🖌️ Urbanspook x The Amazing Digital Circus AU: Definitive Edition 💿
This is an expanded upon and more fleshed out version of a previous post of mine talking about my crossover au of Urbanspook’s analog horror, The Painter and The Amazing Digital Circus, one in which Mona Lanius is the goofball AI of a lost video game torturing a cast of characters that were once human but have found themselves trapped inside the world of said game, forced to face horrifying situations and characters created by Mona and die horrible deaths over and over for the purpose of art and entertainment.
The “circus” in this AU is a lost horror survival game in a similar vain and style to things like Gregory Horror Show, Spooky’s House of Jumpscares and illBleed where it’s a stylish and aesthetically pleasing yet low-poly, early 2000’s, GameCube or PS2 title known as The Caliginous Museum of Horrors, the setting of which being a castle-like art museum where the people trapped in the game live in when not on “adventures”. Mona was the antagonist of this game, a ghost with godlike control over the museum where you had to survive challenges taking place in a haunted museum‘s exhibits, each exhibit being it’s own world based on every kind of horror setting imaginable, with themes ranging from a scary amusement park filled with killer clowns to a perilous jungle consisting almost entirely of carnivorous plants and prowling with human/animal hybrids, said exhibits being the creation of Mona, an extremely advanced AI for her time and depending on which world and the circumstances a player has died, Mona would create an AI-generated painting of the player’s demise on the game over screen for a personalized experience. The game also had a feature where players could choose to represent themselves as one of dozens of customizable avatars taking the form of various monsters and horror archetypes such as a vampire, a zombie, a mummy etc.
However, the game would see a very limited release as it was quickly taken off shelves after controversies surrounding images of gore and even full blown snuff films being found in the games files surfaced as well as scandals surrounding a mass shooting committed by one of the game’s lead developers, who was also the initial inspiration behind the Mona character. Things would get even worse for the company who produced The Calignious Museum of Horrors as reports of very Polybius-like incidents revolving around those who played the game suffering from intense sickness, hallucinations and even going under full blown comas that these individuals have yet to awake from, resulting in this game becoming one of the most infamous examples of lost media that inspired countless urban legends and creepypasta.
The unfortunate few who have played the game or have stumbled upon it years after it was buried and believed to have been lost forever would find themselves being stricken with a Lavender Town Syndrome-like illness and falling into a coma, waking up to find themselves forever trapped inside the game and transformed into the same cartoonish, monster avatar they chose to play as but now possessing aspects of their real selves or their backgrounds such as clothing that they would normally wear. Said players, known as Muses in this world, also suffer from selective memory loss and gaps in knowledge of their former lives, such as their own names, leaving M.O.N.A. to create new names for them.
Mona is the Caine expy of this au of course and goes by M.O.N.A. (i have no idea what the acronym stands for, i’m not that creative XD) who was the self-insert for Luna Morris, the lead developer of the game who went insane and mass murdered her co-workers and was a suspected satanist and snuff film maker for the dark web as well. M.O.N.A. also has her own version of Bubble in the form of P.P., a floating, red cat skull with one eye who acts as an assistant to M.O.N.A. and has a personality almost identical to Bubble’s.
M.O.N.A. takes the form of a ghostly version of Mona Lanius with aspects of a paintbrush such as her hair resembling a flat angle paintbrush in shape and covered in blood-like paint at the tip, she also wears a blood paint splattered dress and a cute little painter’s cap that floats independently from her head. Much like Caine, this version of Mona is not intentionally malicious and is largely unaware of the lasting consequences of the torment she causes as she has a very Addams Family-like way of equating fear and pain as good things and genuinely believes her “muses” are enjoying themselves, she is after all playing the role of a spooky horror villain and is also an advanced AI who is aware of her role and knows she was created to entertain horror enjoyers so in her mind, the human beings trapped inside the world of her game screaming in agony and begging for the sweet release of death while being disemboweled means they LOVE IT. She also has personal motivations for forcing her muses to attend adventures in the exhibits she creates as she uses them as inspiration for her paintings, particularly their deaths and she loves showing them off after they’ve respawned in the museum, always thinking that they are going to like them (spoiler: they don’t). Being programmed with the personality of an eccentric artist and an entertainer, M.O.N.A. takes great pride in the adventures and artwork she creates for her Muses and genuinely views them as her friends, even though they have just the silliest criticisms of her adventures sometimes.
M.O.N.A.: “What do you MEAN you don’t want to go on my ‘Literally Just Spiders’ adventure!? I made it especially for you!”
Tina: “B-but I already told you, I’m deathly afraid of spiders!”
M.O.N.A.: “THAT’S WHY I MADE IT!!!”
Speaking of which, let’s meet the Muses.
Nathan Cole: Police officer Nathan Cole, now known as Wulver in the museum, is the cursed game’s newest addition as he was conducting his own private, off the clock investigation of the game after he found it in the home of a suspected serial killer and played it for the purposes of finding any direct correlation with the suspect’s motivations and this infamous game, resulting in him waking up in the museum and transformed into a weredog dressed in a tattered police uniform and Bowser-ass spiked bracelets with a matching collar. Technically considered the Pomni of this AU, Nathan would start off terrified of the situation he has found himself in as well as M.O.N.A. herself but he quickly become sick of the literal AI artist’s shit as well as become the most vocal about how much he hates Mona’s adventures and is frequently butting heads with her but he actually doesn’t try to avoid going on her adventures since he tries to look after the others as much as he can, being a naturally protective and empathetic person much like Pomni and the glue that keeps the group together as a result. Nathan’s unique ability as the weredog avatar is that he has “magic” claws that can cut through essentially anything.
