More of Takaaki actaully getting to Have A Family in the Taka Lives AUs.
Nori loves her granddad but Sachi is scared of him. V.V
Sade Olutola

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oozey mess
d e v o n

Love Begins
$LAYYYTER
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ

Kiana Khansmith
i don't do bad sauce passes

pixel skylines
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Xuebing Du
Not today Justin
hello vonnie

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will byers stan first human second

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Cosimo Galluzzi
noise dept.
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me

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@rkin413
More of Takaaki actaully getting to Have A Family in the Taka Lives AUs.
Nori loves her granddad but Sachi is scared of him. V.V
I did a Stripes in Krita a couple of weeks ago! :)
After opening and doing nothing with a blank text document for over a week, I banged out this in four hours starting at like, midnight (under a readmore bc LONG):
It was the dead of night in the circus; the Moon was hanging in the sky, and the lights were out, and an annoying cricket_loop.mp3 was playing in certain areas that everyone avoided lest they be driven to insanity (the kind that involved throwing furniture, not. well). The current cast were sleeping in their rooms – well, some of them were asleep at least, others were just pretending. Kinger was actually in his pillow fort. The point was, it was night. Even Caine was in his office, putting the finishing touches on a new adventure after the debacle that was the Favorite Character Awards (how had he not gotten any votes? He was choosing not to think about it. Must have been a bug or something with THE COMMITTEE. Simple. No point in thinking about it at all. Nope.)
The calm of the circus at night was interrupted by a small pop as four figures abruptly found themselves on the stage.
"Wh-what?"
"Whoa-"
"What in tarnation?!"
"Eeyah! Where am-"
The stage lights turned on, prompting more protests from the figures, who blinked and covered their eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden burst of light. On the stage stood not four humans, but a small humanoid tiger, a trophy with a head, a vaguely-human-shaped clay doll with a screen face, and a black-and-white demon.
"My my!" A voice said, although none of the four could see yet. "Not one, not two, not even three, but four new humans! Wowee, it's been a long time since so many of you have arrived at once!"
Eyes adjusted and the four recoiled at the sight of Caine. The demon's wings flared, and he snapped his head around to look at the new features.
"What the-"
An oof caused three of the new cast members to look over at the trophy, who'd discovered his feet were glued to some sort of stand the hard way and was now lying on his face.
"Well tha's just embarassin'..."
"Where are we?!" the clay doll demanded. "Who are you?!"
"No need to fret, my dears! You four have stumbled into a wonderful, magical world beyond all imagination!" Caine announced. He waved his cane and the trophy snapped back onto his feet, like he'd been reset. "This is The Amazing Digital Circus, my name is Caine, and I'm your ringmaster!"
The tiger took a fighting position.
"Ringmaster Caine, I must insist you release me right now! I am a Wudai Warrior, I will not be kidnapped so easily!"
"Oh, well, I'm not the one who-"
"Wait, Wudai Warrior?" the doll asked. "Is that you..." she trailed off. Her screen-face, which had been displaying a simple eyes and mouth not unlike a human, shifted into an exclamation point. "I can't... I don't remember your name. Oh god. I don't remember my name!"
"Hold on, partners, is that... uh... y'all?" The trophy asked.
"Guys?" the demon asked. "Are we... all here?"
"My friends?" the tiger cub asked, eyes wide. "My friends! I did not recognize you! You do not look like yourselves!"
"Neither do you, dude," the demon replied, pointing at him. The tiger cub looked down at his gloved hands and examined his new body, complete with tail.
"What happened to my wonderful body?!"
"Can we circle back to the name thing please!?" the doll insisted, face flickering to an angry-looking emoji followed by a horrified-looking one, then a red, smaller exclamation point and question mark.
"Like I said, there's no need to worry your pretty little heads!" Caine told them, suddenly in the middle of them. They jumped back, and the trophy landed on his back this time.
"This is gonna get annoyin' real fast."
"No one can remember their name once they've entered the Digital Circus!" Caine tapped the part of his gums where his head might've been. It made a plastic clacking sound. "One of the things I don't have control over are your minds. But what I can do is help you all pick new ones!"
"Digital... are we in a computer?" the demon guessed.
"Oh, you mean like... uh..." the tiger pointed at the doll. "Her laptop?"
"Maybe! But we should proooobably focus on getting you all named and shown around your new home!"
"New home?" the tiger asked in horror. "This cannot be our new home! You must release us at once!"
"Sorry, can't do that!"
"Can't or won't?" the doll snarled.
"Can't! Not something I can do, sorry!" He didn't sound sorry at all to the new arrivals.
"Can you at least turn us back?" the demon asked, a slight pleading tone.
"Turn you back to what?"
"What we looked like before!"
"What did you look like before?" The demon groaned and put his head in his hands.
"We cannot stay here!" the tiger cub repeated. "We are needed to protect the world from evil!"
"How about we get this tour out of the way, then we figure out some names for you all?"
"Did you not hear what I just said?!"
"Alrighty, lets go!" With nothing more than a blur of colors and a nauseating yanking-feeling, they were suddenly outside of the circus tent, floating a decent distance above the ground. There was some flailing of limbs in surprise, including the demon's newly-acquired pair of wings. "This is The Tent!" As Caine named the area, words popped out of nowhere with a faint 'whoosh' noise, before they faded away. "This is where everyone's bedroom is, and where you'll be spending the majority of your time! There are all sorts of other fun activities to do! Including but not limited to: mazes, slides, tubes-" Caine suddenly cut out, bluescreening as a loud, screeching dial-tone played. The four newcomers looked at each other.
"That's... probably not g-"
"-inigolf, and more!" Caine continued, suddenly working again. He suddenly grabbed them and they were suddenly even further away than before. "And here we have, The Grounds!" More whooshing words. "Drown yourself in The Digital Lake, or engage in ridery to your little hearts content at the Digital Carnival!"
"Uh, what was that first part?" the demon asked.
