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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 7 months

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Day 1: Beginning/End

The Empire of Samadhi AU

Pt. 1 (you are here) | Pt. 2 |

(This is day 1 of the Monkie Destiny Challenge Prompt Month October 2023)

Wordcount: 2k

Summary: Red Son is the son of an old empire, Mei is the daughter of a new one. Red Son, consumed by fire, was put into an induced stasis sleep to stop the world from burning until his family can find a way to safely remove the fire. They find a way but he never wakes up. Hundreds of years later he awakes to discover his power resides within another as she stares at him with wide eyes on fire.

When Red Son met the heir to the Dragon Empire of the Western Sea, it was the beginning of the end.

Red Son remembered the smell of fire melting flesh, more horrid than anything he’d experienced before. He remembered burning his mothers and his fathers hands. He remembered laughing. He remembered screaming.

Red Son was born a prince and he was born with fire.

Like him, his power had been small to begin with. His Father’s Empire was a warring one. It was how it came to be. He was a Warlord who became an Emperor and his wife, Red Son’s mother was the princess of a distant empire that he failed to conquer, partially due to Red Son’s mother herself. Red Son was their son, the heir to the throne and future emperor.

“You must be strong,” his father told him after every tale of conquest. “For when you rule, there will be those who oppose your authority. You must take it. They can do nothing to you if you are more powerful than those that seek to destroy you.”

It had never been Red Son’s intention to be consumed by his quest for power. It had begun like any other learning did, with scrolls and lectures and teachings and teachers. The flame alight inside him grew brighter and brighter with every meditation, every new technique and lesson learned. It grew in heat and size until he could feel it down to his fingers, heat coursing through him and roaring. He sought more and more, at the beginning, dragging himself forward by sheer force of will until there was a shift and his fire suddenly pushed him forward, propelling him into greatness, into conquest, into the raging inferno of power.

A power that grew too quickly and soon consumed him and everyone around him as well. Until his parents voices were muffled and faces were blurred by heat and flame and he heard nothing but the tearing chants of flame; consume, consume, consume.

Voices muffled, his laughter loud as their chains melted before they could touch him. Fire could not be contained, it was everything. They could not put it out.

They could not put it out, but they could lock it away, and him with it.

“I swear to you,” his father said. “I will return for you.”

His hands were the last thing Red Son felt before he ceased to exist.

When he awoke, he knew something was wrong.

He was cold.

Never in his life had he felt cold. Never in his life had he existed without a burning in his chest and a warmth in his core. But he awoke and his chest was gaping and empty. But his mind was clear. Clearer than it had been in a long time. The settled feeling of his fire within him was absent. Gone. He could tell it wasn’t inside him any longer. But he could feel its presence nearby.

Warmth hovered just close enough to brush his skin. He heard the crackling of flame.

His eyes snapped open.

Wide fire filled eyes stared back.

Whoever it was in front of him was engulfed in flame.

“Help,” she choked out.

“What have you done?” was the first thing out of his mouth. His voice sounded raspy, dry, the words rusty and unfamiliar.

The cave behind her was on fire. Everything, absolutely everything, was engulfed in flame. The roaring fire filled his vision and licked at his clothes and over his skin. None of it stuck to him, none of it could burn. The flames still knew him. They wrapped around him and he heard their recognition, their greeting, their call.

He looked at the soul in front of him, engulfed in his flame and he recognized a part of himself inside it that was causing the flames to stick to her skin.

He grabbed her face and reached out with his will to hers, grabbing hold of his fire inside her and reigning it in, wrapping it in a net of his mind and will and pushing it down.

It was easier than he remembered. Something had changed.

…He had changed.

She made a choking noise, eyes wide and tears evaporating before they had a chance to run down her cheeks.

“Breath, you fool,” Red Son said.

She gasped.

The fire around them died, the flames fluttering away to nothing, and without another word the woman lost consciousness falling into him.

Red Son was left with an unconscious person in his arms, the smell of ash and stone surrounding him, and the blackened cavern empty aside from the two of them.

His mouth was dry.

He coughed a few times before bothering to exit his small Red-Son-shaped hole carved out in the stone. There were spells carved into the stone around it, likely what had sealed him in.

He managed to drag them both out of the cave. With one arm around her waist and the other around her wrist ensuring the arm slung over his shoulders wouldn’t slip he staggered forward. His legs felt unreliable, unused, unsteady. His body shook and he found himself ravenously hungry. He reached the surface and found nothing but ashes.

