@persephone-ransom did an amazing job organizing the Xiaolin Showdown Secret Santa on Instagram, and I wanted to make sure they got something too!
I’ve loved learning and reading about Perse, and realize she and Lia have a lot in common: both from NYC, are oddballs with more out there interests, have great fashion senses, end up loving a dorky evil hot genius— the list goes on. I would think if they met each other from their universes, they’d be friends at the very least. Here is them watching chaos ensue.
Thanks again for the great event! ❤️ It was a blast and I hope to see more from you if and when you’re free.
Summary: Ever since Raimundo became leader, the Wu has stopped appearing and things have calmed down. Some villains have moved on while others try their hand in the occasional Wu theft or Xiaolin Showdown battles. Everyone is getting antsy, worried for what the universe next has in store. Then, one day, the Wu start revealing themselves again but Omi feels that something has changed within the universe, something major and possibly devastating for the world as they know it…
A series continuation after the end of Season 3
Creators: @ayyoari and @booooglebug
Unique Tags
#Lia-XS : OC Lia, Dragon of Metal who is mysterious and blunt yet chill and calm; a real ride-or-die once you gain her trust
#Clover-XS: OC Clover, Dragon of Wood and British traveler with her family that loves gardening and MMA fighting
Full Name: Jackie Spicer Junior. (His name is taken after his late grandfather Jack)Gender and Sexuality: Gender male (I’m leaving sexuality out for now because I have no idea how to work on this…)Pronouns: He/His/HimEthnicity/Species: Human & Free-thinkerBirthplace and Birthdate: July 2nd (Birthplace still remain unknown but he’s born in America before migrating over to China, and birthdate is shared with the same as his twin Sister Jacklyn)Guilty Pleasures: Reading Yaoi, Yuri or any sorts of things that deem extremely questionable and mindfucking. And, he doesn’t really mind reading the Yaoi or Yuri genre whether hardcore or not because he just read it for information purpose.Phobias: Losing his friendship with Oliver, Having his whole thousand worth Terabyte data loss especially his secret stash of anime and manga, being aloneWhat They Would Be Famous For: His genius intellect in creating Hi-tech weapon, creating an actual living A.I. (unknowingly), his hacking abilitiesWhat They Would Get Arrested For: Illegal downloads & hacking of anime episodes, manga series & doujins online, and bank accountsOC You Ship Them With: Oliver (Romance or Very strong Platonic frienship), Lingyi (Platonic), Robo-Jack (Father-son), Jacklyn (Sibling love, Cain & Abel) OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Lang & his wolves, JacklynFavorite Movie/Book Genre: Mostly Sci-Fi genre & secretly action martial arts movie genreLeast Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: The long episode running series of romance/drama shows (He’ll give out negative comment every single second as long as he’s being forced to sit and watch one episode)Talents and/or Powers: Skilled in Programming, creating his own hi-tech weapons, hacking & decrypting secret codes, very little to ignorant knowledge of Heylin Magic Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s Jack Spicer’s grandson? Have his own stash of every downloaded (illegal or not) & bought doujins, deep down is a very misunderstood and lonely person who craves for people’s acknowledgement and acceptance from the ones he wants people to acknowledge him for, Complete Jerk on the outside but actually a guy who’s 90% good instead evil?Why Someone Might Hate Them: Being an complete asshole who looks down on the monks, Willing to cheat or sabotage his enemies chance of winning in a Showdown, Him being cruel to others to win a Shen Gong Wu was all to have his chance of being acknowledge that he’s better than his sisterHow They Change: Amending with Oliver on each their own misunderstood view of each other after the big fight, realizing that the ones who acknowledge and care for him were always beside him instead of wasting his time to seek approval from others, standing up for his own freedom and from his sister’s mental abusive insultWhy You Love Them: Firstly is his relationship with Oliver as he’s willing to do anything and even listen his robo-grandfather ‘advice’ to still talk to her, even if they ended up bickering most of the time. And to me, he’s considered complicated because of him doing what his parents want vs doing what he wanted. He had to act as a jerk to help fulfil his grandfather’s dying Wish to rule the world, and all of this was because he would show to be better than his perfect sister everyone sees. But this act cause him to be often hurt as well that he had to act cruel to his one-and-only friend, Oliver, whom had acknowledge and care for him as a best friend when they were young. And it also often failed to make him see how Lingyi and Robo-Jack cares for him a lot despite their bickering, which was actually thing that separate between him as his sister.
