I didn't know whether to do this by fandom or by author so I'm doing a mix of both. First up, Sarah Connor Chronicles. I'm actually posting all the fics that I liked enough to keep on my del.icio.us account, and not just the ones I've marked as recs because, well, I'd only have three. Also, I'd like to point out ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
scc_fic, a comm for your ficcing needs. There's a range of stories available, and I found all of the below, bar two, via that comm. You may enjoy some of the things I was less enamoured of. (Note: UK viewers, the next episode to air will be 1x05, Queen's Gambit; I've marked spoilers on fics.)
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primary recs.
in the border fires by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trollprincess (Terminator/Supernatural, John/Sarah)
Her name is Sarah Connor, and when he tells her his name she gets that twinkle of amusement in her eyes that anyone who's ever handled a weapon tends to get. But instead of asking, "Like the gun?", she leans back on the small couch as her long light brown hair spills over her shoulder, then says, "Same name as my kid. Must be a sign."
John highly doubts that, because he believes in a lot of signs but not the kind that lead to this.
I know I've recced this before, but some of you won't have seen it. It was written pre-
SCC but it fits both Hamilton and Headey's Sarah Connors. No spoilers for
Supernatural. It's a story about parents of fated children; John Winchester has his secrets, but Sarah Connor has more. Their meeting is quick, heady and fragile. I found this fic whilst looking for Papa-Winchester-centric stories and read it without really knowing who the hell Sarah Connor was. I loved it then, and I love it even more now that I have a full grasp of canon. Wonderful idea, skilfully executed, and a wholly satisfying read.
how to change the world without even trying by
bangles (pre-
T2: Judgment Day, John Connor)
One of the SWAT cops has his mother pinned face down on the ground. The second cop handcuffs her. All the rest, except for one, keep their guns trained on her. Only one cop is holding John, and he doesn't use handcuffs, and no one's really looking at them, except of course for his mother. But she signaled to John to do nothing. So he does nothing. He has to just let them take her.
This fic is set a couple of years before
T2: Judgment Day, following John from his mother's arrest and incarceration in Pescadero State Hospital to his life just before the second movie begins. It looks at how he went from a child who believed in everything his mother said to a child who thought she was as crazy as every one else seemed to think she was. It's quite a sad story, well-written, and embraces both the John we meet in
T2 and the John we know in
SCC.
ivory and ebony by
the_grynne (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, future!fic, Cameron and John)
I did not hate, I did not fear. This I remember. I followed orders without question. If I am deceitful now, if I feel the strange uplifting of joy in victory, it is your work in me.
Cameron and future!John, paying chess, and learning; chess as a metaphor is established early on in
Sarah Connor Chronicles.
the_grynne takes the idea of Cameron's hidden agenda and turns it into something reverential. There is something beautiful and haunting about Cameron's voice in this ficlet in which she is the product of both John's direct and indirect machinations.
thank god, it's fatal by
hackthis (
Sarah Connor Chronicles)
( spoilers for UK viewers: 1x05-1x07. )the further I fall, I'm beside you by
kalesbohan (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, future!fic, Cameron and John)
John knew, like he'd always known, that nothing he did to the timeline would make Cameron human or born of a mother. That didn't mean he cared less, invested less in her; it meant the opposite. Cameron was a bomb and catalyst thrown into his own past, her every fibre from long hair to tone of voice calculated to get a precise reaction and loyalty from his own self. She was calculated to devastate him.
More future!fic. (Minor spoilers for UK viewers: set post-1x05.) Cameron in canon sometimes does things that we as viewers find suspicious; this fic posits a theory about Cameron's secondary mission. It's an interesting look at future!John's psyche, and is quietly chilling, whilst maintaining the show's dark humour - Cameron's dialogue is especially on point.
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secondary recs.our passenger by
trollprincess (
Terminator/
Firefly, Jayne/Sarah)
They pick her up on one of the border planets, a wiry hard-edged woman with a single bag of possessions and a battered hat that's seen better days, probably on the head of someone else. She assesses Serenity like she's looking for weak spots, and Jayne's pretty sure he's the only one aside from Zoe who can tell she's hiding more weapons on her body than he is.
What a pairing, seriously. Sarah finds herself in the 'verse and takes passage on Serenity. Her fleeting presence on board leads to a lusty encounter with Jayne before she leaves, still maintaining her mysterious aura. As with
In the Border Fires, Sarah Connor is the mysterious and alluring outsider, leaving silence in her wake. I prefer the other fic because of the ways in which Sarah unknowingly mirrors John Winchester, but this one is also well-written, engaging and also amusing (how could it not be with Jayne?) There is a wonderful scene towards the end when the myth of John Connor comes to life, and surprisingly, the two fandoms come together really well.
double vision by
vaznetti (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah Connor)
Sarah has not always found weapons beautiful. She can remember the early days, grit in her eyes, bones aching and hands blistered and her teachers shouting again and do it right, this time, and for fuck's sake, she was just a waitress, not some kind of hero. But there was John, and she didn't have time to care that she was tired, or couldn't get it right: she had to.
A tiny ficlet about Sarah Connor. The transformation of Sarah between
The Terminator and
Judgment Day is dramatic, and her trust of weapons is always polarised with her fear and hatred of the machines. Can she afford to trust Cameron?
