I am sick with a cold at the moment so here's a little idea that came to me while I was lying miserable unable to do much but maladaptive daydream.
The core premise of this AU is that Macaque wasn't killed and that after his fight with Wukong during the journey he retreated back to the island. Badly hurt and very traumatised, he hides away in a remote part of the island afraid of what the Monkey King will do to him if he comes back and finds him in his palace.
Once Wukong comes back after finishing the Journey, he tries more than once to reconcile with Mac but Mac always runs away before he can even get close and the one time he does manage to corner him the sheer terror Mac looks at him with is enough to have him backing off.
Eventually Wukong stops trying and the two coexist on the island - avoiding and ignoring each other. Made easier by the fact that Mac more or less becomes nocturnal.
Hundreds of years pass, and finally MK enters the picture and his introduction to Mac happens similarly to how it does in canon.
After a frustrating day destroying murals, he's trudging away from the mountain and towards the beach so he can go home when a handful of monkeys intercept him and seem to insist he follow them, and despite complaining this better not be another giant termite nest or some other fine dining opportunity, he begrudgingly follows them.
Heading towards a part of the island Wukong told him to stay clear of due to feral monkeys he starts to feel increasingly unsettled as if someone's watching him, and he thinks he glances a figure in the branches more than once but there's nothing there when he looks again.
He let's out a scream and instinctively pulls out his staff when someone suddenly appears in front of him but they're gone again by the time he gets his bearings. The monkeys that have been leading him screech at him and eventually he gets the hint that they want him to put his staff away - which he does very reluctantly.
Almost immediately Mac reappears and this time MK manages to resist pulling out the staff and instead starts to question who he is and why the heck is he naked? Mac obligingly uses the shadows to summon some plain black clothes to cover himself, watching curiously as MK gets a little hysterical in his bewilderment.
Eventually, MK stops to breathe and is somewhat convinced this isn't some evil clone of Monkey King when he sees how calm the monkeys are, some of them even sitting at Mac's feet or on his shoulder.
Whether through physical or emotional trauma, or both, Mac can't speak and he communicates purely with shadows. Ignoring MK's questions about who he is, he manipulates the shadows on the ground in front of MK's feet to show him his "training" session with Wukong and then several monkeys playing telephone to eventually whisper in Mac's ear, telling him about it.
Through some unflattering imagery, MK gets the idea that this stranger thinks Wukong is a bad teacher and is offering to teach him instead - and that if he's interested he should meet him in the "haunted" forest that he's been told to stay clear of.
Mac disappears and MK hesitates, asking the monkeys what they think, even if he can't actually understand their chirping he gets the vibe they're telling him to go for it and inevitably he decides it's at least worth checking out. If only so he can report back to Wukong about this stranger on his island.
What follows is a very boring and practical lesson on proper form.
(Mac being very out of practice with the concept of personal space is a bit handsy in how he corrects MK.)
MK complains about how underwhelming the lesson is before Mac invites him to try and fight him and easily trounces him and gives him a shadow play lecture about foundations and building blocks and sends him on his way and "telling" him he can come back next time if he wants to keep training.
This goes on for a while, and while MK struggles with the slower pace - at least he's actually learning something, even if it's not the hero stuff he really wants. Mac does eventually help him with his powers to a certain degree after a small mishap, but it is more or less limited to learning how to control his physical strength.
He also teaches MK to fight using a staff - not the staff because Mac immediately flees if MK even looks like he's about to pull it out but with a normal wooden staff.
One day MK is complaining about Wukong's training and questioning what he's done wrong that he's been relegated to clean up duty and, to MK's disbelief, Mac explains that it's because Wukong doesn't know how to teach. Although upon reflection MK wonders if Mac might be onto something, especially when Mac adds that Wukong never really been a student himself - learning almost everything easily and with little guidance needed.
Out loud, he wonders if he should talk to Wukong about all of this and is taken aback when Mac looks so panicked by the idea - shadows showing Wukong flying into a terrible rage at MK questioning him. He does his best to reassure Mac, and himself, that wouldn't happen but nothing seems to ease Mac's distress.
