#MK is in here too but for like a brief second

[diaryofaprettyprincess]

(rafe stuff comin soon but heres a eeny beeny teeny thought!!)

stepdad!leon kennedy x obsessed!naive!reader...

shes so obsessed with him...obsessed with everything that has anything to do with him. following him around the house like a lost pup.

one day u get really jealous after overhearing a phone call he had with your mom (she's always out somewhere---either with her friends or... God knows where--so it is truly just you and leon alone). obviously you know that leon has to keep up the image of being a loving doting husband, but when you hear him say the simple words, "i miss you too--alright love you too, bye." to end the brief phone call between the two of them, your face blushes and heats up with possessiveness.

just completely taking leon by surprise--usually he is the one in control,but right now you cant take it anymore!! he was yours, not hers!!!

just bouncing on his cock and grinding ur engorged button on the trimmed hair of his pelvis as you cry. his big arms encaging your smaller body and you just feel so so good!!! except u remember the conversation between leon n ur mom and u start getting angry.

"u--u love me?" u simper out, bottom lip pulled out in a pout as tears sprout from ur eyes n fall down ur face. ur desperate.

leon adjusts his body so his head is against the pillows as you ride, his large and strong hands controlling your bouncing movements. he doesn't respond, not exactly hearing you as you clench your sopping cunt around his veiny cock, small grunts falling from his lips.

you lower a bit, your chest pressed against his as you catch his eyes with yours. "answer!" you whine, sniffling.

"wh-?" he begins, and you cut him off. his eyebrows are pulled together in both confusion and concentration.

"you l-love me, r-right daddy?" his cock is pummeling inside of your pussy as he pounds his hips up into yours.

"o-'f course I do, baby.." his voice is so soft as he takes the back of his hand, wiping away your tears and pushing your face to mesh with his, sloppy kisses sounding between the two of you.

"ur only m-mine!" you cry out again, wrapping your smaller hand around his throat. "s-say it."

"i--" he chokes out, slightly surprised by your burst of dominance that you seem to be having. however, he can see right through it. just a frightened little girl afraid of being abandoned. but he would never. you mean everything and more to him. he can feel your hand tighten around his throat, nothing too bad --and he can still breathe. its just the hint of shock that chokes him up for a second.

he can tell you are worked up. must have been worked up for some time now. poor baby, he thinks. you sometimes got this way--too many emotions that flood in ur head all at once. it was overwhelming for you, and he understood that. his hands run along your torso for a second, then slow your jackrabbit-like hips down from its quick bouncing.

"shhh," he shushes you gently and he can feel your hand loosen. your eyes are big and glossy and begging. he takes your hand from his throat and kisses your palm gently, adjusting himself again so as to sit up and be skin to skin with you. he sees how upset you are. he throws your arms around his shoulders so you can be in his lap. close to him. "i'm yours baby--yours and only yours, yeah?"

your eyes are big and pleading as he leans forward, the thrusts have momentarily halted so that he can place you properly in his lap; but he's still inside of you. he kisses your lips gently--so tenderly that it tickles. "you're everything to me, mk? i love you so much.."

you whine, feeling his hands run across your back and the sides of your torso. your still breathing heavily through your nose---but he can see your calming down. he kisses across your neck to your cheek. "gimme some deep breaths, okay?"

you nod, and he breaths deep along with you for a few seconds.

"what's got you so worked up, honey? hm?" his voice is so soft and sweet. so saccharine. it makes you melt even more in his hold.

"don' like you talkin to her.." you whimper out, and he automatically knows. you and your mom never had the best relationship. she was always very mean to you, and you especially didn't like her cuz you have seen her cheating on your stepdad. she just wanted him for money or a warm body to sleep next to. she was very verbally abusive. that is why you loved when she was gone. which she almost always was. leon knew all of this. he was planning on a divorce for a while now, but wanted to wait until you started back at college. he wanted to be with you.

"oh, sweet girl..." he sighs, kissing your lips. "she means nothing to me, baby. need you to understand that, m'okay?"

you nod, playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck. "mkay, daddy."

leon smiles gently before kissing you slowly, beginning to use calloused hands for a soft touch as he plays with your peaked nipples.

"know why i love kissin' you so slowly baby?" you shake your head no, a little mew leaving your lips. his tongue drags along yours. "cuz it feels like we have all the time in the world together."

you sigh at his words, beginning to start up your grinding and he helps you pick up your speed.

"all yours, princess. daddy's all yours."

#leon kennedy #tw: stepcest #stepdad!leon x reader #stepdad!leonkennedy #leon kennedy x reader #dark!leon kennedy #stepdad!leon kennedy x innocent!reader #obsessed!reader

[quitealotofsodapop]

Ok but Wukong claims MK as Yubei's honorary/sworn older brother. Macaque who was in the room suddenly feels a cold swear as he Realized Wukong Sees MK As His Kid. His Clcub, who Macaque had chased fown and hunted like an animal in an effort to keep LBD's attention off of Wukong himself.

Macaque has that revelation loooong before Yuebei is born.

You see...

When Macaque was still processing that Wukong (his former mate) had been pregnant with the Egg for many many years - he had a brief brain-fart during "Shadow Play" and at during his panic he asks;

Macaque: "Is it my kid!? Wait..." *glares at MK really hard* "Are you my kid???" MK: "Wut." Macaque: "No, no, wait, thats dumb, it's the same baby now as back then. Sorry bud, but I am totally freaking out right now." MK: "Because you spent the last couple hundred years being a deadbeat dad?" Macaque, grabs MK by the shoulders: "YES!!"

The rest of the MKrew escape the Shadow Lantern simply because Mac was panicking so hard he dropped it. Even being super mad at him, they stay until he stops hyperventillating. In Mac's defense, he's not sure how long normal Stone Monkey pregnancies should be.

Even once the realisation kicks in that the "Egg" is a Stone Egg formed from Wukong being encased in the mountain without resources - Macaque has a second "crap Im dad" realisation when he realises that him abandoning/cutting-off Wukong back then is what triggered the process. He still wants to take responsibility for the Egg as it's indirect creator.

And ofc during S3, Macaque notices how protective/paternal Wukong is with MK and starts to realise;

MK might not be Macaque's kid, but Wukong certainly considers MK to be *his* kid.

Macaque has tricked, fought, and psychologically tormented said kid in his goal to either hurt Wukong or extract information.

Macaque is now being forced to capture said kid and/or Wukong for LBD less he suffers a fate worse than death. And while Macaque would hate to do either, he can't stand the thought of handing Wukong over. So MK is his primary target throughout S3, even if Mac tries his best to "soften the blow" if it were when he tries capturing him.

MK is super excited to meet the Egg when it's finally born, and is acting in a manner typical of an older monkey cub wanting to care for their younger sibling. It's too fricking cute and-

Well crap, now Mac doesn't want to turn the kid over. Mostly cus doing so will def hurt Wukong and make his King somehow hate Mac even more than he does now.

Maybe if they do get the Samadhi Fire, him and Wukong might- Macaque, begings violently batting away his talkative shadow clones: "NOPE! Get the heck out of here with that!! I'm just getting the Fire to be free of LBD's influence!"

And once Yuebei is finally born...

Wukong, talking to the baby: "Bao bei [treasure], this is your big brother, MK. Well, honorary big brother, but you get what I mean." MK, holding Yuebei: *is so happy he can't form words + is happy-crying* Macaque: *trying his best not to ask MK "hey, wanna be our son?", cus Mk has his adoptive dads + Mac thinks the kid hates him anyway* "Hah. Crybaby." MK, still crying: "Shut up. You cried when you saw her for the first time." Macaque, trying his best not happy-cry again: "She looks like me! Of course I'd cry - such a curse to place upon a innocent soul!" Wukong: *sighs fondly at the back-and-forth*

Mac's gut reaction is to insult others/himself when he feels emotionally vulnerable, and MK knows how to flip it around.

It very much becomes a "Dad treating his eldest son vs younger daughter" situation, especially if Bai He is thrown into the mix. Mac will 100% spoil his little princesses, but MK...

MK can handle it. He's Wukong's heir. He's ok with Mac only really being soft on him when no one else is around. Secretly Mac's kinda jealous of the dad-attention Pigsy, Wukong, and even Tang get from the kidm even though in his heart he knows it's unlikely MK will ever see Mac as a father figure.

#slow boiled stone egg au #stone egg talk #six eared macaque #liu er mihou #qi xiaotian #shadowpeach #pregnancy tw #shadowpeach being parents

[elirastudio]

Shadow king au

It’s gonna just be the generals telling things to MK giving us little flashbacks

I really started to think thaaat maaaybe I should start like using AO3 so even the people on Twitter can read the stuff that I write here- I just don’t know how it works

This is going to be a long one

Anyway enjoy

(No worries the boy guilt it’s not even slightly erased)

-

MK found himself frozen on door step unable to enter the room.

His vision was gold once more, he really couldn’t get used to it, but in that moment it allowed him to see a limp figure on the bed…. His torso was all covered in bandages as well as other part of his body.

Chest slowly rising and falling back down…

He was breathing. He was alive.

His Dad, liu’er mihou was alive.

Marshal Ma told Xiaotian that his dad had a really close call, that he lost his will to fight for a brief moment, Ma didn’t go in details she just said to him that the six eared macaque was a strong warrior and he wouldn’t have let himself go… not yet.

Yes…macaque owns the boy some explanations.

That’s why he asked to see his son…or maybe he just wanted to talk to him one last time.

When general Beng came to tell the boy that his father wanted to see him, he was so happy!

it meant that his dad was awake and fine!

It meant that he could talk to him, hugging him!

…apologize to him…

But when he found himself to enter the room… a wash of guilt went over him.

If he only had listened to his father … None of this would have happened.

He freed Sun Wukong, he had been tricked by the monkey that he considered a close friend, having spent with him as much time as he did with his father…. Because of this the six eared macaque engaged battle, what a battle, so ferocious that it almost leveled up flower fruit mountain.

How many monkeys died and how many lost members of their families and it was all his fault, the boy couldn’t even look the other monkeys… it was his fault

And it was his fault that his father was now like this… he took the hit that was directed at the prince…

that- again was his fault

He had been too reckless , Ma told him not to go…not to remove the golden seal.

he let his guard down, he felt ashamed, he was trained by the six eared macaque, a great warrior and the monkey king himself… “a warrior never lets his guard down” ,his father words ringing in his ears over and over again.

He was such a failure… as a student, as a friend, as a prince…

…as a son.

“Xiaotian…” it was almost a whisper, a quiet request, but the boy heard it. He felt his heart drop…

of course dummy! If liu’er mihou was awake he must had heard your stupid heartbeat.

His father always kept an ear out for his son heart beat, no matter what he was doing, so he knew that the boy was safe.

“Xiaotian… please…” his dad called a second time, at this point Ma, who had been at the king side all the time, turned to face the boy, a sad smile on her face; marshal Liu was also there but he hadn’t bothered to face the boy.

Xiaotian didn’t find the strength to move tho…

Instead of calling his son a third time, macaque tried to get up, immediately regretting it as he was stopped by a shock of pain and nausea that made him growl painfully.

Once more his dad was in pain and it was his fault.

Xiaotian’s legs didn’t hold him anymore forcing him to hold himself on the side of the door.

He couldn’t do it-

he couldn’t face his father after all he had done, after all he had done to him; he couldn’t see his father die.

He felt lost

he didn’t know what to do without his father…. He couldn’t do anything if not run away as far as his weak legs allowed him to go.

“NO! …please…” macaque was breathing heavily, trying to get up surprisingly took a lot out of him… a bit too much, Ma was really concerned, her king was healing so sooo slow, it wasn’t normal.

She caressed the king face once more before being stopped by him who wanted to get up once more “I need … I need to talk to him…please, it’s not his fault…” he kept Ma hand in place “I will go.” Said liu as he stood up “I will go and bring him to you” “ thank you” was the only thing macaque could whisper as his marshal left the room.

Liu soon found Xiaotian leaning on a wall,hugging himself,crying.

he didn’t blame the kid… anyone would be overwhelmed by the situation, the monkey just sat next to the prince “ I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry “ it was all the boy could say at the moment .

liu just sighed hugging the boy with one arm keeping him close “I never wanted things to go like this- I can’t believe how stupid I was! I trusted him over you guys and I believed him, OVER MY FATHER!” Xiaotian was sobbing so hard gripping his arms so much that he actually was able to break his skin, liu just gently took the prince hands in to his to prevent him from hurting himself more as he hugged the prince even tighter.

The boy just let himself cry in liu harms then he spoke again “he didn’t deserve any of this- it should have been me…”

Liu kept caressing the boy hair “it’s the job of father protect his family as is the job of a king to protect his subjects”

“I don’t want him to die” xiaotian got closer to the monkey looking for comfort, Liu was also worried but he was able to put out a sweet smile and say “he will make it…Ma is - Ma is the best healer on flower fruit mountain and monkey ki- liu’er… had been through worst…” liu squeezes the boy as he says this.

Liu wasn’t sure to believe that himself, it was true, but the only man who actually killed macaque once, is the same that inflicted him that wound now, a wound that was too slowly healing.

Too slowly

The best that Liu could do now was to get back the boy to his father.

“I don’t think you remember but… When you were 2 or 3 a ferocious demon came to reclaim flower fruit mountain, macaque thought he could have handled it all by himself, and he did!” Liu paused looking at the boy who was still crying but also listening to him very carefully “it must have been poisonous or something because your father felt Ill for 3 days straight, you never wanted to leave his side, we had to take you by force to at least make you eat”

————

it happened in that specific occasion that once the king woke up and realized that he had been out for three days, he started panicking, sun wukong was the only thing he could mumble about.

If macaque was out none had gone taking care of sun wukong and the clones he left with him were obviously vanished, even if weakened macaque tried with all his strength to run to the ex-king, scaring the little Xiaotian in his rage, the generals had to find a way to keep him down.

He must still be delirious… is what they thought

Oh but macaque did manage to go to sun wukong, still too weak , he passed out as he hugged the golden monkey.

When they went to retrieve the monkey king, the generals were actually scared of the stare that their ex king gave to them, it was the first time they could actually see their ex king since….

they weren’t sure if sun wukong was actually protecting, as he could, his former mate, but the monkey must have recognized them and the situation cuz he didn’t move when the generals took macaque away.

Liu noticed how the wall ,where the chain of his left wrist were positioned, was cracked; liu couldn’t imagine what type of strength the ex-king had to pull out to only do that.

He wanted to reach for his partner… maybe he wanted to see if he was alright, maybe he wanted to finish the job.

——————

As liu got back to the present he decided to leave this part of the story out and actually continue to comfort the boy.

“Even when he was younger, your father was a real warrior…. Flower fruit mountain didn’t always need this kind of protection or an army, just the feeling of the immense power that wukong had was enough to keep anyone at bay” xiaotian quickly turned to face the marshal, it was the first time someone actually talked about sun wukong-

Without hiding him behind a powerful mighty hero, as his father did, or under speculation or theories as Tang did..

