RatCreature's Journal

...that just can't work for the "soulmate identified by first words on skin" thing. A Tumblr post came across my dash where somebody wondered why people in those worlds wouldn't just have settled on a custom of unique greeting phrases, and some reblogs wonder about maybe unique naming customs and saying those, then some ask "but what about sign language" etc.

And sure, logical questions all, but seriously considering how cultures might have coped with some (cosmic? divine?) power manifesting writing to identify a soulmate for humans then just can't ignore that most cultures through most of human history have been oral cultures, and writing only arose independently very few times, with some disputes which were really independent or maybe got the idea from the Sumerians after all. So you have afaik Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt (maybe inspired by Sumer, maybe not), Ancient China, Ancient India (could be either independent or the idea diffused), Mesoamerica and Peru, and maybe the people on the Easter Islands. So presumably for those people the soulmate writing showed up as they developed writing in their own cultures and they developed their ideas and customs about it more or less organically from there.

But for everybody else the soulmate mark would just be part of some colonialist trauma from when they first encountered writing humans, that then later got incorporated, maybe? And it would have probably have made racism even worse. Like maybe it's not so bad in the present day if your people were somewhere writing spread by trade or it was long ago (like Roman roads or such), but for a lot of people it would be far more recent. Would people at some point have the writing of their invaders appear on the skin of their children?? And in a language or rendering that wasn't their own? And the people with writing would inevitably think that when their marks showed up on the skin of the subjugated people was divine proof of their cultures superiority, making colonialism even more of a horror than it is in actual history.

Like, in that crack treated seriously AU many indigenous people would probably still loathe that they now have these sentences on their skin, where for tens of thousands of years their cultures were doing just fine, then some assholes with writing arrived from elsewhere, and now they get born with their colonizers scripts on them.

If you want to worldbuild that crack premise more into how cultures would be different with it, there is no way to just do naming or weird greetings without either becoming very heavy and complicated very fast or being inadvertently much more dodgy than just ignoring any likely cultural impact of soulmate sentences on skin entirely.

...because I really feel that a Captain America/Calvin & Hobbes fusion should exist, with of course little Steve as Calvin (and his long suffering single mom Sarah), who instead of Hobbes has a stuffed bear called Bucky, and dreams up adventures where he is Captain America (rather than Spaceman Spiff) and fights the Red Skull as one of the disgusting monsters. Though Bucky!Bear would of course be the trusted, if exasperated, sidekick in those adventures, unlike Hobbes, who iirc usually wasn't featured in the Spaceman Spiff strips.

I forgot to rec one XMFC AU yesterday:

Engine of Creation series, by Regann. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP (ca. 77,000 words so far in currently two completed stories)
This is a space travel AU that mixes XMFC with elements from Andromeda, plus some alpha-omega dynamics. I'm really enjoying the action-adventure and team here, and Moira as ship AI is great.

And now to the non-XMFC AU recs:

due South

Sheepskin, by theleaveswant. Het, Diefenbaker/Francesca. (ca. 7,400 words)
This has a really cool premise, i.e. that Diefenbaker is a lycanthrope who is a human once a month, and a wolf the rest of the time.

Eagle of the Ninth

Dealing with the Consequences, by nemo_r. Slash, Marcus/Esca, Marcus/Esca/Seal Prince. (ca. 61,160 words)
In this AU Marcus and Esca don't kill the Seal Prince, but capture him.

Merlin

Loaded March, by Footloose. Slash, Merlin/Arthur. (ca. 490,420 words; the series is a WIP, the individual stories are complete)
This is a modern AU in which they are soldiers, but with magic still existing. I actually haven't gotten around to reading the last novel-length part, but I liked the worldbuilding and the action-adventure iirc overall.

Let Us Dare, by kianspo. Slash, Merlin/Arthur. (ca. 29,500 words)
In this AU Uther died instead of Ygraine when Arthur was born. I enjoyed how canon adventures where mixed into this different Camelot.

SGA

Deprivation, by mikes_grrl. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 9,300 words)
This is a Conversion AU where John doesn't recover completely. As everyone knows I have a really soft spot for Bug!John, and this is a good one of the genre, with nice alien details.

Suits

The New Deal, by Closer. Gen. (ca. 33,500 words)
In this AU Harvey and Mike meet earlier than in canon. Harvey is still a student and Mike a teenage runaway.

