Once upon a time, a girl sat down to write.

This was . . . oh, three or four years ago, but she likes to pretend that never happened, so she staunchly avoids the subject. Not months ago, she had been introduced to a fantastical, wonderful, impossible world - a place where she found people like her, a place where she could unleash desires she never knew she had, a place for psychopathic ten-, eleven-, thirteen-year-olds like her. It was a chance to release the imagination her fourth-grade teacher had praised her for; it was a chance to show the world how utterly brilliant, amazing, imaginative, nay, positively godlike - how she could write. And so she plunged into this new, strange world head-on, with all the understanding of a n00b, the superiority complex of Light Yagami, and nothing more than a desire to change the world(s) with self-insert fic.

Later, she would come to see it as a wasteland, a pit. Certainly, there were other places to find the things she desired - more difficult to navigate, but without the pitfalls and turn-offs of this place. Without the innumerable dangers, the indescribable number of torments that she contributed to unknowingly.

It was virtual, (to her) virtually beautiful. It was FanFiction.Net, and she was a thirteen-year-old writer.

Fast-forward.

Now-time, not quite so far away from you and much more a woman than when we left off, a lady cringes, the way we all do at the children we once were (only this change was much larger and much more frightening than most, as she had not just seen the pass of years in the time when the camera was absent - she had underwent puberty, and how strange and utterly alien she would have seemed to the self whose username she cannot bring herself to purge clean). She looks now at the reviews of a fandom long-left, thinks nostalgically of how each one had excited her, made her happy beyond compare, and cannot bring herself to remove these last traces of a time when she had not had to worry about her "integrity as a writer" or "Mary-Sues" or "Ideal Reader." And she will not lie. Though she never shows this part of her to the world, when she reads a story, she still thinks about how her self-insert characters would swoop in and save the day, writing her version of every fanfic she reads even as the plot reveals itself.

Writers with ideas buried deep inside, festering and screaming for release, barely count as productive members of society, if they register at all.

So Lenore - we'll call her that for now - makes a choice. She's always been a master of the multiple-account shuffle, and so, in the course of a week, makes her choice. She will let the ideas out. She will let un-edited, Mary-Sue-filled, terrifying paragons of cliche plot escape - so that she is free to write that which truly matters.

And so, cliche goes here - a.k.a. the-burning-knight - was born, and the horrors upon the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom unleashed.

ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT LENORE

LENORE - an off-shoot account of the-burning-knight. Bored with life, exhausted by AP exams, slowly wearing her nails to stubs, crusader, writer, faintly ashamed of everything she does. For now, everything under Lenore's "Stories Authored" is Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic, a vast post-canon 'verse generally known as the Astrumverse because of the main pairing - Atemu/Yami x OC (also known as Astrumshipping). Note that when she says vast, she means vast. So vast that attempting to put it on another account would just cause confusion and pain. Hence the existence of the Lenore-face - cliche goes here.

There are the main stories (From the Ashes of the Past, Breathe the Rain, Silent Snow, Center of the Circle, The Song of the Wolves, Past the Point of No Return, Through the Archway, Lines), one-shots which add detail, and AU's and spin-offs of the main story. Depending on how ambitious Lenore feels, she may or may not branch out to GX - the Dragonverse - and 5D's - the Shadowverse. Right now, she's just gonna blaze through the ideas and the obligatory Harry Potter crossover so she can get back to her respectable writing in peace.

Lenore writes sub. This means editing preexisting chapters, and she's not happy about that, but what can you do.

Lenore hates fanbrat Japanese but uses it a bit anyway. This is because she is a filthy rotten hypocrite, and she's writing fucking Mary-Sue fic, so just shut up already.

The name of the Mary-Sue: Amunet. And Lily. To an extent, Catherine, Arianna, Rose too, and especially Zane. Canon-Sues (to a point) - Will Fudou and Violet Wong. How are these canon-Sues when you've never heard of them before, you might ask? Wouldn't - you - like - to - know.

To describe Lily, you must understand that she's a couple of inches shorter than Yuugi, she has black hair but red bangs, hikari-large gray eyes. She's rather shy with people she doesn't know, and nearly as shy around people she hasn't known her entire life, but - because she's been dealing with weird situations for, what, two years before she was introduced in the story, by the time "From the Ashes of the Past" rolls around, she's already pretty good at taking charge of a situation and dealing with it - practically. Beneath that shy exterior there lies someone made of snark, and buried deep, deep down there is someone who likes to take her shirt off and dance around in the sprinklers. The side most people will be familiar with can be more or less described in three flat words - shy, concerned/motherly/etc/okay it was more like a string of descriptors shut up they mean the same thing, and snarky. She has a Tragic Past, of course. And she's very, very good at acting.

