#the Star born pilgrim

[theplotmage]

50 Fantasy Prompts: Cultures and Societies. Writers Save this!

1. Luminae

- A society that worships light and revolves around bioluminescent creatures.

- Gesture: Raising both hands to the sky and opening palms to signify receiving light.

- View: Light is considered the purest form of energy and the ultimate source of life.

2. Mistral Nomads

- Wind travelers who harness the power of the breeze for navigation and communication.

- Gesture: Whispering into a small vial and releasing it into the wind, symbolizing sending a message.

- View: The wind carries the voices of ancestors and guides the living.

3. Veilwalkers

- Inhabitants of the mist who can see and manipulate spirits.

- Gesture: Drawing a veil across the face to communicate with spirits.

- View: The world of the living and the dead are separated by a thin veil that can be crossed.

4. Starforged

- People born under specific constellations with unique abilities tied to their birth star.

- Gesture: Touching a constellation tattoo to activate its power.

- View: Stars are the eyes of the gods, watching over and guiding them.

5. Shadecloaks

- Masters of shadow magic, living in perpetual twilight.

- Gesture: Merging fingers into the shadows, symbolizing blending into the darkness.

- View: Shadows are protective, hiding them from danger and giving them strength.

6. Seraphians

- Winged beings who consider themselves guardians of the skies.

- Gesture: Unfurling wings in a greeting, showing trust and openness.

- View: The skies are sacred, and flight is a divine gift.

7. Pyrosages

- Fire-wielders who live in harmony with volcanic landscapes.

- Gesture: Holding a flame in one hand while placing the other hand over the heart, symbolizing passion and life.

- View: Fire is a cleansing force, both destructive and renewing.

8. Aquafolk

- Ocean dwellers with the ability to breathe underwater and communicate with marine life.

- Gesture: Creating ripples in water with a fingertip to convey emotions.

- View: Water is a mirror of the soul, reflecting true feelings and intentions.

9. Silvan Elves

- Forest guardians who blend seamlessly with their environment.

- Gesture: Touching foreheads with a leaf, symbolizing unity with nature.

- View: All life is interconnected through the roots of the great tree.

10. Necrochanters

- A culture deeply connected to the afterlife, able to communicate with and summon spirits.

- Gesture: Drawing a circle with ashes to summon spirits.

- View: Death is not the end but a transformation to another state of being.

11. Stonekin

- Rock-like beings who can manipulate earth and stone.

- Gesture: Pressing a hand to the ground to communicate with the earth.

- View: The earth holds ancient wisdom and the memories of their ancestors.

12. Aetherians

- Masters of air magic, capable of floating and flying at will.

- Gesture: Raising arms and fingers to mimic the flow of air currents.

- View: The air is filled with invisible threads that connect all living beings.

13. Chronomancers

- Time-benders who can manipulate past, present, and future.

- Gesture: Tapping a timepiece rhythmically to alter time flow.

- View: Time is fluid and can be molded to fit the needs of the moment.

14. Dreamforgers

- People who can enter and manipulate dreams.

- Gesture: Weaving fingers in intricate patterns while in a trance.

- View: Dreams are a bridge between realities, holding power and prophecy.

15. Sunseekers

- Pilgrims who follow the path of the sun, gaining strength from its light.

- Gesture: Holding a hand above the heart to swear oaths under the sun’s gaze.

- View: The sun’s light is a witness to all promises, giving them sacred weight.

16. Frostborn

- Ice-dwellers with control over cold and frost.

- Gesture: Exhaling a cold breath to signify agreement or truth.

- View: Ice preserves and protects, holding the essence of life.

17. Songhearts

- A musical culture that uses songs and sound for magic.

- Gesture: Placing a hand over the throat and singing a single note to show sincerity.

- View: Music is the language of the heart and the most honest form of communication.

18. Runecarvers

- Inscribers of powerful runes that grant various abilities.

- Gesture: Tracing runes in the air or on surfaces to cast spells.

- View: Runes are the written words of the gods, containing immense power.

19. Stormcallers

- Masters of weather, able to summon and control storms.

- Gesture: Raising a staff to the sky to summon storms.

- View: Storms are the breath of the gods, bringing both fury and renewal.

20. Plainsriders

- Nomadic horsemen known for their speed and agility.

- Gesture: Drawing a circle in the dirt with a foot to mark territory or signal peace.

- View: The open plains are a vast, sacred expanse that must be respected.

21. Mycologians

- Mushroom-like beings who can communicate through spores.

- Gesture: Spreading spores by tapping a mushroom cap to communicate.

- View: Fungi are the bridge between life and decay, recycling energy.

22. Glimmerfolk

- Glittering, gem-encrusted people who can harness the power of precious stones.

- Gesture: Touching gemstones to channel their energy.

- View: Crystals are vessels of ancient power and knowledge.

23. Thornclad

- A warrior culture clad in thorny armor, known for their fierce combat skills.

- Gesture: Clasping hands with thorned gloves to signify a bond or agreement.

- View: Pain and resilience are intertwined, symbolizing strength.

24. Celestials

- Star-born beings with a deep connection to the cosmos.

- Gesture: Drawing constellations in the air with glowing fingers.

- View: The night sky is a map of destiny, guiding their every action.

25. Inkshapers

- People who can bring drawings and tattoos to life.

- Gesture: Drawing a symbol on their skin to activate a spell.

- View: Ink and art are extensions of the soul, capable of bringing thoughts to life.

26. Mirageweavers

- Desert dwellers who can create illusions and mirages.

- Gesture: Waving hands to create illusions and mirages.

- View: Reality is fluid and can be shaped by perception and will.

27. Echoers

- A culture that communicates and fights using echoes and soundwaves.

- Gesture: Clapping or snapping fingers to create soundwaves for communication.

- View: Sound is a powerful force that can shape the world around them.

28. Ironveins

- Metal manipulators who can shape and control metal at will.

- Gesture: Clenching fists to channel metal manipulation.

- View: Metal is a living force, constantly evolving and reacting.

29. Wyrmkin

- Dragon-like people with scales and the ability to breathe fire.

- Gesture: Exhaling a plume of smoke or fire to show respect or power.

- View: Dragons are the ultimate beings, embodying wisdom and might.

30. Duskborn

- Night-dwellers who gain strength from the moon.

- Gesture: Holding a candle to their chest, symbolizing the light within the darkness.

- View: Darkness is not to be feared, but embraced as a part of the natural cycle.

31. Crystalhearts

- A society with crystalline bodies that can refract light and energy.

- Gesture: Touching their heart crystal to show honesty and purity.

- View: Crystals are the heart of their being, reflecting their true selves.

32. Skyforgers

- Builders of floating cities and airships.

- Gesture: Hammering an invisible anvil to craft objects from thin air.

- View: The sky is a forge, and they are its smiths, creating wonders from the air.

33. Leafkin

- Plant-based beings who can photosynthesize and communicate with flora.

- Gesture: Placing a leaf in the palm to connect with nature.

- View: Leaves and trees are the lifeblood of the earth, nourishing all.

34. Sandshapers

- Desert people who can control and shape sand.

- Gesture: Drawing patterns in the sand to communicate or cast spells.

- View: Sand is a canvas for their magic, constantly shifting and changing.

35. Moonshadow Elves

- Elves who live in the shadows of the moon, skilled in stealth and night magic.

- Gesture: Casting moonlight on their face to invoke lunar power.

- View: The moon is a guide and protector, influencing their magic and lives.

36. Bloodrunes

- Warriors who use their own blood to inscribe powerful runes.

- Gesture: Pricking a finger to draw blood and create runes.

- View: Blood is the essence of life, and through it, they gain power.

37. Dreambinders

- People who can link their dreams to reality.

- Gesture: Twining fingers together to weave dreams into reality.

- View: Dreams are powerful forces that can shape and change the world.

38. Thunderclans

- Tribes who worship and control thunder and lightning.

- Gesture: Stamping feet or clapping hands to summon thunder.

- View: Thunder is the voice of the gods, a call to action and power.

39. Feywilders

- Inhabitants of the fey realm with unpredictable and chaotic magic.

- Gesture: Dancing in a circle to invoke fey magic.

- View: The fey are mischievous yet powerful, their magic a blend of chaos and beauty.

40. Mirrorborn

- People who can step through and manipulate mirrors.

- Gesture: Touching mirrors to travel or communicate.

- View: Mirrors are portals to other realities, reflecting infinite possibilities.

41. Wispwalkers

- Ethereal beings who guide lost souls.

- Gesture: Holding a wisp of light to guide lost souls.

- View: Wisps are guides and protectors, leading them through darkness.

42. Frostweavers

- Ice artisans who create intricate and magical ice sculptures.

- Gesture: Weaving ice crystals into intricate patterns.

- View: Ice is a delicate and beautiful force, capable of great power.

43. Starwardens

- Celestial knights who protect the realms from cosmic threats.

- Gesture: Drawing star maps in the air to invoke celestial power.

- View: The stars are guardians, watching over and protecting them.

44. Emberkin

- Fire-dwellers with control over embers and ash.

- Gesture: Snapping fingers to produce sparks and embers.

- View: Embers hold the remnants of fire’s spirit, representing both the end and beginning of the flame.

45. Oceanborne

- Sea nomads who can control the tides and waves.

- Gesture: Drawing water symbols in the air to summon sea spirits.

- View: The sea is a vast, living entity, a source of mystery and power.

46. Windwhisperer

- Communicators with the wind, able to send messages across great distances.

- View: The sky is a living entity, responsive to the voices of those who respect it.

- Gesture: Moving gracefully to mimic the flow of the wind.

47. Etherseekers

- Gesture: Holding out their hands to draw ether into themselves.

- View: The ether is a vast reservoir of magic, accessible to those who seek it.

48. Twilight Guardians:

- Gesture: Holding a lantern to light the way through twilight.

- View: Twilight is a sacred time, a bridge between day and night.

49. Windwalkers

- Gesture: Moving gracefully to mimic the flow of the wind.

- View: The wind is a messenger of the gods, carrying whispers of destiny and change.

50. Eclipsewatchers

-Gesture: Covering one eye while the other remains open to signify balance

- View: Eclipses represent the merging of light and dark, a time of balance and reflection.

