#liming x heart

[heretherebedork]

Hands that confront, hands that speaks, hands that comfort, hands that love.

[circuscl0wn]

Moonlight Chicken Text Posts cuz I miss them already

[maxescheibechlinichacheli]

Heart's frustration and hurt because his parents didn't even make an attempt to learn sign language but chose to use scraps of paper to communicate (if we even can call it that) with him was showed so well by Gemini. The way Heart refused to use that notepad and instead exspects and needs his parents to understand him through sign language made me so proud of him. Heart made huge steps in self confidence since Li Ming stepped into his life and showed him the world.

Gemini is such a promising young actor, it takes real talent to be able to act the role of Heart and tell his story.

[soullostintime]

i just found out that moonlight chicken has only 8 episodes and not 12 and idk what to do with this information

[kageyamaana]

Not Normal

Not normal.

That was how Heart started describing everything that happened after he lost his hearing.

Nothing was like before and no matter how 'normal' his parents tried to act, Heart knew it.

Slowly he lost his friends, his parents and his freedom.

Heart spent hours and hours alone, even when his parents were at home, while thinking why this had to happen to him and why no one tried to learn sign language to communicate with him if they say they care so much about him.

He hated his life.

He hated how everyone looked at him like he was broken.

He hated everyone's pitying looks

And he hated how his parents say they worry about him but do nothing for him.

Sometimes he even wishes that the fever had killed him instead of just making him deaf.

Because it would be easier to be dead than feeling lonely every second of his life.

Heart thought this would be his life forever but then.....he appeared in his life.

Liming.

That was the name of the boy who brought light into his life again.

Their first meeting wasn't the best and Liming had every right to dislike Heart but....

But he was the only one that talked with him despite being obligated to work at Heart's house.

He even started to learn sign language to be able to communicate better with Heart.

Liming was doing so much for Heart that it wasn't surprising when he started to fall for the other boy.

While he never planned on confessing, he feared losing Liming more than anything in his life, Heart cherished every moment with the other boy.

Very slowly, Heart started to believe that it was okay to not be normal.

And he knew for sure that not being normal was the best from the day Liming confessed to him and they started to date.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

By god do I just need to scream into the ether about the Heart and co. confrontation scene.

First, the tension, incredible. Gemini and Fourth are phenomenal actors. Heart and Li Ming know they are walking in to a very emotionally fraught situation and their hesitation is palpable.

It's scene breakdown time babyyyy! Let's start from the beginning

For a boy who admitted last episode that he has no idea what he is doing, he sure keeps doing things right. He's letting Heart know he's going to talk. Now, granted I don't know what he is saying here precisely if he is just simply saying "I'm going to talk for us/first", "I'll interpret," or if he's saying "I'm going to talk?", I don't think his face moves in any way that would imply a question, but his face is partially obscured. Either way he is at the very least keeping Heart in the know, and at the most asking for Heart's explicit consent to lead this conversation. You can't see it from pictures, but I appreciate the fact that before they cut back to the wide shot, Heart nods, so we as an audience, and Li Ming as the speaker here knows that Heart is okay with the power dynamics at play, with Li Ming talking for both of them.

It's a blink and you'll miss it moment, thankfully I'm obsessed with this scene and therefore have been looping it endlessly, but I feel compelled to point out the way eye contact in this moment goes a long way in conveying how Heart's Mom and Li Ming view Heart. When Heart's mother points to her son she doesn't even look at him. The most she does is cast a downward glance at his bandage, and that's before she even points. And you can argue all you want that she doesn't look at him because she's specifically talking to and addressing Li Ming. But I call bullshit on that because Li Ming is specifically talking to and addressing Heart's mother, and he's looking straight in to Heart's eyes when he refers to and gestures towards Heart. I'm sure that both of these characters believe they love and care about Heart, but of these two characters which one actually recognizes Heart's personhood?

But uh oh! Li Ming stood up for himself and for Heart, and talked back to not just an adult, but a powerful adult. And now she's mentioning past debts, and now there will be more to pay as a result. And Li Ming can only work so much with school and life and everything. He clearly doesn't know what he's getting himself in to, or what he has gotten himself in to. Li Ming and Heart's Mom are both getting angry, tensions are rising, something needs to happen to de-escalate the situation or this might go wrong. Uncle Jim absolutely must intervene (I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice). Interesting note: Guess who else doesn't look at their child when making a decision for them. Jim does look at Li Ming directly after this though, but it's to ask him why he did it. It's to place the blame for the accident on Li Ming. "You Li Ming, why did you do it?" "Heart asked me to." "Stop saying that."

