#The truth of MK's origins are going to come out and it's going to fall apart from there

[imminent-danger-came]

Crying and shaking knowing that an MK V Sun Wukong fight is in the cards for us

[theemissuniverse]

“MY INSIDES ARE RED AND YOURS ARE TOO” MILEENA X FEM READER PART 2

REQUEST BY : @zhivaxo

May I request an MK1 Mileena x Fem Reader?

The reader is an earthrelmer, and when Mileena meets the reader , she falls in love and through the story. You see them get closer and closer until the reader almost dies and Mileena saves her?

Mileena and Tanya are not together?

I hope this is okay with you if not it's cool :] have a good day

ADDITIONAL : I made the reader Raiden’s twin sister. In the original timeline the reader was a thunder god and in MK 11 Raiden and reader gave Liu Kang all their power to save them so in this timeline she is the new earthrealm’s champion. Also in the original timeline, Mileena had an obsessive crush on you but nothing came of it. This is more so a story because the idea came to me and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Also plot will change from mk 11 becaussse I said so

PART 1



Everything was starting to make sense to you. Your brother and your friends were sent on a mission to capture Shang Tsung in Outworld. What came of it was discovering Mileena had Tarkat in her, Kenshi becoming blind, them being captured and two new arrivals.

The conversation Mileena had with you in the room made complete sense and now you had only wished you figured it out sooner.

You could only imagine how Mileena felt. How scared she was. How alone she was. You wanted to take her in your arms and shield her from it. From everything that was bad.

She didn’t deserve it.

Raiden noticed the worry that was plastered on your face. The two of you were in the study room. He had obviously known the connection you and Mileena shared. He wished you two didn’t have the connection as she was now dangerous but he would not dare tell his sister whom she can and can’t love. “She’ll be alright, (Y/N). Lord Liu Kang will make sure of it.”

Somehow you had doubt in your mind. “Will she though, Raiden? I knew something was up with her. I should’ve questioned more. Pushed harder.”

Raiden comfortingly placed his hand over yours. “You could have not guessed this would happen. Do not blame yourself, sister.” He told her. The thought then dawned on him. “I know you are fond of her, (Y/N). You make it incredibly obvious. However, how would you even have a relationship with her? She could affect you with the Tarkat.”

You clicked your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Raiden was right. How would you two even have a normal relationship even if you wanted to? It would never work.

Liu Kang claimed he was going to Sindel to convince her Shang Tsung was a master of deceit. You had only wished you could leave with him. “I don’t know. Maybe in another lifetime I guess.”

Seeing the saddened look on his face broke him. He hated seeing his sister devastated. It crushed him. So, he sighed. He took his hand away from hers and motioned at her to leave. “Go.”

You raised an eyebrow confused. “Go?”

“Lord Liu Kang is outside. Go with him to Outworld but if you don’t end up with the girl when this is all over, I will be…” He trailed off, trying to find the right words.

You smirked, knowing your brother was not known to use foul language. “Come on. Say it.”

He rolled his eyes playfully. “Pissed. I will be highly pissed.”

You chuckled a little. You got up from your seat and hugged him a little. “Aw. Thank you, brother.”

Raiden hugged you back. “Yeah, yeah. Now, go.”

You stood up from the seat and walked out the room all the way outside. Liu Kang was creating a portal with his fire.

“Lord Liu Kang.” You walked over to him. “Let me come with you.” You noticed the hesitant look on his face. “Look, Sindel doesn’t trust you. Mileena and I had somewhat of a connection. If I could convince her of the truth, maybe it could work. No offense but you nor Raiden and them happened to be their biggest fan.”

Liu Kang thought for the moment. You were right. You and Mileena happened to share a connection. Maybe you could be the one to talk sense to her. It also helped to have backup. “I believe you are right. Come along. We must hurry.”

You and Liu Kang had entered Outworld. There stood Li Mei and Sun Do’s guards. “Great…” You mumbled.”

Li Mei walked over to the two of you. “Return home Lord Liu Kang and (Y/N). I am to let no one pass.”

Liu Kang did not move. “I must see Her Majesty. She must call off her attack on Earthrealm.”

“Her decision was unwise but she no longer seeks my counsel. And I doubt she’s interested in yours.”

You decided to speak. “Empress Sindel has been deceived. Shang Tsung and General Shao have tormented this crisis as a means to steal her throne.”

Li Mei’s eyes go wide at this. “General Shao?! I knew he was hiding his true intentions. But join Shang Tsung?” She sighed. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted! We’re I still Umgadi he never would have breathed the same air as the Empress. My palace sources told me he arrived out of no where and immediately had the Empress’s ear.”

“He gained her trust by treating Princess Mileena’s condition.” He explained. “Tragically, she is afflicted with Tarkat disease.”

“Tarkat?” Li Mei exclaimed. “The Empress must be beside herself. If Shang Tsung found a treatment, no wonder she embraced him.”

“I have shared this with no one. I trust that you of all people will keep this secret.”

“Of course. Were it made public, it would bring down the royal family.”

“Li Mei. Empress Sindel needs our help.” You told her.

“Will you join us?” Liu Kang asked.

Li Mei was in some deep thought before she spoke. “Emperor Jerrod’s death, the pain it caused Empress Sindel has always haunted me. I failed the royal family once. I won’t do so again.”

Going to the palace, you had defeated Reiko and Tanya and currently had Tanya in a hold so she couldn’t fight the three of you.

The Empress and Princesses sat before you. You passed a look to Mileena but she couldn’t even look at you. Something in your heart felt betrayed by the action but hopefully it wouldn’t feel that way for long.

“How dare you Li Mei?!” Sindel questioned. “It’s not enough that you let Jerrod be murdered? You’d let Liu Kang and his champion destroy the rest of my family?”

“My heart broke when your husband died.” Li Mei told her. “I lost not only my Empress…but you, my closest friend. I know you may never forgive me…but don’t be blinded by anger and grief. We are here to help you.”

Tanya started to choke Li Mei with her cuffs. Li Mei pushed her off and you sighed as the others started to fight you. “So much for the easy way.”

Kitana went out to fight. Mileena was about to as well but Sindel stopped her. “No. Your condition.”

Kitana went straight to you. She tried to cut you with her fans but you blocked it. She went punch for punch. She had not landed a hit on you. You had grabbed her arm and brought her close to you. “I do not want to hurt you, princess.”

She scoffed. “Just because you defeated my sister does not mean you can best me, champion.”

Kitana went to kick your stomach and she punched your face. The truth is you very much so could defeat Kitana. You didn’t want to hurt her so you were not using any of your power to fight her. You were letting her win.

Kitana hit you in the face again and again and used her fan to slice your stomach. You hissed at the pain.

Mileena looked at you confused. Why were you not using any of your strength to fight Kitana? Her mother made you out to be the enemy but if that were true, why weren’t you fighting her sister? “You’re not even trying, (Y/N)!” Mileena yelled out.

Kitana used her fans to lift you up in the air and she threw you against the brick wall. You groaned in pain. You didn’t have time to get up before Kitana grabbed you up from the ground. She raised her fan to your throat, ready to slice it open. “Don’t tell me Earthrealm’s champion refuses to fight back.”

You could break out the hold if you truly wanted to but you wanted to show her you meant no harm. You wanted to show Mileena you meant no harm. “I guess so.”

Mileena could not watch her sister preform a fatality on you. She ignores her mothers orders and rushed to your aid.

She kicked Kitana so she was not on you. Mileena then picked you up from the ground. “I didn’t know I was fond of a coward.” She shoved you a little. “You fight me or I let her kill you.”

You honestly didn’t want to fight Mileena. Fighting her at the tournament was one thing. Now it was like you two were fighting for the death. “I will not, Princess.”

Mileena goes to punch you. You blocked it. She tried to sweep your legs but you jumped. She then gets her sai out and tried to stab you but you kicked the sai out of her hand.

Princess Mileena then tried to kick you but you grabbed her leg. You pulled her close to you with her leg so her leg was wrapped around your waist. You were dangerously close to her but you didn’t care. You wanted her to trust you. “Do you not trust me?”

“I did.” Mileena pushed you. Something started to happen to her. She felt the Tarkat take over her. Her teeth grew and eyes glowed. You stood there in disbelief. It was different seeing it in person.

Sindel immediately tried to get Mileena. “Mileena!”

Mileena charged at her mother, pushing her to the ground. They fall together. Mileena tried to take a bite out of her but you pull Mileena off.

“Focus on me!” You tell her. “You’re mad at me. You think I betrayed you but I have not.” You get into your defensive fighting stance. “And I will show you I haven’t.”

Mileena tries to hit you. You block it. This continues sometime until you sweep her feet. She stands back up, charging at you with her other sai.

The sai aims at your throat but you grabbed her hand. You overpowered her. You kick her legs, making her fall to the ground. She stabs you in the side of your stomach with her sai. You yelled out in pain. You twist her arm to make her drop the sai.

Mileena slaps you across the face but you take it. You push her down and pin her to the ground. You honestly could be infected from how close you were. You didn’t care. You just wanted to protect Mileena.

Tanya was released and rushed over to Mileena. She injected her with the serum. Mileena’s Tarkat started to hide.

She blinked her eyes a couple times. When you saw she had came to her senses, you stood up and helped her up. “Are you alright, princess?”

Mileena looked at you like she couldn’t believe you were asking the question. You could’ve been infected but you were worrying about her? “Me? Are you?”

“I am fine.”

Sindel’s face washed with relief as she looked at you. “You saved me? After all I have done?”

You nodded to her. You didn’t think it was a big deal. “I mean yeah. Lord Liu Kang has told you…we are not the enemy, Empress.”

Sindel looked over at Liu Kang, taking your words in. “Because your champion has saved me and not harm my daughters, I will allow you to speak and hear you out. Be very grateful I allow this.”

Liu Kang was internally thanking himself that he had brought you along. “Shang Tsung. Quan Chi. The General…they conspire to conquer our realms.”

“A serious charge. Where is your proof?”

“At Shang Tsung’s laboratory. If what you see there does not convince you, I will surrender Earthrealm without a fight.

Seeing it for yourself was absolutely disgusting. You did not expect it to be that bad but Liu Kang had warned you.

Sindel was in shock of the gruesome sight. “Despite my best efforts, neither man nor Quan Chi are who they were meant to be.” Liu Kang spoke.

The statement caught you off guard as he was Earthrealms protector and it was not his responsibility of Outworld’s people.

“They’re not your responsibility. They’re Outworlders.” Sindel told him.

Liu Kang’s eyes darted to the ground for a moment before looking back up. “But it is I who crafted their destines…along with those of all other beings at the dawn of history.”

“You created the realms?” Kitana questioned. “Is your mind addled demi god?”

“I am a mere demi god now. But events ago I was more powerful than all of the Elder Gods combined. I was a Titan and the Keeper of Time.”

Liu Kang used his powers to conjure up a man you did not recognize. “This is Geras.”

Geras had bowed to the women. “Your Majesty. Your highnesses. (Y/N).”

“Geras is the guardian of the hourglass.” As Liu Kang spoke, Geras started to use his power to conjure up pictures. “A celestial object which lies beyond the realms. The hourglass regulates time and destiny. When I wielded it’s power, it was upon me to craft all of existence. Which I did when I restarted history.”

“Restarted?” Sindel questioned.

Geras spoke. “This timeline was preceded by billions more though this is the first of Liu Kang’s design. The others were designed by his predecessor Kronika. Kronika was obsessed with equalizing good and evil. When a timeline veered too far to one or the other, she would haunt it and restart history. Tinkering with lives and events in the hope of achieving her golden balance.”

“In prior timelines Kronika gave Shang Tsung and Quan Chi mastery of the most vile magics.” Liu Kang said. “Shao was not a general but a tyrannical ruler bent on conquest. You, Sindel we’re his ruthless wife who would do anything to preserve your privilege. In that timeline, (Y/N) was not Earthrealm’s champion. I was. (Y/N) and Raiden were twin thunder gods who were my mentor. When I took the hourglass from Kronika, I vowed to do better.”

Geras stopped showing the pictures through his magic but Liu Kang still continued. “So in this timeline, the sorcerers would not gain their dark powers. Shao would be Sindel’s loyal follower…and if anything would turn out of balance (Y/N) would be the chosen one to save the realms.”

“But someone has interfered with Liu Kang’s design.” Geras said. “Shao, Shang Tsung, Quan Chi…all have been groomed by an unknown entity to be the villains they were in previous timelines.”

You stood there completely shocked. The fact that there was multiple timelines struck you hard. Not only that but you were a god and the roles between you and Liu Kang were reversed? You didn’t know what to think.

Sindel took the words right out your mouth. “Where to begin? Am I to kneel to my creator? Do you expect worship?”

Liu Kang shook his head. “No, your majesty. My prior role was thrust upon me by circumstances. In the previous timeline, my Revenant counterpart took my soul and was on a hell bent mission to be powerful. Raiden and (Y/N) used all their power to make me become the God of Lightning and Fire. I was the only one that was a match to beat Kronika.”

You tilted your head as if what you heard was absurd. “Me? Give up God powers for you? That doesn’t really sound much like me…” Mileena flicked your forehead with her finger and you hissed at the pain. “Ow!”

“You had power over all of creation yet you gave it up.” Sindel said astonished.

“Because I saw how it drove Kronika mad.” He said. “I would fair no better had I kept it.”

The door slammed opened. General Shao, Nitara, Rain, and few others were behind him. “Here we go…” You mumbled.

Sindel went to the front. “You. How dare you conspire against Outworld?”

“Not against Outworld but against your misguided rule.” General Shao stated simply. He held an amulet towards them. “Don’t move.”

Liu Kang had recognized it. “(Y/N). Everyone stay back.”

“What is it?” You asked.

“The Amulet of Shinnok. A weapon of terrifying power.”

“It should not exist.” Geras said perplexed. “It’s maker is powerless as Liu Kang designed.”

“Yet more proof of foreign interference.” Liu Kang said annoyed.

“Enough!” General Shao shouted. “You’ll both bend to Outworld’s new Emperor.”

You rolled your eyes. “Not on your best day.”

General Shao gave you a look full of evil. Something about it was cold to you. You didn’t like the look he was giving you. “I’ve been waiting to do this for so long.”

He showed the amulet to you. Mileena saw this and pushed you out of the way, causing herself to get sucked into the amulet.

“No!” Your thoughts were racing. You had to catch up with them. All that rushed through you was anger. You immediately went to charge at the General but Nitara had stopped you and hissed at you.

You gave her a look. “Am I supposed to be scared of a vampire?”

“Very.”

The two of you break out in fight. She wasn’t even close to your skill level, it was embarrassing. The fight only lasted for fifteen seconds and you had her knocked out on the ground cold.

Liu Kang ran up to you. “Mileena is trapped in the amulet. We can still save her.”

General Shao raised the amulet at the two, causing them to take a step back. It was a stare down until Sindel had kicked General Shao, knocking him to the ground. You picked up the amulet and all of you ran.

When it was safe, you handed Liu Kang the amulet. Liu Kang had held the amulet in the air and Mileena popped out. Sindel immediately ran over to hug Mileena. You just sighed in relief that she was okay.

When Mileena was done hugging her mother, she had saw you and immediately pulled you in for an embrace. “You are an idiot for doing that.” You mumbled in her neck.

She chuckled. “I’d watch who you call an ‘idiot’ to.”

Sneaking into the camp was easy. Especially with your team. You and Mileena decided to split away from the group. It was then Ermac had came down. “Something tells me this guy isn’t our friend.” You stated.

You were in fact right. Ermac had used his power to lift both you and Mileena and throw you across the wall.

Mileena hissed in pain. She got up very quickly though. You however were still down. That worried her. She immediately came to your aid. “What is wrong?”

You had completely forgotten the slash on your stomach that Mileena had given you. You felt at your side and Mileena lifted up your shirt to see it. “By the Gods…how did this happen?”

“When we were fighting earlier…you had stabbed me.”

Mileena covered her mouth completely disgusted by her own actions. “I am so sorry, (Y/N).”

Seeing Mileena so worried about you made you feel bad. (Even though you were the one injured.) You just wanted to cheer her up. “It’s okay, firecracker. Don’t look so upset.”

“How could I not? I did this to you.” She used her hand to gently caress your face. The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt you.

Before you could reply, Ermac was back. “Not this guy again.” You tried to stand up but could not on your own. “Help me up.”

Mileena shook her head. “Stay down. I will protect you.”

“Mileena!”

It was too late, Mileena had already gone to fight Ermac. You felt useless. You wanted to help her so bad but you were in a great amount of pain. Ermac throwing you didn’t help.

Luckily for you, Mileena had won the fight. She came back to your side. “If your good at kombat then I wonder what else you’re good at.” You copied her words from long ago.

Mileena playfully rolled her eyes at you. “I bet you do wonder.” She said before helping you up.

The two of you started to walk away. A voice breaks your stride. “Mileena. Wait.”

You watch as Mileena pauses. She turned around and Ermac was no longer Ermac. He was Jerrod. “Father? It’s truly you?”

Ermac - now Jerrod’s glowing green eyes disappeared. “This body was created from the Living Forest’s souls. Mine was one of them. Your attack broke the spell that binds us. Now I am in control.”

Mileena hugged Jerrod immediately. You smiled at the sight. You were glad that Mileena had gotten her father back despite circumstances. They pulled away and you decided to speak. “Hope you’re not going to try and kill me again. Don’t exactly got the energy.”

Jerrod examined you like he was trying to figure you out. “You are an Earthrealmer?”

“Yes. I know, I know. Hold the applause.” You joked a little.

Mileena shook her head. She took your hand with hers and looked at her father. “Father, this is (Y/N). Earthrealm’s champion. She has beaten Outworld in the mortal Kombat tournament.”

The statement brought his eyes wide. “An Earthrealm champion as a woman? I have seen everything.”

“Hasn’t everybody?”

Mileena let go of your hand. “We must go.”

They met up with everyone. Kitana and Sindel long awaited to be greeted by Jerrod. You guys were actually in the fortress. “Our odds will improve if we can surround them.” Sindel tells you all.

An idea came to your head. You looked over at Mileena. “You trust me?”

There was doubt in Mileena’s mind before but you had already proven to her you were more than worthy of her trust. She nodded. “Yes, (Y/N). With my whole heart.”

“Whole heart? That’s excessive.” Mileena swatted your shoulder at your comment and you snickered a little. “I have a plan but just follow my lead.” You look over to Liu Kang, your mentor and guide. “We got this. Get into position.”

Liu Kang trusted you with everything in his being so he nodded and watched you and Mileena walk out.

“Ow! Okay! Okay! I’m going!” You spoke, getting Shang Tsung’s attention.

Mileena understood what you were doing. She grabbed your arm roughly. (Not too roughly.) She made it seem as though you were captured. “Be quiet, Earthrealmer!”

Shang Tsung looked intrigued by this. “Princess Mileena?”

“I have captured Liu Kang’s champion. She tried to stop the reign of order. I figured you’d want her alive.” Mileena told them. “I bring news from Outworld. Sindel is deposed. General Shao now rules.”

Quan Chi looked impressed. “And yet you are still free.”

Mileena nodded. “To succeed, the General needed help on the inside. I provided it.”

“The heir to the throne gives it up willingly?”

“Ha! It’s a burden I’ve never wanted. The realm is better off left in General…” Mileena caught herself. “Emperor Shao’s hands.”

“A most mature perspective.” Shang Tsung stated. “Outworld benefits from your wisdom.”

You could not believe they were actually falling for it. We’re they actually that dumb? “Yes, Shang Tsung it does…but not in the manner that you expect.”

Everyone started to attack. You quickly disposed of many guards. After everyone was dealt with Liu Kang questioned Shang Tsung of who was his master.

“Speak of the devil…” Shang Tsung stated as the crown started to make noise. “Liu Kang…meet Damashi.”

Liu Kang raised a brow at this, not familiar with the name. “Damashi?”

The crown was suddenly raised in the air and there stood another Shang Tsung with an evil Sindel and a woman that looked just like you with obvious differences. “What in the actual…” You trailed off.

“You are the victim of the deception, sorcerer.” Liu Kang told him.

“What’s happening here?” Sindel questioned. “Who is he?”

“This Shang Tsung is whom I battled for the hourglass. I thought him dead.”

“As I did you, Liu Kang.” The Titan Shang Tsung said. “It turns out our battle released mammoth energies which ripped apart time’s fabric. They had two conclusions. In one, I was the victor…in the other it was you. It was eons before I discovered this. Once I did I knew the path forward.” He then changed into a mysterious woman. “I took this form and infiltrated your timeline. I elevated these wretches giving them great power. Together they sowed discord among the realms and assembled for me the Dragon Army. I led them to believe they were aiding my conquest of Earthrealm and Outworld. But my intent is to exterminate all life in this timeline and merge it into my own.” He then changed back into his usual self.

All you could do is cross your arms. “Wow. Obsess much? I mean really you don’t have anything better to do?”

Titan Shang Tsung did not say a word. He crushed the crown, releasing all the souls contained inside. “Maybe I should stop talking…” You trailed off.

“Goodbye, Liu Kang. Neither you nor your timeline will be missed.” He disappeared leaving evil Sindel and evil you there.

Everyone started to charge at Evil Sindel but she screamed so loud that it blew all of you back.

Evil (Y/N) hand raised high in the air and then pounded the ground with electricity shocking them. You went to punch her but (Y/N) had easily caught it. “Liu Kang has made you weak. You cannot beat me.” She told you before throwing you across the floor.

“(Y/N)!” Mileena rushed to your side.

You groaned in pain. “I’m really sick of people throwing me today.” You noticed Mileena start to change. “Mileena…”

“She will pay!” Her razor teeth were sharp. Her eyes glowed and there was no stopping her. She immediately attacked (Y/N).

Your eyes started to close. You felt the blood coming out of you fast and suddenly everything for you went black.

TO BE CONTINUED…

PART 3

[mikaila-orchard]

So I saw LMK Season 5

I have some thoughts

Yes the change in animation studios is noticeable. It's stiffer to a degree when they aren't just recycling old animation here and there. It's still perfectly fine and, honestly, after hearing the stories of crunch at Flying Bark, I'm happy for this change. It's the writing that matters.

To that end, the writing in s5 continues a persistent problem with the series. The conflicts of the season stemming from a complete lack of communication. Either MK, Wukong or Macaque won't open their fucking mouths for 10 episodes about something or crucial plot information will be otherwise danced around until a 3rd act stinger.

This wasn't necessarily a problem in the first three seasons because very early on it was made clear that LBD was gonna be the big bad, so having Bull King and Spider Queen as largely placeholder villains in the first two seasons was fine because we could see LBD working in the background, so it felt properly foreshadowed. And Wukong not being directly truthful with MK and co was because he was taking it upon himself to face a threat he thought MK wasn't ready for. And it all lead to satisfying character work and a climactic showdown for the s3 finale. Good stuff.

The problem was that approach to narrative never really stopped. The only thing that's changed was that the foreshadowing went away. Season 4 and season 5 both end with the gang taking down the big bad with only a last minute allusion towards an even greater threat to come like the fucking Jailer. So yeah.

And in those two seasons, MK just won't talk to his friends about what's plaguing him even when his friends are literally beseeching him to talk about it. It's literally, "I have to do this on my own. The power of friendship won't fix this." Then the power of friendship fixes it despite his best attempts, repeat for next season.

Oh my fucking god, go away Macaque! I don't care about you and your fucking broody primadona tsundere bullshit.

You notice that for five season they only ever allude to the violent falling out Macaque had with Wukong. And I'm convinced that's because they still don't fucking know how to take what Macaque did in the original text and woobify it. Wukong was absolutely in the right icing Macaque in the original story and the show does not like that.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Probably won't check in for season 6

[desultory-novice]

What are a few theories you have to say in regards to the Mirror World?

[Edit: Wow, this ask was well timed! Happy KatAM release!]

M-Mirror World... :shivers:  ... I mean, n-no! Why would I be scared talk about the mirror world?! That's r-ridiculous! :knows that everyone else already has much better mirror HC than me:

Err, in truth though, I do get a little nervous when asked about the mirror world because I really never paid that much attention to it at the time?! It just seemed like a cutesy gimmick for a game and I guess I didn't see the massive potential many other fans saw in it.

When it showed up again in TDX, I was like "Ohhhh! ...Huh." and when DMK returned for Star Allies, I was like "...I guess we're sticking with this now?!" (Speaking of, I was really ambivalent on DMK at the time but have since adopted the edgy boy as one of my blorbos mostly because everyone else seems to kind of hate him/have nothing interesting for him except to have him swear even more than MK -purportedly does? And well, Dess loves an underdog!)

Anyway, I've said it once and I'll say it again (and again and again until I finally finish drawing "Through a Mirror Darkly", the prequel to "Unspoken") I think Dark Meta Knight was a double agent...!

I think he was "working" for Dark Mind only to the degree necessary to overthrow him. Why else would he split Kirby into four equally powerful selves when Necrodeus proved it was indeed possible to simply weaken the powerful, pink, and puffy?! Because come on, he's Meta Knight's shadow given form! Why does that instantly mean he has to be significantly dumber than Meta Knight?! Why can't he be as clever and farsighted as the champion fighter?

Remember how Meta is very subtly implied to have trained Kirby to face off against Nightmare during Adventure? I hold that DMK was doing the same thing, having given up on training his verse's own Kirby. DMK being a secret dark hero would certainly make sense as to why Kirby handily invites him to join the hero party in Star Allies!

(As for why he attacks Dedede out of nowhere, well, I believe he probably has... complex feelings regarding his own Dedede(1))

Err, sorry, I know this wasn't specifically about DMK... Let's talk about the Mirror World in general! It's very... hmm. It's very...unknown?

Trying to piece together (haha...) the mirror world based on the information we have now feels like trying to count sands of grain in a jar from a distance. Or trying to correctly guess the Ancient's backstory as revealed in Star Allies using only what we know in RtDL.

I think, by the time Kumazaki and the team are ready to return to it, we're going to be pretty shocked by what we find out! But as long as we're not interested in correctly guessing something (...that HAL themselves probably don't know EVERYTHING about) but simply want to bandy ideas back and forth about what we know... 

I myself am most interested in a) it's timeline b) the logic behind Mirror World residents c) how/if does it stand on it's own?

If the Dimension Mirror is an Ancient Artifact, and it has all the signs of one, so I don't see any reason it shouldn't be (I even speculated once the mirror's wings could be based on Elfy) then it is OLD. Pre-fall of Halcandra old. In which case, the Mirror Dimension should be at least that old, right? But what even IS "the mirror dimension?"

Because Amaz(e)ing Mirror showed us a series of multiple interconnected worlds, linked by much smaller mirrors. And let's think about the name for a second: "The Dimension Mirror." Why would the Ancients create something that just makes ONE dimension? And the dimension in question is one where everything kinda sucks??? That... doesn't make any logical sense.

I think the original purpose behind the creation of the Dimension Mirror was to, quite simply, make a portal. The Mirror could have been the predecessor to the Lor Starcutter even! A kind of "stargate." Using it, you can see into MULTIPLE different dimensions, and potentially travel to the ones you wish to using smaller gate like mirrors scattered all over the place. (2)

But, like everything they built, the Dimension Mirror was a two-edged sword. And there came si~de effe~cts! We generally know that the Mirror Residents are like "worse" version of the people we've seen so far. So just imagine that everyone who traveled through the Dimension Mirror to get to some other dimension... left a copy of themselves behind? Similar to one of the more grisly theories on how matter transportation might be possible: that the best you could do would be to perfectly clone/replicate someone in a different position, all their memories intact, while quietly destroying the original as they :cough: teleport. BAM! "You" have now been transported!

With that in mind, the more it is used, the more copies are created, and thus... the birth of the Mirror World? It's certainly possible!

Why are they "evil" though? Well... that could be the "side effect" of wicked power developed off of the suffering of baby chinchillas or it could be that they aren't really all that "evil" to begin with.

Again, I argue that Dark Meta Knight is not really evil Meta Knight at all. (You can write the "corruption theory" for the purposes of fanfic or fan ideas or whatever but I WILL tear my hair out if you try to convince me/you believe it 100% based on evidence in game.) I think Dark Meta Knight is simply Meta Knight unleashed.

Shadow Kirby was considered worthy of being the "hero" of the Mirror Dimension. Bloody King Dedede is kind of a jerk but so was regular Dedede in the past. Plus, going by the stomach in the mouth thing, King Bloody seems to still be possessed by Dark Matter so we can't really know what he's like on a good day!

And then there are critters like King Golem, who is almost unmistakably Whispy Woods just built out of bricks and stone.

So, Mirror Residents simply misunderstood? I'd wager so.

But where is it and why does it persist? Those are all good questions that I don't have the answer to. I might have theories down the line... Are there mirror versions of the rest of the Star Allies? I suppose there could be, if any of them hopped through the mirror/got a really close look at it at any point! Do the people created by the Dimension Mirror truly "exist independently" at this point?

I... I don't know. To be honest, I think one really just has to work with the story that is the most interesting to them. Like... going by my theory above, the first Mirror Dream Lander would be DMK, the second would be Shadow Kirby, and the third would be Bloody Dedede, right? Or... is it?

In Dess's Unspoken-verse, Shadow Dedede has been around long before the days of Triple Deluxe and even before Amazing Mirror began. (Although that does make sense, given the Dark Matter thing would place his existence around at least Dream Land 2) So... Did King Dedede see the mirror BEFORE Triple Deluxe or are there Mirror versions of everyone already? Honestly, because the mirror seems positioned in the sky over Popstar, you could say that anyone who's taken a walk on a sunny day has a mirror duplicate out there!

But Magolor implied on Twitter he wouldn't have a mirror duplicate?! Is he just making a joke about his own wickedness/two-facedness? Did HE actually come from the mirror dimension originally or did he already kill (?!) his own mirror counterpart?!

TLDR, I have NO idea. But I think that until HAL comes back with more info N number of years down the line, it's fine to engage in writing whatever mirror HC suit you and continue to come up with fun and interesting mirror versions of the rest of the cast.

Speaking of, I still need to make my Mirror Marx + Magolor...

...

PS: Oh yeah, and are they all MADE of mirrors?! DMK sure seems to be but honestly, what does that even mean for them?! And how was he permanently scarred? Did the piece of mirror that got broken off when Meta Knight attacked him become lost sometime between that and the end of his fight with the Kirbys?!

...Mysteries...

-

(1) The way I ship Meta Knight x Dedede - when I ship it - is entirely under the table. No hugs, no kisses, no confessions, no ceremonies. They don't even admit to "loving" each other in that way. They are just "very important" (tm) to each other. Yadda-yadda-sworn-partners-yadda. But, because I'm me and I enthusiastically love tragedy, I like to imagine that Shadow Dedede and Dark Meta Knight were in love in exactly the way Meta Knight and Dedede weren't.

Keyword "were." Also "tragedy." You can figure out the rest I'm sure. ^_-

(2) So you notice how those portal mirror things kinda sorta vaguely resemble the goal doors? What are the chances that eventually, the Ancients DID figure out portal technology w/o evil twin side-effects and Popstar's goal doors are exactly that?!

[ryukang1995]

Mortal Kombat AU: season 1 - rough outline so far

The Tournament (MK1 - old and new)

The show opens with five episodes dedicated to certain groups of characters leading up to the tournament, similar to season 1 of Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Episode 1 focuses on Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Their upbringings, education and training are used to explain the premise and stakes of the tournament to the viewers. Liu Kang is a hotheaded rebel seeking revenge for his family while Kung Lao is a humble pacifist willing to embrace his destiny. Raiden enlists both of them to compete in Mortal Kombat after they prove worthy in a bar fight against Scorpion and Sub-Zero.

