This AU takes place before Gardenview shut down. It's about the mains (excluding Dandy) suddenly becoming... unavailable due to technical difficulties, so Delilah had to convince Arthur to put something she had planned to effect: Operation Main Replacement. After some temporary closing, Gardenview reopened and the show had a reboot with some of the side characters replacing the mains, being Connie, Gigi, Scraps, Glisten and Looey. They had taken the mains positions, hobbies, personalities and pretty much their whole identity, as the previous mains' existence were wiped off completely, with none of the toons remembering them. No comment had been let out to the public on what happened to the original mains and why they had been replaced.
However, as days went on, the Replacemains started feeling self conscious about themselves, even to the brink of having an identity crisis and feeling detached from their own bodies. Connie was the first to notice that something's wrong and whatever it is- someone knew what it was. But Dandy can't let anything go wrong. Not again.
[TW: This AU contains topics like mental illness, body horror, detoonization (dehumanization), panic attacks, self harm and twisting/death. I will be adding trigger warning tags and cuts on posts which have any of these.]
Replacemains Designs + Info Cards
Delilah's notes under the cut for those who can't read it well:
Serial Designation: RM-001
Replacement: M-001(Pebble Dancifer Jr)
RM-001 has been given... positive feedback, surprisingly. However, he also has a few downsides regarding his physical state. He is extremely fragile, and constantly gets himself into life threatening situations. L-001 has promised to train him to be more careful, but I doubt any improvement, not because I don't trust L-001, but because RM-001 seems to listen to no one but RM-002.
Serial Designation: RM-002
Replaced: M-002 (Astro Novalite)
RM-002 seems to struggle a lot in her role as seen in complaints from other Toons about having nightmares of faces that don't exist. She has also claimed to constantly feel cold, along with having trouble sleeping herself. RM-002 doesn't seem to like being around L-001, often being awkward during their conversations, as quoted by L-001 himself.
Serial Designation: RM-003
Replaced: M-003 (Sprout Seedly)
RM-003 has been reported to have multiple concerning health issues. Her eating habits are incredibly random, and she seems to face some sort of body dysmorphia. RM-003 also seems to struggle walking and using her hands (I knew we shouldn't have listened to the parents' complaints) and has an obsession with strawberries, often caught snacking on them in the middle of the night. RM-003 needs a proper checkup routine and possibly some changes to fix her health.
Serial Designation: RM-004
Replaced: M-004 (Vee Version 1)
RM-004 seems to be doing well so far with the least amount of complaints. H has shown positive interactions with guests and other Toons, and has been complimented by many. However, it seems that RM-004 might have some collection of M-004, due to him being reported to react strangely when anything related to her is mentioned. RM-004 should be monitored carefully for the time being.
Serial Designation: RM-005
Replaced: M-005 (Shelly Fossilian)
RM-005's former kleptomania seems to still seep through the crack as there has been multiple complaints about her stealing items from others. This has caused guests and even other Toons to avoid her. RM-005 also leaks ichor from her head whenever she stores too much fossils- a checkup is required. So far, her replacing has been the least positive.
So you guys might have noticed that I've been going back to Replacemains a little. I decided I should probably take advantage of that and use it as an opportunity to explain what has been going on with my AUs all this time.
Starting first, Replacemains AU.
The reason why Replacemains went on a hiatus was that it was pretty much doomed from the start. When I first made it, it was mainly because I saw multiple content creators with their AUs and went 'I want to do that.' But instead of taking my time thinking of something, I just rushed to the first thing that came to my mind, which was the Replacemains AU. Now that I look back at it, I feel like I only made it for engagement. Don't get me wrong, I liked the concept, and I still do, but I realize that I didn't love it enough, which is why is slowly got detached from it.
Another problem I had was that my expectations for this AU was too high. I wanted to make some sort of ARG, be noticed by lots of people, have people engage with my posts and try to make theories, etc. Speaking of theories, I also made the og story/lore just so... complicated. It was messy and just overall made no sense other than just being a theory-begging narrative. (This is also why I made @connies-fan-mail, I wanted people to uncover lore about my AU, that didn't go the way I wanted it to lmao). And not to mention I didn't even (and I still don't) have the skills to make the content I wanted to make back then of the Replacemains.
And you know what made me realize all of this? Dandys Playplace.
First of all, I'm going to be honest with you all, this AU is actually just DW if I rewrote it, but I don't want it to be refered to that way, so I called it the Playplace AU. I took my time thinking of this AU, I thought of the setting and story thinking "Do *I* like it?" And spent an unbearable amount of time making the designs, hence why I keep changing them (like the one above). Sure, it's taking centuries, but I'm doing this under the impression that I want to expand the AU because *I* like it, not just because I want others to see it.
So what have I concluded from this?
First of all, Replacemains AU will get the recognition it deserves. I won't change that much from it, the main plot will still be the same, but I'm changing most of the lore to be simple and less overwhelming than whatever circus show I had back then. So the story will be short, there may be mini comics here and there, but this time I'll add passion into it and not have expectations beyond my abilities.
(Also, @connies-fan-mail will have it's asks permanently closed. I MIGHT reopen it as an ask blog of sorts, but that's highly unlikely.)
As for Dandy's Playplace, I'm currently halfway through the designs (shocker I know) and even started on a few intro cards. I may decide to do a new introduction post as the previous one is a bit old, but we'll have to wait and see.
And with a goodbye, thank you all! Remember to take care of yourselves :)