It was a level of devastation that challenged anything he’d ever done. Everything was burnt, there was nothing but a wide expanse of blackened dirt in sight. No trees, no hills, no people as far as the eye could see. The sun was clouded out by smoke, sky appearing orange and making it hard to tell the time. The horizon was lit with a distant ember of what he was sure had to be a raging fire if he could see it from such a distance away. He gripped the woman’s wrist tightly.

“What,” he hissed out, “happened here.”

Silence and smouldering ashes were all that met his ears.

Mei woke up feeling as though there had been a fire in her throat. Scratchy dry and aching. Every part of her felt like she’d sat in front of a fire for too long and been cooked part-way. It was a nice feeling when she spent time with her great-great-great-a-thousand-times-great-great Grandfather… but right now it was a reminder of what had happened to make her feel so.

Fire.

She could still feel it, burning in her chest. The rings floated above her head, slowly circling, almost threatening in their movement. Their power was clear and heavy, weighing down and nearly vibrating with the barely contained inferno.

The inferno that destroyed her home.

She watched her tears evaporate into mist that floated up above her and faded away into nothing.

For a moment, she wished the flames had consumed her too.

“Oh, wonderful, you’re awake,” came a voice dripping with a disgusting sarcasm.

Mei jolted upright, the rings catching fire above her with her alarm. Panic shot through her and she reached up to try and put them out.

“Don’t touch those, idiot. You’ll just make it worse.”

Her head snapped to look at him.

And there he stood.

The Demon of Samadhi, his hair redder than a summer sunset, his eyes sharper than flint and steel, his arms crossed over his chest, and a sour expression on his face. Mei had thought she had dreamed it up, stumbling to the caverns she used to explore as a child, drawn by curiosity she’d thought at the time, but now knew was something different, with ashes and smoke trailing behind her rock melting under her feet until she’d drawn close and the spells surrounding his tomb had melted too and his face had come into view. Aside from his hair and clothes from another era, he looked like a normal person.

“You should be dead,” he said, like he was disappointed she wasn’t.

The flame in her flickered with her annoyance.

“And you should be quiet,” she snapped back.

“Insolent-” He looked like he was a moment away from bursting into flame, seething at her, but there was none of the fabled fire flickering in his eyes, they remained cold and empty. “Do you have any idea who you’re speaking to-?”

“Listen, buddy,” Mei interrupted him. He made a sound close to a squawk and she ignored him. “It's been a long day, okay? So if you could just tell me where we are before I barbecue you, that would be great.”

He scoffed again. “Your threats are meaningless, girl. That’s my fire you have there. It can’t hurt me, I made it.”

She glanced up at the rings. Then back down at him.

“You know,” she said. “You’re shorter than I thought you’d be.”

The offence on his face almost made her laugh.

“Were it not for the fact you are the current vessel for my fire, I would kill you here and now.”

“Yeah,” Mei said, “good luck with that buddy.” She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet and stood up, stretching. The rings flickered. She glanced at them. “Why don’t you just take your fire back and I’ll be on my way, huh?”

He was silent.

She looked at him.

He tsked, looking away sharply. “I already tried that, peasant.”

Mei blinked. “What do you mean you already tried?”

“While you were sleeping I attempted to pull it from you. My will alone is not enough to remove it from its current vessel. It’s stubborn.”

Mei barked out a laugh. “The big and powerful Demon of Samadhi can’t take his own fire back?”

“What nonsense-?” He bristled. “I don’t know how but it seems attached to you. I don’t know how you managed to fasten it to you so thoroughly in so little time, but I assure you, I will find a way to take it back.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, guy,” Mei said, glancing around them. They weren’t in the cavern anymore. They were out in the open and there was…

Nothing.

Something big seemed to lodge in Mei’s chest.

There was nothing but ashes.

In the distance there was a glow of fire.

“I have to stop it.” She wasn’t sure when she had started hyperventilating, but now she was gasping, staggering forward towards the fire. It seemed to get brighter.

“Stop that,” hissed the Demon of Samdhi, grabbing her wrist. “You’re making it worse-”

His hand around her wrist burned.

Rings surrounding her, triggered by a spell, a dormant fire lighting inside her and consuming everything, people screaming Mei screaming.

She gasped and ripped her hand away.

The Demon of Samadhi took a step back, arm raised almost defensively. He stared at her, slightly more cautious now.

“How long have you had my fire…?”

She blinked. “I…”

“How long have you had it?” he asked again--demanded.

“I don’t know,” she stammered. “Not long? A few days?”

“No, I'm not asking when it was triggered,” he grabbed the front of her shirt and dragged her closer to snarl at her, “I’m asking how long you've had it.”

Mei could only stare at him for a moment, too caught off guard to break his wrist for grabbing her.