"Well, lots of you humans have had a blast going over and trying to drown themselves before! I don't get it, but it must be fun if it happens so much. But don't you worry!" He pat the demon on the head, not noticing as the demon growled at him for it, mismatched pupils narrowing into slits. "Your new bodies have no need to breathe, so there's no risk to you at all!"
"Us humans?" the doll questioned, before an irritated sigh emoji replaced her face. "Oh, you're a computer program, aren't you?"
"Thaaat's right!" Caine answered. "Wow, you sure figured that out quick! Not that I was hiding it, of course. I'm your Ringmaster, the head AI of the circus! And this is Bubble." He pointed next to him, where a large bubble with button eyes and a huge grin of disconcertingly sharp teeth was floating next to him. Bubble had definitely not been there a second ago.
"Okay, can you tell us about, uh, how to log out?"
"Whuzzat mean?"
It was the doll's turn to put her head in her hands.
"It means they want to see what else is here!" Bubble told the ringmaster.
"That is not what it-"
"Oh, I see! Well, all that's left is-" Another yank, and they were floating in a space of almost pure white, a few specs of color were floating around, but mostly it was made of squares of varying shades of white, all drifting around each other unteathered. "The Void!" More words. "Weee don't come out here. Not even I know what's out here." Back to The Grounds. "We all stay right here, where I can keep my-" dozens of what appeared to be giant glass eyes suddenly spawned in, each turned to stare directly at the ground, who instinctively huddled into each other "-hundreds of all-seeing eyes on youooou." He wiggled his fingers at them while making 'whooooOOOoooo' noises like a cartoon ghost, which might have been funny if it wasn't overshadowed by the horror surrounding them. The eyes then blipped out of existence, bit over.
"Good evening, Caine," the Moon said in a disturbingly flirty tone. "It's wonderful to see you tonight~"
"Nope!"
Everyone was suddenly back in the tent, right below the stage the four humans had spawned in at.
"Now that the tour is all taken care of, let's get to work on getting you all your names!"
"Ringmaster Caine, I must insist that you allow us to leave, or help us to do so! The entire world is counting on us to protect it! You must let us go!"
"Now, regarding your names-"
"Can you not hear me?!"
"He might not be able to register what you're saying," the doll mused as Caine started rambling off some sort of disclaimer at high speed.
"Oh, he can hear you, he's just stubborn like that."
There was a collection of shrieks and jumps, including from the new voice. In front of them stood what looked like a king chess piece in a purple robe.
"-objectionalcontentmayincludebutisnotlimitedto- Kinger! When did you show up? I was just helping our newest humans figure out what to call themselves!"
"Oh, I see. Well, it's nice to meet you all," Kinger said, as Caine restarted his disclaimer.
"We're not going to-" the demon started, looking at Caine, before giving up and turning to Kinger. "Wait, are you another AI?"
"Oh, no, I'm as human as the rest of you. Or, I guess I don't know if you're humans, but I'm reasonably certain you are?"
"Oh yes, we are most certainly humans, or at least... we were." The tiger cub insisted, although his face fell near the end.
"Then I'm as human as you are."
"Please tell me you know how to get out," the doll begged. Despite his face being made up of just a single pair of eyes, his expression said everything. The doll inhaled, steeled herself, then continued. "Okay. Okay! Great. Uh, you haven't been here long then, I guess? So we'll have to figure it out together."
"Ah, define 'long'," Kinger replied tenatively.
"Oh man. How long have you been here?"
"Well, it's a little hard to tell, I don't think the day-night cycle matches up with the outside, but Caine started throwing a 'birthday' party for everyone every year on the anniversary of when they first got here..." Kinger trailed off, trying to remember how many Caine had thrown him... and when he'd started the tradition. The four newcomers looked at each other in barely-restrained horror.
"You've, uh," the trophy began after a second. "Been here for years?"
"I'm sor-"
"Names!" Caine interrupted, finished his disclaimer and tapping his foot on the air impatiently. "Come on, we can't have proper introductions without names! You already have yours, Kinger, don't be selfish towards our new friends!" The four were physically yanked around to follow where Caine flew past them, away from Kinger. "Any ideas? I can always get the random letter box if you're having trouble!"
"How permanent are these names?"
"Forever!"
"Great."
"I want my name!" the tiger cub said argued. "It was a good name, even if I cannot remember it!"
"Well, maybe you'll guess it! OR the random letter box will get it!"
"Uh, I could go by Goldy, I guess?" the trophy suggested. The demon snorted.
"Really?"
"I suppose Stripes is... fitting," the tiger cub mumbled.
"Great, that's two of you already!" Caine cheered, pointing his cane at them, before point at the doll and demon. "Howsabout you two?"
The demon elbowed the doll. "Think Pochika would work for you?"
"If I had teeth I'd bite you. That answer your question?"
"I'm sorry, but Trademarks are strictly off limits for new names!"
Unseen behind them, Kinger raised an eyebrow. When was the word Pochika trademarked? He'd never even heard that word before, at least he was pretty sure he hadn't...
"Can I veto whatever the... random letter box... gives me?" the doll asked.
"Well of course!"
"Alright. Let's try that."
There was a slam as a green slot-machine-looking thing hit the ground with enough force to make the humans bounce slightly. It even made little 'ching' noises as a word was spelt out.
"How do you feel about Pallette?"
"That's not... how that's spelled," the doll sighed. "Fine. Sure."
The demon froze as Caine turned fully towards him. "Alright, and how about you? You want a spin on the random letter box too?"
"Uh, I'll... go with that I guess."
"Great!" The box abruptly shrunk in size, down to three letters. "How's Ymi for ya?"
"What? No."
"I dunno, I could see you being a 'Ymi'," Pallette smirked at him, face displaying a >:3 . The demon gave her an irritated look.
"How's Imp then?"
"Sure-" he froze as he registered what Caine said. "Wait, no, no way-"
"Imp it is!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"And nooooow!" Caine snapped his fingers. There were yells of protest from deeper into the tent, then five more people were yanked in through the air and dumped in a pile on the ground. "Time for you to meet all the other humans here!"
