Star Wars: If I Had Wings by BoldlyGoingNowhereFast

[jiokra]

Fandom: Star Wars
Characters/Pairings: Poe Dameron/Finn
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Length: 4,726
Creator Links: BoldlyGoingNowhereFast
Theme: Sentinel AUs

Summary: Finn knows he is a Guide, but he isn't sure what that means until he meets Poe Dameron. Suddenly, everything he thought he knew about himself changes, and he is thrown into a world where meeting your soulmate is one of the most important things to ever happen to you. Finn doesn't know what it's like to truly belong, but when he meets Poe, the dashing Sentinel pilot of the Resistance, he will learn the feeling of belonging, and much, much more.

Reccer's Notes: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known. It's a charming AU where Finn and Poe meet as they do in canon, but they're also perfectly matched as a Sentinel and Guide, so all the emotions have that extra touch.

Fanwork Links: If I Had Wings

Sentinel and others: Imperfections series, by Dasha

[beatrice_otter]

Fandom: Sentinel, Atlantis, Monk, Highlander, due South, others
Characters/Pairings: Blair Sandburg, Jim Ellison, a whole grab-bag of others from other series depending on which story in the series you are reading.
Rating: PG-13
Length: around 300k for the whole series
Creator Links: dasha_mte, dashamte, Cascade Library, a bunch of other places.
Theme: Sentinel AU, novel-length, crossover, casefic, fandom classic, old fandoms, plotty fic, worldbuilding

Summary: If Blair's washing out of the guide program, who's taking care of Jim?

Reccer's Notes: If you're wondering "how come she's reccing a Sentinel fic for a Sentinel AU category?" it's because this is one of the biggest and best known mega-crossovers in which one (or more) character from a particuar show is a Sentinel who just happens to cross paths with Jim and Blair. It's popular for a reason; the stories in this series are generally well-written, great worldbuilding on what "a world where Sentinels and Guides are known." And I think it is a more real look at what the world might be like than a lot of Sentinel AUs are. It's neither a dystopia nor a paradise, with lots of thought put into things like "what might the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regs be like for sentinels? What are the legal limits on the police use of Sentinel surveillance?" And so on and so forth. It's also a thoughtful look at the aftermath of abuse and recovery from abuse. In addition, there are a series of great cases that build into one overarching case that ties everything together. And there were so many different fandoms, there was something for everyone. I've only listed the major crossovers.

Fanwork Links: Ahahahaha. Unfortunately, this series got posted in dribs and drabs on a variety of archives. If you, like me, prefer reading on AO3 where you can download fics to archive them easily, the first nine main-line (focusing on Jim and Blair) stories are here at AO3
The first nine stories plus (I THINK) all of the ones focusing on the crossover characters are here
The tenth mainline story, which really is a stand-alone which crosses over with Murder, She Wrote, is here.
I think that's everything?

Sentinel/Star Trek: Awaiting Us In Space

[beatrice_otter]

Fandom: The Sentinel/Star Trek
Characters/Pairings: Jim/Blair
Rating: Explicit
Length: 19k words
Creator Links: Laura JV
Theme: Sentinel AUs, fusion, arranged marriage, worldbuilding, old fandoms

Summary: A Sentinel AU, set in the Star Trek universe. A human starship captain and his Vulcan Guide...his heterosexual Vulcan Guide.

Reccer's Notes: Okay, this is technically Jim and Blair, but Blair especially is so different (being a Vulcan) that you can just read them as OCs. This fic also has some interesting worldbuilding, taking the sexual aspect of "sentinel/guide bonding" that is so common in Sentinel fic and asking what that would look like with Vulcans involved, and also what the heck happens to the Vulcans who aren't mated when they hit Pon Farr, and other related questions.  If you want Sentinels In Space, this fic is for you.

(Okay, so technically there is no marriage in this fic.  But.  Two people form a permanent legal, emotional, and sexual relationship where they live together and support each other and sleep together and it's a permanent, legally-recognized relationship ... it's basically a marriage.)

Fanwork Links: Awaiting Us In Space.

Downton Abbey: Thomas and the Society of Sentinels, by Alex 51324

[beatrice_otter]

Fandom: Downton Abbey
Characters/Pairings: Thomas Barrow/OC
Rating: Teen
Length: 133k words
Creator Links: Alex51324 
Theme: Sentinel AU, worldbuilding, canon LGBTQ characters, 

Summary: After being arrested for gross indecency with another male person, Thomas Barrow learns that he has a natural gift which will plunge him into a startlingly different society which exists in parallel with the one in which he has lived his life until now. He’s not entirely sure whether or not that’s a good thing...

Diverges from canon toward the end of series 3 (3x07 UK or 3x06 US)

Reccer's Notes: Again, some really interesting worldbuilding on "what the world might be like if Sentinels and Guides were known." Also, I really like how Alex handles Thomas' character and what makes him the way he is, and how he would adapt (or fail to adapt) to radically different circumstances.

Fanwork Links: Thomas and the Society of Sentinels

Hawai'i Five-O: The 'Uhane Series by Sealie

[gritsinmisery]

Fandom: Hawai'i Five-O
Characters/Pairings: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Rating: G to PG-13 
Length: 158,560 in 13 works
Creator Links: Sealie on AO3
Theme: Sentinel AUs

Summary: "Okay, I read Samantha Kathy’s TS fusion and I was entranced, and then I wrote a [series of] stor[ies]."

Reccer's Notes: Since we like both country and western (/"The Blues Brothers" movie) here's a version where Danny is the Sentinel and Steve is the Guide. The original story in the series starts out with Steve as an unacknowledged Guide because in this 'verse Guides are separated and cocooned from an early age, and none of his rough-and-tumble accomplishments -- high school quarterback, Navy SEAL, task force leader -- would have been allowed. The first story starts with a case to the island where future Guides are sequestered and trained, and continues through fics as varied as curtain-hanging with pets, Steve's "outing" as a Guide, and various attempts to stay out of the hands of the world-wide Sentinel organization that isn't exactly on the up-and-up. An older Blair and Jim put in appearances in some of the later stories in the series.

The author does warn for, and I want to emphasize, various British-isms. While some of them are easily passed over (the ubiquitous British extra "u" for example) some others, like having Steve remember studying for a standardized British musical-accomplishment level test that does not exist in the US, are very hard to overlook (and did I not have British friends with instrument-playing children, I would have been completely confused as to WTF.)

Fanwork Links: The 'Uhane series on AO3 by Sealie

Hockey RPF: Right on the Limits by thehoyden

[meretricula]

Fandom: Hockey RPF
Characters/Pairings: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Rating: Explicit
Length: 20k
Creator Links: thehoyden
Theme: Sentinel AUs, fandom classics, cuddling snuggling & bed-sharing, friends to lovers

Summary: Sidney groans, because this is ridiculous. “I think I’m having an allergic reaction,” he says.

Reccer's Notes: This is the first and greatest thing that comes to mind when I think of Sentinel AUs. A perfect blend of hurt/comfort, Made For Each Other, and domestic fluff.

Fanwork Links: Right on the Limits