Abruptly the Demon of Samadhi released her shirt and started pacing back and forth. He ran his hand through his hair. He looked… unsettled. Furious.

“One of my ancestors had it before me,” Mei said slowly. “I think I inherited it-”

His head whipped around to look at her. “Your ancestor?” His eyes were wide, angry.

…Afraid.

“You…” Mei suddenly realized that if the myths were true… the Demon of Samadhi would have no idea how long he’d been sealed away.

He glowered at her. “I what?”

“I should introduce myself,” said Mei, straightening up. “I am Lóng Xiǎo Jiāo , First Princess of the Dragon Empire of the West Sea, descendant of Áo Liè of the Dragon Clan who sealed away the Demon of Samdhi’s fire, placing a piece of it inside of himself, like, I dunno, a couple hundred years ago? It was passed down, unknown to his family, until it came to me.

“And you,” she finished, "are the Demon of Samadhi.”

The Demon of Samdhi stared at her. “What.”

“You got anything to eat?” Mei asked.

Prompt list

#KNOX WRITES (me)#Monkie Kid the Empire of Samadhi AU #Lego Monkie Kid #I guess you could say this is an apocalyptic au #Monkie Kid Mei #Monkie Kid Red Son #no i have no idea what i'm doing #Monkie Destiny Challenge (2023)#not really sure how to tag this but ITS FINE HGLSKDJFD #ngl i don't remember half of what we wrote but its prompt month so its fine if it doesn't make sense mOVING ON HAVE A LOVELY DAY #me: time to do something silly goofy for prompt month #I had this au all of ten seconds later forming before my eeys and i could do nothing to stop it hGL;KSJDF

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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 7 months

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Day 6: Show/Fear

Prompt List

Pt. 5 of The Empire of Samadhi AU

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 (you are here) | Pt. 6

(This is day 6 of the Monkie Destiny Challenge Prompt Month October 2023)

Wordcount: 2k

Welcome to the Show.

(This one’s a bit of a spookier one in light of this festive All Hallows’ Eve month. So warning for some mild body horror and creepy description. Please check the tags if you want more detail)

Their landing was awkward.

Red Son ended up at the bottom of the pile with his face pressed into the floor with the other two on top of him. He knew immediately the destination was wrong when he felt wooden floorboards rather than dusty ash against his cheek.

They had landed somewhere they weren’t supposed to.

“Get off.” Red Son attempted to throw the two mortals off him and was kicked in the face twice by Mk before he managed to shove them both off onto the floor. “Idiots.”

He lifted his head to look around and found they’d landed in a theatre of some kind. It was empty but the lights were on, bringing a warm sort of atmosphere.

“Uh,” said Mei, with Mk draped over her lap like a limp rag-doll. “Hey, Samadhi Sifu… I think you took a wrong turn.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Red Son spat. “Some idiot hijacked my portal.” He pushed himself to his feet, cursing under his breath. “They never would have been able to do so if I was at my full strength.” He straightened up after brushing small bits of gold dust from that shattered plate off his hanfu. It didn’t matter much due to the fact it was already covered in soot, but that couldn’t be helped. Merciful Buddha, he wanted a bath.

“Ow,” said Mk, like he was the one who had gotten kicked in the face. Mei patted his back.

Red Son glanced around the theatre. It was mostly built from wood. At first glance it appeared to be new, but the closer he looked the more blemishes and broken things there were. It was an old theatre. The curtains were threadbare. There were chips in the wood. The lanterns only lit the space dimly, just bright enough to create shadows without really lighting all that much. All the seats faced a massive white screen at the head of the room. It reminded Red Son of a shadow puppet screen, only much, much bigger.

“We’ve got another thirty minutes here until my spell kicks back in,” Red Son said, glancing around for the doors or at least some sort of exit. He heard shuffling behind him and turned to see Mk falling off of Mei’s lap and face down onto the floor before popping back up, sitting cross-legged next to her.

“Well, at least there’s no spooky monkey here,” Mei said.

Upon being reminded of what exactly they’d been, not running, but retreating from, Red Son’s ire at whoever had portal-jacked him was washed over and drowned out by a very different sort of feeling.

Mk and Mei seemed content to stay on the ground as Red Son started to pace in front of them. He muttered under his breath.

Mk looked pale. Red Son had no doubt he’d be looking even paler if he’d known just who had been reaching for him.

Red Son feared nothing. Not death, not life, and no living being.

But his hands were shaking.

From the cold, he hissed to himself through gritted teeth. He would never have been shaking if he had his fire. He wouldn’t be so vulnerable if he had it. The white lady hadn’t seemed like a threat at first. She seemed a mild annoyance at best. He couldn’t sense any massive power coming from her, so how did she manage to get to him? He needed to rethink. Reevaluate. He needed to think. He needed to get his fire back or they were going to die.

