#just me writing Wukong getting some therapy and working through trauma he has

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

What is the "burnt marshmallow" LMK AU I've been hearing about?

Burnt Marshmallow!Monkey King AU is basically just a mashup of a couple of hc's and a design I have for Monkey King. Tumblr is being a jerk so I can't just link you some explanation posts so I'm just gonna have to summarize

Headcanon 1: Fire

In jttw the only thing that's really ever hurt Sun Wukong is smoke and fire. He's been burned quite a lot, by the Samhadi fire, lost his sight for a bit due to smoke in his eyes, and way back during the Havoc in Heaven he was actually burned in a furnace for forty-nine days. I created this design (1 2 3) thinking about the results of that that maybe he never fully recovers from that. When he gets out of the furnace it even talks about him having glowing red eyes. I just had the thought of "what if that was more permanent" to the point where his fur never grew back the same way and the areas around his eyes were kinda charred and blackened because they're the most venerable part of him. (Hence the Nickname “Burnt Marshmallow”)

Headcanon 2: Glamours

I was thinking about how, he'd hide his appearance in canon, and in order for glamours to be convincing, he'd have to have some physical substance to them so that people could touch them and not immediately know it was just an illusion. Like if Mk were to reach out and touch his head he'd be able to feel how weirdly course and spiky feeling his fur is in contrast to how soft and fluffy it appears to be, he'd know somethings up. So I hc glamours act as a physical shield between the user and those around them. 

Headcanon 3: JTTW 

So I actually hold the hc that Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka) was actually afraid of Sun Wukong. (Which, y’know, kind fair. He watched him throw an entire mountain, run at the speed of sound, fly around on a cloud and insta-kill an entire group of bandits with no remorse (and maybe even some glee) in the first day of knowing him so... bGAKWMEOF) Anyway, add on the hc of my design for Wukong, and this monkey is one of the most demonic, terrifying things you’ve ever seen. As the Journey goes on Wukong gets enough self-awareness to realize Tang Sanzang is afraid of him, (which i actually hc as to why he listens to Zhu Bajie more and is so quick to punish and scold Wukong for things) and starts applying glamours little by little to make himself less terrifying. Dulls his teeth, slowly makes his fur change colour, changes his eyes to gold, a more friendly, good looking appearance, gradual enough that he makes it appear natural and if anyone asks he just says his fur’s finally growing out 

Conclusion: 

Burnt Marshmallow!Monkey King is an AU about how Monkey King is traumatized as heck, is hiding his true appearance and who he is behind a perfect hero persona because he believes he has to in order for people to feel comfortable around him or for him to be treated kindly/loved. He’s also the most touch starved version of Monkey King because after 500 years under a mountain + glamours that prevent people from touching him, he hasn’t actually had physical contact with anyone for close to a thousand years, maybe even more. So like, the moment someone makes contact with him without his glamour on he just shuts down completely, which becomes a problem during battles when his glamour is off. He barely remembers what he actually looks like and wears his glamours constantly out of habit, and not a single person knows about it. 

Then Mk and the crew find out. 

So it’s basically just a bunch of my hc’s building up until it was an AU of it’s own lol. I’ve made lots of posts about it, but unfortunately Tumblr’s the worst rn and nothing shows up when I search the tag so :’) hopefully this gave you the general gist of it. I’m currently writing a fic about this and it’s taking shape very nicely ngl, very angsty, lots of recover, and deals with a lot of Wukong’s suppression of certain aspects of himself and things bubbling over the top. And then just... him learning that there are people who won’t be scared of him no matter what he looks like, and that they’ll love him regardless, and that he doesn't need to change specific things about himself to make himself lovable, he already is. but yeah. Just Mk and the crew helping him work through a couple thousand years of trauma WOOOO BGAS;LKDFMAOWE 

My favourite part of the fic so far is when he climbs a tree :P 

#knox rambles #Burnt Marshmallow!Monkey King AU #Burnt Marshmallow!Monkey King #this post actually sparks joy i forgot how much I love my ideas BKGMAOWEF #asks #anon #fr tho fr #I'm in love with this AU i'm gonna have SO much comfort and recovery in it it's great #hopefully we'll go 50/50 on the hurt/comfort BGAMOWEF #just me writing Wukong getting some therapy and working through trauma he has #and slapping on some physical manifestations of said trauma because it's a hecka cool design #I'M NOT APOLOGIZING FOR RAMBLING BECAUSE THIS WAS FUN AND IT MADE ME HAPPY :D

[vegalocity]

I have to ask for another Jasmintea because I love your writing so Kisses 15 and 28 and Touches 24, please. Preferably in Sandy’s perspective but you can do Tang’s if you want

Affection meme

15. Soothing kisses

28. Neck Kisses

24. Whispering in their ear, lips touching the skin

I don’t think we done any Jasminetea stuff where Tang is Just Some Guy, so i’m gonna do that here because it’s my favorite theory (like everyone else has some deep connections to the classic Pilgrims, Tang is just Some Guy, it’s hilarious)

@tigerseye46

--

He knew the way trauma worked, that sometimes, even long after you’ve processed and moved on, it can still hit you again. It’s one of the things he’d learned rather quickly after starting therapy. His therapist had wanted him to understand that first and foremost so he could better handle these moments as they came and not begin to think that he may be ‘getting worse’ or something along the same lines.

