Fanfic: "To Ride the Wind," by Marelle Moore; Highlander: The Series
Rowan Michaels is a Highlander series Mary Sue, written by a fan undetected in some show's events to springboard her fanfiction life.
Information by Pat Pflieger
Rowan, a sword-wielding mortal, is the unseen presence in two pivotal episodes of Highlander. Besides being a warrior who is tougher than nails, she is the erotic center of the story: "A woman her age, should NOT look this good," Joe Dawson thinks when he sees her.
Rowan Michaels has hair that is silvery-blonde streaked with purple, which gives her "an almost non-human quality. She smells of eucalyptus and lavender."
Rowan Michaels actually enters the show, as the unseen force behind the Highlander episodes "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelations." When Duncan MacLeod goes to a dangerous meeting on a bridge, she rescues him, though he doesn't realize she is pulling him over the bridge railing, just as he doesn't know she drags him from the river. When Cassandra, seeking revenge for Methos's evil deeds in the past, threatens him with beheading, she stops herself, not at Duncan's urging, but because Rowan threatens her: "Cassandra knew while Duncan probably wouldn't take her head. She had no doubts this one would."
Rowan, a mortal in the Highlander setting, performs many activities viewers associate with Immortals, most notably fighting with a sword and working out just like Duncan MacLeod;
besides a rosewood-hilted sword, Rowan carries a "Barretta, switchblade and bayonet";
Rowan has a tiger tattoo. When she's not riding a black Vulcan low-rider, Rowan drives a candy-apple red '57 T-bird, and her computer, named "Pc," talks to her;
Rowan Michaels speaks many languages, among them Georgian, "street slang Parisianne," and Korean. When she plays classical guitar, "the world went to hell."
In the twentieth century, Rowan works for Methos' redemption in the Highlander episodes she invades.
Rowan's mysterious past is apparently too dreadful to be described;
Rowan Michaels twice slams her dislocated shoulder back into place, each time staggering and swearing like 15 drunken sailors.
She almost emasculates Methos when he calls her "girl": "'Never.' she whispered in the silence of the room, as she slowly released her grip on his crotch. 'Never call me *girl* again.'" She is all-too-familiar with "that icy cold spot she always felt just before the sh|t hit the fan". Fearing that she's "becoming terribly predictable," she is reminded by a little nagging voice in her head that, "Predictable CAN get you dead."
Her mere presence bodes ill: seeing Rowan come into his bar, Joe Dawson cringes: "'Ah, sh|t.' he moaned under his breath and waited for her. *This is gonna be bad.* he thought."
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