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country_within_the_palace
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forhispeopleCHARACTER INFO
Name: Ling Yao
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist manga
Canon Point: chapter 108, page 152 (end of series)
Reference: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Ling_Yao
Age: 16 at end of canon, will age up to 18 upon arrival
Gender: male
Height: 6'2"
Birthday: July 14th
Ling's CWP Info Page with kinks, preferences, permissions, etc.
Suitability: In his canon, Ling appears and behaves much older than he actually is. I first guessed him to be around 19 years old, but it’s later revealed (to the surprise of the other characters) that he is only fifteen at the beginning of the series. Not only does he look physically older with his unusual height and well-developed muscle tone, Ling has grown up with a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders as he is a son of the Emperor and one of 42 heirs to the Imperial Throne of his home country of Xing. Ling has been raised by his clan to have the skills necessary to ascend the throne, which includes an extensive education in politics, philosophy, diplomacy, and strategy. Xing is a dangerous place, as the 50 ruling clans are locked in a bloody civil war in which each clan is trying to assassinate the other clans’ princes and princesses. In such an environment, it is likely that he has had to behave like a mature adult from a very young age.
By his canon point, Ling will have experienced a large amount of mature and disturbing situations: the deaths of dear comrades, sacrificing his own body for the sake of his clan and retainers, housing a homunculus and millions of screaming souls in his own body, and facing down the front lines of an army equipped with tanks and machine guns. He will have made decisions already on how he plans to rule his country as Emperor. I believe that because of these experiences, he is suitably capable of handling any situations he may encounter in an adult-themed game.
Ling shows during these events that he considers how he treats people with extreme seriousness, and that he does not consider people’s lives something that should be played around with. This attitude applies to how he feels about sex. Ling was something of a flirt at the beginning of his story, but he puts that aside quickly when events became dangerous. He has his own desires, but he keeps them under firm control, always focusing on more important tasks at hand-- namely, how he can help others and save his nation. He’s fairly inexperienced because of his carefully controlled upbringing, but now that he has a chance to live outside of his duty to his clan for a while, all of the teenage hormones he’s been suppressing because of duty are likely to start to nag at him. With no clan and no Emperor’s role to fill, Ling is bound to allow himself to show his playful side again, and pursue the curiosity he’s got about intimacy and relationships.
Appearance: Ling is a tall young man of obvious Asian descent. His skin is pale and very smooth, his face a long oval shape with a strong chin. Ling’s dark brown eyes are narrow and usually kept crinkled into a permanent smile. He has long, poker-straight black hair which he always wears tied back in a low ponytail with a white ribbon. His long bangs hang carelessly over his face, pushed to one side.
Ling tends to dress as if he thinks he is on a permanent vacation. Comfort and freedom of movement are most important to him. His pants are always loose and baggy, his shirts high-collared, and his shoes plain old black kung fu slippers. Ling seems to have an aversion to buttoning his shirts closed, and is almost always walking about with his chest exposed. While he would consider it distasteful to demand fine things, he rather likes having nice clothes in good fabrics that feel soft on his skin if he’s able to get them, and doesn’t mind dressing in a flashy manner if it suits the occasion. He prefers Xingese styled-clothing to Western.
Ling is always wearing sarashi (white linen bandage-like wrappings) on his lower abdomen and wrists. These wrappings help to reinforce and support the vulnerable points of his body when fighting. A lifetime martial artist who has undergone the strictest training regimen his clan could make him adhere to, his body is honed for high-speed, lightweight hand-to-hand combat. He tends to be on the slender side, but during the course of Fullmetal Alchemist he appears to have grown taller and developed a good deal of muscle tone in the arms and shoulders.
In aging up from 16 to 18, Ling has grown a few more inches to a height of 6’2”. He has maintained the muscle tone that he gained from his time with Greed in his body. His face is slightly less rounded in the cheeks.
Background: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Ling_Yao
Personality: (sections taken from other apps I have written for Ling and Lan Fan, for Soul_campaign and Scorched.)
As the only son born of his mother, a noble woman selected to represent the Yao clan in the Emperor’s harem of wives, Ling Yao has led a life of privilege in most ways (despite being constantly in danger of assassination attempts). His upbringing as an Imperial prince has had a major effect on his personality when we first meet him in canon. He dresses in a manner that stands out, with an embellished bright sunny yellow jacket, in stark contrast to his retainers’ all-black, very plain and modest garb that covers nearly every inch of their bodies and helps them to blend right into shadows. Almost as if in direct opposite of Lan Fan wanting to hide even her face and hair from view, Ling seems to have no problem with showing bare skin. His shirt is perpetually open in the front, and completely off when he fights Gluttony alone in Central. He does finally wear a closed shirt after becoming Greed, but during the final battle ends up ripping the sleeves off. We can ascertain from the way he dresses that Ling does not really struggle with shyness or wanting to hide oneself or disappear into a shadow the way one might observe that Lan Fan does.
Ling is extremely well-educated, due to his background. He tells the Elric brothers that he has studied the art of alkahestry, even though he has no talent for using it. He is the only character we see who actually writes something in Xingese. Ling has been trained in using the Dragon’s Pulse technique to sense chi (life energy and the energy of the earth). His martial arts skills are top-notch. Ling is able to draw Edward a map of the route they took from Xing to Xerxes and Amestris, as well as understand Edward’s explanation of Amestrian geography and military conflicts, thus he has likely studied geography and history. Ling comes to Amestris from the distant country of Xing, but Ed and Al only comment that he has “a bit of an accent” when speaking their language. Ling is also able to read and write in Amestrian, so he must have been able to grasp the study of the language well. In the Japanese manga, his speech is quite fluent and he uses correct grammar with sophisticated sentence forms, not halting or stilted phrases as it seems Lan Fan uses.
Most of all, Ling demonstrates a high level of education in the classics and philosophy. He quotes Confucian philosophical principles to King Bradley as they fight. In Confucius’s writings, a true and just king rules by the will of the people, supported by the people. If the king does not care for the people, they will overthrow him, so he must care for them. Ling also quotes what sounds similar to advice from Sun Tzu’s Art of War to Ed while inside Gluttony’s stomach: “You know the saying: if you want to take out the general, shoot his horse.” Ling has most likely studied philosophy, government, military strategy, and probably mathematics, literature, or poetry, as was traditionally expected of an upper-class boy in Asian kingdoms. However, because we can see how carefree, teasing, and playful Ling acts when we first meet him, he probably misbehaved or slacked off quite a bit in his studies.