“But the great king wanted something more” Liu smiled “ he left us for the first time… we were sure that he would have eventually come back but… an evil demon king, the demon king of confusion, won over us… oh Xiaotian we weren’t trained to fight yet, but your father ,who always trained with wukong , tried to protect us as much as he could but even he eventually fell prisoner of the demon king , with many others…” Liu gripped his tunic as he continued, the memory must have been really painful to him. “Ma was there too…macaque continued to protect the others ,it took a lot” liu emphasized the last word “ to break him… but eventually sun wukong did come back and rescued all the monkeys. Your father got over it and became the mightiest and strongest warrior of the king, always at his right.”

Liu giggled “ ah don’t get me started of how many times liu er mihou took hits that were directed at the king, even if he knew that wukong could take them ‘a warrior defends his king’ is what he always said to him and us” he paused, Maybe liu would have liked to add something more but he thought that it was macaque choice to tell everything to the kid.

The marshal sighed again “ he always manages to get back on his feet, this time Won’t be different, I promise. He wouldn’t leave you… even if you are a big cub now and you don’t need him anymore”

The boy hugged himself “ I think I will always need him…”

Liu smiled as he got up “ and he needs you now” he led him a hand “c’on…” Xiaotian was still “I’m sorry…” “I know.”

They slowly got back to macaque room, ma was still there at the king side.

How long have they been away? An hour? Two? Did macaque waited for his son for so long?

Beng and ba also arrived, the second one also had bandages on him ; he was the one that came out the more hurt of their fight; the boy felt the guilt in his heart once more but Ba reassured him, smiling softly and tilted his head motioning him to go.

Xiaotian looked at the 3 generals one last time before he entered the room, Ma smiled at him and then left, leaving father and son alone.

There was silence for a whole minute, macaque breathing was the only thing the boy could hear over the sound of his racing heartbeat.

He’s breathing. He’s alive.

It was the only MK could say to calm himself.

Then he grabbed his dad hand, after a few seconds the monkey squeezed it in return.

He was alive.

“Hey…” said the boy “…hey” whispered the monkey.

Macaque made room for his son, who slowly laid down, careful not to hurt his father as he hugged him.

the king started to caress the prince hair “ you used to love it when you were a kid” his voice low and rough, Xiaotian was holding in the tears “I still love it and I’m still a kid” “ you are…” indeed he was.

It was his kid.

Silence filled the room once more

“Dad- I’m sorry-“

“No! it’s true you disobeyed me but… it’s my fault, when I noticed what wukong was doing to you it was already too late, I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen, I shouldn’t have allowed both you and him to suffer like that…” tears falling from the king’s eyes “I wish that between all this powers there would be one to go back in time and fix all this” the boy said trying to light up the mood “ no- no please don’t give Buddha any ideas, I can’t even imagine what damage that silly monkey could have done with that kind of power “ but liu’er laugh quickly turned into a painful coughing.

He could feel the blood in his mouth.

He felt the boy hold him tighter “can you tell me about him… like the real sun wukong, can you tell me about you two…please?”

It was only fair …macaque owned the boy an explanation.

Talking about wukong wasn’t hard as macaque though, he just let himself go in memories both good and bad and told them to his son; they talked a lot, maybe too much…

But macaque felt a lot lighter…

Wukong was free… finally he was free.

Their home, flower fruit mountain, was as glorious as the old days

He could hold and caress his son one last time…

He was so tired but… at peace in a way.

His caress got a lot slower, he was slowly drifting into the darkness

“Dad?” Xiaotian must have noticed his father suddenly going quiet, his breathing going slower as well as his caress “ I’m…I’m really tired Xiaotian…” panic started to build in the boy heart once more “dad…if you go to sleep…will you wake up again?” The black monkey took a few moments to answer “ …I’m sorry, I’m just so… so tired” the boy felt his father body slowly going limp

No no no no

The boy hugged his father so tight that the pain it caused to the monkey actually brought him back to reality “ please dad, please you can’t leave me now! I need you! There are so many things that we still have to do together! You can’t abandon me, not you too please…” the boy was crying, macaque hated to see his son cry .

and he hated the thought of this being the last time that could hold him close.

He didn’t want to let go .

The six eared macaque really is a strong warrior.

As nothing had happened the monkey went back to caressing his son hair, until it was Xiaotian the one that fell asleep…

#liu er mihou #six eared macaque #sun wokung #shadow king #lego monkey kid #qi xiaotian

[total-drama-brainrot]

Marathoned through what I can find of season 2, here's my thoughts so far:

Nichelle is a queen, an icon, literally the first total drama character to show self-improvement and character growth without being an antagonist. Can't wait to see her continue to show up everyone, though I wish we got to see her form actual friendships instead of just girlbossing 24/7.

Mkulia is more canon than literally all of the relationships. They're so fun to watch as antagonists, and I can't wait to see where the cheating arc goes. The fact that they've shared confessions since they formed their alliance? The lesbians are eating good this season. Also Julia in particular is just really well written and voice acted? She sounds like an actual teenager her age. It's 👌 chefs kiss.

Speaking of the cheating arc, the rift between Bowie and Raj because of the team's under-the-table methods is such an on-the-nose way to play it. The "boyfriend kisser" arc of World Tour handled a literal cheating scandal super poorly, but this season is handling its' 'cheating' scandal really well in terms of how it dissolves trust in a relationship. Can't wait for Bowie's guilt to reach it's apex, we never know what he'll do when it does.

Raj really does see the best in Bowie, unfortunately his glasses are a little too rose-tinted to see that Bowie is more than happy to continue enabling Julia and MK, so long as they keep winning. I'm not sure if this will lead to a breakup or a heart-to-heart, honestly this series could go either way, but it isn't called Total Drama for no reason. Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work out.

Another relationship I unfortunately saw coming from a mile off is RipAxel, though I can't say I'm upset about it. A lot of people saw Axel as queer, myself included, and Ripper is, well, Ripper. But they had a season one Duncney vibe going on in Axel's brief run last season. Something about the misogynistic guys (Ripper called himself an alpha at one point?) and the competitive latinas 🤷‍♀️.

Their actual dynamic this season is different enough from what I thought it'd be that it's refreshing. I guess it works in a very Roger and Jessica Rabbit type of way (if Jessica Rabbit was a butch teenager), and if you're third eye is opened enough to see it as yuri it's a win. (The poetry scene was really sweet, in a way.)

Prialeb came out of nowhere though. For a character who was essentially a Justin clone last season, I really do like the direction Caleb's character is going in. He's got that competitive mindset, and is trying to flatter Priya into an alliance by being friendly/flirty, but the narrative doesn't really make it clear if he's aware that he's manipulating her Alejandro style or if he really is just oblivious enough to see his approach as platonic/friendly. Holding out for some aro or ace (or aroace 🤭) representation with Caleb if they go with the second narriative, but the "only ever had one girlfriend" line hints more towards him being gay than ace.

I'm predicting Priya's foil being her crush of Caleb. It's gonna lead to her elimination. I love the fact that that, despite being hypercompetent thanks to her upbringing, she's terrible with things like relationships and feelings.

I'm super happy that Emma and Chase ended things again. They're terrible for each other. Also, Emma was way less likable this season? IDK if that's just me. Chase was never likable but he's at least funny to watch, especially when he's taking Ls.

Lauren's antagonist arc is brewing at Playa Des Losers (if that's still a thing?) so she's definitely coming back in the merge Izzy style. That, or she'll pull an Ezekiel and sneak back onto the island.

Millie's brief character arc about learning not to take advantage of people was cute, if undeveloped, but I can't say I liked her this season. Damien didn't deserve what she did, but he did need the reality check it gave him. And some therapy to help his fear of everything- the guy's an anxious wreak, and it's not so much endearing as it is pitiful to watch.

Wayne and Raj are my two beautiful sons who deserve the world. Zee has been delightful as always. No need for elaboration.

Chris is delightful this season. All of his lines are great, and what little we see of Chef is golden too. Good job to the writing team for our favourite geriatric couple.

My only real gripe with this season, which has been more and more apparent since season 1 back in 2007, is that the characters don't really feel like they're in a summer camp. Back in the OG island we had character interactions and dynamics outside of challenges that helped set the tone of the series; it felt like they really were teenagers at a summer camp, the challenges and eliminations came second to the character plotlines.

Whereas now, most of every episode is based in the challenge itself. Every elimination is based around something that character does during a challenge. Most meaningful interactions happen during a challenge. It feels more like a gameshow than the reality tv it's supposed to imitate. The only non-competition based conflict we get to watch is Emma and Chase's thing, which is more akin to influencers beefing than two teenagers at a camp having a rocky relationship (see: Duncney S1, Gwent S2 briefly, whatever happened with Gwourtney). I wish we got to see more of the character as they are, than the characters while they're actively in a challenge.

#long post #total drama #td2023 #thoughtless posting #ophe rambling #kinda drafty in here (posts from the drafts)

[starsfic]

proompt: wukong pops into xaiotian’s apartment one night as a wholesome surprise only to find him drunk because he was stressed

based off the headcanon that xaiotian is a light weight, a happy drunk, and only rarely drinks when extremely stressed

Anon: prompt of wukong lulling mk (who was having anxieties) to sleep 

Anon: MK getting drunk with Mei and just having a good time. Red walks in and just sees the two idiots laughing way too loud lmao

Sun Wukong threw open the window with “Hey, guess who has the best mentor in the world-!”

A warm body slammed into him, wrapping him into a hug. There was a delighted trill of “MONKEY KING!” Wukong yelped, steadying his student. He wasn’t exactly the hugging type but that wasn’t his concern. What was his concern was the faint scent of alcohol.

“Kid, are you drunk?”

Xiaotian leaned back with a giggle, revealing hazy eyes. “Just a little…” He gestured somewhere. “It’s over there…” Wukong followed his finger to see a bottle. “Xiaojiao brought it over.”

“And where is Xiaojiao?”

Xiaotian shrugged. “Red called her and she had to go.” The happiness in his voice had soured, just a bit. “Said it was…super important…that’s fine. Just a little lonely.” He blinked, revealing for a brief second tears, and then his smile was back. “But now you’re here!”

Wukong nodded. “Yep, I am!” He led Xiaotian over to the bed. “Here to bring by a little gift and make sure you don’t get sick.” Xiaotian happily plopped down, allowing him to grab the bottle. It was surprisingly less light than he expected. Huh, was the kid a lightweight?

Not important.

“Have you had anything to drink?” Xiaotian gestured to the bottle, beaming happily at him. Wukong chuckled, grabbing the cork and closing the bottle back up. Xiaotian didn’t need any more wine. “Besides this, kid. Any water or anything like that?” Xiaotian seemed to think for a moment before shaking his head. “Okay.” Wukong set down the wine and moved to go to the kitchen. “I’ll go you a glass-”

“NO!”

The yell made Wukong yelp. Xiaotian had tackled him back into a hug, gripping him tight. “Kid, what?!”

“No, don’t leave!”

“Bud, I’m not leaving-!”

“But everyone’s leaving!” Xiaotian let out a sob, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks. “Everyone has something more important and...and...and-!” The door opened. “Xiaojiao has Red and Pigsy and Tang are busy in some library and Xiaojiao likes hanging out with Red more than me-” Xiaojiao entered and paused, her eyes going wide. “And I know I should be happy she’s making more friends but-”

“Bud, breath.” Wukong began to run his fingers through his hair, making calming chirps. Eventually the ugly sobbing died down, but the guilt in his heart didn’t. “I promise, I’m not going to leave you again. Okay?”

“...”

“How about we take a nap?” Wukong gestured for Xiaojiao to back up. She did, eyes still wide. “That’ll make you feel better.” Xiaotian whined as Wukong pushed him down. His eyes were already sliding shut though. “And, I’m sure Xiaojiao and Red will be back soon!”

“...okay...”

Wukong nodded, pulling up the sheets. “Yep, don’t worry. We gotcha.” 

Xiaotian nodded, eyes sliding shut. Wukong paused, waiting, but his student didn’t stir. He sighed. Now, to deal with Xiaojiao outside-

“I DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE HIM FEEL THAT WAY!” And Xiaojiao was drunk too. She dropped the six pack she held (well, three pack, actually), letting out loud sobs. Wukong yelped as, once again, he was hugged by a drunk youth. “I DIDN’T WANNA MAKE HIM FEEL BAD!”

“Kid, kid, you’re gonna wake him up-!”

Xiaotian was already sitting up. His eyes went wide and he squealed, a grin forming. “XIAOJIAO! BESTIE!” She looked up at his call and gasped, her own wide grin forming. Xiaotian started to bounce excitedly, holding out his arms. “HUG HUG HUG HUG-!”

“HUG HUG HUG HUG-!”

The two hugged, their laughter loud and drunkenly merry. The volume made Wukong winced, but he couldn’t help a smile at the sight. Footsteps headed up the stairs. “Okay, Dragon Girl, did you get some water-?” Red Son peered in, raising a brow at the sight. “What is going on-?”

“RED!”

“RED RED RED HUG HUG HUG RED!”

“Your responsibility.” Wukong pushed the prince forward. Red gaped at him before Xiaotian yanked him into his bed to be hugged by the drunk duo. He chuckled as Red whined but surrendered.

Now he could get that water.

And drop off that gift.

#my writing #LMK #Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie Kid #Sun Wukong #Qi Xiaotian #Long Xiaojiao #Red Son #prompt fill #prompt fic #fic #fanfic #fanfiction

[megamanofnumbers]

The Jake Lockley shaped Elephant in the room

Heyyo everybody. Didn’t comment on Moon Knight 1x04 because I didn’t have anything super interesting to say about it other than “Layla’s a boss” and “Marvel finally giving MK a fucking budget for their CG goddamnit”.

To those whinging about Jake not showing up in 1x05, first off: he’s coming eventually relax guys. We need to still focus on the conflict of Marc and Steven. And second off: He did show up in person.

The scene when Oscar was holding the glass pyramid to threaten mindscape!Harrow. Isaac had an angry grin and spoke in a distinctly american-accented voice. His intonation was also extremely abrasive and confrontational. This an attitude NOT characteristic of Steven (who is more shrinking violet) or Marc (who is more stoic and bitter).

It seems clear here that Jake is a very special alter (also soft-confirming him as the Prosecutor). He can hear Marc and Steven, but Marc and Steven CAN’T hear or see Jake. Jake also arrives when the body feels imminently threatened in a way that they can’t fight back and Steven can’t willfully ignore (like with his abusive mother). We know this when Marc blacks out in 1x03 twice when Steven needed to escape and when he was knocked unconscious. Now we see  the same when Marc starts panicking at being trapped by mindscape!Harrow.

Combine this with his brief cameo in 1x04 in the reflection saying “Yeah, stick it right in there...”, seems to paint an image of Jake being the ‘emergency eject button’ of the system. Meaning he doesn’t front often, perhaps not even willingly, but his ruthlessness and lack of hesitancy with doing anything, combined with his clear disinterest in participating in Marc and Steven’s shenanigans, makes Jake out as someone who is responsible by nature but probably also kinda shy; someone that shows up when the mental health of both Marc and Steven are too compromised at the same time to do anything to defend the body. So Jake tries to pull a third solution hard to solve problems.

