Fearful Symmetry (4178 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kenny & Amanda Darieux, Amanda Darieux/Duncan MacLeod, Amanda Darieux & Methos
Characters: Kenny, Amanda Darieux, Duncan MacLeod, Methos
Additional Tags: Character Study, Backstory
Summary:

Kenny stopped being a child a long time ago.

Highlander was both my first online fandom in terms of interaction with fellow fans - previous fandoms had me going to cons and buying zines -, and the first fandom I wrote in English in. The above wasn't my first story, but it was an early one. It was also the first time I wrote a fanfiction in first person, which I rarely do. (Mostly because as a reader, my suspension of disbelief often breaks over a first person narrative not presenting a believable "voice" for whichever character the author chose.) Now and then, though, a story idea simply calls for first person. In this case, I tackled Kenny, who showed up only twice in Highlander: The Series, and was an unusual and memorable villain. Kenny aka Kenneth was an 800 years old Immortal, but unlike most of the Immortals the audience encounters in the course of the show, he became Immortal while still a child, meaning he was stuck in a child's body for the rest of his existence. This, to put it mildly, did not improve his disposition. He also became very adroit at using his harmless and helpless looks to deceive and kill other people.

In the second of his two appearances, the audience finds out Kenny has a backstory with recurring guest star Amanda, aka my favourite character on the show (and one of my all time favourite incarnations of the "female thief and conwoman with on/off relationship with hero" trope), who mentored him for a while when he really was a child. She's not prepared for what he has become, but then, she's always been good at improvising. Now, one of the problems any show using child actors has is that they grow up very fast, and if the character in question is defined by his inability to grow up, that problem is unsolvable, so I'm not suprised the show didn't use Kenny again (though he survives both episodes). Fanfic rarely does - or at least did back then -, perhaps because there is something deeply disturbing in the idea of a a centuries old being in the body of a child, and Kenny is definitely not prone to easy woobiefication. (For starters, he doesn't solely kill other Immortals. He exploits and kills the occasional mortal as well.) Which was why I wanted to tackle the character, of course. Not to mention that back then, I had only recently read Interview with the Vampire and thus Claudia (the vampire trapped in the body of a child there) and her rage about her state were fresh on my mind.) And the relationship with Amanda did fascinate me.

So I came up with something that both fleshed out the time between Amanda and Kenny meeting and them getting separated 800 years back (complete with Methos cameo, because as a HL fan fresh into the fandom I was as prone to include Methos in tales as everyone else), showed something about what the rest of his life had been like, and ultimately revealed why he's telling the story and whom he's telling it to. The story is now fifteen years old, but I think it holds up fairly well.

( The rest of the meme )