#▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ v. ghost | flashing back to cicada cries⌟ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deiscension · 1 month

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﹄ ◇ ; @sangdelune / BALDUR'S GATE 3 STARTERS

❝ when all this is over, will you stay with me ? for good ? ❞

⌜◈⌟ ▌ ── 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙. A naive variant of eternity. Maybe it only sounds naive since it's coming from a young mouth. Hadn't she spoken of eternity in similar ways once upon a time? Snapshots of those instances race across her mind in the time it takes to blink. Tangled hair tied in buns like all the other girls her age, ankles muddy, setting down bowls of slightly undercooked rice with hands not yet accustomed to cooking, promise you'll be my brother forever. Her arm linked through another's, fan sweeping heat away from both their faces, a taste both fizzy and smooth loosing her tongue, of course it's fine like this; I'll always be your friend. Once spoken of in hope despite fear, twice spoken of in certainty despite ignorance. Always reaching, always grasping, never able to hold. She doesn't remember what any of it means, only that she was so certain of it. And now it's all gone. Except for her, the one lingering on the age of dead and sixteen. Is that really what he wants? Is that what's best for him?

𝐖𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬, 𝐬𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠. There's no use in trying to act like one right away, not when there's ample time to learn.

"𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭. As long as the wind's here, I'm here!" She's made this promise before. She's broken this promise before. No god in their right mind would listen to the prayer of an undeserving ghost, so she won't beg for the heavens to bind her to her word. If she breaks it, she'll see to it herself that she forfeits all right to 'for good'. Her fingers close around his. "How about I stay from now on? No need to wait for it all to be over; that sounds too lonely. If you need help or just want someone around, all you have to do is ask "Xuan-jie, where are you?" and I'll be there before you're even done saying it."

#sangdelune #▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ in character ⌟#▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ v. ghost | flashing back to cicada cries⌟#WAAA!!!! this HURTS bc sqx is eventually going to have to disappear- misha's gonna (eventually) lose someone AGAIN!#she's saying 'i'll stay forever' but what she means is 'i'll stay until you don't need forever'#she just doesn't know that's what she means ;0;#once he no longer has to ask where she is- the will & purpose binding her as a ghost will vanish #SOBBING #also. sheer diff between sovann going older sibling mode vs sqx trying her best too... it's so funny to me #sqx was always the doted on baby sibling so she's vastly underqualified but SHE'LL TRY

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deiscension · 2 months

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﹄ ◇ ; @aaternum left the prayer:

“ Well, what do you feel? ” Curious eyes follow her apparition, knuckles pressed into her own hips as she leans forward. Making company with the dead was hardly the way she imagined spending her nights, but it was as fascinating as it was eerie. And she’s still searching for the words to describe the chance encounter. Uncanny? Surreal? To be determined, she decides minutely. Hand outstretched, digits flexed and palm presented before her phantasmal friend, a smile tugs at her lips. “ Touch? Emotions? I really wanna know. ” There’s a thoughtful beat, “ Oh jeez, is that rude? I hope that’s not rude! ” (from Ryu's fantasy verse! <;3)

⌜◈⌟ ▌ ── "𝐎𝐡, 𝐈 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. I'm quite the exceptional ghost," she answers with a puffed out chest.

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞. Proud as she might be of her ability to take on whatever pretty forms she pleases, by most undead standards she's still barely there at all. A novice exorcist could banish her without breaking a sweat. But she's no inconsequential apparition either. It had taken a great deal of time (How long has it been? Twenty years? Thirty? Three hundred?) and even greater deal of effort, but she had broken through the threshold separating her from the corporeal world. And so, the first half of her statement isn't a lie. Now she truly can feel most things. Sunlight filtering through treetops; the drumming of nighttime rains; the ebb and flow of spiritual energies both familiar and unfamiliar to her; the wards carried by travelers who know better than to stop and talk with individuals draped in robes of bygone times.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐲. "Asking a young lady about the affairs of her heart is utterly shameless, you know!" The crystalline laughter that follows erases all pretense that she might actually believe the other held any prying intentions. If anything, she seems delighted by it. She mirrors her company's mannerisms, waves of hair cascading over slightly hunched shoulders as her own hand raises. Warm fingertips press against those not quite there; flesh into phantasm, paths converging in a windswept forest--

--𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠, the undertow tangling in hair and baring her neck to lifeless hands. but she's not there, and she's not here either. she's inside a mirror trying to comprehend what lies beyond it, because this isn't hers--

𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐩 𝐠𝐚𝐬𝐩 that spirals away into the nothingness where lungs used to be. Her head hurts. It's not supposed to do that when she's... dead.

𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬, 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬. Opens again. The urge to take this stranger's hand and run washes over her with the same ferocity as those black tides once had. Instead, she blurts, "Are you lost?"

#aaternum #▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ in character ⌟#▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ v. ghost | flashing back to cicada cries⌟#THANK U SO MUCH FOR UR PATIENCE CHERUB ;v;#uuughhh ryuuuuu... she's just too lovely #writing this was so so so fun #loosely following how ghosts work in sqx's canon- she'd be able to tell by touch that SOMETHING is off about ryu #sqx's no stranger to being haunted/hunted/preserved by not knowing the truth- its what her will & purpose as a ghost are tied to!#but similarly to ryu her recollection of events are jumbled (in part because of necessary canon divergence lol)#i just think. i just think haunted/hunted girls... who have the odds stacked against them... and probably SHOULDN'T bond...