Example:

- Marc gonna kill gangster but Steven doesn’t + Body in danger but both Alters can’t figure things out right now = Jake shows up and throws the body out of the conflict somehow to return to London -> Bam! Marc in taxi and now everyone has breathing room to think.

- Marc gets KO’d by gangster because Steven distracted him + Body in danger and neither Alter in condition to do anything = Jake shanks all the gang members barring the kid -> Bam! Marc and Steven are safe again even if that means Marc didn’t the info he wanted.

- Marc is disoriented from the ‘caretakers’ beating him up and Steven is nowhere to be seen + Marc wants to escape what he believes in Harrow and he is scared out of his mind = Jake takes over to threaten everyone in spite of his injuries and tries to bluff his way out -> Blam! That didn’t work but you get my point.

Jake doesn’t seem to want to make his presence known, as he is there to defend the system and nothing else. Either way, Our favourite cab-driving boy is here; you just gotta keep an eye out for him.

#moon knight #jake lockley #marc spector #steven grant #arthur harrow #marvel #mcu

[peemanne]

pee-man's super awesome third strike character INTEREST tier list

yeah very obviously written from a beginner's perspective i have no idea what i'm doing. and because of that it's mostly gonna be on the hypothetical side from the bajillion character guides and tourney sets i've been binging on my free time

Currently maining:

Chunners: i swear i just think she's fun the fact that she's like arguably top 1 is just a coincidence i swear Her buttons are really fun and satisfying to poke out with and the natural switch mid-game she goes through from keeping you at a distance to trying to get in to use super 2 is honestly really fun. Her specials are kind of lacking but honestly I still think they're really fun to use (SBK, the overhead kick, legs). I might just be carried, but I find it really fun to have so much control over the neutral with Chun's amazing buttons like standing HP and crouching MK. Nations have fallen and millions have passed because of chun back fierce.

Would love to learn:

Dudley: Actually had a very brief stint with Dudley right as I started before switching off to Chun. I didn't really get a hang of his corner pressure but his general poke heavy game to amazing pressure obviously speaks to me given the whole chun thing. He has some cool ass specials too like machine gun blows and the ducking moves. His lack of a really good low poke stings a little but his low jump make jump-ins really fun with buttons like jumping roundhouse. Also his taunt is like the coolest thing ever. Kind of funny how he's the second character I can think of that has a taunt that sets up an unbloackable and has a move called Jet Upper.

Necro: Honestly? He looks really fun. Funny drill divekick, long ranged buttons, cool super III with loads of stun, lightning as an interesting tool with many uses, and more. Again, space control and oppressive corner pressure. Overheads galore, juggles, and stun tech look really appealing and he doesn't even seem too daunting to me to try unlike other technical characters like Urien or Oro. He's just a silly little guy he goes outta my way he's so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yang: He has a cool divekick and also rekkas make my brain feel good

Kinda interested:

Makoto: Very extreme character but in a pretty unique, interesting way to me. Her unga bunga hyper offense looks really fun. Still though, she's pretty unorthodox which puts me off just a little bit, but if I put some time into playing her, I think I'd have a blast.

The Shotos: yeah they're all just kinda lumped in here. I think they're kinda cool and I can definitely see the appeal but like... I think there are just more interesting options personally (which is weird I think that way because i main CHUN but it is what it is) In order:

Akuma: His setups look monstrous and having that much control like a raging river encapsulates what they were going for with Akuma absolutely perfectly. Aerial fireball is a neat bonus, I think that's pretty cool too. His defense puts me off a little like with Makoto's speed, but Akuma looks to be the shoto I'm interested in the most by a pretty wide margin. Also he introduced me to the game so i can thank him for that. Those "raging peemon" jokes also have potential......................

Ken: Yeah. The everyman. The glue-all. You know him, you hate him, you love him, you've DEFINITELY seen him around. Probably the most jack of all trades guy in the whole cast. Good super, good buttons, good specials, kinda insane meterless damage and also wake up dp what am i supposed to do against wake up heavy dp im at a beginner's level you seriously want me to parry that thing are you kidding me dude come o Despite all that though there's just something about Ken that makes him not really click with me as much as the rest. It might just because he's everywhere at low level (and literally all the other levels too im sure of it) that I get kinda sick of seeing his mug. The stupid amount of meterless damage he can do does genuinely kind of appeal to me though, and that at least puts him up here.

Ryu: Same deal as Ken, really. I just like Ken better because I would probably overthink using Denjin, panic, and just completely fumble and get punished for it Donkey kick looks very funny though, but still.

Yun: He has a dive kick but also a complicated install super so he's down here

Remy: Yeah, i'm surprised too. Remy's zoning game is really cool at least from an opponent's/spectator's perspective and I've always been interested in picking up a charge type character, and Remy, despite being a low tier, feels less daunting to approach than, say, Urien. CBK is a really interesting move to me too, and I'm randomly really interested in the basic flash kick. Would honestly be a lot higher if it weren't for the whole sucking ass thing. If he had even slightly better normals to make him like a mid tier or something, I'd probably hop on the Remy train in a heartbeat, oddly enough.

Elena: Those EX moves look really fun. That's it. That's all I care about with this character. Otherwise I'm just sticking to Chun. Her neutral stance is funny though why is she just so obviously rotoscoped that's really funny to me

Not too interested in:

Ibuki: Very tricky character, and those tricks she does have just doesn't seem all that appealing to me. Air kunai looks cool, I guess, but her nimble and fragile playstyle doesn't really speak to me in particular, unlike other frail tricky characters like Akuma or the twins. I do not have the brain capacity to mix up, like at all, and this is probably the trickiest mix up character in the game, so I'll have to pass on this one.

Q: Building up defense with taunts does look genuinely interesting, but I just don't really click with the more hardcore heavies in this game. I've heard he's surprisingly technical with stuff like EX slaps and his supers, but I just can't get past the inherent extremes of heavies like him. I can live with struggling to approach just a little bit, but if it's this extreme then I'd rather not. I feel like characters like Makoto and Akuma deal with extremes in much more fun and actually usable ways, unlike characters like Q or Hugo

Alex: I honestly just find him kind of boring. He can get around the screen a little more which I find better than characters like Hugo, but between his mediocre buttons and specials, weird super selection, and the fact that he's still, in fact, a big ass heavy target, just add up and turn me off from Alex, even with his cool stun game and EX moves.

Hugo: Everything I just said for the last two characters but make it even more extreme. At least claps are fun to watch. Absolutely scared to come across Hugos online too those mfs are consistently parry gods even at my level

Sean: What if shotos but like, bad? I get that's the whole point of the character, but have you SEEN that DP? Eeesh. At least the basketball's funny, though.

Too much for baby brain:

Oro: what is even going on with this character unblockables, wack ass amazing supers, really unique specials, a DOUBLE JUMP??????? His wacky matchup spread with some just being nigh unwinnable like Chun is pretty tough for me to get around too. also i like to play character who have NON-VISIBLE BALLS WEAR SOME PANTS BITCH DAMN

Urien: Honestly really appealing to me. Charge character, cool normals, amazing corner pressure, amazing ass punish game with tackles, and a sick juggle game. Unfortunately all of the stuff I just described is really technical and feels way too daunting in a way that I don't really wanna even try touching him until I've played the game some more. I would absolutely bungle an aegis setup, panic, whiff a laggy ass special, and get my ass beat

Twelve: Darkstalkers-ass character but also he sucks on top of that so absolutely not.

Anyways that's all from a guy who knows nothing about third strike talking about third strike, thanks for reading all that. Now that I'm done look at this awesome gif

#fighting games #street fighter #third strike #ramblings of the pee-man

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 19/08/2023 (Olivia Rodrigo, Fred again../Obongjayar, casso/RAYE/D-Block Europe)

Content warning: In-depth discussion of mostly right-wing US politics, including references to Epstein, anti-Semitism, suicide, etc. and brief mention of prostitution

ACR hits, taking Dave and Cench off their throne as Billie grabs her first week with her second #1 on the UK Singles Chart, “What Was I Made For?” from the Barbie soundtrack. I am absolutely not complaining with this one - probably one of my favourite songs on the chart altogether, if not my absolute favourite - but regardless, welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

“Sprinter” is at #10… by the way, but what we always start off with are our notable dropouts, which are songs exiting from the UK Top 75 after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we say farewell to yet another premature ZAYN single with “Love Like This” - I told you when it debuted that the cycle would repeat - as well as “Nothing Compares 2 U” by the late Sinéad O’Connor, “Super Shy” by NewJeans, “Toxic Trait” by Stormzy and Fredo, “Don’t Say Love” by Leigh-Anne, “Tattoo” by Loreen, “Boy’s a liar” by PinkPantheress and “Escapism.” by RAYE featuring 070 Shake.

As for our returns, I guess we see a second viral resurgence of “Dog Days are Over” by Florence + the Machine at #67, but what are infinitely more interesting are our few gains, those being “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac at #65, Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” at #39, “Bittersweet Goodbye” by Issey Cross at #38, “Asking” by Sonny Fodera and MK featuring Clementine Douglas at #31 and off of the debut, “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat at #15. Yeah, I’m glad this seems like it’s going to stick around.

Our top five on the UK Singles Chart this week consists of “(It Goes Like) Nanana” by Peggy Gou at #5, “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift at #4, “vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo at #3, “Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa at #2 and finally, of course, “What Was I Made For?” at the very top. Now for our assorted range of new songs, and they, uh, sure are something.

NEW ARRIVALS

#66 - “Feel It” - Jazzy

Produced by D.O.D and Hannah Laing

You could not possibly comprehend how excited I was to see that Irish singer Jazzy had finally ditched Belters Only. “Giving Me” had grown on me in a hypnosis kind of way, but mostly because of Jazzy’s vocals, so I was very glad to see her team up with D.O.D and Hannah Laing, two much more talented and interesting producers. I’m assuming there’s an extended version of this song that the general public does not yet have access to, because on Spotify, the only version available is a “club edit”, and on Genius, the lyrics are described as snippets. Regardless, this is obviously a marked improvement. Jazzy actually has some room to get expressive - well, she had the room but never the reason to - whilst the hardcore kicks and punchier, almost factory-esque percussion from our much-preferred production duo lead to a very busy two minutes. It almost doesn’t function that well as a club track honestly as a result, instead just feeling like a complete mantra, but not at all a mindless one, and the final drop absolutely would go hard at a party with that infectious cheap, bouncy lead synth. This is not exactly all that innovative, and lyrically, there’s almost literally nothing to it, but with those two on production, it’s at least guaranteed to be a greatly-composed tune and for the two minutes it has to impress me, it sounds good. Call me a fan of this one, I’m interested to see where Jazzy goes next.

#64 - “Rich Men North of Richmond” - Oliver Anthony Music

Produced by Oliver Anthony

It’s not too hard to understand how we got here. Firstly, it was viral marketing - YouTube, for the most part, isn’t region-locked. If we can understand the language, chances are we’ll check it out. Secondly, the stars align trend-wise. We’re in a cost-of-living crisis under a government full of scandalised MPs, the level of political polarisation as well as general “I’m fed up with this crap” sentiment is on a similar level here as in the US, and hey, country’s on the rise, Combs is in the top 40. This entering our charts, and presumably not for long, makes sense. For a moment, let’s ignore just about everything else we know about this song apart from the song itself. Let’s ignore that it’s been propped up if not directly funded by alt- and far-right figures in America, let’s ignore that John Rich has latched onto this grift, let’s presume Anthony’s entire persona and backstory is true, and we can even dismiss that he’s a fan of videos claiming Israelis did 9/11. Let’s just listen to the song, and honestly, it’s pretty good. Now I don’t agree with everything in the song, and to be completely honest, the professional vocal recording and repetitive writing does not make this seem authentic. Let’s start with the positives though - the performance is fantastic, as Anthony still has that youthful crack to him, leading to some really frustrated and powerful vocal takes, whilst also taking some smokier, wiser inflections that really accentuate the idea of “living in the New World with an old soul”. The guitar work is fantastic in terms of its jumbled twang, and the stripped-back format makes Anthony’s paranoia regarding government elites seem very palpable as honestly, it is, because a good-faith interpretation of this could very much see this as a more centrist commentary, wherein Anthony shares opinions that a lot of rural American men have currently, as they reasonably feel left in the dust by the political system as it currently functions. It can leave you thinking that you don’t have many individual freedoms, and I’d very much argue he’s right about that. There are some “dogwhistle”-esque lyrics, sure, that imply a right-wing perspective, but unlike Jason Aldean, wherein due to the incredibly inauthentic presentation, it isn’t difficult to stamp those as such, I would argue that Anthony could very well be much more genuine than a lot of people are willing to believe. He’s anti-taxation, he mocks the welfare queen stereotype, although not in a way that I think is outright aggressive towards that type of person instead of the type of government that produces it, and “north of Richmond” has its... connotations. Sure, but I’m pretty sure we can agree that elite politicians, including those who love this song, are out-of-touch, right? People work too much for low pay, the average man is taxed unfairly when you consider how much large corporations are taxed, there is increased surveillance of individual freedoms that can make people feel unsafe, politicians should be looking out for low-income and hazardous jobs including mining, it’s sad that young men are killing themselves because they can’t find work or good self-esteem, and I’m pretty sure we can all agree that our public figures, regardless of party or country, should not be cozying up with Epstein, oh, and you know, homelessness is bad! These are pretty non-partisan, general ideas that aren’t exactly signs of a plant propped up by the alt-right, even if it were song long-time 4D-chess-game grifter. Hey, maybe I’ll be proved wrong eventually, but for once, put away your bad-faith interpretations. See what you can agree with on “the other side” when it comes to average people expressing their frustrations, and I’m still holding out for hope that this is what that is, and maybe you’ll realise we’re all on the same side in the first place.

#61 - “Quarter Past 3” - Fredo featuring Eric IV

Produced by Show n Prove

Well, we have two UK rap songs in a row here, starting with a track from Fredo’s newest album, Unfinished Business, which debuted at #9 on this week’s albums chart. I haven’t really been all that impressed by Fredo in a while, and it’s unlikely a guitar-led lovey-dovey track, wherein the guitar sounds more meancing than romantic, is likely to improve that. Rappers can obviously write love songs, but Fredo’s airy, sometimes on-the-nose delivery sounds really jammed-in when placed against content about girls, especially given the nasal, low-effort hook from Eric IV and a beat that doesn’t sound romantic at all. Maybe that’s the point, I mean, he says in the second verse possibly the saddest line I’ve heard him deliver: “I don’t even think I know what love involves.” Jesus, man. Otherwise, there really isn’t much to this.

#55 - “Facade” - Digga D and Potter Payper

Produced by ???