[jiubilant]

I heard this story from my mother, who heard it from her mother, who heard it from a spider that whispered in her ear—and the spider told it best, because spiders, you know, spin stories as strong as their silk. But I’ll tell it to you now as best I can, so that none will forget how Tiro Dirnamat kindled the first fire.

Long ago, before the dead spoke to the living and the living spoke to the dead—

* * *

“S’this a ghost story?” the clerk’s youngest apprentice interrupts, watching him with wary anticipation. “Rusty clanks and ottomies and all?”

Rusty clanks, thinks the clerk with amused despair, is probably self-explanatory. The rest is beyond him. “Ottomies?”

“S’what they do to millers in Colovy.” The child perks up, delighted to know something he doesn’t. “First they stretch you for it, then they sell your corpus to some wizard, and then you get ottomized.”

The clerk, darning a shirt in the scant light of the fireplace, blinks at the small, earnest face staring up at him from the rug. She sleeps there, poor urchin. He’d first tried to lodge her with Rafe’s mother, who had six daughters for the child to befriend; she’d bitten one, the little Boethite, and taught the other five to pick pockets. In a sennight she was back on his front stoop scratching fleas. He ought to find her somewhere else to stay.

In the meantime, they’ve gotten used to each other. Few others understand the child’s cant.

“Millers,” he murmurs, half to himself, “rhymes with killers. And to stretch, I expect, is to—”

The child clutches her throat, makes a grotesque face, and flops with a theatrical twitch onto her pallet by the fire.

“—yes, that,” says the clerk, “thank you, which leaves ottomized.” He thinks about what a Colovy wizard might do with someone’s corpus. “Ottomized. Ot—anatomized?”

The child, with blithe unconcern, rises from the dead. “S’what I said.”

The Empire, the clerk reflects, does sell the corpses of its murderers to Legion necromancers. That the child knows this does not surprise him. She’d come to Haafingar with mange, and a shirt more hole than wool, and a hairbrush-handle whittled to a point.

She itches her throat where her fur, dark as a sable’s, is at last growing back. Only a twitch of her tail betrays her interest—and then her eyes, bright in the firelight, sneaking a thief’s furtive glance up. “Did you really hear it from a spider?”

“My grandmother heard it from the spider.” The clerk tries not to smile. “Pay attention.”

* * *

Long ago, before the dead spoke to the living and the living spoke to the dead, Tiro Dirnamat was born in the land of Veloth. In those days that land was as frigid as this one. The people of Veloth shivered all day and wept all night, for they were starving as well as freezing; their ploughs and spades were more useless than their tears, for no seed they tried to sow would grow. Many of Veloth’s people perished. The Pilgrim himself lived on, but he was old and cold and full of grief, and in his secret heart he yearned for the warmth of the homeland he’d spurned.

But Tiro Dirnamat had never known warmth. She grew up cold and hungry, as children of hardship do. And when she’d grown as tall as you, or thereabouts, she sought out Boethiah.

“I’m cold,” she told the goddess. “I’m hungry.”

“Hunt,” said Boethiah, and tore a shred of gristle from her terrible teeth. She and her son Moves-Like-This were squatting in the snow, gnawing a leg of goat each. “Light a fire.”

Tiro Dirnamat didn’t know what a fire was, and she saw no game to hunt. She did see that Moves-Like-This hadn’t noticed her, so she knocked him down and snatched his leg of goat—

* * *

“How’d he cook it?” asks the child.

The clerk blinks. “What?”

“You said Tiro Doormat—”

“Dirnamat.”

“Dearmat,” says the child, apologetic. “You said she lit the first glim. So how’d any cove in those days roast his goat?”

“In those days,” says the clerk, “you left your hearthpan out and waited for a star to fall in it. Then you cooked your supper over the star.” He smiles at the look on the child’s face. “Where was I?”

* * *

Yes, the leg of goat. Well, Moves-Like-This tried to catch Tiro Dirnamat. He moved like a torrent in spate, like heat-lightning, like wind in reeds. But Tiro Dirnamat was hungrier than he. She danced and ducked and dodged his many strikes, tearing bites from his supper all the while, until the leg of goat was quite, ah, ottomized. Then Boethiah grabbed her by the hair.

“Fool,” she said, though she looked pleased. “Do all of Veloth’s children squabble like alit for scraps?”

“We’re cold,” said Tiro Dirnamat—and tried to hit the goddess, oh, yes, with the legbone of the goat. “We’re hungry.”

Boethiah smiled with all her sharpest teeth.

“Leave the shadow of the mountains, alitla,” she said. “Climb to the peak where the midmorning sun sits. And give me that.”

She took the legbone of the goat from Tiro Dirnamat and threw it to the ground, and it became a golden spear. She threw Tiro Dirnamat to the ground, too. And Tiro Dirnamat snatched the spear and ran, but not before making a face at Moves-Like-This—or Fa-Nuit-Hen, as he’s properly named—who stuck out his tongue at her.

So the lowliest of Veloth’s children, with only her spear and her daring, traveled east—and east, and east, farther than anyone had walked since feet were invented. When she left the shadow of the mountains, as the goddess had told her to do, she discovered something strange: the snow that she trudged through was gray, not white, and didn’t melt. Nor did it fall from the sky, where Azura spins her fate-threads from the wool of clouds. Instead it rose from a peak where the midmorning sun sat.

Up that peak climbed Tiro Dirnamat. When she reached the mountaintop, the sun had gone to sit somewhere else—but it had squashed a dent in the summit, it seemed. Tiro Dirnamat slid down into the crater of the mountain, and leaned on her spear, and thought. Boethiah hadn’t told her what to do next. It is she who gives the spear, and we who cast it.

But Tiro Dirnamat was weary from her travels, and hungry, and had never known warmth. She could think of no way to pass the goddess’s test. At last, in her frustration, she raised her golden spear and stabbed at the mountain.

The very stone cracked beneath her feet. So strong was the strike of hardship’s daughter, so driven by her wrath and will to thrive, that it pricked the Heart of the World that beat beneath the earth. The blood of the world welled molten from the wound. And when Tiro Dirnamat tugged her spear from the crack in the stone, it came up hot, hotter than an iron, and aflame—which is why we call it Goldbrand.

Then the crack widened, and the mountain shook, and Tiro Dirnamat thought she’d better get out of there. She scrambled down the peak and away, outrunning the world’s-blood that ran behind—she’d bested Fa-Nuit-Hen, after all, who was much faster. West she ran, and west, and west, with the fire of her spear streaking on the wind.

The people of Veloth saw her coming and hid away their children, because Tiro Dirnamat liked to bite them—are you sorry? Then they cried out in wonder and fear, for the snow melted before Tiro Dirnamat’s flaming spear. She cast it at the feet of Veloth, and the prophet’s grief melted, too.

“A door thou hast brought us, Bringer of Fire,” he said. “And we shall walk through it, at suffering’s end, to the house of Boethiah.”

And he led his people from the shadow of the mountains—but Tiro Firebringer, who knew the way, led him. And Veloth’s people thrived in the Heartland, and were not cold, for ever after they had fire—and they weren’t hungry, either, for Mephala taught them to cook with it. So the spider told my grandmother, who told my mother, who told me.

* * *

“Of course,” the clerk adds, his brow furrowing, “my mother always put in a bit about Tiro battling a ghoul—who shared his name with the Imperial proconsul, as it happens. There.” He flicks the mended shirt at the child, who catches it with a startled cat’s chirp. “Try it on, hla, and tell me if I missed any holes. Damned if I know where my spectacles are.”

His apprentice stares at it for a moment, sweeping the hearthstones with her tail, then tugs it over her nightclothes. He suspects it’s her favorite shirt. Since he taught her to backstitch, she’s decorated its hem with a web of wobbly lines.

“What happened then?” she asks, her voice muffled by the shirt. Her head’s still in it. She emerges at last with bent whiskers and staticky fur. “To Tiro Dirnamat.”

“She had supper, I suppose,” says the clerk, tucking needle and string away, “and sat by the hearth.”

Not a thrilling conclusion, he thinks. But the little cutthroat, a snug silhouette against the fire, looks satisfied—and falls asleep soon after, still in the shirt.

[colleybri]

A sonnet for Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor

Your fight this day is done with this harsh dawn

So rest, dear Pilgrims, be at peace at last.

Your weary flesh and all you’ve left to mourn

Will fade now; there’s no future, present past -

Nor is there pain. Prepare for dreamless flight

Between the stars; be crystal and bright dust.

Let others take your Torch of hope and light,

Brave Captain, ‘Little Sister’, in the glass find trust.

Pass into light with love. You’ve earned your rest,

Your parents’ pride and love and faith you knew,

Hand in hand, find strength to pass this final test.

Heart in heart, you’ll find your “Welcome home” here too.

You burned your futures for another future’s morn.

From hearts like yours the strongest stars are born.

[quitealotofsodapop]

more Soft Boiled!

[the little red ribbon in her hair!!! And she has her own version of Macaque's scarf!!]

the red ribbon was meant to be phoenix feathers like Wukong's cap, and I like ti think her scarf may actually be a piece of Macaque's original scarf. the one he wears pre-death is different from his scarf post-resurrection, so maybe after he died Wukong wanted to keep a momento for himself/his unborn daughter. Macaque comes back to life and assumed the scarf, which was a gift from Wukong in the first place, had been rescinded as a show of them no longer being together. that is, until he recognizes the fabric hanging from the shoulders of a familiar black-furred child that just broke his nose mid shadow play.

[Wukong about to get a talking to the second his adoptive family gets a hold of him. Once the monkey recovers from the early labour, and has emotionally recovered from the rollercoaster that was Yuebei's birth ofc.]

I can imagine PIF helping as a sort of midwife through the whole thing, and being very supportive and giving a lot of great advice, having gone through a similarly rough pregnancy not overly long ago herself (I also like to think Red Son, due to the fire causing the pregnancy and birth complication, was also a premmie). aaanndd then the moment Wukong is ok again after Yuebei is confirmed ok she's turning into the most foul-mouthed, harshest, rage filled person in the room. the others don't bother scolding Wukong much, taking softer tones in despite their concern and annoyance, partly because she said it all first, and partly because they feel bad about how utterly devastating her rant was.

