#Season 4 better deliver | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

geekgirles · 2 months

Text

I'm actually quite proud of Armand right now. Openly admitting to Amalia the reason their relationship was always strained was because he'd always been jealous of her and her relationship with their father is such a great character moment for him.

One thing season 4 is definitely delivering is some much needed depth and exploration of the Sadida Royal family. And I find myself fascinated (not only because Amalia is my favourite character and I have a soft spot for her people).

Personally, Armand is a character I have a lot of trouble having a clear stance on. I don't hate him, and it's true his motives become clear and even understandable once you give them some thought, it's just that Ankama does a wonderful job at making him both outwardly dislikable given his abrasive personality and some of his most questionable actions.

For example, season 3 Armand and season 4 Armand are almost like night and day. Maybe it is indeed that his new role as king has forced him to be more responsible and emotionally mature, but the vibes between L'assamblée and Falling Down are completely different.

In season 3 he just oozed contempt for his sister, and his actions towards her reeked of ulterior motives. The fact that Aurora has been described as manipulative (even her hairstyle is meant to hint at her true nature) and was purposely placed in between the two siblings as a visual nod to how she's keeping them apart doesn't help matters.

Which is another factor to take into account: Aurora's character and the role she plays in the siblings' deteriorating bond.

Even if so far she seems to genuinely love Armand, I really can't bring myself to trust Aurora. Not only because of all the behind-the-scenes facts I already mentioned, but because her actions are just sketchy and clearly veered to the betterment of the Osamodas rather than the Sadida.

First of all, her contempt for Amalia is genuine and she legitimately seems to be planning to send her away to keep her from interfering with her plans. After all, this is literally what she had to say about her sister-in-law:

"Ne vous en faîtes pas mon prince, nous finirons bien par redresser cette mauvaise herbe."

Translation: "Don't worry, my prince, we'll get this weed straightened out in the end."

(I haven't watched the English dub, so my apologies if the translation doesn't match the official version).

There's also the fact that, despite being the new Sadida Queen, her intentions in season 3 clearly laid in the benefit of her own kingdom, the Osamodas. Such is reflected in her choice of suitors for Amalia:

She intended for Amalia to marry Ashdur, her own cousin, thus, strengthening the Osamodas' hold over Sadida politics. In fact, it becomes quite clear Aurora's choice in suitors, only supported by Amalia implying back then her sister-in-law had already tried the same thing with her brothers, was much less about the future of the Sadida Kingdom and more about the Osamodas' sake.

After all, while arranged marriages between royal families isn't anything new, usually the sensible and even most strategic thing to do is for rulers to"spread" their children and marry them into different families around the world. That is exactly what Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabela of Castile did with their own children, they married them off to the royal families of England, Portugal, and Austria.

With that in mind, having both Sheran Sharm children marry Osamodas royalty just seems dumb, doesn't it? It all comes to show Aurora is more concerned over solidifying her power over the Sadida Kingdom than its actual well-being.

Which is why I'm still going to keep my guard up regarding her character until the season ends. After all, we still have 9 more episodes where everything can go up in flames.

But going back to Armand, even though he is in love with his wife, his treatment of Amalia in L'assamblée is leagues better than it was in season 3. Unlike most of his appearances and his interactions with his sister, where he kept treating her like a child who didn't know any better (what she just so happened to accuse him of when presented with Ashtur, as a matter of fact), here not only does he finally open up to his sister about his insecurities and his reasoning for his behaviour towards her, but he offers her support in the wake of their father's passing and even invites her to attend the assembly with him.

He is entrusting her with responsibilities befitting a queen, not a child.

Their relationship is finally healing.

As I said earlier, despite the undeniable depth behind his character, it's difficult to really side with Armand in plenty of occasions. Not only because of his difficult personality and flaws, but because it is so much easier to sympathise with Amalia.

And I'm not talking exclusively about the fact that, as one of the main characters, we've been by her side throughout everything, witnessing her true selfless, responsible, and brave self, but the fact that her position within her own family certainly tugs at our heartstrings.

Amalia is the youngest sibling, the princess. For all the sheltering and privileges that can get her, it also became her gilded cage. And for the most part, not even her family was a safe haven.

Queen Sheran Sharm died when Amalia was probably still a kid, whereas Armand was most likely already a teenager. As King Oakheart revealed back when he explained to Amalia it had been Armand who insisted they let her go, the queen's death shook their entire family, making the king and prince unintentionally turn their backs on Amalia during a time she needed as much affection as possible. And so, her royal duties became stifling, her royal upbringing unbearable. Thus is the reason for her wanderlust.

And then we have Armand's reason for not always being fair to her: jealousy. He resented her for being Oakheart's favourite, despite constantly going off to adventures while he remained in the kingdom by his side. Now, as I said, this was a great character moment for Armand, one that also belies his character development. However, it doesn't change the fact that, while easier to relate and sympathise with him, we still sympathise with Amalia more or have been doing so for far longer because we knew the effect this had had on her.

We all have been someone's scapegoat to their frustrations with a third person, we have all been treated unfairly by someone who, for whatever reason, couldn't solve their own issues with the person they had problems with in the first place and took it out on us. This is the crux of Armand and Amalia's strained relationship: for years, Armand took his frustrations and insecurities out on Amalia instead of having an honest conversation with their father.

That's why it's easier to sympathise with Amalia, because we know that, deep down, for all her flaws, she was never at fault for how their relationship turned out. Because we can understand her frustration and pain when, even with their dying father, Armand still chose to listen to his wife over her and try to marry her off instead of being there for each other when they both needed most. As Amalia called him out for before leaving with Yugo, he still chose politics over family. Everything involving Armand and Aurora is about politics.

But now that they are at least beginning to rebuild their relationship, I sincerely hope things get better for them. Unless their original intentions back in 2017 have changed, I seriously fear Ankama will still use Aurora to complicate things further between these two.

Please, Ankama, I'm literally begging you. They're all the family they each have left, don't let their relationship be ruined forever.

#wakfu #wakfu spoilers #wakfu season 4 #wakfu season 4 spoilers #un nouveau monde #a new world #l'assamblée #the assembly #wakfu analysis #wakfu season 3 #falling down #amalia sheran sharm #armand sheran sharm #king oakheart sheran sharm #aurora #wakfu aurora #ankama #osamodas #sadida

183 notes · View notes

jamilelucato · 2 years

Note

What about vecna with a female reader who’s the queen to his king?

Fluff plz

show: Stranger Things (SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4)

pairing: f!reader x peter ballard/henry/vecna/001

summary: Steve Harrington's sister decides she needs to visit the Upside Down one more time.

a/n: hi! hope you like it! I know it's not much fluffy but I tried my best :) @stygianoir

*** there are some mentions of depression and k#lling oneself so heads up guys

“I don’t like this plan, sis,” said Steve, shaking his head.

She stared at him, with a kind smile. He was her favourite brother, or, in her case, her only brother. But it didn’t matter. [y/n] could have had twenty brothers and she’d still say Steve was her favourite. They were like that.

“Well, we don’t have a better one, do we?” she said, sighing.

After becoming friends with Nancy’s brother’s friend group, Steve Harrington didn’t have much choice but to do everything in his power to protect those children. That, unfortunately, meant one terrible night where his sister followed him to figure out what was happening with her older brother only to get sucked into the Upside Down with Will Byers.

While the young boy got sick and had to be hospitalized, she, on the other hand, was completely fine. [y/n] Harrington had nightmares every night, and she’d wake in a cold sweat, but so would all of them. The whole gang was having trouble sleeping after that first experience with the other side.

But, deep down, [y/n] knew something was wrong. Something had changed, not just in her mind, but in her very core. That wasn’t enough to alarm anyone, so she kept it quiet. [y/n] tried to live her life like it was before she met Eleven and befriended a bunch of twelve-year-olds.

One day, then, it was as if nothing had been fixed — the Upside Down invaded their lives all over again and [y/n] had to jump into action to protect not only herself and her brother but also the children she learned to love. However, this time, she had an advantage not foreseen: [y/n] had powers.

Not as big and awesome as Eleven’s — no, definitely not deadly like hers — but they were powers nonetheless. [y/n] could lift some things (small and almost weightless things) in the air with just her mind. And when she wanted something, to influence someone, she could do it. The whole gang was shocked when she commended a Russian to stop in his tracks and leave them be. Yeah, it had been just one of the Russians but it was a big thing in the eyes of Max, the redheaded girl that saw [y/n] with good eyes.

So, it was no surprise that when there was a big chance another demon from the Upside Down was at Hawkins again, [y/n] was in the middle of the action, as an active member of the party.

“You were there Stee, you saw when Max got in a trance,” she said, trying to convince her brother with words and not her powers. It was true she hadn't been practising much — she didn’t like it — but she knew it could slip on, like a switch, without her even noticing it. “That girl is in danger and we’re just gonna let that happen?”

“I know you wanna help Max, I do too, but this is not the way!” Steve was raising his voice at her, but only because he loved her so very much and he could not manage to lose her. “You’re not going to the Upside Down. Not again!”

“Steve, this might be our only shot,” said Nancy, opining in. She had become a dear friend to you, and, in those moments where Steve was hotheaded, Nancy would always be at your side.

“She’s not as powerful as El, Nancy!” exclaimed Steve. “She might have some abilities, which are cool, but they aren’t enough! We’ll be delivering her directly to the Vecna thing. Robin, say something!”

Robin, surprised with being called out, stared from Steve to [y/n] and gulped. “Maybe it’s better… it’s better if she goes, Steve.”

Steve stared at his best friend with disbelief.

“Steve,” [y/n] placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Don’t make me use my powers on you.”

“You can’t,” he looked at her, but she didn’t budge. She raised an eyebrow. “You wouldn’t.”

“Brother, you know I’m our only chance right now. Eleven lost her powers, but I didn’t. They might seem small, but they’re all we’ve got. Let me fight Vecna, Stee.”

He closed his eyes tight, placing his hand over hers.

“I know you’re our best weapon at the time, but… but, [y/n], you’ll be getting inside his territory. Don’t you think Vecna will be secure there?” Steve asked, giving in on her request, but at the same time acting very much worried.

Robin watched the exchange with pity in her eyes.

“It will be worse if we wait for Vecna to get here. He’ll be stronger,” she said.

“Besides, [y/n]’s powers are more of the psychic kind if you think about it. She has a fair chance against the monster that attacks the minds of others,” said Nancy, looking at Steve.

“So,” said Dustin, walking in and noticing the whole emotional scene displayed, “do we have a decision?”

They all looked at Steve Harrington, the brother with everything to lose.

“We do.”

Dustin had discovered that the only possible place for the portal to be at was the lake, and so that was where they dropped you off. Wearing her clothes still, [y/n] jumped in and swam to the deep bottom, looking for the “secret passage”. And as the boy had stated, there it was.

It was disgusting and gross, but [y/n] Harrington knew she had to do what was needed, what was best for everyone in Hawkins. She closed her eyes and worked her legs, throwing herself in.

After a second of full darkness, [y/n] managed to see light. She had been to the Upside Down before, but this time, it was different. It didn’t look like it at all. First, because there was light, quite a big deal of it if compared to the traumatic time [y/n] passed down here.

