*Read This*

Now, before anything, I must apologize. I was wrong about Jounouchi not knowing about his father. In the manga his father was alcoholic and that leads to suspicions of abuse and whatnot. Anyway, I want to thank S.A. Bonasi for correcting me on that!

Anyhow I was trying to get the point across that the characters know nothing about themselves and their surroundings, other than what the show/manga tells the audience; and fics make up alternate backgrounds that are not necessarily true. (I guess I choose the wrong character to get that point across, huh?)

It's kind of confusing when the 1st dub season is really the 2nd season in the anime and maunga, and you're trying to follow both instead of the dub, but you live in the US. Confusing, ne? (For both of us.)

Like I said, I'm sorry. I'll crack down and do more research…

Votes:

Ryou-9

Malik- 7

Yugi- 6

Anzu (Tea)- 4

Yami Malik- 3

Pegasus- 2

Bandit Kieth-1

Honda (Tristan)- 1

Mai- 1

Shizuka (Serenity)- 1

Ok, Ryou's next. (As if you didn't know it. -_-)

Oh, by the way Sakuya the fic I mentioned was "I Love You, Mommy" by Angel Weasel-Woman. It's really a one-shot, but you can find it here:

h t t p : / / w w w . f a n  f i c t i o n . n  e t / r e a d . p h p ? s t o r y i d = 1 3 4 0 3 4 0

I could have sworn there was another, but I couldn't find it. L Maybe I'm wrong…? But I did find a fic where Peg. is the father of… dun, dun, dun… Ryou! Yes, Ryou Bakura: h t t p : / / w  w w . f a n f i c t  i o n . n e t / re a d .  p h p ? s t o r y i d = 1 3 8 5 2  1 8

Both fic are pretty fluffy… which isn't bad sometimes, but it can choke my muses. ^_^

Anyways, sorry about the lateness. You'd think I would speed up during the summer, ne? Thanks for all the reviews, though I doubt I deserve them… I'm so lazy it's sad.

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Under The Wraps

Entry 04: Ryou Bakura

("Under the Wraps" is back. Today we're visiting the "innocent" little bishounen Ryou Bakura. Having been portrayed as a naive, yet sometimes-clumsy, high school loner it ill be interesting to see what he has to say.)

(We find ourselves outside a modest apartment building [1]. But as of yet, most fics seem to set him in some pleasant up street suburbia. After a few flights of stairs and two knock on the door, the interview should begin.)

(Slowly the door cracks open, two eyes blink back at us warily. A familiar smirk grazed the lips of Yami Bakura as he opens the door.)

YB: Back again, ne?

Q: You could say that, but it's Ryou I'll need to speak with. Not you, I'm afraid.

YB: Humph, then don't let me get in the way of your hopeless crusade.

(The ring glows for a second, illuminating the room – in which rows of dolls are placed along the walls [2] – and, for the second time today, two eyes blink back at us.)

Q: Hello, Ryou.

R: Oh, hi. Did I miss anything while he was out?

Q: Not a thing, in fact your yami was more cooperative than I thought he would be.

R: All right, then. Where do we start?

(Ryou is seated in frount of us, behind him the shelf of dolls stares back with blank eyes. In his hand, Ryou absent-mindedly looks one over.)

Q: Well let's start with the basics, how do you feel about fanfiction.net?

R: It's not like I can do anything about it, none of us can. It's just something we have to accept like our fate. Complaining or any physical effort won't stop it.

Q: So, you don't mind it?

R: I never said that. What I mean is it's the way things are, but you can live in an environment and not like it right? I mean I'm not truly myself sometimes, with my yami that is, authors make me into this abused person whose life is so mess up, yet I'm always so innocent. I hardly ever fight back against what ever I'm put up against – usually my yami.

Q: So the portrayal of you in most fics isn't what you feel you really are?

R: I guess you could say that. I'm a confusing character, most of the time in the series it's hard for the authors to tell who I really am. That adds to the confusion I guess, because my yami and I, we're like yin and yang. But what the authors seem to forget it that even yang has a spot of yin in it and visa versa. No one can be totally innocent, though it's nice to believe there is something "pure" in this world.

Q: Being a confusing character makes you all more interesting in the eyes of some authors. (I can understand, after all what am I?) So, what about these fics, what are they like?