Amunet is the yami to Lily's obligatory sort-of Millennium Item, the Band of Light, and she's rather interesting in that the author more or less molds her personality to whatever the situation calls for. In Ancient Egypt, she was fiercely loyal to the point of ridiculousness, infamously stubborn beyond reason (not the best of personality traits, that), rather naive and vulnerable, nearly always in conflict with herself, but thoroughly devoted to life in general. Like her hikari, she can be quite motherly and caring at times, though it's mostly overshadowed by her love of playing tricks. And today, she's still - fiercely loyal to the point of ridiculousness, but at least she pokes fun at it. And she does it - a lot. She likes making fun of people rather more than she did then, she's rather more actively obstinate and jeering about it, but she at least listens to reason to quell her stubbornness and emotion. The naivete is still there, but toned down and buried in the shadow games - and when she has an emotional cause for something, she follows that through to the point where she's beyond reason, just like she did years ago.

Like a good Mary-Sue writer, Lenore can has an extensive list of pairing names, OC bios, comprehensive decks, and children plotted out. She'll stick with the shipping names for now, and maybe link you the bios later:

We'll start off with Astrumshipping, the 'verse namer. Those without the attention span of goldfish will remember - this pairing is Atemu/Yami no Yuugi x Amunet [OC]. It's rather dysfunctional, that's true, and based off of an inexplicable attraction that just screams lazy writing, but once you get through past wrongs and an awkward hook-up, it's built upon stability instead of thunderstorms (heh). They have happy memories together, do things together, enjoy spending time with each other, know each other well, genuinely care for each other, don't piss each other off too much, and it's generally very nice. The sex is nice, too, but nothing special - just your average spirit-on-spirit relationship. Then, we have . . .

Soulshipping, or Thief King Bakura/Yami no Bakura x Amunet [OC]. Now this, this is a writer's fantasy come true (not too many problems to send this ship spiraling down in the whirlpool of melodrama, not completely and utterly boring by nature like Astrumshipping, which is only exciting in fluff and circumstance). It's more of a brother/sister relationship than anything else - to Bakura, Amunet is a combo of Bakura's Amane and an Ancient Egyptian Ryou, if that tells you anything, and any and all sexual tension is more-or-less one-sided. Romantic chemistry here would amount to severe psychological attachment on Bakura's end and a schoolgirl-esque crush on Amunet's. But it's interesting to explore, and there is some rather nice interaction - both of them know each other remarkably well, and it really is fun to write the two of them having deep moments. And of course, the amount of fun the Lenore is having is all that matters.

Next up, Thundershipping - Thief King Bakura/Yami no Bakura x Amunet [OC] x Atemu/Yami no Yuugi. Taken as a threesome (which is quickly proving that spinoff/AU ideas are absolute evil and abnormally progenitive - even for bunnies) or as a love triangle (much more "canonical"), the pairing is named after the inevitable thunderstorms. A combination of Astrumshipping and Soulshipping, only with an added element of jealousy thrown in - much of Bakura's and Atemu's histories with Amunet were developed separately, and so having to share her is not conducive to happy Ancient Egyptian spirits. As if those two being forced to hypothetically interact ever leads to happy Ancient Egyptian spirits.

Now for an OC x OC pairing, we have Osoreshipping, Kinoshi [OC] x Amunet [OC]. A villain pairing, this definitely falls onto the creepy end of the Sliding Scale of PC'ness for OCs. Romantic affection is, in the stories, limited to implication, general creepiness, molestation, and mind control. Of course, this also means one-shot spin-off dub-con, non-con, rape, and . . . more mind control. Osore is the Japanese word for fear. Obvious bilingual-bonus is obvious.

Another villain and OC x OC pairing - Endshipping, Nitari [OC] x Sadji [OC]. This one happens to be incest, lovely. Nitari and Sadji are both the main villain Kinoshi's niece and nephew, but you needn't worry - it's first-cousin incest, not brother/sister. It is explicitly stated in-story, though (you have Lenore's deepest apologies). All these two get is minion-screentime, though - something I think their counterparts, Set and Mana, are inexpressibly grateful for.

