#i love writing macaque being the evil asshole he is

[cloud-somersault]

You being one of the few people who write shadowpeach with 'wukong killed macaque' in mind is one of the reasons why I follow you!! Others being just. I like how you characterize lmk characters in general and your writing is fun to read.

But if we're talking about the shadowpeach murder fight (and if you don't wanna get into this just ignore the rest of this ask) I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on it? Like is there something that you think did or didn't happen that you think no one's really talked/no one you've seen really talk about? Like, I always think that the final blow wasn't an instant kill? And Wukong backed off.

So Macaque watched Wukong 'leave' while he was dying (since he always focuses on Wukong leaving him, not the actual death) and Wukong went into denial and rationalized it (cause in the show Wukong does NOT act like a guy who buried his lover/best friend to said best friend). I always thought that'd be a fun angle to explore for canon/an au.

Aw, thank you! Not trying to be arrogant or what have you, but yeah, there aren't very many who write with Wukong Doing a Murder in mind.

Hold on, I have to shift into canon to answer that. And I'm probably gonna mess up, because tbh, I haven't thought about canon in a long ass time LMFAOOOO

ngl, I like both options of Wukong leaving Macaque to die AND it being a powerful final blow that did Macaque in. And you know, since I'm a little unhinged, I like playing around with motivation. Like maybe Wukong enjoyed doing it, enjoyed proving which one of them was stronger. I dunno.

(kicks a rock) maybe while Wukong was on the journey, fighting macaque brought back memories of those fun times when he could be reckless. And I like to play with that bc in JTTW Macaque is the embodiment of all of Wukong's negativity, which can be translated or interpreted as his "darkness." The parts of himself he's trying to run away from.

I like to play along with like "Maybe Macaque was being a little asshole and had to be stopped" y'know, like DBK. Just for funsies.

I also like to play around with "Wukong was an illusion cast by someone else" because it ties into the whole "Macaque pretended to be Wukong" in JTTW. I like illusions playing some part in that fight. Like, perhaps Wukong saw an illusion and thought Macaque was another evil demon that he fought before, while Macaque saw someone else, too. Like maybe they were BOTH fooled.

Also love it being like "Macaque wanted Wukong's attention and Wukong rejected that and said they're not friends anymore" love that flavor, thanks! Maybe because Wukong wanted to kill any remnants of his life before the journey or at least like. stop hanging out with those people who threw an uprising in Heaven and thought that was a solid plan.

As for the burial thing.... 🤔 I think it's cool if Wukong did bury Macaque and when he sees him again, he's initially scared af and confused...but Macaque attacks him and doesn't give Wukong answers. And I think, when we first see them interact in the show, isn't the first time they've interacted since Macaque came back to life. I don't think that because the story is centered on MK and Macaque saw an opportunity to manipulate MK to get his powers and use that to try and beat Wukong. He's just searching for ways to kill this monkey LMFAO

BUT ALSO...not burying Macaque is spicy too. leaving your best friend's/former lover's corpse on the side of the road? damn, how do we come back from that... huh.

Fun fact! Wukong did bury Macaque in constellations AU. but we'll get into that in the epilogue...perhapeth.

[skellebonez]

Hey, so about that "Macaque fucks around with Tang pretending to be Pigsy"... How about a continuation? Maybe with 6 and 27?

I love both reformed fanon/AU Macaque and evil asshole canon Macaque equally, but I don't write the later nearly enough so I am extremely happy you gave me a great reason to write him being an absolute asshole yet again! The original prompt in question!

Mild warning: Someone gets beat up pretty bad.

Let’s make a deal shall we?/Tell me what I can do to help.

It took only half an hour of walking the city streets on the way to Sandy's house boat, after leaving MK's apartment through the window to avoid Pigsy and his anger and fear disintegrated into sorrow that left his hands shaking from the quickly approaching adrenaline crash, for Tang to realize he hadn't been thinking things through. At all.