Despite this, MK talks to Wukong but decides not to mention Mac. The next time Wukong tries to get him to do some busy work he puts his foot down and asks for Wukong to train him properly. Dismissive and a little offended, Wukong tells him that he is training him "properly" - there are important lessons tucked away in these seemingly pointless tasks.
Annoyed MK asks him what the important lessons are because he's taken up some martial arts lessons on the side and- Immensely offended, Wukong starts questioning him about who's teaching him and what sort of credentials they have that they think they could possibly be a match for the Monkey King!
MK reveals that well, he doesn't actually know his other mentor's name and from there is more or less forced to confess with a "OK, don't be mad but I've sort of been training with that other monkey that lives on the island? You know the one that looks like you?"
Stunned, "You've been training with Macaque…?"
He listens as MK explains everything and when questioned if he's angry or not, he replies he's not, just… confused. MK is equally confused when Wukong starts asking after Mac's welfare - genuinely wanting to know how the other is doing.
Wukong starts to wonder out loud if he should pay him a visit and MK quickly tells him that's not a good idea - reluctantly explaining that Mac seemed sort of… afraid of him?
Wukong is very put out by this but ultimately reassures MK that he won't approach Mac and that MK is free to keep learning from him as long as he keeps him in the loop. The rest of the training session is spent with MK showing him what Mac has taught him.
(MK at some point does ask who Macaque is and he gets a sort of "He's my… He was my… It's complicated, bud. But this is as much his home as it is mine.")
Once MK leaves for the day, Wukong summons some monkeys he knows spend a lot of time with Mac and gets them to tell him what's going on, after complaining at them for not telling him this was going on in the first place.
(Most of the monkeys are friendly with both Mac and Wukong but there are some that are very loyal to one over the other, with some of Mac's loyal followers being outright hostile towards Wukong and generally staying far away from him. The group Wukong talks to are not the hostile kind.)
They explain that when news reached Mac that Wukong was being a bad teacher, he decided he needed to step in. But while he is very offended that the monkeys thought he was doing a bad job AND were talking shit about him to Mac, he does do some serious reflecting and decides he needs to get his act together and be a better mentor.
He's tempted to seek out Mac but some very insistent monkeys make him think better of it.
MK for his part leaves to find Mac and tell him the talk went well but he can't find him. After several failed attempts, he asks Wukong, who asks the monkeys, who tell them that he doesn't need to train MK anymore now that Wukong has got his act together.
Disappointing both MK and Wukong.
That's all I've got so far but Mac definitely appears again during the events of Season 2 when Wukong leaves for "vacation".
I might come back and add more to this later once I've thought about it. But in the meantime if anything here piques your interest then feel free to use it!
LBD has her sights set on Mac so how is she going to get him?
Well, the first step is removing MK and Wukong from the picture. And it's child's play to lay a false trail for Wukong so he chases a lead somewhere far away and dangerous, and it's equally easy to arrange an attack on the city to distract MK.
Now, how to deal with Macaque himself? Well, disguised as Bǎi Hé she's managed to extract all sorts of information from MK under the guise of an excited Monkey King fan that wants to know all about this other Monkey King-like monkey that no one else knows about.
She knows he tends to sleep outside the cave and that he's nocturnal, so attacking during the day gives her a slight advantage. Though she doesn't believe he won't snap awake the second she steps on the island - he'll likely be tired and caught of guard and that could make all the difference.
The biggest thing she needs to prevent is Mac teleporting away but as his powers rely on shadows she has a trick up her sleeve. The spirits and ghosts at her command feel right at home in the dark and are capable of clinging to the incorporeal and so her plan is to infest and overwhelm the shadows with them.
So imagine Mac tries to create a sharp skewer out of shadows to impale LBD, he'll be fighting against the spirits to actually give it the form and speed he was aiming for - giving LBD plenty of time to dodge. Alternatively, if Mac sinks into the shadows, he'll find hundreds of souls ready to claw and pull at him - greatly slowing him down and possibly even forcing him out.