[It would be so cute if Yuebei first started crying over something completely normal - for some reason, I'm thinking it's something like Zhu Bajie trying to pull a funny face for her. Wukong is so relieved to hear his baby crying that he doesn't even scold his pilgrim brother for scaring her!]

she's awake, but barely, and still so, so quiet. then, admist the other pilgrims quiet fussing over her, Zhu Bajie tries to lighten the mood by making a face. she starts wailing. Wukong, who was just about ready to go out like a light, instantly is next to the crib, picking her up and both trying to comfort her and himself as he cries in joy and relief. the others have a similar joyous reaction, except for Bajie, who is very wounded by the thought of being ugly enough to make a baby cry.

[Wukong would be so protective of his little Moon Comet Star. She was so sickly and weak as a baby, that he worries about ever letting her leave places he knows to be safe.]

maybe another lasting affect of her brief encounter with the fire is sever asthma. not great for a premature newborn. I imagine it would be something that sticks with you if your baby is constantly wheezing, coughing, unable to really make sounds, struggling to eat, struggling to breath, and maybe even stops breathing entirely entirely at times. And with almost nothing you can do, as back when she was born their wouldn't really have been much treatment or medicine for things like asthma. the constant worry of Yuebei suddenly not being able to breath probably means she never really got to go places, especially without her Baba. heaven forbid is she also has any seasonal allergies. not to say Wukong was a total helicopter parent, but he definitely worried.

Wukong is aware enough to understand that this is not a normal, or ideal childhood, so now that she's a bit bigger and stronger he's really trying to not lose his mind with anxiety every time MK takes her somewhere new off island without him. he even tries to encourage her to go out, so even if he has worries and a few different concerns when MK mentions the noodle shop all got tickets plus an extra one for the his daughter to a shadow play he tries not to stifle anyone's fun.

[That and I can imagine Wukong took her to stay with Guanyin on her unaging island for a while to help her health improve.] + [I bet even with Guanyin, "Cousin" Nezha, and the very rare corespondance with PIF and Red Son, Yuebei spends a lot of her childhood lonely]

as mentioned above, with her having been so sick she def would have spent a lot of time at Guanyin's. she's a renowned healer, and Guanyin is someone he trusts dearly to boot, so going to the goddess is a win-win in his eyes.

and yeah. between not being allowed to go out to new places much due to being a sickly child, and Wukong's reputation and not having anyone to connect with other then busy celestials, there's not much chance to go exploring. the monkeys are fun, but they and her baba treat her very delicately even when playing. her baba is awesome in her eyes, and its one thing for your parent to be someone you can call a best friend, but its a little different when your parent is your only friend. its why, despite not liking him much, she jumps at MK's offer to take her off island and into the city without her baba sometimes.

I feel like she'd make fast friends with Bai He once the LBD fiasco is over.

[Yuebei is gonna have a time when she starts understanding whats really going on with the Noodle Gang, and why her family "suddenly" can't remember her. Wukong blames himself for not explaining it better to her earlier, but hadn't wanted to dump so much loss on his babygirl all at once - it was a lose-lose situation.]

Yuebei learning and coming to understand what's happened probably ends up being the b-plot of an episode. maybe "Amnesia Rules", instead of Wukong getting his memories back by getting hit over the head, it happens because he realizes through Yuebei having an emotional breakdown over the others, and now her own father, having forgetton her and he realizes that she's describing them having reincarnated and he's like "ah! that's what happened." and explains more indepth what that means to her. the others hear of her feeling about "them forgtting her" for the first time during this, and can't help but feel bad and try and help Wukong explain. she probably clings to her baba for a long time after, and stops being as cld to the others. maybe even kinda apologizes to MK for thinking he stole them from her.

maybe. not sure how well the idea works.

[Yuebei doesn't like Macaque, but she doesn't completely abhor the idea of him and her baba becoming close again. She just doesn't want either of them to get hurt again.]

she doesn't protest her presence much, as her baba seems... hopeful (though still a little sad sometimes) when he's around, and she also doesn't hate the idea of having her second baba around. but she also doesn't let him off scott free, glaring over Wukong's shoulder at him when macaque gets to close to soon, clinging to Wukong when he tries to talk to her, not talking much around him even if he addresses her directly, and generally not being very receptive. she probably at some point goes through a "rebelious phase" where she does things to test if he'll "really stick around even if she's troublesome". as far as she knows, he didn't even want her in the first place, or at least didn't care that Wukong was having her, so to her it seems like a reasonable thing to question.

[Azure Lion about to get decked in the face the second he comes around. When did the monkeys multiply? Why is he on fire?]

what can Yuebei say? she's fiercely protective and not happy about someone trying to take away her baba again.

[Wukong is just watching Yuebei tear into their enemies like; "I love my strong little girl." <3]

probably been said before, but no matter the universe; Wukong is a proud dad to all his kids at all times

Prev.

[Macaque comes back to life and assumed the scarf, which was a gift from Wukong in the first place, had been rescinded as a show of them no longer being together. that is, until he recognizes the fabric hanging from the shoulders of a familiar black-furred child that just broke his nose mid shadow play.]

I'm sorry but that is the cutest/saddest gotdamn thing ever. Wukong was so distraught at losing Macaque that he couldn't bare to leave behind his most cherished possession. So he took the scarf. Wrapped it around himself when he felt cold. Maybe even used it to swaddle his new baby girl. Yuebei dragging it around the cave as her security blanket. It being carefully washed and repaired so many times that it's barely red any more.

In the end, Wukong wanted Macaque to be there with him through all of This.

And once the reality sets in, Macaque is sobbing at the sight of Yuebei wearing her beloved scarf as he once did.

And I just love that my reoccurring theme with Macaque in the Egg aus is;

[aaanndd then the moment Wukong is ok again after Yuebei is confirmed ok she's turning into the most foul-mouthed, harshest, rage filled person in the room.]

PIF is terrifying when she's genuinely angry/worried - and once Wukong and Yuebei are safe/healthy post-natal, she starts yelling.

Wukong now finally understands what Macaque meant when he said his "ears are burning". Once the woman calms down, she wraps Wukong into a near-crushing hug, thanking and begging him to never ever do something so stupid again. Even if it saved her baby, Wukong nearly lost his. And PIF would never forgive herself if little Yuebei had been lost to the fire.

Yuebei gets a tearful kiss on the forehead from her auntie before PIF leaves the room, content with the words spoken.

Wukong makes sure to hug DBK when he sees him next, knowing that the Bull feels the same as his wife over the matter.

[the others have a similar joyous reaction, except for Bajie, who is very wounded by the thought of being ugly enough to make a baby cry.]

HAHA! XD Bajie would take it as an insult - but at least his little bro is happy to hear the baby make noise. A loud piglet is a healthy piglet. And little Yuebei was a real quiet piglet for a long time... at least she stops being afraid of ol' Uncle Bajie when she gets a little bigger.

I immediately thought of a scene from Hero is Back where Bajie is trying to calm down the baby Silly Girl by pulling a face, only for the baby to start screaming at him.

[maybe another lasting affect of her brief encounter with the fire is sever asthma. not great for a premature newborn.] + [heaven forbid is she also has any seasonal allergies. not to say Wukong was a total helicopter parent, but he definitely worried.] + [and yeah. between not being allowed to go out to new places much due to being a sickly child, and Wukong's reputation and not having anyone to connect with other then busy celestials, there's not much chance to go exploring.]

Oof. This hit me as an asthmatic preemie myself. Cus so much of my health was compromised as a little kid, I wasn't very active or adventurous - something thats easy to regret as an adult.

Wukong is so scared of how fragile his cub is. He's immortal, he's indestructable - but that means nothing to him if he can't protect his baby. He knows that mint and licorice, and anti-muscosal formulas help people with poor lungs, but the science back then wasn't 100% sure, and he sure as Diyu wasn't letting his daughter smoke datura cigarettes like the western doctors reccomended! At least the Eqyptians had Kyphi - an incense mixture (multiple formulas) that was frequently repurposed into asthma treatments.

All he can really do is to have a fully-stocked pharmacy inside Water-Curtain Cave, and make sure Yuebei stays away from pollen-rich flowers.

Wukong cries with relief in the early 20th century when Ventolin, Antihistamines, and Epinephrine become common knowledge.

Bonus: Interesting article I found on asthma treatment in Traditional Chinese medicine.

[as mentioned above, with her having been so sick she def would have spent a lot of time at Guanyin's. she's a renowned healer, and Guanyin is someone he trusts dearly to boot, so going to the goddess is a win-win in his eyes.]

Yuebei probably sees Guanyin as an aunt/grandparent figure. Hard not to when the bodhisattva is so doting over the tiny girl. Yuebei finds a lot of her lessons and treatments boring, but at least for a long time she had Red to hang out with.

Guanyin knows Wukong wouldn't trust Yuebei's care with them lightly. Even if Guanyin was present to bless Yuebei's arrival, the Monkey King is hesistant to let anyone tend to his little girl for a long time. The goddess is honoured to be so trusted.

[she jumps at MK's offer to take her off island and into the city without her baba sometimes.]

It's the thing that allows her to open up to MK a little more, even with her burning jealousy of how he's spending so much time with her baba + the Noodle Gang family + him getting to have a "normal" life pretending to be a healthy human cub.

She likes arcades but they get very loud for her at times. MK is quick to notice when the "Monkey Princess" (as he calls her) gets overstimulated, and suggests that they check out a quieter activity.

Like a play.

[I feel like she'd make fast friends with Bai He once the LBD fiasco is over.]

Little girl gang! And if Bai He is a foster kid/orphan like I hc, then Yuebei has zero issue letting another sickly little girl into her family. She's very sympathetic and understanding of Bai He's physical limits ever since she hosted LBD - the human girl now aching constantly from her body being forced to move like a puppet. The two jokingly compare how one briefly hosted Fire while the other Ice. Bai He could be considered the more feminine of the two, but they both bond over shared interest in animal science - Yuebei still loves her dinosaurs while Bai He is still a die-hard cat fan. And ofc the inherent chaos that two fearless little girls can get up to when they wander off from their babas' watchful gaze.