But it wasn’t just the light itself. The inverted Hawkins was just like the normal one. No mystic fog or weird gross things on the ground. This time, the Upside Down was a complete and faithful copy of the city [y/n] grew at.

Something was wrong, she thought while getting up.

“It’s different, isn’t it?”

[y/n] froze. Where was the voice coming from? Was it Vecna’s?

“It’s distinct from your last time here.”

“Who said that?” she shouted to the atmosphere.

She went on, walking, but it didn’t feel like escaping, because there wasn’t anything visible to escape from. It all was quiet and clean. She felt like she saw someone, maybe lurking behind a tree, but she checked and the woods seemed empty. “Who are you?” she asked again, taking just one step towards where her heart guided.

“Ouch, [y/n]. You don’t remember me?”

She was confused. The voice did seem familiar, but how could it? It was Max who was constantly hearing Vecna, not her — even though you prayed for God to swap places with the poor girl. It seemed like the voice belonged to a man, certainly young, but older than Steve and older than her (who, to everyone’s disbelief, was older than her brother).

“Who are you?”

“I see you went out of your way to forget me,” the voice said and it felt like it was closer to her, even though she could not see anything outside from the clean version of the Upside Down. “That’s not a problem here, however. You’ll soon remember.”

“Remember what?” she asked, but her question echoed, remaining answerless. Until darkness swallowed her whole.

Not too long ago, her parents had rented a house for their stay on the California beach but, unfortunately, the trip was a failure, because not one of their five-day-stay had the sun come out and the temperature was so low, [y/n] and Steve had to cosy up together to feel some warmness, as they had not brought enough cold-weather clothes in their luggage.

That was a terrible trip and [y/n] vowed to never leave the house without some (any) warm clothes with her.

But how could she have guessed that just by taking the trash out she’d be tossed in the Upside Down?

Of course, when it happened, there wasn’t a name for the place or someone to talk to about naming it. Back on her Upside Down stay, she didn’t even know Will was down there with her. She knew he went missing, poor kid. But there was all he was to her — a missing kid from her town.

She had graduated high school one year before that fateful event, and she was only still in Hawkins because her parents had no money to afford the universities she had been accepted in. No, it definitely was not a great period for [y/n] Harrington, but sure she did not expect it could get worse — worse even than the trip to California.

No one knew much about her time in that dark, cold place. Steve knew enough to comprehend his sister was not well, but he never asked much and [y/n] never tried telling. What would she tell her little brother? That she felt hopeless and wanted to die every second she spent in that particular hell? That she tried to kill herself, but even then her bad luck kept her alive? That down there she reflected upon her whole life and she felt like she only had herself to blame for everything?

Besides, it wasn’t like coming back home had healed her wounds. [y/n] woke up every day with cold sweat, and no amount of shower and scrubbing could make her feel clean again.

Oh, the Upside Down was like really bad karma. And she didn’t even feel like she deserved it.

So, like any insane person, she repressed it. Never mentioned it. Yeah, she got some cool powers out of it, but they were useless to the countless creatures she had seen in that place. Moreover, once she was back at Hawkins, five little kids seemed to cling to her — including Will — and, with her brother, they became “the babysitters”.

[y/n] wished she could close her eyes and suppress it again, but — she then was undoubtedly sure it was Vecna — the memory started replaying right before her eyes. It wasn’t like watching it, though, it was more of a first-person experience, and she was again in her shoes, again an eighteen-year-old scared to death.

Her memory started right when she decided she’d only be free of the Upside Down if she “ended” herself. The disgusting place was very much dark, and there were what she believed to be animals flying all around. Some grotesque and demonic version of pterosaurs that wanted her dead.

Except, they didn’t. Not that day as it seemed.

Not one of them flew in her direction, and not even the creepers crawled her way. [y/n] Harrington was walking around post-apocalyptic Hawkins as if she was God herself.

But that wasn’t enough to convince herself she should be alive. Oh, no. She planned on camping outside. Maybe the monsters weren’t attacking because it was some sort of day for them, so she’d wait for their night hours of hunting. She was so dirty that she didn’t even bother to sit on the ground.

Until she saw someone.

It was a tall boy, perhaps a man, she couldn’t see from far away. Her new version of reliving her memories was completely confused. She didn’t remember that. To her twenty-one-year-old self, that day in the Upside Down in 1983, she tried to kill herself, but she failed, and, later on, she looked for a new house to take place until she found Will and the people that came to rescue the two of them.

But that opportunity to be almost nineteen again was showing her new things.

“You’ll soon remember,” Vecna’s voice echoed in her mind.

The young man was now very close to her and she noticed he was not as young as she thought. He was pretty, or at least, as pretty as you could be in the Upside Down, but he was very much possibly older than twenty-five.

“Hey!” she shouted, her heart of the memory racing. Had she met someone down there, someone other than Will?

The man stopped his walk and looked around, meeting her eyes.

“Hey!” she shouted again, running towards him. How bad could this stranger be compared to the monsters of goop? “Hi, there!”

“Hello,” he said, careful. As if he needed to be afraid of her. As if they were not where no human was supposed to be.

“Oh, my! You have no idea how glad I am to see another human being,” [y/n] said, placing her hands on her knees because running in a place low on oxygen was not very good. “My name’s [y/n] Harrington. What’s yours?”

But he didn’t answer immediately. He studied her, looking her up and down. [y/n] was confused — was the man not relieved to see another person?

Maybe he was sad she was not the rescue.

“My name’s Henry,” he said, simply.

“Henry. Ok. How long have you been down here?” she asked, patiently. Maybe he had been so long away from civilization that he lost his ways, she thought.

“A while,” he replied. [y/n] bit her lip, unsure of what to say. It was hard talking to someone that didn’t want to talk. “Don’t you have shelter?”

“It was destroyed,” she said, for she knew saying she was trying to kill herself was not a very “hopeful” thing to say.

He looked around, but her house was too far away for him to identify it anyway. If he lived in Hawkins, he might have been able to recognize the Harrington house.

“You should find a new refuge then. There’s a house down this street…”

“Yours?” she asked, curious.

He hesitated. “Yes,” he pointed but she couldn’t see anything with the fog. “You can take place there.”

“With you?”

He stared at her and for a second his blue eyes scared her.

“Sure.”

He started walking and she followed him, but it all seemed weird, in the memory and for the twenty-two-year-old reliving it.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Her question lingered for he did not answer.

“Like, why are we here? What is here? Is this the future?” she gabbled, as she always did when nervous. “Are we dead?”

“We’re not dead,” he said, emotionless. “We’re just here.”

“Here where?”

He didn’t answer. She supposed he didn’t have a name for it either.

“Have you seen a way out?”

He slowed his walk just to stare back at her. He didn’t say anything again, and she knew he didn’t have to — if there was a way out, did she think he’d still be there?

They kept walking until she saw a house, an enormous house, by the way, something out of an old times movie. She thought about complementing it, but she felt like it wouldn’t be right since it wasn’t the real house.

She let him get in first, as the place belonged to him.

“Come on in,” he said, making room for her to pass through the beautiful front door.

Inside, the house felt even fancier, because it looked untouched by those demons that were tormenting hers all the time. Yes, it looked dark — as everything in the Upside Down did — but it wasn’t actually all that cold.

“It’s safer here,” he said, noticing she was staring. “I don’t know why.”

It felt like he knew why, was what older [y/n] thought, but [y/n] from the memory was too distracted looking around.

She stared back at the blond man with blue eyes.

“Thank you.”

She woke up, or at least it felt like waking up, in the new version of the Upside Down, the version Vecna was holding up just for her.

“Do you remember now?” the voice echoed.

“Who’s Henry?” she asked back at the voice. “Did he die?”

“I suppose he did now,” the voice said, in a condescending tone. “So, I ask again, do you remember?”

“No?” she said, but she wasn’t confident. “Are you playing with my memories?”

“Brave of you to make direct questions to the Upside Down monster.”

The monster was right to point that out, but [y/n] was not one to stay silent and die wondering. Besides, his answer awoke something in her brain.

“You talk.”

“Sure you had noticed before,” said the voice.

“Yes, but you don’t talk. Upside Down monsters don’t talk.”

“I’m no ordinary monster,” was his reply and even though she could not see him, [y/n] thought of how ironic because it felt like she was staring deep down at his blue eyes.

“No,” she said, agreeing. “You’re Henry.”

Suddenly, there was no more need for tricks of the mind. No need to relive memories because they all came back — the nights at Henry’s house and the days hunting with him for food (well, going to the supermarket, but they had to fight some monsters on the way). Abruptly, it was like she never forgot, like she went early to bed just to dream with him, because then, the Upside Down wasn’t so bad.

[y/n] remembered it all, just by hearing his name on her lips. Because once they were like that. They were connected.

He was the one that gave her her powers. She used her powers so many times since she left Upside Down but not even once did she think of him when doing so. She felt bad for forgetting him.

“Did I… did I forget you alone?” she asked, referring to if he did something to her so she wouldn’t remember.

“I… when I knew you’d had to go up, I might have influenced your mind. But the rest, the full mind block, that was you,” he replied.

“Show yourself,” she said, almost crying. “Please.”

He couldn’t deny her requests when she said “please”.

Even though she feared his looks would scare her, he did it anyway. When they met, they already looked like a monster, but he used his powers to shift back to his looks from when in the lab. However, now, he was using a lot of his power to access Hawkins, the real one, and also using it to shape the Upside Down to a cleaner look, as he had memorized she felt disgusted to be there in 1983.

“Henry,” she said, tenderly, raising her left hand but too scared to touch him.

He closed his eyes, afraid that the only part that remained human of him would be too scared in a body like that, but she wasn’t afraid of his looks. She was afraid for him, afraid for what he had become.

“You told me you didn’t look as you showed,” [y/n] said, referencing their talks in the past. “But I didn’t know…”

“That I looked ugly?”

“No, that’s not it,” she said. “I didn’t know you were damaged.”

He opened his eyes, slowly, and she was glad to see the beautiful blue again.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

He swallowed hard, scared of her proximity. They hadn’t been that close in three years; besides, he didn’t look a monster when they did.

Her left hand found its way to his face.

“It doesn’t,” he finally answered.

“Even though I didn’t remember you, I missed you,” [y/n] said, in a whisper.

His face leaned in her palm.

“I missed you every time I remembered of your existence,” he said, softly as well.

“Did that happen a lot?” she asked, smirking playfully for she did not like to keep it serious.

“It happens all the time.”

She gulped, nervous. How could he say those things? It made her feel like Belle falling for the Beast. She had forgotten all the bad things he was doing, the hunting of her people. It was just him and her across space-time.

He had his eyes close to feeling better her touch, both her palms placed on his cheeks, and she was focused on the feeling when she looked around and found the beautiful Upside Down in ruins. It was coming back to its real way — goop and gross, with darkness in every corner. The dark blue sky welcomed her like an old friend.

Suddenly, the feel on her palm shifted. It wasn’t hard and marked, but soft, like velvet. [y/n] looked back at Vecna — at Henry — only to find him as himself, the one she knew, the one she hugged on cold nights.

