#tight fillet spell

[journeytothewestresearch]

Fun JTTW Text Reference for Artists

I've written at length about Sun Wukong's golden headband (here, here, here, and here). Anyone who has read the novel will know that it is used to rein in Monkey's unruly behavior through the application of pain. Such events have been portrayed by artists like Chen Huiguan in his Newly Illustrated and Complete Journey to the West (Chen Huiguan Xinhui Quanben Xiyouji, 陈惠冠新绘全本西游记, 2001) and Tianwaitang in his piece Tripitaka's Curse (2010).

But I've never seen someone depict the instance with the greatest potential for an everlasting visual impact. In chapter 27, Tripitaka angrily recites the tightening spell 20 times to punish Monkey for killing what he thought was an innocent woman (it wasn't). This causes our hero's head to deform like a cartoon character!

The sight so frightened the Tang Monk that he fell from his horse. Lying on the road, he did not speak another word except to recite the Tight-Fillet Spell back and forth exactly twenty times. Alas, poor Pilgrim's head was reduced to an hourglass-shaped gourd! As the pain was truly unbearable, he had to roll up to the Tang Monk and plead, "Master, please don't recite anymore. Say what you have to say" (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 2, p. 23) 唐僧一見，驚下馬來，睡在路傍，更無二話，只是把緊箍兒咒顛倒足足念了二��遍。可憐把個行者頭勒得似個亞腰兒葫蘆，十分疼痛難忍，滾將來哀告道：「師父莫念了，有甚話說了罷。」

The original Chinese lists the "double-waisted" calabash gourd (yayao'er hulu, 亞腰兒葫蘆). I hope this gives artists an idea of what Wukong's head would look like.

I've previously noted how the novel describes Sun Wukong as an actual monkey, and it's because of this that the headband would likely rest on his eye orbits. I imagine his head being squeezed into the shape of a calabash gourd would make his eyes comically (or grotesquely) bulge, too.

[journeythroughjourneytothewest]

Oh, the agony of a monk living in a murderous world trying to explain to a murder monkey who got a lot of what he wanted through murder why he shouldn't murder :(

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 58

In this chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest Sun Wukong faces off against his shadow self. So let's get into it shall we?

So Sandy and Monkey head off together towards Flower Fruit Mountain, with Monkey traveling much slower then his usual pace to keep pace with Sandy who is still suspicious of him. However Sandy's suspicions of Monkey are slightly allayed when they get there and find that there is indeed another Sun Wukong. Monkey takes the presence of this clone just as well as Sandy took it early- which is to say that he attacks the clone on sight.

The two are evenly matched, and even if Sandy wanted to try and get in the middle of that to try and give the real Wukong a leg up, he no longer knows which one the real one is. After watching the fight for a while, Sandy decides to make himself useful by trying to find their stuff, however he's unable to find where the false Wukong stashed them. Eventually Monkey calls out to Sandy to just go report back to Tripitaka, while he battles his way over to Guanyin's place so that she can help tell them apart. So Sandy head's back to Tripitaka, while Monkey, and fake Monkey heads for Guanyin.

The two Monkey's continue brawling in Guanyin's front yard, while one of her servants go to alert Guayin to the situation. When she comes out the two Monkey's give her a rundown of the situation, and ask her to tell them apart. So Guanyin has them separate from each other and has two of her servants grab them both while she recites the tight fillet spell. However when Guanyin starts reciting the spell they both act like they are in unbearable pain and beg her to stop, which she does. Now out of idea's, Guanyin tells them to go up to heaven so they can their problem instead of hers.

So Monkey and fake Monkey fight their way up to heaven, and once they've disturbed the peace enough to garner an audience, the two Sun Wukong's once again explain the situation and ask for an audience with the Jade Emperor, once it becomes clear that none of the gathered gods can tell the two apart either. The gods figure that they don't want to get in the middle of... whatever this is, and make way so the two of them can brawl their way to the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor isn't to happy about the two Sun Wukong's brawling in his palace, but since I doubt he wants beef with either of them, he just summons Prince Nezha's father, who brings with him an imp-reflecting mirror. They both stand before the mirror, however even in the reflection they can not be distinguished from each other. Since the Jade Emperor gave it his best shot and failed, it's time to pass the buck once again- this time they're going to go and bother Tirpitaka.

Meanwhile, Sandy has caught back up with Pigsy and Tripitaka and is giving them a run down of the situation. Tripitaka feels bad about accusing Monkey of something he didn't do, but apparently he doesn't feel to badly about, since once the two Monkey's crash down to earth, he has no problem whipping out the tight fillet spell to see if that will help. Which it of course doesn't. Although in his defense I guess he doesn't know that Guanyin already tried that. Anyways, as flattering as it is that they actually thought Tripitaka might be useful in this situation, it is once again time for them to become someone else's problem. Permanently if Tripitaka has anything to say about it, since although he knows about the clone now, that doesn't change the fact that the real Sun Wukong is the one who killed those bandit earlier. So Tripitaka is still mad at him and currently has no plans on taking him back on as a disciple.

That's a problem for later however. For now the two Monkey's decide to take their fight to the underworld to see if the Ten Kings have any insight into this situation. Tripitaka meanwhile tells Sandy that he should go back to Flower Fruit Mountain and check behind the waterfall for their stuff while the two Monkey's are preoccupied. Pigsy however volunteers to go in Sandy's place since he's been behind the waterfall before and will probably have better luck finding it.

Meanwhile the two Monkey's have made their way to the underworld. Some of the spirits manage to alert the Ten Kings about this issue, and the two Monkey's explain the current plot to them. Now knowing the situation the Kings bring forth the registry to see if it can help, unfortunately it's not very useful, partly because this is the very same registry Wukong himself vandalized about four immoralities ago. However unlike the last three groups they asked for for help, these guys actually have a plan B. They call forward a beast called 'Investigative Hearing' who has the ability to perceive true from false. And this beast actually does manage to learn the name of the imposter, but he can't reveal it here. For the imposter is actually as powerful as the real Sun Wukong, and would probably wreak havoc here in retaliation if they reveal him.

So instead the beast suggests that they take this problem up with the Buddha himself, since he'll likely both be able to tell them apart and actually do something about it. Both Monkey's agree to this new course of action and continue their fight to the Western Heaven, where Buddha is currently giving a lecture on why being of one mind is important. The Monkey's arrive just in time for the Buddha to point them out as examples of what happens if you are of two minds instead. Once again the two Monkey's settle down long enough to give the Buddha the recap episode of the last few chapters. And while none of Buddha's cohort's can tell the difference between the two, the Buddha can, and just as he's about to reveal it Guanyin arrives for this surprise lecture from her teacher.

Buddha asks Guanyin if she can tell the difference between the two Monkey's, and Guanyin confesses that she can not, and has come here to ask if Buddha can enlighten them on the situation. Buddha goes on to say that despite everyone's vast power and knowledge, none of them know everything. As they know, there are five kinds of immortals; the celestial, the earthbound, the divine, the human and the ghostly. And there are also five kinds of creatures; the short-haired, the scaly, the hairy, the winged, and the crawling. This imposter however does not fall into any of those ten categories. Instead he is one of four special primates that do not belong to any of these ten species.

The first special monkey is the intelligent stone monkey, aka Sun Wukong himself. Who knows transformations, recognizes the seasons discerns the advantages of earth and is able to alter the course of planets and stars. Next we have the red-buttocked baboon, who has knowledge of yin and yang, understands human affairs, is adept in it's daily life, and is able to avoid death and lengthen it's life. Then there's the third one, the bare-armed gibbon, who can seize the sun and moon, shorten a thousand mountains, distinguish the auspicious from the inauspicious and manipulate planets and stars. And finally we have the six-eared macaque who has a sensitive ear, discernment of fundamental principles, knowledge of past and future, and comprehension of all things.

Therefore the Buddha deduces that the imposter must be the six-eared macaque. Knowing that he's been made, the macaque tries to make a run for it, but Buddha's cohorts have him quickly surrounded. And when the macaque tries to shapeshift into a bee to slip past them, the Buddha traps him under and alms bowl. The macaque then reveals his true form, and Wukong immediately kills him. The Buddha isn't to happy about this, but Wukong explains that he was a criminal that assaulted and robbed his master, and would have been executed under the court of law anyways.

And I guess Buddha is willing to accept this logic, since instead of scolding him further he just tells him to go back to Tripitaka. Monkey however explains that Tripitaka doesn't want him anymore, and instead asks that the Buddha remove the fillet so he can just go home instead. Buddha however just says he'll send Guanyin with him to make sure that Tripitaka takes him back. So Guanyin and Wukong head back to where Tripitaka and Sandy are waiting. Guanyin explains about the six-eared macaque and tells Tripitaka to take Wukong back on as a disciple since he won't be able to reach the west without his protection. Tripitaka agree's and thanks Guanyin, meanwhile Pigsy arrives just in time to explain the other half of the situation. He's got their stuff back, and killed the imposter Tripitaka and Pigsy, who were just normal monkey's while he was at it. Which honestly, I'm surprised that Wukong wasn't upset about, those are his people after, and they were kind of forced to go along with all of this by the Macaque. Anyways, now that the story is completely wrapped up, Guanyin takes her leave, and together once again, the pilgrims continue 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 + 94,000 years 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 and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction, vanishing in a flash of light, super healing, transforming others, and Invisibility Demon Kill Count: 10 + Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1039 God's Defeated: 23 + Unknown number Defeats: 7 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, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat, animal abuse, Assisting or Instigating Escape, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud, and Disorderly Conduct Cry Count: 9 + 3 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka and the Tang Monk Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization, Heart Sutra and Meditation. Cry Count: 30 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 63 Paralyzed by fear: 6 Bandit Problems: 3 Kidnapped by demons: 9 Falling Off Horses: 10

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, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, and Sword Dancing. Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 3 Kidnapped by demons: 1

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement and CPR Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 5 Kidnapped by Demons: 4 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 4 Cry Count: 2 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson, defamation, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud, Theft and Forcible entry

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater, Cloud soaring, and fetching water from a well. Demon Kill Count: 1 + Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 3 Human Kill Count: 1 Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, desecration of a human corpse, Damage to Religious Property and contaminating a substance for human consumption

Previous - Masterpost - Next

[chaotic-orphan]

Intoxicating Fear (XXV)

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (part II)

Read part one // masterpost // continued from here

I’m not happy with the last part, but I am too tired to edit it so voila,

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Where are we going?” Ambrose grumbled, the cling of glass on stone crunching under their shoes as they walked, Nathan a step in front of Ambrose as it was before. Always leading Ambrose, Ambrose always following. It made him feel a little sick, like nothing had changed between them, like no time had passed in the last five years since Ambrose established himself for himself. How he didn’t answer to anyone anymore.

