Rat Creature's Journal

I just finished reading Lovesrain44's Big Bang story, Phantom Load (gen, Sam and Dean, set present day and pre-series, ca. 54,000 words), and though it kind of gutted me, it's a great story. While the story is gen there are explicit scenes of sexual abuse of a young Dean by an original character, and I think it's one of the most harrowing child abuse stories I've read in fandom. Not because it is particularly extreme or bleak, but because the way the memories are narrated, the details, and the past and the present, and Dean and Sam's POVs are woven together made it very real to me.

Also, even if you don't think you can stomach the story, you should take a look at Xterm's drawing, which is lovely and can stand on it's own as a picture of their childhood, even though looking at it again after reading there are added layers to the artwork.

I've updated my AU recs page, and also split it into subpages, which based on my poll from earlier today seems to be the much favored option over one monster page. I hope I didn't mess up anything when I c&p'ed all the stuff into separate pages, but it looks okay to me. The main URL is the same and continues as an index page to the subpages, so no links to my AU recs page will be broken. That page now also lists the most recent updates, like these update posts, so that people won't have to click further than the main page for the just latest recs.

Stargate: Atlantis

A Hundred Happy Things, by busaikko. Rodney McKay/John Sheppard. (ca. 30,000 words)
Non-Stargate AUs always have a harder time to get me interested, because I like the action and SF elements, but this sucked me in completely even though it is a domestic AU, and a kidfic too. It's an earthside romance between Sheppard and McKay, who takes care of Madison (his career having been somewhat tanked thanks to a sexual harassment lawsuit), while Jeannie is pursuing her own career. The characters were all very human and real (including Madison who was smart but not annoyingly precocious).

The Difference Engine , by Copperbadge. Slash, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard. (ca. 21,600 words)
This AU was creepy, yet also funny. The premise was that John dies in Afghanistan and gets resurrected as robot via experimental SGC tech. And okay, I totally have a soft spot for "Sheppard as a robot" stories (though not because I think Sheppard was somehow emotionally stunted, but because robots are awesome), but this was just a quick and fun read.

The Best Things in Life Are Free, by Kajikia. Slash and het, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay/Ronon Dex/Teyla Emmagan. (ca. 3,800 words)
John and his team are con artists and have a run-in with his ex-wife, who works for the government.

Dreams Beneath Our Feet, by Neevebrody. Gen, team. (ca. 9,500 words)
This is an expansion of one of the scenarios from Sholio's Five ways they weren't pirates, which I recced previously. Ronon is captain of a space pirate ship and rescues Teyla and Rodney who managed to escape the Genii. I love this as possible background, and that we get an action-adventure in the an AU Pegasus galaxy.

Supernatural

Golden Lights Go Dark Tonight, by Pix. Gen, Sam Winchester, Ruby, Dean Winchester. (ca. 5,100 words)
I guess this AU is a take on the old theme of the road to hell being paved with good intentions. DarkSide!Sam is not normally my thing, but this story puts an awesome twist on this. It's a dark AU that sucker punches you with its brilliant premise.

Miles Before I Sleep, by Silverkit. Gen, Sam Winchester (there's a brief Sam/OFC sex scene but no relationship). (ca. 1,860 words)
It's a great, if painful, look at a Sam who decided not to go to Stanford, but to stay with his family.

Over time my AU recs page has grown somewhat large and unwieldy. Since an update is due soon, I've been wondering whether users would prefer to have my AU recs broken up in separate fandom pages, i.e. all fandoms with say more than twenty stories recced would get their own page, the rest would stay on a page for other fandoms in their own sections, as it is now. The main AU recs page would become an index linking to the fandom pages/sections, and have a "Recently Added" summary for the last update, like the update posts I do to my LJ, so that people wouldn't have to click further than the main page for the just latest recs. It would mean more clicking to see all recs, but smaller pages.

So which option would you prefer? After all, I'm not the one using the page.

(There's a poll over at my LJ, because I can't do polls here at IJ, so you can either vote over there, or just comment here.)

Nothing Like Billy, by Embroiderama. Het, Ellen Harvelle/Fox Mulder. (ca. 2,622 words)
Supernatural/The X-Files
There isn't much plot beyond the sex in this crossover, but there was enough characterization and a plausible reason for their meeting to not have the story feel arbitrary.