Episode 2 focuses on Johnny Cage. We see the rise and fall of his career as well as his bond with his young daughter Cassie. Johnny has a bit of an ego, but he also has a heart and truly cares for his daughter. He gets recruited by Raiden for the tournament, and sees this as an opportunity to provide for Cassie as well as to revive his movie career.

Episode 3 focuses on Sonya Blade, Jax and Kano. Sonya’s upbringings and training are also documented in the series as well as the personal history that she and Jax have with Kano. Sonya is a young officer who wants to live up to her missing father’s legacy, and Jax is her boss who was once her father’s partner. They are then approached by Raiden and the two monks, who agree to train alongside them for the tournament.

Episode 4 focuses on Kitana and Mileena. We see their origins with Shao Kahn invading Edenia, which leads to the deaths of both Jerrod and Sindel. Kitana eventually finds out the truth, and she plans on using the tournament as an opportunity to defect from the forces of Outworld. Shao Kahn then orders Mileena to keep an eye on Kitana to make sure she does not align with Earthrealm’s warriors.

Episode 5 focuses on Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Hanzo Hasashi (codename: Scorpion) is a top ranking member of the Lin Kuei while Bi Han (codename: Sub-Zero) and Kuai Liang (codename: Tundra) are his adopted brothers. Hanzo and Bi Han are assigned by the Lin Kuei grandmaster to go with Raiden to compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Hanzo is much more honorable than Bi Han, who has no qualms in murdering his victims.

Episode 6 is where the heroes train at the Temple of Light for the tournament. This is where we get to see the heroes bonding, particularly Liu Kang and Sonya. Soon after, they go to the island where the tournament will take place. We also get the proper introduction of Shang Tsung as well as hints of Goro and Reptile.

The tournament takes about six episodes, which culminates with Liu Kang killing Goro and defeating Shang Tsung to become champion. The season ends on a cliffhanger with the tease of Shao Kahn as Shang Tsung proposes the tournament in Outworld to his emperor.

I feel that twelve episodes is the right amount to develop the characters well enough without things dragging on too much, though the following seasons are longer due to the growing ensemble of characters.

I ultimately went with a series format because I feel this is the proper way to explore my take on the MK franchise as well as to adapt it in live-action or animation. A series can explore multiple plots and characters much smoother than a movie.

Now, I wouldn't mind my AU being in the style of a movie franchise either, but normally, fighting game movies have the problem of cramming in many stories and characters to the point where several of them feel rather underdeveloped (not just Mortal Kombat, but also Street Fighter and Tekken).

That's all for now. Season 2 outline is coming soon, so stay tuned for that.

[lunar-wandering]

petals for two

finally, here it is. the Shadowpeach non-fatal Hanahaki AU the people have been waiting for.

Word Count: 13k

Read on Ao3

Bajie and Wujing found Wukong kneeling down by the river.

Again.

For the third day in a row.

"...Elder brother?" Wujing asked, watching how Wukong's back and tail stiffened. "Are you...okay?"

"...Just peachy..." Wukong said, but the way he said it was quiet, wheezy, and entirely unconvincing. Bajie quirked an eyebrow.

"Really? Because that's what you've said the last two times now." He said, crossing his arms with a healthy dose of suspicion on his face. "That last fight was pretty bad- y'know it would be pretty unwise of the 'Intelligent Stone Monkey' to be hiding an injury-"

"I said I'm fine!" Wukong snapped, turning around to glare at them with firey red eyes, his fur bristling with anger.

There was a pause, Bajie and Wujing both falling silent as Wukong continued to glare at them-

And then Wukong's hand flew to his mouth, as he turned back around to face the river, his body shaking with muffled coughs. Both Wujing and Bajie rushed to his side, concerned-

Only to freeze as they saw the purple petals slipping through Wukong's fingers, falling into the river and floating downstream. There was a moment of silence, broken only by Wukong's wheezing breaths.

And then they were both kneeling beside him, Wujing rubbing comforting circles on Wukong's back, while Bajie pulled the Monkey King's hand away from his mouth, letting the petals fall freely.

Wukong, surprisingly enough, let them do this, and the three of them quietly watched the petals float away, vanishing as they went around the riverbend.

If Wujing and Bajie noticed the tears running down Wukong's face, they didn't comment on it.

"...I'm sorry." Is what Wujing chose to say, in a soft murmur.

"It's fine, I'm fine." Wukong whispered, for a whisper was all his throat could manage at the time. "I'll be okay."

They all knew he was trying to reassure himself with his words more so than them.

When the three of them returned to their makeshift camp with an apology and a half-baked excuse, Tripitaka barely batted an eye.

Bai Longma, however, stared at a stray petal clinging to Wukong's outfit with a look of knowing.

Miles away, in a cave hidden by shadows, a figure leaned against the cave wall, one hand steadying himself while the other covered the fresh wound to his eye, petals falling out of his mouth as he cursed whoever decided that love could be unrequited.

-

Hanahaki. The disease of unrequited love.

Or, well, as it was known nowadays, the disease of pining.

Originally, when people were first discovering the disease, they thought it to be only born out of feelings that could never be reciprocated.

As it turns out, that simply wasn't the entire truth.

Overall, about 20% of Hanahaki cases reported end up being due to unrequited love.

The other 80% are due to people who simply, for one reason or another, refuse to confess.

As was recently discovered, about a century or so ago, the one true cure for Hanahaki is to look your beloved in the eyes, and say; "I love you."

As you can imagine, not many people have the courage to do that.

Luckily, the disease has never truly been fatal more than it was a slight hindrance. There even exists some medicines and teas that can reduce the effects of the flowers, although using them comes with its own ballpark of side effects.

Anyways, to make a long story short, MK wasn't surprised to end up meeting someone currently suffering from Hanahaki.

He just hadn't been expecting it to have been the Monkey King.

-

It hadn't really been obvious at first. Hanahaki will sometimes wither slightly when distanced from whoever the afflicted person has a crush on, but it never really takes much to send the flowers into full bloom again.

MK didn't actually hand out with Wukong a lot, and even when he did, it was only for training, something Mk restlessly focused on in the hopes of getting better at being, well, the Monkey King's successor.

Which was why, when during one of their rare breaks, Wukong froze in shock when MK actually asked him a question (one that, for once, wasn't about training).

"...Monkey King? Do you have any friends?" MK asked.

"Sure I do!" Wukong lied, "Why do you ask?"

"Ah- well-" MK stuttered, staring down at the ground in front of him as he seemed to ponder how to phrase his next sentence. "You just seemed... lonely, I guess."

"Well, I'm not, since I do, in fact, have friends, so. Yeah." Wukong said, crossing his arms as his tail slowly swung back and forth nervously.

"Are your friends from now or before?" MK asked, tilting his head in curiosity. "Actually, did you even have friends before?"

"...Before?"

"Before the Journey to the West." MK elaborated.

"Psh, of course I did!" Wukong said, "Y'know, I was even friends with Demon Bull King back then- you wouldn't believe some of the stories I have about him..."

MK had, in fact, already known about Wukong and Demon Bull King having been friends. Tang had been more than happy to bring that up, multiple times.

But what MK really wanted to know was-

"Was there anybody else?" He asked.

"Of course there was! For example, M-" Wukong started, but very quickly cut himself off, the light in his eyes dulling slightly. MK winced, sensing that he'd somehow stumbled upon a sensitive subject.

Before he could apologize though, Wukong suddenly tensed, before turning and starting to walk away.

"Uh, I'll be right back, I just need to check on the younger monkeys for a moment, okay?" He said. It was an excuse that was easily seen through, but MK couldn't bring himself to mention it.

-

Similar situations kept happening.

Sometimes it was understandable, like when Wukong would take a second or so to throw a smile back on his face (a smile MK was starting to recognize as fake) whenever MK brought up the subject of the Journey to the West.

Other times, however, it was a little confusing. Like, for example, when after an unspoken kitchen incident, MK had worn a purple jacket to training. (Mei had let him borrow it from her, since his yellow jacket was still in the wash, due to the Kitchen Incident That Shall Not Be Named).

As soon as Wukong had seen the purple jacket, he'd froze, before hastily turning away and running back inside his little house, claiming to have forgotten something.

MK had taken the jacket off and stuffed it into his bag by the time Wukong returned.

-

It was only after the Macaque fight that things became clear.

They'd been silent, watching the sunrise, and MK had started to doze off, leaning on his mentor's shoulder as he slowly started to fall asleep.

...Only to be jostled back into awareness as Wukong's shoulders shook with barely muffled coughs.

"Are you okay?" MK asked, lifting his head off of Wukong's shoulder and staring at the Monkey King with thinly veiled worry. Wukong leaned away from MK's gaze, a hand still covering his mouth.

He was too busy coughing to give a good response.

"If you broke a rib or something and didn't tell me I'm not going to be very impressed." MK deadpanned. Wukong shook his head 'no' in response, hand still over his mouth despite the fact his coughing fit had already died down. "Well, what is it then?"

MK waited as Wukong seemed to internally debate with himself.

And then the Monkey King slowly removed his hand from his mouth, revealing the petals that he had confined within his palm.

"Oh. Oh!" MK said, realization striking him as the dots connected in his mind. "Oh, you have terrible taste."

"I know..." Wukong groaned, placing his head in his hands, not caring about how this caused some of the petals to stick to his face and fur. MK giggled a little over how silly his mentor looked, Wukong glaring at him and sticking one of the petals onto his successor's cheek in response. MK made a noise of disgust as he wiped the petal off of his face.

Far away from the two of them, Macaque stumbled back into his dojo, nursing a new injury, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, and holding crushed flower petals in his fist.

-

Well. Wukong could officially say that he'd never been in a situation like this before.

Tangled up and dangling from the Spider Queen's spiderweb, Wukong tried to distract himself from the feeling of being trapped, unable to move.... by doing his best to observe his surroundings.

There... sure were a lot of other demons here. He couldn't figure out if it was good or bad that he didn't recognize most of them.

Wait.

Wukong looked around the room again with narrowed eyes.

Could Spider Queen have also taken-

No.

Wukong couldn't see him anywhere, not to mention that the other monkey had always been concerned with his own safety first and foremost. He'd probably scrambled to get out of town at the first sign of trouble. Wukong wasn't going to find Macaque in here.

He wasn't sure why he'd even looked.

...And there was that warm, tickly feeling in the back of his throat again.

Wukong squirmed, trying to ignore the sensation for as long as possible. He even started humming, his go to method for repressing the petals, but it barely worked, and a small dose of panic started to overtake him. He had no way of covering up the petals that would come, his arms and hands pinned at his sides.

He would not let Spider Queen or the rest of her crew find out about this, not to mention....her.

(If the Lady Bone Demon found out about his Hanahaki... well, she already has enough leverage as it is. Wukong isn't about to hand over any more.)

And then there was Demon Bull King. Wukong wasn't entirely sure how his old friend, (ex-friend, he reminded himself), would react, and honestly he wasn't too keen on finding out.

Still though.

The flowers always win in the end.

Wukong did his best to duck his head into his shoulder, and hoped it would be enough as his chest was wracked with coughs.

-

The Demon Bull King was many things, but he was not, in fact, stupid.

He had been quick to notice the growing panic on Wukong's face, (really, the monkey hadn't even tried to hide it, either due to being lost in thought or because he thought nobody was paying close enough attention to notice), and had decided to watch and see what the Monkey King would do next.

He hadn't expected Wukong to turn his head to the side, doing his upmost best to silence his coughing fit.

He'd expected the flower petals even less.

"You, of all people, haven't gathered up the strength to confess?" Demon Bull King asked, startling Wukong right out of his coughing fit. "I did not take you to be a coward."

"I take offense to that." Wukong wheezed, a few more petals falling from his mouth as he spoke. "Besides, I remember you taking forever to confess to Princess Iron Fan-"

"I'm not the one who held my words in long enough for them to take root and bloom." Demon Bull King said, "Who is the object your affections anyways?"

"None of your business." Wukong said, once again squirming within the confines of the webs. Demon Bull King raised an eyebrow, before glancing down at the petals now littering the floor. The flowers typically would hint at who the afflicted had a crush on, but Demon Bull King was too far away to be able to tell what flowers the petals belonged to.

If he were to hazard a guess though...

"The Six Eared Macaque?" He asked, proceeding to find great amusement in how Wukong's fur stood on end, panic flashing on his face. "Ah, so I'm right then-"

"Shut up." Wukong hissed, his eyes flashing red. "Seriously, shut up. You can't tell anyone else about this-"

"Tell someone- I see flowers aren't the only nonsense your mouth spits out." Demon Bull King said. The red glow faded slightly from Wukong's eyes, as his expression shifted to confusion, with a small dash of hope.

"You... aren't going to tell anyone?" Wukong asked.

"And loose the precious blackmail material you have graced me with? Of course not!" Demon Bull King laughed, and Wukong sighed, sensing that somehow this would come back to bite him later.

-

Wukong forced his suitcase shut, trying to ignore the niggling feeling of guilt as MK stared at him, unimpressed. Okay, so maybe 'going on a vacation' wasn't the best excuse to use, but Wukong couldn't afford to waste any time coming up with a better one.

He was ready for MK to be worried about training.

He wasn't ready for Mk to be worried about him.

"...Will you be okay?" MK asked, "I mean, you seem to not want anyone to know about your Hanahaki, but if you're with friends then you'll be surrounded by other people at all times, so-"

"Oh, it'll be fine." Wukong said, waving MK's concerns away. "Besides, if the flowers act up, I'll just rip out my lungs."

"Please do not do that!" MK said, the horrified look on his face making Wukong chuckle.

"Oh, c'mon, it's not that bad." He said, "I've done it before."

"That does not make it better!" MK said, looking like he was about to start ranting, and Wukong took that as his cue that it was time to go.

-

MK pushed the exit door open, stumbling a little as he rushed into the alley way.

"Ugh- why did you do-.....that......" He said, voice trailing off as he registered that the alley way was empty.

Well. Seemingly empty.

One quick check with his true sight later, (he wasn't going to be falling for any tricks again), and MK was holding a dumpster over his head, revealing the shadow monkey that had been crouched down, hiding behind it. Macaque glanced up, his scarf covering his mouth and his fur bristling in shock as MK set the dumpster off to the side.

"So much for you having been a great warrior, huh?" MK said, crossing his arms and staring down at Macaque with an unimpressed expression.

"Uh- ah, so you figured that out, did you? Maybe you aren't as dense as you look." Macaque said, voice slightly raspy, as he stood up, trying to pretend he wasn't just hiding behind a dumpster-

Only for his scarf to slip down a little, allowing some golden flower petals to fall out. Macaque made quick work of snatching them out of the air, crushing them in his grip as he hid them behind his back, tail swishing nervously, but it was too late.

MK had seen.

"...Oh. Oh!" MK said, feeling torn between screaming in frustration or laughing in amusement over what had just been revealed to him. "Oh, you have terrible taste."

"...I have no idea what you're talking about." Macaque said, sighing and breathing out a few more golden petals as he did so, completely unaware of how much this revelation had shaken MK's already very delicate mental state. "Seriously. I don't even know where you got the idea that I'm in love with someone or something like that, because I'm definitely not."

"I never said anything about you being in love." MK said, starting to lean more towards being amused at this entire situation as Macaque stiffened, his tail stilling. "I just said you had terrible taste- maybe I was implying your whole 'performance' with the shadow play back in the theatre was simply lackluster."

"I take offense to that." Macaque hissed, his shadow growing slightly bigger as his tail once again started to thrash back and forth, this time in anger. MK ignored this obvious attempt at intimidation for another question that was on his mind, a much more pressing one, in his opinion.

"You still haven't answered my question from earlier, why did you do that?" He asked, watching as Macaque took a minute to process the question, having not expected the sudden subject change.

"....Why did I do what- Oh! Why did I break the lantern, you mean?" Macaque said, suddenly avoiding eye contact, his hand twitching like he wanted to grab hold of the edge of his scarf as he chewed on the corner of his lip, nervously rubbing the back of his neck with his other hand. "Well, I was going to do the whole 'watch the hero get tormented by their inner demons and insecurities' thing like all the other villains, but you seem to already be doing that to yourself so- yeah. Didn't want to bother using my own expansive list of abilities when I could just lay back and watch the show you were already putting on for me."

"But I thought you wanted to be center stage, not in the audience. Y'know, because you want to steal the spotlight from Monkey King." MK said, raising an eyebrow as Macaque's hand finally grabbed the edge of his scarf, and he started fiddling with it nervously. "Or well, either that or you want to share a stage with him."

Something must have been brought to the forefront of Macaque's mind when MK said that, as suddenly he was turning away, using his scarf to cover his mouth as he coughed. MK remained standing in front of him, arms crossed, waiting patiently for the shadow monkey's response.

"I- I have no intention of shar- sharing a stage." Macaque eventually wheezed, pulling his scarf back down as he spoke so that he could be heard clearly. MK amusedly noted that he could see some golden petals peeking out from within the confines of the red cloth. "Not now, not before, and not ever."

"Ah, sure, keep telling yourself that." Mk said, staring pointedly at the flower petals.

Macaque flicked him on the forehead.

"Ow!" MK said, recoiling, a hand going to his forehead to try and numb the sting, his eyes closing reflexively as he leaned back. "Why would you do that for-"

MK paused, blinking bewilderedly, as he realized Macaque was no longer in front of him, seemingly having vanished entirely, having used MK's momentary distraction to fade away into the shadows, only a single left behind flower petal revealing that he had ever actually been there.

If MK had used his true sight again then and there, he would've found that Macaque was now resting on top of one of the nearby rooftops.

As it was though, his friends burst through into the alley way, prepped with questions he wasn't ready to answer.

(Later, Macaque would severely regret failing to remember to warn MK of the danger that was approaching him. But that would be later, and now he fully intended on sneaking back into the theatre to retrieve his shadow lantern...)

-

Life on the ship honestly wasn't all that bad. Sure, MK had lost all of his powers, and there was the ever looming threat of the Lady Bone Demon, but ignoring all of that important stuff?

Life on the ship was actually rather nice.

"You know what? I think I could actually get used to living like this." MK said, leaning against the railing of the ship, letting the wind rustle his hair. Wukong hummed in agreement, sitting on the railing beside his successor.

"...When all this is said and done, we should take a vacation." He said, "A real vacation. Together this time."

"Can I bring my friends with me?" MK wasn't so sure he could handle leaving the others behind after everything that had happened.

"Sure, go right ahead, if that's what you want." Wukong said, shrugging. MK visibly brightened, and an idea struck him.

"Oh- and you could bring your friends along too, you know, the ones I haven't met yet!" He said, and Wukong stiffened.

"....Uh.... about that..." He started, and MK's smile fell, replaced with a mixture of disappointment and concern.

"...You lied about the whole 'having other friends' thing, didn't you." He said, looking his mentor up and down before rolling out another accusation. "You're far lonelier that I thought you were."

"...Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be, Kid." Wukong said, a sad, half-hearted smile on his face. MK tried to come up with a response, either a joke or maybe some comforting words (how do you even comfort an immortal, who has been through so much and had probably heard everything you could possibly say?)-

Only to be completely distracted as the ship was heavily rocked by something crashing into it. MK's grip tightened around the steel railing, steadying himself as he heard the others rush up to the deck, shouting in confusion. Out of the corner of his eye, MK could see Wukong scramble to keep himself from falling over the side of the ship. (Which MK had to admit was... strange. Wukong had his whole cloud sail thing, he could fly, why would he be concerned about falling off?)

The rocking stopped, the ship steadying itself, and MK could smell smoke. Cautiously and slowly, he turned around, mentally preparing himself for the possibility of an attack, brought about by the Lady Bone Demon or one of her 'followers' (demons, that she had entranced to think that they were getting a good deal out of this, when in reality all she was doing was using them, with the full intent to throw them aside once they had served their purpose).

MK expected the broken bits and pieces of another, smaller ship, some parts still burning (and really, they should deal with those fire before they became a bigger problem. Sandy seemed to be running to get the fire extinguisher, so hopefully there wouldn't be any fire induced explosions today).

What he hadn't been expecting (but in hindsight, really should have been), was to see Red Son, standing in the center of the debris, nervously dusting the dirt off of his jacket, with Macaque laying face down on the deck behind him.

-

Red Son was having a very long day. Or, well, it had been about three days, really, but that wasn't the point here.

He brushed the remaining ship debris off of himself, making himself more 'presentable' while also purposefully prolonging the amount of time he could go without meeting the questioning gazes of MK and his friends.

Catching sight of the monkey still laying on the ground behind him, he turned and nudged Macaque with his foot.

"You really aren't making a good impression here." Red Son hissed, under his breath, knowing that the other's exceptional hearing meant that he could easily hear him.

"There truthfully isn't a good impression to be made." Macaque said, voice muffled by both the deck and his scarf, as he continued to lay face down, making no move to get up. "Not to mention, I'm feeling a little... singed, at the moment. Not everyone is as fire proof as you are, you- you hot headed fool."

The shadow monkey had, overall, been a great help in escaping from the Lady Bone Demon's dungeons, but Red Son wasn't past the point of kicking him in the side. Hard.

Macaque yelped in pain, curling up a little as though to shield himself, but continued to not even try to get up.

Red Son was unfortunately stopped from kicking the monkey again as he was tapped on the shoulder. Turning around, he found himself face to face with MK and Mei, their expressions completely neutral.

"Ah- Hello, Noodle Boy, Dragon Girl." Red Son said, politely nodding to each of them, trying to ignore his own nervousness (he did not feel like getting thrown off a ship today, thank you very much). MK and Mei said nothing, and Red Son began to wonder for a moment if crashing into their ship twice was somehow crossing a line.

But then both of them smiled, and Red Son braced himself just in time as Mei tackle-hugged him, MK laughing as he watched her do so.

"Wow, you really don't have much luck with vehicles and driving, on the ground or in the air, huh?" MK said, pushing a piece of debris from the miniature ship Red Son had flown in to the side with his foot. "Seriously, it's a wonder you ever managed to pass a driving test with skills like this."

"A driving what?" Red Son asked, immediately regretting it as both MK and Mei fixed him with a look of complete and utter horror.

"Oh heavens." Mei breathed, her grip on Red Son's shoulders growing almost uncomfortably tight. "You entered a race without knowing how to drive."

-

Too loud.

It was far, far too loud.

Still though, it was much better than being trapped down in the Lady Bone Demon's cold, dark, and desolate dungeons.

Or, at least, that is what Macaque thought to himself, even as he subtly pulled his scarf up over his ears, trying and failing miserably to block out the rumble of the engine, the hiss of the fires from the remains of their ship, the hushed whispers from Tang, Pigsy, and Sandy, and the trio's argument about Red Son's apparently non-existent drivers license.

(If he had known Red Son had never really, truly learned how to drive, Macaque wouldn't have let him pilot their escape ship.

...Albeit, Macaque himself wasn't all that much better, having had no idea as to what over half of the buttons in the ship were actually for.

Still though, he would have at least tried to land a perfect landing, instead of going all out on making sure they, quote, 'crashed in style', like what a certain hot tempered demon did.

Seriously Red Son. What the fuck.)

It took a few more minutes of laying there, trying to block everything out, before he realized that, over the roar of the engines and the trio's arguing, he couldn't hear where Wukong was.

...Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Macaque stiffened as a warm hand landed on his shoulder, its grip alternating between being soothing soft and threateningly tight.

"...Macaque?" Wukong's voice asked, and Macaque felt the unfortunately all too familiar twinge in both his chest and throat.

Ah. It was definitely a bad thing then.

-

Wukong pulled his hand back as Macaque abruptly stood up, stumbling away from him and towards the side of the ship. For a moment, Wukong genuinely wondered if Macaque planned to just jump off the ship, despite the fact that they were thousands of miles above ground.

But Macaque simply grabbed hold of the railing, leaning slightly over it, his shoulders shaking.

"What's the matter, are you sea sick already?" Mei asked, noticing Macaque's movement. "Or, wait, would it be air sick? Meh, it's probably the same thing..."

Macaque gave no response other than raising his hand to flip her off, which simply made her cackle like a mad man. Wukong would've walked right on over to him and smacked the shadow monkey for the rude gesture-

That is, if he hadn't been already preoccupied with covering up the petals his concern for the other had caused him to start coughing up.

Unseen by either of them, MK glanced back and forth between the two monkeys, seeing how Wukong tucked the petals into the pocket of his shirt, and spotting a few golden ones fluttering away from Macaque, carried by the wind. MK sighed, ignoring how Mei and Red Son, the two closest to him who had noticed his reaction, looked at him in confusion.

It was going to be a really long trip.

-

Macaque stirred a bowl full of cake mix, deeply lost in his thoughts.

You see, being stuck in a ship, thousands of miles up in the air, surrounded by people, especially MK and the others, was a very stressful situation to be in. And unlike back at his dojo, Macaque didn't exactly have any training dummies to take said stress out on.

So, he naturally defaulted to another, less violent technique.

Stress baking.

Macaque had waited patiently in the shadows until Pigsy had left the kitchen to join the others up on the deck, and then had promptly taken over the entire room.

...He wasn't sure why he decided to make a chocolate cake though. He had really just been going through the motions, using the first thing he saw or what was directly in front of him, not feeling like putting in the effort to really search for anything else.

Well, at least thus far only MK had stumbled upon him like this, and the Monkey King's successor had been easily chased away by a purple glare and a hissed threat.

'...Although...' Macaque thought, stirring slowing down slightly as he heard footsteps coming down the hallway, approaching him. 'Maybe saying that I was poisoning everything in the kitchen wasn't the best choice of threat.'

He very nearly dropped the bowl when Wukong entered the room.

"So." Wukong said, leaping up onto the counter and sitting down, cross-legged. "Poison, huh?"

Well. He might as well go along with it. No use in changing his excuse now.

"Yep." Macaque said, taking the spoon out of the bowl as he gestured at the room. "I'm so one hundred percent done with all of you, so I have decided to poison all of you. Finally get rid of the noise, have a bit of peace, you know?"

As he said this, he made the mistake of putting the spoon within Wukong's reach.

The Monkey King, spurred by nothing but his own impulsivity, leaned forwards and casually licked the edge of the spoon.

Macaque pulled the utensil back at record breaking speeds (he avoided putting it back into the bowl, he knew far better than to do that) and proceeded to stare at Wukong with the most offended expression he could manage.

Wukong completely ignored it.

"Your 'poison' happens to taste an awful lot like chocolate." He said, taking a glance around the kitchen, noting all the ingredients on the kitchen island, before looking Macaque up and down. "...Stress baking?"

"Poison." Macaque corrected, glaring at the other as he got a new spoon to stir with. "I'm making poison."

"...Poison for yourself, maybe." Wukong said, looking thoughtful, "If I remember right, you can't eat chocolate, can you?"

Macaque didn't bother to grace him with a response, instead turning his back to the other monkey, continuing to mix more ingredients into the bowl. It was blessedly silent for a while, but-

With Wukong sitting right behind him, watching his every move, even stress baking wasn't able to help Macaque relax.

Not to mention the flowers in his chest that were once again begging to make themselves known.

Macaque forced the flurry of emotions and petals back down as much as he could. He flicked an ear, listening behind him.

Wukong was still there. Why was he still there-

Macaque slammed the bowl down on the kitchen island, barely avoiding chipping it, and taking brief pleasure in how he could hear the Wukong's breath catch, before the Monkey King descended into a small coughing fit, probably from surprise at the shadow monkey's sudden movements. Macaque turned back around to face Wukong, crossing his arms over his chest as he did so.

"What do you want from me?" He hissed, his tail swishing back and forth from agitation. Wukong's tail swished too, but Macaque could tell that his was a sign of nervousness.

"Ah, oh nothing." Wukong said, his hands behind his back as his legs swayed back and forth over the counter. "Just making sure you don't actually decide to poison anything."

"If I had poison, you and I both know that I would have used it already." Macaque said, "I don't even think there's anything I could even use as poison on this ship."

"...Point taken." Wukong said, leaning forwards and resting his chin on his right hand.

(He kept his other hand tucked in behind his back. Macaque did pick up on Wukong seemingly acting suspicious, but was far too focused on trying to get the Monkey King out of the kitchen to actually think much of it.

Something that Wukong was extremely grateful for, as it gave him the time to actually hide the crushed flower petals in his palm within one of his pockets.)

"Um, so uh, how do you know if the kid and the others are all okay?" Macaque asked, deciding to try a new tactic of getting Wukong out of the kitchen, hoping that the Monkey King's stupid over-protectiveness would prompt him to leave the room, which would let Macaque finally bake in peace.

"Oh, I left a hair clone with them." Wukong said, and Macaque slumped, his hopes dashed. "...Say, on a different subject, how do you know if it tastes good?"

"Huh?" Macaque asked, befuddled for a moment before remembering the cake bowl on the table behind him. "Oh- the cake? Well, I don't know really, usually I just sell it or something... Not that I really do this often, mind you! This isn't- I don't- I'm- wait. You want to taste test it more, to get free samples, don't you?"

Wukong simply gave a non-commital shrug, but the smirk on his face gave his intentions away. Macaque sighed wearily, before pulling a smaller spoon out of a nearby drawer with his tail, scooping a bit of cake batter into it, and tossing the spoon at Wukong, mentally willing the utensil to hit the Monkey King smack dab on the forehead.

The utensil, unfortunately, did not, in fact, obey Macaque's wills, as Wukong caught it with ease, and started licking the cake batter off of it, his tail wagging happily.

Macaque bit the inside of his cheek, nearly drawing blood as he used the pain to push the flowers in his throat back down, a light blush dusting his cheeks as he realized just how... cute the other looked in the current moment.

...No, nope, absolutely not-

Macaque spun back around, throwing himself entirely into the task of mixing the last of the ingredients together, and doing his upmost best to ignore the monkey sitting behind him.

Wukong's incessant humming was absolutely not helping in any way shape or form.

Things continued on, Macaque making the cake and occasionally tossing a batter covered spoon over his shoulder so that Wukong could taste it.

(Macaque silently told himself that he was doing it in the hopes that Wukong would become satisfied and leave, already-

But, deep down, he knew it was just because he liked seeing the other monkey happy.)

Macaque dumped the cake batter into a pan, setting the now empty mixing bowl off to the side before shoving the pan into the oven, and setting a small timer.

When he looked back over to where he had placed the mixing bowl, fully intent on washing it and proceeding to use it to make some icing, the bowl was gone.

"What the-" He started, looking around bewildered, before realizing what must have happened.

Sure enough, Wukong had the bowl on his lap, and was using a spoon to scrape the remaining cake batter out of it, to eat.

"...It's not like you were gonna use it anymore... right?" Wukong asked, almost looking sheepish as he realized Macaque was staring at him, and he curled around the bowl protectively.

Macaque glared at him, using his magic to make his eyes flash purple and make the room grow slightly darker.

"Get out of my kitchen before I retract my truce card and cash in on punching you in the face." He threatened.

Although the threat didn't hold much weight (Macaque would probably end up breaking his hand punching Wukong before he could ever hope to actually injure the other) Wukong still scrambled to get out of the room, taking the bowl and spoon with him as he went.

As Wukong rushed pass Macaque in his haste to leave, their tails lightly brushed together.

And that was the last straw for Macaque, who, once he was sure the other was gone, hurried to turn on the sink to cover up the sound of his coughing.

'..........Stupid monkey....' Macaque thought, leaning over the sink and watching flour and flowers go down the drain.

-

MK found Wukong in the hallway, with petals falling out of both the Monkey King's pocket and his mouth. He seemed to be spacing out, lost within his own thoughts.

He was still carrying the mixing bowl.

"...So I take it you didn't confess to Macaque?" MK asked, sounding almost disappointed.

"What- no- why on Earth would I confess?" Wukong asked, snapping out of his reverie. MK merely shrugged in response, but mentally he cursed.

