#xiaolinfall

the whole point of a scarecrow by as_pure_as_a_melody

I’m sad I didn’t get as much of a chance to take part in my own event as I would have liked, but we had so many great submissions and participants! Thank you to everyone who produced something for this event, whether it was one thing or many!

In total we had 26 submissions from 8 individuals ranging from art, fics, and fanedits!

The first five prompts were definitely the most popular with Cats, Scrolls, and Cozy getting the most fills over all!

@rkin413 managed to fill in one whole sections which means you get to request a mini-prompt from me. I’ll DM you with details!

Once more: thank you everyone who participated and that includes all the people that liked, commented, and reblogged! If I missed any fills please let me know!

The prompts will be left up and available so, even though the event is over, anyone should feel free to continue to fill any that catches their interest. I’ll be happy to keep filling in the event post!

Cats • Cozy • Scrolls || @gravity-what

emergency provisions by as_pure_as_a_melody

Second of my panic-uploads, this is more finished and better quality I think. (Jack is there bc he showed up for the wu but couldn't get in on the showdown) @gravity-what

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"GONG YI TANPI!"

The trees grew tall over the four kids in the middle of the forest, leaving Dojo and Jack perched on a branch high above to observe the showdown.

"Seriously?" Jack groaned. "I don't have a steak in this! Why am I even here?"

Below them, the Culver Crystal rose into the air and disappeared in a ball of light, before the ball shattered, raining pieces down into many of the hundred of piles of leaves dotting the area. Red Xiaolin robes appeared on Kimiko and Clay as Raimundo and Omi stared them down for a second, before turning and running in the opposite direction.

"Wh- hey!" Kimiko yelled. "Third-Arm Sash!" The arm of the sash shot out, aimed at Raimundo as Omi quickly jumped up into the trees and out of sight. Raimundo skidded to a halt and whirled around, pulling out and using the Shroud of Shadows. Whatever else he did went unseen as Kimiko missed and snapped her fingers in disappointment.

.........................................................................

In the trees, Omi pulled out the Falcon's eye and began scanning the various leaves for pieces of the Culver Crystal. Spotting one, he was about to dive for it, only to see Clay heading towards it instead. With a yell he dove down towards the cowboy, only to go straight through him instead. Freezing for a second in confusion, he was promptly roped by the real cowboy, Shadow Slicer now on his sash, and pulled away from the pile, with Clay quickly claiming the first piece. Omi wiggled enough to loosen the rope and quickly hoped out as it piled at his feet and grabbing it for himself.

"A most sneaky move, Dragon of Earth!" He pointed dramatically at his foe. "But you will not defeat me even with such tricks, for I am much trickier!"

With that, he jumped back up into the branches. Clay looked up, trying to pick out his small opponent unsuccessfully. "If you say so, lil fella."

.........................................................................

A ways away, Kimiko stumbled forward, tripped by her unseen foe, and an equally unseen kick sent her forward into the pile of leaves she'd been headed towards. The leaves began to smolder as she took a breath. That was the third time Raimundo had knocked her into the leaves, and got the distinct feeling he was using her to find the pieces for him. Well, screw that.

"Third-Arm Sash, FIRE!" Her Wu burst into flames and she swept it around herself. She didn't manage to hit him, but the flames wavered differently in one area where he'd likely jumped over it and she threw herself towards where he might have landed. She didn't manage to nail him directly, but she felt fabric and managed to just barely tear the Shroud off him – though not away from him, having only managed to grab the hem while Raimundo still had a much better grip on more of it.

"Hey!"

They tug-o-war'd the wu for a quick second before Kimiko lost her grip on the Shroud completely, but instead of using it again, Raimundo dove toward her, seemingly similarly to how she'd done before, but he landed on his hands in front of her and shifted, flinging his entire body around in large, circular kick that nicked her ankle hard when she'd tried to jump back away. She hissed in pain as he jumped back on to his feet and smirked at her before he disappeared again. Show off.

"Hey Kimiko," Clay said, as he skidded over to her, a couple of pieces in his hands. "You know fightin' ain't the objective, right?"

"I kno- Clay!" Kimiko cut herself off as a two of the pieces disappeared into thin air out of his hands.

"Whoa-" Clay grabbed at where the pieces vanished to and got nothing but air and laughter in return. Kimiko grit her teeth. Trying to listen for his movements did nothing, his footsteps were too light somehow.

"Okay, this is annoying. Come out already!"''

