#does macaque have any idea what he’s doing? not in the slightest | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

silvergolddraco28 · 9 months

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Cursed Ink - 4 Fork in the road

“Doing no good... Staying in me...” Wukong slurred. “Gotta protect my mate’s back... Gotta get’em to the cubs” Wukong slurred even more like he was drunk.

Macaque dropped to his knees, curling around the shorter monkey. A broken keen escaped him as he cradled the king. He pressed his face against the side of Wukong’s head, tears dripping down his cheeks. “Mate?” The ebony warrior whispered, hope in his voice.

“My mate...” Wukong repeated purring like a cat.

“Mine?” Macaque sniffled, looking into the other monkey’s eyes. Hopeful eyes searching Wukong’s. Wukong nodded. Pressing their noses together. A sign of affection between monkeys. Macaque gave the sage a shy, little smile, brushing their noses together. He raised a hand to the king’s face, caressing Wukong’s cheek with his knuckles. “Seriously, Sunshine. The worst timing. Why’d I have to fall for such an idiot king?” Macaque murmured fondly, a subtle purr coming from his chest.

“I'm smart...” Wukong huffed nuzzling into the hand just as another set of cracks formed over Wukong’s head. Only a small section flaked off revealing a familiar and heavily beaten crown that rested on Wukong’s head. The gold had faded to a more bronze-like color from the years of abuse.

Macaque’s face fell, heart breaking. “We match now, Peaches.” He whispered, mournfully clinking their circlets together. “Wasn’t that supposed to be removed?” He bumped their noses again, cradling the other’s face. Gently brushing his thumb over Wukong’s cheek, he closed his eyes. ‘Just for a moment. We can have this for a moment.’

“Heaven’s Leash... Didn't trust me enough to have it removed... I hid it after erasing the sutra from living memory.” Wukong stated. Before his ears twitched. “Mango... Get moving now!”

Without missing a beat Macaque threw himself forward, quickly breaking into a sprint. “What is it?”

“The feet, heavy in armor... Why the fuck does it sound like the Celestial Army!?” Wukong growled.

Macaque’s ears flicked and icy fear shot through him. “Shit! Hold on tight.” He warned, picking up speed and practically flying down the tunnel.

“This tunnel should come out a few miles from the beach.” Wukong informed. “Let's hope the pit traps and swinging axes were removed but I highly doubt our luck right now.”

“Fucking delightful .” Macaque growled, holding the king tightly. “When we get out what are we going to do about Azure?” He kept his eyes focused on where he was running, ears twitching at the slightest sound.

“Keep him far away from Mk. The kid doesn't need to know some things he would naturally find out on his own when he turns of demon age.”

“And if we can’t do that?” Macaque asked, ducking under a stalactite.

“I don't know...” Wukong replied. “Duck!”

Macaque hunched down as a spear wizzed above his head. He gritted his teeth and started weaving through the tunnel, trying to make his movements unpredictable. “Any ideas how to lose them?” He huffed, shifting Wukong as he ran.

“Want to try your luck out running a boulder? I think not.” Wukong rhetorically asked. “Give me a minute.” Wukong stated closing his eyes, pulling at strings of power inside of him feeling it rise. He opened his eyes as gold and purple power flooded his eyes before a gold and purple portal appeared in front of them swallowing them before the appeared on the beach tumbling over the sand from the speedy exit.

“Woah!” Macaque slipped on the sudden terrain change, sending him and Wukong sprawling into the sand. “Ow.” The warrior grumbled, shaking sand off his face.

“That... That was not what... I expected a portal... To do...” Wukong stated looking sick to his stomach as he groaned at the feeling of being car sick. Mk had once told him what it meant to be car sick yet he never was when they were on that road trip for the rings. This portal he had just made on his first try? Yeah that felt like car sickness.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Macaque rasped, pressing a hand to his temple. “First time I take it?” He stumbled to his feet, walking over to Wukong.

“First time I ever used magic other than my own much less in a mix like that.” Wukong stated. “Your portals are so much smoother.

“I thought I told you that you're not leaving Peaches.” an all too familiar yet twisted voice spoke from above.

Macaque snarled, placing himself between Wukong and the ink monster. “Don’t call him that!” His eyes flashed as he bared his teeth.

Ink dropped down from a tree looking perfectly relaxed while his white tail swung behind him. “Seems you lost a lot of those layers while I was away Peaches... Still haven't shed that mortal skin for your truest form yet though.”

“Says the off brand Macaque.” Macaque snapped, blocking Ink’s view of the struggling king. “No one likes an unoriginal sequel.”

“Ha! Says the living zombie pumping with ice magic.” Ink sparked back. “At least I look closer to what Luier was in the past, give or take a few cosmetic changes.”

A low growl built in Macaque’s chest. “Stealing a look that you can’t even pull off right. I believe that’s called desperation which fits you to a T.” The warrior snapped, clenching his fists. His tail wrapped around Wukong’s wrist, holding it firmly.

Ink simply smirked, raising a hand to his ear before a familiar golden light appeared with a very familiar staff forming in his hand with a green bladed sword appearing on his hip. “Want to test that theory, King's Shadow?”

Macaque formed his staff, eyes narrowed at the Ink monster. He braced himself, smirking. “Not a theory when there is just so much evidence. Haven’t you heard? Courtship kidnapping fell out of fashion centuries ago.” He twirled his staff, ears alert.

[Careful Mac... That's my staff and Mei’s sword.] Wukong ‘spoke’ into Macaque’s mind using telepathy, it was one of the few powers that didn't use a lot of energy and that Macaque actually had in turn as long as Wukong was the one to start the connection and keep it open.

[We’re kinda out of options, Peaches!] Macaque gritted his teeth, eyes locked on Ink. [If you have any ideas, please, I’m all ears! ] Even mentally, the sarcasm was more than obvious.

[one... But you won't like it very much.] Wukong responded as a leaf fell between the white and black monkeys falling to the sand and like a silent timer the two attacked.

Macaque brought up his staff, blocking an overhead strike from Ink. Ink smirked at the ebony monkey. Macaque snarled, twisting the two staffs to the side and kicking Ink back. Ink spun his staff around and swiped at Macaque’s head. The warrior twirled out of the path of the blow, eyes focused. Macaque sprang forward aiming a jab at Ink’s side, but was swiftly blocked by a green blade. Ink’s eyes darted over to Wukong, looking for a weakness. “Your fight is with me, creep!” Macaque snarled, dropping to a crouch and kicking Ink’s legs from under him. Ink caught himself on his hand and spun around, foot catching Macaque’s arm and pushing him back. [If you have a plan, Peaches, use it! I can’t hold him off for much longer.] As Macaque spoke, Ink extended the staff, sending it flying towards the ebony monkey. Macaque dodged, springing back.

[keep the cubs safe... I love you.] Wukong sent before opening his eyes that we're completely purple this time. Shadows thickened around him before several shadow like clones shot out dog piling Ink while a portal swallowed Macaque, Wukong’s staff and Mei’s sword all in one go. Wukong felt pain piece his chest looking down at an arrow coated in something sickly green sticking through his chest before he blacked out.

“Wukong!” Macaque roared as he fell into the portal, hand reaching for the king before the portal closed.

“Macaque!” a familiar voice called out from behind the black monkey. He spun around coming face to face with Wukong’s successor. “Macaque what is going on with this scroll?! It keeps pushing Mei and I back when we try to wake up everyone from their past lives.” the boy expressed looking lost and stressed.

“It’s cursed. You both okay?” Macaque looked between MK and Mei, scanning them for any injuries. He banished his staff and pulled the two startled heroes into a quick hug.

“Aww! You do care!” Mei teased, briefly exchanging a concerned glance with MK.

“I said no such thing.” Macaque denied releasing the young adults. “You said the scroll isn’t allowing you near the others?”

“Nope, it even took away my staff and Mei’s sword... That are currently lying right next to you…” Mk tailed looking confused.

“Long story short, the curse has gained some sort of sentience based off the person that used it’s subconscious desires.” Macaque growled, fur fluffing up slightly. “And if there’s one thing he’s wanted for as long as I’ve known him, it’s Wukong. So we have to wake the others quickly.” He picked up the sword, handing it to Mei. “It’s main form is with him. We could both get away so he sent me.”

Mei gripped her sword firmly. “You think someone is controlling the scroll?” Her eyes flashed green.

“Only one Lion I know has such an obsession withWukong it would bleed into any artifact that even had a shred of sentience. How do you think I got this thing on my head?” Macaque said pointing out to the cursed crown.

MK and Mei’s eyes widened. “AHHH!?” MK pointed at the filet!

“Aaah! Your ears are so cute!” Mei shrieked, pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. “Oh and the cursed filet or whatever.”

MK grabbed Macaque's shoulders and started shaking him. “How did you get that? Did you say Lion? Why do you have six ears?”

“Bud I'm the Six Eared Macaque. I hide my ears under a glamor to muffle out the extra sound and not to gain more attention from other demons that have a bone to pick with me. Azure Lion is the only lion that I know and this thing is from that damn copy cat that’s trying to get Wukong as its mate.” Macaque answered after he stopped Mk from shaking him feeling a rush of power filling him from the boy. “How the hell are you still moving with all that energy?!”

“What do you mean?” MK asked tilting his head. “I’m always energetic!”

Mei’s head snapped up to Macaque’s. “I’m sorry. Did you say Uncie Azure wants to mate with Monkey King?”

“Yes... Who told you he was an Uncle? Neither of you was ever supposed to meet him. The damn overgrown fur ball can choke on his own fur for all I care. I'm not letting him touch Sunshine every again.” Macaque growled showing off his impressive six inch monkey fangs in his anger at the mention of the blue lion.

“I knew it!” Mei shouted, jumping on MK’s back. “I told you!” She cackled.

“Mei! I told you! Monkey King isn’t my dad! Wait.” MK turned to Macaque, gasping. “You called Monkey King Sunshine?”

“And you guys still call him Monkey King instead of Wukong what's the difference?” Macaque retorted.

Mei giggled, winking at the monkey. “Sounds like someone is jealous.”

“This makes so much sense.” MK muttered, pulling out a notebook and scribbling something down.

“Let’s just get your friends before that copycat finds us... I thought Sunshine put a limiter on your powers?” Macaque asked while rubbing at the small headache between his eyes. His six ears twitched and moved like individual radio dishes.

“He did that ages ago!” MK nodded, shoving the notebook back who knows where.

“Do you think that weird key thing started to open it?” Mei asked, rolling her eyes at Macaque’s attempt to change the subject.

“The Skeleton Key! Out of all the things you used that?! No wonder your overflowing with energy your basically no longer human at this point.” Macaque exclaimed. “Fuck this must be what Sunshine meant when he said you couldn't learn this until you had your coming of demon age day.”

“I’m sorry. My what ?” MK chuckled, nervously. “I’m just regular old MK! What do you mean not human? I’m of age! I literally have a car and a job!”

“MK’s a demon now?” Mei gasped with stars in her eyes. “That’s so cool! You would make a great demon, MK!”

“Let’s get moving I’ll explain on the way. Don't not interrupt me cause I am not explaining it more then once and unlike Sunshine I'm blunt and won't hold back in information you need to know. What I need to know Mk is if you know anything before your fifth birthday.” Macaque stated.

“Uuhhh. What do you mean? I don’t really remember anything from before that. Do you, Mei?” The boy asked.

Mei shrugged, typing on her phone. “Not really. Maybe a little bit. But not much.”

“Kid, do you even know if you have parents?”

“Of course I do!” MK protested, crossing his arms. “Pigsy’s my Dad!”

“The ones that gave birth to you.” Macaque clarified.

“Why would that matter?” MK grumbled, looking away from Mei and Macaque. “I have my dads. I don’t need my birth parents.” Mei placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze.

