You'll be trapped here 'till we're done. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.
Why the frown, my little pawn? The world you used to know is gone.
Why not stay and play along? You'll make my army, oh, so strong!"
The Digital Chess AU! (also known as [TADC] Digital Chess AU!) is an upcoming The Amazing Digital Circus webcomic series created by Shavs Media Productions.
It's an Alternate Universe based around chess, with the trapped humans are divided into two teams: the white side, formed by the humans who want to escape and lead by Caine (and chosen by Queenie), and the black side, formed by those subservient to Kinger. If you win, you can leave the game for good. If you lose, you die. If you get abstracted, you're fed to the Princess.
The AU was originally a Fanfic created in Tumblr, but after the introduction of "KINGDOM COME
", more content started to appear on Shavs' YouTube channel, planned as a comic series.
More information about the series can be viewed on its Tumblr page here, as well as its Discord community server and Shavs Media Productions' channel.
Little tropers, welcome back to my checkered tropes of black and white! Oh, and try not to let them ruin your life:
- All There in the Manual: Most of the info. for the AU is given by answered user questions by the creator in the official Tumblr blog and the Discord server.
- Cool Horse: Pomni has one as her role of the Knight, complete with zeroes and ones flowing on its mane and tail.
- Darker and Edgier: While The Amazing Digital Circus isn't exactly a pleasant experience, it and Caine at the very least aren't being intentionally harmful. In this AU, Kinger is a malicious force with blood on his hands, and the digital space is a game of life or death.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Kinger may be evil and tyrannical, but he genuinely loves his queen and his monstrous daughter.
- Fun with Acronyms: Much like Caine ("Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity") in canon, Kinger's name (aka, K.I.N.G.E.R) here is an acronym for: "KINETIC INTELLIGENT NANOTECHNOLOGY GALVANOMETER EXERCISED IN REACTIONS".
- Greater-Scope Villain: Much like C&A in canon, it's heavily implied that there's an evil organization that created both Kinger and the game he's in, since it's confirmed that the rules of the game aren't his.
- Named by the Adaptation: Caine (who was just a mononym in canon before he chose it to be an acronym for "Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity") is given a last name here in the form of "Lorman", since he's a human here.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Pomni indirectly led Kaufmo to his death thanks to playing his move wrong and sending him directly to Kinger, which also made Caine break since he was a close friend of his.