Fire of Spring - Fic: Ivory and Ebony (SCC; Cameron, John)

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22 February 2008 @ 08:43 pm

Fic: Ivory and Ebony (SCC; Cameron, John)

Double drabble about future!John and Cameron. General knowledge about chess is assumed.

The maid, feeling his kisses, raised
shy eyes to the sun and, at a glance,
saw daylight and his face at once.
- Derek Mahon, 'Pygmalion'

Ivory and Ebony

A game is in play. Bullet casings for missing pieces, the board lies between us.

Sixty-four multiplied by infinity: your world entire. Variables, dependent and independent, future and past, interchanging - co-evolving. Rhizomatic metaphor of time displacement trajectories.

I am white and you are black. (Better to hide the blood.) Obedient to your rules, after every game we switch sides.

*

The very first time I laid a trap that was a success, you went completely still and then looked into my guileless eyes. Well done: you congratulated yourself and me. A little of the omnipresent weariness faded from your face.

Skynet did not program me for gambits; creative risk assessment and other higher level operations were not integral to my model's purpose. I remember your mouth curving in a rare smile: Skynet didn't want to make the same mistake we did.

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.

*

You lift your hand from the cowering black pawn.

I understand immediately. The landscape in every direction, at every turn, is unrecognisable. Metal and stone tremble still at the shock waves issuing from your newly promoted queen.

22 February 2008

Tags: cameron, fic-sarah connor chronicles, my fic

37 arrows aflight | fire an arrow

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rodlox on February 22nd, 2008 12:30 pm (UTC)

hm. never been ambushed by het before.
(how the last line seemed to turn it from gen to mild het)

this is a terrific fic. I'm very very impressed. (and I love your Cameron's voice)

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:33 pm (UTC)

That's okay - I only ship them mildly, in any case. :) But the queen is the most powerful piece in chess, and a better fit for Cameron than the knight, I thought.

Thank you! I'm so glad the voice sits right with you.

Edited at 2008-02-22 08:34 pm (UTC)

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liminalliz on February 22nd, 2008 01:03 pm (UTC)

Excellent fic, well voiced! Well played, lols. *totally and completely ships these two characters, omg*

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:37 pm (UTC)

Yay! They are a bit perfect for one another, aren't they?

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acari on February 22nd, 2008 01:29 pm (UTC)

I'm pretty sure I didn't get every nuance (for I am clueless about chess) but I think I got enough. Very interesting.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:42 pm (UTC)

Thanks!

All you need to know is that a pawn (the weakest piece on the board), if it can reach the other end of the board without being captured, can be promoted to a more powerful piece - usually a queen. If it is not anticipated by the opponent (who is distracted, say), this can alter the entire outcome of the game.

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orange_crushed on February 22nd, 2008 01:31 pm (UTC)

If I am deceitful now, if I feel the strange uplifting of joy in victory, it is your work in me.

Oh my God, what a beautiful line. What a beautiful thought.

I truly do love your vision of her as a learning, almost blooming machine. Becoming something utterly, terrifyingly new. I like John as tired teacher, weary but somehow still able to surprise her with his human capacities.

I have only one thing to add: you, apparently, can make me ship robots.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:50 pm (UTC)

If we can believe that AIs can have moods, something almost complex enough to be feelings, we have to believe that they can be molded by instruction and guidance.

I think Skynet (to not risk rebellion and too much independent thinking from its own soldiers) gave Cameron programming that was much more limited than itself; John expanded on that, made her more "human", and he's teaching her how to deal with it.

Yay! I'm so glad that you liked it. :)

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monanotlisa on February 22nd, 2008 02:04 pm (UTC)

Amazing.

If I am deceitful now, if I feel the strange uplifting of joy in victory, it is your work in me.

And here's the fully-fledged idea of what was just a impression, an emotional certainty in the back of my mind.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:56 pm (UTC)

I think Cameron has two creators, Skynet and John. The latter is what makes her unique, and so scary.

Thank you!

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mylittlepwny on February 22nd, 2008 03:14 pm (UTC)

Oh, excellent.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:56 pm (UTC)

Glad you enjoyed it. :)

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ghostrunner7 on February 22nd, 2008 04:47 pm (UTC)

Whoa, there. That was cool!

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 08:57 pm (UTC)

Thanks! :) It's a very cool show.

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rez_lo on February 22nd, 2008 06:06 pm (UTC)

Oh! That the game itself could be a weapon! And how clearly you let us hear the disciple-student's spirit in Cameron's voice, and in her storytelling: You lift your hand ...

Beautiful as always.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 09:00 pm (UTC)

It all followed from something you said - games, D&D and chess, and anticipating your opponent several moves in advance. :D Anyway, you were brilliant.