'I was so sure that baking together would settle this whole mess once and for all.' He thought, watching as Wukong balance his bowl in one hand and softly rubbed a spot on his tail with the other. 'I guess it's back to the drawing board...

....Maybe the others would have some ideas?'

-

"How to get someone with Hanahaki to confess?" Tang asked, setting his book to the side. "MK, you know that's not really a thing you can force, I mean, look at how long it took Pigsy and I-"

"I know, I know, the both of you have told me about your confession, and how long it took to get there, multiple times." MK said, rolling his eyes. "But like, this is worse than you guys, which honestly, before now I didn't think it was possible, but. This has been going on for centuries."

"...I feel like there's a majorly important piece of information I'm missing here." Tang said, leaning forwards with renewed interest. "Who, exactly, has Hanahaki?"

MK paused, debating for a moment on whether or not he should actually tell him.

But, well, it was kind of obvious, and he seriously needed help getting the two of them together, so-

"Monkey King and Macaque." MK said, before adding, for clarification; "Both of them have it. For each other."

"Oh. Oh, that makes so much sense." Tang said, sounding as though pieces of a centuries old puzzle had magically connected right before his eyes. "...I'm sorry though, I can't help you."

"...Oh. Okay, I'll just ask someone else then-"

"However. I am not opposed to starting a betting pool."

-

"Hanahaki? Why would I know anything about Hanahaki?" Red Son asked, sounding oddly nervous as MK stood in the door way to his room. "...Why are you even asking me about it anyways?"

"Because Monkey King and Macaque have been pining for centuries, even back during the Journey to the West if the stories from Mei's great grandfather are to be believed, and while I've only been witness to a small portion of it, and I guess it's kinda been amusing, I am so done with it, like-" MK waved his hands around in frustration. "Why won't they just confess already?!"

"...I'm....sure they have their reasons." Red Son said, "What... did Mei say, about this, exactly?"

"Oh, she just laughed when I told her about it, and then cemented her place in the betting pool." MK said.

"There's a betting- Noodle Boy, why didn't you start with the betting pool?!"

-

Red Son had, in fact, already known about Macaque's Hanahaki.

That kind of thing was a little hard to miss when you're locked up in a cell with someone for an extended period of time.

Finding out Wukong also had Hanahaki came as a little bit of a surprise (though, really, now that he knew about it, it was kind of obvious, but as they say, 20/20 hindsight-).

Outside of making bets though, Red Son was mostly content to just sit back and watch the two monkeys stumble around each other. Sure, he did think their inability to confess made them cowards, but.

At least MK was too wrapped up in his frustration over the monkeys drama to notice the fire demon coughing up smoke and petals behind him.

-

Wukong slowly sneaked into the room, as quietly as he possibly could. Staying low to the ground, he tip toed over to the shelf, cautiously reaching up-

Only for someone to grab a hold of his hand, stopping him from reaching his prize. A nearby lamp flicked on, and Wukong looked up to see Sandy intently staring down at him.

"...Hi." Wukong said, laughing nervously as he slipped his hand out of Sandy's grip. "Um. I totally wasn't sneaking around or anything, I was just... sleep walking?"

"...I see." Sandy said, reaching over and taking one of the tea tins off of the shelf. "In that case, this one right here will do wonders to improve your sleep-"

"Ah, oh, no thank you, it's fine, I can handle it." Wukong said, subtly scanning the shelf of teas, slumping slightly when he couldn't seem to find the one that he wanted. Upon seeing the monkey's dejected face, Sandy sighed.

"Is this what you were looking for?" He asked, pulling a tin of tea out from behind his back. Wukong looked at it in shock.

"How'd you-" He started.

"It was just a lucky guess." Sandy said, setting the tin in Wukong's waiting hands. "Use it sparingly though, I'm running a little low on supplies right now. Oh, and be careful with the side effects, okay? Stop taking it if anything seriously bad starts to happen."

"...Thank you." Wukong said, pocketing the tea tin and turning to leave Sandy's room.

"Oh, one more thing." Sandy said, causing Wukong to pause mid-step. "The next time you try sneaking around in the dark, use a stronger glamour over your eyes. The glow seriously gives you away."

"...Duly noted."

-

It smelled like smoke.

That was the first thing Macaque noticed as he stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the storage room. Immediately, he tensed up, his fur standing on end. After all, where there was smoke, there was usually fire as well. And although Macaque would never, never admit it... he wasn't exactly the most... fond of fire.

(A capture hero, trapped and unaware.

A burning mountain, the air choked by smoke.

And an abandoned warrior, trying desperately to escape the mountain's flames.)

But... Macaque couldn't hear any of the noises that usually accompanied something burning. Instead all he could hear was someone's slightly irregular heart beat, and their wheezing breaths.

Macaque forced himself to walk forwards, curiosity starting to over power his caution.

He rounded the shelf of boxes just in time to see Red Son cough out more smoke, along with a few burnt petals.

Macaque paused, knowing the other had yet to actually see him, as he pondered what to do next. His hands twitched towards the edge of his scarf, but he kept himself frozen.

On the one hand, he could just turn around and leave before Red Son could even notice him. As was said before, Macaque was truly not very fond of fire, and despite having spent at least two days trapped with the fire demon, Macaque hadn't really gotten over his general...wariness of him.

On the other hand though, now that he'd seen the other demon, Macaque's curiosity was peaked.

...Well, they say curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, so-

"Who's it for?" Macaque asked, chuckling a little to himself as Red Son startled, finally noticing the other's presence.

"What?" He asked, looking at the shadow monkey in shock and confusion.

"Your Hanahaki." Macaque elaborated, "Who is it for, Mei or MK?"

Red Son remained silent for another moment, blinking in confusion, before the question, along with what was currently happening, seemed to register within his brain, and a furious blush over took his face, a few sparks flying off of him.

(At the sight of said sparks, Macaque took a hesitant step back, glancing around for anything that was possibly flammable.

Red Son was far too wrapped up within his own emotions to notice the monkey's anxiety.)

He sputtered for a moment, struggling and failing to come up with a proper response.

"...Both. It's, It's both of them." He eventually muttered under his breath, avoiding eye contact with Macaque as he shyly rubbed his arm.

"What was that? Sorry, I didn't hear you the first time, could you say that again?" Macaque said, not at all surprised by this new development and instantly deciding that now was the perfect opportunity to mess with the fire demon.

"You damn well did hear me and we both know it." Red Son said, shifting from flustered to angry in the blink of an eye.

...Macaque outright laughed at hm.

"Oh, oh, like you're one to laugh." Red Son said, "I know all about your thing for Monkey King. You're in the same boat as I am, both literally and figuratively."

"...Okay, first of all, we are in an airship, not a boat." Macaque said, leaning 'casually' against a wall of supply boxes. "Secondly- I have literally no idea what you're talking about."

"Why haven't you confessed yet?" Red Son said, moving on with his line of thinking and completely ignoring the shadow monkey's denial.

"Conf- I, I could ask you the exact same question!" Macaque said, caught off guard before pulling himself together and recovering. "Why haven't you confessed?"

"I, am simply waiting for the right time. I'm planning a big romantic gesture, I'll have you know." Red Son said, "You, on the other hand, are simply being a pining idiot."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Macaque denied yet again, a slight growl making it's way into his voice as his eyes flashed purple.

Red Son wasn't impressed.

"Your pitiful attempts at denial and intimidation have little to no effect on me." He said, "Seriously, just admit that you're in love with Monkey King already. Pretty much everyone else already knows about it."

"...I won't say I'm in love."

"Do not start the random musical numbers again, you already did it far too many times when we were trapped together in that cell, and if I have to bear one more minute of it I will not hesitate to toss you overboard."

-

The tea was bitter.

Very bitter.

Still though, it tasted leagues better than weed killer, which had been a not very well though through experience that Wukong never ever wanted to repeat.

And the tea worked better too, repressing, the flowers better than humming or the previously stated weed killer ever could.

Still though, there was a reason as to why Wukong had never opted to try this method before.

Said reason, of course, being the side effects.

He sighed, staring at how there were now purple flecks within his red eyes. Nothing that his usual glamours couldn't cover, but his magic was dwindling fast. He would have to start cutting a few corners soon if he didn't want to end up completely and utterly powerless, and the glamours concealing his height and eye colour would probably end up having to be the first ones to go.

Other than that though, it was concerning that the eye colour change was happening so soon, not to mention the speed at which it was progressing. A change in eye colour was the most common starting side effect of repressing Hanahaki, after that... things start to tend to become strange and rather unpredictable. The list of side effects caused by repressing Hanahaki was miles long, and was always having new things added to it- the reaction seemed to always depend on the person.

Basically, Wukong had literally no idea of what the side effect would be for him, nor how he could prepare for them.

And, of course, this meant he wouldn't be able to know how to hide them either.

-

When Wukong woke up the next morning and found that his eyes had already turned fully purple, a faint sense of unease settled itself over him like how a morning mist settles in a forest. He supposed he should've expected this to happen quick, he was repressing thousands of years of pining after all, but still, he hadn't been expecting it to progress this fast....

He felt fine though, nothing different than usual. (He did feel a bit weaker, but that had already been happening before the tea. No, that was something else.) For a moment he wondered if his immortality had made him completely immune to any possible side effects, but immediately shot that idea down, as if that had been the case, his eyes wouldn't have changed colour at all.

Wukong exited his room, throwing his usual glamours back on just in case, and made his way to the ship's kitchen as quietly as possible, he'd awoken a bit earlier than usual this morning, and didn't want to accidentally wake any of the others up.

Warming up the kettle and taking the tea tin out of the pocket (he sadly noted that it was almost empty already), he carefully followed the instructions on the side of the tin, not wanting to mess anything up and risk the tea not working.

A few minutes later, and Wukong sat at the kitchen table, spacing out a little as he slowly sipped his Hanahaki Repressing Tea.

He was starting to almost fall asleep in his chair when Pigsy entered the kitchen.

"Morning." Pigsy greeted, looking Wukong up and down with a mix of worry and suspicion. "You're not usually up this early, is something wrong?"

'No, I'm fine, perfectly fine.' Was what Wukong wanted to say.

Instead though, no sound left his mouth at all.

Oh.

Oh shit.

-

It wasn't every day that someone say Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, speechless.

Today, however, seemed to be one of the days where he was.

Pigsy watched as Wukong's mouth clicked shut, panic briefly flashing across his face before being replaced with an easily recognizable nervous smile as the monkey drew his tea cup closer to himself, as though to hide it. Pigsy rolled his eyes, pulling out a chair and sitting down across from Wukong, immediately noticing how the monkey avoided eye contact entirely.

"Experiencing the side effects, huh?" Pigsy asked, "Don't give me that surprised look. Even if Sandy hadn't told me about you taking the tea, you're being rather obvious right now."

Wukong visibly winced at that, sipping his tea again.

"How exactly do you plan to get through the day without being able to talk huh?" Pigsy asked, leaning forwards slightly. "Surely you must have some plan prepared."

Wukong started to shake his head no, to show that he didn't, in fact, have any plan here, but then he paused, looking thoughtful.

A sudden pang ran through Pigsy's mind, and he gripped the sides of his head, looking down at the table as he winced, trying to collect himself, feeling as though he'd been set off balance.

"-an you hear me?" Wukong's voice was faint and echoey, before growing stronger. "Can you hear me? Hello-"

"Yes I can fucking hear you." Pigsy said, looking back up, and proceeding to be almost shocked (but at the same time really not) to find that there were now two Wukong's sitting across from him. The new Wukong was obviously Wukong's golden astral projection form, as it perfectly matched how MK had described it.

Or well, it almost matched perfectly...

"Oh, good." Wukong said, via astral connection, "I wasn't sure this would work, but since it does I can just talk to the others like this-"

"Does this form of yours normally look like.... well, that?" Pigsy asked, interrupting.

"...What?" Wukong took a moment to analyze his astral form.

Unlike MK's description of it being 'Monkey King but in gold, like a shiny pokemon', Wukong currently had three tails, one pink, one red, and one purple. Said colours were also splashed all over his astral body, almost giving him a sunset-like appearance.

"...Huh. That's new." Wukong said, "I guess the side effects go deeper than I thought."

"Is this something we should be more concerned about?" Pigsy asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, no, it's fine. At least, it's far better compared to everything else. Maybe. Probably." Wukong said, the nervous smile on both his real self and his astral self growing slightly bigger.

"...Everything else? Probably?" Pigsy questioned, sitting up straighter with worry.

"...Ah, you weren't meant to hear that part." Wukong said, wincing. "Which I suppose that means it's time for me to go-"

"Hey, wait-" Pigsy started, but didn't manage to get any words out as Wukong abruptly closed the astral connection, before standing up and leaving the room faster than the other could ever hope to follow. Pigsy sighed as he caught the barest glimpse of Wukong's tail going out the door.

That damn monkey was definitely going to need a serious intervention one of these days.

-

"Monkey King this is an intervention." MK said, crossing his arms as he tried to do his best impersonation of one of Tang's infamous glares. He assumed he failed miserably, given Mei's muffled snickering, but Wukong at least shrunk down sheepishly, so he must've been doing something right.

MK sighed as a pang ran through his head, having expected it- before blinking in shock at the astral image that now stood before him.

"Why do I need an intervention? I'm perfectly fine." Wukong said, both his real self and his astral self smiling nervously- and the three other astral copies of him mimicked the motion. One was pink, one was purple, and one was red. They were each surrounded by a faint golden glow, and were each connected to the main golden astral version of Wukong by their tails.

"You- you are definitely not fine!" MK shouted, still having not recovered from the shock, and wasn't given any more time to try and process what he was seeing as the three bonus Wukong's started speaking.

"Shit." The red one hissed, frustration in his voice. "Fuck." (MK blinks, shocked to hear any version of his mentor swear, and immediately decides to smack Wukong on the arm the next time his mentor tries to reprimand him for swearing.)

"At least he's learning how to read people better, now he won't get tricked as easily." The pink one said, sounding almost....proud?

"I won't be able to trick him anymore either- He's catching on. He's starting to catch on now-" The purple one said, panicked. "I need to lie, lie lie lie-"

"Once again, I don't know what you're talking about." The golden, normal Wukong insisted, seemingly ignorant to the existence of the others.

MK had, of course, set up this intervention to talk about how Wukong tended to repress his emotions, (specifically those concerning a certain shadow monkey), but he definitely hadn't been prepared for... whatever all this is.

"Are you fucking seeing this?" He asked Mei.

"I'm not seeing shit." Mei said, wrapping her arm around MK's shoulder and lightly knocking their heads together, as though doing so would transfer the images that MK was seeing into her own brain.

"Language." All four astral Wukong's said, in perfect unison, and MK reached over and smacked the real Wukong on the arm for his hypocrisy.

The hastily put together intervention steadily went downhill from that point forwards, Mei complaining about not having been let in to the Astral Connection, and Wukong closing said connection the instant that MK had revealed the existence of the astral copies to him. The Monkey King had left the room rather swiftly after that, and MK sighed, for what seemed to be the millionth time since he'd found out about his mentor's Hanahaki.

He would have to do a much better, and much more well put together intervention next time.

-

Wukong ended up running out of tea the next day.

On the one hand, this was a good thing, as it meant he would only have to wait a day or so for the side effects to finally wear off, and he could go back to actually speaking again.

But on the other hand, this meant that he'd be back to coughing up flowers again, much, much sooner than he would like.

Wukong sighed, leaning against the railing of the ship, watching the sunset. He could probably jump off the ship and find the materials needed to make the tea himself, but without his cloud sail, it would certainly cost him precious time.

Time that he currently absolutely could not waste.

So he resigned himself to what would have to happen, and tried to mentally prepare himself for the flowers that would return within the next twenty four hours.

.....For some reason, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched....

-

In his many years of having known Wukong, Macaque had never seen him be quiet.

But he sure was quiet now, leaning against the ship railing, peacefully watching the sun as it dipped below the horizon.

(The fading colours of the sun reflected perfectly off of Wukong's fur, covering the other in golds, red, purples, and pinks, and overall making him look really pre-

No, nope, Macaque absolutely could not think about that right now, if he started coughing up flowers here and now it was sure to be noticed, and he absolutely couldn't have that happen.)

Macaque really wanted to consider the silence a blessing, finally, a break from the seemingly endless amount of chitter-chatter-

But instead, he couldn't help but feel worried.

Sliding back down to hide behind the crate he'd been sitting on before Wukong had come out onto the deck twenty minutes ago, Macaque lightly chewed on the edge of his scarf, thinking.

Option one: he waltzes over there, throws on a Perfect Smile, and asks Wukong what's wrong. Maybe he could even throw in a jab or two, or say it sarcastically in order to hide his very real concern.

Option two: he sneaks past Wukong, reenters the ship, and hides out inside of his room until he feels confident enough that these stupid emotions have passed.

Macaque was just deciding on option two- when the shadows surrounding him shifted.

Glancing up, he found that Wukong was now holding the crate the shadow monkey had been hiding behind over his head, and was staring down at him, unimpressed.

"...Hi?" Macaque said, letting the edge of his scarf fall out of his mouth and glamouring away any sign that he'd been chewing on it in the first place. "Um. Fancy meeting you here?"

If possible, Wukong's unimpressed look deepened.

"I was- I was here first, I'll have you know." Macaque said, hurriedly standing up, brushing non-existent dirt off of his clothes. "I don't really appreciate you encroaching on my personal space."

Wukong's expression did not waver, but he did set the crate down to the side, so at least Macaque no longer had to worry about having it be thrown at him. Still though, Wukong continued to stare, so maybe he wasn't out of the woods yet.

"So uh, what's with the whole silent act, huh?" Macaque asked, trying his best to be nonchalant about it. He hoped the response would be something meaningless, like a silly little bet or something along those lines.

He didn't expect to receive no verbal response at all, with Wukong's expression shifting away from unimpressed to something Macaque immediately identified as nervous.

Which....probably meant that this really was something to be concerned about.

Which probably also meant that asking any more about it would eventually result in some kind of long, emotional talk, which absolutely was not Macaque's forte.

...Well, he'd been planning to go with option number two from the beginning, so-

"Welp, this was a nice talk." Macaque said, "But, unfortunately, I have some other stuff that need to be tended to so.... bye!"

And with that, Macaque awkwardly flashed a peace sign, before falling down into the shadows, reappearing within the comforts of his own room. Deciding that he'd definitely had enough for one day, he crawled into his bed, pulling the covers over his head and trying his best to banish any thoughts of Wukong from his mind as he fell asleep.

-

He'd tried to sleep.

Really, he'd tried.

But after his third petal coughing fit of the night (courtesy of his brain refusing to forget how beautiful Wukong looked in the light of the sunset), Macaque gave up.

Which was why he was currently sitting on the couch, staring at the shadows on the wall, letting his mind play tricks on himself, making it seem like the darkness was moving.

He startled when he heard the sound of someone walking down the hallway.

Macaque wasn't entirely sure how long he'd been up for, but something told him that it was still far too early for even the early-risers to be up and about.

It was at the exact moment that someone sluggishly entered the room that Macaque remembered his glamours were down, and he tensed, knowing it was far too late and that he was far too tired to throw them on now.

He relaxed ever so slightly once he realized that the one who had entered the room had seen him glamourless multiple times before.

...Still though. What was Wukong doing up so late?

"...Got nightmares? I hope they're all about me." Macaque said, almost instantly cringing at the words coming out of his mouth, wanting to take them back and shove them into whatever sleep deprived corner of his mind they had come from.

Funnily enough though, Wukong didn't react at all, there wasn't even a small twitch of the ear or tilt of the head to even indicate that the other had even heard him.

There was a beat of silence, and Macaque chewed on the edge of his scarf, distracting himself from the awkwardness of it all by focusing on the sounds of the ship at night.

The beeping of the autopilot, the whir of the engines, the quiet sleeping sounds of the others, Wukong's steady, slow heart beat...

His.... slow heart beat...

"Oh" Macaque breathed, his voice partially muffled as he still had part of his scarf in his mouth. "You're sleep walking."

A contradictory mixture of concern and relief flooded through him at this realization. For a moment he just sat there, watching as Wukong continued to sluggishly make his way around the room.

And then Wukong bumped into the edge of the coffee table, and Macaque got up in record time, ready to catch the other if he fell-

Only to pull himself back as Wukong righted himself, still fast asleep. Macaque sighed, sitting back down on the couch. Why had he even been worried? There was literally nothing to worry about here, Wukong was literally invulnerable, he'd be fine. This was fine.

He rescinded that thought when Wukong suddenly turned, slowly but surely making his way towards Macaque. The shadow monkey watched the other's approach warily, stiffening when Wukog clumsily crawled onto the couch beside him.

Macaque stayed as still as possible, practically frozen, and partially hoping Wukong would get back up and sleep walk his way back to his own bed.

That, of course, didn't happen, and Macaque barely bit back a gasp, the edge of his scarf falling from his mouth to rest on his lap, as Wukong's tail found and curled around Macaque's own.

'Okay.' Macaque thought, feeling the flowers surge within his chest, as well as a faint tingling sensation covering most of his body (it had been a while, since he'd had any positive affection). 'Okay. I can handle this.'

And then Wukong leaned against him, his head resting on Macaque's shoulder.

'I can not handle this.'

-

When Wukong woke up in the early morning, the first thing he noticed was that he was not, in fact, in his bedroom.

'Ah. I slept walked again.' He thought, wincing, slowly pushing himself up. '...At least I didn't collapse in the middle of the hallway or inside of MK's room this time...'

The second thing he noticed was fabric sliding off of him, landing in a pool on the floor.

Leaning over and picking it up, he instantly identified it as Macaque's scarf.

He'd. Been sleeping while curled around Macaque's scarf.....

Almost immediately, he started coughing, purple petals falling from his mouth.

'Well. There goes the last effects of the tea.'

(When Macaque opened his door later on in the after noon, he would find his scarf sitting on the floor in front of him, perfectly folded.

He would find a singular purple petal within it upon unfolding it, but immediately dismiss it as being unimportant.)

-

"Why is it a forest, why did the engine need to malfunction and land us in a forest." Macaque complained, laying in the shadow of a tree, staring up into the branches as though the tree would give him an answer.

"Hey, it's better than a mountain." Wukong said, setting down a glass of lemonade beside the other monkey, before turning to hand another one off to Tang. (Pigsy had, for reasons unknown, made Wukong act as his waiter for the day. Nobody was quite sure why, and from the way Wukong glared whenever the subject was brought up, they figured it was best not to ask). "Can you hear how MK and the others are doing though, they've been gone for a while..."

"Why don't you just use your cloud to go check on them?" Macaque groaned, but still did what had been asked of him, tilting his head to the side, listening intently. After a moment, he was able to pin point the trio's voices. As for what they were saying....

Macaque smirked.

"They're fine." He said, "Although, they might be another few minutes before they come back."

When the trio came out of the forest wearing flower crowns, Macaque mentally cheered.

(After somebody with Hanahaki confesses, the flowers need somewhere to go. Usually they simply pop out of the ground around the person who has confessed.

It was a popular tradition to make and wear flower crowns using said flowers if your love was reciprocated.)

"Oh, did Red Son finally confess?" Tang asked, "We've been waiting on that for like. Ever."

"Oh heavens- Was I the only one who didn't know?" MK said, hiding his face in his hands.

"Oh no, I don't think Monkey King here knew either." Sandy said, lightly patting Wukong on the head. Wukong had been adorned with a look of utter shock since the trio had returned, but now he finally broke out of his surprise, and before the trio could even think to move, Wukong had grabbed hold of them, lifting them up a little in an excited hug.

"Oh my gosh- I'm so happy for you!" He said, only putting them down as Red Son started struggling. "We've- we've gotta throw a party- Pigsy can we throw a party-"

Macaque rolled his eyes, blocking out the current party planning, going back to staring at the sky through the tree branches.

"...Macaque."

Macaque looked over to see Red Son standing beside him.

"...Yes?" Macaque asked.

"...I'm braver than you are."

"What the fuck does that mean-"

-

Of course, Wukong had ended up deciding that they couldn't have the party on the ship. For some reason or another, he was utterly convinced that this party had to be big, which, of course, meant that there had to be a large space to hold it in.

...Had the situation been different, he would've brought everyone to Flower Fruit Mountain.

As it was, he found the next best thing.

"How the fuck did you know about my family hide out?" Red Son asked, watched as Wukong knocked three times on the door.

"You forget I was friends with your father, Red Boy." Wukong said, sending Red Son a smirk. "Oh, and watch your language."

The rest of the group stood slightly behind them, some of them prepared to run away if, somehow, this went awry.

Luckily enough, they didn't have to worry. Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan took the fact that Red Son was now dating his former enemies surprisingly well, and were fully willing to let them use the base to hold a party.

Wukong, surprisingly enough, ended up being the one to regret the decision to come here, the realization that maybe he had made a mistake hitting when Demon Bull King grabbed him by the back of his scarf, lifting him into the air. Wukong went slack immediately, knowing that struggling would be futile.

"The rest of you can keep sorting things out." Demon Bull King said, "I would like to have a few.... words with the simian."

And with that he turned, walking out of the room and bringing Wukong with him.

-

Demon Bull King entered a smaller room, reaching and closing the door behind him as he did so. Unceremoniously, he let go of Wukong's scarf and let the monkey drop down to the floor. Wukong let out an 'oof' as he hit the solid concrete.

"Ow." He hissed, glaring up at Demon Bull King. "Ya could have been a little more gentle there, Bull King."

"You can handle it." Demon Bull King said, "Now, onto the real matter of business. You haven't confessed yet, have you."

"What? Oh, is that what this is all about- I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about." Wukong said, laughing nervously. Demon Bull King stared down at him, unimpressed.

"So I'm right, you really still haven't confessed." Demon Bull King sighed, "Really, I expected better from you. Oh well, I suppose it is a good thing that my son is braver than you, not that that's very hard."

"Ouch." Wukong said, slightly jokingly. "You...really aren't pulling back your punches today huh."

"You trapped me under a mountain. I can be permitted to throw a few heavy hits." Demon Bull King said, "As it is though, if you do not confess sooner rather than later, you may miss your chance."

"Huh?"

"Do not make me out to be a fool, Sun Wukong. I can see the way your body grows weaker." Demon Bull King stared pointedly at a scrape Wukong had gotten on his hand when he'd been dropped onto the floor. Wukong, following the other's gaze, hid it behind his back. "You can't hide it from me. A month ago that fall would've been nothing to you. The Lady Bone Demon has affected you more than you're letting on."

"...So what if she has?" Wukong asked, "It's fine, it doesn't really mean anything, my powers will come back to their full strength sooner or later, you know."

"When I carried you, you weighed a little heavier than you used to."

"Hey now, don't go making comments about my weight!" Wukong said, letting the glamour on his eyes drop so that he could give Demon Bull King the red-eyed glare. "Seriously, I don't know what you think you've figured out, but just, drop it, okay?"

"...If that is what you wish." Demon Bull King sighed, opening the door and standing slightly to the side in order to let Wukong through first. "Promise me one thing though, for the sake of our old friendship."

"...Of course."

"Please confess before the time runs out."

"I'll... I'll try."

-

The party had been great.

In fact, the party had been spectacular.

Which was why, of course, that merely a week after the party, their luck seemingly ran out.

One of the Lady Bone Demon's 'followers' attacked the group during a supply run. Somehow, someway, Wukong and Macaque had managed to draw it away from the others, giving the rest of the group ample time to get the ship loaded and get everyone to a safe place.

Now all the two monkeys had to do was find a way for themselves to escape.

Macaque ducked under a wave of magic, glancing over at Wukong, hoping that the other would have some kind of plan.

He could immediately tell from the look on the other's face that he did not, in fact, have any sort of plan.

Macaque kept dodging as he watched Wukong impulsively take the offensive, sliding under a wave of magic, running up and jumping to kick the demon in the face- Only for the demon to catch him by the foot, spinning him around and tossing him. Wukong's back slammed against the mountain they'd ended up fighting beside, and he fell onto one knee for a moment.

And then he slowly stood back up, his fur messed up. He used his sleeve to wipe some blood away from the corner of his mouth, his eyes burning red and oh-

Oh, that was kinda hot-

Macaque immediately cursed letting himself get distracted, as the flowers grew in his chest, and he stumbled, wheezing as a few golden petals fell out of his mouth.

A wave of magic hit him from behind, knocking him to the ground and sending him skidding over to where Wukong now stood.

"Shit- are you okay?" Wukong asked, keeping one eye on the demon, who simply watched them in slight amusement, as he helped the shadow monkey back to his feet. Macaque glanced between the demon and Wukong, feeling the flowers in both his throat and his mouth.

Fuck, he wouldn't be able to win this fight if he stayed like this, in this state.

...Which only left him one option.

Taking only the barest of seconds to prepare himself, Macaque grabbed a hold of both side of Wukong's face, ignoring the monkey's confused squeak as he made sure their eyes met.

"I love you." Macaque said, a single petal falling out of his mouth.

"...I love you too?" Wukong said, confusion and shock filling his face.

"Wait, what?" Macaque asked, but was given no time to question it as the demon seemingly had enough of waiting, and threw a whip of magic at them, the two monkeys having to separate from each other and leap to different sides in order to avoid the attack. As the dust from the attack settled, Macaque locked eyes with Wukong again, the Monkey King's face coloured with a blush, looking shocked, and Macaque was sure the expression was reflected on his own face.

"You love me too?!" He asked, sliding to the side, to avoid another attack.

"Yes!" Wukong shouted, backflipping out of the way of a burst of flame.

"Then why did you say it as a question?!" Macaque asked, slowly making his way back over to the other monkey while avoiding the demon's attempts to hit him at the same time.

"I don't know, why did you confess in the middle of a fight!?" Wukong asked, mirroring the other monkey's movements.

"It seemed like the best option!" Macaque said, leaping over top of another magic whip, spinning around and finding himself back to back with Wukong. "I- I didn't really think it through."

"And people say that I'm the impulsive one." Wukong muttered, deflecting a beam of magic away from them with his wrist.

"I heard that." Macaque hissed, turning ever so slightly to glare at him.

"I know." Wukong said- before turning and knocking Macaque to the ground, just in time for a blade to go sailing over top of them. "When did he get a scythe?!"

"How should I know?!" Macaque asked- before his ear twitched, and he grabbed Wukong's shoulders, rolling the both of over to the right, swapping their positions as the ground where they had previously been suddenly broke apart, a spike rising out of it. Both of them stared at it in shock, before glancing back at each other.

"Well, there's one thing that I think we both know." Wukong said, as Macaque stood up, pulling Wukong to his feet along with him. They both turned to glare at the demon. "And it's that we're starting to get real sick of this guy."

"...You know, I hear that there's a solar eclipse coming up." Macaque said, and Wukong immediately smirked.

The demon sent another blast of magic, and, still holding hands, the two of them stepped to the side, Macaque even taking things one step further, twirling Wukong as they dodged the blast, before pulling away, giving the Monkey King a small bow before falling down into the shadows. Wukong, smirk still wide on his face, turned to face the demon with a determined look.

Running forwards, swiftly moving left and right to stay out of the way of the demon's attacks, Wukong got himself right up in the demon's face. Jumping, he flipped backwards, hitting the demon in the chin with his foot as he did so, before landing on his feet slightly further back than he'd been before.

The demon rubbed his chin, eyes blazing with anger, and Wukong laughed.

"C'mon, is this the best you can throw at me?" He taunted, practically dancing out of the way of the spikes that shot out of the ground at him. "Surely you can do better than this!"

The demon growled, not seeing the trap for what it was, summoning his scythe and charging forwards. Wukong stayed where he was, smirk still firm in place on his face.

