Skitter Slider - randomized except constant start

this is sortof a part 2 to http://ift.tt/1F83FT3 apparently we're not allowed to ask followup questions... they get deleted :-(

so, if you review the accepted answer to that post, you'll see that it DOES work... for that scenario. well, now my scenario has changed & i'm yet again stuck with this.

i'm trying to figure out how to have this random w/same start slide work if the slide images were not surrounded by "href" tags.

fortunately, the structure skitter allows for is more flexible than it used to be. we can now simply leave out the href tags & just use the img; but in doing so, that kills the hack/mod from the previous post.

SO (the Question) is there a way to use this "[initial]" magic in a "class" or some other way that wouldn't interfere with any other features?

IMPORTANT NOTE: i also discovered that the "replace" option in this hack/mod to get rid of the "initial" out of the link does not work anymore in the newer versions. so tho the function of having a constant slide be the start & the rest random DOES work, but if you try to utilize that slide as a link to anything, the link has the "[initial]" in it, which thusly kills the link.

btw: i'm now using Skitter version 4.2.3 and Jquery 2.1.1.

ideally, this "feature" could be more flexible & not rely on, nor interfere with, the href option. any thoughts/ideas/tips/etc would be greatly appreciated. [peace]