Jim is scared, Li Ming is pissed. "He was bored at home" "I said stop!" Jim is used to the way powerful and wealthy people can control and punish the poor. Jim and Li Ming have had conversations before that indicate this very mindset. Jim has mentioned power to Li Ming before and Li Ming's response has always been "what, so we just let them?" "He's a police officer so he can just do anything he wants to us?" to a young adult like Li Ming, this is an absurdity, to an older man like Jim, this is a reality. "he can just do anything he wants to us?" the answer is yes. Which is why Jim is so desperate to get Li Ming to stop talking here. But it just serves as a reminder to Li Ming that Jim thinks he's a child, and that he needs all his battles fought for him. If Li Ming doesn't keep pushing, nothing is going to change (social and political commentary anyone?)

"There you go again," Heart's mother says, and this is Li Ming's initial reaction. This moment of annoyance and anger that this woman who doesn't even know him is once again accusing him of something he didn't do. This woman who is pointing once again to her son without even a glance in his direction "You know that he's mute, so you can say whatever you want?" First of all, even people who are mute have ways to communicate, so it's not like even if he was mute Heart would be helpless. Hell, even if Heart was mute he still has fucking sign language.

The face of a woman who was, in fact, not aware that deaf people dislike being called mute.

GUESS WHO FINALLY LOOKS AT HER SON AFTER THAT!!!! Please please if the writers are kind and merciful, this will be the point in the show where Heart's mother does so deep deep introspection and realizes how much she has fucked up. "He's just deaf," Li Ming says, loudly, and he steps forward, to try to engage Heart's mom in further conversation, in more dialogue. And what does Jim do? Pulls him back, takes him off his even footing "I said stop,"

The face of a man who is very scared for the trouble his nephew might be getting himself in to, and the face of his nephew who is very disappointed that his uncle keeps not only backing down, but forcing him to back down as well. Who keeps asking him, in these small ways to lie instead of tell the truth. To remain quiet, to take the blame, to stick to the status quo.

And then the part I hate (emotionally) begins. Heart asks Li Ming to tell him what they're saying. And I hate it because Heart's parents refusing to learn sign language does not only hurt Heart but it hurts everyone around him, themselves included. But specifically here, it hurts Li Ming, because he has to be the one to look Heart in the face and repeat the words his mother said, knowing that to do so will hurt Heart. Knowing that he has to be the one to hurt Heart.

And this moment is also a great reminder for the audience as well that no one else knowing sign language creates really uncomfortable power dynamics between the person who is able to interpret and the Deaf person. Because Li Ming is hesitant to repeat it. Heart has to repeatedly grab his arm, repeatedly ask Li Ming to tell him what was said. Li Ming has absolute power over Heart right now, to refuse to say it, or to flat out lie. He doesn't, but it also should not be Li Ming's decision whether or not Heart knows, accurately, what was said. Even after we see it in his face that Li Ming agrees to translate, he still hesitates for a few seconds to move, to reach for the notepad, to have to write it down.

And once he writes it down, Li Ming's eyes do not leave Heart. He is honed in on Heart, on Heart's face, on his shoulders, hell even on the back of his head until Heart asks him to translate. And god as much as I hate this moment in the scene for the pain that it causes Li Ming, I hate it even more for the pain that it causes Heart.

He is fucking livid. Rightfully so, because HE'S NOT FUCKING MUTE, HE'S HAD LANGUAGE THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN TIME. He just wants to live his life like everyone else AND HE HAS TO TELL HIS PARENT'S THAT USING SOMEONE ELSE'S VOICE. Because they have refused to use his own. GOD. I'll be surprised if anyone makes it this far down in the post but I just...AHHHH I have no coherent thoughts about this moment, I just....Heart's parents do fucking better. Damn. And the worst part of this scene is yet to come because his Mom tries for like 0.2 seconds, but it looks like she's going to start signing something and Heart just looks SO surprised.

He's so focused on it, he's paying so much attention to it. Is this it? Is this the moment he finds out that his mother has actually been trying? That she has learned and is ready to start using sign language with him? To talk to him, to understand him?

No.

She can't do it. She doesn't know how to. And it's just..it's so easy to see how much hope he had for just a second, how much that one millisecond of effort obliterated all the logic in his head that told him they didn't know it, they didn't care. And how quickly that disappointed anger snaps right back in to place. So Heart starts talking, in sign language, like he has been able to do for years, and he speaks his mind, and his mother still can't understand him. And we see the same dynamic here as with the "mute" comment. Heart's Mom wants Li Ming to translate, Heart wants Li Ming to translate, Li Ming knows how hurt Heart is, and yeah, probably some of his hesitation in voicing what Heart said is because he knows what Heart said will hurt her. But more so because I think it hurts Li Ming to know how much pain Heart is in.

