#the nerd herd

[hoofusdoofus]

Just realized I never shared! I've got a new Character! Meet Blanche du Beauchamp-Rêverie, a critter I made for my partner @samael's old school essentials campaign they're running with us!

Massive Prettyboy Fatboy unicorn, Blanche is a powerful Kineticist! (think like, psychokinesis and psionics! They manipulate the kinetic energy of both themselves and their environment to varying degrees!)

More character info under the cut!

Suave, Romantic, and an aficionado of the finer things, he's quite the charmer! A real renaissance man! Though rougher edges do lay beneath that posh, proper exterior! He's a glutton through and through, a hothead, and occasional brat! These more common vices do at the very least leave him a fair bit more down to earth and all things considered more amicable than most critters of his cloth!

He's a noble, descending from a long, proud line of Kineticists. In fact, his house is even renowned far and wide for running a prestigious academy that teaches promising candidates the kinetic arts.

Blanche himself, however! Is actually a bit of a Black sheep in the house. His family lead strict lives, guided by the selfsame discipline and modest principles the academy they run teaches. Blanche completely rejects the almost monastic lifestyle his family has come to lead. Hell, he's a prodigy when it comes to kineticism, he never even bothered training his body physically - he didn't need it! Ever the loose cannon, he subscribes to the philosophy that to err is to be a person - that is to say he believes that his flaws, his vices, his desires, they're a part of what makes him, well, him! To deny them and seal them off would be to deny living as a person. Blanche is a glutton, a creature of indulgence! And he'll accept himself, flaws and all, and still forge a path ahead towards a brighter future - a viewpoint that's earned him the ire of his family, naturally.

Departing from a home that feels less and less welcoming by the day, the Unicorn has struck out on his own, seeking adventure and a means to fund his preferred lifestyle! Noble fashion and excessive, lavish feasts don't come cheap after all!

The game he's a part of isn't kink oriented, he's just a fat boy within a normal-ish game world so don't expect any funny tales from within campaign! That being said above game he's a kinkster doughboy and I plan on getting/writing some kink stuff involving him in decadence and debauchery...

[chubbswithhuggs]

Arc Threeeeeeee doodles

[yviegenie]

Big tiddy nerd for Halloween?

That IS what I was that one time! 😂😂😂

Just any reason to wear the purple wig, right?

[dxmichelle]

NEW FIC: Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

Art by dreamydelite!

Welcome to the next installment of the Game Night series! Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200 is the feisty little follow-up to Murder Most Foul, and part of @ygobigbang's 2024 Mini Bang! Thanks dreamydelite for the fun collab!

Story Summary: Game nights at the Muto house: games, laughter, friendship. Game night at the Kaiba mansion: games, wrath, bets, bamboozling, ...friendship?

“There’s gotta be an ulterior motive to this,” said Joey, and he turned to Yugi. “Is this retaliation from all them murder shenanigans we got up to?” Yugi shook his head and took a seat at the table. “Nope. But you know how this works – whoever hosts gets to pick the game. And if Kaiba wants to play Monopoly, then so be it.” “Technically, you are going to play Monopoly,” Seto said. “I’m the Bank, and from my position lording over all of you, I’m going to sit back and relish every moment it takes for capitalism to shatter your so-called impenetrable bonds of friendship.”

Read on: AO3

[nerds-yearbook]

The last episode of the original run of Quantum Leap aired on May 5, 1993. Almost everyone in the episode appeared in previous episodes or reference previously mentioned characters. In theory, Sam lept into himself in August 8, 1953 in a mining town, but it appeared he had actually lept into some kind of limbo possibly meeting God. It was implied that Sam was the one controlling his leaps. Sam went on to alter Al's life. A title card at the end revealed that Sam never returned home again. ("Mirror Image", Quantum Leap, TV Event)

[bonjourxrenae]

Rereading Yugioh and genuinely forgot this tidbit of information about Miho??????

