The Rec Center #60
Greetings from a beautiful summer day here in late February in New York City. :-/ Yes, once again, it has been A Week, but you made it! We have John Wick fanart, Pacific Rim background canon, “Good Pokemon Edits,” and more. Plus another multi-fandom reader-submitted list in the final week of Femslash February! — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Saudi Arabia Holds Kingdom's First Comic Con” by Beth Elderkin at iO9
Transcultural fandom ftw! Saudi Comic-Con was part the “Vision 2030” initiative, “a wave of cultural reforms that will diversify the kingdom’s economy.”
“My grandfather helped create Captain America for times like these” by Megan Margulies in the Washington Post
A message from the granddaughter of Captain America co-creator Joe Simon.
Pacific Rim background canon information from Guillermo del Toro:
older stuff
“Breast” at Wookiepedia
The Star Wars wiki includes an entire entry about boobs. This is hilarious BUT ALSO we discovered there is Discourse on this topic, so YMMV.
tumblr & beyond
“John Wick actually opened a doggy daycare and never went back into assassin work in the original script.” A+++ John Wick fanart by Tess Eneli Reid.
Gail Simone’s Grand Unified Theory of Keanu is... quite something.
We just discovered the Good Pokemon Edits fanart blog. Some very important work goin on over here.
For stats fans out there, Tumblr’s Fandometrics calculated engagement around various Oscar nominees since March of last year.
Shout out to Vox culture writer Alex Abad-Santos being very mad at the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie removing the one-line character “six eggs bae.”
fanfiction
February is almost over! But part of the beauty of getting WAY more F/F stories than we could run is we’ll have plenty of femslash in the coming months. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted recs, and apologies if your story didn’t make it in during February proper (there’s a degree of randomness to this, don’t worry). And if you have more F/F faves, please continue to submit! We seriously appreciate it. <3 — Elizabeth
[Podfic of] “A Statue Strong Enough For Two.” Author: ladyragnell; podficcer: exmanhater. 3:29:35 minutes, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Merlin; Ship: Elena/Mithian
Recced by: joyinrepetition
Backstory: You know what’s better than staying up late reading fic? Having somebody lovingly read it to you! There is SO MUCH great femslash podfic to highlight this month; you'll never have to endure a boring road trip or airport security line again. No Merlin knowledge necessary to enjoy this plotty, fun, secret-identity superhero AU.
Rec: lady_ragnell’s Merlin AUs are always a triumph of romantic fluff, and exmanhater has a gorgeous, rich voice that lets you get lost in the story. I love the slow burn and attentive focus on two minor characters...the main ships in the fandom are hardly here, and not missed at all.
Content warnings: N/A
“i am become death” by carlyinrome. 854 words, rated NC-17.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Ship: Buffy Summers/Tara Maclay
Recced by: Gabriela
Backstory: Buffy Summers, destined to fight evil until an early death, is resurrected by her friends at the beginning of season six. In this slight AU, she’s in a relationship with Tara, her friend's girlfriend in canon.
Rec: A quiet exploration of Buffy, Tara, and grief. The writing is clear and lovely, with emotion embodied in the physical; there’s pain, but also a peaceful kind of happiness. And love.
Content warnings: slight BDSM (whipping), depression, a bit of suicidal ideation; if you could watch season six, this should be okay to read
“the courage roaring in your colosseum chest” by lupinely. 5.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Orange is the New Black; Ship: Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson/Poussey Washington
Recced by: (havingbeen)breathedout
Backstory: OITNB is set in a women’s prison in Connecticut. Taystee and Poussey are both in on drugs offenses, and are canonically best friends. (Not a lot of canon knowledge is required to enjoy this story.)
Rec: The real strength of this story is lupinely’s rock-solid Poussey voice; it’s there from the first sentence and it never once wavers throughout the course of her rocky and self-castigating but ultimately hopeful negotiation of her relationship with Taystee. Lupinely captures Poussey’s anger and conflictedness but also her tenderness toward Taystee; and how she uses her external toughness in service of that tenderness. Really lovely.
