November 25, 2022

The Rec Center #360

Happy Goncharov Week! And happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. Today we’ve got articles about Backstreet Boys fandom and WALL-E, along with some more Interview with the Vampire fanart, the history of Sentinel AUs, a multifandom rec list of longfic, and more! — Gav

new stuff

“How the Backstreet Boys Taught Me to Code” by Torie Bosch at Slate
One that many fans of a certain age will relate to: “There were no WYSIWYG editors, though—you had to hand-code all of it. The paragraph breaks, the italicized band names, the links, the images, the tables (oh, the tables).”

“Why ‘WALL-E’ Is the Perfect First Movie for Cinephiles to Watch with Their Kids” by David Ehrlich at Indiewire
Does it count as “fandom” when a toddler demands to watch the same movie every day for months on end? We think Yes. (A celebration of the movie WALL-E, from a film critic who has been forced to watch it literally hundreds of times by his two-year-old child.)

older stuff

“Did I Want Tony Stark Or Want to Be Him?” by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya at Catapult
“‘Iron Man’ is far from the origin story of my sexuality, but it’s an inescapable part of the multiverse that is my queerness.”

tumblr & beyond

Interview with the Vampire fanart by jukebox-head

“once I tried to explain ‘little meow meow’ to a friend...”

arguably the best daniel craig photos of all time

prayer hands emoji for IWTV season 2.

for those who weren’t aware... yes, Sentinel AUs are inspired by a real show!

“is goncharov (1973) really that much less real than whatever show the destiel bloggers have been watching with their extrasensory perception for 15 years”

Andor in the style of a 1970s sci-fi show.

fanfiction

As we’ve done on (U.S.) Thanksgiving weekends past, this week we have a collection of long fic for anyone with a lengthy journey (or time hiding in a guest room) ahead of them. (We’ve defined “long” differently from year to year; this time, it’s 100K words or more.) And if you are more shortfic-inclined, check out last week’s list! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth

“Infinite Regress, Under Duress” by jamnesias. 165K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Pacific Rim; Ship: Newt/Hermann
Recced by: galia
Backstory: A beautifully detailed story following Newt and Hermann for the 10 years of their acquaintance, as an explanation for how it *possibly* took them so long to admit their love for each other. There was a TWO YEAR hiatus between the penultimate chapter and the conclusion, so you’re all fortunate enough to get to skip that agony.
Rec: This fic gives such incredible detail to their personalities and lives, and the OCs are fully-fleshed out and vibrant. The tension is excruciating and delicious, and allows them both to exist independently, while still orbiting each other’s lives. Plus it’s my favorite trope—bickering scientists!
Content warnings: N/A

“The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” by pongnosis. 530K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Alex Rider; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Risha
Backstory: Alex Rider is a series of YA books about an orphaned 14 year old English boy who is blackmailed into working for MI6. His father had been an undercover agent in the evil organization SCORPIA, where he trained a young Yassen Gregorovich, one of the best assassins in the world. In this canon AU, after Alex’s third mission, Yassen shows up at his house with an offer to escape MI6 by joining SCORPIA.
Rec: Alex Rider fanfic tends to lean heavily into how abusive Alex’s situation is, and the bulk of the story is about how Alex’s childhood is destroyed by both organizations, and how far his morals can slowly twist before he breaks. You’ll come to love many of the psychopaths he’s surrounded by as much as Alex does, and be terrified of the rest.
Content warnings: Torture (non-graphic), child abuse (not sexual), mass killings and terror attacks (non-graphic)

“and yet we still bloom” by gdgdbaby. 110K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Heaven Official’s Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu; Ship: f/f Xie Lian/Hua Cheng
Recced by: tinystreetlamp
Backstory: A femslash retelling of canon.
Rec: The poetry in the writing as well as the quoted poetry by Du Fu.
Content warnings: Violence, body horror

“Game of Stacks” by CommaSplice. 149K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: A Song Of Ice And Fire/Game Of Thrones; Ships: Tywin/Olenna, Jaime/Brienne, Sansa/Margaery, Stannis/Asha/Davos/Cersei
Recced by: laiqualaurelote
Backstory: The court intrigue of Game Of Thrones is translated into academic library politics as Ned Stark winds up becoming library director at the Aegon Targaryen Memorial Library at Crownlands University after his predecessor’s mysterious death.
Rec: It’s nearly 150,000 words long and nevertheless absolutely riveting; also, according to actual academic librarians I know, very accurate.
Content warnings: Major character death, kidnapping, sibling incest

“The Little Detective” by HikariAA. 915K words (WIP, regular updates), rated Teen.
Fandom: 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed; Ships: Kudou Shinichi/Mouri Ran, Haibara Ai | Miyano Shiho/Edogawa Conan
Recced by: Alice
Backstory: Detective Conan centres around teen detective Shinichi Kudo who shrinks to the size of a primary school kid and takes the identity Conan Edogawa. This fic introduces both as separate characters, slightly estranged brothers to be exact, and shows us clever kid Conan’s perspective of Shinichi suddenly vanishing.
Rec: Not only is the general set-up idea of the story intriguing by itself, the fic perfectly adapts it by keeping central character and plot dynamics but changing details and some pasts and backgrounds. The story covers many beloved canon cases while still keeping mystery and suspense with the unknown background circumstances; it keeps this in great balance.
Content warnings: Kidnapping, murder, other crimes

“Gone to the Dogs” by avesnongrata, Woodface. 173K words, rated Mature.
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics; Ship: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov
Recced by: kaseido
Backstory: Maria Hill is newly recruited into SHIELD, after a DADT discharge from the military. She’s talented, ambitious—but her first assignment is guard duty. She’s not sure if she’s guarding SHIELD from the prisoner or the prisoner from SHIELD, but the sarcastic, traumatized Black Widow is getting under her skin.
Rec: The authors capture women in the military so well, along with the tension between the reserved model soldier Hill and the chaos monster Romanoff. It’s a very, very slow burn between two people who’re stubborn in opposite ways, who speak more with their fists and their silences than with their words. I didn’t even realize it was 173K: I just kept staying up till all hours reading several nights in a row.
Content warnings: N/A

FINAL THOUGHT

As we head into December, we wanted to highlight the Panfandom Hanukkah Bingo, an event celebrating Jewish characters and fans. From the post:

Why? Jewish characters and Jewish fans are often overlooked or erased during the Winter Holiday Season in favor of “Secret Santa” exchanges, Christmas-themed fics, and the idea that ~Hanukkah is Jewish Christmas~ (which spoiler for all fics in this bingo: it’s not). This panfandom Bingo challenge is to celebrate Hanukkah on its own terms and give Jewish characters and fans a place to breathe. :)

You can find full details and the bingo board in the post!

And SOMEWHAT RELATED: as we’ve done in Decembers past, we’re currently soliciting wintry fics: stories centered around the upcoming holidays, or just ones with winter vibes. And as always—and as the fest above underscores—we strongly encourage folks to rec things other than Christmas fics (yes, please more fics that center Jewish characters!!) (but also non-denominational fics are very welcome haha). You can use our one-off rec form, and please tag your recs with “winter recs” or whatever holiday in the tropes and themes field. — Elizabeth