Em || lingnice on the brain

Gotta remember to check Bluesky more often… so I can admire shing-kun’s drawing twice!! Poor boy (he’s older than me) he needs a hug…

bsky.app/profile/hand...

You guys can blame or thank Shing-kun and Kofi for this

“What the fuck.”

“Yeah…”

“Your *old* place?” Ah, it seemed like he was catching on. “As in, you lived here before I did or… when you were me?”

Lin Ling chuckled awkwardly, scratching his cheek, “Ahh… aha… second one.”

“Look! I don’t know what’s going on either!” he tried to explain, “I just wanted to come and visit my old place is all! I have no idea what is happening right now!”

“Uhhhh…” how was he supposed to explain this, “I’m… you? I think?”

“What do you *mean* you think?!” Came the strained and borderline hysterical  response. Which. Fair. Lin Ling held up his hands to placate the other.

It wasn’t long before the younger man—because he *was* younger—scrambled to the corner of his bed, back against the wall as he stared at Lin Ling with wide eyes. “Who the fuck are you?!?! And why do you look like me???”

“Ugh… didn’t I turn off the lights…? Maybe I forgot—”

The sleepy words cut off as the other man caught sight of him. For a moment they simply stared at each other, uncertain, and likely uncomprehending on his other self’s side given he’d just woke up.

Just as he was thinking to retreat, because clearly something was wrong here, the other man—his past self—shifted in his sleep, face scrunched in discomfort.

Ah. Lin Ling had forgotten to block the light from the doorway.

Among them was having experienced X’s powers first hand. Lin Ling was pretty certain this took the cake though. What was odder than meeting yourself??

Or more accurately, given that he couldn’t see the white strip of hair that he now sported, this was his past self. What the hell?

This was, to say the very least, one of *the* oddest things he’d ever experienced.

Lin Ling could tell from the slow up and down of the sheets that the person was asleep. He stepped further into the room, his footsteps quiet, until he could see a very familiar head of brown hair. It was familiar because he saw it everyday in the mirror.

That was himself.

Except.

Except there was someone in the bed.

Everything was as he left it. Papers all over his desk. Moon posters on his walls. Whatever bits and pieces he counted as decoration scattered about.

Miss J could reach him at any time if there was an emergency that he needed to see to anyways.

There was a soft click as he twisted the knob, a small creak when the door was pushed open. The lights that he had turned on along the way poured into that small bedroom.

Lost in his thoughts he almost hadn’t realized that his feet had brought him to his bedroom door. It was quite late wasn’t it? Maybe he could crash here for the night before going back tomorrow.

(On his bad days he wished he’d never become a hero at all. Ghosts still haunted him in his sleep. Lin Ling’s worst nights consisted of snow white hair and dead blue eyes, of faces covered in blood as he could do nothing but watch, of bodies dropping from fatal heights.)

Lin Ling loved being a hero, don’t get him wrong, but sometimes he wanted a break from it all.

Still, Lin Ling took his time as he walked through. He’d spent so long away from here that it almost felt odd to be here. He could envision that past version of himself going about his day, that mundane that he now missed.

Just like that, he was in. See? Everything was where he had left it. He doesn’t know why he was so jittery about it all. Ridiculous.

So here he was, late in the evening, key in hand as he stared at his former apartment door. Somehow Lin Ling was feeling a touch nervous. It was his own place! Why was he feeling so anxious?? Whatever, just unlock the door and get it over with.

But Lin Ling didn’t feel like he belonged among the crowd anymore.

Yes, he was on the ground with civilians more than other heroes. Yes, he often helped out with more everyday issues than anyone else. Yes, he wasn’t all that flashy compared to the rest.

Really, despite the fact that he was called The Commoner and was supposed to be the hero that was closest to the people—he didn’t feel like it.

Why had Lin Ling wanted to know? Well mostly because he wanted his stuff back. It wasn’t much but it was still *his* stuff. That, and recently he’d been feeling the need for something normal. Something mundane

As it turned out, they’d simply bought out the unit and left it as is—save for some clean up to make sure nothing went rotten inside. Well, all the better for him.

#LLingcest

It had taken some poking and pleading, but he’d finally managed to get the keys for his old apartment from Miss J. Lin Ling had always wondered what they’d done with his belongings.

Ehehehe pretty pretty man 💛💛💛

Fair enough I just hate his bed lolol