This is the 4th day of POI Advent 2020!

The Sims 3 Writer path starts you off with Non-Fiction, and for stories you have only (General) Fiction; you have to unlock the various Genres by increasing your writing skill (and sometimes gaining other skills, or publishing a certain number of books).

I've decided to theme my rec lists along those lines. So, in order by Sims 3 Writer Path, here's the first set of my Person of Interest fic recs: Non-Fiction, General Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and a bonus category.

Level 0: Non-Fiction

I know it's technically a fanvid, but my favorite character overview is Dirty Cops and Scary Chicks, kinda a compilation of how the characters describe each other. And let's add the actors' favorite scenes.

Now for some general overviews: Fanlore, Den of Geek, blue univers (sic). And a bunch of Tumblr tags and trends (compiled by managerie)! I found them quite interesting.

Then check out an interview with Michael Emerson and Amy Acker on the subway set, plus an article on how the producers conceived of The Machine as a parallel process, almost like a hive mind.

Here's an article about Queer Representation in POI, which goes over how the show portrays relationships; I love the final point it makes. And how about a piece by winged_mammal discussing the appropriate AO3 character tag for Root? After reading that article, I began using Root (Person of Interest) exclusively, not Root | Samantha Groves; the arguments in favor of this are pretty clear, by AO3's standard rules for establishing character tags.

Sadly, the show ended with only 4.5 seasons, but it's fun to consider where it might have gone.

Now… on to the fanworks!

Level 0: General Fiction

This first set will largely avoid any strong focus on the later categories. So no Ships/Romance, no Mystery/Casefic, no intense Drama, no Comedy, etc. Middle ground, as it were, and with more of an early-series focus: introspectives, partners feeling each other out (no, not that way), developing friendships, maybe some found family.

One Caveat: In setting out the areas that I wanted to cover, I found a fair number of holes in my fic collection. While trying to fill these holes, I had to skim a lot of fics. So while a number of these are fics that I've enjoyed many times and wholeheartedly recommend, others are simply fics that seem good, on a quick read, often from early-fandom authors that I hadn't yet run across or paid much attention to. Hope they're enjoyable!

Now, given that it's the holiday season, shall we start with a couple of holiday pieces that touch on the whole gang?

White Elephants (livenudebigfoot, 7780 words) has the gang exchanging presents in a typically odd and competitive manner. Can't Spell Christmas Without AI (willneverfold, 2217) involves the Machine in the holidays.

Then a couple of pieces focused on our boys having trouble sleeping: Perchance (galaxysoup, 909), contrasting the team's various nightmares, seems like an interesting counterpoint to Traumerei (shibarifan01, 815), where Harold's humming helps John sleep. (I made a podfic of Traumerei, but it hasn't yet been linked up.)

Here's the group, as others see them: Outside Looking In (PapayaK, 9728, 19 chapters). And some Found Family focused on Platonic Female/Male Relationships: vanishing point: the point at which parallel lines appear to converge (paenteom, 5071), which gets a bit more intense than the rest of this category.

And I'll plug two of mine that cover the group: Some thoughts on their individual pasts, in Five Memories of Intimacy (1000 words: five Double-Drabble chapters), and a get-together with almost the entire gang (minus Root, but including Zoe, Leon Tao, Elias, and even Will Ingram) in Look, John, Just Play Along (2440 words).

Now for some individual characters in focus. Again, some of these are very early-season vibe, before they really got to know each other:

The Boys

John considers Carter and Finch in Looking Underneath the Underneath (Jedi Buttercup, 500 words).

For the flip perspective (what the gang thinks of John), there's Pen Pal (galaxysoup, 2227), where John is playing a bit of a father/mentor role to Sofia Campos. And how strangers respond to John: Eye of the Beholder (Orangistae, 1078).

John goes to unusual lengths in Tea and Absolution (PreachingtotheQuire, 1672), a piece based on my June 2018 prompt (John drugs Harold: why?) that goes into Harold's guilt complex; John's justification for kidnapping Harold (and putting him through surgery without his consent) is intriguing. (Also, I found out two days ago that someone thinks my October Feels Odd (2644 words) is a sequel to Tea and Absolution, which is… oddly plausible.)

For Carter's early perspective on Harold, check out Down the Rabbit Hole (Jedi Buttercup, 500).

Then let's move on to Carter and Fusco:

The Detectives

For a good early piece focused slightly more on Carter, try The More I Find, the Less I Know (Jedi Buttercup, 3200 words).

What sort of stories might have shaped their childhoods? The Stories We Tell (wonderble, 2495, 2/5 chapters, not updated since 2013) sadly covers only these two, and never got around to the other characters, but it's an intriguing take, especially on Fusco.

More Carter POV in Ghosts and Demons (BooSkiddoo, 701). A little backstory in Shooting Range (rose_griffes, 506), and, a bit more intense, Carter's protective-mom side in Line in the Sand (Orockthro, 2782).

