#He wants to see his friend

[nekohime19]

Mini Mac # 17 : Lil guy adventure

Mac go in search for Wukong!

Macaque was on a makeshift raft, twigs tied together by sturdy threads, strengthened by shadows. He left Flower Fruit Mountain two days ago after being embraced by the cubs and gifted flowers and fruits by the monkeys. Ma weaved flowers in his fur as a sign of good luck and Ba (another one of Wukong's stalwart generals, usually one to sleep in trees) gave him a piece of bamboo. He set sail on the brightest day, pushed by the wind. Macaque knew how to handle his raft, he reached Flower Fruit Mountain shores on one. He knew how to scare the fish, how to navigate through the tide, how to handle the weather. It was familiar, even after years of not touching a raft, it all came back naturally. As if the gestures were carved in his body. The flowers in his fur were still fresh, it brought him comfort when he curled at night, the smell lulled him.

Macaque was heading to the west, searching for the brotherhood in hope of getting answers. He was aware that, perhaps, he will not be welcomed with open arms. The last time he heard those so-called sworn brothers, they seemed particularly crossed at Wukong. Still he couldn't help but hope. He wouldn't ask for their support but only for information. He didn't care how long it would take. Even if he wasn't as immortal as Wukong, his life was still fated to be long, as long as the shadows, in fact. He would sail for hundreds of years and get to the bottom of this.

***

Macaque spent numerous years sailing, the monkey's flowers wilting after mere months. Even with the aid of the wind, his raft was slow, and needed to be strengthened every now and then. He also needed to restock his stack of fruits. He stopped on islands and villages, traveling in the shadows to escape giants. He knew how they were with oddities like himself, and he wasn't going to jeopardize his search because of them. Some of them did catch sight of him but Macaque was an artist when it came to escapery. He always left a lil surprise to the poachers foolish enough to try capturing him. Putting bee hives in their houses and letting their horses run free.

After twenty years of sailing, Macaque met his so-called arch-nemesis. He was sitting on his raft and eating fruits when it happened. A duck came down from the sky and landed beside his raft. Macaque eyed it up and down, surprised by its arrival, for ducks didn't migrate here. The duck turned towards him and eyed his fruits.

“No, no way, bud. Those are mines.” Growled Macaque as he brought his fruits closer. The duck stayed silent for a bit before jumping at Macaque, trying to steal the fruits.

Macaque was not above fistfighting a duck, he punched the bird and watched it squeak in offense with glee. After a few minutes of wrestling the duck gave up and flew away with a few indignant squeaks. The wind patted Macaque's head, like it was proud of his fight.

“I'm not letting a duck walk all over me!” Huffed Macaque as he ate his fruits.

The duck came back the day after, somehow determined to steal from Macaque.

It became a ritual after this, fistfighting the duck (lovingly dubbed Squeaky by Macaque) everytime he landed near the raft. At least, the black-furred monkey told himself it served as a good workout. After five days, Macaque gave up and glared at Squeaky, persuaded that a devil was hiding behind those bead-like eyes.

“Look here, you want the fruits? Then how about we make a deal?” Huffed the black-furred monkey with crossed arms. Squeaky narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “I'll feed you if you fly me where I want.”

Squeaky ruffled his feathers with his beak, swimming a bit around the raft, before stopping before it and presenting his back. Macaque cautiously stepped on the duck's back, the feathers were surprisingly soft, it felt like stepping on a cloud. Squeaky unfolded his wings and took flight, Macaque latched on his neck, chirping in surprise. When he opened his eyes he was met with the endless horizon stretching behind the sea, his eyes sparkled at the view.

***

This odd partnership with Squeaky lasted for a year, Macaque fed Squeaky and in exchange the duck brought him closer to the brotherhood. The duck left (probably to rejoin his family) after dropping Macaque at the foot of Camel Ridge, the city where the brotherhood decided to hole up. Macaque watched him fly away with a hint of longing, he had come to like Squeaky after spending months with him. Nonetheless, Macaque shook his head and entered the city, determined to get information on Wukong.

Macaque slipped inside of the city, running in the shadowed corners. The city was still very much in its construction phase, it was hardly worth a village. The black-furred monkey stopped before what looked like a building palace. He crawled under the space between the floor and the door. The inside of the palace was mostly empty, probably still being furnitured. Macaque walked in the shadowed corners until he caught sight of Azure Lion, Yellow-Tusk and Peng. They were all seated around a round table, discussing the plans of the city, and something about needing energy. The black-furred monkey observed them a little before climbing on the table, they all turned towards him with various levels of surprise.

“Macaque?” Mumbled Azure with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, sorry to invite myself?” Awkwardly chuckled Macaque. “I… I want to know what happened to Wukong.” He felt the mood darken at the sage's mention. Peng scoffed and crossed his arms while Yellow-Tusk averted his eyes.

“He betrayed us, that's what happened.” Sighed Azure Lion as he lowered his eyes, eyebrows furrowed.

“What do you mean betrayed?” Macaque couldn't believe his ears. If there was one thing Sun Wukong valued more than himself, it was his friends. He couldn't believe that Sun Wukong would willingly betray the brotherhood.

