one more thing about ray/ray, PLUS stuff that is aweomse!

[schmerica]

Dudes, there is SUCH good fic being posted over at vecchiofest! All of you who like him at all owe it to yourselves to go check it out, because HEART. There's gen, het, F/V, F/V/K, Ray/Ray -- all sorts of flavors. The Ray/Ray is good enough it makes me wish I liked the pairing so I could appreciate it fully.

Earlier I was talking to justbreathe80 and she was making sad noises over her inability to convert me to Ray/Ray (never mind that brooklinegirl has been trying for almost three years now with no progress). And seriously, it DOES make me sad! So many of my friends get so much joy out of it and it makes me feel like a cranky evil person!

Here's part of an email I sent to her.

Hee, okay, seriously? I have, like, 5 different issues with Ray/Ray fic. And they're all stuff that I can take and still love a story with it in it, just, you know. NOT ALL AT ONCE.

a) f/k otp omg. (obviously, i like a LOT of pairings that don't follow this, but still, it's definitely part of it.)

b) okay, this is even schmoopier than the otp, but the f-v friendship is SACRED, okay? IT JUST IS. and since i can't really imagine there not ever being any attraction either way between f and k? i can't picture how v would be able to get involved with k without it feeling like a betrayal of f, and frankly, i think v would kill himself before he did that.

c) FRASER ALL ALONE AND SAD WHILE HIS FRIENDS GO OFF AND FUCK AND BE HAPPY WHILE HE IS ALL ALONE IN CANADA OMG. (again, i do enjoy broken f on occasion? but that's when it's about HIM. if you wrote me a story where v and k were in a relationship but the story was f pov, either angsty or just hidden-loss-omg-they-all-leave-him-but-he-doesn't-show-it? i would probably enjoy that in a woobie sadist sort of way. stories where he's just in the background like that, especially if the others get to be happy? SOB.

d) my ideal vecchio is s2 vecchio. most v/k has him post-cotw broken, and while i'm sure it's very realistic to have him fucked up over vegas, i don't find it that interesting. i think i just have a really narrow window of v characterization, and most v/k is too far one way or the other to make me happy. (like, honestly? there is a significant amount of ray/ray i have read and enjoyed, but all of it is for either the k portrayal or just general writing quality. i think the only exception is tracey's one with all his canon het relationships first, before the k part at the end.)

e) i don't think v and k ever met prior to cotw, because otherwise k's response when v is opening the door doesn't make any sense at all. i have to *already* like a pairing before i care about aus for it.

f) ...I think that's all!

So, okay! Tara, if you write a ray/ray story that manages to solve each and every one of these problems for me, i am sure that my conversion to ray/ray would be successful!

Heh. So, uh, that's that! Obviously after writing that, I need to balance this post out with POSITIVITY, right? RIGHT.

Things That Both Me and Lots of Other People Really Should Write More of:

1) RayK/Frannie. They have so much chemistry, dude! And they're both in love with Fraser! And they make sense! They're a little like Ray/Ray would be if they were together for more than five minutes of canon!

2) RayK/Maggie. I don't know why I have a secret fondness for this, but I totally do. I think it's the Fraser woobie thing I mentioned above.

3) The Mountie and His Boyfriends. I like F/V/K a lot, but mostly I like it in this configuration -- even if it does end up being an equal threesome, I like it to get there from a F/V and F/K place.

4) RayV het. ALL OF IT. *GRABBY HANDS*

4a) Vecchiocest. STOP JUDGING ME.

5) Backstory. I am such a sucker for any of them as kids or teenagers or even just in their 20s. Heart. Fraser's early experiment with sexuality = my favorite thing in the world.

6) I still want someone to write a Fraser/Newbie crossover. I don't remember whose idea this originally was, but I still think it is BRILLIANT. Especially if was during Planet of the Cats.

7) Fraser-has-always-been-a-girl fic! I think girl!Fraser and Vecchio would date for like two episodes worth, and then fall into a really easy natural brother-and-sister like relationship. And with Fraser and Kowalski all the tensions of their partnership would be, like, quadrupled by the fact that RayK is a total ass around women.

8) Frannie/Maggie! Frannie/Thatcher! go femslash go!

9) Fraser/Thatcher that evokes the awesomeness of their sexual tension during s2. I don't know it's possible to actually get them to fuck without ruining that beyond repair, but it would certainly be cool.

10) There is no 10.

If you're going to comment on this post just to say you hate ray/ray and it is stupid and makes no sense, don't, okay? I try really hard to keep this about my issues as a reader and why it doesn't work for me in particular, and not make it slagging on the pairing itself, or the people it does work for. Slagging on pairings = no fun for anyone! Unless it's McKay/Sheppard.

Oh! Also! Check out the new icon I got from troyswann. The keywords here are "ds: oh god i love these boys", for obvious reasons. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH IT MAKES MY HEART HURT, PEOPLE.

(I originally typed that last sentence without the comma, so it sounded like my love made my heart go around, like, punching people in the face. So I changed it.)

