INTERWOVEN COLOURS - RESULTS · 1:12am Jul 29th, 2017
Welcome, one and all, TO THE RESULTS OF FIMFICTION'S MASSIVE(??) RARITWI CONTEST.
It's been a long road, everyone, and a surprisingly bountiful one. RariTwi has gone from a relatively unknown and unpopular ship, to a ship that has pushed itself into the limelight and shown the world that, contrary to popular opinion, Rarity and Twilight actually do work together—or maybe they don't? In which case, damn, this is the best crackship I've ever cracked.
When I launched this contest, I expected a small turn-out. Five fics, maybe six or seven at most. Instead, we were hit with twenty-six entries, and the incredibly miraculous sight of the Feature Box being entirely dominated by Rarity and Twilight.
You took a vague prompt (yeah, yeah, don't think I didn't read the comments of 'bluh bluh vague!!!') and made it your own, made it different, and what was the point of the contest if not to inspire others?
A long time ago, in a desperate effort to prove to someone that I could do better than RariTwi, I forced myself to write a fic for a different ship. I gave it to a good friend, and his review came in. The writing was good, the syntax was correct, the characters in-character, and the story was silly and cute, but…
I pressed him. But what? This was me proving to every single person who naysayed me for writing a topic constantly.
"But it's not you," he said, and the text paused. "I don't see you in this. It's good, but… it doesn't have your heart in it."
We have 26 amazing entries here, all different and all written by writers who've walked different paths. Some are further along the way, some are just starting, but in the end, the one thing that unifies them beyond two characters interwoven is that they all have a heart.
I feel they do.
I hope the authors feel this too.
THE MONOCHROMATIC MENTION OF HONOR
awarded to a story I shamelessly adored
Lights of Love
Timaeus
There's a lot that can be said of Timaeus, and it's that his writing is always heart-warming. It's the kind of thing you read curled up under your bedsheets, moonlight shining into your dark room, and your face lit up by your smartphone's artificial light because yes, you have to wake up at six tomorrow, but damn you if you won't stay up to re-read this fic again.
Two stories are interwoven, one from the past and one from the present, a beginning and an anniversary etched together on a canvas, and look, I'm trying to sound super legit and purple prosey here but oh my god, this story.
It's subtle. It's like warm chocolate. It's like those subtle moments, subtle signs of affections that mean so much more than outright telling someone you love them. This is showing a relationship, not telling one. The prose is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to read, the characters are all wonderful, and when you're done, all that is left is the knowledge that life can sometimes be good, and that Lights of Love truly does shine with RariLight.
Hahaha get it, I'm so hysterical. Anyway, read this story, it's amazing.
Anyway, as previously mentioned in the other blogposts, all stories were judged on a secret 25 point (5 per element) scale, totalling in a score of ___ of 125. Though we will not reveal the scores publicly, authors are welcome to message me and ask for their result.
Below are the results, which will be posted alongside three small reviews from our judges. The authors themselves will personally receive all the reviews, but we will omit them here due to length.
Rejection is hard. It hurts, even though we face it day in and day out. So many of us live in fear of it, and yet we must go on, step by step, even when thoughts get the best of us. And yet, at the end of the day, if we let it, we might find rejection isn't just a door closing, but a new one opening.
THIRD PLACE
404: Romance Not Found
by Oroboros
Cursori
Cute romance with substance and a great plot.
Oroboro should stop writing shipping, it's not fair to the rest of us. This story deals with the theme of rejection, how it affects you, and how to move past it, and it does it in a very mature and thoughtful manner.
More than that though, it takes Twilight and Rarity and shows them interacting, working together, growing closer over a period of time like actual people. Their characters are great, diverse, deep, and watching them grow closer together, move past their hangups and become something more is an absolute treat.
404 contains hints and ideas of a bigger world, the narrative is deep and compelling, and the payoff in the end is exactly what I was hoping for while reading. I approve of this.
NebulaNyx:
I’m just going to start by saying that I love the way that Oroboro writes SciTwi and that this story was one my personal favourites. The Dialog between Twilight and Rarity throughout this story is genius with both playing of each other perfectly often in rather humorous ways that I just could not get enough of. This story just nails its characters in the best possible way and I love it. Another thing I love is the way that this story deals with rejection. It shows how even though being rejected can be tough, in the end you can move past it and still be friends with the person regardless. It was something that I could relate to and I really appreciated seeing it used here so well. My one complaint is that the romance part of the story may have been slightly rushed but I put that down to the stories short length more than anything else so I can look past it. Overall I just really enjoyed every moment of this story, it was truly a pleasure to read.