“Kid. I'm only asking because that key should have unlocked everything in you body and mind including lost or suppressed memories from childhood... The only way you wouldn't have memories before being five years old is if you were just born .” Macaque stated.

()()()()()

Gold and ruby eyes with a slight green tint slowly opened with a nasty headache curling up slightly at the cold air that nipped at bare skin not covered in fur.

“Wakey wakey, Peaches .” A familiar voice snickered. “I’m getting tired of waiting~!” The monkey felt a kick against his ribs.

Wukong’s eyes snapped open at that gasping at the immediate pain. ‘That's going to bruise...’ Wukong thought.

“Look who finally decided to wake up.” A hand gripped his hair and pulled his face up. Still in the guise of the pale furred Macaque, Ink grinned. “Hey, Sunshine . Miss me?”

“Not very,” Wukong growled with a glare. ‘Gods I feel weak...’

Ink chuckled, holding up a golden shard. “Missing something?” His fangs gleamed ominously.

Wukong’s eyes shrunk at seeing the shard in his hand. “What did you do?” Wukong demanded before Ink scowled.

“You don't seem to understand the position you're in Peaches.” Ink stated.

Wukong shifted up so he was half sitting up. His side twinged in warning and he hissed, pressing his hand against the new bruise. “What position is that?”

“You're not a King here. Just a Bad Monkey.” Ink stated smugly before Wukong felt the familiar crown around his head tightening.

The russet monkey flinched, rearing back. “You’re not my Master.” He snarled, eyes blazing. “You don’t get to say that!” He gripped his head, fighting back tears.

“Not tight enough? I can make it tighter the more you Misbehave.” Ink stated.

“Fuck. You.” Wukong growled, determined to take as much of the curse’s attention as possible. ‘The longer it’s focused on me, the more time they have.’

“Oh, I think you would like that after you behave.” Ink stated, circling Wukong’s basically prone form. “Tell me, who in their right mind would want to love a weak and savage beast that can’t even read and write properly?”

Wukong bared his teeth, growling. “Says the creepy stalker that wants to mate me. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. Not. Interested.” Ink simply snapped his fingers making an inky black mirror appear before Wukong. The ink bled away to a large full-length mirror that reflected not a golden monkey but a monkey made out of molten stone with a softly glowing golden core, purple-tainted arms and legs with deep orange ‘spikes’ in the shape of a mane. “What is this?” Wukong grumbled, glaring at the fake monkey.

“Your true form. One not hidden under the illusion of flesh. Didn't you ever find it odd a flesh and blood monkey was born from solid stone?” Ink asked impressed Wukong was not screaming in pain from the tightening crown. Wukong winced, one eye slipping shut as he tried to figure out the curse’s goal. Claws dug deep into Wukong’s arms while hot breath curled near his ear. “Why don't we have a closer look a the monster pretending to be a monkey?”

Wukong feebly pushed at Ink. “Speak for yourself.” He bit out. “That isn’t me!”

Ink grinned before stabbing Wukong in the back of the neck, orange lava-like cracks spreading over his form before flopping off like wet clay. Wukong coughed nearly choking on ash and steam coming from his own throat in shock. “A true Stone Monkey made as hard as a Celestial Diamond from the very Furnace they used to melt you down.” Ink supplied. “You think Macaque would still want to be your mate when he sees this? You are nothing but a walking golem.”

Wukong cried out, collapsing before the mirror. He shook his head in denial, steam drifting from his eyes. “No! That’s not true! None of it is!”

Ink smirked. “Your about as real as a toy soldier Peaches... Just like me. Do you think a living person would want to love a hunk of stone much less one that's as hot as lava?” Ink inquired jabbing at Wukong’s pain riddled thoughts.

“You’re nothing… but a stupid curse… controlled by a petty failure.” Wukong rasped, denying the other. “Macaque does love me!”

“You sure about that? He’s tried to kill both you and your little cub even turned your cubs against you too many times to count. Are you really willing to hand your stone heart over to someone who’d crush it in the blink of an eye for power?” Ink questioned watching as the green tint grew thicker like a plague corrupting Wukong’s thoughts. ‘Soon enough you’ll be seeing hallucinations of those you love dropping you like a hot coal either from disgust or fear of being burned.’ Ink swiftly sunk his teeth that resembled a more feline arrangement then monkey into Wukong’s shoulder leaving his mark of claim on the distressed stone monkey knowing he’d probably have to do it more than once until it became permanent. Wukong screamed as the primordial magic of a demon mating claim seared his shoulder before he slumped over his eyes now a toxic green. Said eyes closed in exhaustion while tanned hands tenderly caressed molten skin. “Your mine now Peaches... Let’s see that emo monkey try to take you from me now.” Ink smugly stated holding the stone monkey closer as the green light of the dragon blood he had coated the arrow in before spread to infect more of Wukong’s very body and soul.

An ink version of Wukong took form grinning with icy blue light followed by a monkey version of Mk. “Capture either the cub or that emo monkey. Nothing too damaging but I still want at least one of them in one piece before Master Azure comes to collect his Treasure.” Ink ordered.

”Dont forget our purpose Plums. We are simply tools to have the stone monkey behave ideally for the alpha lion.” the ink version of Wukong spoke. “Your hogging a lot of the extra power just to give yourself a flesh and blood form.”

“Yeah Baba! You're taking a lot of the fun out of making these sinners atone for those sins they caused!” Ink Mk agreed crossing his arms like he was a pouting child.

Ink simply chuckled. “They will pay in due time sweetheart. No go with your Papa and get those runaways.”

()()()()()

“Tang... How are you even related to Tripitaka?” Macaque questioned with a groan as Mei rubbed the black monkey’s back. Said monkey had ended up puking his guts after the multiple teleports through so many ‘chapters’ of the scroll causing a rather violent clash between his recovering magic and the ‘holy’ magic Tang was brute forcing into very crude spells. At least Tang had yet to bombard Macaque with questions on the cursed crown and the weakly glowing six ears.

Tang shrugged. “Maybe I’m a descendent? Although…. He was an extremely devout Buddhist, so that doesn’t make sense.” The scholar shifted his glasses, looking at the monkey and giving him another shrug. “Beats me.”

“I'm just going to guess reincarnation and keep my head from exploding at that imagery.” Macaque deadpanned as he stood. “You doing alright cub?” Macaque asked Mk who looked to have a thousand-yard stare.

While Tang was preoccupied at the idea of being the reincarnation of the Great Monk and therefore the Golden Fucking Cicada, MK was having his own personal meltdown.

“I don’t. I don’t know.” The young man mumbled, picking at his stolen shirt. “Finding out I might not be human is kinda a lot.”

“You have more in common with me and Pigsy now?” Mei tried to cheer her friend up, earning a tiny smile.

All of a sudden Mk gripped his chest, bright orange cracks spreading from the back of his neck while a sickly green glowing mark appeared on his shoulder. His eyes flickering between gold and purple as the scent of plums and peaches mixed with pears grew overpowering from the teen.

“MK!” The probably not a bug scholar and dragon girl both shouted, reaching for the younger hero.

Macaque’s eyes widened and his jaw went slack as the cracks started to spread. “Oh.” He whispered, tail lashing as the fruity scents filled the air. Then his eyes caught sight and the green mark and he snarled. “Damnit! The manifestation claimed Wukong. We need to go faster.”

“I’m trying but I really don’t know what I’m doing!” Tang snapped, gripping the ringed staff.

“Open his mouth. Mei I need to borrow your sword for a sec.” Macaque stated,

Mei blinked, uncomprehending. “What?”

“Sword now!” Macaque repeated while Tang gently got Mk to lean back and partly open his mouth.

“Okay! Okay! Geez!” She practically tossed her sword at him. “Throw a girl off guard saying something like that.”

Macaque ignored her as he sliced his hand heading over to Mk. “Keep his mouth open and make sure he swallows.” Macaque opened holding his hand over Mk’s mouth and squeezed letting this thick blood flow into the teen’s mouth.

Understanding lit up Tang’s eyes and he nodded, face serious. “Okay.” The human that might also be an insect, massaged the teen’s throat, urging him to swallow. “You gotta swallow, MK.” Tang murmured, squeezing the kid’s hand.

“That’s one of the top twelve grossest things I’ve ever seen.” Mei remarked, watching closely. “Why does he need to drink your blood? Do you have magic blood? I though that was Yin and Jin’s schtick.”

“He’s basically doing the demon equivalent of child adoption Mei,” Tang said. “Monkey King did a similar thing with the staff through a ritual of Proven Worth.”

“Ohhhh. Demon adoption. Cool!” Mei stroked her chin in thought. “Wonder if dragons have something like that. I’m have to ask Uncle.” She looked over at Macaque. “Does this mean you’ve joined the custody battle?”

Tang chuckled, brushing a hand through the shaken MK’s hair. “Pigsy and I adopted MK pretty much the moment we found him. Monkey King put a claim on him after he became the Monkie Kid.”

“that would explain how the kid could produce my magic without much effort,” Macaque stated feeling the cut heal while tossing Mei back her sword. “I suggest you brace for the next part.”

Mei and Tang both looked over at the immortal with confused stares. MK just gagged and shoved his face into Tang’s chest. “Why would that help with your powers?” Mei asked, slowly backing away from MK.

Orange cracks pulse once before glowing a bright purple and bursting ou in a mixture of white, gold, and orange shards. A long monkey tail curled around Mk’s legs while two sets of lotus ears twitch on the teen’s head colored a bright gold that faced to a sunset purple color with a soft orange glow. Mk groaned letting out chirps and whines at his new hearing.

A bright golden sphere covered Tang before the teen’s transformation hit. The bespectacled scholar gaped at his son, before chuckling. “Now he really is a monkey kid.” He hugged the boy. “You okay?”

MK covered his ears with a wince. “Maybe? I don’t know. Everything is so much louder now. Is that a tail?!” He gaped at his new appendage.

“Awww! You look so cute!” Mei gasped, hearts in her eyes. “Look at your pretty ears!”

Macaque simply chuckled before his smile changed in a snap second as he was in front of the kid holding a black arrow dripping in a sickly green substance. Macaque snarled his tail puffed up like a cat’s. “Dragon blood.”

Mei stiffened, color draining from her face. Tang helped MK to his feet, the two looking around wildly. “We need to move on.” Tang whispered, gripping his staff. The teen snagged Mei’s hand, holding it tightly. “And I think I have an idea where Pigsy might be.”

“Get us there quickly. We need to lose who's following us.” Macaque all but ordered. Tang nodded, banging his staff into the ground once. A large golden bubble surrounded them and they vanished. They appeared near a swamp one Macaque was vaguely familiar with. “This is the pig’s chapter. The shack should be down the road from here. Tang, try not to get kidnapped like the monk was.” Macaque stated curling his tail around Mk’s.

“Great.” Tang sarcastically replied, shaking his head.

Mei gripped MK’s hand, face blank as she stared down at the ground. MK glanced at her before turning to Macaque. “So I’m up to four Dad’s now?” He said lightheartedly, trying to lift the mood. The young man kept giving his tail uncertain looks. “And a monkey?”

“You were always a monkey Kid. Just hidden under a very powerful glamor that you've been subconsciously keeping running. You really are a lot like Sunshine with that stuff.” Macaque stated glaring at the arrow in his hand. “When we are done I'm burning this scroll to ashes.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait. Back it up. What do you mean I’ve always been a monkey? I’ve never looked like this before!” MK protested, ears pressing back against his head in distress.

Mei also glared at the arrow, eyes flicking a furious green. Tang gave the younger two a worried look before turning his gaze to the swamp.

“Kid, did Sunshine ever tell you how the four Celestial Primates were born?” Macaque asked before bopping Mei in the nose. “Calm your mind cub. There is a difference between this blood and yours. For one this is from a dragon that was sick, very sick, and had died. Unlike your lineage, some dragons don't decompose, instead, they become petrified while their blood becomes similar to a very powerful drug. It causes hallucinations and makes whoever gets it in their bloodstream docile and unable to use magic. You are immune to it as your own dragon blood would cancel it out immediately.” Macaque more or less info dumped on the dragon teen as he tossed the arrow into the swamp. “Walk and talk, we ned to keep moving.”

