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A World Without Him
Chapter 2
Tang stopped mid-step, shoulders tense, looking around himself for any source of that voice.
He waited a couple of moments, then sighed "Of course..." as he continued his walk to his apartment. He's had moments like this before, where he would think he heard some random voice speak in his ear, then hear nothing afterwards.
Tang just thought it was because of his recent bouts of sleep deprivation or maybe it was just his normal amount of exhaustion from the whole LBD situation.
So, he usually just ignored those little hallucinations for his own sanity.
Yet, no one would notice if he started to walk a bit faster down the sidewalk.
After a couple of seconds, Tang started to pass the familiar yellow streetlights of his road, including all the lights from the different storefront signs in the area.
He finally started to relax as his shoulders lowered. The familiar sights helped calm his mind. Yeah, this happens all the time, don't freak out, I don't know what I was-
'I don't even know where to begin with... all of that'
He stopped again; it was a different voice,a bit lower. And two in a row? Seemingly in, well, a conversation? Heh, that's... weird. Weirder than usual.
Just keep going, it's fine. Maybe some sleep will fix whatever's going on with me.
Tang starts to walk again; a bit faster in pace
'Why are we even bothering with keeping him alive again?'
He's now speed walking, and starting to breath a bit heavier.
'You know we shouldn't say that about him. Even if he would be better to us dead'
Just a bit more, and he'll be back at his apartment. Just ignore them like always.
'I know that, we can't even touch him anyways, I just-'
'OH SH-'
Tang startles from the sudden volume of the voice, jumping back a bit.
Just a second after, a car swerves right where he was just standing, whipping Tang' small braid, messanger bag, and clothes from its speed.
Tang' ears were ringing as he takes a few deep breathes, one hand on his chest and the other gripping his bag strap, just standing on the crosswalk, with the sudden realization that he was jailwalking while stuck in his thoughts.
With one final breath and a grimace, he starts to walk again.
Silence followed his final steps to his apartment. With just a small breeze flowing through the alleys, and the occasional flicker and crackle of the streelights.
There weren't any more voices after that.
After a few more minutes, Tang finally reaches the steps towards his door, too tired for any more "excitement" this night.
He pulls his ring up, fumbling through the different keys, looking behind him a few times, as he finally let's his shoulders fall, and unlocks the door.
He closes the door as soon as he's inside and sets down his messenger bag next to a small table close to the door.
Tang' place is a small studio apartment, with only a couch and coffee table in the main space, a small kitchen in the corner, and a twin bed with a lamp and bedside table.
There's not much furniture, and everything seems a bit bare even with almost every inch of his apartment being covered in books.
But this doesn't really matter to Tang right now.
He just goes through the motions after that, put the keys on the tray, hang up the coat, take shoes off, throw them next to the small table, walk to bed, put phone and glasses on bedside table, take out hair, and then he blacks out as soon as his head hits the pillow.
Tang dreams of nothing that night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Why did he jump?'
'Stop thinking about it.'
'He couldn't have heard us right? I mean if he were to find out-'
'Hey. Let's just... forget it. Don't say anything.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tang awakes groggy and restless, feeling tired as though he hadn't slept all night.
He never was a morning person anyway, but while he did sleep through his alarm, he still has plans for today: ones that he couldn't really cancel at the last minute.
So with a groan, Tang sat up out of bed, put his glasses on, and started to get ready for the day.
"Of course I have to have some manic episode before sleeping through an alarm today. I really don't know what I did to deserve this." He grumbled as he kept messing up his hair, uncoordinated hands still wrapped in sleep pulling on the knots, so he just did a short, messy low bun.
Good enough for me.
Tang then does his teeth, clothes, and heats up a small thing of Eggos he found laying next the the toaster.
When he finally checks his phone, he finds out it's 10:32 AM. Which is better than expected, but still a bit too late to make it to Sandy's on time.
Tang curses as he sends Sandy a text that he's going to be a bit late. He then grabs the freshly heated Eggos, his coat, keys, and bag as he walks through his apartment door, shutting and locking it behind him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tang walked as fast as he could towards the docks where Sandy and his boat were hanging out for the day.
It was decently far from his apartment, and since he didn't have any mode of transportation, he had to trek it himself.
He often took shortcuts through alleys and between market stalls. He's gotten attuned on how to smoothly move between crowds, which is basically just trying not to bump into things. Better than before, at least.
Today he went through the Market Street on his way to Sandy's, passing by many stalls selling different types of food, clothing, and trinkets.
There was one that piqued Tang' interest, a stall centered around Journey to the West, but all it had was knock-off plushes and poorly made hoodies for tourists.
After that, he tried not to lose too much of his focus through all the noise and people.
He swerved behind and in front of stalls, trying to find the alley behind a certain ceramics stall that leads close to the docks.
Tang continued to walk through the stalls for a good while, which wasn't that pleasant considering yesterday nights events.
But someone must have given him a break as he finally spotted the alley behind the ceramics stall, with an orange mark on the visible side of the dumpster helping him to remember.
"Oh thank goodness." Tang huffed as he slowly moved through the alleyway.
"Take a left, then right, then straight forward, then down the black steps..." he mumbles as he navigates the alleys of Metrapolis, having walked through them several times before.
When he finally emerges at the docks, he sees the blue of Sandy's boat right away. Tang takes a small breather before pacing up to Sandy's boat, hopping over the small space between the boat and dock, and lightly knocking on the door.
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A World Without Him
Chapter 12
-The day before, at 10:30 AM-
Pigsy’s Noodles was just opening shop, with the owner of said restaurant hauling up the metal door and blinds, then lighting up the store's sign to show it was in business.
Then he walked back into the kitchen to check all the appliances and heat up the broth, going into a sort of trance as he checked over everything in his kitchen. A friendly face came by a couple minutes after the official opening, helping to take down the chairs and putting them in the correct spots. After finishing up, the friend went over to the bar and started to chat with the chef.
