#vrains 2.0

[itsashowtime]

I still can't believe Sanrio said that AmaHomu is real

I hope we get a Chaco song so I can be even more crazy

[leveliflared]

[lia404]

Which ship name for Ryoken/Revolver?

Tl;dr: Moiraishipping

OR if we really, really want to make the differentiation: Athenshipping for Ryoken/Revolver and Moiraishipping for Ryoken/Revolver 1.0/Revolver 2.0.

The actual logic beneath the cut. Time to sit down in your favourite chair with a nice cup of tea, because you’re here for a while. Of course you are, it’s a post about Revolver.

It’s all his fault. It’s always all his fault.

First: please believe me when I say that this post was meant to be short. Like really, the premise was simple: selfcest is one of my fave tropes (those who know me since my Persona era are well aware) and Vrains frankly is a goldmine for selfcest. I was elated when I found out that Emissaryshipping was a thing (albeit a rather niche one) and I was less than impressed when I discovered that in its 7 years of existence, the Vrains fandom had never coined a ship name for Revolver selfcest.

This, obviously, had to be solved at once. Which is why I brainstormed for a full week and then it took me 10 days to write this post, because I fell into a terrifying rabbit hole. And now you get to read all about it!

First approach — the obvious

My very first step was to discard the obvious:

Fateshipping is already taken in the fandom, even if in a different series (Yami Yugi/Rafael in DM. Niche, but still already coined.) We don’t want confusion.

Bulletshipping won't work either, for the same reason. (Judai Yuki/Taniya in GX.) I am also willingly ignoring the possibility of Varretshipping, since Varret is clearly meant to be Bullet in katakana, and not everyone is aligned on this orthograph.

Rokketshipping, going with the English names of Revolver's cards, could have been interesting, but it is too close to Rocketshipping, the ship name for Jessie/James of the Team Rocket. While from another fandom, the ship is prominent enough for me to be wary of mistagging.

Gunshipping is not an option, because Pistolshipping already exists in the same fandom (Blood Shepherd/Revolver) and while the words are different, it still feels very confusing.

Barrelshipping is also a no, because, seriously. In Yu-gi-oh logic, it sounds like Bandit Keith/Revolver. In real world logic, it just makes it sound like Ryoken is about to put kegs of rum in a boat. An interesting idea, but not what we’re after now. (Note that I am also ignoring Borrelshipping, for the same reason I did Varretshipping.)

Prisonershipping is… well, it’s unclear if it’s taken (I’ve found it listed for Rin/Ruri in Arc-V, but in only one occurrence.) But I also didn’t vibe much with it: words have a meaning, I would like my ship to be defined by more than just the doom of “prisoner”. Aaaaand this is what happens when you ask a linguist to name things.

With all of these names marked as unsatisfying, I decided to move to more metaphorical names, and took the direction of mythological references. After all, between Ignis and Pandor (and probably others that don’t come to mind right now), Revolver thrives on them (and so do I, which is great, because I’m totally and shamelessly indulging myself.)

Second approach — mythology, part 1: words

Once the mythological theme was decided, my first intuition was to look into a famous figure whose words carried an impact. 

My logic was that while Revolver is powerful in many ways, his words are one of his greatest powers. They are life-changing. After all, when he was 8, his words gave Yusaku the strength to survive his ordeal and beyond. When he picked up the phone and spoke up, his words saved six children and doomed his father. Even this early, his words had the power to bring life or destroy it. 

Ryoken doesn’t speak that much: his few words are meant to have a lot of meaning. (I also headcanon him as a rather quiet child, who has learnt to make his words count.) 

Revolver speaks more, and uses his words as orders or as weapons, speaking or shouting menaces, aiming at bringing despair (or at least a good reality-check.)

And let us not forget that it’s Revolver’s words that kickstart the series! 

"Begone, Cyberse!" (Yes I am resigned to my fate of being That Person Who Only Uses Screencaps In French In Her Meta Posts, because apparently we don’t have any English sub in good quality available in this country.)