Comments

[perian.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why I've never thought of Frannie/Maggie before but YES! I want to read that very, very much.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Is there actually Vecchiocest? I read one story long ago by Cara Chapel, before incest was the new black, when I still felt pretty scandalous for enjoying it, but I've never read anything else. (I'm assuming you're talking Ray/Frannie, yes?)

And damn, even though I'm mostly F/K OTP, I'd kill to read a really hot Fraser/Thatcher story.

[soundslikej.livejournal.com]

OMG yes, all of these things need to happen.

And man. I keep trying and trying to write Vecchiocest, and it Just Won't Happen. *pokes Vecchios*

[aerye.livejournal.com]

This is going to make you laugh and laugh, but I think I actually have a certain investment in you remaining deeply suspicious about Ray/Ray. You keep me honest to a certain degree or something. Not that I don't make choices that violate your list of criteria, but you make me think about the choices I make.

Also--yeah, I don't like a really broken Vecchio. I mean, my favorite Vecchio is post-CotW but only in the sense that it gives him a certain gravitas, not because it makes him mean or broken.

In conclusion--OTP icon!

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite Vecchio is Season 2 Vecchio, too. And there TOTALLY needs to be more RayK/Frannie.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Omigosh, they are so CUTE in Hunting Season, are they not? There is not much of that pairing at all, but there is a little bit, if you look! This one (http://community.livejournal.com/ds_flashfiction/86966.html) of cmshaw's is my favorite, for all that it is only 400 words long. I know there's more in her memories, as well.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I know EXACTLY what story you are talking about, because I have read it like eight million times. Hee.

The only other RayV/Frannie story I know about is the one I wrote last year. Having to write it yourself is so much less fun.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Mountie: A Love Story In Three Parts (http://community.livejournal.com/ds_flashfiction/463494.html?format=light) by ignazwisdom. She's also written a longer story that has some similarities with this, but I prefer this short-n-sweet (and G-rated) one.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*siiiiiiigh* VECCHIOS. PLEASE TO PAY ATTENTION AND BE GOOD FOR LORDESS, HELLO.

Man, you would think they didn't WANT to have hot but completely traumatizing and wrong sex with their siblings!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*grins* It does make me laugh, but it is also somewhat comforting! I would much rather be interesting devil's advocate than boring hater, you know?

(Your icon = also gorgeous! LOVE.)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Man, it's not like I don't love him in The Deal and the hotel room hugging Benny in CotW, but yeah, my platonic ideal of the guy? Total s2, loyal and tough and soft and funny but not totally goofy. Also, just aesthetically, he looks most handsome there.

[china_shop]

I think it's cute and entirely understandable that you don't like Ray/Ray. It's like: PEARL + FRASER = OTP! THEIRLOVEISSOPURE!

That said, all the het you're proposing makes me want to write hot, dirty Ray/Ray, so um... possibly unintended consequences there? *tries to look apologetic*

[soundslikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Now we just have to see if they listen.

I know, right? What's wrong with them?? ^_^

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Curses! I am foiled again!

(Man, I totally don't know why the list is so het-tilted. I guess because most of the slash I'm interested in is F/K or F/V, and people are, you know, ALREADY writing that?)

Your icon is adorable. HOPE YAYS.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should sit them down and make them watch the interrogation room scene of Heaven and Earth a couple dozen times until they make out!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Awww, yes! That one is lovely!

[soundslikej.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan!

Oh Ray! Frannie! C'mere....

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

:Runs off to read:

Oh, I liked that a lot. The challenge of this pairing, of course, is getting them in a situation where it would actually happen, so I kind of liked the fact that it was unconsummated. And I definitely see Ray rushing off to Frannie's rescue like that. And I love that line about how baby sisters really shouldn't have breasts.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

You wrote a Vecchiocest story? *totally does not run off immediately to read*

Ahem.

I have a strange, burning fondness for that Cara Chapel story. It is so wrong, but so hot.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Yes! With his short hair and his nice suits and his lovely eyes. I am all over that look. Not that I don't love him all the other times, of course.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I do! It lives here (http://pearlo.illuminatedtext.com/fiction/where.htm)! Heh, I am so weirdly proud of that story, especially with all the comments I go like "Why did you make me read this? But it's good! I'm so confused!"

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Mm, yes! Especially in the winter with the caps and nice coats.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*beams* Oh, thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked it.

[karabou.livejournal.com]

Fraser/Newbie ftw! I really wish this fandom would produce more crossovers, they're so much fun. That being said, I don't have Fraser/Newbie fic, or fic at all, really, but my friend writes Newbie in an RP game and he is dsjkdskj adorable. There's a great thread with him talking to Leoben here (http://community.livejournal.com/the_blank_slate/839674.html?thread=50509818#t50509818), which eventually leads to this fantastic post (http://community.livejournal.com/the_blank_slate/915842.html). Sadly as someone who can't write fic this is all I have to offer. ♥

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

That was much my reaction just now! How is it so hot? And good? I really liked it. I love Vecchiocest from Vecchio's POV because for some reason I see him having a bigger problem with it than Frannie.