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★ Soul Searching ★ 1
(Oh, look! Another Tang au)
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(TW some descriptions of throwing up, but it's very brief)
Sunlight shines onto Pisgy's early in the afternoon, bathing everything in a warm, cozy light. The sign outside is shown brightly to the busy streets.
The weathering on the door and outside counter gives it a homey look. Everything to the way the windows are opened just enough to let the smell of noodles out, to the chalk announcement board with swoopy letters making its charm.
Inside the hole-in-the-wall restaurant, the sound of bubbling and the flickering lights above add to its atmosphere. The growing pile of to-go orders now shoved to the side so the chef can see the lobby.
Barely anyone is actually sitting in the restaurant. Just the chef in the back, with a green teenager and an older looking man with glasses sitting at the bar.
The chef seems to be fed up with the both of them. "Can't you two do something other than taking up valuable space while I'm working?!"
The man in the glasses just shrugs and smirks at the outburst, continuing to sip some noodles he grabbed from the ever growing to-go pile. "Pisgy, Pisgy, Pisgy. If we were to leave, who would give you such riveting conversation? And besides, we're patiently waiting for Mk to come back."
Pisgy just glares at the man before speaking up louder than the first time. "Mei is waiting for Mk to come back." Pisgy gesture with a wooden spoon to Mei, who's looking at her phone with an unserious expression.
The man with glasses just raises a brow in response. Pisgy sighs heavily before continuing his rant. "And heck, so am I! He's left so many orders here, I could probably afford to fire him if I sold 'em all myself!
"Now what are you even doing? Mooching off of Mk's generosity for free noodles, and just sitting in front of me with a smug look on your face like I'm an idiot, which I'm not! Your so lucky I don't kick you out any time you set foot in here Tang."
Tang just laughs in response, spilling some sauce onto the ground as he readjusts his glasses to look at Pisgy. "Oh please Pisgy, you know you love me~" He said in a jaunty tone, smirk never falling. "If you didn't, I would've been in the hospital by now! Probably with a wooden spoon lodged in my head."
Tang continues to chuckle, with Mei joining in soon after Pisgy stomps off back to the kitchen, grumbling up a storm.
"He's always so grumpy! Maybe he's a bit more ticked today because Mk 'ain't back yet for all those orders." Mei says to Tang absent-mindedly, eyes focused on her screen as she slouches on her stool.
Tang huffed, amused. "Hah, maybe. I just think he has his apron in a twist all the time." He giggles at his own joke before pulling a stained and well-worn book off the counter.
"Journey to the West ", a classic in Tangs' personal opinion. He immeadietly flips the long time annotated pages to a specific bookmark, stopping right on top of a bright red post-it note.
Most of his scribbles were how inaccurate some of the legends were, how the stories were twisted to be seen in a good light for an easier consumption, Tang guesses. It hurt him to see so many people enjoy these fake stories, but at least he knew most of the truth.
However, there were parts that were kept somewhat accurate. Those were the ones Tang liked to reread the most, ones marked with bright red, from the only version available in metrapolis.
1, 2, 3.
4 red post-its fly past his vision as he takes in the legends, smirking at some passages before the next page was turned.
An hour had passed if Tang had to guess. The pile stopped growing after Pisgy gave up on Mk coming back in time. He's now sitting next to Tang on the bar, with Mei sitting at one of the nearby tables, seemingly still scrolling on her phone.
Tang had been working on his fifth bowl of to-go noodles when the ground started to rumble violently. It shook everything in the shop; things like chairs toppled over and loose kitchenware fell to the floor.
Mei screamed as her phone flew out of her hands and onto the table, Pisgy tried to stabilize himself on the counter while swearing up a storm, and Tang held up his bowl so nothing spilled out, one hand on the bowl the other holding on the counter for dear life.
It finally subsides after a couple of seconds, leaving the shop in disarray. "What the heck was that?!" Pisgy shouted as he righted himself back onto a bar stool.
"Ugh, I don't know, piggy. That was definitely stronger than a mega street race or an out-of-control party at the anti-gravity arcade." Mei answered as she sprawled across the table to take back her now cracked phone. She let out a small Aww, man! afterwards.
Tang had been gasping the entire time, seemingly trying to regain lost breath from the mysterious earthquake. "I don't know how *huff* you guys recover *huff* so quickly like that! Phew. It took all my strength just to save these precious noodles!" Tabg held up the bowl as some sort of proof, with half its contents missing.
"Maybe that's just because you're old, Tang." Mei smirked at him. Tang just scoffed after her with Pisgy giving an amused huff in the background.