Secondly was his resilience to his Sister’s treatment to him, Jackie had to often deal with mental abusive insult his sister throws at him such as being the unfavorite in the family’s eyes. And another being was him often used by his sister as a bait to do dangerous mission with low chance of survival rate or participating with her any dangerous act to achieve victory for their family. Despite the treatment he receives, Jackie unfortunately still loves and cares for his sister which was something often abused and reciprocated from his sister.
She had never had much purpose in life. That had been the problem with Anandita from the beginning, even before her beloved teammates had nicknamed her Dita.
Her parents were village country folk who dreamed of making it big in the city. Their daughter, she was honestly in the way. She had... a kind of misplaced rage in her, beyond her years. Something primal that rose up from a broken place that happens in children who go through things they don't have words for.
She still won't tell anyone what started that place in her. She doesn't believe there is power in tragic backstories.
She started and finished fights, she screamed and bit and swore. Mysterious fires started around her, and bad luck surrounded her like a bridal veil. Her soul burned.
Sent further North out of India as a last resort, she thought her new Xiaolin master meant to stop the burning. Instead, he taught her to burn more efficiently, more helpfully. To burn for a reason.
All good things come to an end. The others seemed to feel a sense of closure when they left the temple. But as she told Fee (of course they kept in touch--why wouldn't they?), she felt like she was walking back out into the emptiness.
Still attracted to the trouble that wedded her in youth, she settled in the old neighborhood in the gritty city her parents had moved to, though they had long returned home to the safety of relatives in the village. Her mother had been a seamstress and taught her clothes-making. She started an embroidery business, hand beading bridal sari on contract to vendors. Her former teammates would have found it ironic; the impatient, impulsive, high-octane Dita enjoying the tedious, patient work of beading garments. She found it meditative, and a good exercise to retain the focus she had learned in the Xiaolin arts.
As she had aged, the fires had burned less hot. She lost her taste for aggression and battle as her heart found peace and contentment in her sense of developed power. She had forgiven her mysterious past, and those who let her down, and so at least the vacuum of the future was light.
But remember, she had learned to burn for a reason.
Her reason came in the form of a gangly teenaged girl who had the same fire in her eyes that Dita knew in her heart. She had seen the girl in the marketplace, being treated harshly by her uncle.
Dita had offered a sharp retort and been told women should mind their own business. He offered a few more words, and Dita had replied with a slap across his face that clearly terrified him.
But the deepest impression had been left on the girl, who turned up on her doorstep that night. 'He went to beat me," she said with a grim, feral smile, "But this time, I beat him instead. I beat him until the blood ran and he--"
Dita cut her off, wondering if she was finally understanding how her mother felt when small Anandita had confided thoughts and feelings and actions like this. She was regretting getting involved this morning. "I don't know why you're here! What do you expect of me?"
The girl looked her straight in the eyes. "You know how the law works here, Aunty...."
Dita didn't continue the conversation. "Get inside. But your life won't be any easier with me."
"I don't care about easy. I just want fair." The girl replied bitterly, slipping in under her arm.
No one objected, no one came for her. Not even the police. Dita put her to work, teaching her embroidery. When she found the girl was too frustrated to work, she put her to menial labor, cleaning and cooking, and began teaching her the first forms, and how to meditate.
At first, the girl--who was named Amara--laughed. But when Dita curtly informed her this was part of the house rules, and offered to send her home, she became a dutiful student.
She was not alone. More girls turned up. Word spread in the gossip mill, and families brought their "problem" girls to Dita, girls burning and drowning and suffocating in their own power as she once had been, sometimes through the faults of another and sometimes through no fault whatsoever. Shy and timid orphan girls found their way to her, seeking a way to live and protect themselves.
They all worked, at whatever they could, from the daily business of keeping the compound going to Dita's growing mercantile business. At dawn, they rose for morning exercises, and then work, and then lessons in the evening.
Bold and strong, small and quiet, outspoken and silent, she taught them all to fight--not just how, but why and when. She taught them to honor themselves, and others. She passed forward the gifts she was given.
