mmmm, fraser

[schmerica]

Our friends list seem to be being very very slow today. And there's only so much amusement I can get out of the due South random pairing generator and Bejeweled 2. So dsudis and I are forced to fend for and entertain ourselves.

I don't think it should surprise anyone that our conversation veered toward Benton Fraser's love life and psyche.

pearl_o *tries to resist thrall of bejeweled 2*
pearl_o *thinks more about Fraser-as-uncle*

dsudis: *grins*
dsudis: He'd be pretty good at that.

pearl_o Fraser would be an awesome uncle.
pearl_o or, you know, friend of child's parents.
pearl_o He really is totally good with kids. And it wouldn't have the issues that would make him -- not a bad father, but, you know. Issue-y.

dsudis: *nods*

pearl_o Someday I am going to figure the RayK-and-Maggie's-kid-spending-the-summer-with-him bunny.
pearl_o Just, you know, probably not soon. As I have been thinking about it since the summer already and done nothing with it.

dsudis: I think there must be realities where Fraser's never in a long term romantic relationship with anyone and that's perfectly okay with him.
dsudis: Because he's married to his job and that way he's not letting anyone down, and he's used to being alone and he's good at it.

dsudis: It's just that that makes me sad.

pearl_o awww.
pearl_o I have trouble seeing Fraser find someone ever if it didn't work out with RayK.
pearl_o Whereas Ray I can see, you know, maybe moving on.

dsudis: Ray seems more like the serial monogamy type.
dsudis: Everybody he gets involved with is The One.
dsudis: Fraser's more the actually-mating-for-life type.

pearl_o I had an entry about this at one point, but I have no idea why. but, you know, Ray has always expected to have someone, I think.
pearl_o And I don't think Fraser assumes that for his future.

dsudis: definitely.
dsudis: I don't think Ray can imagine a life alone, and I think Fraser can only very fuzzily picture actually having anyone long-term.

pearl_o plus, dude, I have trouble imagining many more people getting under Fraser's skin the way either of the Rays have.

dsudis: Not even just because they're so especially special, but because he's been put in a situation where he's essentially forced to let someone in to any extent at all.
dsudis: He doesn't, in the RCMP, ever seem to have had a partner or been required to work closely with anyone.

pearl_o Fraser is a permanent friendly faint acquaintance.

dsudis: Which I think is where his supercompetence comes from - there's no margin for error.

pearl_o And, you know, I think if he and Ray did have a relationship of some kind and then it ended -- I think Fraser would even give up on the fuzzy "maybe someday" imaginings in the back of his mind.

dsudis: oh yeah.
dsudis: He'd be like, well, that was my shot, that was the best shot I was going to get, and now it's over.
dsudis: And he'd just... move on. Find satisfaction in other things.

pearl_o That's just the way it is.

dsudis: Be really healthy about it in that way that you just know conceals deep, unfathomable maladjustment.

pearl_o *grins*

dsudis: Or, y'know, maybe doesn't. Maybe there really is nothing wrong with the guy.

dsudis: *is boggled by very thought*

pearl_o *still pondering thought*
pearl_o Weird.
pearl_o *tries to stretch brain by imagining Fraser settling down with a nice girl some day*
pearl_o *injures self*

dsudis: I don't think he could.
dsudis: Just - given his bitterness toward his father over his parents marriage, and his obvious devotion to his work, I don't know how he ever could.
dsudis: unless.
dsudis: *breaks own brain*
dsudis: Unless he quit the RCMP. Or took a nice normal desk job.

pearl_o *squints*

dsudis: But, no, even if you posit that he only did what was expected of him or what would please his father... he's just too much an adrenaline junkie to let it go.

pearl_o I can't imagine where the duty to the girl would overcome the duty to work
pearl_o unless he had some sort of overriding obligation
pearl_o but even then, all I can think of is her getting knocked up, and that's hard to imagine as well.

dsudis: yeah.
dsudis: maybe... if she was also a Mountie...?

pearl_o although that would be an interesting AU going back to him being, say, his early twenties.

dsudis: I mean, at which point 'settling down' and 'nice girl' both sort of go out the window...
dsudis: Well, Byob had that AU she was fiddling with.
dsudis: Where Fraser knew RayV from teenhood and wound up marrying Frannie when somebody else knocked her up, to spare her honor.
dsudis: But I believe in that one Fraser was queer as the proverbial three dollar bill and still a Mountie because he needed as much escape as he could get from his sham marriage.
dsudis: so. not so much.

pearl_o so, yeah.
pearl_o Ray Kowalski is his last chance at love.

dsudis: yep.

pearl_o Which means more to us than it would to Fraser. Heh.

dsudis: *grins*
dsudis: Yes.

Comments

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You'd think I'd be all, Yay, DS! -- but instead I'm just thinking, Damn! She got Bejeweled 2 to load! I can't manage it. Damn.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Heh. I would say "at least you are spared it eating your *whole entire life*," but, you know, I really doubt the comfort of that.

[spainja.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I literally had this entire conversation with myself yesterday. That's...really creepy...*backs away slowly*

*comes back to babble*

pearl_o *tries to stretch brain by imagining Fraser settling down with a nice girl some day*
pearl_o *injures self*

dsudis: I don't think he could.

Yeah, because he'd have to establish the realtionship from scratch, and I don't think he knows how. Every close relationship we've seen on the show was forced upon him--family by birth, Victoria by duty (the arrest) and near-death experience, the Rays by duty. Mark he already knew. Janet Morse is the only exception...and that lasted, what, a day? I think Fraser is a lot like me--he finds creating relationships with people to be difficult and stressful, so he'll stick to the relationships that have already been established. Since he's lived most of his life in isolation, though, he doesn't have a whole lot of those, so he's also fine with solitude--it's familiar and less stressful than trying to form those interpersonal connections.

plus, dude, I have trouble imagining many more people getting under Fraser's skin the way either of the Rays have.

Yeah, we've seen how he shuts down when approached in an overtly romantic fashion. The only way to get to him is to be forced into a non-romantic relationship which requires you to work closely together in life-threatening situations--which would let you get to know each other, and then could develop into something else. That's what happened with the Rays--in my universe, his working relationship with RayV develops into a deep friendship, and his working relationship with RayK develops into love.

Which reminds me of something I noticed when I watched "Dead Guy Running"--I loved Frannie and Fraser in that episode. They worked really well together when there was no sexual tension between them, and they were focused on the mutual goal of saving RayV. But as soon as Frannie started babbling about priests and sex again--BANG! Fraser's walls fly up and the clueless Mountie facade dops into place, and that temporary rapport is gone. You know, I'd love to see a story where Frannie is totally over him--either because she's figured out the gay thing, or she's in love with someone else--and she and Fraser are just hanging out together, because I think they could be great buddies when he's not terrified that she'd going to jump him at any minute. He really does like her a lot.