Jykinturah
A rejection out of the gate is quite a strong tone to set for a story about love. Oroboro works with it with complete finesses, and in a love story, integrates the themes of rejection within the story with surprising effectiveness. It reminded me of my college life in many ways, with the network of romances and breakups creating a sense of drama around close groups of friends, and I think it very much succeeds in building a positive message around rejection and love while being frank about the emotional distress that comes with loving and not being loved in return.
Sometimes you just need a friend to give you that kick in the rear to send you in the right direction.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in odd positions. Sometimes, when we sit down and do nothing but talk, feelings come out. Life is made up of conversations, idle thoughts and things unsaid, and our second place winner very creatively shows that a riveting story doesn't need tons of action or scenes or locations or anything of the sort.
You just need existential questions, hilarious dialogue, and two ponies about to be eaten by a gummy worm.
SECOND PLACE
Squirm!!!
by King of Beggars
Novel Idea:
This is a glorious entry into complete and total madness. This is seriously insanely ridiculous and insanely good at the same time. Every aspect of the environment is absurd, from capture to rescue.
I love Rarity and Twilight's voice and tones. The dialogue and conversation between the two of them is magnificent from start to finish. Rarity's being a drama queen while Twi's trying to analyze everything and being traditionally oblivious (I have a massive weakness for Oblivious Twi). The point where Rarity pretends to be having a stroke or something just to get a reaction out of Twi. Twilight pontificating about the afterlife… and Rarity’s deadpan “not what I was talking about.” The finale of Gummy’s "And then the carnage started..." was beyond hysterical. I love just the sheer absurdity of it all. I love every minute of it. The funniest entry bar none. The most FUN one. It's fantastic. I laughed my tail off at this story.
NebulaNyx:
Wait… I don’t …I can’t even…WHAT?! I’m supposed to review this? How? I don’t even know where to begin. I’m still trying to comprehend what just happened. I feel like this is the kind of dream I would have after going crazy and passing out from trying to watch every single episode of MLP nonstop looking for every single moment Twilight and Rarity either looked at, touched or spoke to each other while eating nothing but gummy worms. How does someone even come up with this? King of Beggars what are you on and more importantly, where can I get some?
OK, but more seriously now, this story was just a blast. When I wasn’t confused as hell I was smiling from ear to ear and loving every moment of this story, but humour aside this story is also just really well written. It nails the characterisation of Rarity and Twilight, even if Rarity does go a little crazy although honestly that was one of the best parts. I should also mention something that Mono brought up in the discord chat. Mono said that this story is amazing in that it is carried solely by conversation and honestly I could not agree more, that fact that the author has managed to accomplish that is really impressive. Overall this story is pure madness mixed with pure brilliance and it makes for one of the most fun stories I have read on fanfiction in ages.
Cursori:
An excellent comedy with great use of Rarity and Twi as characters.
God, this thing is bloody hilarious. Squirm takes an outrageous concept and makes it work. Rarity and twilight, their voices, their personalities, their quirks, all of it shines through here in a most glorious manner, and you have no doubt in your mind about who these characters are.
King of Beggars writes one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever read, but more than that, he writes believable and deep characters. This might seem at first glance like simply a comedy (not that there's any such thing as simply a comedy) but within it resides an incredibly cute romance. Rarity and Twilight grow closer together, through their life and death situation yes, but more than that through Rarity being adorable and Twilight realising that maybe there could be something there.
It’s cute, it’s hilarious, and it is exceptionally written. Well done.
Judging a contest is hard, if only because every word typed onto a blank file has a story behind it. Everyone is different, everyone has different tastes, and at the end of the day, a truly good story will always be something in the eye of the beholder.
Twenty-five people gathered here for this… celebration, let's call it. Incentivised celebration, but a celebration nonetheless of two characters. It was an honor to read the reviews, and more than that, it was an honor to see the spark of creativity it surged. It was amazing to see the names of several of my constant readers; to see their signature not as commenters, but as writers. A simple thing, but a tremendous leap in this world and this website where putting yourself out there can hurt, and yet there we all are, weaving words to share with the world.
