Hello everyone! This week we have articles on the A24/Backrooms copyright suit, Roman romance novels, and the history of music fanzines, and over in the Fansplaining corner, a feature on conlang speakers and Gav’s penultimate recap for The Vampire Lestat. Plus Bridgerton fanart and a multifandom grab-bag of fic! — Elizabeth

new stuff

“A24 Reportedly Copyright-Striking Backrooms Indie Games And Artwork” by Lewis Parker at Kotaku
“A24 Films LLC has supposedly been issuing bogus copyright claims against indie game developers and artists for producing Backrooms content—even though the IP itself technically belongs to no one.” A bad look for a movie whose success was built on collective fandom creativity.

“Inside the Wild World of Roman Romance Novels” by Emma Southon at Lit Hub
“Just like the modern romance genre, ancient romances are dominated by tropes and predictable arcs: protagonists meet, protagonists fall in love, protagonists are separated, protagonists live happily ever after.”

“‘More real than anything you’ll see scrolling’: the radical resurgence of UK fanzines, 50 years after punk” by Claire Biddles at The Guardian
“The most important part of the word ‘fanzine’ is ‘fan’.” A wonderful piece on music fanzines past and present by Gav’s Overinvested co-host Claire!

Furious that Chris Nolan would disregard historical accuracy in adapting The Odyssey by making a "movie" with "cameras" instead of memorizing the entire story and then going on a nationwide tour to sing it to us while tripping on ergotized barley

— Jack Grimes (@jackapedia.design) July 16, 2026 at 11:11 AM

new stuff: fansplaining

“How Fans Make Fictional Languages Real” by Maria Temming
Fansplaining’s latest feature is about conlang fans (aka speakers of Elvish, Na’vi, Klingon, and other fictional languages). Some just enjoy learning languages; others like to feel more connected to their favorite worlds; others still are primarily interested in the community angle. “Once it starts to have real speakers, in a way, it becomes a real language too.”

“The Vampire Lestat: Sparing the Ambiguity” by Gav
Louis and Lestat reunite in the most narratively straightforward episode of the season—a true gift for fans of Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson’s incredible screen chemistry, leading into the finale with an episode that digs deep into their emotional wounds.

(Also note: Gav’s recaps for episode 4 and episode 5 are now unlocked for free members! 6 & 7 will remain paywalled for a while, but there are still a few more days to take advantage of the special TVL sale: BITEME.)

older stuff

“How Sharing Recipes Brings Fans Together” by Elizabeth at Atlas Obscura
“From my very earliest understanding of fiction, it always had this component of what is now my favorite canonical tag on AO3, ‘Food As A Metaphor For Love,’” says V. Arrow… “I always joke that the only thing I know how to write is two people having a heart-to-heart while cooking together.”

tumblr & beyond

Bridgerton fanart by chiosblog

“danganronpa for people that use snapchat”

staring in delighted confusion at disney’s gacha game concepts

what is toxic yuri anyway, we may never know

“baegael did nothing wrong except all the murders”

storyboard comparison gifsets from The Vampire Lestat!

fanfiction

We’ve got another grab-bag this week! Thanks to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth

“Laid Bare” by SixBeforeLunch. 37K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Raktajino
Backstory: Something is affecting all the Vulcans on the ship. Counselor Troi navigates cultural differences as she solves the mystery.
Rec: It’s a tense mystery with interesting new characters, and who doesn’t love seeing under-used characters get some meaty screen time?
Content warnings:See the tags: disordered eating, domestic violence, references to violence towards children

“A Study in Mystrade” by Mottlemoth. 1.3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock; Ship: Mycroft Holmes/Gregory Lestrade
Recced by: Ludicrous
Backstory: The events of A Study in Pink, retold through the text messages of Greg Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes—with a few details the episode missed.
Rec: The style of the author is wonderful in all her fics, but this one is particularly delightful because of the texting format. You’ll definitely chuckle at least once while reading it!
Content warnings: N/A

“I did think, let’s go about this slowly” by emjee (MerryHeart). 10K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020); Ship: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Recced by: MJ
Backstory: Joe and Nicky work in a library, and Joe has been having a crush on Nicky for months. Over the course of the story, they get together.
Rec: Incredibly sweet and funny and romantic!! I love the way all the characters all fit in this (super convincingly written) AU.
Content warnings: N/A

“North Star” by hole_in_the_roof. 12K words over 2 works, rated Teen.
Fandom: Project Hail Mary; Ship: Gen Recced by: anon
Backstory: Project Hail Mary is a book (and now movie) about middle school teacher Ryland Grace doing science in space and becoming besties with an alien so they can save both of their planets.
Rec: These 2 stories are from the perspective of one of the students left behind when Grace goes to work on project hail mary. A poignant look at how a great teacher can impact their students, plus an interesting outsider POV on events that are mostly kept from the public in canon.
Content warnings: Discussion of assumed character death, more in tags but they contain spoilers

“Establishing a Secure Connection” by anon. 4K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù; Ship: Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu
Recced by: Plavoptice
Backstory: An interactive, choose your own adventure fic where you (as Shen Yuan) are trapped by the System and must navigate out of a nightmare scenario to be with your beautiful husband (Luo Binghe).
Rec: This is SO original and unique and honestly fits the isekai world of the canon, in which a nefarious omnipotent “system” controls the narrator like a video game. Written with special HTML coding that changes the text when you choose different paths.
Content warnings: Graphic depictions of violence

And a vid!

“Delilah | Carol/Zosia (Pluribus)” by moonae. 3:40, rated Teen.
Fandom: Pluribus; Ship: Carol Sturka/Zosia
Recced by: myrmidryad
Backstory: Carol is one of the few survivors of an alien virus that has essentially turned the rest of humanity into a frighteningly smiling hivemind. Zosia is the ‘individual’ the hivemind chooses to be Carol’s chaperone, based on everything they know about Carol’s romantic preferences.
Rec: Everything Zosia does is brilliantly, quietly manipulative, and she isn’t a PERSON anymore—she’s just a vessel of the hivemind—but you can't possibly fault Carol for falling for it—it’s the end of the world, she’s lost everything, and she’s desperately lonely.
Content warnings: Manipulation, dubcon depending on where you fall on whether Zosia as an individual still exists—if she does, she’s definitely not consenting

If you ever question if your fanfic is too self indulgent please remember that’s actually the point of fanfiction

— Nemi (@nemialmasy.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM

FINAL THOUGHT

That’s all, folks! Have a great weekend! — Gav