It's a similar story with his portals, infested with spirits they are deeply unpleasant to use, can make them difficult to "aim" and he could again be dragged out before reaching his destination.
Using the spirits like this will take all of her effort and so she'll be deploying Mayor to actually pin down Mac who will most definitely still try and make a break for the cave on foot if he can't use his shadows. Mac could possibly fight off Mayor long enough to get to safety but he'll find it exponentially more difficult when LBD is still using spirits to distract him by causing general chaos, making noise and grabbing at him.
The final push that will get her her prize is the thousands of monkeys she will quickly realise she can threaten to further distract Mac and eventually force him to comply.
The plan all goes without a hitch, although when Mac realises the writing is on the wall, in a last ditch effort he astral projects to MK and Wukong. It's only for a second but it's enough for both of them to know that something is very wrong, especially Wukong and he is speeding back to the island as fast as he can but the LBD stronghold he was checking out is suddenly going out of its way to stop him.
MK similarly can't just ditch his fight without endangering the city and while he tries to wrap it up as fast as he can both of them arrive on the scene too late.
Mac is gone and so are the two artefacts LBD needed that had been in the vault.
MK is very vocal about blaming himself for not getting here fast enough and not being here in the first but Wukong is so far gone in his anger that he can't even hear him.
He's taking this fight to LBD now.
MK tries to reason with him to the tune of something like, "What's your plan? You said we couldn't just fight her!" But inevitably all he can do is try and keep up when Wukong makes his way to Spider Queen's lair.
They find it deserted, Golden Vision revealing no clues, but Wukong doesn't fly off the handle yet, "They can't have gone far, she still needs the staff. They must be somewhere in the city."
And so they search, MK calling in the gang to help but they find nothing.
Wukong concludes that if she's somehow forcing Mac to use her powers for her then he could have portaled them anywhere. Realising that the staff is the only thing that LBD really needs for her plan, he forces all of the gang back to the cave - intending to put them on house arrest until he can figure out what to do.
Pigsy is especially vocal about more or less being kidnapped, he has a business to run! And Tang can't help but nervously point out that LBD already got into the cave once so was here really that safe?
(By this point everyone is filled in on the situation.)
Wukong explains that she got in by using Mac, all he needs to do is remove him from the seal and she won't be able to get in. He hesitates at the waterfall for a long time however, feeling all sorts of wrong at thought of removing Mac's access but he snaps out of it when MK calls his name in concern and does what he has to do.
He'll add him back when he's brought him home.
Wukong is doing his best to compartmentalise but it's clear to everyone that he's struggling to keep it together.
MK has a brain wave however, "Wait! We can astral project to him! Then he could tell us where he is! …right?"
Wukong doubts it but both he and MK sit down and make an attempt only to be met with interference in the form of LBD's spirits.
At this point, its very late so Wukong tells everyone to go to sleep. When asked if he's not going to do the same, he tells them he needs to check on the monkeys and any damage to the island. He sharply adds that he'll do it alone when MK tries to offer to come with.
At MK's hurt expression, Wukong does try and gentle his response telling him the best thing he could do was rest.
Wukong leaves and gets the full story from a very distressed troupe of monkeys and while he does his best to reassure them that none of them are to blame and that he'll bring Mac home before they can even miss him, internally he is a mess of fear, guilt and anger.
To have fallen for LBD's ruse, to have failed to get back to Mac in time when he reached out to him for help, to not know how to find him? It's destroying him.
And fueling the desire to wipe LBD from the face of the earth no matter what.
And he knows just the power capable of such a thing.
The Samadhi Fire.
He needs to be smart about this. He needs to assume the worse and that Mac won't have a choice but to Listen for LBD and so this plan can't be spoken out loud - he'll even need to slap a silencing seal in Nezha to stop him from giving the game away.
Plan for how to get rid of her forming, he now needs a plan to find her.
She needs the staff and she'll do whatever she needs to do to get it. As long as the staff, and MK, stay in the cave then there's no way for her to get it but there's all manner of tricks she could play to try and convince MK, and his friends, to come out of their own free will.
They have access to the internet, if she attacked the city all of them would scramble to get back.