[the others hear of her feeling about "them forgtting her" for the first time during this, and can't help but feel bad and try and help Wukong explain. she probably clings to her baba for a long time after, and stops being as cld to the others. maybe even kinda apologizes to MK for thinking he stole them from her. maybe. not sure how well the idea works.]

Ultimately, even if Yuebei understood how death/reincarnation worked, she would still feel "forgotten" as (nearly) every soul that passes through Diyu is made to drink Meng Po's broth and forget their past lives. The little girl still feels abandoned in some way by her Pilgrim uncles "leaving" her and her baba. It's bad enough that Uncle Bull had to go away for a long time, but to lose her uncles, only to see them again in new forms that don't recognize her, devastates Yuebei in a way thats hard for her to articulate.

And for her own parent to be afflicted in a way that makes him unable to remember her? Oh you better believe Yuebei is a complete mess.

When Wukong briefly loses his memory in "Amnesia Rules"; he initially panics, wondering why he can't "feel the Egg" any more - only to look over at Yuebei and have a moment of fractured memory thinking that she must be a projection from the future, or an Egg Macaque made on his own without him.

This assumption continues unaddressed until the gang manages to get Tang back, and befriend Scorpion Queen. As they're about to get Wukong to go back into astral meditation to "reboot" himself, the ginger monkey turns to ask Yuebei something thats been plaguing him all day.

Amnesiac!Wukong: "Are you my Egg?" Yuebei, sadly: "I was..." Amnesiac!Wukong: "Aww. Come here, cub." (*Wukong pulls Yuebei in for a hug*) Amnesiac!Wukong: "If you really are my little Egg many years from now, I'm happy that she grows into a strong, fearless little lady. I'm proud to be your Baba." Yuebei: (*cries into Wukong's shoulder*) "I love you baba..." Amnesiac!Wukong, crying too: "I'm so happy to be able to hear that. I was so scared when you tried absorbing the Samadhi Fire... I thought I lost you. But you're a tough little girl aren't you? You spat that fire right out like it was sour!" Yuebei, aware of her birth circumstances: "Yeah. You tell me that story all the time." Pigsy and Tang, not aware: "What?"

Pigsy and Tang are so emotional over the amnesiac!father-daughter bonding, that they are completely off-guard when the older monkey rattles off some details about the Samadhi Fire that he neglected to let the others in on.

[she probably at some point goes through a "rebelious phase" where she does things to test if he'll "really stick around even if she's troublesome". as far as she knows, he didn't even want her in the first place, or at least didn't care that Wukong was having her, so to her it seems like a reasonable thing to question.]

Ooof!! I love the idea of Yuebei antagonising Macaque "just to be sure" that he's serious about staying around. Macaque honestly tries his best to be patient, but after a while he starts to get super annoyed with the girl's attitude.

Then one stray prank or comment rolls into a genuine verbal confrontation.

Macaque: "What is it about me that offends you so much!? I get it - my and your dad had a few fights and I sorta almost destroyed the world trying to escape the Bone Demon - but I'm trying my best here! I wouldn't have broken your dad out of his possession if I didn't think he was worth sticking around for!" Yuebei, emotional: "How am I supposed to believe that when you left us twice!?" Macaque, realizing: "Twice? What do you mean by- OH." Yuebei: (*trying not to cry*) Macaque: "You... you thought I knew? Kid, I only learned you even existed as a concept when Jin and Yin busted my lip open first thing after New Years." Yuebei: "You have your special ears! You should have known I was there when you-" (*stops talking, buries head into knees*) Macaque, extremely guilty: "I should have. I really should have. But I chose not to listen. I was just so... angry at that monk, at the circlet, even at your baba, I..." *sighs* "Maybe if I had stopped to listen, I would have known you were there. That Wukong had someone he would kill me for. I don't blame him for that." Yuebei, lifts head from knees: "You don't?" Macaque: "Nah. You're a lot cooler than I am. You took the Samadhi Fire head in before you were even born. And when you saw the Bone Demon, you didn't run and hide like I did - you and MK took that witch out. And did I see a certain little warrior take her first war trophy before we left?" Yuebei, avoiding eye contact: "She isn't using it..." Macaque: "To be fair it wasn't getting much use with her anyway. If she had a brain in that skull, she'd know Wukong picks a good troop. I just wished I had known that a few centuries ago..." Yuebei & Macaque share an awkward silence Macaque: "I wanna stick around kiddo. I missed out on a lot when I left. Both times really... But I want to stay. Flower Fruit Mountain is my home too, and I hope someday it could be a home me and your baba can share together again. Even if you don't believe me." Yuebei: (*affectionate elbow jab into Mac's rib*) Macaque, chuckling: "Well, that's progress from the nose busting." Yuebei: (*trying not to laugh*)

Bonus: Wukong hears some of this convo, or it's parroted to him by one of the (sneaked-out of Diyu with Mac) Eclipse twins. You know this monkey crying over his former mate and his baby girl finally starting to get along!

[what can Yuebei say? she's fiercely protective and not happy about someone trying to take away her baba again.]

The only reason Azure gets as far as he does with the Memory Scroll is that Yuebei is either A: Not on FFM at the time, or B: Got Memory Scroll'd in the confusion.

Otherwise, she starts kicking and punching Azure the second she clocks who he is. MK and Mei are gonna have to drag her off of him.

The Jade Emperor and Xiwangmu see this tiny monkey, burning with rightous anger and protectiveness, and just know who's cub she is. The Emperor does however, look over to his wife very briefly to ask if the little girl dragging Azure Lion by the scruff of the neck to Diyu is a lost grandchild of theirs.

[probably been said before, but no matter the universe; Wukong is a proud dad to all his kids at all times]

Wukong loves his kids so gotdang much. Canon or au - him a proud dad.

This got a little away from me - I hope you liked my reply!

[taldigi]

Okay, here we go- Persona 4 Arcana Swap Persona Ideas! This is going to be long.

Fool!Chie - Tokoyo

Tokoyo is a young woman who is known for slaying an undersea beast. When her father was exiled by the emperor, Tokoyo goes to to find and help him, but when her efforts are unrewarded, she decides to pray at a local shrine and get some rest. However, this leads her to find a priest about to push a young girl into the sea. When confronting him, he explains that if the locals do not offer a sacrifice, a sea monster will batter their island home with intense waves and storms. Unfettered by this statement, she hands the priest a letter to give to her father in case she doesn’t make it, sticks a knife between her teeth, and dives into the water. She finds a statue of the emperor and decides to carry it up. When face to face with the sea monster, she successfully kills it and hauls both the statue and sea monster’s body above sea. The statue was magically connected with the emperor and when she hauled the statue out of the water, he was healed of a mysterious ailment. As thanks, he allows her and her father to reunite.

High Priestess!Yosuke - Nezumi-Kozo

Nezumi-Kozo was a famed thief in Japan’s history, with some coining him similar to Goemon and Robin Hood. He was immortalized in his efforts through kabuki theatre, jidaigeki, and pop culture in general. After his death, many pilgrims chipped away his headstone for charms, it had to be replaced multiple times. As you stated, Yosuke is not very well liked by the people in Inaba and yearns for an exciting and fulfilling life, and a thief could refer to such a desire and his legacy being carried out in pop culture and entertainment could also call back to Yosuke’s musical interests.

Emperor!Yukiko - Shuten-Dōuji

As previously stated in the Plan-B paragraph, Shuten-Dōuji is a famed oni, with a penchant for alcohol and saké. He had a multitude of underlings, all with a range of different abilities, such as shapeshifting. He was decapitated by Minamoto-No-Raikō, but still tried to bite him, which he avoided by wearing multiple helmets. Since I didn’t know much about Yukiko in this AU, I decided to go off of Kanji’s personas and go for something feared by many.

Lovers!Teddie - Utsurobune

Literally meaning “empty/hollow boat” Utsurobune was a strange object that floated to the shores of the Hitachi Province in 1803. It contained a young woman who wasn’t able to speak Japanese and was unable to communicate with anyone. Certain ufologists believe that it was an encounter with extraterrestrial life. Teddie feels empty, so his persona’s name is just “empty boat” and the young woman’s inability to speak and communicate with others properly can refer to Teddie being hesitant to properly communicate his true feelings.

Star!Yu - Momotaro

Momotaro is a well known and popular Japanese folktale, about a boy who was born from a peach who teams up with a monkey, dog, and bird to defeat the Oni on Onigashima. If Yu takes up Teddie’s role, that means three characters will fall into the TV, where he will team up with them to defeat the big bad lurking somewhere in the TV World. Pretty simple and self explanatory.

You're so good at this what the heck-

I'm particularly charmed by momotaro. I think that's so fitting.

[glux2]

Musing: Emotional connection

Recently a very close person to me suggested i binge watch "Angel Hare", before that day my only exposure to that project was a fan game that had a very funny punchline in lampooning the "cursed videogame" genre.

So i watched the whole thing and it was great.

This scene right here made me feel more feelings than most of the media i have watched/played/read in like the last 5 years or so.

So it made my mind wonder, like, "hold on, when was the last time i felt this strongly about a piece of entertainment?"

Sure, if you know me, i felt strongly about the ongoing plotline for Noelle on Deltarune, so one would think "2021 when chapter two came out", right? but no, i got very invested but it wasn't it.

The last time i felt so strongly about a piece of media was actually Deltarune's predecesor, Undertale in 2015.

I finished Undertale in tears, i got in a very bad funk when i found out about the genocide ending, it truly made me feel emotions.

So i began to ponder, just what really moves me?

Full disclosure: I don't cry at movies. This is not a "look at me i am a badass who is not beheld by feelings" statement, no, i kinda just dont connect emotionally with movies as easily as other people.

I have talked about this, many times actually, Toy Story 3 did not make me cry, it always bothers me how people at the time were like "if TS3 didn't make you cry, you have no soul" and shit like that, so let me repeat something i have said many times before:

Toy Story 3 was a movie i went to see the day doctors had informed me my mother had entered terminal phase of cancer.