Leapin Lizards, by Gwendolyn Grace. Gen, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Sam Beckett, Al Calavicci. (ca. 18,560 words)
Quantum Leap/Supernatural
Sam Beckett leaps into John Winchester when Dean and Sam were still children. There is a good case story, and Beckett has to deal with finding out that the supernatural is real, and handle two young Winchesters.

With a Bang, by Mink. Gen, Alec, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester. (ca. 42,000 words)
Dark Angel/Supernatural
This is a good action-adventure, and I liked how the shows' mythologies were meshed, even though I'm not that into the whole breeding cult arc of DA season two. Also Alec, Sam and Dean together are just fun to watch.

Curiosities (ca. 4,045 words) and Stutter (ca. 1,500 words), by Penknife. Slash, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Tom Riddle, Lily Potter, Sirius Black.
Harry Potter/X-Men
Recently Penknife offered to write timestamp fic, and I noticed that I never recced the original crossover for which I requested a timestamp. Anyway, in the first Erik Lehnsherr encounters Tom Riddle in 1950, the timestamp is set during the first Voldemort war/the Marauders era, and both are interesting and well worth reading.

Brothers in Arms, by SylvanWitch. Gen, Dean Winchester, Derek Reese. (ca. 2,440 words)
Supernatural/Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Dean runs into Derek while hunting, and somehow these two shows just go together like chocolate and hazelnuts.

What Kind of Day Has It Been?, by Victoria P. Gen, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Kermit and the Muppet Show ensemble. (ca. 3,300 words)
Muppet Show/Supernatural
I love Muppet crossovers (felt rules! *g*), and this one made me laugh a lot.

To My Destiny, by Kodiak Bear. Gen. (ca. 8,800 words)
In this AU Janus convinced the Ancients to allow the use of his time travelling technology and they took Atlantis into the future, to present day Earth, when they continue the fight. It's an interesting premise and the Ancients here are just the right mix of ruthless and creepy but not actually bad guys.

Guardians of a rare thing, by Livia Penn. Het, Ronon Dex/Samantha Carter. (ca. 6,200 words)
This goes AU from Return I: Ronon comes to Earth rather than stay in Pegasus. Ireally like this take on Ronon at the SGC, and his perspective of Earth.

The Great Pegasus Train Robbery, by Sholio. Gen, team. (ca. 10,500 words)
This humor story casts the team as train robbers in the Old West, and they aren't very good at being bandits, but their efforts are very entertaining.

Knights Errant, by Sholio. Gen. (ca. 5,300 words)
So this is a Knight Rider fusion, with Rodney as the car, John as the driver. And okay, the story doesn't really have much of a plot beyond the setup of John meeting the car, but well, I think the scenario is awesome. (Don't judge me, okay? I liked the series as a kid...)

Bright Wings, by Snarkydame. Gen. (ca. 7,000 words)
In this AU Pegasus cultures are squatting in Atlantis, rather than it lying abandoned. It goes further AU than that because the expedition members are among the residents too, with the team running a salvaging operation looking for bits of Ancient tech in the older, submerged parts of the city, but the story still mixes in enough elements from canon Pegasus cultures and Ancient and Atlantis tech that the scenario isn't just some generic fantasy type of city.

Mona Lisa Box, by Tzzz. Slash, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard. (ca. 14,000 words).
This is a fusion between Terminator: The Sarah Conor Chronicles and SGA, and it is a rather creepy love story, with a great twist on the origin of Skynet. I was a bit bothered by the implications the ending had for Rodney's characterization (I don't want to spoil it by being more specific), but apart from that I enjoyed it.

Almost All Grown Up, by Xparrot. Gen, team. (ca. 5,900 words)
I really like AUs with John as a Pegasus native, and making John a Genii, but tell the story from Teyla's Athosian POV, when we as readers know there is more to the Genii, was a narrative ploy I really enjoyed.

My to-read pile of actual books is getting rather smallish. I mean, I still haven't read Water Logic by Laurie Marks, and Amazon assures me that my copy of the newest Dresden Files will get to me in the near(ish) future, but I'm looking for recommendations what to read after that. And since my f-list is much more widely read than me, I thought it can't hurt to ask.

As for what I'm looking for, the most important thing for me to enjoy a book is that there is at least one likable main POV character to identify with. Generally I can't stand books where the hero is a jerk, or you end up hating everybody. I also dislike ambiguous endings. There are exceptions to that, but in general I prefer plots to be resolved when the book ends, unless it's setup for the sequel. Also, I prefer there to actually be a plot with stuff happening rather than all internal and relationship conflicts. And for the plot to make sense and have not too many holes. OTOH I can overlook slightly clunky language (see the above example of the Dresden Files, though the later novels aren't quite as bad as the earlier ones). I guess I'm rather lacking in avantgarde sensibilities...

