#if you're a real scholar feel free to run with this but please give me a shoutout in the footnotes lol

[magician-kitty]

The Calabash

It was early in the morning, MK was fast asleep, snoring away in her apartment. All of a sudden MK is waken by the sound of her alarm clock. "Ugh, five more minutes." She said, falling back asleep, only to be woken up again by a sudden shake.

"Wha...Earthquake!" She shouted and covering her head. The shaking stops and MK looks up in confusion. "No! All my pwecious possessions!" She whimpered. Suddenly her alarm went off again and her eyes widened.

"It's 9:01?! I'm late for work!" She cartwheeled out of her bed, She gasped. "My staff! Oh no! Where's my staff?! MK tries to pull her staff out of her ear, but nothing happened. She notices the time changed again.

"Pigsy's gonna kill me!" She quickly changes into her clothes and rushes downstairs. "Pigsy! I'm so sorry I'm late! I overslept! And I guess I didn't set an alarm? I mean Honestly, I don't even remember going to bed. And no to mention the earthquake and, and, and...Please don't fire me!" MK pleaded, clasping her hands together, bowing.

"Fire you?" Pigsy said, before turning around, a bright smile on his face painted across his face. "Fire you? Ha! Why would I fire you?"

MK's jaw dropped, literally. "Um, well, last time you said: If you are one minute late ever again. you. are. fired!"

"I said that?" Pigsy asked in confusion, MK nodded.

Tang gave a chuckle, sliding up next to Pigsy, and wrapping an arm around the Pig Demon's shoulder, "That doesn't sound like my best friend, Pigsy!"

"Best friend?!" MK asked, giving the two a look of shock, looking between the scholar and the chef, then she noticed that there wedding rings were gone. "Uh, what's going on here?" MK asked.

Before she could get an answer, there was another earthquake. She lets out a shriek and ducked for cover. "It's happening again!" She shouted, once the rumbling stopped. Unknown to MK, when her back was turned Pigsy and Tang distorted.

"Again? Whatcha talking about, MK?" Pigsy asked, still grinning.

"Do you not feel that?" Mk asked, turning to them. "Feel what?" The pig demon asked, raising a brow. "Aww, I think those two have a real case of the Mondays, hmm?" Tang cooed.

"Hmm, perhaps it's an inner air thing? She mumbled. Oh, the staff!" She fell over as she tried to pull the staff out of her ear, only for nothing to happen. "What? Why isn't anything happening?"

Pigsy chuckles, shaking his head. "The staff ain't in your ear, kid."

"Oh, that's a relief. Wait, then where is it?" The delivery girl asked. "On the mountain, sealing away the Demon Bull King, and his entire family."

"Say what now!?" She blinked in confusion, since when did all that took place.

"You do remember, right?" Tang asked, before sighing as he turned to Pigsy. "I keep saying you work that poor girl too hard."

"That's it, you're taking the day off!" Pigsy cheerfully shouted. MK's eyes sparkle and with that, she's out the shop in no time.

"My first day off in two whole years! This is a perfect day!" She said with a smile.

"Perfect!" A crowd of strangers cheered behind the her, MK seemed to pay them no mind.

"No traffic at rush hour!" The girl gasped, speeding down the street, and towards the mall.

"Perfect!" The strangers cheered once again.

"Free shoes and tea samples?!" MK gasped in awe, as she was handed more stuff.

"Perfect!"

She made her way to the Anti-Gravity Arcade, where MK she played all the different games, cheering when she won every single round of Monkey Mech, "Beat all the high scores on Monkey Mech?!"

"Perfect!"

"Uhhh, y'all are seeing this, right?"

The ground begins to shake once again, looking around to see the source of the shaking, finding nothing. "Okay, this is weird, something's wrong..." MK frowned, thinking over the day's events, and walking back to the shop. "Pigsy smiled. He never smiles. I got to tell Mei."

MK starts running to find her friend, accidentally running into the girl. She to the ground, looking up at Mei, who was standing over her, a smile on her face. "Hey, MK! you good?"

"Mei! Boy am I glad to see you! Please tell me you see them, too?" She pointed to the crowds of people, once again surrounded by a crowd, all whispering "perfect" over and over again.