R: There are five kinds of fics I'm usually in. I'm usually abuse by my yami; sometimes it goes beyond that in the yaoi fics. This then leads to the suicide or death-by-miscellaneous-causes fics – I usually die somehow but in come cases my yami is the one to die (whether is be suicide or some valiant attempt to say me which kills him in the process.)

There are the bonding fics too, that would be when my yami suddenly begins to realize exactly what he's been doing to me, opens up, and we become friends and sometime more than just that. 

But then there are authors who use reverse psychology, if you want to call it that. That's when I'm evil and only using Yami Bakura as a cover for myself, or I'm controlling my yami and manipulating him into being evil, stealing the Millennium Items, ect. And then, on top of that, there are fics where my yami and I are both evil and both want to steal the Items.

And I can't forget Mary Sues. Usually I meat some new student and she becomes my friend, which is new for me because I've never had friends before, even if I hang with Yugi and the others in the series. Then my yami wants her for some reason or other…

But then that leads to fics where I'm left out of Yugi's gang and I'm lonely and stuff… that's usually when I become friends (or more) with another character who doesn't associate with Yugi… or a Mary Sue, again…

You know, come to think of it, there are a lot more than five kinds. Sorry if I got carried away there…

Q: Perfectly all right Ryou, after all, you're supposed to do the talking. I just ask the questions and put them out there for others to see and respond to.

R: Ok then… but there's one thing I don't understand, why do we [my yami and myself] have separate bodies in some fics while other's follow the series and stick us in one? I know you're supposed to be asking but…

Q: I'm not sure myself, but I think it has something to do with the yami's in their spirit form. Someone must have though "Oh, hey, if they [the yami's] are able to do that why not give them bodies too?" Or something along those lines, I'm probably wrong though.

  Back to the questions, since this is about 900+ words we need to step it up. Okay, you've expressed your views on the fic styles and a little on fanfiction itself, why don't you tell us – the authors – about yourself. Like someone said the key to something-or-other is understanding. The words escape me but I think you get it.

R: Yeah, but I'm not sure where to start… I guess I'm brave, I mean I've been told I am. In the series I defended my friends from my yami… even if it meant my death. I don't really want to get to know other people because of what's happened before. I changed schools more times than I can remember because friends or enemies of mine disappeared or went insane. I didn't know it at that point but my yami was the one behind it.

  Speaking of my yami, he does care about me – whether the authors believe of not. In Battle City he took the blast from Saint Dragon God of Osiris (or Slyfer the Sky Dragon) for me, but to the others it seemed like he only needed me to survive. In the anime he turned a gym teacher, who was picking on me, into a doll and he states that in different schools he got me friends by turning them all into dolls, because friends where what I wanted most – he just incorporated it into a twisted present. But that's probably just wishful thinking on my part…

Q: Alright, we've gotten to your yami. He wasn't very cooperative with the whole interview thing, can you tell us a few things about him and how he reacts to fanfiction?

R: Obviously there are stories about him and me as… lovers. Sometimes it's consensual, but then there are the rape fics and other… stuff. I mean with his character traits it's something he is capable and might be tempted to do, so it makes sense in perverted way. But he regrets it after… well you know…

(Red streaks have begun to creep over Ryou's normally pale checks, by now.)

Q: Point taken. I think we'll end it here, not to go any further into uncomfortable subjects; after all, even fictional characters deserve to keep a few skeletons in their closets.

R: Thanks. I don't meant to be rude but you should be going now, some of the Mary Suers know who you are and don't like what your doing.

Q: Really know, I thought it would be the shounen-ai fangirls.

(As the door closes behind us, the cityscape comes into view, a perfect orange sun setting somewhere beyond the Domino docks. From this view the city looks as it should be, alive and realistic but when this chapter ends another fic begins and all this will change…)

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[1] In the anime/manga-verse Ryou DOES live in an apartment.

[2] In the first series "A Shadow Game" (which has not been released in the US) Ryou has many, many dolls, in which the souls of his former friends have been sealed… but you already knew that, didn't you?

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A/N: Ack, Ryou is sooo OOC! (To me atleast.) I'm sorry if he is, lets just say I'm pretty rusty…

Review? Please. 

If anyone feels like reading some more stuff on Bakura (or Ryou, rather) there's a really good essay about him here:

h t t p : / / w w w . l e l o l a . n e t / y u – g i – o h / b a k u r a . s h t m l

(Sorry about the spacing, you know how FF.net is…)