Is it going a step too far to keep them locked in here?
What if he left a clone? He wouldn't even have to tell anyone, he could even slap a silencing spell on himself so Mac would be none the wiser. A much more powerful clone than normal that could whisk MK and friends out of danger at the slightest provocation and dissuade LBD from making a move by making her think he was still here.
Or maybe he didn't want to dissuade her entirely? It didn't sit right with him but she was only going to reveal herself in order to get the staff, that meant she needed to think she had a chance to take it from MK…
Or! Better option that didn't endanger MK - maybe he had something in the vault that could help? Maybe he should fully exhaust that option first!
Alright, that was the plan - he would covertly go for the Fire while a clone lead the search for Mac, starting with the vault, and with a secondary objective to keep MK, and the staff, safe at all costs.
The plan would be in motion before MK or the others were even awake.
Mac is freezing. His breath visible as the chains he wears force him to kneel in a room full of spirits grating at his ears with their cacophony of shrieks and wails.
LBD's plan is to force him to make a magically binding contract with her, a deal if you will, that will give her much more power over him.
Periodically, she will silence the spirits and try a variety of ploys from trying to convince him of her righteous mission to threatening to leave him here to rot.
She makes sure he knows that no one is coming to save him and that the only way out is to accept her offer. She makes sure to try and squash any faith or fondness he may have for MK or Wukong. Telling him it was through MK she was able to capture him, and asking him why the great sage would ever care enough to save him? He didn't even come to his aid when he "called" for him.
(She hadn't expected Mac to astral project but she knew immediately when he had done it and was quick to cut off the connection.)
She'll drive Mac to madness if that's what it takes to get what she wants, tell him any lie, tear apart any shred of faith.
But eventually it's the offer to spare the island and the troupe if he agrees to work for her - she'll even let him retire there once destiny has been fulfilled - that seems to get him, that and the desperate need to be free of the pain caused by the cold and the spirits he's been trapped with.
He becomes her champion.
And thus we're pretty much set up for the Season 2 finale and Season 3!
It doesn't take MK long to question why they're not just taking the fight to LBD because surely she's no match for the Monkey King, right?
Which, pfft, obviously she's not but while she is most definitely not as powerful as him, she is plenty dangerous. She's all but unkillable for a start and her particular brand of magic makes her exceptionally difficult to keep imprisoned so they need to have a fool proof game plan before they face her because if she gets away there's no easy way to find her or figure out her next move.
Right now she's lying low, taking her time, she doesn't know that they know what she's up to - they have the advantage and they need to make the most of it because trust him, kid, you don't want to find out what that witch is capable of when provoked.
Naturally, MK asks how they stopped her last time and Wukong explains that it was his master that had figured out how to lock her away but as it transpired that hadn't been the permanent solution they had hoped for.
But together they were going to get rid of her for good this time and he already had ideas brewing! He just needed to check out a couple of things first - follow some leads, talk to some old friends, that kind of stuff.
All of which MK is keen to get involved in but Wukong is quick to tell him that his responsibility in all this will be to focus on his training and helping Mac protect the island whenever he's away. And let's not forget you've still got a city protect, kid.
It all sounds very reasonable, even if he doesn't think Mac needs help, but MK can't help but feel he's being sidelined and is very put out that Wukong won't actually fill him in on what he's planning to do whenever he's away.
From Wukong's perspective, he's just trying to keep the kid safe - he's going to be checking out some dangerous places that MK legit isn't ready to go yet and he's likely going to be doing some morally/legally dubious things that he doesn't want MK to see or get involved in. The less MK knows the better.
But while Wukong would rather keep MK in the dark about a lot of things, he does feel the need to caution him about LBD. She's smart, she's not going to make a move before she's got all her ducks in a row, so he's not necessarily afraid she's going to put MK in immediate danger but she could very well try and get information from him.
LBD is a master of disguise, he warns, and that's why it's important that he needs to learn to hone his instincts and remember his Golden Vision.
He wants him to get in the habit of using it in the first instance whenever something feels off or when faced with a new situation. In fact from now on, he'll be randomly checking to make sure MK is staying on his toes - via traps, surprise attacks and turning up in disguise himself while MK's in the city.