She taught them when to fight fair, and when to fight for survival. She taught them strikes and blocks and kicks, she taught them how to leverage a larger opponent's body weight, how to stay nimble, how to avoid blows. Along with ancient arts, she taught them modern, practical things: to bite hunks of flesh so that skin and muscle stayed in the teeth. To pull hairs and hold on to them, to scratch and claw and get plenty of skin cells under the fingernails. She taught them how to describe pain and injuries, she gave them memory exercises, grounding exercises to keep them in the moment and help their recall later. She gave them the numbers of establishments that were sympathetic and would do exams for assault, and which of the police force would take claims of abuse seriously. She put them in touch with victim advocates. She taught them how to teach others these things. She made them know they were not an elite, special group of girls: they were kin to all womankind, and had a duty to educate and protect their sisters.
She also taught them to keep a low profile, but they began to attract attention, directed at Dita. Stern comments about just what she was teaching here, who she thought she was. (She expected it at some point. Even though the landlords were willing to sell off abandoned buildings, it was difficult to own a block in this area and not be looked at.) In the same terse way she spoke to the girls, she spoke to the authorities. "What? This is not an ashram. Does this look like an ashram? We sell sari, to support these destitute young women, keep them off the streets."
The inquiring visitors did not like being spoken to that way, particularly not by the small, now curvy woman in the plain kurta. But Dita had long ago realized that even though Fire gave her a kind, warm heart, it did not make her nice.
"I am not a guru. Do I look like a guru? Girls, am I a guru?"
"No, Aunty! You are our Aunty!" Came the singsong reply. She smiled self-satisfied, crossing her arms. The girls kept their eyes on their work, to hide miniature versions of that smile. It was the smile they carried on them in their day to day, the smile they took with them when and if they decided to leave. It was the smile at each success of those among them who went on to be lawyers, doctors, politicians, journalists. Those that Dita inspired to go from being self-destructive troublemakers to activist world-changers in the system.
Dita carried a cane, even when she wasn't near old enough to need one. It was a symbol of her position as master and teacher, of her own journey to self-discipline, and, on occasion, it was a tool to beat enlightenment into anyone who tried to harm a woman in her city.
I feel ya. I think it falls on people, or fans, or both, who use bases that are traced off of Kimiko's poses, or use images of Kimiko solely for reference. Furthermore, Kimiko doesn't really have much of a body type going on. She's basically two boobs away from being a stick, which explains why she loves clothes (girl can wear anything she damn well pleases with a body like that--"the clothes hanger"). But I also know that the variety of body types present in the show is what a majority of the fandom likes so much, so it saddens me to see these "skinny-mini" bases and body types used over and over again. Not everyone looks like a twig, not everyone has the body of a Latin Ballroom dancer, not everyone has a rippling back and thighs. And I think that's beautiful. I also understand that some OCs are idealized versions of ourselves, so by all means make an OC that is slim, and trim, and jaw-droppingly gorgeous if you wish you felt that way about yourself. Make an OC that is plain jane and nobody ever notices. Make a male OC with chubby thighs and a small chest, make an androgynous OC with wide hips and shoulders, make a transgirl OC with a body that contrasts against her gender identity and forces her to struggle every day. But personally, I think it's just a lack of experience. I've been drawing for at least seventeen years, and I've been looking at people for over two decades. Everyone is beautiful.
I want to be a character designer when I grow up, and there is a very simple, ingenious test one can preform to know if one has a good body type to base a design off of. May I present to you, the Naked Test! The concept is simple; strip the character down to nothing and mix with other nude characters from the same story or universe. If you can tell who's who with out any distinctive clothes or visual markers, you've got yourself a good body to start laying stuff on top of.
In my own characters I have variety of body type.
(left to right: Ënd, Chaos, and Artemis)
Ënd has more emphasis on her hips and thighs, while Chaos has a more equivalent distribution of proportions and a very voluptuous figure, and then Artemis has very long legs and tiny hips. Chaos is also distinctively different from her mom, Jaqueline, who has a similar body type, but is made up of sharper shapes.
Furthermore, a character's line of action can show a lot about his, her, or ze's personality. I wasn't aware of this when I drew the two images above, but it is still somewhat present. Chaos leads with her hips, which shows cockiness or arrogance. Ënd leads with her knees which can give a very lazy or very tired look. And then Artemis leads from his chest, which shows strength and confidence. If you look at the Xiaolin Monks, most of them lead from the chest. Chase Young and Jack on the other hand lead with their hips, but this is only visible when they move.
