SPN: Android AUs ficrecs!🤖📚
This list has less fic than my normal minimum for my ‘beloved tropes’ rec posts but bc I’m so in love with The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells right now, I felt like submitting it 😁🤖💛 My fic sweet spots for this trope: sam&dean-centric, human affection for sentient robot rocking the robot’s world. Please note: if you’re into Castiel, there are tons of great Cas-centric android AUs (for great reason; Cas’s character offers a sense of otherness that can easily translate to androids). My recs are sam&dean-centric tho ✧ My fic recs are updated regularly on DW and quarterly on Tumblr. Link to the possibly updated reclist on DW here ✧ My entire catalogue of fic recs on tumblr here ✧ This post was last updated 1/21/2022 ✧ For epubs of rec’d fanfic from LJ or DW, click to this post.
✧Category: Gen✧ Do Winchesters Dream of Electric Impalas? by kellifer_fic (LJ). Rated PG, Gen, 10k words. Summary: Dean was made to be a Big Brother. kellifer-fic.livejournal.com/234689.html my thoughts: This fic in particular was my ‘gateway’ fic into android AUs and I was completely inspired/fascinated. Dean is a Big Brother android model and it is super compelling, heartwrenching, and brolovingly sweet to boot.
✧Category: J2✧ Choices by hunters_retreat (AO3). Rated NC-17. Jensen/Jared, 25k. Summary: Jensen Ackles was a man on the run. Sure, his name was revered by the Sentient Android Rights Movement, but he was just another face in a sea of J-N_S56s. He had won his freedom in a court of law, but his previous Mistress and Master cared little for the law. Jensen had been on the run for almost ten years and he’d stayed free because he was smart and kept to himself. When Jensen met Jared, he tossed him out the door as soon as he could. Jared wasn’t pushed away so easily though. Jared came back but unfortunately, so did Jensen’s former mistress. On the run with Jared at his side, Jensen struggles with his emotions, and the fear that his programming might be taking over. Jared is far more tempting than anything Jensen has ever faced. How can he keep them both safe when he’s fighting with himself while on the run from the people who want to put him back in a gilded cage? ao3.org/works/5989495 my thoughts: I’m normally all about Jared or Sam whump but I can’t get enough of android AUs and this fic was fantastic. I loved the conceptual work hunters_retreat did here with the psychology of ‘battling’ one’s programming once Jensen achieved sentience. I also enjoyed how caring, sympathetic, supportive Jared’s character was portrayed: if he’s not the one getting whumped, at least he’s portrayed as a well-meaning, gentle soul. This fic’s also featured in my slavefic recs ✧Category: Sam/Dean✧ Do Androids Dream? by cherie_morte. NC-17, Dean/Sam, 16k. Summary: AU: Sam has been training to be a blade runner most of his life, ever since a group of rogue replicants killed his mother in an attempt to kidnap him as a baby. Now he's one of the top officers in the L.A. Police Department's Blade Running Unit, with a reputation for being ruthless when retiring rebellious androids. Problem is: Sam's never been as comfortable killing replicants as he pretends to be; growing up with Dean as his primary caretaker and a valued member of the family has left Sam with a weak spot for androids that he knows might get him killed one day. Knowing that doesn't stop Sam from loving Dean, or from wishing his replicant was as human as he acts. Now he's on the trail of Azazel, the yellow-eyed android responsible for ruining his life, but the closer he gets to retiring Azazel and putting an end to his days as a blade runner, the more he learns that there might be no turning back for him and Dean. (Loosely based on Blade Runner) ao3.org/works/8280277 my thoughts: I saw Blade Runner back in high school so it had been awhile, and even in high school I’m not sure I really followed it that well. But after reading Kellifer’s fic I was on an android binge and found this amazing fic by cherie_morte, an author I really appreciate for their imagination (which speaks for itself when you go through their fic summaries on AO3) and absolutely competent execution of their story premises. So this one didn’t disappoint at all, and I loved that it was Sam-centric, plotty, and featured both Sam and Dean caring so much for one another. This fic’s also in my movie fusions reclist. ✧Category: Worth Mentioning✧ OK I really want to recommend my fic Soul Slip (rated PG, Gen, 7k, ao3.org/works/20617070) but it doesn’t really have a great payoff. It’s sweet, and kind of a character sketch on how Dean would be without Sam (but then getting robot!Sam 😉). It’s kind of a variation on kellifer’s premise but I take it my own way (or at least I would if I kept writing the friggin thing; it’s a bit of a WIP 🙁). A slightly similar android!Sam AU that’s also unfinished is Mind and Iron by phattrash (rated PG-13, Sam/Dean, 3k, fanfiction.net/s/10286914). If nothing else, try reading these to get inspired you can write something as good or better than!