Ray Vecchio/Ray Kowalski
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Ray Vecchio/Ray Kowalski |
| Alternative name(s): | RayV/RayK, RayRay, Vecchio/Kowalski, V/K |
| Gender category: | M/M, Slash |
| Fandom: | due South |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | |
| Archives: | DSA, due Slash |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Ray/Ray is the pairing of Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski in due South fandom.
It is only pairing in due South with its own motto: I swing both Rays.
Canon
The biggest challenge for potential Ray/Ray shippers is the lack of canon interaction between these two characters. The Rays only appear together in the series finale, Call of the Wild, and their interactions in that two-parter episode are mostly antagonistic.
Fandom
Ray Vecchio was Fraser's partner in Seasons 1 and 2, and was replaced by Fraser's new partner Ray Kowalski in Season 3. In fandom, the Ray Wars was a fandom feud that stemmed from the replacement of Vecchio by Kowalski. This flamewar was largely between between RayK fans and RayV fans, and the majority of fans were shipping their preferred Ray with Benton Fraser.
RayV/RayK fic started to appear in 1999, in the midst of the Ray Wars, as if one of the Rays said 'let's stop fighting over which of us gets Fraser, and just grab each other.' Ray/Ray stories were first seen as oddities, or even as traitorous [1], but fans of this pairing believe that there's something there: The Rays are both relatively isolated at work; they both have strong ethnic family ties; they both fell in love with Stella. The Rays obviously have a few things in common.
Common Tropes & Storylines
One of their greatest similarities (in fanfiction) is the way they both fell hard for Fraser (whether that's written platonically or romantically). Ray/Ray stories tend to have Fraser as a third character whether he's physically there in the story or not. Often one (or both) of the Rays is convinced that the other Ray would rather have Fraser, and it's not uncommon for one of them to have just broken up with Fraser as the story starts. But the (small) fandom is not a one-trick pony; there are Ray/Ray stories of happy sap, and others of miserable grudgefucks.
Beginning in 2003, there was a spate of stories that speculated a shared history for the two Rays in which they knew one another as teenagers in high school -- A. Kite wrote several of these "teen Rays" stories, as did a few other writers at the time. More recently, it has become more common for some of the more generic story tropes (bodyswap, high school AUs, etc.) to show up.
There are many fanworks that imagine the two Rays working in Chicago, with Fraser returning North. Interestingly, this was the original written end of the show -- Fraser alone in the Northwest Territories and both Rays back in Chicago, Vecchio at his old posting and Kowalski at the 32nd Precinct--although it wasn't until 2008 that this original ending was known to the fandom. In fanworks, they're usually both back working at the precinct -- either they're partners, or they're kept as far apart as possible. Stories tend to start as if the only thing that's happened since the end of the show was RayV getting divorced and moving back to Chicago, and RayK leaving the Arctic and moving back to Chicago.
It's not unusual for these boys to punch each other a little. They spend most of their time in RayK's apartment.
Notable Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Two Rays Are Better Than One, by Shannon McKinnon - the first V/K story ever posted.[2] Posted to exwood February 19, 1999 [3]
- Reflections 1: Trust and Loyalty [4]
- Left, by Resonant [5]
- A Ride in the Riv, by A. Kite [6]
- April after all, by sprat[7]
- In a Little While, by brooklinegirl[8]
- Refugees, by china shop [9]
- Two-parter: Boys Like Me [10], Girls Like You [11], by catwalksalone
- Not In Front of the Kid by catwalksalone
- Ride Of Your Life,[12] and Three Kings[13] by Hth
- The Mad Season Trilogy, by Raine Wynd [14]
- The Mad Season Series by Rayne Wind
Vids
- That's All, a Ray/Ray constructed reality vid by SDWolfpup
Meta/Further Reading
- Swinging Both Rays, Archived version at Ship Manifesto by thermidor (September 21, 2004)
- fandom_wank: OMG! How DARE you write a pairing that HURTS ME!, Archived version for a partial discussion (nested comments are unavailable) about one fan's view of the Ray/Ray pairing. (2006)
- On writing Ray/Ray, Archived version by china shop (10 November 2006)
- The Incredible True Adventures of Two Boys in Love... or, One Girl's Adventures in Ray/Ray-land., Archived version posted by aerye to ds_meta (5 March 2007)
Fannish Resources
- Lexa_C maintained a masterlist of Ray/Ray stories.
- Ray/Ray tag at AO3
- ds_raysquared[1] livejournal community
References
- ^ Resonant was reprimanded by the admins for posting Left to the Asylum list; she'd assumed it was all right because the story featured Ray K, and it was a Ray K list.[citation needed]
- ^ Two Rays Are Better Than One.
- ^ Accessed November 13, 2008.
- ^ Reflections 1: Trust and Loyalty First posted in 1999, it's one of the first V/K stories.
- ^ Left
- ^ A Ride in the Riv
- ^ April after all
- ^ In a Little While
- ^ Refugees
- ^ Boys Like Me
- ^ Girls Like You
- ^ Ride of your life
- ^ Three Kings
- ^ The Mad Season Trilogy