Thankfully he was always content with being the odd duck in his little family, new and old members alike knew that he preferred solitude. While he enjoyed company and would be as pleasant as possible, while he’d do anything for his family, he just preferred the quiet. Which meant that when those sort of relapses happened and a trigger made its way straight into his panic response he was alone.

Well… not ALONE alone granted at least Mo and the other cats were always there, but alone-ish.

There was no point in bothering the others with it. The kids would just be worried, He’d rather Pigsy not find out, Eldest brother…. Likely already knew, he’d poked into his brother’s web history when they were at Flower Fruit Mountain he’d spotted ‘Do I have PTSD?’ in his search history, so it couldn’t have been hard for him to put two and two together.

But Tang…

He really didn’t want Tang to know.

It wasn’t exactly a hope that had any real chance at turning out in his favor, especially since through some minor miracle Tang had somehow gotten it into his head that he was actually someone worth desiring, and now they were… a thing… then surely it would be coming out sooner or later.

He’d just more realistically hoped that it would be on his own terms.

Not like this.

Not with him sealing himself in the water tight shower stall on his boat, letting the water run with the drain plugged until he was totally submerged because the water in the harbor was too dirty too slimy, too full of pollution and invasive mollusk species, it wasn’t the way water was supposed to be, but the only way he could feel okay right now was if he let his gills open up and breathe so he had to make do.

It wasn’t ideal. When he had these specific bouts he’d much rather just take the day, sail out until land was just a speck on the horizon and the ocean water felt much more right, but he didn’t have the option today, he really didn’t want to cancel the date he and Tang were going to go on tonight, and that coupled with the fact that he’d long since given everyone standing ‘always welcome aboard’ invites, that meant that anytime within at least fifteen minutes of the assumed meeting time, Tang was going to just show up, and he needed to be ready.

So this and then whatever yoga he could fit in the time between him calming down and the assumed date time would likely help him stabilize enough that he could handle tonight, at worst he might not stay for a cup of tea when he brought Tang home like the gentleman he wanted to be (and both Tang AND Pigsy would playfully mock him about being) and he could then take tomorrow for himself and do his usual plan.

He knew better than to get frustrated, days like this were just part of the process, he should be glad His bad days didn’t usually try to bring out the rage that had (for the most part) become quiet.

Then there was a tapping on the glass, disturbing the water and making an echoey ‘thunk thunk’ that startled him from his meditation. He flailed and the water sloshed and swirled around him with his motions, as he turned in the direction of the threatthreatthreatthreat the noise.

Tang was peering in on the other side, eyes wide and curious.

“Did I come at a bad time?” his voice was distorted and muffled between the glass and the water but Sandy heard him all the same, his heart a panicked flutter in his chest when did Tang even get there? Why was he here so early? Or- or was he on time? Did he lose track of time? He couldn’t lose track of time like that! Not when he still wasn’t better, not when being outside the water made his skin too dry and his hair too stiff and his gills close up and notsafenotsafenotsafenotsafe-

He wasn’t ready yet. He wasn’t ready yet! He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out he wasn’t better yet.

It seemed Tang quickly began to pick up on what was going on, much to Sandy’s equal relief and embarrassment, curious eyes turning sad for a moment, before the thoughtful gears began to turn. He nodded to himself and held up a hand.

-Before standing and calmly leaving him to his devices.

The part of him that was still screeching and refusing to calm insisted that it was better this way, but he still couldn’t help but miss the company, however brief it was.

Tang was always a bit… energetic… in comparison to Pigsy or himself (even back when they were young! (when Pigsy and Tang were young at least)) a bit of a thrillseeker even if he didn’t overtly appear as such. But he was glad that he at least had the good sense to just leave Sandy to his devices, perhaps fixing himself some tea and settling down with a book, allowing Sandy the time he needed before he was ready, honestly Tang was just such a great guy already it did quite a bit to settle his mind to be assured that he was going to be patient with him when it came to this, should it happen again (he hoped not for a long time, but his hands weren’t anywhere near done shaking yet so these ‘unsafe’ moods might start making themselves more frequent again.

And then Tang burst back into the room, shed of his outer layers and clad only in his undershirt and boxers and a stepladder, determined grin looking far too cute for the pieces Sandy was quickly putting together. It didn’t take much for his head to go above water so he could speak, he technically just hand to arrange himself so he was sitting on his knees instead of rear and straighten his back, and Tang had the look in his eye that implied this was probably going to be an ‘academic debate’ he’d lose--Several argument points and a fair few more rebuttals already on the tip of his partner’s tongue as he set the stepladder at the base of the shower and started attempting to heave himself over the edge of the shower walls--so he did so to both be able to speak and to better make a bit of room.