MK is unbelievably stressed over the fact that there's such a dangerous enemy plotting beneath his feet and he gets exceedingly paranoid that everyone he runs into could be her in disguise. Something that doesn't go unnoticed by his friends and family but, like canon, MK makes the questionable decision to keep his knowledge of LBD to himself (which we'll get into later with this AU's version of the Shadow Play.)
But his paranoia does ease up a little as nothing LBD related seems to pop up and he gets better and better at using his powers and acing Wukong's surprise tests of his Golden Vision.
Down in the depths of Spider Queen's lair, Huntsman's absence has most definitely been noted and while no one feels particularly upset about his presumed death it does leave the Spider's feeling uneasy. For LBD, it simply offers her a conundrum of how to gain access to Wukong's vault and really there's only one person she could conceivably try to manipulate into gaining her access.
Fortunately, she already has the perfect disguise in Bǎi Hé.
It's not hard for the mayor to "encourage" some demons to incite some chaos in the city - Bǎi Hé won't be showing up anywhere with Spider Demons (no need to give MK any reason to be suspicious, after all.) And it's then straightforward enough to put herself in a position that MK can save her from.
She is very aware of MK's Golden Vision and thusly for this initial meeting, she actually relinquishes her control on Bǎi Hé altogether, recapturing her only once MK has saved the day. MK only interacts with Bǎi Hé for a split second to remove her from harm's way - giving the real Bǎi Hé no chance to warn him about LBD.
(I'm on the fence if the real Bǎi Hé is aware she's being used as bait or if LBD tampered with her memory somehow. If the real Bǎi Hé is aware of what's going on then know that she's absolutely terrified.)
A couple of days later, LBD (as Bǎi Hé) appears at Pigsy's Noodles, deliberately picking a time she knows MK won't be there, wearing her Monkey King schoolbag and looking nervous.
Pigsy, and Tang, take note of her and once he's given her her noodles he asks if she's alright. "Gathering her courage" she asks if this is where the Monkie Kid works and she explains that she wanted to thank him for saving her the other day - she even has a gift for him!
Tang and Pigsy try and tell her that no thanks are needed, especially not a gift but they agree to pass it on to MK when he gets back. LBD is long gone by the time he's back and after a quick check with his Golden Vision is very touched by the chocolate and the hand drawn card calling him her hero and he's sorry he missed her - vaguely remembering the girl he'd saved from her description.
LBD shows up a couple of more times, on her way home from school, trying to catch a glimpse of MK (knowing full well he won't be there). She endears herself to Pigsy by always buying some food to go and complimenting his cooking and she endears herself to Tang by being an obvious Monkey King fan - the two chatting while Pigsy makes her food. Eventually, Pigsy tells MK to hang about one afternoon so she can actually meet him.
The thought of using his Golden Vision doesn't even cross her mind - she's just some sweet kid that he saved and that has both Tang and Pigsy's approval and look at how unbelievably excited and nervous she is to have a chance to ask for his autograph and on some fanart she drew of him!
(Side note: I think it would be funny if the Spider Demons and the mayor had been tasked with the fanart (I think the mayor's artwork was almost immediately disqualified for being too abstract and disturbing). Strong likes the drawing, Syntax is highly offended but is goaded into trying to outdo Strong, Spider Queen is disgusted with the whole thing.)
And so, every once in a while LBD shows up to say hello to her hero, still sometimes missing him, and the two start to bond over Monkey King and art. He's none the wiser when a wide-eyed LBD asks him if he'd really met the Monkey King and been to Flower Fruit Mountain - she's not asking anything he wouldn't have asked after all.
And then the fatal mistake happens.
MK let's her flick through some of his artwork and she very innocently asks who this other monkey that looks like Monkey King is.
MK explains that's just a friend of Monkey King's and full of wonder she asks if he stays on the island too and if he's just as strong? He answers that yeah, he lives on the island and that he's super strong but his powers are totally different from Wukong's. He gives her his name when asked and just like that she has the lead she's been waiting for.