[ten-thousand-year-elegy]

SETO KAIBA - THE SWORDSMAN

The fifth card in my tarot series for The Legend of Zelda: Ten Thousand Year Elegy, my Yu-Gi-Oh DM/Zelda BOTW crossover! I really had a great time designing his swordsman outfit. You just know that dramatic hoe would enjoy a big white cape. Does Seto Kaiba care about how hard it will be to launder a white cape while adventuring through the wilds of Hyrule? No, he does not. DRAMA. BEFORE. FUNCTION.

The last tarot card, Eri, will go up in a couple of days as I finish transferring my TTYE art to this account!

READ ON AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32978329/chapters/81849910

[hourly-yugi]

[kira-quartz]

My Sims Yu-Niverse: Nerd Herd, Updated

[metatemu]

Fact of the matter is that Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, Otogi, and Ryou are all in fact Yuugi's friends first.

Its kind of hard to separate the meta textual treatment of Yuugi from the heavy cash cow usage of Dark Yuugi as a sort of mascot (I don't say main character because it's more about branding and cashing in than anything else) but from the Watsonian perspective, Yuugi is the one who everyone spends day to day life with.

Everyone likes Dark Yuugi, they act easygoing around him and like him, call him a friend, fight for him, defend him, and even tease him (Jounouchi snatching the star chips out of his hand and declaring he'll take them tickles me) but Dark Yuugi and the narrative itself knows and acknowledges the fact the Yuugi is the one who has the stronger connection. The pier duel was Yuugi's duel. Yuugi is the one the group centers around, Yuugi is the one who everyone rallies behind. They're Yuugis friends first, and they adopted Dark Yuugi into their circle pretty immediately but he's....very aware. Of that fact. He's a very shy person, of course he feels strange about this circumstance and knows how it happened.

I don't really mean that in a negative way--mostly because it's also acknowledged that people do have their own social circles, their own lives. Anzu left to go dance. Atem left to go to Duat. Yuugi never really met Mahad and Mana, he had his own social circle, his own life, his own family. What matters most is caring about someone even if distance grows, even if you don't really understand them.

It's also to say that, out of the core cast, I think because Atem knows that, its why he tries so damn hard to befriend Kaiba. He actively says he wants to be his friend and grows frustrated at the distance Kaiba puts between them. In Takahashi's lyrics he wrote for the opening, he says that Dark Yuugi is a lonely character, and I see that. I think he considers the people he's closest to (besides Yuugi, his partner) to be Kaiba and Anzu.

And that's mostly because Anzu takes the time to get to know him (as an individual, after she takes the time to listen to him during Battle City, and buy him a gift personalized to his wishes) and because Kaiba the whole time has been specifically out for him.

And that's something he kind of needs. Because again, a lot of things happen because of him, things are about him, but he actually has extremely little agency or people really invested in him as a person.

And that's not like, saying anybody is bad for it. Just different types of friendships we form. He clicks with people in a different way than Yuugi does because they're just different people. Of course their friend circles would form differently. He's literally a ghost stuck in a necklace who doesn't really have the opportunity to form his own circle naturally. It's just the bad circumstances. Nobody is at fault or at all failing, it's the fact that he can't exist as a full person while being someone else's shadow.

(If you notice, Kaiba actually treats Yuugi very different than Dark Yuugi, adjusting his language to talk to him in a softer way. He legitimately understands the difference and it's great.)

All of this is to say I think that's why it's pretty special that Kaiba is the first person (besides Dark Yuugi himself) to see what Dark Yuugi actually looks like as a living person in the coliseum flashback.

It's neat for plot reasons, sure, but also because i really do think that, besides Yuugi, Dark Yuugi feels closest (in whatever weird way they have) with Kaiba.

So of course. Kaiba, who's been interested in Dark Yuugi first since the very beginning, would see him first.

[protonpowered]

Whilst Witts and Nefarious do go on to date each other, I just realised that they both have Elaris as their second choice

Au where It's all fun and games until they start (almost literally) fighting over her

[radroller]

STOP IT HE LITERALLY WILL NOT STOP IT

[sonicandallstars]

The bad guys from Toejam and Earl.