As for genres, I like sf and fantasy, unless the worldbuilding sucks, but I also like mysteries, though not so much the serial killer genre. Thrillers rarely do anything for me, nor does romance as the main plot. Another of my quirks is that I don't cope well if a ton of characters are introduced in quick succession. I have nothing against an epic scale in principle, if characters are added slowly, but I don't remember names easily, something which results in me being confused a lot with a certain kind of mystery for example, where you'd be introduced to a dozen people over a few pages.

So do you have any suggestions for me?

Not fanfic, but art: Charles Schulz's Watchmen by Evan Shaner. Go look, it's great.

A couple of weeks ago I borrowed Drawing and Painting Fantasy Beasts by Kevin Walker from my library (or rather the German edition of this), and I found it quite useful and interesting overall. Basically it's just a bunch fantasy creatures drawn as examples, but each creature comes with about four pages of step by step process description of the techniques used, and the different sketches and stages that went into the final work.

Initially I got it because I had never painted with acrylics, but generally found hobby painting books about acrylics my library had rather useless and boring. I mean, it's not that painting with some new medium was like repairing a motorcycle or any of the other things for which you really need either instruction or a book rather than just muddling along, and there's only so much variation to the theme of "you put color pigment on a surface" anyway, but this book has a neat introduction section that just lists different techniques with a little picture of how it looks, which makes it easier to try things than unguided trial and error and I'm lazy like that. Also I wanted to do dragons anyway, and this has examples of fantasy art done with acrylic paint (other techniques too) with step-by-step pictures, so that seemed like a good match.

The first part of the introduction is just the usual list of drawing and painting materials, and rather pointless. Frankly I wonder why nearly every such book feels the need to recap materials in a generic manner at the start. I mean, if you pick up a specialized drawing book you are most likely aware that there's a difference between watercolors, gouache, acrylics and oil paint, and that pastel chalk is different from oil pastels and so on. It's not that I haven't picked up some useful general info from skimming these chapters, because every now and then one will mention something I hadn't know of before, but overall I find them superfluous. Still, the list introducing the materials used is only four pages in this book, so it doesn't dwell, and then the introduction gets more specific with the neatly ordered examples of actually using the materials.

The main part is sections with fantasy beasts sorted by regions in which they supposedly live, and realized in a variety of techniques, both traditional and digital, though most involve acrylics or acrylics mixed with other media. I suspect that if you are already really experienced this book won't tell you much new, but since I've only started using acrylic paint it was useful to have illustrated examples like this for achieving different effects and textures, and getting ideas on what to do, though I have only tried a couple so far.

I've scanned a couple of pages to give you an idea of the way the process descriptions and illustrations look like, though obviously if you don't speak German the text of these scans that explain what was done in each step won't do much for you.
( a few example pages behind the cut )

I just read an awesome SGA story posted for the Second Verse challenge on SGA Flashfic:

Games of Chance, by xparrot. Gen, Rodney McKay. (ca. 12,000 words)
It's a great take on precognition/multiple universes/timetravel in the SG universe, and I loved the frantic, desperate pace of it. I was slightly confused at the beginning, but that turned out to be a very deliberate story telling choice, because it starts right in the action, and it all came together in a very cool plot.

AUs

Dearest, by Lavvyan. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 4,200 words)
The people with the ATA gene are regarded as pets in this AU, though then it turned somewhat atypical for slave/mindcontrol fic (and has a sad ending), but it still worked for my kinks.

After Such Knowledge, by Sarah T. Het, Michael/Teyla Emmagan. (ca. 7,500 words)
This is an AU of Michael's storyline, with the premise that Michael chose to remain human because Teyla was more honest with him.

Sequelae, by The Spike. Gen, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Jennifer Keller. (ca. 26,000 words)
It's a futurefic that goes AU during Adrift, though the past of how Atlantis was lost and the cause of the rift in John and Rodney's friendship is only gradually revealed, as John suddenly shows up at Rodney's doorstep, having a retrovirus relapse.

Pegasus Ascendant, by Tielan. Gen, Teyla Emmagan. (ca. 1,830 words)
Pegasus is without Wraith and various Pegasus people share control over Atlantis as the Earth expedition makes contact. I find the premise here very cool, though I wished there was more than this opening. I'm definitely hoping for a sequel.

