hmpf

My Post-Gathering Highlander fic from 2003(?), Endure, has been available in a revamped version on AO3 for a little while now. I didn't mention it before because I wanted to reread it first. I have now done so, and have decided that it's fit to be more widely shared. I really do think it's much improved; a lot of the things that bothered me about it are gone now (yeah, I went the editing-by-machete way again. What can I say - it works!)

Here it is. Update your bookmarks, or whatever.

814 fics featuring Methos at AO3. And from what I can see at first glance, a *lot* of them actually look really interesting. There's new fic by Amand-r, even.

OMG WANT.

Duuude, I'm *so* overdue a dive into fic reading.

Stupid RL, always interfering... (I suppose I could replace my fic writing time with fic reading time, but somehow I can't bear *that* thought, not with Back to the Future so close to finishing, and other fics percolating in my brain. Arrrgh.)

than the Star Wars extended universe would be Highlander, I just realised. Loads of potential in the basic concept; some stellar moments, a *lot* of meh, and some absolutely atrocious moments, but you kind of have to slog through the bad stuff to catch the good stuff.

Speaking of Highlander, I think the RTD Doctor is going through his Methos-as-a-Horseman phase. Less overtly barbarian, but just as much about power tripping. And at roughly the same age as Methos was when he became a Horseman, too! (Based on Cassandra's age, and the assumption that Methos was probably nearer the end of his time as a Horseman than near the beginning when he 'met' her, I've always assumed he started his Horseman phase at roundabout age 1000, and stopped around age 2000. The Doctor's a bit younger than 1000, but not by much.

BTW, the Doctor seems to have been around 900 years of age a long time, by our standards, doesn't he? I mean, considering he's gone through nearly all the regenerations available to a Timelord since the beginning of the show, shouldn't he be much older by now? Or are we to assume he's actually using up the lion's share of his regenerations in just, what, a hundred years or so? (How long has he been giving his age as around 900 anyway? ETA: Just looked it up. It seems he's been around 900 since he was the Sixth Doctor. So, he's basically regenerated five or six times in the last decade or two(?) of his life. That's rather alarming... ETA2: Reading on, I encountered the "he simply has no clue" theory. Which makes a lot of sense. *g*)

mikes_grrl has craftily destroyed my peace of mind, so I did something obsessive to get my zen-like calm back, and finally uploaded my odd piece of Appearances-based method writing to my website.

I also added a short teaser for the Farscape fic I'm currently writing to the Farscape fic page (scroll down, it's the one titled 'Dead Man's Jacket'), and fixed an Americanism and an embarrassing typo in Names.

in a comment on a fic, that what I enjoy in angst (and some h/c) is not the breaking of a character but the character's fighting back against his or her breaking.

And realised, that makes me Methos in this fic.

*is creeped out by self*

ETA: Specifically, this describes how I choose my objects of obsession:

(s)he never chooses those who are broken easily

I just remembered I initially meant to add an author's note, but I'm not sure it's really necessary (also, it seems kind of late, now that the fic's probably been read by most of the people who will read it), so... tell me about your perceptions/conclusion so I can judge better, perhaps, whether I should add that note or not:

In 68 Wives I mention one 'wife' who was a man, one 'wife' Methos actually wasn't married to, and one wife who was black. Did this lead you, the readers, to assume that Methos only ever loved one man, only ever loved one woman he didn't actually marry (plus Alexa), and only ever married one black woman? Because I did not mean to imply that, and if I accidentally did, I'd be sort of... uncomfortable.

I sent both How to Love a Madman and 68 Wives out for betaing a few days ago. Hit a few snags with HtLaM, although beccatoria liked it (wheee!), so that may be a while yet, but I think 68 Wives should be mostly fine, as this is the second beta round for that fic. So, watch out for surprisingly 'shippy' fic by Hmpf: Methos/68 OFCs and Sam/Annie - coming to this LJ, soon... ish. And this time I do mean it. *g*

And now I'm off to bed, to make up for last night.

Title: Names
Fandom: Highlander
Characters: Methos, OC
Rating: general audience
Word count: 3450
Summary: Methos enjoys being Adam Pierson; Flavius is alarmed by how much he enjoys being Karl-Heinz Müller.
Link: Names

Title: Starving on the Jump Down
Fandom: Life On Mars
Characters: Sam, Ruth, Maya
Rating: errr, somewhere between PG13 and NC17? I dunno.
Warning: spoilers for 2.08
Word count: 369
Summary: three seconds of joy, and the aftermath
Link: Starving on the Jump Down

... is done. Started 26.1.2006, finished 12.2.2007 - just over a year. That's pretty good for me, but it's only 1358 words, of course.

Will sleep over it a night or two and then send it off to beccatoria and later to amonitrate.

I'm still in the grip of the Evil Real Life Monster, but occasionally I watch bits and pieces of HL in between. Today I watched the scene in Rev. 6:8 where Kronos and Methos meet Silas in the woods.

I found myself oddly touched by Methos' reunion with Silas, and disturbed on a number of levels. Touched because his joy of meeting Silas after such a long separation is so obvious. (Btw: he says it's been "over a thousand years", which seems to suggest he met Silas again at least once after the parting of the Horsemen. Interesting. Or perhaps it refers to Silas and *Kronos* parting ways then. Yeah, that makes more sense, I think.) Anyway. So, Methos is *really* happy to be seeing Silas again; I don't think that's him pretending. It's hard to fake a laugh like that. Although... who knows. Still. I choose to believe that in that one moment, and probably *only* that one moment, Methos really lets his guard down and gives in to the joy of being reunited with a very old friend.

Which brings me to the disturbing part. On one level I'm disturbed because Silas represents a part of Methos' past that, at some point, Methos was obviously very eager to leave behind, and isn't too thrilled to have catching up with him now. So, how can he be so unequivocally happy, even if he likes Silas a lot? Shouldn't there be a lot of very uneasy feelings, even if there is also happiness? And, from the look and sound of it, it's such a strangely *innocent* happiness, too. Something in my brain says 'does not compute' when I think about (former) mass-murdering psychopaths(?) having a happy, and, for that moment, totally non-sinister, reunion...

And on another level I'm disturbed because, Methos being Methos, he must have plans of playing MacLeod against the Horsemen already. So that means he must at least be considering the option of betraying Silas in the near future (although I'm willing to believe that he fooled himself into believing that perhaps this needn't result in Silas' death). And all the while he's acting like for the past millennium or so he couldn't wait to play happy little Horsemen with Silas again.

Whatever's going on inside Methos in that scene, it has to be a strange, and probably painful mix of emotions. Trying to imagine it only makes my brain go 'does not compute' again, which, frankly, is a result I often get when seriously trying to think about Methos' inner life. (But that's part of the fun, too.)

All of this, of course, brings us to some familiar conclusions: 1.) Methos is probably the greatest double-dealing bastard there ever was, and you shouldn't trust him not to betray you to your death even when he's obviously very happy to see you. And 2.) Methos must have an incredible ability to cope with inner contradictions and conflict.