The Rec Center #161
Welcome to Femslash February!!! We’re posting femslash-only rec lists all month, this week accompanied by Killing Eve fanart, some interesting LARPing coverage, and more. — Gav
new stuff
“How Stranger Things’ preteen fans went to war with the EU” by Alex Hern at the Guardian
Article 13, copyright law, and the threat to both digital fan communities and creators.
“Inside the LARPs that let human players experience AI life” by Tasha Robinson at the Verge
Live-action roleplaying that explores the ethics of AI—from the perspective of the AI. “I would like more people thinking, ‘How is this technology I’m working on going to be used? How’s it going to impact real people? Is this going to cause more harm than benefit?’”
older stuff
“The Harry Potter Fandom Is At A Crossroads” by Alanna Bennett
“So what does a community with so much baggage do when it’s said goodbye, only to immediately be pulled back into the orbit of Rowling’s latest version of the wizarding world—especially when it hasn’t kept up with the generation that turned it into a phenomenon in the first place?”
“How Finding A Fat YA Heroine Changed My Life” by Kaye Toal
“This makes me sound like I was calm. I was not calm. I felt like someone was gently squeezing my heart, the way you might squeeze the hand of somebody you’ve known and loved for a long time.”
“The Internet Is Getting Small And Boring. Long Live Tumblr.” by Cates Holderness
“This internet feels small, and it’s shrinking every day as its algorithms make everything feel increasingly the same. Amid all this, Tumblr has been a safe harbor of delightful, weird, and deeply human stuff, presented using the radical system known as reverse chronological order.”
tumblr & beyond
Killing Eve fanart by Alice Blake
New newsletter alert! The pan-fandom “This Week in Meta,” hosted on Dreamwidth, looks very interesting.
A fantastic thread from Jamelle Bouie, envisioning the origin story for a black Batman.
FANFIC. TITLES.
Gav’s podcast Overinvested did an episode on the cult classic glam rock movie Velvet Goldmine, which we figure may be of interest to some Rec Center readers.
Awestruck by these videos of straight people playing a videogame with gay characters & literally not understanding what’s going on.
fanfiction
Femslash February has BEGUN. Since we’ve done this for several years now, we have too many back issues to recommend, but if you don’t want to wait for the rest of February for more f/f, you can browse through our 2018 selection starting here. Thank you, as always, to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“Margin of Error” by idiopathicsmile. 7.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Brooklyn Nine Nine; Ship: Rosa Diaz/Amy Santiago
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Amy needs a place to stay for a few days, Rosa volunteers. And then develops feelings.
Rec: Captures the character voices, tone, and humor of the show perfectly. Very sweet, and also hilarious.
Content warnings: N/A
“And the Wave Above Me” by Elleth. 2.9K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Silmarillion; Ship: Anairë/Eärwen
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: The Silmarillion is part of the sprawling semi-mythical backstory for the Lord of the Rings. The main characters of this story are two noblewomen noted for their “great friendship,” despite the cultural divide and bloody history between their peoples. Here they must decide whether to go to war to defend the very people who caused that long-ago bloodshed.
Rec: This story is a fascinating look at women in power who must balance their personal feelings with the needs of their people. This is a moment played fairly straight in the published narrative, and Elleth problematizes the strain and complicated obligations of the situation beautifully.
Content warnings: N/A
“Women’s Weapons” by thingswithwings. 4.5K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe; Ship: Maria Hill/Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov
Recced by: Ash
Backstory: Pepper starts training with Maria and Natasha, and then helps Maria manage SHIELD when Director Fury does one of his regular disappearances. They end up at Natasha’s to have a drink, and it leads to a wonderful three-way!
Rec: The sex is really good! Honestly, they’re all so impressed with and into each other, it makes the sex super fun and hot to read.
Content warnings: N/A
“Alors on Danse” by foldingcranes. 1.3K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Overwatch; Ship: Sombra/Widowmaker
Recced by: Tacticalgrandma
Backstory: Widowmaker wakes up one day with her thoughts muddled.
Rec: Short, sweet set up of both characters & their relationship.
Content warnings: N/A
“yours, mine, ours” by cityboys. 45K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia; Ships: Jirou Koukya/Yaoyorozu Momo, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto
Recced by: Raizel
Backstory: All their lives, rich kids Momo and Shouto have only had each other to rely on. But this summer, with Momo considering a part-time job and Shouto’s mother finally released from the hospital, their worlds are beginning to expand.
Rec: I love romances where we can really see how the love interest(s) open up our perspective characters and bring out new, better sides of them. A good story about growing up and into ourselves.
Content warning: past child abuse mentioned
“Selected Moments in Introductory Symbology” by kaydeefalls. 5.9K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: His Dark Materials; Ships: Lyra Belacqua/OFC, Lyra Belacqua/Will Parry
Recced by: Poetry
Backstory: Lyra reads at Oxford, moves on from Will, and discovers the joys of scholarship with another woman.
Rec: In the books, a young Lyra looked down on female scholars. I love her journey in this fic to become a female scholar herself, to appreciate them, and to fall in love with one.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
I promise not to shout at you every Friday in February for more f/f recs, but I wanted to put out one last call for volunteers to do full lists or explainers for their favorite femslash ships over the next few weeks. Just hit reply, or send an email to elizabethandgav at gmail. Of course, if you’ve got a busy month coming up, we’re always happy to have volunteers for lists and explainers—just let us know! (And to everyone working on one or who has proposed a non-f/f one, especially those we owe emails to, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE. :-)) — 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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