verushka70 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
verushka70) wrote2024-03-19 09:27 pm
verushka70) wrote2024-03-19 09:27 pm
Entry tags:
Fanwork recs (ds30below Week 1, late): empathy for the devil:very bad!Ben/darkFraser fics (Fan50#8)
Last 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.
no subject
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!
no subject
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!