My friends took me to see TS3 when i felt the greatest sadness i have ever felt in my entire life. And im glad TS3 was a pretty funny movie that managed to distract me from what i was going through. TS3 uplifted me when i had a very real reason to cry.

So what im getting at is, i rarely connect emotionally with what conventionally makes people emotionally connected, not that i havent felt strong emotions from movies, but as we'll get to later, it's just not the stuff you would expect, when we get back to movies you'll be thinking, "what the fuck, Toy story 3 did not make you emotional but THIS THING DID?!"

So, if traditional "emotional things" rarely have moved me i began to think to myself, "what are things that have made me feel this strongly?"

I realized it's the damn weirdest things.

I'll try to list things that i can remember making me feel this emotional.

Now i'll be upfront, im not a very cultured person, so you'll notice most of this is...not very high brow.

Also, obviously spoilers for all this stuff im about to talk about.

Before we begin: Honorable mention goes to me finding out i had repressed memories of being traumatized as a kid by being show an animated adaptation of "Pilgrim's progress" by an aunt, which disturbed me greatly towards the end as the main character dies and before it the souls of two people he met are condemned to eternal damnation from making MISTAKES, not sins, not evil, but THE FUCKING MISTAKE of exploring alternate routes before them.

-Yoshi's Island, 1994 When i was a wee one Yoshi was one of my fave videogame characters, so of course i was beyond hype when a game where you play as yoshi came out, the ending is one of the greatest moments in videogame history, the beautiful music, the journey of the stork, and finally the classic Mario fan fare playing as baby mario and baby luigi being held by their parents with the words "Heroes are born", it's such a powerful moment. To this day i still cannot listen to that credits music without tearing up.

Sequel? Retcon?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, SHUT UP, THIS IS THE PERFECT ENDING AND NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED AFTER IT!

-The bicentennial man, 1999 The bicentennial man is one of the biggest examples of a movie being fucking mischaracterized in the marketing, this movie is based on Isaac Asimov's short story and later novel, it stars Robin Williams, so all marketing was presenting the movie as Robin Williams comedy movie, IT. IS. NOT. The bicentennial man is a scifi drama about the existential search for meaning and the nature of what truly is to be alive. You get invested on the quest of this robot trying to find humanity for 200 years, and the punchline to this movie is, in his quest for humanity he forgoes the immortality being a machine provides him as he had developed the way to turn himself biological, still artificial but biological, and he dies peacefully on his sleep before he can be told that humanity had declared him, legally, a human being. To me it was such a powerful moment, he found true meaning to his life, became human, yet died before knowing so.

-Courage the cowardly dog, "The Mask", 2002 This is a legendary episode of an already great show that has a lot of very good emotional moments, some may cite episodes like "the giving tree" or "the last star maker", but for me it's this one. For those who have never experienced this episode, it revolves around a cat girl named Kitty who one day shows up at Courage's farm and she's wearing an upsetting mask, she abuses courage because she believes all dogs are bad. The mask serves 2 purposes, one is metaphorical, "her inability to face reality", the second is to hide her identity as she believes she is in danger. The thing is, she is on the run because her lover best friend Bunny is trapped in an abusive relationship with a gangster dog who threatened to kill her if she was seen near Bunny ever again, the episode coats the whole situation with a ton of goofiness, but it's actually very fucking dark: A young lesbian is trapped against her will on an abusive relationship with a toxic, violent man who threatened to kill her girlfriend if she refused to date him. Courage, being a good little dog ventures to save Bunny and have her reunite with Kitty because, despite how bad Kitty was to him, he recognizes that Kitty is a victim and she and Bunny deserve better, leading to Courage letting them escape away together, to live happy and free. I don't think it's just me, but the final image of Kitty and Bunny hugging as the train takes them to freedom felt so powerful to me.

-Twisted Metal Head-on, 2002 This is one of the weirdest things i have ever gotten emotionally invested, but honestly? i love when some shitposting franchise suddenly manages to pull this off, specially given the set up for this whole thing im going to describe starts in an early game as a fucking joke. So to contextualize this, the first two Twisted metal games were helmed by the og creators of the franchise, TM 3, 4 and small brawl were made by different developers when the creators lost the rights, but during the PS2 era when the og developers came back and created TM: Black, and TM: Head-on, Black was a reboot, Head-on was a retcon sequel to TM 2 that eliminated TM3 from the timeline, but not TM 4. Still with me? Okay so TM2 had this character, Krista Sparks, who was the revealed to be the daughter of the main antagonist of the game, Calypso, but hold on? wasn't Calypso's backstory that his family died in a tragic accident which lead him to become evil? So turns out, the FBI retrieved his daughter's corpse, turned it into a robot with a bomb with the intend to make her get close to Calypso and blow him up. The ending ends comically with a message reading "The FBI wishes to thank you for putting an end to Twisted metal". Stil Still with me?!?!?! ok! so Head on! In this game Krista is back, as a ghost, her ending consists on her confronting her dad, who has now brought up so much pain, misery and death to the world, Calypso tries to explain that the nature of his powers mean he has to do this otherwise he cannot use his powers, and his plan was for Krista to win so he could bring her back and her mom to life, but Krista is so horrified with what has happened that she refuses and blurts "I wish the accident that killed me and mom never happened" the intention being impeding Calypso from becoming this evil super natural villian, but as per all endings, it's always a monkey paw affair and Calypso knows it, looking saddened he grants the wish because he has no option, his powers force him to. Briefly Krista has a vision of her childhood with her dad before he became evil as they share a sweet moment playing on a swing set. HARD CUT TO A HOSPITAL, Krista is on a bed in coma, Calypso is there and whispers to her something along the lines of "Sleep tight my dear, may you finally find peace", as Calypso is leaving the hospital you can hear 2 doctors talking, mentioning that Krista had been in coma for more than a decade and apparently Calypso just had found out. Excuse me Twisted Metal, but WHAT THE FUCK? You are a dumb fucking edgy car combat game, how dare you make me feel these things?

-Mother 3, 2006 (translation on 2008) Mother 3 hopefully needs no introduction, or maybe it does, because many people have reduced it to a joke due to how nintendo stubbornly refuses to give us an official release, but also many of you must know this franchise is the spark that ignited the flame of the absolute Juggernaut Undertale would become, as well as many other games influenced by it. The Mother/Earthbound games were known for being quirky and deviating from the standard conventions of the game, notably for the modern day setting and unorthodox choices of how you deal with the villians, they were always billed as emotional, but i feel they did not live up to that...until 3. The general narrative to Mother 3 is about how greed is destroying the world, the main villian corrupting what we see of the world (a paradise little town where everybody is nice) by introducing luxury, money and status....and also stomping everything with his fascist army and cyborg mutants. Mother 3 is a game about how the worst traits of humanity are destroying the world and upsetting nature. Mother 3 is also the story of 2 twin brothers who suffer tragedy after tragedy after tragedy that ultimately pits them one against the other with the fate of the world at stake. Mother 3 punches you almost immediately by killing the mother character (which i might mention you're encouraged to name after your own mother) at the end of the first chapter and how this affects her surviving family. one of the Twins, Claus, is so disturbed that he decides to on on his own to try to kill the monster that took his mom, while the other, Lucas, was too afraid and weak to stop his brother, resulting on Claus dying as well...but the badguys take his corpse and reanimate it into a cold, emotionless cyborg who follow's the big bad's order and is using him to try to cause the end of the world. In the climax of the story Lucas is force to confront Claus, clause is a brain washed cyborg, his master is out of the picture and all he can do is fight, you can't reason with him...and then.... Lucas and Claus begin to hear a voice, a familiar voice, it's their mother, reaching for them from beyond the grave, pleading for them to stop fighting, suddenly Lucas and Claus both have a flash back to when they were babies, overhearing their parents talk about the hopes they have for them, the many things they will be able to achieve together, this makes Clause snap out of his brain washing, removing the helmet that had been hiding his face since he was resurrected, Lucas and him have a moment as they are finally reunited, Claus realizes all the bad things he has done while under control of the bad guy and realizes he must atone for his crimes, he prepares a lightning attack he knows cannot hurt Lucas and cause HIM to die. "Im sorry for all the problems i caused" he says as he is dying on his dad's arm, "I must go to where mom is now", as he passes away he can hear his mother calling for him, "You just be so tired" she says. Now i know it will sound insane for people to hear a videogame of all things can make one so emotional, but damn, just recollecting these scenes for this dumb post has made me start to cry, the emotional punch of this scene is very strong, it demolished me when i played the game back in the day, but now? After my own mother passed away? I have been scared of playing this game again. I mot sure if im emotionally prepare to go though that again, even 10+ years later. That's how powerful this scene was to me.

-Elite Beat Agents, 2007 If you have played this game, you know were im going, for those who dont, EBA is a silly rhythm game about secret agent cheer leaders that are dispatched around the world to help people in need by raising their spirit and allow them to overcome adversity, the game is insanely wacky and have scenarios like helping a ninja car salesman prevent a company from stealing his company's secrets, helping a washed up baseball star fight a lava spitting golem rampaging on an amusement park and traveling back in time to help davinci paint the mona lisa. EBA is also the second game in the Ouendan series, and there is something you need to know about this series: They all include tearjerker levels to contrast with all the goofiness. "A christmas Wish" is a christmas themed level set to Chicago's "You are the inspiration" and the story to this level is positively DEVASTATING: A few months before christmas a business man tells his daughter and wife he has to go on a business trip but he promises he'll be back just in time for christmas, the girl asks him to bring back a "girlfriend" for her teddy bear. The father dies on a plane crash. When the mother breaks the news to the little girl she gets angry, crying to the skies that her dad promised he would be back for christmas. The backdrop of the stage is set the girl and the mom doing things to remember the dad, like looking through a photo album and baking a cake for his birthday, it's very sweet, but...this is EBA, if you're doing poorly you see the "bad" versions of these scenes, and in this one, one is very devastating, the little girl is having a dream where she's chasing the spirit of her dad, if you're doing well she calls for him and for a brief moment the dad stops and starts turning towards her, if you're doing bad the spirit fades away and the girl wakes up in tears. Dear goodness. But of course, if you beat the level you get this sequence of the ghost of the dad showing up on chrismas morning to fullfil his promise, giving the little girl the teddy bear he promised and having the chance to say good bye to his family.

