pacific Rim/Master and Commander fusion AU needs to exist.
Hobbit movie Thorin vs Hobbit book Thorin.
fanfiction
queersintherain is REALLY into Supergirl even though she’s only seen one season (and a bit) of it, and is trying to be less of a lurker these days. She loves cats and rainy days and can be found on tumblr most times when she should actually be writing.
Supergirl is a TV show about Kara Zor-El, aka. Kara Danvers, aka Superman’s cousin. 13 years old when Krypton was destroyed, Kara was sent to Earth with her cousin to protect him, but while his ship reached Earth, hers got frozen in time. By the time she arrived, Kal-El had already grown up and become Superman, so growing up, Kara just tried to fit it. The show starts 12 years later when Kara saves her foster sister, Alex, from a falling plane and becomes a hero.
In season one, Kara works for CatCo Worldwide Media as assistant to CEO Cat Grant, and does hero stuff with her friends and the DEO, a secretive government organization Alex works for. In season two, Alex comes out and starts dating Detective Maggie Sawyer, and Kara gets promoted to reporter and has a lot of romantic tension with LCorp CEO Lena Luthor. (Also some plot happens, and there’s a terrible boyfriend we ignore.)
Supergirl is one of those shows that’s sort of a mixed bag for me in terms of canon, but I adore season one, and what I love about it overall is its message of hope, optimism, and how at least in the first season it really centers female characters. And tons of female characters means tons of wonderful options for femslash ships! There are fics for six (main) different ships listed below, and this isn’t even all of the f/f ships in the fandom.
If you want to chat about Supergirl, want more recs, or want to freak out about any of these fics with me, please feel free to hit me up on tumblr! I’m also on ao3, where I have exactly one Supergirl fic of my own written, (“when we play we go all night, eating twizzlers”) featuring Kara and Cat trying to hide that they’re dating, asexual Alex Danvers and a lot of my ~feelings on romantic relationships and friendships working together. — queersintherain
“in the sun” by isawet. 16K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Backstory: In season two, Kara interviews Lena Luthor a lot, and they become best friends and have ~moments, and Lena doesn’t know she’s Supergirl. In this fic, Lena needs a date to a work conference. Recently fired, Kara needs a new job—or at least freelance work. Lena brings Kara to the conference with her, for emotional support and to give her friend press access, and somehow fake dating happens.
Rec: This fic does such an incredible job at weaving all of the complicated threads of these characters’ lives together in a way that feels more realistic than the show does (especially realism with their jobs, wow!). A wonderful fic and great intro to the pairing.
Content warnings: needles, but description not explicit.
“The Music and the Mirror” by fictorium. 141K words, rated Explicit.
Ships: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant, Astra/Alex Danvers
Backstory: In season one of Supergirl, Kara’s day job is working as an assistant for Cat Grant, who runs a media empire. Cat is snarky and often rude but is a staunch feminist and really cares about people—she cares a lot about Kara specifically, and serves as a mentor to her over the course of the season. In this AU, Cat, a former prima ballerina, is now the artistic director of a ballet company. Maxwell Lord, her former dancing partner, has found her a new dancer for the upcoming season: the untested Kara Danvers.
Rec: For anyone familiar with Supergirl, this AU works perfectly; for anyone not familiar with Supergirl, you really don’t need to be. The characters are very well-developed, and the author’s knowledge of ballet is really impressive. Just recently finished, this fic will be published as original fiction next year by ylva Publishing, so read while you can!
Content warnings: blood and injury, career-ending injuries
“Nowhere to Put This Great Happiness” by Alsike. 16K words, rated Mature.
Ships: Alex Danvers/Kara Danvers
Backstory: When Kara was 13 years old, she landed on Earth and Superman sent her to live with the Danvers family. At first she and Alex (14 at the time) didn’t get along, but they eventually became incredibly close, and this relationship is the core of the show. Canonically, Kara and Alex refer to each other as siblings, but as they met as teens, and arguments can be made this isn’t really how they see each other—which is where the ship comes in. In this fic, someone has tipped off ICE that Kara Danvers is an illegal alien extraterrestrial. Alex enters into a sham marriage with her to sponsor her immigration petition.