Robotic ponies, a pony who's blind to all but not love, to vampires, and queens and bodyguards, all the way to learning that silence is perhaps not always golden, the creativity and heart bursting from these stories is what writing is all about. Like relationships, and like Rarity and Twilight themselves, writing takes both creativity and logic; being generous enough to share what you've created, and hardworking enough to constantly strive to improve.
Writing is vibrant and new and amazing, like a wonderful loving relationship.
And yet, as our first place winner aptly shows, even the most wonderful things can suffer with the passing of time.
FIRST PLACE
We Will Become Silhouettes
Cynewulf
Jykinturah:
Some may find it easy to interpret a story like We Will Become Silhouettes as cynical, but I would caution readers against such a view.
It took me a bit of a perspective shift to finally see and really experience the story in its entirety. The story stands less as a denial of romance but as an acknowledgment of love’s burdens. Sometimes we too easily slip into the imaginary narrative of idyllic love where we as romantic individuals dream of the perfect future of happily ever afters. Cynewulf very expertly crafts a narrative that accepts the reality of a love long lived while, with a single response, shows how that reality is anything but a cynical loss.
After all, she does have a dress to finish.
NebulaNyx:
If I had to describe this story in a single word it would be “Flawless”. Typically I’m not a fan of stories with this sort of tone but this story just hits it so far out of the park it will be a while before we ever see that ball again.
While many struggle with characterisation, this story absolutely nails both Rarity and Twilight's characters while also making them seem more slightly more mature. I also love the way that both ponies seem to be struggling with the same problems but each of them voice it in different way. I also liked how the ending, while open ended also gave us a sense of optimism, with the hope that things may all work out.
I myself have not been in any sort of romantic relationship yet in my life and as a result I don’t feel that this story had as much of an impact on me as it would have on others, however that does not stop me from recognising that this is a fabulous piece of writing that does a fantastic job of portraying a very realistic scenario that any couple may one day face. This story is one of those hidden gems that honestly deserves way more love then it has currently received. A truly beautiful piece of writing.
Cursori [Redacted for length]:
Cynewulf took a concept that is all too real and put it into words that made the entire thing hit me like a bag of bricks.
Twilight and Rarity's therapy sessions are written brilliantly. Showing only one side of the conversation, having all focus on the emotions, ideas and thoughts of the ponies in centrum of this story is amazing.. Not a single “she said” or any kind of description is found in these passages, it’s all one long monologue that provides an excellent insight into the ponies inner mind, and you can feel how they’re fundamentally different people, the way they speak, the way they think, how they approach problems.
This story deals with some themes and ideas that are all too real in long term relationships. Once the initial honeymoon phase dies down, once the passion fades and the infatuation goes to the background, it’s all too easy to fall into a routine. To let the romance and love fade because life gets in the way, because there’s no time or energy for doing what you used to do. You might still love eachother, but relationships are work, and require effort to keep alive. The subject is handled in such a mature and honest way here, and I can't help but admire Cyne for how this turned out.
Novel-Idea:
It’s been a full year since a story hit me in such a powerful and personal way. This is a perfect representation of a married couple who've been together long enough to start to lose their passion, question the future and, in some ways, hate the present. The daily drain of the farce, the rut and the routine, leaving them feeling dry and empty.
Rarity and Twilight are both just so tired. Both so worn out from their daily lives that they have nothing left when they come home but empty smiles and empty hearts. Rarity’s tired and running out of things to say. Twilight’s tired and worried that she deserves to not be loved anymore.
The best part? It ends with hope. It’s a subtle hope, created from a single small choice. The issue isn’t fixed. It’s going to be a long road to find themselves again. But they’re going to try. In the end… that’s all they can do.
This story kicked my tail and stabbed me in the heart… but all truly great stories do that. Cynewulf did it with such beauty and grace that it still gives me shivers. Congratulations Cynewulf. You earned this, through and through.
Monochromatic:
There is so much to say about Cynewulf's writing and stories, and yet it's hard to find the words. Listlessness, mundanity, routine, and anxiety are topics Cynewulf dances with constantly, and what a beautiful dance it is.
When you think of a shipping contest, the first ideas that come to mind are "how did they get together?" and yet Cyne went past that, past the passion of the beginning and asked the question: will they stay together? Do they care enough to make it work? Can it work? Nothing is constant in a relationship, and yet eventually it is.
