#i tried to portray him not so much monster but still a formidable force

[medusaspeach]

Classicstober Day 3: Asterion ✨ I did two sketches, so up both of them go.

[seventeenlovesthree]

Gotta start my headcanon spree by starting with my Digimon magical girl/boy AU. I haven’t completely fleshed it out storywise - it’s basically Sailor Moon with Digimon elements anyway -, but some character relationships are pretty much set in stone already. @dutchforstrangers You may find these interesting, even if they’re just loose thoughts on the AU, I have already lined out my thoughts for Taishirou and Koumi (still need to think about how I want to deal with Taikoura in MORE detail aside from them being very close friends at first.)

The main aspect is basically about the connection between the digital world and the real world - whenever the balance of both worlds, the balance between light and dark is disturbed, the real world is scanned for eight human souls with significant potential in certain characteristics. Light and Hope are ALWAYS the first and always set within the group of eight, because they are linked to all other characteristics, yet take the longest time to fully awake and have their full potential realized.

Thus, when earth is scanned, Hikari and Takeru are the first to be discovered. Their direct relationships with the people around them would trigger the awakening of the other characteristics, who in turn would also awaken other characteristics, etc. Thus, it is not surprising that their brothers are chosen to have most formidable potential in awakening their courage and friendship... 

If this was an anime, the viewer wouldn’t know that Hikari and Takeru are the first - instead, the focus would be put on Taichi, who’s much, much quicker to realize that he NEEDS courage to fight forces of darkness threatening the real world. (I’ve been thinking of them manifesting like witches in Madoka Magica, but they’re also having Digimon and Daimons mixed into them as well.) They’d “transform” by somewhat fusing with their respective Digimon partners who materialize in the real world to guide them and thus, Taichi is assigned with the task to “find his seven other companions” by a smol version of Koromon/Agumon. While Hikari is also always kinda around (like a trigger for the others), she hasn’t gained access to her powers yet and Taichi obviously doesn’t realize it either...

So the awakening “chain” in my head goes like this: Hikari (and Takeru) => Taichi (although he’s portrayed as being the first) => Koushirou => Sora => Yamato (in reality, he’s already triggered by Takeru, but his interactions with Sora set up his transformation) => Jyou => Mimi.

Taichi, Koushirou and Sora already know each other from the beginning, I actually made them football club companions again, but Koushirou already quit at the beginning of the semester and Taichi mopes about him still sitting in the stands and watching all the time, instead of being the best offside trap they've ever had. They spend a lot of their breaks together and Koushirou and Sora are actually study partners who spend time alone with each other as well. Sora will easily be the second best fighter later, together with Yamato, as the others are having more support/healing/protection roles. But back to Taikoura, I really wanted Koushirou and Sora to be the first to awaken after Taichi, a. because THIS IS MY AU, b. because the UsaAmi dynamic in the first episodes of Sailor Moon (until Rei joined) made me think of how Taishirou would be established. (They’re already friends after all, but Taichi is behaving all secretive after being awakened and since they’re not in the same club anymore, Koushirou at first fears that they’re drifting apart. In the 90s version of Sailor Moon, Ami awakened by refusing to use a dull learning software and I can basically see Taichi trying to investigate some kind of brainwashing USB sticks that were handed out by a newly founded computer club and Koromon senses them to be dangerous. But - Taichi doesn’t know how to handle technology like this, so he lowkey tries to reach out to Koushirou, who’s all giddy to be able to help. In the end, the monster/demon tries to suck energy from humans and Koushirou basically refuses to get brainwashed himself, fighting back on instinct when he sees Taichi being attacked and THAT’S where he awakens himself.)

Koushirou, as he has always done, is the one who figures stuff out after all when Taichi is stuck. "Did you see the ring of crests on the digivice we’re transforming with? Do you think it has a specific order in which they have to awaken? Mine's not next to yours, so that can't be it. But we should look around among the school to find the others quickly." They grow significantly closer through being partners in crime, so when Taichi is actually considered to be the leader of the group and starts having doubts about it, Koushirou is the one who assures him that “I wouldn’t want to accept anyone but you as our leader.” Which is obvious shipping foreshadowing, obviously, thank you again, Digimon Adventure novels.

Again, if this was an anime, it’d be stretched over several seasons - season one would be the one in which Courage, Knowledge, Love, Friendship, Reliability and Sincerity get awakened, ending in a tough final battle in which, in true Sailor Moon fashion, they have to sacrifice themselves to defeat their first enemy... Then, in even more Sailor Moon-esque manner, they'd lose their memories of the past at the beginning of season 2 - and one of the plot points I have already completely lined out is that Koushirou ends up as the only one who DOESN'T get them back right away. Which causes Taichi to get so frustrated, because Kou literally doesn't even seem to remember that they had become very close friends. 

