Worlds Enough and Time

"You mention that shaw has probably mentally aged due to the simulations - I'd love to hear your thoughts on how she handles that/how it affects her, if you have any?" for canadianwheatpirates

This is a really awesome question!

I can only approach this from a storytelling perspective and I don’t know if this is something that anything would change with Shaw outwardly. I think to everyone else, she’s Shaw but internally there might be a disconnect to what she feels like her age is and what her physical age is, if that makes sense? Like someone on a constant jet lag, except its a time lag.

It would be interesting in the context of how Shaw would interact with the Machine. It would be interesting on both sides IMO since I think both TM and Shaw are used to listening, and this time since TM took it upon herself to take on Root’s personality, she would be speaking more, idle musings and connections.

If you’ll permit a bit of straying off the question, I think that Shaw’s experiences in a simulation has in a way changes the way she thinks— I mean, POI is Modern Day Sci Fi, so why not add a little more sci-fi into it? What if now, Shaw’s thought processes can be almost computer like?

I keep thinking of the Farscape fanfic, In the Company of Ghosts by KodiakkeMax where in the fantastic AU world, where Aeryn Sun is changed in a completely different way that she can do what she calls ‘dual track’ thinking:

Dual track mode, as she called it. There were more than two tracks, but the main flows seemed to be set in two different paths, and the rest of them were minor thoughts only, not the great rushing strands of consciousness.

Track One: It hadn't been fear.

Thoughts flowed like water, twisting like a rope through her consciousness. Not fear. She didn't understand it, but she didn't have to, at the moment. She merely had to remember, so she could study it later.

For now, she still had tasking.

Track Two: Find the lab. The Scarran on the ground had been neutralized. But what had he been doing here? What had the scoutship come to collect?

Sidetrack: He had fought the Scarran, even when cornered. She could have handled it, but he had taken his destiny into his own hands. She expected no less.

Focus. Find the lab now, remove all evidence. Her eyes tracked as she ghosted through the corridors, searching for movement. Darwa would be setting down at the second entrance and moving to intercept. Their pincer tactics would flush out most of the individuals who had contacted the Peacekeeper party.

She was not surprised when her comms beeped. "Captain Sun?”

I don’t think Shaw would go as far as that, but I think it does give her a different perspective and she can probably track or get the gist of how an ASI thinks based on her 7000 plus experience with Samaritan trying to change her mind and trick her.

I really wish we could explore that more, the fallout or, as Root would have called it, a bonus feature and not a bug, a new skill Shaw develops. Shaw already showed she has the capacity to think picture, now she can add in the details as well.

Honestly, why can’t fanfic just write themselves, I’d love to read a story about that right now!

Shaw has one of the most interesting and coherent arcs in season 5 and it’s always sad that there was no time to really follow through on that.

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For seekingoutfriday

I think in a way, there are a lot of things about Shaw that is constant in whatever 'verse she's in.

John and Root were similar in a lot of ways because their drive and purpose are brought about by external influences, for Shaw her drive and purpose is self-directed.

In my opinion, post-season 5 Shaw would have continued to make sure that any surviving Samaritan cell would be eradicated, she would do that with or without the Machine.

I would like to think she would go back to the Johannesburg prison and help free Samuel and his friends because she owes him and that building needs to be burned to the ground.

Along the way, I would also like to think that she'd save Control much to Control's chagrin and grudging respect. Agent Shaw was always her best operator.

If the Machine hadn't returned I don't think Shaw would work the Numbers of the Week, at least not the way she would with the help of the Machine. She'd help people who needed help when comes across them, or maybe Burn Notice style, with the people she helped before telling them about the mysterious woman with a dog who saved them.

She would continue what she did best and fighting the good fight because that's who she was, a straight arrow.

For potcpoi

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I wonder if Shaw ever looks back at her career and how different her life was from how she pictured it.

I think if Relevance hadn't happened Shaw would be perfectly fine doing her job and working for Hersh and Control (as evidenced by the AU episode). She didn't have a problem with their methods nor their management style until they made it into a problem.

I actually think she preferred Hersh's or Control's style over Harold's soft touch approach to action but one thing she does prefer with Harold is, that with Harold she's sure even if they disagree there won't be a bullet with her name on it.

For potcpoi

"You have a brilliant mind, Sameen, and you're very gifted but you'll never be a doctor."

As a doctor, Sameen Shaw was exceptional.

I think one of the things fanon forgets about Shaw is how smart Shaw is, she pretends to be a 'grunt' but she isn't. She loves to tease the whole team about being nerds but she's as much as a nerd as anyone in the team. Her skill set is broad and varied but one thing we have canonical proof of is Shaw was a brilliant doctor, more than brilliant she was gifted.

You don't just say that to anyone.

Unfortunately, her brusque bedside manner didn't play well with the patients and with time I sort of understood why Shaw was reprimanded but at the same time, I look at other popular male doctors who are as or worse than Shaw.

If Shaw did her residency in Seattle Grace I think she'd fit with Cristina Yang, and I'm wondering now if Shaw had a Bailey as a mentor would things have gone differently for Shaw because I think Shaw responds well to authority figures who pushed her to be better but also rein her in when she needs to be reined in.

If things had continued I think Shaw would do well as a surgeon maybe, even a neurosurgeon or maybe she'd be a brilliant trauma surgeon because of how well she can operate under pressure. The higher the stakes, the better Shaw shines.

But I wonder if the lifestyle would suit her down the road, we know that Shaw also likes work that gives her a bit of adrenaline, maybe in her off days (when she has them) she'd be the type to do extreme sports.

If she did join the navy so the Navy will pay for her medical school maybe she'd be deployed overseas right in the thick of the action.

Unfortunately, Shaw didn't have a mentor who could have guided her properly and just when her star was rising, she was booted out of the medical program and her life changed forever.