As a prince, Ling has likely been brought up to think of himself as higher and more important than others. Ling has a rather flippant attitude about many interactions early in his canon, and can behave in a self-centered manner. When he suspects the Elric brothers know more than they let on about the Philosopher’s Stone in Rush Valley, he allows his retainers Fu and Lan Fan to attack. Ling himself sits back to enjoy the show without stopping the fight—even though he is perfectly capable of doing so. Ling has a habit of slipping away from Fu and Lan Fan to have fun on his own, not caring much about the distress this causes his loyal retainers, nor the fact that they will have to do extra work to find and rescue him. As Fu says, “As soon as you’re not watching him, he disappears right away!” However, these self-centered tendencies appear to be immaturity or simply following a familiar behavior pattern with no one of a standing with the ability to tell him “no,” rather than an actual belief he holds that as nobility he is to be treated as special. He does not seem to demand that others respect his noble blood, the way Fu and Lan Fan insist he should. To get what he wants, Ling does not mind losing a little face:
Ling: Seems like it’d be fastest to follow them and see what I can learn.
Fu: (furious) But for Young Master to bow to those commoners!
Ling: It’d be a small price to be able to obtain it with just my bow. My image does not matter. It’s nothing compared to the responsibility I’m holding.
Ling is quite observant and good at reading people. He is able to tell right away that the Elrics know about the Philosopher’s Stone, smart enough to flatter Garfiel about being beautiful, and able to tell exactly what it is that Greed is actually greedy for, deep down: friends. However, this skill at reading and judging people does not necessarily mean that he takes it as far as being sensitive to their feelings. When Alphonse is explaining that his soul is sealed to the armor and that he might disappear at any time, Ling makes the unintentionally callous comment that since he doesn’t get tired or need to eat, that Al’s body is great. This hurts Al's feelings and angers Winry so much that she must leave the room.
Twice, Ling asks Winry to be one of his wives—appearing to be totally insensitive to the fact that Ed and Winry like each other. He does not seem to notice Lan Fan steaming angrily in the corner as he and Winry flirt. It’s unclear if Ling means this proposal to Winry in a serious manner or if he is simply teasing. This is a major point of Ling’s way of handling human interactions. His modus operandi is to slap on a smile, don’t make eye contact, and use a light, airy tone of voice. He seems to purposely leave people guessing, possibly as a defense mechanism. After all, we are told that he has been in danger of assassination by enemy clans. Other people must make their own interpretations as to what Ling really means or wants. They must figuratively dance around him to meet his needs or get information from him. Even in his social interactions, he behaves as a prince who has been raised in an environment in which the world revolves around him might.
At the beginning of the story, Ling is nearly always smiling and lighthearted, and his eyes are crinkled up into semicircles. He speaks to people with a playful and joking manner, often playing the trickster. After Ed and Al run off to fight his retainers, he turns and asks the proprietor of the restaurant to put his dinner on the Elrics’ tab. When confronted about paying for the damage done to the city in the fight that ensued, Ling immediately starts babbling as if he cannot speak the Amestrian language as he runs away: “I no understand this country language! Bye bye!” Ed comments that Ling is “shifty-eyed” and finds his demeanor suspicious: “How could I trust a guy like you with those weirdo eyes?!” Ling replies by opening his eyes to show that they look strange when open. He says that he is “quite sensitive” about his eyes, that since birth he has been said to have a “bad look in his eyes.” In order to compensate for this, he says, he tries to smile all the time. This shows us that Ling wants to appear friendly and happy and be liked by others.
Ling often makes use of his smile to cover up emotions he does not wish to show others, such as fear, irritation, or embarrassment. When he must tell Lan Fan to bow to Al in thanks, he seems embarrassed, but there is a smile plastered on his face. When Ling and Lan Fan fight against Envy and Gluttony for the first time in Central, Pride calls Envy and Gluttony away. Envy tells Ling, “Your damn luck just kept you from dying!” to which Ling simply smirks and says “Oh yeah? Wanna bet?” thus appearing quite cool in the face of extreme danger. As soon as the enemies withdraw, however, an exhausted Ling explodes in fear, sweat, and shivers, eyes wide: “What the heck were those guys!?” Ling makes direct eye contact with his eyes open at times he is feeling extremely strong, unbridled emotions such as avarice—each time he asks the Elrics for the Philosopher’s Stone, he looks directly into their eyes, eyes open. He also opens his eyes when Lan Fan is disabled by Wrath and he launches a blinding assault on her attacker, seemingly furious. Finally, we see his eyes open when he is feeling gripping fear or horror, such as the wideness of his eyes when Fu is killed. He does not hide these very strong feelings from others, choosing instead to make direct statements about his beliefs, direct eye contact, and to make it very plain what he considers right and wrong. It can be interpreted from this behavior pattern that beneath Ling’s smiling façade, he has strong and unwavering determination, and clear standards on what he will and will not allow to happen.
Ling’s main motivation when he first appears in Amestris is getting the Philosopher’s Stone, in order to use it to trick his ailing father, the Xingese Emperor, from the throne and take over himself. When he speaks about his father, he doesn’t appear to feel any attachment, pity, or sorrow to the man, as he is only one of many children and has not even met him. Ling only speaks of the sick and dying Emperor as an obstacle to the power he wants. He explains his plan to Alphonse thus:
Ling: "I already told you, the body of the current emperor will not hold out. Just bringing back something that SEEMS like the Way of Immortality will be enough to please him for that short moment. While he still lives, the standing of my clan will be raised somewhat. After that, I will seize the throne. In coming to this country, I hold the fate of the 500,000 members of the Yao clan in my hands. I’m depending on the Philosopher’s Stone and any legends related to it.”
The nation of Xing is at war between various clans, and apparently the civil war is causing grief and suffering for the common people-- but at the beginning of the story, Ling does not appear to care much about stopping the war or helping the common people of Xing. He talks only of his responsibility to the Yao clan, having the throne, having fifty wives, and getting power. “You guys sure are strong,” he says to Ed after the Elrics defeat Lan Fan and Fu. “How about it? Become my underling and let’s take over a nation!” When Ling has a chance to get a Philosopher’s Stone inserted into him by Father, he welcomes the chance, saying, “I am Ling Yao—the man who will become the emperor of Xing!” In essence, Ling is quite greedy. He wishes to have the perks of royalty and yet he enjoys having the freedom to run off and travel and have adventures as he pleases.