They had been friends in 1983, even though it was a kind of unspoken deal. She knew she was messing with the devil then and she knew she was falling for the devil now.

“Henry,” she whispered like she was saying she was home.

He did not move forward, even when he desperately wanted to. She was fighting on her tiptoes to get closer, and only when he felt her almost slipping, did he put a hand on her chin.

“Careful,” he whispered.

“Kiss me,” [y/n] asked, for that was all she wanted. She missed him. She needed him.

“[y/n], I…” but his sentence was not finished, because she didn’t let him. She jumped to his touch, reaching for his lips, and he could do nothing but give in. “You can’t use your powers on me, little Wendy.”

She smiled in the kiss, for he had used the nicknames they picked once he told her, in 1983, that the Upside Down was kind of his kingdom. She had called him Peter Pan, which made him laugh because, for a period, that was his false alias.

And he wasn’t wrong, she had whispered in his mind, like a siren, using her powers. It was how it worked: in a close of eyes, she could get into the victim’s mind and whisper what she desired to happen. It often worked, but they were some strong-mind people that didn’t let her whispers get to them.

She had tried whispering to him before jumping on his chest for a kiss.

“Hi, Peter,” she said when his lips let go of hers, and they both smiled at their silliness.

“Welcome back to your Neverland.”

#jamie campbell bower #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfic #peter ballard #peter ballard x reader #henry creel #henry creel x reader #Henry creel stranger things #vecna #st season 4 #fanfic #vecna x reader #001 #001 x reader

5K notes · View notes

uselessgirldotcom · 10 months

Text

i don’t like how we ended up with the most sanitized version of roman and menckens dynamic in season 4, which doesn’t fit the delirious energy they delivered in 3.06, and it’s not inconsequential to the plot because i’ve seen a lot of people complaining about not understanding Why roman would go so hard for the facist in 4.08…mencken is very deliberate about what he does and doesn’t say. he’s playing up brutal honesty and uninhibition but the man was plotting and scheming the second he saw roman sitting across the room. when he goes for roman of all people it’s not just opportunistic it’s predatory.

i wish they kept this moment in (sweet sweet psychosexual nonsense aside) it confirms how aware mencken is of the effect he has on roman and is clearly trying to dirty talk his way into presidency which makes his character a lot funnier and more terrifying at the same time.

a nice parallel to how gerri is also playing into that part of roman but she tries to use it to incentivize positive change and motivate / soothe him, while mencken is quite literally torturing roman and dangling something he knows is very precious in front of him. i feel like this little sexual innuendo alone changes a lot in how you perceive this dynamic making it a lot more cruel - it’s very fitting that the sibling Logan would pimp out every time he needed to flirt his way into someones pocket, would also be the one who ends up taken advantage of in this way. the sexual abuse metaphor of it all is really compelling.

this one im really mad about just because in the final cut roman immediately caves in and defends mencken for making fun of him which is pretty out of character. this exchange not only fits roman better but also shows that he’s well aware mencken is getting off on this not just because he has the power now but because that’s who he always was, he’s a sadist. roman knows what’s going on but he can’t help himself.

very consistent with romans reaction to the Hug. he struggles a bit, has to have the last word, the last quip. but he lets it happen. in a way he needs this to function.

#succession scripts #sorry but roman got m*lested truthers will never lose as long as jesse armstrong is with us

408 notes · View notes

afro-hispwriter · 5 months

Text

Commonwealth

Season 11

Summary- it all started with the dress

Warnings- grinding, groping, semi-public sex, oral(f receiving, fingering, p in v sex, language, choking, squirting, missionary, side fucking, Daryl is OOC, implied breeding kink if you squint

A/n- I know I'm not one to describe the reader figure but for this story's sake reader has a curvy figure after having a baby:)

*REPOSTED*

The Commonwealth seemed like a godsend of a place just like how Alexandria was.

But it was too good. To good for it to have worked for so long. Everyone there lived like it was back in the old world. From what you could tell it was Poor vs Rich again.

"I don't like this place." You say as you look out the window to the civilization, Daryl sighs

"Me neither but we gotta try, for Victoria, Judith, and RJ." He walks up behind you and wraps his arms around your figure.

"I met Pamela, I think she likes me because she invited me as her special guest to the party tomorrow night." You turn around in his arms and he scoffs.

"Mercer goin make me work the party." He says and leans his forehead against yours.

"Aww, now you won't get to see me in my new dress. Its tight, low in all the right places, and has easy access." You nibbled his exposed collarbone then trailed up to his earlobe and tugged at it. Daryl groaned and started pushing his body close to yours.

"Ya should put it on now." He whispers but you smirk.

"I can't, you're just going to have to wait until tomorrow, can't let you ruin the dress." You pat his chest and walk away but you feel a smack delivered to your backside. "Hey! Don't you have work?"

"Ya but who cares when ya got this at home." Says Daryl and he grabs your ass and pulls it back against him. He kissed your neck all around and nibbled your skin.

"Daryl work, and don't forget to stop and get dinner after, because if not we are going to have 4 ravenous kids." You gently push him off and he huffs.

"4?" He asks as he walks to the door and you follow him.

"Ya the Grimes' kids, our little one and Dog."

"Whatever, see ya later." Daryl kisses you softly.

"Bye."

You had to explore the rest of the Commonwealth. So you plopped your little girl, Victoria, in her stroller that was gifted to you and set off with Judith, RJ, and Dog. As you walked all the kids wanted to play with dog and he was happy to receive all the attention.

"Y/n!" You hear a voice exclaim and you see Pamela approaching you. You turn the stroller around and smile at her.

"Pamela hey." She smiled at you and looks down at Victoria who was fussing in the stroller.

"She's adorable." Says Pamela and reaches down to pinch her cheeks softly making Victoria giggle immediately. You glared at her and tightened your jaw.

She's lucky I don't take her hand off.

"Thank you."

"So did you like that dress I sent you?" She asks and you nod.

"I love it, definitely something I would not have been able to wear before all this."

"Well you'll get used to it, I can tell you have something special, something that can help us be better, and that's what we need here." Pamela sounded like someone you knew, but you just couldn't place a name.

"Maybe." That's all you said before she bid you goodbye and left. You tipped the cover for the crib up and smiled down at Victoria and she smiled up at you with her two teeth. "Oh, baby what did mommy get herself into."

Daryl was back from his shift and was carrying dinner platters all the way up the old stairs. He made his way inside the apartment to see you all on the floor clearly waiting for him.

"Did you get lost?" Asks Judith and Daryl shut the door.

"Nah long line." He says and you take the plates. "They had some baby food." He says and you smile.

"That's good." You say and set the jars to the side and give RJ and Judith their plates.

"Daddy!" Victoria stumbled across the apartment to reach her father and show him her new toy. Daryl smiled widely and picked her up. "Look bird."

"Ya, that's a pretty cool bird." Says Daryl and kisses her head. He sets her down opened up Dogs and his own but instead of eating his own food Dog began eating Daryls.

"Hey no." Daryl shoves Dog away and you giggle.

"Aunt Y/n, Uncle Daryl, can I have an allowance?" Asks Judith and you stop eating and look at Daryl.

"Uh, let me and Y/n get our jobs goin and we'll talk about it." He says and you nod in agreement. A small conversation picks up about Judith making friends and how Daryl's first team building excise went while also talking about the prick Sebastian. You alternated between feeding yourself and feeding little Victoria who keeps running away and only comes back when she wants more food.

Dinner was over and it was time to send everyone to bed. When the last child fell asleep you slipped into your own room and laid down on the bed. The shower was going, so you assumed Daryl was actually taking a shower. He came out of the shower with the towel low around his waist, water droplets falling down his skin and dripping down through his v-line.

"Oh, that's a sight to see." You say and twist your body and prop your head on your arm. Daryl scoffs and grabs a shirt and pants to slide on. You slide off the bed and wrap your arms around his bare torso and bite his shoulder softly. "We should do a challenge, we should go to bed naked and see who can take it." Daryl looks over his shoulder and looks down at you and shakes his head.

"Yer crazy."

"You're no fun." You playfully pout and sit on the bed. Daryl finished sliding on his clothes and turned around to see you staring at him. He walked towards the bed and laid down behind you with his arms under his head. You crawled over to him and swung your leg over his hip and rested yourself on his lap.

"You look so beautiful." Says Daryl and lifts himself up to capture your lips. You wrap your fingers into his hair and tug making him groan deeply. His hands trailed down your body as you continued making out. He kneaded your sides then trailed down to grope your ass. He slid his hands back up your body and grabbed your breasts. You began grinding your core against his making you both moan.

Daryl scrunches up your shirt and revealed your braless breasts and moaned. He took a breast in his mouth and sucked softly. Your nipples hardened and you arched your back to him. You felt him push his hips up to you and you smirked and pushed him away. He flopped on the bed dramatically and expected you to take control but all you did was slide off of him and lay down.

"Tomorrow love." You kiss his cheek and he looks at you in shock.

"Ya can't just leave me like that." He mumbles, accepting he wasn't getting anything until tomorrow, well he hopes he does. You chuckle as he stands up and grabs his crotch, he then slides back in the bathroom and turns on the faucet so you wouldn't hear him.

"When do you have to be there?" You ask Daryl and he looks at the clock on the wall.

"Bout half an hour." He says and looks at you as you get ready.

"Pamela mentioned something about a whole red carpet and cameras, not sure how I feel about it." You sigh and look at yourself in the small mirror. There was makeup all over the table, its been years since you've ever thought of using any.

"Ya gotta try, for the kids, and their future."

"I know, I know you said. I just wish Pamela would stop seeing me as 'someone who can change this place for the better'." You bunny-eared the last part with your fingers and Daryl took your hands in his.

"You're gonna do great, I'll be there the whole time, we just gotta see what this place is plannin then go from there." You smiled at him puckered your lips up to him so would kiss you.

"I just realized, I remember when we first came to Alexandria, I was the one who had to convince you that Alexandria was a good place. Now look at you, 7-8 years later now it's you convincing me this is a good place." You pulled him down to your lips again. His hands went to your face and gently held you.

"We both gotta watch out for each other." He pecks your lips again and walks to the door. "Carol came to me and said she can take care of the kids, said she and Ezekiel need some happiness or sum shit." You nod in understanding, they've been through a lot.

"Ya that's good, and it's really good because that means we'll be alone." You bite your finger and Daryl cocks an eyebrow.

"Not teasin me are ya?"

"No my love, we're going to fuck all night long." Now you look at the clock. "You're going to be late."

"Alrigh, I'll see ya."

"See you."

You've most likely have wiped your hands on your dress over a 100 times over the nerves. You saw the flashes of cameras and felt nausea fall over you.

"You got this." You told yourself and straightened yourself out. The dress you had on was black, had a split in the middle that revealed your cleavage and it was tight enough to show off every curve of your body. The heels you were wearing made you stumble quite a bit.

You were getting closer to the building and you heard gasps so you looked up. The camera was now pointed at you and people started complimenting you.

'She's gorgeous

'I love that dress'

"So sexy'

"You go, girl!" You turned to see Princess cheering for you and your face heated up.