Content warnings: Deals realistically with homophobia, drugs, violence, the prison system
“Funny” by Mosca. 1.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Freaks and Geeks; Ship: Kim Kelly/Lindsay Weir
Recced by: libraralien
Backstory: Lindsay and Kim’s complex and evolving relationship was one of the highlights of Freaks and Geeks.
Rec: Freaks and Geeks was all about its ensemble of characters. This story captures that vibe by being a depiction of a relationship from a character outside that relationship’s POV.
Content warning: alcohol
“Grazed Knees” by montparnasse. 5.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Recced by: LaDonnaErrante
Backstory: The war is over, except that it isn’t, and Ginny is done fighting, except that she’s not.
Rec: A beautifully written, bittersweet post-war love story about Ginny and Luna. The prose is absolutely lovely and the characters are incredibly well written.
Content warnings: Canon character deaths, post-war trauma
“Hate the Player” by bruisespristine. 45K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Person of Interest; Ship: Shaw/Root
Recced by: Shade
Backstory: I don’t do this fandom (I just do this ship), and I don’t do college AUs (but I did this one). Shaw is on the college soccer team, most of the other characters are also on the team. Root meets Shaw, mostly because her adviser (Finch) is dating the soccer coach (Reese), and things...escalate into a relationship. Slowly. With much grumbling. And sex long before either of them is willing to admit they actually care.
Rec: Lovely relationship dynamics, a lot of fun. There is a plot beyond the relationships stuff! It’s just that the relationship stuff is more interesting.
Content warnings: Past abusive relationships, kinky sex, blackmail, lots of drinking/alcohol
“Not By the Hand of Man” by Sath. 6.9K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Silmarillion; Ship: Tar-Mariel/OFC
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: The Silmarillion is ol’ John Ronald’s sprawling, mythical backstory to everything that happens in The Hobbit and the LOTR. It’s packed with detail and yet somehow leaves a lot of open space for stories like this one.
Rec: There’s a popular fan theory that the last ruling queen of Númenor is in fact the Witch King of Angmar (the Black Riders’ boss). This story is a wonderful early exploration of that theory that provides a fascinating look at a culture in decline, a woman between a rock and a hard place, and some great ambiguously evil lady-loving.
Content warnings: N/A
And last but not least: we’ve gotten duplicate recs before—mostly stories that have already shown up in lists—but never before have we gotten THREE different people reccing the same story in a short space of time. So! I’ve tried to do my best to combine these recs:
“How the mouth changes its shape” by breathedout. 132K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: BBC Sherlock; Ship: Sherlock/John(nie) (F/F)
Recced by: CleverManka, ActiasLuna, Shade
Backstory (cobbled together from all three submissions): always-a-girl!Sherlock and always-a-girl!Watson set in 1950s London. Johnnie is a former ambulance driver in the war, working as a mechanic. Sherlock is a struggling private detective. They meet because of a case, and strike up a friendship, and then a relationship, that's complex and filled with a lot of navigating gender and sexuality roles of the time.
CleverManka’s rec: I love the characterizations in this, and also the exquisite level of research Breathedout put into the lesbian social scene of post-war London. It’s also long and plotty for those who like slow burn case fics.
ActiasLuna’s rec: It is gorgeously written, the characterization and exploration of gender is amazing, the historical setting is deeply researched and brought to life!
Shade’s rec: Exploration of historical queerness! Thoughtful examination of classic characters as women! HBBO is an amazing writer and her stuff is great in general!
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
If you’re at RDC3 in London, look for Gav! If you’re not, follow along on her Twitter. :-)
Have a favorite story you’d like to submit? We’re always looking for guest reccers to do full lists, but if you have a one-off, please send it in via our submissions form! We’ve also gotten vid and podfic recs in recent weeks—those are strongly encouraged and we’re excited to include more of them going forward.
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)