#this post actually sparks joy i forgot how much I love my ideas BKGMAOWEF

[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