99.607% Match Compatibility by ionizable (PG-13)
Title: 99.607% Match Compatibility
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw
Categories/Genres: Soulmates, Future Fic, Alternate Universe, Romance, Established Relationship, Drama, Angst
Length: Medium (12944 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: ionizable
Author Website: ionizable
Summary:
She doesn’t wait for Root to reply, doesn’t let Root get in a word edgewise. “Because it told you that you and Hanna are supposed to end up together, but it told me that you and I are supposed to end up together. You were my so-called soulmate, okay? It spit your name out at me.”
The Machine is just casually being a matchmaker on the downlow again, but nothing ever really comes easily, does it?
(Soulmate trope meets what-if-the-Machine-has-a-virtual-baby-and-it's-OKCupid)
Review:
The grand theme of Soulmate fics is that there's something inherently indefinable about love. That two people match at every point, on every level, two halves of a whole that was broken apart by a frightened deity. They're connected, through marks or what have you, that have no scientific explanation beyond 'idk, magic?'.
99.607% Match Compatibility is a soulmate fic that is not about soulmates. ionizable implements a soulmate matching system that is not based in magic, but an “algorithm that calculates relationship compatibility,” according to Finch, compiled by The Machine and put into use by first Shaw, then Root, as their individual curiosities overpower their better judgment. The results are... complex.
I really admire ionizable for the way they tackle the age-old fandom trope of 'young love will last forever' that's so incredibly prevalent in basically any fandom where any of the main characters are under 20. I understand it, of course. Writing out a couple's entire lifetime is incredibly tedious, so there has to be an end point somewhere, with the couple in question presumably living out their 'happily ever after'. But the moment we pull our heads out of fandom, the idea that a teenage couple can live out the rest of their adult lives in romantic bliss becomes anathema. People grow, people change. So too do relationships and what partners value in each other. Young adults marry in the rosy blush of love and divorce days, months, years later for innumerably myriad reasons. That ionizable acknowledges this reality within the fic makes Root's feelings for Shaw so much richer and recognizable than two people commanded by destiny to be together because, idk, magic.
99.607% Match Compatibility
Fandom: Person of Interest
Pairing: Root/Sameen Shaw
Categories/Genres: Soulmates, Future Fic, Alternate Universe, Romance, Established Relationship, Drama, Angst
Length: Medium (12944 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: ionizable
Author Website: ionizable
Summary:
She doesn’t wait for Root to reply, doesn’t let Root get in a word edgewise. “Because it told you that you and Hanna are supposed to end up together, but it told me that you and I are supposed to end up together. You were my so-called soulmate, okay? It spit your name out at me.”
The Machine is just casually being a matchmaker on the downlow again, but nothing ever really comes easily, does it?
(Soulmate trope meets what-if-the-Machine-has-a-virtual-baby-and-it's-OKCupid)
Review:
The grand theme of Soulmate fics is that there's something inherently indefinable about love. That two people match at every point, on every level, two halves of a whole that was broken apart by a frightened deity. They're connected, through marks or what have you, that have no scientific explanation beyond 'idk, magic?'.
99.607% Match Compatibility is a soulmate fic that is not about soulmates. ionizable implements a soulmate matching system that is not based in magic, but an “algorithm that calculates relationship compatibility,” according to Finch, compiled by The Machine and put into use by first Shaw, then Root, as their individual curiosities overpower their better judgment. The results are... complex.
I really admire ionizable for the way they tackle the age-old fandom trope of 'young love will last forever' that's so incredibly prevalent in basically any fandom where any of the main characters are under 20. I understand it, of course. Writing out a couple's entire lifetime is incredibly tedious, so there has to be an end point somewhere, with the couple in question presumably living out their 'happily ever after'. But the moment we pull our heads out of fandom, the idea that a teenage couple can live out the rest of their adult lives in romantic bliss becomes anathema. People grow, people change. So too do relationships and what partners value in each other. Young adults marry in the rosy blush of love and divorce days, months, years later for innumerably myriad reasons. That ionizable acknowledges this reality within the fic makes Root's feelings for Shaw so much richer and recognizable than two people commanded by destiny to be together because, idk, magic.
99.607% Match Compatibility