The Rec Center #93
Hoooo boy, this week. There’s not a lot that we can add right now, so we offer up this newsletter like we do during other hard weeks: as something that’s here if you need an escape, and something that will keep if you aren’t thinking about fandom right now. We’ve got a variety of articles and Tumblr posts, Gav’s quick thoughts about the things she saw at the London Film Festival, and fic recs from guest reccer blindmouse about BTS, the massively popular K-pop group. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Reader, I kissed him” by Bim Adewunmi
If you don’t subscribe to Bim Adewunmi’s Tinyletter, quick, go, now! She writes about all sorts of things, but occasionally specifically about fandom. Last week’s installment was a beautiful little essay on NYCC: “I am never more complimentary than when I am at Comic Con, I am never so tender to strangers than when I see them dressed up and enthusiastic, proud of their fandom and wearing their commitment literally on their sleeves.”
“Is Your D&D Character Rare?” by Gus Wezerek at FiveThirtyEight
For the D&D fans among us: FiveThirtyEight analyzed 100,000 different characters created at D&D Beyond over a recent one-month period and then analyzed players’ preferences.
“Fandom Loves Puerto Rico”
Fandom Loves Puerto Rico is a fandom charity auction, raising money for Puerto Rico disaster relief. It’s present on Dreamwidth, Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. If you’ve not seen a fandom charity auction before, it’s basically a chance to bid on awesome fanfic/art/fanvids/etc and raise some money for an important cause!
older stuff
“It’s Okay to Be a Lot: On Watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” by Eric Eidelstein at Catapult
“This is what being obsessed is: It is making a huge production in your mind.”
tumblr & beyond
Gorgeous fanart: Te Fiti from Moana by averine-lah
Take that Gal Godot/Kate McKinnon kiss and…!
This Twitter account takes Armie Hammer’s dance scene from Call Me By Your Name and recuts it to different songs. A very welcome spiritual successor to the “Oscar Isaac dances” account.
Some thoughts on the sense of melancholy within Lord of the Rings.
fanfiction
This week’s guest reccer is, blindmouse, who’s been fandom-hopping since 2006, and currently hangs out in K-pop fandom.
BTS are the most internationally successful K-pop group in the world right now. They’re a little-group-that-could story—they’re under a small-to-middling label in an industry in which the big three labels have massive power and influence. Their record-breaking success is mysterious, but also not that mysterious: they've put out consistently great music for four years, and all seven members have a really close and supportive affection for each other that’s noticeable even in the cuddly fanservicey world of K-pop. Obviously there's a lot of fic. — blindmouse
“A Gilded World” by smiles. 169K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Yoongi/Seokjin, secondary Jimin/Taehyung
Backstory: Yoongi (left) & Seokjin | A k-drama-style story in which rich corporate heir Yoongi has to find a fake husband to appease his grandmother, and Seokjin is desperate.
Rec: This is so well done. Melodrama with clear-eyed believable emotional depth + enjoyable light tropeyness. The Yoongi/Seokjin A-plot is really good, but the Jimin/Taehyung B-plot stole my heart even more, I ACHED for Jimin.
Content warnings: Past parent death (in a flashback)
“same damn hunger” by marienadine. 40K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Yoongi/Hoseok
Backstory: Hoseok (left) & Yoongi | In which Yoongi knows full well that starting a FWB thing with Hoseok is emotional self-sabotage, but he lets it happen anyway.
Rec: This is SUCH GOOD PINING. The opening paragraphs make it look like a hazy stoner fic, but that’s only really the first scene, and even then the underlying pining is too lethal for haziness, plus features an extremely appealing Yoongi. The friendships in this fic also made me cry.
Content warnings: Recreational drug use
“underdressed and oversexed” by gangbang & shywall. 25K words (WIP), rated Explicit.
Ship: Jimin/Jungkook
Backstory: Jimin (left) & Jungkook | In which student Jungkook is scouted for gay porn, but didn’t expect to be filming with the porn star he's been getting off to for three years. An abandoned WIP, but PWP-ish enough that that doesn’t matter as much as it might.
Rec: Does everything this trope should do and does it really well.
Content warnings: N/A
“Strawberry Bubblegum” by rkatz. 31K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: girl!Hoseok/girl!Taehyung
Backstory: Hoseok (left) & Taehyung | In which Hyoseon is pretty sure that only Kim Taeyoung would rock up up to her bandmate and ask her for help working out orgasms.
Rec: Stupidly good pining and the most perfect girl!Tae characterisation.
Content warnings: N/A
“아침은 다시 올 거야” by fitzgarbage. 97K words over 2 works, rated Teen.
Ship: Hoseok/Taehyung
Backstory: In which student Taehyung needs a job and he's good with kids, and single father Hoseok just needs someone who can take what his young son throws at them.
Rec: This is one of the best kidfics I've read—the kind of difficult kidfic, with a genuinely difficult kid, that is rare in fic, with a really satisfying though frequently hurty arc.
Content warnings: A bit of parental homophobia in the second story
“The Monster Under Your Bed” by popliar. 6K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Namjoon/Hoseok
Backstory: Namjoon (left) & Hoseok | In which there’s a monster under Hoseok’s bed; it’s a metaphor but also it’s a monster.
Rec: This is adorable and hilarious, with a 100% adoptable monster.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
This week’s newsletter was almost all Elizabeth because I was at the London Film Festival this week! So, thanks Elizabeth!
From the LFF, I can happily report that Guillermo del Toro’s fishfucker movie The Shape of Water (aka my most anticipated film of 2k17) is JUST AS WONDERFUL AS I HOPED & DREAMED. Folks, it’s perfect. Romantic, visually gorgeous, and politically astute. I’ll post a proper (spoiler-free) review in a few days, but seriously: Guillermo del Toro is such a gift. Oh, and I also recommend Call Me By Your Name (of course) and The Florida Project, a funny and charming movie about a misbehaving 6-year-old and her mom living in a motel in Florida. It’s out this weekend, featuring a deeply charming Dad Performance from Willem Dafoe. — Gav
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well.
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