He was so sure of what he had seen. But... the more he thought over it... it made less and less sense. Something was wrong, and he had been so sure of that when those pictures surfaced.

But he had seen it, he had seen Pigsy with DBK! He saw him attack their- HIS son. MK. He'd watched the man he'd fallen for attack the person he considered his son while looking him in the eyes. And he knew that Pigsy had been hiding something from him, from all of them. He'd seen the demon accidentally snap metal utensils in half, warp pots and pans by grabbing them too hard. He knew Pigsy was hiding how powerful he was, had for years.

Would he hide something like this, though? Could he?

Tang hugged the bundle he had taken from the apartment closer to his chest. Should he have tried to question Pigsy before leaving? Maybe-

"What are you doing out here?" A voice suddenly broke through his thoughts, drawing a startled scream from the scholar as he jumped and looked around him. "Whoa, it's just me!"

A figure jumped down from somewhere and landed in front of him, and once the lights of the streetlamps illuminated the person before him Tang breathed a sigh of relief.

"Monkey King," Tang said with a smile, relaxing his posture from his ready to run stance. The sight of the immortal being was like a light in a dark cave. "You got my text! Good, good..." He frowned down at the bundle, holding it tighter. "I'm sorry, I-I couldn't..."

"I get it," Wukong eased Tang's worry with a smile, gesturing to him. "Are you alright?" He frowned, looking off into the distance. "Did anyone..?"

"No!" Tang shook his head, and in the back of his mind he wished that someone had followed him out here, a certain someone. At least maybe Wukong could have gotten some answers out of him. "No, no one followed me to Pigsy's, and he didn't follow me either..."

The Monkey King's frown softened and he leaned in toward Tang, tilting his head with a grimace. "You don't look so hot... Are you ok? Is there anything you need before we regroup?"

"No, no just," he chuckled, running a hand through his already wind mussed hair. "I'm ok... As ok as I can be after all that..."

"Come on, Tang," Wukong said softly, voice full of concern. "Tell me what I can do to help."

Tang froze and looked up at the other in front of him, really looked at him. When Wukong went to step closer with his hands stretched out he flinched back out of instinct and cursed himself in his mind as the Monkey King's eyes widened before his face twisted into a smirk.

"Well damn," he laughed lowly, head tilting to the side as the smirk get more amused and he relaxed his posture into something that was not like the Monkey King at all. "What gave me away, scholar?"

"The real Sun Wukong doesn't call me by my name," Tang said as evenly as he could, knowing it was pointless not to be honest. Knowing that he had messed up. Severely. He should have calmed down, thought things through first, not lashed out and run off the way he did. Because whoever had hurt MK wanted him to believe he was Pigsy on purpose.

And that person was right in front of him, laughing heartily as if Tang had just told him the best joke he had heard in years.

"Oh, OH, I-HA! I can't believe I forgot! Yeah, oh yes that sounds like Peaches alright," the fake Wukong said with a smirk. "It's always 'bud' or 'kid' or 'pal' or 'Mango'-" He scowled instantly at this, standing up straight and menacing and powerful and clenching his fists. "Unless he's scared for you or despises you he never calls you by your name. Hmmmm... Which one would it be for you I wonder?" The smirk was back again, in full force, and Tang had to keep himself from trembling as the fake Wukong took a step forward. "Huh, scholar? Want to find out? If he gets scared enough for your life to call you by name?"

And Tang ran.

Tang ran a whole five feet before something grabbed him by his hair and slammed his face into the concrete with a chuckle.

"Really? You were going to try that!?" The voice no longer belonged to Wukong, instead to someone Tang didn't recognize at all, and he regretted not taking into consideration that shapeshifters of this caliber were still around. The person wrenched his head back, and before Tang could register anything else a fist slammed into his head, adding to the pain that was already reverberating inside his skull. "There we go, normal human like you can't handle much so this should be enough to keep you cooperat-"

Tang spat at his attacker, spat the blood pooling in his mouth from where he had bitten the inside of his cheek right in his face.