[bonjourxrenae]

.hack//YGO Characters, Classes, and Archetypes (Part I)

(aka the main reasons why I rotate this AU in my brain every damn night)

I have decided to be particularly passionate about this AU because it works so well and Quill (@themadcaptain) and I have been bouncing ideas off of each other on and off about this...... the more we learn about The World and the .hack// franchise, the more I fall deeper into this idea of all these card game nerds playing a high-stakes mmo (instead of the usual high stakes card games)

Below the cut is what we think their mmo classes would be, or what characters they would be based on!

disclaimer: neither of us have played past the original ps2 games or watched past .hack//SIGN, so we have no idea what the newer classes are or how they would synergize with these characters;;; however all of this is subject to change once we eventually play the .hack//G.U. remaster

First of all, Ryou as a Wavemaster is the #1 reason this au even exists. I mean, look at these designs, they were MADE for him:

Left to Right: Kazu from .hack//Legend of the Twilight (manga); Elk from the .hack//Games; Tsukasa from .hack//SIGN

Just guys and gals with loose fitting clothing, silly hats, and a big staff. It's absolutely right up his alley, particularly what we've seen from small bits in the Monster World Arc and the Duelist Kingdom Arc:

Ryou just likes being a mage and a healer. He demands it, and who am I to tear him from that path?

He uses the handle Amane in The World - a tribute to his little sister :')

Speaking of light magic users, Yugi as a Twin Blade makes perfect sense. Twin Blades are among the most balanced classes in The World, with decent attack stat growth and magic stats... very much a "jack of all trades" kind of class. While they can't equip the strongest weapons/armor or use higher level magics, twin blades are absolutely pro at fast multi-hit attacks, and can exploit elemental weaknesses in enemies.

Yugi uses the handle Kameshi in The World, though I may change this to something more fitting later; it's written using the kanji 亀嗣 (is this how Japanese works?)

There are quite a few Twin Blade designs - beforehand, I only had knowledge of these two Twin Blade characters:

From Left to Right: Sora from .hack//SIGN; Kite from the .hack//Games

But then I saw Haseo from .hack//ROOTS and the .hack//G.U. games and... well...

I MEAN...

(Also, peep that eye wave design on Haseo's shoulder... it's an extremely plot-relevant wave design... but I'm just saying, that could very easily be mistaken at first glance for the udjat or wedjat eye.....)

And of course Atem would also have the same Twin Blade skin, but their wave designs would be mirrored... if you're familiar with the .hack//Games, he's playing a similar role as Helba, a mysterious hacker who helps out the main protagonists with the Data Bugs in the system, as well as with facing off against the main antagonist.

(In some early concept art below, I gave him a snake mask - most of The World is rooted in Germanic myths, but I wanted to have this AU's version of The World have more Egyptian mythos, so Atem's avatar is known as Apophis.)

(In this early concept art I gave him an avatar similar to Sora's, but I've decided against that after all.)

(Debatable.)

I've also talked a bit about Kaiba in my last post, and I am absolutely slapping him firmly into the role of Balmung - one of the most famous players in The World and the one who has been combating the Data Bugs alone, refusing to work with the hackers who have been fighting the common enemy. I imagine his avatar looks incredibly similar to Balmung's as well, although I don't think he would be a Blademaster... or maybe he would? I picture him as a Long Arm, mostly because it gives me Dragoon vibes, but idk!

Staying firmly with the Egyptian myth theming, his handle is Set (of the Azure Eyes).

Pictured: Balmung of the Azure Skies, as he appears in the .hack//XXXX manga and concept art from the .hack//Games

Helba and Balmung have some fun dialogue at the start of the .hack//Games... so I'd imagine things would be a lot snarkier between Apophis and Set...

I really don't go to Prideshipping School but UHHHHHHH I may have to start???

And uhhh... wow this post got really long... I'll continue with the others in a future post! If you managed to stick around and read all this - thank you for indulging me! :') <3

[heraspeacocks]

Also an issue for dating an academic (with apologies to my partner).

[hourly-yugi]