Taichi: "He just remembers that we used to be in the football club together and was all... Reserved and distant, his mother didn't even remember that I came over recently either! He called me Yagami-san..." 

Mimi: "HE CALLED ME TACHIKAWA-SAN, WHAT THE HECK, WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!" 

When he eventually regains his memories, he'd reveal MUCH later that he basically had the adoption confrontation with his parents by the end of the first season, before their final fight. His hypothesis is that his subconscious rejected the idea of having several identities, as he had just come to terms with his parents and wanted to shield himself from further emotional harm. So he decided that he doesn’t “want to know anything about it”, subconsciously rejecting his curious nature and thus blocking his memories (and Motimon/Tentomon) to return to him. He's basically having an existential crisis over the thought "I have obtained happiness through acceptance of where I come from, but there is this headache I keep having when I see Yagami-san and his friends, I do not understand why they're so friendly with me, but a part of me seems to be drawn to them. I don't want this, I am happy with how things are... Aren't I? Why does Yagami-san look so sad when he looks at me..." And Taichi literally looks like a sad puppy, showing him his digivice and asking if he's ever seen something like this before and almost cracks when Koromon tells him he can't sense Motimon's presence at all. That's where Koushirou would be 14/15ish, but I'd still wait a bit longer for him to open up about this. Basically, I want him to want to talk to Taichi about it, but simply can’t yet. Taichi would have to open up to him about his experiences with Hikari first, before he can fully consider opening up to him, because... That'd be only fair. If he trusted him this much, he has to be honest with him too. And I think they'd be around 16/17 there already. (Hikari starts to get sickly once her potential starts to finally awaken and when she collapses on the street right next to Taichi, Koushirou and Takeru, Taichi immediately panicks, gets flashbacks from when they were little and he almost caused her to get killed... They call Jyou to get her to the hospital, Taichi stays by her side the entire time and Koushirou waits outside for their parents to arrive. He then stays with Taichi afterwards, trying to silently comfort him and Taichi just naturally breaks and confesses to him how scared he is of losing her, that she is tremendously likely to actually be one of the remaining fighters and that he could never forgive himself if it was HIS fault for awakening her, putting her into danger. It’s where they slowly start to discover their feelings for each other when Koushirou lets him lean against him, half hugging and consoling him.)

Besides Taichi, Koushirou would - at first - be the closest to Sora (due to their football club past) and Mimi (due to them being classmates), but since he usually always just hangs around with his football club friends, they don't have much opportunity to spend time prior to their awakening. Especially because he doesn't know how to deal with her at first. However, he really starts to notice her - after having been in the USA for a few years and joined the class mid semester - when she sees that people have scribbled awful things on his desk and she outright shouts at them for being asshats. He reacts all flustered like:

Koushirou: "You didn't have to do that, Tachikawa-san, I-" 

Mimi: "I HAD TO. Please call me Mimi, okay?." 

He may not remember, but he was the first who greeted her when she came to the class, even offered to help her with stuff, because he knows how it feels like to deal with things on your own. When she awakens, they fight alongside each other and even though she's offended at first that he doesn't seem to remember that they interacted before, she still realizes that, even if he's maybe a bit too focussed on the stuff he's focussing on, he is still a kind and caring guy. They still need time to adapt to each other and she does have "You are really something, huh" moments sometimes, but still values his input and encourages him to speak up. On the flipside, he helps grounding her and SHE makes him think outside the box and they do make a good team. Part of him still aims to be taller than her one day, so that's a motivation too. He actually grows taller than her in the final season, Sora is the first to point it out and it’s just a very important plot point to me.

Plus, even though their personalities make them clash sometimes, she is becoming more and more observant when it comes to his antics - as mentioned before, I'd have that plotpoint of him losing his memory and she's absolutely not having it when he starts all formal all over again and tries - gently - to nudge him forward: "I thought you liked ladybugs, so I made you a bookmark with them printed on. Don't you think they're cute?" or "We're all gonna meet up for a picnic later on, maybe you want to join us? Taichi-san will be there too???" Something like that. (I’d also have her trying to visit him at home while he’s suffering from amnesia and she witnesses him being out with his mother, all relaxed and smiling and so she starts contemplating whether it is a good idea to force him to get his memories back. Maybe he’d be better off not having to fight? Maybe he wouldn’t want to make his parents worry if they actually ended up dying at some point... So for a while, like in Adventure 01, she would depart from the group herself, because she’s so scared that someone would get hurt. Taichi is furious, because he wants Koushirou to regain his memories SO BAD and he knows they can’t finish their mission if they can’t get all eight fighters together while also missing him like hell, but he also knows that Mimi isn’t wrong... I really want to write a scene in which Taichi and Mimi would make up again after she realizes that they’d have to fight and they’d basically also bond over worrying about Koushirou. And that’s where she’d come up with the picnic idea. Koushirou himself, as stated by his inner monologue above, is quite confused and conflicted as to why these people keep trying to approach him so frequently, claiming that they’re friends when he has no recollection of it and gets rather frustrated and angry with how it always gives him headaches when Taichi, Mimi or Sora get too close to him...)

