[REC] due South (216/365)
This was meant to be last night's post, but I couldn't do it. I still don't quite have the dexterity I need to get it done, but luckily enough this is one of those stories that - again - speaks for itself. It's one I meant to read for a long time, and was sure I was going to rec no matter how I felt about it. Do you know what I mean? You can tell sometimes, with some stories, that they're going to be standouts regardless of your personal preferences, just because of what they are - because of the author, the pairing, the summary, the feel of it. This was one of those.
Kowalski Is Bleeding (Fraser/RayK (dS) | NR | 39,361 words)
Ray is presumed dead. Benton says no body, no death, and goes more than a little bit crazy looking for him. Vecchio comes back to help out. (summary borrowed from
jerakeen who also recced this at
fancake)
Author:
Speranza. Also available @author's archive.
It's not that I didn't like it, I actually adored it on sight, and down to the last word. But it's rough, it's a rough story, it's hard on everyone involved, from Ray Vecchio (who gets pulled yanked out from undercover as a result of... events), to Ben (who's the lone hold-out in assuming RayK is not dead following... events), to RayK himself who is... traumatized beyond imagining. I had this tagged long ago as a hurt/comfort story, but to be fair (and as fair warning) it's got far more hurt than comfort, the comfort coming down to merely finding poor RayK (yes, that's a spoiler, but I don't think it's that big of one). The situation itself is what's completely fucked up, from the way RayK disappeared, to the way RayV returns to Chicago, to the way Ben has to continually fend off well-meaning people who want to tell him RayK is dead. It's... upsetting, at a minimum.
What makes it bearable is the (always) uniquely close friendship between Ben and RayV, and Ray Vecchio himself being able to stick by his friend and make himself incredibly useful (he gets the girl and one good suit in the bargain, but that's par for the course). The rest is a race against time to FIND RAY, interspersed with increasingly desperate flashbacks to the time before, illuminating just how the relationship between Ben and RayK had evolved before Charlie Fish intervened.
The tension does ease, after a fashion. It just takes a long, anxious time to get there.
---
Further bits in my 2012 one-a-day slash recs experiment can be found on my rec: 365 tag ( LJ/DW)
(cross-posted from http://mementis.dreamwidth.org/82382.html -
comments @ DW - reply@DW)
Kowalski Is Bleeding (Fraser/RayK (dS) | NR | 39,361 words)
Ray is presumed dead. Benton says no body, no death, and goes more than a little bit crazy looking for him. Vecchio comes back to help out. (summary borrowed from
jerakeen who also recced this at
fancake)
Author:
Speranza. Also available @author's archive.
It's not that I didn't like it, I actually adored it on sight, and down to the last word. But it's rough, it's a rough story, it's hard on everyone involved, from Ray Vecchio (who gets pulled yanked out from undercover as a result of... events), to Ben (who's the lone hold-out in assuming RayK is not dead following... events), to RayK himself who is... traumatized beyond imagining. I had this tagged long ago as a hurt/comfort story, but to be fair (and as fair warning) it's got far more hurt than comfort, the comfort coming down to merely finding poor RayK (yes, that's a spoiler, but I don't think it's that big of one). The situation itself is what's completely fucked up, from the way RayK disappeared, to the way RayV returns to Chicago, to the way Ben has to continually fend off well-meaning people who want to tell him RayK is dead. It's... upsetting, at a minimum.
What makes it bearable is the (always) uniquely close friendship between Ben and RayV, and Ray Vecchio himself being able to stick by his friend and make himself incredibly useful (he gets the girl and one good suit in the bargain, but that's par for the course). The rest is a race against time to FIND RAY, interspersed with increasingly desperate flashbacks to the time before, illuminating just how the relationship between Ben and RayK had evolved before Charlie Fish intervened.
The tension does ease, after a fashion. It just takes a long, anxious time to get there.
---
Further bits in my 2012 one-a-day slash recs experiment can be found on my rec: 365 tag ( LJ/DW)
(cross-posted from http://mementis.dreamwidth.org/82382.html -
comments @ DW - reply@DW)