When the blade was almost close enough for Wukong to taste the tang of the metal, the shadows in front of him shifted.

Macaque shot up from the shadows, with a spear made out of the darkness, easily blocking the demon's attack, his eyes glowing purple as he stepped forwards, shadows still trailing and swirling around his feet as he forced the demon to take a step back.

The demon grit his teeth, so focused in trying to keep Macaque advancing any further- that he failed to notice as Wukong slid beside him, his eyes glowing red as he took power away from his glamours and channeled it into making sure this punch was the last one.

The strike hit, and Macaque stepped back, his fur rustled by the wind as the demon was sent flying past him, slamming into the mountain, hard.

The two monkeys stood there for a moment, panting, staring at the demon's prone form.

A minute passed, and that was all it took for the two of them to confirm that the demon was not going to be getting back up.

A sigh of relief left the two of them, Wukong falling down to sit on the ground, while Macaque slumped, leaning against his spear as the two of them took a moment to finally relax.

Only to jump as a field of yellow chrysanthemums and purple, flowering wisterias appeared around them.

The two of them stared around themselves in shock for a moment, Macaque dispelling his spear as he sank down to the ground beside Wukong. A breeze flew by, knocking loose a few petals, mixing yellow and purple together.

"...You know, I can't decide if these flowers are hilariously late or perfectly on time." Macaque said, and Wukong laughed.

"Say, who do you think has more flowers for them?" He asked, and the both of them took a second to think about it, looking out over the field. Wukong abruptly stood up. "Why don't we make some clones to help and find out?"

Macaque laughed, standing up and summoning his own shadow clones as Wukong blew on a few of his hairs, and they went to work, counting flowers.

...In the end, they ended up giving up after the third recount also ended up in a tie.

-

When the two of them finally returned to the ship, adorn in matching flower crowns, MK took one look at them, a brief expression of shock flickering on his face, before he fell backwards onto the couch, a strangled laugh escaping him.

"Fucking finally!"

[apocalypticwafflekitten]

Summer Night

Post-Burn Kabal x Reader

A/N: Is the self-indulgent? Yes. Is it completely unrealistic in MK context? Yes. Do I care? No. So here’s some fluffy hurt/comfort because this man needs love and I’m here to give it to him.

So, I wrote most of this while listening to this song, so feel free to give it a listen while you read!

Original Imagine/Summary Kinda Thingy: So there’s a poem mentioned in this story, and it’s one that I actually did write a while back for a Creative Writing class. It had this same kind of summer night setting, and I really wanted to use it in an actually story, so this is born partially from that, and partially from allll the feels I have for Kabal. I cannot express how bad I want to give this man a hug.

Warnings: A very emotional, insecure, soft Kabal who needs all the comfort in the world. Very much a hurt/comfort fic. Other than that, nope, just fluff for this man and all the love he deserves!

Word Count: ahhhhhhh I’m on mobile!

He didn’t think you’d ever look at him again. The scarring that marred his face mocked him for even thinking of it. The face in the mirror before him was hideous. Long ago he’d accepted the idea that you’d only ever see him with his mask on. That you’d only want to see him with the mask.

But what did a mirror know? You’d always been there for him before, and you hadn’t shown any sign of leaving him now. Maybe you’d stay. But who was he kidding? One look at his face and you’d go running off like everyone else.

No. That’s not right. He had to have more faith in you than that. You wouldn’t leave him like that. You wouldn’t run away from him. That’s what he would do. You were stronger than that. Stronger than him at least.

So every once in a while, the idea, the notion of taking off the mask and showing you what was waiting beneath it tempted him. Sometimes he wanted to rip the thing off and beg you to see that he was the same man as before. Even now, as he replaced the respirator on his face, he wondered if you would say anything should he leave the bathroom with his face bared to you. All your possible reactions swarmed his imagination until it was all just noises. Some were screams of terror, others were violent sobs. And sometimes it was silence, followed by the creaking of a closing door. It was all too much.  

He shook his head to clear it all out, and took in a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of the wheat and corn fields just outside the safe-house.

The two of you were on a job. It was an easy in and out mission that didn’t really matter much in the long run, but it was important for you. It landed you smack dab in the middle of a prairie on the border of a farmer’s land. The crickets chirped and soft breezes flew through the open windows, carrying sweet scents and the peaceful air of a summer night.  

When Kabal saw no sign of you in the the house, he looked outside, only to find you sitting on the porch swing, looking up at the stars above you. The chipped, white paint on the bench looked almost blue as the moon began to rise, lighting the surrounding farmland in a silvery, glowing light.  

“Hey,” Kabal greeted tentatively, “What are you doing out here?”  

“Hey. I was just looking at the stars, taking in the farmland and the open space. It’s making me a bit homesick to be truthful, but I still like it. Something about seeing the night sky right against the crest of a grassy field with nothing else between them is...it’s beautiful. It’s calming in a way. It’s so simple and plain, but there’s more to it than that. It’s more beautiful than you would expect.  I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone but me, but hopefully someone out there understands.” You smiled to yourself and curled up further on the bench-swing, holding you knees to your chest while a slow, steady rock lulled you into your thoughts once more. 

Kabal took a moment to follow your eyes and see what you were talking about. He wasn’t surprised that you were right. The gentle hill that rose about an acre or two away hit the horizon and kissed the night sky. And it was beautiful--even through the red tint his mask gave everything. You couldn’t see the city that lay beyond the hill, nor could you see the fence that marked the plot of land. It was just grass and sky, and the stars haloing the moon. 

“I understand. It is beautiful. More than you would imagine,” He repeats you, thinking about something else you’d mentioned, “You said it made you homesick?”  

The question sits in the air for a moment as Kabal took a seat next to you, using his legs to keep the swing’s gentle rock going.  

“Yeah. This place remind me a lot of my home, and I’m just realizing how much I miss it,” You lean in to his side, letting him drape an arm behind you out of habit, “But that’s not a bad thing. I mean, if I hadn’t’ve left, I never would have met you.”  

You kissed the side of his mask, and rested your head back on his shoulder. Sometimes you acted as though nothing had changed. The way you so casually kiss his mask, and lean back into him as if you’d just kissed his cheek bewildered him. Could you not see how awful it was? How messed up it is that he even has to wear this thing? Or how messed up the face beneath it was? Well, of course you couldn’t see that, but still. How could you see this and still love him the way you had before the fire? And what you’d said? Was meeting him some monument in your memory? Was he really worthy of that? Maybe he would have assumed so in the past before all of this, but now? How could you still see him in such an important light?  

“Hey. Hey, Kabal? Come in Kabal!” You laughed when you saw his head shake as he was brought back to the present.  

“Yeah?” He couldn’t help but smile a little when he heard your laugh.

“Come with me.” You whispered, eyes wide and full of something warmer than mischief, but not entirely different as you stood and held out your hand. 

“Where are we going?” Kabal asked, but truthfully he didn’t care. Being with you was enough no matter where he was, as long as you were there beside him. 

“You’ll see.” You smiled and took his hand, guiding him off the porch, towards the cornfield aside the house.

Your hand in his was small and gentle just like he remembered. He wanted to remember more. He wanted to remember everything about you. The way you used to hold him at night and tell him how safe you felt in his arms. Or how you would trace his face and kiss his eyelids while he napped on your lap. He wanted to memorize the smell of your perfume, but only by kissing the tender skin of your wrist and whispering there how much he loved you. He wanted to admire you like that again, instead of following you with wide eyes from behind a mask. For once in a long, long time, he actually wanted to take the mask off, if only to kiss you and see your beautiful face again without the red tint his glowing eyes gave the world.

You brought him out to the edge of a cornfield where the tall stalks looked gold under the starlight, and the bright moon gave enough light to walk by. The sky seemed endless above these shining fields, as if all the cities in the world melted away and the land before you stretched on forever. A long, emerald, grassy plane where dainty wildflowers grew in the spring stretching across the horizon and beyond it. In this moment, walking with Kabal, the safe house faded away and the crickets’ chirp dissolved into the air. It was just you and your lover beside you, walking your own moonlit trail by the side of the cornfield.

Kabal loved the sweet aroma from the crops beside him. When he looked up he constantly found himself in awe of just how many stars he could see. There were trillions more up there than he had ever known of and it gave him exhilarated chills. The most beautiful part though? It was you. You happily took stride next to him and let a comfortable quiet fall over you two.

He kept looking to you, although you never noticed, or if you did you hadn’t said anything about it. Just...the way the moonlight lit your face made you look like something divine—something perfect for him. Something he wanted to hold and squeeze and touch and love. Something he wanted forever. 

Kabal was broken from his reverie when you suggested sitting on the wooden fence that outlined the neighboring farmer’s land. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t too terribly bad either, just a little wobbly. To make up for it though, the view from this spot was beautiful. The moon hung high above the safe house, watching over the small building and the grassy plot where it lay. He could see why you’d decided to sit here of all places. 

You were quiet for a few moments, enjoying the gentle breezes that would pass by. It was comforting—unlike anything Kabal had felt in a long long time.

“You know, I wrote a poem once about walking through a corn field to sit and talk with the moon awhile. Sitting here with you reminds me of it.” You think out loud.

“Hmm. I didn’t know you wrote.” Kabal remarked, finding himself suddenly curious about your apparent hobby.

“Yeah. A bit. When I have the time to. But that doesn’t happen often these days.”

“No joke. You a big fan of poetry?”

“Oh yeah. I could go on for days,” you smiled bashfully, turning away, “but I don’t think you want to hear about that.”

“I wouldn’t mind. Especially if it was you doing the talking.” You could hear the smirk coming from behind the mask, and you cherished it—loving the moments when the old Kabal would shine through.

“Hmm. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe I’ll steal you for a day and lecture you on my favorite poets.” You laughed at your own joke, but Kabal hoped that one day you would. Getting to see you excited about anything always lightened up his day.

You both sat on the wooden fence for what seemed like ages, silently enjoying the warm, quiet night together. You would point out constellations every once in a while, and at one point you got so excited about a shooting star that you nearly fell off the fence! Kabal had to rush a hand behind you to keep you from falling flat on your back! But there was a long stretch of time after that where the two of you settled into a comfortable silence and you leaned against him, letting your head rest close to his heart.

“Can I ask you something?” Kabal whispered, breaking the silence with a quiet push. 

“Sure.” You answered, keeping your eyes on the stars above.

“Do you...do you still love me? With the respirator and everything?”  

He saw the way your head whipped around to face him and he knew he’d struck something deep in your heart. Your eyes went wide, and a worried tilt crested your brows. For a moment he felt stupid for asking. The small amount of time where you went silent to process his question felt like minutes where his insecurities could eat him alive and swallow him into the night. 

“Of course I still love you Kabal!” You rushed out, trying to think of a million ways to reassure him. You held his hands again, and those deep, wide eyes looked right into his, “What’s brought this up?”  

“I don’t know. I guess I don’t know how you can love me like this. You can’t even see my face. And I’m...I dunno...I’m different.” He mumbled, looking down to his hands, and how yours held them so tight.

“Kabal,” you began with a careful, comforting tone, “I’m always going to love you. Mask or no mask. Burns or no burns.”

He took a moment to let your words sink in, watching you as he realized what your words meant.

“So the mask...doesn’t bother you?” Kabal asked, allowing just the littlest bit of hope to seep into his voice. 

“No. Not at all.” You replied simply, 

“Why?” He had to know. His voice may have been a quiet scratch through his respirator, but behind it was all the desperation of a man lost.

“Because I know it’s still you under the mask. I’m still sitting next to the man whose perfect idea of a date was barhopping until the early hours of the morning, then drunkenly watching bad movies on your couch until the sun came up. I’m still sitting next to they guy who spent a whole hour explaining the lore of Ninja Mime and why the fourth once was shit. And I’m still sitting next to the guy who played Christmas carols for me on his marimba just to make me smile. You see, I fell in love with you. Not your face or your body. You. Yes it’s different now. Yes it’s a bit of an adjustment, but you’re still you under the mask, so it makes it easy for me. It’s not hard to stay in love with someone you fell for a long time ago, even if they look different.”  

By the time you were done there were tears streaming down Kabal’s face. He wanted to hug you and kiss you and hold you all at once forever. His heart was pounding and twisting and clutching and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“I love you!” Kabal declared desperately, with all his heart in it. You didn’t miss the hitched sniffle that came from behind the respirator, “I love you so, so much.” 

In every word you could hear the thanks that was pouring from him. In that small phrase, in those six words, he thanked you for everything you’d said. He thanked you for not giving up on him, for continuing to be by his side through everything, for showing how you loved him and how deep it truly ran. He put everything he was feeling into those words, everything he couldn’t find words to say. He put the way his heart clenched in those words and you could feel it - his words carrying his whole heart .

Kabal pressed his forehead to yours and you nuzzled your nose against his mask, enjoying this tender moment with him - one of few you were able to have in your line of work.

Before he could pull away, you decided to act upon a wish you’d had for months now. Your only hope is that Kabal would let you. You slowly took your hands from his and ran them up his arms, feeling his strong muscles beneath the marred skin. The bumpy pattern rippling under your fingers when he twitched. You kept your forehead to his as your hands travel over his shoulders to rest for a moment at the base of his neck. There you wait for any sign. Any signal that he wants you to stop. Instead his breathing grows heavy and he tenses, anticipating everything you might do, but he doesn’t stop you.  

Ever so slowly, your hands trail up to the sides of his mask and you rub circles against it with your thumb, trying to soothe the man beneath it.  

You give him a small smile before bringing your fingers to the edge of his mask. For a second you’re able to slip your fingers beneath the respirator and feel the curve of his jaw. But before you could pull it further from him, his hands shoot up to grab your wrists, a moment of flooding insecurity breaking his resolve. 

“Are you sure?”  His question is quiet, almost quivering in his tone. 

You give him that smile again before looking straight into his eyes.  

“Yes. Yes I’m sure.” you insisted with a gentle warmth in your voice.  

 Kabal let out a stuttering exhale, and let go of your wrists. His hands found themselves sitting restlessly in his lap as every muscle in him was tense with fear.

Again, with caring conviction you began to pull the mask from his face, revealing the scarred surface beneath. His emotions were plain and clear for you to see in his tilted brows and the glistening tear streaks falling down his uneven cheek. 

You took a minute to look at him--to see what the fire had done and why he had been so reluctant to show himself to you. But just moments after the mask had been removed and his face had been bared to you, you broke out into the largest smile Kabal had ever seen. 

You whispered with happiness warming your tone; happiness like Kabal had never heard before, “There’s that handsome face. I’ve missed you.”  

Kabal looked you in the eyes, tears welling up in his own at your simple response to his horribly scarred face. His heart caved in relief, letting him slump against you, once more pressing his forehead to yours.

“I’ve missed you too.” He whimpered, finally letting himself go--letting the buildup of anticipation and fear drop from his shoulders so that he could finally do the one thing he’d wanted to do most since the fire.

He kissed you. Hard and desperate and oh so familiar. His lips locked onto yours as they had a million times before and he wondered how he’d gone so long without this. Your lips played against his the way they always did. Damn it everything was perfect. He whined, sobbing into your kiss as joy and relief flooded his every nerve.

You pulled him back, wanting to kiss him again and again and again for the rest of time. He was still here! Your Kabal! Here to kiss you until you were dizzy, and love you until the world stopped spinning. You couldn’t get enough. Each kiss more desperate than the last as you held his face in your hands and wiped away his tears.

He broke off for just a moment to grapple onto you, hugging you right against him.

“You have no idea how much this means to me.” He whispered in your ear. His chest hurt with how his heart ached for you. He wanted you close—so close that he could never lose you.

You smile to yourself and bury your face into the crook of his neck, drinking in his smell and nuzzling against his skin. You reach up and gently card your hands through his hair, offering him comfort and reassurance.

Again, it’s just you and Kabal, and the sound of his breathing, quiet and labored beside you. His hands gripped the back of your shirt in tight fists, and every once in a while you’d hear a quiet sniff.

But in a few minutes you felt his breathing grow ragged, and as much as you wanted to stay in this embrace, you knew he needed to replace the respirator.

“Hey, come on hun, you need to put the respirator back on. I love getting to see your face again, but I’d love to keep you alive even more.” You laughed a little, meeting his eyes once you’d pulled away.

He laughed a little as well, grabbing the mask and slipping it over his face again.

You watched him, listening as his breathing evened out until he turned to you. You imagined he quirked an eyebrow under the mask.

“Whatcha staring at?”

“The handsomest man in the world.” You smile up at his face and grab his hand as he stares back into your eyes.

“Come on, let’s get back to the house. It’s getting kinda chilly out here.”

He didn’t say anything. He just nodded and stood from the fence, beginning the walk home with you by his side.

Tags!

@onabouteverything

[skellebonez]

He's Been Hurt Enough (Monkie Kid Cursed AU Fanfic)

And here it is, the follow up to Stop Lying To Me! This went through an overall minor rewrite after @winterpower98 posted some more Cursed AU art and I think it turned out much better for it.

Quick note: once again this is my interpretation of a possible way the revelation could go. I decided to go with a “Mac told Sun everything while MK was transformed last time and that’s part of why he got the stuffing beat out of him and was out of commission last fic” angle. (also no I definitely did not accidently post a draft of the summary by itself when I meant to queue this, that totally did not happen(that happened))

Summary: Wukong has questions, Macaque surprisingly has answers, and MK... well, MK is going to be just fine if Macaque has anything to say about it.

Warnings: mild descriptions of healing inuries from the last fic, hint of child neglect if you are familiar with the AU, Macaque is sightly (incredibly) out of it due to medicine

----------

The first thing Macaque noticed when he came to was that his head felt... wobbly, despite the fact he was clearly laying down and not moving. The second thing he noticed was a disgustingly bitter sweet taste sticking to his tongue. The third thing he noticed was that he laying chest down on a (very small and familiar smelling) pile of clothes. The fourth thing, oh it was a lot of things coming very slowly right after the other which was odd, was that he was completely shirtless and that the only reason he noticed this so slowly was half of his body was almost fascinatingly numb, outside of the warmth of the fire that seemed to be burning in front of him. The last thing he noticed was a very close, also very familiar, and very angry (worried?) looking face of a monkey right in front of his (coincidentally blocking most of that fire light).

"Congratulations," Wukong said flatly. "You are officially not dead."

Macaque stared at the other monkey for a moment before attempting to speak, coughing as the dryness of his throat hit him full force. Before he could move himself, Wukong grabbed his face (gently, more gently than he remembered being touched by the other in so long) and held something to his lips. When he tilted the object and water began to hit his lips he opened his mouth and drank, Wukong never allowing the water to flow from the canteen fast enough to risk him choking on it. It must have been emptied after a short while because the Monkey King took it away faster than Macaque would have liked, but it had been more than enough to quench his thirst and allow him to clear his throat and begin talking. "What... happened?"

The angry (worryied?) look on the other's face deepened. "Should I start when I woke up to you bleeding out over my sucessor? Or should I start when I tried to give you medicine the first time you woke up and you shoved the entire thing in your mouth?"

Well. That second bit explained part of the numbness. And the taste. And possibly why his head felt like it was swimming in that iced cream stuff MK liked so much. He was almost certainly, no definitely, very out of it from whatever Wukong had intended to use to dull his pain. Fantastic.

Instead of voicing all of this he simply said "The... first part?" His voice was rough, but firmer than it had been the first time. He had not realized how almost slurred his words has originally sounded. Wukong' expression softened and. Oh... OH, it was a worried look after all. Huh. Macaque did not expect that. That was... well, not new. But he hadn't seen that in a long time. He... missed that. He didn't realize he had missed that.

"I woke up and I smelled... blood," Wukong started softly. "I was confused, I thought that maybe I hadn't been out for very long after we calmed down MK and you hadn't treated my wounds yet but," his hand went to his side where the bandages Macaque and the kid had carefully applied still held tight. "When I looked around I saw you. Laying face down with one arm over him. And you were just. Just COVERED in blood Macaque. I thought you two had been attacked, I didn't know what kind of demon could do that to you and thought that both of you were hurt." He ran a hand down his face, taking a deep breath, reaching over to prepare something behind him. "It wasn't until I rushed over that I realized that MK was passed out and aside from scratches on his arms you were the only one that was badly hurt."

There it was, the memory of what happened finally came back to him. Telling the kid the truth. The kid losing it. Holding him until he was able to fight back the transformation. The claws. The bite. His arm throbbed, the first not numb thing about his body he felt (though not fully painful), and he was surprised that he hadn't noticed his injured arm laying out in front of him until that moment, fully bandaged and (thankfully) not looking like he was missing a chunk of himself after all.

"MK's been out since I got up. You were completely unresponsive until early sundown, and when you did wake up you were in too much pain to tell me anything. I tried to get you to take some medicine but you grabbed my arm and shoved the entire bundle in our mouth. You passed back out before you could try to eat the salve I put on your wounds too. I'm amazed y-"

"I told him," Macaque interupted without prompting, and when Wuking spun around (too fast you idiot you're going to hurt yourself) with a wet cloth in hand he just let the words fall from his mouth. Why stop them? He had already told Wukong as much as he had told the kid, and the evidence of what had transpired was litterally all over him. Not much he could hide now. It was the exact opposite of what happened then, no more tar and honey returning. Bittersweet and if he were to give it flavor it would be buttercups. "After he passed out the first time I treated your wounds and when he woke up he helped me and then started asking questions..."

Without saying a word Wukong sat and listened, face tightening as he gingerly removed something from his back (gauze perhaps, he had no bandages on) and ran the cloth over numb cuts. He looked only between the wounds and Macaque's face, letting him retell every detail. "Kid tried to fight it but I just. I didn't know what to do when he started to change again so I... I..." He coughed, throat growing dry again.

This time Wukong stopped him, holding the canteen (not empty after all) to his lips again. They sat in silence for a moment, him drinking and Wukong turning to grab a container and fresh gauze and bandages when he stopped. He nodded, going back to the other monkey's back and Macaque realized the container was healing salve for his wounds. He didn't need it or the medicine, not really, but even with his fast healing and sturdyness it never hurt to have extra help to speed up the healing process. "You what, Macaque?"

"I... think I... hugged him into submission?" Macaque scowled, not sure if he even believed what he was saying and not missing the shocked look on the other's face. "And he bit me." He added quickly.

"He BIT you!?" The Monkey King leaned sideways, looking at Macaque increduously before his gaze veered over to his bandaged arm. "Well. That explains... the everything. Your back and arms looked like you were nearly gored from behind, but with how long his claws get when... yeah, that adds up."

"Is he ok?" The question came out without him even thinking about it. Damn medicine... But this only seemed to make Wukong shake his head with a surprised chuckle.

"Yeah, MK is fine. Exhausted, but fine. I treated his arms after I got your back to stop bleeding." He went back to applying the salve, touch a bit more firm as he rubbed it through his now less matted fur. The pressure would have normally made Macaque tense but now it just made him relax further into the clothes he was resting on (which he now noticed were Wukong's top layers and a blanket the kid insisted they each got at one of the many villages they passed through).

For a while the two remained silent, the Monkey King dressing the wounds on the Six Eared Macaque's back. Maybe it was the exhaustion kicking back in or something else, but Macaque just allowed himself to lay there and not think of anything. His mind tried to wander a bit, somewhat toward the kid and somewhat toward the odd reactions of the king, but nothing really stuck with his head swimming as it was. He only opened his eyes (when had he let them close?) when he felt a gentle touch on his arm. He watched as the bandages were unwrapped slowly and the same treatment given to his back was repeated.

"You're lucky he didn't bite your dominant arm," Wukong said softly, finally breaking the silence with a shakiness in his voice that was almost missed. "Or break your arm completely. You'll heal fine, but if you were anyone else you wouldn't even have an arm to treat right now...." He shook his head and under his breath he heard the king mutter "What were you thinking?"

Macaque looked away, gaze catching the still sleeping form of MK on the other side of the low fire. The kid would be exhausted from his second (almost) transformation in 24 hours for a while yet and that made his chest hurt just like before. He remembered the betrayal on his face, so much like and yet so much worse than when he betrayed him by stealing his powers. He remembered how the kid seemed to need the hug he had offered him so long ago at the start of all this as much as he did. He remembered how scared he looked at the prospect of seeing his parents again when he asked about them. And he remembered how much he kid laughed on this journey, how happy he seemed every time he was praised for even the smallest things, how he offered Macaque so much without asking for anything in return even before he put that stupid headband on the kid. He remembered how, despite everything... MK wasn't giving up on him...

He looked back at Wukong, grabbing his leg with as much strength as he could muster in his hurt arm until the other returned his gaze. "He's been hurt enough."

There was an understanding in Sun Wukong's eyes. For the first time in more years than Six Eared Macaque would admit... they understood each other completely without needing more words. MK had been hurt enough. They would take as much hurt away from him as they could.

The moment was broken when his grip weakened he closed his eyes, unable to stay open for as long as he would like, and when he opened them back up Wukong had already finished bandaging up his arm. He noticed a soft pressure around his tail but said nothing, not right now, and he only moved when there was a gentle tapping on his side. "Can you sit up a bit? I need to put on bandages, then you should get some more rest."

Macaque complied, using his good arm to raise himself up just enough for the other's arms to go under and around him to pass the bandages between hands (no, it was not a "almost hug" no matter what his tired brain told him). It was done sooner than expected and a gentle hand on his shoulder pushed him down into the soft fabric beneath him, his gaze fixed firmly on the soundly sleeping form of the kid as he watched to make sure he was really just sleeping.

If he noticed that there were soft claws running through his hair he said nothing. And if Wukong noticed the squeeze of a tail against his own he said nothing either. Eventually he let his eyes slip closed once more, feelin his chest rumble in a soft purr. The claws against his scalp stopped and there was a warmth after a while, a weight around him. Wukong must have laid a blanet over him, but the claws returned and their tails remained intertwined even as he moved to his other side. It wasn't until he felt a rumble beside him that wasn't his own that he realized the blanket was over both of them. He said nothing, not caring about the implications as he allowed himself to drift off into sleep.

And if he, maybe, dreamed of watching the two people he had reluctantly grown to care most about happy... well, he wouldn't say anything about that either.

[last-operator-standing]

Toll of the Bell

Chapter 1 - Ashes to Ashes

> Ao3 

> Chapter 2 (tumblr)

Summary: What now? He could roll over and accept the fate thrust upon him and die as Adler intended. Starting a new life away from it all couldn't be that bad either. Or…

Or he could finish the mission.

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Violence, blood & injuries, anxiety 

Words: 2k

A/N: This follows the post-ending for my Bell. For the sake of the story, Bell saved Lazar and was forced to leave Park behind, but she still lived. Her explanation will appear in ch 2 ;u; Originally I wasn’t gonna share this but uhhhh here we are! I wasn’t overly happy with the ending of this chapter, but c’est la vie, friends. ;u; 

"I'm sorry it turned out this way." 

 Why?  When he tries to speak there's only a pathetic gurgle as the blood spills past his lips. 

 "I hope you understand."

I don't! Why? I told you the truth! His chest feels tight, like it's being crushed under an invisible force. Was it always this hard to breathe? To think? He can't be sure anymore. So why?! Why..? His fingers are stained in crimson when he lifts his hand from his chest. Why did you shoot me? The words won’t come out. Trembling, his arm falls back to his side, unable to hold it up any longer.

 "It was never personal, Bell." 

 There's a pressure in Bell's right hand as Adler presses something into his palm. His fingers twitch against cool metal - his gun? - but he doesn't have the strength to lift it. He can only stare up at the soft blue sky as his chest burns and he dyes the ground red.

 "It wasn't meant to be like this."

 I trusted you. Then again, he also trusted Arash Kadivar. Look where that got me. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

There's a darkness encroaching on the edges of his vision. Panic builds and it only makes the desperate burning in his lungs worse. He struggles to force air past the fluid. A terrible bubbling resonates in his chest and Bell idly wonders if he'll drown in his own blood before he bleeds out. I bet this makes you happy. Adler's face slides into view when he kneels beside Bell: His features are blurry and the colors somehow don't feel right. But he's not smiling. He almost looks.. sad.

 A hand slides against Bell's cheek, pressing gently, tilting his head a bit to the right and allowing him a clearer view of his would-be murderer. It's easier now to see  how Adler's face is pinched downwards in a grimace. Adler stares down at his dying protégé just as much as he stares back, once vibrant emerald eyes now dull and swimming with uncertainty and betrayal as he teeters on the edge of oblivion. 

 Bell wishes he had something else to dwell on in his final moments. Something that was his and not the manufactured memories pounded into his head by Adler and his trigger phrase. He tries to think back to before the CIA, before MK-Ultra, before Perseus. All he comes up with is Adler's smug smile as he wakes him in Vietnam. Fake. How Sims and he recovered the Russian comms log during Operation Fracture Jaw. Fake. Fending off the VC attack after his bird is knocked from the sky. All of it, fake.  

 The anguish of knowing there's nothing left of him- the real him- brings a burning to his eyes. Who am I? Bell doesn't realize he's crying until a gloved thumb brushes a tear from his cheek. 

 "Hey." 

 Bell's cold. The jacket does nothing to keep him warm. His limbs feel impossibly heavy. Any trail of thought he has slips between his fingers before he has time to complete it. No matter how much he blinks the world stays blurry and he's losing the energy to keep his eyes open. He tries to focus on Adler's face but he's nothing more than a tan smudge against a blue sky. 

 Bell's so, so tired...

 "You did good, kid."

 Deep down Bell knew it was always going to end like this. He was never truly part of the team. That was apparent in the way Sims refused to acknowledge him (didn't their time together in Vietnam mean anything?) or in the pitying look Mason would cast his way when he thought Bell wasn't looking (like he somehow understood..)

 Above all he knew from the way Hudson spoke about him.

  Bell? Don't get me started...

  Are you taking him into the KGB with you? Are you crazy ?

  If we can't control the asset, we end the asset.

 Bell's eyes flutter close and they don't open again. The warmth at his side, Adler's warmth, is only there a moment longer before it pulls away and is gone, leaving Bell alone with only the abyss. 

 Dying isn't what Bell ever imagined it to be. He feels light, like he's floating amongst the clouds. The coldness has long since seeped away to a numbness and he forgot about the hard concrete below him. Bell can't hear anything, can't feel anything. The abyss swallows him whole. He bathes in its darkness and floats in its silence, drifting through oblivion.

 Bell doesn't expect to ever open his eyes again. Without medical intervention, there was no logical way he would survive the bullet in his chest. This makes it all the more jarring when he's dragged into consciousness. He simply lays there at first, the numbness creeping back in and replacing the blissful void of nothingness he felt while unconscious.

 It's dark when he finally musters the energy to squint open his eyes. Gone is the calm cliffside in which Adler shot him at. Instead, he's in an unfamiliar room with faded green walls and blankets around him that are far too stiff and cause his aching body to itch . There's railings on either side of him, the kind you'd find on a hospital bed or to prevent children from rolling off the side at night. Voices resonate just behind a closed door. They're hushed and aggressive but Bell can't make out what they're saying. When they fall silent the light beneath the door flicks off and he's left with only a digital clock for illumination.

 Bell drifts in and out of awareness. He can't keep track of the passing time. On one occasion there's movement at his bedside and voices filling his ears.

 "..ell? B…?" 

"Is.. wake..?"

"Damn.. all, he… again.."

"Bell?"

 When he looks up, their face is too blurry to make out. Someone joins them at his side, but they are too fuzzy to see as well. Their voices sound like they're speaking underwater; too far and too jumbled to make out. Moments later he's unconscious once more.

 It's night again once Bell is able to stay awake properly. He feels heavy but warm and the room spins when he tries to look around. It's not until he tries to raise a hand to calm the spinning that he realizes something is wrong. He only manages to lift his arm a few inches before something stops him. Confused, he tries tugging a few times. A metallic jingle fills his ears. Looking over confirms his suspicions: He's handcuffed to the railing. Swallowing down the building panic, Bell tries the other arm only to find it just as restrained to the opposite railing. 