"Caine," a grumpy voice said, tone flat, "it's the middle of the night."
Caine hummed and snapped his fingers. There was a slidewhistle noise as the skyline flipped and it was abruptly daytime. The lights flashed on in the tent, leaving everyone blinking stars out of their eyes.
"Not anymore!"
The protester groaned, flopping on the floor.
"Kill me."
"Just wait until today's adventure, Zooble," Jax grinned. "I'll be happy to!"
"F(boink) off."
"What was that?" Stripes asked, bringing everyone's attention to him and his friends.
"That's the censor my stripey friend!" Caine told him. "We can't have people using adult language in here, the Digital Circus is for all ages!" He tapped his 'chin'. "Actually, I'm pleasently surprised none of you have tried it, yet. Usually newcomers always give the censor a good workout when they first get here. Thank you for being so polite!"
"Oh, something you wanna tells us Raggy?" Jax asked, looking at the ragdoll who ignored him in favor of helping Pomni off the floor. A few feet away, Gangle was staring sadly at the remains of her comedy mask, which had shattered when Caine dropped her on the floor. This was a depressing new record...
"Well, everyone, I've brought you all out here to meet our newest members! Say hello to Stripes, Pallette, Goldy, and Imp!"
"Do NOT call me that!" Imp protested in vain.
"Wow, uh, there's a lot of you, huh?" Ragatha started, a nervous undertone in her otherwise cheerful voice. "I don't think I've seen more than three people at a time end up here, and that was only once."
"Yeah yeah, we all know you're old Raggy," Jax waved sighed. Ragatha glared at him.
"I am not old!" Saying that, she looked pointedly away from him and approached the four newcomers. "Are you all alright? I know the transition to the circus can be kind of... confusing, but we've all been where you are now. If you need any help..."
Jax made a gagging noise. Ragatha's expression tightened.
"If you need any help you can ask, okay? We're all... we're mostly all here for you," she offered, putting a hand on Imp's shoulder. He scrunched where his nose should have been at her tone, which was probably meant to sound supportive but missed it's mark slightly.
"I don't need you to mother me, lady, I'm sixteen."
The original cast froze.
"You're a kid?!" Ragatha gasped in horror.
"I just said I was sixt-" Ragatha grabbed at his face. "-hey, geroff!"
"Oh, god, you're way too young to have to deal with this-"
"Jeez Rags, relax," Jax rolled his eyes. "I was sixteen when I got here, remember? And I turned out fiiiine."
"Oh, god, that explains so much," Pomni groaned. Jax gave her a quick look, too quick for her to identify before he'd fully turned away.
"CAINE!" Zooble yelled, whirling on the ringmaster. "You're seriously grabbing kids now?!"
"I don't control who comes to the Digital Circus, Zooble! You know that. And the circus is for all ages, as I'm sure I've told you all before."
"I really f(splat)ing disagree! I've seen some of the sh(horn) you put in your adventures!"
"That boring bar adventure was your suggestion," Caine argued, crossing his arms and turning away.
"THAT ISN'T WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"
"Uh, ah'm seventeen, if it helps?" Goldy brought up, hoping to help relieve some of Ragatha's horror on a long shot.
"I am twelve!" Stripes volunteered. "Or at least, I believe I am."
"WHAT?!" Ragatha cried, letting go of Imp in favor of yanking on her hair so hard it looked like she might rip it out.
"I don't think... that helps at all, actually," Gangle winced.
"Hey," Pomni greeted, walking up to the group. "You guys are way calmer about this than I was when I got here."
"Not our first rodeo, ma'am," Goldy told her, trying to tip his hat only to find it was a solid, immovable part of his body now. Pomni managed to restrain a wince at the movement, and the accent was different enough that it was easy to do. "Got kidnapped by giant spiders almost a year ago. 'least nothins' plannin' on desicatin' us this time. Probably."
Pomni raised an eyebrow at that.
"Ew, is that a LARP thing?" Jax asked. "Are you nerds LARPers?"
"We are not larpers!" Stripes protested. "I think."
"We're not," Pallette told him.
"We are Xiaolin Dragons! It is our solemn duty to protect the world from evil whenever it should arise – which is why we need to leave!"
"LARP thing, got it."
"It's not a LARP thing!" Pallette snapped.
"Suuuuure it's not," Jax shrugged, turning on his heel to where Zooble was still yelling at Caine. It had morphed into something about the suggestion box, he didn't care. "Hey Caine! We having an intro adventure for the newbies or what? Sounds like they're old-hat at make-believe, too."
"What?! I am not making up-" Stripes began before Caine cut him off.
"Egads, a wonderful idea, Jax! Well, I had a great adventure in the works for you all, but for settling our new friends in, we'll do a simple in-house adventure for today!"
"Do you just... do an in-house adventure every time someone new arrives?" Pomni asked.
"Well, can you blame me? It's a wonderful way to introduce newcomers to a wonderful new world!"
"Hey, we don't want to settle in!" Imp snapped. "We have people who need us in the real world!"
"Maybe you just haven't pulled at the headset enough yet?" Jax suggested, sending a grin towards Pomni, who rolled her eyes. The four newcomers looked at each other.
"Headset?" Pallette asked, and it was the old cast's turn to trade looks, albeit not as universally among their group.
"...uh, yeah?" Pomni said at last. "The headset you put on that brought you here? The same as all of us?"
"I... do not remember putting anything on my head," Stripes said, looking at his friends.
"Uh, I think I remember... shoot," Goldy facepalmed. "Can't remember his name. Our Temple Guardian. He woke us up fer an early mornin' Wu run, but after that..."
"I don't remember waking up," Imp added, baffled.
"Yeah, ah'm not sure you did."
"Oh, uh, that's... unusual." Ragatha glanced at the others briefly. "I've been here the second longest after Kinger-"
"Old."
"...and no one has ever just. Not remembered the old building and the headset they put on."
"Caine..." Zooble growled. "What's going on? Why wouldn't they remember that?"
