Ray Vecchio Rec List - Happy Birthday!

Sep 20, 2015 13:12

Ray Vecchio Rec List
As we all know (well, almost all of us) there is a huge amount of love for Ray Vecchio in the fandom. I can’t even begin to rec everything I love, but I can give you a sample. Without further ado, I am going to present some of my favourite Vecchio fanworks.

Starting with the fanfics (because anyone who knows me knows I’m all about the words) here are some of my favourites, fairly randomly organised. (My brain is randomly organised, just so you know.

BG's Vecchio Rec List


Starting with the fanfics (because anyone who knows me knows I’m all about the words) here are some of my favourites, fairly randomly organised. (My brain is randomly organised, just so you know.)

Ray/Ray (with a side helping of PTSD)

A Year (More or Less) in the Life by Pir8fancier
Ray Kowalski POV - this one starts off about as grim as a fic can get - Kowalski and Vecchio both dancing with loneliness and alcoholism. It’s Vecchio who decides to do something about it. Over the course of a year their relationship changes - to the extent that Kowalski suddenly realises he has fallen in love with Vecchio. (A reasonable thing to do - I mean, don’t we all?)

Vecchio comes out of this fic so well. Just as in canon he is motivated by the desire to look after someone else. What gets him off his barstool is the realisation that Kowalski is as badly off as he is, and needs saving. This is Kowalski pov, but it’s Kowalski in love with Vecchio pov, so the Vecchio characterisation is sympathetic, warts and all. One of my favourites. 25336.

Home for Next Year http://archiveofourown.org/works/995751 by Scribe. This is another of my top favourite post Vegas Ray/Ray stories. I must have read it four or five times by now - it lives on my kindle. Literally an Epic rec it deals with everything from PTSD to broken hearts, to rebound sex, to a happy Ray/Ray ending. Vecchio pov, and gives me wistful happy feels.

OT3
And now we have a Seascribe offering. Call This World Home, 49538 words, and not one of them wasted. This one features PTSD, an OT3, the Vecchio family being overwhelming, plus a baby. Even if you don’t like kidfic you have to read this one. The child is realistically a kid; the Dad Shock is utterly to be expected, Fraser and Kowalski’s reactions are completely in character, and the happy ending is - well, so credibly happy that I’m grinning now just thinking about it.

Fraser/Vecchio

Burn This Town to the Ground If you like your Vecchio in pieces and your Fraser saving him, and your romance messed up, and your endings hopeful but not completely fixed, this is the fic for you. I loved it.

Here we have another by Scribe - Ray Vecchio, Sixty-Four, in Canada in the Summertime Too short to be an epic (just under ten thousand words) it is just long enough to sink into with a sigh and emerge blinking from it with regret that it is over. It’s not a group of pairings that I have seen before, but it is sympathetically and realistically done. And it’s just - so very sweet.

This one, The Real Thing by Belmanoir, is crack dead gorgeous. Well, not quite crack, but is this a magical realism world or isn’t it? And is Fraser the world’s most evil and trolling boyfriend? (Answer, yes.) Maybe it is crack after all. I leave the reader to decide. 13240 words. And if you want to dig further into it, Belmanoir has written a lot of excellent F/V. Go enjoy.

Onto the Gen now

We’ll start with dS Tiff Here we have a casefic writer who’s plots are so twisty and turny and well put together that you need a compass to figure out what’s going on - then in the end you realise it was inevitable. I can recommend all of her stuff, but in the spirit of Ray Vecchio Day here is Vecchio being completely underestimated by Fraser and - well - everyone really, yet ultimately being proven to have been right all along. You’re My Sister, I Care About You explores the family background of the Vecchios, and the sibling dynamic between Ray and Frannie. Ray is very much in character - his usual cantankerous and prickly self - and Frannie is her hopelessly romantic self. On this occasion she has her eyes set on someone who seems just right for her. Fraser utterly misjudges the situation, and Ray is the only one who suspects that not all is as it seems. 56286 words. (Tiff also writes amazing female characters.)

Normally I wouldn’t rec a Work in Progress, but the ongoing mega-epic Catching Shadows by Shadow2Serenity is a noble exception. To demonstrate his dedication to the fandom (and Vecchio in particular) we are talking here about a fanboy so fannish that he has his own Riv. That’s not why I’m reccing this though. I’m reccing it because it is an incredible casefic, and keeps ending on cliffhangers that make me want to find him and chain him to his computer so that he’ll tell me what happens next. It’s a ‘twenty years after’ fic, in which every character seems to be making an appearance - the voices are spot on, as well as the right level of humour versus angst. I wish I could tell you more, but it is definitely one where I’d feel compelled to add spoiler after spoiler, and I don’t want to diminish your experience of chewing your nails, and worrying about what happens next. As of now it stands at 90497 words.