Digga D, come on, man. It takes five seconds to say who produced your beat. Oh, and also, don’t stab prostitutes, but that’s a tad late for that advice now it’s already in the first verse. This beat is even less remarkable than Fredo’s, with a choppy sample that plays for way too long uninterrupted in the intro, even if it’s at least a bit worth it for the intensity of the scurrying drums that eventually drop onto it and a pretty good verse from Digga D finally, even if his content is rote and his delivery is obnoxious as always, nothing against the guy but I can’t really find much enjoyment in his on-the-nose toxicity, it doesn’t feel all that transgressive when he’s just rapping like any British rapper. Potter Payper was only recently freed from detainment, which may explain in part the mixing on his vocals, but as expected, he’s much more unhinged flow-wise, whilst giving more detail in his content and sounding… genuinely menacing. I think I actually like this guy nowadays, just because he goes so relentlessly hard regardless of anything around him or what lyrics he’s delivering. A third verse from Digga wasn’t really necessary though, it just elongates what is otherwise a pretty okay track. At least there’s more energy to it.

#32 - “Prada” - casso, RAYE and D-Block Europe

Produced by casso

No umlauts allowed. Alright, so you remember “Ferrari Horses”? I’m not sure if I maintain that it’s DBE’s best song, but it definitely was my favourite at the point of its release, and a lot of that is due to RAYE’s involvement, with her ghostly riffing and backing harmonies that would turn your average DBE song into a pretty spooky affair, but given the hypnotising, transforming beat accentuated with a gloomy strings section and reverb-drenched vocals from Adz, as well as Dirtbike Lb delivering his signature despair as always, in a way that actually plays off RAYE a lot better than you’d expect. My favourite moment is still Adz’s falsetto branching into RAYE’s silky pre-chorus. Now who would hear that and think they should make a trance remix? Genuinely, why would that ever occur to you? You have to speed up the song, so you rid it of its atmosphere, and then casso just places it against an otherwise perfectly serviceable jerky and fun trance beat, that I probably would like in any other situation, but it’s way too bubbly for anything about this song. Just… why would you ruin a perfectly good trance beat and a perfectly good trap song? It makes hypothetical sense as a mashup, like I could see this uploaded by a 50-subscriber YouTube account, but a streaming release? Why? Just baffling.

#12 - “adore u” - Fred again.. and Obongjayar

Produced by Fred again.., Four Tet, PARISI and Tobias Wincorn

This is a pretty high debut for Fred again.. as he links up with his typical co-producers, including Four Tet who I feel adds a lot to their recent collaborative material, as well as Obongjayar, a Nigerian musician I know mostly from their work with Danny Brown and Little Simz. Of course, like many of Fred’s tracks, this is actually a rework of an existing song by his guest star, this case being Obongjayar’s 2022 song “I Wish it Was Me”, which is a genuinely adorable song that explores how proud he is of his brother’s success on stage, whilst also acknowledging the negative thoughts of low self-esteem and envy that come with having someone so talented in your family. Its minimal, wonky synth composition and the intimate vocals really help sell it so once again, I have a lot of questions about how this will end up in an EDM context, alongside a sample of 80s comedy rap trio the Fat Boys. No, really. The answer is… pretty awkwardly as once again, we have these atmospheric vocals being isolated and sped up onto a goofy house beat with bubbly synths. Why is that something that happened consecutively? Why would you speed his vocals up like that? The lyrics don’t really get any changed context with this extra backing, and the 90s house pianos sound less stock than usual, but still don’t justify their existence. And why are the Fat Boys here, in a muffled refrain - or bridge? What’s going on? Freddo Frog here ends up placing the Fat Boys sample in the front of the mix against some synthwave bass before strings and a stray vocal sample come in for no reasonable reason, just kind of throwing stuff at the mix with little atmospheric justification. This is bizarre… and it doesn’t even go off! I do think that the “I adore you” refrain and even the Fat Boys sample have a lot of potential, and I’d actually oddly like to say that I’d love to see what the Chainsmokers could do with this material, but I think I’ll stick to the original, once again..

#6 - “bad idea right?” - Olivia Rodrigo

Produced by Dan Nigro

Sigh… you have the door opening sound effect, the whispered hey that finds itself into the composition, the very typical post-punk revival riff, the faux-rapping, the teen-pop harmonies in the refrain placed over an instrumental that wants nothing to do with them, the predictable development of the intensity in the pre-chorus… it’s all just, expected, isn’t it? Even when we get to the “blast” in the chorus, the cathartic release, it’s just a bratty staccato refrain. To be completely fair, I like elements of this song - the writing is much more interesting than “vampire” and she’s developed a great narrative voice, and the chopping of the “ah” vocal in the second refrain is pretty genius, actually, and I’m not going to complain about a solo or this level of feedback being in the top 10. Yet for a song that should be this full-of-regret mosh, everything just falls too cleanly into place, to the point that the song even fades out instead of bothering to formulate an emotionally effective outro. It hits all the right chords, for the most part, but so neatly that it fails to serve the purpose of its sound or its messy post-breakup content. Also, it cannot be a coincidence that Paramore released a post-punk revival just a few months before this. It’s not a direct interpolation like “good 4 u” and it’s a different approach but, come on - the connection’s already inherently there, it doesn’t need emphasising.

Conclusion

Well, that was, uh… a week, though not one I feel is actually worth much analysis in the short-term - some of this I do think will stick around for longer, and some of these - for better or for worse - will be indicative of trends to come, at least I’d predict so. As for the Best of the Week… alright, call me far-right, whatever, but ultimately I do this because I’m a fan of music, and I mean, the man has music in his stagename. Oliver Anthony Music grabs the Best of the Week for “Rich Men North of Richmond”, with Jazzy of all people snabbing the Honourable Mention with “Feel It”. That is a bizarre choice considering what my taste typically is in this series, but I mean, the rest of our songs aren’t exactly a lovely little basket of apples to pick from. Olivia Rodrigo just gets Worst of the Week for “bad idea right?” - I really hope there’s more to like on GUTS than what the singles are indicating - and the Dishonourable Mention could really go to anyone, but Fredo and Eric IV are the most boring so it goes to “Quarter Past 3”. That “Ferrari Horses” remix still perplexes me though. As for what’s on the horizon, who cares? Thanks for reading, rest in peace to DJ Casper and Magoo, and I’ll see you next week.

#uk singles chart

[ivy-loves-chocolate]

Note: this isn’t RE or MK related, but it’s something I wanted to write. The plot is about two strangers who have a small talk in an art gallery. William, the protagonist, is lost in his thoughts until a stranger decides to pull him out.

More goodies will come this week after this. Comments and reblogs are very appreciated!

William was staring at the painting in front of him. The golden plate from below stated the name, artist, and a brief description. "The Blue Rider" by Wassily Kandinsky, To Kandinsky, the color blue was associated with heaven, supernaturalness, infinity, and silence. The title of this painting would also give name to the seminal expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Kandinsky and Franz Marc in Munich a few years later.

He signed as he was staring blankly at the painting. From another person's point of view, he looked rather focused and intrigued by the piece of art in front of him, like someone with vast knowledge trying to find a meaning behind the colors and between the details, but in reality he was lost in his own thoughts.

Sensing he might be on another plan of reality, a person approached him and tapped lightly on his shoulder.

"Beautiful painting, isn't it?" He asked in a southern accent, seeming like another misfit in this sophisticated place just like our friend. 

"Yes, indeed." He turned his head to face the stranger and continued to speak. "To be honest, when it comes to art, I'm not much of a fan. Art is...very interpretable. I'm more of a books person."

"I see, then why are you here, if I may ask."

"My girl is more artistic than I am. She used to come here for inspiration, and sometimes I would tag along. I would sit on one of these benches while she'd frantically walk back and forth to each painting, writing down her thoughts on a cute, little notebook."

"Where is she now? Is she running around here as we speak?" He said it in a joyful way, somehow eager to meet the stranger's girlfriend, a stranger he just met a few minutes ago.

"She is not here. I-I don't know where she is actually." he chuckled faintly as he turned to the painting again. The blank stare returned to his face once again.

"I see. Is she- missing for a long time?"

"For a week. She packed some of her stuff and left."

The stranger sighed in relief.

Silence fell between the two men as they looked at the painting. Eventually, the stranger spoke.

"Will you two get back together?"

"Yes, we will eventually. We always do."

"What was the reason?" the strangers asked.

"We both did. At the beginning, both of us are too shallow, so we make excuses for our own faults instead of admitting them. We fight, and she always leaves, while I stay in our home. After our time apart, we apologize for our foolishness and get together. The point is, she always comes back, but it rarely takes this long. We must’ve messed up pretty bad." 

"I see. What do you think she’s doing while she’s away?"

"She puts an unbearable amount of guilt on her. She thinks it’s her fault, that she wasn’t enough, and that she will mess things up again if she returns. She likes to think that I’m better off without her, for she is a toxic individual who destroys everything she touches. She probably cries too."

"Is she?" 

"Is she what?" 

"As you said, toxic?"

William was silent for a few seconds, and then answered.

"No, no she is not. She is...misunderstood. Yes, that’s the word."

"Like every artist, ay?" 

"I suppose," he chuckled. "I just hope that she doesn’t stay away for too long."

"Are there any chances she won’t come home this time?" 

William chuckled again. 

"No, sir, as I said, she always comes back. The only things that scare me are the long periods of time she spends away."

"This girl is lucky, because not every guy would have the patience you have."

"I don’t care about what other guys would do, really."

Silence fell once again. The only voices were the ones around them, as people of many nationalities passed through the gallery. Some took their time to admire the works, some took pictures and moved quickly to another one, and some seemed to be out of the picture just as they were.

"Well, it seems you have things sorted out."

"Yes, we’ve been at this for a while."

"Sorry to bother you."

"It’s alright, it felt good to talk with someone."

"I’m glad to hear that."

The stranger tapped lightly on William’s shoulder once again and got lost quickly in the crowd.

William was left alone with his thoughts. 

"She always comes back, as we’ve been like this for an infinity, and will always be." he spoke softly, his words never heard by anyone as they became part of the inaudible disaster the voices created. 

#ivy’s posts #personal post #original writing #light angst #break up #original characters

[tigerseye46]

👀 New ship? More Peachpig/Monkenoodles with A52, B72, B74 and B94?

New ship! I’m mostly calling it peachpigshipping but I’m tagging it as monkenoodles too.

AO3 link

A52. “Did you just smile?” B72. “Am I dreaming or did you just say you like me?” B74. “Have I ever told you how cute you are?” B94. “Oh my god, you like [Name]!”

Pigsy placed a wet rag on the bar and began scrubbing while Sandy rambled on about his day, the chef made sure to nod and murmur at certain points to affirm he was paying attention. He enjoyed hearing the big guy’s rambling, it was a great stress reliever after dealing with customers.

“So I visited big brother Wukong for some tea.” That statement made the pig’s ears perk up and a small smile appeared on his face, the smallest mention of the monkey made his heart leap. He bit his lip to suppress the grin. When Sandy’s voice died down all of a sudden, the pig lifted his chin up to see the demon with his tilted slightly to the right and an eyebrow raised. “Why did ya stop?”

The demon met his question with one of his own. “Did you just smile?”

“What?”

“Did you just smile when I mentioned Wukong?”

“No,” he said in an unconvincing manner. “Why would I?”

“Okay… So my big brother told me…” Another smile. “You did it again!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Uh huh. You’ve been doing that a lot lately, Pigsy. Smiling when my big brother talks to you or you hear about him, blushing when he touches you, giving him a break by not yelling at him all the time. Oh. OH! Oh my gods, you like Wukong!”

“Shad-Shaddup,” he exclaimed as his face turned a rosy red.

“Awwww! That’s adorable! Right, Mo?” He asked the cat on his shoulder with Mo giving an approving meow in response.

“Shush! I just think he’s cute. That’s it.”

“You like my older brother,” Sandy teased in a sing-songy voice. “If it’s any consolation, he likes you too.”

“What?”

“Yea. I was talking to him-”

“Wow. Ya talk to your brother, what a shocker, Sandy.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

Sandy rolled his eyes. “I was talking to him and he mentions you a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier than when he talks about you. You make him happy.”

His mouth went dry. Wukong talked about him? “Are ya sure?”

“Completely. I know my brother. You should ask him out!”

Ask him out? ASK HIM OUT? He couldn’t do that. “No! I am not doin’ that! Certainly there’s better options than me. I’m-”

Sandy cut him off by saying, “One of the best people I know.”

His eyes became soft. “Sandy…”

“It’s true. You know even with your bitter beginnings, he likes you. There’s something different about him when he’s with you. I could set you up on a date.”

“A date?!” He massaged his neck. “No! No! I couldn’t ask that of you and ya could be mistaken. Maybe he just thinks of me as a really good friend.”

Wujing looked at him as if he was an idiot and for some reason, it felt familiar. Wait, why did it feel familiar? Oh well. “Good friends don’t blush when they ramble on about their friend’s stunning blue eyes or their “friend’s” adorable passion for noodles. Huh, Pigsy?”

He blinked. “Ya got a point… but are ya sure?”

“YES! Now can I please set you up on a date? I could set up a romantic cruise.”

“NO! Sandy, I love you. I really do but I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

“Please. Let me set you up on a date. I want you and my big brother to be happy.”

“Sandy!”

“Pleaasseeeee!” His bottom lip quivered while his hands clasped together and he gave his best puppy-dog eyes.

The pig sighed and pinched the bridge of his snout. “Fine. One date!” He put up a finger to emphasize his point. “If this goes south, I’m blamin’ ya.”

“It won’t.” He squeezed the pig and cradled him from side to side. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You won’t regret this,” he shouted and ran out of the shop.

The pig gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m goin’ to regret this,” he said and went back to cleaning.

-----

Pigsy tugged on the collar of his blue flannel. Why did he agree to this again?

In the middle of Sandy’s boat was a table covered by cloth with candles on each side along with petals scattered across it. He crept forward but paused when he spotted a familiar monkey talking with Sandy who was in black and white suit with his hair combed back.

Wukong was wearing an orange button up and tan pants, a monkey necklace around his neck, he looked so handsome.

The pig’s face burned, he needed to go home and change right now! Maybe he could slip out before they noticed him. He spun himself and took a step when he heard a shout from Wukong, “Pigsy!”

He turned back with his shoulders hunched to see Wukong right in front of him smiling and Sandy by his side with a smirk. “Hey, Wukong. Hey, Sandy! You look, nice, Wukong,” he complimented.

The monkey’s cheeks were a deep pink. “Thanks. You look nice too.”

“Thanks…”

Sandy huffed and nudged his older brother. “Hm?” The demon made a gesturing motion. “Oh!” He passed a bouquet of roses to the pig. “Here.”

The pig eagerly took it with a grin and took a big whiff of the flowers. “Thanks. I didn’t take you as a ‘give people flowers’ type of guy. Cliche much?”

The king barked out a laugh.“Well the cliches are good when you’re trying to impress someone,” he stated with a wink.

Pigsy’s face flushed further. They stood there grinning at the other before Sandy said, “Okay, love birds. Come on. Follow me.”

The three walked towards the table with Wukong pulling up a chair for Pigsy. “Here you are.”

“Such a gentleman,” he teased as he sat down.