“The four what’s it now?” MK mumbled, clinging to his older friend. Mei shrugged helplessly as she tried to process the new information. The two teens trailed behind Tang who had already started walking.

“The four Celestial Primate of Stone, Wind, Fire, and Water.” Tang supplied. “Sun Wukong is obviously the Primate of Stone and Macaque is the Primate of Wind. According to the stories Macaque was born from the energy of wind, shadows, and moonlight in the body of a ten year old monkey demon with the power to hear the past present and future while later gaining the ability to manipulate metal.” Tang explained in his teaching mode that helped calm the teens.

Macaque gave the scholar a perplexed look. “Yes, that’s-how did you know that? Almost no one knows about that.” Mei and MK were giving him wide eyed stares of awe.

“That. Is. So cool!” Mei exclaimed, bouncing in excitement. MK nodded his head quickly, ears flapping as he grinned. Macaque resisted the urge to cover his face.

“You’d be surprised what you’d find in old manuscripts of the original journey and it's demons,” Tang smirked. “It also helped that Mk brought me to Monkey King’s vault where he kept a rather thick book on your powers and abilities. Even had pictures.”

Macaque gave the human a double take. “Wukong has a- pictures?” Then he slowly turned to level a blank look at the bashful teen. “You took him into the vault?” A thought hit the immortal and he whipped back to Tang. “Did he seriously include the part about my age?” He hissed, ears flaring out in embarrassment fury. The immortal crossed his arms, grumbling to himself. “Of all the stupid. Idiot king. Rocks for brains.”

Mei snicker, elbowing MK. “Looks like Old Monkey King wrote a book about his ex.” MK giggled, jumping on her back.

He easily kept his balance as his tail automatically stretched out to compensate. “Why would your age matter anyway? Your thousands of years old anyway aren't you?” Mk questioned.

Macaque huffed, ears turning a soft pink. “Cause that idiot loves to lord over the fact that he was born fully grown and I was formed as a child.” He wasn’t pouting. Absolutely not. No matter how much the two teens giggled at him. He admits nothing.

“I see the house!” Tang interrupted, pointing down the road. “Think we’re like ten minutes away.”

“Good.” Macaque nodded.

“Oh and your wrong about Monkey king being fully formed. He was a newborn cub he grew into an adult over the next few days.” Tang added.

Macaque froze and slowly turned towards the human. “He was what?” The immortal hissed, tail lashing. “That sneaky little-”

“Were here!” Tang cut him off. He sniffed the air frowning. “Looks like the scroll couldn't smother Pigsy’s love of cooking and adapted for it.”

MK interjected. “Wait. So Monkey King went from baby to adult in a few days. You were ten and had to grow up. Why was I five?” He pouted, crossing his arms as Tang looked around for Pigsy.

Macaque shrugged. “Beats me, kiddo. Everyone is a bit different.” He covered his nose, resisting the urge to hurl. “This smells nothing like the chef’s cooking.” Mei nodded, looking slightly green.

Tang covered his node as well. “One theory was that his power forced him into an adult body to properly regulate his output and input of energy. As the monkey of Stone his connection to the very earth is almost second nature but with the down side of having very powerful abilities and no control as a newborn.” Tang explained. “You guys stay out here, I've got a chief to talk to.” Tang entered the shack leaving the teens and monkey outside.

“Is that a wise idea?” Mei whispered to MK as the older man entered the building.

“He’ll be fiiiine.” MK assured her, giving her a thumbs up. He turned to the older monkey. “You were talking about celestial monkeys or something?”

“Celestial Primates.” Macaque corrected. He motioned his hand to the shack’s wall bending the shadows into all too familiar puppets. “Each primate was created by a god from a higher realm, much higher than the Jade Emperor’s heavenly court. From what I know each of us was carved from out very elements and placed in elemental ‘eggs’ to gather the energy then hatch in an according form.” Macaque explained.

“Higher than the Jade Emperor? Like the Buddhas and Bottisatva’s?” Mei asked, surprising the two monkeys.

“They were created by someone? Why?” MK asked, tilting his head.

“To balance the power between the Diyu and Heaven while acting as buffers in the mortal realm to increases in magic that could be deadly to mortals.” Macaque replied.

“Whaaaa?” Both teens tilted their heads, not understanding.

Macaque pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did either of you take Demon History 101 courses in school?”

MK shook his head. “It was only required for demons at my school, so I took Art 101.”

Mei scratched the back of her head. “I took it like five years ago and I really only paid attention to the dragon parts. Even then I think that lesson focused almost entirely on Monkey King then shifted to the Journey.”

“Of course it did... This is why Sunshine always left me doing the teaching...” Macaque muttered before he sighed dismissing the puppets. “Since we are stuck here, Kid try summoning a shadow staff. We're going to do a crash course on my abilities so you are familiar with them and not calling them up on instinct.”

“Uhhh. Okay. I can do that. Probably.” MK shuffled his feet, nearly stepping on his tail. He held out a hand, eyes focused on it intently. After a long moment of nothing happening, he glanced over at Macaque. “How do I do that, exactly?”

“Imagine a staff rising from your shadow but as an extension of yourself.” Macaque supplied.

“Yeah. Cause that makes sense.” The teen grumbled, ears twitching when his tail nearly smacks Mei in the face. MK focused on his shadow, imagining a purple version of his staff raising from the shadow. His shadow glowed but beyond that nothing happened. “Why do I even need a shadow staff? I have Monkey King’s.” He glared at his shadow. Mei just sat down next to the two monkeys, content to watch.

“In case your staff gets taken again. Only you can use a shadow staff made from your own shadows plus it prevents it from being stolen.” Macaque pointed out.

MK huffed, but couldn’t think of any arguments. “Fine. Fine.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The teen held a hand over his shadow and focused. The shadow glowed purple again, only this time a shadowy replica of his staff started to rise. Mei perked up, watching intently. MK gripped the shadow and pulled it out the rest of the way. “Ha! I did it!” Then it vanished. “Noooo!” He cried, throwing up his hands in exaggerated defeat.

“Not bad, you didn't have enough power in it to keep it’s shape.” Macaque smirked, his body language coming off as being a very proud parent especially with his wagging tail. “Try again.”

Mei covered her giggles as she quietly took pictures of the two monkeys. “Monkey King will love these.” She whispered, saving them to her MK Dad Squad folder.

“Okay. More power. I can do that!” MK hyped himself up. He raised his hand again, staring intently at his shadow. Once again the staff started for form and he grabbed it. After a moment he beamed, looking over at Macaque with his tail swinging happily behind him. “I did it!” He cheered. However the moment he stopped focusing on the staff it started to vanish again. “Nonono!” He stuck out his tongue as he tried to keep it solid.

They continued the impromptu lesson until Tang came out with Pigsy who looked a little dazed. “Hope I didn't take too long?” Tang asked.

“Nope! Mac has been teaching Mk to summon a shadow staff. If Mk keeps this up he could start duel-welding the Monkey Staff and the Shadow Staff at the same time!” Mei exclaimed.

MK seemed to perk up at the thought. “Think I could hold one with the tail?”

“Tail?!” Pigsy snapped out of his daze and stomped over to MK. “Kid! What happened?! How did? Where did? Monkey?” The pig started patting the teen down, closely examining his ears, tail, and fur. “Are ya hurting anywhere?”

“I’m fine, Dadsy.” MK mumbled, as the chef looked at his new monkey teeth. The pig just clicked his tongue.

“I’m going to have words with that mentor of yours when we find him.” Pigsy promised.

Macaque chuckled. “Actually… it’s not Wukong’s fault this time. MK’s a Celestial Primate. He’s just not using a glamour anymore.”

Tang nodded, supporting the immortal. “Turns out random small children covered in dirt are actually mythical monkey babies in disguise.”

“Surprise?” MK watched the pig, a slightly fearful look in his eyes.

Pigsy stared at him before huffing and ruffling the teens hair. “This doesn’t get you outta work.”

”looks like we caught up to the runaway.”

Macaque met Tang’s eyes. “Tang!” The scholar quickly slammed down the staff, summoning a golden bubble.

”Not this time!” an arrow broke through the bubble as two ink monkeys landed before the group. ”You really want to give us problems Plums? You're only going to end up back at the Palace unconscious.”

The small group gawked at the two. “It’s like looking into a gross, gooey mirror.” MK shouted, pointing at the Ink version of himself.

“You’re much prettier, MK!” Mei agreed, hyping up her bestie. She pointed her sword at them. “Give us back our friends!”

The ink version of Wukong simply looked at her unimpressed. ”why would I want to do that? You know the story but do you know the truth? Even Plums here only knows the bare minimum.”

The ink version of Mk simply grinned. “should we try out the new ability Pa?”

Ink Wukong simply nodded tossing a thick lava orsge charge of energy to the smaller ink creature. They absorbed it grinning as color bled into their being. In contrast to the real Mk the ink version has a dark blue mask on his face with chocolate brown fur with a white and silver streak. Bright green eyes brightened in chaotic glee. “I really take after Baba in taking a flesh and blood form.” Ink Mk chuckled.

Macaque growled, summoning his staff. “We’ll buy you time, Tang. MK! Mei!” The two nodded and brandished their weapons. Pigsy placed himself in front of the human, hands gripping his new rake.

”Shrink.” Ink Wukong started as he also absorbed the energy and his was the most drastic change. Silver fur, blood red pupils in black eyes, a blood red mask that looked more like a two leaves and stem then a heart with a blue outline.

Macaque looked between the two, evaluating which one was the stronger opponent. “Mei. MK. Take Ink MK. I’ll take the fake Wukong.” Mei burst forward with a loud whoop, quickly followed by MK. Macaque gripped his staff and shot forward towards the Ink Wukong.

The Ink Wukong easily caught the staff scowling slightly before seeing Macaque’s twitch of pain. “Still too lose? That can be fixed.”

Macaque chuckled, glaring at the ink demon. “Do yourself a favor and stop talking. I know you probably love to hear the sound of your own voice, but no one else does.” He sank into a shadow and circled the demon.

Meanwhile Mei and MK and Ink MK were all three wildly trying to hit each other amidst loud screaming. Most of the screaming was from Mei, accompanied by small bursts of flames.

“Ouch! Hey! Keep your flames from my tail!” Ink Mk growled before pouncing on Mei and getting into a wrestling match with her.

“Uh-uh! Fake best friends don’t get fire protection!” Mei shot back, rolling around on the ground with the ink monster while MK watched for a moment. He grinned at the girl, holding back a warm laugh.

“Ha! What kind of friend runs away after becoming a ball of fire?” Ink Mk countered.

“Big words from someone that isn’t even real!” Mei fired back, nawwing at Ink MK’s arm.

“Eww. Mei! It’s made of ink! That’s so gross!” MK gagged at the thought of any of that entering his mouth.

Ink Mk hissed like a pissed-off cat screeching at Mei before golden power enveloped Mei and Mk the two teens popped over to Tang with Macaque appearing as the group vanished in a bright flash of gold.

MK and Mei reoriented themselves, looking over at the older adults. “Nice job, Tangman! The Tangster!” MK hugged the older man.

“Good job you two.” Macaque raised a hand to the circlet with a wince. He tried to shake it off and turned to the chef and scholar. “Where are we, Tang?”

Pigsy narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “And why are you in charge here? Where’s Monkey King?”

“Caged.” Macaque bluntly stated as something warm rolled down his face with a sharp spike of pain.

Tang nervously spoke up. “Macaque, your forehead is… bleeding.”