Fandom: Harry Potter/X-Men: First Class
Characters/Pairings: Werewolf!Erik, Rat-Animagus!Charles
Media used: indian ink and acrylics on paper (original is ca. 24x32cm)
Rating/warnings: Teen? (for naked werewolf)
Notes/comments: This is the gift I made for etirabys for the secret_mutant exchange on LJ. The prompt I filled was "Harry Potter AU. Erik is a werewolf and Charles becomes an Animagus to help him out."

Please do not distribute my art without my permission, i.e. do not upload my art to other sites, services, archives, or wikis. That includes uploading the images themselves to your own Tumblr, even with credit. A high resolution version of this art without the URL watermarking is available on request for private, non-commercial uses.

Preview:
( the image and a high resolution detail are behind the cut )

Fix-Its

The Shadow of the Moon Won't Do, by brilligspoons. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 1,200 words)
This is a straightforward alternative to the beach scene, but a lovely example of this genre.

Possible Worlds, by trailingoff. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 12,000 words)
This is a fix-it via a mutant-ex-machina do-over, or rather it takes even more than one try, and I like that they have to work to make things right.

A Family Portrait In Progress, by Xris. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 47,700 words)
This is not so much a direct fix-it as a later reconciliation, in which Charles ended up raising Lorna initially without knowing she's Erik's daughter. It's a series with two finished stories so far.

Enigma, by Yahtzee. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 11,100 words)
Erik goes back in time, but the turning point here is not Cuba but he goes back to before his mother died, becomes a WWII mutant hero, "Enigma", and changes his life as well as history of human-mutant relations.

Undone, by Yahtzee. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 6,600 words)
Another time travel scenario. Here Charles consciousness from post-X3 goes back to his younger self just after Shaw's attack on the CIA.

other AUs

your head caught in a waking dream, by addandsubstract. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 23,100 words)
One that I recced as WIP on the kink meme that has been finished now for a while, so in case you haven't read it yet I thought I'd link again: The scenario here is that Charles' parents had him committed to a mental hospital, which did not help much with his telepathy. Eventually Raven (whom he met like in canon) manages to break him out with Erik's help, and they hunt for Shaw.

Peregrine, by aeshna_uk. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 6,700 words)
This is wingfic, with a winged Erik. This has lovely detail, and I liked that Erik still has his regular powers too.

Night Fishing at the Seine, by furius. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP
Charles and Erik meet in Paris before the events of XMFC. I'm enjoying the atmosphere of this, and so far am intrigued by the plot.

Tessellation, by nekosmuse. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 116,700 words)
In this AU both Erik and Charles are mutant rights activists. Erik is based in Genosha, and more militant than Charles, but he sort of has a crush on Charles whose writings inspired him. They meet at an event and things between them proceed from there, along with a good action-adventure plot.

MCIS: First Case, by Pookaseraph. Gen. (ca. 25,000 words)
This a modern AU, a fusion with NCIS I suppose, which I don't know, but I read it as just an government mutant agents AU. Erik is an agent, Moira his boss, and she partners Charles with him. The author says it's the first in a series that will be Charles/Erik, but this first is gen.

Taken By His Majesty, by Pookaseraph. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 27,500 words)
Erik is a Roman legionnaire taken captive in Britain by the Celtic leader, Charles.

The Weight of Water, by pprfaith. Het and slash, Charles/Raven, Charles/Raven/Erik. (ca. 51,000 words)
This isn't too far from canon in the setup, except that Charles forms telepathic bonds, and the consequences of that are really well explored here, not just as romance ploy, but also the scary implications, both of Charles being powerful and subtle effects which accumulate and change all three of them.

Limited Release, rageprufrock. Slash, Charles/Erik, Hank/Alex. (ca. 58,000 words)
Another one I've recced before, but now it's finished finished and posted on the AO3, so it's worth pointing out again. It's a loose fusion with White Collar in which Erik is a mutant in the FBI and Alex is a mutant criminal, released to help him hunt for Shaw. It doesn't try to match up with the White Collar scenario completely, but has good worldbuilding and fun plot.

Imaginary Life Journey, by renata_kedavra. Gen, with implied Erik/Raven, Charles/Erik. (ca. 9,000 words)
Two scenarios in which Erik and Raven, and Erik and Charles respectively, try to recruit Kurt Wagner. This just has a lovely atmosphere (and the bits in French and German actually add to that and work), and is a good character study contrasting Kurt and Erik.