And yet here he was, following, again.

Because Kit’s life is in danger, the rational voice told him. You’re not following because you want to.

But one look at the swirling silver eyes and Ambrose was magnetised, trapped under Nathan’s spell again. He knew it, Nate knew it. He wasn’t a hero trying to save Kit, he was just Oskar, Nathan’s shadow. Nathan turned his head to smile at Ambrose, exposing his boyish dimples despite being older than Ambrose.

“You’ll see, won’t you? It’s about the journey, Oskar, not the destination.”

Ambrose swallowed, clenching his jaw and forcing himself to stare ahead as Nathan led them through the tight building packed streets that loomed like giants on either side of Fagan’s lot. most of them were abandoned, or closed for business indefinitely. Some sad, stale “Everything must go” signs lingered in some of the windows that weren’t smashed or bordered up.

It tugged a bit at Ambrose’s cold, dead heart. Fagan’s lot was where Max and Ambrose had shopped because it was cheap, extremely cheap. He remembered Lucy’s grocers, and how Max used to drool as he walked by the fresh fruit and vegetables, and long for them when he was unwrapping microwave pizza for the fifth day in a row because their oven was broken and they couldn’t afford to fix it.

“I want watermelon, Oskar,” he whined.

Ambrose smiled at him, hiding the bill from their landlord for noise complaints, something Ambrose would deal with later. “Payday is in four days. We’re almost there,” he said.

That Friday, when Max got his paycheque, Ambrose came home after his commute to see Max standing proudly in the kitchen. He grabbed the edge of a tea towel and yanked it away with a flourish like a magician, revealing the biggest watermelon Ambrose had ever seen. Max grinned widely, flashing his teeth like a beaming toddler.

“I got the big one.”

“I can see that.” Ambrose said with a nod. Max brandished a serrated knife, licking his lips as he leaned close and took a giant sniff of the watermelon.

“Uggghh, smell that Oskar? That’s the smell of money right there.” Ambrose laughed as Max started to cut into it. The sweet, sticky smell pungent in their small apartment, but Max looked so stupidly happy that Ambrose couldn’t help grin himself. “How much do you want?”

“A slice?”

“You can’t have just a slice,” Max bemoaned, the knife sliding through the watermelon wetly. Ambrose walked around the counter and placed his briefcase on the table, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his top two buttons.

“Okay, two slices,” he said, watching as the pink flesh of the fruit fell like sheer fillet mignon, the red juice running like blood over Max’s fingers. Max cut two large circles and cut them in half, putting two on Ambrose’s plate and two on his own. “Bon appétit.”

Max moaned into the first bite, slapping his free hand on the table in passion. “Augh! That’s so good! So worth the wait. Fuck me!”

Max sniffed, and Ambrose met his eyes over the watermelon. “Are you crying?”

“No,” Max said too quickly, wiping his eye with the back of his hand. “Some juice just got in my eye.”

Now, as they walked past Lucy’s grocers, the bright yellows and reds of the plastic baskets of fruit were smashed out front, a metal shutter down with graffiti adorning it instead of fresh fruit. Ambrose ignored it as he walked by, lest Nathan notice — because he always noticed — what it meant to him.

“How do you know, Jude?” Ambrose tried instead.

Nathan raised his brows as if he was about to say something dirty, or let out a startled laugh of disbelief. Ambrose swallowed.

“Why? Jealous, Osk?”

“Don’t call me that.”

Nathan plumped out his bottom lip, the rosey pink getting lighter the more he protruded it into a pout. “You can still call me Nate, if you want.”

“I don’t want to call you anything,” Ambrose ground out through clenched teeth. “I don’t want to be this close to you.”

The words had only left Ambrose’s lips before Nathan’s hands were on him slamming him into the opposite wall of the narrow street, deft hand wrapped around the base of his throat. Nathan smiled down at Ambrose who didn’t have to fight to keep the blush off his face, remaining the cool, pale statue that Kit so often likened him too in his head.

“How about this close?” Nathan said, his voice the shape of an angel’s wings; soft, light, majestic, but behind it held great power to exact divine retribution on devils, demons and humans who strayed too close.

“This makes it worse,” Ambrose said, happy that his voice remained even, though his index finger twitched at his sides. Mercury swirling eyes regarded him with a twisted mischief, the corners tugging up into smiles themselves.

Nathan looked at Ambrose the same way a lion would a gazelle, but Ambrose wasn’t the same man he was when him and Nathan were together. He wasn’t poor little Oskar anymore, who shared secrets with Nathan in the early hours of the morning, secrets they swore to take the grave, secrets like Ambrose’s parents that Nathan revealed to Max just to fuck with him.

Nathan’s fingers trailed up, pinching Ambrose’s chin between his thumb and index finger and tilting his head a little higher so he could feel Nathan’s warm breath on his lips, the smell of cigarette smoke and ash fanning his face.

“And how about now?” He asked his voice a tempting whisper, half-lidded silver eyes positively feasting at Ambrose’s stoic expression, looking for the tell, the give. Ambrose had buried them years ago. “Come on, Osk, you can’t tell me you don’t feel this. You and me, we’re meant to be together. You know it, I know it. We can be like we were.”

Nathan tilted his own head so their noses wouldn’t touch as he leaned in closer until his lips brushed Ambrose’s when he spoke. “Don’t you miss it? Don’t you miss us? Don’t you miss me?”

Ambrose’s heart raced in his chest. When Nathan looked at him like that, Ambrose feared that he could read his mind instead of the other way around. Not that Ambrose could ever read Nathan’s stupid mind with his stupid gift and his enchanting eyes. But there was an eerie stillness to it, an intensity that Ambrose couldn’t deny and never felt with someone else. Despite his many attempts of dating after Nate, there was no comparison to the silver eyed devil and that terrified him.

He could do it, he realised, his pulse throbbing in his neck against his throat. He could lean up and kiss Nathan and they could go back to how they were. Nathan was waiting, waiting for Ambrose to make the move, to accept him again. To submit and return to being Nathan’s favourite thing. Ambrose had no doubt Nathan loved him, in his own twisted way, but it wasn’t about Nathan and his love. It was about Ambrose, and he hated the person he was when he was with Nathan.

The shell he became.

Ambrose leaned on his toes, hand sliding up Nathan’s side to his neck. Cigarette breath hitched against Ambrose’s face and he smirked. He slammed his palm up against Nathan’s chin and shoved him back with an easy strength.

Nathan stumbled back, silver eyes flashing with malice and pain as his hand went to cup his lip.

“Ow! You made me bite my tongue,” he whined.

Ambrose smiled, sliding a hand into his jacket pocket when he saw a flash of red stain Nathan’s white teeth.

He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “Maybe you shouldn’t invade people’s personal space, then,” Ambrose said coolly, black eyes on Nathan’s.

Nathan huffed out a breath through his nose, straightening, his brows lowering over his eyes casting shadows on his quicksilver gaze, darkening them to the colour of gunmetal. Dangerous, powerful, scathing.

He let out a soft hmph of disapproval. “Maybe you have changed, Osk.”

“Maybe,” Ambrose said without missing a beat. Then they were walking again, Nathan still leading, though now with a wired tension in his shoulders, something stiff that wound and unwound and Ambrose wanted so desperately to peak inside his brain and see what he was feeling. To know what to expect.

Then they turned down a side street off the main path of Fagan’s lot and Ambrose stopped walking despite himself. Nathan stopped too, a few steps ahead of him and glanced back over his shoulder, a smirk in his eyes and a knowing smile on his lips.

“Something wrong?”

Ambrose remembered Max telling him that Benny was having trouble yesterday, that he should check on him before he leaves. Benny who lived in the apartment across from them in Old Town. A fast friend because of his jolly, wholesome exuberance, always making them smile and bringing over beers on Summer nights for them to go to the roof and hang out.

Benny’s tailors was on the street.

Ambrose’s eyes narrowed. “Where are we going?”

“To see an old friend,” Nathan replied.

“Why?” Ambrose asked, his hands tightening into fists in his pockets.

Nathan let out a breath of a laugh, turning his body towards Ambrose and walked towards him, into his personal space again which forced Ambrose to tilt his head up a little to keep his heavy gaze.

Nathan placed a warm hand on Ambrose’s cheek. On reflex Ambrose’s hand twitched up to smack him away, but Nathan’s words stopped him. “Ah, ah, ah, Oskar. Behave. I still have your hero friend locked away safely with Jude, so you’re going to do as I say.”

“And if I don’t?” Ambrose snapped.

Nathan’s eyes tracked Ambrose’s, observing his steeled expression and annoyance. Nathan ran a thumb over Ambrose’s bottom lip, chilling his blood as he stiffened despite himself.

“I have to check in every ten minutes with Jude or he gets to do whatever he likes to the heroes,” Nathan said.

Ambrose frowned. Heroes? As in more than Kit? Does he know who Kit is?

“See, that’s the Oskar I want. The sweet, pliant thing, the one whose heart raced when I got this close.”

“When did you last check in?” Ambrose demanded.

Nathan hmphed again, silver eyes swirling with glee. “At Max’s, while I waited for you two to kiss and make up.”

“Oh bullshit, you wanted us to fight.”

Nathan’s lips broke into a grin, a flash of teeth. “Okay, yeah. Maybe I did, but the fact remains. That was maybe, what, two-three minutes ago? So do you want to waste time being a brat, or, are you going to come with me and do everything I say to save your friend?”

Ambrose felt a tug in his chest. He wasn’t affected by Nathan anymore. He wasn’t. The only reason he was going through this fucking charade is because of Kit, who a few months ago, meant nothing to him. Why was he doing this? Why was he risking his neck for this kid? His sanity?

Ambrose’s shoulders dropped. Nathan stepped away, eyes gleaming as he turned and walked to the tailors at the end of the street. The shop’s trim was wooden, painted a royal blue, striking from far away, something to catch your eye and it did. Red lettering protruded from the black crown sign above the door, that read: Bespoke Elegance.

Nathan leaned against the wooden detail next to the door, grinning at Ambrose, he inclined his head for Ambrose to go first. Ambrose glared at him but wordlessly obeyed.

For Kit, he told himself. For Max. This would be fine. Everything would be fine.

The bells had only tingled open when a shot rang out and Ambrose’s eyes went wide as a nub of metal stopped so close to his left eye that it watered from the pressure. Behind the bullet at the counter stood Lyra; as lethal as she was pretty. The shell fell to the ground with a clatter and she lowered the pistols, relief washing over her taut features.

“Oskar,” Lyra said, the lilt of her voice musical.

“Well I’ll be fucked,” Lyra said, shifting her weight on her legs but not dropping either pistol from her hands, keeping them trained on Ambrose’s body. “Ghosts still walk the Earth.”

