November 5, 2021

The Rec Center #305

Hello, TGIF, and a very happy Destiel Day on this fine November 5th! This week we’ve got articles about Neopets and Batman, some Supernatural content (naturally!), multifandom fic recs, and more! — Gav

new stuff

“Bruce Wayne Should Never Give Any Money To Charity” by Steve Morris at Shelf Dust
A perfect debunk for the oldest and most tiresome critique of Batman as a concept. “No matter what you do, every single person in Gotham is one stubbed toe away from putting a giant toenail on their head and calling themselves Nailstorm.”

“‘I Could Never Abandon Them’: Neopets Users Play On” by Madeleine Morley at The New York Times
A delightfully sparkly feature on people who are still playing Neopets—especially millennials who came back to the platform during the pandemic. Featuring lots of Neopets fanart!

older stuff

Happy Destiel-Putin Day to all who celebrate.

tumblr & beyond

Disco Elysium fanart by cardo_de_comer

Labor issues at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

This TikTok reaction to Destiel being canon: legendary, iconic, etc.

Gore and horror warning for this uh… post about Venom and the TV personality John Oliver?

Some predictions for Destiel Day, including a bingo card.

“it’s been half a year since i accidentally sent my professor bugs bunny fanfic”

fanfiction

No theme this week! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth

“Every Longitude Leads” by Acephalous. 32K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Terror; Ship: Sophia Cracroft/Francis Crozier/James Fitzjames
Recced by: greysleipnir
Backstory: After being rescued, Francis, James and their men return to London, where the Admiralty promptly refuses to recognize the sacrifice or compensate the men who weren’t officers in the expedition. Sophia, Francis and James do their utmost to be a thorn in the Admiralty’s side.
Rec: This is a lovely story that interweaves the plot of James, Francis and Sophia trying to convince the Admiralty and society to give the men of the expedition the support they deserve, and the blossoming and discovery of their feelings for one another. It’s thoughtful and soft and incredibly rewarding.
Content warnings: Internalized homophobia

“On the Midtown Direct” by mistresscurvy. 23K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: My Chemical Romance RPF; Ship: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Recced by: Melissa
Backstory: An alternate universe fic where My Chemical romance lead singer Gerard Way and rhythm guitarist Frank Iero are regular people who end up meeting on their daily work commute from New Jersey to Manhattan on NJ Transit.
Rec: This bandom classic absolutely never gets old. It’s utterly charming and a perfect take on the public transport meet-cute. As someone who grew up doing the exact NJ Transit commute featured in this fic, I have never felt so personally connected to a story in my entire life and find myself revisiting it often, just because it feels so much like home.
Content warnings: N/A

“Sunlight” by InkDippedFingerTips. 1K word, rated Gen.
Fandom: The Old Guard; Ship: Andy/Qyunh
Recced by: solarfemm
Backstory: The Old Guard are a group of mercenaries for hire who cannot die. This stories centres around Andy and Qyunh millenia before the timeline of the movie, in which they share a quiet moment in the aftermath of a battle.
Rec: The description of Qyunh and the surroundings are absolutely beautiful, and I love Andy’s internal monologue.
Content warnings: Character death

“Verdant and Sweet” by orchidlocked. 7.2K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation; Ship: Jean-Luc Picard/Q
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Q, an omnipotent vaguely queer-coded trickster entity, enjoys messing with uptight Starship Captain Picard in the show’s canon; in this fic, Picard learns to enjoy giving way to pleasure and desire and the kinds of sexy joyful antics that an omnipotent queer-coded trickster entity can bring.
Rec: Exquisite little gem of a story about having a boyfriend who takes you on hot sex dates all through time and space, wonderful wish fulfillment for anyone who’s been stuck mostly inside for a year.
Content warnings: Loss of control, consensual magic changes to gendered body characteristics, passing mpreg mention

“Fullerton Parsonage” by Sunfreckle. 67K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Northanger Abbey; Ship: Catherine Morland/Henry Tilney
Recced by: Sarah
Backstory: Gorgeous retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, from the perspective of the romantic hero, Henry Tilney.
Rec: This is written by someone who loves Jane Austen and it’s such a gorgeous story and perspective.
Content warnings: N/A

“Murder, He Wrote” by mklutz. 32K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Teen Wolf; Ship: Derek/Stiles
Recced by: abuseofreason
Backstory: Modern human AU: Stiles is back in town working on his latest book, Derek and Allison are local deputies, and Scott is still working with Deaton, the local vet. In the space of a few weeks, Stiles manages to adopt two kittens, get involved in at least two ongoing investigations, acquire a boyfriend, and finish his book.
Rec: The murder mystery is fun, but the real reason I keep rereading this fic is that I love the way the characters interact. Their relationships feel so warm and real to me. (That, and the scenes with the kittens, of course!)
Content warnings: Murder, arson, and a complete lack of Derek Hale’s Tragic Backstory

And a vid!

“black panther” by vordeel. 1:30, Not Rated.
Fandom: Black Panther (Marvel MCU); Ship: Gen
Recced by: ExpatGirl
Backstory: No story, just a well-edited video for the movie!
Rec: The editing, the song choice, the pace, it’s perfect! (All of vordeel’s fanvids are, tbh.)
Content warnings: Rapidly moving images

FINAL THOUGHT

Last week we put out a call for our newish “letter of recommendation” feature, and based on the responses we got, there seemed to be a bit of confusion, so I wanted to clearly spell out the different kinds of guest contributions we’d love to include going forward:

1) explainer: If you’ve subscribed to the newsletter for a while, you’ve seen a fair number of these: relatively brief run-downs of films/TV shows/books/etc. that people love. Because I often have to clarify in individual email exchanges, it’s worth saying here that we like these to be 300-500 words, and I always recommend that rather than spending a lot of that space describing plot or character details, explainer writers focus on dynamics and themes, the kinds of stuff that might draw someone else into watching or reading the thing.

2) fic rec list: Sometimes folks write these in conjunction with explainers, sometimes they don’t. Rather than sending in individual fic recs via our form, people occasionally write full lists for us, usually featuring 5-7 fic recs. I love singly authored lists, because they really feel like an opportunity to create your own kind of fanwork in the curation of your list; you can just recommend your favorite fics in a fandom, or you can make a sort of thematic argument in your selections.

3) letter of recommendation: Our new feature! If explainers are for pro media, this is a space to go deep on fan-created media, like a fic you think is really astounding, or a particular fanartist who has a really incredible style. (With artist permission, we can embed fanart directly in the newsletter itself.) We’re hoping folks are up for writing these both for individual fanworks and for bodies of fans’ work—but this isn’t meant to be for explaining the source material of those works, since we already have the explainer section.

Hopefully all that makes sense! As always, if you are interested in writing any of these things, you can email us at elizabethandgav at gmail (and also as always, a million thank yous for folks’ patience as I get to things in that inbox at a sometimes slowish pace). We really love featuring other voices in the newsletter, reccing things that speak to other fans, so thanks to everyone who’s contributed in the past, and who will in the future. <3 — Elizabeth