HLH_Shortcuts exchange is on this year (FYI a few changes)

TLDR: HLH_Shortcuts is on this year, coordinated by Killa and Havoc, with AO3-automated matching.

Details: For anyone fond of Highlander but not subscribed to hlh_shortcuts -- the very long-running (back to LJ days) annual HL fic exchange -- here's a quick recap:

• Tuesday 9/10: lferion, who last year took over the fest from original mod amand_r, regretfully announced that she couldn't run it again. She asked whether someone would like to take over or whether to end the fest. Read the post.


• Wednesday 9/11: havocthecat invited anyone interested in modding or helping mod the fest -- and everyone interested in HL in general -- to join the "Le Blues Bar" HL Discord server. She posted a server invitation link. (If you already have a Discord account and want to join, just click it; if you don't have an account, you can set one up. If you already have an account and don't want to merge it with your HL fandom identity, you'll need a different phone number or email address to create a second Discord account. Or you can trust Discord's nicknames system. YMMV.) Read the post.


• Unknown date: havocthecat created a Tumblr for the exchange. (I tried to find the creation date and the first post there to link to, but I'm slow, and Tumblr demanded that I sign up for an account before I could figure those out.) Visit the community.


• Saturday 9/14: killabeez announced that lferion gave her and havocthecat access to the exchange's DW community and AO3 collection, that they'll work with other volunteers on Discord to ensure the fest continues, and to look for signups to open soon. Read the post.

I'm glad and grateful that folks are coming together to keep the annual HL exchange going! It's one of the three exchanges that have defined my personal fannish year for ages. I read it for years before I participated in it as a writer. It brings joy.

(I'm sorry that I don't feel able to make the platform leap needed to be really helpful with it where folks are right now. Perhaps in the future. There are many things to figure out about other platforms.)

Malon in Echoes of Wisdom?

In Echoes of Wisdom, the trailers very strongly suggest that we'll see Lon Lon Ranch. If so, I would like Zelda to meet Malon there. I think that would be fun! No Zelda and Malon have ever yet met in-game, right? More friends and allies for Zelda!

I think that Malon is perhaps the second-most-important mortal female character in the mythos -- I'm not going to try to rank Hylia and the Golden Goddesses on importance -- obviously well after Zelda herself, but rivaling if not exceeding Impa. Malon has been in 3 other top-down Zelda games as well as Ocarina of Time. And of course she's very widely (and very sensibly, imo) interpreted to have been the mother of the child of the Hero of Time who is the ancestor of the Hero of Twilight.

Plus, Malon is the "real world" incarnation of Marin from the Link's Awakening dream world -- and the Hylian counterpart of Termina's Romani and Cremia in Majora's Mask -- so they already had her model ready to go from the remake, and she would be so cute in this art style. ;-) Okay, everyone is so cute in this art style...