“Maybe I’m an angel, come to rescue you.”

“Or a demon in disguise as one,” Lyra replied easily, tilting her head to the side, exposing her long, lean neck that led into her beautiful collar bones and shoulders.

Lyra Sinclair was the only woman Ambrose would ever consider marrying. She knew she was too good for him, and would probably shoot him if he ever tried to ask. Her hair was in a different style every time he saw her, which regrettably was too little. She was as close to a Goddess that Ambrose had ever come, with olive skin and warm features. Though she had a foul mouth, cursing like a sailor, and still hadn’t lost her posh English accent despite herself.

“What are you doing here, Oskar?” She asked, raising a perfect brow. As if on cue the door behind Ambrose opened, and Lyra trained one pistol one the crack in the door. Her eyes narrowed like cat’s, dangerous, lethal. “Who are you with?”

Ambrose raised his hands, trying to calm her. “Lyra, I can explain.”

“No need, Osk, darling, just tell her to drop the guns.”

Ambrose stiffened, silently hoping that Lyra would just shoot Nathan through the doors, but she trained both pistols back to Ambrose, and now his hands went up in surrender, trying to show her he meant no harm.

“If you open your mouth, Oskar I swear to fuck I will kill you where you stand.”

“Lyra, please,” Ambrose said, risking a step forward. “I don’t want to compel you.”

“Why’re you with him?!” She demanded. “How do you even know each other? Do you know what he is?!”

The worry pulled her features across her face, stretching them wide, exposing the whites of her eyes and wrinkle lines on her forehead.

“Tick, tock, Osk. I’m not texting Jude until I’m inside.”

Ambrose stared pleadingly at Lyra, but her hazel eyes didn’t leave his, her chest rising and falling with a gasp. “You know Jude?” She demanded incredulously, her grip tightening on the weapons. “Are you working with them?”

“No!” Ambrose cried, stepping forward again. “Lyra, please, he has my friend and he’s going to let Jude do whatever the fuck he wants with him if he doesn’t text him in the next five minutes.”

Desperate black eyes met fiery hazel across the shop floor. “Please,” Ambrose said, his voice barely above a whisper.

He didn’t get her answer. A toilet flushed somewhere in the back, the sound of rushing water and a door was thrown open behind the red velvet curtain that was pushed outside, metal hooks squeaking and then a wide grin. Ambrose swallowed thickly.

A hulk of a man finely dressed in a chequered navy suit and burgundy silk shirt stepped out from behind the curtain, bending to get through the door before standing to his full height of a giant, taller than Ambrose, hell, taller than Nathan who was 6’4.

The fine suit did its best to hide the muscled torso beneath, but when Benny spread his arms, his stubble lined jaw spread open into a grin.

“Well, well, well, Oskar Fucking Ambrose. You giant cunt. Where’ve you been?”

“C’mere,” Benny gruffed, his footsteps like buckshots in the store. Benny was double the width of Ambrose, and a good head taller which made Ambrose mortally terrified of the man, especially because Benny was simultaneously the biggest, and sweetest, man he had ever met. And a hugger.

Ambrose groaned when he felt his bones crack under Benny’s tight hug, the giant man lifting Ambrose from his feet as if he were a child.

“God. It has been too long, old friend.” Benny said with a hearty laugh and a meaty fisted thump to Ambrose’s back. “We love to see you, brother.”

Benny said, his Ukranian accent choking in the middle of brother, making it sound like broo-der. Benny’s real name was Irakliy, but he told Ambrose when he arrived in the country that your stupid people couldn’t pronounce it, eh? They heard ‘ee’ sound and call me Freddie, I mishear and call me Benny. Name stick in brain like a Kesha song.

“Not today you don’t,” Lyra ground out, a muscle in her jaw ticking.

Benny frowned at her then at Ambrose. Ambrose feared the result of the exchange he was about to have, but he couldn’t not say anything.

Then Nathan chimed in: “three minutes, Oskar.”

Benny’s expression dropped. Ambrose could feel the adrenaline spike in his body as Benny glanced at the door, then at Ambrose, then back at the door. When he looked back at Ambrose again, blue eyes darkened and despite Ambrose’s protests Benny grabbed him by the throat and pile-drove him backwards into one of the viewing mirrors for fittings, the glass cracking against Ambrose’s back.

The wind was stolen from him with a silent gasp, both his hands finding Benny’s and trying to pry his fingers off his throat unsuccessfully. Benny growled in the back of his throat, leaning down so he could get in Ambrose’s slowly blueing face.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t snap your neck like a twig.”

Benny, he tried in his mind, his brain screaming as pounding headache formed from the pressure in his skull, his brain screaming for oxygen, please. Let me exp—

Ambrose didn’t think, he was panicking as his vision darkened at the edges and without meaning to boomed out a command:

Benny, LET GO!

Benny’s fingers sprung open like a coiled spring being released and Ambrose hit the ground, his cheek hitting off the edge of the fitting platform as Benny cried out.

Ambrose gasped, pushing himself up instinctively and reached to Lyra’s mind, tying the wires in her brain together and unplugging her powers before he fell again.

“Two minutes, Oskar!” Nathan sang and Ambrose groaned. He muttered, don’t move, aloud and waited until both Benny and Lyra went stiff before calling Nathan in.

Nathan stepped through the door, poking his head around first and glancing at Lyra before his face broke out into a smile and he stepped inside fully.

“Morning,” he drawled with a happy sigh as Ambrose managed to prop himself up against the wall. He reached behind his head at the bump that was forming and his fingers came away sticky and wet. Fuck. He blinked, the world dizzy in front of him.

FUCK! He didn’t want to have to do that. Fucking Nathan knew exactly what he was doing making himself known before Ambrose had a chance to explain. Ambrose glared at his stupid, gorgeous ex who pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and held it up, waving it at Ambrose’s face.

“Just in time, babe.” Then he typed away on it, positively eating up the attention in the room. Ambrose tipped his head back, chin to the ceiling up at Benny. His eyes zeroed in on the red and purple bruises on Benny’s swollen hand, and realised sickly that his compulsion did that.

“Benny… your hand…”

“Save it, Amber-ose.” Benny spat. The dip between Benny’s thumb and middle finger had split from the force of Ambrose’s compulsion, steadily dripping blood onto the varnished wooden floor.

“I’m not with him,” Ambrose protested, pushing himself up a little and trying to get to his feet, but the world spun and he fell again, sliding down until his arse hit the ground. “He has… he’s—”

“He said this arsehole has his friend captive,” Lyra said, hazel eyes cutting from Nathan’s face to Ambrose’s. Angry, but believing. She believed him, though he doubted he would be spared a bullet if he let her move. “Said that creep Jude is watching him and if he doesn’t do what he says, he’ll let Jude kill him.”

Benny’s blue eyes turned down, drooping at the sides. “I’m sorry, brother,” Benny said. “You are in as much as the rest of us.”

“Now that we’re all caught up to speed,” Nathan said, clapping his hands together. The sound was like a bullet through Ambrose’s brain. “How about we get down to business?”

“What is your business?” Ambrose demanded, practically spitting his words. All he could think about was Max telling him that Benny was in some trouble, that Max was worried about him. Is Nathan the problem?

Christ, he couldn’t think straight, his brain blurry. Fucking Jude and this hangover and Max’s punches, now Benny’s blows, he was shocked he wasn’t unconscious yet, probably concussed. Maybe, definitely concussed.

Benny frowned, eyes on Ambrose, still frozen. “You don’t know?”

Ambrose frowned, the motion too difficult to convey so he flattened his face, holding his head and stifling a moan. If Ambrose thought of it, he could dip into Benny’s mind and read the message he was storing, roaring, trying to let Ambrose hear, but Ambrose was too focused on staying awake.

“Benny,” Nathan said, his tone dipping low in warning. “Naughty, naughty. Don’t you remember what I can do to you?”

Ambrose shut his eyes tight, planting his hand on the ground and pushing himself up. He had to grip the podium for the fittings and push himself all the way, stumbling back into the mirror when he got to his feet.

Black eyes unfocused, glazed over and swimming with colour, but he tried to focus on Nathan.

“What’re you saying, Nathan? Why are we here?”

Nathan smiled again Ambrose. Its effect was like an avalanche of cold, mountains of snow threatening to bury Ambrose under the weight of it, sending tremors of terror down his spine.

His mind screaming at him to notice something he was missing. To see what was right in front of him. His blood rushed in his ears as he took a step forward, silently releasing Benny in his mind: you can move freely. The effect was too much for Ambrose to bear, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as if someone had just switched off his power.

Benny stood taller, and he turned to Ambrose, catching him before his head smacked off the wood, but it didn’t matter. The darkness swallowed Ambrose, Nathan’s voice speaking in the background as he submitted to unconsciousness.

*~*~*~*~*

Ambrose woke in a car, sprawled out in the backseat. He groaned as the light assaulted his senses. Fuck. His head was pounding, and he let out a soft groan.

“Oh, you’re awake sleepyhead?” Ambrose’s eyes shot open, his heart seizing in his chest. Nathan. He forgot. Why were they in a car? What happened to Benny? “You should try and get back to sleep, Osk. We’ll be there soon.”

“Where?” Ambrose ground out, the words rattling his skull and agitating his head.

Nathan’s swirling eyes met Ambrose’s in the rearview. “To Kit. That’s where you wanted to go, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“So that’s where we’re heading.”

“What did you do to Benny?”

Nathan chuckled. It was as if he had shot a bolt of metal through Ambrose’s spinal cord, freezing him as the metal scraped off bone. “You didn’t hear?”

“I was kind of unconscious for it,” Ambrose said tightly. Nathan’s eyes were back on the road, but it didn’t make him feel any less observed. Any less seen. The same nagging thing pulled at his mind like a child trying to get their parents attention.

Nathan chuckled again, this time lighter. “I suppose you were. But he was thinking very loud, Oskar. I’m surprised you didn’t hear.”

“Hear what?” Ambrose asked, pushing himself to sit up in the backseat, the world tilting around him. He felt like he was going to throw up. Nathan met his gaze in the rearview again and only then did Nathan’s words register in his mind. Ambrose must have froze or stiffened or showed his emotion on his face. “What do you mean his thoughts were loud?”

Nathan’s laugh was musical, pulling at Ambrose’s heart strings. “Come on Osk, you’re smarter than this.”

“Well I may have a concussion or two so cut me some slack,” Ambrose snapped. His breathing hitched, becoming erratic suddenly as his brain burst through the bars of the cell in his skull.