I just really like the "unlikely friends still working well together after learning about each other's antics" between them and that takes time and care to develop, please hire me, Toei, I can pull this off. She's also the louder wingwoman, while Sora is a bit more gentle with it towards him. 

Also, favourite headcanon is still them bonding over being completely clueless over how to deal with Taichi and Yamato arguing with each other, so they let Sora and Jyou handle it and share some "Welp, let's stay out of this" glances instead.

Bonus: You know when you're so involved with an AU that you imagine how a series would play out as a show and how the producers would talk about directing decisions? I had a whole interview lined up about shipping possibilties: "We didn't plan to make Taichi and Koushirou romantically involved at the very beginning, we initially just wanted to have a character who'd push the protagonist by being very curious, leading him on through his research, basically making them best friends and giving Taichi an external love interest. But then we couldn’t add another character, since we already wanted to give Jyou an external love interest. First drafts even had Taichi ending up with Sora, but we couldn't agree on that, we didn't want the hero and his female best friend to destroy that bond, which is where we decided to parallel Sora’s arc with Yamato's and made them end up by the end of the series. Then when we got close to the end of season 1 and started writing for season 2, one of our reports pointed out how we made Koushirou way too involved with Taichi, emotionally. We told his voice actor about the adoption aspect and didn't tell any of the other actors, so when he is close to "confessing" something to Taichi several times... It didn't look like a friend who'd tell his best friend about family affairs. [laughs] We DID plan to give Koushirou a love interest however, seeing that his arc revolves around becoming more open and accepting being loved, but... Literally everything fell apart when we observed those scenes between him and Taichi more closely. We even held a promo screening and the audience was pretty perceptive of how emotionally attached Taichi was towards him and how they seemed to make each other better, stronger and more emotional. The reactions were very positive and so we thought, why not? That's why the tone changed in season 2. It was pretty organic and seemed natural all of the sudden."

They’re growing very slowly (and would only come to terms with their feelings by the middle of the last season. Which focusses on them being confronted with a prophecy that says “If you can’t protect those that are most important to you, you will fail miserably” and Taichi may fall captive to their enemy, because he’s so scared and afraid of hurting and losing certain people and the first reaction would basically be “Hikari is the one who’s most important to him, so she may be able to rescue him”, to which she just shakes her head and says “I don’t think it’s me.”).

Basically, the most prominent relationships, romantic and platonic, would be:

Taishirou, Taiora, Koura (and Taikoura in general), Koumi, SoraMimi, Sorato, Jyoumato, Jyoumi, Taikari, Yamakeru, Takari, Taito, Koukari. (BUT: I’ll definitely put emphasis on less visible relationships as well and add the 02 kids as support cast later on. You know what’s great? Thinking about how Taichi and Hikari would visit Koushirou in his computer club, where they’d also meet Miyako and that’s where her and Hikari would become friends. Because, you know, the Yagami siblings love their computer geniuses very much.)

To be continued...

Edit: Adding some more angst for the “theoretical” final season:

Taichi - like Mamoru in Sailor Moon - being confronted by a vision that shows that, if he can't save the ones most dear to him, everyone will die eventually and it completely messes with his perception. Like, they're planning an attack and everyone looks at him like "What shall we do?" and he is like: 

"Jyou, Mimi, I need you to create a barrier once we're in enemy territory, so nobody else can enter. Takeru, please help them maintaining that barrier. Sora, Yamato, I need you by my side on the attacking force, Sora does the aerial attacking, Yamato, you and I will do the ground work. Koushirou... You'll stay here with Hikari and watch her." 

"Excuse me, I do WHAT now??? We always fought side by side, it's completely irrational to leave me behind, Sora-san and I always do the aerial attacking together, it's reckless and will leave you open to get spotted and attacked, it also puts all three of you in danger!" 

"I KNOW THAT. JUST DO IT FOR ME, OKAY." 

And it just has a lot of tension, Kou going all self-conscious about not being able to help and not being trusted (there’ll be mirror scene like in Sailor Moon, in which they all get confronted by their inner desires and his mirror tells him "What are you even here for if Taichi-san doesn't need you anymore?") and in the end, it DOES shoot Taichi in the foot and he gets captured and confronted by all his fears and trauma. 

They're told by the prophecy that they can only enter the realm if they're linked with the person inside of it. "The most important one" and everyone is like "Then Hikari needs to go" to which she responds "It isn't me..." and Kou immediately goes "Please let me go."