However, as he spends time in Amestris and situations become more and more deadly, Ling begins to show changes happening in his mindset as he encounters people who make him think hard about what he believes is right and wrong. When Wrath (King Bradley) attempts to kill Lan Fan, he quickly jumps in to help his bodyguard, as opposed to treating her like a meat shield or leaving things to her. He is shocked by Wrath’s lack of care for his comrades and subjects. Even though her injury has rendered her useless in the fight, and carrying her endangers his own life, Ling refuses to throw Lan Fan away. He recites to Wrath the Confucian ideal of a just and proper king:
Wrath: If you leave that baggage behind, you might escape. Why not just do so?
Ling: (opens eyes, furious) Did you just say baggage. Then let me ask you. Can you leave behind an injured comrade who--
Wrath: I can. It’s the only way to survive. It should be done without hesitation.
Ling: You are Furher King Bradley. You have a high standing in this country. A king exists for his people. Without his people, there is no king. King Bradley! You will never be a true king!
In stark contrast to his earlier careless and self-centered behavior, Ling seems to begin to understand on a deeper and more personal level that his position as a prince means that he has responsibilities in a symbiotic relationship with those he rules over.
Ling does show after this first battle with Wrath that he cares deeply for Fu and Lan Fan. Before the first battle with Wrath, he simply refers to Fu and Lan Fan as his retainers/servants. However, when Riza picks Ling up in her car and they are ready to escape, Ling insists that they go back to pick up his "companion (nakama).” He uses completely different language for Lan Fan, essentially using his words to put her on a higher social standing than before. When Lan Fan is in pain on the operating table at Dr. Knox’s, Ling is absolutely sick with grief. He sits outside the room where Lan Fan is, unable to even face her the way everyone else in the scene can. Ling muses: “When I went in search of immortality... I knew I must be ready to make certain sacrifices. I wasn't ready for this... Lan Fan was though. She made the decision that I was too weak to make.” He feels he has no right to face her because of his shame at having so carelessly pursued his own goals, and brought her into such a dangerous situation. After this scene, we do not see Ling playing tricks on people or behaving in a silly and flirtatious manner anymore throughout the rest of the series. It is clear that he has dramatically changed his way of thinking.
Ling understands now that his desires can cause danger and pain to those who are around him. Lan Fan has just demonstrated just how much she believed in his goals by cutting off her own arm to save his life. As a direct result, Ling is now strongly motivated to care about what Lan Fan thinks about him, and he takes his own standing in his bodyguard’s eyes much more seriously. Even though outwardly he only spoke of the glory of becoming emperor to Ed and Al, while talking with Greed inside his own mind, he reveals a deeper reason for his decision to accept the Philosopher’s Stone into his body: “If I went home empty-handed, there’s no way I could look into the face of my retainer, who ripped off her own arm for me! I want power, to protect! Absolute power, to obtain everything with these hands! I understand about all of the risks from the very beginning!” This quote gives us the clearest insight into Ling’s true self that we ever get during the series We can see that he has two main motivations— his heartfelt desire to protect others, and his greed for power and possessions. Finally, when Ling writes to Lan Fan the words “I have obtained the Philosopher’s Stone” in Xingese, he does it with his own blood. This can be taken as symbolic: he is showing her that used his very own blood—his life-- to obtain for that which Lan Fan so readily gave up her arm for.
Once his body contains Greed, we learn more about Ling through Greed’s observations. Greed comments that Ling is extremely tenacious and has a shocking amount of determination for a human being. Usually, a human soul would be wiped out by the insertion of a homunculus into a human body. However, Ling’s determination to fix the problems that he has gotten himself and his retainers into and right the wrongs of his country helps him to hang on to life.
As Ling and Greed get to know each other, Ling begins to pick at Greed’s brain and help the homunculus to figure out his issues. Ling has the capacity even to care for a “monster” like Greed. At first, he appears to be doing this merely to gain control of the body to talk to Edward, but his statement helps Greed to put together the pieces of his past. Ling talks of the bond between comrades who are close enough to be family. Essentially, because Ling’s own comrades are also close enough to be his family, and says that friends become part of one’s soul. This shows that Ling has begun to see companions in a different way. The people around him are no longer just people to ditch to go have fun, or to gain things from, or to play tricks on. The people close to him are a part of him that must be protected and cared for.
Ling quite clearly has trouble processing guilt. He seems unable to make a statement such as “Oops, I screwed up.” He takes his mistakes and failures very personally, avoiding the person he has wronged until he can make amends or prove himself in that person’s eyes again. As previously stated, he cannot bring himself to face Lan Fan when she is in horrible pain at Dr. Knox’s, even though the girl most likely could have used his presence by her side. Instead he sits outside hating himself. When Fu is mortally wounded by Wrath it is not Ling’s fault at all—Fu jumped in of his own accord with a surprise attack that Ling had no prior knowledge of-- but Ling blames himself, and he is so wracked with guilt that he completely loses control, allowing Wrath to gain the upper hand and nearly kill him. When Lan Fan catches Ling as he falls, we can see that Ling is horrified to see both Lan Fan’s blood leaking out as she holds him, and again horrified to feel her tears falling into his face. Ling cannot handle seeing Lan Fan and Fu in pain. When Envy is about to be attacked by Ling, he stops Ling dead in his tracks simply by turning into Lan Fan. Even though Ling knows without a doubt that this is Envy, he is unable to move to attack Envy in this form. The look in the fake Lan Fan’s eyes seems to render him helpless. It is likely that after the events of canon, he will try to do whatever he can to keep his precious people safe and happy. However, because he has lived a life in which it is his servants who are keeping him happy, such a way of life is likely to be very challenging and awkward for him to learn.
We can see from Ling’s actions that he has a strong connection with Lan Fan. When the two of them work together in battle, they can complete each other’s moves seamlessly, even to the point that they can share one weapon in battle by tossing it back and forth. When Ling is carrying injured Lan Fan and the two are cornered by Wrath, Ling is able to hint to Lan Fan to help him out by using a flash bomb: “A king is nothing without his people.”
If Ling has feelings for Lan Fan as more than a companion or friend, they are feelings that he considers private or is unable to show. Even though it is easy for him to laugh at her stubbornness when she does not wish to bow to Alphonse, and even though he is quite able to flatter Garfiel and Winry by calling them beautiful, we never see him telling Lan Fan directly how he feels about her, or discussing it with anyone. Ling is never shown laying a hand on Lan Fan except to carry her to safety. However, Edward, Alphonse, and Envy are able to tell even without words from Ling that the prince has special feelings for the girl who guards him. When Ling chooses to give up his body to Greed and cease to be a human, the Elrics are upset. “Let him go, he’s got a person waiting for him,” Edward commands Father. This phrase “a person waiting for one” is sometimes used in Japanese to denote a significant other or a committed relationship.