Macaque frowned at the large worried eyes of all the mortals. He raised a hand to the circlet and touched it. The circlet was slowly, but surely shrinking. When he pulled his fingers away they were covered in blood. “Damnit. There’s no time to worry about that. We have to find Sandy and get back to Wukong.”

“This is what Monkey King had to deal with?” Mk softly questioned.

“Worse. The sutra was longer and hastened the tightening curse. This one looks to be modified to tighten with a keyword and slowly continue unless more keywords are spoken.” Macaque deduced ripping off more fabric from his scarf and trying it around the band to hopefully prevent more blood from falling down his face and worrying the rest of the group.

Pigsy frowned but moved hit attention to the teens. “You two okay?”

“We’re fine, Dadsy.” MK assured.

“Let's get moving. We have to get Sandy and Moe before those ink knockoffs try to get us again.” Tang said before giving a sharp look at the teens. “The next fight with the ink teen better be serious and not just a play fight. Don't think I didn't notice the difference!” Tang warned the two teens.

Macaque gave his own glare at the two teens. “Seeing as Pigsy now has a weapon you’ll have someone to spar with Mei. Be warned Kid I'm not going to hold back in spars if you don't take your fights seriously.” Macaque directed the last bit of his statement to Mk.

Pigsy smacked the back of Mei and MK’s head. “Don’t play around when we’re trapped in a weird magic scroll!” He scolded, crossing his arms.

“Sorry.” Both teens hung their heads in shame.

The pond the group neared rippled turning black before it looked like a large tv screen with a scowling snow-white monkey in the reflection. ”So you managed to evade Wu and our little cub, Luier.” the white monkey snarked with a glare. ”then I guess you’ve forced my hand.” The white monkey stepped to the side showing what was directly behind him bound to a thick pole with a basket muzzle around his mouth was none other then Wukong but he looked far different then normal with lava skin, magma veins, and a sickly green coloring spreading from his chest and eyes. His left shoulder leaked lava like blood from a bite mark while thin glowing letters circled around the bite.

The group gasped, staring at the captive king. Macaque jerked forward. “Wukong!” His ears pressed against his skull as he took in the sight of his other half.

MK pointed his staff at the lake. “What did you do to him!?”

“Give us back the monkey man!” Mei growled, brandishing her sword.

”Simply broke that flesh and blood illusion over his being. A being of the Primordial Elements. A little bit of dragon blood and a bite of claiming.” the white monkey replied. ”too bad he never did get the Eternal Flames.” Wukong jerked before he started screaming convulsing in pain while black lightning arched between the silver metals on his limbs, lava-like blood dripping down his head from the bronze crown below the silver one the bronze color returning to a bright gold as it grew in power.

Pigsy held back MK while the kid growled, glowing a faint gold. “Let him go!”

Macaque felt a fury growing inside him. Eyes flashing purple, he stepped forward. “How dare you!”

”You forced my hands Liuer.” The white monkey simply smirked before the pond returned to normal. Macaque snarled in anger his claws digging into his palms in anger while his powers spiked at the instinctual rage of seeing Wukong in such distress. Thin purple cracks curling like wind through Macaque’s skin disrupted by thin white moons and dark golden lightning bolts. The very air around Macaque became electrified with power that was building to breaking point in the black monkey. The other four glanced between each other and the furious monkey. Tang nudged MK towards the older monkey.

“Macaque?” The teen hesitantly stepped up next to the immortal. Macaque locked solid glowing white eyes with the teen. Faintly Mk could see Macaque’s pupils but they were hidden under the power threatening to burst from the monkey’s ‘mortal’ body. MK slowly placed a hand on Macaque’s shoulder. “We’ll save him.” The boy softly assured the other, giving him an encouraging smile. “It’s what we do.”

Mei nodded, pumping her fist. “That creep won’t even know what hit him!”

The power slowly bled out before the black monkey passed out getting caught by the teen while thin silver scars decorated Macaque’s skin and fur from the cracks being stopped before Macaque’s power overpowered his body.

“This is just great!” Pigsy grumbled, stomping over to the two monkeys. “Idiot monkeys. Not you, MK. The two senile ones.”

MK just hefted the monkey over his shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll be fine! We still need to find Sandy and Mo.”

“That's the first time I've seen Mac with white eyes...” Mei noted. “What the hell was with the cracks?! He looked ready to explode just like you did Mk!” Mei pointed out.

“I think Macaque might have tapped into the beginnings of his very elemental power...” Tang answered. “We saw Monkey King as a being of literal Stone. As Monkey King’s literal Elemental Opposite and Balance Macaque would only need to see Monkey King in his elemental form before acting to Balance out their powers.”

MK shuffled in place. “Does that mean I’ll turn into something like that?” His voice was small as he looked over at the older man.

“No Mk. You likely weren't made like Monkey King and Macaque to balance the power of nature. Let's get moving, we got a monkey to rescue and a friend to ‘wake up’.” Tang replied.

Mei slung an arm over Tang’s shoulder. “Yeah! Let’s go save Sandy and Monkey King!”

Pigsy ruffled MK’s hair. “Let’s go, kid.”

The group quickly made their way to the river the blue-skinned demon was supposed to be waiting for Tripitaka to arrive at. They stopped a moment to rearrange Macaque to rest on Mk’s back piggyback style. Subconsciously Macaque had wrapped his tail around Mk’s waist while deep low purring sounds sent feelings of protection and safety through the newly minted monkey teen.

MK chirped happily then immediately blushed when the others looked over at him. “Don’t mind me. Just monkeying around?”

Mei snickered. “Alright Monkie Man!”

“What could you be monkeying around with him unconscious?” Pigsy demanded with a raised brow.

MK chuckled nervously. “I dunno. He’s like purring and it made me chirp! I’ve been a monkey for like ten minutes. I don’t know what I’m doing!” He pouted, glaring down at the river.

Tang reached over and patted his head. “You are doing great, MK. It’s not everyday you suddenly get a tail and two new ears and a weird birthmark on your face and-“

“Thank you, Tang!” MK snapped, rolling his eyes. “Thank you for reminding me.”

“I thought that was just his monkey mask coming in?” Mei questioned.

“Wait, there’s something on my face too?” MK groaned, running a hand down his face. “Is it at least cool like Macaque’s or adorable like Monkey King’s?”

Pigsy gave the kid a deadpan stare. “Seriously, kid?”

“Mixed. It kind of looks like a butterfly but its color is a mix of theirs like a sunset orange?” Mei answered.

MK grinned. “Oh that sounds awesome! Take a picture! Let me see! Let me see!” Mei quickly snapped a picture and showed the other teen. “Woah!”

True enough his face mask did look like it was shaped to mimic a butterfly with a sunset orange taking most of the center with a deep red at the top and a softer peach color at the bottom like a gradient effect of two colors blending in harmony.

Tang looked around nervously. “This is the area where the great Monk and Monkey King met Sha Wujing. So Sandy should be around here somewhere.”

“Mrow.” came an all too familiar meow of a cat.

Mei gasped. “Mo! Hey buddy!” The girl picked up the cat, setting him on her head. “Thats one blue friend down!”

“Only one more to go!” MK cheered, tail flicking happily.

Moe patted Mei’s head and pointed to Tang’s staff motioning to tap it to the ground.

Out of any other ideas, Tang gently tapped his staff. Another golden bubble covered everyone and they vanished once again.

The group appeared in a cavern high above while a group of three demons talked down below. A blue lion demon, a white elephant demon, and a white eagle demon. “You know the plan, once we secure our victory over heaven slip the poison into Mihou’s wine and the drug in Wukong’s.” the blue lion spoke.

“Are we sure this poison is even strong enough to kill that simian? He’s as hard to kill as the immortal king.” the eagle questioned.

“I did the calculations and brewing myself, Peng. Luier Mihou will be dead by sunrise once he ingests the wine after the battle. Not even his powers will help detoxify the poison in time before he rots from the inside out. As for the drug, Wukong will end up forced into a feral heat. Said heat will force his body to shapeshift to accommodate in order to be mated and bare cubs just as you wanted Azure. You will have to keep giving him the drug until his very identity as Monkey King is burned away to allow his mind to take up the role of Empress when you become Emperor.” the white elephant stated.

The group of mortals gawked at the scene, horrified. Tang covered his mouth. Pigsy placed a hand on the scholar’s shoulder.

Mei snarled, gripping her sword tightly. “That conniving, lying, son of a bitch.” She hissed, glaring at the lion.

Mk on the other hand couldn't believe his ears that picked up the very heart beats of the three down below. None of them were lying. Mk felt sick but more than that rage bubbled in his chest while his mind went into overdrive Protect Mama! Protect Protect! Protect! Protect Baba! shouted a small part of himself that sounded like an angry monkey cub with flashes of Wukong and Macaque in his head.

A pained groan pulled MK from his murderous thoughts. “Ow.” Macaque grumbled, pressing a hand to his head. “The hell was that?”

“You tapped into your literal element of wind?” Mk supplied in a soft whisper.

“Good. Mihou has been a blockade in my attempts to court Wukong. Once Mihou is no more Wukong will be my Empress.” Azure promised.

“At the very least let me have his corpse, Brother. I could use a new fur pelt for my collection.” Peng grinned as best as his beak would allow. “I hear monkey meat is a delicacy when cooked correctly.”

“I what?” Macaque’s ears flicked towards the three demons below them. “When-where are we?” He frowned at the others. “What’s the brotherhood doing here? We need to find Sandy.”

“Moe had us travel here. We’ll explain what we heard when we get out of here.” Mei shushed him as Tang Hasilty tapped his power and the group fell into a dried riverbed with bones littering in piles all around them, a large ring made of done and rope stood out with Sandy standing in its center waiting for a challenger.

MK set Macaque back on his feet. “Alright. What happened?” The immortal looked over the group, satisfied to see everyone unharmed.

“Azure Lion-“ MK started before Tang jumped on his back speaking quickly.

“You old brotherhood was plotting to kill you and drug Wukong to force him to bare Azure Lion’s children!” The scholar blurted out. MK nodded, a low growl building in his chest.

Macaque closed his eyes crossed his arms and took a breath. “Pigsy... How well lf a hit can Sandy take?” Macaque asked the pig demon. “I need to hit something before I start breaking trees.”

Pigsy stared at the immortal then glanced over at Sandy. “Uh. He’s the toughest guy I know. Can take a pretty good hit.”

“He stopped a jet with his hand once!” Mei added, nodding with MK. “And didn’t he also stop your mech at one point?”

“I think so...” Mk thought frowning while trying to recall if Sandy had stopped his monkey mech.

“Good enough,” Macaque stated before turning towards the arena his form shimmered before he was a few inches shorter with golden fur, a back, and a yellow shirt with a tiger pelt around his hips and long, black claws digging into his palms as he jumped into the arena.

“So, you're the river demon I've heard so much about?” Macaque questioned in a flawless copy of Wukong’s voice down to even the cocky tone.

Sha Wujing stared down at the monkey. “What do you think you’re doing, monk? Challenging me! If you’ve heard of me then you have heard of how I capture and eat any that come to my river!” The large river demon’s eyes flashed and the skulls around his neck glowed.

“I've heard of you... Yet you don't seem to have ever heard of me. So I think it's fair game.” Macaque grinned before he pounced landing the first blow hard to the stomach of the blue river demon.

Sha Wujing braced himself and bellowed. “You call that a punch? The rush of the river hit harder than that, little ape! Take this!” The water demon started throwing quick blows towards Macaque.

Macaque easily blocked and evaded them before making the power of his punches no longer holding himself back.

Wujing grinned as the fight continued. “I see you are a skilled fighter! Not many have been able to give me a challenge!” He cracked his neck, skulled glowing ominously. “I have not added any monkey skulls to my collection. Perhaps you’ll be the first!”

“I won't be.” Macaque stated.

Mei leaned over to MK. “Hey you ten bucks, Macaque ends the fight in five minutes.”