She's heard of the Six-Eared Macaque, his name comes up more than once in the book.
A book that mentions he has the ability to Listen to the past and the future.
A demon close to the Monkey King, very likely one with access to the cave, and with a power so useful to ensuring destiny is on track?
Destiny has delivered her the perfect Champion.
While all of this has been happening with LBD, MK has been getting closer to Mac - training with him again and sharing lookout responsibilities while Wukong is away (MK has dayshift, Mac nightshift and the two hang out during the evening for a little while.)
Mac is overall displeased with Wukong's current strategy but he unfortunately knows better than to question the king and so he's just doing his best to prepare for when everything inevitably goes wrong.
And one thing he can do is try to positively influence MK and stop him following in his mentor's footsteps.
This comes to a head one evening following an "argument" of sorts between MK and Wukong. MK is well in the habit of checking over Wukong with his Golden Vision at this point so when he comes back glamoured to hide the fact he's a little worse for wear after searching one of LBD's old hideouts MK calls him out.
He wants to know what he's doing! He can help! Wukong is dismissive - reiterating that MK is most useful here getting stronger and protecting the island. The Monkey King has everything in hand.
MK is complaining about this to Mac the next time that Wukong is away, even going as far to suggest he should follow him and prove he's more use to him by his side that being left here without a clue what he's really doing.
The whole time he's doing this, Mac notes how he ignores the way his phone is buzzing, as he often does when his friends and family try and contact him for anything but an attack on the city.
Mac very helpfully points out the similarities between Wukong's behaviour and MK's - using the shadows to show two images side by side of Wukong walking away from MK and MK walking away from his friends.
MK is quick to tell him that it's not the same. That he's keeping his friends safe. He's practically invincible and with Monkey King's powers to boot - they don't. He can't let them get involved with this LBD mess - a demon that's giving even Wukong a hard time. It's not the same.
There's a seed of doubt been planted however and Mac intends to see it grow.
He has the shadows show him Mei growing more concerned and frustrated before eventually taking matters into her own hands and following MK the way that he was planning to follow Wukong and getting hurt by LBD as a result.
MK misunderstands, thinking Mac is telling him not to follow Wukong because he's not strong enough and Mac decides it's time to try a different tact.
It's time for the Shadow Play.
This Shadow Play shares similar beats from the original. It focuses at first on Mac and Wukong being friends and equals before showing how the relationship changes as Wukong gets more powerful, ignoring Mac, refusing to listen to his concerns and making decisions for both of them until it eventually accumulates in a burning island and Monkey King trapped under a mountain.
The point Mac wants to get across isn't that bad things happened because he or Wukong weren't strong enough but because Wukong had thought he knew what was best, that he could do it all by himself and that was the reason for his downfall.
To avoid any doubt, he has the Shadow Play run again but with Mei and MK in Mac and Wukong's roles respectively, fine tuning the story to make it more in line with the modern age - ignored phone calls, etc., but instead of ending in fire, it ends in ice and it ends with MK alone.
Mac wants him to see that by making the choice for his friends MK isn't keeping them safe.
MK struggles with this because he knows the moment he tells his friends about LBD they'll want to help him take her down however they can and he just can't let them do that but at the same time does he really know what he's doing? His friends don't have to get involved in the fighting to help and if there is a risk that things do hit the fan then they'd probably like a heads up at least.
He also really doesn't want his friendships to fall apart the way that Mac and Wukong's relationship did.
So he promises to think about it. But he can't resist asking Mac if this is the reason he avoids Wukong (he suspects there's more to it because he remembers Mac's fear at the idea of MK challenging Wukong) but he doesn't get an answer, just a request that he better than Wukong.
And that rounds up this installment! Next time - Mac becomes LBDs unwilling champion!
As ever, any thoughts or ideas - I'd love to hear them!
So i had a really cool dnd moment that made me think of your au. Character who could hear the future, but it always went silent after a point. We thought it was a limit to their power, but then a prophecy of doom showed it was them actually hearing 'nothing' after that point.
