Speranza: Mangy Dog

I've got woobie face. I'm just... *snif*

WOOBIEEEEEEE

Yes. A story of whys, and a few becauses. Fraser and his loves. Fraser's
life and way of doing things.

God. I just want to hug something.
 

Lemon Lashes: Due North

Wow, wow, *wow*. Is it my birthday? Is that what it is?

*Good* Fraser/Vecchio. *Good* use of AU, and fabulous use of vignette
structure.

How much do I love Lemon? *This* much.

*

Speranza: Second Chance

Speranza writes, I rec. It's a happy dance. For me, it's happy. Oh, man.
Just when you think you've got a hold on this story -- hot, angsty, wild
little PWP with an edge -- Speranza throws a curve that'll catch *any*
DS fan right where it counts.

Because... because.

Yeah.

What *would* Fraser see that would drive him to that? What would
connect the dots the way nothing else could?

Man. Damn.

*sniffle*

*

Alanna, Starfish, and Kass: Parental Guidance

The trope of "they think we're doing it!" has been dragged out so many times
it's downright threadbare, but these ladies manage to make it original again.

If you've somehow managed to remain unspoiled in this blabbermouth world of
fandom, I won't ruin it for you.

I *will* say that this was funny, sweet, and blisteringly *hot*, with just the right
touches of angst and awkwardness to make it all feel real. Yum.

*

Resonant: Tilt

la la la I'm playing on Resonant's page and you can't stop me neener
neener neeeener...

Why yes, Ray *would* look hot playing pinball, dammit, he'd be a fucking
incitement to riot.

And, well, you know, I *love* pinball. Heh. My parents rented out this little
community center place for my eighth birthday party -- I spent the whole
time glued to the pinball machines, the first I'd ever seen.

"Leyte! It's time for cake!"

"But I'm almost into the LAGOON!"

So sad.

But yes, this story did it for me on a *number* of levels, from cheerfully
singing Ray to the *blisteringly* hot sex. There's just something about
the loss of control that doesn't happen all at *once*, you know?

And when Ray takes control... ha ha hey...

*

Journey: Blueprint

A little sweeter than my usual tastes, but I heartily enjoyed this one just
the same. All about the careful ways two people who've been burned make
room for each other in their lives, literally and figuratively.

As a bonus? Hot sex. *g*

I also let out a multi-syllabic 'awwww...' when I was done.

*

Aristide: It's All In The Wrist

Yet *another* I Can't Believe... oh, fuck, you guys know this refrain by *now*,
don't you? As Blueprint was on the sweeter side, this one was on the darker
side. Which is, of course, just the way I like it.

A bit of comeuppance for our favorite Mountie.

And, well, some *serious* button pushing for *this* little black duck. I mean,
come on, if you had someone looking at you like the reason this year's star
dessert chef is on the cover of all the cooking magazines...

Wow, that was a bizarre analogy. Look, it's late. Suffice it to say? I love the
edge to this one.

Oh, yes. I do.

Miriam Heddy: Unassuming

Gloriously awkward, cheerfully jittery little Ray story of cluelessness and
mild repression. The angst is mild, the humor adult and wonderful, the
characters themselves. I do love these guys.

The sex is also *damned* hot, which is something one mustn't ever
take for granted.

About the only thing I had a problem with was Miriam's habit of spelling
out Ray K's accent. She doesn't do it *very* much, but it's one of my
pet peeves. YMMV.

*

Resonant: Loving North

la la laaaa... I could easily spend forever on Resonant's page. I see this
now. I understand it. Clearly, all of *you* must've caught on to that by now,
if only by looking at this rec page, but, well. Yeah.

Sweetly, *hotly* leisurely story that's exactly what it should be, given the
title and the two men who inhabit the story's confines. There's beauty
here, and the kind of love that makes me sigh happily and also squee.

Why, yes, I *am* having a good time roving through various archives for
the stories I've forgotten to rec before, why do you ask?

and Sixteenth of June

A story where Ray still loves his wife. You know, like he does in canon?