MK scoffed. “I give him two.”

“Deal.” The two quietly shook on it while Tang and Pigsy sighed.

Mei silently took out her phone and hit the stopwatch while Moe watched from her head content to let Sandy stretch and to give Macaque time to calm down from finding out what Azure had planned so long ago.

Wujing started speeding up, punching and kicking the monkey. Macaque rolled his eyes with a grin. “Come on, big guy. Is that all you got?” Wujing laughed darkly.

“Dont die at my full strength.” he warned before throwing a punch Macaque easily stopped with a yawn.

“Let me know when you use your full strength.” The monkey teased, pushing back the water demon.

The river demon was shocked. “You.. Survived that punch...”

“Surprise.” Macaque snickered, twisting around and kicking the demon. “As much fun as this has been, we need Sandy back.”

Tang perked up. “You have to remind him of who he is!”

“Simple enough. Moe.” Macaque called for the cat who leaped into Sandy’s arms blue energy swirled around the river demon before bursting out.

“Moe!” Sandy shouted and nuzzled the therapy cat close.

“Awww!” Mei, Tang, and MK cooed.

“Tang, get us to flower fruit mountain,” Macaque ordered dropping the illusion of Wukong.

“You know... It never occurred to me but is Monkey King shorter than Mac?” Mei question Mk.

“I thought they were the same height.” Mk honestly answered he knew Wukong was easily six foot even, taller than most average people while being as flexible as an acrobat with the power of a Kung Fu master.

Tang chimed in. “In the original texts, Monkey King was described as a short monkey demon.”

“Who cares?” Pigsy grumbled. “Does it matter?”

“It kind of does when you thing of it. Are the larger monkeys usually the ones in charge?” Mei questioned.

“I am not getting in the systematics on demon mating right now,” Macaque replied flicking his ears. “We're about to have company.”

“We can gossip about which monkey is the top later.” MK rolled his eyes. “We have to get Monkey King back first.”

Macaque simply pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Now I know how Peaches feels while trying to warn Tripitaka and simply being ignored.’

“Sorry, Macaque.” The two teens giggled.

The black monkey sighed before something similar to getting Deja Vu passed through his body his ears flickering at the complete silence around him. He couldn't even hear the hearts of the very two kids right in front of him before he recalled one of the more obscure powers he had. ‘Premonitions of the future.’ He thought. ‘Is this... An enhanced vision of what would happen if Wukong sends me away to protect the kids?’ Macaque realized.

‘I won't let this future become reality!’

#fanfiction #lmk au #lego monkie kid #shadowpeach #amwriting #cowrite #sun wuking x macaque #monkey mk #cursed scroll #monkie kid mei #monkie kid pigsy #lmk tang

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sapphire-strikes · 2 months

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▪︎Some LEGO Monkie Kid Headcanons Pt. 2!▪︎

Ayoooo~ Part 2 finally! Decided to write some more headcanons to warm myself up after another massive break. These headcanons have all been pretty general so far, but I will absolutely be adding some reader-insert elements eventually since they are kinda meant to tie into my Ao3 series.

Part 1 Part 2

• You know that common anxiety a lot of people struggle with where you worry that all of your friends secretly hate you? Well, MK's thought process works completely opposite of that.

• He's so genuinely earnest in how much he cares for his friends that it comes full circle, and it's hard for him not to believe that they feel the same way. (And luckily, in his case, they absolutely do.)

• It does play some into how oblivious he can be though, because a lot of times, he will not pick up on it if someone is mad at him unless blatantly told. Basically, as long as you're sharing a space relatively peacefully with him, he automatically assumes that everything's okay and you're on good terms.

• I think that explains his relationship with Red Son and the Demon Bull Family pretty well.

• What's that, Red Son? This ceasefire is just a temporary truce until Demon Bull Family's next opportunity to rise to power? Too bad. The SECOND they stopped actively acting as antagonists and worked together, MK began considering them friends. Want to change his mind? Gonna have to start trying to kill him again. Otherwise, get used to the sleepovers, noodles and beach parties.

• Mei is absolutely the type of person to ~grip~, smack, hang off of, or cling to the person closest to her when she starts laughing. MK does this as well to a lesser agree, but it amplifies when Mei's around and they happen to be standing next to each other, just because they feed off eachothers energy so much. The two often end up in absolute hysterics when they're together and something funny happens, leaving them clinging to eachother mirthfully, OR to whoever has the misfortune of standing in between them when they begin cracking up.

• I like to think that Macaque and Wukong both hold primarily vegetarian diets, y'know, on account of them both being monkeys.

• There's a part in JTTW where Wukong and the rest of the pilgrams are trying to bring the emperor of a kingdom called "Crow-Cock" back to life. Wukong goes up to heaven and extorts some soul-restoring exlier from Lao tzu, but even after giving it to the emperor's corspe, one of them has to "breath life back into him" as the final step. Zhu Bajie actually volunteers but Tripitaka stops him, saying that among the three disciples (Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing), Wukong was the only one of them with "pure breath", having sustained himself in nothing but fruits and nuts his whole life.

• Technically, I have seen one part from the book referenced where Wukong supposedly implies that he has eaten human before, so either I'm not there yet, I missed it or I don't remember it, and if true, it would be a direct contradiction to the moment mentioned above. So that's where the headcanon part of this comes in, and I'm gonna run with the idea that in that particular instance, he was joking.

• For Wukong, his diet is just a preference. It's mentioned at least once in JTTW that he's not a fan of cooked food, and eating raw meat doesn't appeal to him in the slightest.

• Macaque, on the other hand, can't stand the taste of meat. Cooked or raw, to him, it tastes like blood either way. Secretly wishes he could stomach it just because, being a monkey, he subconsciously views eating meat as predatory behavior and has always been a little baffled by that fact that humans are consistently meat-eaters despite their docile, unintimidating nature.• Macaque also, however, doesn't dislike cooked in the way that Wukong does. He's actually a big fan of tofu in almost any form.

• Oh, but yes, they do both eat bugs.

• All the monkeys, and I mean ALL of the monkeys on FFM, retire to water-curtain cave at night. The little guys like to sleep with their king, so there will be hundreds of them sleeping scattered about the inside of Wukong's shack and around the surrounding cavern. Anyone spending the night will inevitably find themselves completely surrounded by morning.

• After the events of season 4, Macaque actually returns to Flower Fruit Mountain to live. He and Wukong still aren't on good terms, but it's a big island, so they never have to see each other.

•According to Macaque, Wukong can call himself it's king all he wants, but it was his home before he and Wukong were friends, and now that things are mostly peaceful, it will go back for being his home for a long time afterwards.

• He has his own little hideout in an underground cavern on the other side of the mountain. The little monkeys actually come in to visit him all the time, but he has them sworn to secrecy so that none of them tell Wukong exactly where he lives. He doesn't care that Wukong knows he's back, but he'd rather not give him the means to drop in if he ever felt like it.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #mk lego monkie kid #mei dragon #sun wukong #macaque #six eared macaque #SMDMAEIB #I say series but as of the time I'm posting this it only has one installment lol

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governmentintelligence · 3 years

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happy birthday motherfucker <3

Here is a birthday fic!!