We see a mesh of styles, of tenses, and POVs, a dangerous game to play at if inexperienced, and Cynewulf's writing weaves it seamlessly. Her characterization is flawless, as ever, and though she deals with a heavy topic, it's written with a certain amount of levity. Often times, quiet moments are the most painful, and often times, quiet moments are the ones that hold the most value. Cynewulf writes about the ugly parts of life, about anxiety, and depression, and the seeming inevitabilities of life.
And yet, this wonderful story takes you on a ride of hardship and regrets, and wanting and needing, lamenting and reminiscing, and just like one of our protagonists, when she thinks all is truly lost, the story offers a ray of hope.
A wonderful character study that reminds me of a quote Cynewulf herself once said to me during a very dark period of my life.
Great Heart Will Not Be Denied.
I will be contacting the winners shortly for their prizes, and I highly encourage you to check out the rest of the amazing entries, which can be found HERE and on the groups
Thank you all for participating.
Thank you very much for hosting! Oh, and congrats to all the winners! <3
Congratulations to the winners!
And maybe I'll read some of them! Who knows!
Third place, huh? Thanks so much! I'm glad you all enjoyed the story. I didn't really enter with an intent to win anything, I just like contests as an excuse to write something, and I wanted to try Sci-Twi/Rarity since its a slightly different dynamic that's relatively unexplored.
Personal confession time: At the time I wrote 404, I had fairly recently been rejected by someone I'd developed a bad case of The Feelings for. It isn't that I wrote 404 to get over my rejection or anything like that, more that I attempted to use my recent personal experience to craft the narrative in a way that felt more authentic. Apparently, it worked.
Congratulations to both KoB and Cynewulf! I'll have to read your stories soon.
Congrats to Cyne~!
Congrats to all the winners!
And a big thank you to Monochromatic and all the other judges for making this amazing experience possible. You've converted me to the cause of RariTwi, and I shall forever be in your debt for that.
The reviews were entertaining to read. Might just convince me to start reading RariTwi more often!
I had Cyne's entry on my read later already, looks like I need to prioritize it. They are SO good at telling stories.
4616453
Cyne is unfairly good at wordsmithery. ;3;
WOO
Cynewulf! you did it!!!! from now on please let me know if you ever need cover art again! congrats!!!
Congratulations to my fellow winners and to everyone else who probably should've won instead of me. It was fun, and I'm glad the story was liked.
I had myself a RariTwi marathon for about 2 weeks due to the massive explosion of fanfics, I read every contest entry. Time very well spent, in my opinion! Thank you everyone for providing me with such great reading material!
Congratulations to the top scorers, well done!
It was a blast to be a judge for this, thank you to everyone who submitted. I had a great time reading through everyone's entries.
oh dang :D grats, Cyne!
I am very much looking forward to reading these someday. :B
Interesting that none of the winners seem to have successful romance. Don't you people want to be happy?
Anyway. I should have known better than to write shipping. I have to think I could have spent that month being more productive on other writing projects.
404 got third? Need a recount. Obviously the result of Russian hackers or something. That story was shit.
Thank you all for your wonderful entries! You folks made judging this both a delight (because we got to read them) and insanely hard (because we had to choose). Seriously, these are some of the best off-the-cuff romances I've seen in a long while. Great job and keep writing!
Congratulations to all of the winners for the contest!
I was super excited to see how many people churned out stories when the deadline passed. There were a lot of more experienced authors, like our winning three here, but also a lot of new writers entering in one of their first published stories.
I'd like to take a moment to thank each of those less experienced writers for finding the courage to create and submit something for this contest. Putting up a story on a website like this one is nerve-wracking enough, and even moreso when you know that your work is going to be judged and compared to seasoned writers like Cynewulf, Oroboro, and SS&E. Thank you for contributing to this contest, and I hope that each and every one of you keeps on writing. There were a lot of fun entries that I read from a lot of you, and I'd love to see more.
Keep on finding that courage, and keep on working on your writing!
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4616660
Wow, so much sportsmanship coming from this author.
Thanks for hosting this glorious event. I have yet to read the winner, but judging from second and third it must be a blast. I hope you will do this again sometime.
The Frank approves.
4616660
Those grapes are awfully sour, pal.
4616660
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Salt mines are beautiful in their own way. It's strange, because salt-of-the-earth usually implies, at the very least, humility.