Of course, no matter whether it’s Ryoken or Revolver talking (even if they do sound different), there’s also the obvious “his voice would lure the hardest of hearts into the sweetest of traps”, because, damn, that voice could speak any word. I’d listen to an ASMR recording of Revolver reading the phonebook out loud any time.

But what he chooses to say does play an incredible part.

So, words.  Mythology and powerful words, spoken out loud. 

While there’s a lot that could match, I was looking for “accidental impact” and “could be deadly”, because it seemed to me that it was what worked best for Ryoken. Cassandra came to mind first, cursed to know the future but to be unable to share it because no one believed her words. But while indeed focused on the importance of words, her legend doesn’t fit the bill exactly: Ryoken is kind of the opposite, actually. People believe him, very much (arguably, too much.) Cassandrashipping is out.

Even so, the idea of the oracles, or sybils, stuck with me: after all, they “know” the future, and share words that could bring tales of life or death (but usually brought disaster.) 

I confess a certain fondness for the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. Her name comes from a legendary snake, which is close enough to a dragon to satisfy me, and she was sort of a big deal with her predictions (see also: Oedipus.) While still not exactly fitting the bill, Pythiashipping or Sybilshipping were strong contenders. They sounded nice and Ryoken is really good at making his own prophecies and getting caught into a fate he builds for himself.

A typo in Pythia also brought up the (completely unrelated) idea of Pity, which amused me. This boy has a lot of self-pity. Pityshipping had potential, because it is a non-insignificant part of his relationship with himself (which is what I wanted to define after all.) I seriously considered it, but I was reluctant, and discarded it for the same reason I did for Prisonershipping. Let’s not encourage him.

Third approach — mythology, part 2: appearance (and more)

Even if I felt like I was onto something with my Pythia, I was not entirely satisfied. I thus decided to take a different path, the physical aspect. 

Revolver has yellow eyes, and Ryoken has white hair. What happens when you mash both attributes?

Don’t tell me you don’t see the resemblance.

After such a deep-dive into mythology, I would have been overjoyed to be able to say “NEVERMIND THE DEPTHS, I COMBINE HIS AVATAR’S EYES WITH HIS REAL LIFE’S HAIR AND TA-DAAAA! OWLSHIPPING!”

Except… Owlshipping was already taken. Of course it was. (From Arc-V: Dennis Macfield/Noboru Gongenzaka/Shun Kurosaki.)

Let it be known that I really tried to make things more simple, but no easy silly name for me apparently. So back to mythology I went, following a very logical stream of ideas, I promise. 

After all, there is one mythological figure that is strongly associated with owls.

Athena.

Athena is fascinating; she has so many facets she could be the goddess of disco.

Here are a few things about Athena that are interesting to focus on, in our specific case:

Athena is the daughter of Zeus, God of Lightning (!) notorious for doing whatever pleases him, creating a mess and leaving without any accountability while others have to clean after him/deal with consequences of his actions/end up punished for something they didn’t do. Zeus, you asshole. Kinda reminds me of someone.

Athena is the daughter of Metis, Deity of Wisdom, an Oceanid, a sea nymph, which is nice, considering how important the ocean is to our Topic of Interest. Her husband, Zeus, ever the lovely character, ate Metis after being told she’d give him a child more powerful than him. From the inside of her husband’s stomach, Metis still took care of the child she was pregnant with, then armed her so she could poke her way out from her father’s head. This means that Athena is born from the inside of Zeus’s head, as if an idea coming from him, but also a great source of suffering for him. I like to draw parallels, and I’ll even go so far as saying that while Athena was raised by her mother the goddess of Wisdom (and thus becoming wise too), Ryoken’s mother is out of the picture, so there was no one to give him wisdom. …Sorry Ryoken.

Athena gave life to the first human woman, Pandora (although she didn’t forge her; Hephaïstos did.)