Mr. Xavier's Neighborhood, by SharpestScalpel. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP
This is a series of snippets is adorable. Erik is raising Pietro and Wanda and has a crush on Mr. Xavier who hosts a mutant-tolerance children's show.

New Beautiful Things Come, by singlecrow. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 17,600 words)
This is a modern AU with mutants being public in which Erik has a kosher bakery. It wasn't a setup I expected to get into, but the atmosphere and worldbuilding works, and it's a happy making story.

Linger by waldorph. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 29,700 words)
This is also a modern AU with mutants being public, in which Erik hears Charles in the apartment he rents, like a ghost haunting it. I liked the ensemble plot in this.

I have read a lot of X-Men: First Class fanfic recently, and thought I'd share some recs outside of my regular AU and crossover recs (though there are still going to be AU recs here):

Fix-its

never too late to be who you might have been, by acetamide. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 19,600 words)
This is a fix-it via time travel, i.e. Charles and Erik from shortly before Cuba are transported into the future to the time X2, see how things turn out between them and then do better.

Try, Try Again by and_backagain. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 5,680 words)
A Groundhog Day AU, in which Erik eventually manages to fix the outcome.

Faults for Fixing, by beren. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 25,500 words)
In this Charles makes contact with a mutant with precognition via Cerebro and sees the possible canon future, and prevents it from coming true.

Not Half As Blinding, by keire_ke. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 29,500 words)
In this AU Charles dies a comic book death from which he gets better eventually. But meanwhile Erik doesn't leave the others.

Puzzle Pieces, by lilacsigil. Gen. (ca. 15,000 words)
Here Darwin's death was of the comic book death variety, and Magneto & Co. realize that he can be put together again. Things go wrong and it's up to Mystique to organize a rescue, and to cooperate with Charles.

Brighter Path, by SisterMu. Slash and implied het, Charles/Erik, Erik/Raven. WIP
I had a bit of trouble getting into it, because the first chapter is a sex scene that didn't interest me much on its own merits. Though it made more sense to be there later on. In this AU Erik stays after Cuba, and they work out their ideological differences not through competing mutant teams but in strategy discussions while dealing with the practical concerns of the aftermath together, i.e. getting Charles care, dealing with the CIA and so on. I also enjoyed this take on Moira and the original character that appears.

Synthesis (Scenes from an AU), by starlady. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 15,200 words)
The author claims this is not a fix-it for the ending, but it definitely is a reality where Charles and Erik are not on opposite sides in the future, and Erik stays rather than leaving, without any radical premise shifts (like the AUs below). So that counts as fixed in my book.

other AUs

Remedial Dragon Training 030, by Anon. WIP
I don't know the How to Train Your Dragon movie with which this is a fusion, but Dragon!Erik is quite awesome.

your head caught in a waking dream, by Anon. Slash, Charles/Erik. WIP
The scenario here is that Charles' parents had him committed to a mental hospital, which did not help much with his telepathy. Eventually Raven (whom he met like in canon) manages to break him out with Erik's help. This is great h/c and I'm really enjoying how much damage was done to Charles and how he's slowly healing, while hunting for Shaw with Erik and Raven and killing people with his brain.

Hellfire AU, by Cesare and helens78. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 54,700 words so far in three finished stories, but the series is still a WIP)
This is a modern day period dystopia in which mutants are enslaved, but Charles and his group are part of a mutant resistance.

Skin Deep by manic_intent. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 29,400 words)
A werewolf AU. It startled me a bit that Charles shifts into a female wolf despite being a male human, but it worked quite well, and I liked the worldbuilding.

Center of Balance, by soundslikej. Gen. (ca. 1,600 words)
This is a five things story with the theme "five mutants Charles Xavier never met at age 12, and one he did" and the snippets are a great mix from sweet to creepy.

Dead Man's Paradise, by Yahtzee. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 24,000 words)
The setup is inspired by some anime series I don't know. Basically mutants who are imprisoned are used in gladiator fights for entertainment purposes, and one of those places is run by Shaw. Erik ended up there because he killed a Nazi, Charles got himself imprisoned looking for Raven. I liked that it started rather dark, but then ended more hopeful. I also liked that the dehumanizing setup twists people (sort of a Stanford prison experiment) but that Charles showing solidarity changes things for the better, so it's not completely bleak for all the dystopia.

other

Anthem for Doomed Youth, by Fahye. Slash and het, Charles/Erik, Erik/Raven. (ca. 12,800 words)
We see events of the movie from Raven's POV.

