#ling ask

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Get that man (pregnant)!

[asha-mage]

MDZS AU where Jiang Cheng realizes that Lan Sizhui is the Wen orphan that Wei Wuxian took care off during the Burial Mounds arc, decides that's close enough to qualify him as Nephew, declares that no Nephew of His (much less a surrogate son of Wei Wuxian's) is going to be raised in the Cloud Recedes, and immediately launches into a custody battle with Lan Wangji.

But since neither Jiang Cheng or Lan Wangji can acknowledge that Sizuhi has any connection to Wei Wuxian, both begin steadfastly and stubbornly insisting that he is a Cultivator of peerless potential and skill and he belongs in their sect thank you very much, and would clearly be very unhappy in the other's. This confuses the hell out of the already mystified Cultivation world, who had barely adjusted yet to gossiping about Sizhui being Wangji's illegitimate child by mysterious love affair.

(Eventually the common consensus in the rumor mills is that both JC and LW where in love with Sizhui's mother and both believe themselves to be Sizhui's real father.)

(LW couldn't care less what gossips say, but JC has to bite his tongue till it bleeds to avoid telling anyone the truth in a fit of anger.)

(It was Nie Huaisang who put that rumor out in the first place, partly to troll JC, partly because, in a way, it's a little true.)

[lazycranberrydoodles]

jin ling's slightly less homophobic arc (masterpost here!)

[avocado62524]

to a-ling, from xiao shushu

[qourmet]

open for a surprise

[ next ]

[nadiasna7]

Homecoming

It's hard to be separated.

[jjkyaoi]

their dynamic to me is just the basement yard podcast in its entirety but. in a gay way

[aashidoodles]

Maybe Shiguang friends seeing Shiguang with hickeys lol

Thank you for the prompt! 🦟

[wrathyforest]

oh! oh, if ur taking requests! may i pls have a qiao ling and cheng xioshi outfit swap?? (i love ur art so much btw, i want to eat ur styleeeeeeee)

Thank you! <3 And thank you for the rq, it was fun to draw! :D

[ilovepannacotta]

Ling and the baddie he pulled out by being goofy and silly.

(Doodles after the cut)

They are just two dorks in love

[boarloved-art]

i am once again in your inbox with my humble wenzhou request //w//

and im back with a humble wenzhou offering!!!

[muchmossymess]

ed just doesnt get it smh

[inf-01]

The way Lin Ling and Yang Cheng’s arcs mirror each other is so poetic, especially with Moon’s death (still haunts me) setting them up to be bitter enemies.

Here you have 2 young men, with low trust values, low self esteem, and precious few people who both know and care for them. But it’s also here at their start where things diverge. See, as far as we know, Lin Ling had no one. No family. No friends. Just a job that he was passionate about and a boss that hated him. He died and the only person to read about the article on his death was Enlightener. It’s not an exaggeration to say Lin Ling was even more of a nobody than Yang Cheng was.

And Yang Cheng on the other hand, well, we know he had it rough growing up. An orphan with zero trust value meant he was bullied and belittled at every turn. He has a whole mental breakdown over it, even. But then we see him through Xia Qing’s eyes, and we learn that from their first day of class she saw him. She saw the person he was in the same way Moon saw Lin Ling. She and Pamelo both saw the hero that he could be, if only he believed in himself. It’s ironic that despite having a trust value of zero, he had more people in his corner than Lin Ling (as himself, not as Nice) did up until the end of his arc.

And then there’s both of their forays into heroism. Yang Cheng’s story is much more textbook. The classic rags to riches zero to hero start from nothing guy that rises to the occasion when the chips are down. Manufactured or not, Pamelo’s kidnapping highlighted all the things that he and Xia Qing already knew, and that was that Yang Cheng was a hero. A real hero who helps people because he thinks it’s the right thing to do, and he was just like his predecessor in that way.

Old!Soul didn’t care about personal recognition or image, he just wanted to help people. We see time and time again that to him, this whole media circus is entirety secondary to his goal of saving people and doing it well. In this way he’s probably the best hero we’ve seen so far, and the closets to the actual ideal of heroism.

On the flip side, Lin Ling was literally forced to replace Nice. He didn’t take up the mantle because he wanted to line Yang Cheng, but because Treeman got him legally declared dead to save their image, and it’s here that the single greatest difference is highlighted. Where Yang Cheng as New!Soul went out of his way to differentiate himself from Old!Soul as a hero, everything Lin Ling did, from his training to his words, was in service of mincing Nice. He straight up says multiple times that he must become Nice, erase who he was before and paint over with the perfection of the Hero he has to be.

And that highlights another mirror, and that’s that where Old!Soul hardly cared for his image, for Nice it was everything. He’d been built from the ground up as the perfect hero. His (and sorta Lin Ling’s, though I’m holding out for a unique theme) sing is literally called Paragon, and he’s a very unsubtle Superman expy. So not only are Lin Ling and Yang Cheng contrasted in their arcs, so are the heroes they both end up replacing.

