Taichi

Taichi was the firstborn son of a happy Strudel couple who lived in the little pond dollhouse in the Wasabi Dragon Restaurant. The sweet baby Strudel wasn't in a rush to pick his filling, so neither were his parents. A few months later, his little brother was born and they were now a family of four. However, their family wasn't whole 100% of the time. Their father, a traveler and scavenger by nature, was tired of being settled down and would come and go as he pleased, often leaving his family alone for up to a month at a time. This worried Taichi's mother, who hardly knew if her husband was safe most of the time. Each time their father would come back, their mother would be more and more angry and distant with him until they hardly spoke at all. 

One day, while their dad was on one of his extended "2-day excursions," their mother had had enough of waiting around for their father to be around for their sons' biggest milestones. Unlike their father, their mother wanted her sons to take after her family tradition, gaining a "real" sushi filling, with meat like hers instead of an egg like their father's. She was already shamed by her own family for marrying a "faux sushi" Strudel, so she might as well try to carry on the tradition so that her sons could be better than their own father. Taichi's brother gladly took his presented filling, but Taichi himself was hesitant. Nothing about the unagi nigiri on the conveyor that his mother led him to was appealing at all. After trying to coax him for what seemed like ages, his mother gave up.

The next week, when Taichi's father came home and saw that his brother had taken a filling, his mother argued with his father to take his son back out into the restaurant to find meat sushi to accept. His father agreed, but after talking to Taichi outside of the house, he had other plans. While his mother wasn't looking, they got into his father's caravan and rode out of the restaurant as quickly as possible. For Taichi's sweet personality and love of aquatic life, his father knew just where to take him: Tall Tales Taiyaki, which was just down the street closer to the bay. Immediately upon entering, Taichi was met with the most wonderful collection of scents he had ever smelled in his life. His father, proud of himself (and about to get verbally assaulted by his estranged wife), sat back as Taichi ran around to find his perfect filling match. Soon, he found it: a just-prepared strawberry banana taiyaki ice cream cone. As it sat, waiting to be picked up by its orderer, Taichi gobbled up as much of the delicious dessert as possible. After Taichi made his transformation, his father paraded him back home and presented him to his horrified mother, who then kicked her husband out for good (his own house too damn lmao).

Taichi's mother was upset, but she couldn't necessarily be mad at her young son. She was just disappointed in her estranged husband, but Taichi ended up absorbing much of the rejection from his mother's rantings, which were never intended for him. For years he was ashamed of himself and even credited himself for his mother's family never coming around. He only saw his father a few times a year and overall felt alone. Because of what happened the first time he left the restaurant, he never sought to leave and was hesitant to go on trips out with his father when it was offered to him. Desserts were few and far between at the restaurant as he was growing up, so he was forced to eat whatever his mother made or scavenge around the dining areas for whatever looked good to him. It was one day as a teen, however, that his life changed forever when he met a certain someone.

He was sitting on the front porch of his family's pond house when he suddenly caught a glimpse of two other Midveilers making their way into the restaurant, looking around in awe. One of them, who was particularly pink, caught his eye. Slowly, he crept through the restaurant closer to her, trying not to get caught. However, this didn't last long, and as she ran around the leg of a table to get away from stampeding children, she bumped into him and they fell to the floor together. In the next few years with her, his self-esteem completely changed and he fully bloomed into the Strudel he wanted to be.

Shortly after they were married they had their daughter, Odori. They both loved her dearly. Although he had mostly let go of his shame for picking a non-sushi filling, Taichi wanted to make his mother proud of both him and his daughter, so she was rushed into picking her filling: Ebi Nigiri. Odori went through a long "rebellious" phase, as she felt that her parents, especially her dad, were trying to control her too much. But, after a very life-changing birthday in which her parents bought her her guitar, she realized that her parents weren't as overbearing as she had thought all along. Now, although Odori might not appreciate her parents doting over her 24/7, they are a much happier family.