It made me wonder. What sounds would LBD consider a 'good future' for mac to hear? Would she consider silence a success as her 'clean slate', or worry that means she fails to re-build? It's got my mind going!
Also, less related to the au, do you think Mac would hear the end of the cycle as silence?
Very interesting questions! Forgive me as I ramble trying to answer them!
So, when it comes to LBD the first thing we need to think about is what her goal actually is - what does her perfect world actually look like? How does she plan to achieve it once she has the Samadhi Fire?
One option could be that she's decided that humans, demons and celestials have had there chance and proven they can't be redeemed and so when she says she wants a clean slate she really means that and she's resetting the world to a point without intelligent life - with that either being the ultimate end goal or then watching the world to influence it's evolution and development.
Or maybe it's a Noah's Arc situation where she will keep safe those that she deems worthy while she cleanses the world.
(We could go a bit nuts with that idea and play around with the idea of human zoo's à la Steven Universe. Maybe her followers have been trying to cultivate the "right" kind of people for this new world, they themselves will not be worthy. Or maybe a zoo is how she plans to run things when all is said and done.)
Maybe her initial plan is just to overthrow the Celestial Realm and then destroy corruption and greed wherever she finds it thereafter - essentially ruling the world with an iron fist and forcing those that remain to comply.
(Or maybe she really just wants to end everything - can't have an imperfect world if there's no world, after all. But let's assume that's not it for the time being.)
Regardless, what she ultimately purports to want is a world free of suffering (although how far she's pushing that definition is another factor - animals gotta eat you know? And tragedy can still strike without anyone being at fault.), but depending on her strategy that might take a while to achieve so I think when she initially forces Mac to listen to the future she's looking for short term outcomes to her immediate plans - getting the artefacts, getting the Samadhi Fire, attacking the Celestial Realm, etc.
If she was to make him listen long, long term (which unlikely given it would take Mac a lot of time, energy and sanity to do), she probably wants him to tell her if mortals are still suffering at the hands of other mortals or higher powers (definitely could see an outcome where he always tells her yes, you.).
In the case where there is absolute silence - she too would at first probably assume this was a limitation of Mac's power, maybe even assumes that he can only hear the future for as long as he's alive and she wouldn't be surprised to have done away with him at some point. If she realised, or perhaps better to say accepted, that it meant the end of everything she might take it to mean that that was the only way to truly achieve peace. She might try to find ways to change that but inevitably she might eventually believe total destruction of everything is the only way.
Maybe that's always been the back up plan and hearing nothing just confirms what's she's always known deep down - that the world is irredeemable.
Side note, this got me thinking about the Samadhi Fire and if its truly capable of destroying everything then that might include the guardians of the coloured stones and so all her actions might achieve is releasing Primordial Chaos into the world. In which case it wouldn't be silence Mac would hear, it'd probably be something he couldn't articulate, might drive him crazy to boot.
(I also had a thought that the Samadhi Fire is actually a flame born of Primordial Chaos and it's whole deal is it wants to burn through the fabric of reality in order to return to it.)
So, uh, short answer. I don't think silence is what she's hoping for but it could still be considered an acceptable outcome.
Alright, onto Mac and the end of the cycle.
So, impossible question to answer here but we have to ask how the cycle works. How does it reset? At what point does it reset to?
I think it would be kind of cool, if the silence that Mac could hear after the end of the cycle was actually the start of the next cycle - the void of space before the Big Bang or whatever.
(We've also got to consider Mac's range - maybe just the area he's listening to is quiet and it just so happens the universe has always existed in a pocket of the Chaos or something.)
I'm sort of leaning towards the idea that the cycle that Nǚwā has created does not actually encompass the entirety of time and space as she herself is unable to influence Chaos and has simply found the means to keep it at bay for a time. So does that mean the cycle starts at the moment she creates the coloured stones? (I'm assuming she creates them anyway but could be she found them?) Or maybe the cycle starts with her? When she first opens her eyes for the first time? Or at whatever the creation event is for the "universe"? Maybe she gets to choose how every cycle how it starts?