John's view of Carter in This Is Not the Grand Arena (Jedi Buttercup, 500)

Dimity Blue seemed to have enjoyed exploring character mindsets; I found Presumed Dead (497 words) and The Usual Suspects (423 words), both focused on Fusco. And, again, a bit more action-y and later in the series, but Fusco's mindset shows up in A Series of Complete Understandings (JinkyO, 2021).

By Silence As By Speech (livenudebigfoot, 2830) lets Finch and Fusco spend a little time together, getting drunk and revealing secrets. Bane and Fungus (Aragarna, 15,227 over 8 chapters) goes over the evolving relationship between Reese and Fusco across the series.

I also wanted to grab some pieces that focused on the detectives' kids, but it's sparse pickings; I did find a couple pieces focused on when they were put in danger: It's Gonna Be Okay (Dimity Blue, 561) for Lee's POV, and a rather unexpected POV that includes Taylor in How Low (rose_griffes, 1916).

The Girls

Now, I love the girls, but I'm not as focused on them as primary characters, and my request in the fic-recs channel of Discord didn't net me anything useful on that front, so... this'll be sparse, and might have to go a bit outside the criteria I set for this section.

But! Let's see what we've got here.

I've got this piece bookmarked under the phrase "Shaw being intelligent": The Not-So Friendly Skies (tenaya, 2850 words), where Shaw thinks some things through and comes to some conclusions during the flight home after rescuing Finch and capturing Root. I find Shaw's pragmatism refreshing, as well as her general awareness of her surroundings.

Then there's Hammer Time or Paper Covers Rock (elbowsinsidethedoor, 1179), a short piece between Harold and Shaw while John is off recovering from the revelations.

A bit of a longer piece in I'm Gonna Do The Things You Do (by an orphan account, who says it's "leupagus's fault"; 4635, 2/2 chapters), where Shaw shacks up with Lewis (I think that's the guy from her first episode, the drug dealer she let go?) and makes some positive changes in his life. Skimmed it because I don't have time to read it, but it looks good.

For Root, I've got wired (nd_mindoir, 1000), when she gets annoyed by Harold's poor cable management, and unexpectedly strikes a sore spot. (I'm not sure whether to be amused or annoyed that it's tagged "Drabble" and says "just a drabble" in the Author's Note, yet is precisely ten times the size of an actual Drabble.)

And You Are Being Watched (AngstyHxcker, 802) goes into her perspective on losing that constant contact with The Machine.

Haven't we forgotten someone?

Of course! Bear!

John and Harold work on Bear's training exercises in Primary Reinforcer (pharis, 1477 words). John has trained Bear to get Harold to safety in Keep Calm (MulaSaWala, 1338).

Shaw takes him for a walk in A Walk in the Park (silveradept, 1221).

How about some Bear POV? Derde Naam is De Charme (Jedi Buttercup, 1200) discusses his memories of previous handlers, while Waiting for the miracle (ElnaK, 842) showcases his loyalty (poor boy!).

And back when I was planning Unseen Things and knew that I was going to use sad Bear vibes, I decided I didn't want that to be my first-ever Bear fic, so I wrote Unbearably Fluffy (2100, 5 chapters) for a more positive take on our beloved canine.

Lastly: I've run across a few fics where Bear ends up with a feline companion; here is one: Strays (RussianWitch, 926). (Author's Note: There was a comment about a fic needing either smut or kittens. For once I went with kittens.)

Haven't we forgotten someone else?

Oh! Yes. There's a character who was in the very first episode, almost the first scene, though you would not realize it from the first viewing.

In Ones and Zeroes (PitViperOfDoom, 2051 words), The Machine contemplates her various assets, and her connection to her Creator.

In Contact (TheaNishimori, 1200), The Machine shows John the lives of the people he's saved, thus bringing him back from his crisis of faith.

(There's also a Japanese version, and my first podfic was of that, though I've so far only uploaded the first part. Post-processing takes a lot of time, effort, and mental energy (to fight down the "it's not good enough" part of my brain), and this piece will take more cutting and splicing than normal, because it took an above-average number of takes, because I kept mispronouncing words.)

It's not just Team Machine…

Okay, let's try for some of the assets they've pulled into play a time or three:

In Safe Harbor (Orockthro, 773 words), John comes to Zoe for help after getting injured.

In Conversations (NiennaTru, 1317), Leon annoys Finch. In Desperate Measures (Wuchel, 1964), Leon annoys Reese. Guess which one goes better for him? If you'd like to see him annoy the rest of the team, post-canon, try The Unemployable Leon Tao (livenudebigfoot, 14,366 across 7 chapters).

