corvid-lullaby

[corvid-lullaby]

They're always eating everything

[corvid-lullaby]

"Nah! I ain't interested'n being a fucking plug for the gap in your heart. Especially not one that'll get tossed the moment ya find one that fits a li'l better!"

[corvid-lullaby]

[corvid-lullaby]

the idea of standing in between a man’s legs who’s just been in a fight and is all bruised and battered while tending to his wounds …. all while his hand (a hand that is usually rough and malicious) is gently placed on the back of your thigh, just below your ass …. he’s looking at you as if you’ve hung the moon in the sky ……….. it gets me going

[corvid-lullaby]

[corvid-lullaby]

The lack of words was almost upsetting. Then again, why would there be any uttered when there was only a single person that remained alive?

A man stood before a fresh kill, but this kill was different for someone like Shikiya. He laid at his feet intact and unaltered by malicious intent. Curious, considering how well known it was for Shiki to play with and consume his prey. The only disfigurement was a single clean decapitation. In fact, his white scythe was still implanted into the ground from when the killing blow was delivered. There wasn't as much blood as there should have been either due to the severe cauterizing effect the scythe had.

Perhaps what was most perplexing about this victim was the way he died smiling. It was gentle; almost thankful.

Time? The tengu wasn't sure how long he was standing over the body. He seemed to be having trouble willing himself from the position of his hands in his pockets or from the deep frown that etched his aging face. All he could do was continue staring while seemingly lost in thought.

Eventually a soft sigh escaped him while his hands rummaged. As per usual a cigarette and lighter were pulled out. Right now he was craving his rolls of good tobacco and clove buds more than ever. He needed something to distract him from emotions he hadn't felt in so long.

Shiki had been watching this target for a while. He wasn't anyone of importance to be on someone's shit list. Quite the contrary. He was very kind, sweet, but had the curse of some of the worst luck he had ever seen. The tengu thought this would have been an easy meal as it was self preparing due to the misery he naturally and persistently lived through.

Instead, Shiki was met with a sour taste of deja vu. The events he saw the other live through… He was almost sure he had gone through the same. A happiness the victim thought he had, only for it to get torn from his hands. The struggle of trying to claw and cling for it there after. The sorrow and anger he slowly drowned in as he failed, yet walked as a living ghost due to regrets and wishes keeping him from taking his own life.

It all turned Shiki's stomach in such a mysterious way, as he was never one to feel pity or any kind of connection with his victims.

And so, for the first time in hundreds of years, the tengu granted someone peace. A merciful act, as Shiki's guts told him what would happen to this man if he didn't intervene. His first kill without any malicious intent. He could still hear the harrowing shrieks of despair the other gave off as he lost himself to grief within his final moments.

A burst of thunder suddenly webbed through the sky. Being interrupted from lighting his cigarette, the feathered being looked up.

"What. You got somethin' to say, too? Well damn, an answer for this shitten mess would be fuckin' swell, wouldn't it?"

In answer, it began to rain, which quickly grew heavier by the second.

Groaning, Shiki rolled his eyes before looking down at his lighter in defeat. Well, so much for having a smoke. That's when his attention shifted to his left sleeve. Feathers fell and piled there, and the darkened pigments of his hand began to bleed out. His eyes widened as his corvid-like properties fell and pooled into a puddle at his feet.

At that moment he realized it; he didn't feel hungry at all. All the rage and regret that lingered within like a deeply embedded worm also fell away to mingle with the sheddings of black feathers and ink. He stood there as a mere human in the truest sense. Not a trick or a glamour, but an actual human. Even though he wasn't sure why or how, it was certain; the curse was lifted.

Now a light brown, his eyes shifted back to his scythe. What normally was a warm and bright ivory now pulsed dimly. It revealed its details for the first time as that light ribboned away into distant particles. The handle and blade were ordinary but delicately carved stone. A look you would expect to see in a graveyard. Nothing sharp or powerful. Otherwise there was a vining rose with white blossoms that clung around it.

Now human, he couldn't help but stare at it with a new found clarity. That quiet moment would be interrupted by his own soft laugh. Gradually, it became hearty. Louder. It continued as he clutched and gripped at his own hair, until that laughter slowly became marred with that of pure insanity. It echoed along with the rolling thunder.