“Well, well! That was quite a show!”

Red Son’s head snapped back to look where the voice was coming from. It seemed to bounce and echo over the walls, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Shadows seemed to tilt, getting darker, stretching further.

Mei was on her feet in an instance, Mk scrambling up close behind her, staggering a lot more.

The shadows seemed to converge on the stage, onto the screen rising up like ink until a shape was painted across it and then received form.

It was a shadow puppet.

A monkey. Merciful Buddha, Red Son had seen enough monkeys already today. Its mouth had been cut into a wide, unnerving smile, stretching over nearly half its face.

"I see you all met the Lady Bone Demon's puppet.” The puppet slumped sideways, limp, head tilting to almost upside down. It was strange. It moved in a way shadow puppets normally didn’t, to Red Son’s knowledge.

Red Son scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. “You look more like the puppet here.”

“Oho!” said the shadow puppet. “Good-” it flipped, revealing its other side, where the only difference was there was an slashed X in the place its eyes should have been, “--eye.” The puppet laughed. It doubled over with shrieking laughter at an awkward angle that didn’t look right.

Red Son found himself recoiling a bit. The thing sounded insane. Granted not as insane as him when he laughed, his cackle was much more impressive.

Out of the corner of his eye Red Son saw Mk grab Mei’s arm.

“Mei,” Mk said, his voice slightly shaky, urgent, “that sounds like-”

“I know,” Mei said, her voice grave, on edge.

“What are you two talking about?” Red Son snapped.

“Is that the Dragon Heir I see?” The puppet twisted itself as though it were hanging upside down from a branch. Sure enough the shadow of a tree rose up to assist the illusion. “And another puppet!” Its smile looked almost thrilled looking at Mk. “Isn't this all just so interesting? But who’s the third? I’ve never seen you before.” It dropped back down, into more of an animalistic, unnatural crawl. The shadow seemed to grow bigger as it crawled towards them, but it never moved off the screen.

“Who I am is none of the business of the likes of you,” Red Son said. “You know very well who you brought here. So cut the theatrics and state your business or we will burn your little theatre to the ground and you along with it.”

The puppet seemed to find that very funny, laughing and twisting. Red Son could feel something in the wood of this place. Something in the shadows growing thicker and moving.

“Oh, but the show is the best part!”

Mk cried out.

Red Son spun around to see shadows wrapping around his ankles and wrists. They lashed out around his arms binding him tightly and then pulled before any of them could react.

“Mk!” Mei yelled, reaching for him. She grabbed his wrist just before he was pulled into the shadows.

The rings lit. Mei practically spat out fire. “Let go of him.”

“There’s the famous fire!” The puppet seemed to smile wider, bigger, it sounded like it was a twisted form of excitement. “What a performance you gave that day!”

The strands of shadow snapped when Mei’s fire neared it and she caught Mk before pulling him to his feet.

“Mei,” said Mk, clinging to her.

“I know,” said Mei. “It's him.”

“What are you two peasants talking about-”

“You know,” said the puppet, drawing their attention, “really, it was rather impressive how you played right into her hands, bud.” It walked across the screen, but this time it continued off it, onto the wall. The laughter echoed.

For a moment Red Son thought the shadow was talking to Mei, but then Mei was stepping in front of Mk and shielding him with her arm, flames flickering dangerously above her.

“Mk had nothing to do with it,” Mei snapped.

The puppet laughed again, tumbling through shadows and bouncing from one place to the other around the room. It bent in unnatural directions. “Nothing? Nothing? He caused this.”

Red Son had to admit, he was curious. Curious as to how the man half-cowering behind Mei was responsible for… well, it was rather hard to understand what the puppet was referring to.

“I didn’t,” said Mk, but he didn't sound very confident about it.

“Do you think she would have gotten your precious friends if it weren’t for you? You think she would have gotten to your pathetic Sifu without your help?”

“He’s not pathetic!” Mk shouted at it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“All your second chances, all your do-good kindness lead to this. If it weren’t for you the Lady Bone Demon would have never gotten her hands on the rings.”

“But,” said Mk, his voice small, “I didn’t do anything…”

“And you think that’s a good thing?” The puppet laughed far too much in Red Son’s opinion. It lost its effectiveness after a while. At least on him. Mei and Mk just looked more and more unsettled and anxious. “You and your Master, so alike. Neither of you said anything to each other, did you?”

“What is he talking about?” Red Son asked, looking at Mk curiously.