And my skimmy search-fu says that I'm the only one who's written short gen Team Two fics? Huh. Anyway, have a glimpse at my take on them in No Time to Party (1321 words), when The Machine sends them to the least populous county in New York to hunt down a woman who appears to not exist.

How about our dearly departed?

Wait for Me (NiennaTru, 1295 words) gives a glimpse of Jessica before the end.

What Would You Say? (PapayaK, 742) has Harold think back on what Nathan might think of their operations.

And, to leave this category on a high note: In Death We See Clearly (Orockthro, 3789) brings Nathan back and introduces him to the mid-series team dynamic.

Level 1: Sci-Fi and Fantasy

In The Sims 3, writing three Sci-Fi novels unlocks Fantasy. This progression mildly annoys me, since the two are opposite ends of the spectrum, and I think that Sci-Fi (or at least Speculative Fiction) is harder to write than Fantasy. Still, the POI fandom delves in both directions!

Let's start with one piece I know of that weirdly combines elements of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror, and which I kept losing and re-finding so much that it's in my bookmarks in a folder marked "Can Never Find": When in doubt, cross to MachineVille (ElnaK, 5507 words), which establishes a very odd AU that I would love to see explored more. Some people have core natures that can be awoken, and the way it plays with this concept enthralls me.

Now, on to the more genre-specific pieces:

Sci-Fi

Of course, the whole show is Speculative Fiction, but let's delve a bit deeper and look into some AUs:

The Merge Universe series (elbowsinsidethedoor: two works; first is 43,435 words across 24 chapters) has The Machine survive by merging with Harold, bringing him to a new state of consciousness as he becomes aware of the world through The Machine's nanite sensors. Fascinating concept.

Or Harold could be a cybernetic being ("cybrid") to begin with: Machine Language (manic_intent, 8261) has Finch brought in to help Reese and Kara, but he's not human. (Not like this prevents the progression to love and sex, but such is the way of fanfic.)

My offering to this category is a short piece where Harold gets infected with nanites that turn him into an agent of Samaritan: I don't want this body to hurt anyone (879 words), which is, I think, the first fic I ever titled in lowercase. Don't discount it for its size; M_E_Lover called it "one of those rarities that will stay with me for days."

For the flip side, there's an oddly unfinished series by cognomen called This Concept of Mine (three works; 3334 words total), where John is maybe part of The Machine, but the story hints at things rather than outright stating them, and I didn't know what all to make of it. The third piece, Holon, is on my list of podfics to record.

Forwarding The Cause of Science (canadianwheatpirates, 3643) puts Shaw in the world of Portal, which is an unexpectedly apropos match. TRANSCRIPT [REDACTED] (armchairpsychologist, 1187) puts Samaritan inside Shaw's brain, which honestly feels like it should be the start of a dark fic where she takes out the team, but it's just the hint of what could happen, and chilling for the idea.

Symbolic Constant (LithiumDoll, 18078 words across 5 chapters) is a piece I skimmed through, got a bit annoyed with ('cuz I used to be allergic to Original Characters, especially Original Child Characters), got to a certain revelation, went "wait, what the heck did I miss?"… realized that I'd need to read it more carefully, set it in my "read this more carefully" folder, and promptly never had time again. Maybe I'll make time next year.

But! What I do recall of it is a post-apocalyptic tale where Samaritan has taken over and Team Machine is in hiding, and many years have passed… but it's not that simple. And I feel like trying to explain more would spoil things, so: Give it a read!

Tangentially related fix fic: Still Life (MnemonicMadness, 10,506) brings John back via cryogenics.

Let's see, what else? How about a borderline piece? To avoid spilling secrets while under torture, Harold deletes the part of his brain that processes communication: Error: Missing language module (the_ragnarok, 5250).

The other pieces I've taken note of (while compiling a list for this fic) are either crossovers (either way, there is a light on by the_ragnarok) or abandoned (Clockwork and Rocket Man by AKMars). But hey, if you don't mind the idea of a lengthy unfinished fic that goes to some weird and uncomfortable places, well, maybe try Manipulations (53,211 words across 32 chapters), my NaNoWriMo project for 2017, which sees the whole gang stuck in (basically) the Matrix, overseen by a variation of Samaritan. (I said from the start it was too big an idea for me to finish; if anyone wants to build from it, feel free.)

Fantasy

Well, to begin with, I've seen all four main characters as vampires and/or werewolves -- wait, that's the Horror genre, sorry. (Maybe I'll get there eventually, in a different post.)

For more classical Fantasy, well, I've seen Harold as a bird (For the Boids (AKMars, 205 words)), with wings (Backbone (livenudebigfoot, 2004)), and laying eggs (Lay (the_ragnarok, 2583) -- kinky, in case that wasn't clear).

