#cedar.>>>tbhx

[cedarwrought]

pouring one out for xyq rn

she got her freedom taken away by the very fans who once supported her travels. was forced to stay by the side of a man who didn't even care for her. sat there as someone else wearing his face calls her his goddess- objectifying her and deifying her once again- and then? gets locked on the same floor as him for a month!

A MONTH.

yes they got along by the end and yes lin ling was considerate. but really. after having to face the reality she would be tied to this guy for as long as their fans wish, it must've been agony.

and then! when she's finally able to leave, to be free as she wished, she's stranded on an uninhabited island. doomed to send out messages in bottles in the vain hope that someone, anyone would save her.

then the boy that saved her- because really, as loathe as she is to call anyone a hero, he saved her- shows up again. properly gives her back her freedom. the public believes she's dead, but they gave her the power to go wherever she pleases. she can be free. really free.

and then she got shot in the head.

no frills, no monologue- just a quick, dismissive death. one meant to impact lin ling.

even in her death xiao yueqing was not granted decency.

she will always be tied to a man.

[cedarwrought]

crack theory that x bakes in his downtime and all the birds are bread . the reason why he wants to stop working overtime is because the Yeast Calls To Him

@gotta-bail-my-quails @supremefloof

© plutoxoxi via x/twitter

[supremefloof]

tbhx oc (? kind of) in the works

it's actually the fav oc that gets an au version for everything shhh

thinking of naming them "Skyline". as in city skyline. dunno about the chinese name though because 天际 (tiān jì) is also the word for skyrim as in skyrim the game, maybe replace tian with 空, 云 or 风? maybe even 飞际 (fēi jì) which sounds like airplane.

this is the first time ever ive used pinterest for an oc which seems crazy to me. gundam wings are sick and I wish I knew about them earlier

anyways tbhx has got me putting in work i am not an engineer why do I have to think about logistical wing accessories 😭

also still working on the rest of the outfit

inspiration being "birds aren't real" ifykyk and me trying to think of how to stuff a winged oc into a setting with mostly humans. arrived at parkour and mecha

thinking chinese streetwear/techwear, light blue

They have a general movement based ability (enhanced eyesight, reflexes, can jump very high, etc) but they really want proper flight which is probably the reason for the outfit

small-time hero gig mainly being sponsored by streetwear brands. they get sent clothes and wear patches with ads on their jackets and stuff like that.

signed to a smaller hero agency (like the ones that show up in ep 11 on the tv) because they gathered a following on FOMO. in terms of popularity think like 60-70k followers on tiktok or equivalent since we have no idea what counts as a lot of Trust Value.

the accessorizing seems impractical because it is... at least until trust value helps things stay on. probably diy at first. after cool expensive agency upgrade the wings can move better.

Skyline is a Lucky Cyan stan! the wing attachment over the ears double as headphones

they don't do heroism full-time; they have an job at a production company that overworks them...

...fun fact that part literally came to me in a dream I told cedar about a month ago

their civilian identity is secret to their followers, like a faceless influencer basically. a bunch of people have seen their face connected to their persona but they're either trusted, other heroes, or under NDA. it's not like e-soul level serious though it's just so they don't get recognized outside of work

they also present more masculine in their hero persona than their civilian one, partially to hide their identity and partially because male heroes are at an advantage in the industry. I imagine their shoes probably add some height.

they get a pet pigeon at some point that they save off the street

and YEAH im gonna draw them with X

@uraniathegypsy @paradisedisconcert @cedarwrought ykwhat @gotta-bail-my-quails u too

[cedarwrought]

what the hell are they feeding these kids

chili bubble gum flavor??? i beg your finest pardon???

[cedarwrought]

the way wreck is the strongest man alive because if my bf was making hearts with some girl in front of god and everyone in an ad for a show called "true love recipe" id be the one falling off the advertising company's building

[cedarwrought]

“Do you enjoy playing the villain?”

He blinks. Lets the question settle around his throat- shackle the ache in his chest.

“Do you enjoy playing his girlfriend?”

She doesn’t answer at first. Leans her arms over the railing, the light of the city reflecting in her eyes like dying stars.

“It’s my job.”

That much is obvious. There hasn’t been a day where she hasn’t left work the second they’re dismissed.

He snorts, taking another swig from the beer in his hand.

The noise of the party readily fills the void between them, bass buzzing against their feet.