“He kneeled before the Jade Emperor.” Scoffed Peng.

Macaque wanted to say more, argue for the sage's sake, but he saw in their eyes that they weren't willing to listen.

“Where is he? What is happening to him?”Asked Macaque instead, only interested in where he could find Wukong.

“We do not know.” Sighed Yellow-Tusk.

“He was dragged by Heaven's soldiers, we don't know more than that.” Replied Azure.

Macaque stilled, worried by the lion's words. He feared what Heaven would do to Wukong. He wanted to ask more, to pry more, but he saw that he wasn't welcome and dived in his shadows, escaping Camel Ridge.

Macaque felt desperate, he couldn't go to Heaven… Maybe he could find a way? But who would be able to guide him upward? Did he even want to? Heaven was a dangerous place… but at the same time Macaque didn't want to stop looking for Wukong, he wanted to see him again.

The black-furred monkey spent the following days searching for spirits and lesser gods, trying to find a way to reach Heaven. It was complicated, no one wanted to accommodate him even if he tried to push for it. It was in the middle of his conversation with an umpteenth spirit that he heard a deafening sound. Something thundering, as if a higher god slammed his hand on the earth. Macaque erected his ears, curious about the sound

He felt every inch of his being burned when he heard a familiar cry.

Wukong's cry.

Ch1 / Previous / Next

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[humming-fly]

was anyone gonna tell me shadow saved rouge's life in sa2 or was I just supposed to find that out playing the game myself

(this worked out as a rather fitting closer for the Final Day in Year of Shadow haha, hope ya'll have a fun new year! 🎉🎉🎉)

[nyanrial]

making little snowmen ⛄⛄

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

Yeah, I don't know about you, Fidds, but I'd fold at this 🙏

Previous!!

Next!!

First!!

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[raticalshoez]

Was thinking of my post about dream teams and got really invested in whatever Unrequited Hate has going on

[edlucavalden]

Oh my god.. this post was cooking i had to..

[ruubesz-draws]

Come with Kong to Monkeyland!

Kong just wants to show his New Empire in Hollow Earth

My brain constantly nagging me to draw this as Kong:

[demigods-posts]

thinking of a scene idea in season three when the gang encounters aphrodite. and one of the experienced half-bloods like thalia or zoe or grover are explaining to bianca how aphrodite's physical form is unique for each person. beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. and the camera just pans over to percy whose overhearing this conversation and staring at aphrodite. and its revealed that aphrodite has taken the form of annabeth in percy's eyes. confirmation for the audience and for percy that his feelings for annabeth are a little ways past friendship.

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[mohntilyet]

still i think the one of the more fun differences drawn between illario and lucanis that was lost would be illario's ability to endear himself to others but serious lack of empathy, vs. lucanis' (self perceived) inability to be charming but how much he cares. it's interesting that the game has gone with the "lucanis' ability vs illario's lack thereof" because i think illario being the dellamorte 'best in show dog' vs. lucanis' attack dog would have made me so unwell.

lucanis is... awkward. he's not unlikable, because he is usually very polite, but he doesn't speak much and only seems to care about the other dellamortes. he once sent viago de riva a knife with no note (who knows what he could have meant by this). he does what caterina asks of him, and by his own admission, cannot say no to her. he is a dramatic and prolific killer, and that makes how untouchable he is even worse.

and the crows like illario, sure, AND he's a good assassin! he's even a good crow! he's so good that he can make lucanis smile, and so he is the charming, sociable one. he's the one that stays in treviso and can be relied upon to care, illario's even the one people prefer over caterina and lucanis!

but illario is decoration. he's the prize poodle, and even if poodles were bred to be working dogs, nobody will ever pick him to protect the house over the german shepherd that regularly mauls intruders. anyways the analogy is getting away from me. the point i'm trying to make is that i want illario to have a different kind of jealousy/hatred that's not just over 'being bad at killing' but also an arrogant loathing for everyone around him that is getting harder to hide, because they've forgotten he can bite and is just itching to rip someone's jugular out. illario is very good at hiding his family resemblance to caterina, while lucanis suffers under his grandmother's, and his own, reputation.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

filler

[lave-ium]

this was supposed to be a doodle but erm. ya. anywayz I LOVE THIS MAN💥💥💥💥

[equinoxette]

they should've hugged!!

[psychicbby]

imagine being one of dan’s flatmates in his first yr of uni lmfaoo??? like ok here comes this guy and like the first day he shuts himself in his room to play video games. ok cool whatever maybe he’s nervous. most of the time you never see him bc apparently he has an older friend nearby that he’s always with. when he is in the hall he’s burning pasta bc he’s cooking inept and staring down the washer bc he doesn’t understand how to do his own laundry. oh and he makes videos for youtube where he talks to himself (again this is like 2010). so after barely seeing this man the entire term you find out he’s dropped out of uni. ok whatever you never really think about him again until you’re on youtube and you see his face on the homepage. his video has like millions of views and thousands of likes. oh, there’s the friend he was spending all that time with. somehow he’s become some sort of an internet celebrity??? lmfaooooo. what a serve on dan’s part.