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verushka70Last week did not go well for me, so I'm catching up on the ds30below fanwork recs theme of last week. Hope that's okay...
There are a couple of what we used to call "bad!Ben" fics I return to again and again. Because although he is a dark AU Fraser in these fics, I feel there are slight glimmers of these dark AU Frasers in canon.
Like a flash of something underwater that dives and disappears, those glimmers aren't explored at all in the series except in a few episodes... but those tiny glimmers are something these authors also saw, and mined, and then spun into dark gold.
If you've ever wondered how someone who lived through the repeated childhood trauma/Adverse Childhood Experiences Fraser did, could possibly be as well-adjusted as he seems to be in canon... these are fics where he isn't - and where, reading between the lines, you see what those traumas/ACEs have wrought on the adult AU Fraser.
But if you cannot imagine a bad AU version of Fraser, or the mere thought of such a version of him is abhorrent, please do not read any further. You have been warned.
You Say (That's Not An Answer)
by seperis Relationships: Fraser/Victoria, Fraser/Victoria/Kowalski, Fraser/Kowalski.
This is the Fraser who got on the train with Victoria... and what happens to Kowalski, tasked with catching him. Major ensemble characters are here, obliquely in some cases - all also darker AU versions of themselves. This is a perfect storm of AU canon.
No Archive warnings apply, nobody dies... but don't read it unless you're willing to be convinced. If you are willing, though, your dark heart of hearts will be richly rewarded: it's angsty, disturbing - and disturbingly hot.
Since You've Gone (I've Been Lost Without A Trace) by helens78 is actually a Fraser POV remix of another excellent darkfic (spuffyduds' Used To Think I Knew You, which is from Kowalski's POV, and which I also highly recommend). Archive Warnings Apply to both the original fic and the remix - please heed the tags and warnings!
If the Archive warnings don't scare you off these fics, I think you'll find that helens78's fic is deeply insightful about the Fraser in spuffy's original fic (which, being Kowalski's POV, it can't be). helens78's portrayal of Fraser's depersonalizationl/dissociation is especially well done.
My heart breaks for the damaged Fraser damaging others and himself in these fics. I guess you could call it empathy for the devil.
There are a couple of what we used to call "bad!Ben" fics I return to again and again. Because although he is a dark AU Fraser in these fics, I feel there are slight glimmers of these dark AU Frasers in canon.
Like a flash of something underwater that dives and disappears, those glimmers aren't explored at all in the series except in a few episodes... but those tiny glimmers are something these authors also saw, and mined, and then spun into dark gold.
If you've ever wondered how someone who lived through the repeated childhood trauma/Adverse Childhood Experiences Fraser did, could possibly be as well-adjusted as he seems to be in canon... these are fics where he isn't - and where, reading between the lines, you see what those traumas/ACEs have wrought on the adult AU Fraser.
But if you cannot imagine a bad AU version of Fraser, or the mere thought of such a version of him is abhorrent, please do not read any further. You have been warned.
You Say (That's Not An Answer)
by seperis Relationships: Fraser/Victoria, Fraser/Victoria/Kowalski, Fraser/Kowalski.
This is the Fraser who got on the train with Victoria... and what happens to Kowalski, tasked with catching him. Major ensemble characters are here, obliquely in some cases - all also darker AU versions of themselves. This is a perfect storm of AU canon.
No Archive warnings apply, nobody dies... but don't read it unless you're willing to be convinced. If you are willing, though, your dark heart of hearts will be richly rewarded: it's angsty, disturbing - and disturbingly hot.
Since You've Gone (I've Been Lost Without A Trace) by helens78 is actually a Fraser POV remix of another excellent darkfic (spuffyduds' Used To Think I Knew You, which is from Kowalski's POV, and which I also highly recommend). Archive Warnings Apply to both the original fic and the remix - please heed the tags and warnings!
If the Archive warnings don't scare you off these fics, I think you'll find that helens78's fic is deeply insightful about the Fraser in spuffy's original fic (which, being Kowalski's POV, it can't be). helens78's portrayal of Fraser's depersonalizationl/dissociation is especially well done.
My heart breaks for the damaged Fraser damaging others and himself in these fics. I guess you could call it empathy for the devil.
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Date: 2024-03-20 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-20 01:15 pm (UTC)Yeah, iirc the text was hidden because the idea of bad!Ben and bad!Ben fanfic was so controversial in mainstream due South fandom that people hid it... kind of like when people wrote RPF back then: they were really afraid. NOW RPF is all over the AO3 archive, but back before AO3 existed, people were really afraid of both other fans' reactions, of stuff being taken down from actual fanfic archives by the mods, and of possible legal ramifications.