Actually, it shouldn't be that surprising that wings are a recurring motif: Flight Path (st_aurafina, 2327) and The one with wings (Luckythirteen45, 2437) give them to John, and if you'd like some artistic renditions, try POI Wing art (whomii2) and Wings of Interest (look_turtles).

I've seen John as a dragon, in Here Be Dragons (Katica Locke, 11,841) and Dragons of Interest (bjjones; five works, the first of which is 28,391 words) -- and also, apparently, in the more recent Snow After Fire (cognomen, 6630), which I haven't yet read. I've also seen Harold as a fussy dragon in Irregular (manic_intent, 5695), in which John is a fallen angel.

Angels

Angels are hardly uncommon in this fandom: Guardian Angel (EvilSheWhispered, 1236 words) offers a world where everyone has a guardian angel, and it's odd that John lacks one. Divine Intervention (MnemonicMadness, 1917) also has Harold as a guardian angel. John's an angel in Heaven's Light in Dead of Night (photonromance, 2633 across two chapters); sadly, it's unfinished, and while the author's still creating fics, their last POI update was in 2015. The Prophet and His Angel (whomii2, 3785) is, well, exactly what it says in the title, but pretty dang awesome in execution.

There's a piece of pixel art (Meeting of the Hearts (Liebelit)) where Harold's an angel and John's a demon; The Faded and the Fallen (Intrepid_Inkweaver, 7460 across 9 chapters) uses the same dynamic to set up an intriguing AU (sadly abandoned). Astray (st_aurafina, 1031), based on art by MulaSaWala, flips things to offer an angelic Reese and a demonic Finch (though not a particularly dark Finch). Also, a sweet little piece using angel wings as symbolism: For the Sake of an Angel (Intrepid_Inkweaver, 219).

John and Carter are angels in If They Knew You at All (Medie, 755).

The Intercession of St. Michael (bjjones, 24,514) delves into Catholic canon; on the other extreme, The Harold Angel Sings (look_turtles, 11,323 across 8 chapters) presents an oddly earthly Heavenly landscape (I haven't read either, but they both look interesting in different ways).

Root's an angel in Death and All His Friends (ANONYMOUS aka dahyunsana, 3962 words across 2 chapters); she's the Angel of Death in angels choking on their halos (amiphobic, 1533). Both were left unfinished back in 2015 (is it just me, or did a lot of people fall out of the fandom during 2015?).

Lastly, Marconi's a fallen angel in through heaven and hell (kitanthony, 5419 words across 4 chapters); Elias is a demonic crime lord who takes him under his wing.

Back to Non-Angel Fantasy

Shapeshifting seems to be a common theme, although that's mostly werewolves. But I've seen John as a jaguar (Feline of the Species (shadowolfhunter, 697 words)), and I've also spotted a NSFW comic where he's a panther (not gonna hunt that down right now, but it exists). Abandoned (Anchanee, a NaNoWriMo project that clocks in at 53,976 words across 10 chapters) has the government use shapeshifters as agents (and its summary feels a bit like Dangerous If Unbound). I also found a (literally) abandoned piece called Beast Wars (ZuviosGemini, 21,878 words across 7 chapters), a monster AU with some sort of pet-fighting culture.

Katica Locke followed a fascinating plot bunny of John as a Genie, in Be Careful What You Wish For (17,285 words across 8 chapters). Sadly abandoned, and there's something odd about the way Finch reacts to that kind of power (even after he's realized that it's real), but I would love to see more variations on this concept.

As another oddity: True North (livenudebigfoot, 4680) has Fusco inherit a compass that always points where he ought to go.

Bonus: Comics

If your Sim has skill with painting or street art, they can make comics. Here's a few of the POI comics I've come across, plus some general fan art that I found interesting:

First, did you realize that there's an official comic for POI, of key scenes illustrated by DC Entertainment?

Then we've got a nice whumpy Sacrifice (Sheilacasmam, who's also done some nice individual pieces: Stay with Me, Harold Finch, and Good Night, Finch, just for starters).

To see John playing with kids, try Upgrading your skillset (every day) (merionees, who gives us plenty of other sketches as well: Resting (I-II), Okay (!?...), and Hear the Leaves Applaud the Wind).

Lisagarland pushed outside her comfort zone to create some photo-manip comics, along with more of her expressive sketches, in July___ヽ(´▽｀)/ (I had to copy that, as I've no idea how to type it!).

Here's a Shoot comic by Carenpenthy: Innuendo Makes Things Work

Here's a short comic with Nathan, outside of AO3: The Four Seasons

Lastly, let's have some art that's not comics:

Some South Park versions of the characters by managerie: Managerie's Fanart

Person of Interest quote paints by omens (an interesting style).

And some by schrootdinger: PoI Redraws 1 and their Personal Art Challenge.

So there's my first set of Fic Recs based on the Sims 3 Writer path! I hope to create a second one soon; we'll see how well my intentions pay off!