The Rec Center #226
Hi everyone! We’ve got plenty of lockdown content this week (including a new Good Omens audio story!), along with some cute Harry Potter fanart, a rec list of May Day-themed fanfiction, and more. — Gav
lockdown stuff
A reminder that we are always accepting submissions for this section—fests, challenges, online cons, anything fandomy that people are organizing while in lockdown. Send them our way at elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
Black Sails fans! Check out the “Black Sails Confinement Challenge,” described as “50 prompts to inspire confined fic writers to write about confined characters.”
Socially Distant Comic Con is streaming live today on Instagram, featuring a bunch of cool guests including authors, artists, comedians, comic book creators, and more. It ends at 8 pm Pacific time, so you have a few more hours to check it out!
Neil Gaiman wrote a short, lockdown-themed epilogue to Good Omens, recorded as an audio drama with David Tennant and Michael Sheen!
And finally, VidUKon 2020 is going online! You can read more about it here—and note that the deadline for Premieres is coming up soon, May 10th.
new stuff
“In A Lonely Lockdown, With Books Slow To Come, Fanfiction Booms” by Deniz Çam at Forbes
“It’s been extraordinarily stressful for me to send [my kids] off to work every day, knowing that they are in danger,” says Hill. “Being able to just submerge myself in a story, whether I’m reading it or writing it has been terribly therapeutic. It just erases all of this horribleness.”
“K-Pop, Bollywood, and How Fandom Connects Me to My Identity” by Anjana Pawa at Teen Vogue
“As a kid I learned Bollywood film choreos—now, I practice intricate dances to SEVENTEEN.”
older stuff
“Fic, Interrupted” by Caroline Crampton at Fansplaining
“They don’t come every day, but there are a couple every week. The arrival of each new email alert causes a guilty jolt in my stomach. The messages are always kind, sometimes with a slightly impatient undertone. ‘I love this! I hope you post again,’ read a recent one. ‘Are you ever going to update this??’ said another.”
tumblr & beyond
Luna/Ginny fanart by tinygorilla
“What’s the point of space travel if you’re not allowed to gently smooch the aliens?”
Oh my god AO3 is in Animal Crossing now.
A deep literary analysis of the protagonist’s introduction in iconic Harry Potter badfic “My Immortal.”
“is there a Star Trek dating site”
“i had three fic ideas. wrote one. i still have three fic ideas. this is not how math is supposed to work.”
fanfiction
On (American) Labor Day in 2017 we ran a “labor-themed rec list,” and since today’s newsletter goes out on May Day—a much more international labor-oriented holiday!!—I suggested we revive the theme! Unionization, worker’s rights, etc. etc. You can read that initial list here, and thank you very much to everyone who sent in a rec for our new list! — Elizabeth
“Freeport” by Maldoror_Chant. 227K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Gundam Wing; Ship: Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell
Recced by: smmjn
Backstory: A canon divergence that leads Wufei to seek a killer in the colony of Freeport with Duo. Wufei is in no way prepared for this.
Rec: OK so it’s really long, but it does amazing worldbuilding with the socio-economic-political system. There’s an amazing balance of collectivism and anarchy and Chang Wufei’s POV means we the audience slowly uncover it during the course of the case.
Content warning: Lots of violence, feels more real than in canon.
“Prove To Me You Got Some Coordination” by amalnahurriyeh. 17K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Check, Please!; Ship: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmerman
Recced by: Kath
Backstory: The Falcs frequent the strip club where Bitty dances. When the dancers go on strike, Jack helps them get their safe workplace.
Rec: Apt comparisons between sex work and hockey. At one point the phrase “sex marxists” appears and it’s wonderful.
Content warning: Mention of offscreen violence
“One Elegant Solution” by Mikkeneko. 369K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Dragon Age; Ship: Anders/Male Hawke
Recced by: for every helen
Backstory: After the events at Kirkwall, Anders seeks to build a safe haven for his people in the last place anyone would have expected: Orzammar, the kingdom of the dwarves. All of the mages sheltered by Orzammar must spend one year of service in the Deep Roads to secure a place in their new home.
Rec: What I love about this is how much selfishness has to be overcome before people work together to create something better. The year of service is transferable and to begin with, no one wants to bend their head and pay the price—and a key part of the story is about people learning to share the burden and do their part.
Content warnings: N/A
“Love’s Labour’s Won” by andimeantittosting. 29K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Supernatural; Ship: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Recced by: Amelia_Clark
Backstory: Dean Winchester still works at Roman Mills five years after the workplace accident that killed his father, and safety conditions haven’t improved. Union organizer Castiel Novak comes in to help—but they’ll both get more than they bargained for.
Rec: The author works for a union and brings real passion and detail to the process, and the romance is super sweet! Also the rare Canadian AU: boxes of Timbits at the union meetings! Benny Lafitte’s Quebecois instead of Cajun!
Content warning: Mild ableist language (Dean’s dyslexic)
“Faith in Fast Cars” by goshemily. 30K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Generation Kill; Ship: Brad Colbert/Nate Fick
Recced by: anon
Backstory: No background knowledge needed. The characters of Generation Kill are members of various bands on Warped. Nate, Brad, Ray, and Walt haven’t been signed yet by a record label, but have a chance to be in Warped and might get a contract by the end.
Rec: Gorgeously written and focuses on the conflict between trying to live up to your ideals in a complicated world vs. achieving your ambitions, as the main characters try to pursue a record contract while touring on Warped. The characters are in a socially-conscious punk band and talk about labor rights, and the story itself is about trying to achieve your dreams within capitalism and how much you are willing to compromise and give up to get them.
Content warnings: N/A
“The General Putty Strike of 1993” by predilection. 2.3K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; Ship: Gen
Recced by: pistolproof
Backstory: Rita Repulsa is the cackling villainess who sends her creatures down from her Moon Palace to fight and be defeated by the Power Rangers. This is going great for her, until her mass-produced underlings, the Putties, find out about human labor laws, go on strike, and bring in an arbitrator from Manitoba to help them negotiate.
Rec: You do not need to be a Power Rangers fan to find this story absolutely hilarious. Rita is the perfect over-the-top villain, the humor is spot-on, and even with zero context for canon, the union jokes alone are worth your time.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Hope everyone is staying safe, and thanks again if you’ve sent in a fic rec in the past few weeks. We’ll have remixes, cathartic fics, and the return of “characters being turned into dogs” in the weeks to come. :-) — 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.
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)