Of course, the latter doesn't apply to bad!Ben fic, but many other fen didn't necessarily approve of it, and many openly disapproved of it as non-canonical. There's much more tolerance in fandom now. Back then people didn't want fandom itself being viewed as super freakish AND there were actual life/work consequences to being outed as a slash writer... so there was a lot more policing of fanfic content, by the fandom itself. Slash and explicit m/f fanfic were forbidden in the mainstream due South fanfic email distribution list. They had their own LISTSERV and that's where they stayed. But see, back then, it was okay for the main fandom to discriminate against slash authors. We were "weird" - ESPECIALLY the Fraser/Kowalski slash authors. Mainstream (majority, at the time) dS fen thought Fraser couldn't possibly be gay for Ray - especially not The New Ray. Hence the splitting off of not only slash, but F/K slash.
Now that I think of it, that was a weird time to join dS fandom. I think attitudes depend on the fandom itself. I don't recall there being anything like that in Forever Knight fandom - of course, yes, the slashfic was segregated, but not from other explicit fic - but the slash was SO OVERT in that show, pretty much nobody could deny it! 🙂
But then Forever Knight was shown at 11:30pm at night in its mainstream TV broadcast run... whereas due South was broadcast at a much more "family values" wholesome prime time 7pm "when children might be watching." (And in cable reruns, during the after school hours of 3-5.) Seriously, people said that: children might be watching it/reading the mainstream dS email discussion list.
I can't remember if Hexwood allowed RPF or not. I don't think it did, for fear that the entire archive would be legally forced to be taken down. Hence the sharing of RPF privately, one fan to another, only with the approval of the author. (I was able to get a copy of an early controversial RPF fic, though I don't think I have it anywhere, anymore... it was long ago, and that was probably 10 computers ago, at least.) I think it allowed bad!Ben fic, though... but I can't recall for sure. It was so long ago! iz old
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Date: 2024-03-20 09:11 pm (UTC)And now I have an urge to find that bad!Ben site again, but I don't know if I can find it...and a little bit I'm not sure that I do want to find it. *recalls certain needs for brain bleach related to necrophilia!fic*
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Date: 2024-03-22 11:22 am (UTC)There was necrophilia!fic? Whoa.
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Date: 2024-03-22 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 12:47 pm (UTC)Well, shit. 💀🤠🙀
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Date: 2024-03-25 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 03:51 pm (UTC)But what you're describing... I don't think so. Blerg.
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Date: 2024-03-25 05:52 pm (UTC)And yeah, I acknowledge that there are situations when this trope would not put me off...but DNW with Fraser or either Ray.
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Date: 2024-03-25 06:07 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, it came out in the 90s... it's called Kissed. Maybe some library in the SWAN/SLS has a copy to lend that you can find. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I liked it when I saw it. It isn't creepy or exploitative.
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Date: 2024-03-25 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 07:02 pm (UTC)It's directed by Lynn Stopkewich - who also did Suspicious River.
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Date: 2024-03-25 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 07:05 pm (UTC)And also two episodes of Bliss, the women-centered erotica series that was on Showcase, where we get to see CKR in the bathtub. 💜
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Date: 2024-03-25 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-25 07:39 pm (UTC)No, no - that Lynn Stopkewich (director of Kissed and Suspicious River) also directed 2 episodes of Bliss.
Sorry if that was confusing.
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Date: 2024-03-25 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-20 07:36 am (UTC)would you like me to crosspost this list on tumblr as well?
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Date: 2024-03-20 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-20 05:00 pm (UTC)The other two I have read, but noncon is my achilles heel so I'd take a pass on rereading those. They're well written, though.
Thank you for the recs!
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Date: 2024-03-20 10:33 pm (UTC)I guess "disturbing" is in the eye of the beholder - in my case, I found these quotes disturbing:
A year. A fucking year. They'd met together, going over the details, working out his strategy; everything Stella had learned about Fraser's past, everything Vecchio knew about the man. He'd drank with Vecchio, listened to his story, wondering what kind of guy could fuck over a friend for a woman, and all along, he'd been sitting with a guy who could do just that."
...
"Four other officers," he says dully. No one had told him that.
"Victoria has her own--methods," Fraser says, an edge in his voice. "Suffice to say, there was very good reason not to tell her who you were."
....
They'd talked in that room, about the case, about this guy, about loyalty and justice and Ray had listened to everything Vecchio said about friendship and betrayal, nodding like an idiot while they convinced him to--
Although it's not said openly in the fic, Welsh not telling Kowalski about the previous four other dead officers who died pursuing Fraser and Victoria - and Stella and Vecchio secretly getting together behind Kowalski's back, while simultaneously prepping him for the undercover gig -well, they're all kinda dark in this fic!
Then there is the semi-suicidal implication of
Ray pushes off the phone, turning around; if he'd been holding a gun, he's not sure the phone would still be standing. He's not sure he'd still be standing himself. "A year."
I dunno - little deets like that make it more disturbing, imo! It's like an AU mirrorverse where everyone is a darker version of their canonical selves.
And thank you for reading!