verushka70

I snippet-ficced again. It seems to be all my brain can handle lately.

Title: Serge Surge
Fandom and Pairing: due South, Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Rating: Teen
Length: 300 words
Prompt: Challenge 41

So FRTDNEATJ my output hasn't been great fic-wise the last year, and for the same 2023 reasons, I never did my 2022 fic roundup in 2023 (and I also didn't post any of it to the ds-noticeboard DW, sigh). I thought I'd better get that outta the way (& kill a Fannish Fifty while I'm at it, since it's about fanfic).

( I unofficially and officially started the Fannish Fifty )

Looking back over these fics, I realize I didn't write a lot of fic, but I wrote a lot more words than I realized. ( long story short, more than 66,500 words across 10 fics in 5 fandoms in 2 years, which really, REALLY surprised me )

7 of the 10 fics are dSc6d; 6 of those 7 are due South.💜 I have so many WIPs of different fandoms though, that I want to get into (or get back into). Sigh! So many fandoms, so little time.

I guess I'll list the fic roundup in reverse chronological order.

( My 2023 fic output )

* * *
( My 2022 fanfic roundup )

I'm hoping this year to just maintain some level of fic output. My word count the last two years is small potatoes (which is also the title of one of my favorite X-Files episodes!) - it's really NOTHING compared to really prolific writers (or even to my more prolific past ficcing). But it was a lot more than I realized - and a lot more than in the preceding few years (including 2019, when being an exhausted pandemic RN was not yet a thing)... So, for me, especially under the shitty circumstances of this past year? I'm calling it a win.

Well, I meant to post this like at least a week ago, but RL. Sucks. Still. Even more.( the many, or rather main, reason why ) But hey, I got a dog and two cats, a FT job, and some pretty awesome friends. That's more than many people - and I am grateful for all of it. My friends are my chosen family. Seriously, I routinely enter "my friends" in my daily gratitude app entries.

But the suckitude of RL was why writing for Yuletide was so important for me. ( this crappy past year etc )

So here are my Yuletide recs. This merely scratches the surface (1700+ fics in Yuletide 2023, yikes!) - but these are really great.
( 22 recs in 19 fandoms - Heat (1995) (x2!), fairy tales/Boots of Buffalo Leather, Dracula - Bram Stoker (x3), The Fugitive, Fandom Exchange anthropomorphic (hysterical!!), Galaxyquest, The Good Place, The Huntsman, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum | Ecclesiastical History of the English People - Bede, It's A Wonderful Life, iZombie, Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte, The Lion in Winter (1968), Monty Python's Flying Circus: Archaeology Today, Much Ado About Nothing (2011) | Much Ado About Nothing - Shakespeare, True Detective S1, The Usual Suspects, The Waste Land - T. S. Eliot, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) )

Here endeth the recs portion of this post! Following is standard update post stuff. As if I do that regularly... (I don't...)

~ ~ ~

Anyway. Due to my desperate need for escapism, I really enjoyed researching for, and writing, my two fic contributions to this holiday season - my first Yuletide fic evah(!), and a last-minute pinch-hit for due South Seekrit Santa:

The Sentimentalists
Fandoms: Casablanca (1942)
Words: 9,558
(it looks incomplete because it says "Chapter 1/2," but chapter 2 is a draft consisting ONLY of author's notes - the fic is complete!)
Teen And Up Audiences
No Archive Warnings Apply
Victor Laszlo/Ilsa Lund, Rick Blaine/Ilsa Lund, Rick Blaine/Victor Laszlo/Ilsa Lund, Post-Canon
Summary:
Ilsa threw her arms around him. Rick tried awkwardly to simultaneously return the hug, and gently disengage from it – Laszlo was right there – as Laszlo beamed at him, apparently uncaring.

Beamed.

Or: Rick winds up in Lisbon after Brazzaville, and is shocked to find Victor and Ilsa still there (for totally legit historical reasons, my research found).

~ and ~

In Your Philosophy
Fandoms: due South
Words: 9,211
Teen And Up Audiences
No Archive Warnings Apply
Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe
Summary:
“Drink up. We may need our strength.”

“For mutual auditory hallucinations?” Ray asked.

The rare jewel of a casually confident Kowalski verbal construction delighted Fraser.

“No, for whatever's on the other side of that door.”

Or: from the day they first meet, Ray and Fraser go from disaster to disaster in ways neither could have imagined.

I haven't even gotten around to reading dSSS fics yet, despite my pinch-hit - there is so much I've bookmarked for Yuletide (and I signed up for it first, way before the dSSS pinch hit)! When I get to those, I'll deffo post dSSS recs too.

~ ~ ~

Here's hoping 2024 doesn't suck as bad as 2023. Although considering how it's started, that's probably putting the cart before the horse, as my Omi (grandmother) used to say.

Made using screen caps. Just something off the cuff. Click on each to enlarge.

So I ficced some more in January... I'm trying to hang on to that momentum.