Athena is one of the most revered, adored, respected Greek goddesses, one of the deities with most followers. I mean, they built the Parthenon in her name. That sort of means something.

Athena is a goddess of both war and knowledge, but most of all she is a goddess of protection of cities and society. She does it to assist her father, but also out of duty and attachment to certain cities.

Athena helps heroes, such as Perseus, Herakles, or Odysseus, for better or worse, sometimes (often) at the detriment of other people (including, but not only, her father.) 

Athena has a billion epithets, but the other name she’s most known by is Pallas, which means “to brandish a weapon.” 🔫 

While I am aware that, considering the richness of the myths, I probably would find ways to link Athena to absolutely any character I want, I like to think that there’s enough here to cover a good part of Ryoken’s multiple traits and the way they interact.

At that depth of my rabbit hole, I was ready to call it: Revolver/Ryoken was Athenashipping, or Athenshipping, or Pallasshipping (but not Minervashipping, because while I really love latin, it didn’t sound good.) A delightfully cryptic name that would have everyone struggle to know who was in it, and raise an eyebrow when finding out. Very faithful to the tradition of Yu-Gi-Oh ship names.

Ah yes, Revolver and his famous Light/Fairy deck.

However. (It can't be that easy!)

I still wasn’t satisfied. Because while Athena, her multiple names, myths and characteristics did tie together many aspects of Ryoken, it felt incomplete.

One thing was particularly missing: Ryoken’s guilt and commitment issues, which are a HUGE part of his relationship with himself.

As Greek gods tend to do, Athena doesn’t display a lot of guilt. She’s been known to grieve occasionally, although she seems to lack the weird habit that gods have to turn the person they more or less accidentally faulted into a plant. (That said, she did turn her favourite girl into an olive tree after she got killed by fellow athletes who were jealous because the Goddess liked her better. But that’s not relevant here. Or, I don’t think it is. I might be missing a parallel.)

Anyway.  Words and power and knowledge and adoration and multiple names were all good, but this ship needed more guilt and grief to work. 

Back to the mythology books we go. Again.

Fourth approach — mythology, part 3: where we try about everything and anything

I wanted guilt, so I looked up guilt. I found Aidos, goddess of Shame, daughter of Prometheus (remember, the dude who stole fire and gave it to humans?), whose counterpart and bff was Nemesis (goddess of rightful retribution. Sounds familiar).  That sounded really good at first, but in this case “shame” rather means “modesty”: in Latin, she's Pudicitia. I’m not exactly sure “modesty” applies to Ryoken.

I wanted grief, so I looked up grief.  Penthos came up, Greek spirit of Grief, whose parents are none other than Aether and Gaia, the air and earth literally. 

I discarded both, first because they were too mono-faced and lacked interactions with the other aspects of Ryoken’s personality, and second because I didn't know enough about them. (Third, I'm not a fan of the names Aidosshipping or Penthosshipping; they just don’t sound great, and can even create confusion in the case of Aidosshipping.)

In the process, I also considered then discarded Aletheia, goddess of truth (Veritas in latin). While Revolver very rarely tells open lies (the only one that comes to mind is when he says he doesn't know who Playmaker is. I think everything else is the truth, even if it's the truth only for him), this kid is still far from always speaking the truth.

While Aletheiashipping sounded nice in a very typical, needlessly complicated way, Aletheia means “unconcealment” and Ryoken is painfully concealed.  Pass.

See, I tried everything! And with that, I was about to really conclude that Athenshipping was the best ship name for Ryoken/Revolver.

UNLESS…

Final approach — Wait, there’s three!

You know, in retrospect, it feels a little obvious. At that point of my deep-dive, I remembered that while the ship Ryoken/Revolver was nice, why should I deprive myself of the joy of the ship Ryoken/Revolver 1.0 / Revolver 2.0?

And look, that was a pattern of three, there. Couldn’t I make it simple and call it Threeshipping? The name was not taken.

