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.

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; good guys being good; the power of friendship; history, historical references, and flashbacks; grief and bereavement; fighting the good fight; and the struggles of the immortality fantasy as hyperbole/metaphor for real life struggles. I also enjoy other characters and story elements, so it's fine if none of those click for you.

( Likes, dislikes, crossovers & prompts )

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

I posted 7 fanfic stories this past year, which is more than I've posted in a single year since 2011. And 4 of them were "just because" stories, not for an event or exchange. I'm feeling very happy with both of those statistics! I hope to do as much or more, as well or better, this year, circumstances permitting.

( Link list of stories )

Some of the stories I'm personally happiest with from this year include: "Allow Me To Demonstrate" (BSG78) for helping me earn a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Sheba character, and for contributing an angle I feel is rare in the currently available fandom fic. Similarly with "So the Heart May Become the Eye" (D&DC) for the same with the Terri character, plus exploring evergreen unresolved canon questions. And I'm also -- though very differently -- happy with "By Zoom or Skype or Google Meet" (D&DC); this is just a deep-cut long-post-canon id-fic of our heroes all being okay at a dark time, and may, frankly, be unreadable outside that context, but it made me feel okay, too, while I was writing it, and I'm grateful. ♥

hlh_shortcuts brought us 25 new Highlander stories this year. Check them out via the community or directly in the AO3 collection. They're still anonymous, pending this fest's traditional author-guessing game.

The story gifted to me in the exchange is "Hellish Dreams of Heaven" (G, gen, ~4K words) (Richie, Duncan, Connor, Powell, Joe, Tessa). Entirely from Richie's perspective, it navigates sequentially through missing scenes fitting within -- or sparking off lines in -- "The Gathering," HL's premiere. I love the first few HL seasons best of all, as you know, and I like missing scenes and canon awareness, so this story is very comfortable in some ways. In others, though, it's rightly challenging; this early Richie's internal narrative bristles with disenchantment, between what he thinks he's found to be the ideal and the real. He wants to believe; he tells himself he's seen too much to believe... Yet he believes.

I haven't read all 25 stories, but of those I have, I'd especially like to recommend:

• "Know Where It's At" (G, gen, ~5K words) (Richie, Darius, Methos, Tessa, Duncan) -- This time-travel fix-it pulls Richie from an unspecified future moment (possibly circa "Richard Redstone," possibly later) back into his younger body in the days leading up to Darius's murder by Horton. Can Richie put right what once went wrong?
• "Friendship And Favors" (G, gen, ~2K words) (Rebecca, Darius) -- Of the two stories this year featuring Darius and Rebecca, this is the cooking one (the other is chess). This precisely-set historical interlude richly intertwines Darius and Rebecca in their shared hopes for the future: in individual students, in a community, and, implicitly, in the whole world exponentially in expanding rings. We readers know we'll lose them both too soon, but their work (and hope) will survive them.
• "The Polyglot" (G, gen, ~3K words) (Methos, Richie, Joe, Amanda) -- This fun story lightly romps through some practical, ordinary, real-world threats, nothing a sword can solve, and delivers a happy ending all around.

In the unlikely event that anyone here doesn't yet know... hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander fanfic exchange, is on! New mod, same fest. Minimum 500 words. All iterations of Highlander. Hand-matched from DW sign-ups. Posted on the AO3 (though I'm confident they'd allow DW posts for those who don't use the AO3). Anonymous releases over a week or so, followed by an author guessing game and reveals. Get the details and sign up.

Schedule:

• Sign-ups: End October 22
• Assignments sent: no later than November 2
• Stories due: December 15
• First story released: December 22

Come play with us...?

The 15 new stories in this year's hlh_shortcuts will surely all be someone's favorites! For example, I must admit that, after a few paragraphs, I backed out and chose not to read Killa's no doubt outstanding "Pleased to Meet You" because it's a crossover with Lucifer, with which I'm personally not super comfortable. We all like different things!

