castaside | [Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

Wukong blinked, shaking his head hard to clear it as the memory faded. He can still almost feel the rumbling thunder and the warmth pressed close.

"Heh, I remember that time. You used to disappear during the storms and play it off. I thought you were just scaredof the thunder because it's loud. But man, I knew there was a reason I don't envy your hearing. Glad I was right that not leaving you alone helped."

He slipped the pelt into his bag and studied the other items. He grabbed the rock next, curious what it could possibly show him.

You are Macaque, and you're a stubborn idiot.

You step through a portal onto a mountainside. Glancing around as if you expect something to happen, not shocked when nothing does. It never does. It's just you, the mountain, and--

You crouch down and press your ear to the ground. From deep under the mountain, you hear it: Wukong's voice. He's either talking to those that bring him all that molten shit to eat, or muttering to himself.

You want to go down there. Tell him you're sorry, that you fucked up, and you'll do anything if he'll forgive you, anything. You've wanted that since the day it happened, but...

But. Always a but. You must have said that word to yourself ten thousand times.

You press your forehead to the rocky ground as if that can convey what you're too big a coward to go and say in person. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, the worst he can do is yell at you... but.

"Maybe tomorrow," you say to no one in particular. Since nobody can hear you to reply, no one does.

"...I'll admit it, I resented you the most for never coming back. Once I was out, I stopped thinking about it about the same time I stopped thinking too hard about being upset in general. And then everything happened and it all came back. We fought again...and eventually I pretty much forgot again, for a long time. And then here happened. It came back, we made up, I let it go. Maybe one day you will too. And it'll stay behind us."

That memory made him feel bad for assuming that Macaque had just forgotten about him in general. But he can't change that, and he could practically hear Macaque saying something like it was only natural he thought that since he never worked up to courage to show him any different. It almost made him wonder how many times that had happened.

But the rock dropped into the bag next and he reached for the coin next.

You are Macaque, and you are lonely.

You're in Wukong's treasure room, grumbling as you try and pick through the pile of priceless treasures he brought home and dumped just wherever. Attempting to sort things in some sort of order just because it pisses you off to see the results of Wukong's grand adventures treated so carelessly. As if his being away is just some casual thing he does for no real reason, when it feels extremely significant to you. Wukong being gone occupies your whole mind, even during the too-short occasions in which he's home.

Outwardly, you probably look like you're just grumping around, irritable about being left to deal with a mess. Inside, you're scared. You're so scared of him being gone, of it turning into a permanent thing, of him being done with you if you try to ask him to stop rushing off to the four corners of the world. He'd probably hate you if you asked that, and you can't risk it.

You're scared because your feelings for him feel too big, and he probably doesn't want that.

So you stay here. You sort through the shit he hauls back. You fluff up the nest and make sure everything he could want is within reach so that when he comes home, you're ready. You'll groom him until your fingers go numb so he'll stop and stay still for three blessed seconds and try not to cling too tightly at night.

You dream about the time he says is coming, when he'll be done gathering power and treasure and you can lay in the sun and eat fruit while the ages of the world pass by. You wonder if it will really happen, but it's a thought that keeps you company while you wait.

"You know, you weould have been the first to say anything like that, if you had told me. I can't say how I would have reacted, since it was so long ago. But I wouldn't have hated or been done with you. You were my mate, even though I never felt the need to say it out loud. I know I didn't show it well enough, but..."

The coin was added to the bag. Then was the mushroom plushie.

The mushroom plushie is very soft and adorable.

You are Macaque, and you feel like hell. You're scared, nervous, guilty, and every inch of it shows on your face.

You and Wukong have been willingly bitten by the truth mushrooms. He's holding you, which helps fight the hollowness you feel, have felt since your fight under the mountain and only growing worse since you saw Wukong turn into a lich.

When he went cold and dead, when you thought you might be losing him for good, all your carefully constructed walls came crashing down. The only thing you wanted was to let him know that you cared, so maybe he wouldn't be gone. All you ever wanted was for him to stay with you, just stay.

Back then, and now, you're touching him like it can not only bridge the distance between you, but the years as well.

Even if he's telling you that he doesn't love you, which is what you're gathering, that's... that's fine. You'll take anything he can give. It's always been that way. And if he needs time, you'll wait.

You need him, it's that simple. Even when you were enemies, there was a strong connection. Shadows can't exist without light.

"...You're right. We're both idiots."

That was all there was to say on that one. Onto the shard of ice, though he had a suspicion that he knew what this one would show him.

Your shadow's shoulders shake as if it's laughing.

You are Macaque, and you are alive again. Barely.

You come back to life screaming, bleeding, disoriented. You can't see the Lady Bone Demon, your "savior", but you can hear her, feel her. She laughs at your pain as the hole in your head is healed over, slowly enough to give you plenty of time to think about it. To remember who put it there, and who is healing it.

"I'll make you a deal," she whispers from everywhere. It's this or the underworld, so you grit your teeth and listen.

"You will serve me. Serve destiny. And in exchange, you get your life."

Don't sound like your life will be very much yours. But, once again, you're not holding any of the cards here, except one.

You nod, fighting the urge to scream as she takes her sweet time healing your fatal wound.

"Good." She finishes the healing up quickly, as if she's showing you mercy just to prove that she could retract it at any time. You lay on the ground, gasping, thinking only of one person.

The wind curls ice-cold around you as the Lady Bone Demon whispers, "go now, my champion."

"..."

That couldn't be how that happened. Not really. That was what Wukong could tell himself easily. Macaque never got immortality, so there was no way that he could have caused an injury that serious and walked away sure that he'd be fine. But calling that into question also meant calling everything else he'd just seen into question too. So he just dropped the ice into the bag wordlessly and reached for the candies.

Mercifully, the candies don't hold a memory. They hold comfort. They smell and taste like fresh, perfectly ripe peaches. There are ten in the bag, and no matter how many you eat there will always be ten.

They smell like curling up in the nest with Macaque and drowsing off to sleep, warm and happy. These are clearly meant to be soothing after the trauma of experiencing memories in the first person.

The stuffed monkey, likewise, holds no memories. It's just cute, because Macaque knows that cute things make you happy.

"Alright, if we go through all this and I don't get to keep these, you owe me," Wukong said, helping himself to a handful of candy and squeezing the plushie before putting both in the bad as well. "But that's everything, so I guess it's time to get started."

Almost everything! There is a void near the elevator, labeled with your golden monkey symbol, just like the one on your desk.

Others have determined that the way to fill these is to input a memory. One of your items needs to go in there, and then the elevator will open.

In Wukong's mind, that was the start of the game, and he knew what he wanted to place already. Stepping up to the void, he produced the rock and slipped it into the void.

With the rock placed into the void, it closes up. There is a powering up sound, then the ding of the elevator doors as they open.

[Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

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