"What makes you think I'd know that? I can't see outside anymore!"
"...what do you mean 'anymore'?"
"Well, uh, hmm. How about we ignore that, since I can't change anything about it – and believe me, I've tried! - and we get to today's adventure! Today's adventure will be A Nice and Simple Game of Hide and Don't Get Caught!"
The general consensus seemed to be 'what', given the baffled looks.
"Thaaat's right! Here in the circus lurks a big, spooky eyeball guy, and if he catches you in his sight beam, you'll be out! Last one unfound is the winner and gets a faaaabulous prize!, but be wary, every time one of you is caught, he doubles in number!"
"Uh," Goldy held up a hand and glanced at the stand he was glued to. "I can't walk? How am I supposed to..."
"Have fun my wonderful wrinkled walnuts!"
And with that, Caine was gone.
"Wait, you can't... walk?" Pomni asked, concerned.
"Every time ah've tried to move I end up on mah backside... or mah face..." Pomni looked at his stand.
"Huh... Kinger can move pretty easily, and he doesn't have legs at all."
"Huh, yer right. Kinger, sir, ya got any tips for me?"
"Huh?" Kinger asked, eyes unfocused. "Oh, hello! Where did you come from?"
"...what?"
"Pfft, don't try and get anything out of the old man," Jax advised. "He's nuts."
"He is a chess piece, not a nut," Stripes told him. "And he seemed perfectly helpful before."
"I hate to agree with Jax on anything, but, uh, Kinger's... not all there in the head," Zooble told him. When Stripes just raised an eyebrow, they sighed and clarified. "There's something wrong with his mind. Maybe because he's been here so long, maybe because he was apparently alone for... a really long time. Maybe he's just old. We don't know for sure."
"Whatever the wackjob's problem is, he's pretty much useless."
"Don't say that about him!" Ragatha snapped.
"What? It's true. It's not like he sucks or anything, but he's not exactly gonna be of any help." Jax pointed a thumb at Kinger, who was leaning to the side so far he was sloooowly starting to tip over. Gangle, who was closest, righted him slightly and he stopped moving. A second later he started flailing like he was trying to get his balance, stopped then looked at Gangle.
"Oh, thank you Gangle!"
"No problem."
"But..." Stripes protested. "But earlier he was...!"
This is from the same fic as the previous thing ftr, same chapter too .................................................................................................................................
"Come on," he said, after checking to make sure that the sliding glass door was unlocked. It was, which meant the old lady that lived there was alone and forgot to lock it again.
The apartment was cleaner and nicer than where he stayed – duh. There was a cinnamon-y smell from the candles that the lady burned practically all day whenever Raimundo was here, and it was nicer than outside. Omi seemed happier, at least, as he looked around.
"Vovó," Raimundo called, loudly, as he schooled his features into the perfect picture of 'sweet, innocent kid' that he'd perfected here. "Are you home? I came by to visit you!"
"Oh, Levi, is that you?" a voice asked, coming around the corner. Omi jumped is surprise, then looked up at her, squinting. She was a wrinkly old lady, with a floral-patterned shawl thrown over her hunched shoulders, and she walked with a cane carried in her trembling hands. Raimundo knew she wasn't all there in the head, but she was nice enough. Especially since she thought Raimundo was her grandson, and he was happy to take advantage of that. Not too much advantage, of course. He could imagine how Válter and Laurentino would act – they'd indulge as much as they wanted, and maybe even take her stuff since she wouldn't notice it went missing, probably. All Raimundo did was take a free lunch every now and again. And sometimes she gave him cookies. And let him clean his clothes-
Okay, okay, so maybe he did take a lot too, but he did chores for her! It was fine! She was happy to let him! And how else was he going to clean his clothes? He could wash his face and hands in a public restroom, but nothing else and he didn't like feeling super grimey! Besides, he only came over sometimes, not every day, or even every week, so it was fine.
And besides, after seeing Omi's reaction to dinner yesterday, he wanted to see him try a cookie. So, here they were.
Omi was still looking at her like she was a weird bird or something as the lady – Raimundo was pretty sure her name was Mrs. Caldeira – turned to see him.
"Oh! Who's your little friend, Levi?" She crouched down, probably to get a better look at him. "And what on earth did he do to himself to dye his skin that color? Do you need to wash up, little one?"
"Raimundo, Nǎ wèi shì rén?" Omi asked, like Raimundo could understand him.
"Oh my, was that Mandarin?" Mrs. Probably-Caldeira asked. "Is your little friend Chinese, then?" She hummed. "It's been a while since I heard any, I'm so rusty... hmm hmmm. Maybe the skin-dye was a mean-spirited little prank... oh well. We'll get you cleaned up, then... Do I have good enough soap?" With that, she turned and hobbled away towards the bathroom. Raimundo turned to stare at Omi.
"You're from China?" he asked, gaping. That was so far away! What the heck!
"Wǒ tīng bù míngbai nǐ zài shuō shénme ." The tone was annoyed. Raimundo waved him off.
"Right, yeah." He wasn't 100% sure, but he was pretty sure that meant something like 'i have no idea what you're saying, idiot'. He'd said it a lot, and always sounded frustrated when he did. "Do you wanna sit down? I know she's got crayons, too. She tries to get me to draw something every time I come here."
It's that time of year again!
One of the things I like about my various AUs where Taka lives is the fact that Takaaki gets a break for once.
Little snippet of something I'm writing and might never post, but it's cute so take it.
---------------------------------------------
Some time after that they took a nap in a tree, which felt bad and pokey on his back and made Omi a little nervous about sleeping so far up off the ground but Omi still greatly appreci- ap... was happy about because of how little sleep had gotten during the night before. Why had the day been so short yesterday? If it had been normal length yesterday Omi could have slept better that night! Thinking about it made him puff out his cheeks in anger, and the big kid had poked them. Omi had then tried to slap his hands away and the big kid had laughed before jumping down and Omi followed.