Tang put his bowl of noodles back onto the counter before bending down to retrieve his book. It had a few noodle stains, but it's been through much worse than that. It isn't that bad.
Just as Tang sat back onto his stool, the restaurant doors burst open with a winded Mk in the middle of them.
"Mk! Where have you been? We've been stacked through the roof with noodles that were ordered ages ago! Our customers have already given ZERO STARS Mk!" Pisgy said, grabbing Mk by the ear and sitting him down across from him at one of the tables.
"Now you better have a good reason for this, or else I'm cutting your pay for a month with full work hours."
Mk seemed to go through a mix of sheepishness, awe, confusion, and shock before he answered in long winded rambles.
"Pisgy, Mei, Tang, the legend of the Demon Bull King is real! The Demon Bull King family took Monkey Kings staff off his prison, which I took in return to defend myself, and now he's probably out there wrecking everything! And now he's probably after me too because I have the staff and all those legends Mr. Tang told me were true, and now I'm freaking out!" Mk finished his ramble by lifting up the red and gold staff in his hand.
The restaurant was silent... before hysterical laughter from Pisgy and Mei filled the restaurant. "Bahahaha! You can't expect me to believe that kid! Those are all just legends!" Mei spoke up. "Hahahahah! Yeah, Mk! Are you sure you didn't get a concusion from that earthquake?"
Mk pouted as he raised the staff once again. "But I'm telling the truth! This is the Monkey Kings staff, and all those legends were true! You at least believe me, right Mr. Tang?"
But Tang didn't answer. He just stared at the staff blankly. His hands dug into the pages of his book until they were wrinkled beyond repair. "Mr. Tang? You okay there?" Mk asked in concern.
"That's... that's Sun Wukongs staff." Tang whispered through short breaths, still staring at the staff.
Mk quickly turned around to Pisgy and Mei. "See? At least someone sensible believed me."
Pisgy scoffed before challenging Mk. "If that really is the Monkey Kings staff, then why don't you show off some of its oH MY-"
But it was too late, as the staff elongated quicker than light and smashed straight through one of Pisgy's tables.
Mk showed them a bright smile. "Haha! See that?! That was freaking monkey power -"
Sounds of scraping metal and something hitting the floor stopped Mk mid sentence. Everybody turned around to face the bar.
Tang was on the floor, shaking violently with laboring breaths between small mumbling. His stool and book strewn to the sides as Tang kept staring at the staff, eyes unseen behind the reflections in his glasses.
Pisgy rushed over quickly, reaching out to shake Tang on the shoulder. "Woah, woah. Tang, are you doing alright there?"
But before Pisgy could even tough Tang's shoulder, his arm was swat away with a surprising amount of force. Pisgy cursed as Tang gasped and mumbled something out in response. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Pisgy. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; I just, I was shocked to see Sun- erm, the Monkey Kings staff in person like that, with the implications of the Demon Bull King back out again in out city."
Pisgy just huffed, "You're fine, Tang." Pisgy slowly put his hand around Tang's shoulders, giving them a slight squeeze.
"Thanks, Pisgy. I'll just... I'm gonna need some time for a moment. Go get Sandy; I'm sure he'll have some ideas about this." Tang gave a wobly smile as he slowly stood up.
Pisgy gave a scrutinizing look before seemingly giving up. "Yeah, you're right. He would know what to do." Pisgy turned back to the worried looking Mk and Mei. "Were gonna go meet my friend Sandy. He was THE MOST blood thirsty person I knew before..."
Their voices faded out of the restaurant as Pisgy ushered them out, with Tang left standing in the lobby. He just stood and let his smile drop for a moment. Eyes seemingly glazed over as he slowly walked back to Pisgy's bathroom.
His thoughts became louder and louder as he got closer and closer, collapsing as they started to become akin to stabbing his skull. Tang grits his teeth in pain as he lurches forward. Tears ran down his face along with black liquid out of his mouth, dripping onto the tile. He threw up.
Dark liquid and chunks of what looked like characol flooded into the toilet. He coughed violently before sagging onto the floor, mouth tasting like ash.
Tang takes off his glasses and puts them to the side as he puts the toilet seat down and flushed it. He sat on the toilet seat and forced himself to take deep breaths.
He thinks back to Pisgy, Mei, Mk, and that fucking staff... he hopes they'll be ok.
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I give thee, more Tang doodles!
