I love good guys

hlh_shortcuts '25 continues releasing its exchange stories -- 16 now available; 4 yet to go -- and the one written for my prompt slate revealed yesterday:

"Metaphorically Speaking" (anonymous at this time)
G, gen
~4K words
Richie, Angie, mention of Joe

This story delivers a familiar, favorite concept -- Angie encountering Richie after he let her believe he was dead -- in a fresh new way with "page-turner" energy. Enough years have passed that Richie's failure to age cannot be ignored or laughed off; not enough years have passed that he can pose as his own son or grandson. Angie is in the midst of a mess on top of a mess, emotionally vulnerable while still immensely strong, and this shock doesn't go down easy.

The author worked hard to include a lot of things I like, quietly stuffing character-rounding and world-building into the cracks between speech and action.

Dear hlh_shortcuts author,

Thank you for sharing your Highlander love and creativity this year!

TLDR: My personal tip-top favorites are: gen; PG-13 and below; first through third seasons; Duncan, Tessa, Richie, Darius; Duncan/Tessa; choosing the hard right over the easy wrong; choosing to care and to hope; the power of friendship; history, whether as setting or reference; grief and bereavement; fighting the good fight; and the immortality fantasy as hyperbole/metaphor for real life. I also enjoy many other things, so it's fine if none of these click for you!

No need to read on unless you really want to. This post is long. :-D

( Likes, dislikes, crossovers & character-specific prompts )

Again, thank you! Whatever you love best in HL, celebrate that, and I'm sure to enjoy it.

In case anyone here missed the news elsewhere, killabeez announced hlh_shortcuts 2025, the annual Highlander fanfiction exchange on the AO3. I'm glad to have it to look forward to. I loved to read it for years before I began writing for it, and since I started writing for it, I've written some things that I'm very satisfied with.

Sign-ups will be October 1-11, with assignments out by October 14, and submissions due December 15. As usual, the first story will be revealed on December 20, as the winter solstice is Duncan's birthday, and subsequent stories will be revealed a few per day as long as they last, to be followed by the author guessing game.

We had 20 new Highlander stories in hlh_shortcuts this year. Find them all on the AO3.

Here are some that I, personally, subjectively, enjoyed most:

"Moondance or A Series of Extraordinary Events" by hafital
G, gen; ~19K words
Joyful. This story wraps a final sci-fi Gathering apocalypse -- starring Richie and Methos -- around many independent but threaded shorter missing-scene stories from throughout canon and beyond -- starring Richie and Angie, Richie and Tessa, Richie and May-Ling, Richie and etc. -- and not only delivers a happy ending at the last, but is again and again joyful and uplifting throughout. Each of the embedded stories would be lovely on its own. Yet they're strung like pearls on a necklace, progressing in a line, in a circle, in an orbit. It's more than its parts.

"Duo" by jasmasson
G, m/m; ~3K words
Amusing. A sensible outsider perspective delivers grins as it clashes with not-at-all sensible run-a-day HL canon in the persons of Duncan, Methos, and a hunter. The narrative packs satisfying, appropriately worded, canon references that fly over the head of the perspective character straight to the audience.

"Guests for the Weekend" by Annavere
G, gen; ~8K words
Unexpected. I was taken by surprise by how well this combination of characters -- Amanda, Anne, Richie -- came together in this off-to-the-side whodunnit romp of a mini-vacation for Anne, where the stakes are set by thieves so incompetent and security precautions so lacking that Amanda feels embarrassed and Richie plays the bait.

"Holy Ground" by merriman
G, gen; ~2K words
Historical. Have a Darius-lives scenario, with Methos and early Icelandic history. You're welcome. Bonus: Rumination on how the "Light Quickening" did and didn't do the work of reforming Darius, which he must have thought on often, and which I have opinions about.

Richie & Connor:

"In Good Company" by Teratornis
G, gen; ~6K words
Cathartic. Structured mostly as an action scene, a dojo workout, this piece has Richie process some of his many emotions in the wake of Tessa's death, his own immortality, and his encounter with Annie Devlin.

"Cousin's Retreat" by Sharpest_Asp
G, gen; ~1K words
Companionable. Richie gets to train with Connor for a while, as the audience gets to enjoy comparisons and contrasts between our two MacLeods, and the conviction that Richie is an adopted son of this clan.

Randi:

"The Pitch" by havocthecat
G, gen; ~2K words
Constructive. This piece worldbuilds around Randi across a decade, keeping her consistently canonical as it kneads and stretches her more realistic first-season world until it merges seamlessly with the more fantastic late-season canon, landing her as if fated in Joe's lap as he works to reform the Watchers.

"Behind the Story" by coralysendria
Unrated, gen, ~2K words
Transporting. Step into the heart of second season with the groundedness of first season. Tessa's murder is news; it's part of Randi's job. Tessa is also someone she knew; it's emotionally jarring, and emotion is not something Randi is particularly good at, so she gropes through the culturally prescribed motions until she finds her way to Richie, grieving, stunned, alone. We see Tessa through both of their eyes, Richie in that moment through Randi's eyes, and the world that was canon in those days as it must have been.

If you're planning to sign up for hlh_shortcuts '24, be sure to get it in by 7:00pm Central Time tomorrow, Saturday, October 19. (That's 4:00pm Alaska Time, 5:00pm Pacific Time, 8:00pm Eastern Time, and 1:00am Sunday in the UK.)

Correction, 7:32pm: The AO3 sign-up page and Discord say midnight on October 20. Only the graphic banner on DW says 7pm on October 19; the DW information is mistaken.