He sighs, readying himself to leave before she speaks-

“I don’t love him, you know.”

The sheer absurdity of her statement makes him laugh- a ragged, bitter sound that scrapes against his vocal chords.

Of course she doesn’t love him.

How could she?

She’s never seen his face without makeup- though he guesses that’ll change when they move in together- nor heard him when he laughs.

Really laughs. Not the tenor refrain he warbles on screen.

His real laugh is too loud, unrestrained. Unbefitting of the shining hero of justice.

His real laugh isn’t “Nice” enough.

“Yeah. I know.”

[cedarwrought]

steady, love

yang cheng x gn! reader ; hurt/comfort/fluff

wc: roughly 500~

tags: gn! reader (no gendered pronouns used), insecurity and abandonment issues on yang cheng's end, hurt/comfort

He tends to fall into cycles like this. Anxiety barbs deep in his already-trembling heart, tightening as his breath quickens, vision blurring in a hazy miasma. Voices of old bullies taunt him, their young voices piercing him like sprouting bamboo shoots- quick and imprecise in their vitriol, uncaring, unwilling to cast their gaze to their own weeping wounds in favor of shredding the tender flesh of his own.

Even as he’s gotten older- grown taller, soft baby fat giving way to sinew and lean muscle- he finds himself rendered immobile, knees drawn in tight as if it’s enough to make the rush in his head go away. To make himself go away.

“Who would want someone with a low trust score?”

“No wonder your parents died.”

“Who would love you?”

You, apparently.

He laughs, the sound ragged.

You, in all your patience and unflinching kindness, have placed your heart in his hands. Let the messiness of it seep into the lines of his palms, find home in the crevices in his fingertips.

He doesn’t know why.

(Well, yes he does- you tell him as much. In sleepy murmurs between wisps of smoke rising from a circuit board, sips of not-too-sweet milk tea- your raw affection leaves him helpless, the brightness in your eyes never failing to tear him asunder.)

Maybe it’s better to say he struggles to believe you.

That some days it feels as if he’s found himself in a blissful dream and is terrified of waking up. That instead of your touch, he’ll wake up to the edges of an E-Soul action figure clutched between his fists, the hard plastic ridges leaving angry red marks in their wake.

To find that your words, your touch, were all but a child’s imagination, desperate in the absence of his parent’s embrace.

“Yang Cheng?”

He must really be pathetic, thinking of your voice while he’s-

“Yang Cheng.”

Oh.

Crouched by his side, you peer down at him, eyes lidded with concern. You’re wearing one of the shirts from his uncle’s bubble tea shop, the white of it faded over multiple washes.

In the small space of his room, washed in lamplight and the moon’s favor, you look ethereal.

It’s not even a moment later before the drying tear tracks on his cheeks tug at his skin, demanding his attention. His shame. At doubting you, at crying, at-

“Do you need a hug?”

It’s so simple, the way you ask him, and he finds himself weepy once more, hands already moving up to dash away the tears brushing his lashes.

And then it’s warm, his face tucked into the crook of your shoulder, the scent of your shampoo enveloping him in a secondary embrace. Your heartbeat is steady against his, firm and unrelenting, unwilling to falter- an unspoken vow.

(I’m here for you, I love you).

And he believes you.

author's note: i adore this man so much . i want to treat him so so tenderly . along with other things but . you know .

reblogs and comments are very much appreciated, thank u for reading <3

Edit: this was written and posted before episode 7, and i'm currently using it to cope </3

[cedarwrought]

YESSS

to Me if he's unable to change genders he is an alpha who takes a scent blocker to be able to pass off as an omega while in civilian form (but thats moreso because i enjoy the difficulties that would come with it lol. forgetting to apply the blocker to his neck could have disastrous consequences and the thought of one of the top 10 stumbling upon it delights me so much).

also lin ling being a beta suits the idea well but thats also because ive been thinking about alpha! og! nice and beta! lin ling...

yknow what. i should probably mention that the 💯 au (civilian X/top 10) started out as an omegaverse hypothetical from a conversation with @cedarwrought where genderfluid X (both like, abo and regular genders) changes between an alpha scent (what people assume is hero X's scent) and an omega scent so his coworkers think the other scent is hero X's and that they're mates or whatever

In this version, the top 10 do know hero X is civilian X (although there is. so much shenanigan potential if they don't--like X faking a claim bite or whatever it is on his neck using. dentures) and essentially just pack bond. They think the misunderstanding is hilarious and purposefully make things worse for him.