Nathan remained stubbornly silent, forcing Ambrose’s memory to try and colour in the gaps. Come on, Oskar, follow the context clues. He was— in Max’s bar he was fixing up Jude’s tab from the night before, the night with Jude, and Max said Jude knew Supervillain, and worked with him. Partners. Nathan’s grin at Ambrose’s mention of Jude, “why? Jealous, Osk?”

Jealous.

Was he jealous?

No. That’s not the important part. Come on!

Not just Kit, the other heroes. Kit was patrolling last night, looking for Supervillain and now Nathan and Jude had him, and…

“Ah,” Nathan said, revelling in Ambrose’s cold realisation. “There you go, Oskar. You got there eventually.”

“You…” Ambrose said, his voice losing breath and the words tapering off. “You… you can’t be Supervillain. You… you don’t even have powers!”

Nathan smirked in reply but didn’t answer. It irked something inside Ambrose, making him lean forward. “Right?! You don’t have powers, except resistance to—”

Ambrose grabbed his pulsing temple, cutting himself off. Nathan only has defensive abilities. He wasn’t powered, he couldn’t be, he had never— Ambrose had never seen. Natural immunity. That’s it. Not, not— how could he hear Benny’s thoughts? Mentor’s Telekinesis? He couldn’t—

“Explain,” Ambrose said, his voice a growl.

Nathan hummed, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “What do you want me to explain?”

“How can you— people can’t have more than one power.”

“I don’t,” Nathan said with a shrug.

“Then what?! How! How can you use Mentor’s— you- you’re fucking lying to me!”

Nathan’s gaze doused the simmering rage in Ambrose. “Am I?”

And Ambrose knew he wasn’t.

He knew it, but he didn’t want to know it.

“You… you— you can’t be Supervillain,” Ambrose whispered. Hoping that if he repeated it enough it would make it true. He felt the overwhelming urge to cry and scream and rage and claw Nathan’s eyes out, but he just shook in the backseat, every part of his body trembling as if he was just dunked into an ice bath.

“And yet, I am, sweetheart. God, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to tell you, Oskar. But I knew, I knew I had to wait and be patient, and now that we’re together again I will explain everything when we get home.”

“Why did you take Kit?”

“To get to you, dummy,” Nathan replied with a lopsided smile. A smile full of love and Ambrose wanted to get sick. “And I got you, didn’t I? Go back to sleep, love. I’ll wake you when we get home.”

Ambrose didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want to do anything, while simultaneously wanting to open the backdoor and jump out, or pull the steering wheel and throw up. He wanted to fight, but sleep was already pulling heavy down on his eyelids, and he curled back up beside the door, and closed his eyes.

*~*~*~*~*

The door squeaked open, light crawling along the stairs with a jolt and vanished just as quick as someone started skipping down the stairs. “Oh, Kit~”

Kit straightened as much as he could in the cuffs, stealing his expression to a stoic indifference.

Jude appeared at the bottom of the stairs, his green eyes gleaming with malice and a twisted delight. “I had a little deal with Supervillain. He said, if he didn’t text me every ten minutes then I was allowed to have fun with you! It’s been fifteen minutes, Kit. You know what that means?”

Tides and Sawyer woke at the sound, Sawyer freezing, his arms wound tightly around Tides who was trembling in his hold.

Jude’s eyes lazily flickered to the pair. “Aw, aren’t you two just sweethearts? Tell you what, if you be good I won’t even lock you up again!”

“You said you’re going to hurt Kit,” Sawyer told him. “Why would we just sit tight?”

Jude walked over to him and crouched down in front of the pair, tilting his head to the side as he regarded Sawyer. “I don’t know if they lied to you about how bad your face was, or you just don’t care, but if you don’t want me to force you to return the favour to your girlfriend there, I’d suggest you shut the fuck up and be a good little hostage, hmm?”

“You—”

“Sawyer,” Kit said, his voice hollow, yet still managing to cut through Sawyer’s. “Don’t. Just do what he says. I’ll be… I’ll be fine.”

“Kit—”

“You heard the boy, he’ll be fine!” Jude said with a wave, bouncing to his feet and walking around Kit to uncuff him from the wall. It was going to be nice, Kit realised, not having his hands glued above his head for a while. They fell like they were made of cement once Jude opened the cuffs and Kit groaned as he felt pins and needles thrum beneath the skin.

Pins and needles and something else.

Something… electric. Kit hid it, hoping that Jude couldn’t read minds like Ambrose could but when Jude started to pull Kit to his feet, Kit was almost certain that he couldn’t. Which meant that Kit had the leverage, but he would have to use it quickly if he wanted to keep it.

As Jude dragged Kit over to the chair, Kit felt the well of electricity surge within him, grabbing onto Jude’s arm as if he was about to fall. Jude was none the wiser, the stupid grin still on his face. Kit took a deep breath, and let the valve to his powers open from his brain to the tips of his toes and around his body.

Supervillain had used Omen’s commands to restrict their powers.

Too bad that didn’t work on Kit anymore.

Kit dug his fingers into Jude’s shoulders with one hand, the other at his side. He clicked his fingers and red lightning sparked like a glove from his free hand to the one holding Jude in the blink of an eye. Jude was too slow to react, his eyes blown wide before he was thrown across the room along with Kit from the sheer force of the red lightning.

Jude’s spine hit the wall and he collapsed, twitching on the ground from the impact as the lightning scorched his body.

Oh… that felt good, the voice in Kit’s head said as he straightened, suddenly rejuvenated after releasing the pent up energy on someone without worrying if they’d live or die. It was like stretching for the first tike after being trapped in a tight, constricted pose for a while, his body nourishing itself as the lightning ran up and down his body, lashing out every once in a while.

Kit ran a hand through his hair, exhilarated, a wide smile cutting into his cheeks as he walked towards Jude, ready to finish the job checking to see if he was still alive.

“Kit?” Kit stopped, glancing over his shoulder to see Tides and Sawyer gawking at him with wide eyes. Sawyer’s arm tight around Tides. Kit tilted his head, hungry eyes stalking the tenderness.

Sawyer kept his eyes on Kit’s, not flinching away. “Leave him, we need to get out of here, okay?”

Kit frowned. “But—” he began, his voice crackling like a walkie-talkie.

“I need your help,” Sawyer said, cutting Kit off again. Kit glanced back at Jude’s body, glaring at the shallow rise and fall of his back. “Kit.”

Kit shook his head and sighed, the electricity slowly leaving his body. “Fine. Let’s go.”

*~*~*~*~*

Continued here

Orphanage roll-call (lmk if you wanna be added or removed): @beatenbruisedandbloody @404lunar1216 @whumpyworld @nameless-beanie e @andithewhumper @annablogsposts @whumpasaurus101 @0eggdealer @rejectedbytheempty @sleepy-pearl @n3rv0usn0v4 @whumpatize-me-captain @sunshiline-writes @burningkittypoet @honeyed-euphrates @sacredwrath @theonewithallthefixations @blood-enthusiast @tippytappytyping @shinokoro @bedtimescenarios @whatwhump @acer-whumpstuff @fa1rie @jesterrinobutter @xxgalgurlxx @princess-bubble-blossom @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @@dutifullykrispyland @memepsychowhowantsuperpower-blog @ehobep

[loyaltykask]

Chapter 56

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

I like how Sanzang is usually the first to tell if there is a demon is near and Wukong doesn't listen and in other cased Wukong KNOWS when a demon is in front of him and Sanzang doesn't listen

Like talk about irony. Wukong gave all his monkeys this power damn

I like how Sanzang is so scared for these bandits as well he like 'please I have a disciple that can and will kill you, just let me go'

Wukong thinks he is funny and he is right

Sanzang only remembers later like "FUCK I LEFT THE MONKEY"

THIS IS NOT TIME FOR YOU TO BE SMART

This is why you keep getting sued. I know Wukong always saying he kills for Sanzang but also… he doesn't HAVE to?! Like any time he kills humans it's like a cat playing with mice, he is toying with them as they die and he just takes so much amusement out of it sometimes he wants to say it cause they deserve to die but also he knows he could spare them. It is always a choice for someone that powerful

OOF

Sanzang be begging these people to please house them

I actually like it when Sanznag throws shade, its funny to me

These three I swear

Wukong offering to kill someone's son is not a way to bond or say thank you

What mattered was that he tried

Hmmm maybe showing the decapitated head… wasn't the best idea tbh. Reminds me of a cat showing a dead mouse to show off. Like well-meaning, but… not needed please

So it's been about 4 to 5 years since he used the tight fillet spell Last time I think he used it like 40 times. He used it 10 more times to kill Yang so that is up to 50

;_;

It’s more like he uses it a lot in a single day and then doesn’t touch it for years. Like the huge gaps of time, where he never does the spell. Hell, if I remember correctly, this may be the last time he ever uses the spell. The next seven years I don’t re-call him using it once

I think a lot of people don’t realize how long the journey takes and how big gaps in time there are. Like I just got to the six-eared macaque arc and it looks like it might be eight or nine years into the journey. But overall yeah it really might be the last time. It kind of shows how he uses the fillet spell, in the beginning, a lot, but throughout time that kind of trust and bone grows where he realizes that he not only doesn’t need to use it but shouldn’t use it either I’m surprised he didn’t use it the second he saw Wukong kill it to bandits, and said, just normally reprimanding him. He didn’t even threaten him with the spell… until he came with the beheaded bandit… which I will admit, was unexpected

I like to think that this case Sanzang really wants Wukong to see for himself that life is valued and that he shouldn’t go around killing people just because he knows he can. And it makes it very clear that at this point he’s upset at Wukong for one, for not listening to him, and for saying that he was responsible as well for these people's deaths. I kind of shows like why he got upset and while I don’t think he should have sent Wukong away due to that anger it makes an interesting argument to think that every mistake and every person Wukong kills Sanzang feels responsible for it, because he is the master. And maybe a part of it feels like he can’t be a good Master to Wukong because he still goes around killing and that he blames himself as well

[relmint]

Hello! wanted to ask you something, so I have realized that in jttw, Wukong always turns to Guanyin when he needs help and she also comforts him when he feels sad, and it seems that Wukong trusts her and respects her a lot, it is like a relationship between a younger brother and an older sister. (correct me if I'm wrong, sorry I'm just getting started and it's a lot of things) but shouldn't Wukong be mad that she was the one who gave tripitaka the circlet in the first place? Does Wukong know this? why does he trust her if she was the one who gave tripitaka the circlet in the first place? Pd: I love your art! <3 have a good day

Before I start, I would like to say that I have not finished reading the book myself, so some of my interpretations may seem off :0 For folks who are more knowledgeable than me, feel free to add on and share what you think as well! Now, let’s begin!

Yup! I also see them as having a younger bro and older sis bond :0 Also Wukong did grow mad when he learned it was Guan Yin who taught Tripitaka the magic! 

