#the beiber thing popped up cause i realised that the miracles probably made them miss that era and its equivalent

[acearohippo]

Hey, come here a bit. Walk with me on this trail of thought:

Wondering how many kids around Li Ling's age grew up watching him on the news, following vids and feeds keeping tabs on him, hearing rumours about all the stuff he did, and ended up with gigantic, fat crushes on him. How many fathers and mothers bemoaned hearing their children gush about everything he did? Kids trying to emulate his style and speech so they could be as cool as they thought he was. Making thirst trap/heart throb vids of him during his teen years. Preteen/teen espers fantasing about fighting alongside him and marrying him one day. Nonesper preteens/teens fantasing about being saved by him and marrying him.

This went down in 2007+? What if Li Ling was the Justin Beiber of that era that the now current adults either unashamedly reminisce about or would rather be choked by a rusted barbed wire before admitting to?

Would Li Ling even know that, in some child's room, there are whole ass shrines dedicated to him?

Would he ever know of the multitude of polls either comparing him/his younger self to men like Ahmed, Gaius, Narmer, and wars breaking out in the comments of avid fans defending him and trying to cheat votes in his favour?

For my shippers:

Think of Lewis and/or Tang Xuan and/or [insert your of age preferred pairing] having memorabilia of that phase in their lives and desperately trying to pretend it out of existence. And Li Ling being confused af when he finds something, like a crudely made face pillow of himself, random laminated pictures of his face edited onto a groom's body, or an old, forgotten music playlist named "When I become Mr. /Mrs. Li", and the guilty party cruising through denial and trying to play it off.

Alternately, think of your preferred ship NOT going through that phase and thinking Li Ling was just a douchey kid that got away with too damn much cause people thought he was cute or psychotic or some shiii, only to realise that they somehow fell in love with the man... And yeah, he is a douche that gets away with too damn much cause he's hot and crazy and shiii.

I think it would be CRAZY if he didn't have some sort of following.

#the hippo speaks #dislyte #li ling dislyte #I'm really vibing with the idea that Li Ling was a child superstar but had NO IDEA because he lived purely in his own world #and by the time he was mature enough to start thinking outside of his atmosphere the hype and awe around him was gone #cause he was the youngest esper with a Personality #ain't no way he wasn't someone's first crush and or awakening #the beiber thing popped up cause i realised that the miracles probably made them miss that era and its equivalent #does li ling ever find out that he has sites dedicated to him beyond the generic profile of him from the Union? #the world may never know #thank you for your time you many now get off the trail #*shooing motions*