TEAM ROMANCE: Day 2, "Just Geography"

[china_shop]

Title: Just Geography
Author: brynnmck
Team: Romance
Prompt: "No, you never told me that before."
Pairing(s): Fraser/Vecchio/Kowalski
Length: 24,700 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Author's note: Thanks to china_shop for listening to me bitch about how her stupid challenge was killing me *g*, and (so as not to cast blame on the innocent) while this fic was not finished in time for a full beta, catwalksalone and slidellra generously offered their input on a large chunk of it in a very timely fashion, for which I am incredibly grateful. And thanks to everyone on Team Romance for support, commiseration, and squee. You guys are amazing.
Summary: One thing Ray had learned in Canada was that your problems didn't get further away the further north you went; they just got louder.

Once you've read the story, please take a moment to vote in the poll below. Ratings go from 1 (low) to 9 (high), so all you need to do is enter a single number in that range into each text entry box. You'll be able to see the Prompt and Team (Genre) information in the header above.

More details about the voting procedure can be found here.

Just Geography

THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. ANY FURTHER VOTES WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
[Poll #1077527]
edit: please note that the first question's rating scale SHOULD read "How well does this story fit the team genre? Rate from 9 (totally fits) to 1 (not so much)." Apologies for any confusion.

Comments

[fyrstrm.livejournal.com]

This made me fall back in love with DS!!!!!!!! You win at awesome!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Aw, this was adorable. (Although I find thirty-something guys not getting down and dirty on the first date rather unbelievable.) Some great lines in there - the NASA guy stuff cracked me up, and the line about Fraser knowing "ninety-seven words for water and wouldn't ask for a glass if he was dying of thirst" made me both laugh and feel sad at the same time. Well done!

[mrs-laugh-track.livejournal.com]

I love this story SO MUCH. ♥!

[smokingthings.livejournal.com]

So much good stuff here. All the Ray/Ray parts were spot-on - your Kowalski voice is hilarious and your Vecchio is amazingly hot. Loved it.

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

fgdgdiojf

I think my brain just short circuited. Hot, sweet, romantic, and a happy ending? Damn that was good.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee BOYS! *hearts so hard* I kind of want to just flail at the whole thing.

"I see you, okay?" Ray told him. "I know you."

OMG that made me clasp my hands to my chest. I love Fraser opening up, too, and joking and smiling and being loved. And OH MY GOD the snowball fight filled me with GLEE. Really, the whole fic did. Fraser and his Rays!

[meresy.livejournal.com]

I love this out of all proportion to anything.

The Ray/Ray part is so great, I love the angst in the middle, and it's the humour--the NASA stuff, and phrases "terrifying hospitality loop" and "eaten by glaciers" etc.--that makes the whole thing art, I think.

[simplystars.livejournal.com]

Aww, this is sweet, and I'm not a Ray/Ray girl even. :)

The Fraser-by-four cracked me up, and we must've both seen the same episode of Survivorman with the plane crash and rabbit snares and burning cotton into charcoal, hee. And Fraser taking a day off - sign of the apocalypse indeed! :D

But I think my favorite part has to be the scars on Fraser's body, how the bullet scar is Vecchio's while the corner of Fraser's mouth is for RayK - because, just, yes. Exactly. ♥

[akite.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, did I need that after reading the angst story for today. I love this!

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Absolutely wonderful. Great characterizations, lots of wonderful laugh-out-loud moments, and sexy as hell. Thank you!

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Post-reveal PS: Haha, I like how we were having the conversation about fic length and yours is 24,000. YER CLEVER.

"Yeah! This whole big quest, all these people dying and hardship and whatnot, and at the end of it, the guy just realizes he wants to go back home." Ray shook his head. "Jesus, I was so pissed."

Reading this again reminded me of how it was THIS FIC that got me listening to Stan Rogers again, which led to a lot of crying over due South (and general personal) angst, and that was an awesome week. No, really! It's good to have that every once in a while, so thank you for the awesome Canadiana reference.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was just terrific. Funny, and seriously, seriously hot, and moving--Vecchio's empty apartment, waaah!