Wukong’s smile in response was blinding, he pushed the chair closer towards the table and he took the seat across from the chef. Sandy glanced between them. “Do you guys want anything specific to eat?”

“No, little brother, anything is fine.”

“Yea. I’m good with anythin’.”

“Alright. I’ll be right back. But first.” He pulled out a bottle of peach wine and poured it in their glasses. “There. I’ll be back,” he exclaimed and ran off, in the background, classical music started playing.

Silence lingered between the two until Wukong lifted his wine glass to his lips and drank. “You know I only drink wine on special occasions.”

“So I’m a special occasion?” He asked shyly.

“Yea, you are.” Pigsy ducked his head at the reply. “Have I ever told you how cute you are?”

“Wh-what?” Wukong thought he was cute?

“I’m glad you agreed to go on a date with me.”

“Ye-yea. Me too. That you agreed, I mean. Didn’t think ya would.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know…. Just didn’t really believe Sandy when he told me you were interested.”

“Of course I am. I like you.” Pigsy choked on air. “Pigsy?”

“Am I dreamin’ or did you just say you like me?”

“Awww. I’m flattered you have dreams about me but no, you aren’t dreaming. I’m serious. I like you. In fact, I got another gift for you.” He reached inside for a box. He opened it to reveal a golden bracelet with an orange and red gem in the middle. A courtship bracelet.

Pigsy’s heart thumped rapidly. “Wukong…It’s beautiful. I- like you too.”

“Can I put it on you?”

“Obviously.”

The king’s tail wagged, he skipped over to the pig and placed the bracelet around his wrist. The pig rotated it. “It looks wonderful on y- mmmm…” He didn’t have time to finish that sentence when he was gripped by his shirt and pulled into a kiss.

“Sandy! I’m here,” MK shouted as he stepped onto the boat. “Want to hang out? Wait… flowers, candles, soft music playing. Am I trapped in the calabash again?!” He gasped then ran off. No way was he going on a date with a fake Mei!

The two didn’t notice he was there, they separated with love present in their eyes until Sandy brought out a plate of spaghetti. The date was filled with laughter and handholding with Sandy smirking on the sidelines.

A few days after their date, Sandy decided to go back to his brother’s mountain for some quality time, not saying a word when a silver band with a pink gem was clear on his brother’s wrist.

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #peachpigshipping #peachpig #monkenoodles #monkenoodleshipping #pigsy #sun wukong #monkey king #monkie kid sun wukong #monkie kid sandy #sandy #MK is in here too but for like a brief second #I was going to end it when Mk appeared but I wanted to mention Wukong with a courtship bracelet of his own #sandy is a great wingman change my mind #I’m working on the other prompts but I am absolutely vibing with this ship rn #my fic

[strange-lace]

SEASON 2 FINALE BROKE ME SO TAKE THIS ANGST FOR SPIDER MONKIE AU! Because I received crumbs of vindication and intend on riding that high as long as I possibly can!

As expected, spoilers for the season 2 finale if you haven’t seen it!

“Spiderling?” MK wanted to look away, not wanting to have to see the crushing guilt in her eyes. But he knew he couldn’t, she needed to know just who he was. He had imagined how he would feel, seeing that recognition in his eyes but this was nothing like he hoped and dreamed during his worst moments of homesickness.

Not in the slightest.

Yet MK sunk into her arms when Spider Queen pulled him into her arms, the familiarity and warmth allowing him to smile the slightest bit.

“All this time, my baby was right in front of me and I was too foolish to even realize it. I nearly killed you.”

Tears lined his eyes and he wanted nothing more than to just stretch his legs and explain himself, how everything led to them in this situation as if like a funny story, all without leaving his mother’s embrace.

“There’s still time mom, we can both run, get out of here and figure out to stop her.”

“Honey… we both know there’s no way for us to run. Not from something like her.”

The faint sounds of whispers, ancient words neither could even comprehend, that sent chills down both of their spines caused them to break apart too soon for either of them. Without thinking, Spider Queen pushed MK behind her to shield him as the sewer tunnel exploded in blue smoke behind them. She knew she had a lot to make up for, after everything she had put her child through, unknowingly or not.

And she intended on starting with keeping him safe from that white haired demon.

“Spider Queen’s right. Destiny will always catch up.” MK clutched his head in pain as the world went white. The sight of him in pain, seemingly because of the young woman in front of her only made Spider Queen’s rage go from red hot to downright volcanic.

“You. I should have taken you out the second you walked into my lair,” she hissed yet on the inside, she was quaking knowing what was about to come.

At that moment, she made a decision.

Spider Queen that they both wouldn’t be able to escape the Lady Bone Demon, not with how strong and seemingly omnipotent the demon had shown to be.

But one of them could escape if she played her cards right.

“MK, sweetie…” He looked up at her and for a brief moment, all she could see was the toddling little spider that she had promised to protect with her life all those years ago. She only just wished they had more time together after it being so long.

“Run.”

She charged at the Lady Bone Demon, not giving him a chance to argue.

Spider Queen almost faltered at the sight of her subjects, now translucent blue spirits summoned to do that monster’s bidding yet continued on. MK felt himself go cold, the sight of Goliath and Huntsman and the realization of what happened to them hitting him.

Goliath, the same spider who sang him lullabies when he was little and he could always count to catch him when he found himself falling from high places.

Huntsman, the same spider who taught him how to fight and hunt from a young age, taught him to maim and poison all in the name of self-defense.

No. No, they couldn’t be.

He should have run like she told him. But he couldn’t. Instead he shifted as small as he possibly could and hid.

Waiting and hoping.

Waiting and hoping for an opening, a moment where the Lady Bone Demon would slip and he could strike. What exactly, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to leave his mother at the mercy of an enemy with motives he still had no idea of.

He watched as she and the man who he had thought was the city’s mayor added several items he recognized to the furnace from their adventure up in the Celestial Realm. What were those for? What were they meant to create?

“At last, it is time.” In a puff of blue wisps, she dropped what looked to be a skeleton into the furnace, causing a small whirlwind of magic to erupt from it before MK saw what was supposed to be the final ingredient brought forth.

His heart stopped at the sight of the Spider Queen, powerless in the Lady Bone Demon’s magic.

Yet her face remained stoic and still, refusing to bow even in front of her demise.

“So, this is what you promised as my destiny this whole time, huh?” She said, seemingly unimpressed.

“Indeed. It is a shame though, if you had handed us your son, he would have been a fine final ingredient and you would have saved yourself this fate,” Lady Bone Demon whispered, pulling the spider demon closer to the furnace slowly as if waiting for the fear and terror to set in. Instead, Spider Queen’s face and limbs twitched in barely restrained rage, wanting nothing than to tear the two to shreds.

“Never. My baby’s life is more important than mine. And you can kiss my royal behind if you think for a second I would have willingly sold him out to you.”

“And yet you were so willing to cut him down before you learned the truth,” the “Mayor” commented and that dose of hard truth cooled the queen’s rage.

“You’re not wrong about that. I could say that deep down, I always knew but that’d be a lie. But, hey, at least I know now when it mattered the most and despite you trying to scare me… I’m happy.” She smiled. Out of pure spite, yes, but she smiled in the face of what she was so sure was her demise.

Even when tendrils dragged her into the scalding cauldron, she continued to smile right in her face.

Spider Queen was also able to hold on long enough to get the final word.

“You think you’ve won but my boy will stop you. And unlike me, he will show you no mercy.”

And she let go, accepting her fate.

It took MK a genuine moment to process just what he saw.

She was gone. Used as an ingredient and faced certain doom with nothing but faith in him.

MK ran after that. He escaped and ran from the sewers, ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He couldn’t see where he was going, all he could see was the face of his mother submerging into that goddamn furnace with a smile on her face.

She wasn’t gone. She wasn’t gone. MK refused to believe she was gone from him forever when he had just gotten her back. He would get her back. He would get all of his family back from the Lady Bone Demon, no matter what it took.

MK didn’t notice the cracks forming in his amulet. Crack.

“MK?” He froze, realizing he was finally back at the shop and had nearly ran into Pigsy in his blind dash. Said pig demon only looked at him with concern and for a brief moment, the world around MK glitched and he only saw Huntsman in his place.

The image was gone in a quick blink.

“Where have you been?! No one’s heard from you since yesterday and we were all worried sick!” Mei tackled him in a hug as Pigsy continued, Tang and Sandy not far behind in their relief to see MK alive and okay.

Yet when MK blinked again, he could only see Syntax and Goliath in their place.

He never did get a proper chance to get to know Syntax and introduce him to their family.

He blinked again and like that, they were gone. Again.

Crack.

“Nothing, nothing happened, everything's fine!” His face strained to put on the facade of a smile, not taking notice as his eye twitched. And what looked to be small bruises developing into purple splotches which grew across his skin, painting it lavender. “I’m fine!”

“Uhm MK-”

Crack.

“I mean, why would anything be wrong? Everything’s just peachy!” His eyes flickered green before retaining the neon color. By now the others were full on terrified, realizing that this wasn’t a monkey transformation.

This was something else entirely.

“MK, what’s happening to you?” Tang finally broke in, his eyes taking notice of the necklace MK was always wearing now suddenly wearing numerous cracks, like that of a spider web.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe, finally feeling the familiar sensation of his legs about to split apart.

“I-I just need a-” He was cut off by a sound that nearly made his heart stop.

Crack.

Shatter.

His amulet shattered to pieces, now left in shards which dotted across the tile floor.

“Get back!” MK shouted, realizing that without his amulet, his glamour had no anchor.

Nothing to keep it together. To stop it from unraveling.

Violently.

Sandy was quick to follow his words and grabbed Pigsy, Tang, and Mei in his arms and leapt to the other side of the shop. He covered them with his body as tables flew and the lights briefly went out as a chair hit the switch, leaving the shop in complete darkness. As sudden as the onslaught started, it stopped.

“Kid, you okay?!” Pigsy called out to the darkness, feeling along the wall for the switch.

Instead he bumped into something, something long and covered in coarse fur.

Pigsy looked up in confusion only for his eyes to meet four eyes which glowed an acidic green in the darkness.

He would forever deny the high pitched shriek he let out, jumping into Tang’s arm in fear. The lights were suddenly flicked back on by Mei but she was tempted to turn them back off once she took in the sight before her.

A spider demon with a size that didn’t meet the big one she and Red Son encountered grabbing the immortal peach, but it was certainly close. He looked uncomfortably squished in Pigsy’s small shop, legs sprawled about awkwardly and humanoid top half crouched low to avoid hitting the light above.

The metaphorical light bulb went off once her eyes took notice of the familiar jacket and headband now draped around his neck like a scarf.

“MK?” The flinch she received in response cinched it for her.

“Yeah… it’s me Mei. Surprise?” He did a poor attempt at jazz hands, clawed hands plated with a dark exoskeleton.

The four of them could only stare at him before he dropped the strained smile and sighed.

“I know, I have a lot to explain. Like… a lot. So, you might wanna sit for this.”

None of them got any sleep that night.

#lego monkie kid #lego monkie kid spoilers #spider monkie au #mk #spider queen #white bone spirit #huntsman #goliath #syntax #pigsy #mei #sandy #tang #my writing #fanfiction

[purble-turble]

I wrote something inspired by Shadow Play and I just want to post it before the finale this week.. it's less of a prediction and more of a "wouldn't this be great?" kind of thing. Anyway, enjoy! Let me know if you like it or respond back with what YOUR predictions/wishes are for Macaque in the finale :D

----

MK hadn't told his friends about Macaque. Not even the second time when they were involved.

He knew it wasn't right to keep it secret from them. It was just hard to talk about with them. They would want to help and be prepared if he ever showed up to cause trouble or hurt him again.

Though to be honest, this time around Macaque hadn't actually seemed to be trying to hurt MK. Well, psychologically maybe, since he did take a few bad hits from the shadows of his own friends (which he was still pretty upset over) However, the fact that Macaque was so easily able to block the Monkey King's staff, and that he had broken the lamp and left on his own... perhaps the shadow monkey really was just trying to teach him a lesson. He hated to admit it, but if Macaque had really, actually wanted to kill him, it would've been easy. Obviously, he was way out of MK's league, and he'd been holding back.

He'd considered briefly giving Monkey King a "call" to tell him about it or get some more information about the shadow monkey or maybe even find out if what he said about his past with Monkey King was even true... but he knew he wouldn't get anything substantive out of his mentor on the topic. Whenever he tried to talk to Monkey King about his past or go into anything deeper than a brief synopsis of the events from his story, Monkey King would change the subject. Or worse, he would laugh and pat MK on the head, telling him that was a long time ago, and he can just go read the story if he's so interested.

MK hated that deflection.

In any case, he knew he couldn't talk to the Monkey King about Macaque... and if he couldn't talk to him about it, that meant he couldn't really talk to anybody.

So, the Monkie Kid found he'd kept it all bottled up again, trying to deal with his lingering concern all by himself. He was used to it by now, at least. His friends had their own problems to worry about, after all, and his problems didn't overshadow theirs... that was what Macaque had been trying to teach him, right? Well, something like that, anyway......

As he was thinking this over while mopping the floor distractedly, he was finally pulled out of his own head by a startled shriek and a crash from behind him. He whirled around just in time to see what had freaked out Mr. Tang enough to make him drop his noodles... a shadow.

A dark specter in the shape of a monkey clung to the strip of wall just beside the bar where Tang was sitting, and the moment MK's eyes fell upon it, the shadow opened its own pair of glowing purple eyes to stare back at him.

"Hey there kiddo, miss me?" Macaque's voice resonated from the flat surface of the wall, a purple mouth moving along with his words.

Tang had clambered back from the bar and was hiding behind the table Mei was now apparently standing on with her sword drawn defensively. Meanwhile, Pigsy had come around out of the kitchen to take a look at whatever spectacle was happening too.

"Is that the Monkey King?" he heard Mei ask, "Since when did he do creepy stuff like this?"

Ignoring the question, MK brandished the mop in his hands at the shadow, "What are you doing here, Maca-?"

"By the way, before you start asking lots of questions," the shadow interrupted, "you should know, this clone can't actually respond to you. Took me this long just to save up the power just to send along this one way message, let alone send a REAL clone."

MK lowered the mop in surprise. Saving up power? What did he mean by that? He almost voiced the question, but realized that would be futile when the shadow continued speaking without allowing a pause for questions it apparently couldn't answer.

"So listen, and uh, this is kind of awkward to admit," what little expression the near-faceless clone was able to portray suddenly looked a bit sheepish, "buuuut, I seem to have been captured by the Lady Bone Demon... I know, after I gave you that cryptic warning about her and everything. Trust me, I'm embarrassed... But, anyway, Spider Queen's got me all webbed up down here in the sewer, and they're stealing my power. And yes, I am aware of the irony. So, don't rub it in."

Just as he finished that sentence, the shadow seemed to tremble slightly, the purple glow to the eyes and mouth flickering in and out of existence.

"Uh oh. Running out of power again..." Macaque's voice sounded smaller than it had a moment ago, maybe even slightly strained. As he continued to speak, it began to waver more and more, "Listen, I know we're not exactly pals, but I don't really want to become a drained husk and YOU definitely don't want bone lady to have my powers either, so if you could get down here and set me free, that'd be awesome."