Then they started clapping and smiling at you, the anxiety was too much but you continued looking ahead, smiling. And when you saw him.

Daryl was in complete aw. He drowned out all the noise and could only look at you. You slowly walked to him until you were in front of him.

"What do you think?" You ask him, and all he did was raise a hand to the back of your neck and pull you roughly towards him, pulling you into a kiss. The kiss lasted only a few seconds before he pulled away.

"So fucking sexy, shit." His hand slid down to your ass and gropes it roughly. You placed your hands on his chest and tugged his shirt.

"Hey, we can't do it here." You giggle and he lets you go. "I'll see you inside." You kissed him on the cheeks and slowly walked away. Daryl leaned against the door's entrance and his eyes trailed down your body, staring at your ass the whole way. And even leaning forward to try and continue looking once you were almost out of sight.

"You're eyeing her like a piece of meat." Says Rosita and Daryl turns back to look at her.

"How can I not when ma girl looks like that?"

The party was in full swing, there was food and drinks. You were currently on your third glass of champagne and your nerves were officially gone. Daryl was standing by the entrance, ever so often you would lock eyes. You then slowly made your way to him and leaned against the wall in front of him.

"How's your night been?" You ask and he shrugs and looks you up and down.

"S'been good, better now." You smile at him and push yourself off the wall and made your way to lean on him.

"This party is so boring, and this dress is getting really scratchy."

"I can think of a way to make it better." Daryl slid his arm around your waist and slowly started dragging you away.

"Daryl we're in public." You giggled and look back to Rosita who was looking away, choosing not to acknowledge what's about to happen. Daryl turned the corner and pushed you right up the wall.

"Not my goddamn concern right now." He says and grabs the skirt of your dress and scrunched it up in his hands. "Fuck, not wearin any panties?" Daryl cupped your mound making you gasp. He stuck his middle finger out and swirled it along your folds. Your stomach tensed and you began grinding yourself on his fingers. He dipped his finger inside and curled it pushing against something spongy inside of you. You gasped and grabbed his hair.

Daryl then dropped to his knees and dipped a second finger inside of you. With his right hand, he grabbed your calf and slowly brought your leg up to his shoulder, making your knee hook over. Daryl kisses your thigh, then went up further up your leg until his breath hit your finger-filled cunt. Daryl was thrusting his two fingers slowly, curling them to hit that spot. He licked at your folds and took your clit in between his lips.

"Daryl fuck." You pushed your lower half closer to him as the intense feeling of an orgasm was brewing. You slapped the hand that wasn't in Daryl's hair against the wall. Daryl squeezed your thigh and caressed it. He shook his head in your folds making you gasp. His tongue swirled, licking up everything. He then pushed his face deeper in, making his nose brush against your clit. He curled his fingers deep inside of you once again and made sure to thrust them against the spongy spot.

"I'm cumming." You threw your head back against the wall and bucked against his mouth. Daryl moaned deeply when he tasted your cum.

Daryl pulled his finger out and kissed all-around when you heard gasps.

Your head shot to the noise and you saw two women with their hands up to their mouths. They saw you out of breath with a hand still in Daryl's hair while he still had your leg over his shoulder. Daryl glared at them and they immediately left. Daryl looked up at you and let go of your leg so he could stand up.

"Sorry, nobody shoulda seen that." You raised a hand up to his face and pulled his down for a kiss.

"It's okay." As another kiss was about to happen when screams were heard clearly coming from the party.

"Come on." Daryl holds his hand out to guide you. Once you both got there you saw in the distance a waiter holding up a knife to a woman you've seen, Stephanie. Mercer was trying to talk him down and you see Rosita and a few other guards trying to go around. Daryl let go of your hand and went to help just as the waiter threw Stephanie to the ground and ran away. Daryl immediately ran after the waiter and you went to go check on Stephanie when Pamela's little prick son started yelling at Mercer.

"You're just going to stand there. GO AFTER HIM!" He yelled, Mercer then huffed and left.

Sebastian, came with the waiter, Tyler, with Daryl in tow. The people started cheering for Sebastian for catching him. They entered the closed of section where you stood with Pamela. Daryl looked at you and you could tell he was clearly annoyed by something. You pouted your lips at him and he shrugged.

"Resist the Commonwealth!" You turn your attention back to see Tyler being dragged off. Pamela whispers something to Lance and he answers back, then they leave. You stood at the entrance of the currants and looked at both Daryl and Rosita and sighed. You turn to Daryl and wrap your arms around his torso to bring him into a hug.

"Let's go home." You kiss his cheek and he nods. "The parties over." You nod at Rosita and give her a small smile. People were already starting to leave so you made a quick escape.

As you walked down the road in hand with Daryl your feet started to hurt.

"Shit my feet are killing me." You stopped for a second and huffed. Daryl stopped as well and let you hold onto his shoulder so you could slip the heels off your feet. "Ok come on, let's go hone do you can tell me about what happened." Daryl scoffed and you gave him a side glance.

"We goin be doin anythin but talkin." He says and raises a hand behind you to deliver a smack on your ass. You yelped and brought your hands to cover your ass and looked at Daryl in shock at his boldness.

"There are still people around."

"Guess we better get home."

Daryl pushed you up against the wall right beside the door to the shared apartment. Daryl was kissing you hard while he had his hands on your waist. He reached over and opened the door but didn't stop kissing you all over as you entered the small apartment. Daryl began kissing down your neck, to the shoulders, then moving around to face you so he could kiss around your chest. You threw

"Help me take the dress off." You say and Daryl reaches behind you to unzip the dress. You started to unbutton his shirt as the dress fell down. Daryl pulled his shirt off then helped the dress come off completely when it got stuck around your hips. Daryl then bent down and threw you over his shoulder. You giggled and hit Daryls back playfully.

"Continuin what we started." Daryl tossed you on the bed and crawled over you. His hand trailed down your body to your pussy and felt. "Still wet are we?"

"All for you." Smirking up at him made his dick jump. He slid off the bed and took his boots off. Then unbuckled his pants and let them fall down his legs. He was completely naked now(he doesn't wear boxers), his cock was hard and sticking straight up. You licked your lips and moaned at the sight. There was pre- cum leaking down his cock, he wrapped his fist around it and started jacking himself off. He climbed back on the bed and climbed in between your legs.

"Gonna make you cum so hard," Daryl says and lets go of his cock to grab your legs and place them over his shoulders. He reached back down and grasped his cock and brought the tip to your entrance. He slowly pushed in making you both gasp.

"Fuck please." You choked out and Daryl leaned forward so he can take a breast into his mouth. Once he was pushed all the way in, he started to thrust into you. Your pussy was making squelching noises after each thrust.

"Love that fucking sound." Daryl groans as he pulls away from your breasts and shakes his head to move the hair out of his face. You grab the sheets and arch your back as an orgasm was building up. You started to match Daryl's slow but hard thrusts by thrusting back against him. Daryl fell forward but caught himself on his arms, he then kissed you while continuing his thrusts. He lifted your legs off his shoulders and let them wrap around his waist.

"Harder Daryl, please make me cum." You whimpered and gasped when his cock hot something devastating inside of you. Your face tightened when you felt as if you were going to pee. "Daryl wait im-." You felt a gush leave your body and you screamed Daryl's name. Daryl felt the wetness splatter everywhere and groaned as your pussy tightened around his cock. He slowed down and pulled back but didn't pull out.

You were breathing heavily and when you saw Daryl looking at you in both shock and lust, embarrassment filled your body.

"Daryl." You whimpered.

"Hey, you ok?" He asks and leans down to kiss you softly.

"That's never happened before." You say and take a deep breath.

"We can stop." Says Daryl and moves to pull out but you wrap your kegs around his waist to keep him there.

"No we don't, make me so it again." You smirk up at him and Daryl felt his heart race. He nodded and got down to his previous position. He slowly started thrusting again, making sure to pay attention when he finds the spot.

And he found it almost instantly.

He hit that spot repeatedly harshly until you lifted your hips as you squirted again. The for e pushed Daryl's cock out and he immediately grabbed it and brushed it along your clit to make you jump.

"Fuck." Daryl looked down at you again. A little bit of makeup was running down your cheeks, you were out of breath and sweaty. "Daryl you need to come." You lifted yourself up on shaky arms and kissed his chest.

"Ya need a break." He starts but you shake your head but get an idea.

"Let's go on our sides." You propose and Daryl smirks at the thought. Fucking on your sides was one of your favorite positions to have sex in while you were pregnant. It was the position you felt the closest to each other.

Daryl immediately went onto his side and so did you. Your back was pressed against his chest and he grabbed your left leg and hooked it over his leg. You grabbed his cock lightly but Daryl still groaned at the touch. You guided him to the entrance and Daryl pushed his hips forward making him sink into you. Daryl grabbed your leg that was over his and held it up while the one by your head snaked around and grab your neck.

He squeezed his hand and you already felt dizzy. You pushed your hips back to give Daryl a signal to move and he did. His balls started slapping against your pussy. Your boobs were bouncing wildly at each thrust. You then reached back to grab the back of Daryl's head and grabbed his hair to bring his head closer so you could pull him into a sloppy kiss

Daryl let go of your leg and grabbed your waist instead so he had more control. He lifted his leg and thrusted even harder than before. You pushed your back against his chest harder that you could hear his heart beating harshly. Daryl was groaning loudly in your ear and those sounds brought butterflies to your stomach.

"F-fuck such a good girl, s-squeezin ma cock." Daryl moaned and dug his head in your shoulder. All that was heard were your high moans, skin slapping, and Daryl's deep groans. The same feeling you felt a while ago was coming back. Your vision went blank, you screamed loud. The force pushed Daryl put and you collapsed out of breath in your stomach.

Daryl growled and pushed himself onto his knees and settled behind you. He grabbed your hips and pulled up so you were ass up. He slammed himself in and started using your body to find his high, you loved it. He was going insanely fast and you felt him even hit your cervix make you groan. Daryl gripped your hips harshly as his own hips stuttered as he came deep inside of you.

"Fuck." His groan came out deeper than usual as he finished. He then grabbed your hair and tugged you back and kissed you harshly. He pulled away out of breath and pulled out of you, he leaned back on his calves and watched his cum start to drip out.

"Ya ok?" He asks and tries to catch his breath. You nodded and dug your head in the pillow. Daryl felt the urge to push his cum back inside of you, so that's what he did. He scooped up his cum with his fingers and pushed back in. You let out a huff and your thighs shook at how sensitive you became. "Sorry just- didn't want it comin out."

"It's ok, I'm just tired." You say and yawn. Daryl grabbed his boxers and slide them off and was handing you a shirt but you were out cold. Daryl smiled slightly and settled in beside you. He covered both of you with a blanket and Daryl pulled you in tightly. He felt you dig your face in his neck and throw a leg over his to keep him trapped.

"I love you, you're the most amazing and beautiful woman I've ever seen and ever will." Daryl kissed you softly when he saw your lips were puffed up. "I'd follow you anywhere."

A/n- I could not figure out a goddamn ending, everything was so cringy but i just couldn't think of anything else.

#daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon smut

323 notes · View notes

lunar-wandering · 11 months

Text

Kaiju's and Blankets

!!!Season 4 Special Spoilers are in this fic!!!

Summary: MK gets sick, and gets stuck in kaiju form as a result. Everything else that spirals from that point is nobody else's fault but Wukong's. (Who is DEFINITELY not sick, thank you very much).

Word Count: 6.6k

Read on Ao3

“MK are you… sure you’re okay to run deliveries today?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well…” Pigsy trailed off, uncertain, looking up and down at MK’s rather… unkempt appearance today, as well as noting how almost hoarse the kid’s voice sounded, watching as MK’s smile despite these facts remained unchanged- even as his whole body jolted as he flickered with a golden glitch. “You’re doing the thing.”

“What thing? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” MK glitched again, reaching behind himself just in time to grab his monkey tail as it appeared, holding it behind his back in an attempt to keep it out of view- an attempt that severely failed as Pigsy leveled him with concerned look, Mei even looking up from her phone game to raise her eyebrow at his actions. He sniffled, raising his free arm and rubbing his nose on the back of his sleeve, grabbing the takeout bags afterwards, partially disguising it as a more casual movement. “Aaaaanyways- I’ll just be out delivering these! Won’t even take that long! Be back soon!”

Both Pigsy and Mei watched in concerned silence as MK walked backwards out of the restaurant, giving the both of them a rather sloppy salute before turning off and sprinting down the street, leaving cracks in the pavement behind him- albeit he didn’t seem to notice. Mei sighed, pocketing her phone.

“He’s going to pass out, isn’t he.” She deadpanned, Pigsy nodding solemnly in agreement with her assessment. She stood up, stretching her arms above her head and rolling her shoulders, loosening up her muscles.

“You’d better go after him, Mei.”

“Already on it, Mr. Pig Dad Sir!” Mei bent down, getting into a ready to run position-

Only to be thrown off balance as it was like the entire world shook, the building trembling, a sound similar to an explosion resounding as both her and Pigsy got tossed into the air from the force. Mei, thankfully, oriented herself to land on her feet- using a touch of dragon power to zoom into the kitchen and catch as many objects as she could before they could shatter on the ground.

Pigsy wasn’t nearly so lucky, instead slamming down onto the floor, the wind getting knocked out of him. He remained on the floor, taking a moment to catch his breath, before groaning as he slowly pushed himself up, Mei quickly setting her objects on the counter and rushing over to give him a hand.

“What was that?!” He wheezed, giving Mei a pat on the shoulder as thanks before making his way towards the door. Before he could get there however, Tang was suddenly there, appearing in a golden flash of light, staff in hand and looking frazzled and panicked, not even letting Pigsy or Mei get a word out before he spoke.

“You guys are going to want to see this.”

With no further explanation, he slammed his staff on the ground, both Pigsy and Mei shielding their eyes, closing them against the light as they felt the now-familiar sensation of teleportation. When they opened them again, they both blinked, taking in the absolute destruction.

There were buildings that were literally flattened, pressed down against the ground- a few fires starting up in the remains of some of them. Thankfully, there had long since been a magic system put in place to automatically teleport people in danger out of the way in the case of possible natural disasters, and most of this space was an area that had been abandoned since Spider Queen’s attack the previous year, so there wasn’t that much concern about civilians, but.

There was a giant crater in the ground that most certainly had not been there before, one that they were currently standing at the very edge of.

And, at the middle of the crater, standing awkwardly at the exact center of all the destruction, with his tails swishing nervously… was MK.

In kaiju form.

“Well,” Mei put her hands on her hips, “That’s less than ideal.”

“You’re telling me.” All three of them jumped as Sandy suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind them, staring at MK with obvious concern. “He told me last night that he was just coming down with a little cold.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s very little anymore.” Pigsy sighed in exasperation, stepping forwards, about to jump down into the crater and approach MK, planning on lecturing him about the importance of not hiding illnesses again-

“Ah- wait!” Tang grabbed the back of Pigsy’s clothes, pulling him back towards him.

Just in time it seemed, as MK suddenly twitched, all three of his tails coming to a complete standstill as he inhaled, turning to the side to face more towards the uninhabited part of town-

Another sound like an explosion went off, and Tang just barely managed to get a shield up in time to protect them from the resulting shockwave as MK’s entire kaiju body jerked forwards. The ground shook, and all of them stumbled, barely remaining standing, a cloud of debris getting kicked up as more houses were flattened.

It was only when the dust finally settled that Mei fully processed what had just happened.

“Was that a sneeze?” She asked, as the shield slowly flickered away. “He did all this with just a sneeze???”

“It… appears so.” Tang said.

Mei wasn’t entirely sure if that was cool, or mildly scary.

After a moment of deliberation, she settled on it being concerning. Something like that couldn’t be good for MK’s health, obviously. (Even if his power level being well over what must be 9,000 was awesome as all hell).

“Yeah… I hate to say it, but I think we’re going to need Monkey King’s help on this one.” Pigsy crossed his arms, thinking. “Now, the only question is… how do we get a kaiju to Flower Fruit Mountain?”

The words “Flower Fruit Mountain” seemed to have somehow managed to catch MK’s attention, as he turned towards them, seemingly only just now noticing they were there, as his tails and fur stood up on end in what could only be best interpreted as shock at their presence. In mere seconds, he had crossed over to stand in front of them, kneeling down on the ground to be closer to eye level with them- the ground slightly shaking with the motion.

He looked… apologetic, a tiny noise akin to a whine escaping from him- Pigsy wasn’t even sure if he could speak like this- based on Macaque, he probably should be able to, but then again, Pigsy had never seen a sick Macaque kaiju (and, quite frankly, never wanted to). Still though, he gave his best disappointed stare up at him, MK shrinking back a little.

“Yeah yeah, I know all your excuses, kid. Right now, let's just focus on getting you out of kaiju form- don’t think you’ve escaped the lecture though.” He hastily added on the end upon seeing MK start to look slightly hopeful. MK, in response, slumped a little, his tails and ears drooping. “Do not give me the puppy dog eyes, kid. We’ve got, for lack of a better word, bigger problems right now.”

MK let out a small rumbling chuckle- and then instantly turned to the side to cough into his arm, the ground shaking again, but Pigsy focused less on his sudden loss of balance and instead on how… painful it sounded. Maybe that’s why MK wasn’t talking, he had sounded quite hoarse earlier, maybe it hurt more to speak now.

Either way…

“We need to get you to Flower Fruit Mountain.” Tang finished Pigsy’s thought before he could even speak it. “Albeit… I’m not entirely sure how. Sandy’s boat is way too small, and I’m not sure that I can teleport you when you’re like… this.”

MK tilted his head to the side, seemingly in contemplation. And then, a very familiar smirk appeared on his kaiju face.

Pigsy knew what that smirk meant.

It meant trouble.

“Kid, I swear-” Pigsy didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence, as, without any form of warning, MK was reaching down, scooping all four of them up into one hand.

Pigsy and Tang’s matching screams were nearly drowned out by the sound of Mei’s loud enthusiastic cheering.

MK slowly and carefully stood up, holding his hand close to his chest to help keep his hand stable as he slowly started walking his way out of the city, keeping a close eye on where he put his feet. Pigsy, subtly, used the opportunity to check the kid for fever- albeit, like this, with MK in this form, he couldn’t really tell. MK felt a little warm, but he had no idea what the normal for a kaiju even was.

It was only when they reached the beach- and MK just kept going, stepping into the ocean, that Pigsy realized what MK was planning to do.

“MK, this really isn’t the best idea, you’re just going to-”

“Make myself more sick?”

All four of them startled as MK’s voice came out in basically a whisper from behind them.

Turning around, they could barely make out the form of MK, in monkey form, hovering inside of his kaiju, where the heart would reside. His position perfectly mirrored his kaiju’s completely, his legs moving in tandem with it- almost like he was controlling a mech. He was looking down, and it took Pigsy a moment to realize that it was because his kaiju was looking down at them- MK must only be able to see through his kaiju’s eyes, then.

“I don’t think what happens in this form can really transfer to my physical state.” MK continued, voice somehow, despite being in a hoarse whisper, still sounding far more energetic than a sick person should sound. “I can’t even feel the water around my feet!”

Pigsy huffed.

“If this comes back to bite you, do not come complaining to me.” He mumbled.

The rest of the trip through the ocean was slightly slow, but mostly peaceful. (There was one point, where MK had sneezed again, accidentally dropping them in the process as he turned away from them, but thankfully, Mei had been fast enough to snatch them up in her dragon form before they could hit the water. MK had, softly, apologized as they were settled back into his hand, to which Mei threatened to steal all his copies of the Monkey Mech game if he dropped them again. MK had whined about it for the following 15 minutes).

When they reached Flower Fruit Mountain, MK stood still on the beach for a moment too long, the others turning back to him in concern.

“...I swear, you better not be about to sneeze again.” Mei threatened. There was a moment where MK didn’t respond-

And then they were all clinging to his hand as MK gave a full body shake, kicking both his legs, sending water droplets flying everywhere to the beach below.

It was only when they were steady again that Mei let out a strangled laugh.

“You’re like a dog!”

MK pointedly avoided looking at them.

“...I tried not to.” He mumbled, “Instinct took over…”

Mei cackled at him, MK finally looking back down at them with a pout. Pigsy rolled his eyes.

It took far faster than usual to climb the mountain up to the waterfall that led to Wukong’s recently rebuilt house, mainly due to MK not needing to take nearly as many steps. He gently lowered his hand to the ground, allowing the others to step off, before reaching out a finger, placing it in the water to split it in two, allowing a path of access through it.

It was only when all four of them had crossed through it that MK let out a distressed sound, causing them to turn back around to face him.

There was a beat, before they realized the issue.

“Oh.” Tang said, “You can’t fit.”

There was a slightly louder distressed noise. Sandy stepped back to the other side of the waterfall, patting MK on the side of the leg.

“Don’t worry MK, I’m sure Mr. King will have something that will, at the least, make you a little smaller!! I’ll just stay out here with you while the others go in, if that’s okay?”

MK glanced back at Pigsy.

“We won’t be long, kid.” He affirmed, and MK gave him a nod, before slowly pulling his hand back, the flow of the water once more slamming down and obscuring him and Sandy from view. Pigsy turned back to Mei and Tang. “Alright- sooner we get Monkey King out here, the better.”

Sun Wukong was not sitting out anywhere in his cave, unlike previous times that they had shown up unexpectedly. They would normally stumble upon him lounging on a sunlit rock or a shaded tree branch, usually either eating or reading something or other. Sometimes Pigsy wondered if he ever got up to much else (outside of training MK, that is).

Mei, the fastest of the three of them, zoomed right up the steps to Wukong’s house to knock.

“Mr.King!! We need your help!!” She called-

There was a loud crash from inside the house, and all three of them winced. A few seconds later, the door opened, Wukong panting like he had run to them, looking slightly panicked.

“What’s- what’s going on- where’s the kid?” He looked around frantically.

“He’s sick-” Mei started, having to stop mid-sentence to avoid biting her tongue as Wukong grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her.

