Axis Powers Hetalia

Good evening from England!  Do you like reading and writing Hetalia fanfiction?  Would you like to test your limits in a friendly enviroment? Experiment with different characters, styles, settings? Get feedback from fellow writers? Expand the available reading material for rare and crack pairings?

I host a small fanfiction contest through a closed group on facebook (although you can host your stories anywhere public, such as a fanfiction archive or a public blog). The basic concept is as follows:

• A "pairing" is announced.  This is two or more characters you must include, and make interact, in your story.  Their relationship (i.e. you don't have to romantically entangle them) and the plot etc is all up to you (i.e. no prompt will be given - anything goes).  You have a week to write a short story.
• The contestants read all the stories over four days and vote for their favourite.  The author receiving the least number of votes does not proceed to the next round (but will still participate in the voting stage).
• Rinse and repeat, until only one remains to be crowned the contest champion.  To up the difficulty level, the pairings get crackier as the contest goes on.

We're currently signing up for season 2!  It is a hefty time commitment, but hopefully it will also be fun and rewarding.  The season will start when we have sufficient sign-ups (ideally at least ten - although that doesn't mean the contest will last nine rounds, due to the inevitable drop-outs).

To give you an idea, the pairings we've had so far are:

• Finland and Russia
• Holy Roman Empire and Chibitalia
• Cuba, Canada and Prussia
• Vietnam and Seychelles
• Tony and Shinatty-chan

I hope some of you will consider giving the contest a try!

EDIT: if there are a dozen or so people who would like to do this, but don't want to over facebook, I could set it up over at fanfiction.net.  Please comment if that suits you.