#rattling my brain with my own hands like girl! you need to finish mtwgo before having other ideas!

[turtle-ly]

thinking about young wukong cherishing macaque - his first friend, his first willing subject/warrior from outside the mountain, the only other one of his "kind" - the way one coveted a treasure. Held him dear, held him close, put him on the softest cushions, draped him in the finest silk, dressed him up with the best garments the world could offer, fed him immortal peaches and wine that nations would go to war for a single sip. Macaque got a share in all the earthly and heavenly pleasures wukong could get his hands on, without lifting a finger if he didn't feel like it (he always felt like it, what's a warrior without a king to serve? but that's for another post). And yet wukong also guarded macaque the way one coveted a treasure - in which the best seals and wards were of ignorance. Held him dear, held him close, so close that for thousands of years the world knew far and wide of the Monkey King's exploits but nothing about the existence of his counterpart. No one could steal from him a thing they didn't know he had. Kept him always in wukong's shadows so the greeds of the world could never touch what's firmly his, so no other light apart from the Monkey King's could shine on his warrior.

The realms only learned of the Six Eared Macaque the day he was lost to the living by his king's own carelessness, and no amount of mourning or picking up the pieces could bring him back to wukong's trembling, remorseful hands.