At last, the monkey shaped silhouette started to dissipate as it melted away into the light. As it did, MK could just barely hear one last, lightning fast sentence as Macaque's clone vanished: "Alsodon'tlethertakethesta-" and it was gone.

For a very long minute after the shadow disappeared, it was dead silent in the noodle shop.

"Uh, MK," Pigsy's voice spoke up at last, "who exactly was that?"

"Yeah, and how does he know you?" Mei asked.

"And why does he seem so... familiar?" Tang finished with the worst question.

"Ummmm....." MK's eyes drifted down to the floor, pointedly ignoring his friends' gaze. His sight landed on the shattered bowl on the floor. Immediately he stepped over to it with his mop and started cleaning, "Oh, this is such a mess... I better take care of this first."

A hand landed on MK's shoulder, "Kid, I swear," Pigsy yanked him over to the bar, and he was forced down onto one of the stools, "Now, yer gonna sit there and explain to us what the heck just happened."

"I-it's nothing... It's just, um..." MK's mind flashed the image of a little girl in blue and white. He wasn't ready for this... how could he do this without Monkey King? He was all alone...

"MK!"

He was startled out of his thoughts as Mei and Tang approached too, looking at him with worry on their faces. MK hated that look... he didn't want them to have to worry.

"MK," Mei repeated, "come on, we wanna be there for you. Tell us what's going on."

"Yeah, MK," Tang spoke up, leaning in to put his hand on MK's other shoulder along with Pigsy, "we want to help you, but we can't if you keep us all in the dark."

In the dark?

Dark, like... in the shadows. Is that what Macaque had been trying to teach him? How he pushes his friends away?

MK felt a sudden rush of warmth in his chest as he stared up at his three concerned friends. MK wasn't alone in this at all; he just needed to stop and remember the friends who were there for him... because they really were there for him right now. He just needed to look back sometimes and not let them get left behind in his shadow.

Huh. Maybe he could stand to learn some more from the shadow monkey after all.

A tiny smile managed to peek at the edges of MK's mouth as he looked up at his friends. "Yeah... yeah, I know." he mumbled, "I'm not gonna leave you guys behind this time, I promise..."

Standing up straight, MK pulled out the staff, "Now come on, I'll explain on the way who this jerk we're gonna rescue is and how the demon holding him is way more of a jerk."

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #my fanfiction #I just really love Macaque you guys #I want him to be in the finale #I'm not 100% that he will be but I do have a good feeling about it at least

[lunar-wandering]

i don’t wanna fight alone anymore - Chapter 6

The ship goes through a thunderstorm.

Wukong is fine.

(warning: Wukong is kinda like. panicking for most of this chapter, mainly this is based on what I do when anxious but. figured i should warn ya i guess.)

Word Count: 2.4k

Read on Ao3

"Hot chocolate is ready!" MK said, walking into the common room, carrying a tray with 4 mugs of hot chocolate on it. He handed one mug to Mei, then turned to hand another one to Macaque, only for Macaque to turn away, not even reaching for the mug. "....Aren't you going to take it?"

"No." Macaque said, plain and simple, slouching down and back into the couch.

"....Why not?" MK asked.

"I can't drink hot chocolate." Macaque sighed, dramatically sliding down off the couch and onto the floor. "Chocolate is poisonous to monkeys."

"But...." Mei started, turning to look at where Wukong was standing behind the couch. "I'm pretty sure we've all seen Monkey King-"

"I'm immortal, so it doesn't matter." Wukong said, "Give me my drink, if you'd please."

"Here." MK handed the mug of hot chocolate to Wukong, who sipped at it as MK turned back around to bring Macaque's unused mug back to the kitchen. As such, he didn't see the look of brief confusion that flashed over Wukong's face as he sipped the drink again, quickly followed by shock, then a tired resignation. All evidence of that, however, was gone by the time MK returned to the room.

"How do you live without chocolate?" MK asked, as he sat down on the couch, looking down at where Macaque now lay on the ground.

"I manage." He said, his eyes closed. Wukong snorted into his cup.

"That's why he's so bitter." Wukong said, "Can't eat chocolate."

Macaque didn't dignify that comment with a response, his ears twitching before he sat back up, looking like he was concentrating on something. He sighed, standing up and walking towards the door.

"And where are you going?" Mei asked.

"To my room." Macaque said, "There's a thunderstorm coming, and I'd rather not get my hearing destroyed any time soon."

With that, Macaque left the room, the door closing behind him.

"A thunderstorm?" MK asked, "I don't think I've been in a thunderstorm, outside of that time Red Son took over the weather station."

"I've been in a few, while traveling." Mei said, shrugging. "Other than being a bit loud, they're not a big deal, really. The weather station keeps storms from happening in the city, so like you said, I haven't been in one for a while."

"Ha, ha, yeah, wouldn't want the power to get knocked out in such a large city, right?" Wukong said, "I'm sure that would cause chaos."

There was a....strange wobble to his voice as he said it, which prompted MK and Mei to look at him with confusion on their faces.

"Are....you okay?" MK asked, eyeing how tightly Wukong was now gripping his mug. Wukong gave a little laugh.

"I'm just fine, kid." Wukong said, before chugging the rest of his hot chocolate in one go. "I think I'm gonna go check in on Pigsy now, see ya!"

And with that, Wukong turned, walking towards the kitchen. MK and Mei watched him go with equal looks of concern on their faces.

-

The first roll of thunder hit when Wukong was helping Pigsy take a batch of cinnamon buns out of the oven. It was so sudden, that even though he had been tense, expecting it, he very nearly dropped the whole tray.

"Careful, don't want to waste them." Pigsy said, noticing the fumble, before pausing as he registered the expression on Wukong's face. "....You okay?"

"Yep, just fine!" Wukong said, setting the tray down on the counter. "Just wasn't expecting it, that's all!"

"If you say so....." Pigsy said, staring at how Wukong stood, hands behind his back, tense. He could tell that something was up, but-

Before Pigsy could say anything else, another bout of thunder rolled through, and suddenly Wukong was moving, turning and heading towards the doorway.

"I'm going to go check on how Tang is doing!" He called, over his shoulder, before disappearing down the hallway.

-

Tang was sitting in his room, reading one of the many books he'd found in Wukong's house. (He'd stolen them, technically, since Wukong didn't know he'd taken them.)

He faintly heard a bout of thunder-

And then Wukong was there, leaning over his shoulder.

"Watcha reading?" He asked, and Tang barely kept himself from startling out of his chair. He chuckled a little at the other's reaction, before returning his attention to the book. "Wait, isn't this one from my house?"

"They're all from your house." Tang said, recovering from the sudden scare. "I figured I'd get some reading material while we were there."

"I mean, at least someone will read them." Wukong said, "I'm not even sure why I held onto them really, I never actually bothered to read them."

"You didn't- why would you just get books and then not read them?" Tang said, "I mean, this one specifically has such a good plot-"

Wukong sat there, crouched on the edge of Tang's chair, and listened to him rant about how good the book was. In truth, Wukong actually had read all the books. At least 50 times. But he wasn't about to tell him that.

Listening to the ranting was actually a good distraction.

Or at least, it was a good distraction.

Eventually, his mind started wandering again, and all it could keep thinking of was-

A clash of thunder rang out, and Wukong stood up, jumping off of the chair and pacing, trying to look casual as he did so. He didn't think he fully succeeded, if the way Tang paused in his speech and looked at him was any indication.

That wouldn't do. He wouldn't- couldn't let any of the others know-

Tang went to open his mouth, and Wukong was already walking out the door.

"I'm going to go hang out with Sandy!" He said as he left.

Tang watched him leave with a frown on his face.

"I was just gonna ask if he was okay...." He mumbled.

-

So maybe going to Sandy wasn't the best idea right now.

Or, well, at least, it wasn't the best idea considering Wukong actively wanted to hide the fact that anything was wrong. Sandy was the best in the group at picking up on the others emotional states, so Wukong should've known that as soon as he entered the room he'd be asked;

"Are you okay?"

"Yep! Perfectly fine!" Wukong lied, wincing as another clang of thunder boomed outside the ship. As much as some part of him wanted to, he couldn't tell him. He couldn't tell him that the loud sound of thunder sounded all too similar to the sound of rocks falling, crashing, and tumbling their way down a mountain.

Besides, it wasn't entirely a lie, he was fine.

He could deal with this.

So long as he had a distraction.

Which was why, even though Sandy eyed him with a fair amount of suspicion, Wukong stayed around him a little while longer, trying to make small talk about any subject he could think of that Sandy might be knowledgeable about. Cats, tea- literally anything that came to mind.

And it worked- between talking about random subjects, and pacing while rubbing his hands up and down his clothing ( a self comforting gesture, he was unsure when he'd starting doing it, but he sure wasn't going to stop now-), the overbearing panic from the thunder was almost dulled enough for him to forget about it.

....But this strategy wouldn't work forever.

-

They'd all gone to bed.

Everyone was asleep.

They were still in the thunderstorm.

And now, Wukong had no one to talk to.

A loud boom rattled the ship, and Wukong barely stopped himself from whimpering as he leaned against the wall of the hallway. On the one hand, at this point, he just wanted to curl up and cry. But on the other hand, staying still for too long just reminded him of being trapped, unable to move-

Another roll of thunder came through, and Wukong couldn't stop the whimper this time.

Fuck. He couldn't do this, he needed- he needed another distraction, someone else to talk to-

But the others were asleep. There was no way he could wake them up for this, not only would it disturb their sleep, but he'd been doing such a good job of pretending everything was fine, that he was still the strong and powerful Monkey King that defeated Demon Bull King five hundred years ago. He couldn't shatter that image for them. They deserved to believe that they were safe with him there.

He couldn't wake them up. If only someone, maybe Sandy, was still awake, maybe then-

....But there was someone awake.

A mental image of Macaque, sitting on his bed, covering his ears so that they wouldn't be hurt by the loud thunder, unable to sleep from the noise, appeared in Wukong's mind.

Almost immediately he dismissed the idea. He'd already spent at least an hour locked up in a magic barrier with the shadow monkey, outside of general interaction around the others, he wasn't going to actively seek out the other's company for anything else. He still didn't trust him. There was no way he was going to let Macaque know about this.

Another loud crack of thunder quickly made him change his mind.

In only a matter of seconds he stood outside of Macaque's door, debating whether or not he should knock. The choice was made for him as the door swung open, Macaque standing there, looking tired and absolutely done with everything.

"Don't even start." He said, stopping Wukong before he could even open his mouth. "I could hear you panicking from miles away."

"I'm not panicking!" Wukong said, despite the fact that he clearly was, and Macaque sighed-

Before pausing, grabbing hold of his scarf and pulling it up to cover his ears, and that was the only warning Wukong got before-

Another clap of thunder hit, this one closer to the ship than the previous ones, based on how loud it was, and both monkey's cringed. A moment passed, then Macaque slowly let the scarf fall down from his ears, lightly rubbing them in an attempt to stop the ringing.

Wukong continued shaking.

Macaque took one look at him and sighed, before grabbing hold of Wukong's wrist, and dragging him down the hallway.

"Hey- what're you-" Wukong started to protest, trying to pull his wrist out of the other's grip, but Macaque held firm.

"I'm not dealing with this tonight." Macaque grumbled, and Wukong's protests continued, only the fear of possibly waking someone up keeping him from shouting at the other.

At least, until they started approaching MK's room.

Wukong dug his heels into the floor, actually managing to bring Macaque to a complete stop.

"We are not waking up MK." Wukong hissed, trying to level Macaque with a threatening glare, although it was very much ineffective, as another bang of thunder made him start shivering again. Macaque, who had used one hand to pull up his scarf and protect his ears from the noise, rolled his eyes.

"Unfortunately for you, I am not going to tolerate your bullshit." He said, ignoring Wukong's offended gasp. "It's late, my ears are ringing, and right now I honestly couldn't care less about your thunder phobia or whatever. You're going to talk about whatever the hell this is with MK and the others, and I'm going to go back to pressing two pillows over my ears so I don't get hearing damage, okay?"

"No-" Wukong said, but it was too late, as Macaque banged his fist on MK's door. There was a startled yelp, and a crash, and Wukong winced, knowing that his successor had probably just fallen out of his bed. A few seconds passed, and then MK slowly opened the door, tiredly rubbing his eyes.

"Macaque? What's going-" MK started, before noticing Wukong, who was very obviously trying to escape Macaque's grip. "...Monkey King?"

"Uh, hey bud!" Wukong said, smiling nervously even as Macaque sent him a warning glance. "Nothing's wrong, you can go back to bed-"

He was cut off by another boom of thunder, cringing and slightly curling in on himself. Macaque had let go of his hand, in order to better cover his own ears, but somehow the thought of running away was suddenly the furthest thing away in Wukong's mind. MK continued to glance between the both of them with confusion and concern.

"...Are you alright?" MK eventually settled on asking and Wukong-

Wukong finally gave in.

".....No." He said, quietly, looking down at the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Macaque fade into the shadows, probably heading back to his room, but he wasn't really focusing on that right now. "I'm....not okay."

"It's the thunder isn't it." MK said, it wasn't a question, it was a statement, and Wukong nodded silently, still refusing to look MK in the eye. "Do you want to talk about it or-"

"I just need a distraction." Wukong said, "Just, I don't want to think about-"

Another clash of thunder, and MK winced sympathetically as Wukong decided to take a page out of Macaque's book and cover his ears with his scarf. Surprisingly enough, the fabric over his ears did actually help a little, it was almost a bit comforting, really.

MK waited until Wukong had mostly pulled himself back together before speaking again.

"We could play Monkey Mech?" He suggested, "I've got a TV and console in my room-"

Wukong practically rushed past him, entering the room and immediately finding the console and turning it on.

-

MK sighed, setting his controller down on his lap as he glanced at the clock.

4 am in the morning.

(Usually, MK would be a bit concerned over how little sleep he was getting, but-

To be honest, he hadn't been sleeping well the past few nights anyways. What was one more sleepless night?)

"Y'know, arguably, you probably should've gone to Sandy for this." MK said.

"Probably, yeah." Wukong mumbled, before looking over at MK. ".....Can you promise me you won't tell the others about this?"

"...Sure." MK knew that the others had also figured it out already, but if Wukong wanted to pretend that no one knew, well, MK certainly wasn't going to be the one to start digging into that.

That was probably a job that would be best left to Sandy in the long-term.

#Monkie Kid #fanfic #my writing #Season 3 fanfic

[cryinginthebackseat]

you’ve got more poison than sugar - part ii

part i    part iii  AO3 

Fandom: Call Of Duty

Pairing: Russell Adler x Bell

Words: 2.918

Warnings: some mild sexual content and swearings, like usual

Author’s note: okay, i know this one's a little short but i promise there'll be more coming on the next chapter, i promise.

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The first time Bell showed her face at Langley, it was two weeks after the program. She wore beige, a ruffled high-neck blouse that made her hazel eyes, like charred nut shells, hard and just about indestructible, popped.