“Sick? Sick like- dying sick? Does he need a peach??? I can go steal a peach for him-” Wukong let go of Mei, the dragon girl stumbling back to be out of his reach as he turned to try and move off his front porch, likely with the plan of stealing another immortal peach in mind. Tang and Pigsy stepped in his way before he could.

“The kid’s not dying, Monkey King.” Pigsy reached out to try and calm the monkey down, Wukong side-stepping away from his touch, but still pausing. “He’s just got a cold.”

“...Oh. Well, y’know, even mortal colds can be deadly-”

“It won’t be.”

“...Okay… Then what do you need my help for?” Wukong tilted his head to the side, staring at them in confusion as he leaned back against the wall of his house, “I’m not exactly the best when it comes to medicine nowadays- it used to be so much simpler when you could just use a flower and a spell.”

Tang mumbled something about having to teach the Monkey King about the advancements of modern medicine, and Pigsy sighed.

“The kid’s gone all super-kaiju on us.” He said, “He’s sitting outside the cave right now, we were hoping that… at the least, if you can’t turn him back to normal, you could at least make him… smaller?”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s easy.” Wukong smirked as he pushed off the wall, only to wince as it cracked behind him. “...Oops. Uh, I’ll fix that later, c’mon, let’s go see the kid.”

Pigsy and Tang instantly turned to start heading back towards the waterfall entrance, Wukong trailing behind them, Mei taking a split second to glance between the Monkey King and the crack in the wall with sudden suspicion before catching up to them, sliding to walk in time beside Wukong.

“Soooo, Mr. King. How’re you doing today?” She asked, leaning towards him slightly, raising an eyebrow as he leaned away, avoiding eye contact with her.

“I’m fine.” Wukong sped up a little, tail swishing as he moved around to be in front of Pigsy and Tang just in time as they arrived back at the waterfall. Reaching out, he activated the magic surrounding it, parting the waters before turning back towards them with an over-dramatic smirk, giving them a half-sarcastic little bow. “After you, guys!”

Pigsy and Tang simply rolled their eyes, walking forwards, but Mei made the point of making eye contact with the Monkey King as she walked past him, following it up with an ‘I’m watching you’ motion that made Wukong’s expression shift to one of nervousness, before he covered it up with a small laugh, stepping through the waterfall himself.

MK visibly brightened up when he saw them emerge from the waterfall, shifting to lean down towards them.

“Told you we wouldn’t be long, kid.” Pigsy said, lightly patting the side of MK’s face that he could reach. “...Where’s Sandy?”

“Right here!” Sandy popped up from MK’s shoulder, sliding down MK’s arm to be on the ground with the others. “MK was just letting me braid his hair while we waited.”

Sure enough, there were a few tiny braids throughout Kaiju MK’s hair- in all honesty, Pigsy was impressed that Sandy had managed to get so many of them done in such a short period of time.

“Right.” Wukong said, shaking out his hands and summoning his cloud, floating up to be able to touch the center of the kaiju’s forehead. “I… can’t say if I can change you back to normal, per say, but I’m pretty sure I can at the least get you small enough to be able to fit inside the mountain.”

There was a brief pause, and then Wukong’s eyes lit up gold, tendrils of magic swirling around the kaiju. There were a few small moments where the size of the kaiju fluctuated, getting smaller and then bigger again, followed by a bright flash of light that had the four on the ground shielding their eyes.

When they opened their eyes again, MK was much smaller than he was before. Still a giant kaiju, yes, but he’d be able to fit through the entrance if he crawled, and should be able to stand within the cave itself no problem.

“Well, at least that’s one problem solved…” Pigsy trailed off into a mumble, “We’re definitely going to need to find a bigger soup bowl somewhere though…”

“...Why aren’t they moving?” Mei questioned, and Pigsy looked back up to find that MK and Wukong seemed to have entered… some kind of staring contest, both of their tails swishing.

A full minute passed, the four on the ground waiting in complete silence, trying to figure out what was going on.

…And then MK raised a hand, snatched Wukong off his cloud, and slammed his palm onto the ground, sending up a small splash of water that the others only just managed to avoid as he pinned Wukong to the ground in the shallow pond.

“Kid!!! What are you doing?!?!” Tang yelled, as Wukong let out a wheezing breath-

And immediately broke into a loud coughing fit, the others watching as Wukong’s whole form seemed to flicker before restabilizing. Mei let out a loud gasp, pointing at him.

“Ohhhh- I knew there was something up with you!” She said, “You’re sick too!!”

“I am not!” Wukong managed to hiss out, before starting to struggle, using his free hand to smack at MK’s fingers, his one free leg kicking uselessly in the air. “Let me go!!”

MK didn’t move, and although his expression didn’t visibly change, everyone could just feel the tangible disappointment coming off of him.

It didn’t take very long for Wukong to give in, suddenly going limp in MK’s hold.

“Fine, kid. You win.” He let out an overdramatic world weary sigh, flickering again, only this time, once the flickering died down… well, to say it politely, he looked like an absolute mess. His fur, albeit now soaked with water, looked completely frazzled, like he hadn’t brushed it before getting out of bed that morning, there were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was slightly flushed. Pigsy would, honestly, be willing to say that he looked worse-off than MK did.

MK, in response to his mentor letting down his glamours, let out a somewhat-pleased sound, removing his hand, freeing Wukong. Despite this, Wukong continued to lay there, staring up at the sky- his view of the clouds unfortunately blocked as Mei leaned over him, blocking his vision.

“Jeez, you look awful.” She said, reaching down to press the back of her hand against Wukong’s forehead.

“Thanks for the compliment.” He said, rolling his eyes. “I’m not sick though. Just didn’t sleep too well, that’s all!”

“Mhm, yeah, tell that to your fever.” Mei huffed, reaching down to grab his arm, forcibly lifting him back up to his feet. Wukong, on instinct, shook, the water in his fur flying everywhere. “Hey!! You’re getting me wet!! Man, MK really did take after you a lot…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing!” Mei gave him her best innocent smile, dragging him over in the direction of the others- MK having used his hand to reopen the waterfall and let the others through again. “C’mon, let’s get inside before Pigsy goes full chaos mom mode on you.”

“Goes full what-”

Twenty minutes later found Wukong pouting, sitting cross-legged on top of MK’s head, MK himself having laid down on his stomach, curling up slightly like a giant cat. Wukong had been practically forced to change into a pair of peach-themed pajamas Pigsy had happened to find after rummaging through the Monkey King’s closets- and had a blanket draped over his shoulders as well (he had just taken a dip in the water after all- they were better safe than sorry).

“I’m not sick.” He mumbled petulantly, MK reaching up and poking Wukong’s head as gently as he could with one finger in response, sending him slightly off balance to the side before he re-stabilized himself, grumbling incoherently.

“Hmm, we’ll have to find some kind of blanket for the kid eventually…” Pigsy said, rubbing his chin as he thought. “Albeit, unlike Monkey King, he doesn’t seem to have a fever yet, so we can probably hold off on that for a little longer…”

“Don’t have a fever! Cause I’m not sick!” Wukong called down from his position, everyone dutifully ignoring him.

“I would like to find some way to get some form of soup fed to MK though.” Pigsy finished, “Which means we’re… definitely going to need some kind of large bowl… albeit I can’t think of where we’d find something like that.”

“Oh! Oh! I know!!” Wukong waved his hands to get their attention, before pointing up. “The guys up there have tons of giant bowls you could take and use!!”

“...Isn’t that stealing?” Sandy asked, Wukong shaking his head.

“Naahhhh, they won’t even notice if one bowl’s gone. I can take you all you guys up there right now!!”

“Ah- wait!” Tang’s shout only barely managed to stop Wukong before he could snap his fingers. “You’re sick, you can’t be transporting a large group of people- nevermind a giant bowl.”

“Not sick.” Wukong said, sniffling, but still lowering his hand.

“But who could transport a giant bowl for us, as well as the ingredients?” Pigsy hummed, the group falling into silence as they thought it over.

“...What about Macaque? He’s got that shadow-portaling thingy.” Mei suggested- Wukong immediately bursting out into hoarse laughter, mixed with a few coughs. “What’s so funny?”

“Please, like Macaque would ever agree to that.” Wukong said.

“Well, it’s not like we have much of a choice…” Tang muttered, before raising his voice so that the others could hear. “Alright, but who’s going to stay behind with these two?”

There was silence for a beat, and then Wukong scoffed.

“We don’t need a babysitter.” He said, “I can keep an eye on the kid just fine- hEY!”

He was cut off as MK reached up, grabbing hold of Wukong’s tail, dangling his mentor upside down, the Monkey King scrambling to grab the blanket that had been wrapped around him and hold it close to his chest to prevent it from falling to the ground.

“I’ll keep an eye on Monkey King.” MK’s hoarse voice whispered, slowly swinging his mentor back and forth a few times, before setting him on the ground, lightly putting his hand overtop of him again when it seemed like Wukong was going to protest- Wukong instead accepting his fate, laying on the ground with a resigned expression.

“Well, with that settled… I guess we’re off to see Macaque!” Mei said, turning to stand beside Tang as he got ready to teleport them to Macaque’s dojo.

“He’s going to say no!” Wukong called, Pigsy waving him off.

“We’ll just see about that.”

“No. Absolutely not.” Macaque said, immediately, leaning up against his doorframe, raising one finger to silence them before any of them could even speak a word. “Wukong and the kid aren’t here. Which means that whatever this is about- because there must be something going on, this many of you wouldn’t be on my doorstep otherwise, this must be about them, and I want nothing to do with it.”

“How do you know there’s not some kind of world ending threat going on?” Mei asked, slowly pulling out her sword behind her back, where Macaque couldn’t see.

“Please, if there was a world ending threat, trust me, I would know.” Macaque huffed, crossing his arms. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the giant kaiju incident this morning, I’m not blind. I want nothing to do with it.”

“Really now? And nothing will change your mind?” Mei’s smirk slowly grew slightly more dangerous, Pigsy, Tang, and Sandy stepping slightly to the side, knowing full well to not get in her way.

“Nope. No way, no how.”

Within the next split second, there was a sword embedded in the doorframe, just bare inches away from Macaque’s face. Macaque let out a slightly fearful breath, a few stray pieces of hair that the sword had managed to snag slowly falling to the ground.

“That.” Mei hissed, “Is your only warning.”

Macaque, for his part, recovered rather quickly.

“...Nice aim, kid.” He muttered, before sighing. “Fiiinneee, I’ll help you out, but just this once- and you better pay me back for it. What do you need me to do?”

Wukong stared up at the ceiling of the mountain.

It had been twenty minutes since the others had teleported away, and they still weren’t back yet. Or, well, he thought it had been twenty minutes. He didn’t exactly have a clock on him. It had felt like it had been an hour, but he wasn’t really the best at keeping track of time, so he was going to guess that it had actually only been twenty minutes.

…Twenty minutes were far too long though.

Groaning, Wukong pushed himself up into a sitting position, MK opening up one eye to stare at him. Dang it, he’d been kinda hoping that the kid had fallen asleep since he had closed his eyes about… ten minutes ago? Yeah, ten minutes ago was probably a good guess.