The Emperor's New Clothes, by ignipes. Gen. (ca. 3,100 words)
There are few humor stories that literally make me LOL, but this was one of them. It explores the consequences of Magneto's clothing choices.

The Fortress, by kindkit. Gen, Erik, Raven. (ca. 1,250 words)
As the long list of fix-its above shows, going with canon is a slightly tough sell for me in this fandom. That said, this is a great character study of Erik and Raven in immediate the aftermath.

A Dash of Truth Spread Thinly, by Labingi. Het and implied slash, Erik/Raven, Charles/Erik. (ca. 5,700 words)
This is a great character study of Raven post-X2 that incorporates XMFC canon.

Lastly, unfrosted_cake is reccing XMFC fanart on fanart_recs this month and has been posting several recs already, so if you like pretty X-Men pictures you ought to check that out. (I'm all gleeful at the high frequency of getting X-Men art links -- meanwhile I'm reccing Merlin fanart there this month at a more sedate pace, with two recs so far.)

It's been months since my last AU recs update, so quite a number have accumulated.

Highlander

Shades and Echoes, by auberus. Slash, Duncan/Methos. WIP
I liked the premise here that Duncan and Methos meet earlier in Methos' time in the Watchers. Not least because I like Methos & Watchers stories, and also there just aren't enough stories with Don Salzer still alive. Unfortunately this may have been abandoned because the last update was in 2009. OTOH the interval between chapter 11 and 12 was almost a year, and I've seen longer hiatuses before. Still, not the most likely candidate to be finished soon.

And Then Some, by Loch Ness. Slash and het, Duncan/Methos, Duncan/Amanda, Methos/OFC, Methos/OMC. (ca. 138,000 words)
In this AU Methos and Duncan have their first encounter during WWII.

Lord of the Rings

A Bit of Rope, by Aiwendiel. Gen. WIP (ca. 355,000 words so far)
In this AU Gandalf doesn't fall in Moria, and thsi leads the Fellowship eventually down a darker part. This surprised me a bit at first from a divergence that seems is not something going worse, yet the events are plausible and gripping.

Bond of Honor, by Meri. Slash, Éomer/Haldir. (ca. 25,500 words)
Considering that I have almost no interest in either Éomer nor Haldir I was a bit surprised that the story drew me in. But I do like the "accidental bond" trope, which these two have to cope with here as a side effect of a healing, especially when it comes with a culture clash as it does here.

Old Man Willow, by Nath. Gen. (ca. 1,200 words)
This is a short but creepy and surprisingly plausible scenario of what might have happened if Old Man Willow had been seduced by the One Ring and trapped the hobbits to get it. I really enjoyed the unusual perspective.

The Long Road Home, by Scribblesinink. Het, Boromir/OFC. (ca. 95,500 words)
This is one of the many Boromir-survives AUs, but a good one. I liked it as post Ringwar story dealing with the aftermath, and the original characters are engaging, but don't detract from the main interest in Boromir, Faramir and Aragorn.

Sanctuary

The Road Not Taken, by Penknife. Het and slash, James/John/Helen, Helen/Nikola. (ca. 4,000 words)
This has the cool premise that the energy creature possession goes differently, and John Druitt doesn't become Jack the Ripper.

Sherlock

The Republic of Heaven, by blind_author. Slash, Sherlock/John. WIP
This is meshes His Dark Materials with Sherlock, and incorporates a bit more of the HDM worldbuilding than just dæmons.

Gone Is My Past, by cyerus. Gen, John Watson, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes. (ca. 8,000 words)
In this story John used to be a bomb detection dog who was turned into a human. I was recced this when I asked on kink-finders for stories featuring forced human-animal-hybridisation, and though this is rather the reverse, it pushed the the same kink of non-consensual body modification angst and h/c for me. And of course dog!John pushes certain D/s buttons too.

Show Me How to Stop Running, by etothepii. Slash, Sherlock/John. (ca. 12,400 words)
As anyone following my recs knows, I love werewolf AUs. In this John gets bitten by a werewolf in Afghanistan and comes back to London where he meets werewolf!Sherlock.