This punches you really fucking hard in the gut. I am incapable of doing this level without ending in tears. For a time i could not even listen to this song without tearing up until, i shit you now, the deadpool movie used it on a comedy scene.

-Punch out!!, 2009 This one is one i know got me because of personal nostalgia, when i was a wee one the og NES punch out was a big part of my childhood, Punch Out!! on the wii was a masterfully crafted tribute to the franchise. To not dwell too much time on this, this game has an interesting quirk, the ending is a downer ending and it's the only ending you can get. After you beat the last opponent there is a sequence where Mac and Doc seemingly are having a disagreement, where Mac seemingly has decided that if he loses 3 times, he'll retire from boxing completely. After this you face randomly opponents from the game, the first time you lose in this mode you lose your champion title, after three loses, it's game over and the story mode becomes locked for that save file. The final cutscene is Doc walking through what seems to be a gallery with boxing memorabilia, and untold number of years later, he is alone, he spots his old bike on this gallery and rings the bell, he looks up and speak to an absent Mac, "Good job son, good job", as he leaves the camera pans to reveal he was looking at a framed photo of him and Mac on one of their training sessions. The music on this sequence is so perfect, and it was aimed at people like me, people who grew up with the franchise, the idea was making it feel like Doc was reminiscing of YOUR time with punch out when you were a kid, and to make you think about how far YOU have come since the first time you played the games in an arcade, or your nes, or snes. It's actually pretty effective and it got me.

-Regular Show, "Trucker Hall of Fame", 2012 What makes this one different from others instances of me making me emotional, it's, much like the "Angel Hare" example at the top, this one is all about WARM HAPPY FEELINGS, so for those who did not watch this episode, let me summarize it for you: One day Muscleman gets word that his dad, who was his personal hero, has passed away, and he's tasked with carrying his final wish, spread his [hat's] ashes in a place called "Trucker hall of fame", you see, Muscleman was lead to believe his dad was a legendary trucker and that earned him his admiration, but during the episode Muscleman finds out he was lied to, his dad was a forklift driver that the truckers belittled, altho feeling cheated for having been lied to he carries on with his father's wishes. Now because this is regular show, when they arrive at the trucker's hall of fame they are immediately attacked by ghost trucker for "desecrating the hall of fame" as they spread the ashes something happens: The ghost of Muscleman's dad manifests himself and saves his son, taking the chance to apologize to his son and having the chance to say his final good bye personally. Despite the inherent silliness of the show's premise, i think this episode really did a good job on expressing that sense of catharsis of making peace with the passing of a love one.

-The Final Girls, 2015 A friend suggested we watched this movie, and much like Twisted metal up there, i absolutely did not expect for this incredibly stupid comedy horror movie to hit me with any sort of emotional connection, and yet... The Final Girls opens with the main character in a car with her mom, who is an struggling C-tier actress whose biggest achievement ever was appearing on a Friday the 13th knock off movie, during this sequence they get in an accident where the mom dies and even after it's been some time since the accident the main character has not properly moved on from the passing of her mom. Her friends and some people at the college she attends are preparing this horror movie festival where the main event is they are going to play the movies from the franchise her mom was on, and they suggest she should come. Then some bullshit happens and they all end up somehow trapped in the world of the movie. A quick rundown of the rules of horror movies is explained to them, the monster cannot be defeated by fighting it, it's only the final girl who can defeat the killer, and unfortunately for them they accidentally killed the character that, in the canon of the movie, is the final girl, so they believe one of them has to become the final girl and end the movie to hopefully get out of it. The problem is, the main character is experimenting shock from interacting with her mom's character, she is not taking well to seeing her mom on the flesh and she dedicates the entire movie to "save her mom", in the climax of the movie the mom character begins to understand that she is a fictional character and the nature of her attachment to the main character, understanding that they cannot be both the final girl and if then main character wants to make it back to the real world she has to learn "To let go", choosing to sacrifice herself so there is only one final girl. It's kinda weird, that of all possible premises, this managed to make a "You need to move on" message that somehow managed to resonate with me, you might have figured out by now a running theme here, but, i was really hard for me to deal with my mother's passing even if it's been years since it happened, so it's kinda funny for me to think these are the places i have found comfort from.

-Undertale, 2015 Okay this is tumblr, i already talked about Undertale on the prologue to, whatever the fuck im doing here, you know what undertale is, you know how effective it is, Undertale is really well designed for you to grow emotionally attached to these characters, so being able to see all these characters you know have grown attached to have their happy ending on the pacifist ending does fill one with a very satisfactory warm happy feeling that can move you to tears. ...Or you can be bummed out by being a little greedy gaming bitch and taking a look at the bad ending. Because you just couldn't help yourself, could you?

-Onward, 2020 This movie did not hit me as hard as the most emotional entries on this, but it still got me, because in the end of the day the main motivation of the characters on this movie is experiencing closure, catharsis over the death of their father, for Ian it's the fact that he died before he was born so he never met him and is driven by this desire to finally see the father who he shares such a connection with on the stories everybody who knew him in life have told him, and then there is Barley, the elder brother, who did know his dad in life, but is tortured by how, as a kid, he did not properly say good bye to him because he was terrified of death and avoided being there for him in his final days. The ending for this movie is very powerful, Ian choosing to sacrifice being able to meet his dad in the flesh, even for a few minutes, in order to give Barley the chance to being able to properly make peace with his dad and properly say good bye to him. Ian doesn't even get to SEE this, he does not get to see his dad even tho it was what he wanted most of all, but he understood bringing closure to Barley was more important than his selfish desire to see his dad, someone he never knew in life.

So what have i learned from whatever the hell this trainwreck of a post is...i guess that what really gets to me, what really moves me, is when a character, maybe not even someone i can realistically relate to, gets to experience closure, catharsis and be in peace with the people who are missing on their life. The majority of these things in here, even the Angel Hare example, relate to a character being able to experience catharsis by being able to properly make pace or otherwise contact someone they lost, or their ability to move on from this world, so to speak, knowing that their affairs and in order and that their loved ones will be okay.

Things can always look dark, the world may be trying to keep you down, maybe losing someone has been specially hard for you, but it's not the end of the world, you are loved and things can get better, it always hurts and we'll never stop missing what we have lost, but the memories of happier times are there to remind us, we can be happy again, and we can move on, use those memories as your motivation, you can lead yourself to a future filled with light.

[accio-victuuri]

I’m sharing another heartwarming article from one of my favorite movie blogger/s ( 鬽影縫匠) on weibo that appreciates Wang Yibo ✨this was posted 11/6 as a sort of response to the GRA ceremony.

Although the Golden Rooster has ended, the scattered sparks have not been extinguished. Let’s chat about him through the remaining warmth, hoping it’s not too late...

As soon as the name “Wang Yibo” was spoken, the people were immediately divided into three or five camps. Some had thousands of lights flashing in their eyes, and some had a puddle of black water on their chests. Once a person becomes famous, he will become black and white in the world. Likes and dislikes are equally direct and violent, not to mention, he is still a young man standing on the top of the mountain. If someone wants to help him up to the blue clouds, someone will naturally want to pull him down to hell. But his choice surprised me. He neither looked up to the clouds nor stared down into the abyss. He was pious step by step, like a pilgrim heading towards his own "Temple of Light and Shadow", and in this year, he defined perfection.

"成全" is a wonderful word. It refers to both "helping others achieve their wishes" and "one's own perfection and completeness". It is very suitable to use this word as the keyword of Wang Yibo's 2023 big screen.

This year's Golden Rooster, Liu Xiaoshi won the "Best Director's Debut" with "Born to Fly", and Cheng Er won the "Best Director" with "Hidden Blade". In the interview, they mentioned a common name - Wang Yibo. In an art created by a collective, the director is the core, and the lead actor must be the part closest to the "core". They must not only achieve the director's creative intention by interpreting the characters, but also use their own influence to build momentum for the film. Wang Yibo is the leading star of these two works.

His appeal is unquestionable, his talent and hard work have been praised, and his ever-improving acting skills are obvious to all. Mr. Ye's "standing" supported half of the sky of "Hidden Blade" and helped the film become the highest-grossing literary film in mainland film history which gave Cheng Er, who insisted on serious creation, the confidence to win the award; and Lei Yu's vivid interpretation made the image of modern soldiers appear on the screen, giving "Born to Fly" a realistic focus. In this way, director Liu Xiaoshi "expected the main theme of aviation" "Creative and personalized expression of major themes" can be implemented; standing on the podium of the Golden Rooster is every director's lifelong wish, and a leading star like Wang Yibo must be the best person to fulfill it.

Perfection also means completeness. From Mr. Ye to Chen Shuo, we have seen actor Wang Yibo express his roles more and more freely, his emotions are gradually becoming more accurate, and his performances are becoming more solid. His lack of experience is being filled by his redoubled efforts. In 2023, he used an almost perfect rise. The plot has reached the perfection of his debut on the big screen, and his nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Rooster Award is the end of another period of progress for him.

When Cheng Er talked about “Mermaid”, he once said, "No matter what happens, Mermaid will reach its destination." I want to say that no matter what, actor Wang Yibo will reach his "Temple of Light and Shadow", and I have no doubt about it!

While writing this article, another good news came. Wang Yibo won the 11th Zhejiang Film Phoenix Award for Outstanding Actor for his role as Chen Shuo in "One and Only".

You see, his time is coming...

[msmorgan2]

before you scroll through my account!!!

(if you do)

read this!!!

or don't, it doesn't affect me.

this is a get to know me thingy because it's 2:00 am and I'm bored!!

(I'm gonna regret this later.)

1. Name:

Morgan, it means sea-born in welsh!

2. Favorite movie:

Scott pilgrim vs the world, BASEketball, 10 things I hate about you, and white chick's.

3. Favorite smell:

Cologne, nail polish, gasoline.

4. Hobbies:

I like drawing and baking from time to time.

