Pan-fandom genfic recs

Title: The Journey West
Author: springgreen 
Fandom: Written for American Gods, but can and should be read by anyone.
Warnings: none
Word Count: 430
Summary: Listen, and I will tell you how Monkey comes to America.
Commentary: This is the story that changed the way I think about fandom. From the author's notes:

I wrote this in anger and pain and hope, with the need to see myself in fiction and the knowledge that most stories of America are not my stories of America. I love that one of the central figures of American Gods is Anansi, but I rolled my eyes at the ever-familiar Norse mythology, of the feeling that immigration had somehow stopped way back when, that the new gods were Technology and whatnot. Because while they are, people are still coming here and bringing their own gods and their own stories.

This story is my "fuck you" to the Chinese Exclusion Act, to the laws barring Asian Americans from citizenship and naturalization, to the Japanese internment camps, to the murder of Vincent Chin. I mock the sentence in the Wikipedia article saying "After World War II, general anti-Asian prejudice largely dissolved."

This story is also my attempt to write myself and people like me into American history; I am American, yes, but I am also not, because I am Chinese, because I will not assimilate, because the red white and blue and the land of the free is what I grew up on, but it's also what kept me out, because I also grew up reading and hearing about Monkey and Li Bai, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Yellow River and Xi'an. It's also not just American; it's an attempt to write people like me into the Western world.

Title: Graduate Vulcan for Fun and Profit

Author: lazulisong 

Fandom: Star Trek XI

Warnings(author's): Vulcan OC Dude (I don't think he's too obnoxious, though), Jim's Awesome Childhood

Summary: It really does take a village to raise a Jim.

Commentary: This fic makes me want to run away and become a linguist. All the language stuff is perfect, and the characters' voices are wonderful and hilarious. It's a very touching fic in all kinds of ways, but mostly the one in which Jim is a terrible wonderful secret grad student. (No, really.)

I've read this story about five times, and now I'm reading it again. It's awesome even if you're only peripherally familiar with Star Trek (as I am). To prove it, here's an early excerpt (I think there might be some better ones later, but if I just go ahead and do this one I won't have to spend an hour trying to decide between them):

"Frankly speaking, sir, if Starfleet knew I could speak Vulcan --"

"And Klingon, and Tellarite, and Andorian," murmurs Sakel gently. Bastard. Klingon totally doesn't count, because all Jim can do is start a bar fight in it. Not that starting a bar fight in Klingon is very difficult. It's like basic Standard. Excuse me, where is the rest room? Excuse me, your father sucks dick on discount bulk rates. Nearly the same thing.

"If they knew," finishes Jim loudly, "I'd be put in Communications and I'm going to be in Command."

Sakel takes another sip of his tea, and thinks. "Your logic stands," he says finally. "Although it should be acknowledged that being in Communications will not logically preclude you from being a captain. Very well, Cadet, I will, as they say, 'strike a deal'."

Jim tries not to tense up, but deep in his monkey hind brain he knows that he's not going to like this 'deal' and that the alternative is going to be deeply unpleasant.

"I will allow you to stay in Basic Principles of Vulcan, and I will even teach you to simulate a Terran accent --" this was a huge favor, Jim knows, because Sakel hates Terran accents with as much venom as any vegan pacifist could hate anything, "-- and in return, you will agree to do all the work assigned, as assigned."

"And if I don't?" says Jim, deeply wary.

"Then I will go to the department head and tell them, I believe the term is, 'a touching story' about the bond among us all, the last of the Kelvin crew, and your language sets." Sakel doesn't even have the grace to look smug about cornering Jim like this.

NO SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS THIS IS LIKE THE BEST FIC EVER, GO READ IT. ESPECIALLY YOU, inner_v0ice .

Title: Crazy!Ed verse (link goes to In Defiance of Reason)

Author: metisketmetisket 

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga)

Warnings: Violence, fairly dark themes, spoilers for all of the manga (although comprehensible to someone only familiar with the first anime). Not nearly as dark as it could have been.

Summary: So. In response to the question, "What would it look like if Edward Elric were as crazy as Allen Walker?" I said, well. CLEARLY I MUST WRITE THAT FIC.

It's a mad AU. And I don't think Ed would handle being crazy with anything like Allen's grace. Besides which, it's possible that I wrote him even crazier.

Commentary: This is perhaps the best FMA fic I've ever read. Ed is terrifyingly and wonderfully insane, while still remaining true to his canon self. He refuses to drink milk, helps people, and probably rescues small animals from wells; he also murders large numbers of people in gruesome and painful ways.

This is also quite possibly the best Roy-and-Hughes fic you'll ever find -- mostly Hughes, since he's the usual viewpoint character, but the portrayal of their friendship is fantastic. Roy is just the right amount of I'm-going-to-save-the-country and oh-fuck-I-screwed-up, and Hughes is brilliantly, frenetically cheery and clever. He goes around investigating and trying to fix Ed and leaving the alchemists alone for appropriate spans of time to do their thing and plotting war and giving everyone hugs. If you ever thought you even kind of liked Hughes, this is the fic for you, and here is a line to prove it:

Also, Maes wished he had a picture of Roy’s face right now, because if he did, he would treasure it forever and preserve it among the Elicia pictures and show it to absolutely everyone.

(Incidentally, the plot isn't just 'canon with bits of crazy!ed tacked on'. Things are different -- but not too different.)