You Call Me Like the Moon, by etothepii. Gen, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes. (ca. 3,000 words)
Another werewolf!John AU by the same author as the one above but a different scenario, in that John was a werewolf before Afghanistan and Sherlock isn't, and worldbuilding for the lycanthropy is different too.

Star Trek Reboot

This Place at the Crossroads, by alpha_hydra. Slash and het, Kirk/Spock, Scotty/Uhura. (ca. 33,600 words)
I loved the worldbuilding and AU scenario of this AU. The premise here is that humans weren't among the founders of the Federation, and Earth's warp capability delayed compared to canon, but that Starfleet eventually sends observers, because they are close and Earth is in a contested (with non-Federation) region.

Extra-curricular Activities and its sequel Academic Matters, by Amanda Warrington. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (both ca. 15,500 words)
In this AU Kirk and Spock meet and become a couple earlier at the Academy, and the sequel then explores how his academic hearing and the Nero events would play out.

Aurora, by kianspo. Pre-slash, Kirk/Spock. WIP
A "Spock is raised on Earth with Kirk" AU, which is a trope I love, and so far this is done well. Unfortunately it hasn't been updated recently.

Streetlight People, by ladyblahblah. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (ca. 54,400 words)
This has a great mix of angst and slowly developing friendship and romance. And I liked that this uses the prostitution trope without plodding the well worn "Pretty Woman" rescue/redemption path, even though Kirk eventually quits the (legal) sex work.

Supernatural

House of Burden, by Maygin. Gen. (ca. 76,600 words)
In this AU the fire never happened, and only Sam finds out about the supernatural because of his visions.

When the Badger Grows Horns, by San Antonio Rose. Gen. (ca. 25,800 words)
The premise of this AU is "what if John Winchester was Diné?" and what made this most interesting for me was to see Sam and Dean with more extended family to fall back on and fewer rifts between them.

White Collar

Always Starts the Same, with a Boy and a Girl, by lightgetsin. Slash and het, Neal/Peter/Elizabeth. (ca. 21,500 words)
In this AU Elizabeth met Neal first rather than Peter, and things turn out differently for them. This quite charming and had a nice symmetry to canon without being too contrived.

X-Men: First Class

Limited Release, by Anon. Slash, Charles/Erik, Alex/Hank. WIP
This is a fusion with White Collar in which Erik is a mutant in the FBI and Alex is a mutant criminal, released to help him hunt for Shaw. It doesn't try to match up with the White Collar scenario completely, because it is very much about mutants rather than con artists, but the world building is great.

Any Measure of Peace, by manic_intent. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 19,400 words)
The beach scene at the end goes differently in that the Americans and Soviets do not try to blow up the mutants. I enjoyed how it introduced Fury and Weapon X here as government factions into the plot, and how Charles injury happened later on.

Time to Grow, by zarah5. Slash, Charles/Erik. (ca. 21,000 words)
This is another fix-it for the ending of the XMFC movie, in that Erik sends Azazel back to evacuate Charles to a hospital which leads to a better outcome of the injury and eventually also gives more opportunity for reconciliation between Charles and Erik. And I really enjoyed the latter aspect of the fix-it, and how they mend ideological fences, but I'm somewhat ambiguous that it also erased Charles disability at the same time.

Avatar the Last Airbender

Enslaved by sharkflip. Het, Katara/Zuko. WIP (ca. 98,000 words so far)
In this AU Zuko is captured by the Water Tribe and adapts. It's still a WIP and I'm enjoying the worldbuilding with the Water Tribe, though I'd really like to find out more about when and how the war went differently in the past on the larger scale. Still, it's very enjoyable.

Merlin

The Peasant King, by a8c_sock. Slash and some het, Merlin/Arthur, Balinor/Hunith. (ca. 37,000 words)
This rec comes with the caveat that the story misses the final editing polish (I'm not assuming this merely because of the remaining typos, but because some beta notes in brackets are still in the posted version), so you need a certain level of tolerance for this. However the premise is quite cool in that Ygraine survives rather than Uther, and flees with her infant son to protect him from the ensuing chaos. Arthur grows up with Merlin and Will, and eventually he tries to win back his throne.