"No." The voice was directly behind her and she lashed out with a kick. To her surprise, she actually felt her foot collide with, probably, Raimundo's torso, and the boy let out a pained noise of some kind. He didn't reappear, but one of the stolen pieces did and she quickly scooped it up.

"How many more of these are there?" Kimiko asked. Clay scratched his head.

"I didn't see for sure how many there were, maybe twelve?"

"And we've got... three. How many did Omi get?"

"He managed to snag two out from under my nose while you and Raimundo were scrapin like cats n' dogs."

Of course, the Falcon's Eye would make this easy, that's why the stupid boys picked this challenge.

.........................................................................

In the trees, below their spectators but above their opponents, the boys were having a meeting of their own.

"Stop fighting with Kimiko," Omi demanded. "You are slowing down our progress!"

"We're dead even," Raimundo said, deadpan. "But how about we swap Wu, and you can distract them?"

"I will do more than that," Omi announced, holding out the Falcon's Eye as Raimundo handed over the Shroud of Shadows. "I have a plan of my own." He covered everything but his head with the activated Shroud, before pausing to warn his teammate. "Clay has been using the Shadow Slicer to lure me out of hiding, be careful. You are much more easily tricked than I am!"

Raimundo rolled his eyes at the bald-faced lie as Omi's head became invisible as well. The faint movement of the branch he'd been on told Raimundo that he'd jumped down, and he began using the Falcon's Eye to quickly scan through the many, many, many piles of leaves for the remaining pieces. It didn't take long to find one and, after a quick glance to make sure his opponents weren't looking his way, he jumped down, making sure to keep the pile between them as he reached for the next piece.

.........................................................................

Clay and Kimiko seperated again, and this time Kimiko was able to actually dig through the leaf piles without having to dodge invisible attacks. Sadly, the peace in general wasn't great for her peace of mind. Where the heck had Raimundo gone?

She got her answer when the Third-Arm Sash picked out a piece of the crystal from a pile, the sound of quick, light footsteps the only warning she had before the piece was snatched away. She gaped for a second the turned to follow the momentum – the sash had jerked to the right when the piece was snatched, so that had to be where he'd landed. She sweapt the Third-Arm Sash in that direction, hoping to catch him, trying to keep an ear out for any sort of counterattack. She wasn't expecting for her leg to suddenly be grabbed and bitten.

"AGH! OMI!"

She grabbed at the invisible boy – and it could only be Omi, he was the one who bites – and managed to finally force him off of her after some wrestling on the ground. She flipped onto her feet with a growl, and her eyes widened when she saw the sash in his arms.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked, double-taking at her empty waist. Omi gave a feral grin in response, and dove for the shroud he'd dropped. Unfortunately for him, he'd dropped it closer to Kimiko, and she got to it first. "Have a taste of your own medicine, jerks! Shroud of Shadows!"

.........................................................................

"Kimiko!" Clay yelled in alarm at her scream of pain.

" 'Stop fighting with Kimiko, Raimundo'," Raimundo repeated, popping up from behind the pile he'd been hiding behind. "Little hypocrite."

Clay, who'd startled a bit when Raimundo suddenly appeared so close to him, whirled around to face his new opponent. Raimundo took a step back, eying the lasso as Clay pulled it out and began to spin it.

"Oh, come on! You didn't do that with Omi!"

"Lil' feller ain't as much of a slippery snake as you are."

"More like you felt bad going after a guy a fifth your size."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, snake." Clay swung the lasso forward, and Raimundo tried to jump through it. Unfortunately for him, he didn't quite clear it, one of his feet getting caught by the rapidly shrinking loop, and Clay quickly pulled him forward and delivered a hard kick to his stomach. The force sent him into the leaf pile that the two had been separated by earlier, and Raimundo coughed and groaned as leaves scattered everywhere.

"Seriously. What'd I do?" Raimundo asked, picking a leaf off himself and flicking it away. "If you're ticked the spoiled little rich girl got bit, that's not on me! I don't freaking bite people! I don't know where he picked that up from!"

Raimundo flipped onto his feet as Clay approached, wincing slightly in pain. The cowboy had a mean kick. And a mean punch. Really, all of his hits were kinda mean. He would kinda like to avoid them all, if he could. Luckily, the cowboy was also slow, so if he could avoid getting lassoed (again) he'd be fine. But, the problem was that fighting with Clay while Omi was fighting with Kimiko meant that the showdown wasn't getting any closer to being over. When he was fighting with Kimiko there'd been a purpose to it – trick her into setting the piles on fire, then snatch away the spoils while invisible. The fact that it'd distract the little firebug was a bonus. The fact that it would annoying the little firebug was a bigger bonus. Either way, he couldn't do anything like that with Clay. Then again, Clay was usually more reasonable than a ticked-off Kimiko, so pointing that out could work, couldn't it?

