hd_worldcup: The Devil's in the Details

[annafugazzi]

Fourth set of fics at hd_worldcup! The prompt is The Devil.

• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Team Fanon
  Wordcount: 14,066
  Rating: R
  Warnings: AU, non-graphic dubious consent.
  Summary: Draco Malfoy always gets what he wants. Only, this time, what he wants is someone he can never have.
  Author's Note: Thanks to my betas J, S and L. Some text was lifted from DH pg. 458. I used the figurative explanation of 'The Devil'-obsession, losing control, and sexual desire.
  
  
• Smile, You’re on Camera -- Team EWE
  Wordcount: ~14,000
  Rating: NC-17
  Warning: A bit of Harry/Ginny but nothing serious or explicit.
  Summary: Harry Potter has lost sight of what it means to listen to himself—he’s depressed and confused, moving through life only to please the Ministry and the press and his friends. One day he wakes up on a train next to Draco Malfoy and that all changes.
  Author's Note: Thank you so much to Team Sheep and all who betaed. Thanks to other people who helped when they didn’t even have a stake on this team.
  
  
• Better The Devil You Know (Mehen) -- Team Epilogue
  Wordcount: ~14,800
  Rating: NC-17
  Warnings: Infidelity, misuse of magic, self-harm(inflicted by another), angst, mentions of character death.
  Summary: Any chain is freely worn. You are enslaved only because you allow it. Throught the passing of time, Harry comes to realise we are each our own Devil.
  Author's Note: Author's Note The meaning of The Devil card can be found Here Thank you to my teammates and to my betas W&W—I could not have done it without you.
  
  
• Shadowplay -- Team Canon
  Wordcount: 5,500
  Rating: NC-17
  Warnings: Imaginary non-con, violence, and bondage. Non-imaginary (in the context of a fictional story) fully consensual but slightly violent sex.
  Summary: Harry knows what he wants, but Draco knows what he needs.
  Author's Note: "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions."— Jung

OK, re. the hd_worldcup... um, fandom's gone kinda splodey re. this, yes?

Have written and re-written the same two paragraphs about five times, mentioning how I haven't seen any of the authors themselves complaining about their fics being trashed, but there seems to be some hostility towards them for being "whiny" anyway, and how, folkses, it's just supposed to be fun, and...

...and then I realize I can't expand on that in any way that won't add to the wank. ::sigh::

So. To sum up:

1. hd_worldcup = fun.
   
   
2. hd_worldcup = competition.
   
   
3. hd_worldcup = people will give their opinions, for good and bad, and while we might wish some would be gentler and may roll our eyes at others, it's not quite like trashing giftfics.
   
   
4. hd_worldcup mods = doing a great job, IMHO.
   
   
5. hd_worldcup = fun.

Enjoy it, guys. We all worked too damn hard to let it go all pear-shaped, you know?

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Have to agree that the calls for nicer comments have not been coming from authors, though some have come from team players. I think this is because there has been a lot of bonding done through the cup and people are being protective of others they see as younger or newer and possibly open to being hurt.

I think that this is all motivated by kindness at the base, and that it was just surprise at the critical depth of some comments. A to those comments, I think they are a logical extension of people wanting to explain some of their voting choices and being invited to view the fics as competing against each other.

And yes, the mods are doing a great job, though, given I am about 100,000 words behind in reading, I'm not having fun yet! had some good reads, though ...

[annafugazzi.livejournal.com]

I think this is because there has been a lot of bonding done through the cup and people are being protective of others they see as younger or newer and possibly open to being hurt.

I think that this is all motivated by kindness at the base,
Yeah, I think so too. The problem I'm having is that the comeback has often sounded very critical of the authors whose work has been criticised. I have this image of a soccer game where a player is accidentally tripped, her teammates say "Hey! Watch what you're doing!" to the tripper, and other players turn to the trippee and say, "If you can't handle this game, get off the field!"

Um... all the trippee did was get tripped. And all her teammates did was tell someone else to be more careful. Nobody called the ref to get the tripper kicked out. So whaddup with the hostility to the trippee and her teammates?

OTOH, I think I mentioned on pir8fancier's lj that perhaps the reason I'm puzzled about this is that I just haven't read the right ljs - the ones where people are complaining about readers being too hard on them. In which case, pls to ignore all I said above. I live in ignorance, and in this situation, ignorance is indeed bliss ;)