LING'S DIRECTORY

APPEARANCE

Ling is an unnaturally slight elf of a woman, being rather short and unnaturally slim in width. It is perhaps the first thing that one might notice about her, wondering how the girl even manages to stay alive with so thin a frame. Due to her cyborg surgeries and adjustments after an accident during her childhood, parts of her body would be replaced with metal parts, particularly in the torso region. With the majority of her organs being metallic and mechanic in nature, the structure made to represent skin had been made to create a normal human-looking frame for a much younger Ling. However, due to the lack of material where Ling grew up, she was never able to get the torso replaced, leaving her with rather odd proportions. In order to throw away attention from her metallic parts however, Ling clothes herself in large jackets and coats most of the time. In addition to her torso, the lower regions of Ling's arms as well as her hands were replaced with metal as well, causing her to prefer wearing long sleeves and gloves whenever she can. Her legs are mostly unchanged besides a few sections in the thigh area.

In addition to her metallic parts, her throat and diaphragm also received damage, and could not be repaired to the full extent, leaving her mute. Instead, Ling speaks through a handheld microphone that projects her voice out through the wire instead of through her mouth, even if her mouth is still moving.



HAIR // Black

EYES // Light Blue

HEIGHT // 5'2

WEIGHT // 105 lbs

PERSONALITY

Unlike what one might expect from her story, Ling is a bright, cheerful person who doesn't ever seem to have much of a care in the world. She does what makes her happy when she wants to, and gets along well with generally everyone around her. Preferring to stay out of all the political chaos that happens around her, Ling is truly of neutral alignment in the sense that she does what she does for herself and what she herself cares about. Instead of getting worked up about morality and which side is correct, she just lets herself do what feels right to herself what she enjoys.

Being a bit of a dreamer, Ling's love for fairy tales and mystical stories has been a constant throughout her life. From playing make-believe as a child and doodling adventures in the margins of her notebooks, she dreams of something big and dramatic happening to her someday, sweeping her up into the arms of some storybook journey. As a result of her absentminded personality, Ling can be rather clumsy and gullible, following anyone whose story or tale sounds interesting or cool enough. Often seen tripping or crashing into things due to her head being somewhere in the clouds, it's only natural that she's often called a klutz or daydreamer.

Yet, despite her almost dumb impression, Ling's love of stories and fairy tales has also allowed her to extend her imagination to fill the shoes of others, considering how the world would look like to people of all types. As a result, while she may not be particularly intelligent nor skilled, her ability to empathize with others and observe their behavior allows her to be unusually perceptive in a world of conflicting views. However, this ability does come at a price as well. Considering how she herself might look to people around her all the time does take a toll on her mental health, often generating negative thoughts about herself. Ling has very low self-esteem, and considers herself to be greatly inferior to those around her, unfit to be anything near a heroine.

Keeping these qualities in mind, it is also only natural that Ling would never voluntarily step up into a leadership position. As much as she might dream of it in her make-believe daydreams, she does not consider herself worthy of such a role. As a follower, she's honestly not particularly outstanding either - just someone else who follows orders as well as she can and does her best to contribute. In a group, perhaps her ideal position would be someone who keeps people together, being able to consider situations from everyone's points of view.

As for interactions with others, Ling gives a pretty extroverted first impression. Always happy to talk with others, much of her life determined by interactions with others. Being easily influenced by what others think about her, you could say that the way Ling acts is different depending on who she spends more time around.

TRUE NEUTRAL

LIKES/DISLIKES

LIKES // Ling absolutely loves stories or fairy tales of any sort, and is easily swayed by the fantasies that come out of them. In fact, probably one of the best ways to get her to end up following or befriending you is by telling her a tall tale about some adventure you're going on. // Bubble tea is probably the best drink in the world, in this writer's humble opinion. Ling agrees with me on this one. // Rocks are freaking amazing, tbh. So much variety, so many colors, so many shapes and textures! It's always a complicated process, imagining where a rock as been or where it will go next - to Ling, a rock holds some of the most fascinating stories in the world, as weird as that sounds.

DISLIKES // Everyone hates getting hurt or being in pain, and Ling is no exception. Besides the accident that had given her her current form, she's never been through any devastating injuries. As a result, the prospect of being in great physical pain is something Ling is rather terrified of and will avoid at all costs. // Orange peels are disgusting, and no matter how much people say, Ling will never understand why people will actually candy it of all things, and then actually eat it as a snack. Disgusting. // Reality is such a bore, and numbers must have been invented as a torture device. Science is a terrible, horrible thing that must be avoided at all costs.

HISTORY

Although everyone tells Ling that she was born in her small, fairly well-off town in Logueland, no one knows for sure where she came from. Her mother having never been seen before and her father passing away in the accident that resulted in Ling going cyborg, her history before she was around five years of age is generally shrouded in mystery. It is generally known, however, that her lineage and her parents origins are most certainly not of Logueland, and possibly not even the East Sea. Ling's light accent and the few items scavenged from the accident, inscribed with a complicated script all imply something more. Naturally, this has only added fuel to Ling's dreams of adventure and mystery.

Her father would one day seemingly appear in the town someday, bringing his four year-old daughter with him. Having been known for keeping to himself and not speaking unless completely necessary, no one knew his name - not even Ling herself. For as quickly as he had arrived, he would leave the world after only around a year of living in Logueland, passing away in a devastating fire. Townspeople had noticed the smoke and hurried to help. However, due to the distance of his abode from the rest of the town's residents, people were not able to reach the site fast enough to save his life. Ling, on the other hand, was rescued from the wreckage and immediately sent to a travelling mechanic who specialized in creating cyborg parts. Using surprisingly vast amounts of money found in the remains of the house to pay for the surgeries and installations, the young Yaling Song would be brought back from her near-death and given a home among the townspeople.

Life was very difficult for her at first. The townspeople found that Ling could barely speak the common language, and had to be taught from the barest of basics. This, combined with her obvious disadvantage with metallic parts would lead to her often being teased or ridiculed by the town children and even grown adults at times. Known for being the "robot girl" or "scrap metal", Ling would be passed around the houses of willing people, each taking care of her for a month before passing her onwards. It was in conditions of constant moving and changing environments that the girl grew up, learning about all sorts of families and lifestyles, as well as amassing a tremendous amount of different stories. Such a lifestyle also allowed Ling to be able to interact with ease with all sorts of different people. Unlike some, who would have drawn further within themselves, Ling expanded herself to be able to integrate everyone in all her homes into her life.

As Ling matured slowly into the young woman she is today, she would finally have found herself her own place place in the community where she belonged, being the apprentice bookkeeper in the small library they had, sorting and arranging texts as well as restoring and keeping up the condition of all sorts of old tomes. By now, she'd matured into a stable young woman who was generally respected well enough by the rest of the town as one of their own, treating her like they would anyone else. Having gotten better at hiding her deformities as well, newcomers barely even notice her oddities when they arrive. In general, Ling's life has become very peaceful and comfortable, each day looking around the same. Although she has only traveled outside the town to visit Loguetown only once, she is content enough with her surroundings, dreams of adventure existent only in her imagination for now.

PLAYED BY ivyleaf33