I think in this scenario that maybe after the cycle ends, Mac maybe hears absolute silence for a split second before hearing Chaos. Because the Chaos exists whether the cycle does or not.
If I'm being totally honest I don't think I can really wrap my head around how the reset works. Like, I get the idea that the barrier keeping the world safe from Chaos eventually fails but how does the reset actually work? Are we literally just rewinding the clock to restore it? That could suggest that it's not necessarily Chaos weakening the barriers but something inside doing that damage?
Regardless, in that scenario then does nothing change from cycle to cycle? What would be the point of resetting then? Can events only change if something new from "outside the cave" manages to break in? Maybe each time Nǚwā repairs the Pillar of Heaven something new manages to slip in and from that point the cycle can vary? (Maybe this time it was the Samadhi Fire that snuck in? Or something that would go on to be the Samadhi Fire?)
I've deviated a fair bit from your question but it's super difficult to know what he hears without understanding the cycle and/or Chaos. 😅 I think my short answer would be that he hears Chaos though. Maybe something in the Chaos even speaks to him? Offers him a deal that effects the next cycle? The one canon to LMK? 👀
I have a few ideas for what LBD might do in the new au:
-with 3 of the items together, if she can attack the island while wukong is away (for some reason), probably using the spider ghosts and the original spider mech, and Mayor can probably match Mac for the lantern, Then she can absorb MK's powers as he defends, getting 3 of the items by focusing all her forces there. Problems are the weed and keeping wukong busy. Those can go hand in hand by getting wukong to go for the flower and attacking while he's away, and then using hostages from the island to get him to give her the flower. Essentially going for war strategy to force destiny on track.
-second idea is probably more her style. Using Bai He and probably even other hosts/possessed to gain trust. Like slow takeover of the town deal. MK is easy to manipulate, and he can get wukong to trust someone he shouldn't, but Mac would never (ESPECIALLY this mac) so he becomes the big obstacle.
I can see a timeline of trust building, managing to somehow snag the flower, but that reveals that 'anyone' can be used by her, so they get paranoid and start using the mirror to check people, making it vulnerable to take. Eventually she uses Bai He to lead MK to her where, big twist, she takes over MK instead of Wukong for this au. She still has to worry about overwhelming power like wukong, so it probably either takes her full personal control, or giving up mayor like canon. Or it could be a 'he tries to take in all the Spirits controlling the town and ends up under her control, for the angst. Either way, using him she can get to Mac, since mk is the only one he trusts right now. Que the dramatic betrayal with the Lantern and staff being handed over to her. And all the extra angst because mac was betrayed again! Extra dramatic if he almost realizes in time, and attacks possessed mk, to be stopped and confronted by wukong. Yay more trauma!
I intended for this to be brief, but then just kept typing....
Am I in the ballpark for ways this could go?
Oooh! Some real good thoughts in there! You're definitely in the ballpark of where my head was at with both options but with some really interesting twists! I respect how you're aiming for maximum angst potential 😌
At the moment, one of my main thoughts is how do I get us to Season 3 while trying to keep certain elements of that season canon - the biggest of which is Macaque being her unwilling champion. He is an exceptionally valuable asset to LBD if she can get her hands on him - he's important to Wukong, has access to the cave and has his ability to Listen. And so currently my thoughts are circling around how that could possibly come about.
And so far it's through a combination of both your ideas - LBD using disguises, hosts and manipulation as a means of getting closer to MK and finding out more about him, the island, Monkey King and Mac before setting up distractions for both MK and Wukong so she and the Mayor can go for Mac.
Still playing around with a lot of ideas but I'm liking the idea that she doesn't initially know about Macaque but, after establishing herself as a fellow Monkey King fan and a regular customer at Pigsy's, discovers him via MK's drawings and from there her plans start to take shape.
You've really got me thinking about how best to implement Bǎi Hé in this scenario! I'm thinking maybe she initially introduces herself to MK via situation in which she's a victim that he needs to rescue (similar to canon but somewhere away from anything Spider related and the underground layer so he doesn't get suspicious) then giving her a great excuse to start visiting the restaurant to occasionally check in with her hero.
