The Rec Center #422
Hello everyone! Happy Femslash February! This week we have pieces on Star Trek fandom’s Threshold Day and (my reporting on) an interesting fan-academia hybrid event, Batman/My Neighbor Totoro fanart, and our first batch of multifandom F/F fics. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“‘Terror Camp’ Could Be a Glimpse of the Future of Fandom and Scholarship” by Elizabeth at Atlas Obscura
Elizabeth’s newest column is on Terror Camp—a true blend of Terror fan con and polar history conference. Featuring the insights of many brilliant and extremely enthusiastic participants!
“Happy ‘Threshold’ Day, Star Trek Sickos” by James Whitbrook at Gizmodo
A celebration of Star Trek: Voyager’s iconically bizarre “Janeway and Paris turn into lizards and have sex” episode, Threshold, whose anniversary becomes more of a fandom Event with every passing year.
“The Suicide Squad Situation” by Riley MacLeod at Aftermath
The new Suicide Squad videogame had a troubled release, sparking a conflict between fans, journalists and creators regarding the game’s coverage at media outlets like IGN. This piece explains what went down, covering the extreme levels of public scrutiny around major videogame releases.
my mom refuses to watch the x files because david duchovny was her ta for a class and he apparently “lounged about in a whorish manner”
— Ivy (@tomfordblues) December 2, 2023
older stuff
“The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes” by Lane Brown at Vulture
“The most overrated metric in movies is erratic, reductive, and easily hacked—and yet has Hollywood in its grip.”
tumblr & beyond
Batman fanart by grayfoj
an intriguing new development in shipping purity discourse.
“#was that the epic final sacrifice or just another day in the jianghu”
the doctor who fandom’s prolific posting habits, explained.
star trek voyager vs ds9 lizard sex posting graph.
“Everyone gives Sherlock Holmes a hard time about being mean about Watson’s writing, but…”
fanfiction
Femslash February: Week One! We’ve gotten a great batch of submissions from a wide variety of source material. We would, of course, love more, for this month and to have more f/f in lists throughout the year—please send them in via our form below! And thanks so much to everyone who submitted one of this week’s recs. — Elizabeth
“who ya gonna call?” by igneousbitch. 25K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Locked Tomb; Ship: Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus
Recced by: a-big-apple
Backstory: For Femslash February! Modern AU of a science fantasy series about necromancy and space imperialism! Two queers with a Complicated History have to work together on a Buzzfeed Unsolved-style paranormal show and fall (back? still?) in love while the internet watches.
Rec: Top qualities of this fic include the banter, the beautifully in-character ensemble cast, and the interspersed text logs and forum discussions. I started watching Buzzfeed Unsolved because I loved this AU so much.
Content warnings: Spooky ghost stuff, self-destructive behavior, description of a past fatal car accident
“I’m not ready yet (for the light to dim)” by kaydeefalls. 6.4K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: The Old Guard + Firefly fusion; Ship: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Recced by: stars-inthe-sky
Backstory: The Old Guard features a found family of extremely long-lived immortals, including Andromache (the 7000-year-old leader) and Quynh, who are strongly implied to have been romantically and sexually involved in the past. Firefly is about the crew of a cargo spaceship in a galaxy post-civil war.
Rec: It’s 2024 and some of us are still suckers for a great Firefly fusion! The author, well experienced in both fandoms, brings them together beautifully—the characters and their roles in the ’verse feel just right.
Content warnings: “Discussions of trauma but never explicit”
“Tell Me Like You Care” by Katherine_Venus. 3K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Mean Girls the Musical; Ship: Regina George/Gretchen Wieners
Recced by: phonecallfromgod
Backstory: Like many a musical adaptation of a movie before it, Mean Girls the Musical notably fleshed out several of the secondary characters. Beta Bitch Gretchen’s fleshing out included an entire song (What’s Wrong With Me) about how badly she wants Regina’s approval. This fic took that premise and made it porn.
Rec: While Regina/Gretchen isn’t a juggernaut ship in this femslash heavy fandom, but Katherine_Venus makes a super compelling argument for their dynamic. This fic is in turns extremely sweet and very hot, while still feeling true to the characters and their complicated power struggle.
Content warnings: N/A
“Happy For Now” by ScarlettStorm. 79K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Untamed; Ship: f/f Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian
Recced by: starknjarvis
Backstory: This fic takes the main characters from The Untamed, a Chinese drama about soulmates Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, genderbends them, and makes them both modern romance novelists.
Rec: This fic is completely accessible without having seen The Untamed. It’s a charming f/f friends-to-lovers about two novelists at a romance convention.
Content warnings: N/A
“family matters” by rain_sleet_snow. 8.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy; Ship: Jannah/Rey
Recced by: seralica
Backstory: Set post-The Rise Of Skywalker, follows Jannah’s time in the Resistance as they wrap the war up. Jannah is the leader of the band of former Stormtroopers from Kef Bir.
Rec: A really loving exploration of a very interesting character. Also she and Rey are so gay for each other, it’s great.
Content warnings: N/A
“Palímpsēstos” by DachOsmin. 1K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Oresteia - Aeschylus, Ancient Greek Religion and Lore; Ship: Cassandra/Clytemnestra
Recced by: breathedout
Backstory: Greek warrior Agamemnon killed his daughter, went to fight in the Trojan War, and is now returning home with the Trojan princess (Cassandra) he claimed as spoils of war. Cassandra is a seer whom no one believes. Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra is about to slaughter them both.
Rec: This fic does gorgeous and original things with Cassandra’s ability/compulsion to see simultaneously the past, present, & future. Her point of view reads like poetry, and I love the idea that her time-looped first meeting with Clytemnestra, who kills her over and over and over again, becomes the defining and erotically charged pivot point of her consciousness.
Content warnings: Ancient-Greek typical murder, eroticized violence
no, older man, don’t say there was no shipping back in your day on a public forum. older man, no! people are going to explain to you exactly what’s been happening to spock’s pussy since the nixon administration
— tar-minyatur’s court twink ✵ (@caranthirs) January 23, 2024
FINAL THOUGHT
It’s time for our annual reminder that the Hugo Award nominations are open, and The Rec Center is eligible in the Fanzine category! If you’re able to nominate this year, we’d definitely welcome your support. (And Worldcon 2024 will be hosted in Glasgow, so I’ll actually be there in person this year! Very exciting.)
Otherwise—have a great weekend, everyone! — Gav