“Hello Pigsy!” He offered with a grin, sitting down a bit uncomfortably onto one of the nearby stools. “Hey there, Sandy.” Pigsy answered absent-mindedly, focussing on his prep before finishing and walking towards the bar. This was the bit of free time Pigsy had before orders started showing up, so he had some time to talk.
“Do you think Mk will come by today?” Sandy asked, looking around the shop as if he expected Mk to pop out at any moment.
“Not exactly.” Pigsy grumbled. “He hasn't been by here for the past three days, not like he was even pretending to deliver noodles before.”
“Aw, don't be like that Pigsy! I know Mk has been out and about for the past few weeks, but it's only because he's been stopping demons left and right! We're his friends, so he wouldn't just leave without a reason to.” Sandy offered, leaning over the bar as if to make a point.
“I know, I know Sandy.” Pigsy says, waving off the blue giant before staring out onto the street, seemingly lost in his thoughts.
Sandy noticed the change in tone immediately. “What's on your mind, Pigsy? It's never good to bottle up your thoughts or emotions. You seem a little tense. Is this about Mk, or something else?”
Pigsy paused for a moment, thinking it over before sighing heavily. “It's about Tang” “What about him exactly?” Sandy asked.
“Well, ugh. It's just that he's worrying me. He's been cooped up in that apartment of his for the past couple weeks, which you know he only does when he's trying to ride something out on his own, and he's been especially weird after the whole library fight!
“You saw how he didn't answer his phone that day. When I went up to get him, I… his entire apartment was trashed. Things broken and thrown around the room sort of thing. He also looked like a complete mess, with his hair all over the place along with dust and other stuff covering his clothes. His glasses were even cracked!
“Then he brushed me off when I tried to get him to talk, saying how he'd been through a lot that day, dropping a bomb on how he was stuck under a building for hours, and then how he just needed some time alone. I let it go at the time, but staying alone after an event like that happened to him is worrying me about what actually happened at the library.
Pigsy pauses for a second before continuing, now a bit more solemn in his tone. “If he thought what happened at the library was something he could handle by himself, then I'm concerned for all the other stuff he thinks is better going through alone. I'm just wondering if there's something he's not telling me: something that he's been harboring at his apartment all this time.”
Sandy nodded along with Pigsy’s words, growing more and more concerned as Pigsy went on. “Have you tried asking him about this? Maybe checking in on him, too?”
Pigsy huffed, looking at the ground before turning back to Sandy. “I didn't know it had gotten this bad until I saw him yesterday. But I did tell him to come here at noon to talk about it, and that I would drag him here myself if he were late. I'm just hoping he'll actually come by himself instead of staying inside again.”
Sandy nodded, still looking concerned at what Pigsy had told him. “Does anyone else know this is going on?”
Pigsy looked to the side, a bit ashamed. “No one else needs to know the specifics yet. I wouldn't want to overwhelm Tang with that many people knowing. It's not like I have that many people I could tell anyways.”
Sandy looked like he wanted to say something, but he never got the chance when the bell on the shop door rang, taking Pigsy's attention away from the conversation.
“I'd better get to that order. We'll continue this later, Sandy.” Pigsy said, leaving Sandy at the bar to attend to the growing crowd.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pigsy was spread thin throughout his restaurant. He had to stop offering delivery at the moment when no one acceptable would apply for the job in Mk's stead, which definitely put a dent into his profits.
At the start, it was fine. People would often order out through his window instead of delivery, and all he needed to do was throw the noodles onto the shelf for people to grab.
Then more people would start to line up, and the pressure of making everything on time became overwhelming along with the struggle of waiting on everyone eating in.
All of this combined started to grate on Pigsy's nerves as more and more people started to complain about the wait time.
If they want their freaking noodles in 5 minutes, then why don't they COME IN AND MAKE IT THEMSELVES.
Pigsy might actually kiss Tang if he came by so he could finally get a break from all the complaints and passive aggressive comments, even if Tang is already way too late just for a slap on the wrist. Pigsy would go out there and drag him down himself if Tang didn't show up in the next few minutes-
*CRASH*
The sudden noise dragged Pigsy's focus away from the noodles he was preparing. He looked up rapidly and saw a mop of brown hair coming towards him at an alarming speed, knocking some chairs over in the process.
“Kid, what are you doing here?!” Pigsy yelled out, but it fell on deaf ears as he was grabbed by his elbow and pulled out of the kitchen.
“No time Pigsy. Something's up with Monkey King, the island has become a bit overwhelming and I need your guys's help stat!” The kid replied, going over to where Sandy was sitting and yanking him out of his stool. Sandy had to contort his body almost inhumanely just to keep the tea in his hands from spilling out.
But that work was for naught as the kid was suddenly getting ready to fly off again, only giving Pigsy a second to cut off the sign and drag down the blinds before the kid jumped off towards Flower Fruit Mountain. Sandy dropped his cup somewhere on the way.
When they landed in front of the waterfall entrance, they only had seconds to recover before all the duo could hear were the kid's ramblings. “I'm not sure what's wrong but he hasn't come out of the waterfall for a week and the sigil on it has been acting weird and I don't know what to do- wait, where's Mr Tang? I thought I grabbed everyone at the bar.”
The kid looked at them both, searching for a certain scholar, yet coming up with nothing other than the small monkeys hanging around the waterfall coming a bit closer to inspect the new visitors.
Pigsy, after recovering from the whiplash, cleared his throat. “Mk, Tang is probably at his apartment. He's going to be at the shop any minute to talk with me though, so I need to get back pretty soon.”
“Oh, I can wait for Mr Tang to get there for you! I just needed to get you all here to figure out how to get Monkey King out and ask him about the island. It wont take too long, right?” Mk asked with a nervous grin.
