September 10, 2021

The Rec Center #297

Happy Friday, everyone! This week we’ve got articles about sexy supervillains and some very dedicated Italian LOTR fans, along with an intriguing Supernatural rewatch strategy, an amazing Loki cosplay, MDZS TV AU recs by guest reccer M, and more! — Gav

new stuff

“‘What is this if not magic?’ The Italian man living as a hobbit” by Lorenzo Tondo at the Guardian
This week you may have seen some social media posts about a group of Italian pals who hiked to Vesuvius to dispose of the One Ring. Apparently their LOTR lifestyle goes a lot deeper!

“It’s OK to be horny for the villain” by Lena Barkin at Polygon
“After 100 years of backlash, maybe it’s time to let people be thirsty.”

“Ode to a Denny’s Hobbit Menu” by Anne Ewbank at Atlas Obscura
“I can still rattle off menu items from memory: Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies. The Hobbit Hole Breakfast. Gandalf’s Gobble Melt.” On fandom food, from Nero Wolfe to Game of Thrones to, yes, Denny’s Hobbit-themed promotional menu.

older stuff

“I Love You, Jake Gyllenhaal” by Kaitlyn Tiffany at The Verge
“There is no obvious answer to the question ‘What does anyone get out of principled fascination and one-sided communication with a celebrity?’”

tumblr & beyond

“What’s black sails about, you ask?”

luv an incomprehensible glimpse into someone else’s fandom.

dazzled by this byzantine non-chronological Supernatural viewing order. (Apparently people are actually doing this, starting tonight!!)

for all we know, this is real Riverdale dialogue.

“i love when something created with no money gets popular”

fanfiction

M has been involved in many different fandoms for over 10 years. About a year and a half ago she got into danmei and hasn’t looked back since. She can be found on twitter) regularly screaming about MDZS (and other danmei)!

There’s already been a succinct explainer about MDZS and The Untamed in this newsletter, so I’m skipping that. I’ve made a list of MDZS TV AU, of which there are plenty in this fandom, and somehow, regardless of the setting, they all work! (No prior knowledge of any of the shows required to enjoy these fics!) — M

“Live From New York” by Varnes. 87K words, rated Explicit.
Ships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Yànlí/Jīn Zǐxuān
Backstory: All those pesky characters we know and love now work at SNL. What could go wrong?
Rec: I don’t like SNL, I’ve watched maybe 2 whole episodes and they felt like an absolute waste of time. But this fic? This I couldn’t put down. It’s genuinely one of the funniest, most hysterical things I’ve ever read. Varnes manages to maintain canon relationship dynamics and make them work splendidly in this new context. Absolutely hilarious, very tender, an absolute must read!
Content warnings: N/A

“After the Final Rose” by azurewaxwing. 55K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Backstory: Lwj is bullied by his brother and son into becoming the next bachelor. He’s convinced he’s gonna hate every second of it until he meets the camerman assigned to him, a certain ray of sunshine by the name of Wwx. Suddenly, being the bachelor doesn’t seem so bad!
Rec: I feel like this is one severely underrated fic because it is brilliant in every way, the writing is great, the concept is excellent and the execution is just fantastic! Even if you (like me) don’t care about The Bachelor irl, this fic is still bound to be enjoyable. The way wangxian are very soft with each other as they slowly fall in love and realize they’re in love and then the angst before they figure out how they fit in each other’s lives is honestly a joy to read!
Content warnings: N/A

“Start Getting Real” by azurewaxwing. 21K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Backstory: In this modern-with-cultivation AU, our protagonists meet on a reality TV show, where they spend 6 weeks at a watchtower with no modern cultivation tools!
Rec: From the same author of the Bachelor AU, this is a very fun read, slightly angsty, and very funny as told from the pov of recapper Ouyang Zizhen who always has something to say about what’s happening!
Content warnings: N/A

“I don’t shine if you don’t shine” by ilip13. 10K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Backstory: Based on the very adorable Japanese show Cherry Magic (which you should watch if you haven’t!) Once Lwj hits his 30th birthday while still a virgin, he gains the ability to read people’s thoughts, shenanigans ensue!
Rec: This is a very sweet little fic that had me smiling the whole way through! I really enjoyed Wwx’s inner thoughts and Lwj’s reactions to them! Everything here is just cute multiplied by 10! Guaranteed to improve your mood and brighten your day!
Content warnings: N/A

“On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake” by BlackWiresOnHerHead. 41K words, rated Gen.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: MDZS characters as amateur backers in the great gusu bakeoff! Or the gbbo au we all need!
Rec: This fic reads like a bakeoff episode in the best way possible, it’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and it made me hungry reading all the descriptions of the delicious baked goods. But because this is MDZS, it’s also very cracky. The way the juniors are written is just chef’s kiss! Don’t let the lack of Lwj deter you, I promise this fic is worth reading and so is it’s even crackier sequel!
Content warnings: N/A

FINAL THOUGHT

Well, submissions form 2.0 was nice while it lasted—less than a month after our original form got spammed to the point of unusability, our new version got inundated with thousands of fake submissions an hour for a whole day. 🙃

You know what they say: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, maybe Google should look into this because surely they should have some sort of spam detection for that kind of behavior??? So we have investigated alternatives and are experimenting with a new platform, Jotform. The brand-new one-off submissions form link is here:

✨ The Rec Center Fic Submissions ✨

Please click the link to complete this form.

So! Please help us test this by sending in your favorite recs, and let us know if anything seems off (we’re just trying to mimic the previous forms here, and it all looks good so far). And as a reminder, we’re collecting paranormal recs for October—both paranormal AUs and paranormal source material—so please continue to send those our way! — Elizabeth