::waits for the shock to fade::

Resonant takes this revolutionary concept and runs with both it and the
concept of anniversaries, weaving in and out of the guys' absurdist
adventures in policing and all the little anniversaries we'd sometimes
rather forget.

It's a lovely story, and I think you'll enjoy it.

*

Resonant: The Teeth of the Hydra

Mmmm... A gloriously long case file, just as fascinatingly bizarre as it should
be. Tattoos and crossdressing and memories that won't fade. How we get from
there to here.

There's a quietude to this, even in the midst of passion, of surprise twists and
turns... I loved it.

I think you will, too.

and: Housekeeping

A warm, funny, *and* action-packed story that takes a look at what happens
when all the people Fraser put away get *out* of prison.

Much snickering. Yummy blowjobs. Happy Te.

*

Bone: Bounty

Why yes, I *have* been spending a lot of time at the Homeless Shelter,
why do you ask?

Mmm, this was a *treat*. Lonely, angsty, yet still *peevish* Fraser, and all
his dreams. Yay. *g*

I loved seeing Ray through Fraser's eyes, too -- the clarities and the
mysteries and all the marvels.

And Jesus Christ, the sex.

The sex.

The hot. Hot. HOT. Sex.

Speranza: Ten Things To Get Used To

There's a particular kind of story that ranks among my favorites -- the collection of
vignettes/shorts that are interconnected to a degree that may vary between stories
(the other rec in this update like this has a different degree of interconnectedness
than this one), but not *within* the story itself.

That's key.

See, it's one of those story-styles that a lot of careless writers slap together,
thinking it's easy, and just screw up.

It's *not* easy.

When it's good? The effect is almost impossibly sensual, even when the writer's
style is quite spare. The reader can't help but put the pieces together for him/herself
and build worlds in the careful spaces the writer leaves.

When it's bad, it's a mishmash, and I feel like going after the story with a machete.

*This* is the good stuff.

I found myself shocked that it was so *short*. By the time I was done, Speranza had
so effectively built me a world that I was just... replete.

Wholly so.

Fraser and Ray. Growing up, moving on together. As it should be.

Because it's Speranza, you'll laugh out loud more than once, find yourself squirming
at the heat, sniveling at the angst, and sighing at the *rightness*.

Go. Read.

See how it's done.

*

The Due South Reporter

Several fans of Due South have set up a semi-open livejournal (comments and
discussion are encouraged -- halleluia!) called The Due South Reporter that's
designed to do just what its name suggests. Links to all -- and I do mean all, these
people aren't running a rec or review site -- the stories, articles, and assorted
other miscellany that has anything whatsoever to do with Due South.

Their mission? To make things a little easier for those of us who *aren't* just in it
for one pairing. To help those of us who've moved on stay in touch, keep a hand
in. To do what we *all* do, to some extent: pimp their fandom of choice.

Why I'm reccing it? Well, for one thing: they made the excellent choice of not
asking me to help. Halleluia squared. I don't have to do a damned thing. ahaha. For
another? It's a good idea whose time has *long* past come, and I have hope --
heh, there's that word again -- that it'll stay as apolitical as possible. Give it a look,
eh?

*

Resonant: American Way

I can't believe I didn't rec this before. Jesus. It's pretty damned near perfect.
The comedy builds on the romance on the comedy on the... you get the idea.

Ray leaned across the table to Fraser. "I'm gonna teach you the mantras of
an American. Repeat after me. I was here first."

"I was here first. Although actually, Ray, from a historical perspective --"

"Shut up, Fraser. Say it: I'm in a hurry."

"I'm in a hurry."

"I got important business here."

"I've got important business."

"I know what I'm doin'."

"I know what I'm doing."

"If I want it, I deserve it."

"If I want it, I deserve it."

"You lookin' at me?"

"Ray, I really don't think I can --"

"OK, never mind, we'll save the de Niro for the advanced classes. You
think you can do this?"

Ray reached for the bread, but Fraser took it right out from under his
hand. "Perhaps I can at that."

~

See, people, this is how you go about screwing a characterization over.

Consciously. And with respect.

*

Speranza: Juggling Act

Juggling. Masturbating budgies. Bearded ladies. More ball jokes than
I've ever seen in one place.