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deiscension · 5 months

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﹄ VERSES: Shi Qingxuan.

below the cut is information on each available verse for shi qingxuan! the selection includes: tgcf canon-compliance, ghost, two modern variants with a reincarnation flavor that can be added to the order, reverse 1999, and genshin. a link to this post will be added to sqx's section on the pinned post. i'll update with any new verses that may come about in due time!

﹄ ◇ ; TGCF verses.

𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 & 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 - 𝐩𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐜

bright as the morning sun and generous as a cool breeze on a sweltering summer eve, shi qingxuan presides as the beloved wind master of the heavenly court. she spends her time investigating matters brought before her by other court officials and her thousands upon thousands of believers, drinking merrily, making as many friends as possible, and trying not to earn the baleful glare of her older brother.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 - 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐜

the reverend of empty words has declared its final verdict on shi qingxuan's life the wind no longer answers her call. terrified of the egregious suffering her existence has caused and unable to contend with the callous injustice her brother has committed on her behalf, she wishes for nothing more than to be cast from the heavens and left to stumble about on her own in the mortal realm. but such wishful thinking will get her nowhere. if not for her, it wouldn't have happened. she can't just let her brother face that same fate... can she?

𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 - 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐜

the waves have come crashing down. there is no lady wind master. there is no shi qingxuang. never show yourself before me, and i will pretend you never existed. is this not what she what she wanted? with wounds that will never heal and only herself to offer as a means to get by, she finds a way to make do down in the mud and misery. how fortunate that those with fates as accursed as hers are kinder than those in the heavens! at least she won't be alone. it's a happy affair, really; the mortal realm truly is a wondrous place. still, there's so much left to say, so much left to do, such immense debt to pay and pay and pay. even so, behind the filth and shame, her bright eyes remain the same.

﹄ ◇ ; Ghost Verse - 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

wretched beginning, wretched end. it only took a slight slip for her to go tumbling down, down, down to the where the water meets the shore. unable to move, the tides soon swept away both final words and final breath. but the wind has a way of bringing home wanderers who have not yet found true rest. good-natured but perhaps more teasing than she ought to be if she wants to avoid an exorcism, this nameless ghost lingers like a summer breeze. floaty, fair, fuzzy-- there's something left to say, there's someone left hear, surely. but her mind fills with the cry of cicadas, the roaring of crashing waves, a name split in two, a sin unrecognized... she was sure she knew. where, oh where... at such a time, had it really been...?

( *this can also be used as a flex-verse; i.e., modern ghost. )

﹄ ◇ ; Modern Verses

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬

lady_windmaster: an overnight sensation adored for her rags-to-riches story. beauty, goodwill, passion for costuming and storytelling, and genuine heart have earned her the love of anonymous millions. one moment a struggling college dropout from a family long since fallen out of public approval, the next the face of triumph in hardship. as she recovers from permanent injury and begins her social transition into femininity, she wants nothing more than to prove that there is a way to show your truest of hearts. but maybe it's not really her place to do so. after all, she's not exactly the one responsible for the relative stability she now has. her brother is the one who ultimately climbed those steep stairs for both of them-- and not without pulling strings. is she shi qingxuan, or is she a cut-and-paste image crafted to be an unachievable dream?

𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

having recently been released from hospital care following a horrific accident, shi qingxuan is eager to mingle with her peers again and reintroduce herself to the world at large. while she's become quite popular due to her bubbly nature, sincerity, and self-confidence, she still can't quite escape looming feelings of alienation and judgment from behind her own closed doors. (gonna be real here this subverse exists for like three people orz)

( *important note for both modern variants: i am also more than happy to incorporate direct reincarnation from her canon; how much or how little she remembers of her life before will be situation-dependent. )

﹄ ◇ ; Reverse 1999 - 𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬

an arcanist draped in the elegant robes of a daoist cultivator, shi qingxuan is as carefree and affable as both appearance and her fanciful spirit-aligned afflatus would imply. she has yet to fully commit herself to the foundation. perhaps she's just too much of a free spirit to tie herself down to an institution with so many rules and regulations... though it's not like there's much anywhere else for her to go. she used to claim she hailed from a sky beyond the reach of the storm. now, however, she becomes noticeably embarrassed of her prior assertions. even more ridiculous yet, however, might be her full confidence that given enough time and practice with her incantations, she will be able to sweep the storm away in one grand gale.

﹄ ◇ ; Genshin Verse - 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲

once a legendary wind spirit with powers to rival even the mightiest of gods, shi qingxuan used roam the entirety of teyvat with swift feet carried by gales called down directly from the heavens. at such a time, she went by the title of 'lady wind master'. it was a title spoken with adoration and awe by all who knew it, particularly within the region that would eventually become known as liyue. but then whispers of war and usurpation began to trickle across the land. entirely unbeknownst to her, her brother lord water master attempted to seal her to the wind forevermore using another's stolen power. wrath from above and below formed a riptide that she could neither run from nor combat. and so she fell from the wind, soul of her soul and breath of her breath severed in a single moment. legend says her collision with the earth below carved an entire hidden system through liyue's mountain systems that still cradle her once beloved spiritual devices inside their ancient walls.

permanently maimed and shackled to winds that no longer recognize her as their counterpart, she's fated to wander teyvat until she has repaid the debt of existence and atoned for her crime of ignorance. she's little more than a vagabond with a few tricks up her sleeve and an anemo vision she still hasn't quite gotten accustomed to.

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