The Rec Center #332
Hello all! This week we have pieces on racebending backlash and Dracula Daily, and the first batch of the (many) omegaverse fics recs folks sent in over the past week. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Inside Epsilon, a mod for creating custom Worlds of Warcraft” by Cass Marshall at Polygon
The WoW fan project Epsilon encompasses a ton of different fan practices: modding games, RPGs, fic, and more. “The gameplay of World of Warcraft isn’t the point; they’ve chosen their own way to adapt the technology and use it as a social or storytelling platform.”
“On ‘Percy Jackson,’ ‘Doctor Who,’ and the Rageful Racism Around Racebending” by Stitch at Teen Vogue
“It becomes incredibly hard to be invested and excited as a Black fan of anything because you can surely count on fandom to attempt to rob you of your feeling of belonging.”
“Why ‘Dracula Daily’ is suddenly everywhere” by Gav at The Daily Dot
There’s no escape!!! Which is very thematically appropriate to the novel, when you think about it.
The CW is cancelling all their other shows to have the money to send the riverdale cast to space in season 7
— ari (@cleosowande) May 12, 2022
older stuff
“Everything you desperately needed to know about 4*Town, the boyband from Turning Red” by Dan Kois at Slate
An interview with Domee Shi, the director and co-writer of Pixar’s latest film, Turning Red, which is partly about being in boy band fandom. In this conversation, she discusses depicting fandom in the film as well as her own fannish history: “The first thing that I drew and published was Draco Malfoy. Yeah. It is somewhere on the internet. Try to find it.”
tumblr & beyond
The first CSV format fanwork we’ve encountered!
legendary kira nerys cosplay concept
We usually avoid sharing screencapped Tumblr posts instead of the original URLs, but this Twitter thread of Dracula Daily content is incredible.
“Did you know there are sites that plagiarize article and replace random words with synonyms”
every new ep of star trek brings a new and incredibly niche fandom discourse, each more absurd than the last.
The reason people love Elden Ring so much is because it’s a walkable community with lots of greenery and you can randomly run into your friends (skeletons)
— 🔺Guin (@desktopmetaphor) May 7, 2022
fanfiction
Last week we put out a call for omegaverse fics and we got…a lot. Like, so many lol. This is the first of what will be quite a few batches! Thank you so much to everyone who sent in a rec. (Also note: we got a few messages about exclusively using the term “omegaverse” going forward—we’re totally happy to do so, and I just wanted to mention this here because we modified the terminology in these recs to match.) — Elizabeth
“Choice, Change and Principles” by estelraca. 33K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Les Miserables; Ship: Enjolras/Grantaire
Recced by: Rare
Backstory: Enjolras and Grantaire are in an established relationship in an omegaverse universe when Grantaire decides to go off of his blockers so he can become pregnant. The fic explores the changes this brings to their life, especially amidst growing social unrest as the Amis and their allies push for reform against a steadily more conservative government.
Rec: This is perhaps my favorite omegaverse story of all time. It truly takes the setup of an omegaverse universe and explores the implications it would have for society as a whole. It deals in a nuanced way with the conflicting gender experiences characters have, and the different ways oppression manifests. All of this is done through a compelling central story as a character deals with the many changes—for good and for ill—that his choice has brought to his life.
Content warnings: Pregnancy, gender-based oppression, threats of torture and attempted rape in chapter 8
“Strange Love” by N1ghtwr1ter. 22K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The 100; Ship: Clarke Griffin/Alexa
Recced by: Mysterytour
Backstory: The 100 is a show about a group of 100 teenagers convicted of crimes sent down from the orbiting space station where humanity has been weathering the apocalypse to a wild Earth. In all honesty I’ve only watched the pilot episode so I can’t tell you any more than that.
Rec: I found this story because I was curious as to whether female alphas had uh...certain hyena-like appendages in f/f omegaverse (they do). This fic is intimate, sexy and explores the emotional implications of claiming bites.
Content warnings: Dubcon (in a dream sequence)
“Awaited” by halotolerant. 11K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: BTS; Ships: Jungkook/Suga, Namjoon/Jin
Recced by: Asheru
Backstory: Omegaverse AU royalty: “‘That’s a good thing, isn’t it?’ Seokjin had asked him, and laughed again, not unkindly. ‘You and Min Yoongi confirming you like each other in person as much as you do over those endless reams of paper is pretty much the point of this exercise, newly embroidered hanbok and all.’”
Rec: Hot! And also heart-warming, like a mug of hot chocolate on a snowy day.
Content warnings: Heats and pregnancy are vaguely alluded to but neither happens in this fic. When we get to the smut, omega genitals are described ambiguously. There’s a lot of stuff about scenting, sweating, and people liking (or not liking) how you smell. A dog is unwell for one paragraph and then the dog is absolutely fine.
“don’t wanna break your heart, wanna give your heart a break” by suzukiblu. 11K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: MCU; Ship: James “Bucky” Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Recced by: anon
Backstory: This is an omegaverse fanfic about a recovering omega Bucky who reacts negatively to alphas he perceives as a threat. Enter Darcy and her intrepid intern Ian, both alphas with a seriously low threat level, to help Bucky through his heat.
Rec: Everyone in this story is very soft. Bucky’s trepidation mixed with neediness is handled very nicely by Darcy and Ian and consent is at the forefront of every interaction. The world building is very complete for the length of the fic. Also, it’s hot. 😏
Content warnings: Mention of mpreg
“my violence uncommitted” by yekoc. 17K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Formula 1 RPF; Ship: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Recced by: SJ
Backstory: Set during the 2018 F1 season, within the Red Bull team. Secret omega Max Verstappen must confront his designation and his fraught relationship with it.
Rec: Yekoc has an impressive handle on these characters, and pays extra attention to the ‘canon’, deftly flavouring it with omegaverse. I appreciated that the author was sparing with the omegaverse tropes, since sometimes too much pack dynamics and so on can make me nope out of a fic!
Content warnings: N/A
“(let go of) the same dream” by liadan14. 44K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Old Guard; Ship: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Recced by: raedear
Backstory: Joe’s an omega without a scent, Nicky’s an alpha who can’t stand to be around people during his rut. Joe runs a centre to help people with atypical cycles, Nicky slated it in the press. Somehow, they make it work.
Rec: This fic is amazing. It’s a non-traditional approach to omegaverse with a focus on what it might mean to be aspec in the omegaverse. It’s charming and funny and sweet and definitely one to read over and over.
Content warnings: Mentions of racism experienced by main characters
OFMD is probably the only fandom in which fics with too much historical accuracy feel wrong. If you’re gonna give exact moon phases, routes of ships, specific fabric thread counts and god knows what else, you better give Stede an iphone in the next scene to balance it out.
— cliopadra 🏴☠️🍎 (@Cliopadraart) May 10, 2022
FINAL THOUGHT
Wishing you all a relaxing weekend! Enjoy your Draculas! — Gav