"Hey, look." He slid a foot behind himself, just in case he needed to bolt. "You think the pipsqueaks are going to actually keep looking for the pieces of the Culver Crystal? If we start fighting too, this showdown'll last forever. I've got places to be! And I'm guessing you don't wanna be here all day, too, right? So how about we just split up and ignore each other?"

"Or I could hog-tie you right now and then go lookin' for the pieces in peace."

Heck it. It isn't finished (i might need to rewrite a not insignificant amount of it before I continue it, too) but I'm not going to be available for several days in ten minutes and I want it in on time. I can rewrite later. @gravity-what

In which Chase has a Time of it.

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"Well well! Chase Young! It has been a while, hasn't it."

Chase closed his eyes.. A headache was not forming, yet, but it was only a matter of time, he was sure. Turning he surveyed the man who'd called out to him – one Salvador Cumo, fellow practitioner of heylin magic, sometimes ally, usual irritation, and consistent sleezeball.

"Salvador Cumo. Dare I ask what you're doing here?"

Salvador cocked his head, acting as though he was confused.

"This is an attraction at an amusement park. I'm having fun, obviously. I really should be the one asking you that question, shouldn't I?" Salvador grinned, walking past him. "A haunted house isn't exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find the Prince of Darkness, after all!" He put a hand to his chin, pretending to think. "Or maybe it is, actually. If I only knew you by title, at least."

"I'm hardly here for the... attraction." This place felt slimy, moldy, and that had nothing to do with the sanitation of the place or lackthereof. It was deeply saturated with the same demonic presence he'd sensed in his lair, watching him. It had been incredibly hostile but weak, so naturally Chase had to treat it as a budding enemy and cut it down before it became a threat. Now that he was at the origin of the aura, it was almost suffocating in it's intensity. "If you can't sense what I do, then you are a more incompetent than I thought."

"Oof, so rude all the time!" Salvador waved off the insult with a smile, which turned into his signature smarmy smirk. "And here I had some interesting-"

Whatever nonsense Salvador was about to spout off was cut short by the lights going out, and, with a creak, the floor going out beneath both of them. Chase landed on naked earth with practiced precision – such a small fall was nothing for him – and Salvador landed flat on his back, any sort of injuries he'd taken healing with the faint sounds of cracking and popping within moments.

"Ow," complained the man anyway as he got into a sitting position. Chase turned away from him to survey the area, which was a rather difficult task when there was nothing but pure darkness all around you.

Holding out his hand, Chase created a ball of blue and black fire-like energy to illuminate the area. Behind him there was a click and white light. Chase turned to look at Salvador, who was now on his feet and had pulled out a flashlight. He debated asking why he was bothering with a more mundane method than simple magic, or if he should ask where he'd been keeping the flashlight in the first place, before deciding he didn't care about the first and didn't want to know the second.

"Hm, something tells me this isn't part of the attraction," Salvador stated the blindingly obvious, looking up towards where they'd fallen. There was no sign of a hole, or even a ceiling, just a gaping black void that swallowed up any light that dared to try and pierce it.

There was a creak of metal as a fan somewhere turned on, slowly gaining speed until the noise became a hum, and fog slowly began to fill the room from somewhere in front of Chase, and the temperature in the already cool area began to drop as well. A skittering noise told both men they weren't alone as something made use of their limited visibility to dart somewhere in the room, some sort of naked gray tail the only glimpse they got of it as it as it disappeared into the fog.

"It seems this place has a rodent problem," Chase said with a smirk. Though he had barely seen the creature there was no doubt in his mind – this was the being that had been spying on him.

"I don't suppose you brought one of your cats, then?" Salvador asked. "They're usually nearby."

"Not necessary. I can deal with a rat myself."

"If you insist!" Salvador said cheerfully, bowing and gesturing widely with one arm towards the fog. "Age before beauty."

Chase hardly needed the other man's permission, but began forward towards where the tail had disappeared anyway. The solid darkness of the area they were trapped in gave way to wooden-looking walls, although at a touch they felt too cold and rough to truly be wood. The area was decorated like some suburban home, with childishly drawn pictures of a house and family of four hung up on broken frames, the appearance of a carpet on the ground (it was still just dirt), and random mishmashes of wooden furniture in various conditions from brand new looking to one stiff breeze away from falling over into a pile of rubble. The whole place was gaudy. And Chase was entirely certain he'd passed the same end table with the vase of dead flowers three times. He stopped.