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crossovers

Only Someone Running, by busaikko. Slash, Rodney McKay/Brendan Dean. (ca. 7,800 words)
Stargate: Atlantis/Thoughtcrimes
This crossover has awesome plot twists, and meshes the two universes well. It is rather sad though.

On the Use of Weapons, by Cofax. Gen, Ellen Harvelle. (ca. 1,600 words)
Supernatural/Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
In this snippet Ellen observes Sarah, John and Cameron at a gun show, and it gives a great outsider POV of the three.

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Also when I asked on the SGA genrefinder comm for stories with Sheppard as an Ancient or Sheppard ascending, I compiled a list of stories in that genre I had already come across, so I thought I might just as well repost that list on my website as reference. Here's a link collection with stories featuring John Sheppard as Ancient, Ori or Ascended. If you come across any I missed, let me know.

( sorry that the rec is inconveniently behind a cut, but the title and description have significant spoilers for the most recent SGA ep Outcast, even though it is not really an episode tag )

An Unlikely Meeting, by Cofax. Gen, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Chiana, Rygel, John Crichton. (ca. 1,030 words)
Farscape/Supernatural
This just a snippet, more an opening into a universe than a full story, but what we get is such a cool crossover setup that it's worth pointing out regardless.

Nor Hell A Fury, by Lucy Gillam. Gen, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Dennis Guilder, Christine. (ca. 14,800 words)
Stephen King's Christine/Supernatural
I haven't read Christine, but this was still a very enjoyable casefile type of story with neat twists in the the car's background. So if you like to read about the Winchesters hunting monsters or evil cars in this case, you should give this a try.

Untaken Roads, by Tassos. Gen, Dean Winchester, John Crichton. (ca. 4,500 words)
Farscape/Stargate: Atlantis/Supernatural
This gives us another glimpse at Crichton as Runner, like in the previous FS/SGA crossover by Tassos that I've also recced. And seeing him interact with Dean is just fun.

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Also, I forgot to c&p one of my SGA AU recs in the recs post yesterday, so I decided to tack it onto this one:

Choice of Duty, by Kyrdwyn. Gen, John Sheppard, Radek Zelenka. (ca. 4,680 words)
The premise here is that John is ex-military, and didn't join the Atlantis mission as military, but as a scientist. After Sumner's death, which happens later here than in canon, he's drafted back into active duty by Elizabeth. I'm not sure I see Elizabeth quite this way, but the interaction between John and Radek made this a nice read.

Stargate: Atlantis

Honor and Country, by Bluflamingo. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 25,000 words)
This is a fusion with a series called E-Ring, which I have never seen. Basically it is a non-Stargate earthside AU, in which the SGA and SG-1 characters are military intelligence operatives. Rodney is in the CIA, John in the Army, and there is a tense conspiracy plot involving Kolya.

we don't need roads, by Crimsonclad. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 1,750 words)
It's a short story that fuses SGA with Back to the Future in a surprising way that I don't want to spoil for you, however it gives Back to the Future a more sinister twist.

Si Muovo by Kass and Sihaya Black. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, John Sheppard/OMC. (ca. 39,400 words)
This has been widely recced already, so if you're inclined to give a somewhat unusual premise -- Rodney is a Jesuit priest and John a bush pilot, and they meet in Alaska -- a try at all you probably have already read this. Anyway it really pulled off a genuinely religious Rodney well, has an engaging plot (if slightly contrived, but it is Stargate after all) and a nice mix of angst, romance and quirky background atmosphere.

No Matter Where you Go, There you Are, by Kriadydragon. Gen, team. (ca. 6,600 words)
This is an apocafic with Goa'uld in the Pegasus galaxy and John arriving there by a different route than in canon. I found the worldbuilding premise really intriguing and would love to see a longer exploration, rather than just the initial meeting of John and the others, but I still enjoyed this.

Male Enhancement (The Soul and the Company Store Remix), by Leah. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Carson Beckett, Radek Zelenka. (ca. 46,500 words)
I've already recced this right after it was posted because I couldn't contain my squee long enough to wait for my next regular AU recs update, but if you haven't read it already you definitely should, because it is an awesome story with John as an AI, that is heart-breaking at times, but also funny in places, and just great reading all around. Don't miss the gen prequel/companion story Muscle and Blood and Skin and Bones, also by Leah, featuring Evan Lorne, John Sheppard, Cameron Mitchell, Radek Zelenka, and Bill Lee. (ca. 18,100 words)

Tainted, by Madison. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 23,000 words)
It's a post-Common Ground story with the premise that the reverse feeding was addictive. I liked this for the angst and the kink, though I found it a bit hard to follow how the timeline of the episodes was shifted around in this AU.