Words: 4910

MASTERPOST OF THE OTHER BIRTHDAY STUFF

KNOX INSPIRED ART <3 <3 <3 <3 GO LOOK AT KNOX ART

~~~~~~~~ no fun sexy linebreak sorry <//3 ~~~~~

It’s a slow mid-afternoon at Pigsy’s Noodles, home of the longest noodles.

Spirit is wiping down the outside tables, humming to themselves as they do. MK is basically laying on one of the tables, legs bent over the side as he scrolls idly through the restaurant’s email. Yes, email—the main network that nearly every business uses has gone down, citing a massive server outage.

“Ugh, no one even uses email anymore, and especially not for food orders,” MK groans.

“That’s not true!” Pigsy and MK had been going back and forth on this for about the past hour, since walk-in orders slowed. It had been almost thirty minutes before someone came in, and while this was an alarmingly slow state, it was unusual for MK to be waiting for orders to deliver rather than the other way around. “People use email for catering events! And if anyone really wants some good noodles, they know they can call in!”

Mei, leaning with her back on the counter, and Tang, sitting at his usual counter spot, share a look. These two had been ping-ponging their argument on and off since the server shut off earlier in the day. It had been demon related in one way or another, another one of Yin and Jin’s hairbrained schemes that MK interrupted before much irreversible damage was done. They’d been hoping to gain control over the city’s main set of servers, used by most mobile apps.

While they’d been swiftly defeated, it still left a remarkable amount of damage on the servers themselves, leaving most of the city’s biggest commercial apps down, including the delivery app.

“Okay, and how many call-ins have we gotten?” MK looks up, only to be met with a glare.

Tang shrugs at MK’s assertion. The argument’s been going in circles thus far; it feels only fair to try and interrupt it. “He’s not wrong. A lot of delivery’s based out of the apps. This is really why having a delivery app trust is helping to wear down independently owned businesses.”

None of us came here for a lesson in market monopolization and trusts, though, readers included. Mei groans, and MK’s arms flop over the sides of the table.

“I’m too bored for a lesson in macroeconomics,” Mei grumbles.

MK, from where his head is leaning over the table’s edge, makes a sound of agreement. Pigsy and Tang share a look, Spirit can see them through the window, before Tang leans back towards MK’s prone body.

“Hey, never too bored to become even more bored!” Tang sounded too chipper when he said it.

That got MK to look up from where he was tangling over the table, giving Tang a glare that mirrored the one Mei was sending him. Even Pigsy stopped stirring his noodle broth, turning to stare at Tang with his eyes squinted.

The silence is moreso what gets Spirit to look up, and once they see everyone staring at Tang, they stare, too. Mostly out of curiosity and partly out of confusion.

They can sense the tension, however light, from a mile away. It makes them hesitant to come back inside, but they have the dirty rags to throw into the laundry bin from cleaning the table. Then, they have to throw the laundry into the machine and change out the cycles, maybe fold the other load of dishrags and washcloths.

Having Spirit’s three extra eyes on him does get a nervous chuckle out of Tang, though. Pigsy spares him the plight of having to redirect the conversation. “I’m still goin’, til closing. It’s slow for deliveries but we’ve been getting some walk-ins and some call-ins. What if a catering order comes in, you know?”

“Aren’t catering orders supposed to come in, like, days before they want you there?” Mei hops over to the counter now, leaning over the side.

That revelation has MK leaping off of the table, landing light on his feet on its surface. Having his various Monkie Kid abilities has helped with some of the acrobatics he does, including his balance. “HANG ON, YEAH!”

He spins around, pointing at the clock on his phone while he flashed it towards Tang, Mei, and Pigsy. “Indoor seating closes soon! And Spirit just finished wiping down tables!”

Mei picks up what MK is suggesting first, throwing her arms up in excitement right back. “CAN WE GO TO THE ARCADE EARLY?”

Her voice is much too close to a shout for Spirit’s liking as they come back in and toss the towel they’re holding. It echoes around the restaurant, likely too sharp of a sound for anyone else here to hear. Mei means well, though, and Spirit knows the conversation doesn’t involve them.

Until MK says, “YES! Hey—Spirit!”

Hearing their name shouted, however friendly, gets their shoulders to hike. They turn around, expression just a tinge wary, and face MK’s excited grin head-on. “Would you want to come with us?”

Leave the restaurant? Well...it was slow. And Spirit wasn’t a cook, they were a waiter and a busser. If people were eating in the restaurant, it would make sense to have an extra hand on deck, just in case.

But right now, the only person eating in-house was Tang, and he’d gotten to the point where he was washing his own dishes when no one else was around. If Pisgy was okay with them going out….but they wouldn’t want to go to the arcade. It was loud and crowded. Many lights and many people and many machines making loud victory sounds. If they could avoid it, they would want to.

They pull at the sleeves of their shirt. It’s a plain white one, the kind that they prefer wearing to work so they don’t get any of their recognizable clothing dirtied. They only have so many sets in purple, after all, and they don’t want to get any dirty here. Plus the black and the white kind of helps to blend in.

“I don’t know. I, um….” They press their fingers together in thought, holding their hands together in front of themselves as they think.

A grunt from behind the counter drew everyone’s attention once more. Pigsy was still stirring the broth with one hand, watching the conversation over his own shoulder. “Maybe not the arcade with Spirit, you know how packed it gets at this time. All the kids getting out of school.”

There was something tender about Pigsy’s concern. Spirit smiles a little, lips pursed tight in the growing tension, and shrugs.

Mei wasn’t about to take a hard “no,” though. She nods to Pigsy’s suggestion that the arcade wasn’t the right place and then adds on, “How about the thrift mall?”

The thrift mall was a new installation of the city. A collection of thrift stores, auction houses, and antique stores all shoulder to shoulder in a multi-story shopping complex. It had just opened about a month ago and reviews were all positive. Plus, the idea of thrifting was returning to popular culture as something akin to recycling, so it would solve some of the fast designer fashion problems.

On a more personal note, too, Mei had been hankering to get a look at the place. She liked adding her own flourishes to the jacket she’d gotten MK years back, so much so that it was a thing she did to her own (to match with her best friend, duh?!) and to almost anything else she could get her hands on. Vintage patches, from the mid 2800’s, even some from as early as the 2500’s, could be found in the backs of antique stories. If she could get her hands on something from even the 2700’s, Mei would lose her marbles.

She’d been dying to go, of course, but every time she and MK were on their way, something would happen. Usually a demon would attack in some way, shape, or form, something small. Once, they made plans, and MK had completely forgotten he was on shift for delivery that day.

Things just kept misaligning, and MK very much knew how desperate Mei was to go to the thrift mall. Sure, there was the repeated asking, and now there were the current puppy dog eyes.

MK, also very much desiring to go, immediately follows suit. “Can you come to the mall with us?” he asks Spirit, bottom lip jutting out ever so slightly.

And now they were faced with two young adults giving them the saddest looks they’ve ever seen.

The thrift mall was new, yes. It was nearby the demon market, actually, and there were even some stores in the mall that were fronts to people whose names were in their book. It would likely be much quieter, no loud blaring music, no smoke machines or flashing lights.

More...agreeable, in a way.

They’re also pretty hesitant to say no to these kids looking at them like that. Not to say that that’s the only reason they’re going! They haven’t gotten a fresh new outfit, rather than clothes they wear to the noodle place or the variants of their own outfit, literally since Macaque took them to the tailor’s way back when. Clothes were just a societal necessity, not something that they cared much about anymore. Though, if they’re going to a store, it could be nice.

But, at the end of the day, how can Spirit say no to the expressions MK and Mei are giving them.

“If you would want,” Spirit answers.

They have no idea how they get themselves into it, honestly. MK and Mei both hiss a soft “YES,” slap palms, and from there, things go quite fast. They’re still in their human disguise, wary of any other humans seeing them in their monkey form, but they find that that’s for the best. Maybe when looking at clothes, though, they’ll change back. They wouldn’t consider themselves vain, but they’d like to see what looks good on both ends…?

Arriving at the thrift mall is interesting, because it isn’t the world’s most distinguishable location. Spirit lets themselves be pulled in behind the two chattering adults, Mei almost bouncing off the walls in excitement as she recognizes some of the stores.

Very immediately, too, she pulls them into a warehouse-looking location right inside the building. It’s lined with racks and racks of pants, and apparently the upper layer is meant for tops. There are many colors, many styles of clothing that Spirit hasn’t seen in fashion for years. They’re not caught up on pop culture in the slightest, but they catch sight of a band shirt that was definitely from the early 2900’s.

Another surprise is that the store is relatively empty. For a newly opened mall, you would expect crowds of people to be trying to pack into the stores, but this one’s labyrinthic nature seems to be separating the groups of people out a lot better than a regular store’s open flooring would be. Less people to run into when there is simply less road and so much more clothing to look at.

Spirit does their best to follow behind Mei and MK as they go up the stairs, into the similarly packed tops section. They weren’t really planning on buying anything, moreso just look and wistfully desire. But then Mei whips around with a purple varsity jacket, a dusty pink-purple in the middle, and whistles.

“Hey, Spirit, it’s a you jacket!” she laughs.

It does fit uncannily well with Spirit’s own color scheme. They look it over and nod slowly. “It is,” they say.

The peer pressure is on now, though, as MK leans over Mei’s shoulder. “Try it on! Let’s see if it fits!” he says.

Well, now….Spirit puts on the jacket carefully, knowing that it’s at least many decades old. It’s surprisingly sturdy and comfortable, likely from being worn by someone ages ago. It’s a little short but, in terms of width, it fits perfectly. They find that they can zip it up with room to move.

“It’s kind of soft,” they say. “I like it. I don’t know where I’d wear it, though.”

“Hey, you never know where you’d wear something until you’re going there,” Mei responds with a wave of her hand. “I don’t think through my outfits every day.”

“You don’t?” Mei looks pretty put together consistently, so that comes at a surprise.

Spirit remembers Macaque telling them that they need a serious outfit to be taken seriously, that their appearance is their first impression. They try to put a lot of thought into the things they wear whenever it’s not

Mei, however, just shrugs. “Nope! I usually just throw on a shirt and then my jacket over it.”

Interesting. And she still managed to look very cool.

Spirit follows Mei and MK through the aisles, watches as MK climbs on top of Mei’s shoulders to grab another shirt, this one with only one strap on the shoulder and a cute tie off. It looked like a very summery shirt. But it was purple, which Spirit didn’t consider MK or Mei’s colors, really.

Until he, still on Mei’s shoulders, leans towards them. “Hold up that one!” he says as he shoves the shirt into their arms.

They catch it and look over the fabric, soft and sturdy. They hold it up for MK and Mei to inspect, both humming in approval.

That was how the mall visit turned into a Spirit-centric fashion show, hosted by MK and Mei. Spirit was just along for the ride honestly, catching the articles of clothing that were just being dropped into their arms. MK and Mei were like a whirlwind, ripping out anything that looked remotely purple and showing it to the other for opinions. They murmured and schemed together, Spirit catching bits of “too rough” and “too loud” to describe some of the discarded articles.

It takes some time, but after about an hour, they’re walking around with a modest pile of clothes. Spirit thinks there’s a dress in there, even which is going to be a very interesting try. They haven’t worn many dresses.

MK and Mei were being intensely serious about this, too. They were inspecting each article before pushing it into Spirit’s hands, showing them to each other for confirmation. Most were actually hung back up, unfitting in some way or other that they weren’t privy to.

That was fine, though, because they don’t think they could have tried on everything that was purple in this warehouse. It was hour two, halfway through the bottoms section, before the tiredness began to kick in. Socializing was kind of hard, after all.

At least they weren’t having to talk for a lot of it. Mei stopped a few times to ask if they were doing okay, MK asked if they were hungry or if they all wanted to take a break, but Spirit wasn’t tired enough to want to leave just yet. And if these two were having a good time, then who were they to stop them mid-shopping.

At least the tops section went a little faster. Most pants weren’t built to handle fur, squeezing a little too tight, with the added limiting factor that MK and Mei were mostly looking for bottoms to match the tops they found.

The accessories section wasn’t as big as the tops or bottoms sections, of course, but there were still a series of wonders. The socks were in here, surprisingly. After one look at Spirit’s bare feet, though, MK and Mei only decided on one pair. They didn’t even glance the shoes section before grabbing what looked like a straw-woven fedora and pulling Spirit towards the changing rooms.

“It’s time to try on all the clothes!” MK proclaims, and Spirit kind of saw this coming, but they’re still confused.

“Why were you handing me the clothes?” they ask.

MK and Mei stop, both turning to Spirit with blank expressions. It must just now be registering that they never actually asked them if they wanted to wear the clothes, because they share a small glance before Mei goes, “Um….for a fashion show?”

Now, that’s interesting. Spirit’s not going to say no, of course not, but…. “Why?”

“Because you would look so cute in these,” Mei says. “I mean, vintage leather is all the rage now, everyone’s got one.”

She points out the purple leather jacket at the top of the pile and points to the fitting rooms. “It might be cool to have multiple sets of clothes that’re kinda, you know. Styling.”

“You’d be a fashionista,” MK adds on, pretending to swoon.

“What an icon,” Mei catches MK as he pretends to fall. “Stellar.”

They both hold pose, too, as they watch Spirit watch them.

And, come on. How can they say no to that.