Civilian X's coworkers have thus somehow all individually concluded he is dating a different member of the top 10. They have wars over this.

Lin Ling is the intern with a crush on civilian X. He anonymously gifts him something for Valentine's (thus making the number of gifts 10 for the top ten) and it's the only one X doesn't take. Cue one heartbroken intern and a lot of drama about which of the top ten was rejected.

(dw, intern Lin Ling gets introduced to X via Nice later lol)

@lady1011 tagging b/c of your ask lol

[cedarwrought]

He's messed up again.

Knows it, feels the tang of utter failure puncture him with certainty as he takes a bite of the take-out that'd been left on the counter. His lover- his real lover- leans against the wall not too far away, smile strained with a desperation that's become more and more frequent the past few months.

Excuses and pleads snake up the back up his throat, but he swallows.

What hasn't he said?

How many times has his partner, his friend waited on him like this? Alone, in this empty apartment- because what if they want him to do a floor tour, where would the furniture go- staring at that cursed screen, hoping for a text back- even though Miss Juan has begun confiscating his phone during work hours.

He approaches him first; it’s the least he can do. Tries to ignore the thoughts that buzz in his head about how he’s dirty, how he should shower before even thinking about touching another.

The ache in his chest tugs at him with a ferocity that nearly drowns those thoughts out.

Nearly.

When he raises a hand to the other man’s face, he trembles at how warm he is. Warm, despite how he’s surely cursing him for not prioritizing him- for not prioritizing them. For selling his smiles to the masses, none left for his love by the time he gets home.

Perhaps it is not his partner that is warm, but he that has gone cold.

A surge of hunger runs through his body like a livewire, and he nearly draws blood in his unfettered desire, biting and licking at his love’s mouth as if it’ll make up for the cloth separating them both.

As if their act of worship will absolve him of the bitter taste rotting in his mouth.

[cedarwrought]

just thought about how yang cheng hasn't had a proper birthday celebration since his parents died and im going to weep .

like yeah his uncle's probably given him the night off or free boba or something small. but he had no friends before xia qing, xiao youzi, and shang chao. and we all saw how well thats gone (still hoping its a fake out or that shang chao is alive somehow btw).

but i think hes very touched if you make him longevity noodles. i dont think he's ever really thought about his future outside of meeting e-soul again one day you know. he doesn't really have any future career ideas or aspirations.

i think . cooking noodles for him . putting in the work to make the broth and homemade noodles makes him a bit teary. someone wishing him a long life- and expressly wanting to spend it with him of all people- is very touching to him.

[cedarwrought]

wolf girl my beloved...i wonder what happened to her after firm man retired. she injured multiple citizens, destroyed city infrastructure, and most importantly (from the perspective of the corporations).

she spread anti-hero propaganda . to us, the viewers, we understand that she was humanizing him, pleading for anyone willing to listen to give him the grace to simply be.

but to the corporations? she's a threat.

one who's just revealed her identity to the world.

we've seen that there's been heroes created to be the "clean up crew." if corporations wield the ability to wipe the memory of anyone deemed a "villain"...she might not even be able to remember who firm man is after the events from episode 3.

or with how extensive the memory wiping would have to be, (and with the lack of safety measures/high levels of trauma she would endure) she might not even be able to remember herself.

[cedarwrought]

LIKE. ITS SILLY BUT ALSO . FRANKLY . KEEP THE MASK ON ITS DOING SMTHN FOR ME LOL

have u watched the ep 6 preview. OG e-soul's muscles....

YES HELP ISKDKTJNT

The way he was shirtless but still wearing his mask though... hehe silly

[cedarwrought]

wreck is so dog coded to me . even after nice left him he chases after his remnants- a passerby looks similar to the shock of white hair he'd see haloed around his pillow in early mornings, the eyes of a waiter the same lake blue (which he later found out were contacts- the waiter took his staring as admiration, but he has to hold himself back from tearing out their eyes after hearing they were bought from treeman corp).

hell, he even finds himself nuzzling the old button up nice left at his apartment. the scent's long faded- it's been years, after all- but he swears the powdery scent of nice's body wash lingers in the fabric, precious memories interwoven with threads of dreams and cotton.