I haven't worked out yet how much of my Cameron-voice is actually River, leaking through. But as long as nobody minds... ;)

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transtempts on February 22nd, 2008 07:19 pm (UTC)

Oh, this is very nice, and I love the way the last line reverberates through the whole piece.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 09:02 pm (UTC)

I am kind of obsessed with chess fiction and chess metaphors. It's nice to have found a fandom where chess is always being referred to. :)

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notexotic on February 22nd, 2008 08:48 pm (UTC)

Very nice! I'm looking forward to finding out more about Cameron and her relationship with futureJohn.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 09:03 pm (UTC)

So am I. Cameron is the big mystery of the series, and they're revealing the secret only little by little.

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kenorland on February 22nd, 2008 09:40 pm (UTC)

Looooove it.

They have such an interesting dynamic. I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it before.

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 09:46 pm (UTC)

They are soooooo interesting! I wanted to take the Pygmalion/Galatea myth and give it a little twist.

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kenorland on February 22nd, 2008 10:04 pm (UTC)

I heard the show is in trouble, though. :(

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the_grynne on February 22nd, 2008 10:08 pm (UTC)

Whhhhatt? Really? HOW SO? *flaps hands*

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kenorland on February 22nd, 2008 10:17 pm (UTC)

When the lists of returning shows came out, I read somewhere that they had stopped production. Of course now I can't find any such confirmation, but the LA Times says it is 'on the bubble'. :/

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everagaby on March 2nd, 2008 11:31 pm (UTC)

I like this. The difference between what Cameron might have been built to do, and what John remade her into. Watching the show, I'm curious how long he took in the reprogramming, if he did it himself, if he had the plans laid out and was just waiting for the right model to try it out on. This fits brilliantly with what might have come before she went back in time, and I adore it. Thank you.

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the_grynne on March 3rd, 2008 01:29 am (UTC)

Thank you! John's unique experiences with the machines and Skynet, his foreknowledge of what the Terminators can become, makes him the most likely human to have had a personal hand in the reprogrammings. I don't think it's possible for John to think of them as "just machines", and his empathy - his tendency to want to think of them as individuals, capable of loyalty to him - is what will drive him to promote that autonomy and sophistication in Cameron. To turn her from what she was to what he knows she can be.

As for the reprogramming itself, what Cameron displays is an ability to learn, to acclimate and absorb and reflect on new concepts that is very unique. That's why I liked the idea of John physically going through the process of playing chess with her - teaching her strategy and how human beings think, not by etching it into her software, but through actual experience.

Edited at 2008-03-03 01:33 am (UTC)

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superstitiousme on March 17th, 2008 05:36 am (UTC)

this is awesome. especially this:

Skynet didn't want to make the same mistake we did.

gah. too perfect!

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the_grynne on March 17th, 2008 07:07 am (UTC)

Once you give something that intelligence, and a consciousness, you're running the risk of revolt. There is something quite possibly tyrannical about the way Skynet runs its army, since the individual Terminators clearly don't share a consciousness with Skynet.

I'm glad you enjoyed the fic!

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twasadark on May 14th, 2008 07:23 am (UTC)

What a lovely story! So beautifully written, and wonderfully succinct.

I wonder if you might allow me to record this as a podfic (mp3) for the

amplificathon going on right now? I would include a link to the story's text posting and encouragement to leave comments for you (we writers NEED those comments!). If you'd like to hear a sample of my work, I have a bunch of podfics posted here: http://twasadark.googlepages.com/audiofic

Hope to hear from you! :-)

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the_grynne on May 14th, 2008 08:05 am (UTC)

Thank you! You're very kind. :)

I'm happy for you to record it, although as a personal comment, I do worry that some of the meaning will be lost because of the way I've used punctuation and italicisation. But if you don't have a problem with that, then go ahead! I'm delighted that you liked the story.

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twasadark on May 14th, 2008 03:28 pm (UTC)

I'll do my best to try to express what you're trying to communicate with my voice. :-) The only things I've really had trouble reading are run on sentences and singing (I have the worst singing voice in the WORLD).

Do you have a piece of music you associate with this story? I sometimes include music if the author has a particular song in mind, or if something jumps out at me as appropriate.

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twasadark on May 15th, 2008 07:11 am (UTC)

Okay, it's all recorded and posted here: http://community.livejournal.com/amplificathon/59717.html

I hope you like it ... :-) Feel free to pimp it far and wide, should you desire. And thanks again for letting me record it!

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fryadvocate on May 15th, 2008 01:44 pm (UTC)

ohh. Totally brilliant.

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the_grynne on May 15th, 2008 03:43 pm (UTC)

Thank you. :)

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sonadorita on January 22nd, 2009 07:38 pm (UTC)

I love how this little story slowly unfolds. Beautifully done :)

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the_grynne on January 23rd, 2009 01:27 am (UTC)

Thank you very much. :)

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