Spirit gulps, then nods, almost worried. They don’t know what they’ll look good in. According to Macaque, it’s hard to find clothes that look at least acceptable, so they don’t enter the changing room with high hopes.

The outfits are all fairly modern, and Spirit wants to get the socks over and done with first. They pull on the socks, a deep purple with lilac dots, and notice that it’s a stretchy kind of fuzzy. They’re thick enough but hole-y enough to let their feet breathe in. Then, they pull on the cargo shorts, button up the purple shirt, and head on out for Mei and MK’s look.

They’re both sitting on a bench chatting outside of the fitting room, something about something on Mei’s phone. Probably another funny cat video, if we’re being honest. When Spirit walks out, though, Mei shuts off her phone at record speed.

They both “ooo” at the outfit. “Do a turn!” MK says, and Spirit obliges.

It feels comfortable. Almost summer-y in how the outfit was loose, yet contained itself in enough of a way for them to be mobile. The pants are a lot less tight than they seemed, and the whole outfit makes Spirit kind of want to climb something. Maybe a tree.

“You look so CUTE!” the exclamation catches their attention again as they notice MK clapping excitedly, Mei shaking her fists up and down, both unable to contain their excitement.

It was strange to see them so excited over Spirit’s outfit. They weren’t really expecting that kind of compliment over their appearance, especially after how quickly Macaque reminded them that they were hard to dress for.

“Really?” they ask.

MK and Mei nod their heads so fast it’s a wonder they don’t fly off.

“Hell yeah!” Mei jumps up, hopping to Spirit’s side. “I love the button down on you! The white one you wear at the noodle shop is pretty, too, but the color is,” she does a chef’s kiss motion as she hurries around Spirit for another 180 look.

“No one else is around, you could transform! We should see how it looks with all the fur,” MK suggests.

And he’s not wrong, per se. There aren’t any cameras in the changing rooms and there isn’t anyone else back here, not yet. Plus them being a monkey isn’t too big of an issue when they’re out of the restaurant. Some customers can get rude over the potential of fur in their soup and if they don’t have to change, they don’t always want to.

Spirit changes back, fur poofing out, and it surprisingly slots nicely into the spaces between the threads of sock. Their tail swishes right above their pants and their hands shake, almost in excitement, before they quell the movement.

“And it still looks awesome,” MK does a fist pump.

“Did you really have any doubt?” Mei says with a laugh, and MK shrugs.

The confidence almost washes off onto Spirit. Maybe it does, a bit, as they turn back to the changing room they’d exited.

The next outfit is one of the dresses. They’re feeling spicy, what can they say. It has a cute pink collar, a whole second layer of fuschia beneath a dress with semi-shimmering fireworks.

“You look gorgeous! Oh my god!” Mei says when she sees Spirit.

The next outfit is the one with the hat, along with a pair of jeans and the shirt with the tied off shoulder.

“I love that! The shirt looks so good on you!” is MK’s appraisal to that one.

An outfit with the purple leather biker jacket over a pair of black jeans and a pink shirt.

“You’re such a badass, so stunning!”

A dusty purple dress with white scalloped trims.

“That’s adorable, oh my—that neckline, though!”

Spiked cuffs, a choker, and a collared shirt with a smiley face design.

“You look so cool as a punk!”

Spirit was buzzing by the end of it. They hadn’t tried on this many outfits in this quick succession in a while, but every time they changed clothes, they would exit the room and do a spin for MK and Mei.

And every time, without fail, MK and Mei would applaud and compliment, which was the most surreal part. They weren’t used to that, not in the slightest, not when they were so hard to shop for. The last time, with Macaque, that must be….what, centuries by now? Absolute ages.

They’d assumed shopping would be hard, after that. But with MK and Mei’s cheering, they found it hard to be worried.

That didn’t mean they weren’t tired. They excited the changing rooms and began putting the outfits onto the rack to be taken back, when Mei hopped off the bench.

“Aw, did you not like them?” she asks.

Spirit blinks, surprised. “Um, no! They were really nice. I just, um. Don’t know where I would wear them.”

Mei blinks, as if she doesn’t really understand that sentiment. Spirit scratches the back of their neck, watching her and waiting for a response. It must be weird for her to think of that. She and MK hang out every night, once the noodle shop is closed. Mei must not understand that Spirit simply doesn’t have a place to wear them.

“Oh,” Mei hums.

It’s a fight that she doesn’t pick, it seems, and Spirit’s fine with that. MK sighs along with Mei. “Fair enough, if you don’t want them. I think Pigsy’d be okay with you wearing something flashy around, though!”

“That’s good to know,” they say, and they leave it at that.

Neither of the other two butt in, either, which is nice. Truth be told, Spirit’s not sure where they would wear the clothes, other than to the noodle shop. Plus, they don’t really know where they’d store it. Probably at Pigsy’s place. But would they want to take up even more space than they usually do? They wouldn’t want to just have stacks of it sitting by their hammock. That feels unnecessary.

They still leave the thrift mall with an air of relief and contentment. All of those outfits were really pretty. Very different, sure, but very pretty! Spirit could see themselves in them. Gosh, if Red were here, he would have been ecstatic over it. He has an eye for designs, they know.

While they’re happy to move on to the next store not having gotten anything, both MK and Mei keep glancing at them, as if worried. And they don’t really know what else to say, other than what they already have. The looks make them a little nervous, though.

At the very, very least, they spent a good four hours in that one giant store. It seems to be one of the mall’s super stores. Mei and MK bring Spirit around for a small walk at the others, coo’ing in interest at a vintage electronics store they found—Mei finds a perfect duplicate of the phone Spirit used to have, which they chuckle about. They enjoy being able to see the many emojis that everyone uses! Red’s fire emojis pack more of a punch now, as do Mei’s green hearts. They aren’t shocked at all to find that their phone’s dupe is labeled as “ultra rare,” and that it’s priced in the upper hundred thousands.

There’s also a vintage patch and accessory shop that Mei basically drags MK and Spirit into, though that’s not to say they need much convincing. She does buy a few there, too. Spirit just looks at some of the cuter ones, finding a blue skull that looks almost purple. Periwinkle, the store’s representative calls it. They think it’s cute, though they put that back, too. What need do they have for these things?

Sure, they’re pretty, and Spirit thinks it would be nice to own them. But….well. Where are they going to put it? Where are they going to wear it all? Would they have to do laundry more often? They just don’t really know, you know, and it’s not something they want to commit to.

On the ride back to the noodle shop, MK and Mei make jokes about how they should give Spirit’s old phone away to that antique store. The owner would probably lose it to see another one still functioning. Spirit just laughs along, social battery drained after many hours of working at the store and the four hours they spent at the mall. It feels nice, though. They don’t often go out for so long in such an agreeable space.

It’s a nice moment they think back on, and in their sleep, right before it overtakes them, they think of the varsity jacket. It looked a little like Mei and MK’s.

And that’s the last Spirit thinks of it.

Until a few weeks later.

It’s by closing of the shop that Mei approaches Spirit, holding something behind her back excitedly. She hadn’t been in earlier, since noon, and while MK hadn’t said anything about it, Spirit suspected something was happening. Pigsy had asked a few times, surprised to see Mei out doing something else during a time they’d’ve expected her to be taking up the seat next to Tang, and he’d been almost cagey over it. Spirit had just hoped that nothing was wrong.

But then, when Mei got to the shop, she bounded in with a whirlwind of energy right before stopping in front of Spirit. MK, too, hopped off of the chair he’d been sitting in as he listened to one of Tang’s tales.

Spirit, to their credit, was just washing dishes. And now they were, again, being bombarded with puppydog eyes from the duo.

They didn’t even say anything! They just stared at Spirit, who looked to the side at Pigsy, then at Tang, then back at the duo.

“Um, yes?” they were almost nervous now, despite the expressions, so they dried off their hands and stepped around the corner.

A package is shoved into their arms. They jump, taken aback by the sudden movement, but then look at the package. It’s just wrapped in clear plastic, so they can see exactly what it is. It’s the exact varsity jacket from the thrift shop, the purple one. But it has a special patch on the front, the blue skull they’d seen at the store.

Carefully, Spirit unwraps it. As the sleeves unfurl, Spirit notes that there are elongated white cuffs and a white trim along the bottom. Likely to make up for the space it lacks to fit Spirit’s body. Maybe other alterations were done, too, because it does seem generally bigger.

They flip it around and emblazoned on the back is a giant patch sewn on and hand-embroidered of Spirit’s face. There are two circles beneath their hair, too, in the same blue as the skull. They realize it might represent earrings, to the others. To Spirit, it represents something much different.

Spirit isn’t used to. Receiving things. They just stare at the jacket for a second, as if their brain can’t compute that this is a thing for them, with nothing attached. It was like Mei giving them an upgraded phone. But this doesn’t even have any value. This is just something that they saw that Spirit enjoyed, and then got.

“We know you didn’t know anywhere to wear the clothes, and we were throwing like, full outfits at you. But we did want to get you something, you know? No strings attached, I just wanted to get you something to fit with ours, and this one was just too perfect to leave! I loved making it,” Mei explains, hands pressing together as she watches Spirit’s face with her own wide grin.

“So, like, if you don’t want to wear it around, you don’t have to. There’s no pressure, at all! But we thought it’d be cool if you, uh. If you had the option to match,” MK jumps around, showing his own jacket. “Like you’re part of the team now!”

Part of the team.

Spirit couldn’t remember being a part of anything, not for the longest of whiles. Yet MK, the Monkey King’s whole successor, who they really shouldn’t even be talking to if you think about it, is proclaiming to be on the same team as them?

They don’t know what words there are to describe the feeling, but Spirit’s hands ball on the jacket, holding it tight against their chest. They don’t know when they started smiling but now they notice it only because it’s beginning to hurt their cheeks.

“I love it,” their voice is a whisper, almost afraid to raise it. “Thank you.”

#friends #writing #my shitting writing

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lunar-wandering · 3 years

Text

“hey google? whats social interaction?”

two fics in one day hell yeah. this time it’s for an AU i don’t think i’ve talked about here, called the Shy!Wukong AU, in which 500 years of isolation had the consequence of absolutely destroying Wukong’s social skills and confidence.

Word Count: 3.4k

Read on Ao3

When MK arrived on Flower Fruit Mountain that afternoon, it was quiet. He walked around for a few minutes, enjoying the silence, a big difference from the constant sound of the city, before sighing.

He walked over and leaned against a tree, barely hearing the soft intake of breath from behind it.

"I know you're there, Monkey King." He sighed again, taking the staff out and twirling it. "I could see your tail y'know."

Wukong slowly emerged from behind him, walking around the tree to stand just outside of MK's reach. MK purposefully didn't look at him, but out of the corner of his eye he could see that his mentor was avoiding eye contact.

"Ah, uh, yeah uh, hey bud." Wukong said, "I uh, didn't know you were here-"

"You were meant to come hang out with me and my friends today." MK said, and Wukong slumped. "I understand having some days were you're just not up for interacting, but this is the third time. ...Why won't you interact with my friends?"

He asked this as gently as he could, but still Wukong shrunk back a little.

"They....they can sense weakness..." Wukong muttered, and now MK did look at him, with confusion.

"Wh- no they don't- well, Mei might, but still." He pushed off the tree, turning to face Wukong fully. "You seriously need to get some more social interaction- it'll help you be more confident again!"

Wukong opened his mouth as though to speak-

"Fighting Macaque that one time doesn't count as social interaction." MK deadpanned, watching unimpressed as Wukong nervously scratched the side of his face. "....Tell you what, if you come with me and Mei shopping tomorrow, I'll get off your case for a week. Does that sound okay?"

"...Yeah..." Wukong quietly gave his assent, and MK beamed.

"Great! Now, are we going to do training?"

"I didn't plan anything out though...."

"That's okay, we can just spar!"

Wukong was 20 minutes late.

MK glanced at his watch again just to make sure that he was reading the time right, before looking back over to Mei. She was playing some game or other on her phone, looking bored.

"Y'know, I'm starting to think Mr. Monkey King might be scared of me." Mei said after another minute went by with still no sign of Wukong.

"Honestly, you might not be too far off from the truth there." MK admitted, "I was half expecting him to at least send a clone, but he must know that I catch on to that immediately now."

"Do you think he's alright?" Mei put her phone back in her pocket, now glancing at the sky with concern. "Like, he didn't freak too much over it and hole himself up in his room or something again, did he?"

"No, he's already met you once, so I don't think it'd be that bad again." MK pulled the staff out of his pocket, contemplating for a moment. "...Hey Mei, how would you like a trip to Flower Fruit Mountain?"

"I would love to." Mei smirked, before turning around and entering the mall, grabbing hold of the back of MK's hoodie to drag him in along with her. "But first, we're gonna need some supplies!"

When MK and Mei arrived on Flower Fruit Mountain, it was once again quiet.

"Okay." MK shifted the bag he was carrying on his arm, adjusting his grip. "He's probably up in his little house behind the waterfall. He probably knows we're here by now, so..."

"So all we have to do is find him." Mei finished, "Don't worry MK, I remember the plan."

"Right. Okay." They passed through the water fall, walking through the cave. Standing in front of Wukong's door, MK set his bag on the ground in order to lift his arm and knock.

One of the younger monkeys opened the door.

"Hey there!" MK said, "Is Monkey King here?"

The tiny monkey chitters out a response MK interprets as yes, moving aside to let Mei and MK through. Mei easily finds her way into the kitchen, and MK can hear the clattering of some pots and pans as she shuffles things around (they'd bought some hot chocolate, and apparently Mei refused to wait any longer before making it). MK, meanwhile, sets his bag down by the door and starts looking for Wukong.

