there are a lot of posts out there that are positive and healthy coping mechanisms for handling the holidays. this is not one of them :)
i think there's like. going to be times in your life you will be stuck in a social situation that you cannot escape from gracefully. i do not know why the internet doesn't believe these times exist. it's not always just that your physical safety is at risk - sometimes it's legit like "i just don't currently have the energy or time to put in the effort of responding to this." sometimes it's a coworker you hate so much. sometimes it's just like, fine, you know? like you know you can handle your aunt when she's cheerily horrible, but if you actually set a boundary around her, it's going to be weeks of fallout with your father.
i don't know why people think the answer is always just "cut them out!" or "don't let them get away with that!" because ... the real world is tricky and complicated. i think kind of a lot of us have an internal "radiation poisoning" meter for certain people. like - i'm talking about the ones who are absolutely giving you gradual ick damage. like, you can handle them, but you'll be exhausted.
and yes. you absolutely should listen to your therapist and the good posts about handling others and set good boundaries and take care of yourself. prioritize peace.
HOWEVER :) ...... since im often in a situation with a Gradual Sense of Ick person i cannot just "cut out" of my life (without losing someone else precious to me) - i have sort of developed the most. maladaptive form of mischief possible. because like, if i'm going to have to listen to this shit again, i like to have a little bit of private fun with it.
now! again, i am physically safe, just mentally drained by this man. you should only do this with people you are not in danger with. which leads me to my suggestions for when your Unfortunate Acquaintance shows up and says oh everyone pay attention to me.
my favorite word is "maybe!" said as brightly and happily as possible. whenever the Horrible Person starts in on a topic you do not want to go further with, particularly if they make a claim that you know to be inaccurate, do not respond to it. you and i have both tried to actually argue with this person, and it hasn't gone well, because this person just wants the drama of an argument. however, "maybe!" gives them literally nothing to go on. it is incredibly disarming. they are used to people having some response. they know they can't prove what they're saying, and maybe! treats them like the child they are. it dismisses them in the politest way possible.
i like to say maybe! and then, in their stunned silence, immediately change the subject. this is because i have adhd and i will have something unrelated to talk about, but if you can't think of topics fast enough, i recommend just pointing to something and saying, "isn't that lovely?" because fuck you let's bring in some positivity.
by the way. that second trick - of pointing to something and stating an opinion about it? - that just works on its own, like, 70% of the time. i picked it up from teaching preschoolers. it's an intentional "redirect". it stops children crying and it also stops grown adults from finishing their explanation on why women belong in kitchens. dual wielding!
keep it silly for yourself. i absolutely do not care if people think i'm fucking stupid (it's more fun if they do) and as a result i will purposefully misunderstand things just to see how long it takes them to realize i've completely removed them from the subject at hand. when they say "women aren't funny" i get to be like. "which women." "all women." "all women in america?" "no in the world." "like the mole people? the people in the world?" "what? no. like, alive." "oh are we not counting the mole people?" "what the fuck are you talking about." "you don't believe in the mole people?"
similarly, i play a personal game called "one up me." my Evil Acquaintance literally knows this game exists (my family & friends caught onto it and now also play it) and it always fucking gets him. i don't know why. you have to be willing to be a little free-spirited on this one, though. the trick is that when they make one of those horrible little bigoted or annoying comments they are always making, you need to go one unit weirder. not more intense, mind you - just more weird. "you don't look good in that dress." "yeah, actually, my other dress was covered in squid ink due to a mishap at the soup store." "you shouldn't wear such revealing clothes." "wait, what? oh shit. sorry, your son tears off strips when no one is looking and eats them. i swear it was longer before we left the building."
the point of "one up me" is to completely upend this person's narrative. we both know this person likes setting up situations where you cannot "win" and then they really like telling other people how badly you handled it. in a usual situation, if you respond "please don't say something that rude", you're a bitch. but if you let it happen, you're letting yourself be debased. they are not usually expecting door number three: unflappably odd. because what are they going to say when they're telling everyone how badly you behaved? "she said my son eats her dresses" ".... okay?"
if you can, form an allyship with someone whomst you can tagteam with. where they can pick up on your weird "soup store" story and run with it.
the following phrase is amazing and can be deployed for any situation: "oh, be nice :) it's the holidays!" i do not know why this works as often as it does. i'll say it for the most random shit. i think this is bc most of the time these people know they're being impolite, they just like to fight.
godbless. when in doubt, remember that you could always start stealing their pens.
the whole point of this is - if you can't escape. maybe see how long you can just be. like. a horrible little menace.
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Danny knew there was something off about his husband.
Tim had been staring at thier wedding photos off and on all week. He had flaked out on date night, which was rare and he had always giving a valid reason as to why. Now he won't even have a full conversation with him. What was happening? Was he being mind controlled? Blackmailed? Was he bugged? Was this a clone?
No, no. He wasn't being mind controled, he had none of the symptoms. He wasn't being blackmailed nor was he bugged, he didn't give any of thier code words for those things and a DNA sample showed he wasn't a clone
It wasn't long before he got his answer though. Danny felt tears stream down his face as he stared at the box his husband had given him. The fancy toaster displayed on the box stared back up at him innocently. So this was why. He didn't look up at Tim as he just made his way to thier bedroom and locked the door.
He needed to start packing.
----
This wasn't the first time Tim had time traveled, but finding himself in the future inside his future selfs body was weird.
