moonlit-nightingale

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#The Past

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#his star; vani

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#sari quote

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#their home

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#their home

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#their home

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             i go far - 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚛 - for my dreams                                                                           αи∂ иσω ι вєℓιєνє

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Sari will be behind the counter for Steppe Supper! Come have some warm food. ♥

Suiren Shrine will be hosting the return of two of our older events in tandem!

First is Nyan Night where guests can interact with kitties looking for a new forever home and will be located on the top floor of the shrine. All adoptions are completely IC. 

Secondly is the return of the Steppe Supper where guests may enjoy fresh, free, hot food from one of the shrine’s Xaela chefs. This will take place in the common area on the bottom floor of the shrine. The menu can be found [here].

Come enjoy both of these relaxed events or simply pick one for your evening. We hope to see you at our last events for the year!

When: 28 November, 8pm EST

Where: Coeurl, Shirogane, Ward 23, Plot 37

Contact Bluebird#2389 if in need of a friend teleport or interested in helping out!

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Keep reading

#event

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from Autopsy by Donte Collins

#the past

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@animangacreators

Challenge 03– Alphabet Challenge

M– Masaki Takigawa (Tsurune)

#sari aesthetic

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.:FFXIV Write 2022:.

Saranqerel “Sari” Qalli - The Songbird & The Hawk

1. Cross

9. Yawn

11. Makeup

19. Turn a Blind Eye

20. Anon (AU)

23. Pitch

Natori Ritsuka - The Shadow & Quill

2. Bolt

4. Solstice

14. Attrition 

22. Veracity

25. Pieces

Shimohi - The Nogitsune Horishi

3. Temper

21. Solution

24. Vicissitudes

Shima Rikiya - The Smiling Shateigashira

5. Cutting Corners

Suiren no Hokusai - The Fire-soul Kannushi

6. Onerous

16. Deiform

29. Fuse

Siyue - The Jade Rabbit

7. Pawn

18. Glass

Suiren no Kaede - The Ghost of the Maples

7. Pawn

13. Confluence

26. Break a Leg

30. Sojourn

Nijaz Surefoot - The Sable Dancer

8. Tepid

17. Novel

27. Hail

Mitsue Torioi - The Sharlayan Healer

10. Channel

28. Vainglory

Weiss Veil - The Searcher of Stars

12. Miss the Boat

15. Row

~~~

I almost made it through this challenge without missing one single day…but I floundered in the end and had a few late entries. ;-; But at least I did every single one!

#ffxivwrite2022 wrap up

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“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”

— Lao Tzu

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“The worst part about being lied to is knowing that to that person, you weren’t worth the truth.”

— Unknown

#the past

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.:Prompt #23: Pitch:.

It was his normal monthly trip to the Steppe. Or so he tried to visit Reunion at least once a month to check in with old friends that milled about that area. This time, after his close call last time, he didn’t plan to venture out beyond the Qestiri settlement. Best to lay low for a bit and let the Hawk’s misadventures fade from the public’s minds.

There was always something that brought him back here, a place that he’d disown so quickly once he’d first left. He’d matured over the years and learned to accept the good with the bad. To be able to sit down in a corner with some buuz, listening to the native tongue he grew up with, and take in the colors and scents that would always be engrained within him. To smile at the young ones that would come running over to the man in neutral tribe colors, curious why he didn’t declare himself.

It wasn’t something /uncommon/ per se to hide one’s colors, but it always meant someone was hiding. The Hawk had carried out far too many crimes against more violent tribes and Sari refused to wear Qalli colors to turn their ire towards innocent people. Also...

He perked up at the sound of sung words, the pitch drifting on the Steppe’s ever-present wind. The Xaela was always sensitive to those songs. Even if he hadn’t grown up within the tribe maybe some residual memories of his family’s songs still had him wired a certain way. It pulled at him; he wanted to go engage, join, feel his voice naturally lift in those melodies even in simple words.

But was he welcome? Would he just look a fool? A Qalli that spoke like any other person? That never found his heartsong?

Sari bit his lip and, as always, settled himself to just listen and watch.

Maybe...one day.

#ffxivwrite2022 #short story

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.:Prompt #20: Anon:.

(Note: Takes place in friendos’ cultivation AU, heavily based off of MXTX’s novels. BGM [here].)

Usually Shinya’s anxiety, especially that over the recent awakening of his mixed-blood status, would keep him from rushing without thought back to his home on Katsuragi Peak. Also, his dedication to his new home of Baifan as the floating nomadic city began to return to normal after its two years of induced stasis, and to Voi...his bethrothed, would make him pause.

But not now. 