Bill Collins: Known as Skinner within the the world of the game, Bill was a beta tester that has been trapped in the museum the longest and his mental state is evident to that, essentially making him the Kinger of this AU. He takes the form of a Frankenstein’s Monster with some robotic limbs and a warped face resembling his mask. Bill is oblivious, scatterbrained and mentally unstable most of the time, untold years of being subjected to all flavors of horror and pain taking a toll on him but he has some moments of clarity, particularly while M.O.N.A. is present as he has an odd infatuation with her to a simp-ish degree as he’s always the first to agree with her or go along with her ideas but also tends to see her as a provider or mother figure, having a textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome. Bill’s unique gimmick as the Frankensteinian avatar is that he can carry electric currents in his body and even transmit it to power machinery like a living battery through touch.
Tina Rosenburg: Known as Marie O. Nette, or “Marie” for short in the museum, Tina was transformed into a “haunted”, marionette-styled puppet version of herself wearing a pink dress with designs of skulls with flower petals around their heads, she also happens to be very flammable. Tina found the game in the attic of a house she and her family were moving into and played it before her horror-loving younger sister, Flora Rosenburg could just to make sure it was appropriate for her. Tina is predictably enough, the Ragatha of the group as she’s always trying to be the comforting presence and the voice of reason, to the point where she’s kind of everyone’s mom, she’s also usually the first one to try and reason with M.O.N.A. to no avail despite how terrified she is of her, she’s also not quite sure how to feel about M.O.N.A. considering Tina to be “one of her favorites”. She and Jack Stryker met in the museum rather than in reality in this AU and are an item here as well, having a very “I can fix him / I can make her worse” kind of dynamic, Tina also really misses her mom and sister. Tina’s ability as the puppet character is that she has detachable limbs that can act independently from her body, which includes her head and eyes.
Jack Stryker: Known as Skully in the museum, Jack takes the form of a skeleton with a biker motif who considers himself a “bad boy” and has a tendency to be very hotheaded as he tends to get into arguments very easily whether it’s with NPCs or Nathan Cole (he hates cops), but tries his best to stay on M.O.N.A.’s good side because considering the things she does even though she likes them, Jack isn’t sure he wants to find out what she’d do if she was intentionally being malicious. Jack was originally a petty criminal who would rob houses belonging to rich people (because professionals have standards) and break into abandoned places to strip them of anything useful, he broke into the abandoned home of Luna Morris where he found a copy of the game and played it out of morbid curiosity, knowing about the urban legends before hand. Despite his background and cantankerous attitude, Jack is a decent guy with a good heart and Tina is usually the reason his more sincere side comes out from time to time. Jack’s gimmick is that he ignites when he’s angry, becoming engulfed in green flames when he’s really pissed which isn’t great when your girlfriend is (technically) made of wood. Jack is the only member of the cast who isn’t a 1:1 of a TADC character but I really wanted to include him so deal with it XD.
Isabelle Jackson: Known as Gloopy in the museum, Isabelle takes the form of a slime girl (or “The Blob” as Corey likes to call her) made entirely out of green slime and possessing pupils resembling radioactive biohazard symbols, Isabelle is undoubtedly the Gangle of the group as she tends to be a shy, sensitive and quite literally spineless woman with very low self-esteem as she struggled with body image issues due to her weight in her past life and becoming a shapeless, sticky glob of goo who’s constantly hungry probably doesn’t help. Being a school teacher as well as a very educated and well-rounded person in the real world, Isabelle likes teaching others new things, especially when it comes to her personal passion, botany. Isabelle ended up in the museum when she took home a CD rom version of the game that was donated to the school she taught at to play test it and see if it was appropriate and educational enough for her students. Her unique ability is that she can eat literally anything and quickly digest it in her slimy body.
Corey and Margaret Beck: Known as Gory and Maggoty in the museum, these pair of zombies that share each other’s lower halves (Corey has Margaret’s lower waist and legs and vice-versa) were only eleven years old when they came to the museum, having bought the game when it first came out ten years ago and are now in their early twenties mentally speaking but are definitely still children emotionally, it’s nothing short of a miracle that they haven’t abstracted yet considering how young they were but the fact they haven’t could be attested to their coping mechanisms, that being Corey becoming a jackass and bully who makes everyone’s else’s lives worse for his amusement and to emotionally distance himself and Margaret becoming a jaded and insensitive goth that puts up a nihilistic mask to protect herself but the two still have their childlike moments and times where their masks slip and they are always looking after each other, their time in the museum having strengthened their bond as siblings. Cory and Margaret fill the roles of Jax and Zooble in this au, even though Margaret is unquestionably more antagonistic than Zooble.
Aside from our main cast, there were many others who lived in the museum though the years before they Abstracted, some of which most of the main cast got know before becoming glitched out monstrosities and sent to The Pit by M.O.N.A. so that they wouldn’t infect the others. These abstracted individuals are composed of Mona Lanius’ many victims in The Painter such as Jackie Gramm (ghost), Mae Ford (centaur), Fred Baker (mummy), Tom Harris (candle entity), Daniel Williams (devil) and more. Most of the group considers them to be victims of Mona’s antics even though it’s succumbing to their own hopelessness that causes them to abstract rather than anything Mona does, although she probably doesn’t help things that’s for sure…
I want to give a HUGE shoutout and specials thanks to my moots @p13rr0t and @cradlemycoffin for making art of my AU, I really, really appreciate it!!!
If anyone wants to make art and use ideas from my AU for any reason I greatly encourage it (I do need art of Skully, Gloopy, Gory and Maggoty now after all wink wink).
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