She stood at the lobby, regarding the place like she’d waltzed into a wrong banquet hall, the band played in the background, chandeliers dripping like arctic icicles, the bar drenched in opulent gold.

She didn’t belong here.

But Adler met her there, anyway, Hudson in tow.

“Have I ever done something to him?” Bell asked after the rather short-lived meeting, squinting at the vacant spot Hudson left them. She’d yielded very few words. When she did, it’d been all business, crisp, so it surprised him now to hear her uttering something with more than 2 syllables.

“What do you mean?”

“Have I deliberately done something to piss him off?” she elaborated, quieter, but the glower remained.

Adler carefully studied her behind his tinted shades. It still troubled him to a degree that he couldn’t read her. Like she locked herself off. They say eyes are the window to the soul, but thus far, he saw nothing. Fuck the poets.

“No. At least, not as far as I can tell,” he grits out, curious to see where she was heading with the conversation. “Why?”

Bell hummed, but seemingly unconvinced. A beat, then: “He doesn’t seem to like me that much.”

You don’t belong here, he thought and his face went cagier, back stiffer, but no doubt intrigued. Very much so by this mysteriously curious creature.

Perceptive and diamond-sharp intelligent, he pondered. They might have secured the bag after all.

“It's not you. That’s just as warm and fuzzy you’ll see Hudson with everyone, trust me,” he uttered, hoping that she bought the fib. She did. At least, he thought so. “Come on, Bell, we’ve got a job to do.”

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Adler finds her outside the garage the next night, smoking alone, reading in secret. The ground is still wet from the rain, straggling cloud wisps and every artery of this place fucking freezes his bones. Bell ditches her gloves inside, but has her coat on, the collar popped up like antennae.

"You aren't cold?" he asks when she doesn’t notice him. Too engrossed in her own bubble. She does look better, though. Park is right about that one at least.

"I'm good," she answers without looking up. "Am I needed for something inside?"

"No, just thought I could use some fresh air."

He’s studying her, raking her from head to toe. Suddenly, he doesn’t care if she would notice him. Then he steps closer, standing next to her, lifting his cigarette to his mouth.

“What are you reading?”

There’s something about this secret element to her that has him on his toes. Everything about her is curious- frustratingly curious, careful, as Bell rolls her neck to meet him. In the low light, she looks quite new, he learns. And his eyes beg for him to linger.  

“Amerika. Kafka,” she says. “Have you read it?”

A subtle shake of his head and, “No.” While Bell nods, silent, like she doesn't know what else to say to him. “Should I? Give it a read?” Adler adds, just to keep the conversation going.

She shrugs, a cloud of smoke escaping her nostrils. “I can’t say that Kafka is ever a favorite of mine, but he really is sui generis. And Amerika is probably the most approachable of all his works? It’s funny too.”

“I never thought I’d hear Kafka and funny in the same sentence.”

“Yeah, well, it’s very subtle. And if only you can understand his nightmarish sense of humor, that is,” she explains, shrugging again, like she’s embarrassed. “I don’t know, maybe you’ll like it.”

Frankly, he hates Kafka. He hates his vatic, dead-eye vision of the world; that acute sense of hopelessness clinging onto his main protagonists like vines, but Adler finds himself nodding, anyway.

“Sure, lend me your copy once you're done with it." If she’s surprised by his answer, she does not tell her. But Adler thinks she’s smiling though- just the barest quirk of her lips, but it’s enough for him to know that she appreciates the gesture.

A brief, unmapped silence ensues.

"I'm sorry, by the way."

Adler arches an eyebrow at her. "For what?"

Bell slots a bookmark into the book, closes it, frowns at it.

"For yesterday. I, uh… I feel like I was being insolent to you.”

He looks sidelong at Bell and tries to read her. Her expression is raw and open, a painting visible through a small tear in the paper. For some reason, that catches him by surprise.

“You already apologized, you know?” Adler teases lamely.

“I know, but still it was uncalled for and very unprofessional of me. You’re my CO, not some random BND agent I’m forced to work with. I shouldn’t have said that," she mumbles softly and sighs, world-weary, heavy, sounding like a woman twice her age. "It will not happen again. I promise you."

"Hey, consider it water under the bridge, kid. You’re in a rather rough place right now, I wouldn’t hold it against you,” he tells her, fond. “What matters is you’re alright. We can’t catch Perseus if you’re green around the gills.”

Her eyes meet his. He meets her back.

“Thank you.” And Bell rotates her body to face him. Mussed brunette hair and sharp cheekbones, mouth kinked up in sympathy as she says, “Is this what you have to put up with all these years?"

He summons a smirk. "With you? More or less."

And then the woman does the unexpected; Bell laughs. She fucking laughs. Delicate sounding, like a tinkling glass, petals wrapped in satin, moonbeams through frosted windows. It dies, too soon to his liking. Adler privately lets the sound of her laughter replays in his head, as if trying to pocket it.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It’s only after Ukraine when he discovers that she smells different. That wintry floral smell of hers that he’s accustomed to is commingling with something else.

But now-

Now, there's music in the air.

Sims does this sometimes, bringing his Zenith Trans-Oceanic, or as he would call it the Tranny, to the safehouse and they would tune in to international radio stations. Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love is playing- or more specifically, their song is 5 seconds away from being cut off abruptly by the DJ. The song reminds him of Vietnam, regrettably. The root of all madness.

“Next up, is my favorite ever track-to-track transition on an album. This is Pink Floyd’s Brain Damage and-”

Adler stops whatever it is he’s scribbling. He sits up, ramrod straight.

“Mind switching to another station?” he asks suddenly, glances up at Sims quickly who, as Adler suspected, is giving him a rather odd look.

“Why?”

"I've always hated Pink Floyd." Only because he’s out of reason. Only because he can feel Bell’s confused stare, searing into his temple. Only because it’s the only way of escaping this. "Change it, please."

Sims opens his mouth. The unspoken: how about that time in Denver?

The telling jerk of Adler’s lips warns him not to ask.

The other man clamps his mouth shut, seemingly gets the message and switches to a different station. He never brings his radio again.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Frank Woods is exactly how Adler saw him last time- or since Hue City, that is: tigerish and intimidating- a kick in the head voice, a hurricane in the shape of a man and he is making his way to him right now.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?”

"So talk."

Woods shakes his head. "Not here."

Adler looks at him at last now, curiosity creeping over him. He then stubs his cigarette, nods once and leads them both to his office.

Once they’re inside, he locks the door, secures the blinds.

“What is it?” Adler takes a seat behind his desk. Woods remains standing. He paces around the room, a hand on his bearded chin.

“What the fuck is going on with your girl?”

Adler doesn’t know which one is worse, the fact that Woods manages to sniff out something going on with Bell or that he just addresses her as his girl. Either way, it's bad. Either way, Adler should have expected the former issue. Woods is astute as he is dangerous. There's a reason why the CIA gave the green light for Mason and Hudson to save him in Da Nang all those years ago, after all.

"What about her?" Adler asks, even-toned, giving nothing away. Even though he is in the ‘need to know’ column regarding Bell’s brainwashing, this is something Adler initially wishes he could keep under wraps.

“Don’t bullshit me, Adler. She has that look on her face- I see it in her eyes. The exact same look Mason has been wearing since ‘Nam,” Woods tells him, point-blank, never being the one to settle for niceties. After Hudson, Adler thinks he simply can’t tolerate the agency anymore.

“I saw it all, remember? Had a fucking front row seat to his relapse and shit, so don’t tell me she’s alright. Not when it looks like she could snap out of it any moment.” Woods has his hands on the table and looks at him dead-on. “Tell me I’m right. Tell me there is something wrong with her.”

He regards the other man coolly. Woods is no longer asking. Adler is out of move.

“You're right,” he answers simply, eventually, tipping his king over on its side, stopping the clock. "Did you talk to Hudson regarding this?"

"Since when did I report to Agent stick-up-his-ass? Fuck no. That's why I came straight to you.” Woods heaves a heavy sigh, like he’s the one with all these burdens. “Now, what the hell’s wrong with her?”

“She’s suffering from brain damage."

“Shit. All that ‘cause of MK-Ultra?”

“One of the few factors that caused it, yes.”

His mouth goes flat. "How bad is it?”

“Bad. We’re trying to minimize for any collateral as we speak, at least until we finally get our hands on Perseus. But she… she might not make it.” Adler leans back in his chair, like his body feels heavy all of the sudden.

Woods nods. Uncharacteristically silent, looking strangely contemplative, sympathetic even. That should be categorized as an oddity itself, Woods and him, two proud Americans, Vietnam veterans and she’s just another red, another blood they would indubitably sacrifice for their country and they’re sympathizing with her? Yet something deep inside Adler, something resonates like the throat of a storm, sinks its teeth into him, confounds him, every time he thinks of her.

Woods crosses his arms over his chest, glances at the door, as if someone might knock anytime soon, then back to him.

"So, what's the plan?" He quickly adds, "if things go south, what are you gonna do?"

"It won't come to that. She'll come through, I know it," Adler counters, suddenly defensive. Whatever the use of his tone indicates, Woods ignores it.

"You sure about that?”

"Are you doubting me?” Adler spits out a retort. A quiet fury grasps him tight, but he forces himself to keep under a tight lid.

Woods holds his hands up in mock surrender.

"Look, I’m just saying, that woman is a loose cannon- you can’t be too careful."

"We have everything under control, Woods. And this is the least of your worry right now."

"Alright, okay. If you say you and Park have her contained already, then fine. I trust you,” he says and heads for the door.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Woods says again. He’s facing the door, back to him. “Whatever happens, keep Mason in the dark about any of this."

“Of course. He isn’t on a need to know basis from the very start, you know that.”

"Good. ‘cause the less he knows the better." Woods pauses like he's constructing an entire sentence in his head. He peers over his shoulder. "I mean it. He’s been through enough. I don’t know which ground you crawled up from, but up here, some people implement this kind of civility to other people.”

The words sting, yet Adler stares back at him, seemingly unfazed. "What, you’re saying that I’m simply heartless?”

“Nah,” Woods says, satirical and sardonic. “You’re just Adler.” And with that, he’s gone.

1976

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It was eight o'clock on a mid-September evening and Adler found himself coming home to an empty house.

His wife had already left a week prior, crossing the country with a self-proclaimed film critic she'd met at the premiere of The Shining last summer, but Adler didn't know that yet.

He went to the kitchen. Dropped his suitcase, pulled off his coat and scarf. He reeked of cigarettes, cheap air freshener and jet fuel- air travel is simply sickening, in terms of its cost and smell- and in a desperate need of a hot bath.

"Honey?" He switched the lights on. She wasn't here. So Adler headed upstairs, to their room where they would rest their bones every night for the past 15 years. The door was slightly ajar. He expected to see her sleeping from under the duvet, hair splaying all over the pillow.

What he found was a folded note on his bedside table. He stared at it, his heart at his throat, fearing the worst, the unimaginable. He picked the letter and unfolded it.

Forgive me.

Russell,

Live or die, but don't poison everything .

His head did pirouette. So, this was it. This was what it felt like, he thought.

Not heartbreak, not sadness. But a collapse of the world- his world and all he could do was watch from the sidelines.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1981

Adler stares at the words now, sleeves rolled up, anatomical heart. The paper is fading, wrinkled and it smells like smoke and decay and tears, capped with something akin to regret.

It has his name on it, begins with it, and ends with an apology, written in cursive. Like microscopic snakes dancing around his peripheral vision, hissing in his ears.

Live or die, but don't poison everything.

No one likes to be told that they are sick, but Russell Adler has learned to acknowledge it, embrace it, weaponize it. Her words mean zero shit to him now. You can't condemn someone to the depths of hell when it's the only place he's known all his life.

So, he takes the letter for the last time, remembering how the ink used to smudge his calloused fingers, crumples it up, that satisfying crunch dins in his palm, and tosses it into the fireplace.

The paper crackles. Good fucking riddance. It really takes all this time for him to grow the guts, apparently, and he just stares and stares as the fire begins to engulf everything, wiping away his past failure.

He promises he would never fail again, at anything. No matter what the cost, failure is never going to be an option.

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Bell arrives at the garage with frantic eyes, a half-burnt cigarette between her lips and uncharacteristically late. Color peppering her cheeks- red, like an apple bitten into.

“I’m sorry, I overslept,” is her excuse, but she’s looking at the room strangely, he thinks, almost like she’s seeking a particular face.

When she makes her way to her desk, when she whizzes past him by the board and her planet is entering his orbit for the first time in the morning, Adler, as if by accident or by design, inhales deeply.

His breath snags.

She smells like someone else.

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(Someone fucked her last night)

The telephone rings in the distance.

“Sims. Yeah, sure, let me get him. Hold on.” He puts the call on hold. “Doc, you might wanna take this one.”

(Someone was in her bed; beside her, above her, under her. Inside her. He imagines her fingers digging into the mattress as they rolled her onto her stomach, mouth trailing down the ladder of her spine. Their breaths intermingled in the seraphic glow of her hotel room)

Adler mechanically crosses the room and picks the receiver.

“Adler.”

(If he herds her away from prying eyes and pushes down the collar of her shirt, would he see the evidence there, taunting him? If he kisses her, would he taste them instead of her? )

"Perhaps," he says over the phone, his face hard. "But my decision is final. I'm sending Woods and Mason to Yamantau. They'll leave in a few days."

(Did they make her come?)

"Of course. Why do you think I chose them for this mission?"

(If she made them?)

“Most likely, but we're prepared for this- you know we are," Adler says, customer service polite, an old recording on a playback. "Right. Well, that concludes the matter then. Yeah, you have a wonderful day to yourself.”

Adler hangs up the telephone. Breathes out a sigh. He pinches the bridge of his nose for a few good seconds, before remembering that he has an audience.

"Oof. Sounds rough," comments Sims, dark eyes slanting in concern.

(Maybe she likes that, rough. Teeth biting the back of her shoulder, that sweet juxtaposition of pain and pleasure coursing through their veins, his hand curling around her throat from behind as she pants and mewls like-)

(But this isn’t about him. Never about him)

"That's one way to put it."

Someone else fucked her. It shouldn't leave an acrid taste in his mouth, but it does.

#russell adler #russell adler x bell #adler x bell #cod bell #cod #call of duty #call of duty black ops #call of duty cold war #cod cold war #alex mason #frank woods #helen park #lawrence sims #jason hudson #lazar azoulay

[inkweaver22-blr]

Welp. Here's the first chapter of that Tang fic I was talking about. Hopefully the characters aren't too out of character for this first chapter. They will be for sure in the future though. No content warnings yet but if that changes I'll make sure to add them. There's going to be lots of pairings in this one but I don't really know any of the ship names so if people want to call them out as they appear I'll add them to the tags.

AO3 Link

Chapter Two

Scattered Cicadas - Chapter One: The Cycle

Tang seems to be stuck in a strange cycle. Might as well make the most of it.