And of course we can’t forget their relationships, particularly Lin Ling and Moon vs Yang Cheng and Xia Qing. With the former, for most of his arc Lin Ling only knew Moon from behind a screen or script. He didn’t know her beyond the heroic persona she showed, and he idolized that facade. And yet the moment he sees how she acts behind closed doors, instead of falling from the pedestal he’d put her own, it only elevated her in his eyes. Motivated him to concoct a plan to make her happy.

And Yang Cheng…didn’t do that. He did the opposite, even, stomping all over the promise he’d made with Xia Qing. We know why, of course. He was wracked with guilt over letting Shang Chao die, and had gotten it into his head that Old!Soul was responsible. His low self worth and jealousy actively prevented him from growing closer with Xia Qing, even when she reached out first, and in the end his choice to peruse a battle with E-Soul destroyed their relationship.

And that brings me to the final parallel. The conclusion to their arcs and the final and arguably greatest point of divergence.

In his battle against God Eye, Lin Ling first had to overcome the chains of being Nice. While I could rant for hours on the sheer horror of seeing just how much a Hero is bound by the will of their fans, it’s outside the scope of this post. What I wanna focus on is how Lin Ling’s desire to protect Moon’s happiness totally overrode his desire to be the perfect hero. He had no interest in being Nice if it’d cost moon her life, and willingly shattered his perfect facade to pieces for her sake. Lin Ling realized that to be the sort of hero he wanted to be, he couldn’t be Nice. He realized that he didn’t want to be Nice, not really, and proudly declared himself nothing more then a Commoner for the whole world to see.

And then we have Yang Cheng, who also declared equally loudly for the entire world to see his intention to replace his predecessor, thematically in direct opposition to Lin Ling’s own climax. Both Moon and Xia Qing give similar sentiments of “maybe you don’t have to be the hero who’s name you bare”, but Yang Cheng’s motivation is very different from Lin Ling’s. From the start, being E-Soul had been a conscious choice-and sure, he was definitely coerced in more than a few ways, but he was not legally and physically cornered in the same way. His actions were ultimately, in accordance with the manipulations of Uncle Rock, playing directly into the man’s hands where Lin Ling’s own were in blatant opposition to his corporate backers.

Honestly, I love the way these two contrast with each other, and I hope that in season 2 they’re made to foil each other more directly instead of just having such complimentary arcs.

[shijiujun]

Cui Cui: WHY DO I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS

— Love Game in Eastern Fantasy 永夜星河 (2024) | EP. 15

[rainibao]

I keep thinking of Lin Ling (precious delusional wife) and all the ways his Nice is different from the original. Much softer, more doe eyed expressions compared to the originals sharper more confident/later jaded gaze. He also has uglier expressions when he fights (that is to say, he looks more intense/angry) vs og Nice effortless smile. And I can't help but wonder if the ending sequence (where his hair is brown again with a white streak) implies he'll slowly break the NICE persona. I wonder if he's going to remain so complicit when he's already done so much to change the image. (Implied wreck death which is not his fault entirely but he was honest with him which is notable) and finding an out for Moon which the og couldn't do in 1-2years?

Technically he's designed the Perfect excuse for the Nice character to change- they fridged his fiance. His nemesis is gone. Even if he's outed there's a lot of ways Lin Ling can shift the narrative. It's fascinating I wanna see how long he can be NICE before he makes it his own. That or before the horrors get him. Cause buddy I'd be a bit more concerned if my false persona was worsening my ocd (although he said worsening not developing so maybe he's always had it....)

Also Lin Ling deserves a bit more credit he was a fan boy for moon sure but he genuinely just thought she was cuter as herself over her persona and went against his own wants to find her an out even ensuring she'd have the choice to go wherever.

Think for all his parasocial callouts the man's adherence to boundaries is kinda over looked.

He's also too honest for a man forced to lie- he legit caves to telling the truth pretty much immediately when confronted directly which is extremely amusing

Yoo thanks for the long ask anon! Always very happy to see people be thoughtful about tbhx

I agree about Lin Ling looking softer in general!! We don't really have a lot to go off in terms of comparing their expressions during fights (since in the fights Lin Ling has been in, his opponents are actually out to get him- with Nice we only have his PV with Wreck iirc) but I do agree that certain expressions that OG Nice makes (in the PVs) I can't imagine Lin Ling ever making. And if he ever does, it would be heartbreaking asf

YES the ED visuals!! It feels like it showcases the breaking of the status quo, so I sure do hope it is him breaking the persona and not the other way around...And yea, by the virtue of him being him and not OG Nice, he lost the people that secured Nice his position. He lost who the public perceives to be his arch nemesis (I doubt Wreck would choose to be his nemesis for real) and his loverboy persona, now it's really up to him to carve his own hero identity even if still under Nice's image