"We're going in circles."

"Huh, you're right. And here I thought our host just had an especially repetitive sense of decorating."

Chase let out a small growl of irritation. Did this man ever take anything seriously?

The entire time, he could feel them being watched. But the entire space was distorted, making it hard to tell where they were being watched from. He just needed to-

Salvador startled him as he began to concentrate by turning on his heel and slammed his elbow into one of the hanging pictures. He grabbed a shard of the glass cover as it fell, but before Chase could ask what on earth he'd done that for, a hissing filled the air from all directions. Chase immediately got into a fighting position, while Salvador wrapped the pieces of broken glass in a cloth – again, from who knows where - to create a makeshift handle for his makeshift knife.

Something hit Salvador from the side, and he whirled to catch it with the broken glass knife he'd created. It was impossible to tell if he'd scored a hit or not, with the hissing sound as loud as it was. Disturbingly, while Salvador did regenerate, it was clearly at a slower pace than usual. Evidently, the demon they were facing had some sort of answer for that, although not a complete one. Chase couldn't help but wonder if the demon had something up it's metaphorical sleeve for himself as well. It was best to be prepared, if he couldn't finish this thing off quickly. With how elusive it was being, it likely intended to pick them off slowly from the supposed safety of the fog. Unfortunately for it, Chase wasn't planning on letting that happen.

Sensing his opponent, he struck and caught it as it came flying at him. Or so he thought. The flying object he'd actually grabbed was a filthy but seemingly normal rat carcass, which he quickly dropped in disgust. Some of the hissing turned into laughter, which Chase decidedly ignored. Foul thing.

Salvador started to say something again, when a massive shape barrelled out of the fog and slammed straight into his chest, and the two of them disappeared. Evidently, this thing had changed it's plan. With reluctance, Chase followed and slashed a palm through where the creature seemed to be, before realizing his hand was now buried deep into a mass of filthy, writhing fur.

The sensation didn't hurt. He might have preferred it if it had.

The demon resembled a giant rat, or at least it's silhouette had, and it did indeed have just the one tail he had seen earlier – and that was about the only thing it had one of. Comprising the rest of it's body was hundreds of other, smaller bodies, fur matted and tangled with mud at at the very least, eyes a rainbow of unpleasant, crust-covered colors. They were all squeaking and squirming and hissing, crawling over each other even as dozens of eyes from dozens of heads locked onto Chase, unmoving. The other eyes were locked on Salvador, and they had started biting into him, making the more visibly aged man shriek presumably more from the disgusting sight than the pain.

Repressing a shudder, he tried to extract his hand and failed as a million tiny claws and teeth dug into him with unnatural strength. If anything, they seemed to be trying to pull him closer as they tried to tear through his flesh, which had turned scaly. Alarmingly, the scales were crawling up his arm and he had not chosen to shift his form. He'd reverted involuntarily before, but only after some time without his soup – which he'd had earlier today, right before leaving to investigate. A quick glance at Salvador showed the other man having much the same problem, despite his amulet clearly being in place. That was not good. It was true that their scales provided some protection, but he could feel the tiny teeth and claws wearing those defenses away far more quickly than they should have.

This thing, mindlessly monstrous as it seemed, had clearly not come across the two by accident. Had it lured Chase here, letting it's presence be known to him intentionally, but making itself seem weak and currently harmless? He was unnervingly unsure, but he was sure of one thing: they were it's prey and it had prepared for them.

Chase had no intention of being a rodent's dinner.

Growling at the sheer audacity of this thing, Chase tried to gather magical energy in his trapped hand to creature a ball of fire and force the creature to let go, only to feel the magic sucked away into the annoying parasite instead. Below, Salvador, now fully transformed, stabbed his knife into one of the heads of the creature. The singular rat went still, for all the good it did, as several others tore it to pieces and whatever damage it might have done was rendered unnoticed. The man actually looked angry at that, which was a rarity.

"Come on...!" the man muttered irritably. He'd at least yanked the glass out before it had been lost as well, although Chase didn't think it would be of any help. "I don't suppose you – OUCH! - have any ideas old friend?" Salvador struggled, trying to push the mass off him, only to get his own hands bitten for the trouble.

"Perhaps you can talk your way out," Chase said, gritting his teeth as some of the teeth found their way under some of his scales. They were rapidly running out of time. "You've always been good at that."

"Thank you but- OW! - I don't think we speak the same – ARGH! - language," Salvador sounded like he was struggling to get the words out, not that it stopped him at all. "It makes things far too – OW STOP – difficult for that, I'm afraid." With that, he went back to stabbing the thing, which clearly wasn't doing anything but at least gave off the illusion of it.