It was supposed to be a quiet day of recovery after a rather eventful evening when Shinya finally made the call home over his talisman, hoping to plan his wedding with his honored older brother who would be much more knowledgeable in proper traditions. He had not expected to see Mitsue in the sect leader’s robes and marks of the venerated station. Even less so prepared to hear that their parents had been declared deceased by the other clans in the wake of dealing with the catastrophic incident near the Mediterranean a few months ago.

Mitsue had been utterly baffled. No correspondence had made it through? How? Had it been purposely blocked by some other actor? Still, his brother, if only by adoption but held just as dear, had bade the other to return anon. The funerals had passed but there was still time to pay his respects to their altar.

Either way, Shinya was infinitely glad for his fiancé's support in setting up the array to return back to Japan in a hasty manner. Clad in the Caifu sect’s dark robes and with the beads of that culture woven in this ebony hair, he didn’t hesitate rushing from the array chamber. There were many odd looks from the Katsuragi disciples about, likely due to the foreign colors and also the very notable dark demon wings that now rose from Shinya’s back, their gems catching the snow-thrown sunlight that was a staple of this sacred mountain.

How long had he been away from this place he called home? Only a year? But it all felt so foreign yet so familiar as he instinctively hurried through the halls, out into the crisp air, up those snow steps to the highest ground of the ancient earth that made up this ancient clan. Breath caught in his lungs, unused to the perpetual chill that hung in the air since his departure.

Boots left piles of melted snow on the marble floors of the entryway that soon gave way to polished stone, and then to wood. There was his brother, regal as always in his strong and tall form, talking with a few of the elders.

Shinya didn’t hesitate, tears in that one blue eye as he flung arms around Mitsue, completely obliterating any semblance of tradition that should be paid to, not only his older brother, but to the new sect leader. There was a moment of hesitation, silence that fell over the meeting room. But the hug was returned tightly after a few tense moments before the white-haired cultivator asked for the elders to depart, which they did so in a mix of grateful awkwardness.

“I...I’m so sorry...I didn’t know,” were the broken words as he held on, uncaring how his dark claws wrinkled fabric. Shinya knew the blessed garments would be just fine somewhere at the back of his mind, but that was hardly his current thought.

All that raced through his mind was that his family that had taken him in had been stolen away. The ones that had found him in that disgusting ghost market to be sold for pieces and not only gave him a home but a vaulted position as a Katsuragi by name if not blood. The ones that had accepted this revelation that he was a half-demon, blood only recently awakened with grace. The ones that had accepted the news that he’d promised himself to a man that he’d only met months prior.

Kiyo, Hideo, and Mitsue were all strict traditionalists. However, they had accepted him like any other. Their love, like the ice and stone that made up this precious land, was unmoving, solid, and unrelenting even if it appeared cold and distant to outsiders. 

And as he heard the slightest shaky intake of breath from his oh so strong and proud brother, Shinya knew he’d made the proper choice to hurry across continents to be here.

#cultivation au #au #ffxivwrite2022 #short story

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.:Prompt #19: Turn a Blind Eye:.

(Warning for memories of abuse and violence)

The young man named after moonlight had seen his share of evil in the world. He’d even committed evils of his own when the Hawk woke inside him and delighted in the bloody hunts of his own kind across the wide open space of the Steppe.

He’d suffered from a young age, all kinds of terrible abuse that he wish he could just forget but, despite the happiness he’d found, still haunted his dreams on bad nights. He’d taken revenge on the ones that had wronged him, that had taken hot metal to his flesh, burned out his eye and laughed when he’d screamed.

Had he felt satisfaction when he’d pushed the dead bodies of those former tribesmen off the cliff and into the water’s wrath below? Yes. Yes, he had. Did he regret it?

...likely those that thought so highly of the man would be disappointed to hear that he did not regret it one little bit.

It was an emotion that the Hawk fed off of. The twisted justification that, by his hand, he was eliminating evil people from this world that would prey on others like he’d been preyed on for so long of his life.

Would he ever hesitate to kill someone that abused another so blatantly?

Likely not.

Perhaps even while he was still in his right mind and the Hawk was caged.

Was he a killer? Yes.

Would some believe that the kind-hearted carpenter, baker, and gardener who doted on his children (yes even the fluffy ones of Vani) had such a cold streak in his heart? Doubtful.

But what mattered is that Vani had seen every facet of him. The Seeker even handled the Hawk with a deft and oddly affectionate hand. And as long as his husband never averted his eyes from him, never looked disappointed or disgusted at him, then Sari could accept all the blood he’d shed.

#ffxivwrite2022 #short story

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Soft romance is underappreciated. Yes, take my hand and kiss it or play with my fingertips. The little looks and knowing glances shared between two lovers. The smell of their fragrance as they walk past you at home. Those are the moments that are all too easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention.

#relationship aesthetic