What this fic doesn't quite do - possibly because it's about Sarah, and not about John - is take the next step in this thinking: Sarah doesn't trust the machines, but John does, and his affinity towards them may be the reason why he becomes the man people believe he will become.
maybe tomorrow by
hackthis (Cameron Phillips)
Terminators do not prevaricate. There are no half-truths. And yet, she is Cameron Philips and she is not. She is the soul of Cameron Philips; she is Cameron Phillips' brain. She looks like Cameron; she has seen the photos. She has had this conversation many times with John -- her John, not this John. She meant what she said to Sarah Connor -- this is not her John. Her John is different. Her John created her when she died.
This fic plays with the line between human machine as presented in Cameron Phillips, taking the idea that
Cameron as a personality is something created by John Connor. In some ways it's similar to
the_grynne's fic that I recced above: Cameron as a product of John, and having pride in those origins. But in other ways, it's much looser.
hackthis's Cameron is humanised to a greater degree, is less majestic and awesome than
the_grynne's, and I think that's why I ultimately preferred the other fic. That said there's a lot going on here, and it's a good story with a satisfying end.
and so it went by
indiefic (
Sarah Connor Chronicles)
( spoilers for UK viewers: 1x05-1x07 )acting human by
psycholizard (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, post-ep)
( post-ep for 1x07, The Demon Hand )/dev/null by
rez_lo (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron)
She runs, endoskeleton pushing against the earth with tensile strength that powers the body forward like a bullet chased by expanding gas. With her left hand she shields Him. With her right she grabs at air solid as an iron bar, takes the illusion of torque and uses it to hurl them another stride over the surface. Again. And repeat. Her lungs take in the whole sky and breathe it back out; her heart pumps an ocean of blood.
Cameron, the machine. She's so fascinating precisely because in questioning her construction we're actively questioning what makes us human (hence the new
BSG's success, at least partially). The imagery here is sharp and intricate; Cameron is all machine this time around, all mechanics and code. What I found really interesting was the use of
Him. There are a lot of biblical parallels to be made with the
Terminator franchise, but unlike
the_grynne's fic,
rez_lo's lacks the open reverence. Instead the idea of John as
creator is overwhelming, and this fic (for me) strongly evokes the idea of the fall of man. Well worth your time.
I can't remember why this isn't marked as a primary rec. Possibly I felt it too intricate on first reading, but looking at it again, I think that intricacy is essential. So.binary sounds like morse code by
fryadvocate (
Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron)
She understood time as something that occurred all at once. Everything that occurred after John sent back the T-800 had already occurred as soon as, before, after he sent the machine back.
John said, "Now we see what changes."
The bunker shook and someone came in with a report, didn't even glance at her. She was void. Time did not move linearly, she understood. Time shifted like a wave, all molecules moving at once and subsiding. Sending Reese back had not stopped the war, it had guaranteed it.
This one is difficult to read but I recommend persevering with the 'code' format because it's quite important. It's a striking piece, powerful in its implications for Cameron's ability to learn and adapt. Following Cameron in her trajectory from future to past and then forwards to the future again, we watch as she adapts to circumstance, and how she comes to trust John (which is contrary to nearly every other fic on their relationship).
The only reason this is in the secondary recs rather than the primary ones is because conceptually it's a little tough. But I think that it's worth the effort.
and the things that keep us alive keep us alone by
arewewinning (
stateofsoul) (pre-
T2: Judgment Day through past
Sarah Connor Chronicles; Sarah, John.)
Later that night, she asked him why he wandered off and her son tilted his head against his pillow, met her gaze, and rolled his eyes in her general direction even as sleep worked to pull him away from her.
"I didn't. I couldn't find you so I had to wait until you found me."
And past the tears she hadn't shed yet, she was smiling.
A fic about John Connor and his life as he knows it. The John we know, the one we're introduced to in
Sarah Connor Chronicles is in many ways plagued by inadequacy and by the burden of his future, his supposed destiny, and it makes for a tired figure. I don't know if I'm the only one but I think that future!John, far from being all-knowing and finally accepting of his role, is probably still scared shitless and so, so tired. Whilst some of the resistance fighters probably wonder at his secrecy (thus buoying the myth of John Connor) the man himself must be an exhausted figure, at times trapped by his past. John Connor, like his mother, only goes forward.
But anyway, this fic is a series of 'scenes' from throughout John's life, charting his development. There are moments of doubt, there are moments of clarity; John is a character in flux, regardless of what he's told the future will be. I like the idea a lot, and I enjoyed the fic.
There's an implicit idea that Sarah's absence is filled by Cameron, but it's not taken anywhere, and I felt that whilst the fic is very good as it stands, it's ending was lacking in some way. Not because it's quiet open - I don't mind that at all - but because I don't know what I was supposed to take away from it. I think it's one that people will like, though, because the vignette-style is neatly executed, and it's emotionally compelling.
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There's this wonderful line in
Heavy Metal when Sarah is losing her nut over John's escapades and Cameron offers, "John does these things sometimes."
John does these things. Part of his skill, then, his charm maybe, is his ability to take risks. There are some powerful moments in the episode, and the re-watch was beneficial.
One of the things that makes Cameron especially difficult, I think, and that the show takes pains to remind us is that she is actually a concept that we as viewers - as humans - have devised. We have a concept of
Cameron onto which we project narrative whilst
Cameron is actually just the skin that covers the TOK715. And we, like John, become attached to that skin. The show is clever, though, because it doesn't really let us forget that machine aspect of the character. (Well, until it's useful to them.) That scene in
The Demon Hand where
( spoilers ) is a sharp reminder that we are more invested in Cameron than the TOK715 is in us (or, you know, John).
( in which M talks about her own fic. )( continuing ruminations on characterisation. )Alternatively, the above is bollocks, but I wanted to talk it through somewhere.
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New New Amsterdam today. Hurrah!
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