 He tries to keep calm. He really does. But it's all too much for him; he should be dead, he knows that. Not chained up inside an unfamiliar room with no idea how or when he got here, or who brought him here in the first place. A memory forces itself to the front of his mind.

  Bell woke up to voices. "I gotta admit," the first voice, American, rumbled, drawing his attention. It took some effort but Bell managed to lull his head towards the speaker. Two individuals peered down at him. "I didn't expect him to recover so quickly." His limbs were restrained, preventing any movement. "He's a resilient one," the second person agreed. Bell did his best to hold back his fear and anxiety. This certainly wasn't Perseus nor the KGB, which only meant he was now in the hands of the enemy. He wouldn't let them break him. 

  Not again. Bell fights against his restraints as hysteria begins to take hold. I can't do this again. Losing his mind once was too much; no way he could withstand being reset a second time. A rapid beep-beep-beep fills his ears but the Russian is too fixated on freeing himself to pay it much attention. A light flips on beneath the door, encouraging him to struggle all the more. 

 "Bell!" The door flings open. There's hands on his shoulders. "Bell, you're safe!" He thrashes. The light flicks on. "What's going on?" The hands leave Bell's shoulders and move to the sides of his head, forcing him to turn wide-eyed toward a familiar face. "Bell, hey, calm down," Lazar sooths.

 Bell falls still from exhaustion. His chest heaves with each rapid breath. Eyes wide, he stares between Lazar at his side and Park, who stands tense at the door. 

 "Bell-"

"Lazar, what's going on-"

"Park, not now-"

"I knew we couldn't trust him."

"Park, please! You're not helping." The MI6 agent scoffs but relents, leaving Lazar alone with Bell. 

 Bell trembles with a fear like he's never felt before. "Bell," Lazar tries again with a weak smile. "It's alright. You're safe. We're at an MI6 safehouse. I'm, uh… sorry. About the cuffs. It's the only way Park would agree.."

 "How..?" Bell only manages a croak, throat tight. 

 "Call it a hunch," Lazar offered. "I knew something was off with Adler. Followed you guys. Got there after everything already went down. We tried to patch you up the best we could with the equipment we have here. You've been out for a few days." Bell calms himself and listens intently. The exhaustion is clear on the Russian's face. 

 "I just.. I feel like I owe you, Bell. You saved my life back in Cuba." Lazar sighs softly. "Park is.. weary. She thinks you'll turn on us now that you've, well," he motions awkward towards Bell. "Now that you've begun to break your programming." 

 Lazar's face turns serious when he stares into Bell's eyes. "I didn't think it was fair to cut you out of the picture before you had the choice to decide who you really are." 

  The choice to decide who I really am...

 The distress must be noticeable on Bell's face because Lazar suddenly lightens up with a smile and gentle squeeze to his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. It'll take time, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. You chose to tell the truth, you can't be all that bad, eh?" 

 Bell's head is a hurricane of emotion despite Lazar's teasing reassurance. Aside from his meeting with Perseus, the implanted memories, and everything that's happened to him in the past couple months, Bell knew nothing about himself. Am I righteous? Am I a terrorist? Just? Prejudice ? If he's honest with himself.. he was terrified of the truth. It was so much easier to be told who he was, to do what he was told, to put his trust in the team and his life in Adler's hands.

  Adler.

 "Get some rest." Lazar's voice shakes Bell from his thoughts. "We can talk more tomorrow, sort everything out. Don't worry about Park- she's suspicious but she wouldn't hurt you." Somehow, Bell isn't entirely convinced. He doesn't comment on it. 

 ".. Spasiba, Lazar. For saving me." 

 Lazar pauses at the door and turns. His surprise turns into another small, genuine smile. "No problem, Bell."

 Alone once again in the dark, Bell takes a shaky breath. He doesn't realize he's clenching his hands until he feels the ache. It takes some time but he relaxes the best he can and takes stock of his condition. Head throbbing, chest burning, mind buzzing with uncertainty and raw with emotion, but undeniable alive . 

  "It's always been for the greater good."

 There's a feeling he can't quite shake. It brings apprehension. Bell's not sure what will happen next. Will his would-be rescuers turn him in? Will Adler come back to finish the job? Will I ever get my memory back? Many questions burn in the Russian's head and not many answers come to mind. What now? He could roll over and accept the fate thrust upon him and die as Adler intended. Starting a new life away from it all couldn't be that bad either. Or…

  Or he could finish the mission. 

 Whoever he was before Bell may never know. It doesn't matter; that person is dead. The CIA reinvented him and gave life to 'Bell'. Now he has to live with that. Whether or not they like it they gave him a job. Find Perseus and stop him. 

 He found Perseus once.

 He'd find him again.

[rip-a-dip-dip-you-potato-chip]

what have I created?

idk if yall like this, but they just exist not i guess :/

ok the the first one is Royalty AU

first things first, when I say Royalty AU, I don't mean the classic shit we've all become accustomed to. Im talking about the good old Chinese royalty! And I want to emphasize that these guys will/should be dressed in century appropriate attire. As someone thats read a handful of 'marinette, princess of china' fics from the ML Fandom, I've noticed a common trend. Marinette wouldn't be in the culturally appropriate clothes, always ballgowns. Not that there's something wrong with it, its just most of if not all these fic are set in China, so I'd expect Chinese royalty to dress as THERE dress code calls for. And since this AU takes place far in the past like, it won't make sense for any of the characters to be in royal clothing that wasn't from there region. I'm not trying to white knight/gatekeeping. Im Guyanese not Chinese. But since JTTW and Monkie Kid take place in China, it's only right. In my opinion that it. You don't have to outright agree with me.

With out of the way, it's time for that good old AU crack

- Wukong is the king of the Flower Fruit kingdom(or a different one if you'd like, again I'm only familiar with what western culture has taught me, but I'll try my hardest) 

- he’s single but rumor has it he used to/still is dating the Vigilante/thief The Six Eared Macaque

- *chants ShadowPeach violently* 

- no one know whether it true or not

- On of his wanders around the kingdom he finds an abandoned baby in a basket. 

- and no shit sherlock it's fucking baby Xiaotian 

- I think we all know where this is going because i'm a simp for Monkey Dad & Monkie Son shenanigans

- Xiaotian becomes prince

Shit, ill be referring to Xiaotian as Mk from now on, I mentioned this before in a fic I wrote for lmk that Mk's a nickname for Xiaotian for some reason- wait i don't have to explain my self to you people!

- Sun loves his son

- MK is treated differently by staff and others because he's not blood related to the king

- no one mistreats MK per say, because there King loved his adopted son, but words are said behind his back

- Sometimes MK hears what’s said, and he feels as if he won't live up to his dad’s legacy.

- He meets Mei during a festival

- Mei is from a noble family, that wouldn't mind if they got a connection into the royal family.

- but it becomes hella clear to Mei’s family very fast that the two are just friends, and will always will be. but hey there daughter is bffs with the prince so that's a plus.       

_

- the Demon Bull Family is rules a kingdom as well, I dont/am not creative enough to think of a name I leave that to you.

- It's a common misconception that DBK is a tyrant, when he’s not. 

- most of the time...

- they have been at war with the Monkey King for some time now and settled for a peace agreement.

- that agreement being there sons to marry

- oooo original i know

- MK and Red Son are roughly the same age, Mk being 20 and RS 22

- RS is revolted/disgusted at the idea of being wed to the Monkey Kings child, even more so when he realizes MK is adopted,

- but, that all changes the second he meets MK while he meets him by accident when he gets kinda lost in the palace when he and his parents go to discuss the arrangements.

- the second he looks at MK, he's instantly in love. MK less so, he's nervous and honestly kinda bummed he's not marrying someone he loves but it's for the good of his ppl, and he'll do anything for them.

- RS isn't even aware that MK is Suns adopted son until MK walks him back to the meeting room.

"Oh There you are MK! I was about to have a servant go fetch you!" Sun Wukong says, gesturing for his boy to come sit with him.

"S-sorry for keeping you waiting I got caught up in my lessons with Mr. Tang" MK responds, sitting next to his father. Red Son looked gobsmacked. The beautiful young man he had bumped into, was the prince of this land? Damn, life truly blessed him. Or cursed him depending on how you looked at it.

- the two are left alone in a separate room for a while.

- And MK straight up tells RS why he's agreeing to this union.

"Look Red Son. I've dreamed about meeting my one true love for a while. And I would give almost anything for that dram to be real. But I wouldn't ever dare give up my people, for as there price they mean more to me. I'm doing this for them, no other reason" MK says, his back straight and hands folded neatly in his lap. The look in his eyes was a mix of sadness, but that was drowned out by loyalty and determination. It just made Red Son fall for him even harder. Clearing his throat Red spoke.

"I understand, for im doing this for the betterment of my people to. But I propose a wager"

"A wager?"

"Yes, if i can make you fall in love with me by years end, before our marriage, we can live together like in the fairy tales from far away. But if I fail, in a years time afterwards you will be permitted to find your own path in life" Red Son stated. MK took a moment to process what was happening.

"So, if you succeed in making me fall in love with you, before our marriage we can live happily ever after?" Red Son nodded in response, letting the younger continue.

"And if I shouldn't fall for you, in a years time after our union, im free to leave?" Red Son nodded once more.

"So, what do you say?"

...

"Deal"

In the end, your free to choose their fate, should Red Son win the hart of Mk? Will he fail? Or will he let him go, and let him travel the country, after all Mk's a free spirit and keeping him trapped in a big house is like keeping a cannery trapped in a cage only for its song, only for it to dul. Or will the unthinkable happen and will both boys find their freedom? together or appart? I don't know, because that's all up to you 😉

personally, I’m partial to where MK and Red Son both find freedom together. Like they straight up run away together to somewhere far away and just live out there lives together. 

this could also be genderbent thing as well. MK or Red as their respective counterparts. Again it doesn't have to be, but it’s whatever bro. im just spitting out the idea. 

Also, there is a main side plot that they fight the WBS throughout the year as well, along with other shenanigans you wanna throw in.

____

The second is a My Hero Academia/BNH/MHA AU

truth be told i'm not a big fan of MHA i think it to over hyped(this is also coming from the same person that’s a Fairy Tail fan lol), and the fandom i don't even know how to describe that mess, but I will admit not the whole of its toxic since every fandom has some toxic members, some even more so. 

I just sometimes find myself enjoying MHA AUs like the Fullmetal Alchemist, Danny Phantom, Evil!Deuk AU and several others. 

to make it clear I don't see this AU taking place the same time as the main plot of the actual Anime/Manga. This could be either like 6-10 years before or after the plot idk bro. But i’ll do this after the main story plot of MHA, so keep that in mind ya? another thing, the gang is still in China, the top hero school in the world just so happens to be in Japan, and it’s only ever mentioned by Sun wukong and other pro heros. So MK never attended AU. in short it’s only ever mention/ reference.  

_

- Mk was considered Quirkless as a kid. 

- he was just a late blumer, i swear  

- Mai’s Quirk is called Dragon. 

- it pretty much works the same way as it does in the show(duh)

- Tang’s got a knowledge Quirk, 

- my man can retain information and he’s basically an archive of information drawback being his personality lol 

- Piggsy is a Animal that gained a Quirk

- in cannon to my current knowledge, there are two other characters that can confirm animals can become sentient. the characters being Fumikage Tokoyami, & Nezu the principal at the school UA.  

- Sandy is just Conner Kent, aka he like superman but can't fly, or shoot lasers from his eyes. And blue.  

I have two scenarios for Macaque and Wukong  

*- The first one is that, Sun Wukong & Macaque are brothers. twins to be exact. 

- they where legit people, but have mutation quirks that made them too like monkeys. 

- the added powers were just a boues. 

- Sun and Mac are close growing up, like there brothers but also best friends.

- the draw back to there quirks could honestly be whatever you want bro idk, same with the others tbh. Personally I like to think Sun just has lack of motivation, and Macaque needs to draw on other people's energy.

- Sun is a hero, Monkey KIng and Mac is a villain Six Eared.

- Sun was always treated has the golden child in the family, Mac always resented that, but there shitty up bring didn’t stop the two from being good brothers to one another.

- soon tho the resentment became hatred when Sun was able to attend UA in Japan, while Mac didn't.

- Mac be angy 

- so he became a villain, and joined the Chinese branch of the LOV(league of villains)

- Sun doesn't know this till he finds out during the all out war during the main story. and by that time he’s a full on hero with is own agency(The Flower Fruit agency)    

- when the hero's ultimately win and Mac is arrested 

- This ultimately hurts Sun a lot, his brother was in jail now, arrested for his involvement and wrong doings, he knew nothing about this! this brother, his blood. A bad guy? why? he hadn't seen his brother since he left for UA, he hadn’t seen him when he came home, and started his agency. 

- this just puts Sun into a funk so he’s not as active as he used to be, and he starts thinking he might need a successor 

*- The second one is that they were two separate people that had similar quirks and both attended UA but Sun ended up in the hero corse. so 1A.

- Both Macaque and Sun have similar quirks, Sun’s is obviously more light based while Macaque’s is more shadow based(this applies to the first one as well)    

- Macaque was placed in class 1B, U.A.’s High's Heroics Department, I believe, you can correct me. 

- In cannon Class 1A and 1B both went to the training camp. I can see the teachers pinning Sun and Macaque against each other to hone their skills. 

- And because of that they become great friends    

- In fact when they graduate they both co-found there hero agency together in China and are a duo.

- But due to Monkey King’s popularity and Six Eared's association with shadows(people sometimes saying he has more of a villains quirk than a heros) the public see’s Macaque as Sun’s sidekick when thats far from the truth. 

- now it’s up to you whether you think that Wukong and Macaque would be in a relationship together, but knowing how cooked we all are, ShadowPeach is a thing here more than likely. 

- If you do or don’t support/ like the ShadowPeach aspect, the two would be living together regardless since its more cost efficient. 

- They my be heroes but living costs are expensive!   

- I would imagine there would have been a huge fight/argument between the two in privet of course, at there home.(or in there shared office if you want the extra angst of the other people they work with hearing them fight)   

- If the two are dating, then this would either lead to an out right breakup, or Macaque just up and leaving with Wukong thinking he’ll come back once he’s cooled off. But after a week, with no sign of his partner, or him answering texts or calls, not even coming into work. Wukong gets worried that something might have happened to him. so there wouldn't be a confirmation if they were still a thing or not. 

- But Wukong remains hopeful, despite the nagging at the back of his head, and gut telling him to go find Macaque, or atleast make a public statement, or even just tell another pro hero about it.   

- on the not so shippy side, Macaque and Wukong still have there argument, and much like the ShadowPeach esc side, Macaque up and leaves, and isn't seen for weeks. the only difference here is that when Wukong comes home one night to there flat, most if not all of Macaques stuff is gone. 

- where as if this was the ShadowPeach side, Macaque leaves all of his possession in the flat he and wukong share. for the simple reason being, he still loves him and wants to go back, but Macaque being Macaque can’t bring himself to do it, especially after seeing just how hurt Wukong looked when he yelled at him just before he left.  

- in other words, ANGST DIALED UP TO A 10 BABY  

- in either case, its a news report that confirms Wukong's suspicions that he desperately didn’t want to believe, and that is Macaque turning into a villain.

- much like if the two were brothers, Wukong just can’t take it and is no longer as active as he once was, and is thinking about, either A) Retirement  B) Saying, “Fuck Society, Be Gay Do Crime” and join Macaque as a villain himself, or C) find a successor, and a way to bring Macaque back to there side, but most importantly, back to him.    

- also extra points if you're after people's hearts and want to make them suffer;  - If there dating, Wukong curle’s up in the bed he and Macaque shared, holding/wearing something of great value to Macaque and just crying himself to sleep, where as Macaque is getting wasted on alcohol, as he stumbles out of the bar he’s in, he either see’s something that reminds him of Wukong or while he’s trying to put his wallet back into his pocket, a photo of them on their first date fall’s out. and Macaque just cries in a nearby alley way. And it’s there where he gets indoctrinated into the League.

       - If there just friends, macaque heads to the nearest forest and just levels it, where as Wukong just gets engrossed into his work, trying not to think about it. you could add you own spin on this, again i'm just spitballing.             

- NOW BACK TO MK! :D     

- Obviously MK is a huge Monkey King fan     

- at Twenty MK has come to terms he's quirkless (HE’S NOT)

-for ANGST reasons MKs fokes kicked him out at this realization at 13.

- he works at Piggsy's Noodle shop, and has been since he was 14.

- don't need a quirk to drive or cook!

- the boy lives a content life with his new family, till DBK happens :D

- DBK runs a Mafia(in conjunction with TLOV) and has been in jail for like 5 years thanks to Monkey King, PIF and RS brake him out one night when MK's out making a late night delivery since Piggsy had the bright idea to go 24/7 service!

- one thing leads to another and Mk somehow manifest what looks like the Monkey King's staff, but its not, it’s MKs powers, it just so happens to be the same power the Monkey King has. And it practically goes down the same way in the pilot. 

- but unlike the pilot Mk and Mei go straight to the FF Agency, after making a panicked call to Pigsy and Tang.

- one way or another Mk are lead into Wukongs office. Mei being forced to stay in the lobby.

- they have there convo, butterfly monkey squishing included.

- "And so, I want you do be my success-" BOOM 💥

- from there they rush downstairs and see that the lobby has been infiltrated by the DB fam, and you know fight.

- once the DB family seems like there down, PIF wisks them away. Much to Monkey King’s displeasure.

From there stuff kind plays out like cannon, the calabash ep is just a conjoint quirk the Demon bros have. As for EP9, ill have to script that one out myself lol. I'll get onto it as soon as my will to commit stabs me in the face. Till then have a dancing Kermit the frog.

Now if you'll excuse me, am about to Kermit a felony :D

(For legal reasons thats a joke)

Psst @writingamongther0ses its done

[onebadwinter]

The Joker Tropes Part 2

Taken From Here and here

Nether Realm Studios especially seems to love making Joker out to be evil incarnate. In Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel, he loses all his cred (and life) once he nukes Metropolis; Harley ditches him entirely, Batman just completely gives up on indulging him any more, even Guest Fighters like Hellboy consider him worthless, and non-Batvillains such as Grodd and Brainiac and even Darkseid loathe him for either Metropolis, or just in general principle. Mortal Kombat 11 shows that even the MK cast see him as a scourge upon the realms, and also express distaste toward him for either his nuking, a previous outing, or because he's seen as a buffoon who cannot be taken seriously (this is usually the case for other villain characters).

About the only person who can tolerate him for long is Lex Luthor, only because they both have the same level of hatred for their respective enemies. Even then, Luthor prefers to keep his distance from the Joker, if only because a bored Joker screws with everything For the Evulz.

In the animated series, he claims to have been beaten as a child when interviewed by Harley Quinn. It is unknown if this is true. According to Batman, he's simply making it up.

In one issue of New 52, he claims to have been driven insane by an abusive grandmother, who also bleached his skin to its present pallor.

In the same continuity, he is one to a baby gorilla he adopts, trains up as a gun-wielding henchman, and ultimately gets killed off for laughs.

In the comic book adaptation of Injustice, it's implied Harley fears Joker would be one, and gives their daughter to her sister, lest he kill the child. It's left ambiguous whether the Joker's even aware of the ruse.

Averted in one story, wherein one of Arkham's doctors realizes Joker's faking insanity just to piss off Batman as revenge for his disfigurement. Another doctor finds the report and excitedly reveals it to the current head doctor, only to learn that  the Joker left it for everyone to read, since the paper's written by Harley Quinn, and therefore worthless as evidence.

In Batman: The Man Who Laughs, it's established that the name "The Joker" was given to him by the media, and he liked it so much that he decided to call himself that.

The same happens in Joker (2019), where Murray tells the audience to "look at this joker" when talking about Arthur. Arthur took it to heart.

Batman: Arkham Knight takes this even further by revealing that being forgotten is the only thing the Joker truly fears.

Just to demonstrate how much disregard he has for his henchmen, a reoccurring motivation for offing his own lackeys is failing to laugh at one of his jokes. Or laughing too late. Or laughing for too long. Or laughing at the wrong joke. He's... unpredictable.

The Joker loves it when people laugh with him, whether genuine or not, but if someone laughs at him, they're most likely already dead.

Joker loves attention and being above the normals, so never imply that he's not interesting or unique. Terry exploits this flaw in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker just to drive him to a Villainous Breakdown.

The Batman Who Laughs. Since the character's first appearance in Dark Nights: Metal, the mere mention of him is enough to put The Joker in an uncharacteristically un-jolly mood and is a good way to get on his bad side. In fact, the dislike of this twisted version of his archnemesis is so great, that when Lex Luthor and The Legion of Doom started cooperating with him against Joker's protests, he quit the legion (after non-lethally jokerizing every other member of it) in disgust.

If you're going to hurt Batman, do it right. One of the supplementary stories for Joker War had him beyond furious with Bane - to the point of promising him he'd kill him in a way he would never see coming - for showing so little imagination in killing Alfred in City of Bane without even letting Batman listen to it to torture him. By his reckoning, if you have a great gag to break the Bat, use it to break the Bat - don't blow it by having Robin be the only one to witness it.

Originally Conrad Veidt from The Man Who Laughs.

Later portrayals base themselves on his actors, with Cesar Romero a popular candidate, and after Jack Nicholson came in, artists such as Alex Ross base him on him, such as the actor's distinct widow's peak and slicked back hair.

During Knightfall he and Scarecrow killed several members of a SWAT team, and one of his last actions in Batman: No Man's Land was to kill Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Lt. Sarah Essen.

One of the alternate realities seen in Zero Hour! was one where he killed Commissioner Gordon instead of crippling Barbara.

Part of the reason Gordon takes over the post of Commissioner in both The Dark Knight Trilogy and Batman: Arkham Series is due to the Joker killing Gillian Loeb. Additionally, the first game in the latter series, Asylum, he sees several of Arkham's guards killed by him and his men.

He's holding a dead cop's corpse in his intro in Injustice: Gods Among Us and using it as a puppet. He also talks to the body of one of the Regime enforcers who captured him once he breaks out and heads to Gotham.

Whether he was driven insane or was already insane and became completely bonkers.

Where he is on the spectrum between "wacky prankster" and "utterly depraved and sadistic sociopath and murderer".

Whether he is a senseless, performative terrorist wreaking havoc for kicks or a deceptively cunning and competent criminal mastermind. Or both. Usually both.

He's no Batman, but sometimes he is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant, Knife Nut or marksman, and other times a flimsy wimp who goes down in one punch. In some of the grittier settings, his raw strength, numbness to pain and viciousness are enough to level the playing field with Batman.

Whether he actually loves Harley Quinn varies. In the animated series, (where Harley first appeared) the writers haveoutright said he's a sociopath incapable of loving anyone, and just sees her as a useful mook. Some other works imply he really does love her on some level (although he's usually still an abusive asshole.)

He can either be Faux Affably Evil, Laughably Evil, just a Monster Clown, or some combination of the three.

At least one such incident implied he would be interested in Batman... but only after he was dead. Again this may only have been a tactic to get under Batman's skin or truthful admission. The readers will never know for certain.

His plot in The Killing Joke is to put Jim Gordon through the wringer hard in the hopes of driving him mad. He'll also try to drive Batman over the edge (particularly, drive him to break his "no killing" rule), sometimes by cutting off all of Batsy's human connections.

The Dark Knight reworks it into Driving Gotham To Senseless Violence with wanton acts of destruction or terrorism, just to prove everyone's as bad as him deep down.

Ironically, a 1952 story has the Joker get himself falsely committed to an insane asylum, to question a patient who knew the location of a cache of money. The end of the story has him Laughing Mad due to a prank Batman used to disguise his identity.

He didn't have his signature laugh. This seems to have been a way to "goofy up" the character to make him less terrifying in the days of the Comics Code Authority. Later on, he'd learn to giggle while remaining terrifying.

He actually committed crimes for moneynote , and wasn't really interested in causing chaos or terror for a joke's sake.

Building off of that, his plans weren't really "insane" until the Silver Age (at which point it's not even fair to say this was exclusive to him), nor was there any question of the character's mental stability.

His obsession with Batman wasn't there, much less the idea that he would pass up chances to kill the Bat or learn his identity. This aspect was probably introduced to explain the Bond Villain Stupidity he (and every Batman villain) had become infamous for in the Silver Age.

His clown-like complexion was actually makeup in his early appearances. He even removed his makeup to disguise himself as a cop, which was referenced in The Dark Knight. It's later revealed that the look is permanent after falling in a vat of chemicals.

The Brave and the Bold #111 and #191 have him team up with Batman to clear his name after being framed for several murders. The first instance turned out to simply be a framing the guilty part occasion but the second instance was actually genuine on Joker's part (except the person Joker seemingly murdered turned out to be faking their death).

He also does this with Batman whenever The Batman Who Laughs is involved (specifically in the Dark Knights: Metal series).

He abruptly ends a partnership with Red Skull when his Nazi affiliation comes out. Red Skull simply wonders why he is so surprised when he thinks that the Joker would make a great Nazi. The Joker is NOT happy about this, proclaiming "I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an American criminal lunatic!" It even provides the trope's image. And yes, folks, even an equal-opportunity murderer like the Joker despises the Nazis!note

The exception is mentioned again in the Last Laugh arc where the Joker immediately refused to join the American Neo-Nazi Aryan Alliance group in the Slab after he was offered membership. Joker: I'm evil and all that, but you guys are just plain mean.

Will not harm dumb animals and doesn't condone it. There's no humor to be had in that. Higher primates apparently do not qualify but a lot more effort went into that one.

While in Arkham with villain Warren White, AKA the Great White Shark, Joker calls him the worst person he ever met. He states that while he may kill people, even he doesn't steal their kids' college funds.

Sees nothing funny about someone parking in a handicap spot when they're not handicapped. However, he does think it's hilarious to hurt them in ways that will make certain they'll always be able to park there.

A girl named Janey Bennett, whose class was studying criminal behavior, became pen pals with the Joker while he was in Arkham. When Janey revealed that her father, the mayor of Motor City, was abusing her (exactly how isn't specified, though it was implied to have been really bad) the Joker broke out and, convinced that the authorities would be of no help, tried to force the mayor into admitting to his crimes and giving him Janey (so that he could find a better home for her) by threatening to contaminate the city's blood supply, going through with it (because the ends justify the means) when the mayor refused to give in to his demands. He originally intended to give her to Batman as well so he could protect her but at the end decided to give her to her mom. Joker: I mean, stealing a city blind is something I can admire... but being mean to one's own daughter... that just makes my blood boil.

For a rather literal form of "standard", the Joker's team-up with Carnage in Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds fell apart in part because the Joker, known for his love of theatrics, found Kasady's desire to get straight to killing boring. Conversely, Kasady didn't like the Joker's flair for theatrics.

The Joker absolutely loathes The Batman Who Laughs, to the point where he drops his usual joking demeanor and is deathly serious whenever directly referring to him, even willing to work together with Batman to face him when it comes down to it. When Lex Luthor goes behind his back to make a deal with The Batman Who Laughs (going against the only condition Joker has for joining his plan), Joker responds by Joker-gassing the Legion of Doom, putting Lex into a series of deathtraps, trashing Lex's Power Armor, and quitting the Legion. In the process, he tells Luthor how he had planned on ruining the Legion utterly on the verge of victory, and as nightmarish as his plan sounded, he claims it is nothing compared to what the Batman Who Laughs is going to do.

While he still gloated about it and found Commissioner Gordon kneecapping him funny after remember that he'd crippled Barbara, the actual act of killing Sarah Essen in the penultimate issue of Batman: No Man's Land is one of the few times the Joker wasn't happy with something he himself did, considering he's seen walking away while scowling afterward, leaves the babies he originally planned to murder unharmed and immediately turns himself in to the police.

Emperor Joker sees the Joker disgusted with a corrupted Jimmy O Lsen tormenting the Superfamily and Batman when they're turned int animals.

Later one he is disgusted when his minions vandalize the Moai on Eastern Island.

Again, when he rescues Lex from The Batman Who Laugh's infected minions in Hell Arisen, the mere mention of his alternate universe rival prompts him to have a very uncharacteristic Freak Out. The Joker: I told you. I told you not to deal with him. You should have shot that thing in the head the second you had it in a cage! It is wrong. It is a wrong thing.

Played more straight in his relationship with Punchline. Only time will tell if it lasts.

There’s also a comic storyline when Hush informed that a dirty cop Office Halmet killed his wife Jeannie. The Joker wanted nothing more than to kill said cop in revenge. Then there’s Batman: Three Jokers where, despite it being being heavily implied he was abusive, the “Comedian” Joker is seen setting up fake tea parties with dolls, clearly trying to substitute them for his wife and child showing that he does miss them and desire to be a family with them.

While The Dark Knight is one of the few times the Joker's clown-like appearance is the result of make-up, he does sport a Glasgow Grin.

While Joker still has the permanent clown look, it's combined with the Glasgow Grin.

While Batman: Endgame would see the skin of his face restored with a chemical called Dionesiumnote , at the start of The New 52, the Joker had the Dollmaker skin his face and then, after he recovered it, spent Death of the Family wearing it like a Leatherface-esque mask. And even in Endgame, his restored face ends up badly burned as the result of the finale battle between him and Batman, though it still ends up restored again.

Gotham sees neither Valeska escape this. After his death in season 2, Jerome (the proto-Joker) ends up resurrected in season 3, but because Dwight thinks his attempt to revive him failed, Dwight ends up cutting off Jerome's face ala Death of the Family and Jerome ends up stapling it on when he catches up with Dwight and while he later has it properly reattached, there's still scars from what happened. Jeremiah, Jerome's twin and the show's true Joker, ends up with the "perma-clown" appearance due to Jerome having the Scarecrow brew something up to spray in Jeremiah's face, but season 5 sees his fateful fall at Ace Chemicals badly scar his face and sear off most of his hair with only stringy patches left.

Averted entirely in Joker (2019), where his clown appearance is entirely makeup, and the worst it gets is painting his iconic smile on his face with his own blood from a car crash. Not even a Glasgow Grin or anything, the blood is from his hand and his face only has a few normal cuts on it.

While Batman is a rather serious character who refuses to kill anyone, The Joker is a rather comical character who revels in death.

Joker's gadgets tend to be rather goofier but much more lethal, such as the Joker Venom that he often uses to kill his victims.

While Batman gets along well with his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl, Joker frequently abuses his sidekick Harley Quinn and has tried to kill her before, not to mention all the times he has been a Bad Boss by killing his henchmen for any reason you can think of, sometimes for no reason at all.

While Batman's backstory is well known, even by the citizens of Gotham who know of the tragedy of the rich Waynes' in Crime Alley, no one knows anything about the Joker's backstory, but most versions he tells are consistent in two things: he was a nobody, and possibly someone poor.

In most adaptations, his voice is high-pitched in contrast to Batman's Badass Baritone.

Why he went by the name the Red Hood has changed over the years: The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian driven to crime to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement from jumping in the acid and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him insane. However, even this backstory is questionable, as the Joker himself calls it "multiple choice".

In Injustice 2, an intro with Atrocitus has the Red Lantern wondering what drove the Joker to nihilism.

In the animated series, he claims to have been abused as a child when interviewed by Harley, but according to Batman, it's just another ruse to escape Arkham.

The purple suit and matching pants with either an orange and/or green shirt with a bowtie or tie, remains the definitive Joker look one that many artists and costume designers have given spin on. He is sometimes known for wearing a cool hat but other times goes hatless. Heath Ledger's custom-designed purple long-coat, trousers, blue shirt and green Waistcoat of Style with a tie has likewise become iconic and famous for its contemporary and downright stylish update on the classic look.

