Event: Highlander Shortcuts
Jan. 6th, 2026 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
argentum_lsAnd that's a wrap on another year of ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hlh_shortcuts! This is my favorite exchange and the only one on my docket that's a "must do" every year.
This year, I wrote "Metaphorically Speaking" forbrightknightie.
As stories go, this is one of my odder ones ...
Several years ago, I had a busy fall semester coming up (they're always busy, but this one was going to be a doozy), so I wanted to get a jump on my Shortcut's assignment. I knew Amand-r, the then mod, made an effort to rotate assignments so participants didn't write for the same people every year. I hadn't yet been matched to BK and figured this would finally be my year! Using her former signups as a guide, I came up with the basic idea for the story: Richie stopping to help a stranded motorist, and discovering it was Angie.
Then, I wasn't matched with BK.
So the story went into the WiP's folder and was left to germinate.
When the match finally landed this year, I was so excited! Here, I would be able to go into the event with a story that was almost completed, which would let me focus on really polishing it.
But, it turns out, that stories that are left in WiP's folders don't actually grow new words :( In my head, the story was nearly finished. In reality, it was far from it.
The biggest issue is that, while I had Angie and Richie on the road, I didn't know where either of them were going, or why. I also didn't know when the story was set. Originally, it was 10 years post-canon, then changed to 15.
teratornis and I discussed several ideas, including: Richie and Angie riding off together, Richie and Angie going to Seacouver and moving in (platonically) together, and Richie telling his secrets and then suggesting that Angie become his Watcher. None of these felt right -- which means, at one point, I was set to try all of them and have the story end with options. Ya know, because the road they were on could go several different ways?
As the deadline ticked nearer, I had to figure out my own direction. I started asking the hard questions, like "why are they here?" and "how do I address Richie's lack-of-aging?" and "why would Angie think her mom would greet her in the afterlife if she was also planning to move in with her?" (a continuity error I discovered very late).
Slowly, details started to take shape and the waveforms of potential collapsed. By this point, I'd also been playing with roads, the setting sun, and various descriptions of the car's interior so long that I was >< this close to titling the story "Heavy-handed Metaphors."
Finally, I found some of the answers I needed and got everything hammered into shape. I even managed to tone the title down to one slightly less sarcastic, though still applicable. And then it was just a matter of polishing while waiting for reveals. (And then thinking of additional edits in the hours after. Alas, that's how it goes.)
For my gift, I received: The Road Forward by havocthecat.
This is a such a delightfully upbeat story, though it manages to weave in just enough melancholy that the optimism isn't immediately obvious. Richie and Connor celebrate the new millennium together (as they should, since of course the both survived to see it), and it's such a delight to see them meaningfully interact in a way that isn't about the Game. Since I was working with Richie and Angie in my own story, it was also wonderful to see another perspective on where they had ended up and why.
hlh_shortcuts! This is my favorite exchange and the only one on my docket that's a "must do" every year.This year, I wrote "Metaphorically Speaking" for
brightknightie.Metaphorically Speaking - 3854 words - Richie & Angie - While enroute to start a new life, a roadside breakdown changes Richie’s plans.
As stories go, this is one of my odder ones ...
Several years ago, I had a busy fall semester coming up (they're always busy, but this one was going to be a doozy), so I wanted to get a jump on my Shortcut's assignment. I knew Amand-r, the then mod, made an effort to rotate assignments so participants didn't write for the same people every year. I hadn't yet been matched to BK and figured this would finally be my year! Using her former signups as a guide, I came up with the basic idea for the story: Richie stopping to help a stranded motorist, and discovering it was Angie.
Then, I wasn't matched with BK.
So the story went into the WiP's folder and was left to germinate.
When the match finally landed this year, I was so excited! Here, I would be able to go into the event with a story that was almost completed, which would let me focus on really polishing it.
But, it turns out, that stories that are left in WiP's folders don't actually grow new words :( In my head, the story was nearly finished. In reality, it was far from it.
The biggest issue is that, while I had Angie and Richie on the road, I didn't know where either of them were going, or why. I also didn't know when the story was set. Originally, it was 10 years post-canon, then changed to 15.
teratornis and I discussed several ideas, including: Richie and Angie riding off together, Richie and Angie going to Seacouver and moving in (platonically) together, and Richie telling his secrets and then suggesting that Angie become his Watcher. None of these felt right -- which means, at one point, I was set to try all of them and have the story end with options. Ya know, because the road they were on could go several different ways?As the deadline ticked nearer, I had to figure out my own direction. I started asking the hard questions, like "why are they here?" and "how do I address Richie's lack-of-aging?" and "why would Angie think her mom would greet her in the afterlife if she was also planning to move in with her?" (a continuity error I discovered very late).