I put more effort into this as it's more like a character sheet than anything. I also made a weapon design I am happy with! I think it fits Tang well. (also, don't mention how drastically inconsistent my style is. It just morphs whenever I try to draw this guy I guess)
Also, here are some close-ups of the writing. If you can't read my chicken scratch, then it is listed under the images.
Image 1: Wrapped hands
You don't wanna know how long this man(?) spent annotating this thing
Image 2: weapon from dead friend
Oooo, spooky
Hello 👋 my ❤ friends !
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The war has taken every beautiful thing from us, leaving us homeless, displaced and jobless.
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So I am now asking you to lessen and minimize our burdens and loads of life through your contribution. You can help my family survive through donating whatever you can or reposting my messages.
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Life ramble
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I am Mohammed Ayyad from Gaza Al-Shuja'iyya
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Just some Tang doodles for my au from class today.
Btw, there's some blood and dead bodies and spoilers for a future scene after the cut.
These are just some practice expressions for Tang to get the eye shape with the glasses right.
This is what's underneath the jacket he usually wears out in New Town TM.
This is when Tang snaps on the battlefield after the Medic Tent gets attacked a 3rd time with no reinforcements to help.
JUST WATCHED EPISODES 7 AND 8 AND UNHOLY SH-
Look at all that Alastor LORE!!!!!
I AM SO EXCITED YOU DONT EVEN KNOW PEOPLE. WE HAVE BEEN FED WELL.
I also want to say that I was so freaking right in my first ramble about Alastor. Almost everything but his human life was freaking given to me in these episodes! I am very happy. Previous Ramble
*Ahem* Now, this is just a small analysis of Alastor scenes from both episodes, and I'll probably post my theories and stuff about it in a seperate post! I am currently frothing at the mouth. Obvious spoilers ahead!
Ok, so the first thing I saw was how Alastor jumped at the opportunity to go up to talk personally with Charlie.
Episode 7 thoughts:
I tried to steer away from sneak peak and spoilers, but I did get bombarded with little gifs of Alastor kicking his feet on Charlie's bed. Ruined the freaking surprise.
Anyways, Alastor obviously seemed to coerce Charlie into feeling rushed to a decision, which was obviously a deal with him.
I didn't expect him not to go for Charlie's soul. I saw so many people theorizing that was why he was at the hotel in the first place, and everything that lead up to Alistor finally making a deal throughout the other episodes, was a favor. A favor that didn't involve harm, no less.
This is still something very big, especially a favor from a princess of hell. I think the favor he needs eventually might be to help him break free of his leash, or to help protect him when he finally does in case things go south afterwards. Or maybe it could be a favor to somehow see how his mother is doing, the first much more dramatic, but I'd be happy with either.
Now there's Alastors demon form during the deal. Unholy cow, there's a lot to unpack. The first thing I noticed was Alastors FULLY STICTED smile. Like, entirely across. This could just be his true demonic from, or someone else did this to him to keep him smiling. From slipping up in his forced persona.
We also see how he can't stop smiling, even when by himself, drained of power, and hurt in his destroyed radio tower after the sngel attack. He rants and seemingly has a breakdown, but keeps smiling.
This could be how, like I said in my previous ramble, he uses his smile as a shield and as a defense for himself, like he stated to Charlie during the deal scene. Or, it's permanently there because it's just what he got stuck with in hell, or someone wanted to keep him smiling.
Speaking of which, the color is what's bothering me. There isn't much green in the pride ring other than Alastor himself. Almost every attack he's thrown has had green in it, with the crazy floating symbols, his explosions, and his void he controls has a bit of green. He can also invert colors. Why is that, when everything about him is red and black, matching the pride ring, his stitches and powers are green, like someone else's power.
There's also stitching all over his clothing, maybe as symbolism to keeping the persona up that the person who has his leash has made for him to play at the hotel.
Moving on to cannibal town, I adore Alastor and Rosie together. They bounce off each other well and just seem like real good friends. Love their dynamic! (Also, WOOOOOH! Canon Ace Alastor! Well, from Rosie. STILL THO! I am so happy, from a fellow asexual)
I was kind of sad when I realized Alastor could speak without his radio in hand when Charlie went singing with it as Alastor advertised the Executioner meat awaiting all the cannibals, with Charlie still holding the microphone. Would've been some entertaining stuff if he couldn't talk without it.
I don't really have much else to say about cannibal town, other than the Alastor comment near the end where it seems he's considering manipulating her to keep her on his side, to keep him on the winning one.
Now, episode 8.
This episode was a lot. In a good way, but still a lot.
Before the exterminators, everyone in the main cast was drinking, relaxing, and saying possible final goodbyes. Not Alastor. He was up on the balcony, watching the scene unfold.