Pigsy sighed as he pinched his nose bridge. “I wanted to have some time to have a serious talk with Tang. Alone. I can't exactly put that off for whatever Monkey King has gotten himself into this time.”
Mk wouldn't back down at Pigsy's protest, though. “You can just have it here, then! Mei's already inside and all I need Tang to do is sort through all the mystic junk for anything useful and ask him what he thinks is wrong with the island and Monkey King. After that, all I need him to do is sit back and watch as we help Monkey King fix everything up-”
The ground suddenly shakes as the sigil on the waterfall started to glow, cracks in the surrounding stone growing before loose rock fell into the dense forest, knocking down some trees in the process. The monkeys around them jumped and started to run at the sounds, huddling together in fear.
Mei came running out of the waterfall at the commotion. “Another one already!? AUUUUGH, THIS BLOWS!” She yelled as she took a stance in front of the waterfall and shot up towards its sigil, using her family sword to stab it infused with the Samadhi Fire.
The sigil glowed sporadically, the shaking becoming more severe before it finally cracked under the pressure and started to dull, slightly softening the shaking.
Mk's expression became more tense as he yelled to Sandy and Pigsy. “Do you guys see what's happening now!? I need you to keep us safe from the falling rocks while I help Mei.”
Mk ran off before either of them could respond, leaving them in the path of all the debris with a job to do.
Sandy immediately jumped up and started to punch the rocks into bits before they could hit the ground and cause more damage, and after a few seconds of hesitation, Pigsy joined him.
This went on for what seemed like forever: the continuous tasks becoming tiresome for the both of them. But then, long after their knuckles became bloody and numb, the rocks finally stopped falling and the island became silent. When Pigsy and Sandy made it back to the waterfall entrance, they saw how the sigil had gained more small cracks compared to when they saw it before.
Then, looking towards the floor, they could see Mei and Mk laid out on the ground, both breathing heavily as Pigsy and Sandy approached.
“Are you both alright?” Sandy asked, crouching down near the duo to see if they were hurt.
“Nah, *huff* we're both *huff* fine. Just tired from the *huff* overuse.” Mei answered from the floor.
Pigsy sat down next to them. “What just happened back there? Is this why you snatched us out of the shop?”
Mk took a few moments to breathe, and then he finally answered after sitting up. “Yeah, this is why I went and got you. I just figured out this was happening after I hadn't heard from Monkey King in a while and went to check on him.”
Mk looked around the waterfall entrance, a pensive look forming on his face. “I'll tell you more inside. It'll be easier to show you there.” Mk said, standing up with some difficulty along with Mei before walking to the entrance.
Standing in front of the seal with everyone behind him, Mk put his palm up and onto the seal and waited.
It flickered, the image shorting in and out of everyone's view, before it dulled completely. Mk sighed in relief at that before stepping in. Mei, Sandy, and Pigsy followed in his stead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They walked through hills of weapons, scrolls, and other junk Monkey King had piled in here over the years. Sandy knocked some of the stuff over in the process, and everyone almost tripped over the junk more than once.
They eventually made it to a clearing with a small, wooden hut in the middle of it. Mk looked past it and went towards some logs on the floor, sitting on the one with moss covering half of its side.
Mei sat beside him with Sandy and Pigsy choosing their own logs, looking at Mk expectantly.
Mk sighed heavily before speaking. “The seal has been acting completely overkill since I got here. I don't know what affected it, it's just been going crazy at random times and doing that to the surrounding area.”
Pigsy looked towards the wooden hut, and then back to Mk. “Then where's Monkey King? Shouldn't he be able to fix all this, as it’s his own waterfall seal or whatever?”
Mk grumbled to the floor, so Mei answered instead. “Mk's already looked into the shack with his golden vision. He now knows for sure Monkey King is in that hut right now, but no matter what we do, that monkey won't come out: I even played the Nyan Cat theme for an hour and a half straight! Nothing we do can even scratch what that shack is made of anyway, so breaking it open won't work either.”
This only made Pigsy more annoyed with the king. “So he won't even come out when his island is going to crap? Why is he hiding in the first place anyway?” Pigsy spat, clearly fed up with how Wukong had been handling everything.
Sandy gives Pigsy a pat on the shoulder. “I'm sure Monkey King has a reason for shutting himself away, and now that me and Pigsy are here, we can try and help as much as we can to get him out.” Sandy offered, trying to lessen the growing tension.
Pigsy stood up quickly, shrugging off Sandy’s hand as he marched towards the hut. “If nothing you tried was able to get that stupid monkey to come out, then I'll have to resort to my Special Recipe to get him out of that stupid shack.” He mumbled with a sadistic grin, marching up the stairs to the hut’s main door.
Sandy just sighed and Mk winced in sympathy. “What's the big deal about it?” Mei asked curiously.
“You remember that one time I passed in my room from training for a day straight and was late for my job at Pigsy’s the next day?” Mk asked Mei, seeing Pigsy grab a whole thing of pots and pans out of somewhere.
“Yeah?” Mei responded, a bit more confused than before.
“Apparently, I was sleeping like a rock, and Pigsy couldn't shake me awake or do anything to get me conscious. So, instead, he grabbed the strongest smelling ingredients he had at the time, cooked them together, and shoved the finished product in my face. I was shocked awake so badly that I almost made a hole in my ceiling.” Mk laughed slightly at the end, looking back at Pigsy and seeing the chef giggling to himself as he added what seemed to be garlic and chilies.
“Ohhhhh! That's why you kept taking my scented hand sanitizer for like, a whole week that one time!” Mei remembered, poking at Mk’s cheek.
“Yeah, yeah. I wasn't even allowed to taste the dang thing he made either!” Mk complained a bit, shaking his hand in the air to Mei’s amusement as she chuckled with Sandy.