Omi had never had a friend before. Dojo had sometimes told Omi he wanted him to have friends, but Omi had not thought about it himself much. He had never understood why Dojo was concerned about it, not having friends was fine to him. Now, while Omi was sure he could go back to being alone, he didn't... want to. Could his friend come to the Temple with him, when he found Dojo? It would be better than where he was living now, with the constant noise, and they had blankets! Well, his big kid already had a blanket, Omi supposed.
After their nap, Omi and his big kid sat underneath the nap-tree, and the big kid was talking at Omi again.
"Meu nome é Raimundo." His big kid spoke slowly and clearly, so that Omi heard every sound in each word. He pointed a thumb at himself as he spoke, then at Omi. "Qual é o seu nome?"
It was clear he was talking about himself. He'd said that yesterday, too. Was that his name? The adult before had said that to him too.
"Raimundo?" Omi asked, pointing at the big kid. The big kid smiled really big at that and pointed at himself.
"Sim! Meu nome é Raimundo!"
Oh! That was an introduction!
"Meu nome é Omi!" he repeated carefully, although he couldn't hide how giddy he was, finally able to tell his big k- to tell Raimundo his name and have him know what it was. At last!
Fic jumpscare be upon ye. ................................................................................
It was early in the morning when the young monks had left to retrieve the newest Shen Gong Wu. There had been some lighthearted grumblings from some of them given the time, but they'd still gone of course.
That was hours ago. It always took a while to find and claim (or lose) a Shen Gong Wu, of course, but today something felt... off. A sense of dread weighed on Master Fung, in a way that it hadn't for a long time, not since before Raimundo rose to Shoku Warrior. Perhaps not since Master Fung himself was a Dragon in Training. It was unsettling.
Finally, Dojo's silhouette appeared in the sky and descended. Master Fung entered the courtyard to welcome everyone back, and the dread solidified into a solid, frozen mass in the pit of his stomach when Dojo shrunk down, devoid of anyone else.
"Dojo, where are-?"
"MASTER FUNG!" Dojo cried, distress lacing his very being. "We have a problem!"
.........................................................................................................................................................................
More Applefell! ...I think this is Frisk. Probably.
I appreciate that we in the TADC fandom have collectively decided that Kinger's human-self has blonde/dirty blonde hair and a mustache. I don't know where that came from, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
Anyway I reread one of my WIP so have a fic preview:
(...@noccolibroccoli)
Hmmm... since I'm working on my own version... Xiaolin Showdown x Pokemon Mystery Dungeon for the prompts thingy.
i sort of accidentally an entire chapter. whoops. this is what happens when you mash two of my favorite things together
"So uh. Tell me again how this happened?"
Raimundo folded his arms over his chest. He was still adjusting to a new center of gravity - tails were officially Weird - but at least he was bipedal. Unlike half his team.
"I don't know!" Kimiko snapped. The spikes of flame on her back flared with the outburst. "But if I had to guess, it's because someone wouldn't stop playing with the new Shen Gong Wu."
Me, trying to focus on one specific au at any given time:
(found this on giphy.com btw)
Me: I wanna draw stuff with the monks in my TDAC AU with them hanging out with the cast and during what happens in episode eight :( My Brain: Hey can we figure out their designs first maybe???
I've been listening to Caine's Requiem on loop for days playing a Bad End animation for Xiaolin Digital Circus in my head the whole time.
I only have a beta design for Rai and Omi drawn out. And I have never animated a day in my life. Send help.
(Hannibal giving a restored Caine the Rio Reverso so he can reverse abstraction over and over and over and over and over and helping him get his 'runaway humans' back in the circus all while being a corruptive force so that Caine becomes more and more possessive and entitled instead of making amends like he'd start out wanting to... Caine forcing the circus members he's taken back into the circus/unabstracted with the Rio Reverso to sing and dance for Kinger and the monks in PopUp with the 'deal' being that they 'get to' come back to the circus forever. Caine tricking Kinger into thinking he has a way in and out so he comes willingly to grab the others with the Lasso Boa Boa turned to stone via Clay as extra insurance only for Caine to use the power of the Bronze Badger to reach out and grab the monks too while they try to anchor Kinger... 'You could have anything iF YOU WOULD JUST GIVE UP AND LOVE ME!!!!!' while circling everyone like a shark like in that one animation. the song cutting out not from Kinger waking up but bc whatever monitor Caine was using to communicate with/bait his last victims back just freaking. explodes. destroying any chance of them being tracked down again. everyone stuck with Caine at his absolute worst, no longer holding back on physically or even mentally modifying everyone to keep the peace and no one can die or even permanently abstract. Maybe the Xiaolin side outside of the circus can recover enough eventually to end whatever Heylin force rises with the monks gone or maybe Hannibal just wins and eventually the only humans left are the ones in the circus, if you can still call them that after who knows how many years of Caine being fully willing to just ship of theseus every aspect of their bodies and minds. just. BAD END.)
Me: I wanna draw stuff with the monks in my TDAC AU with them hanging out with the cast and during what happens in episode eight :( My Brain: Hey can we figure out their designs first maybe???
Me, circa a few days ago: Okay, working on my designs for the random idea I had about crossing over Xiaolin Showdown and TADC that popped into my brain out of nowhere and won't let me leave; I think I'll take a break and check out what gravity-what's doing since I do that all the time anyway and I wanna look at XS content. Me after doing so: WHAT. (i ended up with completely different designs than your au, for the record but just. i. of all things. how.)
🤣 @hugthepanda12 had the same problem too!! Episode 8 of TADC really fucked us all up ha? (I, too, became obsessed after that episode).
But let’s be honest, there can never be enough TADC AU’s~ especially since mine leans so heavily into the ‘representation of mental health/coping mechanisms’ side of things. I’m excited to hear what you decide to do with the TADC x XS AU setting!!
I'd probably (definitely) post the stuff on this account since I use my main/first one for reblogging things pretty exclusively and this one for my own stuff.