“I’m bored.” Wukong’s voice trailed off into something that borderlined a whine. Quickly jumping to stand up, ignoring the way it made his head spin a little, Wukong turned to the kid. “Do you want to watch a movie? I can go get my laptop!”

MK let out a small rumble, opening his other eye to focus fully on Wukong.

“The screen would be too small for me.” Was his response, “I wouldn’t be able to see it.”

“Mmm, I guess you’re right…” Wukong trailed off, tapping his chin in thought. “Oh! We could set up a projector! Get a giant sheet, set up like a movie theatre screen! I’m pretty sure I have a projector around here somewhere…”

“What about the giant sheet, though?” MK asked, and Wukong paused, thinking.

And then a brilliant idea struck him.

“I can just steal some blankets from Demon Bull King’s house!” He said, moving from standing to sitting up, grabbing the blanket that was resting on his shoulders, tying the ends of it together to turn it into a blanket-cape. “Demon Bull King’s blankets are huge, if I get enough of them, we can probably use one or two to cover you as well!”

“Ah- but you’re sick-”

“Psh, I’m fine!” Wukong waved him off- and MK, unfortunately, was not fast enough to catch him, Wukong having summoned his cloud and zoomed out of the cave before the kid could even blink.

It was only when Wukong was halfway across the ocean that the thought struck his ever so slightly hazed mind that maybe leaving MK alone by himself might not be a very wise decision, but, well, he was already almost at his destination, so there was really no point in turning back now.

By the time he was climbing in through the Demon Bull Family’s kitchen window, carefully making sure that his blanke- his cape didn’t get caught, landing silently on the floor, he was right back around to considering this to be the most genius thing he had ever done.

“Right.” Wukong whispered to himself, clapping his hands together. “Now, if I were DBK, where would I put the blankets?”

Probably the hallway closet, most likely, which meant getting past all the traps that Demon Bull King likely had installed. Wukong sighed, about to open the hallway door-

Only to pause, noticing the coffee-maker sitting on the counter.

Now, Wukong wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, it was a little bit too bitter for him. But he remembered hearing that coffee-makers could also make hot chocolate… surely this one could too? He was kinda in the mood for a hot drink… and hot chocolate sounded really good right now…

Blanket retrieval mission temporarily on pause, Wukong started digging through the small box of insertable coffee’s that was sitting beside the coffee-maker, hoping to find one for hot-chocolate. And, sure enough, he managed to find one. Giggling slightly to himself, he inserted it into the machine, pressing the on button-

He was not expecting how loud it was.

“Ah, no- shh shh shhhhhhh!!” Wukong waved his hands, panicking. If Demon Bull King heard this and found him now, he’d never be able to get those blankets. Quickly, he started pressing buttons, but none of them would seem to turn the damn machine off.

Making a split second decision, Wukong reeled his arm back- and punched it.

He paused afterwards, slowly shaking his hand clean of the bits of debris as he stared at the destroyed coffee-machine.

…Ah. That probably hadn’t been his best decision.

Well, at least it was silent now. Carefully, he swept the broken pieces together, opening a cupboard with his foot and depositing it in there. Surely no-one would notice that. Or, well, at the very least, it wouldn’t be noticed until he was far away from here. Nooo consequences for the Great Sage, Equal To Heaven tonight!

Wiping his hands clean of the whole mess, Wukong turned, opening the door to the hallway, deciding to return his focus to his original mission; stealing some of Demon Bull King’s blankets.

After a minute or so of staring, analyzing the many traps lining the walls, he took a deep breath and went for it.

Dodging the traps largely went without issue, Demon Bull King seriously needed to update his home security. (Albeit, there had been a point where a couple of arrows had flown a little too close for comfort when Wukong had stumbled, a wave of dizziness hitting him, likely from the fever- the fever that he definitely didn’t have, yep, for sure, he was as healthy as a horse, definitely).

He had also been right, Demon Bull King did, in fact, store his blankets in the hallway closet. He did have a bit of a struggle getting them out of the closet- one of them falling over top of him and causing him to have to take a moment to free himself from it’s horrible confines, but he managed to get about three, giant blankets.

Three should be enough, right? One for the projector, and two for the kid. That worked.

Slowly making his way back to the kitchen, dragging the blankets behind him, Wukong froze mid-step in the hallway.

And then turned to the side and sneezed- completely obliterating the wall that had stood beside him.

He blinked, as the dust cleared- revealing Demon Bull King, Princess Iron Fan, and Red Son sitting on the other side, in their living room, staring at him in shock.

“...Oh. Hi?” Wukong lifted his free hand to give them a nervous little wave.

Demon Bull King’s bellowing yell of “Sun Wukong!” was all the warning the Monkey King needed to take off running at full speed, the entire Demon Bull Family hot on his heels.

Fifteen minutes later, MK, who had taken to using his hand to draw shapes into the ground of the cave, jumped- before hissing as a bright swirling fire appeared in front of him.

“Relax, Noodle Boy, it’s just me.” Red Son said, the fire clearing away to reveal him standing there, carrying Sun Wukong over his shoulder- who was still holding on to the three blankets he had stolen. “I’m just here to deliver your idiotic mentor back to you.”

“Hey! I take offense to that!” Wukong struggled, getting unceremoniously dumped on the ground for his efforts. MK, instantly, grabbed him, lifting him up and holding him in his hand, to make sure he wouldn’t run away again.

“That taken care of-” Red Son clapped his hands, “I’ll be taking my leave-”

Red Son was cut off, as suddenly one of MK’s tails reached out, scooping him up off the ground.

“What- Oh come on Noodle Boy, I can’t stay here!I have stuff to do!” MK gave no response to that other than a small rumble, not making any move to put the fire demon down. Red Son huffed, adjusting slightly to make himself more comfortable, grumbling, “I hope the Dragon Girl is having a better day than I am…”

Mei panted, bent over, one hand against the giant bowl, the other against her knee, as she tried to catch her breath. The others were in similar conditions, Tang outright laying down on the floor of Macaque’s dojo like he was dead- the only sign of life from him being the way his chest quickly rose and fell with desperate breaths.

“That-” Mei inhaled, “That was-”

“Awful?” Macaque suggested, from his position of being down on his hands and knees on the floor. Mei shook her head.

“No, amazing!” She said, tilting her head back with a laugh that, in her state, made her seem near-insane. “We absolutely need to do that again!”

“Let’s put ‘doing that again’ to the side for now.” Sandy said, patting the side of the bowl. “We have the bowl now, but we still need to get the ingredients.”

“Oh, no problem.” Macaque said, snapping his fingers, various shadow portals appearing above the bowl, dumping various vegetables down into it. Pigsy stood up, grabbing hold of the edge of the bowl, leaning down over it to pick up a carrot and inspect it.

“...Where did you get these?” He asked. Macaque shifted nervously.

“Ah… you know, here and there.” He shifted his hands side to side, before letting out a sigh. “...From some stores nearby.”

“Did you pay for it?”

“Why would I need to do that?”

There was a moment of silence, before Pigsy groaned.

“Y’know what, I don’t have the energy to deal with a ‘stealing is wrong’ discussion. Let’s just get all this back to the mountain.” Pigsy didn’t need to say any more, as a dark shadow spread out under each of them, and within the next heartbeat, they were back on Flower Fruit Mountain.

…They all paused, taking in the scene in front of them. Somehow, there was now a giant white sheet of fabric hung up on one of the walls, a small projector on a table projecting one of the Monkey King movies onto it. There were also two blankets over top of MK’s kaiju body, and Wukong was curled up slightly by MK’s hand, as well as-

Mei blinked in disbelief.

“Red Son? What are you doing here?”

Red Son turned to face them, looking slightly irritated.

“I’m being held hostage.” Was his response. Not even a second later, Wukong popped up from his curled up position to turn and stare at them with a bright smile- despite his expression however, he somehow looked more frazzled and feverish than he had before.

“Oh, you guys are back!! You should join us- Red Boy over here makes amazing popcorn.” Wukong said, Red Son reaching over to smack him on the shoulder.

“...Yeah, okay.” Pigsy decided that you know what, today had already been so weird, he might as well just take this in stride. “We have to make the soup first, though.”

Getting things set up for soup-making shockingly didn’t take as long as any of them thought it would- Red Son’s presence ended up being particularly helpful, making it easier to get a fire started to cook the soup with. It didn’t take long at all for the soup to be ready, everyone getting their own small bowls before MK sat up and took his much larger one, the entire group sitting in a small semi-circle beside him.

Or, well, almost the entire group.

“C’mon Macaque, aren’t you going to join us?” Mei asked, looking over her shoulder at where the aforementioned monkey was standing a rather good distance away.

“No thanks.”

“Why not?”

“Cause I know what Wukong will do.”

“What will he do?” Mei tilted her head to the side in confusion, Wukong also turning around now that his name had been mentioned, albeit with a devilish smirk on his face.

“Yeah, Macaque, what will I do?” He asked. Macaque glared at him.

“He’s going to lick me.” He said, “He’s going to wait, until I’m distracted, and then he’s going to lick me, and then I’m going to get sick, and I don’t want to get sick. I mean- look at what he did to the kid! I am not dealing with that!”

Everyone shared a brief glance up at MK, who just stared back down at them blankly. Admittedly, up until this point, it hadn’t occurred to anyone that Wukong having worse symptoms- or, more likely, being further along in the stages of the illness, likely meant that he had been the one to give it to MK in the first place. Almost simultaneously, they all turned to Wukong to give him a light glare. Wukong held his hands up in self defence.

“Hey- it wasn’t me- I’m not even sick!”

No-one even bothered to argue with him, instead rolling their eyes. Mei, for her part, set her soup bowl down on the ground, and then, despite Macaque’s protests, zoomed over, picked him up, and brought him over to sit with the rest of the group- Pigsy setting a bowl of soup down into his lap.

For a blessed twenty minutes, there was silence, the group watching the movie in relative peace.

And then there was an ear-splitting shriek.

They turned, and, sure enough- Wukong had used Macaque’s complete entrancement with the movie to grab hold of his wrist and lick his hand.

“I told you!!! I told you this would happen!” Macaque yelled, pulling his hand away from Wukong, shaking it almost like it was on fire. “Gross-”

“Oh, c’mon you big baby, it’s not that bad.” Wukong rolled his eyes, sniffling a little and rubbing his nose on his sleeve. Macaque glared at him with visible disgust, before groaning, wiping his hand on his pants.

“If random shadow portals start showing up everywhere within the next few days, know that it will be your fault.”

