HLH_Shortcuts '25 recommendations

[brightknightie]

It took a while, but I'm ready to share my own favorite stories from hlh_shortcuts '25, the annual Highlander fanfiction exchange that releases on the winter solstice (because that is Duncan's birthday). Of course your tastes may differ, so please check out the whole collection and find your joy!


"Metaphorically Speaking" (~4K words, G, gen; Riche, Angie) by argentum_ls
Please let me shout-out again the story written for my own match request this year. This story delivers a familiar, favorite concept -- Angie encountering Richie after he let her believe he was dead -- in a fresh new way at an energizing distance. Angie is in a very vulnerable place while still immensely strong; the shock doesn't go down easy.

"Orogenesis" (~12K words, G, m/m; Duncan, Methos) by Teratornis
With a gentle pace and layered metaphors, this story gives Duncan a wholly new interest -- geology -- in a peaceful time, and digs into who Duncan can be when he is not fighting for his life and the lives of those he loves. The show never did much to explore his interests. This piece is about reunion, renewal, growth, and hope.

"Closing Up Shop" (~1K words, G, gen; Joe, Rachel) by Merfilly
The idea of Rachel E. and a younger Joe meeting is a delight. This story follows close on the first movie, so we get a competent, careful Rachel acting on behalf of Connor and a cautious, careful Joe acting on behalf of the pre-Horton Watchers. I particularly enjoy the parallelism, perhaps foreshadowing, of a scene many years later in the series.

"Kastagir's Hotel Américain" (~3K words, G, f/f; Amanda, Kastigir, Rachel, Rebecca) by Pennywashburne
This setting is vibrant and an assortment of vivid characters with assorted motivations float downstream into it. Amanda is pulling off a lighter caper while others pull off a more serious operation that is not fully revealed until the end, and we get to see Rachel E. when she's an active young woman, dealing with Connor's immortal friends on her own.

"The Road Forward" (~1K, G, gen; Richie, Connor) by Havocthecat
It's New Year's Eve 1999, and Richie and Connor are celebrating and remembering. Bringing these characters together in this specific part of their experiences is resonant, with melancholic hope and hopeful regret running both directions, over and around references to all Richie's canonical loved ones. His thoughts of Tessa and Angie particularly strike home with me.


(I, of course, wrote "Hakobore" (~6K, G, gen; Duncan, Methos, Midori), in which Duncan takes his damaged katana to Japan for repair.)

Comments

[teratornis]

Thank you for the rec on my story! Also wonderful to have a chance to revisit the other stories here, I really enjoyed all the ones you've recommended here.

[brightknightie]

You're welcome! And I'm glad to know you also enjoyed these. :-)

[senmut]

I loved my gift, and thank you for the shout out! Also, I need to go reread yours now; I think it revealed on a very hectic day for me.

[brightknightie]

You're welcome for the shout-out! Thank you for asking for your gift, so we could all enjoy it. ;-)

And thank you for reading and commenting on my story. ♥

[annavere]

I am often reliant on fic to help me form attachments to the film characters, and this year was wonderful for introducing me to all the potential of Rachel Ellenstein. I love how each year some unexpected overlap occurs in theme and character choice and the stories were so good this year.

[brightknightie]

We do often see trends in each year's HLH_Shortcuts story crop! Or, at least, I frequently think I see trends... ;-)

I'm delighted to hear that this year's stories helped bring Rachel E. into focus for you, enriching the HL world. The first time I saw the original movie, it was a trimmed version, lacking the WWII flashback to Connor and child!Rachel, so she is also someone I learned to integrate into my view only after I found the fandom and learned more.

[argentum_ls]

Excellent list, and, it remains a pleasure to have written for you :)

[brightknightie]

Thank you -- and thank you! ;-D

[havocthecat]

Thank you so much for this rec! I love Richie's relationships, because he loves people so much. One of the things I desperately wanted for the show was to show him, not as Duncan 2.0, but on a deliberate, considered break from the game, settled down with someone, and with an adopted kid. Or a pack of adopted kids, taking care of as many as he could so they didn't have a life like he did. It doesn't have to be permanent, it just has to be good to hold onto while he can.

Possibilities for future Shortcuts, I suppose!

[brightknightie]

You're welcome! I enjoyed the story each time I read it.

Your description here made me think about how the show very specifically and unimaginatively targeted this in "Line of Fire," when the flashbacks are to Duncan trying to do that very thing himself, settling down with Little Deer and her son and living a peaceful life, yet in the present day Duncan -- as an unfortunate mouthpiece for TPTB and the "reset button" necessities of such a show in that era -- is made to browbeat Richie out of it in the grim certainty that the universe will necessarily crush Richie and Donna and her daughter as it crushed Duncan and Little Deer and her son. I feel that there is irony in the double-ply "Duncan 2.0"ness in that episode, in that Richie is denied that possible route in life even though Duncan and Little Deer's tragedy had nothing to do with immortality. (And neither did Tessa's, for that matter. Or Heather's.)

Yes, indeed, possibilities for future Shortcuts!

[pennywashburne]

Thank you for your kind words! It's so cool that you take time to rec works every year. I went back through past lists, and now I'm gonna have to go do some rereading.
There's such great stuff every year.

[brightknightie]

You're welcome, and thank you! Yes, I read HLH_Shortcuts for many years on LJ before it moved to the AO3 and I began participating as a writer, and there's always something very appealing, and usually many things.