Tim was confused. He had noticed the kitchen had lacked a toaster and fully acknowledging he had been kinda crappy to his future husband- God that was weird to think about- he decided to give him a gift as an apology.
Unfortunately the moment he saw the toaster sitting on the table in its box, Danny had started crying. Tim didn't know what he did wrong and his husband didn't even seem to hear him as he walked away.
After being met with a locked door Tim decided to give him space and look for answers in the computer in thier shared underground secret lab.
As it turns out, Danny has a lot of childhood trauma centered around toast. That's right. Toast.
He and his older sister were born to two absolutely insane scientists who seemed to actually forget they had children whenever they worked on a project, which was all the time. As a result these two children were left to find for themselves with little money and no idea how to cook.
So they made toast. Lots and lots of toast. Breakfast? Toast. Lunch? Toast. Dinner? Toast. So much freaking toast. School lunches were a godsend.
Danny had told Tim near the beginning of thier marriage that if he ever stopped loving him that he should just give him a toaster. Danny wouldn't ask questions and wouldn't ask for anything that wasn't his in the divorce, he would just pack up and leave.
After reading this Tim jumped out of his chair like it had shocked him and raced up the stairs.
He was too late. Danny was gone.
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alright, i'll do it.
I'll go off the deep end over the argument scene
First and foremost: they're kinda both in the wrong, obviously. But also kinda both in the right?
Macaque, is in the right for being upset that Wukong didn't listen to him, that Wukong drove himself to this point, etc etc. He, even, is not the one to start this argument, and instead approached peacefully, and attempted to leave when he was getting irritated. It was Wukong that pushed him over the edge into blowing up at him.
He even leaves afterwards, which, actually, is technically the right course of action. In a healthy relationship (platonic or romantic) it'd be best to give both parties time to cool off, and then return and discuss the issues calmly to find a solution.
The main problem is; they don't do this. Macaque doesn't come back, and Wukong doesn't cool off.
On the other hand, Wukong is in the right for being mad, mad that Macaque isn't working to free him (cause, from his position, it sure seems like he isn't), and is instead 'wasting time'. Mad that Macaque would dare to say he was dragged into a mess when he isn't the one trapped under a mountain. (On some level, mad at himself, likely, for letting all this happen).
He, of course, doesn't have the choice to leave, so instead he's left.
The core issue here, as is usual with most relationships shown in media; is their lack of communication. Wukong didn't truly listen to Macaque, and Macaque was too upset to understand Wukong's side of the issue.
...And they let this fester.
Of course, this isn't the end of the falling apart between them. No, there's more to this, the show makes this adamantly clear with MK trying to get Macaque to tell him "what happened between them".
Things continued after this, this was just the barest tipping point.
So. Macaque (probably) didn't come back.
We don't know why. We don't know if it was his choice, based on hearing Wukong yell that he "never wants to see your face again", or if it wasn't his choice, if something else happened.
So Wukong is left alone.
It is shown, in Journey to the West, that Wukong is prone to anger.
Quite usually, this is his response to most situations that upset him (followed later by crying), anger and destruction is usually his first response.
Whether viewed under an "autistic Wukong" lense or a "traumatized Wukong" lense, this makes perfect sense.
It's even shown in the show, if you look at the early pieces of flashback art that show bits of the Journey, you can see that Wukong looks pissed in most of them, and that he slowly starts to look happier as the images go on, as, in the story, he worked on this issue, and got better, less angry, less prone to immediately resort to violence.
(Notably, as far as I remember, the tipping point for when he slowly starts becoming less violent literally is the Macaque Chapter. Interesting, huh?)
Wukong, likely, logically knows that there was nothing Macaque could do to free him. Emotionally, though?
He's going to be upset the next time he sees him. And when he's upset, he's prone to anger.
Macaque, on the other hand, is going to see Wukong, with the Journey to the West group, slowly becoming a better person, old parts of him returning, creating someone new. Wukong... changed for these people, he listens to them.
But not for him. Wukong didn't change for him, and he never listened to him.
So. They meet again. We're not sure how. We don't know if that whole thing of Macaque pretending to be Wukong and attacking the JTTW gang is still actually a thing in Monkie Kid. It's possible he might do it out of jealousy, but we're not sure if it happens.
Maybe Macaque came to Wukong for help. Maybe Wukong, still mad about being left behind, refused. (I consider this possible based on the the way the special shows Macaque when MK says that "Monkey King would try to save us if one of us was trapped" + his reaction to MK saying he'd never abandon his friend in s3ep10. It's possible he's regretting not trying harder to free Wukong, but...)
We don't know.
What we do know is, they fought, and Wukong, in the end, successfully killed Macaque.
A Key thing this show hasn't brought up though is... how.
Shadow Play, vaguely, implies that it might've been via his Kaiju Form.
Notably, we are now at the point where Wukong, who, once again notably, has the most memorable Kaiju Form within the story of Journey To The West, is the only one of the three monkeys in this show who hasn't used their Kaiju Form.
We've been told, quite a few times, actually, that Wukong is holding back.
He held back against Nezha. He held back in episode 9, in the fight against Macaque. Even when he was possessed he wasn't using his full power- we're outright told that Wukong was fighting her control the whole time- he couldn't do that while also going at full power.
We've never seen Wukong go all out in the show.
...Why?
Why would the most powerful character, of all time, not use that power to defeat world-ending threats? Why would he choose to not pull out all the stops?
...
("You can't just ignore your power because you're afraid of it.")
Why else, would he not be using his full power, if it wasn't what killed his best friend?
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