BUT AS FOR THE AU ITSELF:
I'm thinking it'd be a crossover between both shows, with both sets of characters, so a lot of the design bits for the monks (or at least Omi and Raimundo) reference things that happen in the show itself (Clay and Kimiko are more general). Also, the TADC cast are all there too to help them adjust (including Caine, although how much help he'd be is...) Every human aside from maybe Jax would be VERY concerned about a group of kids getting stuck in the circus, like, even moreso than just any random person.
Zooble: Caine you mother[boing] you're grabbing kids now?! Ragatha: *fretting over Raimundo, who's the first one to give his age (sixteen)* Jax: Geez, Raggy, relax. I've been here since I was sixteen and I turned out fiiiiine. Pomni: Oh god that explains so much. Clay: Ah'm seventeen if it helps? Omi: I am twelve! (probably) Gangle: *looking at Ragatha practically tearing her yarn-hair out* I don't... think that helps at all, actually.
I've got general design ideas for the kids, but the only one I've got a name for is Omi (Stripes - he's an anthro tiger cub, the simplest design I have aside from maybe Clay, who's design I'm still brainstorming somewhat).
Continuity-wise I think it takes place between episodes 6 and 7 for Digital Circus and... maybe post-finale for Xiaolin Showdown (my idea for Rai includes him being black-and-white, referencing both his hoodie and Shoku robes as well as a general yin-yang aesthetic thingy).
What I have for the designs so far:
Raimundo: Aside from the black-and-white colors I was stuck on him for a while, then the phrase 'mischievous little imp' for the design popped into my head and - yeah. That's it. He's an imp now. What it's meant to represent is his prankster/more mischievous nature, but that's definitely not what everyone's going to think of when they look at the guy who turned evil temporarily turning into a literal demon. It works on both levels and! It was important to me that the monks would h a t e their new bodies and I don't think Rai would like the constant jab his body makes at the worst mistake of his life (even if that's not what it's supposed to represent). He also has wings (demon/bat wings, naturally) so he can still fly (to work in his element) which may or may not have little windy swirls on them (in the opposite color the respective wing has, to keep the yin-yang theme going and also so they're. visible.) which might also call to mind the swirly symbol on his amulet. Not sure if he'd be over designed at that point, though? Also I keep considering swapping his and Omi's heights bc he'd hate that too before using it to be a menace for everyone else, BUT if you give a character wings you're gonna want to have them cradle another character they care about away from danger with them even at risk to themselves and that's awful hard if the winged character is like... a third the other character's size so I'm not 100% sold on the swap. I have three different Circus Names for him at the moment.
Omi: Omi's is much simpler, as I already mentioned: anthro tiger cub. I think he'd be wearing robes that blend elements of the basic Xiaolin robes that he already wears, alongside Master Fung's robes and Chase's armor. His form gets special mention since it gets to makes ~everyone~ (on the xs side of things anyway) uncomfy~. (he's a tiger specifically bc tiger's are a cat that famously actually swims willingly, it was the only thing i could think of as an element reference). Circus Name: Stripes
Clay: While I don't think his design is finished yet, Clay's concept came to me real fast and easy: a gold, first place trophy. He's his dad's golden boy, probably places first in competitions since a young age, and, if Jessie and Patrick were in the circus, they'd be silver and bronze (actually copper) as part of a matched set. :) (Jessie's silver as a reference to mechanical stuff like her bikes and Patrick's copper bc electrical wiring and him being good with computers, but none of the siblings would realize these things. also, possible birth order: Clay's first, Jessie's second, Patrick's third). Also: gold is heavy, and Clay's jabbed at for his weight a lot. The elemental connection here is that metals like gold are dug out of the ground, I guess? He needs to be a first-place trophy. I won't go with anything else. I don't want any of them to actually look like how they do out of the circus, but I can't deny Clay a cowboy hat so he has that too. Not sure about a Circus Name for him, maybe Goldy or Jin (which behindthename tells me is a chinese name for gold).
Kimiko: Kimiko gave me the most trouble, but I decided I wanted to lean into her fashionista side - first thought was swapable accessories and clothes, but that's a little too close to Zooble. Then I decided that nothing on Kimiko's body should change, and she could maybe have a body that could be painted on. (the original idea included this for her face too, but I changed that, which i'll explain in a bit) So now what I've got for her is a sort of blobby clay doll that can have various colors and patterns and, yes, 'clothes' painted on (she and Gangle probably bond over this, there are paints in Kimi's room). Her face I ended up envisioning as like, a computer screen like on one of those old iDogs from years ago, just to lean into her techy side, although it's got more versatility than the iDog one (she usually has a pixelated set of eyes and mouth to use for expressions, but she can also display emoticons, emoji, kaomojis, and the like too. i just think her being able to change her expression literally into: D:< would be amusing so. there. she gets it). The only thing I can think of for an elemental connection there would be that clay gets baked? It's probably the most tenuous connection of them all by a long shot. I'm just gonna copy-paste from one of my documents about my Circus Name ideas for her: Terra (from terracotta clay, possibly the kind of material her doll body is now made from)/Haniwa (type of terracotta doll used in burials in Japan in the Kofu period)/Screens (her face is a computer screen, and the only thing not ancient looking)/Pallette (a reference to how most of her body gets painted on to reflect her fashionista bit
Jack might be the one who trapped them inside (could be a new baddie) so he's not in there, but if he was I'm not sure I'd be able to help myself from stealing your design. A windup cymbal-banging monkey is perfect.
OHHH!!! These design concepts are great!!! I’m Particularly loving Clays!! The poor guy 😭. Being trapped as a gold trophy, something so symbolic of what he hates about himself. I love the idea of Omi being trapped as a tiger and the struggle that comes with that too.
Love the idea as well that they got trapped in there as this kind of trap. I bet they are all hoping Kimiko can get them out which, depending on if they are actually there or just brain scans, would be completely impossible…
(i still can't believe of the four aus i was inspired to create reading through your blog/fanfics this was NOT one of them. how.)