The story had lightened the mood, lifting a bit of stress off of everyone's shoulders. A few moments after, Pigsy finally finished whatever he was doing near the door and gestured rapidly for them to come up near the hut.
With a bit of hesitation, they walked towards the door and almost immediately gagged at the strong smell. Even Pigsy had a cloth over his face as he picked up the bowl emitting what they were smelling.
“Are we even sure that's gonna work? I don't want that lingering here longer than it has to.” Mei said, a bit muffled under the sleeve she used to block out the smell.
“Did I wave you over here to critique my methods? No, I got you over here to help me get Monkey King outside.” Pigsy rebutted.
“How are we even going to get that stuff inside piggy? Like I said, this shack is basically indestructible!” Mei complained, leaning on one of the wooden rails near the stairs as Pigsy covered the bowl from the complaint.
A moment of silence passed…
Sandy spoke up in a small voice, pointing somewhere at the hut. “Uh, maybe we could do something with that cracked window?”
Everyone followed Sandy's hand to a busted up, dirty looking window that had about an inch of a gap underneath it from being pushed to one side.
Mk spoke up in a chipper tone. “Oh! I didn't see that before… that could work!”
After all of them used almost too many attempts at lifting the window, (Mei trying to leverage it with her sword with Pigsy plus Sandy trying to lift it bare handed), Mk was able to open it by shrinking down his staff, putting it in the gap, and growing it big enough to shove the window open.
The staff went flying at the extra force, but it was luckily caught by Mk before it could hit Sandy square in the nose.
After everyone settled down, Mk volunteered to get the monkey as no one knew what Monkey King would do when he woke up if someone like Mk almost put a hole in his ceiling. Mk also had the highest chance of surviving whatever the king threw out at him.
“Okay, just be careful in there, kid.” Pigsy stated, handing the bowl (now with a cloth over the top) over for Mk to carry.
“Don't worry Pigsy, I'll be in and out no problem!” Mk then slinked in through the window, careful not to spill anything, before standing up in what seemed to be Monkey King's living room.
“Do you see him anywhere?” Sandy yelled through the window.
“Nah, just a bunch of Monkey King merch so far!” Mk yelled back, balancing the bowl in one hand as he lifted blankets with the king's face on it and looked through piles of video tapes.
When he put the bowl back in both hands, he finally activated his golden vision, looking through the walls for the king. He finally saw Monkey King at the end of the hallway, huddled up on a pile of blankets on the floor.
“Monkey King!” Mk called out, rushing over to the monkey's side.
The king looked worse-for-wear, fur matted and dirty along with how his brows were creased and sweaty. He looked like he was in a deep sleep: like he was having a nightmare.
Mk took no time in leaning down, taking off the cloth and shoving the bowl into Monkey King's face. The monkey's eyes shot open as he punched the nearest wall behind, causing a hole 2 feet leading outside wide to splinter into existence. The king also yanked to bowl out of Mk's hands and drank the whole thing as footsteps approached.
“WOAH- What was that?!” Pigsy yelled out, running to the punch site with Mei and Sandy in tow.
“It's ok, it's ok! Monkey King just woke up.” Mk reassured. Said Monkey was still on the ground, his breathing slowing down yet not becoming any less heavy.
Pigsy was about to say something else, but Monkey King quickly raised his hand to quiet him down. After a few more moments of catching his breath, Monkey King put down the bowl, finally stood up, and turned to Mk. “What are you doing here bud?”
Mk looked at Monkey King confused. “What do you mean “Why am I here”? I'm here because I haven't seen you all week and when I got here, the island was going crazy!”
Monkey King furrowed his brow, looking out of the hole he made. His eyes widened with a look of shock. Suddenly, gold mist filled the area as the king transformed into a bird and flew out of the house towards the waterfall entrance.
“Where is he going?!” Mei yelled, the rush of wind following the king making it hard to hear.
“I don't know, but we should probably follow him!” Mk shouted back, already speeding after the golden trail the monkey left behind with his own transformation.
Then everyone started running back through the junk piles and tunnels, trying to catch up to Monkey King and Mk as they sped off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monkey King flew over the island, staring down at the lines of fallen trees, the jagged rocks jutting out of the ground, and the cracks on his mountain he could clearly see below him.
He quickly de-transformed on one of the surrounding beaches, seeing everything in perspective with rocks double his size littering the sands.
He also noticed the sun had already set by the time he landed. The stars shone down onto the shore he stopped at, the waters uncharacteristically calm as they reflected the starlight.
He didn't know how all of this happened while he was… incapacitated. What got by him?
Mk finally caught up to him pretty quickly after his landing, going back into his regular form and running up to where the king was standing in the sand.
“Monkey King! *huff* Why'd you run off!?” Mk shouted out, still a good couple yards away.
“Oh, Mk! I'm sorry, I just… didn't expect everything to have gotten this bad. I had to check for myself, y'know” Monkey King answered nonchalantly, giving Mk a small grin.
Mk huffed at him when they finally stood side by side. “Well, you could've told us that before you ran off to who-knows-where. Everyone else is probably still behind-”
Right on cue, Mei, Sandy, and Pigsy came tumbling out of some of the nearby trees, clearly roughed up from trying to keep up with Mk and Monkey King.
“Did he finally stop???” Mei asked tiredly, immediately sitting down on the sand as Sandy sat with her and Pigsy moved past her.
“Oh hey guys! Yeah, I just needed to look over the damages. You didn't need to follow me though.” Monkey King stated with a shrug. Both Mei and Pigsy, obviously annoyed, were about to speak up before getting shushed by Monkey King.
“Shushushush, don't worry! I'll just bring you guys back to the entrance so you don't have to complain. Easy peasy!” He said cheerfully, grabbing them by the arms, even taking Mk by his tail, and summoning his cloud to ride back up to the waterfall.