Here are a few stories that appealed to me, myself:

"The Jaded Journalist" by Hafital
(G, gen, ~10K words) (Randi, Duncan, Tessa, Amanda, the De Valincourts, Methos)
I already recommended this while it was anonymous. Read my recommendation. This is the "What happened to Randi?" that I've been waiting for. It starts with a missing scene from "Band of Brothers" and then runs forward, always intertwining with canon yet never changing it, with the focus always on Randi and her career. Well-written, canon-rich, unique, perfectly voiced. Fantastic!

"A Credit To Her Teacher" by Malinaldarose
(G, gen, ~5K words) (Amanda, Michelle, Duncan, Joe)
I love "What happened with Michelle?" takes, and this one is the first I recall wholly from Amanda's perspective. It explores how taking on Michelle as a student connects to Amanda's memories of Rebecca and Kenny and ensures that Amanda succeeds -- that her canonical return with no on-screen mention of Michelle just means that Michelle is doing fine and Duncan knows all about it. Rebecca would be proud.

"To Be Useful" by Adabsolutely
(G, gen, ~3K words) (Methos, Duncan, Joe, Amanda, Amy)
The main appeal in this dialogue-heavy approach is the charming conversations in familiar voices. There's also a charming throughline of helping a very confused, homeless, new immortal, and other side-quests of helping various people in various ways. Lovely theming.

"Wintersong" by Black_Dwarf
(G, gen, ~2K words) (Amanda, Methos)
If Amanda is a favorite, maybe check this out. It's an on-point Amanda voice blending flippancy and insight. Methos takes time to miss who he was when he was with Alexa and Amanda pulls him back to the present.

"The Crane and the Pine" by Mackiedockie
(unrated, gen, 13K words) (Duncan, Methos, Amanda, Joe, Mai-Ling, Connor, others)
A pleasantly sprawling modern western fully of that comfortably familiar genre, with some action, some history, and a lot of connecting. It's a crossover with Longmire, but, not knowing that series, I still had no problem reading it as pure HL.

"Add something to your fandom’s canon."

Only "add," not change, fix, override, or redirect, hmmm? Three ideas:

( HL )
( BSG78 )
( D&DC )

The gift-story written for my request slate in this year's hlh_shortcuts revealed last night. It's amazing. I recommend it to all lovers of early HL canon, anyone who has ever wanted more Randi in particular, and those who dote on the network of friendships Duncan gathers around himself.

"The Jaded Journalist" by [Hafital (name added after reveals)] (~10K words, G, gen)

The story is something I believe to be wholly new in the fandom even after three decades: a chronicle of Randi McFarland's career from "Band of Brothers" to the present. It's insightful and canon-compliant. She was there all along, every step of the way, but out of distance, out of the frame, this story posits. She was living her own rich life, not waiting for canon to keep up with her, yet though we didn't see her, our favorite characters did, from time to time. I don't want to spoil any more of it -- you can see the other characters with lines in the tags, including Amanda, the de Valicourts, and Methos, as well as Tessa and Duncan -- but it's thoroughly imagined and carefully built and touches on friendships, grief, remembering, second chances, striving for the right, and all kinds of things I like.

I'm on the way to adopting this premise as head-canon.

Interestingly, I see only 6 items in the HLH_Shortcuts '22 AO3 queue right now. We had 15 sign-ups. So I imagine there's likely a mix out there of extensions and pinch-hits. There could also be drafts, as those show only to the author and the mod. Given our excellent, experienced player base, in our mod's place, I'd be super comfortable with requested extensions, but of course no one ever plans to get sick or have an emergency and need pinch-hitting.

I wish everyone good luck with their stories! And I wish our kind mod the very best luck wrangling any pinch-hits or confusion.

Reveals are scheduled to start this Thursday, December 22.

P.S. For the author guessing game: This post reveals nothing about where my story is or is not in the queue or whether I might update or backdate its posting date at any moment.