The Rec Center #402
Hi all! This week we’ve got articles about AI Harry Styles songs and The X-Files, Star Wars fanart, and a multifandom rec list of crossover fic. — Gav
new stuff
“The Specter of AI-Generated ‘Leaked Songs’ Is Tearing the Harry Styles Fandom Apart” by Jason Koebler at 404 Media
“Dozens of unreleased Harry Styles songs have leaked on underground Discords in the last month. The fandom can’t decide if they’re real or AI-generated.” And apparently people are paying through the nose to hear them.
“Is BookTok sucking the joy out of reading?” by Jess Bacon at Dazed
On the breakneck pace that’s coming to dominate book fandom on TikTok—which is “increasingly pressuring users to treat reading like a competitive sport.”
“An X-Files expert on the show’s enduring appeal—30 years on” by Bethan Jones at The Conversation
There’s been a lot of coverage of this X-Files milestone in the past week or so, but one fan studies scholar wrote an entire book on it: The Truth Is Still Out There: Thirty Years of The X-Files.
older stuff
“The Underground World of Tamagotchi Collectors” by Alyssa Bereznak at The Ringer
On the charmingly old-school online fandom around the Tamagotchi, which still has devotees more than a quarter century after it was first introduced.
tumblr & beyond
Thrawn fanart by leahikol
“With the knowledge that Vulcan has regularly high winds & subsequent sandstorms I propose a type of guy: midwestern dads watching tornadoes but for Vulcans.”
actually this is an entirely valid content warning.
ok but DID Gandalf stay celibate?
fanfiction
This week we have a multi-fandom collection of crossover fic! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“The Dragon-King’s Temple” by Kryal. 196K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Avatar The Last Airbender, Stargate SG-1; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Tiamate
Backstory: 2 members of SG-1 meet 2 members of Team Avatar while in Goa’uld captivity and work together to escape. They later realize that something murderous followed them back to Earth...
Rec: Characterization is faithful to the source materials, the added world-building is creative and works really well to blend both series together, and the writing style and pacing are both excellent. All in all just a really enjoyable page-turning gen-fic if you like both series ^^.
Content warnings: Stargate-typical violence (+ ghosts + death by hypothermia), which is more graphic than AtlA
“you don’t get to rehearse” by myrmidryad. 14K words, rated Mature.
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Les Miserables; Ship: Enjolras/Grantaire
Recced by: Sainatsukino
Backstory: Buffy is a show in which a teenage girl is the chosen one to fight against vampires. Les Miserables is a novel that takes place in 19th-century France, but fandom really likes to take the Les Amis (the group of young revolutionaries) and put them in modern AUs. *basic knowledge of both fandoms is better, but not required. The last time I watched Buffy was a decade ago and I followed just fine.)
Rec: The crossover we all didn’t know we wanted, in which Enjolras is the slayer and Grantaire is a vampire. Loosely follows the story of the TV show in a nonlinear fashion, and does wonderful things with the Les Mis characters.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, torture
“The Fountain of Youth Job” by BazinMousqueton. 14K words, rated Gen.
Fandoms: Leverage, The Old Guard; Ship: Gen
Recced by: ChimaeraKitten
Backstory: This is a canon-divergence crossover between Leverage Redemption and Netflix’s The Old Guard where the Leverage crew accidentally barge into the third act of the movie because they had already been hired to run a con on the TOG villain Pharma company.
Rec: Tonally it’s a perfect Leverage episode, with all the elements of a multi-layered con that has a massive complication forcing them to improvise. It just so happens that this time the complication was running across a group of immortal warrior-heroes who’ve been attacked and kidnapped by a horrible Pharma bro.
Content warnings: Human experimentation (canon-typical for The Old Guard)
“#standbylegion” by esama. 11K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: MCU, Kingsman; Ship: Gen
Recced by: sainatsukino
Backstory: Kingsman: The Secret Service is a movie in which British secret agents prevent a villain from destroying humanity with a radio signal that makes everyone want to kill each other. Only the signal does get broadcast, for about four minutes before they can stop it. This fic is the aftermath of the massacre, told through JARVIS’ POV: “V-day takes out the Avengers. JARVIS copes, one tweet at a time.”
Rec: This story fucked me up. Fucked me up REAL BAD. It’s incredibly good, and I love Jarvis and everything that he does in this story, but shit. Angst galore.
Content warnings: Character death, aftermath of torture, aftermath of violence
“World Enough and Time” by laiqualaurelote. 52K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Doctor Who; Ships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson, Hugh Collins/Dorothy “Dot” Williams
Recced by: Chestnut_pod
Backstory: MFMM is a TV series (and series of novels) set in 1920s Melbourne, in which the eponymous daredevil lady detective Phryne Fisher solves pulpy crimes with much dash and verve. Doctor Who follows a shapeshifting, time-traveling alien around a differently pulpy universe. A fusion works remarkably well, likely because the zane-factor is so high in both.
Rec: This is a rip-roaring, episodic crossover in which Phryne is, in fact, a Time Lord, and sweeps straight-laced detective inspector Jack Robinson off on a transdimensional time-traveling adventure. The elan of MFMM and the sincerity of Doctor Who come through in spades, as does both shows’ penchant for lighthearted quirk. A delightful read!
Content warnings: Temporary amnesia
what if we combined yaoi and yuri and made some kind of fucked up genre where we ship men with women
— miaur (@tankinonkidansi) September 13, 2023
FINAL THOUGHT
PSA! If you haven’t already heard, Interview with the Vampire is in some sort of guest-streaming situation on [FKA HBO] Max right now, and you can watch the entire first season there until October 31st. Apparently a lot of people are just now discovering the show and how good it is? Lin is right: we did try to tell you. But I’m very excited that more people are getting into it—and if you or anyone else has Max and has been meaning to watch it, do it now!! (I will also once again share my IWTV collection of articles, podcasts, vids, etc in case you watch the show and think, how exactly did Jacob Anderson and/or Sam Reid feel about filming this show and also are they obsessed with each other in real life?? (extremely positive; yes)) — Elizabeth