Raiders of the Seven Systems, by Martha Wilson. Gen. (ca. 33,250 words)
I've recced this before when it was still a WIP, but I like it so much that I decided to point you in its direction again, now that it is finished. It's a space pirate AU, with a very cool premise for the Pegasus cultures, and lots of action and suspense. It hooked me right from the start.

Ascension, by Soraya. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 11,650 words)
This Star Wars fusion with John and Rodney as Sith was simply a lot of fun to read, and how could you not like them plotting to take over the galaxy together after their attempts to assassinate each other failed?

Blue, by Sorrel. Slash, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard/Ronon Dex. WIP
And yet another post-Conversion Bug!John AU (what can I say, I like the genre), also Atlantis is cut off from Earth for a while, which is another trope I like. This story is older, only somehow I missed reading it before, and still a WIP that unfortunately hasn't been updated in a while, but the parts stand well enough on their own.

Fly The Stars, by Tielan. Gen, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, some John Sheppard. (ca. 8,000 words)
This is a very cool fusion with the Firefly universe, with a focus on Ronon and Teyla, that made the SGA characters fit seamlessly in the other universe.

Living With It, by Tielan. Gen, John Sheppard, Samantha Carter, Jack O'Neill. (ca. 3,730 words)
This AU has Bug!John (which I love), however not as the aftermath of Conversion, but because it fuses SGA with the Marvel mutant concept.

Nexus, by Tielan. Het, John Sheppard/Teyla Emmagan. (ca. 4,300 words)
I like John/Teyla and I like post-Conversion Bug!John, so really this story is an ideal combination. The author labeled it as "porn with a little plot" but the AU worldbuilding still comes through nicely.

Supernatural

Five Families John Winchester Never Had, by Cofax. Gen, John Winchester. (ca. 4,500 words)
In this "five things" story I especially liked the last one, a "Mary survived" AU, but the others had interesting premises as well.

The Boy Who Walked On Stilts (part 2), by Kellifer_fic. Gen, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer, Pastor Jim. (ca. 6,640 words)
The premise of this is that John died early, and Sam and Dean are raised separately by Bobby and Pastor Jim for reasons that become clear over the course of the story.

A Heartbeat At My Feet, by Kellifer_fic. Gen, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, John, Winchester, Bobby Singer. (ca.7,400 words)
This is a fusion of Supernatural with His Dark Materials, i.e. Sam and Dean have dæmons.

To Catch a Thief, by Lyra Wing. Gen, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester. (ca. 8,600 words)
A while back Lyra Wing wrote an AU with Sam and Dean as FBI agents (Paradigm Shift), this is the prequel giving the background how they ended up that way. It splits from canon before the season two finale.

Forget Me Not, by maisierita. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay. (ca. 47,000 words)
If you're like me and have a soft spot for amnesia stories, you should definitely check this one out. But even if you don't have an amnesia kink, this is still a great story. The mystery of how they ended up like this in the first place had me hooked from the start, there's angst and some h/c without it being overwrought, and while the Pegasus culture doesn't take center stage in that we find out everything about it, that is simply because we see it from Rodney's restricted perspective, so while it is central to the whole set up and works as a plot device for the John/Rodney story, it feels real and not like they are merely some contrived wacky aliens just there for one purpose.

I'm still reading SGA holiday exchange stories and have also started browsing the now live Yuletide archive, so here's a couple of recs:

SGA

Red Flowers, by Anonymous. Teamfic. (ca 25,620 words)
This is a great action-adventure teamfic with cool world building of a Pegasus civilization. It has some Sheppard/McKay as established background pairing, but that is minor and the focus is on the whole team with Teyla and Ronon playing nearly equal parts to Rodney and John, though it is slightly Rodney-centric overall. So unless you hate the pairing like the plague, you'll enjoy it as a plotty team story with aliens, Pegasus politics, just the right amount of technobabble and explosions, even if the listed pairing isn't your thing.

Dresden Files (bookverse)

The World's Largest Kitten, by Anonymous. (ca. 1,200 words)
This is just really cute and fun fluff with Mister and Mouse.

Terminator

How to Change the World Without Even Trying, by Anonymous. (ca. 1,400 words)
It's a characterstudy looking at John, and how the world his mother raised him in is removed from the mainstream, and then John's view of his foster families and his changing perspective on his mother.