5. Natural hair color:

Dark ginger though I get highlights sometimes

6. Natural eye color:

Grayish blue

7. Favorite shows:

Young sheldon, south park, MLP (It's a good show to nap to okay..)

8. Favorite perfume:

In the stars, into the night, sdj 48

9. Favorite person:

I have a lot, first, jesus, @cuntymonkey my parents, my god sister, and some of my school friends.

10. Favorite animal:

maybe a dog or a cat, i also like kangaroos.

11. Favorite music artists:

TV girl, cigarettes after sex, Sabrina carpenter, Ariana grande

12. Favorite songs:

Lovers rock, Apocalypse, Sharpest tool, Imperfect for you

13. Favorite food:

I like tacos..but i also like spaghetti. I've tried branching out before, but I always find myself coming back to these two foods. dunno why.

14. Favorite youtuber:

I like caddicarus, he's funny, but I also like Kelcey animated.

15. Favorite podcast:

I like rotten mango, but sometimes I'll listen to class of 09 like a podcast.

16. Languages i want to learn/are in the process of learning:

I'm in the process of learning Spanish and norwegian, for travel purposes, but also want to learn German and Dutch.

17. Favorite color:

I like pink, and red.

if you've come this far, which i highly doubt, thanks for reading!!

ur cool

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To You

The Loveable & Superb American Actor👦🏻 Who Gained His Way To Stardom in 2006

PLAYING THE LEGENDARY MAN OF STEEL 🦸‍♂️

Born On October 9th, 1979

Routh is the third of four children born to Catherine LaVaughn (née Lear), a teacher, and Ronald Ray Routh, a carpenter. He was raised in nearby Norwalk. Routh was raised in a Methodist family, and has English, Scottish, German, Irish, Welsh and Dutch ancestry.

Routh grew up in Norwalk, approximately 100 miles (160 km) south of Woolstock, the birthplace of George Reeves, the first actor to play Superman on television. During his childhood, Routh thought a full-time acting career was unrealistic, citing his small-town background. In his spare time, he played the trumpet and the piano.

Routh attended Norwalk High School, where he played sports, and participated in music and theatre. He attended this school at the same time as Jason Momoa, who would also later become an actor in film adaptations of DC Comics. He has described himself as a "momma's boy" and not "the most popular kid" during his school years. Routh has also noted that during his younger years, he was fond of the Superman films and comic books.

Routh attended the University of Iowa for a year, aspiring to be a writer. During this time, he modeled and acted in order to earn his tuition expenses.

He is an American actor. He portrayed Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, which garnered him international fame. In 2011, he played the title character of the film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. He also had a recurring role in the NBC series Chuck, as Daniel Shaw. Routh also played a supporting role in the film Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), and played Todd Ingram in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), reprising the role in the animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023).

Routh has said he was often told that he bore a physical resemblance to Christopher Reeve, who had previously portrayed Superman in a film series. His former manager signed him on because of the resemblance, telling him that he thought Routh would be cast as Superman if there were another film in the series.

In 2014, Routh once again played a superhero for DC Comics as Ray Palmer / The Atom on The CW's Arrow. He was a recurring character throughout season three.

In January 2015, Arrow's co-creator and executive producer Greg Berlanti stated that they were in the midst of "very early" preliminary talks for an additional spin-off series centered on Ray Palmer/The Atom.

In the superhero series Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022), Routh co-starred as The Atom, along with Arthur Darvill, Wentworth Miller, Victor Garber, and Caity Lotz.

Routh reprised his role as Clark Kent / Superman in the 2019–2020 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", affected by events adapted from the Kingdom Come storyline.

Please Wish This Superb & Incredible American Actor & Avid Gamer & All Round Comic Book Fanboy Lover

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊

YOU ALL SHOULD KNOW HIM SINCE 2006 & IF YOU DONT. YOU BETTER HAVE SEEN HIM IN HIS LATER ROLES IN ACTING...

HE PLAYED THE ROLE OF THE 1# GREATEST SUPERHERO OF ALL TIMES IN THE WORLD🦸‍♂️ 🌎✨

& HE STILL REMAINS LOYAL TO THE DC COMICS CAUSE & IS A HUMBLE BUT GENUINE PERSON AS WELL AS ACTOR OF SUPERHERO ROLES

THE 1 & ONLY

MR. BRANDON ROUTH 👦🏻AKA SUPERMAN 🦸‍♂️ OF DC COMICS, SUPERMAN 🦸‍♂️ RETURNS & RAY PALMER AKA THE ATOM ⚛ OF DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW ⏳

HAPPY 45TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU MR. ROUTH🦸‍♂️ & HERE'S TO MANY MORE YEARS TO COME

#BrandonRouth #Superman #ClarkKent #KalEl #DylanDog #TheAtom #RayPalmer #SupermanReturns #DylanDogDeadOfNight #Arrow #TheFlash #LegendsOfTomorrow #Supergirl #BatWoman #ArrowVerse

[lboogie1906]

Cree Summer Francks (July 7, 1969) is an American-Canadian actress, voice actress, and singer.

She is known for playing Winifred “Freddie” Brooks in A Different World. In animation, she was the original voice of Penny in Inspector Gadget. Her other voice roles include Princess Kneesaa in Ewoks, Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures and Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and All Grown Up!, Numbuh 5 and Cree Lincoln in Codename: Kids Next Door, and Cleo the Poodle in Clifford the Big Red Dog. She is the voice of Princess Kida in the franchise Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom, Penelope in Barbie as Rapunzel, Blackarachnia in Transformers Animated, Rayna Cartflight in The Buzz on Maggie, Beast Girl in Teen Titans Go!, Priscilla Skunk in Sheriff Callie’s Wild West, Maxine “Max” Gibson in Batman Beyond, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Magma in X-Men Legends, Yvonne and Gordon in Mrs. Munger’s Class, Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy, and Witch Haggar in Voltron: Legendary Defender. She voiced the character Mo in The Horrible Histories, as well as Kermit’s Mom, Star, and Pilgrim in Kermit’s Swamp Years, as well as a role in Queen Sugar.

She has dual American and Canadian citizenship. She married producer Angelo Pullen (2013-22). They have two daughters born. She has a younger brother, Rainbow Sun Francks, a Canadian actor and songwriter who was an on-air personality at Much Music. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[ruknowhere]

"WHEN YOU ARE OLD" - by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

(One of the last poems that W.B. Yeats wrote. Born 13 June 1865 – Died 28 January 1939)

[steven-cartoons]

22 Years Old

Trans Man

White

Bisexual & Demiromantic

Butch Bear Cub

Artist/Writer/Musician

New Orleans born & raised ⚜

DNI

Right-Wingers (obviously)

ZIONISTS (fuck off)

Pro-Shippers/Anti-Antis/etc.

Pedos, Zoophiles, etc.

TERFs/SWERFs/FARTs

Truscum/Transmedicalists/Gender Essentialists

AI Art Supporters

Scabs/Non-Union-Supporters

DSMP/MCYT fans, SWIFTIES, and MHA/BNHA fans (ignore if we're mutuals)

Main Interests

Animation: Steven Universe, The Owl House, Adventure Time, My Little Pony: FiM, Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty, She Ra: PoP, The Moomins Series, FMA:B, Yuri!! On Ice, Bigtop Burger, Futurama, Disenchantment, Tangled Series, Nimona, Dungeon Meshi, Scott Pilgrim, Clone High, DCU, & more

Live Action: Doctor Who, Good Omens, What We Do in the Shadows (2014 & 2019), Star Trek: TOS, Star Wars (until TFA), House MD, Heartstopper, Bones, SOME Marvel films, and dozens of fantasy, sci-fi, and comedy movies

Music: Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Jack Stauber, My Chemical Romance, Janelle Monae, Bo Burnham, Halsey, Panic! at the Disco (pre DOAB lol), ABBA, Talking Heads, The Cure, Tears for Fears, System of a Down, David Bowie, Frank Ocean, Lil Nas X, & more

Video Games: Genshin Impact, Legend of Zelda Series, Animal Crossing Series, Undertale/Deltarune, Danganronpa Series, Infamous Series, & more

Online Creators: Markiplier, Dan & Phil, Rhett & Link, Jenna & Julien, Hank Green, The McElroys, Game Grumps, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jerma985, Snapcube, Worthikids, & more

Sideblogs

Vent: @lifthisheadachehead

Art: @stevenartsblog

Aesthetic: @luminescentaesthetic

Witchcraft: @copperinsidesgold

Kin/Therian: @steven-kiin

Activism/Politics: @stevenftm

Kpop: @jisungbri

NSFT/18+: dm me!

Misc

My DMs are always open! I love making friends so feel free to chat with me any time! :3

Feel free to message me if anything I say or post comes across as unkind or offensive and I'd be happy to have a dialogue about the situation and try to make up for it 💗

My (18+) Rick Sanchez discord server is here

[duchess-music]

2024 SO FAR

Expect reviews of these albums from this year.

A Lonely Sinner - samlrc

Samurai - Lupe Fiasco

Harbour Century - Eunuchs

TANGK - IDLES

IXxuSmw2HFNWXLUyJFO7xKIT3E7diFUSa86wgFiMI413xtfZga5hClZ/AgdzP33dhpj+0qc1d5sK2jyH5EqK6g== - ✿ 111loggedin // Xxenaa ♡

Where we've been, where we go from here - Friko

Clancy - twenty one pilots

Bright Future - Adrianne Lenker

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT - Taylor Swift

Blue Raspberry - Katy Kirby

COWBOY CARTER - Beyonce

MADRA - NewDad

Girl With No Face - Allie X

The Pilgrim, Their God & The King Of My Decrepit Mountain - Tapir!

plastic death - glass beach

Wall of Eyes - The Smile

Snow as a Metaphor for Death - SENTRIES

the death and birth of an angel - fallingwithscissors

Prelude to Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party

Saviors - Green Day

Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend

SMILE! :D - Porter Robinson

LANA - SZA

Wild God - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

POST HUMAN: NeX GEn - Bring Me The Horizon

Star Line Gallery - Chance The Rapper

BRAT - Charli XCX

Lasso - Lana Del Rey

[untitled] - samlrc

All Born Screaming - St. Vincent

for the rest of your life - twikipedia

[quitealotofsodapop]

The scream of despair and grief when Macaque dies is loud enough to reach even Heaven's ears, startling the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother from their afternoon tea. When they go to investigate, they see a figure they hadn't considered more than a passing thought for over 500 years clutching desperately as his stomach, the still figure of a dark furred monkey laying on a pool of blood next to him. The golden monkey's fur was brown from mud and gore, whether that be the other monkey or his own is yet to be seen.

