Highlander Holiday Shortcuts 2025

[teratornis]

hlh_shortcuts has concluded for the year, and everyone's stories are live and no longer anonymous. This is my third time participating, and it was, as has been the case for me the past couple of years, a ton of fun. It's always exciting to see what people request, and what people come up with to write.

For my story this year, I wrote:

Orogenesis (12213 words) by Teratornis
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duncan MacLeod/Methos (Highlander), Duncan MacLeod & Methos (Highlander)
Characters: Duncan MacLeod, Methos (Highlander)
Additional Tags: Camping, Geology, Conversations, Reunions, Developing Relationship
Series: Part 18 of Gift Fic
Summary: Orogenesis — A series of geological processes caused when two tectonic plates repeatedly collide, resulting in the formation of mountain ranges.

Sometimes you find peace in a pile of rocks.

I'd had sort of the vague idea for this story for quite some time. There's a line in the episode Vendetta where the Immortal of the Week, Benny Carbassa, asks MacLeod, "What's with the rocks?", in reference to the river rocks he keeps on his coffee table in the loft, and MacLeod responds with simply, "I like rocks." I'd made note of that. . . eh, on some rewatch within the last year or so, and thought it might be fun to expand on that, but I didn't have any solid plans, and it was one of those ideas I wasn't sure I'd ever really get around to.

And then I got killabeez for Shortcuts, and there was something in the requests about cave stories, and my brain just took off with that. What better opportunity to write about geology, after all?

I am a dabbler in many fields, but geology has never been one of my focuses. Paleontology has been, and there's a whole lot of overlap there, so I had some basics to work with, but this fic definitely required a fair amount of research. I knew going in that I wanted it to feature the Appalachian Mountains, they're a formation I have been intrigued by for quite some time. They're so unimaginably ancient, and a perfect setting for a story of this nature.

(And on a personal note, a deceased friend loved them very dearly, once.)

So, hey, good starting point. I glanced around at various places along the Appalachian Mountains that would be good to set this, and ended up choosing Smoky Mountains partially because I've heard more about it (and its caves) than most other regions, and because one of the sources I found and spent a bunch of time perusing was focused mostly on that area.

The title for this story presented itself while I was researching. . . well, orogenesis. I was originally going to call the piece Plate Tectonics, but Orogenesis was just such a perfect encapsulation of what I was trying to convey.

Once I had a loose knowledge base to work with, the rest of writing was my usual 'wing it and see how things fall out' method. There was some reworking for the cave scene, and some of the conversations prior to that were also reworked to better lead up to that scene (and the final one), but this story didn't change shape a whole lot from beginning-of-process to end. It just got refined and nudged in certain directions.

Over all it was a joy to write, and I'm really happy with it. I love writing about science, and nature, and the world, and sticking little pieces of how I feel about it into stories like this. I loved writing this relationship, and playing with the metaphors in this story.

And now I have kind of a two nickels thing going with this and Someplace New and Someplace Old, my first Shortcuts piece from two years ago. I don't always write stories about Immortals going to a national park to see something much older than they are that ends in a sunrise, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

Or maybe not. Maybe I'll do it again, because damn if it's not a theme I love.

Anyway.

I also received a very fun story this year:

Tales of SG-1 (9416 words) by Morgyn Leri
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Highlander: The Series, Stargate SG-1, Underworld (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Sam Carter & Daniel Jackson & Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter & Virág (Original Character), Daniel Jackson & Darius (Highlander), Jack O'Neill & Silas (Highlander), Jack O'Neill & Joe Dawson, Duncan MacLeod/Tessa Noel, Jacob Carter & Sam Carter, Jacob Carter & Sarolt (Original Character)
Characters: Sam Carter (Stargate), Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Darius (Highlander), Silas (Highlander), Methos (Highlander), Lucian (Underworld), Catherine Langford, Virág (Original Character), Gautwin (Original Character), Tessa Noel, Duncan MacLeod, Joe Dawson, Sha're | Amaunet, Jacob Carter, George Hammond (Stargate)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Immortals, immortals of various flavors, Ascended Daniel Jackson, Canon is a useful starting point, Immortal Jack O'Neill, Lycan Sam Carter, Do Not Underestimate A Lycan's Desire to Fuck Up Your Shit, Teal'c is Sir Not Appearing In This Fic, (I wanted to keep him but the circumstances of the altering of canon said no), Canon-Typical Violence
Summary: A collection of insights into the lives of three immortals - Immortal, Ascended, Lycan - who all end up at the SGC, and the lives of those around them that are changed because of them.

I mentioned in one of my comments on this piece that it feels like almost a sample platter of a massive, sprawling AU that has so many fascinating ramifications on all three of the settings involved. Ever chapter was an adventure, and I can see the threads spreading out from the changes in character status and relationships that would cause so many differences between canon and this AU. There are some really cool implications, and I've had a great time speculating on how that could go.

I'm incredibly here for werewolf Sam, too.

Had an excellent time with this event this year. As always, looking forward to the next one. ❤️

Comments

[annavere]

I always enjoy these behind the scenes bonus features and envy your ability to wing it and come up with something so deeply meaningful. An amazing story.

I am also pleased my deductive reasoning and pattern recognition skills were on point. "Hmmm, this anonymous fic is a lot like that Teratornis fic where Duncan took a road trip to appreciate an amazing natural wonder that's older than Methos..."

[teratornis]

I'm glad! I like writing 'em, and also reading 'em from other people. And thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!

Hahahah I was wondering if those similarities would get me caught out during guessing this time. I'm very pleased the similarities were clear enough for that, honestly.

[hafital]

Oooh, thank you for writing this. I love hearing about how the story idea evolved, and now I'm wondering how that line got in the episode, how charming. Sort of elevates that episode for me now since I find Benny a bit tedious lol. Orogenesis was probably my favorite story from this year's crop. Also, gotta love a good cave story! :D

[teratornis]

Y'know I also wonder that. I wonder if the rocks were there just as a space filler and the line was added after the fact, just as a funny toss-out bit. I also do not care for Benny, so I'm with you there. Maybe that's why I fixated on that line, since it gave me something to focus on other than Benny talking. :P

Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! ❤️