At this point I’m going to be awful and self-rec. When it comes to Vecchio I have over 70 stories in which he appears as a major character. (Seriously? Is that all? I thought it was more - must be a tagging screw up.) So, I’m not going to inflict them all on you. However, of all of them I have to admit that my favourite is the Shadow of the Bookman series, http://archiveofourown.org/series/30073 which ate up my life for fully twelve months (not counting all the research that went into it before hand.) It covers a period of years, from how the FBI manipulate Ray into going under cover (and no, he didn’t do anything dodgy at all) to the long term after effects when he gets home, and Fraser going to heroic lengths to save him. I’m prouder of it than of anything else I’ve ever written, and know for a fact that there is a revelation in there that nobody saw coming, but which made everyone go ‘oh! Of course!’ (I blame my son for that one. He has the best ideas.) Technically there is one slash relationship in it, but it’s so peripheral that blink and you miss it. And it’s definitely not gen. There is sex and violence in it, though I have to admit the violence seizes the day. The four volumes weigh in at over 200,000 words, just so you know what you are letting yourself in for.

I can safely say I have missed scores of great stuff, for which I can only apologise, but these are the ones that I came most readily to mind. Next year I’ll rec again.

The Vids

What would fandom be without vids? These range from the whacky and cracky to angst and grief. I’m going to start with the angst and then cheer us all up with the ‘what the hell was the vidder on? And where can I get some???’
Ray in Vegas. Yes, it has been done as a video, by the inimitable Scribe. Phoenix.

Ordinary Day - another Scribe vid, this one makes me smile, and remember that due South isn’t all about the angst.
Scribe again, proving that she’s got the crackiest skills in the fandom: My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada

Still on the theme of happy crack, this one is by Cherry Lozenge Eight years old, and still makes me laugh. What happens when you cross the X Files with due South? Crack happens, that’s what.
Triple X Files

Finally - three ones which live on my phone and in my heart, but suffer from either broken links or my incompetence. Feel free to provide them, oh happy dueSers.

Satellite and That’s All, both by SDWolfpup.
Roll to Me, by Sandy and Nicole.

Happy Birthday Ray Vecchio! Here's to Many Happy Returns.

AN: If any of the links are broken or lead to the wrong fics, let me know, and I'll fix 'em up. Likewise if any of the formatting or links look odd, let me know and I'll go back and tinker. Just wanted to get this out in time! ://The List!">http://The List!

BG's Vecchio Rec List.

Starting with the fanfics (because anyone who knows me knows I’m all about the words) here are some of my favourites, fairly randomly organised. (My brain is randomly organised, just so you know.)

Ray/Ray (with a side helping of PTSD)

A Year (More or Less) in the Life by Pir8fancier
Ray Kowalski POV - this one starts off about as grim as a fic can get - Kowalski and Vecchio both dancing with loneliness and alcoholism. It’s Vecchio who decides to do something about it. Over the course of a year their relationship changes - to the extent that Kowalski suddenly realises he has fallen in love with Vecchio. (A reasonable thing to do - I mean, don’t we all?)

Vecchio comes out of this fic so well. Just as in canon he is motivated by the desire to look after someone else. What gets him off his barstool is the realisation that Kowalski is as badly off as he is, and needs saving. This is Kowalski pov, but it’s Kowalski in love with Vecchio pov, so the Vecchio characterisation is sympathetic, warts and all. One of my favourites.  25336.

Home for Next Year http://archiveofourown.org/works/995751 by Scribe. This is another of my top favourite post Vegas Ray/Ray stories. I must have read it four or five times by now - it lives on my kindle.  Literally an Epic rec it deals with everything from PTSD  to broken hearts, to rebound sex, to a happy Ray/Ray ending.  Vecchio pov, and gives me wistful happy feels.

OT3
And now we have a Seascribe offering. Call This World Home, 49538 words, and not one of them wasted. This one features PTSD, an OT3, the Vecchio family being overwhelming, plus a baby. Even if you don’t like kidfic you have to read this one. The child is realistically a kid; the Dad Shock is utterly to be expected, Fraser and Kowalski’s reactions are completely in character, and the happy ending is - well, so credibly happy that I’m grinning now just thinking about it.

Fraser/Vecchio

Burn This Town to the Ground If you like your Vecchio in pieces and your Fraser saving him, and your romance messed up, and your endings hopeful but not completely fixed, this is the fic for you. I loved it.