Envy, too, can guess even simply having fought with Ling and Lan Fan that Ling has special feelings for her. When Envy tries to defend himself against Ling by taking on Lan Fan’s appearance, Envy’s trick stops Ling right away. It is clear that he is indeed easily distracted by Lan Fan. He prefers to keep things between them private and unspoken, though. When they are reunited after six months of not seeing each other, Lan Fan begins to talk to him while in the forest with everyone else right nearby, and he quickly stops her with, “Save it for later!”
After Father is defeated, Ling shows that he has changed a great deal from the way he behaved at the beginning of his canon. He tries to give the Philosopher’s Stone he needs to become Emperor to Edward, so that Alphonse can be saved. Even though he used to only speak of his responsibility to his own clan in the struggle for power, he tells his sister Mei Chang that he will protect her clan, and keep them safe. He even lovingly picks her up to carry her home, when before, it likely would have been Fu or Lan Fan doing the carrying. When Lan Fan humbly requests that he end the war between the clans, he agrees so quickly that Lan Fan is shocked. It is not stated why he was so willing to grant her request, but it is likely that he is willing to do anything she asks, because he knows that she has sacrificed her own arm and lost her grandfather Fu. It is also likely that after seeing so many people die in the battle on the Promised Day, that Ling wants to see no more killing. He sets off with Lan Fan and Mei towards their new future in Xing, optimistic about what lies ahead of him.
In The Country Within the Palace, Ling will view himself as a king without a country. As he said in canon, he believes strongly in the philosophy of a true king looking out for his people. Because of this, he’ll treat the people around him with the care he feels he should give to his subjects as a good king. Namely, this mentality will affect him most in his relationship with Lan Fan, his retainer and bodyguard. During the series, it was hinted that the prince and his bodyguard have very deep and complicated feelings for each other, but because of the pacing of events in Fullmetal Alchemist, they were never allowed a moment to explore said feelings. The series ends with a picture of Ling sitting on the throne as Emperor and Lan Fan behind the throne as his bodyguard, which leaves their complicated relationship unfinished. It is likely that because Lan Fan is not of noble blood, they can never be together.
In this game, Ling will actually finally have a moment in his life in which he can stop and take a breath of fresh air and look around him to find out what life beyond one’s duty is all about. Ling is actually quite playful and flirts and teases Edward and Winry openly, and he will most likely loosen up into this behavior pattern as soon as he meets people he can feel comfortable with. His relationship with Greed is also slightly tinged with what might be interpreted as sexual tension, as both of them often compare their willpower and greed for conquest. However, Ling isn’t familiar with having close physical relationships with other people-- being a prince, he seems to be treated in a very hands-off manner by his retainers.
Being in an environment in which sex and intimacy are encouraged will be extremely foreign to him. At first, he will likely be feeling that he needs to uphold his own moral standards and behave properly towards others, trying to exert self-control himself when he feels sexual needs or urges. If he grows close with friends, Ling would be open to a bit of harmless sexual exploration and fooling around-- as long as no one’s feelings are hurt in the process, and it’s kept very private and discreet. He’s not accustomed to having relationships, having been raised in a manner in which he’s distanced from his father, mother, and siblings, and he prefers to be ambiguous with his true feelings. However, he behaves at times as if he’s simply starved for the kind of closeness that he can see Ed has with Al and Winry. Ling launches himself at Ed for hugs or clings to him and refuses to let go when they are first getting to know one another. He clearly wants a friendly, close physical relationship with those he loves and doesn’t see a need for physical boundaries with those he thinks of as his equals. He’s the type to cuddle up to and snuggle a friend and see where it goes from there.
As for his retainer, he will feel the urge to shelter and protect Lan Fan from any unsavory types about, and preserve her honor and her innocence as best he can in the deceased Fu’s stead. Torn between the fact that he feels an obligation to keep Lan Fan safe from men who might take advantage of her-- including himself-- and the fact that he’s quite interested in and attracted to her will present a conflict for him. Being in a place in which his and Lan Fan’s birth castes don’t matter and no one from Xing is watching them to disapprove will give him motivation to try to get closer to her on a personal level and see if he can win her affections.
This will be a long and difficult process, though. The two have known each other all their lives and if they were the type to jump into each other’s arms easily, they would have by now. There will have to be a huge build-up of unresolved sexual tension between the two of them before he feels ready to make a move. Despite the fact that Lan Fan is submissive to him and willing to wait on him hand and foot, he has always held back from laying a hand on her. To Ling, the idea of a prince taking whatever he wants from his servants is abhorrent, even though such behavior is widely practiced among nobles and princes in countries like his. Ling desires to be a just and moral ruler, who treats people with care and respect as opposed to taking advantage of them due to his status. He sees Lan Fan as a strong woman and his closest companion first, and he’d never dream of taking her unwillingly. He’s going to become determined to show her his feelings and work together on some of the baggage between them first, and see where it goes.
Character Powers/Abilities/Skills: Highly skilled in the Xingese martial arts, Ling has a fighting ability advanced enough that he has been able to survive to 16 despite numerous assassination attempts by rival clans. In his canon, these martial arts appear to be an amalgamation of Chinese kung fu and Japanese ninjitsu techniques. He uses a short sword and hand-to-hand techniques, as well as ninja-like skills of jumping extremely high, balancing on tall poles, and moving about undetected in shadows. As he is shown to be learned in various fighting stances, it is likely that he practices a form-related art such as tai chi in training.
Ling also has an amazing ability for sneaking up on people undetected. He snoops around, eavesdrops, and most often enters a room from the window as opposed to the door. He is able to use smoke signals. He stocks many types of Xingese handmade grenades: a flash bomb to blind enemies, a smokescreen grenade, tear gas, a flare to signal allies, and a regular black powder explosive bomb. Because the bombs he and his retainers use look handmade, Ling probably has a knowledge of how to make them for himself. He has crossed the great desert between Xing and the western nations, using camels and horses. As it is extremely rare for anyone to make this journey and live to tell the tale, he most likely has a great deal of survival skills compared to the average traveler in his world.
Ling cannot use alchemy or any sort of magic. He can, however, sense chi, as he has been trained in "The Dragon's Pulse," or the Xingese technique of reading the energy of the earth and living beings. With a person he knows well, he is able to sense the state of said chi (nervous energy, a calm body, etc.). He can use the Dragon's Pulse to sense hostile presences of enemies in the nearby vicinity, as well as the many souls inside the homunculi, thus tipping him off to their location. However, he cannot sense the souls inside King Bradley, who feels like a regular human to him.
Finally, Ling has had an extensive education, the finest available in his country as he’s the scion of one of the most powerful clans of Xing.
