The Rec Center #174
Hello! This week we have some fun, fic-esque Endgame coverage, that majestic Alien high school musical, and a grab-bag of multi-fandom fic. Plus! A guide to the complete results of the Fansplaining shipping survey, including ~interactive data visualizations.~ :-)) — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Interview with a local man returning after Thanos’ Snap” by Mike Ryan at Uproxx
A very entertaining piece of meta-commentary on the fallout of Infinity War and Endgame, told in what essentially qualifies as fanfic format: An interview with a random civilian who survived the movie.
“Avengers: Endgame: Obituaries for the fallen” by Gav at the Daily Dot
In a similar quasi-fanfic vein, Gav wrote in-universe obituaries for the major characters who died in Endgame, celebrating their cultural impact within the MCU, and how they might be viewed by the press and public.
“Verizon is looking to sell Tumblr after squandering its potential” by Chris Welch at The Verge
In case you didn’t see this already: Tumblr is (probably) for sale again. And Pornhub is supposedly interested in buying, although they’re fond of making flashy but ultimately meaningless publicity stunts, so take that one with a pinch of salt.
older stuff
“The World Of Cosplay Is Filled With Black Joy” by TaLynn Kel at The Establishment
“I didn’t know that my being there was an act of protest.” Conversations with black cosplayers on community, creativity, and inclusion. And just a note—we’re very sorry to see The Establishment has shuttered, because it was a great outlet. We’ll be sharing even more pieces from its archives in the coming months. :-(
tumblr & beyond
That high school play adaptation of Alien is now available to watch online!
Someone on reddit calculated how many babies Sonic the Hedgehog accidentally kills in the new movie trailer??
VITAL post you need to read before you set that AU on a farm.
“no offense but bucky not remembering what he does as the winter soldier makes his & sam’s rivalry so much funnier”
An intriguing question re: Jacob’s attitude to Edward in Twilight.
the fansplaining shipping survey
We released the results of the shipping survey this week! In the end, 17,391 people (!) took our survey. Our coverage will be ongoing throughout the next few weeks, but right now we have:
Our newest episode, #99: “The Shipping Answers,” which digs into the results and features verity, who many of you might know as a fic writer but also possibly as a DATA PROFESSIONAL?? verity joined us because….
They are responsible for these fantastic interactive data visualizations! (The episode follows these dashboards, though it’s not necessary to be looking at them while listening, and we highly recommend playing around with them yourself.)
Flourish wrote a great piece detailing the top-line results for self-identified shippers/people who engage with shipping—the vast majority of our respondents, more than 16,000.
verity detailed their methods for cleaning the data, especially the ships, which people wrote in any old way they wanted and apparently that makes things hard for data analysis SORRY VERITY. There’s even a guide to some basic data analysis terms in case you want to learn more about how this works.
We’ve been mentioning this a great deal on Tumblr, but if you catch any errors in the ship data—wrong name, wrong fandom, miscategorized something as m/f or f/f or whatever—please send us a message, and we will fix it right away.
You can also take a look at both the original questions and the raw data on the episode page—as well as show notes and a full transcript for the audio, as usual. A reminder: we post our projects under a CC-BY-4.0 license, so if you want to play around with the data yourself or use it in an academic context, please do!! And let us know if you do!! :-) — Elizabeth
fanfiction
We have a multi-fandom grab-bag this week! Thank you to all of our guest reccers. <3 — Elizabeth
“Professional Boundaries” by yotoob. 56K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Killing Eve; Ship: Eve Polastri/Villanelle|Oksana Astankova
Recced by: haygahr #9190
Backstory: It’s a post-S1 fic of Eve and Villanelle finding one another again. It’s set pretty close to canon, or where canon might go, and works excellently to tide us over until S2. [Ed. note: this came in before S2 began!]
Rec: The characterizations were spot on, and very funny, and the writing extremely competent. It’s very much more of a “give me more” story than transformative, but with canon this good, who needs to change it?
Content warnings: Pretty much the same ones as in the show
“Never Talk to Strangers” by mambo. 40K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Captain America, MCU; Ship: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
Recced by: Kim
Backstory: A slow burn Cap!Steve Modern!Bucky AU where Bucky doesn’t know Steve is Cap until after the Chitauri attack.
Rec: This fic basically takes the tragic deleted scene from The Avengers where Steve is trying to acclimate to modern life and turns it into a painful (but funny) slow burn fic.
Content warnings: Mention of suicidal thoughts, one homophobic slur
“All The World’s Indeed a Stage (And We Are Merely Players)” by HuntressFirefall. 305K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Yuri!!! On Ice; Ships: Victor/Yuuri, Mila/Sara
Recced by: DKWilliams
Backstory: It’s the biggest talent search ever undertaken by any competition show. Ten countries, a half-million auditions in stadiums filled with hopefuls from around the world, from every culture and in every musical genre. THIS... is SUPERSTAR GRAND PRIX!!
Rec: While I’m not a big reality/Idol fan, I’ve seen enough to understand the premise and the process of selection. This story covers all the bases: performances, backstage romance, drama, Victuuri, and a great accompanying playlist.
Content warnings: N/A
“We’re Friends When You’re On Your Knees” by narceus. 15K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Teen Wolf; Ship: Allison Argent/Lydia Martin
Recced by: Kay
Backstory: I don’t even read Teen Wolf usually!
Rec: Realistic (with an emphasis on the real) BDSM femslash, that’s both hot and sweet.
Content warnings: N/A
“Not Funny” by Applecrumbledore. (plus a podfic!) 10K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Check Please!; Ship: Holster/Ransom
Recced by: akikotree
Backstory: Holster and Ransom’s relationship began when they started having threesomes with interested girls from Haus parties. But then they realized—hey, we can also just have sex with each other. Before they know it, it’s time to meet each other’s families. Apparently they’ve been dating this whole time?
Rec: The humor and dialogue in this story are pitch-perfect. It’s awkward, sweet and sexy in exactly the right measures.
Content warning: Mild racism, which is addressed in a considerate way
And a vid!
“Black Sails || can’t hold us” by voordeel. 1:29, not rated.
Fandom: Black Sails; Ship: Gen
Recced by: ideduceyou
Rec: Gloriously edited, upbeat fanvid that beautifully captures the part of Black Sails that made me go YASSS! PIRATES!! As free of spoilers as anything related to this show can be.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
So, Avengers: Endgame has been out for a week now, and that means people have started posting fix-it fic! We want to do a rec list to help MCU fans ~heal, so if you have any post-Endgame recs, please send them our way using this form. — Gav
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.
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)