teratornis | Entries tagged with highlander

LS and I have finished posting another of our Matthew McCormick main stories, and this one was a bit of a milestone for a couple of different reasons.

Small Town Mentality (30614 words) by argentum_ls, Teratornis
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Matthew McCormick, Original Characters, Gregor Powers
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, TV Logic, Minor Character Death
Series: Part 12 of Highlander: The Agent
Summary: With Talbot on leave, Matthew travels on his own to assist with a months-old serial case in a small, insular town. As he digs deeper and the murderer accelerates, he's forced to confront his assumptions about who is a friend, and who is a foe.

( Read more... )

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.( Read more... )

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

Current Music: Albion - Syr

argentum_ls and I wrapped up another one of our Highlander: The Agent stories last night! This is the fifth in the series, which puts us at the halfway mark for what we've got planned. We've been posting these stories for almost a year now, and working on them for almost two, which is wild to think about.

Come to Light (31757 words) by argentum_ls, Teratornis
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Matthew McCormick & Original Character(s)
Characters: Matthew McCormick, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Implied/Referenced Character Death, TV Logic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, secrecy
Series: Part 10 of Highlander: The Agent
Summary: A killer Matthew failed to stop decades ago resurfaces, and his secrecy regarding the depths of his connection to the investigation threatens his partnership with Talbot.

As usual, some stuff about the process of this story:( Read more... )

Current Music: Critical Role C4: Knives and Thorns

Back on the exchange rounds, I participated in this year's Crossworks exchange, and had a great time with it.

I don't believe it happened last year, so I was unfamiliar with it until this year, but I was excited to learn about it. Crossovers and fusions allow for such cool possibilities. Especially when it comes to the sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural sort of stuff I tend to enjoy, the worldbuilding alone is great to explore. And there's always the fun that comes with throwing characters from separate canons at each other and seeing where that goes, both in terms of character interactions and how each reacts to the problems inherent in other settings. There's a lot of great stuff to be explored with crossovers.

I went. . . a little over the top with signups. I requested somewhere around maybe 30 fandoms, in various potential configurations, and offered on around that many again. I don't know the actual count, it's a lot.

I was pretty thrilled with the assignment I ended up getting, and with the gift.

( Read more... )

Even outside of these two stories, it was a lot of fun to see what sort of crossovers people were requesting, and what people ended up posting. There are so many creative combinations to see, even among fandoms I'm not a part of.

Over all a super fun exchange experience, and definitely one I'd like to participate in again in the future.

argentum_ls and I have just finished up the fourth main story in our Highlander: The Agent series, which is wild to me. I don't think either of us completely expected this series to get so extensive when we started it, but we're still having a great time with it.

Interference (27311 words) by argentum_ls, Teratornis
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Matthew McCormick & Original Characters
Characters: Matthew McCormick, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Case Fic, TV Logic, Kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Torture, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death
Series: Part 8 of Highlander: The Agent
Summary: Matthew and Talbot take on a case investigating a serial killer whose victims were all carrying swords at the times of their deaths. It should be the kind of case they're well prepared to handle, until an unexpected encounter proves just how dangerous this killer can be, even to an Immortal.

And some stuff about the process below the cut:( Read more... )

Current Music: Death to Chronos - Hades II soundtrack

argentum_ls and I have been continuing to work on and post our Highlander: The Agent series, a collection of stories focusing on Matthew McCormick, post-canon. We've been posting weekly for more than six months now (closer to seven, really), and we just wrapped up the third main story last night:

People Like Us (30641 words) by argentum_ls, Teratornis
Chapters: 11/11
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Matthew McCormick, Original Characters, Reverend Bell, Derek Worth
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Canon-Typical Violence, Beheading, Minor Character Death, TV Logic
Series: Part 6 of Highlander: The Agent
Summary: While investigating a string of murders in Louisiana, Matthew gets an unexpected opportunity to reconcile some more of the mistakes of his own past.

So I wanted to talk about the process a little bit.( Read more... )

Current Music: In Your Hands - Gris OST

So for about the last year,

argentum_ls and I have been working on a collaborative series featuring Highlander character Matthew McCormick. We got to chatting one day a while back about the supposed spin-off series that character might have featured in, and what that might have looked like. I ended up writing a scene that got stuck in my head, and. . .

Well, now we're like a dozen stories deep and that first scene I wrote is buried somewhere in story six or some craziness like that. That sixth story was originally going to be the first one, I think, but we didn't even know we were going to do a series at that point, much less such an extensive one. We're both very much the sort of people who start writing something just to see what happens and roll with it from there, chasing the inspiration. The inspiration just. . . went a lot further than initially anticipated.

