The Rec Center #95
We have an unusually short letter for you this week! Elizabeth was visiting me in Scotland so we were too busy Having Fun to provide you with a full menu of fandom ~content. We didn’t even manage a Halloween theme, so in lieu of horror recs, all I can do is...remind you to watch Hannibal. Have a great weekend! — Gav
fanfiction
The whole list is a grab-bag from our submissions this week! Thanks, as always, to everyone who sent in a submission. <3 — Elizabeth
“Open Up the Promise of the Day” by dharmaavaocado. 17K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Star Wars; Ship: Obi-wan Kenobi/Rex
Recced by: plingokat
Backstory: A RexObi fic set from the Clone War era to the OG films.
Rec: RexObi is rare(ish) pair within this fandom, but it’s so consistently good. This fic is at turns hilarious and quietly, deeply impactful, and conveys a depth of feeling that’s super satisfying to read about.
Content warnings: N/A
“Gentle Antidote” by x_los. 11.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Peter Wimsey; Ship: Peter/Harriet
Recced by: Stephanie
Backstory: A soulmate tattoo AU of Sayers’s novel Strong Poison, in which Harriet does not have to wait until she’s on trial for murder to meet Peter.
Rec: This is the first soulmate AU I’d ever read, and it’s still one of my favorites. I adore Sayers, but Harriet has a rough time in the books, and this is a sweet, lovely little fantasy of a world in which everything is easier.
Content warnings: N/A
“Track Changes” by cairophoenix. 44K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Supergirl (TV); Ship: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer (“Sanvers”)
Recced by: Lena, plus her TinyLetter!
Backstory: During Supergirl’s second season, Alex Danvers, Supergirl’s secret agent sister, realized that she had feelings for the detective Maggie Sawyer. The show handled Alex’s coming out narrative and the evolution of Alex and Maggie’s relationship beautifully. This is an AU take on their whole arc, where instead of fighting aliens, they work in book publishing.
Rec: I’m a sucker for any kind of inventive AU, and publishing is the type of AU that you don’t see often! Cairophoenix writes the slow burn romance between Alex and Maggie beautifully; Alex’s coming out journey is handled with care and loving attention; every single character in this fic feels so REAL and I just want to hang out with them in real life.
Content warnings: canon levels of alcohol use, coming out (mild internalized homophobia)
“house on fire” ilgaksu. 11K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Voltron; Ship: Lance/Keith
Recced by: Kelly
Backstory: An Olympians AU where Lance is a swimmer and Keith is a gymnast. This is mostly an epistolary fic, told through tweets, tumblr posts, texts, and articles.
Rec: The framework of the fic is so well-executed, down to the tags fans of Keith & Lance use on tumblr. The characters are so well-written, and the non-epistolary scenes are great.
Content warning: There’s a scene where a misgendered trans gymnast is discussed.
“Divagations of a Prig, Or: the Risley Reshuffle” by HotUtilitarian. 9K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Maurice (E. M. Forster); Ship: Clive/Maurice
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: Maurice is Forster’s posthumously published, semi-autobiographical novel centered on the journey to self-acceptance of Maurice, a gay middle class snob who struggles with his queerness and snobbery. (Spoiler: it ends happily—for Maurice, at least.) This story follows Maurice’s first flame, the even snobbier landed gentleman Clive Durham.
Rec: This story encapsulates Clive perfectly—someone who is equally attracted and repelled by the physicality of life and who tries to analyze every single thing through the lens of Greek Classics as a self-preservation mechanism. It’s also an incredible exercise in style AND in including obscure facts about Lytton Strachey; hats off to the author.
Content warnings: Period-typical homophobia, some descriptions of sex that are frankly quite gross (intentionally)
“he will have power the dark lord knows not” by dirgewithoutmusic. 11.8K words, note rated (estimated Teen).
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Magali
Backstory: This fic answers the prompt “what if Harry Potter were a squib” and takes us through the events of the entire series through that lens.
Rec: I love this story because it encapsulates all that is wonderful and challenging about being in HP fandom: falling in love with Hogwarts, but feeling let down by the myriad unexamined questions & injustices in the world, and trying to solve or at least answer them yourself.
