you're always running into people's unconscious (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
innocentsmith.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2009-07-31 08:17 pm
innocentsmith.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-07-31 08:17 pm
The Age of Lead by Nos4a2no9 (R)
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Length: 9,220 words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nos4a2no9
Author Website: Out of Water orfic_by_nos
Why this must be read:
Fraser and RayK find a member of the Franklin Expedition.
There are surprisingly few post-CotW in which the reaching-out hand is actually found; one could argue that it's because it would be almost inconceivably unlikely, but...well, it's due South, so there's nothing more likely to happen.
But maybe it's because we were all waiting for this story. Nos takes your basic pining!Fraser-and-Ray-inna-tent-in-the-Arctic setup, and then confronts them, and us, with a corpse, a tangible reminder of tragedy.
There's the tragedy of the land, of the thousands lost in seeking the Northwest Passage and the way the land itself is being exploited now. And there's the tragedy of Fraser's own past, which makes him so unwilling to believe that he can have what he longs for, that things could ever turn out all right.
And yet it's at heart a very sweet story, and a hopeful one, because Ray is there, hearing Fraser's stories, willing to listen.
"Tell me a happy story."
"Hmmm?"
He freed one arm from his sleeping bag to gesture broadly. "Y'know, happy. Nothing about lead poisoning, or knife marks, or dead kids buried in the ice. Tell me a good story about the Arctic."
I paused, reflecting that I didn't really know any good stories about this part of the world. Canada is, at its core, a nation founded on tragedy. Dispossession, physical suffering and fatal hubris runs through my blood and the blood of my forefathers in the same way manifest destiny and the romance of the frontier flows through the descendants of American pioneers.
The Age of Lead
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Length: 9,220 words
Author on LJ:
nos4a2no9Author Website: Out of Water or
fic_by_nosWhy this must be read:
Fraser and RayK find a member of the Franklin Expedition.
There are surprisingly few post-CotW in which the reaching-out hand is actually found; one could argue that it's because it would be almost inconceivably unlikely, but...well, it's due South, so there's nothing more likely to happen.
But maybe it's because we were all waiting for this story. Nos takes your basic pining!Fraser-and-Ray-inna-tent-in-the-Arctic setup, and then confronts them, and us, with a corpse, a tangible reminder of tragedy.
There's the tragedy of the land, of the thousands lost in seeking the Northwest Passage and the way the land itself is being exploited now. And there's the tragedy of Fraser's own past, which makes him so unwilling to believe that he can have what he longs for, that things could ever turn out all right.
And yet it's at heart a very sweet story, and a hopeful one, because Ray is there, hearing Fraser's stories, willing to listen.
"Tell me a happy story."
"Hmmm?"
He freed one arm from his sleeping bag to gesture broadly. "Y'know, happy. Nothing about lead poisoning, or knife marks, or dead kids buried in the ice. Tell me a good story about the Arctic."
I paused, reflecting that I didn't really know any good stories about this part of the world. Canada is, at its core, a nation founded on tragedy. Dispossession, physical suffering and fatal hubris runs through my blood and the blood of my forefathers in the same way manifest destiny and the romance of the frontier flows through the descendants of American pioneers.
The Age of Lead