2015 HLH fest recommendations

[brightknightie]

Of the stories that I read in this year's hlh_shortcuts, I'd recommend:

• "The Beginning of Always" by hafital (~11K words, R for violence; Methos, Duncan, Joe, Amanda, others). Set c.2003 in Seacouver, this story wraps its Duncan/Methos romance frame around a plot and themes that refresh common tropes and mine the early seasons of the series as well as the late.


• "Something Called Living" by ladysilver (~20K words, PG; crossover with Forever; Richie, Henry, Joe, Abe, others). Set c.2015 in New York, in a divergent reality where Richie lived, this story is very like what an on-screen canonical HL/F crossover would have been, if such a thing could have been (except that Jo and Duncan don't actually appear).


• "Ace in the Hole" by ladysilver (~3K words, G; Joe, Methos). Set after hours in Joe's, this is an overtly old-fashioned "argument" story, an explication of some canon points wrapped up tidily in a fun little plot, the way some used to write them back when we lived on email lists.


• "Like New" by merriman (~4K words, G; Richie, Methos). This story nips and tucks canon to make Richie meet Adam Pierson even before Duncan does, rendering Richie at his most earnest a trial to Methos, who pretends to be completely new to immortality.