[zabira.livejournal.com]

i adored everything about this, and i don't even really swing both rays (most of the time). F/K/V is the threesome of TOTAL LOVE and you nailed all that is wonderful about it, and the bitter-sweetness of it. i could quote back a dozen lines i loved, or that made me laugh (the NASA stuff, hee! and fraser and the glass of water, aww.), but if i had to pick the one that made me the most happy, i'd have to go with this:

"We propose a cease-fire on the grounds that the snow is biased in favor of Canadians."

::dies of glee and love::

[j-s-cavalcante.livejournal.com]

This threesome is a hard sell with me, even though I've written it a couple of times, principally because of the amount of work one has to do on characterization to get Ray and Ray together. Since they hardly know each other in canon--and since RayK and Fraser are clearly an item of some kind in canon--a writer pretty much has to make a case for the Ray/Ray relationship in every story, whereas that's not as necessary with RayK/Fraser (or even RayV/Fraser, for those who see it that way) because you can coax the suspension of disbelief out of a simple reminder of solid canonical events. Second, there's the issue of RayV's not being convincingly gay (in canon).

Well, you did your homework on this one, and you won me over with this delightful story! I suspended disbelief on RayV because he was so spot-on in every other way, especially his voice. I think this is how writers succeed at getting past big hurdles like that--if you're going to change something big about a character, you have got to make a good case for it and then make every other aspect of him ring true. I suspended disbelief on your Ray/Ray for the same reason--you gave a rationale for it, you built up your case slowly and carefully, and you controlled every other aspect of the characterizations very tightly, so I could go along with you on the premise. I'll never be a big FKV fan, and I don't even read most Ray/Ray--but most authors simply do not go to this much trouble to make it ring true. You did. And you didn't dismiss Fraser in the process (another major flaw in most Ray/Ray). I think that's a huge accomplishment.

You persuaded me to suspend disbelief and to enjoy the story thoroughly, and I think you aced the genre challenge: you just blew me away with Vecchio's amazingly romantic seduction of RayK! The threesome scene was romantic and hot as well. This story also had so many absolutely terrific lines, some of which made me laugh out loud (OMG, the whole NASA thing was just brilliant--oh, RayK! Hee!) The voices were all outstanding. In sum, this was an amazingly fun, hot, satisfying read, with an ending that fit the story just right, and no major plot holes or unanswered questions. Brava! Excellent, excellent work.

[china_shop]

Second, there's the issue of RayV's not being convincingly gay (in canon)

Hi! Um. Okay. Butting in to say... this is really bugging me. Because, well, obviously a lot of people (including the author of this fic and, uh, me for one) see it differently. Maybe what we think gay looks like is different from what you think gay looks like. Whatever. We have no problem at all reading Vecchio as gay. At least, I can't speak for the author, but there are lots of people in DS fandom past and present who have no problem with that. Who, in fact, find it difficult/impossible to read his relationship with Fraser as anything other than romantic. So for you to state that Vecchio isn't canonically gay (and this is not just about you -- I've seen such statements around and about the place, and they always rub me the wrong way) seems really disrespectful when obviously half the fandom (including the person whose story you're commenting on) think he is or can be read that way.

Canon is open to interpretation. A simple "IMO" or "YMMV" would make all the difference. To me.

I'm seriously not trying to get into anything here except encouraging respect for each other's ships, and if you want to discuss that or Vecchio further, this is very much not the place. Feel free to email me. I'm just having the kind of day where I couldn't let this pass. Sorry you had to bear the brunt of it.

Re-posting for typo-removal purposes.

[capella-fic.livejournal.com]

Beautifully done! And long, satisfying, and a perfect way to start a weekend morning (Friday being the weekend where I am.) I'm not a natural 3-somes fan but you've built this up so convincingly that I was with it all the way. And talk about hot? By the time the three of them ended up in bed together the screen was smoking around the edges. Well done - this is so wonderfully romantic but funny and hot and in character all at the same time. A winner. :-)

[sprat.livejournal.com]

That was wonderful, mystery person! I loved the Rays together at the beginning, their cautious push and pull, the way they learned to fit. And the inevitability of their opening the relationship to Fraser was so sweet and perfect. *loves*

[belmanoir.livejournal.com]

holy shit that was amazing. there are no words. hot, and sweet, and funny, and i got a total romance rush from the whole thing.