-------------

Tang was certain by now that whatever was happening wasn’t a time loop. The starting points of each new cycle were too inconsistent, as were their endings. After nearly three dozen of these strange restarts and only a third of them beginning on the day MK received the Monkey King’s staff, the scholar was fairly confident in his conclusion.

“Alright, let’s see what this timeline has in store for us,” the man said as he stared at his reflection in the full-length mirror next to his dresser. He had started this little exercise around the seventeenth reset or so after noticing something else that only added more evidence against his original time loop theory.

“My name is Tang. I work at the public library.” So far nothing out of the ordinary. “I share an apartment with my good friend Pigsy.” Ah, the first and most common change he had noticed throughout this strange experience. And it was a change. He was fairly certain he had his own place originally. “While I am not in a romantic relationship with Pigsy, I harbor a small crush on him.”

Tang continued listing things about his current life as they came to him. He had discovered the various discrepancies compared to his original time fairly early on. So far the differences had been relatively minor. Demon Bull King being freed in the Winter instead of Spring. Mei’s family being descended from a blue dragon instead of green. Sandy’s ship being filled with therapy ferrets instead of cats.

The scholar was at first thrown by the changes, and had gone through some rather embarrassing freakouts the first few times. Luckily he discovered early on that while he never personally experienced the events of these worlds or timelines, if he focused enough, the memories of them would appear. Thus his new little routine he did at the beginning of a new cycle. He found looking at himself in the mirror seemed to speed up the recollection.

“It has been roughly two weeks since Demon Bull King has been freed and MK received the Monkey King’s glaive, thus becoming his successor.” Now that was interesting. This was the first time the Monkey King’s signature weapon was different.

It was all these changes to the world and the new memories that matched them that had squashed the initial time loop theory. In all his reading of both fiction and historical events, Tang had never heard of time travel that worked this way. His second theory, that he was somehow trapped in the Calabash by Jin and Yin, was also quickly discarded. He had the displeasure of experiencing its effects first hand several cycles back and it certainly did not implant new memories into his head.

Tang finished up the recap of his new memories and paused. Nope, nothing else it seemed. With a shrug he finished preparing for work. Hopefully it would be a slow day so he could get a bit more research done into what might be happening. Perhaps this was a celestial punishment as opposed to a demonic curse? He hoped that wasn’t the case but he wouldn’t be a scholar if he dismissed any avenue of investigation just because he disliked it.

Locking the apartment behind him, Tang made his way to the nearest bus stop with a spring in his step. While the situation was certainly less than ideal, the thought of some thorough research was always something he looked forward to.

------------

Tang slowly stirred the noodles in his bowl, his brow furrowed in distraction. One of his favorite reference books for ancient mystical history at the library had been changed. Well, to be more accurate, it was different in this timeline. The author was the same, but the contents were certainly not.

Why had it not ever occurred to the librarian that if the current history around him could change, that ancient history could as well? If that was the case, then how could he trust whatever lead he might find to be actually helpful to his situation? What if the knowledge he needed didn’t exist in the timeline he was currently in? What if it only existed in his original timeline?

With a despondent sigh, Tang continued to swirl around his untouched noodles, his negative thoughts seeming to spiral in the same circular loop.

“Oi! Earth to Tang!”

Tang jumped, almost spilling his bowl as he jerked at Pigsy’s shout. He looked up to see the pig demon across the counter with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

“If you’re going to be a freeloader you might as well appreciate the food I worked hard on,” the chef scolded without any real heat in his tone. “Something eating you?”

“Uh, y-yes I suppose you could say that,” Tang stammered. Pigsy raised an eyebrow and Tang flushed. The lack of confidence he normally projected had certainly been noticed by Pigsy.

“Well spit it out then. Don’t have all night.” Despite the gruffness of his words, Tang could pick out the small bits of concern in the chef’s tone.

“Well, I seem to have hit a stumbling block in one of my research projects,” Tang explained as he pushed his glasses back up and began to relax. While Pigsy always acted angry at Tang for the mooching of noodles, the pig demon, across every timeline so far, never forced the scholar to pay and was always a great listener. “I’ve come across some evidence that many of the historical texts I’m looking into might be presented differently to the events that actually transpired.”

“Isn’t that how most of history is like though?” Pigsy leaned against the counter, his scowl replaced with a puzzled frown. “Didn’t you say something last month about how history books were mostly the writers' biases or something?”

Tang blinked at that. He did somewhat recall the conversation as he focused on it, but hadn’t thought Pigsy had been paying enough attention to his rant at the time.

“Yes I suppose that is true,” the scholar conceded.

“What do you normally do when you come across these changes?”

“I keep looking for a more accurate version of the text or form an educated guess based on all the evidence I gather.”

“Then what’s the problem? If you already know how to solve the issue then there’s no reason dwelling on it. Just keep going until it's fixed,” Pigsy said bluntly.

Tang just stared at the chef for a moment. Was it really just that simple? A smile slowly spread across his face as he realized that, yes, yes it could be. Even if the knowledge in this timeline was different, that didn’t make it useless. Knowledge was power, and who knew what tiny pieces he could find to fit together into a workable solution. Leave it to Pigsy’s pragmatic outlook to cut straight to the problem and efficiently solve it.

“Thanks Pigsy,” Tang said, smiling sincerely.

“Yeah, no problem.” Pigsy waved his hand in dismissal and, was that a blush Tang saw? “Now eat your noodles before they get cold.” The pig demon quickly moved off to help a new customer that had walked in, leaving Tang to his bowl.

As he ate the delicious noodles, Tang watched Pigsy as he worked.

He had always admired his friend, even in his original timeline. What he was unsure of were the romantic feelings he had for the pig. Outside of sharing an apartment together, the relationship status between the pair was the second most common change he experienced. The first time he had woken up in the same bed as Pigsy had resulted in one of his earliest embarrassing freak outs that had resulted in a few hurt feelings for a while.

While Tang could see how these feelings could have blossomed, he couldn’t quite remember if he had felt this way in his original time. He had simply gone with the flow the many times they were romantically involved and if he was honest, they had been some of the most pleasant moments he could remember since this whole timeline jumping mess had started.

He studied the chef as he gracefully moved about his kitchen, chopping vegetables and rolling dough. The pig demon had a gruff exterior, but obviously cared about those around him a lot. He was steady and sensible, always scolding someone for doing something stupid but always there with straightforward advice if asked. He made sure that no one would ever be hungry while he was around and woe be it unto any customer who insulted his family within his earshot.

Pigsy, as if sensing the eyes on him, looked up and met Tang’s gaze. He gave the scholar a brief smile before returning to the broth he had been stirring.

As a warmth filled his chest that didn't have to do with the noodles, Tang made a decision that he was sure Pigsy would have approved of. It didn’t really matter what their relationship was. Platonic or romantic, Tang loved Pigsy for being Pigsy and always would. If these alternate worlds seemed set on making them more than friends, well then who was he to complain.

Drinking the remaining broth in his bowl, Tang grinned as he decided to act on Pigsy’s advice. This version of him had a crush on the chef and he already knew the solution for fixing that.

“Hey Pigsy! You free for a date this Friday?”

His grin grew wider as Pigsy dropped his ladle into the pot of broth and whirled around and began stammering. Behind him, the scholar heard Mei crow in victory and began demanding that MK ‘pay up’.

These strange jumps in time were certainly a less than ideal situation, but Tang decided to not worry too much about them. He knew it was only a matter of time until a solution presented itself. While he waited for that to happen, who would blame him for trying to enjoy himself in the meantime?

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First chapter done wooo! Now the following chapters won't be in a strict chronological order as Tang jumps around, but some events do come before others. As for what's going on... You'll just have to wait and see~ See you in chapter two!

#Ink Writes #LEGO Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid #Scattered Cicadas #Tang #Tang Monkie Kid #Pigsy #Mei #MK #freenoodleshipping

[yunatheintrovert]

the definition of freedom | Protective!Perseus/Fem!Bell

Note: This takes place in a post-Solovetsky AU where the CIA delayed Bell's termination until later on after Solovetsky. 

The sea breeze brushed against your face as you walked alongside Adler. You glanced at him, biting back the questions nipping at your mind. He hadn’t told you anything in the briefing. The only details revealed were the time and date of the exchange, not one mention of whoever was going to be exchanged in return for the US Senator held hostage. 

Just as you opened your mouth to ask at least where the hostage was, Adler abruptly stopped in his steps, looking at the little dirt hiking path in front of you.

You heard the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer along with the muffled sound of protests-

Your thoughts were cut short by the sight of the very man who haunted your memories and dreams. 

Perseus.

The Soviet spymaster was standing there with the struggling figure of the US Senator his operatives had taken hostage during the politician's overseas trip.

You tensed, your hand immediately going to the gun holstered at your waist. Yet when you looked to Adler questioningly, he shook his head. 

Reluctantly, you brought your hand away from the gun. You shifted uneasily as you stood there waiting for whatever the hell was going to take place. That moment of uneasy silence was broken as you finally mustered up the nerve to speak up. 

“Where’s the hostage?” you asked hesitatingly, nervously glancing at Adler. There was something...off with him. 

Adler casually took a drag of his cigarette before sighing out.

“It’s you, kid.” Adler said before gesturing to Perseus, “Now, go to him.” 

“No, no-” you shook your head in denial, taking several stumbling steps away from Adler, “I-I don’t understand-”

Adler sighed, flicking off the ash from the cigarette in his hand. You watched as the embers fell onto the grass below, “Of course you wouldn’t, kid.” 

“Bell, we have a job to do.” 

You blinked, a flash of sterile white filled your vision before fading into a hellish crimson. 

And as soon as it started, it was over. You felt something abruptly snap in mind. The unease within you faded away as you stared at him.

Everything felt distant.

You numbly nodded to him. 

Taking several steps forward, you looked to Perseus. There was something inexplicably familiar about him. He looked like something out of your dreams. 

The same Soviet military coat, telnyashka, and knife sheathed at his belt. 

Perseus was exactly how he appeared in your memories. 

You blinked for a moment, stopping in your steps. 

Was this just a dream?

A test of your true loyalties?

You turned around to look at Adler questioningly once again-

And suddenly there was a crack that reverberated through the air. 

You suddenly felt a bloom of heat at your neck. You instinctively brought a hand up to your neck only to find a heated substance spilling out from the bloom of heat. 

You pulled away your hand only to find it covered in an all too familiar crimson. 

Blood.

You blinked in shock. You turned to stare in the direction you heard the loud crack of the gunshot coming from only to find yourself staring at Perseus. 

You could have sworn right then and there he almost looked shocked .

How funny , you distantly thought. 

Because really the idea of someone much less Perseus caring about you was just comical. 

Hudson was right, after all.

You were of no use to Perseus at this point. 

Nothing but damaged goods. 

Yet as you felt blood well up in your mouth, you couldn’t stop the words from falling off your lips.

“Прости.”

You really didn’t know what compelled you to say that. 

Perhaps, you were sorry for wasting the Soviet spymaster’s time and effort. 

Or for how you betrayed him at the start, succumbing to Adler’s voice in MK Ultra. 

You didn’t remember him.

Yet all those things still haunted you. 

And then you heard a second gunshot from behind you. 

You felt the gunshot at your back throw you to the ground. The bullet hit your ballistic vest underneath your jacket. Yet you choked on the fresh new blood gurgling in your throat from the impact. 

“Nyet...you said you would let her go-”

“No, I said I would set her free.” Adler’s voice calmly said. It reminded you of how he would go over the mission briefings, coolly in that exact detached tone. You laughed lightly to yourself with your chest shaking as you choked even more on the blood welling up in your throat.

At least it would make it quicker, you thought to yourself. 

You heard the sound of approaching footsteps before you were forced onto your back by an abrupt kick to the ribs. 

“What’s more free than this?” 

You stared up at Adler’s face, not even finding it in yourself to be quite shocked.

You should have known better really.

Your use to Adler...Hudson...the CIA was non-existent at this point.

It was only time that you were going to be put down like this.

You only wished he shot you point-blank instead of letting you bleed out slowly like this. 

There was that brief thought that crept up in your mind. He could have easily gotten you to do the job yourself with the press of a gun in your hand and the muttering of that phrase. 

Suddenly, you heard the familiar accented voice of Perseus speak up calmly. 

“ты пожалеешь об этом.” 

And then all hell broke loose. 

Smoke flooded into the clearing in a sudden familiar hiss of several canisters popping open. You wheezed at the smoke inhaled into your lungs. Your vision blurred and dimmed with every desperate breath you struggled to take. 

Suddenly, amidst all the chaos of explosions and bullets going off around you, you vaguely heard the sound of footsteps approaching you. You glanced to the side only to see the blurry figure of Perseus there with his gas mask on before he kneeled down to you. 

...Was he going to finish you off like the traitor you were?

You let your hands lay limply at your sides. 

You weren’t going to fight him...not now. 

And so you watched numbly as he quickly brought a gloved hand to your throat, pressing harshly on the wound there. You groaned at the feeling of leather digging into the bullet wound. 

You closed your eyes instinctively. 

Perseus really did want to make you suffer before you died.

Although, you vaguely wondered why he would want to torture you right in the middle of a firefight. 

"You Americans...did you really think I came here without a fail-safe? I hope you enjoy the parting gift I left with the senator." you heard Perseus say calmly though you could tell there was a quiet fury to his voice.

You could understand that. Going all the way to Argentina for a hostage exchange only for it to turn out to be for nothing would be annoying. 

Although, Perseus needed to hurry up with torturing you if he wanted to deal out any real pain. You could already feel your vision dim more and more and your breathing slow. 

Cold, you noted. There was an icy feeling that seeped into your being more and more. 

It was ironic how the only warmth you felt was Perseus’ gloved hand pressing down hard on your neck. 

Suddenly, you felt the warmth leave your neck. You didn’t bother to even open your eyes. 

You knew what was going to happen next-

Yet you found yourself slowly opening your eyes in surprise at the feeling of being picked up and warmth pressed against your side. You opened your eyes to see the olive green color of Perseus’ military coat as he was...carrying you with one arm under your legs and another supporting your back. Your head was resting against his shoulder. 

“Keep the pressure at your neck, comrade.” Perseus said hurriedly, glancing down at you. You felt his steps quicken as you heard the faint sound of blades clipping through the air come closer and closer at the cliff-side. 

You opened your mouth even as you felt hot blood spill out of your lips. You choked as you struggled to ask why . Then again, deep down you knew the answer. Perseus was still maintaining that hope he could get something out of you to use against Adler.

He’s wasting his time, you thought numbly.

Sighing one last time, you leaned into the warmth against you as your vision dimmed more and more…

“Nyet, nyet- ” 

________________________________________________________________

Author’s Note: This was originally supposed to be a 200-300 word length snippet I was only going to post on here. However, this ended up being way longer than I planned and expected. Also, grammar and descriptive details have left the chat in my mind so my writing is way more brief and less descriptive in this. Apologies for that. Well, I hope this turned out alright. Thanks for reading!

#cod perseus #Perseus x Bell #perseus/fem!Bell #Female!Bell #cod cold war fanfiction #reader-insert #second person POV #perseus x reader #perseus/reader