'21 HLH_Shortcuts author reveals & recs

hlh_shortcuts has officially announced its '21 author reveals (read the post). As I type this, the stories on the AO3 still show as anonymous. But I've gone and added endnotes (they've been waiting on the guessing game), and...

I wrote "Legend Has It" (G, gen, ~3K words) (Richie, Darius, Methos, Joe, Duncan) for Black_Dwarf. For a long time, I tried to write a Methos tale, but got nowhere. In the end, a story found me that has Darius arm Richie with knowledge at "Band of Brothers," such that Richie can aim in "The Messenger" and hit in "Archangel." (Many thanks to those who spoke with me when I struggled, especially Celli and Sholio!)

Find all 18 works in this year's AO3 collection. A few that most particularly struck my own personal fancy:

• "Puissance" (unrated, gen, ~14K words) (Rebecca, Methos, John, Luther, OCs) by hafital. In the present, this rich, canon-adjacent, fix-it takes down "Legacy" and returns with a better choice available to Rebecca. Yet most of the story is in the past, building -- adventure by adventure -- an origin for Rebecca and a long friendship with Methos.


• "Little Blessings" (T, multi, ~4K words) (Methos, Duncan, OCs) by pennywashburne. These widely-staggered but consecutive and cumulative vignettes each have moods and implications of their own. The uniting conceit comes as clever and charming -- that Methos is rather the darling of long-forgotten old gods and spirits, as no one else ever calls on them anymore.


• "Reflections on the Future" (G, gen, ~1K words) (Duncan, Tessa) by dkwilliams. This was written for my prompt request. It's well-timed introspection, nestled at the very start of the series, looking out across a future yet unknown.

For those with other kinds of fancies -- all of you!?! :-D -- there's a funny time-travel escapades piece, an immortals-in-space adventure caper, a crossover with Dune and one with Sherlock and one with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an in-the-time-of-COVID episodic tale, several Watcher stories, a de Valincourts wedding, and more!