Chase looked around, but the fog and darkness obscured anything of use. With reluctance, he decided to give them a taste of their own medicine and, fully shifting of his own volition, bit into the nasty writhing mass. The taste was indescribably foul, but he managed to rip off several of the things from his arm, which all promptly withered into some kind of dust as soon as they were severed from the body. He'd being rinsing that out for weeks, probably. Ergh.

Salvador had followed his lead, although he had no real hope of freeing himself and the face he was making made it clear he didn't find it any more pleasant.

"There must be a reason it's here, specifically, yes?" Salvador piped up, still sounding strained, and he had a point. Chase hadn't encountered this thing in his lair, only felt it's presence as it surveyed him remotely. "Is it – ARRRGH! - stuck here?"

That seemed likely. Maybe it had to eat them to escape for some nonsensical reason. Still, if it was trapped here, it stood to reason that there was probably something keeping it trapped, and if that was the case, perhaps he could use that to trap it further. Away from himself. Forever. Much like a certain other demon he'd taken care of...

Thinking back to the bizarre decor, perhaps there had been a reason for it. He growled in irritation. If only he wasn't currently stuck in place. He slammed his tail on the ground in irritation, feeling around for something he could use as a makeshift weapon of his own as he used his free arm to pull on his trapped one. Finally, he felt the frame that Salvador had broken earlier, and with more clumsiness than he would willingly admit to, used his tail to grab the wood and slam it down on the rodents trying to eat his hand.

It didn't fully free him by itself, but did loosen the grip enough for him to pull his bite-covered arm free. The eyes that were already looking at him stayed locked on him, but the demon, now down to one immediate target, started to chew on Salvador even faster.

"A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!"

With no reason any longer to worry about his magic or chi being sucked away and knowing now to keep a healthy distance, Chase slammed his palms together, willed some of his energy into his clasped hands, and sent a shockwave towards the demon. Like before, it didn't remove the beast entirely, but it did force it's grip off of the other lizard enough for him to free himself and scurry away. He didn't look to be in great condition; his chest was covered in bleeding bite-marks and his hand was barely any better.

The creature scurried back into the dark fog.

"Alright," Salvador said after a second. If Chase hadn't known him as long as he had, he would probably have missed the tremor in his voice. "That was a very unpleasant couple of minutes. Let's avoid that in the future."

"Quiet," Chase snapped, more heat than he'd intended. He was more rattled than he liked, unused to taking on a foe so blindly. He would not let his guard down again, and he kept a sharp ear out as he gazed into the surrounding area as he went over what he'd seen before this annoying fog had obscured everything.

Salvador kept watch in the opposite direction, tongue flicking out as he searched for something. If not the demon itself, then hopefully the fan spreading all the fog. It could help to be rid of the damnable thing, although he wasn't confident in Salvador's ability to sniff out a machine.

The hissing on all sides grew louder again and Chase suppressed a wince at the volume. This entire night had been far too irritating already, he would not give this thing the satisfaction.

Doing his best to ignore the sound, which seemed to be at least in part to cover the footfalls of the creature, Chase returned to observing his surroundings with a more analytical eye, trying to puzzle out what could be of use. Broken furniture, broken pictures, fake walls and floors... What was this place? Or maybe the better question would be, what was this place meant to resemble? The house being parodied here, what was it to the demon? A memory? Was this thing human in origin?

Sensing something behind him, he quickly smacked the thing away with the wood still held in his tail. Thankfully, it was the creature in question at not Salvador, and it quickly backed off... or it tried to. There was a smashing sound and the fog dissipated to the sound of a triumphant 'HAH'. Salvador, it seemed, had managed to surprise both Chase and the demon after all.

The last picture I'll (probably) manage to get in for @gravity-what's XiaolinFall T.T I want it known I did do something for every single prompt set. (next one up WOULD have been Dojo in an apple costume. bc apple's are crisp and also costume. he is not happy about it + lashing his tail like a cat.)

The last pic for the Cozy set of prompts from @gravity-what's XiaolinFall, we've got Jack for Stars-Cloak-Tides and I actually would have gotten all three of them in here... IF I had not straight up forgotten to draw a cloak on Jack. I got too busy/distracted drawing a billion stars in the water (i drew too many! i had to erase a bunch because it was too crowded!).

I don't think any of the cozy-prompt pictures were especially cozy, actually, save maybe Kimiko eating her horrendous mooncake. Whoops.