The memes where people list what books they've read the past year always end up really pathetic looking for me, because the bulk of my reading is fanfic, not actual books. So there's never much to show off. This year the handful of dead-tree fiction I've read was:

All nine volumes of the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher, i.e. Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, and White Night

Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik (and I've reread the previous parts, i.e. His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War)

Tintenherz, by Cornelia Funke

Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman

The Dispossessed, by Ursula LeGuin

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell

I've also reread Dune again.

I started reading The Years of Salt and Rice, by Kim Stanley Robinson, but for some reason I put it aside (iirc it started slow? I don't really remember), and then I couldn't extend the time I loaned it from the library because someone else had reserved the book, and so I never finished it.

And I read three SGA tie-in novels, though I'm not sure whether those don't count more as fanfic:
The Chosen, by Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen
Entanglement, by Martha Wells
Exogenesis by Sonny Whitelaw and Elizabeth Christensen

Right now I'm in the middle of Fire Logic, by Laurie J. Marks, so I expect I'll finish that this year as well.

OTOH using my del.icio.us bookmarks, which overwhelmingly are just a log of my fanfic reading (though some are tagged as "to read"), to estimate the number of fanfics I read this year, that comes up to well over a thousand. Okay, so most of those are short stories, but some were awesome novels and novellas. Most recently Judas Doesn't Answer by Auburn (ca. 75,700 words), which is a gripping SGA/SG-1 mystery/suspense story I can definitely rec.

To keep up the pretense that this journal is interesting, i.e. has content besides boring pet posts, here's an SGA rec, a rather neat SGA teamfic from the SGA Santa exchange:

They Might Be Giants, by Anonymous. Teamfic. (ca. 17,440 words)
It has some OT4, but it isn't a shippy story, but mostly an action-adventure, with some cool sf trappings, that show them as explorers. It has both the team and the remaining Atlantis expedition with Carter, Lorne, Zelenka and Caldwell on the Daedalus in it, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I updated my crossover recs page.

Take a Long Line, by Derry667. Gen, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Don Eppes, Charlie Eppes, Alan Eppes. (ca. 22,000 words)
Numb3rs/Supernatural
The Winchesters are trying to stop a psychic arsonist at CalSci, which we see through the eyes of the Eppes. I liked how competent Sam and Dean were in this story as well as the the outsider look at them.

Defect, by Kikkimax. Gen, ensemble. (ca. 39,600 words)
Criminal Minds/Supernatural
This is set after the second season finale of Supernatural. While Sam tries to get Dean out of the deal with the demon with the help of Bobby and Ellen, Dean is taken into custody by the FBI and interrogated and evaluated by the BAU team. I really enjoyed the take of the profiler team on Dean, and how they try to make sense of him and revise their opinions without ever actually buying into Dean's supernatural worldview.

Untitled snippet, by Pentapus. Gen. (ca. 230 words)
Highlander/Stargate: Atlantis
This is just a brief snippet, but it is a very neat idea to merge the mythologies of the two shows.

Take Atlantis, by Siegeofangels. Gen. (ca. 800 words)
Muppet Show/Stargate: Atlantis
This is quite short, and doesn't really have a plot beyond "the Muppets visit Atlantis", OTOH having the Muppets on Atlantis is awesome and funny.

So, I'm going to include this in my next AU recs update too, but you should read it right away, because it is an awesome story with John as an AI, that is heart-breaking at times, but also funny in places, and just great reading all around: Male Enhancement (The Soul and the Company Store Remix), by Leah. Slash, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Carson Beckett, Radek Zelenka. (ca. 46,500 words)

Because I'm still sick and feverish and break out into shivers as soon as I leave my multiple blankets, and can only sleep so many hours a day even when sick, I've been amusing myself with online games.

So far I've played the BBC mystery games Death in Sakkara and The Seven Noble Kinsmen, Grow Island (I'm pretty sure I've played all earlier grow versions as well previously), Escape from Octilien, DayMare Town and a few other escape games I found linked from jayisgames.com, like the Submachine series.

I'm looking for more entertaining games, that work under Linux (i.e. most Flash games will be fine, Shockwave otoh won't work), aren't too hard or frustrating and don't require mouse dexterity or being fast with clicking and such (I'm using my laptop with a touchpad while in bed shivering so having to navigate some arrow quickly while clicking on things is pretty much out). Do you have any recs?