Mei slaps a finger over Mk's lips, shushing her "Sssh! None of that matters. We're gonna be late!" Grabbing her arm, running to the direction of the docks.

"Late for what?" MK asked as she struggled to keep up. The next thing he knew, Mei was dragging him to Sandy's boat, which was heavily decorated. "Our romantic river cruise for two."

"Our what!?"

"Our what!?" MK yelled in disbelief. She looked around Sandy boat, all of his cats were dressed in little suits, Sandy included.

"M-Mei...?" MK gave a worried look. "What is going— What the!?" She looked down at herself to see that her clothes had been changed.

MK was wearing a pink and white Hanfu dress with white flower print designs, her hair was tied in a bun, a flower clip keeping it in place.

Sandy then walked over to the two teens."Um, love what you've done with your boat, Sandy," MK said, a little confused.

"Isn't it perfect? I've finally figured it out. I felt like I really needed to cement what my role was in the group dynamic. And then, it just came to me. Boom! Romantic cruises! Okay, I'll be right back with the hors d'oeuvres," he said, giving MK a menu and then bowing and walking away.

MK then laughs nervously before leading over the table to whisper to Mei, "Mei, something really bad and really weird is going on. I think I'm losing it. I'm wearing this fancy dress, and There's all these earthquakes, and Pigsy said I beat DBK, and everything is all --" She paused, noticed Mei was wearing a completely different outfit.

"Perfect?~" Mei asked, in a seductive tone.

She wore a white and spring green hanfu, with a white and dark green sash, strapped around her waist. Her jet black hair was tied up into two ponytails, laid at the back of her head, adorned with white pom-poms and dark green ribbon.

She gasped "Oh no, It's spreading!" MK panicked. All of a sudden the lights went dim, stars were beginning to light up. "What the?"

Mei takes MK's hand. "C'mon! There playing our song!" She leads her to the dance floor. "Our Song?" MK asked, really confused, she yelped when Mei took her to the dance floor as they begin to slow dance.

'This is too weird! Why am I slow dancing with Mei? And when did I summon a clone!?' MK thought out loud as she looked to see a clone of her taking a mic, singing.

I know we've been friends forever

But now I think I'm feeling something new

And after all this time I opened up my eyes

Now I see you were always with me

Could it be you & I

Never imagined

Could it be suddenly I'm fallin' for you

Could it be you were right here beside me

and I never knew

Could it be that its true

It's you and it's you...

"MK, we've known each other for a long time and...Well, there's something I've been wanting to tell you.. Mei started off, fidgeting with her hands, looking at her with a blush on her face. Since the first day we met."

The earthquake shakes again, causing Mei to lose her balance as she shrieks, bumping into MK The two tumble, MK fall on her back, hitting the ground, as Mei lands on top of her.

"Mei?! W-What are you doing!?" MK asked, completely terrified.

"I just can't hold it in anymore! MK, I, I....I love you.~" Mei said looking deeply into her eyes.

MK blinks a couple of times, before letting out a terrified shriek, running away from Mei, leaning over the boat, puking. "Nope. I-I don't.." She gagged, looking sick.

"Wait! I-I meant, um..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unknown to MK, Two demons were fighting over a gourd like artifact. "No, it's my turn!"The orange demon kicks the blue one, who was tugging at the artifact, pushing his foot on his face.

"You're just gonna tell him everything's perfect again!" He struggled. "Oi! you forfeit your turn when you told Mei they should be in love!"

"What!? that was your idea!" The blue demon pointing to a picture of MK and Mei pinned on a red heart.

The orange demon sweatdrops, whistling nonchalantly as he takes down the picture on the board. "But they're just friends! You should know that."

"Ah! there's gotta be something about this in our scheme book." The blue demon then pulls out a rather large book, placing it on the table with a grunt. he skims down the pages, stopping with a grin, opening the book.

"Okay, uh, let's see." he mumbles, overlooking the book, " step 1: Imprison the monkie kid in the calabash."

"Right. done."

"Uh, step 2: convince monkie kid he's not in the calabash."

"Okay, we'll call that one a work in progress. next?" The orange demon brother asked.

"Yeah, that...that's it. It's just the two steps." The blue demon informed before looking to the next page to make sure.