While I'm pretty sure at this point in CANON TADC the brain scan thing is what's going on, in the AU CnA actually found a deactivated Wu called The Bronze Badger (based on the Honey Badger Wu from Chronicles) that zapped all of them fully and physically into the computer (the monks were actually looking for it, which is how they got tricked into putting on the headsets in the first place) so getting out is possible! Of course, them being physically in there means there's no one fighting the Heylin side for the probably months they're stuck in there... things aren't going great outside and the kids are! Stressed! (Caine is 'warned' by whatever Heylin force contacts him to censor their knowledge of the Bronze Badger's existence so they don't go looking for it to use it to leave and take the others with them - which is a subtle enough that i'm no longer confident Jack's behind this). I don't think the kids will be able to escape from within by themselves - luckily, every one of them has someone on the outside who can help (Toshiro, Patrick, i'm gonna say Jermaine helps with actually finding them and coordinating people on the outside, and Rai has eight siblings, probably parents, plus a bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins - statistically, at least one of that huge group of people has to know something about computers). Also! Dojo was probably with them and while he wasn't in the room when they were zapped into the computer it does give everyone an ally on the outside who, critically, knows where they are.
Luckily for them while Caine removes their knowledge of that specific Wu (and thus, their ability to leave under their own power (they don't even remember why they were in the building outside of conjecture)), he leaves the rest of their memories alone aside from All Names so (probably) Omi mentions something to Caine about being a Xiaolin Warrior when he first greets them (likely as a threat to be left alone/let them leave) so they lock in on each other within minutes at most. They get that relief at least.
I also have concepts for their Personal Torment Nexus during Caine's breakdown:
Raimundo: He's physically restrained (via handcuffs and hooks through his wings) and forced to play chess with the other circus members as his pieces (they're fakes but, critically, he does not know this) against a shadowy, mysterious figure using abstractions for its pieces (Rai is the only one of the monks to encounter an abstraction - after the monks initially arrive they split up to try and find a way out and Rai ends up in the creepy merry-go-round room, which i headcanon as going all the way down to the basement, and figures 'hey, I can fly, I'll be fine'. he ends up getting smacked around by an abstraction before he escapes and Caine heals him up afterwards but that means he knows what the stakes are in the game). Any piece he loses in the game has them seemingly abstract. If his body represents his past mistakes, this one represents the stress of being a leader and having to make harsh choices that could cause the people around him to live or die. (a big rule i set for myself: his opponent can't have any features of anyone from outside the circus, bc i genuinely think Caine can't find out what they look like: Ragatha's 'mom' is just her own silhouette with two eyes, and the people laughing at Jax are featureless before turning into Pomni, Kaufo, and Ribbit's circus forms. Caine has no idea what anyone outside the circus looks like, i'm not 100% certain he actually know what a human looks like. if he could, Rai's opponent would probably look more like Wuya, Chase, or Hannibal)
Omi: Omi's stuck in a dark, post-apocalyptic hellscape (probably from an adventure that everyone went on at some point after the monks arrival) frozen in a way similar to when he frozen himself before, only this time with his shoulders and head free so he's... you know... awake and aware, just powerless. He's surrounded by screens showing what everyone else is going through, helpless to do anything. This is primarily a callback to the time he watched everyone die in Time and Time (although it also works as a call-back to the last time he was a cat and had to stand back and watch Chase torment and possibly kill people), only this time he gets to watch even more people he cares about be straight-up tortured. (i considered having him be attacked by monsters meant to represent everyone he cares about outside the circus ie Dojo Chase Fung Jermaine but 1 that'd break my 'Caine doesn't know what anyone outside looks like' rule, 2 it's too similar to Pomni's and 3. this is worse i think)
Clay: Clay's forced to hold a huge wooden board with heavy, sand-filled dolls modeled after everyone in the circus above himself as the ground cracks and shrinks around him, revealing some kind of danger I haven't decided on yet (maybe reaching, clawed arms; grasping giant stone hands ala Wuya's golems; maybe thorny vines that whip around and hit Clay but don't hurt him the way it would the 'others' on the board. Also on the board: bronze and silver copies of himself representing his siblings and a MASSIVE brown copy of himself with a mustache meant to represent his father (ala Ragatha's mom silhouette). More and more metal figurines (representing the various members of his family he sometimes mentions) keep spontaneously teleporting onto the board, and Clay struggles to keep it above himself as the weight starts to cause his form to crack... (it's also possible that the Jessie and Patrick statues aren't on the board at all, and are in front of him - he struggles to get to them as the increasing gap in the floor threatens more and more to swallow them before he can get to them, slowed down by the increasing weight on the board...)
Kimiko is in a burning inferno and her body melts down (i know that material-wise Kimiko's body should crack from the heat not melt but SHH the mental image my brain provided was melty - that's where her elemental connection finally comes in i guess), the paints draining off of her and she loses her legs and her screen cracks so she can't emote. This doesn't have the direct picking at personal insecurities and hang-ups as the others but it is some I Must Scream type stuff since not only does she lose the little bit of personalization she's got and the self-expression it brings, but she also loses her ability to express herself at all. She can't even talk with her face functionally gone. (it's the exact opposite of what Zooble goes through, kind of) (also it might be a callback to whatever happened that created her worst fear from the Shadow of Fear episode with the melted doll whose name i don't remember off the top of my head)
(in the 'everybody is still torn-up afterwards' scenario i've seen fanart for, Omi's the only one without physical wounds which i think he feels incredible guilt over) (Rai's got dislocated wrists and his wings are too torn up to fly with anymore from straining to get out of his restraints; Clays all cracked everywhere and possible a limb just. falls off bc his body's not stable anymore; Kimiko straight-up cannot walk or talk - even if she knows sign language her base circus form has no fingers)
Me, circa a few days ago: Okay, working on my designs for the random idea I had about crossing over Xiaolin Showdown and TADC that popped into my brain out of nowhere and won't let me leave; I think I'll take a break and check out what gravity-what's doing since I do that all the time anyway and I wanna look at XS content. Me after doing so: WHAT. (i ended up with completely different designs than your au, for the record but just. i. of all things. how.)