Let's step out of Ancient Egyptian times for a moment, though, and return to my other Mary-Sue. Legendshipping is Yuugi x Lily, and, much like Soulshipping, is amusing with its problems caused by both its dysfunctionality and its circumstances. There is, of course, the basic problem of whether the feelings they have for each other is theirs at all or their yamis', confused by the bond they have. There's Yuugi's horrible interaction with non-Anzu girls. There's the part where everytime progress could happen, they have to go save the world again. Then there's Lily's Tragic Past. Spoilers, spoilers. The reason why it works: they spend time together, enjoy it, do things together, care about each other, worry about each other, have at least some modicum of sexual attraction (which may or may not have filtered through their yamis' bonds with them), and - this is the kicker - it's comfortable. The reason why they work so hard to hold it together: Lily makes Yuugi feel like a hero. Yuugi, for Lily, is so different from Zane (with such a small number of similarities - important ones - to make sure she doesn't forget him entirely) that she doesn't have to worry about confusing him with her old lover. The love comes later - but it still comes.

Now we come to Patienceshipping (the real spoilers start here), or Zane [OC] x Lily [OC]. This has all of the makings for another author's-fantasy - the two of them are childhood friends, they honestly care for each other in the way only children who have grown up together can, the Westermarck effect is completely ignored (attraction ahoy), and Zane honestly cares for and wants to protect Lily, while Zane brings out the best in Lily. There's long-distance elements, but it's really circumstance that kills this one. It's fun to write, though . . . hint, hint, hint. This one's named after the song "Patiently," by Emma Lahana (Kira Ford, the yellow ranger in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder), which is perhaps the best expression on their feelings Lenore could possibly give you.

Physicsshipping is another OC x OC pairing - Will [OC] x Violet [OC]. This is a beta pairing in Lily's story, two childhood best friends already with a well-established, happy relationship. Will is a geek, Vi is a singer, they're both duelists - but here, there's all the easy camraderie and teasing and mocking as two entirely different people who genuinely would do anything for each other produce. Vi follows Will to college, major in physics because he majors in physics, and Will follows allong with Vi's insane, exuberant plans, because they're Ron-and-Hermione-esque best friends as well as lovers. It's works out well. And this is as canonical as it gets in Lenore's stories, as well . . .

Now for the minor OCs - Iceshipping is Seto Kaiba x Rose [OC]. Rose is more or less a female version of Kaiba, but a tad bit less stubborn and a tad bit more emotional. They work because, even though they rub each other the wrong way, they grow on each other - it's never going to be sappiness and mush, of course, but they can find it in themselves to be attracted to each other, live quietly together, snark about things without getting truly angry at each other, spend time together without ripping each other's throat out. She has Kisara's blessing. Enough said.

Next up, Dawnshipping is Ryou x Catherine [OC]. This one only exists because, like a true Mary-Sue author, Lenore can't bear to leave any of the main characters un-paired-up, and so this is a nice bit of cliche right out of the writer's dreams and the author's nightmares. Catherine is sweet, shy, stubborn, and very much in love, which makes for a very bland, very stable, uninteresting relationship. Bakura dislikes her, though. Dramatic tension is always nice.

Hang on, we're almost done. Finally, we have Sandshipping, Malik x Arianna [OC]. Like Ron and Hermione and Physicsshipping above, this relationship is made of playful banter and sheer annoyance. Malik and Codename: Mary Sue Number (four? five? Lenore's lost count) are intensely alike - serious and dedicated to their tasks, but underneath are completely made of snark and mischievousness. Oh God.

Those are Lenore's OC pairings. She also floats Polarshipping (Jounouchi x Mai), Crushshipping (Honda x Shizuka x Otogi), Ardentshipping (Honda x Shizuka), Persevereshipping (Otogi x Anzu), Kiddyshipping (Rebecca x Mokuba), Roseshipping (Pegasus x Cyndia), Blueshipping (Set x Kisara), and Survivorshipping (Set x Mana) - which, Lenore would like to note quite grumpily, she had to make up a name for, because apparently it's so far out of the range of plausibility that even the goddamn shipper's list didn't think of it (which is saying something, because this is the list that ships Ryou x Mokuba and calls it Sweetshipping).

Lenore does not actively ship but does support Cheershipping (Otogi x Shizuka), Supportshipping (Honda x Anzu), and Conquestshipping (Varon x Mai). They are the retardents to her fireman (firewoman?).

Lenore is not her real name. If you knew her real name, you could link it back to her true identity. Like a superhero, this generally does not result in good things.