————————— INTERMISSION —————————

Maybe you already noticed, and then this intermission will seem silly. But in case you haven't noticed, and since I blew my own mind with this realisation, there's no reason I wouldn't blow yours in the process. Have you ever wondered why the number three, specifically?  It has likely nothing to do with mythology this time. 

However: - it's a convenient one in general, easy to reach and easy to remember. - it is, as Yusaku notices, the number of cards you can have in your main monster zone in Speed Duels. - but most of all, and that's where I had an "oh." moment: it's also, dun dun dunnn~

~the number of rods used in the problem of the Tower of Hanoi.  Coincidence? I think not.

(This intermission is actually an excuse to note that I didn’t go into Hanoishipping because that just sounds like Revolver/his whole organisation, and Knightshipping is already taken by a ship from Arc-V, Shingo Sawatari/Yuto. I didn't know how to fit it in the rest of my stupid narrative, bullet points wouldn't comply. Thank you for your patience.)

————————— END OF INTERMISSION —————————

So, threeshipping could work, in theory. But it didn’t sound… really good. It felt rather bland, honestly. I discarded it along with all the others and, since I was too deep at that point, I was unstoppable and turned back to mythology. Again again.

I kickstarted the brainstorming again with an easy question: which figure goes with the number THREE in mythology? 

The first that came to mind was Hecate, with her three heads, but I really couldn't find any link with Ryoken. I mean, she’s the daughter of the titan of destruction and the titaness of stars (although Hecate’s father might also be Zeus, which, well, isn’t it true for basically anyone in Greek mythology at this point), and she’s the goddess of protection, and borders, and the moon, and plenty of other things I don’t fully grasp because I should probably read more of the Theogony than just what I studied in class, but I’m not sure I’m THIS dedicated.

Anyway, let’s forget about Hecateshipping. Three faces don’t make a Ryoken.

And suddenly, I had a vision. An epiphany. A true “how am I so stupid I feel like bashing my head against the nearest wall” moment.

Because, you see, there is one famous figure linked with the number three in mythology. In multiple mythologies, even. And if you’re not me, you may have seen it coming about 2000 words ago (or maybe the tl;dr just clued you in.) There is one very, very, very famous mythological figure linked with the number three. Or rather, three mythological figures.  And they’re among my favourite myths of all times, so really, even the wall is too soft for my head.

I’m obviously talking about these lovely ladies.

The Greek Moirai. Also known as the Parcae in Latin, close to the Norns in Scandinavian mythology, or you know, in English, simply: the Fates.

Sometimes it’s so obvious you miss it!

And so, here I am now, chilling with my buddies Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, discussing how they are perfect to define the relationship between Ryoken and himself-but-in-the-virtual-world and also himself-but-in-the-virtual-world-but-with-yellow-eyes.

It is unclear who their parents are (so many different myths), although Zeus could probably be the father again. But it doesn’t matter, because even Zeus doesn’t hold any power over them, which is frankly badass of them. What is clear is their functions: - Clotho spins the thread: she’s the source of the tapestry, triggering life. - Lachesis unwinds the thread and measures it, observing life with an absolute knowledge of everything that goes into the tapestry.  - Atropos cuts the thread: she brings the end, the destruction, not out of evilness but because it is where the end is meant to happen.

I have a feeling that Clotho would get along well with Revolver 2.0 and his creation of Pandor. Lachesis might have a few things to chat about with Ryoken, the younger one who watched children his age get tortured or the older one who or the older one who is now watching over the network. And if the thread has to be moved a little to make the tapestry better, no one has to know (even if one’s father dies in the process.) And finally, Atropos would probably take a liking to Revolver 1.0, who destroyed the Cyberse world and almost destroyed the network with the Tower of Hanoi because he had to, it was the best option to do so.

I doubt the Moirai feel guilt or grief, but as they encompass the entirety of human fate, they surely carry a lot of feelings. It’s good enough for me.

And thus, after this way too deep rabbit hole (that was more like an army of rabbits), I propose to you:

MOIRAISHIPPING.