Mk shrunk back from his gaze.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mei said. “Whatever happened doesn’t matter. So you better shut your mouth, Liú.”

The puppet stood for a moment, frozen still. Then it’s head snapped off the wall to look at Mei.

It became less of a shadow and more of a tangible thing. Its eyes were lifeless, its skin was more alive looking than a puppets should be. It had lace designs stretching across its skin in dark cracks across its skin. Its mouth stretched just as wide, but despite its upward tilting motion it didn’t look like it was smiling. It didn’t look completely like an object nor completely alive, some mix of both. Red Son could see both its eyes at once now, the slashed X over one of them looking like a gaping black hole. Its one eye was a pinprick amongst a pool, just as black, its pupil surrounded by a ring of purple.

“You’re cursed,” Red Son realized.

Its head snapped to look at him and Red Son felt frozen in place by it. The weight was nowhere near that of his fire contained in the rings above Mei’s head. But it was uncomfortable all the same. This thing in front of him was twisted and wrong and there was a lack of sanity in its one working eye that made it feel as though something would snap at any second. It looked as though it should be twitching but all it did was stay deathly still, not breathing but very clearly alive.

“Not our problem,” Red Son forced out, despite the way the words tried to lodge in his throat with the things one eye on him. “Dragon Girl, we’re leaving.”

“There’s no doors,” Mei muttered.

Red Son whipped his head around to check. And she was right. He hadn’t realized it at first, but there were no doors, no windows, no holes or cracks in the wall to slip through.

There was no way out.

It was a claustrophobic feeling. But Red Son wasn’t about to let a sealed room intimidate him.

“Very well then. Let us make one.”

“I can’t let you leave,” said the puppet that Mei called Liú. “They’ll come soon.”

“Elder Liú,” said Mk, “we can help you.”

“I can’t let you leave,” it said again, its mouth moving with the words unlike its shadow had when it spoke before. It was a horrifying sight. Shadows moved behind them, creeping closer. “I can’t let you leave. I can’t let you leave. I can’t let you leave-”

Red Son snorted. “You can’t stop us.”

It just kept repeating it over and over again, ignoring him. The shadows stretched higher. They curled over top of them. Red Son watched them creep out of the wall, wrapping around the puppet, over its mouth and face and dragging it back into the wall.

“Guys,” Mei said, glancing at her feet. “I think we’re in trouble here.”

“Then use my fire,” Red Son said through gritted teeth.

“Oh yeah,” Mei said, “right.” She shook off the shadows that had started to cling to her foot and the rings blazed brighter above her.

“Wait! Stop!” said Mk.

“What?” Mei said. Then yelped, because a shadow lashed out and wrapped around her arm.

One latched around Red Son’s leg and the shadows suddenly seemed a lot thicker and stronger than before.

“They’re shadows,” Mk said. “The more light you give them the stronger they’ll be.”

“How does that make sense?”

“Just look, the more light there is, the more shadow can be seen. Unless we could get enough light to get rid of every shadow, more light would just be making it worse.”

“Then what’s your suggestion,” Red Son snapped, clawing at the shadow that had attached itself to his wrist.

“Less light,” Mk said. “They can’t touch us if there’s no shadows to shape in the dark. We need to break the lanterns.”

“This is a terrible idea,” Red Son said.

“Do you think I have enough control over these rings to light up a whole room?” Mei asked.

Red Son did not think that.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Fine,” Red Son snapped. He snatched some fire away from Mei. The shadows had crept up to his hips now, wrapping and slowly sludging further up. He burnt some off his wrist so his hand was free. “Aim for the lanterns.”

Mei missed twice. Red Son’s feeble second-hand fire couldn’t reach very far but the sparks landed and managed to light the lantern.

“No,” the voice echoed, “what are you doing? Stop- stop I can’t exist without them-”

“It's okay, Elder Liú,” Mk said, “we’ll get you out of here.”

“Stop!”

“Ugh,” said Red Son, straining against the shadows that were now up to his shoulders. “You’re disgustingly reassuring, aren’t you.”

“I try,” Mk said. He was trying to hide it but Red Son could hear the panic in his voice.

The last lamp went out, burned to nothing, but light still remained.

“Dragon Girl, the rings.”

Mei cursed.

“Mei-” Mk’s voice was cut off as the shadows wrapped around his mouth and started dragging him down.

“Mk!”

“THE RINGS!” Red Son yelled at her.

“I GOT IT,” Mei roared back.

The shadows wrapped around Red Son’s mouth and started pulling.

The rings flickered.

“NO!” the puppet appeared in front of Mei’s face, reaching.

All at once the light went out.

Red Son fell flat on the floor, followed by two thumps.