#Monkie Kid #LMK S4 Special Spoilers #LMK Spoilers #Monkie Kid Spoilers #fanfic #my writing

677 notes · View notes

markantonys · 7 months

Text

i already made a joke post about it but genuinely, the whole "wot s1 sucked, which was 100% the show's fault and not the source material's, but now s2 is so much better! shocking! who could've seen that coming!" narrative is SO annoying

like, the eye of the world is boring as shit! it's generic as shit! of COURSE an entire season based on it is not going to be the most groundbreaking or thrilling fantasy television you've ever seen in your life! how on EARTH can the readers who've been saying for decades that the books don't start to hit their stride until book 2 or 3 or 4 fail to grasp the correlation with season 2 being better than season 1? but even so, s1 alone IS more groundbreaking and thrilling than book 1 alone, because the showrunners knew that book 1 is boring and generic as shit and did their absolute damnedest to pull in as many unique elements from later books as they could conceivably fit in this early on.

second, s1 had to do a HUGE amount of heavy lifting in terms of setting up characters, relationships, lore, and worldbuilding. s1 did all this groundwork so that s2 could have the payoff you're enjoying so much, s1 constructed the basic building blocks so that s2 could explore the more advanced concepts you're gushing over. s1 ran so that s2 could soar! put some respect on its name!

third, stakes tend to get higher, characters to get deeper, and plotlines to get more exciting as you go along in a story. this is how stories work. why are you shocked that s1 only built the basic foundation of the story and s2 has the space to grow and deepen that story? that's how stories work, that's how TV works, and that's most certainly how the WOT books work.

fourth, practical constraints s1 had that s2 had less of

budget: s1 was starting from scratch, whereas s2 had more budget to spare since some things could be reused from s1 AND it got a bigger budget than s1 in the first place.

experience: second seasons almost universally tend to be better than pilot seasons, simply because everyone involved in making the show has gotten into the groove and solidified how they want to do this thing. this is how television works.

covid: it should go without saying that s1 would have been One Million Times more difficult and expensive to make than s2 due to covid stuff. whatever effect we may think covid had on s1, the true effect was probably astronomically higher than what we imagine. the majority of "looks too cheap" "looks too empty" complaints likely come down to this (notice that most of those complaints are about episodes 6-8 and not the early episodes; 6 was filmed pre-covid, yes, but i wouldn't be surprised if some covid-related restrictions were starting to rear their heads before production was officially shut down).

the worst part is the people who end their above-mentioned take with "they must have listened to audience criticism of s1 and made changes accordingly." [moiraine voice] the arrogance. s2 had already been written and filming was WELL underway (if not finished or close to finished?) by the time s1 even started airing. if you're impressed by what a great season they've delivered, the credit for that lies entirely with the people who made the show, not your stupid ass.

#justice for s1!! 'every single viewer found it boring and a disappointment' your experiences are not universal!!!#will i deny that s2 is better quality in just about every respect? certainly not #but s1 did a damn good job with the job it was supposed to do even if that job is not as ~exciting~ as s2's job #and THE big difference is that THE SOURCE MATERIAL FOR S2 IS BETTER!!!!!#WHY are any readers shocked that a TGH&TDR-based season is better than an EOTW-based season. make it make sense #wot

217 notes · View notes

chungledown-bimothy · 6 months

Note

Top 5 nat 20s ? And top 5 Nat 1s?

so many choices, so few spots.

Nat 1s: (i'm not 100% about the order of 2 3 and 4 honestly)

1- the THREE nat 1s at the start of Starstruck. i'm not good at math but if i remember probability right that was like a 0.0125% chance. (0.05^3*100, right?). could not have started the season on a more fitting energy.

2- jaysohn and lila in burrow's end ep 5. the dice told their story, and it was an incredible one.

3- gorgug is maybe his own dad? one of my favorite bits, and the context of what everyone else was up to made it even better.

4- fabian's NINE nat 1s on leviathan. no good very bad day, indeed. THE PNEUMONIA CONDITION.

5- cody hard whiffing with the triple sword. you know the one. i'm famously a cody hater, so that was just so fucking funny.

Nat 20s-

1- Pinocchio's persuasion for the Baba Yaga. The speech he delivered was amazing, but what happened there, to me, was him holding up Pib and saying "Where the white women at?"

2- The Mas Vegas casino win. Mostly for the cast's reactions, honestly.

3- Lapin's insight into Keradin. It laid the groundwork for both getting incredibly important information and, of course, the single hottest thing to ever happen in the dome.

4- Andhera in the duel. A wrestling match? Against me? The slipperiest boy??

5- Fabian in the arcade. There were nat 20s before that in Fantasy High, but that was the first one that blew my goddamn mind, and for that, it will always have a very special place in my heart.

#dimension 20 #a starstruck odyssey #burrow's end #fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #the unsleeping city 2 #neverafter #a crown of candy #a court of fey and flowers

202 notes · View notes

terapsina · 7 months

Text

Now that the writers and actors strike is about to begin being felt (and as we wait for those greedy billion dollar companies who are refusing to negotiate fair pay and conditions to give up) here's 10 of my favorite (all around best) fully finished older series you should definitely check out if you haven't watched.

I mean it, these are the shows with continuously great writing and a satisfying endings that manage to actually deliver on their promises.

-----

1. Leverage - (containing 5 seasons, or 77 episodes) - trailer here.

Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief and Mastermind. Heists and cons. Stealing from the rich and giving to their victims. They provide... leverage.

Meant for anyone who enjoys bad guys being the best good guys, who will burn down the lives of evil CEOs and then gloat in the background. Very satisfying.

Hands down the best example of a found family trope I've ever seen on screen. Barring none.

2. Killjoys - (containing 5 seasons, or 50 episodes) - trailer here.

Space Bounty Hunters. Another case of found family trope. Bisexual space princess assassin. Quippy sentient ship. Green alien goo. Evil lesbians (but like... in a good way). The warrant is all.

More seriously though, it's a story about three killjoys and the bounties they go after. Initially. And then they have to save the entire Quad from some very terrifying... stuff.

Contains one of the best friendships I've ever seen on television.

3. Orphan Black - (containing 5 seasons, or 50 episodes) - trailer here.

Found family trope but with clones.

Low level grifter sees a woman who looks exactly like her kill herself and plans to take over her identity long enough to cash out. Except then there's two other women who also look exactly like her. And apparently they're all clones and someone's killing them.

Enter a global conspiracy. Human experimentation. Lots of clone shenanigans. Some serial killings. And a few murders 💖.

4. Person of Interest - (containing 5 seasons, or 103 episodes) - trailer here.

Okay I'm beginning to see how I might have a found family trope issue.

Former CIA agent gets recruited by a reclusive billionaire computer programmer who developed a... machine that can predict acts of terror before they happen. But it also predicts 'irrelevant' acts of violence that will result in someone's death.

Unless someone interferes.

I'd really like to spoil some stuff to get you all to watch this one. But I'm going to maintain self control and just mention that early on they get a dog named Bear. Bear is a very good boy. Watch it for Bear.

Also for excellent commentary on rights of privacy, government surveillance and what does 'greater good' even mean? But mostly Bear.

5. 12 Monkeys - (containing 4 seasons, or 47 episodes) - trailer here.

The very best time travel show out there. What starts out as a confusing mess of causality basically exploding, by the end of the series all makes complete and total sense.

(when that final timey-whimey loop slid into place and revealed the entire pattern it was like a choir of angels started singing in the back of my head. It was freaking glorious).

Anyway, a man from a post apocalyptic future travels into the past to stop a plague from decimating nearly the entire world population.

He has the name of the man who released the virus and it's supposed to be a single trip. One trip. One bullet. Simple. Done.

Except then things keep escalating, and escalating until time begins eating its own tail and it might start looking like the end of the world might be a better ending than erasing all of time and space from reality.

Because when our guys screw it up, they screw it up GOOD.

And oh yeah... found family.

6. The Good Place - (containing 4 seasons, or 53 episodes) - trailer here.

A self-proclaimed Arizona dirtbag opens her eyes and finds out that she's dead and got accepted in the Good Place. Except that as soon as she arrives the Good Place starts glitching, and she really, REALLY needs to become a better person before she can be found out and kicked out to the Bad Place.

Luckily her assigned soulmate was a professor of ethics and moral philosophy.

One of the funniest, most thoughtful and clever comedies I've ever watched. Ever. The characters are delightful and by the time the final minute rolled around I had sobbed my heart out multiple times (which, as we all know, is a sign of the very best comedies out there).

As for the question of whether or not this too contains Found Fami- Yes! Obviously, yes.

7. Avatar: the Last Airbender - (containing 3 seasons, or 61 episodes) - intro here (couldn't locate the trailer but it's basically the same thing in this case).

The four nations lived in harmony. Until the Fire Nation attacked.

It's been a hundred years since the beginning of the war when two kids from the Southern Water Tribe find a boy frozen in ice and wake him up. A boy who's able to bend all four elements... though not very well.

Enter multi-nation flying road trip (thank you Appa, we love you most of all) as they try to find teachers for the Avatar and save the world.

Includes found family (shut up), amazing fight scenes, the most heartfelt and vivid characters ever, and the best example of a redemption arc actually done well.

8. Love Between Fairy and Devil - (containing 1 season, or 36 episodes) - trailer here.

This one gutted me. I'm saying this as a compliment. But it had to be said. Completely destroyed me. I just haven't been the same.

A love story between an Orchid Fairy and the leader of the Moon Tribe that starts out with her accidentally releasing him from millennia long imprisonment and then takes you through the caleidoscope of all possible human emotions (it's a body-swap comedy through the first part, then a romcom, then a dramatic romantic tale, and finally a tragic love story).

But it's such a satisfying slow burn.

And it carries this... humanity through the whole thing that makes it so visceral.

If you're a romantic who's very tired of instalove and characters dropping all their morals because 'ooh, attractive person' then you've got to watch this. Because this story does NOT take the easy road there.

(my more extensive rec for this series can be found here)

9. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - (containing 7 seasons, or 133 episodes) - fanmade trailer here (it was better than any of the official ones).

This series did so much. Introduced Ahsoka Tano, and made us love her. Gave names and faces and souls to the Clone Troopers (okay, it's the same face but you know what I mean), to a point where their endings during Order 66 destroyed me just as much as the ending of the Jedi Order. And somehow made me both love Anakin AND be a million times more angry with him.

There are some arcs in this series that might be a bit weaker. But there were some... god, there's a reason I love Clone Wars more than any other series or trilogy in this universe. And I'm not even a little ashamed to say it.

Must watch for Disaster Lineage shenanigans; for the vod'e; AND for the Jedi (who did their best okay? They always did their best 😭💔).

(and on the subject of found family... do I even need to comment)

10. Nikita - (containing 4 seasons, or 73 episodes) - trailer here.

A rogue assassin that escaped Division - covert government agency that takes recruits out of prison, fakes their deaths and then forces them to become spies and assassins - has come back to take it down. Brick by brick if she has to. With guns and explosives too when that works better.

Contains soooo many cool fight scenes. Is full of incredible characters you'll fall in love with (and hate with) very quickly. And most of all has an incredibly complex relationship of mentorship and friendship between two women that holds both great admiration and betrayal, real care and love as well as rage and hatred, forgiveness, mutual respect and an unbreakable kind of bond that so very rarely involves even one female character on TV, let alone two.

(as usual, found family tropes up the wazzoo).

-----

In conclusion. We all know there's going to be a large space between seasons of our favorite shows now (and some shows that aren't going to survive it). Let's fill that space with some excellent TV we haven't had a chance to see yet.

And direct the blame for the wait towards the right place (i.e. the studios).

347 notes · View notes