And the ending will have you weeping with laughter.

Just. Go. Read.

*

Speranza: Eight Sessions

Speranza writes, I read.

This is life. This is, in fact, the *good* life. I mean, holy *gee*, Batman!

I'm not finished with this story (I don't ever want to be finished with this
story), but I have to start writing this rec *now*. I mean, I've been in
fandom for a while now. I've been a writer since I learned how to form
letters. (Not as early as you might think -- I used to have nightmares
about penmanship lessons... I digress.)

I've always joked about how my best characters, my favorite characters
are in desperate need of therapy. I mean, it's just *true*.

If it's not fanon that Spike regularly took Dru around to eat psychiatrists
and later, people hopped up on neurotropic medications, it *should*
be.

Mulder's a freak. Scully needs a good priest. Krycek has Daddy Issues that
make mine look positively wholesome. Dan and Casey? Puh-leeze.

And mmm. Fraser and Ray.

So what does Speranza do? What does that brilliant, gorgeous, wonderful
woman do?

She *sends* them to therapy. In a way that is purely canonical in a way
that makes the Due South universe real in all the best ways.

God... rave, ramble, wibble. This story is *smart*. It'll make *you* smarter.
It's funny, it's sad, it's true, it's real, and it's sexy despite the fact that no one
has even *thought* dirty things about any of the other characters yet.

I'm in love.

This may be my favorite Speranza story yet... and y'all gotta know by now that's
saying something.

Or. Er. Not. Hmm. It occurs to me this new format will make for some
interesting reading, since new people to this site will, of course, read from
top to bottom...

Ah well.
 
 

Speranza: With Six You Get Eggroll

There's nothing like insomnia and huge amounts of new and different
kinds of pain to give a gal time to catch up on her reading. And ohhh,
Speranza.

How I love to love Speranza.

I resisted this story for a long time, because it was DS (and, really,
wasn't I done with that fandom?), because it was kidfic (run away!
run away!), because it was *long*...

Look, I have no attention span. I've admitted this. I've *accepted*
this.

But oh, man. I can't decide if I want to thwap myself for an idiot or
be grateful that I waited so long, you know? I got to sit here and
*revel* in this story, in every nuance and detail.

I got to fall in love with every last person here, from the cryingest
baby in the world to Diefenbaker the amazing, to... well, *everything*.

Man. Oh, man. It's good, all right? It sets things to rights, it gives
me the warm fuzzy, it doesn't pull one single punch, and it made me
laugh and sniffle and go DAWWWWW. Go read.

*

Pares: a swarm of interpretations

Of course, this all assumes that y'all have better luck getting virtue.nu
to load than *I* have most of the time. I mean, do you have any fucking
clue how many times I've had to shift this rec to the *next* set along
just because I couldn't get it to load?

Don't ask.

Just... don't.

Pares, honey? Move. Your. Site.

[Edited to add: It's moved! Yay! All hail webmistress Debchan!]

In any case, for some reason Pares labors under the misconception that her
short work is in some way inferior to the rest of the things she does. She's
so wrong I want to *slap* her. This piece is just a beautiful example of one
of Pares' biggest strengths -- atmosphere and the cleverly, strangely vivid
use of metaphor.

She rocks the party, y'all. There's a *reason* she's one of the first writers
whose style I set to kifing. Read.

*

Basingstoke: Rabbit Jumps Out the Window

Teeth. If there's anything you can always count on from Basingstoke,
it's teeth. The most innocuous settings, a conversation that will make
you sigh at it's rightness, and, in the end, it all comes together with a
decisive snap of powerful jaws. Got you. Again. *shiver*
 
 

Pretty Pretty has a *powerful* gift for somehow
satisfying UST, or the powerful fade-to-black that, for me
at least, just didn't seem to matter in her marvelous Due
South story "In Your Corner."

Hey, this one comes with one of Laura Shapiro's gorgeous
covers! Laura Shapiro rocks my world, too. We'll get there.

Anyhow, "In Your Corner" takes a look at how Fraser and the original
Vecchio cope with life after "The Duel."