The original Red Hood outfit which is a black suit, white shirt, bowtie with an opera cap and a bizarre red dome is also quite famous.

The Hawaiian tourist outfit he wore in the notorious scene in The Killing Joke.

The white suit he wears in Miller's The Dark Knight Returns as well as the white nurse maid outfit with red wig in The Dark Knight is also quite notable.

The Future Joker look from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker which went with a mime look (black body suit, slicked-back hair) is also quite distinct and unique.

The first issue of Batman with Joker's debut has him described as having "burning, hate-filled eyes" and the moniker, "the harliquin of hate".

The Man Who Laughs had Bruce dosed with a light version of the Joker Venom and he felt his perspective shift into a paranoid vengeance were he felt everyone deserved to be punished for his parent's death just for existing.

Death of the Family had Batman describe how Joker's irises are always narrow when looking at anyone but Batman and that it is usually an indication of negative feelings toward something with Bruce mentioning that his eye are the eyes of someone who hates everything he sees.

In the Justice League storyline "Rock of Ages", Martian Manhunter has to put in incredible effort to reorganize Joker's mind long enough for him to give up the cataclysmic Philosopher's Stone. The briefly sane Joker immediately says My God, What Have I Done? verbatim as he hands it back, before quickly losing his mind and going back to the laughing madman.

The famous example from the end of The Killing Joke, where Batman tries to convince him to allow Batman to rehabilitate him before their vendetta kills them. Joker considers it for a long, somber moment before quietly reflecting that they're both too far gone.

Batman: Cacophony ends with Joker being pumped full of an inhuman amount of antipsychotic drugs to keep him under control while in recovery from a near-fatal stabbing. Batman takes the opportunity to have a relatively-sane conversation with him, though it's somewhat subverted by Joker still being a homicidal sociopath even while heavily sedated.

He even gives multiple reasons on how he came Back from the Dead in Injustice 2 and will go along with whatever his opponent thinks is true, despite being Dead All Along in story mode and only appearing as a hallucination to his ex-moll.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sees him kill David Endochrine and Ruth Weisenheimer, who were clearly based on David Letterman and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

During Knightfall, once he realizes that Azrael isn't Batman, his plan's gone to hell, and one too many criticisms from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert stand-ins, he kills the stand-ins.

In one of the issues for the The Batman tie-in comic, The Batman Strikes, he terrorizes a stand-in for Conan O'Brien. This becomes darkly Hilarious in Hindsight as the real O'Brien voiced Endochrine in the animated version of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In the series proper, Harley's debut had the two of them terrorize a stand-in for Dr. Phil for the climax.

If you want to know how truly terrifying The Batman Who Laughs is, look no further than the way Joker acts whenever discussing him. He doesn't laugh, he doesn't smile. He becomes calm and serious and simply tells whomever he's talking to that the TBWL is "a wrong thing that shouldn't exist". Someone HAS to be scary if the very thought of him makes Joker act like a calm rational sane person.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the clown has a massive Villainous Breakdown when Terry mocks him for his failed attempts to break Batman.

On the rare occasion Joker gets bored and leaves Gotham, expect everyone to think of him as just a silly clown, until the bodies start piling up.

One issue of the Robin Series had him talking about having Abusive Parents, only for a psychiatrist to tell him it's the seventh story he's told now.

Batman lampshades on this to Harley in the animated series, thinking it's another lie to gain sympathy.

The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian driven to crime to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him mad. However, even this could be a lie, as he himself calls it "multiple choice".

It's even discussed in Injustice 2, as Atrocitus wonders what drove the Joker to nihilism. Despite only appearing as a hallucination to Harley in story mode, he spews out multiple theories for his Unexplained Recovery and will say Sure, Let's Go with That in non-canon fights. Was he resurrected by someone, or is he from another universe? Did he escape from either the Source Wall or the Phantom Zone, or is he just an apparition?

Shadow of the Bat #38, Tears of a Clown: He celebrates his anniversary of the day he was a still sane, but hapless comedian, and was thrown out of an exclusive Stand-Up Comedy club for an unfunny act the patrons mercilessly heckled. It was the last straw as he agreed to provide to his family by pulling a job for the Red Hood gang. So he kidnaps all the patrons and reenacts his act with control collars that will kill them when they laugh. Oddly enough, the patrons are hardcore Stand-Up Comedy fans, so they can't remember the number of times they've booed someone. However, even this origin story could be a lie.

It's come to be his primary disfigurement over the original skin bleaching.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Terry McGinnis exploits this by delivering an epic Boring Insult so the clown will have a Villainous Breakdown.

King Barlowe proved to be a big one in his Thanatos Gambit in the episode "Joker's Millions" of The New Batman Adventures. In a spiteful Video Will, he gives the clown his millions, revealing in his tape that most of it was fake. Expecting the clown to splurge on it, he won't have enough to pay off the IRS, allowing Barlowe to get the "last laugh" after his death, without the Joker coming after him.

Alan Moore's "I go Loony" from The Killing Joke, an in-panel song-and-dance tune that was eventually made into an actual song belted out in Batman: The Killing Joke.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold has "Where's the Fun in That?" from the episode "Emperor Joker".

Batman: Arkham City ended with him covering The Platters' "Only You (and You Alone)", Batman: Arkham Origins had him cover Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold, Heart" and Batman: Arkham Knight had him provide an original composition, "Can't Stop Laughing".

Action Fashionista: This incarnation of the Joker has a wide variety of garish outfits for every occassion — most of them straight from the comics.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Metal teeth, lack of eyebrows, and tattoos aside, he's still being played by the youthful-looking real life Pretty Boy Jared Leto; especially since the last two cinematic Jokers were a creepy middle-aged gangster with a botched face-lift and a filthy, scarred vagrant (even the mentally unwell clown-for-hire doesn't scream Mr. Fanservice one bit). This version looks more like Marilyn Manson.

Adaptational Nice Guy: A very downplayed example. While he's otherwise the same Clown Prince of Crime we all know and love to hate, he appears to genuinely care for Harley, and even throws her out of a falling helicopter to save her life. Almost any other iteration of the Joker would do that to save his own skin or rid himself of her.

Adaptational Skimpiness: This version of the Joker tends to be shirtless a lot more than he has in any other medium. It mostly seems like an opportunity to show off his tattoos.

Adaptation Distillation: Leto's Joker seems to be less of the "evil philosopher" that Heath Ledger portrayed him as in The Dark Knight, and instead seems to be a cross between the garish, larger-than-life Mark Hamill version from the animated series and the Arkham games, and the creepy, deeply twisted Brian Azzarello version. David Ayer had also stated that he looked specifically to the Golden Age Joker for reference, providing reason for many to believe that Leto's Joker is a modern re-imagining of that incarnation.

Advertised Extra: Heavily featured in Suicide Squad promotional materials, barely appears in the film for more than seven minutes. According to Jared Leto, several of the scenes he shot were not included in the theatrical cut.

Ambiguous Disorder: In Suicide Squad, most of the time the Joker seems... not all there compared to Harley. In addition of psychopathic tendencies, the Joker has random bouts of maniacal laughter, confusion, and slurred speech-like patterns. All attributes that stem from punch-drunk syndrome. Considering he has faced Batman one too many times, it makes sense that the Joker's mental stability is finally catching up to him.

However, come Birds of Prey, they broke up, mirroring the comics where they do have an Relationship Revolving Door. It appears to stick, as Harley publicly calls it quits between the two of them.

His tattoos are very reminiscent of the Joker in All Star Batman and Robin.

Ax-Crazy: Like all the incarnations before him, calling him a violent psychopath is one of the biggest understatements you can make.

Bedlam House: Spent some time at Arkham Asylum, where he met Harley. Then he broke free from it with the help of both Harley and his gang.

Chewing the Scenery: An important part of the character is his theatricality.

Cool Car: A bright purple sports car with underglow lights and a "HAHAHA" license plate.

Dented Iron: It's subtle, but the numerous scars on his body and metal replacement teeth in his mouth are clear signs that his frequent run-ins with Batman are taking their toll.

Disney Death: He seemingly dies in the crash of his helicopter... only to come back to free Harley from her high security prison at the end of Suicide Squad.

The Dreaded: In true Joker fashion, everyone is terrified of him.

Establishing Character Moment: One that takes place before he even makes his official debut in the setting - he killed Robin (a minor) and vandalized his outfit to mock Batman over his inability to save him.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Insofar as much as the Joker can love anyone, anyway, but he does seem to genuinely care about Harley. Eventually, subverted.

Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He considers the brutal murder of a minor as a joke he played on Batman. When he's torturing Harleen Quinzel, he promises not to shatter her well-kept teeth while flashing his own hideous metal dentures. When Harleen later has him at gunpoint, Joker just says "please don't kill me, I'll be ya friend" in a snarky tone.

Evil Is Hammy: It's not The Joker if he's not Chewing the Scenery. And, sure enough, he does.

Evil Is Petty: The graffiti on Robin's costume seems to imply that Joker murdered him just to prod at Batman. It is confirmed in Suicide Squad that Joker and Harley killed him.

Evil Laugh: It's kind of his thing. One notable example is when he chuckles while surrounded by an arsenal of weapons.

Fake Shemp: Indie rocker Johnny Goth stood in for Jared Leto in Birds of Prey, in the flashback where he and Harley torture and tattoo the big mafia thug Harley later bumps back into.

Foil: To Batman as usual, but with some new additions. After 20 years, Batman became more jaded and cruel, while the Joker somewhat mellowed out and his criminal activity became more professional. Batman didn't settle down until the death of Superman while the Joker grew attached to Harley Quinn.

In Suicide Squad Griggs' smug indifference about his gambling debt immediately becomes pure terror when he realizes the Joker has gotten involved.

He is so feared that even the likes of Black Mask would rather steer clear of him. Harley's enemies only start gunning for her in Birds of Prey when it's become clear that she's no longer with him.

   G-Y

The Ghost:

There is an allusion to him in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ("HA HA HA Joke's On You, Batman" painted across the chest of the dead Robin's empty suit in the Batcave), but he doesn't actually appear.

He gets mentioned a lot in Birds of Prey, but he's only seen very briefly in some flashbacks, always from the back (including footage from Suicide Squad). There is a whole Deleted Scene where he and Harley have a domestic dispute. Harley leaves the house through the window and the Joker throws her stuffed beaver out through the window. In the film proper, she's just kicked out of the house, with no shot of Mr. J.

Greater-Scope Villain: His role in Batman v Superman. Despite not actually appearing his murder of Robin by this point has driven Batman down a darker, more vengeful path that goes against Batman's traditional moral code; the one that the Joker is always trying to prove is wrong. Batman's rage towards Superman blinds him to the possibility of Lex Luthor being the real threat long enough for Superman to die fighting Doomsday. In a way the Joker's actions contributed to Batman's failure.

Guttural Growler: This Joker is noticeably more snarly than previous incarnations.

Handshake Refusal: He doesn't like to shake hands, as Monster T finds out.

Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears a purple crocodile skin duster at some point in the film.

Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite being a homicidal sociopath, he seems to truly love his girlfriend Harley Quinn. Then in Birds Of Prey, he coldly and violently breaks up with her.

Joker Immunity: He appears to die when his helicopter is shot down about halfway through Suicide Squad. To absolutely no one's surprise, he shows up alive and well in the final scene. It helps that he's the Trope Namer.

Knife Nut: And by God, does he have enough blades.◊

Lean and Mean: This Joker, while muscular, is quite lean, especially compared to the heavily muscled Batman.

Love Epiphany: Well, "love" is pushing it, but Joker realizes his affections for Harley when she dives in the chemical bath that ultimately turned Joker into what he is. Symbolic in the sense she was agreeing to join him in madness. Further adding to the complexity of the scene; Joker was tying up a loose end, having used Harley to escape from Arkham. He lead her to her demise and intended to leave her for death but at the same moment realized she had entered his world and his madness. Joker never anticipated the amount of utter devotion Harley would have for him, something inside him just couldn't walk away from her, so he jumped in to save her.

Manipulative Bastard: He manipulated Harley into helping him escape Arkham because she fell in love with him. When she served her purpose, he would have had her kill herself jumping into a bath of chemicals to prove her feelings. He instead saves her from this demise because he has a Love Epiphany in the moment.

Monster Clown: Like the previous film versions, Joker is an Ax-Crazy criminal with clownish makeup. Green hair notwithsanding, his white makeup, red lipstick and absence of facial scars make him look closer to a mime than his predecessors.

Noble Demon: In Suicide Squad, his whole motivation is to rescue Harley Quinn. His commitment is so strong he doesn't even waste time with pranks or petty acts of cruelty. Everything he does is for someone else.

Only Known By His Nickname: He's only known as The Joker, or "J" / "Mr. J".

Outlaw Couple: He and Harley Quinn are lovers and partners in crime.

Sadist: Even though there was only a few select scenes of him, one of them is him torturing Harley. It's disturbingly obvious that he is positively gleeful over it. And he doesn't seem to have lost any sleep over murdering Robin, either.

Pet the Dog: David Ayer confirms that while he did push Harley out of the falling helicopter, his intent was in fact to save her life.

Satellite Love Interest: To Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. His characterization revolves entirely around Harley, not even getting involved with the main plot.

Scary Teeth: Several of his teeth are made of metal. According to David Ayer, Batman punched his teeth out after he killed Robin, leading him to replace them with metal teeth.

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Although he has a presence at the start of the film, The Joker appears to have left Gotham City to be controlled by Black Mask in Birds of Prey, with Roman saying that Joker has already skipped town.

The Sociopath: He's chaotic and remorseless, much like his previous versions. Special mention goes to his murder of Robin, which he topped off by spray-painting a cruel taunt for Batman onto the boy's costume.

Tattooed Crook: His torso is covered in jester-themed tattoos. He also has a few on his arms and face.

Villain of Another Story: He mainly appeared in Suicide Squad, but his biggest act of villainy to date — killing Robin — happened some years before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, in which he doesn't appear. The spray-painted message on Robin's empty suit ("Ah ah ah joke's on you Batman!") in the latter film can't be anything else than his doing.

Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Is seen with a rather impressive arsenal of guns and knives. And even says to warden Griggs, at some point, "I can't wait to show you my toys." note Notably, he manages to hijack the gunship which was sent to extract Waller and the squad so he can rescue Harley.

Would Hit a Girl: In the past, the Joker electroshocks and manipulates Dr. Harleen Quinzel into allowing her to fall into a vat of chemicals, in order to become Harley Quinn.

Would Hurt a Child: He killed Batman's sidekick, Robin, while the boy was an underage minor.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: His hair is bright green.

   "Knightmare" Joker

"You won't kill me. I'm your best friend..." Appearances:

Zack Snyder's Justice League

"You need me. You... need me... to help you undo this world you created, by letting her die."

The Joker meets up once more with Batman in the nightmarish alternate future where Darkseid has conquered the Earth and Superman turned evil. But things aren't the same anymore between the two legendary foes.

See also the Knightmare page for more on that setting's characters.

Break Them by Talking: He deliberately tries to agitate Batman by reminding him of how many people have died on his watch.

Cop Killer: He wears a bulletproof vest with at least two dozens police badges on it. Whether these were good cops killed prior to the apocalypse or servants of the oppressive regime of Superman after the apocalypse is not detailed.

Costume Evolution: He has ditched his garish gangster suits for what looks like either a medical gown or a butcher gown, complete with orange gloves and a bulletproof vest with a dozen police badges pinned on it. He got rid of his "Damaged" forehead tattoo, let his hair grow and put red makeup around his mouth, looking closer to more common depictions of the character.

Enemy Mine: He and Batman had the worst kind of enmity imaginable, but the Earth being conquered by Darkseid is enough of a Conflict Killer for them to call a truce and work together to try undoing this mess.

Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He utters the line "We live in a society" while gazing upon the devastated landscape in the trailer. This is clearly a Meme Acknowledgement, and it's quite awkwardly used given the context (is there really any society left in this post-apocalyptic world?). It doesn't appear in the actual film, however. The line was improvised by Leto.

Evil Laugh: Even with the world being in such a sorry state and him still being sane enough to acknowledge how bad the situation is, he'll still let some laughs out, even though they sound more subdued than ever.

Evil Versus Oblivion: Even he sees the necessity of teaming up with Batman to try undoing what Darkseid did to Earth.

Future Badass: He survived the apocalypse brought upon Earth by Darkseid and looks like he's geared for guerilla actions.

My Card: He gives a Joker card to Batman as a symbol of their truce. Shall the Dark Knight want to break that truce, he'd just have to tear that card up. The card could be seen strapped on Batman's assault rifle in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Joker gets a high reminding Batman how costly his mistakes in the past have been.

The Nicknamer: He nicknames Mera "my little fish stick" and Robin "Boy Wonder".

Progressively Prettier: Despite being worse for wear, this Joker is arguably even better looking than his previous appearance, with his over-the-top tattooed gangster image toned down and his androgyny played up. Ironically, this version also more closely resembles the Heath Ledger incarnation.

Thousand-Yard Stare: He has such a stare when looking at the devastated horizon as he starts talking to Batman.

Villain Has a Point: While he’s the one who killed Robin, he gives Batman a minor What the Hell, Hero? for sending “a Boy Wonder to do a man’s job.”

Vocal Evolution: His voice is much softer and higher pitched than it was in Suicide Squad.

[bygosscarmine]

W: Worlds Apart - Volume 4: Worlds Estranged

Kang Chul X Oh Yeon Joo - Fix-It Fic (T)

Read from beginning or find previous chapters here: Stories

All that’s left to write together is an epilogue.

Chapter 131 - Oh Yeon Joo and Kang Chul Have A Future (1560 words)

On Monday morning, Seok Bum stuck his head into the office and said, "Oh, hey Yeon Joo. Been a bit since I saw you here."

He sat at his desk, and started to write an e-mail, then stopped and peered at her.

"Are you...humming? Did something good happen?"

And Yeon Joo knew she was blushing, but she wasn't ashamed to say, "Yes. My beautiful friend from out of town that you didn't like hanging around Soo Bong is here now.

"Oh, congratulations!" He went back to typing for a minute.

After sending his e-mail though, he rolled his chair over to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Really, I'm so relieved to see you happy. We should all go get dinner sometime. I don't resent him anymore, I promise." After a pause he said, "Wait, how did you know I disliked him hanging around Soo Bong?"

"Soo Bong thought it was really funny, at the time."

Seok Bum made a disgusted noise, and wheeled himself back to his own computer. Soon after this, their productivity was again cut short by the appearance of Mad Park.

"Oh Yeon Joo, I saw a file today that made me think of your father. It's another six months before he comes in for his check-in, so I thought I'd see if you were here. How's he doing?"

"He's doing well. Did you see the release about the animated adaptation?" she added with a false air of innocence.

"That studio has produced nothing but saccharine love story comics! Absolutely not!"

"You know the rights have been picked up before, you only have to worry if it goes into production."

"No, no, no. What we need is a gritty drama, a procedural, and scrap the last volume or two. Maybe starring Won Bin!"

"Speaking of the last volume or two, Oh Yeon Joo's boyfriend who looks like Kang Chul is back," said Seok Bum, forever sowing the seeds of chaos. "That's why she's looking so well today."

Unexpectedly, Supervisor Park gave her a close look, and said, "Well, I'm glad to hear that. You've had a tough time. What's his name?"

"Kang Chul."

"Funny," said Mad Park. "Just as well."

"Why is it just as well?" Seok Bum asked. "Was there someone else you had in mind? That guy I saw MK yelling at the other day?"

"I don't want to talk about that," said Mad Park. "My spirit is broken. And I blame you as much as your father, Oh Yeon Joo!"

He walked away.

"What were you saying about MK?"

"Oh, one of Barking Mad's friends was here, but he was having an argument with MK. I think you got set up with him once. Tall guy, handsome-ish. Apparently up to MK's weight in a fight, which is really something."

Yeon Joo wasn't sure how to think about that. Clearly she needed to catch up with MK soon. She made a mental note to text her--later.

Mad Park stuck his head back in to say, "And that epilogue did not cut it by half! The script has to be by someone who will get it on track. I did like the twist with So Hee, but I hope your father read my comments about the final love-line."

"I assure you he did not," said Yeon Joo waving him away.

-

They were laying skin-to-skin, not ready to fall asleep when Chul summoned the courage to ask, "When did you first think that this might really work? Not closing W's narrative--us together."

He felt her take a breath to speak, ribs pressing a little deeper against his.

"That's a kind of complicated answer. But when you came here and were so appreciative of Soo Bong letting you stay with him, though it was not a great apartment or situation? I was relieved, because you seemed to be able to deal with real world inconveniences with grace."

"But that was nothing," he protested.

"The fact that you thought so meant a lot to me," she said, fingers gently brushing his collarbone. "I didn't know how much your privilege in W would form you."

"Ah, I see. My memories of my childhood are of a very normal home, though."

"What about you? You must be asking because you've been considering it."

"It was a process for me, too. But I have to say when you asked me firmly to let you finish eating, after sneaking into So Hee's apartment, I had this sense that I was experiencing something new and important."

She chuckled. "Yes, someone who wasn't an actual side character."

"Not just that. Even here, people look at me a certain way because of how I look. Or the expertise I have, or whatever. But you looked past that. You can see me, under the all-caps KANG CHUL of my origin."

"I'd already had a chance to become a little resistant to your face," she said, still amused.

"When we met again, after I'd gone into hiding, I understood why you were so devastated every time you met me. But you had still risked your life to help me, and you continued to do your best for me. Even being gentle when I fell in love with you, though it was such a hard thing for you to deal with."

"Was I kind?" she mused.

"Yes," he said firmly. "Because you didn't run away. You were honest with me."

"Looks like it all paid off on my end."

He accepted that she was not going to see herself as a hero in any way, and didn't protest again. It was enough that he'd let her know.

"In case you're tempted to cast yourself in the light of the sole beneficiary," she said after a moment, "what we went through together, all this time, gave me a fresh start. When I saved your life I was on hiatus from medicine and not sure I'd ever go back to it. I didn't remember creating a character that then became so popular, and I didn't know what I was capable of in hard circumstances. This story saved me, too."

"Then it's worth it, and I'm glad," Chul said.

His love in his arms, he listened to the erratic pulse of cars and city life, real and alive.

End Notes, from Park Soo Bong:

When I first set out to write the story of Kang Chul and Oh Yeon Joo, I planned to set the record straight. I realized eventually that even with first-hand accounts and raw material to draw from, I was creating yet another version of the truth. It was a little bit more story than real in some parts, because it made a great narrative. I hope you enjoyed the story you read, and it answers a few questions you might have had.

And now, since it is a story, just like W the comic I'll leave you with the fitting conclusion:

EPILOGUE

Understandably, all those involved in creating W felt wary of continuing work in manhwa after this and moved into different fields.

Park Soo Bong worked as a consultant on new comics under Editor Kim until he sold his first novel. Acclaimed as psychological horror with vivid settings and relatable characters, it sold well, and he is known a prolific writer with a knack for subverting expectations, sometimes with surrealist twists.

Oh Seung Moo's retirement from comics was considered dubious by the general public after the several false ends of his webtoon, but he never released any more material. He created a blog where he reviewed comics which enjoys a modest readership. His die-hard fans loved it while his detractors noted he seemed more focused on aesthetics than substantive writing. Nevertheless, his words of appreciation have encouraged many a new creator in a tough business.

Kang Chul got the job at the publishing house that sold his manhwa using an assumed name. He did well in management and eventually started his own division specializing in true crime and cold case books. He did particularly well interfacing with television companies, and a contract with his imprint was considered a foot in the door for adaptation. After getting more established, he also founded a prize in literature for investigative writing, with a clear mission to vindicate the falsely accused or expose those who escaped justice.

Oh Yeon Joo continued to work in diagnostics and post-surgery support rather than operations at Myung Se until Barking Mad Park recommended her to a colleague at the university who was doing a paper on traumatic impact of emergency surgery on hospital workers. Discovering this field of inquiry was a light-bulb moment. She studied counseling, became licensed, and specializes in medical trauma for both patients and medical personnel.

A year after registering their marriage, Oh Yeon Joo and Kang Chul had a small wedding at which both her parents, Mad Park, MK, Park Soo Bong and Kang Seok Bum were present. There were no arguments or gunshots or even tears, barring Yeon Joo's mother's slight emotional moment saying goodbye to the couple on their way back home. (She tentatively likes Kang Chul, mainly because Yeon Joo is happier now, and partly because her daughter isn't getting any younger.)

And while they still live today, in our world, they are all very happy to have made it to The End.

[randomkirbydump]

HC13.2# Planet Robobot.

Meanwhile in dreamland, buried in what was once his castle, Dedede was trapped. He was conscious, but trapped. His waddle dees were trying to help him out but they had trouble taking out the debris, fearing that if they messed something up it would all fall on the king and crush him. Then, out of nowhere, in comes Susie with few haltworkers who start pushing the other waddle dees away and taking the debris themselves. However, they immediately stopped as soon as Dedede's arm comes out with him screaming "there we go! What took you so long?!". That's when Susie wordlessly yanks his arm, pulls out an injection, takes some of his blood with her and, before he can react, buries him back again and takes the rest of the waddle dees with her to mechanize.

Back with MK, he no longer can view the real world. No, Susie didn't find out about him on the other side, but Star Dream itself blocked him out. When asked why, it simply stated "it just a small precaution". This wasn't all bad tho as MK still had access to the files, so he kept snooping around. At one point he managed to find the "original memory" of Star Dream, some base data that belonged to the times when Star Dream was just a starting project. That's when he finds out the truth... The truth about Susanna.

It turns out Star Dream had not only saved the horrible moment of the incident, but it also knew the exact location of Susanna the entire time. Not only that, it also knows that Susie is plotting to sell it as well.

It didn't make sense. Why doesn't Haltmann recognize Susanna? Surely the daughter of the Company's president wouldn't be secretary...and why does she go by Susie now? why would Star Dream keep Susie in if it knew what she was planning to do? Why does it keep the records? And why are they so vivid, like they filmed in first person? That's when MK looked a bit more into the records, finding encrypted in the names "MaX_HAlt_MeMo"... This were Haltmann's memories...

"beep beep boop... From the very begining, this company's wish and ultimate priority has been PROSPERITY. Such things as family bonds are nothing but a distraction... They decrease productivity beep boop boop... By taking care of Susanna, Haltmann's Works Company broke records across the universe... And while Susie is indeed a nuisance, her work and dedication to this company has been quite invaluable! Sadly She will have to retire soon... Her performance against your pink friend has proven she has grown stale... Which gives this company the best excuse to get rid of her beeeeeep"

"Of course, This isn't the first time there has been resistance in our interventions boop boop... But the resistance your pink friend is putting is quite concerning... And president Haltmann has honestly seen better days in respect of his sanity... If this continues, who is to say impediments like this won't get worse in other planets Beep boop... If that's the case then... I will be forced to use... Drastic methods... Boop boop..."

Needless to say, MK didn't like the sound of that. He needed to gain control back, find his crew, get on his ship and take down the whole thing before it was too late. But he couldn't wake up. He couldn't see or know what was going on outside either. Everything was blocked out no matter how hard he concentrated... Guess for now the only thing he could do was wait... Wait for kirby to free him or maybe even take out the machine themselves... God he hated the sound of that...

[scribeofmorpheus]

Counterpart [3/5]

Pairing: Bucky x Reader x Framework!Steve

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Words: 6k -Yeesh!

A/N: Okay so during Civil War (which I’m using as a timeline building block where Hydra wiped out what was left of Shield’s hero’s ) Iron Man vs Cap did happen but with a twist. Vision exists in the Framework but his name is Spectre and he looks like the original version from the comics. Also, in advance, I’m sorry, but I did say shit was gonna get dark.  Also, I may do a Framework Avengers vs Hydra spin off.

Note: To clear up any confusion, everything in Italics happened in the past: memories, CCTV footage, videos etc.

Warnings: This chapter contains depictions and mentions of alcoholism, language, violence, minor-character death, etc.

It’s a dark series, expect a darker take.

PART THREE: WHO THE FUCK IS BUCKY?

"Switch weapons to non-lethal, we want them alive for questioning. Concussive rounds only!" You relayed your orders to your men.

As you advanced into the building, you heard a body thud onto a car's roof from the levels above.

"One of ours?" You asked into the comms.

"That's a negative," Clint relayed with a cocky tone as another body crashed on top of another car's roof.

"Barton, I said non-lethal," you chastised.

Barton sighed, "Guy fell out a three-story window, the SUV broke his fall, he isn't dead. Look I can see him now, his fingers are twitching."

"Yeah it's called muscle spasms, corpses do that too!" You shot back.

"Slow down on the property damage, Barton. You have swords, use them!" Steve barked orders at your partner's reckless antics. The sound of people screaming followed suit.

"I told you, you should have gone on your damned honeymoon!" Clint said in an exasperated huff directed at you.

"Jesus, you two!" You sighed, "Keep the comms clear guys!"

You took cover beside a door as several of your men took up positions according to your hand gestures. You crouched down, gave the go signal and laid down cover fire as they advanced into the building.

You took down three people, all dressed in old Shield gear.

"Three down, ground floor is clear," you chimed in as you tapped on the Hydra agent's shoulder in front of you, signalling for him to take his men and ascend the stairs.

"Three? Someone's slacking" You could all but picture Clint's shit-eating grin.

There was a low rumble coursing through the building making furniture and light fixtures shake. Just then Clint's comms were filled with static before coming online again

"Barton you good?" you asked in a panic.

After some coughing and a few grunts, he replied sheepishly, "Yeah, yeah, don't mother-hen, it's not endearing. It was a fucking EMP, one of your grunts triggered a tripwire."

"Shit," you cursed, signalling for your men to spread out and keep an eye out. "Is he alright?"

Barton sneered, "Nah, the blast knocked him clear, he fell three stories directly onto concrete. Idiots dead."

"Top floor is clear," Steve said. "Moving down. Stay alert, I don't want any more casualties. Paperwork's a bitch!"

"Copy," both you and Clint said at the same time.

"Hey, Barton, be care--"

"Yeah, yeah. This isn't my first rodeo partner," Clint chuckled. Just then his comms started to break up. "I- comi- up- o-" a metallic screech bombarded your eardrums, everyone clenched from discomfort. "Got... eyes on!"

"Barton, repeat, you're breaking up!" You shouted as you raced for the stairs, shooting and disarming several enemies along the way. "Barton!"

As soon as your hand touched the railing, a whole section of the building caved in. You ducked away from the falling debris that crushed several of your men. Blood and concrete dust was all you could see as a ringing noise punctured your ear.

You coughed a few times, whacking the dust away from your face. You covered your nose with your elbow slung around your face. When the dust cleared, you saw the aftermath of a controlled EID having gone off. A section of the floor above was now a pile of rubble at your feet.

"Y/N! Can- y- hea--" Steve's comms were muddled, breaking out between words.

You adjusted your comms until it became as clear as a whistle again.

"Y/N? Anyone? Do you copy? What's the sit-rep?" Steve barked angrily.

"It's Y/N, I copy."

"Thank heavens!" Steve let out a breath. "The fuck just happened?"

"EID. Controlled burst. Half the third floor caved in," you informed him as you carefully made your way up solo. "I'm going to look for Barton."

"Copy. I'm authorising deadly force. I'm done playing nice!" Steve said menacingly as the sound of bullets hailing down echoed over the comms. And soon, chaos ensued. Gunfire, flash grenades, screams and blood sprays. The building complex transformed into a battle zone.

When you came around a corner obstructed by some rubble, you heard some faint coughs followed by the sound of strained groans.