From Anthony C. Yu's translation, page 320, Chapter 14:

"I wouldn't dare strike you," said Pilgrim, "but let me ask you something. Who taught you this magic?" "It was an old woman," said Tripitaka, "who imparted it to me a few moments ago." Growing very angry, Pilgrim said, "You needn't say anything more! The old woman had to be that Guanshiyin! Why did she want me to suffer like this? I'm going to South Sea to beat her up!"

Wukong also chewed Guan Yin out for her tricks the next time they met on page 327, Chapter 15:

The Bodhisattva and the Guardian soon arrived at the Serpent Coil Mountain. They stopped the hallowed clouds in midair and saw Pilgrim Sun down below, shouting abuses at the bank of the stream. The Bodhisattva asked the Guardian to fetch him. Lowering his clouds, the Guardian went past Tripitaka and headed

straight for the edge of the stream, saying to Pilgrim, “The Bodhisattva has arrived.” When Pilgrim heard this, he jumped quickly into the air and yelled at her: “You, so-called Teacher of the Seven Buddhas and the Founder of the Faith of Mercy! Why did you have to use your tricks to harm me?”

“You impudent stableman, ignorant red-buttocks!” said the Bodhisattva. “I went to considerable effort to find a scripture pilgrim, whom I carefully instructed to save your life. Instead of thanking me, you are finding fault with me!” “You saved me all right!” said Pilgrim. “If you truly wanted to deliver me, you should have allowed me to have a little fun with no strings attached. When you met me the other day above the ocean, you could have chastened me with a few words, telling me to serve the Tang Monk with diligence, and that would have been enough. Why did you have to give him a flower cap, and have him deceive me into wearing it so that I would suffer? Now the fillet has taken root on old Monkey’s head. And you even taught him this so-called ‘Tight-Fillet Spell,’ which he recites again and again, causing endless pain in my head! You haven’t harmed me, indeed!” The Bodhisattva laughed and said, “O, Monkey! You are neither attentive to admonition nor willing to seek the fruit of truth. If you are not restrained like this, you’ll probably mock the authority of Heaven again without regard for good or ill. If you create troubles as you did before, who will be able to control you? It’s only through this bit of adversity that you will be willing to enter our gate of Yoga.” 

“All right,” said Pilgrim, “I’ll consider the matter my hard luck. But why did you take that condemned dragon and send him here so that he could become a spirit and swallow my master’s horse? It’s your fault, you know, if you allow an evildoer to perpetrate his villainies some more!”

As you can see, Sun Wukong and the Bodhisattva were not off to a great start. Guan Yin gave Sun Wukong the fillet to ensure he kept his promise of bringing the Tang Monk to India, attaining enlightenment in the process. From my point of view, the purpose of the journey was not only to introduce Buddhism to China but for the pilgrims to redeem themselves as well. It's basically like community service lmao. In the beginning, Sun Wukong was not very committed to maintaining his deal with the Bodhisattva, running away when Tripitaka scolded him for killing the 6 robbers. Sun Wukong does come back after having tea with his bestie the Dragon King, and to ensure Sun Wukong won't change his mind Guan Yin decided to give Tripitaka the fillet. In the beginning, you could justify why the fillet was needed. You can't deny that Sun Wukong was a dangerous warlord, managing to outmatch the might of Heaven itself (Absolute king, he wrecked those guys in Heaven <3). It seems reasonable how the Bodhisattva would think of the fillet as a necessary item to keep Sun Wukong in check. Sun Wukong, along with being overpowered, is seen to be impulsive and rash. That makes for a dangerous combination. But as the story progresses, you can see how Tripitaka overuses the fillet (Tripitaka sucks at being a teacher). I think the Bodhisattva was not aware of this. Or at least, not aware that Tripitaka used the fillet to such a degree. She is not omniscient, as proven by how Sun Wukong has to go to her to fill her in on all the tea. 

I think I have to also mention corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is a common thing in a lot of countries back then, especially in East Asia! This way of disciplining was the norm. It was universally accepted, so there was a big chance people didn’t really think of the fillet as such a big deal. Confucianism is deeply embedded in Chinese culture, and it puts great importance on filial piety and good behavior. Teachers and parents are granted a lot of authority in this philosophy. If it’s for the sake of discipline, then corporal punishment is justified (obviously this is a damaging and flawed way of thinking but that’s just how it was in ancient times. Luckily, values are changing and people are becoming more aware!). Unfortunately, Sun Wukong and a lot of others r probably not aware that this was actual abuse. ….I think I digressed and I am sorry if I did but back to Wukong and Guan Yin! The way I see their relationship, it’s…complicated. In the beginning, their relationship was def strained. Wukong was mad at Guan Yin for the fillet. As for Guan Yin’s feelings towards the monkey, I think she genuinely wanted Wukong to succeed. She def disapproved of Sun Wukong’s rambunctious nature, but time and time again we see her offer her assistance throughout the pilgrim’s journey. Because of this she probably grew fond of the monkey, and Sun Wukong to her. I mean, she lets Sun Wukong crash at her place and allows him to vent his feelings to her. She is also stern whenever Sun Wukong’s resolve for the journey falters. She wants Wukong to stay on track. I think she genuinely wants Wukong to attain his merit, achieve enlightenment, and succeed. Isn’t that why she became a Bodhisattva? To help people? But this is just my interpretation! Also out of pure fun and brain rot, I want to share this song that reminds me of Sun Wukong and Guan Yin <3 

Also, I just wanna say one of my fav interactions between them is when they worked together to save Tripitaka from Black Wind Demon! I loved their light bickering <33 I personally think Chapter 17 was when Wukong and Guan Yin’s relationship became better and they started opening up to one another :> Also aahh thank you so much for liking my art! Sorry for the long ramble XD I hope you have a cool day anon! 

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 42 Thoughts

Chapter 42 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

Like last chapter even if it might be traditionally called a tortoise it would still make more sense if it was a turtle if you go by logic. However in this instance you could still go with it, because while tortoise can’t swim they can float and since the poem specifies that the black tortoise has power over winds and waves, it could use that to propel itself.

I wonder how comfortable those transformed swords are to sit on. They must be comfortable enough to not immediately stand out to Red Boy.

Okay birdy, what exactly are you? A cockatoo?

Functional as an image for the reader since they are commonly white, though while technically native to Asia it is very on the fringe close to Australia so I’m a little doubtful about that.

Looking at the Original Chinese with my methods is rather inconclusive, it seems to be in the realm of a parrot or budgie. Parrots are the Order of Psittaciformes, which cockatoos do fall under and so do budgies! So calling it a White Parrot would be the easiest as it is also the vaguest and most generalized. Though of course parrot evokes a specific image, so going with a more concrete bird like cockatoo makes sense.

Though Guanyin perhaps having a cute little albino budgie is definitely an image in my mind I greatly enjoy.

They’re matching even!

We appreciate a person taking care of the little guys and making sure there will be no collateral if it can be avoided.

Neither boy nor girl? Third gender Red Boy real?!

Sun Wukong’s trauma with the fillet is showing.

To be honest still very much not a fan of using pain and the threat of it to punish and subdue someone like this. Especially if it is a kid.

With Sun Wukong at the very start it was kind of seen as a necessity and I have much less of a problem there when it was Guanyin using the Tight-Fillet-Spell since she doesn’t use it when not absolutely necessary. However meanwhile Tang Sanzang has shown quite often to use it due to being prejudiced and downright misinformed, so not having the proper ability to judge when it is appropriate and when it is just cruel and unwarranted.

Now with Red Boy they could have just bound him and dragged him to his father to get scolded, made aware of his transgressions if he genuinely wasn’t before and sentenced to an appropriate punishment like making reparations or being put under Guanyin’s tutelage with the blessing of his parents either longterm or for a while until he learns to do better.

Not harping on the lotus seat sword trick here though, that works fine since it is very much Red Boy’s actions meeting consequence. He chose to take the seat that did not belong to him and got hurt in return, which while not a preferred way of teaching, it will definitely stick in his mind not to try and take what’s not his again.

There’s definitely a discussion that can be had here about appropriate punishment, corporal punishment, possible alternatives and abuse.

[journeytothewest-daily]

In the first part of chapter 56 I thought "no tight-fillet spell! This is going swimmingly!" but then Tripitaka had to go and get his panties in a twist about Wukong killing the bandits... I'm anti-killing as a general rule, but a lot of the people Wukong kills are demons or people who try very hard to kill them! Come on, man! And the torture? Buddha avoided stepping on ants and beetles, and Tripitaka can't just forgive Wukong?

In my subjective opinion he is the worst Buddhist monke ever, he is just compassionate about Zhu Bajie, he has yet to kick him out of the gang once. And you have to learn to forgive. Sure, you aren't supposed to kill anybody, but Guanyin gave him to Tripitaka to help him on his journey. It's not like "if I don't reach Western Heaven because I'm killed that's okay I will die on my mission!" None wants you to fail and that is why you were given 4 companions.

[googleitlol]

HOLD ON

Wait one goddamn minute.

If Macaque’s hearing is so great, is it possible that he could have heard Tripitaka mumbling the Tight-Fillet Spell and be one of the few people that know it.

If so, imagine the chaos of a fight, even if Sun Wukong isn’t fighting Macaque himself. He’s just fighting off some demon when Macaque recites the spell just to troll him and now Wukong is confused on why the hell master keeps disciplining him for doing his fucking job—

[a-ladyman-in-waiting]

Current abilities

Priestess Stage 1 (City story)

Light Discs [subconscious]:

Madeline Rivera can walk on solid discs of Moonlight that she subconsciously summons under her feet. She mainly uses them as automatic chairs and tables for her tabletop hobbies, which includes writing and drawing.

Like this ^

Flight [conscious]:

Using her wings and tail fins, she can fly tight bank turns at high speeds to relive her experience riding their scooter down steep hills.

Time Out (Stage 1) [conscious]:

She clasps her hands once to summon a Moonlight Ring with a short clock hand that stops Time within a large area to hold people in place. A clock hand immediately moves for one whole rotation of 6 seconds. The targets stuck inside are still able to speak (may change this later). Anyone with proficiency of Time Magic remains unaffected by this.

The clock hand doesn’t deal damage.

Abilities earned midway into the story

Moonlight Blade/Clock Hand

A simple stretched out rhombus shape of Moonlight that Madeline had crafted for self defense. It is the same shape as the clock hand for Time Out spell.

Fillet Mignon (Time Out Stage 2) [conscious]:

Madeline clasps her hands together for 3 seconds to summon 2 Moonlight Rings, four numbers, and two clock hands. This time, she moves her hands around the air in a clockwise motion for half a rotation before returning them to their starting point.