“AHHHHHHH-” Everyone’s screams blurred together as Monkey King laughed and flew the cloud higher and higher.
When they finally arrived, he immediately poofed the cloud and let everyone fall to the floor. He casually walked up to the seal while everyone had to get their bearings, again, and looked over the dull image on the waterfall.
His grin fell a bit as he continued to look it over, turning to Mk, who was still on the floor. “So this is what’s making my island go crazy?”
“Oh? Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure. It glows whenever the mountain shakes, and when we attack it, it causes the tremors to stop.” Mk answered, a bit shakily as he stood up again, helping Mei and Pigsy up afterward with Sandy’s help.
“Huh… Well luckily, I know how to fix this! Probably.” Monkey King boasted, mumbling the last part under his breath.
“Wait REALLY?!” Everyone shouted in surprise.
“Well, yes, but I actually need a certain item to fix this, and it's inside.” Monkey King replied, kicking a pebble around while he did so.
Multiple groans sounded throughout the group. No one wanted to do more work after the day they all had.
Pigsy spoke up for the group, a bit exasperated. “Let's just do this tomorrow. The tremors aren't super often, right?”
“Yeah, they happen pretty randomly, and the latest one was the worst one so far. It usually just takes a hit from my staff to stop them completely, anyways.” Mk answers absent-mindedly, Mei nodding along.
“So let's just call it. Nothing good will come from doing all this now.” Pigsy continued, crossing his arms to make his stance clear.
“I agree with Pigsy. We've already exerted a lot of our energy, and trying to use any of our powers at the moment might not end well for us.” Sandy replied with a serious expression.
Monkey King looked pensive, but agreed nonetheless. “You guys are right. I have some extra blankets and stuff for you guys since getting back safely right now isn't exactly possible. Follow me.”
After waiting for the seal to unlock, Monkey King led the group back to the wood hut and went inside, leaving them standing outside.
And then, after a few minutes, he came back out with what seemed to be an excessive amount of sleeping bags, pillows and blankets stuffed in his hands.
“Here you are! I'm sorry this is the best I can do: there isn't much space in here now considering the hole in my wall. This space is protected from outside elements though, so don't worry about being rained on or something. Goodnight!” Monkey King said, throwing the items at the group and going back inside almost immediately.
Grumbling under his breath, Pigsy grabbed a Hello Kitty sleeping bag from the pile. Don't judge him too quickly, it was one of the only sleeping bags that didn't have Monkey King’s colors or face on it.
Sandy took most of the blankets and layered them on the floor for a more comfortable place to sleep. Mk took a sleeping bag with a yellow and red palette, thanked Sandy, and fell asleep almost immediately on the floor.
Mei followed soon after, taking a blanket with some lime patterns all over it with a matching pillow and falling asleep right next to Mk.
Then Sandy went a few minutes after her, taking his time to find the biggest blanket in the pile, a white blanket with a blue and yellow trim that couldn't reach Sandy's feet, before laying down near the edge of the softened ground.
And now Pigsy was the last on up, staring at some of the stars he could see past the configuration of the mountain. He couldn't fall asleep that easily, even though he was practically exhausted from the day like everyone else.
It took a couple more minutes, but he did end up falling asleep eventually, finally nodding off in his bright pink sleeping bag.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The shaking woke them up again. The sigil had apparently thought it was the best time to activate as everyone got a very violent wake up call, slightly throwing them around on the floor.
Mk got up first, rubbing his eyes as he walked up to the hut to get Monkey King to help. He knocked once: no one answered. He knocked twice: no answer again.
Mk was too tired to continue knocking, so he just decided to deal with it himself. “Hey everyone, *yawn* ehh, I'm just gonna deal with that real quick. I dont think it's too serious right now.”
Everyone gave various noises of agreement as Mk went to deal with the sigil.
Pigsy noticed some light was peaking through the ceiling, but he saw how everyone still felt tired to the core.
Sandy tried to go back to sleep, and Mei went on her phone. Pigsy heard short curses when she did so, so he assumed it didn't have much battery left.
Pigsy decided to do the same as he pulled out his own phone, a considerably older model than Mei's but still functional.
He checked the time and saw it was near 10:40 AM, which was a lot later than Pigsy had thought. Ignoring that for now, he checked on everything else on his phone, which wasn't much other than his messages and some social media that he scrolled for inspiration sometimes and to promote Pigsy's Noodles at Mei's request.
After looking through some mediocre recipes for pot pie and some weird throwback gelatin dinners, he goes and looks at his messages from the past few days.
The one at the top was Sandy, which wasn't a surprise as Sandy almost always sent him photos of the therapy cat's every day. The photo from yesterday was a calico cat curled up on Sandy's sofa, sucking in the sun from a nearby window.
Pigsy smiled at it before looking at his other messages, skipping a lot of spam he had built up, and then seeing a name that made his stomach drop a bit.
He saw his texts to Tang from that night under everything. This finally kicked in Pigsy's memory as he realized he had totally blown Tang off and how he had even threatened Tang to come by or else he would drag him there…
But before he could go and type out a huge apology text, he noticed how Tang hasn't texted him at all since that day at the library. There weren't any missed calls either, which put Pigsy a bit on edge. Maybe Tang didn't even know they were gone yet.
And now he was debating telling Tang everything that happened. He's wondering if Tang is okay, that if he dumped everything that happened at the mountain on Tang that it would put too much pressure on the scholar, and what he should text to make sure Tang wouldn't freak out and to show that him and everyone were ok and didn't just disappear.
He debated with himself for a long time, typing out words and then deleting them almost right away. He couldn't make up his mind as he didn't know what to say in the end.
Mk came back soon after, yawning and going straight back to sleep in his bag, encouraging Mei to do the same.