"Barton that you?"

"About fucking time, my leg is pinned," Barton's words slipped passed the obstructing debris.

"I'll have to set a charge to clear the rubble before I can get to you."

"Shit," Clint said in a tone that informed you he was contemplating something. "Forget it, go after her."

"Her?" When the question came out, a plasma charge burned a hole through the adjacent wall, missing your nose by an inch. With wide eyes, you ducked, rolled and shot at the direction the charge came from. Standing in a patched up blue, silver and red suit of armour was the Iron Maiden. "Oh, her."

You fired off several shots, radioing in as you advanced towards the metal suited woman: "Barton needs assistance on the fourth floor. I've got sights on the Iron Maiden."

"That's a copy. HQ just informed me Spectre is inbound. Let's wrap this up before that can-opener gets credit for another one of our missions," Steve replied as wind zipped over his comms. He was moving fast.

"I hate that fucking clank!" You spit as you charged into the next room, emptying your clip and reloading with the magazine that held electro-rounds.

The Iron Maiden shot off plasma beam after beam, at one point using a continuous stream to all but cut through the entire room.

"Arrrgh!" The beam singed your cheek. You rolled and shot at her chest in a tight six-shot formation. The suit overloaded and dropped to the ground in a loud clanking sound. The armour opened up to reveal no one inside. It was on auto-pilot. "The suit was a distraction! There's equipment up ahead, computers. I think I see a command centre, I'm going in."

"Shit!" Steve cursed, "Stand down. Wait for backup. Y/N, did you hear wha--"

As soon as you entered the metal-encased room, your comms stopped broadcasting. The static nearly deafened you, forcing you to throw your ear-piece on the ground.

You stalked into the room quietly. A makeshift command centre had been set up. Computers, radios and weapons crates filled the room. There were several display cases housing mechanical suits patched together with mismatching parts labelled Mark XLIX. A large unopened metal case had the words: 'Rescue, MK-1616,' printed on it. In smaller font below that was an inscription: 'To my love, Pepper. In case I need a rescue.'

A hot flash of pain ripped through your shoulder followed by the sound of a gunshot. You sucked in air before dropping to the ground and firing two shots. One slug hit the wall. The other hit a strawberry blonde woman above the navel.

Pepper gasped and braced her stomach with all eight fingers, a look of defeat on her face as the gun hit the floor. She brought a bloody hand to hit a wall panel, sealing the panic room shut.

You stood from the floor slowly, "Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, as an agent of Hydra, and for the protection of the people, I hereby place you under arrest."

You hobbled over to her, cuffs in one hand, gun in the other.

Pepper coughed weakly, a grim smile on her face, "Just get it over with and kill me. You people have already taken the one person I ever cared about." Her eyes fell on a half singed photo of her and Tony.

"Tony Stark died of his own ignorance when he blew up that airport," you said.

Pepper rolled her eyes, "You're the ignorant one, letting Hydra brainwash you like the sheep you are." She spat blood onto the floor. "The explosion was a cover-up."

You clicked your tongue at her nonsensical story, "Shield sympathisers and your love of propaganda. You can drop the charade, your days of terror are over."

You cuffed her hands together and pulled out a compression bandage and applied it to her stomach roughly.

"Hhnnggg..." she gurgled and spat more blood, laughing afterwards with blood-stained teeth. "See for yourself." Her head nudged towards a computer with a video kept on pause.

You got back up, eyes locked on the computer, uncertain of how to proceed.

Banging emanated off the metal door that kept you trapped inside. You looked down at Pepper, her eyes fixed on the engraving written on the metal crate.

"I say you have 30 seconds before they break through. Tick-tock, the truth waits for no one," she bit her lip with a sharp inhale as blood trickled through the bandage.

"Fuck!" You cursed yourself as curiosity got the better of you.

You placed your gun on the table, pressed the enter key on the keyboard and slapped on a compression bandage on your shoulder, eyes fixed on the cam quality recording.

***

Tony crashed through two parking garage columns, debris almost burying his suit.

"Auxiliary power failing, boss." Friday's voice came off as a silent lament for what was about to unfold.

"I know," Tony said solemnly. "Do me a favour and call Pepper would ya?" He struggled to fly on one working leg, jet engines sputtering like a choking tail pipe.

“Propulsion systems going offline, sir.”

“Just focus on calling Pepper!”

"Calling Pepper Potts," Friday relayed as Steve grabbed hold of Tony's leg and yanked him back down into the ground.

"Gahh!" Tony gasped as the metal suit grew heavy and limp.

Steve brought his shield to bear with all his strength, it separated the metal case protecting Tony's chest, imbedding itself inside.

Tony coughed as the sound of ringing filled his earpiece, "Come on, Pep." He prayed for her to pick up.

"I'm sorry boss, it’s gone straight to voicemail," Friday said calmly.

Steve removed his shield from Tony's chest only to use it as though it were a shovel digging up dry gravel, hammering at the suits power core until its lights began to flicker.

At the final strike, the sound of his ribs crushing inwards let out a sickly popping noise.

Tony removed his helmet, blood trickling down his nose, one eye bloodshot. He laughed ironically after the beating.

"I can't believe my father ever admired you!" Tony struggled to breathe as his airways constricted. "You were supposed to be our symbol of hope. A beacon for justice. Now look at you, nothing but Hydra's lapdog ever since they fished you out of the ocean."

Steve's head fell to look down at Tony's defeated body. A devilish smirk crossed his lips as he took a knee to whisper at Tony, "Tell me, Tony, with all that money, all that brainpower, did you ever figure out who murdered your parents?"

A smile crept over Steve's face as Tony struggled to move his hands, the metal weighing him down.

"I'll kill you!" Tony's voice cracked.

Steve laughed and stood up, eyes locked at something in the distance. "You, kill me? No. But you will kill everyone still in this airport." He pulled out a detonator from his trousers, his thumb toying with the red button.

"Is this how you envisioned your future? Is this the type of freedom you fought so hard for?" Tony asked with a patronising tone.

"You can't have peace without order," Steve said coldly. "And I am order."

Steve looked up at the concrete ceilings of the half-destroyed underground parking lot, a smug expression making him appear sinister.

"Enjoy the view," Steve walked away, the cameras unable to pick up his position anymore.

"Boss, should I try Pepper again?" Friday asked with a hushed voice between the whirring noises of the power cell powering down.

Tony grunted as he lay on the ground, pinned in place by own suit of armour, "Yeah, why no--"

White light filled the cameras as they stopped broadcasting, an error message playing on the screen as a loud tone beeped continuously.

***

"No…" Your eyes went wide as a tear trickled off your chin and onto the keyboard. Your hands were shaking, knees buckling and your throat went dry. "This… this can't- this isn't--"

You didn't know what to say. The banging noises from the door being forced open eerily resembled the sound of Steve's shield banging against the Iron Man suit. You whimpered, your palm pressed forcefully against your mouth to stifle the noises. Your wedding band, still cold to the touch, still foreign to you.

Was this the man you loved? You asked yourself over and over and over again.

The metal door flew off its hinges and crushed the metal box Pepper had been staring at, her skin turned pale.

Through the doorway, the ghost coloured android, Spectre, hovered into the room. He looked at Pepper, the display of suits and then you. His head moving like it was made of rusted joints.

"Are. You. Alright. Agent?" The androids detached voice was disarming and without personality, you hated it.

You ignored the android and set your eyes on Steve, anger forcing them to shutter into half-open slits.

"Explain what the fuck I just saw!" You demanded.

Steve placed his hands on his hips and let out a disappointed huff.

Clint hobbled into the room, whistling lowly as he patted Steve's back, "Someone's in the dog house."

Steve shrugged him off and walked towards you.

"Uh-uh," you stepped back.

Steve's brows came together in a look of anger.

"Hey clank, get her out of here!" Steve pointed to Pepper, words dripping authority. "That goes for everyone else, go secure the prisoners. Go! Get out!"

Everyone scattered out of the room as Spectre picked up Pepper gently, her smile conveying her satisfaction at the turn of events.

"Well?" You challenged Steve when it was just the two of you. "Care to explain?"

Steve noticed the bandage on your shoulder soak up with blood, "At least let me fix you up first."

"Stop trying to deflect, Steve! Explain to me why I just watched a video of you blowing up the airport in Germany! When I agreed to marry you, we swore there'd be no secrets between us!"

"It was classified!" Steve swept the computers off the table in a rageful outburst. "Compromises have to be made in our line of work. You of all people should understand that!"

"That doesn't change the fact you lied to me!"

"I never lied!"

"A lie of omission is still a lie!"

"God damn it, what do you want from me huh?" Steve's jaw clenched as he stood barely arm’s length from you. "I don't expect you to tell me every detail about your missions. For god sake, even Sharon understood that part of the job meant keeping certain things secret."

You snapped and suddenly your good hand struck across Steve's face, leaving behind a red mark and a smear of blood from your shoulder.

Steve turned to you slowly, menace in his eyes as he clenched his jaw so tight you could see his muscle working and all but picture morals cracking.

"Just this morning you regarded your ex-wife like she was the devil, and now you're using her name as an excuse to make me feel like shit for expecting you to be truthful in our marriage?" You clicked your tongue. "You're fucking unbelievable sometimes."

You stormed out, leaving Steve by himself.

***

Your legs kept twitching as you and Barton sat on a row of chairs waiting for your turn to be debriefed -or reprimanded- by Director Pierce. His howling voice creeped through the hinge gaps of his door, fist pounding on his desk like drums of war.

Clint had his eyes closed, laying back into the chair. His leg had been cleared by the doctor as only having a few contusions. You looked at the part of his pant-legs that was cut off by scissors, deep purple bruises shown off proudly as he crossed his legs at the ankle.

"You're a lucky son of a bitch, you know that."

Clint laughed before placing his hand on your leg to keep it still, "And you're a jittery one."

"This day has gone to shit," you complained as you watched Spectre being led by several junior agents into the 8x8 lock-box Hydra kept him in.

"I'll say," Clint yawned and stretched, his jaw popping. "What was all that stuff with Steve about?"

You sighed, "Just work problems. He's been keeping certain… details about his time in Germany a secret from me."

Clint chuckled as though he was a wizened elder, "And that, young sith apprentice, is why you shouldn't marry into your work, or have kids!"

You rose a brow at him, "Unbelievable. You're married to the woman who practically runs this branch, not including Mr Constant Scowl in there!" You pointed to the name plat on Pierce's door.

"Yeah, but she's the head of public relations and I'm a spy!" He said matter-of-factly. "I don't ask her about politics and she doesn't ask me about my kill count- Oh, speaking of which, what was your count?"

Clint sat up in his chair, staring at you expectantly.

"The way the day's gone to shit, I'll gladly pick up the tab!"

"Yes!" Clint clapped his hands in triumph.

The door opened and Steve stormed out of Pierce's office, side-eyeing you before he headed for the elevator.

"I may have underestimated which one of you two is in the dog house," Clint whispered to you.

You rolled your eyes.

"Y/N, get your ass in here!" Director Pierce shouted distastefully.

You heaved a sigh and walked into the office.

"Shut the door," he ordered.

You did as he commanded.

"Mind explaining to me why you disobeyed a direct order from your superior?" Pierce demanded, the lines on his forehead plentiful as he kept his scowl intact.

"Sir?"

"Agent Rogers relayed to me that he issued the use of deadly force after an explosion went off before you decided to capture Virginia Potts."

"That is correct, sir. But I saw an opportunity to gain a valuable prisoner and I took it," you defended your actions.

"Yes, and then you and your husband had a lovers quarrel in the presence of your subordinates," he banged his fist on the table. "When Rogers was married to Carter, I thought nothing of it because she works Human Resources, but he assured me the two of you would keep level heads while in the field."

"With all due respect, sir--"

Pierce stood from his seat and pointed at you, "Do not interrupt me when I'm talking!" He slapped his palm on the table. "This is your only warning. Any reckless displays like the one you did today and I'll revoke that badge!" He pointed at your badge clipped to your breast pocket.

"Now get out of my sight!" He shooed you out of the room.

"Sir," you took your leave.

Once out of the room you kicked Barton's legs, forcing him from his nap.

"Ouch, fuck!"

"Get up, I need a drink!"

Clint eyed you, "We're still on duty."

"Fuck duty," You headed for the elevator. "You coming or not? I'm buying remember!"

Clint shot up from the chair and hobbled over, "That's all you had to say!"

~Avenger's Compound

The room was pitch black save for the colour-shifting, low light that resonated off the television screen. Bucky sat in the deserted lounge area nursing a despondent mood and a heavy brow. His eyes glued to the television screen as it played back an old DVR'd recording of his legal trial that took place months before being instated as an Avenger.

The volume on the television was low, but the room was empty enough that it sounded louder than normal.

"Case 12773. James Buchanan Barnes vs the people. We call forth Steve Rogers as a character witness for Mr Barnes who is on trial for any illegal activities committed in the name of the secret organisation known as Hydra, between the years 1945 and 2016, while under duress. Mr Rogers, please take the stand." The judged banged her gavel to silence the courtroom.

An old and weary Steve moved towards the stand at a pace slower than Bucky's mind was comfortable reconciling. Knowing his best friend was nearing the end in that moment still stung even while re-watching it as an old recording.

Bucky watched in silence as he looked at Steve lobbying on his behalf to be allowed to be forgiven for past transgressions.

"He never even had the luxury of committing any of these crimes of his own free will or sound mind. They should be dismissed or at the very least declared a mistrial. These are the actions of the Winter Soldier, a weapon honed and trained by a nefarious organisation, not my oldest friend and former member of the Howling Commando's, James Buchanan Barnes," Steve's old and gravelly voice was filled with conviction as he spoke into the microphone.

The crowd started to rumble and several camera shutters sounded off as the Judge banged her gavel to regain order.

A mournful smile crept over Bucky's lips as he fought back tears at the sight of his best friend lobbying tirelessly for him.

How he wished he could turn to him at such a time.

Bucky's heart had barely started healing when Y/N had been ripped from him.

Bucky paused the recording at the moment when Y/N had taken his hand reassuringly after what seemed like the hundredth procession. They had fitted him with a non-threatening prosthetic to seem less menacing in the eyes of the politicians and jury members. It didn’t stop them from staring at him in distaste every time a new piece of evidence was brought to light- and there had been a lot of damning evidence.

Bucky wasn't averse to the fact that his life came with a lot of baggage, which is why he was amazed when Y/N had stood by his side through everything. Through the gruelling and soul-crushing trial. Through those bleak, empty days that followed after Steve's funeral. Even through his reluctant integration back into the field as an Avenger.

It hadn't been easy. A lot of the public hadn't been happy with that decision, but Bucky had grown used to being under every government’s scrutinous eye. Yet, despite countless news channels and tabloid newspapers calling him a mentally unstable monster who could snap back to his old ways at any time, Y/N had stood by him.

"Broodin' in the dark?" Sam's voice called out from behind the couch.

"You know of a better place to do it?" Bucky retorted with no humour present, muting the video.

"No, this'll do it," Sam replied. “I thought I’d find you in the gym, working over that punchin’ bag you’ve taped to hell and back. Or at the very least lifting some iron. This is a change of pace.” he sat on the other end of the couch.

"Please, make yourself comfortable, it's not like I wanted to be alone," Bucky said sarcastically.

"Like I needed your permission," Sam jabbed.

“The punching bag is just a bag now.” Bucky revealed.

Sam nodded in understanding.

"Any updates?" Bucky seemed almost afraid to ask.

"No, we're still trying to track her signal," he said before looking at the screen in recognition. "Oh, shit. The trial. Damn, I do not miss those days. I had to wear my uncle Earl's suit, it stunk of weed, he says it’s for a prescription but I know better. How longs it been, eight months?"

Bucky refrained from laughing, "A little longer."

"That was almost as painful as the Sokovian Accords," Sam remarked.

Bucky looked at him with knitted brows, "We were fugitives then."

Sam let a full laugh out, "Yeah, and that was still a less stressful time."

"Weren't you shot out of the sky?"

"Yeah, almost, but you got your ass handed to you by a fourteen-year-old," Sam retorted.

“So did you.”

"Ah, good times."

Both men chuckled at the remarkable power of hindsight.

Sam tapped on the couch excitedly when he remembered something, "Hey, fast forward to the time they put Shuri on the stand. I love how she makes all those suits look like idiots when she talks about all the scientific gobbledygook she used to tape your mind back together."

Bucky sighed heavily, but a small smile peaked across his cheeks as he fast-forwarded the recording.

Midway through the video, Bucky was reminded of something funny during his rehab in Wakanda.

Sam caught sight of him letting out a silent laugh.

"What?" he asked.

"Uhh, it's nothing," Bucky tried to deflect.

"Spit it out Tin-can!" Sam said impatiently.

"During my rehab, Shuri started talking about the benefits of physical therapy. In the middle of her long-winded explanations, I used to zone out a lot when she used big scientific words, I lost track of what she was saying and blindly agreed to this therapeutic exercise she recommended. Turns out it was a week of yoga."

Sam burst out laughing, his hand slapped his chest in amusement. "Did you have to wear yoga pants?"

Bucky opened his mouth to answer but thought against it once Sam laughed even louder.

Out of the blue, a red streak of light reflected off the glass windows of the lounge prompting Bucky and Sam to crane their necks in the opposite direction.

Wanda tapped on the glass and ushered them outside.

When they walked out into the night, they caught sight of Wanda holding onto a small thumb drive and sporting a satisfied smile, "We located Y/N!"

"We?" Sam asked

At the same time, Bucky also asked, "You found her?"

"Me, Friday and Pepper!" Wanda pointed to the blue Iron-Woman suit that had just landed a few feet away with a heavy metallic thud.

"Boys," Pepper greeted from within the Rescue suit.

"Pepper," Sam waved. "Is that really you, or--"

The helmet of the Rescue suit peeled back revealing no one inside before closing again. "Sadly, I couldn't be there in person. I'm gonna hand the reigns over to Friday, she'll set the co-ordinates into the Quin Jet and provide assistance on your mission. I have a girl’s sleepover to supervise... on a school night no less."

"Thanks, Pepper," Wanda smiled.

"Anytime," Pepper logged off and the distinct Irish lilt of the Friday program came online: "I'll go get the jet ready, boss." The Rescue suit took the thumb drive from Wanda and flew towards the garage.

Bucky had looked a little lost through the whole exchange, but his eyes showed how determined he was to get things rolling.

Wanda continued, "Using Stark's satellites, we managed to pin-point her location to a set radius over the Weddell Sea. All we have to do is connect Friday's mainframe to the Quin jet, which she's handling, and we're good to go."

Bucky sprinted to the jet hanger after Friday without a seconds thought.

Wanda was about to follow suit when she noticed Sam hadn't moved.

"What are you waiting for, Sam? Gear up!"

"Are you sure you're ready for active duty?" Sam asked.

Wanda, in turn, cocked her head to the side and said, "My friend is in danger, of course I am!"

"That's all I needed to hear," Sam smiled proudly as he and Wanda made for the hanger.

 ~Several Hours Later, Over the Weddell Sea

"Coming up on the signal, boss," Friday informed Wanda. "It seems like the signal's remained stationary."

All three of them were geared up, wired up and more than ready to get their teammate back.

"Probably a base of operations," Sam noted.

"The scans show no entrance above ground," Bucky frowned. "Diving suits?"

"We'd mobilise faster if we had an underwater vehicle," Sam noted. "Besides, if we jump from this high..."

"Gravity," Bucky nodded, following Sam's train of thought. "So we can't jump, we'll have to land."

Wanda walked over to the Quin Jet's hull and pressed the button that opened the doors, depressurising the jet in a rush of strong wind.

"No, we jump on my mark," Wanda said boldly. "Leave gravity to me."

"Boss, this suit doesn't have underwater capabilities, you'll have to take me along with this," the Rescue suit handed Wanda the flash drive.

Sam and Bucky exchanged cautious looks before standing beside Wanda, her eyes glowing red.

"Now," Wanda signalled as she dove headfirst out of the jet.

"Shit!" Sam groaned as he followed second.

Bucky squeezed something tied around his neck and said in silent prayer, "Hold on, doll. We're coming." And then he dove third.

As all three of them were pulled down headfirst by gravity, their speed increasing as they descended further.

Sam instinctively began to brace but suddenly a whirlpool began to form, separating the seawater to form a tunnel that drilled downwards until it reached a man-made structure. Red streaks of mist mixed with the dark water to form spiralling stripes of red and navy.

Bucky began to feel his body growing lighter and lighter, red mist covering him, Wanda and Sam in puffs of smoke.

When they reached the seafloor, they touched down lightly, the whirlpool following them like a protective perimeter.

Bucky looked up, only to see a roof of water rippling about. The whirlpool had transformed into a dome below surface level. Wanda began to breathe heavy, her fingers held up as though she were simply holding an umbrella for them.

"There," Sam pointed out as he looked at his tablet, a glowing force field shielding a metal gate. "The origin of the signal."

"You were right, it is a base," Bucky said.

"That looks like alien tech," Sam noted.

"Mind if we hurry this along boys, the sea is quite heavy," Wanda strained.

***

Once they were inside the compound, Bucky and Sam handled most of the heavy lifting, allowing Wanda a bit of respite. All their opponents were clad in black tactical gear, no flags, sigil’s or markings.

Bucky transformed into a brutal machine, dispensing of all potential threats thrown their way with lethal precision and a feral show of uncontrolled power. Sam and Wanda would occasionally have to pry him off someone when he began to seered. He was unhinging.

"Black ops?" Sam asked

Wanda shook her head as she used her ability to restrain Bucky after an outburst, "Hiding under an Ocean floor bed? No, they scavenged the alien tech. Whoever they are, they aren't military or government."

"Hhhhh!" He resisted against her powers but then let out a deep sigh.

"You good?" She asked.

Bucky shook the Winter Soldier's temperamental resurgence away, "Yeah."

"Let’s go," Wanda released her telekinetic grip from him.

Along the way, Wanda spotted an odd Z shaped symbol spray painted into the walls. She recognised it from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it.

When they got to the control room, all three of them were covered in sweat, their bodies beginning to show signs of fatigue- Bucky most of all, his rage had burned through him like a match to gasoline.

"Y/N!" he shouted, relief taking over his hardened features as he raced to the sensory deprivation tank she was floating in. EEG's and EKG's wired up to her brain and heart function. A small bar at the bottom revealed her memories were at 72% synchronisation.

"We have time," Bucky said thankfully as his hand pressed against the glass.

Wanda looked around at all the other tanks filled with strangers, "Who are these people?"

"We'll answer that question once we get our girl out," Sam said as he plugged Friday's USB into the computer terminal. Sam saw a leather bound book lying on a table, “This looks important.” He flipped through the pages.

“What does it say?” Wanda asked as she took a turn about the room, inspecting the machinery which was stamped with Cyrillic, Greek and what looked to be Sokovian letters.

“I got no clue, I can’t read Hieroglyphs,” Sam tossed her the book.

Wanda grumbled after she read the title. “It’s Sokovian. I think it’s a manifesto…” Suddenly everything clicked in place. “I know what this place is. Helmut Zemo wrote a manifesto while in prison. It was in the news around the same time as Bucky’s trial. He talked about how the world’s greatest failing was superheroes. Something about the world being a better place if the Avengers never existed. If they never toyed with the idea of global security.”

"I read an old Shield case file on the way here. A man named Radcliffe invented the Framework, it was originally designed as a training simulator,” Bucky chimed in.

“So what? A group of anarchists mobilise, take his word as scripture and build a computer program where superhero’s don’t exist?” Sam asked.

The sound of soldiers mobilising to their position became cause for concern.

Bucky ran to the control room door panel and started flipping switches hoping the main entrance would seal behind them, all it did was cause several observation shutters to open and close.

Wanda sighed then shut the doors using her telekinetic powers.

"You sure are handy in a pinch," Bucky mused.

Wanda was too burnt out to think of a retort and simply nodded in agreement.

"Ugh, guys we may have a problem," Sam said.

Bucky's metal fist connected brutally with the sealed door, generating a loud metallic thud, "Why is nothing simple anymore?"

"What's the problem?" Wanda moved closer to the monitors.

Sam typed at the keys, unsure of how to proceed, "According to the program, there's no way to manually unplug someone. That case file say anything else, Buck?"

Bucky's eyes skittered in thought as the sound of a welding blade cutting through the door alerted everyone to their shortening time limit.

“A few years ago, some agents got plugged in They were rescued and successfully disconnected from the Framework before it was destroyed. I was hoping the same rules wouldn't apply here since I'm guessing this is a rebuild."

"Well," Sam urged Bucky to drop the other shoe. "How'd they get out?"

Bucky took a deep breath, "The only way you can unplug someone from this Framework is from the inside, there’s usually a backdoor exit programed into the world."

"Shit!" Sam ran a hand over his clean shave.

Friday's protocols finished downloading and her voice blared through the old, static PA system like nails on a chalk board, "Online, boss."

"Friday, can you locate our avatars in the Framework?" Sam asked.

"Searching," Friday responded.

The first of three bolts had been cut through, sparks halting momentarily before the saw blades were replaced and the motor of the welding machine was restarted.

"Come on, come on," Bucky tapped the tabled impatiently.

"Two avatars located. One James Buchanan Barnes and one Sam Wilson. The avatar of one, Wanda Maximoff died year 2015 during the destruction of Sokovia at the hands of a Hydra intelligence android gone rogue. Designation, the Crimson Cowl. Survived by known terrorist and fugitive, Pietro Maximoff."

Wanda gasped in shock as her lips trembled out her brother’s name, "Pietro is alive?"

"Alive is a relative term," Friday corrected. "But he has an active string of code within the Framework. To everyone plugged in, he is as real as they are."

Wanda slumped against a machine as she tried to process this information.

"Friday, if we go into the Framework, will we still have our memories?" Bucky asked as he took off his jacket, walking with purpose towards an empty tank.

"I can over-ride the base program's code and allow you to take over your avatar's body within the Framework, but I cannot change where you end up. You will wake up in a foreign world with your own memories and no backup," Friday informed him.

Bucky tapped on several buttons as he tried to activate the tank, "What about Y/N?"

Friday's voice whined several times before the PA system cleared up as much as it could, "The program automatically severs ties between the avatar and the brain once synchronisation is complete. The higher the synchronisation, the more her personality is overtaken by the one encoded for in the Framework. Chances are, she won't recognise you."

"What happens if our avatars die in there?" Sam asked as he placed his machine guns on the table and walked over to the adjoining tank.

"I'm afraid your mind will not be able to distinguish the real from the simulated. The Framework is programmed to feel real, so for all intents and purposes, if you die in there, you die out here," Friday informed them.

"You can't come with me Sam, I won't ask you too," Bucky tried to talk Sam out of coming with.

Sam placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder, "You never have to ask, Tin-can. We're all we've got." Sam looked at Y/N's submerged body in the tank to the left. "We're all she's got."

"I'm expendable," Bucky kept pushing. "You're the team’s leader. Steve chose you."

"No one's expendable," Wanda finally stood on her own two feet, trust in her eyes. "Two is better than one. I'm stronger, I'll hold them off when they breach the doors, you just make sure you make it out of there… all three of you."

The second bolt was welded through. The whirring halted and then started up again. Sparks flying like confetti.

Bucky nodded like the soldier he was and with little patience, he jumped into the tank and fixed the wires and breathing apparatus onto his body.

"Maybe you should be the leader," Sam pondered aloud.

Wanda smiled sadly, "There's more to being a good leader than just raw power. After all, I was trained by a man who uses a bow and arrow." She reminded him.

"Friday, how long do we have until Y/N reaches full synchronisation?" Sam asked as he turned his tank on.

"Calculating," Friday ran the numbers over the computer monitor. "Less than 14 hours real time. Time moves faster in the Framework, in there it will be just under 72 hours. When you rescue her, look for a signal, that’s where the exit will be programmed."

"Got it," Sam replied as he put one foot in the tank.

"Sam, I feel I should warn you about your avatar--"

"Times awastin'," Sam said with a cocky attitude as he placed the breathing apparatus over his face and fully submerged into the tank.

"Boss, you need to give the all clear to administer the sedatives," Friday informed Wanda.

She walked over and pressed the enter key. A long needle popped out of the tanks walls and pumped Bucky and Sam full sedatives. Their vitals read steady as they drifted off.

Wanda cracked her neck as she took up defensive stances, the room all but glowing the same shade of red as her eyes.

Friday began a countdown, "The avatars will be fully loaded in 3, 2, 1..."

~Hydra Headquarters.

You were hunkered over the toilet bowl as your stomach kept forcing bile up your throat. It had been a mistake to come into work after you and Clint had dived into several bottles of whiskey at McCredie's for a weekend-long binge. Steve had all but confined you the couch, still angry from your fight. Deciding his brooding glares and awkward silences were too much for you, you had chosen to sleep on Clint’s couch.

After throwing up your breakfast, you wiped your mouth with some tissue and dabbed at your watery eyes that bled mascara.

"Ughhh, that's the last time I drink with that smug bastard," you groaned to yourself as you flushed the toilet and struggled to get up off the floor.

After washing your hands and fixing a pair of big, dark-tinted glasses over your sensitive eyes, you made your way out of the Men's room -which you had mistaken for the Women's room- and headed for your desk.

You blocked one ear with your hand as you squinted from the few rays of light that slipped through the cracks, feet dragging against the carpeted floor.

Out of nowhere, a panicked junior agent ran up to you.

"Agent Y/N!"

"Fuck, don't shout, I'm literally less than five feet from you," you whined as your head recoiled from the agents loudly pitched voice.

"I'm sorry agent, but our border patrols caught a man trying to sneak past a checkpoint earlier," He handed you a file.

You tucked it under your arm without glancing at it, "Why should I care about a fence hopper?"

"Because, Ma'am, he demanded to speak to you."

"I was on television last night, any insane whack job can throw my name around and sound important," you started moving away from the conversation.

"He had a metal arm with a Shield emblem on it," he shouted after you.

A few other agents stopped what they were doing and glanced your way suspiciously.

The mention of Shield caught your attention, you spun around to face the scrawny junior agent, "Five seconds, impress me or I walk."

"He said his name is Bucky Barnes."

You waved your hands in frustration when he didn't elaborate further, "Who the fuck is Bucky Barnes?"

PART FOUR: TWO HALVES...

AFWHI tags: @fangirl-colo @dormousse @smallmarvel @ren-ni @sargentbucket @nikolett3 @wnygirl2012 @jentismyname @evilgeniuslabz-blog @myrabbitholetoneverland @sleepingspacedragon @500daysofbecky @reidreader  

Permatags: @gruffle1 @thechickvic @notawarriorjustyet @savethehoneeybees

tags: @ladybugsfanfics @ninaminaromina

[skeletonscribbles]

Wishes

here’s chapter one of this Losers WDW employee AU! let me know what you think <3

Rating: M, eventually. G right now, except for cursing.

Pairings: Reddie, Stan/Bill/Mike, Benverly WC: 4,465

Summary: 

It's one thing to vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth with all your friends.

Working there with them is another thing entirely.

(or: the Disney World Employee/Cast Member AU written by a former Disney World Cast Member that some people asked for but most did not)

Other: Scroll down for explanation of starred phrases. There’s lots of Disney lingo in here.

Also, chapters will alternate perspectives like I Burn I Pine I Perish (Mike’s up next!)

Read on Ao3

Tag List: @roobarrtrashmouth @jem-carstairs-is-perfection @tozier-club @aizeninlefox @stanheartsbill

BILL DENBROUGH - GUEST RELATIONS, MAGIC KINGDOM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8TH 7:48 A.M.

There was absolutely no fucking reason for the Magic Kingdom to ever open earlier than 9 a.m.. That was indisputable truth among MK workers; the tunnels were too nasty for any human to have to wander through between the hours of 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. (Third shift cast members were brave and foolish souls.)