🤣 @hugthepanda12 had the same problem too!! Episode 8 of TADC really fucked us all up ha? (I, too, became obsessed after that episode).
But let’s be honest, there can never be enough TADC AU’s~ especially since mine leans so heavily into the ‘representation of mental health/coping mechanisms’ side of things. I’m excited to hear what you decide to do with the TADC x XS AU setting!!
I'd probably (definitely) post the stuff on this account since I use my main/first one for reblogging things pretty exclusively and this one for my own stuff.
BUT AS FOR THE AU ITSELF:
I'm thinking it'd be a crossover between both shows, with both sets of characters, so a lot of the design bits for the monks (or at least Omi and Raimundo) reference things that happen in the show itself (Clay and Kimiko are more general). Also, the TADC cast are all there too to help them adjust (including Caine, although how much help he'd be is...) Every human aside from maybe Jax would be VERY concerned about a group of kids getting stuck in the circus, like, even moreso than just any random person.
Zooble: Caine you mother[boing] you're grabbing kids now?! Ragatha: *fretting over Raimundo, who's the first one to give his age (sixteen)* Jax: Geez, Raggy, relax. I've been here since I was sixteen and I turned out fiiiiine. Pomni: Oh god that explains so much. Clay: Ah'm seventeen if it helps? Omi: I am twelve! (probably) Gangle: *looking at Ragatha practically tearing her yarn-hair out* I don't... think that helps at all, actually.
I've got general design ideas for the kids, but the only one I've got a name for is Omi (Stripes - he's an anthro tiger cub, the simplest design I have aside from maybe Clay, who's design I'm still brainstorming somewhat).
Continuity-wise I think it takes place between episodes 6 and 7 for Digital Circus and... maybe post-finale for Xiaolin Showdown (my idea for Rai includes him being black-and-white, referencing both his hoodie and Shoku robes as well as a general yin-yang aesthetic thingy).
What I have for the designs so far:
Raimundo: Aside from the black-and-white colors I was stuck on him for a while, then the phrase 'mischievous little imp' for the design popped into my head and - yeah. That's it. He's an imp now. What it's meant to represent is his prankster/more mischievous nature, but that's definitely not what everyone's going to think of when they look at the guy who turned evil temporarily turning into a literal demon. It works on both levels and! It was important to me that the monks would h a t e their new bodies and I don't think Rai would like the constant jab his body makes at the worst mistake of his life (even if that's not what it's supposed to represent). He also has wings (demon/bat wings, naturally) so he can still fly (to work in his element) which may or may not have little windy swirls on them (in the opposite color the respective wing has, to keep the yin-yang theme going and also so they're. visible.) which might also call to mind the swirly symbol on his amulet. Not sure if he'd be over designed at that point, though? Also I keep considering swapping his and Omi's heights bc he'd hate that too before using it to be a menace for everyone else, BUT if you give a character wings you're gonna want to have them cradle another character they care about away from danger with them even at risk to themselves and that's awful hard if the winged character is like... a third the other character's size so I'm not 100% sold on the swap. I have three different Circus Names for him at the moment.
Omi: Omi's is much simpler, as I already mentioned: anthro tiger cub. I think he'd be wearing robes that blend elements of the basic Xiaolin robes that he already wears, alongside Master Fung's robes and Chase's armor. His form gets special mention since it gets to makes ~everyone~ (on the xs side of things anyway) uncomfy~. (he's a tiger specifically bc tiger's are a cat that famously actually swims willingly, it was the only thing i could think of as an element reference). Circus Name: Stripes
Clay: While I don't think his design is finished yet, Clay's concept came to me real fast and easy: a gold, first place trophy. He's his dad's golden boy, probably places first in competitions since a young age, and, if Jessie and Patrick were in the circus, they'd be silver and bronze (actually copper) as part of a matched set. :) (Jessie's silver as a reference to mechanical stuff like her bikes and Patrick's copper bc electrical wiring and him being good with computers, but none of the siblings would realize these things. also, possible birth order: Clay's first, Jessie's second, Patrick's third). Also: gold is heavy, and Clay's jabbed at for his weight a lot. The elemental connection here is that metals like gold are dug out of the ground, I guess? He needs to be a first-place trophy. I won't go with anything else. I don't want any of them to actually look like how they do out of the circus, but I can't deny Clay a cowboy hat so he has that too. Not sure about a Circus Name for him, maybe Goldy or Jin (which behindthename tells me is a chinese name for gold).
Kimiko: Kimiko gave me the most trouble, but I decided I wanted to lean into her fashionista side - first thought was swapable accessories and clothes, but that's a little too close to Zooble. Then I decided that nothing on Kimiko's body should change, and she could maybe have a body that could be painted on. (the original idea included this for her face too, but I changed that, which i'll explain in a bit) So now what I've got for her is a sort of blobby clay doll that can have various colors and patterns and, yes, 'clothes' painted on (she and Gangle probably bond over this, there are paints in Kimi's room). Her face I ended up envisioning as like, a computer screen like on one of those old iDogs from years ago, just to lean into her techy side, although it's got more versatility than the iDog one (she usually has a pixelated set of eyes and mouth to use for expressions, but she can also display emoticons, emoji, kaomojis, and the like too. i just think her being able to change her expression literally into: D:< would be amusing so. there. she gets it). The only thing I can think of for an elemental connection there would be that clay gets baked? It's probably the most tenuous connection of them all by a long shot. I'm just gonna copy-paste from one of my documents about my Circus Name ideas for her: Terra (from terracotta clay, possibly the kind of material her doll body is now made from)/Haniwa (type of terracotta doll used in burials in Japan in the Kofu period)/Screens (her face is a computer screen, and the only thing not ancient looking)/Pallette (a reference to how most of her body gets painted on to reflect her fashionista bit
Jack might be the one who trapped them inside (could be a new baddie) so he's not in there, but if he was I'm not sure I'd be able to help myself from stealing your design. A windup cymbal-banging monkey is perfect.