Now Pigsy was the last one up again, overthinking over what to text to reassure Tang everything is okay and that Pigsy wouldn't put him off again.
He just decided to wing it after his eyes started to become heavy, trying very hard not to give the scholar another thing to worry about. He already had enough on his plate.
Freeloader 📖🤎
10:46 AM
You: Hey Tang
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I made some small rewrites in the ending of the latest chapter. The vibe was a bit too hopeful, in my opinion. In my defense, I finished this in one sitting with no beta reader. Hope this version reads better!
Tang Drabbles 3
Hello! Here are some random cool things/events I want to add in A World Without Him
I want Tang to have this really traumatic event happen to him that basically "awakens" his monk powers.
This happens at his old Town (aka the one he's gonna pull over into after the wind demon attacks, aka the one I still haven't named yet ;-;) when he sees his only friend die in front of him during a demon attack. This causes multiple emotional break downs at once and he just goes full on God Mode in unleashing all the built up emotions and power until this moment.
He doesn't fight the demon lord in combat, but restrains him with glowing strings, rips out his heart, and has him disintegrate into orange dust.
After this enormous display of power, Wukong senses his masters "magic" and rushes towards the town, not really knowing what he's doing. He starts to have a flurry of thoughts as he rushes from where he was towards that town. When he gets there all he sees is a majorly damaged town, orange dust floating away, and a really beat up teen on the ground in front of him. He starts to unravel, thinking things like, "Where is he!?", "I sensed him!", What happened here?", and "I have to find him!" He uses golden vision to no avail, and leaves as quickly as he entered.
And Tang, in his basically almost unconscious state, and who doesn't remember anything from his power up, thinks that this super powerful looking monkey that just landed in front of him saved the village, which kick starts his obsession with the Monkey King and all those old legends.
More on Tangs transformation: His glasses now enlarge and now have a golden tint to cover his eyes, while his eyes glow bright white, he has big cicada wings, 4 arms now decorated in glowing orange symbols, and orang and white strings/ribbons circling around him as if in a tornado.
Tang does see the ghosts of Tripitaka and Golden cicada, as long as some other incarnations that didn't last as long over the years. He starts to see faint silhouettes after this power up, but always thinks he's either not getting enough sleep or just seeing things. The ghosts get very annoyed until he uses his powers in season 3 to fully make them at least visible to Tang (I know I said he still doesn't know he's magic before, but I'm moving it up to a bit after S3 finale so he can at least know about Tripitaka's existence. He can't hear him though, and he got really freaked out when he first saw him a day after the S3 finale.) (also, I'm making it so the gang still doesn't really know about how they're connected to the original JTTW gang, because plot)
Btw, after Tang at least somewhat comes into his powers at The Town, demons do come and try to eat him / marry him for immortality. It just always has to happen with unlocked Monk magic, unfortunately for Tang.
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Tang au Drabbles 2!
Ok, I have more info on what happens before tang crashes into the town!
This will contain spoilers for the upcoming fic
The wind demon Tang encounters on the way to the airport is Heifeng Guai, also known as The Black Wind Demon.
Tangs taxi driver, a teenager that talked his ear off for most of the ride, immediately starts to panic when they start getting chased by the wind demon and started to hyperventilate, causing the taxi to go off-road and towards the edges of the grass plains they were driving through.
Tang, obviously panicked, grabs the teen, opens his door, and jumps into the long grass, hoping to not be noticed in the heat of the chase.
Tang tries tobsilently console the teen as the demon continues towards the taxi as it drives towards the surrounding river as the demon throws their spear through the back of the taxi.
The taxi explodes as shrapnel flies in every direction. Though, none of it hit Tang or the teen that had stopped hyperventilating, for some reason...
The demon stops, seemingly annoyed by no bloodshed, and starts to search the area, hoping to find its prey again.
Tang and the teen freeze on the ground as they hear the wind pick up and then relax as they hear a curse, and then tree branches blowing around until silence.
I hope you guys liked that little snipbit of the plot I have coming up for the fic! I now know that I probably get an ao3 account this summer, but idk when.
A World Without Him
Chapter 6
Tang is back in that void. Yet, it's not a void anymore. Something is different. It's more like pure, unfiltered LIGHT.
It surrounds everything, almost making him (even more) blind just by opening his eyes.
It feels no different compared to the times before, though. As if the light is just how the place was always supposed to be.
It's unnerving if he's being completely honest.
At least this is a change from the hands that used to drag him...
Tang can actually move, too! Just barely, but still! He can actually control his body in this place for once.
And now he uses that fact to his full advantage. He swims through the blinding light, now hoping his subconscious doesn't materialize something in front of him to smack into.
He swims for a while. And a while, and a while. His body never wavers, though, as he continues through the blinding shine.
After what seems like hours, Tang starts to hear something. It's nothing like the regular overlapping voices but heavy, grating metal.
The sound moves slow in his ears, like something being slowly dragged along a concrete floor.
Tang stops in his tracks, uneasiness showering him as the noise started to get louder. And louder, and louder, And louder, and Louder, And Louder, ANd LOUder, AND LOUDER-
It stops.
He doesn't know if he should even open his eyes at this point. So he stays still, not wanting to provoke whatever was stuck to those chains.
But yet, that apparently had the opposite effect he was going for, as he heard the chains suddenly grow taunt as a huge gust of wind throws him back, forcing his eyes open in surprise.
Orange.
The color burns into his vision. The blinding colors swirled in shapes he couldn't comprehend.
Tang shoved his hands in front of his face, trying to make everything stop.
Ringing filled his ears, or something like it. He could only focus on the color. The buzzing pushed to the back of his mind.
Too bright. Everything was just. Too. Bright
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*BEEP*
An alarm sounded next to Tang's head. He shoots his eyes open, laying still as a rock while looking up at the ceiling.
