Alright, Cole's tags are all caught up!

lenainverse Just wanted to check, did you want to say that Cole just sort of chaperones Saya around for the day and tried to keep her entertained? I'm not sure whose tag it was or if I just lost it.

it's my tag! we can handwave things if you prefer, it's also highly probable she'd just scamper off while he wasn't looking and since she moves at Wukong speed I'm assuming he wouldn't bother following even if he could visually see where she went

she has much less incentive to stick with people she has no residual memory of

That works. He'd try calling out to her and maybe try to follow, but he'd have to give up pretty quick because he's super perceptive, not super speedy.

So yeah, we can.

his perspective on her based on this + weremonkey has to be so fucked

Cole: Something was clearly wrong with her when we met...but wow, she has one of my biggest problems but way worse.

Saya is less a vampire than a collection of terrible problems and flaws

Should mesh well with Cole's being a changeling who's perspective is that his life is just suffering and confusion, with a heaping helping of protectiveness.

in perfect fairness once her hibernation is no longer a thing she'll be way less self-indulgently miserable

Progress!

still plenty of bad history to upset her but at least her future isn't an endless morass of bleakness

she'll probably get along even better with Wukong

Fair. Cole can empathize, despite being only a fraction of her age.

He's trying, with minor success, to open up more and also figure out how the hell to even just be happy.]

It'll be interesting to see how much she actually opens up to him given that part of her is like "this guy has already seen way too much of my weirdness". Then again she is quick to open up, so /wobblehand

she can be very open but it's definitely not universal

Makes sense. How far Cole does kind of depends on the feel he gets for a person. But he will step in to help anyone he feels deserves the help. Which can even be an enemy.

current feel for Saya: "woman, seek some help for real"

Actually it's "ETA for regretting going against her better judgement: When?"

pretty much immediately She'd point out though that there are more angles to that conflict than who she agreed with. She runs on vibes, kiddo.

her eyes were very open about what she was doing

however not something she could explain to Cole because getting into why she had to take Red Son's side against Wukong specifically is so not her story to tell

Oh Cole does understand. He's followed his friends into life-threatening unwinnable situations and been physically and emotionally hurt on more than one situation.

The time they let themselves be consumed by an eldritch being that put them into digestion pods inside it's body while also stealing their powers made him realize he really needs to stop.

I remember that. Such fun. Oh K-11.

Saya does not give a single fuck about herself getting hurt, it's other people getting hurt she can't handle. And in this case it was hurt someone or hurt someone, sadly. Sometimes things aren't solvable without pain.

I mean, Cole's also watched his friends die, nearly die before actually dying, and has died himself.

Also had his whole group labelled as terrorists, and had to evacuate his own family during the one time he got to be with them and them know who he was.

tseutsumi: Inside K-11 was a time~

I think you lost me...

I'm thinking the point is something like "he's also been through some things so he'd get it" but not entirely sure, brain is barely working

Oh, Basically, I was saying that going against his better judgement resulted in him seeing friends be nearly killed, dying, him dying, all of them being labelled terrorists, and him having to evacute his family on the same day they found out he was himself.

oh, hers too. so so so so many times. But yeah she's not going to be able to explain this specific situation to him because it involves a lot of "so Red Son has complicated feelings about Wukong because daddy issues"

So he understands very well that it's hard not to put others above yourself, but also a huge range of consequences for others too.

there are consequences to every action anyone takes is more her perspective, her being like "welp you two have fun fighting I'll be over here" had potential consequences she couldn't live with,

so less against her better judgment and more just trying to decide which bad outcome was least bad. There was no coming out ahead in that mess.

Fair. He also has a bit of that when choosing between the six-month old homunculus that was a walking disaster who didn't know better and the ex mafia boss who was just getting exposed to the supernatural world.

she haaaaaaaaaaaaaates it don't get me wrong

Because how to approach the subject when the former is so affected by the opinions of someone they care about that he threw himself in traffic when one person hated him, and the latter is literally suffering breakdowns and diassociating because of the magic bullshit and past trauma?

so she wouldn't get defensive or anything, there's no defending something that made such a mess. There'd have been no defending anything she did because she was pretty torn about all the options.