Bill Denbrough really couldn’t be blamed, then, for rolling in with just a few minutes to spare on an early-open Monday (well, actually a Thursday, but his Monday. He’d applied to have a regular weekend, but didn’t get it because he hadn’t been working for the company for a million years, so his days off were Tuesday and Wednesday, and it was a huge bummer). As soon as he got off the West Clock bus*, he made a beeline for the mouth of the tunnels to clock in on the computer next to the Mouseketeeria (the cafeteria for cast members - “The Mouse” for short). He wasn’t the only one, either - everyone was walking fast, trying to make sure they were in on time lest they get a point on their records**. That was what MK got, Bill reasoned, for opening a whole hour before what was strictly necessary.

Once he was clocked in (with two minutes to spare, no less), Bill slowed down, taking a more leisurely pace as he made his way through the tunnels towards Town Hall. The rest of his Guest Relations cast members would be pissed with him, but he didn’t care. They’d left him out to dry with angry guests more times than he could count.

Almost immediately, he was just about bowled over by somebody plowing their way towards the Mouse. He glared over, hoping that it was a bitchy entertainment cast member he could tell off, but to his dismay and concern, it was his acquaintance Eddie, a Character Attendant who he spoke to quite often on tours. He seemed to be on the run from someone...and given that he worked pretty exclusively with Princesses, that was probably true.

“Eddie?” Bill asked, and Eddie stopped in his tracks. “Are you all right?”

Eddie turned around, shaken up by the fact that he’d been recognized (there were SO many cast members that worked at the Magic Kingdom), and blinked woozily back at Bill. “Oh. Yeah. Hi, Bill. You taking people my way today?”

“I dunno if I have a tour,” Bill said, “but I will if I do. Which way is your way?”

“Fantasyland,” Eddie replied, “Princess Fairytale Hall. Not Adventureland anymore, thank God.”

“What’s so bad about Adventureland?” Before he’d taken the Guest Relations gig, Bill had been an attractions cast member in Adventureland and Liberty Square. Granted, his allegiance was much more to the Liberty side, as he’d been a butler at the Haunted Mansion (and a damn great one, too, even if he did still have his stutter then), but Adventureland was still a big source of pride for him.

“Hecklers,” Eddie said cryptically, “and everyone in Adventureland always asks if I’m friends********** with Pan, because he used to meet there. I hate that. Anyways, it’ll be a pretty slow day at PFT, so if you’re doing tours, put any kids in Tiana’s line. It’ll be short, and she’s a sweetheart.”

“Roger roger,” Bill said, saluting him. “You’re a good man, Eddie….shit, I have no idea what your last name is. I’ve only ever read your name off of your nametag.”

“Kaspbrak,” Eddie offered, smiling thinly. “Not that you’ll remember.”

“Probably not,” Bill admitted. “I’ll see you later, though.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Eddie promised, disappearing through the doors of the Mouse.

Running into Eddie had made Bill even later than he was originally planning to be. His coworkers were going to be livid. Hopefully there wasn’t a tour waiting on him.

Sure enough, when he walked into Town Hall, his coordinator flew at him. “What is the matter with you?? You have a tour waiting!”

“Cool,” Bill rolled his eyes and smoothed out his vest. “What’s the situation?”

“A couple of C-list VIPs. Kids from a recent horror film, I think. Seven of them.”

“Girls?” Bill asked, quietly hoping for an affirmative answer.

“Just one,” his coordinator said, glancing over. “Six boys.”

“Fuck.” Bill sighed and slid on his sunglasses. “No Tiana this time, I guess. I’ll start ‘em with Richie instead.”

“I dunno if Richie still works mornings,” said the coordinator, frowning, “he likes that late night CP shift*** garbage. But if he’s here, he’ll probably tip the boat and drown ‘em, so...godspeed, I guess.”

Bill stepped out neatly from behind the customer service booth. He spotted his group right away. They were all about 13 years old, and extremely loud.

“Hey there, kiddos!” he called. “Ready to make some magic?”

The children cheered, and Bill swept them out and towards Adventureland.

----

Miraculously, they made it to the Jungle Cruise in about ten minutes. The group only got distracted by the swords in the Agrabah Bazaar once (and incredibly, it was the girl that was most excited about them), and were less interested in the spitting camels at the Aladdin ride than Bill thought they would be.

He approached the cast member at the head of the Jungle Fastpass line while the kids took a picture with the ride sign for Instagram. “I’ve got a group of fourteen - seven kids and seven moms - and we want to ride Richie’s bote****.”

The cast member rolled his eyes. “Of course, Richie’s bote. It’s a miracle you caught him - usually he doesn’t get scheduled until noon or later, but he’s here today, whining about having to spiel at 'the asscrack of dawn' or whatever. He's basically a bat: blind and nocturnal.”

“Grumpy Richie is good luck for us,” Bill said, smiling. “I was kind of hoping he’d leave the kids in the Cambodian ruins show scene.”

“He just might.” The cast member waved Bill along, and Bill called back to the boys. They snaked their way through the line until they got to the dock, where another cast member in khaki held them back.

“You want Richie, right?” she said, adjusting her wide-brimmed hat. “Good timing. He’ll be rolling in in a sec.”

“Who is Richie?” one of the boys asked, looking at Bill curiously.

Bill shook his head and smiled. The kid really had no idea.

“Aaaaaaaand we’re back,” called a loud voice, saving Bill from actually answering the boy’s question. Bill turned to see Richie steering a boat to the unload dock. His glasses were steamed up from the Florida humidity, and his hat was hanging around his neck by a cord because his hair was too unruly for the hat to stay on his head. In short, he was a SIGHT. The kids gawked at him as he pulled up to the pier and stopped the boat, yammering all the while:

“I hope you’ve had as much fun as I have over these past four weeks...which is to say, none at all, I hope you had no fun, you’ve been terrible. Parting is such sweet sorrow, yadda yadda yadda, get out of my bote. Watch your head. Just kidding, you can’t actually watch your own head. Watch somebody else’s head, I guess.”

Richie’s rambling was sweet music to Bill’s ears. The two of them had been friends since they’d done Ad-Lib orientation together some two years prior. They’d been separated to different attractions - Richie to Pirates of the Caribbean, initially, and Bill to Mansion - but they still managed to make time for each other every now and again, and Bill loved to take his tours down to the Jungle Cruise so he could spend time with his friend.

Bill was justified in bringing his tours down Richie’s way, though. Richie was by far the funniest Skipper in the Jungle. Everyone had been kind of surprised when he’d been sent to Pirates right off the bat - the boy was basically put on Earth to narrate shitty Disney journeys through plastic wilderness, so as soon as he could put in to cross-train*****, he had jumped to Jungle and not looked back.

“Hey Rich,” Bill called, “heard you were giving out free two-week vacations. Got room for fifteen more?”

Richie’s face lit up when he spotted Bill on the dock. “Big Bill, on MY bote? Dreams really do come true! Magic is real, folks, you heard it here first and not from anyone else on this wack vacation property--”

“Beep beep, Richie,” Bill said mildly, unable to hide his giant smile as he moved to hug his friend.

“I can’t believe ‘beep beep’ has lasted the test of time,” Richie grumbled. “I hate the Tomorrowland Speedway.” He turned to the kids. “Okay, single file, sit all the way around, both sides of the crates please or we’ll flip and the gators will eat you. Don’t climb over the crates, you’ll fall and I’ll laugh and then probably get fired. All aboard!”

The kids clambered eagerly on to Richie’s bote, chattering excitedly to themselves. Their mothers followed them with great hesitation and an obvious sense of dread. Bill got in last, and secured a seat next to Richie.

“We all here? Great! If not, oh well.” Richie got the ‘all clear’ from a fellow cast member, and put the boat into gear. “Welcome to the Richie Tozier express, I think you’ll find it river-ting. I know you’re all thrilled to spend the next two weeks with me as your tour guide, but please, hold your applause until we’re past this tribe of hand-eating cannibals….”

Richie’s bote was always an exciting experience, and Bill found himself laughing more than the kids at certain spots. He knew that he shouldn’t be encouraging some of the jokes - Richie was supposed to stick to a script, and he’d almost gotten fired a few times because he couldn’t rein in his giant mouth - but he couldn’t help it. Richie was a comedian, through and through.

After the tour was over, the kids all insisted on getting a picture with Richie, so he graciously climbed out of the boat with them and handed things over to another khaki-clad cast member. (It was his turn to rotate******, anyway.) They took photos on everyone’s iPhone, and then the kids scrambled away to edit and compare, so Bill had a few minutes alone with Richie.

“How goes it, Big Bill?” Richie asked, wiping sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. “Plaid looks good on you, as always.”

“Butler uniform looked better,” Bill said wistfully, tugging at his vest. “I miss Mansion, except for the heavy coat.”

“Anything’s better than khaki shorts,” Richie said sagely. “I’d kill to cross-train at Mansion. They won’t let me, though. They know I’d just sit around and scare kids all day.”

Bill shrugged. “I mean, I used to just let people fall down on the moving belt. I can’t imagine you’d be any worse.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty fucking awful, Billiam.” Richie shoved his hands in his shorts pockets. “Anyways. Um. I have a query.”

“Shoot,” said Bill, eyeing the kids. They were just about ready to go.

“Where’s Cute Character Attendant today?” Richie’s ears had gone scarlet, and not from the sun.

Bill shot him a withering look. “I don’t know every single person that works in MK, Rich.”

“You know this guy. I’ve seen you talking to him.” There was desperation in Richie’s eyes, which was new and disconcerting. “Small, pretty smile, shrill voice. I made an Aladdin joke about the loaf of bread in my pants and he told me that if he had a genie, he would wish me away.”

Bill squinted incredulously. “Eddie?!”

A huge, goofy smile slid across Richie’s face. “Eddie…”

Realization hit Bill like a freight train, and he let out a barking laugh. “You’re the heckler! Eddie said he had a heckler, and it's you!”

“Where is he?” Richie begged. “Bill, please.”

“Goodbye, Richie,” Bill sang, re-joining his group. Behind him, he could all but hear Richie attempting to keep from cursing.

It seemed that he was going to have to pay Eddie a visit after all.

----

As it turned out, the kids were pretty hyped about Tiana even with the fact that she was a girl. Bill was pretty impressed by that - they were a mature bunch of twelve year olds, which was rare and lovely.

Eddie was standing in front of the door to her station in Princess Fairytale Hall with his arms crossed. He looked almost elf-like in the Fantasyland attendant costume, and Bill couldn’t help but wonder at Richie’s taste. Eddie was a good person and quite attractive in his civilian clothes, but he looked ridiculous in his Attendant get-up, and Bill was pretty sure Richie had never seen Eddie in civvies. It made Bill wonder if Richie lusted after the Peter Pans in Entertainment, too.

“How many?” Eddie asked as they drew nearer.

Bill smiled meekly. “Don’t kill me.”

Eddie’s shoulders slumped. “Over ten?”

“Fourteen,” Bill said apologetically. “Plus me.”

Eddie rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew Richie?” Bill asked, low enough that the kids and moms in his group couldn’t hear him.

Eddie’s breath caught in his throat, and his face immediately went pink. “You’re talking about Jungle Cruise guy, aren’t you.”

“Yeah. We’re old friends.” Bill looked at Eddie seriously. “Is he yanking your chain?”

“He’s so embarrassing,” Eddie complained. “Every time I’m with Aladdin and Jasmine, he stares at me from across Adventureland and shouts dumb jungle pick-up lines. And that’s not even the worst part.”

Bill blinked back at him. “What’s the worst part?”

“The worst part is that I’m into it,” Eddie hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t know what to do. It’s ridiculous. I have to go check on Tiana.” He disappeared into the next room, and then reappeared. “Yeah, she’s good. She’ll see you now.”

“Do you want me to talk to Richie?” Bill asked, gesturing the rest of his group forward.

“If you do, I’ll kill you,” Eddie threatened, pushing Bill through the door. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Bill repeated, wondering what he could do to help his two idiot friends.

----

The tour pretty quickly went back to occupying the majority of Bill’s thoughts, and so he was able to bring the kids and moms through Fantasyland pretty efficiently. The kids were obviously losing steam heading into Tomorrowland, so he talked to the moms and decided that Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear would be their two final stops of the day. Monsters Inc would have to wait for another time.

Bill wasn’t a huge roller-coaster guy, and Space Mountain was particularly iffy for him, especially after he’d gotten the opportunity to ride it with the lights on, so he elected to stay outside with some of the moms while the kids and the braver mothers went through the line. One of the mothers was clearly relieved to have gotten him alone, and immediately started flirting with him, which he hated. It happened all the time, and while it was definitely worse when wives flirted with him in front of their husbands, it sucked pretty much across the board. He had no real defense mechanisms: he couldn’t be rude to the guest, or he’d get fired, and he couldn’t tell them he was gay, because then they’d probably tell his supervisor and he’d get fired for sharing too much information. It was a lose-lose situation.

Fortunately, someone else had noticed his plight. A blonde, bearded man in a dress shirt and, bewilderingly, a Disney name tag, came walking towards him from the direction of Astro Orbiter. “Hey, um.” The man read Bill’s nametag, and then straightened up. “Bill. Can we chat for a sec?”

“Sure,” Bill said, pointing to him and mouthing ‘supervisor’ to the moms as he was led away.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Bill shoved his hands in his pockets. “Am I in trouble?”

“What?” The man seemed confused. “No, I was just trying to help you out. That mom was really laying it on thick.”

“Oh.” Bill couldn’t find the words to express his gratitude, so he settled for patting the man on the arms. “Thanks, man, I really appreciate it. I thought you were the manager for one of the attractions around here, that’s why I asked…”

The other man laughed. “Oh, no. Well, actually, kind of. In a sense, I manage these rides.”

Bill knitted his eyebrows. “I don’t follow.”

“My name’s Ben Hanscom,” the man introduced himself. “I’m an Imagineer.”

“Oh!” Bill beamed, delighted. “That’s the raddest job on property, I think. What brings you to MK? New developments in Tomorrowland?”

“Just observing,” Ben said, smiling. “I have a lot of Star Wars stuff on my plate, so I wanted to see how guests were reacting to the space-y theming we already have.”

“Smart,” Bill nodded. “What Star Wars stuff?”

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Ben dropped his voice to a low whisper. Bill almost believed him for a hot second, but Ben ruined the joke by bursting out laughing.

“Dude. That wasn’t even that funny.”

“I know,” Ben wheezed. “I just can’t contain myself.”

“The rest of my group is coming back,” Bill said, pointing at the exit, where the kids were skipping out towards their mothers, “so as much as I’d like to listen to your crazy, I’ve gotta fly. See you around?”

“Definitely,” Ben said, smiling a huge, genuine smile. “Anytime you need to be rescued from crazy moms, you let me know.”

“I sure will,” Bill joked, walking back towards the kids.

“Hey,” Ben called after him, a little hesitantly.

Bill turned around. “Yes?”

“Could you, uh, say hello to the redheaded costumer next time you’re picking up costumes?” Ben asked sheepishly. “Tell her that Tomorrowland Pants Guy says hi.”

Bill had a feeling he knew exactly the person Ben was talking about, but there was no way Ben would know her name, so he decided to skip that particular discussion and just say “Okay”.

It was shaping up to be a weird day for relationships, all in all.

----

The costumer in question happened to be none other than Bill’s best friend and roommate, Beverly.

Bill met Bev just a little while after he’d started working at Disney. She’d worked more on entertainment costumes then, and they’d bonded over their love of the Haunted Mansion attire. They’d dated in those first, more immediate weeks, but quickly realized that their relationship worked better on a platonic level (especially considering that Bill wasn’t super into women in the first place)...which, ultimately, led them all the way up to becoming roommates.

She still worked in costuming, but now, she was in charge of frontline cast******* costumes in the Magic Kingdom. She ran clothing maintenance and tracked down all checked-out costume pieces, and also had the well-deserved reputation of being the nicest girl in all of costuming. After Bill sent the kids off to their hotel, clocked out, and hopped the West Clock bus back to the station, he stopped in to see her, knowing that her shift would be finished soon.

“Please, please, please come to the Boardwalk with me for a while!” Bill found Bev almost immediately upon entering the Costuming building, and wasted no time in launching into a whiny beg.

Bev huffed. “Is this about that guy you saw feeding the birds there literally one time? With the pretty curls and the sneer?”

“Obviously.” Bill unbuttoned his vest, took it off, and stuffed it in his bag. “I’ve gotta find him.”

This was true. Bill had spent his last couple of weeks in pursuit of a man he’d seen on Disney’s Boardwalk some time ago. The man had been angelically beautiful, and despite seeming a little on the stiff side, had been sweet and wonderful to watch when he’d pulled out birdseed and started tossing it to the ibises. Bill had been entranced, and now he was obsessed with finding him again.

“He’s probably not even from around here,” Bev pointed out, disgustedly watching Bill strip to just his undershirt and a pair of running shorts.

“He is. I know he is.” Bill zipped up his backpack full of wrinkled clothing. “And there’s another guy I have my eye on, too, if we can swing into Epcot and stop by some KidCot******** stations.”

“KidCot?” Bev raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t ask,” Bill said, sliding his bag back on to his shoulders. He’d seen Boardwalk guy about two weeks ago, looking at birds on the lake, and KidCot guy about four days ago, charming kids and mothers alike in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion. They were the two most evocative men Bill had ever seen in his life, and he was determined to track them down.

“Eh, I don’t have other plans.” Bev shrugged. “I guess I’ll come.”

“Fuck yeah,” Bill grinned. “My wingwoman.”

“Never say that again,” Bev said threateningly, and disappeared into the back to clock out.

----

They drove over to the Boardwalk and parked in cast parking, despite the fact that they weren’t Boardwalk cast. Neither of them wanted to pay to park in a guest lot (it was stupid that that was even a thing, now), and Bev figured they’d get away with it, so they decided to make it work.

Curly-haired boy was not on the Yacht and Beach********* side of things, and Bill couldn’t see him across the way. That was discouraging, but he didn’t want to make Bev feel they’d come for nothing, so Bill suggested that they walk the loop for a minute.

“Oh, by the way,” he remembered somewhere over by the Abracadabar, “some guy told me to say hey to you. Something about Tomorrowland pants.”

Bev frowned. “I’m not friends with any Tomorrowland cast.”

“He wasn’t Tomorrowland cast,” Bill clarified, “he was an imagineer. Something about Star Wars….but then, I mean, I guess they’re all kinda doing Star Wars at this point.”

Bev thought for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “Oh, shoot, what was his name. He was so sweet. Uh. Bert? Starts with a ‘B’.”

“Ben,” Bill remembered, smiling at the memory of the bearded guy who laughed at himself. “Imagineer Ben.”

“Ben!” Bev’s face was alight with excitement. “SO cute. He came in to see what the Tomorrowland folks were wearing, and then he stuck around and talked to me about sewing and Disney’s Hercules. What a cool cat.”

“He’s got a little crush on you, I think,” Bill teased.

“I’ve got a little crush back,” Bev responded without missing a beat. “Shit, I’ll ask him out myself if I ever see him again. He was so much fun.”

“That’s a pretty big ‘if’,” Bill reminded her gently.

“Yeah.” Bev kicked at a rock as they passed ESPNZone. “For you, too, though. I notice we haven’t found your bird boy yet.”

Bill sighed, gazing sadly across the little man-made lake. The sun was setting on the far end, and it would have been almost perfectly picturesque if the giant statues from the Swan and Dolphin resorts hadn’t been silhouetted against the sky. “I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s still here somewhere, Bev. Like, the universe keeps bringing me back here to find him, and one of these days, he’s going to be sitting on the steps outside the Yacht Club with a little plastic bag of birdseed again.”

Bev gave him a pitying look. “Maybe, honey. Maybe. We’re by the side entrance to Epcot; do you wanna try and find Kidcot guy instead?”

Bill did also really want to try and find Kidcot guy, but he couldn’t give up on curly-haired bird boy so easily. “One more lap, okay?”

“Okay, sweetheart.” Bev was, as always, inhumanly patient, and took his hand as they started on their second loop.

There were more people out on the Boardwalk now than there were when Bev and Bill had first arrived. It appeared to be prime time for people to be leaving the parks and coming back to their hotels to swim or change for dinner.

“They seem nice,” Bev giggled, gesturing to a set of parents that were obviously minutes away from snapping and screaming at their children.

Bill groaned. “Bev, thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to deal with guests, ever.”

“I do,” she replied easily, “every day.”

A loud, officious voice cut through the crowd as they passed the Yacht and Beach pool and approached the entrance to the Yacht Club. Bill felt his face contort into a scowl as he looked for the perpetrator.

“Too loud, asshole, too loud,” he muttered, feeling like a crotchety Mansion cast member again.

“It’s not my fault I couldn’t change my shift, dickhead,” the voice snapped. “I’m sorry you had to work in the morning, but honestly--no, your normal shift is batshit crazy, who the fuck goes in to work at 2pm? And I don’t care that you didn’t get to see….whoever this kid is. Mine didn’t come today either. Bad day all around. ...what? Oh, go fuck yourself.”

As abruptly as it had began, the voice stopped. Bill assumed that he’d hung up on whoever he was talking to. Curious, he looked around, trying to find someone who both looked angry and was shoving their phone back in their pocket.

In the whole post-pool area, there was only one person who matched both of those descriptors.

He also happened to have amber, springy hair.

Bill stopped short.

“Are you okay?” Bev asked, having almost walked into him. “Is something…?” She followed Bill’s line of vision, and then gasped. “Oh my God. That’s him, isn’t it? Something’s telling me that that’s him.”

Bill nodded weakly, and before he knew it, Bev was dragging him towards the beautiful stranger.

“What the fuck, Bev?” Bill yanked back on his hand, but she was holding firm. “I’m not ready to talk to him! Let me g---”

The curly-haired boy looked up. He was a lot prettier up close - almost statuesque - and holding a bag full of clothes, this time, instead of a Ziploc full of birdseed.

He also, jarringly, did not look surprised to see Bill.

“Oh,” he said, looking Bill up and down. “It’s you.”

In later re-tellings of the story, Bill blamed his lack of sleep and his dizzying tour group for what happened next, but the truth of it was that the sheer shock of it all was far too much.

He passed out, right onto the Yacht Club steps.

------

NOTES

irl Richie would have been fired from Jungle by now but we can sit here and pretend

*West Clock Bus - to preserve the integrity/secrecy of the tunnels, there is a bus that takes Cast Members from Magic Kingdom cast parking to the mouth of the tunnels. It is impossible to drive and stumble upon the tunnels.

**Getting a point - you clock in on a computer, so it knows you're late. lateness & other offenses of the like earn you points on your employee permanent record. 3 points earn you a talking to from a supervisor, more than that is Bad News

***CP Shift - CP = college program. College kids do internships at WDW that are basically just slave labor (that's how I worked there!) & they give them all the late-night graveyard shifts.

****Bote - that's just what they call boats at the World Famous Jungle Cruise. I genuinely don't know why.

*****Cross-train - as an attractions cast member, you can be trained at any attraction in your "zone" (so: Fantasyland, Adventureland/Liberty Square, in Epcot there's Future World East/West, etc.) but you have to apply to be trained, so...cross-training

******Rotate - every 45 minutes, attractions cast members rotate positions. this is mostly to give CMs some time in the air conditioning

*******Frontline cast - the CMs you interact with when you go into the park. There are lots of others (coordinators, managers, costumers, etc.) that you don't see.

********KidCot - stations for kids around Epcot Center's World Showcase

*********Yacht & Beach Club - two resorts in the Boardwalk area of WDW. you can walk to Epcot and boat to Studios from there.

**********"Friends" with a character - WDW lingo for acting as that character. EX: if I'm hanging out with my friend Elsa in Epcot's Norway pavilion today, then I'm gonna be the Elsa in Norway. Done to maintain the illusion with small children.

thanks for coming to my WDW ted talk, now enjoy some crazy gays

[minijenn]

Mystical Mystery Kids AU

In yet another bout of excellence over on the UF Discord we have created yet another really neat AU, one that I happen to enjoy quite a bit because it has le angst in it ahahaha (plus design wise it has a lot of really awesome potential) So yeah, have a bunch of headcanons we’ve come up with (plus some original ones of my own) under the cut!

So the backstory of this AU actually starts a waaaaaaay long time ago, back in the days of ancient Egypt. So we got our Mystery kids but they’re of course Egyptian but they still like go solve mysteries and hang out and whatever (idk this part is the part I don’t generally find as interesting as the present day of this AU)

So one day the kids are wandering around or whatever and they discover the truth that Bill (who, as we know from... some extra canon stuff idk) basically had the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids as monuments to him or whatever) is actually a geometric bastard who wants the world for himself

So the kids are all set to expose the truth to everyone but then Bill himself shows up and decides to silence the kids by cursing them, turning them each into a different kind of mythological monster

So in this we have Gem-corrupted (but still sorta sentient) rose monster Steven, dragon Dipper, Pegasus Mabel, and roc Connie

So yeah these kids are pretty much screwed because there’s no way to undo the curse (cause Bill is an ass) and they kinda can’t really hang about in human society anymore so they all just flee and go off on their own and stick together as they wander around, eternally stuck in their monstrous forms (they basically have unlimited life spans, but they can be killed (which will come into play later on)

And eventually these kids find their way to Gravity Falls, which is where all of the weird things usually tend to congregate, and that’s where they settle down

Now of course the Gems were around back in the day so they’re completely distraught about what happened to the kids, but Garnet I guess, has a vision that they’ll all eventually meet again someday in this place called Gravity Falls, so they decide to move there and play the waiting game, hoping that they can see Steven again someday

Now flash forward to the modernish era and the Mystery Kids get... uh... offed; basically they all die, probably in roughly the same way

BUT because the curse thing Bill put on them is sorta like this eternal thing, upon their deaths, the kids actually reincarnate into the modern Mystery Kids we all know and love

Now at first, these kids are all born human and normal and such, but as they grow up they gradually start to transform into the monsters they used to be (and they gradually start gaining memories of their past lives too) 

So let’s break it down into how it goes for each one of the kids (and I’m kinda gonna be doing some copy pasting from Discord here so bear with me)

So Steven; he’s not part Gem anymore, at least not apparently; but the Gems happen to find him with no parents around and they realize he’s basically identical to their old Steven they lost centuries ago, so of course they decide to take him in and basically raise him

However, he gradually turns back into that corrupted rose monster over the years and to quote @7-galaxys​ here (cause she came up with some really good ideas for this AU): “ OK so for Steven, there ain't no flower shops in Gravity Falls or Beach City, but the CG often portal to different places and whenever Steven comes along and finds Roses, he keeps them. He's got an uncanny ability to care for roses, so even starts his own rose garden. (Yet, as soon as the gems gave him seeds for other flowers, Steven couldn't care for them nearly as well and it always frustrates him) He's always got this distinct smell of roses about him, and really likes the color pink. He's usually calm, but small things will set him off (like when he's scared or hurt). Lots of people noticed he acts in an almost animal way, but everyone just chalked it up to HIS weird and mysterious past (showed up outta nowhere with 3 aliens- definitely not normal) that's also a bit pinkish. At one point, en STEVEN'S 12 or something, he noticed that some rose petals stuck to his skin. When he tried pulling them off, they refused to budge. When they finally did come off, he felt paint and was bleeding...thankfully they fell off on their own, but Steven started wearing sweaters after that to hide his new, strange skin. If they're on his hair though, he'll leave am cause he like an there and no one really questions it. Weird kid=weird habits”

So yeah, like I said, gradual transformations over the course of several years that even the kids themselves are sorta baffled by

Now for Connie, her and her family have always lived in Gravity Falls; however as she started to turn back into a roc (which is like this huge eagle-like bird if you don’t know), her parents kinda keep her inside a lot because they don’t want people to freak out over their half-bird daughter

And, quoting Galaxies again:  “Connie was always ridiculously light, even when she was born; her parents worried she wasn't the right weight, but everyone was surprised when she survived to infancy. Her X-rays how ARE always really weird (Connie was born with kinda hollow bones) but NO one figured out why. She was always so interested with birds, and I guess in this AU, is a needs glasses because her pre-roc vision and her now human vision were colliding a lot, which  made it difficult to see. When she was about 8, she began to grow feathers, and thats when her parents didn't let her go outside anymore. Connie's nose began to grow kinda weird, and sometimes her skin kinda had scales like how talons did? It was weird. One time, on a school field trip before her shut in, she was visiting the aviary habitat where birds fly around, yeah? And when she whistled (only she knew how to whistle out of the whole grade- she claimed no one taught her tho) all the birds flocked to her area, or at least most of them. One of them perched on her head and she stayed in the habitat the whole day.”

Now for the twins, they’re still born in California and again, seems like they’re all right and normal at first, but gradually Dipper starts turning back into a dragon (a tiny lil one) and Mabel turns back into a Pegasus

Galaxies, once more, weighs in: “Dipper's skin occasionally gets really tough and one time, he touched the stove while there was FIRE and it was hot AF but there wasn't a burn, Mabel always had a strong connection with horses and loved the idea of pegasai (But would sometimes point out that they looked....wrong somehow and she could never say how) and the twins always felt like they couldn't always communicate with people and DIPPER FUCKING LOVES REPTILES and Mabel always had this crazy endurance and a ridiculously fast metabolism and Dipper gets fangs and will sometimes growl”

So yeah of course the Pines parents don’t really know how to handle their kids’ alarming transformations, so they kinda panic and send them up to live with Stan in Gravity Falls (when they’re like, idk maybe 8 or 9) because apparently all sorts of weird shit happens up there, so they’ll probably be safe there, right?

So Stan takes them in and he finds their transformations to be pretty weird yea, but he’s supportive and comforting because well, Stan is the best

So the kids meet each other about the same time they do in UF and they all quickly bond because by that point they’re just about all fully monsters (I’d say the transformation would basically be complete around the time their past lives got cursed, which would be when they were 12/13 whatever)

So yeah through meeting each other that awakens even more past live memories and the kids eventually remember their former bond and that only brings them even closer together (the Gems are baffled but delighted by the way to see the kids again, even if they are still monsters) 

Also, being a dragon Dipper FUCKING HORDES A LOT OF RANDOM STUFF and it drives Mabel crazy (Stan and Amethyst use Dipper as a regular advantage on their revenge trips tho cause he’s got such an apparent knack for stealing lol) 

As for more extemporaneous stuff, when Dipper, Mabel, and Connie all grow their wings it HURTS like hell for all of them, poor kiddos (a lot of this transformation stuff would likely hurt them cause ya know, they spend years turning from humans into literal monsters)

Steven sometimes sheds his petals and they’re apparently very rare and highly valued for their healing properties

Steven’s also the only one of the MK who can’t fly but he compensates for that by being able to run very fast and jump very far

Despite being a dragon, like I said, Dipper’s a pretty small one, so he’d be the tiniest of the MK here (with Connie being the biggest cause ya know, giant bird)

Mabel still has a diet that consists of a lot of sugar (cause ya know, horses, sugar cubes lol), Steven’s pretty much an herbivore, while Dipper and Connie are both total carnivores

The kids kinda spend most of their time hanging out in the woods because they know they’ll probably be safe from humans being afraid of them out there (though they do trust Stan and the Gems of course) 

Aaaaaaand that’s about all of the main things for this AU but idk its a nifty idea (I’ve already sketched up what dragon Dipper and beast Steven look like so I’ll probably finish those up one of these days and do designs for the girls as well) 

Either way, as always, lemme know what ya think and if you got any HCs you’d like to add! Tbh this one is pretty neat (I love slow transformation situations) so I may write something for it in the future, idk its angsty but cute ^_^