I would tend to agree with this. Except that it's impossible to read any DueSouth anything and not know that Fraser is Canadian! (That's more than just physical description, though; that's a fundamental priciple of the universe.) I did get kind of shocked the first time I heard RayK talk, though!

It comes through suprisingly rarely in context, actually. I was looking back at the Leverage fic I was reading, and while there's some minor context things like that, occasionally - a mention of pushing hair out of an eye, or "gold-kissed lashes", or dark bruises against dark, it does suprisingly little to help me build a picture. In retrospect, it's clear what they were getting at, but with no basis for comparison, I guess I assume it's just -- mood-setting?