“Studies! Have! Shown! -huff huff- that! Acts! Of-!” A yelp cut Tang off as his grip nearly slipped and sent him backward, Sandy jolted, about to stand up to help but Tang regained his footing and held out a hand to wave him off as he finally was half tilted on the top of the glass shower wall, resting for a moment before trying to heave the rest of his body over the edge. “Where was I? Right, acts of solidarity are better for recovery in the long run than simply allowing the person who needs it to stew on their own.” And then with one final scrabble against the glass Tang braced himself and dropped.

And would have completely bashed his head against the showerhead if Sandy didn’t reach out and properly lower him onto the tile.

Instantly he watched his partner freeze up, stiffen and hands suddenly clamp around his chest as the temperature of the water hit him at once.

“Wow that’s cold!”

Sandy hummed and prepared to help him back out but Tang took a breath and dunked his head and shoulders underwater briefly to be properly soaked before resurfacing, pushing his hair back in a way that had no business being so pretty while Sandy was still in the middle of freaking out. “Much better.”

“Can you talk right now?” Quite the question. Talking while his gills were open was always a bit of a hit or miss situation. Sometimes it just made his voice sound a bit garbled, but if he had just surfaced from the water-

He held out a hand infront of his mouth and tested, and sure enough nothing but the faintest huff came out. So he just shook his head in the negative and smiled to try and relay a quick apology.

Tang hummed. “Yes or no questions then.” He was too good. He’d clearly researched this whole thing long ago and had been preparing what to do when the time came ever since, not coming out and saying so, but being prepared when the opportunity arose.

In a strange way it sort of reminded him of something Master would do… He really needed to get back in contact with Sanzang actually, But what would he say to him? Would master even recognize him after everything that had changed? Would he be upset that he’d tracked down Middle Brother’s reincarnation and hadn’t immediately gone to tell him? Or keeping the fact that Eldest Brother was starting to participate in the world around them again and hadn’t immediately gone to him and told him he was right in anticipating Sun Wukong’s eventual return? Would he just be upset with him for how long it had been since they’d spoken? They used to all be so close would the gap that would have formed be so wide and massive that they may as well be strangers again-

“Can I touch you?” Tang broke through his quickly spiraling thoughts calmly. Sandy peered down into the water again and saw him wringing his hands nervously.

He nodded.

“Just push me off if it gets uncomfortable.” Tang paused for a moment. “Not too hard though, Pigsy might say i have a hard head but I don’t know if it would handle collision with tile”

Sandy was able to get a quick laugh out of that, though it came out as silent as anything else with his throat and lungs full of water.

He opened his arms and Tang slotted comfortably inside. It was a bit awkward, since he had to make sure his partner could keep his head above water, but it was manageable, quickly Tang braced himself on Sandy’s shoulders and began to press gentle kisses to what exposed skin was above water.

And it was a bit embarrassing how quickly it was calming the raging storm in his mind. Just… the presence of another warm body against his but still cool and protected by the water around him, it made a shiver crawl up his spine but… in a pleasant way.

Tang pressed himself a little further against Sandy’s chest, mouth resting on the space between his cheek and ear. “I’ll shut up now.”

He wished he knew how that little insecurity got its way into Tang’s head. The man was one of the most confident people he knew, (save Big Brother, but nobody could shake the confidence of Sun Wukong.) and he would show unshakeable he was under cruel words every time they were aimed at him, hell, his primary method of rapport with Pigsy was the both of them bullying eachother relentlessly (in their own words too!) but for some reason once they got romantically involved Tang kept making self-deprecating jokes about being ‘annoying’ and ‘talking too much’ and Sandy’s heart ached when he couldn’t help but wonder how many relationships Tang had been in that crumbled from his supposed ‘annoying’ nature.

Tang took then to take a gasping breath and plunged beneath the water. Sandy was worried for a moment, but then it seemed like Tang knew exactly what he was doing, quickly pushing aside the floating beard hair and wriggling his face in to get near his neck, and for a moment Sandy froze. His gills were still gently pushing and pulling the water through his system and even though he knew Tang would never (intentionally) hurt him his body stiffened as his face (Mouth, teeth, he knows how painful it is to have air blown into your gills he hates it he hates it what’s Tang gonna do he has him at his mercy now) came near such a sensitive part of his body.

Tang placed a gentle kiss on his neck, right over the topmost gill and pulled back out, taking a gasping breath upon surfacing.

“You know, today might just be a good day for one of those low energy ‘Stay in’ dates, wouldn’t you agree?” He was so good.

Too good for him.

But still Sandy nodded and Tang smiled at him in that handsome broad way again before taking another breath and plunging back down.

--

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#letters to vega #Jasmineteashipping #took me for fucking ever to figure out the scenario #lmk Tang #lmk Sandy #vega writes stories too