He hears the early rush outside his slightly open bedroom window. When did I open that.....
He uses his elbows to push himself up on the bed, now in a sitting position. He blinks slowly, remembering the dream in weirdly full detail.
Why was that time different again? He's not exactly sure himself. He wonders if this will keep escalating-
*BEEP BEEP BEEP*
Oh, right, he didn't turn it off yet. What was that for again? Something important enough for an alarm he supposes.
Tang reaches over to his vibrating phone, checking the title of the alarm as he turns the loud thing off. The title reads: "REMEMBER JOB TODAY. NO SKIPPING OR SLEEPING THROUGH 🪪 📖*
Well, now that apparently got him motivated. Oh yeah, the library job I got yesterday... how did this process go so fast anyway?
He shouldn't think too hard about it. A job is a job, and so what if it helps develop the plot as a nice bonus?
Wait what- The phone vibrates again, snapping Tang out of his thoughts. It was a second alarm he had set the night before, so he would actually get his lazy butt up if he snoozed the first one.
Groaning, he pulled himself up from the bed to actually start being productive for the day. He does his hair and puts on one of his more decent pairs of clothes to match the lanyard. A pair of stainless brown pants and a tan shirt. Today was his first day, after all. He might as well look the least bit civilized.
The sun starts to shine through his living room window as he packs a lunch and some craft supplies in his messanger bag. You never know if he might need it when doing paperwork or when bored.
He looked out the window out of habit. It was a nice bright shade of orange. Tang looked away quickly, picking up his packed bag and heading out the door.
He already knew the library route by heart, but he still recited it as he walked down the stairwell to the street anyway. It gives his mind something to focus on.
When he reaches the bottom, he relishes in the warmth of the sun before booking it towards the direction of the library.
He lets his feet and muscle memory do most of the work. His mind occupied with the colorful scenery and his own thoughts, trying not to look up at the sky.
Go left past the bent cactus sign, oooo, a new restaurant opened next to the craft store!
The store looks like a make-your-own bakery, with all the vibrant dispensers lining the walls, adding plain looking pastries, and ice cream lining the shelves.
'We never had those things when we were alive. I feel cheated.'
'Oh, stop whining so much Em.'
Tang looks back in front of him just in time to dodge another passerby. He should really pay more attention to the sidewalk.
The closer he gets to the library, the more modern everything around him seems to be. There are still trees and greenery, obviously, just now in futuristic boxes and pots littered around the streets to make them look lively.
All the neon shops and apartments lined on the street were already making it pretty lively, though. The crowds also started to increase as he went along, having passed stranger after stranger on his walk to work through the city.
When he finally reached the library, all the bright neon and metal accents softened and only covered the bottom half of the more classical looking library.
Tang was relieved at the sight of it, hurrying through the doors with his card and almost immeadietly collapsing behind the check-out desk.
He feels the cold oak wood on his forehead, hearing the printer running and the occasional whisper or rolling of a cart.
When he finally got used to his surroundings, he took a deep breath and sat up straight, ready to start his job. He turned his head to the side and was suddenly inches away from a mop of blonde hair.
"AHHH-" Tang jolted back in his chair, falling backward onto his back.
The blonde's face immeadietly dropped as he started to string out apologies. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I thought you were sleeping when I came to give you your clipboard and I went to check to see if you were okay then you got up and then I was just there and I am still so sorry-"
"It's okay, it's okay. I only got a bit spooked." Tang said, slowly standing up using the desk as support. "I've recovered from worse, trust me."
The blonde was giving the clipboard in hand a death grip but said nothing in return.
Tang sighed before deciding that he should probably try to make things a bit less awkward. "I'm Tang, the new librarian, but I bet you knew that already. Are you my set assistant? Erm..."
The blonde perked up at his mention. "Allan. I'm Allan. And, uh, I'm supposed to give you this."
Tang grabbed the clipboard and offered quick thanks, skimming through the contents while occasionally looking back at Allan.
Allan seemed like he was fresh out of high school, with some baby fat still on his face and messy short hair. He had casual clothes on, just some standard sneakers, jeans, and a gray hoodie.
He doesn't seem to be harboring any ill intent, so Tang focused back onto his clipboard, actually reading the text carefully.
Shelve all books on cart B by genre.... doesn't matter... set up for opening... lunch by 1:00... set up for charity event... huh?
He looks back down at the clipboard. He thought all he would have to do was meander around all day, doing paperwork and sorting books. It was his first day, after all.
But no, just throw more work at him. Tang sighed to himself before looking back at Allan. "Apparently, we have a charity event today. It's after lunch, though, and all the plans have already been set up for us, which is a relief. Don't know why they threw this at us for a first day, but let's just roll with the punches."
He gestures for Allan to follow him back into the library. He texted the group chat about the event if they wanted to come before talking about the scheduale. He then lazily explained the outline of the work they were doing today as he tried to find the carts he passed yesterday.
Allan followed behind at a steady pace as they passed bookshelf after bookshelf. Tang suddenly paused as he passed the same bookshelf twice, internally groaning before turning to Allan.
"Do you know where they keep the carts?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tang had told him to relax a bit, but Allan said he wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. Tang just grumbled as he continued his own way until the last book was put into place.
They finished up the shelving around 9:30, splitting up half and half between the two of them. Tang mostly skimmed through his interesting books before randomly putting them onto the appropriate shelves.
Allan put them all away in record time, though, pitching in to deal with some of Tang's pile as well after he spent 5 minutes watching when finishing his own half.
They opened the library doors at 10:00, and the day was slow after that. Tang took out some of his craft supplies, doodling on extra paper he got from the copier room. Of course, that was after he finished all his very important paperwork. Obviously. He also checked out the occasional book.