They talk about how they enjoy the main casts company, and Alastor feels a bit sentimental as he admits he could get accustomed. Focus on the could part of that. He seems to imply he can't stay or things can't stay this way for long. Is it because of the reason he's at the hotel?
I do love Nifty and Alastor interactions. I wonder why they're so close compared to everyone else's relationship with Alastor in the main cast. Could they both be under the same leash, leaving some sympathy forbthe other? Or maybe Alastor just likes to see that gremlins shenanigans.
Now to the actual battle, Alstor was freaking peak at the beginning! His shield literally blocked off all angel interactions from the outside to keep the troops away, and it didn't even seem to tire out Alastor in the slightest!
The thing with him controlling those void tentacles to hold angelic weapons to kill the outsiders trying to break through is also just so cool to see because of Alastors ingenuity.
It took a strike from Adam just to break it, and I feel that's an accomplishment. For Adam to do something himself that all the other angels can't I feel is impressive, because he's not the head of the angelic army for no reason. I doubt heaven is that stupid to give a f-boy full control over the troops with no talent or experience to plan or lead them, at least.
Now for the Adam vs Alastor battle.
This had me at the edge of my seat, begging for Alastor not to be the one to be killed off this season.
I knew Alastor wasn't going to win, but he did have a good start. It seemed like he was toying and not taking this seriously, with full confidence in his abilities.
But that was until Adam finally got serious again, and broke his radio staff. His metaphorical (maybe literal based on his reaction) wall of defense.
This had me shook, as I saw my boy get beat in a couple of seconds. The radio staff was probably the source of at least a bit of his power from this person holding his leash, as he was worried enough about it to curse with no static in his voice during mid battle, leaving himself wide open. Or maybe this was just one of the times Alastor slipped up. It could also be the reason why he only used shadows, one of his only not-green abilities.
He still could move and talk, and I doubt he could attack or summon anything after being DIRECTLY HIT, POINT BLANK, WITH AN ANGELIC WEAPON, FROM PROBABLY ONE OF THE STRONGEST ANGELS IN THAT FREAKING EXTERMINATION, WHILE FREAKING SURVIVING AND GETTING BETTER THROUGHOUT JUST A COUPLE OF HOURS AT MOST.
(Also, shut up Vox. I know you freaking have the hate/obsession going on with the guy, but he probably lasted better than you could have, especially since you would've most likely been wire spaghetti after that hit from Adam)
I just realized that when rewatching, as before, I was just focusing on hoping he wouldn't be the one to die. But how did he survive that, and get pretty much better as soon as he got back to the radio tower? Maybe radio waves heal him, or he just has crazy recovery speed.
Now to the long awaited radio tower scene. I was hoping he would've gotten his own song by now, but maybe that shows how he needs someone else's push to be able to push on his own, like both his duets in the previous episodes.
Maybe we'll get an emotional song from him in the future. Crossing my fingers for that and a S2 as soon as possible!
Now the actual scene got me thinking. How Alastor is DEFINITELY under someone's control, as he also explicitly states it was a deal. Most likely for his soul, considering his want for freedom and to be able to do his own thing again.
I did see how Alastor was so desperate in his song snip about how he needs to find a way out of this deal he has made, with some of the most raw expressions we've seen of him to date.
But something did strike me. That on line from his song.
That's a bit of weird wording there Viv. Like, I know this is like an implication for his freedom, but imagine Alastor was a fallen angle or heavenly deity of some kind, like how the Cherubs got banished from heaven in Helluva Boss. Might explain how he didn't immediately die from Adams attack. (As you can see, I'm a bit delusional. But imagine if I was right tho)
But do imagine though, what this might imply for Alastor. How maybe the leash is holding something more than just his freedom, maybe how Alastor might've been even more powerful than he is right now, with the holder keeping some of his original raw power from his grasp, making him rely on their green power to survive and stay at the top.
The green light surrounding him with the line about him pulling the strings might also be how Alastor might want to take his holder's place, how when he's finally free from them he'll finally be able to take over that green with his own power, with his shadow.
I'm still wondering if Alastor is hiding side affects or pain from getting a beat down courtesy of Adam at the end there, as he seemed to take the most damage out of everyone while staying 'alive'.
Anyways, I need to wake up early tomorrow, and writing this in the middle of the night as it struck won't be pleasant for future me, but at least I could get all my thoughts together.
I am still obsessed with this deer man, if you couldn't tell already. I am so tired. If you saw any typos, no, you actually didn't.
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