"We really need to put in more time with the development stage." The orange demon looks from the calabash, back to the blue demon then back to the calabash, before grinning as he takes the calabash.

"Alright, alright, I can fix this." He then clears his throat, making it sound more girly as he held the calabash.

Tee-hee! Did I say in love?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I meant to say..." Mei starts to say but the fake world starts to rumble, throwing MK back into the rambling, Mei then got in her face, scaring MK "I love being your friend!" Mei finished.

"Uh, you know what? I... I need to, uh...Check something out. I'll see you later."

"As friends?" Mei called out as she walked away. "Yep! Uh-huh." She chuckles awkwardly, walking off, hopefully she wouldn't be followed.

Once she was out of sight, Mei's smile turned into a frown. "I think I nailed it," the fake Mei said.

"Hm. Let's make sure," the fake Sandy said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, MK awkwardly walks down the sidewalk of the city, back into her normal clothes, turning to peer over the corner of an alleyway. She looks left and right, sneakily walking into the alleyway, only to run into a dumpster. again, there was another earthquake, causing her to groan.

"How are you doing down there!" MK looked up, her eyes wide when he saw the somersault cloud, gasping.

"Monkey king! It's you, wait a minute, what are you doing here?" MK said, frowning.

"Oh you know? hanging, chilling, Monkey Kinging around. uh, anyway enough about me, What's new with you? cause you seem agitated."

"Well, yeah. I mean, everyone's got dumb brain! Pigsy gave me the day off, a-and Mei just said she...loves me. I think I'm going crazy!" She clutched her hair as Wukong jumps off his cloud.

The fake Sun Wukong just frowns before jumping off his cloud, "Ah, you're not crazy. This is all very normal." He then pulled out a bamboo stick and pointed it in MK's face before continuing, "My power's just...so great. It's probably too much for your little mortal brain to handle. You're going to see some weird stuff. You've just gotta accept it."

MK looked at him weirdly before walking back to the ladder to his room, the fake Sun Wukong still had his back to her, "Accept it, huh?"

"Yeah, accept it. Apart from that love bit, it all sounds fine. Perfect. Uh, but you know, if you think about it, actually, maybe you and Mei would make a really—" at that time the fake had turned around and noticed that MK had left.

"MK? Gaw, dang it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MK is seen walking down the sidewalk of the city, frowning. "This is fine. This is fine. I can figure this out. I'm definitely not going crazy. It's everyone else that's going crazy."

She makes her way towards the cave, smiles, looking up to see the staff. "The staff! Finally things can go back to normal." MK said walking towards the staff.

"Hey, Mk. what are you doing?" Mei's voice called out to her.

"Mei! Um...I was gonna take the old staff for a spin." The Monkie kid laughs, hoping Mei wouldn't question her further as she slowly backed away.

"Take it? you can't take it! If you do that then the Demon Bull King will return!" Mei exclaimed, her voice getting dark and scary.

MK laughs nervously, backing away from Mei, only to bump into Sandy. "Leave the staff where it is. dude." Sandy threatened.

"Oh, MK! You don't want that mean DBK to return, do you?" Tang cooed, suddenly appearing in front of her.

"Why don't we just go back to the shop?" Pigsy suggests with a smile, standing next to Tang. "I'll make us all a nice pot of noodles." the four loom over him, MK turning, seeing Monkey King behind him. "You can still have your perfect life, Sweetheart~" Wukong said smirking.

"No...No! This can't be real. You all can't be real!" MK shouted, balling her fists. Mo suddenly appears on MK's shoulder. "Yeah, we can all just hang out."

"Jin, the cat's not meant to talk!" False Mei said.

"Yeah, jigs up. Let's get her!" False Wukong said, the group lunged towards her. MK immediately made a run for it, Hoping to reach the staff in time. Unfortunately, they all dog-piled her before she could reach it.

"Let me go!" MK shouted, struggling from underneath them.

"You can't leave, just accept it Sweetie~" Monkey King cooed, smiling down at her.