Name: Ling Yao
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist manga
Canon Point: chapter 108, page 152 (end of series)
Reference: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Ling_Yao
Age: 16 at end of canon, will age up to 18 upon arrival
Gender: male
Height: 6'2"
Birthday: July 14th
Ling's CWP Info Page with kinks, preferences, permissions, etc.
Suitability: In his canon, Ling appears and behaves much older than he actually is. I first guessed him to be around 19 years old, but it’s later revealed (to the surprise of the other characters) that he is only fifteen at the beginning of the series. Not only does he look physically older with his unusual height and well-developed muscle tone, Ling has grown up with a great deal of responsibility on his shoulders as he is a son of the Emperor and one of 42 heirs to the Imperial Throne of his home country of Xing. Ling has been raised by his clan to have the skills necessary to ascend the throne, which includes an extensive education in politics, philosophy, diplomacy, and strategy. Xing is a dangerous place, as the 50 ruling clans are locked in a bloody civil war in which each clan is trying to assassinate the other clans’ princes and princesses. In such an environment, it is likely that he has had to behave like a mature adult from a very young age.
By his canon point, Ling will have experienced a large amount of mature and disturbing situations: the deaths of dear comrades, sacrificing his own body for the sake of his clan and retainers, housing a homunculus and millions of screaming souls in his own body, and facing down the front lines of an army equipped with tanks and machine guns. He will have made decisions already on how he plans to rule his country as Emperor. I believe that because of these experiences, he is suitably capable of handling any situations he may encounter in an adult-themed game.
Ling shows during these events that he considers how he treats people with extreme seriousness, and that he does not consider people’s lives something that should be played around with. This attitude applies to how he feels about sex. Ling was something of a flirt at the beginning of his story, but he puts that aside quickly when events became dangerous. He has his own desires, but he keeps them under firm control, always focusing on more important tasks at hand-- namely, how he can help others and save his nation. He’s fairly inexperienced because of his carefully controlled upbringing, but now that he has a chance to live outside of his duty to his clan for a while, all of the teenage hormones he’s been suppressing because of duty are likely to start to nag at him. With no clan and no Emperor’s role to fill, Ling is bound to allow himself to show his playful side again, and pursue the curiosity he’s got about intimacy and relationships.
Appearance: Ling is a tall young man of obvious Asian descent. His skin is pale and very smooth, his face a long oval shape with a strong chin. Ling’s dark brown eyes are narrow and usually kept crinkled into a permanent smile. He has long, poker-straight black hair which he always wears tied back in a low ponytail with a white ribbon. His long bangs hang carelessly over his face, pushed to one side.
Ling tends to dress as if he thinks he is on a permanent vacation. Comfort and freedom of movement are most important to him. His pants are always loose and baggy, his shirts high-collared, and his shoes plain old black kung fu slippers. Ling seems to have an aversion to buttoning his shirts closed, and is almost always walking about with his chest exposed. While he would consider it distasteful to demand fine things, he rather likes having nice clothes in good fabrics that feel soft on his skin if he’s able to get them, and doesn’t mind dressing in a flashy manner if it suits the occasion. He prefers Xingese styled-clothing to Western.
Ling is always wearing sarashi (white linen bandage-like wrappings) on his lower abdomen and wrists. These wrappings help to reinforce and support the vulnerable points of his body when fighting. A lifetime martial artist who has undergone the strictest training regimen his clan could make him adhere to, his body is honed for high-speed, lightweight hand-to-hand combat. He tends to be on the slender side, but during the course of Fullmetal Alchemist he appears to have grown taller and developed a good deal of muscle tone in the arms and shoulders.
In aging up from 16 to 18, Ling has grown a few more inches to a height of 6’2”. He has maintained the muscle tone that he gained from his time with Greed in his body. His face is slightly less rounded in the cheeks.
Background: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Ling_Yao
Personality: (sections taken from other apps I have written for Ling and Lan Fan, for Soul_campaign and Scorched.)
As the only son born of his mother, a noble woman selected to represent the Yao clan in the Emperor’s harem of wives, Ling Yao has led a life of privilege in most ways (despite being constantly in danger of assassination attempts). His upbringing as an Imperial prince has had a major effect on his personality when we first meet him in canon. He dresses in a manner that stands out, with an embellished bright sunny yellow jacket, in stark contrast to his retainers’ all-black, very plain and modest garb that covers nearly every inch of their bodies and helps them to blend right into shadows. Almost as if in direct opposite of Lan Fan wanting to hide even her face and hair from view, Ling seems to have no problem with showing bare skin. His shirt is perpetually open in the front, and completely off when he fights Gluttony alone in Central. He does finally wear a closed shirt after becoming Greed, but during the final battle ends up ripping the sleeves off. We can ascertain from the way he dresses that Ling does not really struggle with shyness or wanting to hide oneself or disappear into a shadow the way one might observe that Lan Fan does.
Ling is extremely well-educated, due to his background. He tells the Elric brothers that he has studied the art of alkahestry, even though he has no talent for using it. He is the only character we see who actually writes something in Xingese. Ling has been trained in using the Dragon’s Pulse technique to sense chi (life energy and the energy of the earth). His martial arts skills are top-notch. Ling is able to draw Edward a map of the route they took from Xing to Xerxes and Amestris, as well as understand Edward’s explanation of Amestrian geography and military conflicts, thus he has likely studied geography and history. Ling comes to Amestris from the distant country of Xing, but Ed and Al only comment that he has “a bit of an accent” when speaking their language. Ling is also able to read and write in Amestrian, so he must have been able to grasp the study of the language well. In the Japanese manga, his speech is quite fluent and he uses correct grammar with sophisticated sentence forms, not halting or stilted phrases as it seems Lan Fan uses.
Most of all, Ling demonstrates a high level of education in the classics and philosophy. He quotes Confucian philosophical principles to King Bradley as they fight. In Confucius’s writings, a true and just king rules by the will of the people, supported by the people. If the king does not care for the people, they will overthrow him, so he must care for them. Ling also quotes what sounds similar to advice from Sun Tzu’s Art of War to Ed while inside Gluttony’s stomach: “You know the saying: if you want to take out the general, shoot his horse.” Ling has most likely studied philosophy, government, military strategy, and probably mathematics, literature, or poetry, as was traditionally expected of an upper-class boy in Asian kingdoms. However, because we can see how carefree, teasing, and playful Ling acts when we first meet him, he probably misbehaved or slacked off quite a bit in his studies.