“HA!” said Mk. “I told you! How can you get grabbed by something when you’re already in it! It's like swimming!”

“Water has currents that can grab you,” Red Son snapped at him.

“Shadows aren’t tangible like water.”

“You make less sense the more you talk.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Mk huffed.

“Woo! Mk!” Mei cheered. “I’m gonna see that last bit in my nightmares! Haha! Where’d Old Liú go anyway?”

“Um, I’m not sure,” Mk said. “Let me check.”

There was a moment of shuffling and silence in the pitch black. Then Mk’s bright voice came.

“Found him! He’s small now. Looks like a real shadow puppet.”

“What? How can you see?”

“Huh, I wonder if we could un-curse him like how we unpossessed Mk,” Mei said, ignoring Red Son’s question.

“He feels like he’s made out of dry stuff,” Mk said. “I don’t know if it's safe to try.”

“Just give him to me,” Red Son scoffed, blinding feeling around for Mk. “I’ll seal him in so he won’t jump back out the moment there’s shadows to jump from if you’re both so worried about it. You can figure out what to do with this thing later. We’re going to be pulled back any minute now.”

Red Son heard a sound that took him a moment to place as Mk’s muffled laughter.

“What? What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing,” Mk said. “Here, hold still, I'll hand him to you.”

Red Son sighed and held out his hand impatiently.

He could feel Mk standing in front of him, hesitating.

“What now?” he groaned.

“Just… be careful with him. Don’t hurt him okay?” Mk finally handed him over.

“Whatever,” said Red Son, casting the spell to seal the puppet in its current form. “He’s none of my concern, living or dead.”

Mk didn’t reply to that, but he could practically feel his worry.

“There,” Red Son said, shoving him back at him. “He won’t be any trouble for now.”

“Great,” said Mei. “So do we need to talk about why Liú looks like a monkey? Or…?”

The ground lit up underneath them.

Mk yelped, his face illuminated and rushed to stuff the small shadow-puppet into his hanfu.

The room lit up in flames.

| beginning | next |

#ngl i thought this one was longer #it probably would be if i went back and edited it but i wrote this in one sitting and i aint' going back so here you go #no pov switches this time huh! wild!#i guess its cause its so sort #Monkie Destiny Challenge (2023)#KNOX WRITES (me)#Monkie Kid the Empire of Samadhi AU #Monkie Kid Mei #Monkie Kid Red Son #Spoilery for the fic here's the description read the fic first if you'd like it to be a surprise:#basically Macaque is a puppet. kind of a mix between living and not and there's some description around that jerky movements and the like #its not too bad but still figured i'd slap a heads up in here #i probably forgot to do something but EH ITS FINE I'VE FOCUSED ON THIS TOO LONG ALREADY PEACE OUT REMEMBER TO HYDRATE

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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 7 months

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Day 8: Mountain/Chains

Prompt List

Pt. 6 of The Empire of Samadhi AU

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | Pt. 6 (you are here) | Pt. 7 (coming sometime...)

(This is day 8 of the Monkie Destiny Challenge Prompt Month October 2023)

Wordcount: 2k

Split.

They reached the mountain at daybreak.

It wasn’t massive but it still counted as a mountain, albeit a small one. There were seals and spells lining the caverns on the inside of it, if nothing much had changed since Red Son had last visited the place. It was a little out of their way and put them a good half a day behind schedule to reach, but the mortals were insistent. Much to Red Son’s frustration.

Why they were taking this detour was simple.

Liú.

That little puppet Mk had tucked into his sash comfortably that morning, with his little puppet arms and face free of the fabric. He’d spent a needlessly long amount of time making sure he was comfortable, not being crushed. No matter how many times Red Son told him he likely couldn’t feel it, Mk wasn’t taking any chances.

“Just in case,” he had said that morning. “He might be conscious. It would be boring to look at the inside of a pocket all day.”

No matter how much Red Son scoffed at it, Mei chimed in that she thought it was a good idea so that was the end of it, and he could do nothing to convince him otherwise.

They were idiotic fools.

They were weird.

They chatted with the puppet all the way too, and on the way up the mountain, in-between complaints of sore feet and burning muscles from their upward decent. Red Son had to listen to their aggravating recap and their ‘Sifu Samadhi, he might look scary but he’s a softy,’ all the way up the mountain.

Red Son was not a softy.

He was going to kill them both the moment he had the fire just to prove that.

“He can’t hear you,” Red Son tried to tell them for the thousandth time.

“Maybe he can,” Mei said, sticking out her tongue like she did every time she replied.

Truly they were idiotic.

