BirbBoi

Been a while since I posted any art, so here’s a Randall Boggs.

It had been two weeks since his son had hatched, and Shen had spent nearly every single waking moment by his side in the nursery. He couldn’t quite understand if it was intentional or if somehow, parental instincts he didn’t even know he had were triggered, but the peacock was determined to see it out that the sickly little peachick that was his own flesh and blood survived the hardest part of its journey. After all, he did.

It was only for a few minutes that Shen decided to finally leave the nursery to take a breather in the courtyard- something that had been insisted upon by his very concerned parents. Unfortunately, anything can go wrong in just a few minutes, and when the peacock’s tired mind reminded him of that fact, he was quick to end his break and hastily make his way back to the nursery… 

And when Shen opened the door and saw what was happening, his heart nearly stopped.

Lord Shen quietly hid around the corner of the hall, a burning sensation rising in his chest as he listened to his parents fawn over his son’s latest art piece. Their doting compliments only served to anger him further. Shen couldn’t fully comprehend why the scene caused such an unpleasant sense of loathing to arise in him, but what he was certain of, was that his parents were making a big deal over nothing. So what if the child learned how to pick up a paint brush? It was an accomplishment so mediocre, any civilian off the streets with half a brain could master it in mere seconds. Art was such a waste of time, and in Shen’s mind, Ling’s time would be much better spent in the library where he could put his genetically intelligent brain to use.

So in the parallel universe where Shen didn’t go the genocidal route and had a kid instead, his relationship with his parents went from him believing they hated him, to him believing they didn’t love him 

Not the greatest improvement for him, but hey- at least the pandas survived! 

So in summary, there was this strain in Shen’s relationship with his parents that stemmed all the way back to when Shen was just a hatchling. Shen was so sick that nobody believed he would be strong enough to make it through to the next morning. Even his parents had succumbed to grief before his expected death. Luckily, Shen was a fighter from day one and eventually fought off the sickness as he grew older. Unfortunately, what Shen couldn’t evade was the attachment issues that arose from such events that caused him to emotionally push his loved ones away, but at the same time crave for their attention. When he couldn’t get that attention naturally, he started pursuing it through other means- which for him, was by inventing the next big revolutionary thing, just like his parents had. 

In the canon universe we all know and love, Shen succeeded in that task when he discovered the alternate use of gunpowder, but it obviously did not go the way he intended it to go, leading to his eventual downfall years down the line.

In the Ling AU universe, those events were disrupted by other events that led to Ling’s birth (another story for another day), and Shen spent the next several years struggling to uncover anything worthwhile in his experiments, which began to tear apart his self-confidence, while also having to watch his parents constantly give his son the love and attention he never got from them. 

And despite his high status, the young lord had been taught by Soothsayer to be kind and respect the hard-working people of Gongmen. And witnessing those that didn’t, greatly aggravated him. And so with Fang’s full willingness to assist, Ling came to the poor employee’s aid, utilizing his father’s skills of wit and intimidation. But these unruly customers seemed to have an entitlement that could easily rival the one of Lord Shen himself, refusing to leave the shop until they got what they wanted (which was basically to have all the products they wanted for far less than the price that was expected to be paid).  

And so Ling moved onto phase two of his plan. Lord Ling: “Since you all are refusing to exit quietly, we’ll have to do this the hard way… and by the hard way, I mean by sicking my very strong best friend. Like you all clearly do, she also is real moody on Mondays and LOVES to chew others out… although the difference is that she does it quite literally and ONLY to nasty people who actually deserve it.”

Been a while since I posted anything, but here’s a rough drawing of Shen attempting a “sexy” pose.

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