[cedarwrought]

lin ling, yang cheng, and exploitation (because their similarities are insane . to me .)

(spoilers for ep 5 below)

its interesting how li haolin is framing our "perfect heroes" (lin ling and presumably yang cheng taking roles in the top 10) to be the ideal victims tbh. both are incredibly isolated and lonely without a proper support system, therefore relying on an easy crutch offered by hero society.

lin ling found his motivation (however parasocial it may be) through watching xiao yueqing in her hero persona and creating advertisements for her (which he refers to as a "labor of love" in ep.1), and ultimately found fulfillment to be a hero after realizing he wanted to protect those he cared for. (i have my gripes with how moon was treated but i addressed that in a previous post)

(personally, i'm not fond of the way his motivation seems soley to revolve around becoming a sword for those he loves as it's still quite self-sacrificial and the hero system will eat him alive. he may not be pressured to be "perfect," but when you are only a single person the public's demands will tear you apart as they project all their grievances onto you, regardless of whether or not it's reasonable)

similarly, yang cheng's motivation also revolves around another hero. (yes he has a crush on a girl, but it's not like her existence kept him going. he's just extremely lonely and self isolated and doesn't know what to do with himself lol)

e-soul saving him at a young age after undergoing a traumatic event (watching his parents die violently in front of him and nearly getting abducted himself) and became the sole thing that kept him going. he doesn't even consider himself worth saving, really, because he says he just wants to be able to face e-soul proudly. when the kid assumes he wanted to be a hero like e-soul, he dismisses it as impossible, and says there's no point in going to the event because there's no way e-soul would notice someone like him.

(sound familiar? lin ling tells his boss that his ad is effective because it shows even "nobodies like him" can be heroes. the thing is, even though lin ling said it to persuade his boss, he never really thought he could be a hero until the fight with his boss, but even then it was moreso because of his role as nice than rather being a hero himself. that doesn't happen until the end of his arc in ep. 4).

when yang cheng does get a taste of trust value and what heroism can offer, he's immediately cornered by the ceo's son who had judged the e-soul competition. even though the guy's initially set up to be a love-rival, we're quickly reminded that he's a businessman's son- one that intends to poach this viral underdog.

li haolin's really trying to hone in on the fact that the hero system's exploitative of vulnerable people and that exploitation isn't an infection of the hero system, but a symptom itself (and i am so here for it)

[cedarwrought]

bashing my head against a wall thinking about how the tension between xyq and wreck at the company holiday party. its perhaps one of the few times wreck can freely see nice but even then its not enough. he's swept away by up and coming heroes hoping to glean a bit of wisdom, a bit of the perfection he's worked tirelessly to maintain.

i feel like xyq and wreck have a mutual avoidance after an incident where wreck speaks to her a bit more harshly than intended- more raw than he ever tries to convey. and it clicks for her then that it's not nice he's jealous of. despite him becoming a hero, a shining light, wreck's animosity seems to disappear around nice.

he's jealous of her. and suddenly, everything makes sense. why he seems to trail after nice after their scenes are filmed, why he tries to talk to him. nice knows this too, but keeps his distance. as if he's afraid of wreck

once we find out more info about xyq/wreck i need to write because my heart cant take this

[cedarwrought]

spoilers for ep 8 below cut!

the parallels between liu zhen and lucky cyan....

firstly: liuu zhen i love you liu zhen they could never make me hate you (unless the next episodes say otherwise)

him entrusting cyan to the orphanage director to try and keep her from being a victim but by trusting another institution he inadvertently led her to become a victim again...

also him naming her cyan is something i will (lovingly) bully him for given it's the literal color of her hair but it's moves me...it's so vibrant and yet she's told to hide it behind white because her natural hair color- her desires, her wants- are "too bright," and that white calms the hearts of the people...her friend listening to a radio broadcast of Queen, wanting to overthrow the trust system in place of a new order and influencing her, leading her to reveal clothes she likes and sing music she's created from the heart in front of the congregation...

liu zhen wanting to reveal the truth behind the plane crash and being told to censor it so that trust value isn't harmed...where has he been in the past few years we see in the episode i wonder...i'm worried for him since the last time we see him in the episode is him talking to the guy mentioning the aether laboratory and "accepting fear."

edit: nevermind i just realized he's queen's guardian/dad. i see how it is . liu zhen choke challenge. even if ur intentions are noble u need to not exploit children please i beg of u