Allan wandered most of the time, coming back to Tang's desk to occasionally check up on any work he might need to do. Tang always gave him an option to draw with him, but he always refused awkwardly.
Lunch came far too late in Tang's opinion. He was already famished from everything he totally did today and really needed a break .
He almost sagged in relief when the clock behind him hit 1:00. He then quickly took out his lunch from his messanger bag and headed towards the break room after putting up a sign on the desk for people to come back after 1:30 if they needed him. There were self checkouts.
Allan was already there, sitting at the plastic table with a cup of what Tang assumed was coffee in hand. He was taking small quick sips as he seemed invested in reading... The Monkey Kings Bride?
He remembered the huge crowd fighting over the few newest editions and suddenly felt immense respect for the kid. That was rough, even when he didn't even try to get close to the books.
Tang didn't say anything as he sat down across from Allan and pulled up his own book, eating a haphazard sandwich with some random fruits thrown beside it.
Then he noticed how Allan only had the coffee, and suddenly he felt a bit bad. Some people actually need jobs and work hard to keep them.
And this is the reason Tang is now offering half his sandwich to the kid in front of him in silent question. Allan just looked at his hand for a good second.
But finally, he bowed his head and took the sandwich out of his hands. Allan seemed to stop reading after that, maybe savoring the sandwich. Even so, nobody would notice the few fruits that rolled across the table with Tang "unaware" after the fact.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temporarily closing off some sections of the library took a bit more hassle than Tang thought it would. With random kids making out like in a drama, to some areas being over run with people Tang swore he never saw enter the building.
But that was neither here nor there, as he was already on a mission to set this up as fast as possible. It's probably because he forgot about it and started setting everything up 30 minutes late, but he digresses.
This charity thing was a scavenger hunt across the library, encouraging people to open different books and to solve riddles for an amazing prize of 1 free book from the pile made specifically for the event and some candy.
Allan was in charge of placing all the riddles and clues around the library and picking the best books to throw in the pile. Tang meanwhile had to decorate EVERYTHING himself, as well as set up the donation box at the front desk. This was the charity part for people to donate to the library and a reading program for special ed kids.
He also had to be the one to explain the rules and give hints in the game as he ran the front desk. Yay, public speaking.
But Tang still thought it was nice places like the library did things like this. Events for charity had decreased along the ages as everything got more and more advanced that some people started to think everything could be solved with tech and science.
'Ooooo! Riddles! Oh, I love this already! These were the things I was known for!'
'Yeah, yeah. Just keep on telling everyone the ONE TIME you got a riddle correct before a self-proclaimed master.'
'Oh come on, have some faith. You can at least respect that I proved he was a hack and helped-'
The library door opened with a small crowd rushing inside. Tang had just finished putting up the box before people were already at his side, asking him about the scavenger hunt.
He quickly told them about the clues hidden in books you have to figure out through riddles, word scrambles, and trivia about the books themselves. After the explanation, he quickly gave the first clue and made a small wave to the donation box, saying how it would help the library do more events like this.
Tang watched as the groups dispersed, sitting back into his chair waiting for newcomers or people who had finished the scavenger hunt.
People came and went, some thanking him, some wandering the shelves in confusion, some putting small donations in the box on their way out, and some who were curt and went as fast as possible.
It was interesting to Tang, seeing all these personalities with the same goal, not competitive, but reaching towards the same thing nonetheless.
A small kid with freckles, a red-head with a guide dog, a tall man with pitch black hair, and some teens who looked straight out of high school musical.
He had seen Allan, too, but only briefly as he was the one to deal with broken or missing riddles.
At the end of the day, almost all the books were gone from the pile, leaving only 3 extra to reshelf for another time. The donation box had reached halfway, which was a pretty good number for Tang, considering the box's size.
Allan had come a bit later, offering to help take down all the decoration from the shelves. Tang gratefully accepted.
They ended up walking their separate ways at the end, after dropping off the money at the manager room with a note and Tang locking the doors behind them.
Allan said one thing before he left, tapping Tang on the shoulder before he could go. "Thank you." He had said, right before turning to walk his own way home. A small smile was on his face as he faded into the background.
Tang thought about it for a moment, then smiled to himself before walking his own way home. The sunset is well off in the distance, with Tang keeping his eyes to the ground.
Today was pretty nice. He might like this job more than he thought.
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🇵🇸 ‼️Hello, please share widely, Mohamed and family and children, my sister Amir Malak has been going through a particularly scary time recently even by the horrific standards of the past few months. I hope she is well. My name is Mohamed Atallah. I urgently need surgery on my left hand and to rebuild my home and my older sister Eman's home. I live with my parents, six sisters, a little girl called Malak and a little boy called Amir in northern Gaza. I have created this link to fund a bone graft on my left hand which was hit by an explosive bullet, to rebuild our destroyed home and to evacuate my family from Gaza to a safe place. And donate any amount for a safe life.. I would appreciate your help ❤️ Can you help in whatever way you can? Click all the buttons on my wall, I beg you to visit my page, view it and donate via the link in my bio 💔 Donate and share widely 🆘🆘 Every euro makes a difference 🙏 I urge you to donate. Even the smallest amount can make a huge difference. Not only does he need to be evacuated with his family, but he is in dire need of surgery! The IDF shot him in the arm with an explosive bullet. That’s not normal. It’s explosive. So he needs treatment right away! Otherwise, he’ll get an infection and possibly an amputation. We don’t want that to happen, do we? So contribute! Be sure to retweet and share his story if you can’t. Help my family. War is devastating. There’s nothing left to live for. No schools, no universities, no home, no dreams. All dreams are shattered. I hope you can help before it’s too late. @90-ghost reviewed Mohammed's identity documents and corresponded with him as well. So, in short: This is a brand new fundraiser that I can vouch for. Please share and contribute if you can. Feel free to repost on other platforms as well.🍉
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