As a prince, Ling has likely been brought up to think of himself as higher and more important than others. Ling has a rather flippant attitude about many interactions early in his canon, and can behave in a self-centered manner. When he suspects the Elric brothers know more than they let on about the Philosopher’s Stone in Rush Valley, he allows his retainers Fu and Lan Fan to attack. Ling himself sits back to enjoy the show without stopping the fight—even though he is perfectly capable of doing so. Ling has a habit of slipping away from Fu and Lan Fan to have fun on his own, not caring much about the distress this causes his loyal retainers, nor the fact that they will have to do extra work to find and rescue him. As Fu says, “As soon as you’re not watching him, he disappears right away!” However, these self-centered tendencies appear to be immaturity or simply following a familiar behavior pattern with no one of a standing with the ability to tell him “no,” rather than an actual belief he holds that as nobility he is to be treated as special. He does not seem to demand that others respect his noble blood, the way Fu and Lan Fan insist he should. To get what he wants, Ling does not mind losing a little face:
Ling: Seems like it’d be fastest to follow them and see what I can learn.
Fu: (furious) But for Young Master to bow to those commoners!
Ling: It’d be a small price to be able to obtain it with just my bow. My image does not matter. It’s nothing compared to the responsibility I’m holding.
Ling is quite observant and good at reading people. He is able to tell right away that the Elrics know about the Philosopher’s Stone, smart enough to flatter Garfiel about being beautiful, and able to tell exactly what it is that Greed is actually greedy for, deep down: friends. However, this skill at reading and judging people does not necessarily mean that he takes it as far as being sensitive to their feelings. When Alphonse is explaining that his soul is sealed to the armor and that he might disappear at any time, Ling makes the unintentionally callous comment that since he doesn’t get tired or need to eat, that Al’s body is great. This hurts Al's feelings and angers Winry so much that she must leave the room.
Twice, Ling asks Winry to be one of his wives—appearing to be totally insensitive to the fact that Ed and Winry like each other. He does not seem to notice Lan Fan steaming angrily in the corner as he and Winry flirt. It’s unclear if Ling means this proposal to Winry in a serious manner or if he is simply teasing. This is a major point of Ling’s way of handling human interactions. His modus operandi is to slap on a smile, don’t make eye contact, and use a light, airy tone of voice. He seems to purposely leave people guessing, possibly as a defense mechanism. After all, we are told that he has been in danger of assassination by enemy clans. Other people must make their own interpretations as to what Ling really means or wants. They must figuratively dance around him to meet his needs or get information from him. Even in his social interactions, he behaves as a prince who has been raised in an environment in which the world revolves around him might.
At the beginning of the story, Ling is nearly always smiling and lighthearted, and his eyes are crinkled up into semicircles. He speaks to people with a playful and joking manner, often playing the trickster. After Ed and Al run off to fight his retainers, he turns and asks the proprietor of the restaurant to put his dinner on the Elrics’ tab. When confronted about paying for the damage done to the city in the fight that ensued, Ling immediately starts babbling as if he cannot speak the Amestrian language as he runs away: “I no understand this country language! Bye bye!” Ed comments that Ling is “shifty-eyed” and finds his demeanor suspicious: “How could I trust a guy like you with those weirdo eyes?!” Ling replies by opening his eyes to show that they look strange when open. He says that he is “quite sensitive” about his eyes, that since birth he has been said to have a “bad look in his eyes.” In order to compensate for this, he says, he tries to smile all the time. This shows us that Ling wants to appear friendly and happy and be liked by others.
Ling often makes use of his smile to cover up emotions he does not wish to show others, such as fear, irritation, or embarrassment. When he must tell Lan Fan to bow to Al in thanks, he seems embarrassed, but there is a smile plastered on his face. When Ling and Lan Fan fight against Envy and Gluttony for the first time in Central, Pride calls Envy and Gluttony away. Envy tells Ling, “Your damn luck just kept you from dying!” to which Ling simply smirks and says “Oh yeah? Wanna bet?” thus appearing quite cool in the face of extreme danger. As soon as the enemies withdraw, however, an exhausted Ling explodes in fear, sweat, and shivers, eyes wide: “What the heck were those guys!?” Ling makes direct eye contact with his eyes open at times he is feeling extremely strong, unbridled emotions such as avarice—each time he asks the Elrics for the Philosopher’s Stone, he looks directly into their eyes, eyes open. He also opens his eyes when Lan Fan is disabled by Wrath and he launches a blinding assault on her attacker, seemingly furious. Finally, we see his eyes open when he is feeling gripping fear or horror, such as the wideness of his eyes when Fu is killed. He does not hide these very strong feelings from others, choosing instead to make direct statements about his beliefs, direct eye contact, and to make it very plain what he considers right and wrong. It can be interpreted from this behavior pattern that beneath Ling’s smiling façade, he has strong and unwavering determination, and clear standards on what he will and will not allow to happen.
Ling’s main motivation when he first appears in Amestris is getting the Philosopher’s Stone, in order to use it to trick his ailing father, the Xingese Emperor, from the throne and take over himself. When he speaks about his father, he doesn’t appear to feel any attachment, pity, or sorrow to the man, as he is only one of many children and has not even met him. Ling only speaks of the sick and dying Emperor as an obstacle to the power he wants. He explains his plan to Alphonse thus:
Ling: "I already told you, the body of the current emperor will not hold out. Just bringing back something that SEEMS like the Way of Immortality will be enough to please him for that short moment. While he still lives, the standing of my clan will be raised somewhat. After that, I will seize the throne. In coming to this country, I hold the fate of the 500,000 members of the Yao clan in my hands. I’m depending on the Philosopher’s Stone and any legends related to it.”
The nation of Xing is at war between various clans, and apparently the civil war is causing grief and suffering for the common people-- but at the beginning of the story, Ling does not appear to care much about stopping the war or helping the common people of Xing. He talks only of his responsibility to the Yao clan, having the throne, having fifty wives, and getting power. “You guys sure are strong,” he says to Ed after the Elrics defeat Lan Fan and Fu. “How about it? Become my underling and let’s take over a nation!” When Ling has a chance to get a Philosopher’s Stone inserted into him by Father, he welcomes the chance, saying, “I am Ling Yao—the man who will become the emperor of Xing!” In essence, Ling is quite greedy. He wishes to have the perks of royalty and yet he enjoys having the freedom to run off and travel and have adventures as he pleases.
