#Making Macaque suffer in angsty ways is my favorite pastime

[asurius]

Having Macaque x Reader x Sun Wukong timeloop thoughts and I’m considering the idea of, reader got isekai’d time traveled back to JTTW times and went on the journey and died.

And Sun Wukong is real broken up about it but as time goes on he starts to see the future that reader always told him about take shape and he realizes that if there’s ever gonna be a time where he finds them again it’s gonna be soon.

And he finds them! At first he thinks it’s a reincarnation and he gets another chance except-

Except things are too similar. Everything is unfolding just as they always talked about. Their home life is the same, their friends are the same.

This isn’t a reincarnation. It’s them. The them before they got sent back.

And that means they’re going to die.

And he could stop it! He could be there this time-

But…but what would happen if he did? Would that change things? Would he forget about them if he did?

But then the moment comes and while he’s been dreading it this whole time he reacts without thinking to save them from the truck or the stairs or the mugger or whatever else kills them and he saves them. He was there. No matter what else he can’t live with them dying when he could’ve stopped it.

But now. Now he realizes, the them that he fell in love with no longer exists because of him.

And oops that means they never get sent back so he has no reason to be there at that specific time to save them meaning they die and get sent back and the whole thing starts all over again.

Little things might change, Wukong and reader might feel immediately drawn to eachother. But they don’t remember. Not directly. It’s more like a sense of deja vu.

Macaque meanwhile, initially really only wanted Reader because they’re just another thing that he can take from Wukong, the best trophy he could have.

So when he starts to hear things that are happening way farther out than what he’s normally capable of hearing of? It doesn’t take much to start piecing things together, he doesn’t know specifics, but like a quiet whisper on a wind he starts to pick things up. Suddenly reader becomes forefront of his mind because they indirectly have given him a second chance. He did enjoy their company…He still hates Wukong but he’s found something he wants more than Wukong’s life.

So all the while Wukong and Reader are piecing together what’s going on, because Macaque sure as shit isn’t going to tell them, Macaque is busy doing his own scheming trying to put a stop to it and that usually involves kidnapping Reader and keeping them as far away from anything even remotely dangerous as possible. Hell at one point he tried bypassing Wukong entirely by replacing him from the get go and going around Five phases mountain, he lasted pretty long but still got murked in the end, (likely by the Samadhi Fire.). Eventually he grits his teeth, and temporarily sets aside his differences with Wukong and joins them in the journey but makes it very clear from the get go that he’s only interested in keeping reader safe.

And oops wouldn’t you know it without the prerequisite of stealing Wukong’s identity and cannibalizing his family Wukong is pretty chill with Macaque. The memories come back slowly and by the time Wukong remembers all that Macaque has done to him over several lifetimes…it’s hard to reconcile that bastard in his memories with this edgy loner monkey that’s been traveling with them.

Macaque meanwhile really wants to avoid having that particular convo but at the same time, he’s also getting exactly what he wants out of this. He’s on the journey, by his own merits! He’s getting recognition for his own acts, be appreciated for who he is. Shit if he keeps up this good behavior he has a real shot at being a buddha.

But he still committed very very serious crimes. And honestly he doesn’t even feel that bad about them. Didn’t then, and in this time he hasn’t even committed them yet so is he really responsible for them?

It would take a major heart to heart to finally get the two of them to reconcile everything that’s happened with where they are at now.

Could take the form of the Macaque arc in the book instead this time it’s actually dark reflections of themselves given form. (Like how it is in other tellings)

Eventually the timeloop would end by getting reader to the end of the journey and achieving the not-dying immortality. Because no doubt Wukong and Macaque both tried to feed them any and all manner of immortality granting fruit.