Pardon my messy links...I don't know how to do those nice links that only show the titles on this site. Any advice?

1. "Department of Archives" http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4432749/1/DepartmentofArchives

A really good Nolanverse Batman fic, which is, unfortunately, updated slowly. It involves an OFC who eventually falls in love with Batman, but the romance is very well done and un-contrived.

2. "The Greymarch" http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4566461/1/TheGreymarch

Excellent story from the Redwall universe. Set in a land far north of Mossflower, this harrowing tale details the struggle of two young creatures trying to defend their home against the onslaught of a terrible enemy. I thought that a dragon could never be put in a Redwall fic without jumping the shark. I was bloody frickin' wrong.

3. "Spare Me These Unending Trials" <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3856634/1/SpareMeTheseUnendingTrials">http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3856634/1/SpareMeTheseUnending_Trials

A Pirates of the Caribbean/Phantom of the Opera crossover...that *works.* The most angsty characters of both series...Erik and Davy Jones...switch places in a hilarious turn of events. Jones turns up in the Opera Populaire, where he is cast in the lead role of an opera about the Flying Dutchman, and he falls in love with a certain ballet mistress. Erik ends up captain of the Dutchman, and annoys his crew by making them sing. Snarky hilarity ensues.

4. Any of the Cat-Tales by Chris Dee, seen here: http://catwoman-cattales.com/

This is a realistic take on the Batman/Catwoman relationship, which not only corrects many of the teenage fanbrats, but also a great many of the idiot canon writers who have managed to mangle Catwoman's character over the years. Smart, sassy, and sarcastic, these stories are a great read that will suck you in until the very end (alliteration: ah doez et).

Had to think about it for a while, but:

1) Harry Potter: "Wings" by Claudia3 is a Snape/Hermione fic. Normally this would raise all kinds of issues, but this author handles them really well in that a) Hermione is of age and working as a professor, and b) she actually addresses the issues that remain. Oh, and there's an actual plot. AU by necessity, considering that it was written in 2004.

2) Phantom of the Opera: "The Patron of the Opera" by Mereidia contains an OFC who *gasp* doesn't fall in love with the Phantom! Practically a miracle in the fandom.

3) I'll mention the Animorphs fic "Sacred Host" by Qoheleth again, which I would normally avoid due to its OFC and a hefty dose of religion. However, the author's style and the force of story overcame those things for me, and I'm quite enjoying it.

Except for the last one, I read these stories years ago, so my remembered perceptions from then may not match up with yours now. *shrug*

~Neshomeh

I generally steer clear of OCs unless they're minor supporting characters, but, as you said, there are always exceptions. For instance, and Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic by this guy:

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/574797/Cyber_Commander

He does entirely original generation characters, so it' just comes off as, well, another season of the show. I especially like that he concentrates on, you know, the Dueling, rather than hot oiled-up men boffing like you usually find in YGO fics. It's not without its flaws, but what fanfic is? In particular, there's a rather WTF scene toward the end of one where the big bad, a demoness, suddenly launches into a tirade about how she created party politics and every political controversy is literally from Hell.

But it's nothing major, and shouldn't distract from genuine excitement at what's coming next.

I normally won't read stuff with OC's in it, but both of these are wonderful stories. They are both entirely told from the POV of the OC's, and yet still manage to be about the canon characters. This author also manages to really keep the canons in character. She has many other stories. I have read most of her Stargate Atlantis stories, and liked them, but these stand out in my memory as particularly good. I like long stories, so the second one is more my style at just over 100,000 words. The first is a quick little read at 5300 words.

Eildon Rhymer

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481881/1/

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5111582/1/TheFlowersoftheField

Time travel fics, to me, can get too cheesy, and generally come across as a half-assed excuse for pairing up characters who either don't exist at the same time, or who are so far apart in age that it would otherwise be quite squicky.

"Stray" by Dahne (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2711502/1/Stray), on the other hand, is a nice Metal Gear Solid time-travel fanfic that manages to be a good read, if a bit long-winded at times. It also contains another of my avoided things, multiple popular culture references, but it does these in a subtle fashion.

A couple of chapters are NSFW. It contains lampshaded technobabble and Otacon/MGS3-era Ocelot slash. It's also some 78 chapters long.

I happen to enjoy most of the stuff by Jael the Scribe, over on the Pit (and on Henneth Anun, which is a really good reference!).
My favorite of hers is probably To Wrap an Elven Princeling. I normally avoid anything that says it has Thranduil and Legolas in it together as a father-son relationship because it's either a) an Elektra relationship (incest, for those who don't read Greek myth), b) Thranduil's an abusive jackass, or c) Legolas's father is someone else entirely (see wednesday-mc on the pit for an example of about three of the aforementioned ideas... I think that he/she/it/they are a troll. Good writing, horrible, horrible canon rape).
Another good one is An Aunt's Love despite the fact that it's more of a case of YMMV. Harry's powerful (but goes through a lot of pain to get there), and is adopted by Dracula, who seems more like an overprotective parent than a blood-sucking fiend with a grudge against the Harkers. Oh well. C'est la vie.
-Honu_Wahine

No, I'm not making this up. I wouldn't have read it, because I haven't seen HSM (and never will)*, but I saw it on crackvan, and it sounded so weird that I had to. It's here.


*As well as because it's, well, High School Musical.

In other fandoms (since you did ask) there's a story in Kingdom Hearts fandom that involves a) High school AU, b) slash citrus (which I normally have no issue with, but this fandom is notorious for bad slash), c) a primary pairing (Riku/Sora) I don't support. It was well enough written that I loved it anyway. It's called "Boys", by Casey V., if anyone's interested.