The face of who he could now see was a monkey demon. A macaque, to be specific. And if his knowledge of the old tales served him correctly this particular one went by Six-Eared Macaque.

Unfortunately, this only frustrated Macaque and he was rewarded with another hefty punch to the face that Tang was certain would leave him with at least a black eye as he heard his already cracked glasses shatter. His vision swam, both from the lack of visual assistance and from what was surely a forming concussion.

"Guess you're not friends with the Kid for nothing," Macaque growled out, standing back up and pulling Tang with him by the hair. "Doesn't matter to me what state you're in, but DBK wants some extra leverage anyway so I may as well take you and your little package." He smirked, at least Tang thought he did, as he ripped the bundle out of the scholar's arms and let the sheet it was wrapped in fall away. "This artifact should provide him with just enough of a power boost to make this little scheme of his worth while... but..."

A shard of ice dug deep down in Tang's chest as Macaque's tail lifted a shard of his glasses up to his eye, just enough for him to see the monkey demon was smirking.

"I'm not particularly invested in what DBK or his brat have up their sleeves. Or the kid in general, really, for that matter. You recognize me, I can tell, so you probably have a good idea of exactly who I want. And maybe, if you can help me out... I'll help you get your son back. So. Let’s make a deal shall we?"

[skellebonez]

14. With a possessed monkie kid? (Doesn't have to be my au, i just crave possession stuff rn fbsbfb)

Oh you gave me so much power. I have too much power. I had to write this ASAP before Friday, I did not want the idea I had to be tempered by what happens in the finale. Since this is supposed to be set a couple weeks after what could possibly happen. Spoilers if you haven’t read the summary for S2E10.

This may not be in your Possession AU, but it takes a little inspiration from it because I love it!

Warning: vaguely described injuries, blood. Reminder that I think Macaque can be severely hurt but is immortal to the point he can heal any injury.

Am I scaring you?

“Hey- don’t scream it’s just me- You guys seen MK around?”

Despite Macaque’s request, Pigsy and Tang continued to scream. It wasn’t surprising, really. It wasn’t every day that an enemy your friend/person you see as a son just revealed to you a couple weeks earlier had attacked him twice in ways that had left him pretty messed up and questioning his choices and abilities just pops their body from the shoulders up out of the shadows on your wall without warning. Doubly so when very shortly after learning all this that person does a heel face turn and joins your side without technically joining it against everyone’s will and is still kind of an asshole.

The immortal monkey needed to work on that last bit. Maybe he could upgrade from “asshole” to “jerk face” in the eyes of Team MK if he brought drinks. He didn’t really care though, he just wanted to make his own life easier. At least Wukong had been... somewhat open to letting him stick around, given MK convinced them to talk when they were too exhausted after the giant mech battle to actually fight each other, and that made their joint training sessions with MK much easier. That still took getting used to.

"Has MK been acting... off to you lately?" Macaque asked after Tang and Pigsy stopped screaming and levied him with unhappy glowers at the intrusion. One more note to add on the ‘things he should probably stop doing if people want to not hate him’ list, announcing himself better. "I know I'm kinda knew to this whole ‘technically not being a bad guy and caring a bit about other people’ thing and all but he seems..."

‘Not being a bad guy’. Nailed it.

"Dead inside?" Tang deadpanned. "Yeah, we kinda noticed."

“A little more blunt than I was gonna put it but yeah,” Macaque stepped out of the shadows fully, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as Pigsy grabbed a wooden spoon and held it. A warning that he would not hesitate to chuck it at him at the first excuse he needed. “He’s been acting odd around both me and Wukong. Which, you know, given everything that happened I get it, but he hasn’t come to his last three training sessions at all.”

This, unlike everything else he had said, seemed to make the two men pause.