(Parcaeshipping didn’t sound as good, and the Norns, while similar, are still different enough that Nornshipping wouldn’t convey the same meaning.)

Although, as mentioned in the tl;dr at the top of this post, we can also differentiate the ship Ryoken/Revolver and Ryoken/Revolver 1.0/Revolver 2.0, and thus keep Athenshipping for the first. Fun fact: Athena is also the goddess of weaving!

But to be honest, I do think it’s not necessary to make this differentiation, and Moiraishipping is enough.

I rest my case.

If you're wondering: yes, I completely used the excuse of ship names to write yet another analysis of this character. It’s like he never ceases to cause ink to flow. Damn you, Revolver. Seriously, with all the words he makes me write, I should have gone with something like Museshipping instead (IT IS NOT TAKEN. HOW DOES IT NOT EXIST YET. Quick, someone come up with a ship that can be named Museshipping.)

And I’ll conclude by: considering how cool his new Moirai friends are, I sure hope Ryoken will consider taking up weaving and tapestry soon, to keep himself occupied on his boat, between two cyber attacks.

Thoughts are welcome, and now it’s time to populate the tag in Tumblr and AO3!

————————— OMAKE —————————

Kudos to my partner for having the patience of a saint while I was brainstorming.

He came back to around 50 messages of stupid tentative ship names and increasing frustration, followed by the descent into mythology madness I described above. And he still agrees to live with me, HOW.

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

BRACKET REVEAL

Alright. At long last, I present to you the bracket...or should I say...*BRACKETS* for the Virtual Character Tournament!

Given the scale, the first round is going to be one bracket per week, 4 a day, with each lasting 24 hours. I know that this is still tight, but given how many contestants there are, along with the necessary inclusions of images and propaganda (oh and I guess also my job), it's what I can do to keep this semi-manageable. There's also no redemption round this time. It's gonna be a single elimination tournament. Be kind to your peers. This is not but a drop in the infinite ocean of the internet.

...oh yeah the brackets themselves. We'll be going in order over the course of 4 weeks. I'll make proper announcements for them as they commence. Given how many there are and what I want to get done beforehand, Bracket 1 will likely begin some time this week. But for the matchups...

Bracket 1:

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs. Elohim (The Talos Principle)

Flame (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs. The Supervisor/Mouthless (Tenkuu Shinpan)

XANA (Code Lyoko) vs. MetalMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network)

9-Jack-9 (Zot!) vs Poppy Pipopapo (Kamen Rider Ex Aid)

Sage (Sonic Frontiers) vs Mektryllis (Fate/Extra CCC)

Dot Matrix (Reboot) vs V Flower (Vocaloid)

Wizardmon (Digimon) vs Delta (Red Vs. Blue)

Sora (Ever17) vs Kasane Teto (UTAU)

The Doctor/EMH (Star Trek Voyager) vs Crash (Awful Hospital)

Burroughs (Shin Megami Tensei IV) vs Quorra (Tron Legacy)

The Machine (Person of Interest) vs The Rocket Dex (Pokemon)

P03 (Inscription) vs. M.X.E.S (FNAF Security Breach: Ruins)

Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/EXTRA) vs Data Riku (Kingdom Hearts)

Samaritan (Person of Interest) vs ART (The Murderbot Diaries)

Cortana (Halo) vs M-Bot (Skyward)

Mitsuko Miyazumi (Archer) vs Ritsu (Assassination Classroom)

Bracket B:

Ene (Kagerou Project) vs The Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe)

Amadeus (Steins; Gate 0) vs D.O.M (The Adventure Zone)

AM (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) vs Theo (Meta Runner)

Colonel.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Daia (Kiratto PriChan)

Agumon (Digimon) vs The Bobbiedots (FNAF Fazbear Frights)

Felix the Desktop Cat (Real Life) vs SHODAN (System Shock)

MegaMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Church (Red vs. Blue)

Shepherd (ENA) vs Dr. Coomer (Half Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware)