However, as he spends time in Amestris and situations become more and more deadly, Ling begins to show changes happening in his mindset as he encounters people who make him think hard about what he believes is right and wrong. When Wrath (King Bradley) attempts to kill Lan Fan, he quickly jumps in to help his bodyguard, as opposed to treating her like a meat shield or leaving things to her. He is shocked by Wrath’s lack of care for his comrades and subjects. Even though her injury has rendered her useless in the fight, and carrying her endangers his own life, Ling refuses to throw Lan Fan away. He recites to Wrath the Confucian ideal of a just and proper king:
Wrath: If you leave that baggage behind, you might escape. Why not just do so?
Ling: (opens eyes, furious) Did you just say baggage. Then let me ask you. Can you leave behind an injured comrade who--
Wrath: I can. It’s the only way to survive. It should be done without hesitation.
Ling: You are Furher King Bradley. You have a high standing in this country. A king exists for his people. Without his people, there is no king. King Bradley! You will never be a true king!
In stark contrast to his earlier careless and self-centered behavior, Ling seems to begin to understand on a deeper and more personal level that his position as a prince means that he has responsibilities in a symbiotic relationship with those he rules over.
Ling does show after this first battle with Wrath that he cares deeply for Fu and Lan Fan. Before the first battle with Wrath, he simply refers to Fu and Lan Fan as his retainers/servants. However, when Riza picks Ling up in her car and they are ready to escape, Ling insists that they go back to pick up his "companion (nakama).” He uses completely different language for Lan Fan, essentially using his words to put her on a higher social standing than before. When Lan Fan is in pain on the operating table at Dr. Knox’s, Ling is absolutely sick with grief. He sits outside the room where Lan Fan is, unable to even face her the way everyone else in the scene can. Ling muses: “When I went in search of immortality... I knew I must be ready to make certain sacrifices. I wasn't ready for this... Lan Fan was though. She made the decision that I was too weak to make.” He feels he has no right to face her because of his shame at having so carelessly pursued his own goals, and brought her into such a dangerous situation. After this scene, we do not see Ling playing tricks on people or behaving in a silly and flirtatious manner anymore throughout the rest of the series. It is clear that he has dramatically changed his way of thinking.
Ling understands now that his desires can cause danger and pain to those who are around him. Lan Fan has just demonstrated just how much she believed in his goals by cutting off her own arm to save his life. As a direct result, Ling is now strongly motivated to care about what Lan Fan thinks about him, and he takes his own standing in his bodyguard’s eyes much more seriously. Even though outwardly he only spoke of the glory of becoming emperor to Ed and Al, while talking with Greed inside his own mind, he reveals a deeper reason for his decision to accept the Philosopher’s Stone into his body: “If I went home empty-handed, there’s no way I could look into the face of my retainer, who ripped off her own arm for me! I want power, to protect! Absolute power, to obtain everything with these hands! I understand about all of the risks from the very beginning!” This quote gives us the clearest insight into Ling’s true self that we ever get during the series We can see that he has two main motivations— his heartfelt desire to protect others, and his greed for power and possessions. Finally, when Ling writes to Lan Fan the words “I have obtained the Philosopher’s Stone” in Xingese, he does it with his own blood. This can be taken as symbolic: he is showing her that used his very own blood—his life-- to obtain for that which Lan Fan so readily gave up her arm for.
Once his body contains Greed, we learn more about Ling through Greed’s observations. Greed comments that Ling is extremely tenacious and has a shocking amount of determination for a human being. Usually, a human soul would be wiped out by the insertion of a homunculus into a human body. However, Ling’s determination to fix the problems that he has gotten himself and his retainers into and right the wrongs of his country helps him to hang on to life.
As Ling and Greed get to know each other, Ling begins to pick at Greed’s brain and help the homunculus to figure out his issues. Ling has the capacity even to care for a “monster” like Greed. At first, he appears to be doing this merely to gain control of the body to talk to Edward, but his statement helps Greed to put together the pieces of his past. Ling talks of the bond between comrades who are close enough to be family. Essentially, because Ling’s own comrades are also close enough to be his family, and says that friends become part of one’s soul. This shows that Ling has begun to see companions in a different way. The people around him are no longer just people to ditch to go have fun, or to gain things from, or to play tricks on. The people close to him are a part of him that must be protected and cared for.
Ling quite clearly has trouble processing guilt. He seems unable to make a statement such as “Oops, I screwed up.” He takes his mistakes and failures very personally, avoiding the person he has wronged until he can make amends or prove himself in that person’s eyes again. As previously stated, he cannot bring himself to face Lan Fan when she is in horrible pain at Dr. Knox’s, even though the girl most likely could have used his presence by her side. Instead he sits outside hating himself. When Fu is mortally wounded by Wrath it is not Ling’s fault at all—Fu jumped in of his own accord with a surprise attack that Ling had no prior knowledge of-- but Ling blames himself, and he is so wracked with guilt that he completely loses control, allowing Wrath to gain the upper hand and nearly kill him. When Lan Fan catches Ling as he falls, we can see that Ling is horrified to see both Lan Fan’s blood leaking out as she holds him, and again horrified to feel her tears falling into his face. Ling cannot handle seeing Lan Fan and Fu in pain. When Envy is about to be attacked by Ling, he stops Ling dead in his tracks simply by turning into Lan Fan. Even though Ling knows without a doubt that this is Envy, he is unable to move to attack Envy in this form. The look in the fake Lan Fan’s eyes seems to render him helpless. It is likely that after the events of canon, he will try to do whatever he can to keep his precious people safe and happy. However, because he has lived a life in which it is his servants who are keeping him happy, such a way of life is likely to be very challenging and awkward for him to learn.
We can see from Ling’s actions that he has a strong connection with Lan Fan. When the two of them work together in battle, they can complete each other’s moves seamlessly, even to the point that they can share one weapon in battle by tossing it back and forth. When Ling is carrying injured Lan Fan and the two are cornered by Wrath, Ling is able to hint to Lan Fan to help him out by using a flash bomb: “A king is nothing without his people.”
If Ling has feelings for Lan Fan as more than a companion or friend, they are feelings that he considers private or is unable to show. Even though it is easy for him to laugh at her stubbornness when she does not wish to bow to Alphonse, and even though he is quite able to flatter Garfiel and Winry by calling them beautiful, we never see him telling Lan Fan directly how he feels about her, or discussing it with anyone. Ling is never shown laying a hand on Lan Fan except to carry her to safety. However, Edward, Alphonse, and Envy are able to tell even without words from Ling that the prince has special feelings for the girl who guards him. When Ling chooses to give up his body to Greed and cease to be a human, the Elrics are upset. “Let him go, he’s got a person waiting for him,” Edward commands Father. This phrase “a person waiting for one” is sometimes used in Japanese to denote a significant other or a committed relationship.
