Great Scott, turtles!

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

I'll be your guest reccer for January, and my topic is turtles, both in general, and Ray Kowalski's pet.

Today we'll kick things off by talking a bit about turtles other than Turtle. In the coming weeks I'll cover Turtle and Dief, Turtle in Fraser and RayK's relationship, and outsider POVs on Turtle. However I'm a Fraser/RayK shipper, and most of the stories I read are gen or F/K, so for the final week (there are five Sundays in January!) I'll throw the floor open for recs of turtle stories in the F/V, K/V, and F/V/K worlds.

They're no rubber duckies, showing up over and over in canon, but Fraser has used turtles more than once as a distraction. In season 2's Starman, Fraser used the "Turtles!" ploy on Ian, the pathological liar:

Fraser: It appears to be infected. Great Scott, turtles!
Ian: Turtles? Argh! Police brutality!
Fraser: I have removed it.
Vecchio: I see.
...
Vecchio: So what was with the turtles?
Fraser: Well, there were no turtles Ray.
Vecchio: Well I know there were no turtles. What were you doing?
Fraser: Oh I was simply trying to distract him so I could remove this...

It's a trick that's only likely to work once on someone, though, and since RayV's seen it, Fraser doesn't pull it out again until he's with RayK in season 3/4's Call of the Wild:

Fraser: Ray, look! Turtles!
Kowalski: Turtles? [Fraser pushes him out of the plane.]

The question is, why is "Turtles!" Fraser's best gambit for distraction? Is it because, coming from the snowy north, the idea of spotting a cold-blooded reptile would be incredibly startling to him? I mean, really, this is a man who was relatively unfazed by a reindeer wandering through a Chicago police station. Or is it because the prevalence of turtles in the origin myths of peoples around the world gives them a special resonance, either in his own subconscious, or, he believes, in the subconscious of all of us? (Or is that, maybe, why I'm so tickled by turtles in Due South?) Or is it just that the double aveolar sounds of "tur-tul" are attention-getting, with the bonus of being humorous to us, the watching audience?

Feel free to speculate in the comments!


Here are a couple of stories featuring turtles other than Ray's pet. Considering Due South's penchant for repeating motifs, it's really a wonder turtles didn't turn up in a case, as in these stories. Given another season, they very well may have; since they didn't, that's what we have fanfic for.

In Which There Are Turtles by etcetera_cat
Fraser/RayK. PG-13.
Fraser and Ray are on the trail of endangered species smugglers (and Ray finds himself visiting dead!Bob).

Odds and Ends by secretlybronte
Fraser/RayK. R.
This is a cracky, adorable case wrap-up ficlet, in which Ray's caring side has him fretting.

Comments

[j-s-cavalcante.livejournal.com]

TURTLES!!!!

I love this theme. I have a turtle collection going back years before dueSouth aired.

I, too, can't figure out what PG's fascination with turtles was, but maybe it was just wackily random. I agree, it's what we have fanfic for. And we have done great things with RayK's turtle, may I just say. :)

Thanks for the recs! Reread and re-adored SB's "Odds and Ends." Etc Cat's story is also wonderful, and if I get something done around here tonight, maybe I'll let myself reread that one, too. :)

In sum, Ray, look! Turtles! :) \o/

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

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Fanfic = awesome - Y/Y? Here's to a whole month of remembering great turtle stories--and I hope you'll point out some I've missed at the end. :-)

[j-s-cavalcante.livejournal.com]

Roadie made the icon for me! \roadrunner1896/ She also made this one. Aren't they fun? Turtles!

I have no idea if I can rec turtle stories that you forget. You're much better at this than I am. I'm not that organized! But if anything comes to mind, I will chime in. I'm looking forward to your recs, though! \o/