The Young Dragonlord, by Eldee. Gen, with some background Balinor/Hunith and Uther/Ygraine. (ca. 58,000 words)
In this AU Balinor stuck around to raise Merlin. I enjoyed both the background story and how this changed the present.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc ('After this, therefore because of this') , by hitome_bore. Slash, Merlin/Arthur. (ca. 95,000 words)
This mixes Merlin with The Sword in the Stone, that is Arthur finally finding out about Merlin's magic has gone horribly wrong, so Merlin decides to time travel and befriend a younger Arthur as his teacher.

Arcane Asylum, by new_kate. Slash, Merlin/Arthur, Merlin/Edwin. (ca. 126,000 words)
I can only rarely get into Modern AUs in Merlin, but this one has great worldbuilding. It still has magic and prophecy and all the fun stuff, and both characters and certain plot elements form the series were transplanted well into the present day, without it seeming forced or too contrived.

Numb3rs

Lucky by Leah Harper. Gen. (ca. 24,500 words)
In this AU Don and Charlie's estrangement lingers longer, and I enjoyed this angstier version of their relationship.

Sherlock

Asterioidea and Highly Intelligent, Observant, and Destructive When Bored, by etothepii. Gen, Sherlock and Mycroft, and Slash, Sherlock/Watson. (ca. 1,850 and 5,000 words)
This is a His Dark Materials fusion with a great twist.

Star Trek: Reboot

Homo homini lupus, by Casspeach and Chaosraven. Slash, McCoy/Chekov. (ca. 13,600 words)
This is a Viking AU done as collaboration for the Trek Reverse Bang. The art was lovely, and Bones as somewhat reluctant Viking raider was great.

Knives in the Water, by green_postit and steam_pilot. Slash Kirk/McCoy. (ca. 18,500 words)
This is a collaboration done for the Trek Reverse Bang, and the art is very stylish, with a stark, noir-like atmosphere. The story is a gangster AU, and it had me really hooked, even though I'm normally not that into Star Trek AUs not somehow still set in space. It convinced me of them as mob for the duration of the story, and how Bones was drawn into this was great. Also, normally I don't emphasize warnings again in my recs that the header gives, but the warning for torture and abuse on the story is really not kidding, it was great, but brutal and intense.

Like A Riot (Don't Need Order), by Jane Potter. Slash, mainly Kirk/Spock. (Some stories are finished, but the universe is still a WIP.)
In this AU Vulcan is isolationist, and Earth has an alliance with the Orions. Meanwhile Kirk, Spock & Co. set out to become space pirates. The universe is still a WIP and I like the first story more than some of the later parts, and some of the characterization (in particular of McCoy as this kind of alcoholic) doesn't really work for me, however this is still quite a lot of fun to read.

In Which We Change, by salvaged_pride. Slash, Kirk/McCoy. (ca. 14,160 words)
This is a AU with Kirk as werewolf, and I really like the werewolf premise here that the wolf is not aware of the human self, and how it was handled.

X-Men

The Uncertain Trumpet, by bliumchik. Het, Scott/Jean. (ca. 525 words)
This is just a short comment fic, but with the cool premise that the material for Scott's glasses hadn't been developed, and yet he still manages as a member of the X-Men in the field (through his connection to Jean) while truly blind.

I should not let my rec pages languish this long. It gets ever more intimidating to go through the backlog, with the pile becoming larger and my memories fuzzier...

Stargate: Atlantis

I, Rodney, by alex51324. Gen. (ca. 42,100 words)
A robot AU with Rodney as a robot. I especially liked that Rodney's "childhood" was not actually over the top tragic as far as fictional childhoods go (especially for AIs), despite his estrangement from his father/creator and family, and also that in retrospect his grown up perspective eventually evolves from the angry teenage AI.

Calling Down the Lightning by dreamwaffles. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 55,500 words)
In this AU magic is real, however because of its huge destructive potential people capable of doing magic get preemptively executed on Earth, so magic users try to hide their abilities, usually not with much luck as it manifests first for emotionally volatile teenagers. I enjoyed the premise and world quite a lot here.

No Good Deed, by forestgreen. Slash, John Sheppard/Cameron Mitchell. (ca 65,620 words)
John as a thief is just a fun premise.