Congratulations to the three winners. King of Beggars was very proud of his submission in his own deeply weird way, and I don't think he ever expected it to do this well. I'm glad it did; It's definitely the most creative interpretation of the prompt I saw. "I want to write them getting raped by gummy worms. Just a little raped. Not real raped. But, like, raped by gummy worms." is, I believe, the original pitch he gave me when this started as a twinkle in his eye.
Oro, you too, have super improved as a writer since I first met you, and you should be incredibly happy with the story you put out. You deserve the place you got, awesome.
Cyne, I haven't read yours yet, I'll have to get around to it I think. Well done on your win, you should feel fantastic for it. There was some fierce competition here.
This is so exciting! I'm thrilled for everyone who entered. Of course, I'm super happy for those whose stories won a place of note, because winning is such a great feeling. But this is a monumental moment for everyone who entered, and please forgive my small soapbox, but I think it is apt.
Mono, darling, you've provided an opportunity for folks to grow as writers and as people. Those who didn't win a place or an honorable mention or even much recognition... congratulations. Sincerely! Take this moment to self-reflect on how you feel. Are you bitter? Are you hurt? Does it feel like a waste of time? Do you wish you hadn't tried at all?
Sometimes in life... we don't win. Okay, I'm sorry, that's a lie. A LOT of times in life we don't win. But was that your only goal? That isn't a healthy way, in my opinion, to tackle life. I hope you entered this contest because you enjoy writing. Because it inspired you to write something. Because it was fun.
Thank you, Mono, for hosting this event to allow people to step out of their comfort zone and submit their work for judging. Thank you for giving them the opportunity to win but also to lose.
And, of course, congratulations to everyone who entered; I hope this experience helps you to grow as a person!
Okay, okay, I don't explain myself too well late at night.
Don't take those two things together. I really did find it interesting that all three winners didn't have a successful romance in a contest that on its face appears to be more about the happy side of shipping, given the prevalence of it in the group, host, pictures, etc. Not that it's required, of course. Just that it's... well, again, interesting to see two of them with a failed romance and one with, from what I can tell of the description, no romance, or at least one that doesn't figure prominently. I wouldn't have expected that, so it's unusual to see the subversion become the norm. It'd be unlikely to see this many take that angle, much less that they'd all be good, but hey, we beat the odds.
For the second part, let me echo what monochromatic said of her past experience when she got feedback on writing a non-RariLight story: that she just wasn't into it enough to have the intangible factors she normally would. I'm usually that way with shipping in general, and I should have known better than to try writing one for any competitive venture, because chances are it just wasn't going to be there. But mono wasn't expecting to get a lot of entries, so I figured why not, might as well at least increase participation a little. Then a bunch of stories got submitted, and with the likes of skirts, Yoshi, and Harmony Pie (plus Novel-Idea, though an unofficial entry, and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting), joining the eventual winners on the author list, I didn't figure I had a shot at winning anything anyway, but that's not important.
What is important is that I'm not that satisfied with my entry and I'm probably never going to be, and I should have known from the start that would be the case, and then it turned out I didn't even need to enter it since participation levels were great.
Cynewulf and Oroboro are definitely good authors. I don't think I've ever read anything by Timaeus or King of Beggars, but I will now.
I hope that explains things better, but I gooned it up the first time, so maybe not. It's not the first time I've poorly worded something while nodding off, and it won't be the last, but I'm sorry if that detracted from the winners' experience in any way.
4617389
As a note, 404 totally ends with a successful RariTwi romance. The rejection everyone is talking about in their reviews is the starting point of the story, with SciTwi having been rejected by Sunset.
4617389
Seems like you've gotten a little better at this whole backpedaling thing. I think we'd buy your explanation better if this wasn't the norm for Pascoite to whine about not winning a contest. Usually in the form of pointing out how the winners were awful stories.
You've established a reputation for being a poor sport. It wasn't merely poor expression of yourself that led to the reactions you got.
4618192 Dude, he apologized. Just let it rest instead of stoking the flames. Stubbornness is forgivable so long as it gives way to introspection rather than keeping its course. We should encourage that change, not admonish people for trying to make it.
4617506
Oh, okay. I missed that. I don't know what it is about Sunset rejecting romantic advances, but it always hits a sweet spot with me. Sounds interesting.