As for him letting Wreck fall, I choose to believe that he decided Wreck is powerful enough to not die from a fall (like how Nice wouldn't have died if he used his flight) but it still kind of irks me that a grieving man losing his shit was treated like another villain to defeat

Edit: hang on, but Wreck would still be considered at risk given his mental state so uhh l0 explain yourself 😔

He only developed OCD recently, in chinese he says his "最近的强迫症" (recent OCD) has been getting worse, rather than "强迫症最近越来越严重" (OCD has been getting worse recently)

I definitely loved how he respected Moon as a person first and crush second, interacting with her normally despite the swooning, though I also think that's the bare minimum. We really shouldn't be used to fanboy characters acting like creeps, and I'm glad that trope wasn't utilised. It's cute that he's a polite gentleman!

About the honesty thing- yeaa haha even with the lie detector xD I love that he let his confusion and panic show when Wreck started asking him about the texts emails and calls, forgetting that he was supposed to be calm and suave xD Kind of reminiscent of how he was when juan jie was questioning him about Nice in ep 1, I think

Also, to be fair...I wouldn't be able to lie to someone clearly so desperate for the truth (him threatening Moon aside, but I think it's pretty clear from the framing that Lin Ling did feel bad seeing how much despair Wreck was in)

[shanastoryteller]

Happy birthday!!!! More FMA!

He’s fucking tired.

In Xerxes, he’s Van Edris. In Xerxes, he’s the son of a former slave, having narrowly escaped being born into his father’s fate by virtue of him being awarded freedom by the time of his birth. In Xerxes, he’s an uncommon commodity, an alchemist with a skill that hasn’t been seen since his father fucked off to who knows where.

In Amestris, he’s Edward Elric. In Amestris, he’s the son of Trisha Elric who was born free and died free because while there are lots of different forms of freedom, in Amestris there’s one that everyone shares. In Amestris, he’s unknown and unremarkable and no one gives a fuck about what he does.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he says flatly.

This is what he gets for visiting his father’s country. It’s just fucking unfortunate that the really good alchemical texts are here.

He should have let Al (Van Altun, as they know him, even though the two of them having been using their Amestrian names almost their whole lives, regardless of what country they were in) do it. They’re not nearly as weird about him.

Pakor is alright, as far as kings go. He’s freed a lot of people, is poking at the laws of ownership that has governed his country for centuries to see if he can do anything about them without getting beheaded for it. He’s also known Ed since he was a barely able to walk, back when his father still made court appearances and brought the family along with him. Former slave against most talented alchemist in the country, and people tended to politely ignore the former. Hell, Ed’s been counting on the same thing since he was twelve.

Of course, now it’s coming back to bite him. People say he’s a genius, but if he was really smart he would have stayed far, far away from court. Like in Amestris, perhaps.

“You’re fluent in both languages,” Pakor says, coaxing.

“So are you,” he says accusingly. “We’re speaking Amestrian right now!”

Pakor sighs and switches to Xerxian. “You also speak Xingese and Drachman. You’re a difficult man to keep secrets from.”

“I’m also Amestrian!” he shouts. “And free, might I add! You can’t sell me off to slavery just to get some intel!”

“It’s not like we’ll brand you,” he says, affronted, and Ed is reminded that alright for a king is still pretty shitty. “We just need someone to do a little – double checking. To ensure the situation in Amestris is as it’s advertised.”

“You want to gift me to the Fuhrer to spy on him and you’re, what, just hoping he doesn’t notice that I understand everything and know everything and am, oh yeah, one of his citizens? I’ve been to Central before! With my luck, I’ll get recognized the first day here and then run out of Amestris! And, again, Amestris doesn’t have slaves! The leader of the country really can’t have one.”

Pakor sighs. “You’re very dramatic, Edris. It won’t be so bad. Here, I’ll say you’re my personal slave and that you’re on loan. It’ll be for cultural exchange purposes. He speaks Xingese, so you can communicate in that language without letting on you know Amestrian.”

Ed pinches the bridge of his nose. “This is a stupid fucking idea.”

“If you do this,” Pakor says, “I’ll give you the key to the royal library.”

Ed slowly lowers his hand, eyes narrowing. “I’ve been asking you to let me in there for years.”

“I figured I’d need to bargain it away eventually,” he says. “I was hoping you’d marry one of my daughters for it.” Having even light court obligations is bad enough, he’s in no way stupid enough to marry in. “You’re very difficult, you know. I’m your king. I shouldn’t have to bargain with you.”

“Tough shit,” Ed says, because Pakor may have known him for nearly twenty years, but that knowing goes both ways. Besides, he can’t piss him off because then he and Al will stop reparing all their shit bridges and infrastructure. “Fine. But if I lose my Amestrian citizenship over this, I’m going to be pissed.”

“Noted,” Pakor says brightly.

Uhg.

It doesn’t help that everything he’s heard about Fuhrer Mustang makes the man sound insufferable.