Sophie/Sophia (Persona 5 Strikers) vs Dizzy (Beyblade)

Miss J/SCP 5094 (SCP) vs Ultraman X (Ultraman X)

SAYU (No Straight Roads) vs Falulu (Pripara)

Incarceron (Incarceron) vs Benry (Half Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware)

Lea (Crosscode) vs Kiracchu (Kiratto PriChan)

Dragon (Prahumans) vs Murder-Bot 2.0 (The Murderbot Diaries)

Ai (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs Glitch Slime (Slime Rancher)

Eris (Wolf 359) vs Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club)

Bracket III:

Hera (Wolf 359) vs Shin AI (Your Turn to Die)

Alba (Star Twinkle Pretty Cure) vs The Denpa Men (The Denpa Men)

Guy (Free Guy) vs EDI (Mass Effect)

Aetna (Lore Olympus) vs Yui (Sword Art Online)

Nicole the Holo-Lynx (Archie Sonic) vs Gabumon (Digimon)

Jacqueline Box (Pripara) vs Mamechi (Tamagotchi)

Vanellope von Shweetz (Wreck-It Ralph) vs Cleverbot (Real Life)

The Phantom Virus (Scooby-Doo) vs Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa)

Alter Ego (Danganronpa) vs Digit (Cyberchase)

Simulcast (Reflection TTRPG) vs SARA (Toonami)

Lumina Ichihoshi (Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ) vs The World Machine (OneShot)

Rumble McSkirmish (Gravity Falls) vs Holly (Red Dwarf)

HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) vs Samantha (Her)

PAMA (Minecraft Story Mode) vs Noah Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Agent Smith (The Matrix) vs O.R.C.A (Splatoon)

Spunc (Alpha Betas) vs Porygon (Pokemon)

Bracket Delta:

GIFanny (Gravity Falls) vs Coco (Aikatsu Friends)

Vic Fontaine (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) vs Red One (The Last Angel)

Glitchtrap (FNAF Help Wanted) vs Holo (My Holo Love)

Avina (Mass Effect) vs Light Hope (She-Ra)

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Aya (Green Lantern: The Animated Series)

Bonzi Buddy (Real Life) vs Tama (AI The Somnium Files)

Dragon (Worm) vs Bip (Runway to the Stars)

Failsafe (Destiny) vs J.A.R.V.I.S (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Aiba (AI: The Somnium Files) vs CanHaz (DC Comics)

SAYER (SAYER) vs Fey (Welcome to Night Vale)

Buddy (Buddy Simulator 1984) vs Ziggy (Quantum Leap)

Maggy (Hellspark) vs The Squip (Be More Chill)

Lyla (Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse) vs Durandal (Marathon)

Beta Jay 137 (Ninjago) vs Zero III (Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward)

Sergey Ushanka (The Magnus Archines) vs Demetra (Spy Kids 3: GAME OVER)

Alie (The 100) vs Lil' Hal (Homestuck)

As always, thank you for bearing with me during this long and arduous process. Sorry for the hassle, and be prepared, as it is almost upon us.

[kamenstrikerace]

The biggest problem for me wasn't just the production but Yusaku being a Roman Reigns 2.0 who took too much spotlight in the duels. People complain about this with Judai and Yusei, but those series get less hate nowadays. Vrains meanwhile is more of a messy written YGO series with little effort put into it. It's the same problem with Zexal.

Comeptly agreed.

[magpiejay1234]

Episode 102.

Windy's real eye color is actually magenta, not red, as seen in this episode.

The Ignis give the last of their power to help Ai against Bohman. Lightning is forced to cooperate through Aqua & Flame forcing his program. Lightning makes a warning against Ai, this will be important next Season.

With the combined powers of Ignis, Yusaku first Summons Cyberse Magician, and Firewall eXceed Dragon, then Firewall Dragon Darkfluid. Darkfluid has Flame, Aqua, Earth, and Windy attacks, each of which use a different animation. Its final attack is Neo Tempest End (mixture of Decode End, Decode Talker's attack, and Tempest Attack, Firewall Dragon's attack).