Even with the vanquished sorrow, can the broken truly be fixed? The mind is a fickle thing, and yet life continues to roll on.

鴉

[corvid-lullaby]

The Fourth Folly

Hope.

This isn't such a fragile thing as some would have you believe. Nay, it's something rough you have to build for your own. It breathes as its own entity. It can be beaten, bloodied, and bruised, but it can just as likely heal and callous over with enough nourishment. It can raise you up in the most dire moments and become your own hallowed ground.

You grasp for it. You fight for it.

But what if it were all for naught? What if, regardless of how much you clung to it, it continued to slip through between your battered fingers?

You, who once was filled with hope in your eyes.

You, who are a cursed soul.

You, who's death rattle was the final kiss upon your lips many a times.

Trust and love used to come to you so easily. As each betrayal stole another life of yours, you denied that it harmed your morale. Instead you forged ahead. Each turn of your soul withered your hope. You must have been blessed to some degree to have held out through thousands of your spent lives.

Each death of a crow must be accounted for:

One for Sorrow,

Two for Mirth;

Three for a Wedding,

Four for Humanity’s Death;

Five-Hundred for Flesh,

Six-Hundred for Bone;

Seven-Hundred for a Soul,

Not to be Left Alone;

Eight-Hundred for Euphoria,

Nine-Hundred for Eternity,

And Ten-Thousand More for an Unattainable Divinity

How are you now little crow? How do you fare with that broken wing of yours?

This is a chapter list for Shiki's FFXIV verse. Each verse of the counting poem will eventually link to a story as they're released:

Once an Ancient who studied death and how it promoted evolution for survival, he would go through a downfall through an accident at the hands of the Warrior of Light. With a soul malformed through self experimentation while under the influence of Althena and the Heart of Sabik, the Sundering was unkind to him. His soul could not be split while his flesh could. In turn it caused his body to repeatedly be rendered apart only to reform itself around the soul. Eventually his own creations were caught into it and would leave him as a grotesquerie.

A monster, but only by his looks.

While his soul and--technically--his body survived, the trauma would prove too much to let his memories live. He would awaken on the Source in its earliest dawn. Still kind, still gentle, but sadly his actions will not defend him from the many stones that would soon be cast upon him.

After all, if it looks like a monster then it must be a monster, correct?

He would also soon find out that death will not be his escape. Each rebirth would come with his memories intact. Each death meant a fray on his mentality.

And so, these writings will follow the lives he has lived that has impacted him the most, and how a kind soul has rotted so deeply.

They say that it takes ten thousand lives to reach enlightenment.

[corvid-lullaby]

When you are not fed love on a silver spoon you learn to lick it off knives.

[corvid-lullaby]

love when characters are so entrenched in their own self loathing that they believe themselves to have some inherent trait that causes them to fuck everything up rather than it being a result of them never trying bc they assume they're going to fail anyway

[corvid-lullaby]

Decided to make one for fun lmao. There's a lot of contradicting in here due to his outwardly monstrous side vs the side he protectively keeps bottled up

Blank below cut. Please tag or message me if you do one too. 💜

[corvid-lullaby]

@titaneus

I know you don't follow this particular character but decided to do it for fun anyway. 🙏

[corvid-lullaby]

Really need to clean up in here. Lot of the bg was quickly jotted down and I don't feel like I clarified what Shiki is as a core entity very well.

I'll put up a proper 'like to interact' post later after I do.

[corvid-lullaby]

Asked this in the gc, now asking ffxiv tumblr to celebrate pride ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

What is your WoL going to Bad Queer Rep Jail for? 🎤

[corvid-lullaby]

blood , obsession and an eternity of love

[corvid-lullaby]

currently mass following ff14 ppl on here lol hiiiii im achu kha and im on faerie >.<

[corvid-lullaby]

I do often call Shiki an old crow, but tbh I relate him more to a rook. 🙏🖤 Part of it is due to how his full monster form looks. It's more similar to a rook. Crow is just more readily understood and due to kotengus often being called crow or karasu tengus. It gets the point across a little easier.