The Rec Center #158
Hello beloved Rec Center readers! This week we have multifandom slow burn fic recs (one of fandom’s favorite tropes), some cool Good Omens fanart, and more. — Gav
new stuff
“Small, But Mighty: How Local Cons Are Made” by Kristina Manente at SyFy Wire
A deep dive into small, local cons—including 221B Con, SqueeCon, and more—about what it takes to put together a successful fan gathering in an era increasingly dominated by big corporate cons.
“‘theyre all trans sharon’: Authoring Gender in Video Game Fan Fiction” by Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, and Casey Fiesler in Game Studies
Well-timed in light of recent Overwatch news, this piece explores gender diversity in videogame fic, and the ways that games themselves can make space for fans’ interpretations.
older stuff
“Fan Fiction as Emotionally Inclusive, Anti-Ableist Praxis” by Jenn Polish at CUNY’s Advocate
A wonderful argument for using fanfiction in the classroom not just as a critical tool, but to expand emotional inclusivity.
tumblr & beyond
Good Omens paper dolls by radiant-pie
“Dad bod Spider-Man can’t drive.”
3D diagrams of Star Trek captains’ quarters.
“Fandoms that I’m not in, but regularly interact with, summarized.”
fanfiction
“Slow burn” remains one of the most popular tropes amongst our submissions, though I’ll always include the caveat that “some burns are slower than others”—the fics here range from 10K words to 100K +. Thank you to all of our guest reccers! — Elizabeth
“Leave No Soul Behind” by whochick. 250K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Star Trek (2009); Ship: James T. Kirk/Spock
Recced by: Lindsay
Backstory: In an AU that puts pretty much all known command structures and relationships on its head, characters we know and love work in a space search and rescue organisation while a war rages around them.
Rec: This is an excellent take on the set-up of the 2009 movie with beloved characters in radically different circumstances. The cold realities of a war fought in space, political pitfalls within the Federation, and bonus alternate universe shenanigans create a fascinating new world. This story is deeply emotional, with wonderful prose and characters that have different roles yet still keep their established characteristics and fit into their environment. And even if you don’t know the movie or much about Star Trek it is understandable and stands very well on its own.
Content warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, injuries, treatment of injuries, death, and psychological trauma. There’s a war going on.
“this is your sword, this is your shield” by susiecarter. 9.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: DCEU; Ship: Diana Prince/Lois Lane
Recced by: Orangistae
Backstory: Lois gets to know Diana in the wake of Clark’s death.
Rec: If you saw any of those gifsets of Gal Gadot being physically affectionate with Amy Adams and thought, ‘yes I’d like 10K of slow burn friends-to-lovers about them, please’—well, here it is. Very sweet and charming, with just the right amount of sadness.
Content warnings: N/A
“Done with My Dying” by stonelions. 34K words, rated Mature.
Fandoms: Dragon Age, The Last of Us; Ship: Dorian Pavus/Cullen Rutherford
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Cullen and Dorian are two romanceable options for the main character from Dragon Age: Inquisition, but this fic explores a relationship between them, with each other. This fic is essentially an modern apocalypse AU, where they try to survive the Canadian rangelands.
Rec: The relationship is drawn with incredible understated tenderness, and the apocalypse premise is really to just heighten the sense of gentleness they find in each other. The writing itself is beautiful, and the accompanying soundtrack on the author’s tumblr helps highlight the prairie environment as a third central character.
Content warnings: Apocalyptic themes, violence
“Small Favors” by chilly_flame. 24K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Devil Wears Prada; Ship: Miranda Priestly/Andy Sachs
Recced by: Eunice
Backstory: Mirandy is a ship that’s been running for twelve years now and this fic is one of the best examples of the fandom’s ‘Founding Age.’ Pining, awkwardness, angst, and then mutual care and affection make it easy for readers to see why Miranda/Andy commands an audience.
Rec: Chilly loves a good set-up, complete with background details that pay off later in the series. The relationship also progresses at a natural pace, so you really see this couple navigate certain milestones and deal with the issues central to their pairing.
Content warnings: None for this piece, but trigger warning for some language and threats against a woman later in the series
“Vejiitasei Ascendant: An Alternate-Universe Dragonball Serial” by Jeanne Burch. Novel-length serial fic—technically WIP, but the first main arc is finished; mature themes—I would give 99% of it a PG-13 rating by today’s fic standards.
Fandom: Dragonball Z; Ships: Canon pairings, mainly Vegeta/Bulma, with the exceptional addition of Raditz/Zarbon
Recced by: Tochira
Backstory: AU premise: What if Zarbon was sent to train a young Vegeta on Vejiitasei (instead of Freeza blowing up the planet)?
Rec: This is not just the gold standard for DBZ fic; it is my gold standard for all fanfiction. The writing is so engaging you don’t even feel like you’re reading text after a few pages; you’re just living in it, and loving every minute.
Content warnings: Canon-typical DBZ violence (genocide included)
“The Honor System” by Snapjack. 111K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Marvel/The Avengers; Ships: Clint Barton/ Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Phil Coulson
Recced by: Helah
Backstory: Clint Barton’s journey from kid archer to SHIELD’s worst nightmare to the Black Widow’s partner to an Avenger.
Rec: This fic does such a good job at depicting personal growth between Natasha and Clint and Coulson and Maria Hill—it’s one of those stories that feels only incidentally about superheroes, when really it’s about becoming yourself and finding family. It’s also hilarious.
Content warnings: Grief, rape and child abuse. It’s well tagged in AO3 so check those for more detail.
FINAL THOUGHT
The charity fanworks auction “Fandom Trumps Hate” is back for its third year, and it’s moved its main base of operations over to Dreamwidth. FTH operates under the classic fandom auction model: you donate to a charity and in exchange, someone creates a fanwork, from fic to art to vid to crafts, plus more servicey things like beta-ing, Brit-picking, etc. If you’re interested in participating on either side of this exchange (or both!), definitely check 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, zines, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
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