The second clock hand is longer and faster than the first, hitting 12 times within the much larger Moonlight Ring that holds the first hand. Additionally, the longer clock hand also deals damage (albeit I may change this later on).

The numbers in the spell are 3, 6, 9, & 12. An indicator of the length of the attack.

Soul Vision ability [conscious]:

Madeline closes her eyes to scan the color and vibrancy of a person’s soul. She can “mark” specific souls for the main goal of avoiding them at all costs to avoid stress.

Queen Species (Future timeline)

- Aka after egg stage —

Accelerometer (Time Out Stage 3) [image below]

Madeline clasps her hands together for 6 seconds to summon 3 Moonlight Rings, 3 clock hands, all of the 12 numbers in a clock, and decoration surrounding the third and largest Moonlight Ring. Where she repeats the same clockwise hand motion for a duration of 6 seconds. (May change later).

The largest Moonlight Ring houses the longest and fastest clock hand, which steals energy from everyone within the large and nearly unavoidable 3rd Moonlight Ring. The 3rd Clock Hand strikes 60 times within one revolution of the 2nd Clock Hand. Therefore, the 3rd Clock Hand strikes 720 times, rendering almost all targets with fatigue to the point of passing out.

However, for the targets within in the range of the 2nd Clock Hand, the combination of blunt strikes and energy absorption will leave targets dead or barely alive depending on whether they escape the range.

But for those stuck in the range of all three Clock Hands die before the spell even finishes half a rotation without ever experiencing the pain.

Personal Domain

A subspace that Madeline created that holds a small waterfall with a lake to match, a tall two story rock formation that consists of living spaces and staircases, a smooth wooden table for table top hobbies, a warm sun, wild grass and flowers and a heated water lake for relaxing.

The subspace has a day and night system.

[journeytothewestresearch]

Is Six Ears an Aspect of Sun Wukong?

I've seen some people claim that Six Ears is not an aspect of Sun Wukong's mind. They either ignore the references to "one mind" and "two Minds" (and the Buddhist philosophy behind them), or they just say it's allegory and nothing more. Well, there are actually internal story details from chapter 58 that support the close connection between the Monkey King and his doppelganger.

1) The Bodhisattva Guanyin and her “eyes of wisdom” (huiyan, 慧眼) can’t tell them apart:

The various deities and the Bodhisattva stared at the two for a long time, but none could tell them apart (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 106). 眾諸天與菩薩都看良久，莫想能認。 [And later:] Pressing his palms together, our Buddha said, “Guanyin, the Honored One, can you tell which is the true Pilgrim and which is the false one?” “They came to your disciple’s humble region the other day,” replied the Bodhisattva, “but I truly could not distinguish between them …” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 114). 我佛合掌道：「觀音尊者，你看那兩個行者，誰是真假？」菩薩道：「前日在弟子荒境，委不能辨 …

2) The tight-fillet spell works on both Monkeys:

Asking Moksa and Goodly Wealth [a.k.a. Red Boy] to approach her, the Bodhisattva whispered to them this instruction: “Each of you take hold of one of them firmly, and let me start reciting in secret the Tight-Fillet Spell. The one whose head hurts is the real monkey; the one who has no pain is specious.” Indeed, the two disciples took hold of the two Pilgrims as the Bodhisattva recited in silence the magic words. At once the two of them gripped their heads and rolled on the ground, both screaming, “Don’t recite! Don’t recite!” The Bodhisattva stopped her recital … (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 106). 菩薩喚木叉與善財上前，悄悄吩咐：「你一個幫住一個，等我暗念緊箍兒咒，看那個害疼的便是真，不疼的便是假。」他二人果各幫一個。菩薩暗念真言，兩個一齊喊疼，都抱著頭，地下打滾，只叫：「莫念，莫念。」菩薩不念 …

(If someone disagrees with this one, they need to show where it says Six Ears is faking the pain.)

3) Both the Jade Emperor and the imp-reflecting mirror can’t tell them apart:

Issuing a decree at once to summon Devariija Li, the Pagoda-Bearer, the Jade Emperor commanded: “Let us look at those two fellows through the imp-reflecting mirror, so that the false may perish and the true endure.” The devaraja took out the mirror immediately and asked the Jade Emperor to watch with the various celestial deities. What appeared in the mirror were two reflections of Sun Wukong: there was not the slightest difference between their golden fillets, their clothing, and even their hair. Since the Jade Emperor found it impossible to distinguish them, he ordered them chased out of the hall (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, pp. 107-108). 玉帝即傳旨宣托塔李天王，教：「把照妖鏡來照這廝誰真誰假，教他假滅真存。」天王即取鏡照住，請玉帝同眾神觀看。鏡中乃是兩個孫悟空的影子，金箍、衣服，毫髮不差。玉帝亦辨不出，趕出殿外。

4) Only omniscient beings like Investigative Hearing (Ksitigargbha's mount) and the Buddha can tell the two apart:

[T]he Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha said, “Wait a moment! Wait a moment! Let me ask Investigative Hearing to listen for you.” That Investigative Hearing, you see, happens to be a beast that usually lies beneath the desk of Ksitigarbha. When he crouches on the ground, he can in an instant perceive the true and the false, the virtuous and the wicked among all short-haired creatures, scaly creatures, hairy creatures, winged creatures, and crawling creatures, and among all the celestial immortals, the earthly immortals, the divine immortals, the human immortals, and the spirit immortals resident in all the cave Heavens and blessed lands in the various shrines, rivers, and mountains of the Four Great Continents. In obedience, therefore, to the command of Ksitigarbha, the beast prostrated himself in the courtyard of the Hall of Darkness, and in a little while, he raised his head to say to his master, “I have the name of the fiend …” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 112) …地藏王菩薩道：「且住，且住。等我著諦聽與你聽個真假。」原來那諦聽是地藏菩薩經案下伏的一個獸名。他若伏在地下，一霎時，將四大部洲山川社稷，洞天福地之間，蠃蟲、鱗蟲、毛蟲、羽蟲、昆蟲、天仙、地仙、神仙、人仙、鬼仙，可以照鑒善惡，察聽賢愚。那獸奉地藏鈞旨，就於森羅庭院之中，俯伏在地。須臾，擡起頭來，對地藏道：「怪名雖有…」。 [...] Smiling, Tathagata said, “Though all of you [Guanyin] possess vast dharma power and are able to observe the events of the whole universe, you cannot know all the things therein, nor do you have the knowledge of all the species” (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 114). 如來笑道：「汝等法力廣大，只能普閱周天之事，不能遍識周天之物，亦不能廣會周天之種類也。」 […] [After the Buddha explains the ten categories of life and the four types of celestial primates (see the introduction here), he says:] As I see the matter, that specious Wukong must be a six-eared macaque … (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 115). 我觀假悟空乃六耳獼猴也 …

In short, the twin monkeys are so hard to tell apart simply because they are representations of the true and illusionary minds (refer back to the article) within the same person.

So what does this say about Shadowpeach? I know LMK is a separate entity from the novel, but applying canon to this ship would make it more self-love, right? I'm sure those with creatively perverted minds know what I'm taking about.

[journeythroughjourneytothewest]

Chapter 26 Recap: "Amid the Three Islands Sun Wukong seeks a cure; With sweet dew Guanshiyin revivies a tree"

After presenting a short poem on how for as much as “The proverb says the sword’s the law of life” it’s assured that “The strong man will meet someone stronger still,” this chapter begins where the first volume ended; the Zhenyuan Great Immortal grabs the Monkey King, and tells the simian to stop “playing with your magic” and restore his Ginseng Fruit Tree. As is becoming typical for Sun Wukong, the monkey laughs at hearing the angry proclamation of his foe, and even goes on to state that if the Master Zhenyuan had but made this demand in the first place, “we would have been spared the conflict.” The Monkey King then tells the Great Immortal to untie Tang Sanzang, and that he’ll “give you back a living tree.” Master  Zhenyuan declares that if Sun Wukong manages to restore his tree he’ll become the monkey’s sworn brother.

Reckoning that the other pilgrims won’t be able to escape, the Zhenyuan Great Immortal has Tripitaka, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing freed from their bonds. Zhu Bajie accuses Sun Wukong of wanting to “flee and take to the road all by himself” using the excuse of finding a way to revive the Ginseng Tree. The Monkey King declares he is “speaking…only the truth,” and that he plans to travel to the Three Islands and Ten Islets of the Great Eastern Ocean in order to ask the Immortals and Aged Sages that live there for a way to revive the three. He also declares he should be able to get the job done in three days. Likely feeling a bit suspicious of the monke, Tang Sanzang agrees to Sun Wukong’s three-day grace period, but also states that if the simian doesn’t return by then “I’ll begin reciting that ‘Old-Time Sutra’!” Fearful of the potential massive headache (but not enough to not threaten the Great Immortal’s kitchenware if Tripitaka isn’t given the best of care), the Monkey King sets off on his arboreal mission.

“Moving through the air like lightning and meteor,” Sun Wukong’s first stop in the Great Eastern Ocean is the “immortal region of Penglai,” a series of islands. There, he soon encounters a group of three immortals who look like old men playing encirclement chess. These are the Star of Longevity, the Star of Blessing, and the Star of Wealth. After the old men and the old monkey greet each other, Sun Wukong explains his situation while the immortals call him a “completely ignorant” dumb ape for having stolen the ginseng fruit and acting like it wasn’t a big deal, and of course for having broken the Ginseng Tree in the first place. The crux of the matter is that the “level of cultivation in Dao of the Great Immortal far surpasses” that of these three immortals, and that this is equally true for the Ginseng Tree; while “all you would need is one grain of my millet-elixir” to revive an earthly creature, the ginseng fruit “is the very root of all divine trees.” As such, these more lowly immortals have no way to heal it.

The Monkey King is dejected at this news, but the Star of Blessing encourages him by suggesting that there might be a cure for the tree somewhere else. The three immortals are also delighted upon learning of Sun Wukong’s fillet and the sutra that squeezes his head, for had “it not been for this little means of control, you would be crawling all over Heaven again!” Even so, the Star of Longevity promises that though the Great Immortal is these immortals’ senior, they’ll pay him a visit on the Monkey King’s behalf and also ask Tang Sanzang to not recite the Tight-Fillet Spell while the monkey is sincerely looking for a cure. Sun Wukong thanks them, and travels on.

The Stars mount the clouds and travel straight to the Abbey of Five Villages, where their arrival is announced by “the cries of cranes.” Zhu Bajie acts very familiar with the Star of Longevity, even calling him a “blubbery old codger.” The Star of Longevity calls him a “stupid coolie” in return, and the pig yaoguai and the three immortals get into a small name-calling contest before the arrival of Tripitaka and Master Zhenyuan. The three immortals are then able to give their account of Sun Wukong’s actions, all while being pranked by Zhu Bajie.