It ends up not being very hard really, as he finds his mentor laying on the couch, a blanket pulled over top of his head, his tail poking out and resting on the floor, stiff.

...Too stiff.

"Monkey King?" MK asks, and he sees the fur on Wukong's tail bristle, but yet the monkey himself doesn't move. "I know you're awake."

Wukong says something entirely incoherent.

"Me and Mei are here to have a sleepover, if you're wondering." MK says, "Since you didn't come shopping with us."

There's no response.

Suddenly Mei curses, and there's a loud clatter in the kitchen. MK turns, suitably distracted.

"Y'alright?" He yells.

"Fine! Monkey King just has horrible sorting skills is all!" Is the response he gets, and MK quietly chuckles because, well, she's not wrong.

When he turns back around, Wukong is out from under the blanket, standing up, his usual nervous smile plastered on his face.

...But something's off. His back is too straight, for one, the Monkey King that MK knows is normally slightly slouched. The look in his eyes doesn't show shyness either, rather an attempt at faking being shy.

MK makes his deduction in less than a second.

"You're a clone aren't you."

"Oh thank heavens." The Wukong clone, relaxes just slightly, the nervous smile slipping off in favor of a more relaxed, natural one. (One that, notably, MK has only seen on Wukong's clones. Well, he thinks he saw his mentors real smile once, but Wukong had left rather fast after that, so MK had never been actually sure.) "I wasn't sure how long I could pretend to be nervous for."

"He's trying to bail again, huh." MK said, not even surprised, having mostly known this would happen. 500 years by himself had really taken it's toll on the Monkey King, MK still wasn't sure how exactly Wukong had lost his confidence, but the consequences of whatever it was were fairly obvious. It had taken forever for MK to actually get his mentor to just have normal conversations with him instead of just leaving him sticky notes with instructions on them. During that time, Wukong had run away from MK *multiple* times.

Well, not tonight. MK personally respected Wukong's lack of knowledge on how to be social, and knew first hand the experience of not feeling up to interacting with people. But if Wukong didn't at least try to step over his comfort zone, then he'd never become confident again.

Wukong's clone seemed to have the same idea, as he turned, walking off down a hallway. MK heard a door open- followed by a yelp of betrayal, and then the clone was back, carrying a flustered Monkey King over his shoulder, dumping him onto the couch before vanishing, just as Mei entered the living room with a tray covered in candies, as well as three mugs of hot chocolate.

"Did I miss anything?" She asks, setting the tray down on the coffee table, before sitting on the couch to the left of Wukong. The Monkey King actually squeaked, shifting to move to the other side, only to be stopped by MK sitting on his right. Almost as though they'd planned it, they both leaned up against Wukong simultaneously, feeling how he stiffened at the sudden contact.

"Did you get the remote?" Mei asked, sipping at her hot chocolate.

"Yep." MK held the remote up with one hand, easily accessing Wukong's Netflix account. (He'd accidentally stumbled upon the password one of the times the monkeys had shoved him into the house in an attempt to help him interact with Wukong.) "What do you want to watch?"

"Hm, dunno. What do you think, Mr. Monkey King?"

Wukong didn't respond. He still hadn't relaxed either. His eyes looked slightly unfocused, and MK could practically hear the computer crashing noises.

Jeez. Wukong was a lot more touch-starved than he had thought.

And then Wukong moved, sliding down a little, covering his face with his hands. Mei and MK shared a look of concern.

Maybe this much contact was a bit too much to start?

MK leaned away from Wukong, putting just the slightest bit of distance between them, Mei following his lead soon after.

They were both quiet for a moment, silently considering what to do next as Wukong continued to not look at them.

...And then Mei grabbed the pillow behind her, slowly raising it over her head.

MK barely had the time to register what she was doing before the pillow smacked him in the face.

Mei burst out laughing at MK's surprised look, jumping up off the couch, pulling more pillows out of...somewhere. MK hadn't seen her grab them, but they were certainly there now.

He ducked down, sliding off the couch as a pillow soared over his head, flopping against the couch cushions, having not met it's target. He barely managed to shift out of the way of a second pillow, catching a third before it could hit him in the chest.

"Oh it is on!" He cheered, spinning around before throwing the pillow at Mei as hard as he could.

Soon enough the pillow fight increased to all out warfare, more pillows seemingly appearing out of nowhere. MK laughed, nearly forgetting about Wukong-

And then a pillow hit him in the back of the head.

Both he and Mei paused, knowing for a fact that Mei hadn't thrown it, she was in front of him, getting him from behind was impossible.

MK turned around just in time to see Wukong create another pillow out of one of his hairs and throw it.

When MK pulled the pillow off of his face, he was greeted with Wukong's nervous smile, and a bit of anxious laughter.

MK glanced at Mei.

Well. This wasn't exactly the way they had planned to help Wukong come out of his shell a bit, but it could work.

Sleepovers became more frequent after that. Typically they ended up with just a pillow fight, but still, it was some progress, however small.

MK and his friends were more than content to take things slow, let Wukong relearn how to socially interact and overcome his shyness the normal way.

And then New Years happened.

Wukong was still definitely not comfortable interacting with anyone other than Mei, MK, and Sandy, but he did start showing up a bit more frequently. (MK had noticed that Wukong tried his hardest to be more confident around Pigsy. He wasn't sure as to why Wukong did so, but he did. Pigsy himself seemed concerned about it as well, but for the most part let it slide). MK sometimes couldn't help but feel that his mentor seemed a bit...worried about something. But whenever he asked, Wukong would just clam up, sometimes even going so far as to distract MK before teleporting away.

But whatever. It was fine, they were making progress. Wukong was actually somewhat talking to people now, albeit he was still quiet, and easily flustered at the smallest of things. (Tang had briefly mentioned how impressive Wukong's feats were in an offhand sentence, and the Monkey King had practically shut down for an entire half an hour.)

...Unlike MK and the others however, Demon Bull King was more than slightly concerned.

The New Years Incident had been his first time seeing the Monkey King since 500 years ago, and needless to say, he was not what he expected.

He remembered Wukong being boastful, confident, easily coming up with snarky quips left and right.

So it was definitely a shock when, instead of annoyingly chatting or created stupid jokes while captured by Spider Queen, Wukong had simply sat there, quiet, a light blush dusting his face as he sulked, embarrassed over having gotten caught.

Demon Bull King could only wonder what in the world could've happened that would've rendered the Monkey King so shy.

He'd shared his concerns with his family, of course, in a roundabout, thinly veiled way. (He had been fairly certain that the monkey of the conversation had actually been spying on them at the time). Princess Iron Fan had commented about seeing Red Son in a slightly similar state, considering how he never could seem to hold an actual conversation with MK or Mei, instead always challenging them to a battle. (She was concerned, for her son. She'd known that staying in his lab, working on inventions day in and day out would definitely be bad for his social skills, but Red Son had been so stubborn at the time that there'd been nothing she could do.)

Red Son, of course, entirely missed hearing the conversation about himself.

He did however, hear the one about Wukong.

Which, of course, led to-

"Wake up, simian!"

Wukong startled, rolling out of bed, falling to the floor, his blankets falling on top of him and obscuring his vision. He scrambled for a minute, trying to get his bearings as he struggled with the blankets, trying to clear his vision.

A light laugh made him freeze, suddenly glad for the blankets covering him as he felt his face flush as he realized he wasn't alone.

"Seriously? This is the great, powerful Monkey King everyone is afraid of?"

It took a moment for him to place the voice, slowly lifting the blankets up, keeping his head hung low as he checked to make sure.

Bright red jacket. The faint smell of smoke.

Red Son.

Wukong looked away, trying to pull up every inch of confidence he'd regained.

"....How'd you get into my house?" Is what he ended up saying, and he mentally patted himself on the back for not having his voice break mid sentence.

"Please, it's not like it's that difficult."

"There's a whole entire waterfall sealing the place."

"Which is very easy to by pass if you know how."

Wukong couldn't come up with a response for that, instead forcing himself to stand up, trying to put a normal smile on his face, but knowing it would probably only end up being his usual nervous one.

"Uh, um. Why are you here?" He finally asked.

"Well, uh, my father is worried about you so I'm here to help you or....whatever.... something like that..." Red Son said, getting a bit quieter and trailing off towards the end of his sentence.

"I-" Suddenly, irritation overcame Wukong's shyness and anxiety. "You- you're just as bad as I am!"

(Demon Bull King had been right. Wukong had been spying on them during that conversation. He'd originally planned on going over to talk to them, but then, well, as usual he'd panicked, and ended up listening in the rafters while waiting for an opportunity to leave unnoticed.

...That had been a long day.)

Red Son spluttered for a moment, before pulling himself together.

"I am not." He hissed, the edges of his hair sparking.

"You socialize with my successor by fighting him because you don't know how to ask him and Mei to hang out outside of battling." Wukong deadpanned, "And no, battles do not count as social interaction, according to MK."

There was a pause, where they both went silent, staring at each other, waiting for the next move.

An hour later, and they were both sitting on the floor of Wukong's bedroom, both of them looking slightly frazzled.

"I mean, just." Red Son said, "How do you talk to people?!"

"I literally have no idea." Wukong sounded just as stressed and dismayed as Red Son. "I mean, MK and his friends have been trying, and like, I guess it's been working, because they haven't complained about me yet, but still, just, what is social interaction??"

"I don't know!" Red Son groaned, holding his head in his hands. "If- if only we had someone who was really good at social interaction, someone we could copy-"

"Like MK?" Wukong asked, before immediately dismissing the idea in his next sentence. "No, no, he'd pick up on what we're doing and either make us stop or call us out on it way too fast...."

"Agreed, we definitely cannot use the Noodle Boy or his friends as an example." Red Son muttered, "But....to be honest with you, I don't know many other people."

"...Me either." Wukong flopped backwards to lay on the floor, both of them sighing in defeat.

And then Wukong, tensed sitting back up, a thoughtful but also very reluctant look on his face.

"...Actually, there is one person we might be able to go to..."

"...What's being social?"

Wukong and Red Son both looked at their last hope of a savior in dismay.

Macaque stared back with an equivalent amount of confusion.

The three of them sat in the middle of a small park, partially hidden from passerby by a line of bushes. Macaque wasn't even entirely sure how he'd gotten there, and wasn't even close to having a clue as to what was going on.

"What do you mean you don't know- you socialize literally every day!" Wukong threw his hands up into the air, in a mixture of anger and defeat.

"You alone are literally responsible for over half of the city's parties." Red Son added, "How can you not know how to be social when you're the perfect example of a social butterfly?"

"I don't know." Macaque shrugged. If anything, this reaction seemed to cause Red Son and Wukong more distress.

"So you're saying you.... don't actually know how to socially interact?"

"Uh, no?" Macaque leaned back, crossing his arms. "I kinda just go along with whatever happens so- wait why are you crying."

Red Son looked to his left to see that, oh, uh, Wukong was crying. He didn't seem like he wanted to be, if the way he was hiding his face behind his hands and trying to muffle his sobs was any indication, but he definitely was.

"You were our last hope of understanding social interaction." Wukong muttered, voice muffled by his hands. Red Son awkwardly hovered his hand over Wukong's shoulder, knowing that the other still wasn't entirely used to touch.

"...Aren't the both of you interacting with me ri-" Macaque was abruptly cut off as something grabbed him by the back of his scarf, pulling him back into the bush. Red Son was too focused on Wukong, and Wukong was too busy trying to stop crying, to notice the sudden disappearance.

Macaque landed on his back, spitting out a stray leaf as he looked up at MK. (He'd known Wukong's successor was spying on them, he'd heard him hide behind the bush. Still though, randomly grabbing him was a little bit annoying).

"You can't tell them that they're socially interacting." MK hissed, quiet enough that the other two couldn't hear him. Macaque raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Any particular reason as to why?"

"If you tell them they're actually interacting it's like- it's like Cinderella when the clock hits midnight, they both go back to being easily flustered recluses." MK said, "You've got to keep them going without realizing what they're doing for as long as possible."

"...Okay???" Honestly, this didn't clear things up for Macaque at all, but he wasn't going to try and argue with MK now.

MK let go off his scarf, and Macaque returned to his position in front of Wukong and Red Son, adding an extra glamour over top of himself so that his little trip through the bush would be entirely unnoticeable. Funnily enough, neither of them seemed to have noticed his temporary disappearance.

"So uh....wanna keep not-socializing with me at that cafe over there?" Macaque pointed over his shoulder at a nearby place he liked to visit. If he was going to do this, he was going to need another dose of caffeine. "I can maybe try and figure out some tips for you?"

"Yes please." Wukong and Red Son said in sync, already standing up and moving towards the cafe. Macaque stood up shortly after them.

Quietly, watching them walk in front of him, he thought; 'They're idiots.'

"Wukong, why are you hiding your face, Red Son's the one that just face planted while walking through a door!"

The Monkey King's response was completely incoherent, afflicted with second-hand embarrassment. Both he and Red Son refused to look Macaque in the eye.

The shadow monkey sighed, almost tempted to teleport away to find somewhere nice to scream.

MK better find a good way of paying him back for this.

#Monkie Kid #my writing #Shy!Wukong AU

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