Round 15: Trackshipping (Shadi x Yami Bakura)
This is a blog entry about the YuGiOh! Fanfiction Contest, an elimination-based pairing contest hosted in proxy by Ryou VeRua in the fanfiction.net forum that also happens to be the top ranking YuGiOh! forum, post-count wise.
This round has the beloved parasitic spirit Yami Bakura shipped with another convenient plot device intangible character: Shadi. And for once, pretty much all of the four remaining contestants collectively thought outside the box and had the contest's surprise factor reach new heights.
Higurazel posted a) first, b) something that wasn’t a snippet and c) a western. A western, ladies and gentlemen. That he paired the genre with horror shouldn’t come off as a surprise by now, but the mix itself is definitely eyebrow raising and you can trust Higurazel to make the corners of your lips raise as well as you read his creation.
Tracks was set in the same AU his Round 13 entry Pueblo del Juego and offers the reader a similar colour palette: blood red, blood red and blood red. What the entry lacked in length, it made up in intensity and those who willfully read any kind of innuendo in that sentence may skip right ahead to Higuchimon’s paragraph.
Doubleplusgoodduckspeaker didn’t quite cook up an asexual, AU crime thriller like I guessed she would. Rather, this entry was one of the rare instances where Duckie stuck to canon, weaving in her own ideas so that they wouldn’t technically affect the series’ actual plot, albeit adding in elements that would make Takahashi stir in his sleep. Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground is a a short, refreshing piece in the crime thriller anthology that her Season 8 digest has gradually become. It is a story less accessible and more personal, cryptic at times; it is perhaps more precious to the author than to her readers.
My Misguided Fairytale apparently adopted austerity measures, judging from her new uncharacteristic(ally low) word count. Standing at a good 5 thousand words below her own oneshot average, Vanishing Act and its self-explanatory title managed to keep me interested throughout despite a flat exposition and an overstated ending. The setting is definitely original and could have benefited from more descriptive content, but it is definitely fine as it is. The author herself stated that many outside influences seeped into the fic and its AU, i.e. suspense movie The Prestige, Kerouac dialogue lines, actual Duel Monsters cards and “a random parking-lot carnival, all lit up in the middle of nowhere”. As always, I loved MMF’s creative ideas and harmonious characterizations. Keep it up, Jess!
Higuchimon isn’t just your average recreational writer. She is an institution in both the YGO DM and YGO GX fandoms. When myself and another contestant expressed a desire to receive more from Higuchimon than 3-4 thousand-word, as-romantic-as-the-canon-allows already-established-pairing oneshots, she wrote just the opposite in the subsequent round... Just to remind us that she was the best at what she did. The result was zombies/soft porn/lovers suicide, and I loved it. We all loved it. We would’ve asked for more but we were too sated and/or shy to dare voice our cravings wishes, and so the author took it a little easier in the rounds after that, almost reverting to her comfortable and proven recipe.
But two eliminations to the contest finale, stakes are high, and the master took out her big guns once more for the joy of all the yaoi fangirls we are. In other words, Exactly as Planned ironically defied all my silly predictions. A saucy Bakura flirts with a crime lord and a high ranking detective at the same time; sex, drugs and not rock’n’roll but plain murder go hand in hand; the story has the potential to induce both rousing and laughter. With delicious lines such as: “He didn't think his own sanity was anything to boast about, but at least he was the only person in his own mind”, I can only applaud Higuchimon’s barely veiled warning not to underestimate her, and happily ask for seconds.
Wackiest Ideas: tie between Tracks and Vanishing Acts
Highest Entertainment Value: Exactly as Planned
Question of the Week:
Creative Writing or Adherence to Canon - what should a fanfiction contest be about?
This round has the beloved parasitic spirit Yami Bakura shipped with another convenient plot device intangible character: Shadi. And for once, pretty much all of the four remaining contestants collectively thought outside the box and had the contest's surprise factor reach new heights.
Higurazel posted a) first, b) something that wasn’t a snippet and c) a western. A western, ladies and gentlemen. That he paired the genre with horror shouldn’t come off as a surprise by now, but the mix itself is definitely eyebrow raising and you can trust Higurazel to make the corners of your lips raise as well as you read his creation.
Tracks was set in the same AU his Round 13 entry Pueblo del Juego and offers the reader a similar colour palette: blood red, blood red and blood red. What the entry lacked in length, it made up in intensity and those who willfully read any kind of innuendo in that sentence may skip right ahead to Higuchimon’s paragraph.
Doubleplusgoodduckspeaker didn’t quite cook up an asexual, AU crime thriller like I guessed she would. Rather, this entry was one of the rare instances where Duckie stuck to canon, weaving in her own ideas so that they wouldn’t technically affect the series’ actual plot, albeit adding in elements that would make Takahashi stir in his sleep. Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground is a a short, refreshing piece in the crime thriller anthology that her Season 8 digest has gradually become. It is a story less accessible and more personal, cryptic at times; it is perhaps more precious to the author than to her readers.
My Misguided Fairytale apparently adopted austerity measures, judging from her new uncharacteristic(ally low) word count. Standing at a good 5 thousand words below her own oneshot average, Vanishing Act and its self-explanatory title managed to keep me interested throughout despite a flat exposition and an overstated ending. The setting is definitely original and could have benefited from more descriptive content, but it is definitely fine as it is. The author herself stated that many outside influences seeped into the fic and its AU, i.e. suspense movie The Prestige, Kerouac dialogue lines, actual Duel Monsters cards and “a random parking-lot carnival, all lit up in the middle of nowhere”. As always, I loved MMF’s creative ideas and harmonious characterizations. Keep it up, Jess!
Higuchimon isn’t just your average recreational writer. She is an institution in both the YGO DM and YGO GX fandoms. When myself and another contestant expressed a desire to receive more from Higuchimon than 3-4 thousand-word, as-romantic-as-the-canon-allows already-established-pairing oneshots, she wrote just the opposite in the subsequent round... Just to remind us that she was the best at what she did. The result was zombies/soft porn/lovers suicide, and I loved it. We all loved it. We would’ve asked for more but we were too sated and/or shy to dare voice our cravings wishes, and so the author took it a little easier in the rounds after that, almost reverting to her comfortable and proven recipe.
But two eliminations to the contest finale, stakes are high, and the master took out her big guns once more for the joy of all the yaoi fangirls we are. In other words, Exactly as Planned ironically defied all my silly predictions. A saucy Bakura flirts with a crime lord and a high ranking detective at the same time; sex, drugs and not rock’n’roll but plain murder go hand in hand; the story has the potential to induce both rousing and laughter. With delicious lines such as: “He didn't think his own sanity was anything to boast about, but at least he was the only person in his own mind”, I can only applaud Higuchimon’s barely veiled warning not to underestimate her, and happily ask for seconds.
Wackiest Ideas: tie between Tracks and Vanishing Acts
Highest Entertainment Value: Exactly as Planned
Question of the Week:
Creative Writing or Adherence to Canon - what should a fanfiction contest be about?