“What do you mean?” Tang asked, pushing his glasses up and looking at him oddly. “He’s been leaving for those on time like normal.”

“Ah, well, you see,” Macaque chose his next few words carefully. Being honest, truly honest without theatrics or planning in advance to help him, was a new undertaking for him so he stumbled through it. “The first time it happened Wukong astral projected to him and they talked and he seemed ok enough, like he just needed a break. The next time it happened I kinda... followed him? Just to make sure he was ok, no evil shadow business! He just kinda wandered downtown the entire time, looking like he was lost without being lost. If that makes sense. But yesterday he did the same thing so I did the same thing and I found him just kinda... sitting in front of the entrance to DBK’s old hideout?”

Instead of making the two men more concerned, this seemed to make them both deflate.

“Yeah...” Pigsy said softly, lowering the spoon just a bit. “He’s been doing that. We, uh... we had Mei follow him a couple times on deliveries because he was acting off. He did the sitting thing a few days ago too, just while he was on break or if he finished his deliveries early. He’s been doing that a lot lately, like he wants to get things done fast so he can do whatever he’s doing.”

“But he isn’t even doing anything!” Tang said, gripping his hair with one hand. “It’s like he’s just... sitting? Like he just wants to be alone maybe? Sandy’s been talking to him, trying to help him with the cats and everything, but he thinks he needs to see his therapist instead... I think he’s right.”

Macaque frowned for a second before forcing a wide smile on his face. “I thought so. I think Sandy may have the right idea too, you should talk to him. OK BYE-E!”

Before the two men could react he fell backward into the shadows and dissipated. He had somewhere to be.

~

Just sitting... no. Macaque was sure of it now as he watched MK sitting in front of the hole that still had not been filled since DBK had left the Flaming Foundry, cloaked in shadow behind littered debris. His conversation with the Monkie Kid’s elders confirmed the immortal’s suspicions.

MK was waiting for something.

And that meant something was deeply wrong.

He hadn’t lied to the duo in the noodle shop, but he hadn’t told them the full truth either. Macaque had been following MK for the last week, already knew about Mei himself, partly out of curiosity at first but also out of Wukong’s own insistence. He was worried for his successor and knew that Macaque could keep a quieter eye on him than he ever could, and Wukong... Wukong and MK, despite their renewed training, were not on the best of terms right then. Not after he learned what the vacation really was, not after he learned that his mentor knew about the White Bone Spirit the entire time. They were still close! Closer than MK was to Macaque when he trained him at least, just. Strained.

Watching his two teachers finally talk for once and work out what actually happened all those centuries ago, showing that Wukong wasn’t just an unflappable hero but a person who made mistakes and had worked to better himself and would continue to do so because he was a person, probably softened that a bit. He was still upset but much less so in the week after the defeat... but this last week it was like all that had been undone too quickly. It started slowly, but after four days it was like they were back to the day he learned the truth but so much worse.

For the last three days MK was so quiet, reserved, completely unlike the loud and excited guy Macaque knew and like he just wanted to be left alone to sit and not interact with anyone. Tang said he was acting like he was “dead inside”.

That... wasn’t an entirely incorrect descriptor. It was like he was hollow and just going about the motions. Or like he had closed off everything inside of himself for some reason.

Wukong was terrified. He’d been talking to MK every day he didn’t come to the island to train via astral projection, and Macaque had just watched another conversation between the two end half an hour earlier. Macaque tried the same thing but didn’t get nearly as far as Wukong had been, and talking to him like this seemed to make him less likely to just up and leave (the few times Wukong had just come to MK instead made it clear how uncomfortable he had been, ending the conversations with a quick jump from the staff before Wukong could convince him to stay, so they decided to go with what made him more comfortable to find out what was happening).

