Highlander Fic: The Darkening
So, okay, I've finally decided I'm done polishing this sucker and am ready to post it. It was originally published years ago (before the episode Something Wicked by over a year), but being the writer I am now rather than the one I was a decade ago, I took the task of archiving it on the net as an opportunity to do some buffing and shining that would have been done a decade ago if I'd known then what I know now, writing wise.
Because this is my journal rather than a community journal, I'll give y'all a little more intro than I do there, mostly because I know Highlander fans can be very driven to read (or not read) fanfic by the specific tone of the content and by character focus. Because much of what exists in this fic isn't obvious by either the title or the summary, I'll head's up the things I think might be relevant for those looking to figure out whether or not they want to invest time in a relatively long piece of fanfic.
This is a MacLeod-centric fic, but while Mac is the focus of everything that happens, he isn't necessarily always there when things are happeneing. In other words, he shares a lot of his screen time with other characters ... more than most pieces this MacLeod centric probably would. Most of that share-age is with Joe Dawson and Richie Ryan, although both Amanda and Charlie DeSalvo have significant, pivotal roles in the way the story plays.
Content wise, it is very dark. Very dark. And most of that dark is MacLeod. Let's just leave it at he ain't wearing his Boy Scout uniform in this one. And while there's nothing explicit here, there is enough information given that there isn't a whole lot of room to doubt how bad the bad guy is. And he's about as bad as bad gets.
Beyond that, there are no real pairings here, but there is a lot of exploration of the various kinds of friendships MacLeod has with different individuals. Much of the content is driven by Joe and his Watcher rules and how those rules sometimes have to be negotiated with a bit when the life of a friend is on the line (cause, like, I wrote it); but there's also a lot on the nature of MacLeod and Richie's mentor to pupil relationship (as it takes place fairly early on after Richie's turn to immortality), and some pretty significant content concerning the way MacLeod and Amanda's past sexual relationship and current friend relationship play off one another to various degrees.
So that's kinda what you can expect if you click on over to the story. It's a pretty long one ... between 25 and 30 thousand words or something, but it pretty much jumps in the lake from paragraph one and hits the rapids soon thereafter, so be sure you buckle on your life jacket before you walk onto the dock.
As always, if you read it, please take the time to comment. I love hearing everything you think, positive or negative.
Fandom: Highlander
Title: The Darkening
Author: dodger_winslow
Rating: M
Warnings: The bad guy's as bad as they come. Nothing explicit, but lots implied. Be warned.
Time Frame: Set directly before The Revolutionary
Summary: When MacLeod takes the quickening of an Immortal older than recorded time, the darkness within threatens to consume him. Teetering on the rim of sanity, his friends and his Watchers are all that stand between an Immortal champion and the immortal darkness of the abyss.
Special thanks to
eldritchhobbit for reminding me why I loved this show so much in the first place. MacLeod and Dawson rock.
The Darkening