The Rec Center #456
Hello all! This week we have articles about Bridgerton, Emily Dickinson’s house, and some very important polar exploration history news. Also some cool Teen Titans fanart, multifandom AU fic recs, and more! — Gav
new stuff
“A fan of AMC’s The Terror helped identify real-life crew member of doomed expedition” by Ash Parrish at The Verge
The remains of Captain James Fitzjames of the Franklin Expedition were identified this week, in a truly wonderful crossover between fandom and academia. Huge news for Arctic exploration history enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoyed AMC’s The Terror!
“Fans fuming after unofficial Bridgerton ball flops” by Noor Nanji at BBC News
Bridgerton fans in Detroit got to experience their very own version of Dashcon this week, in a notably disastrous and overpriced event marketed as a Regency ball. (Spoiler alert: It definitely didn’t resemble a Regency ball.)
“How a TV Show Brought New Fans (and Furniture) to Emily Dickinson’s House” by Elizabeth at Atlas Obscura
Elizabeth’s newest AO column is about the Dickinson Homestead in Western Massachusetts, which has been welcoming fans (“pilgrims”) for more than a century—and which has been recently been gifted props, furniture, and costumes from the Apple TV+ show Dickinson. Multi-level fan tourism!
what if you were a young gay man leaving your podunk town and you hitched a ride with an older guy in his shitty ancient truck and you kinda fell for him and y'all spend a lot of time together but then he winds up with your long lost twin sister. this happened to luke skywalker
— grace (@agneswickfields) September 16, 2024
older stuff
“An Oral History of How ‘Star Wars’ Became a Merchandising Powerhouse” by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross at Esquire
“After Return of the Jedi, interest in Star Wars hit an all-time low. To win back fans, Lucasfilm expanded into novels, comics, video games, and toys. It was a franchising breakthrough the likes of which the world had never seen.”
tumblr & beyond
Teen Titans fanart by ghostpainters
some v sweet environmental storytelling over on ao3.
“Daniel molloy the guy that you are”
genuinely obsessed with this pitch for a Two-Face legal drama Batman storyline.
things are heating up in the Sebulba discourse.
“first fanart of a character you liked” versus “30th fanart of the character”
fanfiction
AUs this week—specifically the “drop them in a different setting/time/job etc from canon” type. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec! — Elizabeth
“Leave No Soul Behind” by whochick. 26K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Star Trek; Ship: Kirk/Spock
Recced by: anon
Backstory: What if Jim and Spock were Space Paramedics instead of Starfleet? What if they end up saving the world anyway?
Rec: I enjoy the plot, but really what I enjoy is 250K+ of romantic tension. Will they? Won’t they? Is the world going to explode first? An fun AU that looks at how the characters would work in a different setup. (Mostly based on the 2009 reboot.)
Content warnings: N/A
“The Rightish Reasons” by AttilaTheHun. 88K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS; Ship: Kim Seokjin | Jin/Min Yoongi | Suga
Recced by: honeyedsea
Backstory: After a messy outing in the press by his ex, actor Kim Seokjin joins a gay Bachelor-style reality TV show to prove he still has what it takes to be a romantic lead. But after meeting Min Yoongi on the show, his reasons for being there start to change. Readers don’t need to be familiar with BTS to enjoy the story.
Rec: This story delves into the way homophobia affects people and the scars that can be left as a result. It also uses the format of reality TV very well, portraying the ups and downs that come with that setting and the way emotions can complicate things.
Content warnings: Homophobia, character outed against their will, mental health issues
“The Fine Art of Swordbending” by mindbending. 21K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender; Ship: Zuko/Sokka
Recced by: hownowredclown
Backstory: In canon, Prince Zuko is the bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold who was burned & banished by his father at 13 for bullshit reasons but mainly to make way for his little sister, who is the preferred heir to the throne, while Sokka is the comic relief/grounded realist of the group of good guys. This is an AU where basically you don't need to know anything about that because it's OLYMPICS BABY!
Rec: I’ll confess, I'm not a sports fan OR a sports AU fan. But the way that Sokka has such a pure love for every sport in the Olympics, plus the very impressively written fencing scenes (worth a read just to study how to write action in different contexts but with an ever-engaging and plainly understandable geography to them), this fic more than makes it stand out. With the Olympics on the horizon [ed. note, this was submitted a while back!] I can read this and feel like I’m participating in the culture, even though I’m just reading fic!
Content warnings: Canon-compliant mentions of parental abuse, fencing scenes might be classified as violence?
“All Old Things are New Again” by The Feels Whale (miscellea). 52K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: MDZS/The Untamed; Ship: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian
Recced by: ataratah
Backstory: Full-time necromancer and part-time cam boy, Wei Wuxian, finds himself unexpectedly homeless. An enthusiastic patron comes to his rescue.
Rec: A solid mix of humor and angst, this fic is an excellent example of a future fic done right.
Content warnings: N/A
“For the Glory of a Good Pudding” by soft_october. 109K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Terror; Ship: Francis Crozier/James Fitzjames
Recced by: anon
Backstory: The Terror is a fictionalized version of the Franklin Expedition to the Arctic in the 1840s. This story is a Modern AU where the cast of characters ends up in a knockoff Bake Off reality show.
Rec: Sweet and hilarious, this story encapsulates perfectly the character beats of what happens with our favorite characters, as well as adapts the concept of the Bake Off AU trope for the story.
Content warnings: N/A
“steal the air out of my lungs (make me feel it)” by nahco3. 26K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Formula 1 RPF; Ship: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Recced by: 1degosuperego
Backstory: Daniel is a resident in trauma surgery at a hospital in LA and Max, whose difficult (and difficult in real life) father works in transplant surgery at the same hospital, is an intern on rotation in Daniel’s department.
Rec: The high-adrenaline world of racecar driving maps beautifully onto the hectic, hierarchy-bound atmosphere of a hospital in this gorgeous fic that I’m returning to this weekend because of the bittersweet end of Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career. The author is a physician and it comes through in her rich world-building that brings us in to the dense terminology of medicine; her ability to make the tiniest flutters of emotion in her characters resonate with the reader brings me back to this fic over and over.
Content warnings: Graphic depictions of violence
When you're young, you may think that when you're 30+ you will naturally gravitate away from fandom. What's more realistic is that your dear online friend that writes transformers smut will help you format your resume
— double mmia (@mobilesuitmia) September 25, 2024
FINAL THOUGHT
October is nearly upon us, and as we’ve done in the past, we’d like to run some ~spooky lists~ throughout the month. This is a broad umbrella, including:
- Fic about supernatural creatures (vampires, werewolves, zombies etc), whether AUs or from fandoms with that stuff in the source material
- Horror and/or paranormal happenings/vibes
- Halloween-specific stories (including non-spooky ones!)
As always, please use our submissions form, and be sure to include something in the tropes/themes field so I know it’s for this call for recs! — Elizabeth