Content warnings: N/A
“Collide” by Destina. 6.2K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Live Free or Die Hard; Ship: John/Matt
Recced by: Gryvon
Backstory: They’ve never talked about it. Never made contingency plans, though both of them knew this might happen. But Matt has always known that if danger threatens, John won’t stop until Matt is safe.
Rec: I love follow-up stories where Matt and John find their way back together after the events of the movie and build a relationship based on shared experiences.
Content warning: Terrorism
“To Which Fate Binds” by thedevilchicken. 33K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Black Sails; Ship: James Flint/Charles Vane
Recced by: anon
Backstory: A Black Sails fic set after Season 2, is canon divergent, but jumps in and out of Season 3 canon.
Rec: It has pitch-perfect characterization, sells the hell out of a non-canon pairing the average fan of the show wouldn’t think of, and it's beautifully written.
Content warnings: violent pirates, sex, major character death, a sad ending (all things Black Sails fans are used to)
And some vids!
“Period Drama montage (It’s Raining Men)” by DreamyViper. 4:17, rated Gen.
Fandom: Multi - Period Dramas; Ships: Multi
Recced by: Karen
Backstory & Rec: Period dramas are such important works of the female gaze, and this video goes hard. Wet shirt Darcy, fencing practice Darcy, and every hot man who’s ever worn a cravat or galloped sternly on a horse across the moors on the BBC is lovingly featured in this vid that’s part humor, part multi-ship, part just pure costume drama goodness.
Content warnings: N/A
“Jo/Blair - One Thing” by ashleylimafanvids. 2:21, rated Gen.
Fandom: The Facts of Life; Ship: Jo/Blair
Recced by: cathostage
Backstory: The Facts of Life is a show from the 80s set at an all-girls boarding school centering around four friends. Jo is a tough, tomboy scholarship student and Blair is the super feminine, smart, spoiled rich girl. They go from enemies to friends in canon but clearly are meant for each other.
Rec: This video is brilliantly edited to find every laden moment between Jo/Blair and the song captures the way Jo/Blair always come back to each other.
Content warnings: N/A
“Bend Hard, Play Hard” by IleiaAMVs. 4:20, not rated.
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV); Ships: Gen
Recced by: Clever Manka
Backstory: A general fanvid for the television show Avatar. The vidder wanted to create something that had the same "hilarious and badass" feel of the show. *insert fucking success gif here*
Rec: The editing on this vid is jaw-droppingly good. I was uncertain I could sit through this Macklemore song but I was 100% hooked by the 15-second mark.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
Since we were too busy SOCIALIZING IRL to do a proper newsletter this week (apologies!) we thought we would share some highlights from our Wednesday afternoon outing, at the National Museum of Scotland’s exhibit “Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites.” We ostensibly went to this because of Black Sails fandom, in the way that we are reading a bunch of early modern philosophers because of Black Sails fandom, which is to say, the connections are kind of a few steps from the show itself! But I stand by it hahahaha. — Elizabeth
Important Jacobite-Related Things We Saw & Learned About:
Some solid 17th-century cartoons
James II’s beautifully melodramatic “last expressions,” which Gav described as similar to someone very publicly quitting an online community/flouncing. “I am now going to make my Exit out of this miserable World, out of a Tempestuous Sea to a Port of Eternal Rest, as I firmly hope through the Merits and Passions of my Dear Saviour. My Integrity and Innocency has been Oppressed with infinite Lyes and Calumnies…”
This incredible dress on James VIII/III
Everyone always likes commemorative plates with the Royals.
Lots of FAKE NEWS throughout this whole thing.
Jacobite fashion was A Lot
The Very Best person we encountered, Lady Anne MacKintosh, “the colonel,” who raised an army of clansmen for the Jacobites—but her husband was fighting for the other side! And apparently they had a great marriage! They seem incredible and we are still trying to figure out how they made things work.
And stay tuned next week when we discuss a similarly kinda-distant-from-Black-Sails-cultural-event, OSLO starring Toby Stephens (!!!!), which Elizabeth is seeing tonight and Gav is seeing tomorrow. :-DDDDD
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.
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)