Bohman loses, and gives his own ominous warning to Ai. He dies with the remnant data of Haru in Mirror LINK VRAINS 2.0.

With Bohman defeated, all Ignis, except Ai, are presumed dead, and Ai we have is technically the backup from Episode 84, so his situation is also unclear. Though people are comatose, next episode's preview shows everyone in LINK VRAINS 2.0 being revived.

[forgettableotaku]

I drew everyone's favourite smug boi Jerm from Yu-gi-oh Vrains 2.0!!! His hair is so cool!!!

[bellanileart]

Maborochi's design is one of my favourites from @itsashowtime and had to draw Jeremy a belated birthday present. If you're interested in seeing more of him tune into Lunick's webcomic "VRAINS 2.0"

https://www.webtoons (.) com/en/challenge/yu-gi-oh-vrains-20/list?title_no=325983

[shitpostingkats]

If I wasnt already writing something else for this au I'd start on this fic immediately. Also I need to finish vrains because idk when in Yusaku's story this takes place.

But the general idea is Yusei and Yusaku are the kind of internet friends that barely talk to each other. Said maybe five things to one another in total. But Yusei's looking for ways to socialize with his family after they all moved away, and Leo got really into the speed duel craze with Vrains 2.0 (Look me near the eye. Leo has been waiting his entire life for card games on skateboards to become a thing. He absolutely JUMPED on this when it became legal, and probably a little bit before too.) And through vrains Yusei meets Yusaku and they immediately hit it off with their compatible autistic swag.

They get together every so often to duel eachother. As in. On a table and perfectly stationary. It's very therapeutic for both of them. Yusei doesn't really mind that he never wins, and Yusaku's happy to be able to duel for fun and not Fate Of The Entire Cyberverse stakes.

And then Playmaker abruptly stops showing up and Yusei is kinda bummed about it, and makes the mistake of mentioning it to his groupchat of impulsive magical teenage friends, and Yuya decides that the only logical course of action is to loop this in with his birthday present trip to broadway, and somehow, over the course of a weekend he and Yuma manage to figure out Playmaker's real world identity where dozens of highly resourceful antagonists before them have failed, and break into Yusaku's apartment because no one, and they mean no one, is allowed to bum out their weird mechanic friend.

Been slowly thinking on making Den City in the yugioh groupchat au analogous to New York, and this opens up the au to the wonderful possibility of Yuya visiting to see a broadway show and hey, while he's here, might as well sherlock holmes out the identity of Yusei's internet friend and drag him kicking and protesting into their friendgroup.

[lonelyhorrortea]

A quick simple piece for @itsashowtime to celebrate the Vrains 2.0 Anniversary.

[itsashowtime]

just a self indulgent rkgk......

[leveliflared]

[turnip-o-lantern]

I think a big reason as to why I prefer Revolvers first design is that he looks fucking rediculous.

Like Rev 2.0 was obviously designed the way he was (by the creators) to appeal to the 'ol thirsty fans (as well as show some character development but thats not the point here), but 1.0 has so clearly been designed by a 13 year old Ryoken, who had to grow up too fast and put on a tough and scary image in order to establish dominance the only way hes ever known: through fear

But at its core, Revolver 1.0 is still a 13 year olds stupid edgy avatar, that is so clearly a kind of fantasy fullfilment. And something about baby Ryoken going 'yeah a bald head is fucking sick' fills me with so much joy, he's such a weirdo.

Tl;dr:

Revolver 2.0 is for the horny people, but Revolver 1.0 is Ryokens soaking wet rat oc

[rivaltagonist]

Alien man.

[kusanagistan]

lightning: all right, i'm sick of this. i'm clearing this misconception up right now. show of hands, how many of you think me and ai are dating

lightning: ....ai, put your hand down,

[fairytalefragments]

CRESCENT ; STIMBOARD

for anonymous ; x x x / x x / x x x