He had no doubt if Liú really was conscious as a little puppet, he would have rather been shoved into a pocket than listen to their whining. At least then the sounds would be muffled.

“Are we there yet?” Mei groaned. “We've been walking for ages.”

“Two hours,” Red Son said through gritted teeth, “is not ages.”

“It's dark out,” Mk complained, “I want to sleep.”

Red Son took a moment to breathe. If he pushed either of them off the mountain now he might never get his fire. “This little detour is costing us precious time. The sooner we reach the top the better. Unless you’d rather take a nap and watch the world burn from this vantage point?”

That at least shut them up for a while. Then there was nothing but annoyed noises and huffing and puffing.

Honestly they held up better than expected. Despite their complaining they were keeping up with Red Son’s, what would be considered, brutal pace for mortals.

They reached the top before sunrise.

Luckily the big open surface carved out remained which meant they wouldn’t need to clear anything. The last time Red Son had been here, there had been monuments and structures and even green life everywhere. He didn’t acknowledge the blackened empty state of it.

Red Son drew the circle in the ash and dirt himself, since he didn’t trust either of them to know what they were doing. It didn’t take very long, but it was long enough for Mei to complain again. Red Son ignored her. He scratched the letters into the dirt then snatched some of his fire from the rings and lit the spell. The fire filled the grooves quickly until every bit of lettering was illuminated.

“Now,” he said, dusting his hands off and turning to Mei. “First things first. This is going to cause quite a commotion in the middle of nowhere. Without any life disguising my power, we might as well be sending an invitation to that thing to come find us. So.” He stepped over to one of the edges of the flat space, purposefully not too far away from the circle, but not close enough to mess with the spell. “This is our escape route. If he comes, stand here, and it will take us out of here in a more permanent teleportation than I can currently provide.”

“Cool,” Mei said. “Where does it go?”

“Let me worry about that,” Red Son said, crossing his arms. “Now the spell. Not that I care but keep in mind that if you lose control at any point during the ritual, he will undoubtedly die.”

“What?” said Mk, shielding the puppet with his hand.

“No pressure or anything,” Mei muttered. She frowned at the spell.

“Hurry up, we don’t have all day,” Red Son snapped.

“You can do this, Mei,” Mk said. “I know you can.”

That made her crack a smile. They were both so strange. “Thanks Mk.” She seemed to brighten just a little bit. “Alright, let's do this.” She got into position and planted her feet.

Mk hurried forward and placed the puppet in the middle of the circle, gently brushing ash from the spot so there was a clear spot to place it down. He then scurried out of the ring, cursing as the hem of his hanfu caught fire. He stamped it out, giving a big bright smile when Red Son glared at him.

Mei took a breath, closing her eyes. She placed the palms of her hands together in a meditative movement, then her eyes snapped open and she stared with intense focus at the puppet on the ground. “Ready.”

Red Son nodded. He lifted his hand, breathed and released the puppet from the seal.

It was an awful twisting, crumpling moment, then there the puppet stood at its full size. Its one eye blinked.

“Now!” Red Son yelled.

Fire exploded over them.

Red Son thought just in time to yank Mk behind him to shield him from it. Red Son planted his feet, nearly slipping from the force of it.

“A bit of overkill,” he said through gritted teeth as he held the fire at bay. She likely didn’t hear him mutter it over the roar of the flames. That had been his intention. He wasn’t stupid enough to interrupt her focus on purpose.

The puppet cowered, shielding its face, but its feet remained glued to the ground, trapped by the spell. The flames washed over it. It wailed.

“Ignore it!” Red Son yelled to Mei before she could hesitate or ask. “Continue the ritual!”

The fire burned through layers of the curse.

“It's working!” Mk spoke like he could see it which was absurd.

Chains flickered into view. They connected to the puppets wrists and ankles, long and icy and blue. Deep churning gray ones wrapped around the rest of him as though they were holding him together. Those chains were much thinner and weaker than the blue, but both could be handled just fine. One part possession, one part curse. The seals on the chains lit up with light, exposed by the fire.

The fire flickered green. Red Son grit his teeth and said nothing.

“You almost got him! Keep going!” Mk yelled.

“I… am…” Mei grunted, straining and pushing the fire at the puppet, trying to keep it aimed at him. Some of it lashed out to the side, dangerously close to Mk.

“Focus, Dragon Girl,” Red Son barked.

“Both of you zip it!” Mei snapped back. “Stop yelling at me-”

One of the chains cracked.

“Keep going, you're doing it!” Mk cheered.

“I asked for quiet please!”

The puppets' eyes flickered from empty to wide and pained and human. The puppet-like designs on its skin seemed to start to burn off. Its screaming was muffled by the fire.