There's sandwiches, and brilliant characterization, and an Inuit
story that made me shudder helplessly and the hottest bit of foreplay
I've seen in ages.

*

Bone and Aristide play so *well* together.

At this point -- and this could change at any given moment --
my favorite of their collaborations is "The Better Angels."

Due South, Fraser/Kowalski in the wild, angst and heat and lust
and the human side of adventure.

And really hot sex, starting with a really hot wank. I've read this
one two or three times, which is saying something for me, as it
takes a lot to bring me back to a longer story these days.

All these short stories, I'm telling you, I'm screwing my own
attention span. You should hear me whine whenever I hit page 10.

*

Who do we love? Also, that is? A.C. Chapin. Whoever s/he is,
s/he doesn't write enough. God, slash can make me hate
personal pronouns. But anyway, A.C. is much more of a gen
writer, but I choose to rec "Acharnement."

DS It was either Woodinat or Viridian who first directed me to
read this story, and since then I've reread countless times.
Fraser, Vecchio, and Fraser's *need*.

God, I love stories about need, and this is one of the more
wonderful ones. Dark and awkward, frightening and sexy,
triumphant and tragic. Beautiful, beautiful story. Pretty much
everyone I know has had me rec this story to them at least
once, so, again, it's time to make it official.

Read it.

Read it and wish there were more stories like it in the fandom.

*

Aw hell. Livia Penn. Not only has she somehow turned me into a writer
of -- gasp -- heterosexual Krycek, she writes awesome fiction, too. I
think I like her Due South stuff the best... so far. And my favorite of
those is "The Long Weekend."

Fraser and Ray and Dief in the park, and the workings of Ray's mind
and the workings of the world. Gentle, beautiful, subtle creep. The idea
came from a Bradbury tale, but Livia makes it *all* hers. I just. I set
aside the note to rec this story weeks ago, and just thinking about it
makes me get all wide-eyed and weeeeeeird in the head.

In an excellent way.

*

Have I mentioned lately how much Bone just *rocks*? She's got a new
story out called "Bounty." Did it rock my world? Yes. In it we have a
perfectly rendered Fraser and Ray -- right down to the places where you
want to edit them up a little -- and a look at the episode Bounty Hunter.

Which all good, right-thinking people hate.

*selfthwap* OK, no, not really, it's just... the character of the Bounty
Hunter is wonderfully flawed, but the writers and directors don't seem
to want to *acknowledge* those flaws. "Bounty" is a story that does what
the episode *should* have done, without raking Janet Morse over the coals
unnecessarily.

Plus, the sex is all kinds of hot.

And you know, she also plays with Aristide lots. Which is a goodness, because
it gets us things like "How Ray Got His Groove Back," in which we all
watch Ray lose one inhibition at a time in the *best* possible way.

Kee-*rist* this was *blistering*. Should maybe be a goodgawd rec, but I'm
putting it here anyway. Oh yeah, and the characterization and stuff is good,
too.

*snicker* I've read this story a *lot*. Here's a bit, after Ray has done
his best to introduce Fraser to the pornflick:

<<Not at all. Fraser wasn't even looking at the screen. Fraser wouldn't
know one of those tongues if it came off-screen and licked him on the...
Fraser wasn't paying any attention at all. Fraser was looking at *him*.
Wide-eyed, yeah, he was that, all right. And flushed red, like Ray thought
any guy would be on his first look at a porno flick, and probably hard,
though he couldn't tell that just by looking, not that he was looking,
but the jacket was too thick to tell, even if he had been looking, which
he wasn't...>>

*love*

Kat Allison: Heavy Bag

All I can say is that I feel exactly like Ray at the end of this story. I, too,
desperately love Mountie and Soul, and I'm so very glad *someone* took
off on it. Oh, that outsider view. Damn. Kat is a mistress of the thorns,
and fandom is lucky to have her. Read this. You'll see what I mean.

*

Speranza: A Dare's A Dare

*nnnnnnnuh*

Some people say they can't buy her Fraser. Sometimes I'm not sure why I
do. Most times I just don't care. Her Fraser feels right to me, a man with
wildness just barely beneath the surface. A man looking for someone who
can punch right through that surface and *see* him.