So that was how they operated. Macaque watched MK. Made sure he was at least physically ok. Wukong talked to MK, didn’t force him to come to the island and wouldn’t show up unannounced. But despite them communicating more than they ever had it was like he was telling Wukong less than he ever had before. The one thing they didn’t tell him was what Macaque was doing.

“Am I scaring you?” MK suddenly said, loud enough for only Macaque to hear. His tone was... wrong. “You’re not nearly as sneaky as you think you are, Six-Ear.”

“What?” Macaque shot up and out of the shadows, eyes wide. MK had never called him that before.

The man before him stood, back to him and headband and coat oddly still in the blowing wind.

And then he jumped.

“MK!” Macaque reacted without thinking, diving down the hole after his Wukong’s student. He knew that he would be just fine, he could handle being thrown into a mountain so he could handle jumping down a giant hole, but the sight was too sudden and horrific for him to remember that at the moment.

Except he wasn’t there. When Macaque landed, the crash of his boots hitting the rocky ground echoing through the artificial cavern, he was alone.

Something was even more deeply wrong than he could have ever imagined.

“MK! Kid! Kiddo!?” He called out, all six of his ears out to catch any hint of movement. “Come on, you told me off for calling you Kiddo just last week, get angry at me so I know you’re ok! Tell me you’re a Monkey Man or something!” Macaque tried to keep his tone light, words lighter with an awkward laugh at the end of his sentences, but it only served to make the sinking feeling in his stomach worse. The opposite effect he wanted to accomplish. “Say something damn it!”

Silence. Everything was... silent. The only thing Macaque could hear was his own breathing, his own heartbeat, the rushing of blood in his ears... but nothing else.

Then a laugh. Low and soft and wrong and Macaque’s eyes widened as he realized his mistake.

He knew that laugh.

He also knew the feeling of the staff. He felt it during their first battle, when MK pulled every ounce of lingering power to defeat him. He felt it during that climactic encounter with Wukong, when his eye was damaged beyond repair.

He felt it now, as it jutted through his stomach without warning. Covered in blood.

Huh... that was kind of new, actually. He hadn’t felt a new sensation like that in so long.

The staff was pulled back and out of him quickly, driving him to his feet as he held the new wound and listened and nearly imperceptible footsteps made their way around him. How had he not heard... no. No he knew now. Now it was obvious what had happened.

Why did his wound burn like that? Why couldn’t he stand? He should be able to move, he wasn’t this weak!

“He beat you,” He groaned out, coughing as he tried to stay upright on his knees. “You should be-”

“Dead?” MK asked, voice his own but tone completely different. The black on his shoes were blue. As Macaque looked up he could see most of the color on his outfit had faded to white with blue accents. His eyes, the only think about him physically to be different, a brilliant blue to match. His headband was gone from around his head, instead used to help slick his hair back and out of his face. “How can you kill what already isn’t alive? No, I just waited in this body until I was able to influence him enough to make him... compliant. Much easier that way, actually.”

Either his vision went fuzzy or the world around them did, MK moving closer at a speed that shouldn’t be possible. His hands were grasping Macaque’s scarf tightly... this felt far too familiar.

“If you had been the dragon girl or anyone else I might have just killed you, you know,” MK’s voice said as he tilted his head to the side, an almost playful smile on his face. “But this is much more fun, and preferable. You can relay the message for me, once the poison I coated the staff in wears off and you heal anyway.”

Macaque was dropped unceremoniously onto his back, letting out an agonized yelp as he hit the ground. MK stomped on his wound, earning another scream.

“By then myself and this body will be long gone,” MK chuckled, stepping over Macaque completely to walk further into the foundry. “I must thank you, you played into my hands so much better than I ever planned on. Getting you all to work together to ‘beat me’ was just far too easy.” He stopped, turning to smirk at the immortal shuddering on the ground.

“I haven’t had a body this powerful in centuries,” the White Bone Spirit said with a laugh before vanishing in a fuzz of his vision and a wisp of cold air.