A Wing and a Prayer, by kriadydragon. Gen. (ca. 97,150 words)
An AU with dragon companions, how could I not like that? Okay, I guess some may argue dragons are overdone, but I like them still. Besides, this is a really solid action adventure, so you might want to give it a try, even if the dragons don't sell it to you.

Mercy of the Fallen, by perryvic and zaganthi. Slash, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard/Carson Beckett (ca. 102,000 words)
Another magic AU, this time with Sheppard as warlock (there are other magical powers as well). I enjoyed this one because the mix of supernatural elements with the Stargate-kind of pseudoscience worked really well for me, and I liked the action too.

If not by faith, then by the sword: five happy endings for Teyla and Michael, by saraht. Het, Teyla Emmagan/Michael. (ca. 9,500 words)
These AU scenarios for Teyla and Michael were all cool possibilities, though they did not actually all match my own definition of "happy". I especially liked the fourth AU scenario which was a role-reversal.

Untitled Snippet, by saraht. Het, John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan, Teyla Emmagan/Michael. (ca. 2,185 words)
I've recced Diplomatic Immunity before, but you may have missed this more recent snippet set in the same creepy universe.

Star Trek: Reboot

Love is Strange by garryowen. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (ca. 45,000 words)
I did not actually like Dirty Dancing as a movie, so I'm not sure why I really enjoyed the Star Trek version, or how it could even work with Spock and Kirk, but there you are, and it really does, and you should check this out. Whether or not you liked Dirty Dancing. (Also thinking about this, it is rather disconcerting to realize that I know people in fandom now plenty old enough to have been writing porn for some years, who weren't even alive back when that movie came out, and a ton of my classmates were crushing on Patrick Swayze, who is now dead. Memento Mori moments everywhere.)

all the lights that lead us there, by irnan. Gen. (ca. 1,880 words)
This is a cool sentient!Enterprise story.

All the Past We Leave Behind, by northatlantic. Slash and het, Kirk/McCoy, Spock/Uhura. (ca. 22,500 words)
This is a Western AU and still manages to transfer the characters and even the movie plot well.

Emissary: The Illustrated Pilot, by tassosss. Gen. (ca. 2,000 words)
This is a fusion with Farscape, and simply awesome, because the Enterprise as Leviathan and Spock as pilot make me happy.

Another Boy, Another Planet, by vaingirlfic. Het, Kirk/Uhura, Spock/Uhura (with implied past Nero/Kirk non-con). (ca. 8,200 words)
This was posted to the het_idcrack challenge for a reason, so whether you'll like it probably depends on what your buttons are. However it pushed a lot of mine. In this AU newborn Kirk was captured and enslaved by Nero, and eventually during the events that parallel the movie Uhura rescues him. Her backstory is different as well, but I do not want to spoil it too much.

Leave No Soul Behind, by whochick. Slash, Kirk/Spock. (WIP, 30,000 words posted so far, projected to be 72,000+)
This is still a WIP but I'm really enjoying it. It has Kirk, Spock and McCoy in Starfleet, but as part of some emergency service who rescue survivors of battles and the like. The worldbuilding and background for the characters is still becoming clearer as this progresses, but Vulcan was destroyed by the Narada in this universe as well. And there is plenty of action adventure mixed with personal angst. Anyway, it has me completely hooked.

Star Trek: TOS

Shadows of a Man, by syredronning. Slash, Spock/McCoy. (ca. 32,000 words)
The basic premise is that Kirk and McCoy did not get rescued from Rura Penthe, and a war between Federation and Klingons followed. And this deals with the later aftermath for McCoy and Spock. On the one hand I don't want to spoil this, on the other hand the main reason I'm reccing this was that it did not go like I expected from the way the story seemed at first. In the end it left me somewhat sucker-punched, if in a good way. (I hope that was vague enough.) And on the whole it is quite a bit darker than what I usually rec (starting with that Kirk is dead from the outset, and character death is not my thing usually). However it is not completely bleak, and worth reading.

It's of course no secret that I love were-animal stories but the one just posted for the mcshep_match is awesome. So you should head over there and read:

Where the Brave Dare Not Go, by Anon. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 18,500 words)

I liked the sense of hinted backstories in the AU for the characters, and that the universe seems larger than what's in the story. And I liked that the Were mythology of this universe wasn't magical or really supernatural(at least not from what we learn of it), but seemed almost mundane (in a good way) in the way the society deals with this.