~ ~ ~

(Not Quite) Roughing It (on AO3)
Fandoms: Longmire (TV)

Slash - Walt Longmire/Henry Standing Bear
Characters - Walt Longmire, Henry Standing Bear, The Ferg (Longmire), Victoria "Vic" Moretti,
Tags - Affection, Nature, Camping

Teen And Up Audiences, No Warnings Apply

Summary: They stare into the fire, tucked snugly against each other despite layers and jackets. Their arms tighten around each other. Henry looks up at the inky, moonless sky, millions of bright stars hemmed in only by the dark silhouettes of the tree tops around them and the mountains beyond.

Words: 2,549

(Not Quite) Roughing It (on AO3)
Fandoms: Longmire (TV)

~ ~ ~

A Suitable Alternative by verushka70
Fandoms: due South
Slash - Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters - Diefenbaker, Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski
Alternate Universe - Vampire, Community: ds_snippets | dsc6dsnippets

Explicit, No Warnings Apply

Summary: “Take it.” Ray shoves his wrist higher under Fraser’s nose, the scent of his blood enticing. “Your eyes -- you're fanged out –- drink!”

Words: 298

A Suitable Alternative (on AO3)

~ ~ ~

Finally, Goran Višnjić: So I've been watching Timeless... and, wow, guh, hot older 40 man. Like, Tyler Hoechlin-ish (almost complete with the eyes, though they don't light his eyes properly to highlight their strange color), but almost 20 yrs older. HOT. I'll have to go back and watch all the ER eps I never saw him in because after I became an RN I stopped watching all medical shows because everything is so medically inaccurate 99% of the time and MDs are continually shown doing stuff they never do which is almost always done by RNs (like administering chemo, drawing blood, starting IVs, chest compressions, giving resuscitation meds... I could go on... sure, the doctor orders the meds or whatnot and intubates the patient for resuscitation, but RNs will keep you alive until he/she gets you intubated).

But supposedly ER had an RN consultant for accuracy. So I might give it a shot now. Because Goran is muy caliente. I think the first thing I saw Goran in was Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, but even though he was hot in that, he was also violent and creepy. Maybe I should've watched more ER -- it had some critical
acclaim, iirc -- but I was too busy watching ST:TNG, X-Files, and BTVS (not to mention Forever Knight and due South in the 90s), lol.

Prime-time medical soap opera wasn't on my radar... if it's not scifi or supernatural, I gravitate to cop shows, it seems -- or vampire cop shows, lol, since slightly more than a decade after Forever Knight was cancelled, Moonlight came along with Jason Dohring and Alex O'Loughlin both playing vampires. Ironically, Moonlight was the first thing I saw
Abigail Spencer in, and now she is a lead character on Timeless, which is the show that has rekindled my lust for Goran Višnjić.

FULL CIRCLE! \o/ My ADD brain <3s that.

Since my tendonitis/epicondylitis got a bit better, I tried to light a fire under my own ass to finish two long WIPs.

I posted on AO3 excerpts of two longer fics -- one a dS WIP(RayK/Stella, RayK/Sam Franklin, eventual Fraser/Kowalski), and one a TW WIP (Derek/Stiles).

Then I wrote a Teen Wolf/True Detective Derek Hale/Rust Cohle crossover... uh, whoops? But I feel they would understand each other, these two. They have both lost so much, had so much grief.

All are technically unbeta-ed, though the dS WIP has been beta-ed somewhat (thanks Ride_Forever!).

Just Act Normal
Fandoms: due South
Words: 11,588
Explicit
M/M, F/M
Tags: Sam Franklin/Ray Kowalski, Ray Kowalski/Stella Kowalski,
Rimming, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, First Time Blow Jobs, Sexual
Confusion, Bisexuality, Infidelity, First Gay Sex, Angst

Summary: Stella was gone. Sam was around. A lot. Ray realized pretty soon that he had a crush on Sam. A terrible, hopeful crush.


This Is What You Do (To Me)
Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV)
Words: 2,163
Explicit
M/M
Tags: Underage,
Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Masturbation, Voyeurism, Self-Denial, Come play

Summary: Derek's surprise visits usually involve shaking Stiles down for research. Anything else is an afterthought (chain-yanking). Stiles is fed up with it. So when he finds Derek in his room again, he shows him the door. Or, rather, window. At least, that was the plan.


Beautiful (Beast)
Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV), True Detective
Words: 4,465
Explicit
M/M
Tags: Rustin "Rust" Cohle/Derek Hale, Derek Hale, Laura Hale, Rustin
"Rust" Cohle, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anonymous Sex

Summary: "Show me," Rust murmurs. Derek lets his wolf out a little, just the eyes, the heavy brow, the fangs and sideburns. "Beautiful beast," Rust whispers. He slides down the back of the bathroom door to his knees. When he looks up with glassy eyes, Derek realizes it isn't just Rust kneeling at his feet. It's Rust and someone else. Rust has shifted, in his own way.