The Emperor admits, he is curious to know what could cause Sun Wukong of all beings to cry out with such pain, when they had attempted to execute him all those centuries ago he had never even uttered a word or whimper. It's that curiousity that brings him and the queen to personally drift down towards where the group taksed with the Buddha's errand were when they arrive it's to a scene of great confusion as Guanyin had pulled the sobbing monkey to her breast as a mother would and the Pilgrims were all in various states of grief and crying. The monk was chanting prayers to beg safe passage to the Diyu for the black-furred monkey and something they called the Egg with Gold Star overseeing everything.

When asking his advisor what had happened, the Emperor is thrown into a state of shock.

Gold Star, teary eyed himself: It appears Sun Wukong had kept a rather important secret from us, My Emperor.

The concept of the monkey trickster keeping a secret is of no surprise to the royal couple, bit rarely would such a thing cause everyone around him such sorrow and sympathy towards him. When asked to clarify, Gold Star explains that Sun Wukong was discovered to have never been a demon at all, but something that falls outside of demons, celestials, or mortal understanding. A celestial primate, specifically a Stone Monkey. That makes sense when the Emperor considershia power, Celestial Primates, particularly Stone Monkeys, are known as the Children of Nuwa for a reason. They are said to be born with primordial energy within them and are naturally much stronger than the average demon or celestial. It does not explain why Sun Wukong was so heartbroken.

Gold Star: As a Stone Monkey, that means Wukong has a unique ability no other holds, the ability to reproduce without a partner provided certain conditions are met. His imprisonment by the Buddha's hand had met those conditions, and he had been with child from the moment he had been released...when Wukong's own mate had attacked him and stuck him upon the stomach...

Here, the Gold Star of Venus couldn't bear to continue, shaking his head in despair over the situation. He did not need to, Xiwangmu and the Jade Emperor could put the pieces together. Sun Wukong had lost the child and, based on the figure laying as still as death, had likely killed his mate in his grief and vengeance.

I love this imagery so much

Wukong, known for not even caring when Heaven tried to execute him ten times over, screaming so violently at Macaque's death that even the gods could hear him.

Guanyin holding him like a grieving mother would.

Tripitaka still praying that their attacker receive safe passage through the afterlife.

Gold Star explaining the best he can while he loses himself to the despair of it all. He has just witnessed what could be the last of an extinct species not only kill its mate, but lose it's child in the process.

The royal couple, although not caring so much for the monkey that caused them so much trouble all those years ago, still feeling sympathy for his loss and understanding the sheer pain he's experiencing in that moment.

Wukong wouldn't even flinch as the Queen Mother herself draws him to her chest, joining her eldest daughter in the embrace. She knows the pain of a lost child all too well.

She blesses that the monkey does not have such misfortune in the future.

[vieformidable]

"WHEN YOU ARE OLD" - by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire,

take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

(One of the last poems that W.B. Yeats wrote. Born 13 June 1865 – Died 28 January 1939)

Image of W.B. Yeats public domain by Charles George Beresford via Wikimedia Commons.

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 19

Monkey dragging Pigsy to go see Tripitaka:

So we begin this chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest where we left off, with Monkey chasing after Zhu.

So they reach a tall mountain, and Zhu retrieves his weapon, a nine pronged rake, while Monkey demands him to identify himself. Which works, since Zhu then proceeds to give Monkey his whole life story. Which basically amounts to, he was a Marshall in heaven before he got drunk and sexually harrassed the moon goddess Chang'e. The Jade Emperor was gonna execute him but the Gold Star of Venus (who else) intervened and he was whipped and banished to earth instead and took a wrong turn on the path to rebirth and ended up getting born by a sow. With story time over for now- the two start duking it out until eventually Zhu retreats and seals himself inside his cave. Monkey decides to just go report back to Tripitaka and come back to catch the monster later.

So Tripitaka has had a good night so far since he stayed up late chatting with the some elder's that Monkey had told Mr. Gao to provide for him. And just as he's starting to wonder why Monkey hasn't returned- he does. So Tripitaka asks Monkey where the monster is, and Monkey gives him a rundown of the situation.

Mr. Gao comes forward to insist that Monkey capture the monster since he doesn't want him coming back once the two leave. He even says he'll reward them for it. Monkey however seems to stand up for Zhu saying that despite having an enormous appetite, he did do the work for it. And not only that, but he is also technically a descended god, and has helped their family without causing any serious harm to his daughter, so why not keep him around?

Mr. Gao however insists that it will hurt their reputation. And Tripitaka tells Sun Wukong that he really should see this through to the end. And Sun Wukong says he was just testing him a little for fun and will apprehend the monster. So with that he leaves again after reminding Mr. Gao to take good care of Tripitaka.

So Sun Wukong arrives back to the cave and finally pulls out a win against a locked cave door, by reducing the door to dust with his staff. Moneky once again challenges Zhu to fight him by calling him an overstuffed coolio. Which Zhu replies to by calling Monkey BanHorsePlague, and telling him that breaking and entering and trespassing is against the law. And Monkey says that his rap sheet of kidnapping that girl from her family is a much worse crime.

Zhu gets tired of comparing their rap sheets and yells 'Fear my rake' and attacks Monkey again. Monkey is just like 'Why on earth would I be afraid of a rake?' Which leads to Zhu giving us more exposition, this time about his weapon. Which basically amounts to the rake being a group effort to make in heaven, that was gifted to him. He then says he'll rake monkey until his soul melts and his spirit leaks. To which Monkey replies 'Rake Away'. And let's Zhu get a free shot in. Zhu takes that shot... only to have the rake bounce right off his head, leaving Monkey without even a scratch. And Monkey gleefully reminds him that back when he had caused havoc in heaven, none of their heavenly weapons had worked back then to execute him.

Zhu finally decides to ask what he's even doing here harassing him, after all didn't he live on flower fruit mountain? Did his father in law go all the way there just to fetch him? And Monkey finally tells him that he's just passing through here with the Scripture Pilgrim. This causes Zhu to completely change his tune, throwing aside his weapon to demand that Monkey take him to the Scripture Pilgrim. Monkey is suspicious and asks why, and Zhu explains that he was recruited by Guanyin to help on their journey in order to atone for his sins. Monkey makes him swear to heaven that he's telling the truth before he takes him to Tripitaka.

Before they leave however, Monkey hazes Zhu into joining the Arson Club with him and Bai Long Ma, by ordering him to burn down his cave. Now we just need Tripitaka to commit some arson to complete the club... Anyways with the cave now on fire, Monkey has Zhu hand over his weapon, and turns one of his hairs into a rope to tie his hands up with. With that done Monkey then proceeds to drag him by the ear to Tripitaka.

Monkey then points Tripitaka out to Zhu by saying his master is the dignified looking one. So Zhu know tows to Tripitaka and explains that he has been assigned by Guanyin as his disciple. So Tripitaka thanks Guanyin with some incense and has Monkey until Zhu. Then Tripitaka offers to give Zhu a religious name but Zhu explains that he already received the name Zhu Wuneng from Guanyin. So Tripitaka gives him the nickname 'Eight Rules' instead.

Mr Gao is happy to finally be rid of Zhu so he throws them a going away feast. Pigsy asks to see his wife, but Monkey says monks aren't allowed to have wives. Mr Gao offers Tripitaka some wine, but Tripitaka practices abstinence from it. However neither Sun Wukong or Zhu Wuneng have cut out wine from their diets so Tripitaka lets them have some as long as they don't get drunk and cause trouble. Also I think we find out that Wukong is a lightweight?

Mr. Gao also tries to offer them some Gold and Silver as well as some fancy new clothes, but Tripitaka declines it. Sun Wukong however takes the money and hands it to Gao Cai, for bringing them here and gaining them Wuneng. And tells him to feel free to come to him with any future monster problems. Mr. Gao then insists they at least take the clothes, but Tripitaka once again declines- however Zhu Wuneng demands some clothes as payment for his years of service, which Mr. Gao reluctantly agrees to.

So the group heads off again, but not before Zhu Wuneng says his goodbyes to the family, and says that if this whole 'questing thing' doesn't work out he'll be back as his son in law. Which causes both Monkey and Tripitaka to scold him and tell him to stop talking nonsense. So the group travels for about a month before they come across a tall mountain. When Tripitaka asks about it, surprisingly it's Zhu Wuneng who has the answer saying it's Pagoda Mountain, and that Crow's Nest Chan Master lives there.

So they travel up the mountain a little more before finally running into the master himself. They exchange the usual pleasantries and Tripitaka asks how far they are from Thunderclap temple. Chan Master says they are very far and that the journey is perilous, but he has a Heart Sutra that will protect him from harm and offers to teach it to Tripitaka. So Chan Master recites the Sutra and Tripitaka manages to memorize it after only hearing it once. Having done that Chan prepares to take his leave of them, but Tripitaka once again asks about the challenges they will face on their journey.

So Chan gives them a bunch of cryptic warnings including one about water sprite, a wild pig and old stone ape which causes Monkey to lash out after Chan Master turns into a beam of light at the perceived insult. Tripitaka holds him back however and Zhu tells him to chill out and that Master Chan knows of past and future events. And that they should wait and see if his statement about meeting a water sprite will come true or not. So with that the group finally continues on their Journey to the West.

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes, Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water and sleeplessness. Demon Kill Count: 4+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 6 God's Defeated: 19 + Unknown number Defeats: 2 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering and trespassing. Cry Count: 3 Mountains Trapped Under: 1

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization and Heart Sutra. Cry Count: 11 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 5 Paralyzed by fear: 4 Bandit Problems: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 1 Falling Off Horses: 4

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, and flight. Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 1

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 2 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping and arson.

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