The Rec Center #344
Hi folks! This week we’ve got articles about Nichelle Nichols and Sandman, some Barbie fanart, an incredible piece of historic Tolkien ephemera, multifandom vampire fic recs, and more! — Gav
new stuff
“Nichelle Nichols Inspired Black Women to Dream Big For the Future” by Celia Rose Gooding at The Hollywood Reporter
A celebration of Nichelle Nichols’ legacy and career, written by the actress currently playing Uhura on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
“textomancy” by Caelyn Cobb at The Smart Set
A beautiful essay on fix-it fic, centered around the sixth season of Buffy and the fic “Phoenix Burning.”
“In the ’90s, ‘The Sandman’ was a Rosetta Stone for weirdos like me” by Jenni Miller at Mashable
As Sandman’s long-awaited screen adaptation arrives on Netflix, here’s a love-letter from a longtime fan of the comics.
https://twitter.com/jpbrammer/status/1554873563231924224
older stuff
“Nichelle Nichols” at The Television Academy
Alongside the remembrances and discussion of Nichelle Nichols’s legacy, listen to her discuss her career herself, in this 2013 interview from the organization responsible for the Emmys.
tumblr & beyond
Friday the 13th Barbie from sunscone’s horror Barbie series.
“Today I discovered that my dad removed my yaoi paddle from the trash can and now uses it to flatten dirt during yard work......”
On the vital importance of fan archiving, as streaming services begin to collapse.
“Friday night plans, oil on canvas”
Would LOVE to attend this party hosted by Tolkien and his wife.
https://twitter.com/EricThurm/status/1555015746840940544
fanfiction
It’s vampire week! Featuring both vampire source material and vampire AUs (including a fic one of our reccers tagged as “Catcher in the Rye meets gay vampire porn”) (that’s the last one if you’re curious lol). Thank you very much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“Watered With Blood” by RobberBaroness. 1K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Dracula - Bram Stoker; Ship: Jonathan Harker/Mina Harker
Recced by: KeeperofSeeds
Backstory: Dracula retold as a Southern gothic.
Rec: This fic manages to capture the more formal epistolary language of the book really well and it mixes perfectly with the descriptions of and the horror of the Southern gothic setting.
Content warnings: References to cannibalism
“we don’t talk much in the morning” by beanenchilada. 3.7K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Star Wars; Ship: Leia Organa/Fennec Shand
Recced by: willowcrowned
Backstory: Princess Leia and Fennec Shand (Boba Fett’s bounty hunter friend) never meet in Star Wars canon, but in this AU, Leia is a vampire and Fennec is a vampire hunter who keep meeting up for emotionally-fraught back alley sex.
Rec: The author has a really sharp, concise prose style that distills every moment down into something really clear and gorgeous, while also managing to catch every nuance of the characters at a turning point in their relationship. Plus, the sex is super hot.
Content warnings: N/A
“Blood to Bind” by boulevarddouble. 94K words (with a 99K sequel), rated Explicit.
Fandoms: NCT/WayV; Ship: Ten/Kun
Recced by: boxish
Backstory: NCT is a 23-member k-pop group, WayV is a 7-member Chinese subunit. Kun is WayV’s leader, Ten is a little shit <3 (note: one member, Lucas, is facing sexual misconduct allegations but he’s not a huge part of the story).
Rec: The worldbuilding is really fun, treating synthetic blood like craft beer, and there are several interesting relationships beyond the main romantic pair (vampire!Ten and human!Johnny, sire!Ten and offspring!Yangyang)
Content warnings: Blood, violence
“Breaking Tradition” by pasiphile. 7.8K words, rated Mature.
Fandoms: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett; Discworld - Terry Pratchett; Ship: Maladict/Polly Perks
Recced by: Sarah
Backstory: In canon, Polly pretends to be a boy in order to run away and join the army. In this Gothic AU, she’s still running away, and comes across a castle with the dark and mysterious Maladicta as its mistress.
Rec: pasiphile takes a bunch of Gothic tropes and turns them on their head, and it’s equal parts hilarious and really hot. Polly and Mal deserve a million novels.
Content warnings: N/A
“seeing red” by nighimpossible. 7.4K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV); Ship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Recced by: KeeperofSeeds
Backstory: The Untamed is a Chinese historical fantasy show. This is an AU imagining Wèi Wúxiàn as a vampire from the start and how it changes and doesn’t change the story.
Rec: I’m a sucker for vampire AUs and this story is a delicious romp through canon events with one slight change, but it manages to keep the angst and tension of canon well while exploring how Wèi Wúxiàn being a vampire changes his interactions with people around him.
Content warnings: Blood drinking, vampire sex, canonical character death
“No Power on Earth” by Circe. Approx. 19K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: BtVS; Ship: Spike/Xander
Recced by: baudown
Backstory: In The Freshman (episode 1 of season 4), Xander tells Buffy that he spent the summer working at a male strip club—washing dishes, except for one night when a stripper called in sick. But, he says, “no power on this earth” can make him describe what happened that night. This is a story about that summer and that night.
Rec: The story brings the boys (my OTP) together in a believable way; their voices are spot-on and they’re very much in character; it’s original!Spike; and it’s well-written, funny, and very, very hot.
Content warnings: N/A
https://twitter.com/dril/status/1553602716521283584
FINAL THOUGHT
Have a great weekend, everyone! — Elizabeth