So I wrote that story, and then I wrote another story, and then we just sort of kept going, until it became apparent those two stories - and some of the stories Argentum had started hammering out as well - weren't destined to be the first in the series.

At that point I started Close to Home.( Read more... )

Current Music: Southern Winds - Sergio Caminita

Gotten from

argentum_ls. Looked like fun. Gonna be Highlander all the way down.

Rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.

1. The Wake of the Flood - Highlander/Horizon Zero Dawn
While exploring a bunker that's been sealed since the time of the Old Ones, Aloy discovers an unnaturally well-preserved body that, to her shock, returns to life.
Now unexpectedly accompanied by an immortal man from the distant past, Aloy strives to learn about him and about a history she's only glimpsed before, while introducing him to a world that bears little resemblance to the one he remembers. 43,000 words. 5,228 hits.

2. We Move Forward - Highlander
Richie follows an illusion to the racetrack, and MacLeod follows Richie. Methos and Joe arrive in time to avert one disaster, but find themselves faced with more than they ever could have bargained for.
Or, Yet Another Archangel Reinterpretation. 104,857 words. 189 kudos.

3. Someplace New and Someplace Old - Highlander
Methos has taken an unexpected trip to Utah. MacLeod and Joe decide to see what he's up to. 7,216 words. 30 comments.

4. Magnetic - Highlander
MacLeod is introduced to a surprising new side-effect of a recent quickening. 1,490 words. 10 bookmarks.

5. We Move Forward Postlude: Conversations with Joe - Highlander
In the wake of the events of We Move Forward, Joe finally has a chance to really talk with his immortals. 8,173 words.

6. Grief Like Drowning - Highlander
How do you live with watching someone you love die? 296 words.

My fanfic obsessions are very obvious with this one.

Seen from

argentum_ls and

annavere, and thought it looked fun. I was pretty clear on what to use for the first four, but I struggled with which to put for five. Can't promise it wouldn't be something different next week, but that's not really a bad thing.

TV questions: pick your five favourite TV shows (in no particular order) and answer the following questions. Don’t cheat!

Leverage
Person of Interest
Highlander
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Sanctuary

( 19 Questions )

My Horizon Zero Dawn/Highlander crossover story has been updating weekly for a couple of months now, and I'm over the halfway mark with it at this point (24k words, 10/19 chapters).

I am absolutely blown away by the reception this story has received so far. I fully expected to get like five people reading this on and off, but there have been so many people reading, from both fandoms, who seem so enthusiastic about it. It's been a real joy to share each chapter and to see what people think. I continue to be pretty excited about this crossover, from both a character development and worldbuilding point of view, and I'm really excited to keep posting the rest of it.

Don't know if I'll write more for this universe at this point, but I'd like to and I certainly have a history of plot bunnies. I'll have to see.

The Wake of the Flood on AO3

. . . And my E key fell off my laptop keyboard. Typing is certainly a little more complicated than normal right now.

Current Music: Adventure Beyond - Alexander Nakarada

It took a little longer than I had anticipated to get this story squared away, but it's finally ready to start posting, and I am wildly excited about it.

The Wake of the Flood
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Fandom: Horizon (Video Games), Highlander: The Series
Relationships: Aloy (Horizon) & Methos (Highlander)
Characters: Aloy (Horizon), Methos (Highlander), Background Original Characters
Additional Tags: Temporary Character Death, Conversations, Explanations, Culture Shock, Blood and Injury, Post-Apocalypse, Travel, Developing Friendships, Author has not played Forbidden West, Individual chapters contain individual warnings, Happy Ending, Immortals in the future
Chapters: 2/19
Summary:
While exploring a bunker that's been sealed since the time of the Old Ones, Aloy discovers an unnaturally well-preserved body that, to her shock, returns to life.

Now unexpectedly accompanied by an immortal man from the distant past, Aloy strives to learn about him and about a history she's only glimpsed before, while introducing him to a world that bears little resemblance to the one he remembers.

I've had the seeds for this story for quite a while, but I finally got especially inspired to write it back in November, and apparently I was excited enough about it that I finished the first draft in about a week. I'm still not entirely sure how I pulled that off.

It has undergone some serious revisions since then, but my god was it fun. The Horizon setting absolutely fascinates me, and what's better than tossing an immortal into a strange but fascinating setting? I had a great time figuring out how these settings and characters would interact with one another, and what the culture of immortals would look like in the world of Horizon. All around just a lot of fun to work on.

I've got the first two chapters up, and after this I'll be posting a new one every Sunday. I'm very excited about it.

Current Music: Interstellar Soundtrack

Grief
Fandom: Highlander
Works: 5
Words: 7,986

This is one of those series that I'll work on in fits and starts whenever inspiration strikes. The pieces in it are in chronological order, and can mostly stand on their own. They're connected more by theme than anything else, that theme being, unsurprisingly, grief.