MK growled, continuing to struggle. "NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!" MK shouted. She managed to free her arm, reaching for the staff. She grabbed it and pulls it out of the ground. Suddenly the world around her begins to crack, lights beams against it and before she knew it, she was outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moment was ruined when they heard a loud clank, both looking over, noticing the two demons trying to escape. MK screams, resulting in the demons also screaming. "WHO ARE YOU, WHERE AM I!?" MK screamed, The demons look at the other, before turning away from MK, as they began cackling.

"We're your worst nightmare, Missy! The name's Jin!

"And I'm Yin! The Gold and Silver Demons!" The two then posed, doing a Jesse and James bit, then they started arguing.

“Mate, it's silver and gold. silver and gold. Ok, I'm not having this conversation again!" MK sweat dropped, watching the two demons fighting.

"Am I supposed to believe that these are the one's that imprisoned me?"

"Okay, I got it. you're both demons. Uh, what am I doing here?" She asked, irritated.

"We've heard rumors about the great monkie princess and knew she'd be a worthy adversary." Jin said.

"Yes, after cunning and guile. We called out to you and you foolishly...answered." Yin exclaimed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier that morning, MK had arrived at the hideout with an order of Pigsy's noodles. MK looks from her phone to the building, raising a brow, before knocking on the door. The door opens a small crack. "Who is it?" A false female voice called out.

"Pigsy's Noodles! Home of the world's longest noodle." MK answered, waiting outside. Yin pulls his brother back, keeping him from being seen by MK.

"Bro, she has to answer to her name, remember." He reminded him. "Oh, right!"

Jin clears his throat, coughing. "Um, this app thing says you have to identify yourself, is your name MK?

MK rubs the back of her head, kinda confused. "Oh! Well I'm currently going by "MK" but it's really-Aaahhh!" Her sentence is cut off as the door opens and MK screams, being sucked in the Calabash.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't understand! The Calabash was supposed to contain you forever!" Jin shouted.

"Well, at least until we've figured out how to let you go." Yin shrugged. "So, instead, We'll have to destroy you the ol' fashion way!"

MK growled, an angry tick on her head as she starts swinging her staff. "Fine, y'all wanna fight? I feel like a fight." MK gets into a fighting position.

Yin and Jin gulp, looking terrified. "Um, I think she know we're bluffing."

"Wait! I've just figured out step three!" Yin said. Jin grins at his brother, as they dug into their pockets, pulling out smoke bombs. "Smoke bomb!"

MK coughs, covering her faces from the smoke, looking around to see the demons had vanished.

Or....Maybe not.

She turned around, behind her when she heard laughing. "We're the greatest tricksters ever!" They shouted in unison, and with that, they were finally gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MK makes it back to the shop, MK looking hesitantly inside. "Um, Mei ? Mr. Tang?"

"Kid! Just where have you been? Pigsy asked furiously. "I've got-" He was cut off by MK pulling him in a hug. "Pigsy!" MK exclaimed, rubbing her cheek against his. "Sweet, Sweet Pigsy!"

"Uh, What's Happening?" He asked in confusion. "It's a long story," MK sighed. It's just...I'm just really glad to have you guys." She said, smiling.

"Yeah, this is already perfect enough for me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MK sighed, plopped down on her bed, After all that happened today she could really use a break. She noticed a bouquet of flowers, on her window balcony.

She goes over to them, she cooed over the beautiful flowers. She buried her face in the flowers, taking a deep sniff. "They're so pretty!" She cooed.

She wondered, who could have brought these to her? She saw that their was a note attached to it.

❤️ "You don't know how lovely you are, you.

You with your cheeky-half smile

The way you touch your hair

Your soft lips.

And those brown eyes...

Oh, those brown eyes.

They draw me in, then slowly let me go.

I don't know if I want to let go." ❤️

[chicago-geniza]

ok, we have to read:

- this history of the laboratorium & atelier falanga

- more about rotmil & norris's scenography/decoration firm

- more about dybbuk 1937 costumes, more about polish & yiddish theater costumes of the period, more about lwów avant-garde arts scene of the early-to-mid 1930s because i once again have a Hunch

also:

- do more digging re: hunch that stefania was somehow involved with the script for dziesięciu z pawlaka (1931) (if i'm right & i can prove it, this will actually be...a not-insignificant ~discovery for my extremely niche, cobwebby little corner of polish film history) (but i mostly need the info to build very, very deep context about her dybbuk review, as per usual)