Ostensibly a PWP. Feels like a lot more to this little black duck.

*AND* Wildly Dangerous Ways

Clever, funny, wild like an episode, *and* D.H. Lawrence. Eat your heart
out. A different Fraser and Ray, perhaps closer to what most people think
of canon than her usual, and just wonderful. Utterly plausible. I adore this
woman.

*AND* The Border Between Life and Death

What can I say? I love the way this woman does Ray and Frase. *And*
this time we get some gorgeous Stella in the middle of things and
*yum*. We loves us some good Stella characterization. And this story...
well, I couldn't put it down. Good relationship stuff. Love.

*AND* Chicago's Most Wanted

If you don't laugh out loud at least ten times, you get 200% of your
money back. This ought to be an episode, dammit. Straight shot of
humor, excellent characterization, adventure, and -- wait for it -- a
Bad!Ben that actually works. Joy! Joy! Joy!

*

Kit Mason: Duet For Three Stooges

Laura told us we had to read, and I listened. We *love* Laura even more now
because this story is wonderful. An excellent look at Burning Down the House,
and what it meant for Fraser and his Rays. Perfectly in character and all of
the emotion was just *real*. The way I love it. Yay. <g>

*

Speranza: Scrabble

It's not a story. It's a Jesus Motherfucking Christ religious experience.

*

Cara Chapel: Follow Without Pride, Breathe Your Breath

There *isn't* enough good Ray Vecchio fiction coming out these days, not
by a *long* shot. Thank goodness we all have Cara. What if Ray hadn't
been able to take the shot? Asked, and answered in gorgeous detail and
fine, simple writing. I couldn't take my eyes away from either, but the
second is just that much more incredible. Dig that Vecchio angst, baby.

*

Speranza: Merry Go Round

Wild, wild romp that somehow stays real, true to the show, *and* entertaining.
And, well, I've mentioned that's tough for me sometimes. She's a wonder and
it's *so* good to have her writing DS. Her characterizations are, as ever, spot
on. Her plot thoughts are fabulous. Her sex is... mmmm. Though maybe sex
wouldn't have been necessary for this story.

Heh. Not like I'm *complaining*, per se. I don't know, sometimes I just have
these uncontrollable urges for gen fic. It's a sickness.

Enduring Distance

Wow, just wow. I stayed up late to read this PWP devouring monster, and I'm
so glad. Just... Speranza is one of those rare writers who you can use as a
reference for the characters. She knows them. She gives them to us unflinchingly,
purely, and wonderfully. You don't read her stories, you live in them for as long
as you can. And this one I just wanted to move into and stay forever.

Fraser, Fraser, Fraser. Speranza may be new, but she *knows* him. Absolutely
irresistible. Don't even try.

*

Resonant: Adorned

Fraser and Ray K.... this was just lovely all the way through, y'all.
Resonant takes a series of vignettes and turns them into a
beautiful love story. Or maybe just a snapshot in a larger story.
Absolutely wonderful, quiet and telling.

Obviously, I'm fond of this method of storytelling, I think it has
a sort of casual elegance in the way it handles the passage of time.
I think it fits Ray K. perfectly, who is far more likely to think in
carefully preserved snapshots than in linear stories. I don't think
this story deserves the criticism it has received, but eh. Make up
your own mind.

Personally, I think if these guys were as repressed about sex as some
fen think they *have* to be, they'd all be out killing people in a
sexual daze.

Or, well, *I* would.

*

Speranza: Anatomically Correct and Interrogation

So, I was on this list whose members were talking about the
dearth of episode-like Due South fiction. Personally,  this lack
doesn't bother me much, as most of the time I like my eps to be
ep-like and my stories to be... whatever they want to be. <g> But,
Speranza is making me change my mind a little.

These two stories are funny, touching, absurd, and, yes, sexy.
Everybody's present and accounted for, somehow without making it
feel gratuitous, and all the voices are dead on. Moreover, nobody
has to cry, nobody has to play dim bulb, and, well, the stories are
just plain cool. <g> Go. Read.

Poke her for more. Ah, the sun always shines on talented new
recruits, don't it?