This is one of the few projects of mine that started with a title, rather than an idea for the story itself. Grief like an Old Friend was the first piece I wrote, despite being the current last piece in the series, starting from the title and working the story itself out from there. For a few of the others, the titles came before the story itself as well, and the series built up from there.

Given the theme, this is a very personal series. Parts of it draw very heavily from my own experiences. Because of that, it's mostly been very cathartic to write, and having these stories around is consistently something of a comfort to me.

This series doesn't really have an end-point, given the relative stand-alone nature of the stories in it. I'll probably just keep adding pieces to it whenever inspiration for one strikes. I have a couple more ideas that I want to write down at some point, and we'll see where it goes from there.

Current Music: Myrkur - Tor i Helheim

Just a bit of a spotlight for some stories of varying fandoms that have stood out to me in the last few months.

A Grand Romp, by

moon_custafer
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen and Up
Words: 3,724
A series of short vignettes centering around Hugh Fitzcairn. I've found every chapter of this to be an absolute delight, and the author writes and incredible Fitzcairn. I laughed aloud at several parts of this collection of tales. Most of the dialogue especially is truly excellent.

Copper Prayer, by

AedenSolus
Fandom: Warhammer 40k
Rating: Not Rated
Words: 70,695
I'm a bit biased on this one, Aeden and I have been good friends for over a decade. That being said, I am not in the Warhammer 40k fandom in any way. I know very little about the setting, and this story is incredibly engaging and compelling despite the fact that I went in pretty much canon-blind. The characters (all original) are magnificent, the story is a ton of fun, and it's really just a great tale all around.

Destination Everywhere, by

LithiumDoll
Fandom: Calvin & Hobbes
Rating: General Audiences
Words: 490
A brief and absolutely wonderful story featuring a college-age Calvin. I thought this little tale was so perfectly in keeping with the feeling of the Calvin and Hobbes comics. I first read this a number of months ago, and I still think about the last line of it especially on the regular.

The Rubicon, by

GallusRostromegalus
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Words: 9,615
A really incredible look at a force-sensitive child whose parents keep them from the Jedi, and what happens when they truly come into their abilities without any sort of support or training. This story is a really hard read at points, but it's so beautifully written, and has some really fascinating worldbuilding and character development.

Only Violets are Blue, by

misura
Fandom: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - T. Kingfisher
Rating: Teen and Up
Words: 154
A very brief story that made me laugh aloud the first time I read it, and continues to make me snicker whenever I give it a reread. Honestly, what retail worker doesn't fantasize about becoming a notorious assassin on occasion?

Current Music: Into the Breach Original Soundtrack

So. . . I am very new to being an active participant in fandom, rather than just a lurker, very new to DW, and as a result very new to events like Shortcuts. I learned about this event at the eleventh hour after writing Highlander fic fairly intensively for about a year (thank you again Pennywashburne for telling me about it!). I had the best time, and I've loved getting to talk to a few more people about Highlander and writing in general because of my involvement. I definitely plan to participate again in the future.

In any case, I've seen a few people talking about their entries now that reveals have happened, and I figured I'd do the same. I wrote:

Someplace New and Someplace Old
7,216 words
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Joe Dawson & Methos & Duncan MacLeod
Characters: Joe Dawson, Duncan MacLeod, Methos (Highlander)
Additional Tags: Road Trips, Camping, Friendship

I actually got so excited about this story and this event that I finished the first draft less than a week after we received our recipients. It definitely underwent some extensive edits and rewriting after that, but I loved doing it. I'd had a vague idea to write about Pando for probably months before this, and I was so thrilled that it fit really well with some of the themes I was given to work with. It's always a pleasure to write from Joe's perspective, as well, he's very reminiscent of some good people in my life.

I don't actually know anybody personally who's ever seen Highlander, so it's been such a pleasure to dive into this event and have a chance to interact more with other fans. It's been great to read through all the other stories written for the event, and I'm planning on perusing the archives of the other participants when I get the chance.

Profile

teratornis

April 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Matthew McCormick Project: Small Town Mentality
Highlander Holiday Shortcuts 2025
Matthew McCormick Project: Come to Light
Crossworks 2025
Matthew McCormick Project: Interference
Matthew McCormick Project: People Like Us
Matthew McCormick Project: Close to Home
Fic Stats Meme
TV Question Meme
The Wake of the Flood: Halfway!
It Begins! Highlander/Horizon Crossover Fic
Series: Grief
Some Recent(ish) Fic Recs
HLH Shortcuts (and reveal!)

Style Credit

Base style: Leftovers by sforzinda
Theme: Elegant Brown by krja

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated 12 April 2026 09:12