God, poor Heart, literally having to beg to be heard.

"He said you are ashamed of him being deaf,"

His mother shakes her head and says "Heart, I'm sorry. I don't know what to say, dear," and therein lies the problem. She doesn't know what to say, she never has. She has never bothered to learn how to communicate with him since he went deaf. She has kept him locked away. And it doesn't matter if she thinks she did that to keep him safe, Heart feels like he's being hidden away. And she doesn't say "No. No I'm not ashamed. I have never been ashamed." she doesn't know what to say. Because she can't say that. She can't deny that, and it just confirmed everything that Heart has known. So he leaves, because that's too much to handle.

Bullshit 'he'll be fine, honey'. Your fucking son just told you that you never bothered to learn sign language in THREE FUCKING YEARS, and stormed away after admitting that he feels like you are ashamed of him, and you think no need to go after him, he'll be fine??? Fuck you. ACAB.

Does this...

look like...

he's fine, to you?

No. I didn't think so.

I don't really feel like I need to say much about this last shot. It stands on its own so strongly. Mirrors reflecting back, Heart and Li Ming only ever being able to see each other, to be seen by each other. Warm light at Heart's back, Li Ming in front of him, sandwiched between warmth in all of that blue, isolating coldness. All that evidence of how much time and the energy Heart has spent learning sign language. I don't know what the post-its say, I don't know that I want to know.

I don't know if they are notes Heart has written to himself when he was learning, and this is just what remains of his effort. Honestly I hope it's that, because if it is what I think it is, general, every day responses that he might have to give in reply to his parents that he can just pull off his wall and return, that is so much fucking worse. Because then its just the evidence of all the effort Heart has put in to communicate with his parents on their level when they have not put in the same effort to communicate on his. Even if it's something cute, even if it's all the notes that he and Li Ming have passed back and forth to each other over the last few months, serving as a reminder that someone cares, you still are left with the heartbreaking shot of two young men, desperate to be understood by their families, only having each other to hold on to, surrounded by reminders that they are the only two people that can understand each other. No matter how hard they try.

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Your voice is very nice. I want to hear it more often.

[liyazaki]

love leg bumps | requested by @shortpplfedup

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN x I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU

msp honorary mention

[heretherebedork]

From confrontation to forever, from cleaning to a date at the movies, from wondering who he was to knowing him better than his own parents... how Heart and Li Ming have grown through their hands is truly beautiful.

[circuscl0wn]

Calling your son “mute” cuz you’ve never bothered to learned sign language to communicate with him is a level of audacity and disrespect I’ve never seen before

[maxescheibechlinichacheli]

Heart and Li Ming in each other's spaces, smiling together, beeing happy.

[lavenderlemniscate]

living spaces is a webcomic i am making about a bunch of shape people exploring infinite interconnected rooms. i use ai art (adhering to @are-we-art-yet's Code of Ethics) to create backgrounds and i also receive reader suggestions. check it out

[raypakorn]

21 of Liz’s Favs for their 21st

13. “whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” ft. heart x li ming

↳ for @akkpipitphattana

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Here's a parallel I hate

What Heart signs in the background of the church.

What heart signs to the sign language instructor at the church:

gif from @ablazenqueen

In order the signs are DEAF. THREE. YEARS. NOW. FIRST. MEET. DEAF. SAME."

Thank you to @deafcruz for pointing out the sign: SAME

So for a rough English translation: "I've been deaf for three years and now is the first I'm meeting others who are deaf"

What Heart signs to his mother in their fight: DEAF. YEARS. THREE.

gif from @maxescheibechlinichacheli

followed by "You never learned sign language. You are ashamed of me being Deaf,"

And like...yeah...we knew this already, but I can't believe that I didn't pay attention to what Heart was saying at the church until literally last night because he mentions how long he's been deaf and how long he's been deprived of community so casually in that scene. Probably cause he's just excited to meet other Deaf people. But that simple statement looms overhead, getting ready to be used again when Heart finally speaks his mind to his mother. When Heart finally shows her how isolated she has made him because her feelings have been more important than his life.

[littleforeignaffairs]

Gemini taking a page out of Fourth's book is actually the most precious thing.

You cannot convince me otherwise

[heretherebedork]

Love and chicken rice, both based on personal taste about what is delicious and what works and what matters and the love that brings them warmth brings them the same filling warmth as the chicken rice they share and create together.

This is a community built on full stomachs creating fuller souls and the way that love and food can shape everyone.