New Story: Follow the Gleam (Highlander, Gen, Matthew McCormick & Ceirdwyn)

[hafital]

Happy hlh_shortcuts reveal day! It was actually yesterday but I was out of the house and away from my phone the entire day.

This year, I wrote for raine, which was a delight but also a challenge because Raine_Wynd has betaed for me for the last several years. :D

Follow The Gleam (21043 words) by hafital
Chapters: 12/12
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ceirdwyn (Highlander) & Matthew McCormick
Characters: Ceirdwyn (Highlander), Matthew McCormick, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Weird Immortal Happenings, Canon-Typical Violence, Historical Inaccuracy, K'Immie of the week, Literary References & Allusions
Summary:

"You are Matthew of Salisbury, and you are an Immortal."

* * *

The story of how Matthew and Ceirdwyn met.

Typically, I started way too late, but as usual over on my end the fall is always a hectic time, and I turned my attention to hlh_shortcuts after Thanksgiving. Which is fine -- I write great under pressure! -- but my aim was to write a shorter, snappier fic, and I completely failed entirely. Whoops.

I blame Matthew. And also the Middle Ages.

What had happened was, I got stuck on this scene with Matthew, as an FBI agent, being called to a crime scene for an unusual homicide, and couldn't shake it. The rest of the story sort of grew from that. Early on, I kicked around ideas for it to be the trio of Matthew, Cory, and Ceirdwyn, but that was even too complicated for me and I kept trying to simplify the story so I could reasonably get it done in time. So I gently let Cory go and just concentrated on Matthew and Ceirdwyn, and then somewhere in there it became a sort of origin story for Matthew.

It was a lot of fun, but also one of the most difficult stories I've ever written for this fandom. This is where I blame the Middle Ages!

The modern portions of the story fell into place without too much trouble, but I struggled with the Middle Ages portions. Again, the plot grew too complicated with too many characters. At one point there were two K'Immies. Several scenes had to be rewritten. I wrote about 10K words that got tossed. Figuring out how the pieces fit, how to unfold the story in pace with the modern parts, researching what was around in the Middle Ages and what wasn't (like peppermint! Was not existing in 1255. Mint was though. Did they have peacocks? Yes they did. All the research into jousting tournaments and armor. And so forth. I had about 50 tabs open.) I just kept reworking and reworking the story, again and again, involving lots of literal headbanging, until the pieces began to fit finally.

High word counts aren't really a big deal to me. I write fast, but this was a challenge also because as much as I'm familiar with Matthew and Ceirdwyn, we have so little canon with them and none together, so understanding their dynamic, particually toward the end of the story after all is revealed, what Ceirdwyn would say to Matthew, how their teacher-student relationshop would start and then evolve... that was tricky, and also had to be rewritten a few times.

ETA to add that this is the first time I've written from the POV of a Pre-Immortal and that was very interesting! And tricky!

Anyway, I'm quite proud of this story. I've always liked Matthew and adored Ceirdwyn, but this is the longest I've ever hung out with either of them and I have a lot more appreciation for both characters, especially Matthew, who's a bit of a dark horse.

Saved for another post, let me tell you about how I want to rewrite Will & Grace, with Matthew instead, but in the style of Kevin Can F*** Himself. (but less depressing; just showing the real life of the sitcom.) :D

Comments

[argentum_ls]

let me tell you about how I want to rewrite Will & Grace, with Matthew instead, but in the style of Kevin Can F*** Himself. (but less depressing; just showing the real life of the sitcom.) :D

I ... don't know Kevin Can F*** Himself. However, I'm all on board with you rewriting Will & Grace with Matthew. Please?

[hafital]

Keven Can F*** Himself is a series where part of it is filmed like a sitcom modeled after series like Kevin Can't Wait or King of Queens, with multi-cameras and canned laughter etc, but when the obnoxious husband is absent, it's this bleak struggle to get away from him.

Personally, I think Kevin Can Fuck Himself is absolutely brilliant, like it should have won every award and then some, but that's a conversation for another day! But after watching it, I can't look at a sitcom the same way anymore (not that I watch many sitcoms.) Now, I'm always wondering what's happening outside of the cheerful no-consequence world of the sitcom when you step off frame?

With respect to Matthew, I definitely cannot promise anything story/writing wise, but I'm rewatching Will & Grace for funsies and my mind keeps turning over both questions: what if Will is actually Matthew (fun!) and also, what the hell is happening off-camera? -- we got one character who's clearly alcoholic and addicted to pills, another who is chaotic and rather carelessly destructive, not to mention cannot support himself or hold onto a job, and Will & Grace who are very co-dependent, among other issues.

If I ever do anything with this, I don't have it in me for a bleak story ala KCFH, but the two sides of the story are one side this life he's built for himself as a young gay professional with friends and the otherside is the game and immortality and challenges, etc.

haha that was probably more answer than you wanted. :D

[argentum_ls]

haha that was probably more answer than you wanted. :D

It definitely was not!

If you have more thoughts, please unload them on me. I'm fascinated at this idea.

You're absolutely right about off-frame issues with W&G. For my own Matthew series, I've been watching that (and pretty much anything else of McCormack's I can find) to try to pin down descriptions. I'm also not a sitcom person, so as thrilled as I am that McCormack was able to land such a good role -- and one with which he was apparently very happy -- I'm really struggling with watching it while not thinking too hard about all the dark stuff the show treats as comedy.

but the two sides of the story are one side this life he's built for himself as a young gay professional with friends and the otherside is the game and immortality and challenges, etc.

::chinhands::

Yes, yes, that would be amazing.

[teratornis]

I feel you on the historical scenes. I'm always nervous about writing historical scenes for these exact reasons. On the other hand, you can learn some fascinating stuff if you start looking into a time period. This sounds like it was fun, if at times frustrating, to write! It definitely turned out excellent.

[hafital]

Writing fanfic, or anything really, especially when we have a deadline and it's a gift and you can't indulge the whimsy of research or too much procrastination, has taught me the magic of what I call "The five minute Google search." Clever title! hah. Meaning, I often just need the flavor of historical accuracy. Enough so it works for the story. Especially if it's just an offhand comment about peacocks that's not central to the plot, for example. Of course, the longer the story, the more five minute google searches you end up having to do. But I swear it's the best method. Gotta master the five minute google search.

[teratornis]

Yeah that is definitely a very solid strategy, especially if you're on a deadline. Course then the hard part can be not getting totally sidetracked down a wikipedia rabbit hole. :P

[dswdiane]

I really appreciate all the work you obvioiusly had to do to write such an awesome fic. And it is lovely. I do wish there had been way to squeeze Cory in also, but--I get it. I think the way you wrote the relationship between Matthew and Ceirdwyn, the way it started, the way it developed, the way she guided him without ordering him about--was just lovely. And the way Matthew grew as a person through the course of the story both in the medieval times and modern times was believable. I hope they maintain their connection. Their love and attachment was clear and beautiful.

And I forgot to mention, although I think I already did in my comment on the story, I loved the way you wove in the allusions to Arthurian legends.

[hafital]

I wish I could have squeezed in Cory too! He's fun to write. Thank you for your kind words. I really loved exploring the relationship between Matthew and Ceirdwyn.

Also, I wanted to seed the Authurian legend throughout the story without it being a direct retelling or anything like that. Hints of how the stories may have evolved from Immortal events, perhaps, but not in the way the stories are told. Thanks again! I'm slowly getting around to responding to comments.

[dswdiane]

Please, take your time. I'm making myself crazy trying to reply to all the comments on two stories. I give you permission to take your time while doing the same for myself.