In the meantime, the Monkey King makes his arrival at the Fangzhang Mountain. It’s a beautiful place, but the simian is “in no mood to enjoy the scenery.” He is able to find an immortal quickly who we learn is the “Grand Thearch of the East,” said to have “saved the world a few times from distress.” Greeting this immortal “somewhat shamefacedly,” Sun Wukong is soon invited into to the Grand Thearch’s palace for tea. While waiting for the tea, the Monkey King is also greeted by a “lowly immortal named Dongfang Shuo,” who we learn had “palmed from Heaven’s gods’ peaches three times.” After Sun Wukong and Dongfang Shuo greet each other as “old burglar” and “little crook” respectively, the Grand Thearch orders Dongfang Shuo, religious name Manqian, to bring them tea. Manqian leaves, and Sun Wukong makes his request for a cure for the Ginseng Tree. The Grand Thearch calls him an “ape” who has “no care for anything except to cause trouble everywhere.” He also tells the Monkey King that Master Zhenyuan is “the patriarch of earthbound immortals,” and that even Sun Wukong doesn’t have the power to escape him. Furthermore, as the Ginseng Fruit Tree is the result of a “spiritual root that came into existence at the time of creation,” there’s no cure that the Grand Thearch knows of. Hearing this, old Monkey decides to take his leave, not daring to stay for an offered cup of jade nectar.

The next stop is the island of Yingzhou, another lovely realm for immortals. Here he finds nine immortals “with luminous white hair and beards” and “youthful complexion” “playing chess and drinking wine, telling jokes and singing songs.” Sun Wukong walks up to this gathering, and these immortals “quickly rose to greet him.” After the Monkey King and these Nine Elders exchange pleasantries (and Sun Wukong is lightly chided by the Nine Elders because had he “not disrupted Heaven, he would be even more content than we are), the monkey gives an account of his so far fruitless effort to restore the Ginseng Tree. After being told that he causes “too much trouble! Just too much trouble. Honestly, we don’t have a cure” but also being invited to “drink some jade nectar and eat some lotus root,” Sun Wukong swiftly takes his leave of the nine elders and heads straight to the Potalaka Mountain. There he finds “the Bodhisattva Guanyin giving a lecture to the various celestial guardians, dragon-ladies, and Moksa in the purple bamboo grove.” Noticing the Monkey King’s arrival, Bodhisattva Guayin sends the Great Mountain Guardian, formerly known as the Black Wind King, to meet him. After almost getting into an altercation with this yaoguai-turned-divine-guardian because he addressed him too familiarly, Sun Wukong “at once became solemn and earnest” when he hears that Bodhisattva Guanyin had asked the Great Mountain Guardian to greet him, and follows the bear down to have an audience with the bodhisattva. The Monkey King bows down and gives an account of what happened. The bodhisattva scolds him as a “mischievous monkey,” and Sun Wukong agrees that he “was truly ignorant.” Bodhisattva Guanyin also asks the Monkey King why he didn’t come to her sooner, which secretly pleases Sun Wukong as he assumes this means she as a cure. And indeed, the bodhisattva reveals that the “sweet dew in my immaculate vase can heal divine trees or spirit roots.” Declaring himself “lucky! Truly lucky!,” Sun Wukong flies behind Bodhisattva Guanyin back to the Abbey of Five Villages.

Master Zhenyuan was in the midst of “having lofty conversation with the Three Elders” when he notices the bodhisattva has arrived. Soon after all the assembled immortals, yaoguai, and one mortal man greet her, Bodhisattva Guanyin leads the party to where the Ginseng Tree lies dead. She orders Sun Wukong to stretch out his left hand, and, dipping her willow twig into the sweet dew of her vase, she “then used it as a brush and drew on the palm of Pilgrim a charm that had revivifying power.” She next tells the Monkey King to “place his hand at the base of the tree and watch for the sign of water spurting out.” Sun Wukong does so, and soon a “clear spring welled up from the ground.” After making it known that only something made of jade should be used to scoop up the water, Bodhisattva Guanyin then says the tree should be pushed back into an upright position and that this water should be poured over it from the top down. And so the Great Immortal “asked the little lads to take out some thirty jade tea cups and some fifty wine goblets with which they scooped up the clear water. Pilgrim, Eight Rules, and Sha Monk raised the tree into an upright position and covered its base with topsoil. They then handed the jade cups one by one to the Bodhisattva, who sprinkled the sweet liquid onto the tree with her willow branch as she recited a spell.” Before long, “the tree turned green all at once with thick leaves and branches.” Furthermore, twenty-three ginseng fruits ripen as well, one more than they had before.

The Great Immortal is very pleased by the restoration of the Ginseng Tree, and has ten of the fruits gathered so that he could host a Festival of Ginseng Fruits in honor of Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Three Elders. Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing each get a fruit, and seeing a bodhisattva and immortals consume the fruit convinces Tang Sanzang to eat one as well, meaning that he is now quite the immortal monk. After Sun Wukong thanks the Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Three Stars for their assistance they go back to their respective homes. To end the celebration, Master Zhenyuan “also prepared some vegetarian wine for a banquet, during which he and Pilgrim became bond-brothers.” And it is on the note that both Tang Sanzang and his disciples go to bed happy and have a restful night at the Abbey of Five Villages that this chapter ends.

[theknittingshadow]

A Shadow’s Scattered Thoughts of Journey to the West:

Just finished the chapter with the human thieves and unfilial son and oh my stars! This explains to much!!!

All throughout this book I’ve been thinking “you know, Trip doesn’t seem bothered with Wukong killing yaoguai as opposed to humans (or people Trip THINKS are humans but are yaoguai in disguise). Maybe it’s just because all the yaoguai so far have tried to eat him and no humans have? He can’t be racist (specieist?)” This chapter confirmed my suspicions. These thieves not only try to steal from them but also beat Trip and Wukong (nearly to death, mind you sans Wukong’s immortality) and when Wukong kills several of them…Trip uses the Tight Fillet Spell a LOT and banishes Wukong.

I thought it was strange until Wukong went to Guan Yin and she literally spelled it out. I’ll paraphrase “Killing yaoguai would be your merit for they are fiends. Killing humans is a sin.”

…..

…………………

……………………………………………………

Yeah

As unfair as I believe this is, Someone should PROBABLY have told Wukong this a LONG time ago. Trip, I’m looking at you. You are literally his teacher.

I wonder if there’s some cultural or religious context to this standard? Seriously, if anyone knows, please let me know. I am curious.

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 57

In this chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest we get to see how Tripitaka and Sun Wukong's second break up is going. So let's get into it shall we?

Last we left off, Monkey had made himself scarce after his fight with Tripitaka. However he doesn't really know where to go, or what to do now. If he returns to Flower Fruit mountain now, it will be in disgrace. And the same goes for hanging out with other immortals or in the celestial realm. Finally he decides that his only real option is to try once again to beg Tripitaka to take him back.

So Monkey returns to Tripitaka and begs him to take him back as a disciple, and promises to not do violence in the future. However Tripitaka's only response is to once again start reciting the tight fillet spell again, another twenty times. After he's done, Monkey tries to reason with him that he won't be able to reach the West by himself, because, let's face it, Sandy, Pigsy and the Horse really are just 'chopped liver' here... Tripitaka however says that whether or not he reaches the west is no longer Monkey's concern, and insists that he does not want him anymore. Once Tripitaka threatens to use the fillet again, Monkey is left with no other choice but to once again take his leave.

This time however, Monkey does have an idea on where he can go- the same place he goes every time he runs into problems, Guanyin's place. Once he gets there he is greeted by Moksa and Red Son, who ask what business he has with Guanyin. Monkey says he's here to tattle on someone to Guanyin, and when Red Son tries to joke around a little with Monkey, Monkey snaps and goes off on him, since he's really not in the mood right now.

Anyways Monkey is finally able to meet with Guanyin, and breaks down into tears, while he explains everything to her. Guanyin listens patiently to his explanation and tells him that he was indeed in the wrong for beating those bandits to death, especially since he easily could have just scared them off instead. Monkey agrees but still thinks he should have been given another chance to atone rather then be banished outright like this.

After that Monkey asks Guanyin if she can recite the loose fillet spell, so he can give the fillet back to her so he can go back home to Flower Fruit Mountain. After she explains that the fillet was given to her by the Buddha and that she doesn't know of any way to remove it, Monkey gets up to leave. He tells Guanyin that he'll go directly to the Buddha instead and ask him to remove it. Guanyin however asks him to wait for a moment while she scans Tripitaka's fortune. His fortune reveals that since it's a day of the week ending in a 'Y', Tripitaka will soon face another calamity, and will need his help with it. At which time Guanyin will make sure that Tripitaka takes him back as a disciple. And with that we leave Guanyin and Wukong for the moment while we check back in on Tripitaka.

Tripitaka is traveling along with his other disciples until he gets hungry and thirsty. And since he apparently hasn't learned his lesson from the last time he had Pigsy fetch him water, he sends Pigsy out to fetch him some. After waiting for such a long time that Tripitaka even takes the time to compose a poem about how thirsty he is, Sandy finally decides to go after Pigsy to see what's taking him so long. Tripitaka tearfully allows him to go, leaving him with only the horse for protection.

He's not alone for long however, for who does he see but 'Sun Wukong' kneeling on the side of the road offering him a bowl of refreshing water. 'Sun Wukong' asks him to take it, and then he'll go and fetch some food for him as well. Tripitaka however refuses, saying he'd rather die of thirst on the spot then take it from him. When 'Sun Wukong' once again insists that he can't make it to the West without his help, Tripitaka once again says that's none of his business and tells him to leave. This enrages 'Sun Wukong' who throws out the water and strikes Tripitaka with his rod knocking him unconscious. After that, 'Sun Wukong' takes their belongings and takes his leave. On that cliffhanger it's time to see what's taking Pigsy so long.

Pigsy has managed to find a human residence, and has even transformed himself into a passable human monk to make begging easier. He's able to get some food by passing himself off as a sickly human, and just as he acquires the food, Sandy arrives to find out what's taking him so long. Pigsy shows off the food, but Sandy says that water is the bigger priority at the moment and they only have the one bowl. Eventually they settle on Sandy carrying the food in his robes while Pigsy uses the bowl for water, that settled the two return to Tripitaka. Only to find him seemingly dead. Pigsy and Sandy panic, and while Pigsy curses out the bandits that probably caught up to them to kill him, Sandy just wails and cradles Tripitaka's body while Pigsy plans the funeral.