Here we have another by Scribe - Ray Vecchio, Sixty-Four, in Canada in the Summertime Too short to be an epic (just under ten thousand words) it is just long enough to sink into with a sigh and emerge blinking from it with regret that it is over. It’s not a group of pairings that I have seen before, but it is sympathetically and realistically done.  And it’s just - so very sweet.

This one, The Real Thing by Belmanoir, is crack dead gorgeous. Well, not quite crack, but is this a magical realism world or isn’t it? And is Fraser the world’s most evil and trolling boyfriend? (Answer, yes.) Maybe it is crack after all. I leave the reader to decide. 13240 words. And if you want to dig further into it, Belmanoir has written a lot of excellent F/V. Go enjoy.

Onto the Gen now

We’ll start with dS Tiff Here we have a casefic writer who’s plots are so twisty and turny and well put together that you need a compass to figure out what’s going on - then in the end you realise it was inevitable. I can recommend all of her stuff, but in the spirit of Ray Vecchio Day here is Vecchio being completely underestimated by Fraser and - well - everyone really, yet ultimately being proven to have been right all along. You’re My Sister, I Care About You explores the family background of the Vecchios, and the sibling dynamic between Ray and Frannie. Ray is very much in character - his usual cantankerous and prickly self - and Frannie is her hopelessly romantic self. On this occasion she has her eyes set on someone who seems just right for her. Fraser utterly misjudges the situation, and Ray is the only one who suspects that not all is as it seems. 56286 words. (Tiff also writes amazing female characters.)

Normally I wouldn’t rec a Work in Progress, but the ongoing mega-epic Catching Shadows by Shadow2Serenity is a noble exception. To demonstrate his dedication to the fandom (and Vecchio in particular) we are talking here about a fanboy so fannish that he has his own Riv. That’s not why I’m reccing this though. I’m reccing it because it is an incredible casefic, and keeps ending on cliffhangers that make me want to find him and chain him to his computer so that he’ll tell me what happens next. It’s a ‘twenty years after’ fic, in which every character seems to be making an appearance - the voices are spot on, as well as the right level of humour versus angst. I wish I could tell you more, but it is definitely one where I’d feel compelled to add spoiler after spoiler, and I don’t want to diminish your experience of chewing your nails, and worrying about what happens next. As of now it stands at 90497 words.

At this point I’m going to be awful and self-rec. When it comes to Vecchio I have over 70 stories in which he appears as a major character. (Seriously? Is that all? I thought it was more - must be a tagging screw up.) So, I’m not going to inflict them all on you. However, of all of them I have to admit that my favourite is the Shadow of the Bookman series,http://archiveofourown.org/series/30073 which ate up my life for fully twelve months (not counting all the research that went into it before hand.) It covers a period of years, from how the FBI manipulate Ray into going under cover (and no, he didn’t do anything dodgy at all) to the long term after effects when he gets home, and Fraser going to heroic lengths to save him. I’m prouder of it than of anything else I’ve ever written, and know for a fact that there is a revelation in there that nobody saw coming, but which made everyone go ‘oh! Of course!’ (I blame my son for that one. He has the best ideas.) Technically there is one slash relationship in it, but it’s so peripheral that blink and you miss it. And it’s definitely not gen. There is sex and violence in it, though I have to admit the violence seizes the day. The four volumes weigh in at over 200,000 words, just so you know what you are letting yourself in for.

I can safely say I have missed scores of great stuff, for which I can only apologise, but these are the ones that I came most readily to mind. Next year I’ll rec again.

The Vids

What would fandom be without vids? These range from the whacky and cracky to angst and grief. I’m going to start with the angst and then cheer us all up with the ‘what the hell was the vidder on? And where can I get some???’
Ray in Vegas. Yes, it has been done as a video, by the inimitable Scribe. Phoenix.

Ordinary Day - another Scribe vid,  this one makes me smile, and remember that due South isn’t all about the angst.
Scribe again, proving that she’s got the crackiest skills in the fandom: My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada

Still on the theme of happy crack, this one is by Cherry Lozenge Eight years old, and still makes me laugh. What happens when you cross the X Files with due South? Crack happens, that’s what.
Triple X Files

Finally - three ones which live on my phone and in my heart, but suffer from either broken links or my incompetence. Feel free to provide them, oh happy dueSers.

Satellite and That’s All, both by SDWolfpup.
Roll to Me, by Sandy and Nicole.

Happy Birthday Ray Vecchio! Here's to Many Happy Returns.

AN: If any of the links are broken or lead to the wrong fics, let me know, and I'll fix 'em up. Likewise if any of the formatting or links look odd, let me know and I'll go back and tinker. Just wanted to get this out in time!

dsvb challenge, ray vecchio

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