Makes sense. Cole's not likely to confront her about it, which is why he said MK should talk to them all.

He just wants to make sure things don't go wrong, especially so MK doesn't end up hurt.

she'd probably apologize in a "that was a mess, I can't say I regret it because it was complicated for reasons I can't really talk about, but I do hate that it happened" way

He wouldn't judge her. But he is all regrets and guilt all the time.

she definitely wouldn't blame anyone who did judge her. So no interest whatsoever in defending herself. She pretty much didn't defend herself to MK either, except to say that she did try talking it out before resorting to throwing down

mainly because MK did a mini-speech amounting to "sometimes we have to tell people hard truths for the greater good" and Saya was like uh yeah I know, 'cause I did that. For all the good it did lmao!

if she were at full strength there might have been better options, alas she was not anywhere close

So long as it doesn't blow up like this again in the future, Cole only care to the extent he's allowed to know. He's a protector so his priority is those who need support, and those who don't deserve the consequences of other people's actions.

very possible Cole will end up pissed again, we shall see! I have no idea what if anything will happen next full moon

We shall. If it does, he won't be just hiding out this time.

could he physically stop either Red Son or Saya from doing whatever they want to? Fully just curious.

Taking a slight note from Red Son's book, he doesn't need to stop them, just stall and/or distract them. And things like summoning a heavy hurricane/thunderstorm in a small room could probably do that.

Probably.

summoning a storm will clear everyone out of that room real quick Cole

I think that's probably the opposite of what he's going for

Hasn't yet for him. Besides, they can't fight each other it they're dodging lightning and furniture.

FWIW Saya wouldn't be keen to leave either since MK told her that's what he'd want, and with her abilities intact there are ways for her to sus out what MK is up to even at a distance to determine if he's threatening someone or not which seemed to be Red Son's concern

whether it'll actually talk him down, who can say

Saya has no problem dodging lightning tho, she can probably beat lightning in a footrace because anime physics, which I mainly say because it amuses me

she might however have a panic attack! Since her cure will turn all her instincts up and being confined ain't it.

All valid points. Cole's just over the unnecessary risks.

Wukong would agree to let her check, since he feels like Red Son

isn't going to listen to his surveillance.

Wukong who was in and out himself lecturing people about where they can go was a big trip I gotta say, I cackled

Mentor Exception Clause

Well he had already agreed to be on hand if MK got out since he was the only one who could match MK, sooooooo...besides, MK never caught him. No rules broken~

"It's only cheating if you get caught" is the best mood

Exactly: "I'm not cheating if I'm keeping on-plan.

what makes you so sure Saya couldn't match weremonkey, out of curiosity? (She definitely couldn't at that time because hibernation but she'll be at full power in a few weeks) (She won't WANT to try it out or anything I'm just curious)

In Wukong's case, it's because while he's got more experience, he's growing more and more positive that if monkey form MK isn't more powerful than him, he's at least as powerful. And he can carry two mountains, one that holds up the heavens.

He's not positive, but he doesn't have a reason to think that Saya is that strong. So he's worried about her, about the damage MK can do, and about MK's guilt if something actually happens.

being able to lift stuff definitely isn't her main claim to power, mostly that's speed + the fact that she can take basically any amount of damage perpetually and barely blink

I think it's more interesting if she can't beat weremonkey in an even matchup but I don't think it would be immediate and overwhelming defeat given all her dumb tricks

He'd counter that MK would feel immense guilt over every bit of damage he did to her even if she can take it.

like I said she's not TRYING to fight MK this is purely theoretical

I know, that's just his mindset. He wants nothing more than to protect the three of them if he can. That's all.

Which was also why he told her he'd have let Red Son go if he was going to be the only one to deal with the fallout.

Saya did try the "MK won't be able to accept this" argument to absolutely no avail, no one knows better than her what it's like to hurt people when you're not in control.

and by "hurt" I mean massacring a whole slew of people including actual babies

but she vowed never to interfere with the choices of someone she loves again, so once Red Son said "nope still going" she felt like she had to support him. And at least if he was gonna be an idiot she could run interference. (She didn't know she was as weak as she was)

I saw, that conversation. ^^ But since he wasn't listening and she was going with him Wukong decided he had to intervene, if not for them, for MK and anyone who could be wrapped up in the fallout.

