Okay, um, let's try... This is spanning a fandom history that is probably longer than some people reading it have been alive, so I don't promise I can get down to five, and there will almost certainly be things that deserve to be included but aren't.
As self-promotion appears to be allowed, I'm going to start with Shepherd's Lost . Dragon Age ensemble cast with time travel and a high body count. This fic is so very me.
I am also including Ironically, Spiders because it still makes me laugh. This is very high up the list of ridiculous things we've done, along with the rest of Knight Shop as a Dragon Age shared world AU that took up permanent residence in my head. It counts as favorite for the process as much as the outcome.
There needs to be something Shenko on here, and I think Chiaroscuro was one that I loved back in my Mass Effect era.
Of all of Amethyst's fabulously enjoyable writing in Life/Hermit territory, It's gonna get me by the end of the night is probably the one that most haunts me. Sure, she's written these two happy together in various different universes, and I love many of those, but this little glimpse into a life of such exquisite loneliness that an unsuccessful assassin has become your closest connection is the one that stays with me.
Also in Life/Hermit, Countless star-glimmer delights is going on this list because I love so much of winterjan's stuff, and this is the one I think you'd most appreciate. The slow process of falling in love with a sentient spaceship that's shackled from using any form of language. (Love Charm came super close to being here instead, being the amnesia fic that made me jealous that it so beautifully hit so many of the notes I wanted in mine.)
There is a lot of recency bias here, and I am certain there are things I deeply loved and am forgetting at the moment. But you limited me to 5, which was cruel and impossible. Therefore I am going to cheat and add a couple of real throwbacks as...
Honorable mentions
I have no idea if these would hold up if I read them now, but I deeply loved them at the time I encountered them.
The Experiment #713 by Lori McDonald. X-men AU that I'm pretty sure is only available via Wayback at this point, but I loved it enough that I still remember it nearly 30 years after reading it the first time.
Donna the Vampire Slayer by Nomad. Nonsensical and beautiful crossover between West Wing and Buffy. I was only in one of these fandoms, but I adored the care and rspect with which Nomad handled this ridiculous premise and her skill at writing so many distinctive and different voices that it's also stuck with me 20+ years later.