“This is really hard!” Mei yelled.

“Of course it is!” Red Son yelled back. “Keep going!”

A chain snapped.

“You’re doing it, Mei! You’re doing it!”

“Yeah!” Mei cheered. Her power surged and pressed firmer against the curse.

Red Son hadn’t sensed anything, perhaps due to the massive surge of power in front of him. But quite unexpectedly he exhaled and his breath was visible, even with the flames in front of him.

He snapped his head up to look at the sky to find frosty clouds looming above them and closing in. The air behind where the fire was not was growing cold.

Red Son hadn’t felt him coming.

They needed to leave. Now.

“Dragon girl! Stop the fire! We need to go-!”

He landed a short distance away at the edge of the space and the mountain shook with the impact.

Red Son stumbled, on his feet, some of the fire escaping past him and over to Mk.

The fire vanished.

“Mk, grab Liú,” Mei barked. If Red Son wasn’t distracted he might have been proud of her authoritative voice, clearly reminiscent of his own.

Mk jumped into action and ran forward, jumping over rocks. He scooped the puppet off the ground, and bolted back to Red Son.

The figure that filled Red Son with such dread started forward.

The fire blasted into existence again, all of it focused on the possessed creature.

“Leave it! We need to go!” Red Son yelled. He and Mk were already standing in the escape route, they just needed Mei.

Chains flickered.

Red Son realized that his uncle was walking into the circle they’d made for the puppet.

Chains, white freezing chains, thin and thick, wrapping around every limb, tight around every movement. There looked to be hundreds of them, some of them thicker than some tree trunks Red Son had seen, and only getting bigger, as they stretched out of sight. They wrapped around his wrists, his arms, his ankles, his legs, his tail, his throat, his torso, his head.

Every single chain link from big to small had a seal on it.

The horror that Red Son felt choked him for a moment.

“Wait!” Mei yelled. “Do you see that? Maybe I can-”

“YOU CAN’T!” Red Son roared. “LEAVE IT, MEI.”

He could see her hesitate. It was a split second of her really truly considering… Then she growled. With a frustrated yell, she hurled as much fire as she could at their pursuer before she abandoned the circle and sprinted towards where Red Son and Mk stood.

“Hurry!” Mk held out his arm to her. “He’s right behind you!”

Mei didn’t glance back, she just launched herself forward, leaping at them.

Red Son slammed his hand onto the ground on top of the spell to activate it seeing her trajectory. He didn’t pray that he’d timed it right, he knew he had.

That was the moment that everything went wrong.

Mei was jerked backward, the Possessed catching the back of her hanfu.

Mk lunged out of the circle and tackled him.

Mei was catapulted forward and bowled into Red Son, knocking him off his feet and partially out of the spell.

The possessed moved forward, Mei lunged for Mk, the spell activated just as she touched him and the mountaintop exploded.

The impact of Red Son hitting the ground face-first nearly knocked him out. It left him dizzy and disoriented for a moment.

He pushed himself up and staggered to his feet.

He looked for Mei first, expecting her to be a short distance away, buried by rubble or fighting his uncle, but very suddenly realized several things:

He wasn’t atop the mountain any longer. He was beside a running river, surrounded by trees. It was damp, not as dry, there was no ash or flame to be found.

He couldn’t feel the warmth of his fire at all, which meant it was no longer in close proximity with him.

His uncle, Mei and Mk were nowhere to be found.

His fire was gone.

Red Son punched a tree, splitting a fist-shaped hole into the wood.

Then he wordlessly screamed at the sky for more than a few reasons but mainly because that had really hurt.

Imbeciles.

| beginning | next (coming...sometime...) |

#KNOX WRITES (me)#Monkie Destiny Challenge (2023)#Monkie Kid the Empire of Samadhi AU #Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie kid #Monkie Kid Mei #Monkie Kid Mk #have i just skipped day 7 entirely? m a y b e #not purposefully i just had the idea for a truth serum/curse fic thing and i was thinking about writing that just haven't had the time #this one was already partially written #I'VE HAD A VERY FULL WEEKEND OKAYGBS;FKLSMDF #hopefully i'll get todays prompt out too before the day is done #whew weeee #we shall see how this goes i don't have any ideas for it yet hG;LSKJF #REMEMBER TO HYDRATE #this one feels very short BUT ITS FINE MOVING ON #MY COMPUTER KEEPS OVERHEATING I NEED TO SPEED OFF HERE I'M JUST TRYING TO POST THIS WHEEZING #straight up i couldn't think of what they were going to do next so i did this to give my brain something new to consider mWAHHAHAHA #what will happen next... hm..?

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