Wukong was definitely not wrong

He feels wrong. Mostly in letting his hurt feelings start a fight. Especially because Saya got hurt when she was supposed to just be pinned to the floor.

she doesn't care about that even slightly. Alas it was like when you're playing tug of war and the rope snaps. The clones expected her to still have power to fight them and they applied the counter force necessary but oops suddenly there was no resistance and she went flying

but if she'd been even slightly less close to her hibernation she'd have just shrugged it off, she's reckless with herself because she's used to being able to get away with being reckless

in her view it's like "welp, I lost that fight, no big."

He cares. Very much. His whole Enslavement Journey was learning to not go overboard, and he's always been protective of his friends/found family. So that happening goes against his very core.

he didn't go overboard though. Also Wukong talk to her about this man, she'll gladly tell him it wasn't that anyone went overboard it was just bad timing

not a discipline problem it's a "Saya went totally limp without warning" problem

anyway if she knows it bothers him she'll be more careful but like one of the fighting tactics she uses again and again is impaling herself to strike someone standing close behind her

He might at some point, but he's also just going to be way more alert to the state of his opponents. Because what are centuries of discipline, part of which he crossed an ocean on a raft as a stone monkey to learn, for if he's going to slip up that badly.

he had no way to know she was that close to giving out. SHE didn't know. Her species just does that. They go from fighting full out to unconscious or nearly so in a blink.

At present she'd probably be WAY overly casual about how often she gets hurt and Wukong would absolutely notice it once she can train again

She's right, but he's still going to learn from it, because it's what he does. He learns and grows stronger, and mostly learns not to make the same mistake twice...also he's like MK a bit and internalizes stuff like this when he's directly involved.

he should've seen her when Imeeji made her mortal, that woman took zero precautions and ended up with so so so many dramatic and horrifying injuries because she never learned to care about dramatic injuries.

Saya no.

wah if she knew it affected him so badly she'd feel terrible ;;;;

besides didn't she injure him and he never said anything?

not horribly injured I'll grant you but he was bleeding

Yup, she did, but that was minor. The most severe damage he's taken is having fire eyes, since that never goes away and is the only thing he's never recovered from.

At least in his perspective.

Saya is so desensitized he'll have to bring it up eventually or be driven absolutely mad

"what's that blood from?"
"oh, that. I got two thirds of the way beheaded. Talk about annoying."

Who says he isn't already mad? Kidding.

It might come out at some point. He has a slight moment like that with MK taking a dangerous risk trying to emulate him.

"I was trying to do the cool, impulsive thing like in your story."
"Okay, but did you forget about the part where I got really hurt?"

weirdly Saya will claim up and down that she won't risk herself for no reason, but when you heal immediately your definition of what's risking yourself is a bit off

You're not wrong about that.

Wukong and her husband can bond over how she's an idiot who stresses them out

Maybe once he's finished setting up his own place and the success of her not hibernating sets in~

oh he's moving?

Yup. He and MK will be having that discussion and he's been debating it since before the full moon happened.

this will in no way lead to drama I'm sure

Not at all~ Especially since he's not telling Red Son first. X3

is it planned whether MK moves too or stays?

MK will be splitting his time between them both.

a very MK solution

Yup!

Saya will track Wukong down if he doesn't tell her, she can smell his blood wherever he is (unless he's moving far out into the segments)

Haven't decided yet. MK's enlisting him to help build Iggy a castle and he's moving into it too. If he has a say it'll definitely be closer to greenery.

He's going to do a network post from his new room.

building a castle, as one does

MK can build a mech. He can build a castle.

when is house round robin happening

If he can turn a ATV camper into a functional rocketship without ever having flown one, he can build a castle. Also he built his place back home.

I more meant that a castle is super extra than doubting anyone's ability to physically build it

Oh, fair. But Iggy wants a castle sooooooo...

so when is the move, do you know?

Within a reasonable amount of time to get the supplies and after MK's coffee shop talk with Red Son.

So pretty soon.

before the mid-month event I'm gathering

Yeah.