Envy, too, can guess even simply having fought with Ling and Lan Fan that Ling has special feelings for her. When Envy tries to defend himself against Ling by taking on Lan Fan’s appearance, Envy’s trick stops Ling right away. It is clear that he is indeed easily distracted by Lan Fan. He prefers to keep things between them private and unspoken, though. When they are reunited after six months of not seeing each other, Lan Fan begins to talk to him while in the forest with everyone else right nearby, and he quickly stops her with, “Save it for later!”
After Father is defeated, Ling shows that he has changed a great deal from the way he behaved at the beginning of his canon. He tries to give the Philosopher’s Stone he needs to become Emperor to Edward, so that Alphonse can be saved. Even though he used to only speak of his responsibility to his own clan in the struggle for power, he tells his sister Mei Chang that he will protect her clan, and keep them safe. He even lovingly picks her up to carry her home, when before, it likely would have been Fu or Lan Fan doing the carrying. When Lan Fan humbly requests that he end the war between the clans, he agrees so quickly that Lan Fan is shocked. It is not stated why he was so willing to grant her request, but it is likely that he is willing to do anything she asks, because he knows that she has sacrificed her own arm and lost her grandfather Fu. It is also likely that after seeing so many people die in the battle on the Promised Day, that Ling wants to see no more killing. He sets off with Lan Fan and Mei towards their new future in Xing, optimistic about what lies ahead of him.
In The Country Within the Palace, Ling will view himself as a king without a country. As he said in canon, he believes strongly in the philosophy of a true king looking out for his people. Because of this, he’ll treat the people around him with the care he feels he should give to his subjects as a good king. Namely, this mentality will affect him most in his relationship with Lan Fan, his retainer and bodyguard. During the series, it was hinted that the prince and his bodyguard have very deep and complicated feelings for each other, but because of the pacing of events in Fullmetal Alchemist, they were never allowed a moment to explore said feelings. The series ends with a picture of Ling sitting on the throne as Emperor and Lan Fan behind the throne as his bodyguard, which leaves their complicated relationship unfinished. It is likely that because Lan Fan is not of noble blood, they can never be together.
In this game, Ling will actually finally have a moment in his life in which he can stop and take a breath of fresh air and look around him to find out what life beyond one’s duty is all about. Ling is actually quite playful and flirts and teases Edward and Winry openly, and he will most likely loosen up into this behavior pattern as soon as he meets people he can feel comfortable with. His relationship with Greed is also slightly tinged with what might be interpreted as sexual tension, as both of them often compare their willpower and greed for conquest. However, Ling isn’t familiar with having close physical relationships with other people-- being a prince, he seems to be treated in a very hands-off manner by his retainers.
Being in an environment in which sex and intimacy are encouraged will be extremely foreign to him. At first, he will likely be feeling that he needs to uphold his own moral standards and behave properly towards others, trying to exert self-control himself when he feels sexual needs or urges. If he grows close with friends, Ling would be open to a bit of harmless sexual exploration and fooling around-- as long as no one’s feelings are hurt in the process, and it’s kept very private and discreet. He’s not accustomed to having relationships, having been raised in a manner in which he’s distanced from his father, mother, and siblings, and he prefers to be ambiguous with his true feelings. However, he behaves at times as if he’s simply starved for the kind of closeness that he can see Ed has with Al and Winry. Ling launches himself at Ed for hugs or clings to him and refuses to let go when they are first getting to know one another. He clearly wants a friendly, close physical relationship with those he loves and doesn’t see a need for physical boundaries with those he thinks of as his equals. He’s the type to cuddle up to and snuggle a friend and see where it goes from there.
As for his retainer, he will feel the urge to shelter and protect Lan Fan from any unsavory types about, and preserve her honor and her innocence as best he can in the deceased Fu’s stead. Torn between the fact that he feels an obligation to keep Lan Fan safe from men who might take advantage of her-- including himself-- and the fact that he’s quite interested in and attracted to her will present a conflict for him. Being in a place in which his and Lan Fan’s birth castes don’t matter and no one from Xing is watching them to disapprove will give him motivation to try to get closer to her on a personal level and see if he can win her affections.
This will be a long and difficult process, though. The two have known each other all their lives and if they were the type to jump into each other’s arms easily, they would have by now. There will have to be a huge build-up of unresolved sexual tension between the two of them before he feels ready to make a move. Despite the fact that Lan Fan is submissive to him and willing to wait on him hand and foot, he has always held back from laying a hand on her. To Ling, the idea of a prince taking whatever he wants from his servants is abhorrent, even though such behavior is widely practiced among nobles and princes in countries like his. Ling desires to be a just and moral ruler, who treats people with care and respect as opposed to taking advantage of them due to his status. He sees Lan Fan as a strong woman and his closest companion first, and he’d never dream of taking her unwillingly. He’s going to become determined to show her his feelings and work together on some of the baggage between them first, and see where it goes.
Character Powers/Abilities/Skills: Highly skilled in the Xingese martial arts, Ling has a fighting ability advanced enough that he has been able to survive to 16 despite numerous assassination attempts by rival clans. In his canon, these martial arts appear to be an amalgamation of Chinese kung fu and Japanese ninjitsu techniques. He uses a short sword and hand-to-hand techniques, as well as ninja-like skills of jumping extremely high, balancing on tall poles, and moving about undetected in shadows. As he is shown to be learned in various fighting stances, it is likely that he practices a form-related art such as tai chi in training.
Ling also has an amazing ability for sneaking up on people undetected. He snoops around, eavesdrops, and most often enters a room from the window as opposed to the door. He is able to use smoke signals. He stocks many types of Xingese handmade grenades: a flash bomb to blind enemies, a smokescreen grenade, tear gas, a flare to signal allies, and a regular black powder explosive bomb. Because the bombs he and his retainers use look handmade, Ling probably has a knowledge of how to make them for himself. He has crossed the great desert between Xing and the western nations, using camels and horses. As it is extremely rare for anyone to make this journey and live to tell the tale, he most likely has a great deal of survival skills compared to the average traveler in his world.
Ling cannot use alchemy or any sort of magic. He can, however, sense chi, as he has been trained in "The Dragon's Pulse," or the Xingese technique of reading the energy of the earth and living beings. With a person he knows well, he is able to sense the state of said chi (nervous energy, a calm body, etc.). He can use the Dragon's Pulse to sense hostile presences of enemies in the nearby vicinity, as well as the many souls inside the homunculi, thus tipping him off to their location. However, he cannot sense the souls inside King Bradley, who feels like a regular human to him.
Finally, Ling has had an extensive education, the finest available in his country as he’s the scion of one of the most powerful clans of Xing.