Vecchio's eyes weren't stupid after all, they were actually really...

oh yeah!

[brigantine.livejournal.com]

Edited: stupid typos

That was way much fun! I love the way our Mystery Author wove the Ray/Ray relationship together, taking it slow, getting the Rays solid together before drifting in a remarkably natural fashion toward looking North. Filled with yumminess!

[fanficfan.livejournal.com]

So well done--the first DS trio fic that I have both read and enjoyed. The many kinds of pleasure Ray K, Ray V, and F take in one another are created so clearly and thoroughly.

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

I'm actually a big fan of threesome stories and I don't have any problem buying into them, but this was really something special. I love the relationship you crafted for Ray and Ray: it felt like a very slow, natural build into romantic affection, and I loved that you gave them a courtship. Ray/Ray, in a lot of ways, is the pairing of heat and sex and need and noise and (sometimes) pain; we don't often get a lot of softer notes in between, and it was really refreshing to see the Boys come together as a couple before they fell into bed. You did a great job developing the romantic and sexual tension that fizzles between them before giving them the big ol' tumble-into-bed, and that tight artistic control over characterization and motivation really paid off when you progressed to the threesome story.

The F/K/V portion of this fic was such a satisfying read, and I really liked your take on Fraser when he finally appeared. His loneliness and fragile sense of hope came through really well (oh Fraser! Building a cabin with more than one bedroom!) but you straddled the line between angst and romance nicely and this ended up a happy story rather than *cough* a...y'know. ANGSTY story (which everyone knows are better :-) The sex was smokin' hot but again, your gift for establishing motivation and doing careful characterization work really paid off in that section. The interpersonal politics of a threesome give me a headache, but you made the love these three guys share feel very natural and believable. This whole story was great, and my hat is off to you, oh anonymous writer.

[vienna-waits.livejournal.com]

You made me read F/K/V and LIKE IT.

I am agog at your writerly powers of awesome. What a terrific story.

[luzula]

This put me back together after the angst fic broke my heart. I'm not very coherent right now, but this story is wonderful in so many ways. I printed it out and read it on the bus, and the other passengers may have looked at me funny when I made little squeeing sounds of delight.

[randomisedhabit.livejournal.com]

This was an awesome read, even though there were some things that I couldn't quite swallow at once. I guess this is one story where for once I wouldn't have wanted Fraser to, er, "interfere", but I guess you can't always have what you want ;) Because the K/V really worked, and I found the dynamics incredible. Especially the fucked up!RayV and how he runs out on RayK and comes back and just... gah. I died a little inside there.

So, this is me saying that it was an incredible story, even though it's not exactly what I wanted :)

[doublu.livejournal.com]

wow. just wow.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Yay Team Romance! ♥ And yay you! \o/

This a a gorgeous wonderfully satisfying fic. ::happy sigh::

PS

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Um, shouldn't that be affidavit?

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

Well, I finally managed to carve out enough time to read a 25k story, by the simple method of choosing it over sleep. And this story was totally worth it!

This was a tremendous read, sweet with hints of pain, and just incredibly satisfying. I love the way you write Vecchio. I could hear him, so clearly in my head, from the very first moment where he showed up at Kowalski's door with a bottle. Vecchio's slow courtship of Kowalski, when RayK was so obviously seeing himself as a cheap date, was wonderful.

I love what you did with their three homes. RayK all unpacked and messy, until the day when he finally decides to make a real life for himself there with Vecchio. Vecchio's apartment. God, that just crushed me, that empty apartment. And then Fraser's perfect little hand-built cabin, never intended for a man living alone.

The sex was scorchingly hot throughout, and the scene where Fraser came home to find a cooked meal and two sarcastic Rays waiting for him made me so happy!