Aptly for the Weirdo Round, “Viris” author April Kelly and opponent Nikola Jajic (“The Boogeyman”) began the week trying to out-strange each other on the comment board: Jajic, whose story tells of Gary Busey and Nick Nolte’s collaboration to spawn an even worse being, opened with claims of watching Bloodsport to prepare, while Kelly boasted of having committed a vampirish dual homicide around the same time her tale of computer-to-human virus transmission went live. Since then, Kelly’s dispatches have purportedly come from jail, and as the third day dawned, Jajic was reporting increasing paranoia and barista abuse.
Much less weirdly: the authors have civilly joshed each other and opposing voters while even promising to buy each others’ books (not to mention one by a certain moderator, who sort of misses the troll death flames of years past). Granted, Kelly did unwittingly prompt an ad hominem attack from “Not a TV” when she sarcastically boasted of past employment at Lola’s Bump ‘N’ Grind Lap Dance Parlor, and Jajic drew mild scorn from “Micayla Chad” for criticizing her taste in comedy, but the contest to date has seen generalistic praise from each writer’s supporters. At press time, (Wednesday afternoon), some comparisons between “Viris” and Vonnegut–accuracy disputed–were beginning to emerge, and were perhaps most supported by Jajic before he swung the conversation back to “Boogeyman.” It seems a sound strategy considering his churning, slowly expanding vote lead; one would venture that Kelly needs a few more voters in her camp, voting more often, to make sure Jajic’s lead doesn’t become insurmountable.