Luckily before they can bury him alive or something, Sandy is finally clued in on the fact that Tripitaka isn't dead, just unconscious. Once Tripitaka wakes up, cursing Monkey as he does so, he explains what happened to Sandy and Pigsy. The enraged Pigsy is all for going after Monkey in order to get their stuff back, but Sandy reasons that they should probably make sure Tripitaka is taken care of first. Since leaving him alone on the side of the road didn't turn out so well last time.

So after they settle Tripitaka into the house they found earlier, they decide on which one of them should go after Monkey. Pigsy still wants to be the one to go, since he's already been to Flower Fruit Mountain before and knows the way. Tripitaka however worries that since Pigsy and Monkey have trouble getting alone even during the best of times, that if Pigsy mouths off to Monkey, Monkey might attack him to. So they settle on sending Sandy who has better manners. Tripitaka tells him that if Monkey is willing to give their stuff back then great, if he refuses however, Sandy shouldn't try and fight him, and instead should go straight to Guanyin.

With that said, Sandy takes off for Flower Fruit Mountain. As Sandy begins to approach the cave he begins to hear 'Monkey' reading what sounds like their travel script aloud. Eventually Sandy interrupts asking him what he's doing, however 'Monkey' just immediately orders his minions to seize him, and has Sandy brought before him. Sandy tries to negotiate with 'Monkey', asking him to return their belongings so they can all go West together or at the very least return their stuff while he stays here. 'Monkey' however says that he didn't strike Tripitaka and take their stuff because he didn't want to go to the West. He did it because he'll need the supplies for his own Journey to the West. Once he retrieves the scriptures from the Buddha and delivers them to the East, he'll be the hero, and get all the credit.

Sandy tries to explain that his plan could never work. This whole journey isn't even about getting the scriptures, not really. It's a way for Tripitaka, the Golden Cicada, to go through trials to redeem himself. So Buddha would never hand the scriptures over to just 'Sun Wukong' by himself. 'Monkey' however isn't an idiot, of course he knows that he can't do it without a scripture pilgrim, luckily he already has one of his own. After saying that, Monkey shows Sandy, perfect clones of Tripitaka, Sandy, Pigsy and the horse.

Sandy isn't to happy to see his apparent replacement and attacks it, managing to kill it in one blow. Only to find that the clone was apparently one of the monkey's of Flower Fruit Mountain in disguise. 'Monkey' is also enraged by this and orders the other monkeys to attack, leaving Sandy to fight his way out. Luckily Monkey can't be bothered to actually give chase to Sandy once he escapes, instead, he orders to have the dead monkey skinned and fried so they can eat it later, and just has another monkey transform into Sandy.

Sandy meanwhile has resolved to go to Guanyin about this. So Sandy arrives at Guanyin's place and is greeted by Moksa who asks why he's here, despite already knowing he's probably here about the whole Monkey situation. So Moksa announces to Guanyin, and coincidentally Sun Wukong since he is also here, that Sandy wants an audience. Monkey chuckles at this figuring that the calamity that Guanyin mentioned earlier must have finally arrived. So Guanyin calls Sandy in, however as soon as Sandy see's Monkey he tries to attack him with his weapon. Which Monkey takes surprisingly well, by just dodging the attacks and not fighting back while Sandy yells insults to his face.

Guayin breaks up the fight and asks Sandy to explain himself. So Sandy explains the whole story to Guanyin, who says that it can't be possible for Monkey to have done all of that. He's been here with her for the whole time, and she's been keeping a close eye on him. Sandy however insists that he's telling the truth. So Guanyin suggests that he take Wukong with him back to Flower Fruit Mountain to see what's really going on. So with that Sandy and Monkey leave together to see what the situation is back in Flower Fruit Mountain.

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 + 94,000 years 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 and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, object transformation, distance reduction, vanishing in a flash of light, super healing, transforming others, and Invisibility Demon Kill Count: 9+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 1039 God's Defeated: 23 + Unknown number Defeats: 7 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, trespassing, violating Tree Law, looting corpses, trading counterfeit goods, criminal threat, animal abuse, Assisting or Instigating Escape, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption and Identity Fraud. Cry Count: 9 + 3 fake cries Mountains Trapped Under: 4

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka and the Tang Monk Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization, Heart Sutra and Meditation. Cry Count: 30 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 62 Paralyzed by fear: 6 Bandit Problems: 3 Kidnapped by demons: 9 Falling Off Horses: 10

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, flight, Magic of Water Restriction, Singing, and Sword Dancing. Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 3 Kidnapped by demons: 1

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater, cloud soaring, size enhancement and CPR Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 3 Kidnapped by Demons: 4 Human Kill Count: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 4 Cry Count: 2 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping, arson, defamation, Damage to Religious Property, contaminating a substance for human consumption, Identity Fraud, Theft and Forcible entry

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater, Cloud soaring, and fetching water from a well. Demon Kill Count: 1 + Unknown number of minions. Kidnapped by Demons: 3 Human Kill Count: 1 Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, desecration of a human corpse, Damage to Religious Property and contaminating a substance for human consumption

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[luminouslumity]

I would've done this way sooner, but I wanted to wait for all of the episodes to come out in English first before I finally did, including the special! So, without further ado, here's a summary on the villains for S4! And much like last time, I'm going off of the order they'd appeared in the book.

YELLOW ROBE DEMON (黃袍怪)

I've actually technically covered Yellow Robe a few times already, but to quickly reiterate, the Pilgrims meet him after Tang Sanzang banishes Sun Wukong for him killing three supposedly innocent people (really the White Bone Spirit in disguise), he quickly incapacitates them, Pigsy goes to get Wukong back, Monkey goes to rescue Sanzang, finds out that he's actually a celestial named Kui Mulang (奎木狼) who wished to be reunited with his beloved Yunü (玉女) after they were separated upon her reincarnation as Princess Baihuaxiu (百花羞), who he had also previously kidnapped. Monkey eventually has Yellow Robe apprehended and returned to Heaven, the princess returns to her family, and Wukong happily rejoins the group.

GOLDEN WINGED GREAT PENG (金翅大鵬雕), AZURE LION, (青毛獅子), AND YELLOW TOOTHED ELEPHANT (黃牙老象)

And now onto the main trio first!

Before the big confrontation with all three, Azure Lion actually appears in an earlier chapter as the Lion-Lynx Demon (獅猁怪), who had killed the ruler of the kingdom of Wuji (烏雞國) after throwing him down a well and ends up impersonating him for the next three years (cue Among Us jokes) before he's finally confronted by the Pilgrims after the king's ghost informs them of the impostor sitting on his throne. After the king's brought back to life thanks to the Lao Tzu's Pill of Immortality, the group go to expose the demon, who then disguises himself as Tang Sanzang, but it doesn't take long for his cover to be blown when he can't recite the Tight-Fillet Spell.

Before any fighting can commence, however, they're interrupted by Lion-Lynx's owner, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, who goes on to explain that his steed was actually meant to be an obstacle for the Pilgrims in order to test their resolve before adding that the king had actually had him tied up and thrown into a river for three days and nights, leading to Lion-Lynx seeking retribution on his master's behalf.

The next time we see him, he's residing in in Lion Camel Cave (獅駝洞) at Lion Camel Ridge (獅駝嶺) with Peng and Yellowtusk. Sun Wukong first learns about them from one of their minions, Xiaozuanfeng (小鑽風), after—say it with me now—the Pilgrims get captured! Unlike the show, however, Peng seems to be the one in charge rather than Azure. Either way, Monkey manages to call upon Ao Shun (敖順), the Dragon King of the North Sea, for assistance, but Wukong is the only one who manages to completely escape their grasp and a rumor quickly spreads that Sanzang had been eaten alive.

After mourning and blaming Buddha for this latest predicament, Monkey goes to ask the Patriarch himself for advice, which Buddha proceeds to explain that not only is the lion demon the same one he and the others had encountered before, but much like Lion-Lynx, Peng and Yellowtusk have a connection to Hinduism as well, with Yellowtusk being the steed of the bodhisattva Viśvabhadra, while Peng is none other than a brother to the peacock Mahāmāyūrī, and long story short, this technically makes him and Buddha family.

For further context, to quote Anthony Yu:

Tathāgata said, “At the time when Chaos parted, Heaven opened at the epoch of Zi, Earth developed at the epoch of Chou, and Man came into existence at the epoch of Yin.

When Heaven and Earth mated,

Then myriad things were born.

The myriad things consisted of beasts and fowl: of the beasts, the unicorn was the head, and the phoenix was the head of the fowl. After having been fertilized by the aura of procreation, the phoenix also gave birth to the peacock and the great roc. When the peacock first came into the world, it was a most savage creature, able to devour humans. In fact, it could suck in a human being with one breath from a distance of some forty miles. I was on top of the Snow Mountain, having just perfected my sixteen-foot diamond body, when the peacock sucked me into his stomach. I could have escaped through his anal passage, but fearing that my body might be defiled, I cut my way out through his back and rode him back to the Spirit Mountain. I was about to take his life, but the various buddhas stopped me with the observation that to hurt the peacock would be like hurting my own mother. That was why I detained him at the mountain instead and appointed him Buddha-Mother, the Bodhisattva Mahārāja Mayūra. Since the great roc had the same parent as the peacock, it could be said that he was somewhat related to me.”

On hearing this, Pilgrim said with a smile, “Tathāgata, according to what you’ve told me, you should be regarded as the nephew of that monster-spirit!”

The three demons are then subdued by Buddha, Mañjuśrī, and Viśvabhadra, and Sanzang of course turns out to still be alive, albeit trapped in an iron chest, which Monkey quickly frees him from. The Pilgrims then carry on with their journey to the West afterwards.

[cave-monkey]

So part of Yu's translation confused me, prompting me to go dig up my Jenner books because sometimes looking at multiple different versions helps clarify matters. It did not actually clarify anything, but I thought the wildly different ways each translator handled this section was interesting.

“...There’s only one thing left for us to settle, and that’s the Tight-Fillet Spell.” The Tang Monk said, “I won’t recite that again.” “That’s hard to say,” said Pilgrim. “For when the time comes for you to face those treacherous demons and bitter ordeals, and when you, because Eight Rules and Sha Monk cannot rescue you, think of me and cannot stop yourself from reciting it, I’ll have a headache even if I’m one hundred thousand miles away. I’ll have to come back to see you, so why don’t you let this matter drop now.” -Yu, Revised translation, Kindle

And:

"I won't recite it again," said Sanzang. "You shouldn't say that," replied Monkey. "If you're ever beset by evil monsters from whom you can't escape, and if Pig and Friar Sand can't save you, then think of me. If it's unbearable, say the spell. My head will ache even if I'm tens of thousands of miles away. But if I do come back to you, never say it again." -Jenner

It's like...*chin in hands* Huh.