August 25, 2023

The Rec Center #399

Hello all! This week we have articles on a nightmarish Barbie HGTV show and monetizing your hobbies, some delightful fanart for the game “Stray,” and a multi-fandom grab-bag of fic. — Elizabeth

new stuff

“How HGTV’s ‘Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge’ Became a Neighborhood Nightmare” by Claire McNear at The Ringer
“What’s it like when a Barbie-themed TV renovation project moves onto your block? For the residents of a quiet street in Southern California, the experience was more than just an onslaught of pink.”

“The Merch-ification of Book Publishing” by Madeleine Diamond at Esquire
Alongside the proliferation of BookTok and the rise of the ultra-Instagrammable colorful-blob book cover, a look into how exclusive merch is reshaping the way books are marketed.

“Don’t Feel Guilty Over Save Scumming In Baldur’s Gate 3 ” by Claire Jackson at Kotaku
Baldur’s Gate 3 has reignited an age-old debate over “save scumming,” the act of repeatedly saving your game as a kind of insurance against unwanted outcomes, ie death. This piece argues that gamers should just play however the hell they like.

older stuff

“The complicated reality of doing what you love” by Marian Bull at Vox
This essay on monetizing a hobby will likely resonate with fan creators who have done the same—and the ones who have chosen not to.

tumblr & beyond

Stray fanart by vlcg5109

What The X-Files is actually like.

a PITCH PERFECT x-men parody tiktok.

my poor little meow-meow vs your terrrible blorbo.

“padme’s handmaidens are such an underrated concept.”

A gorgeous animatic for The Queen’s Thief.

fanfiction

A grab-bag this week! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth

“A Kind of Dwell and Welcome” by leupagus. 86K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Ted Lasso; Ship: Ted Lasso/Trent Crimm; background Rebecca Welton/Bex (implied)
Recced by: xanthophyllippa
Backstory: Trent Crimm is reassigned from AFC Richmond to cover Arsenal and Ted is determined to find out why. As the club manages media coverage of their growing relationship, help—and friendship (and maybe more?)—come from an unlikely source.
Rec: Trent and Ted are adorable, and a cast of well-written OCs add dimension to their relationship. Bex is developed as a character with an actual personality rather than a plot device, and her friendship with Rebecca feels natural. The scene at the zoo is hilarious and charming and Trent and Michelle make excellent co-conspirators.
Content warnings: N/A

“Encore” by simplecoffee. 1.3K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Hustlers (2019); Ship: Destiny (Hustlers)/Ramona Vega
Recced by: ninamonday
Backstory: Hustlers is a film about a group of dancers who set up a crime operation targeting their clients during the Great Recession, centered around the fraught and intense friendship of Destiny and her mentor Ramona.
Rec: This short fic is really sexy in a way that both honors and heals the themes of the story.
Content warnings: N/A

“Homecoming” by jellyfisheries. 8.9K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell; Ship: Tennalhin Halkana/Surit Yeni
Recced by: AirgiodSLV
Backstory: Ocean’s Echo takes place in a world where some people have psychic abilities, to either ‘read’ (sense thoughts) or ‘write’ (mentally command others). This is a post-canon story, set six months after a reader/writer pair, initially forced together by the military, have gone their separate ways to deal with the aftermath of canon events.
Rec: Ocean’s Echo introduces a lot of consent and mental health issues, and this story gives its characters the space to deal with some of those, without ever trying to make love or a ‘happy ending’ into a quick fix for things like anxiety, depression, and having the ability to brainwash your boyfriend. There’s such a clear sense of both characters in the writing, along with a wonderful sense of growth.
Content warnings: Mental health discussion, mention of past underage sexual activity, substance abuse

“Rin’s Deal” by petrichoral. 6.1K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Spirited Away; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Chestnut_pod
Backstory: Spirited Away follows young Chihiro as she is swept away to the spirit world and bound by the loss of her name to work in a bathhouse, where she is helped on her journey by the kind but no-nonsense Rin, an older contract worker in a similar situation.
Rec: In the film, Rin seems slightly more resigned to her situation than Chihiro, but Chihiro is understandably caught up in her own problems, and we don’t see much of Rin’s take on her captivity. Petrichoral spins a wonderful gap-filler full of the spirit of the movie: much friendship and magic, and Rin’s matter-of-fact, slightly cunning approach to her freedom.
Content warnings: N/A

“It’s Not Easy Being Joined” by hibernate. 6.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Ships: Ezri Dax/Kira Nerys, Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys, Ezri Dax/Jadzia Dax, Ezri Dax/Jadzia Dax/Kira Nerys
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Ezri is a Trill recently joined with the Dax symbiont, and she has to go through the zhian’tara ceremony to deal with all the different versions of Dax now living in her head, including Jadzia.
Rec: A lovely and bittersweet character study of Ezri as she tries to find herself again after being joined with Dax, as well as dealing with Kira’s grief over the loss of Jadzia.
Content warnings: Grief/mourning

“In Sickness & In Truth” by avocadomoon. 13K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Mission Impossible movie franchise; Ship: Benji Dunn/Ethan Hunt
Recced by: Gav
Backstory: Ethan is the superspy hero of the MI franchise; Benji is his longtime hacker sidekick/pal.
Rec: I’m obsessed with the way this fic leans into the semi-acknowledged fact that Ethan is a huge freak with deeply weird attitudes to danger and “normal” life, overlapping with Tom Cruise’s IRL strangeness. Told from Benji’s perspective, this witty character study reverse engineers a deeper explanation for why Ethan Hunt is the way he is.
Content warnings: N/A

And a vid!

“I Wanna Get Better” by sisabet. 3.27, Not Rated.
Fandom: due South; Ship: Fraser/Kowalski
Recced by: Clever Manka
Backstory: More than two decades after the show’s finale, due South’s fandom is a gift that keeps on giving. This particular present from Festivids 2019 is a character exploration vid for Ray Kowalski.
Rec: This vid is full of comparisons and contrasts that showcase RayK’s layers, contradictions, and growth through the last two seasons of the show. It makes me want to re-watch the series (again).
Content warnings: N/A

FINAL THOUGHT

Have a good weekend, everyone! — Gav