2024 Fest - Character List

[havocthecat]

Hello, hlh_shortcuts players past, present, and future!

In lieu of a nominations period on AO3, killabeez and I are setting up a character tag set based on prior popular requests and stories written, as well as recent discussions in Le Blues Bar.

We'd like to give the folks here a chance to look at the list (which is in no particular order or hierarchy of importance), and add names to it.

Please keep in mind that if you want us to add to the tag set, that means you plan to request or write that character. In addition, your mods do reserve final editing rights on the list.

ETA: Thanks for your contributions! We're just about settled and so I've made the list private again while we move into the preliminary testing phase of the sign-ups and get ready to open them up.

Comments

[senmut]

I'm dithering about being involved, and looking at the list is interesting. Because I kind of want to say Heather and Rachel, but there's no real point if they're ones I prefer to read than write.

[argentum_ls]

If you prefer to read them, then put them on the list so that someone else could potentially write them for you.

[senmut]

Thank you. I was very 'do not want to be a bother' if they're not popular.

[argentum_ls]

I don’t know about other players, but I don’t write characters because they’re popular; I write them because they’re interesting. All I need is a compelling prompt.

[havocthecat]

We did say "plan to request" so wanting to read about them is valid. We dithered about Heather and Rachel - both of whom I love! - and removed them because we hadn't really seen them in the fics written, but one of the reasons that we added this community process was because of exactly this sort of situation.

And I would love to see more fics about Heather and/or Rachel, so I hope you do request them.

[senmut]

Oh I definitely will.

May I ask for Randi?

[brightknightie]

May I ask for possible consideration to please include Randi McFarland, if appropriate? I promise to both request and offer her, if she's included. Of course I understand if she doesn't make the cut! There's been an utterly fantastic -- even iconic -- Randi story fairly recently (♥ "The Jaded Journalist" by Hafitel, '22), Randi is not as widely loved as many other characters, and a practical line must be drawn for the auto-matching system to work.

(FWIW: If Alexa Bond and Rachel MacLeod get added, I will offer them, but likely not request them.)

Re: May I ask for Randi?

[havocthecat]

Literally the criteria is "will you offer? or "will you request?" and not both, so that shouldn't be a problem, but would you mind also adding them to the gdoc linked in the post so we can make sure to catch them in our final review?

Re: May I ask for Randi?

[brightknightie]

My apologies. I did not understand that you wanted us to edit the shared doc. You clearly wrote "and add names to it," but I mistook that for figurative rather than literal.

I have now added Randi to the doc.

(I will not add Alexa or Rachel M., but I will offer them if others do. Again, my apologies for expressing this so poorly.)

Randi isn't in the tag set, the AO3 says

[brightknightie]

When I try to sign up, the AO3 tells me that Randi McFarland didn't make it into the tag set. Is it too late to add her?

(I'm sure that I put her on the doc after you corrected my mistaken assumption that the doc was locked for editing! I do see in the conversation below that some characters may have been deleted by accident before the tag set was loaded.)

I understand if it is too late to fix.

Re: Randi isn't in the tag set, the AO3 says

[havocthecat]

Hi, brightknightie!

So - Randi was in the tagset. She is in the Gdoc, and was double-checked as being in the tagset.

Why is she not in the tagset now? I have no idea. I have to blame an AO3 glitch, because everyone else I added at the time made it through.

Is it possible to add a character in the middle of sign-ups? Possibly. But with 14 sign-ups already extant, I don't want to risk something happening to the ones already in the challenge collection.

Would you please list Randi in Optional Tags and "What I'd Like to Receive" instead so we can make sure to keep an eye out for fellow Randi fans and putting together matches?

Thank you for understanding that we're in our first year running this and also - things happen. Next year is a new year, and I'm sure we'll be able to get Randi in there next year.

Re: Randi isn't in the tag set, the AO3 says

[brightknightie]

Thank you for checking and thank you for the solution! I've now entered Randi in Optional Tags and "What I'd Like to Receive."

I apologize for the trouble. I wish that I'd thought of that solution in the first place. Yes, of course you shouldn't toggle settings after sign-ups have begun; I should have thought more before asking.

Re: Randi isn't in the tag set, the AO3 says

[havocthecat]

I appreciate you letting me know something happened so I could check all of the other characters! Because something did happen with one, and something could have happened with the others! Who knows what happened? But it's good to know that something did!

Brainstorming a solution can be better with two people. I'm glad you said something. And it's certainly no trouble! I wish we could switch up the settings, but I very much didn't want to risk it and I'm so relieved you understand. Thank you.

[black_dwarf]

Added Robert and Gina de Valicourt.

[pennywashburne]

Could we put Rachel Ellenstein on the list? I didn't want to mess up the order at this point, so I thought I'd ask.

[havocthecat]

She's in the tagset, and was added to the list, but someone deleted her later - not sure who, not sure why, but it doesn't matter since she was requested and now requested again!

[pennywashburne]

Yay! Thank you!