Slowly, details started to take shape and the waveforms of potential collapsed. By this point, I'd also been playing with roads, the setting sun, and various descriptions of the car's interior so long that I was >< this close to titling the story "Heavy-handed Metaphors."
Finally, I found some of the answers I needed and got everything hammered into shape. I even managed to tone the title down to one slightly less sarcastic, though still applicable. And then it was just a matter of polishing while waiting for reveals. (And then thinking of additional edits in the hours after. Alas, that's how it goes.)
For my gift, I received: The Road Forward by havocthecat.
The Road Forward - 1193 words - Richie & Connor - On the cusp of the new millennium, Richie has been sent to New York for some training with Connor. But do you think these two are going to ignore a party this big? They're going to train. Really. Tomorrow.
This is a such a delightfully upbeat story, though it manages to weave in just enough melancholy that the optimism isn't immediately obvious. Richie and Connor celebrate the new millennium together (as they should, since of course the both survived to see it), and it's such a delight to see them meaningfully interact in a way that isn't about the Game. Since I was working with Richie and Angie in my own story, it was also wonderful to see another perspective on where they had ended up and why.
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Date: 2026-01-07 06:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 12:57 pm (UTC)Total sympathy for eleventh hour continuity snarls. Thanks for sharing the creative process!
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Date: 2026-01-07 05:27 pm (UTC)It's really not fair.
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Date: 2026-01-07 03:01 pm (UTC)I think you hit the right tone with this one, where two old friends who used to know each other so well at one point in their lives, now are suddenly in each other's company again, without warning, and they find all the parts that are different as well as remembering who they were with each other and how some of that is still there as well. This was what I loved most about your story. Great work!
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Date: 2026-01-07 05:40 pm (UTC)I'm glad the tone worked for you. Reveal stories are my bag, so it was fun to figure out why a character who wanted to reveal wouldn't.
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Date: 2026-01-07 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 03:48 pm (UTC)"Metaphors" are explicitly on the list of things I like to read, as you know, and their heaviness is not disqualifying. Probably up to some limit of knocking me over the head and leaving brain injury... which your story didn't trigger. :-) When they get that heavy, call them allegory? ;-D
As shared elsewhere, I did very much enjoy this story, especially its Angie. Not to marginalize its Richie, but the suffering and longing in "Metaphorically Speaking" tilt the scale very much in her direction. Perhaps a companion piece about what Richie wants and needs would need to be told through Angie's eyes, in a moment of great stress for him, to similarly expose him in all the things he may be trying, however consciously or unconsciously, to hide from himself and others... ;-)
"stories that are left in WiP's folders don't actually grow new words"
Well put. So true. SIGH.
I don't recall whether I've told you this, or have sat on it in hopes of being able to actually use it someday, but it's such a parallel here...
A few years back, during the pandemic, for some exchange -- maybe HLH_Shortcuts, maybe another? -- I was matched with you and wrote about a quarter of a planned Spider-man/HL crossover -- Joe, Richie, Peter -- before realizing that I would never finish it in time for that event and switching to something else. Then, more recently, I was matched with you again, and ... I did notice that Spidey crossovers were no longer on your wish list. ~self-deprecating laughter~ Unlike your story, of course, that concept was not perennial; as much as I love Marvel in
allmost of its forms, by now, I no longer know the MCU Spidey canon like the back of my hand, the way I know HL. But I would have rewatched the key movies and finished that story if it had still been on your list... and we wouldn't have gotten the Gregor "Garbage and Flowers" piece, so that seems all for the best.Again, thank you for writing for my match -- then and now!
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Date: 2026-01-09 05:35 pm (UTC)Lol. I shall keep that in mind. 😉
Not to marginalize its Richie, but the suffering and longing in "Metaphorically Speaking" tilt the scale very much in her direction.
It does! In fact, it wasn't until very late in the drafting, where I realized that Richie's presence was functionally a Mcguffin. Layering in motivation for him became essential, but also had to be done carefully so that the story stayed Angie's.
Perhaps a companion piece about what Richie wants and needs would need to be told through Angie's eyes...
Hmm. I shall have to sit on that.
I did notice that Spidey crossovers were no longer on your wish list.
I recall you mentioning this draft.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man holds a weird place in my fannish vocabulary. The character and concept is one of my foundational stories, yet I've never written it, and I rarely read it. That said, Spidey is always on my requests list, even when I forget to include it.
Any live-action interpretation is fair game, as is an Ur-Peter/Spidey character that isn't grounded in any particular interpretation. (Though I reserve the right to modify this statement when Spider-Man Noir premieres.)
we wouldn't have gotten the Gregor "Garbage and Flowers" piece, so that seems all for the best.
Obviously the universe was looking out for my best interests that year when I forgot to include Spidey on my list. I would not give up G&F for anything!
Again, thank you for writing for my match -- then and now!
It was a delight, and I look forward to doing it again.