YKW is the best

May replace D’s purple Pikmin with a glow Pikmin (maybe ice too?) and give Louie both purple and rock… also in this au Pikmin 4 is like- post apocalyptic lol basically the Plasm Wraith makes a final stand once the gang defeat them and spreads puffmin spores all over the place resulting in Leaflings.

Pom inherits Olimar’s red pikmin after he succumbs to the Leafling infection and finds out that Pikmin bonded people are more resistant to the virus than regular people.

fun fact Shacho (the president of hocatate freight, now the principal of Koppai academy) is a former Pikmin bonded and gives his Purple Pikmin away so the gang can save the world.

anyways Oatchi and Moss are special magical dogs who somehow bonded with themselves somehow.

oh also giving Shepherd a major character role because yes. She’s bonded with Oatchi (all the dogs can bond 2 times, 1 time with themselves and another time with a human)

Leafling Olimar casts aside his emotions somehow and makes Pikmar/Olimin which Pom bonds with later down the road. (Pikmar is literally every type of Pikmin but he can only become a specific type when he has enough nectar 3x the amount of a regular in-game Pikmin meaning he can’t change types often)

Leafimar bonds with Moss and the Leaf Sage (Shacho in this AU) bonds with the Ancient Sirehound.

Pikmin have little seedling pots when they’re out of an onion so they can get the nutrients without having to rely on an onion.

The Pikmin 3 trio are in the Pikmin 1 and 2 plots only really mentioned as streamers who video the shenanigans of the Pikmin Heroes with a drone that looks like the Survey Drone pack item.

Pikmin dogs are just act like regular Pikmin now, no double bonding. Also bonding as a whole is scrapped.

Captains are reincarnated onto earth, find pikmin and become magical boys/girls. Goolix, Water Wraith and Plasm Wraith are villains.

Only one of each Pikmin exist.

Pikmin enemies are fears made into real life brought out by Goolix/water/plasm’s reality distorting powers. They can also transform into a goo-like state and forged documents to become false human orphans. Final battle in a goo-mech.

Louie gets hypnotized by puffstool to make titan dweevil. Olimar also gets hypnotized and becomes Olimin from Pikmin 1 bad end.

Character D exists, is from the past and is named Drake after the SS Drake.

Pikmin chill out in the botany classroom with teacher Shacho when not used.

Lumiknolls cure Leaflings. Olimar turns into one when giving Pom the red Pikmin + Olimin.

Memories of the isekai return in the battle before the leafling virus.

Rescue corps actually rescue people in this au, guiding defeated leaflings to purifying lumiknolls.

The world knows about the Pikmin heroes in the fic ending. Also 2 poly couples post-fic. (Olimar, Louie and Olimar’s wife + Pikmin 3 squad)

Pikmin 3 squad run a YouTube channel. Alph = bug fighting, monster of the week vs Pikmin captains and theories, would do clickbait titles and half of the videos would be side tangents never relating to the topics, also shares super blurry Pikmin screenshots on the community tab that become few and far in-between when he officially becomes a Captain. Brittany = makeup and memes, the pr manager and number go up girlie. Charlie = DIY and sports, makes sure to like and reply to every comment.

Charlie is the oldest and on the cusp of leaving his education, but also helps out with club activities. Crafts hats and clothes for Pikmin. Lives alone in a mansion with a pet duck. Formerly misjudged to be a delinquent by the school populace and got dragged into botany by Brittany. Embroiders captains names inside pikminwear.

Yellow Pikmin would ride around on Charlie’s pet like a warhorse, wielding a safety pin like a sword.

Charlie’s excuse for similar secret Pikmin keychains would be handmade clay figurines.

Alph is in 2 clubs, Botany and Mechanics along with the other squad members.

Pikmin disguise themselves as keychains while the heroes are at school, held by the leaf/flower.

Hocotate and Koppai high school rivalry via dandori battles, country bumpkins vs high-tech iPad kids.

Bomb rocks and Pikmin 4 throwable items are buff candies for Pikmin, same goes with spicy and bitter spray. Spicy and bitter are in special compartments in their suits when transformed, only for emergencies.

Gang can swap Pikmin.

Olimar = Red + Purple + himself (temp)

Louie = Blue + White

Alph = Yellow (temp), Rock

Brittany = Winged

Charlie = Yellow

Character D = Glow + Ice

Pom = Red

SS Shepherd Crew = Oatchi

I love this 'Ralsei being a tree/root system under the hometown' theory. It does make sense a lot to me especially how he "teleported' between Dark Worlds and such.

And... Bonus (?)

i’d like to preface this by saying that i understand susie is very butch and i love that! it’s not something i think should be changed about her. but! in the tea party scene susie says that she always HAD to be tough in life, and is now getting the option to relax a little bit. this reminds me a lot of how i grew up believing that feminine equaled bad. it was a subconscious belief unintentionally drilled into my head because no women in my life wore or did anything traditionally feminine. that is completely fine and i don’t blame them for that, but it made me terrified of doing anything feminine for fear of being judged by them. however, when i started surrounding myself with people who had all different kinds of styles and accepted me for me, i felt so much more comfortable being more traditionally feminine. even if some of it is things i didn’t end up liking, i had the option to try in a space i felt safe.

bonus Susie cause I love her pose.

here's my slim, sliver of hope that revive will let me live out my dreams of romancing the boys i like

With TADC AUs that followed the characters actually escaping (before the brainscan thing was revealed) i noticed many people always wrote it as if they'd just go back to their lives with no consequences, to their physical or mental health.

It always sort of bothered me, so I wanted to make an au exploring the idea of them actually getting out and how that would play out and effect them afterwards.

Coming to terms with the deaths of other people they knew in the circus, adjusting to a world that no longer feels familiar to them anymore, figuring out how to be human again after being stripped of their humanity for so long. Being stuck in a digital world for years only to wake up in a world that has completely changed, in bodies that no longer feel like their own, with names they hardly remember.

In the au, after putting the headset on their physical bodies are stuck in a coma like state. (I plan do go more into the lore of how they all ended up there and how the headsets work soon.) And the time that passes in the digital circus is pretty much the same as the real worlds time, so they've been in these coma like states for years. Their memories have been severely effected too, so they hardly remember much from their real lives (mostly things like names faces, etc)

When they finally escape they all face long recoveries, both mentally and physically. So to put it simply the AU will focus on the hardships of recovery, grief and change. Just learning to be human again really.