Rec: This is honestly one of my favourite fics ever. It’s just… wow. Basically: two people who love each other a lot try to figure out what form that love takes with a lot of wonderful angst along the way. To quote a comment on this fic, “no one hates Alex Danvers as much as Alex Danvers hates Alex Danvers.”
Content warnings: implied alcoholism, relationship that could be interpreted as incest
“You Never See a Crash Until It's Head On” by daysofinspiration. 14K words, rated Explicit.
Ships: Alex Danvers/Lucy, Lane/Maggie Sawyer
Backstory: Alex Danvers is an agent at the DEO, a government agency that deals with aliens; Lucy Lane is an army Major and military lawyer who also works there at some point; Maggie Sawyer is a detective in a department that deals with aliens. Alex and Maggie date in Supergirl season 2, but in this fic, they’re also both dating Lucy! In this fic, Alex, Lucy and Maggie have an established relationship involving kink. Lucy gets back from some army business in Washington that’s brought up old demons, and then she fails to safeword when she should. Cue fallout.
Rec: This triad features multiple authors who do a great job writing realistic BDSM relationships, actually! This fic in particular is an INTENSE read involving a really excellent look inside these characters’ heads, and it does such a good job about the importance of proper communication too.
Content warnings: past sexual assault, restraints, top drop, sub drop, BDSM, unsafe BDSM
“Lexie (Five-Inch Feels)” by performativezippers. 10K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Backstory: In S2 of Supergirl, Alex and Maggie meet working the same alien-related case, for different organizations, and Alex questions and figures out her sexuality, and then she and Maggie date. In this AU, they still meet working a case, though Maggie doesn’t realize it right away. Someone is targeting alien sex workers in National City, and Alex has gone undercover as a sex worker to try to catch them. One day, Maggie is checking up on some sex workers she knows, and there’s a new girl there who doesn’t fit…
Rec: Really cool AU, and does the neat fic thing where the reader realizes immediately what’s going on even though the POV character doesn’t. Also features Alex Danvers being terrifyingly competent, which is central to her character.
Content warnings: sex work, but no actual sex
“Where we are: Here” by Alsike. 26K words, rated Mature.
Ship: Lucy Lane/Alura Zor-El
Backstory: This weird and wonderful ship doesn’t really have a backstory? Lucy is Lois Lane’s younger sister who is canonically an army Major and a military lawyer. Alura is Kara’s mother, a judicator on Krypton, and died when the planet exploded. These ladies never meet in the show, but the ship is called Majorly Judging You, which is amazing. This fic is a cruise ship vacation AU where these two didn’t want to be on a cruise in the first place and would really like to just study law and avoid people. They keep running into each other instead.
Rec: Excellently written character dynamics, and a great interpretation of some of the familial relationships, even in a different context. (Second rec by the same author but I couldn’t resist; I love all of their stuff a lot!)
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
We’ll wrap things up with three non-fanwork recs from Rec Center readers:
Blindmouse writes:
“This is a lovely K-pop fandom thing: a viral letter a BTS fan’s dad wrote about learning to understand and respect his daughter’s passion by relating it to his own new political passion. (Context is the massive popular protests against and impeachment of the corrupt previous South Korean president, who was replaced by President Moon last year.)”
Orangistae writes:
“I’d like to rec Be The Serpent, a new podcast by three female fantasy writers about fanfic and literature. The first episode is about false utopias, specifically in the context of Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and astolat’s “Victory Condition,” I found it very interesting and think a lot of other Rec Center readers would enjoy it too.”
And finally, a reader is running a survey about fanfic and reading habits. This feels like an ideal audience to fill it out. :-) — Elizabeth
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list or explainer, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)