#Tales from Aeyuu

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Find the Word!

I was tagged by @dyrewrites ! Their snippets over here :3

Rules: Find the words, post some snips.

I haven't done tag games in a while because health, so I had to do this one. Especially as the words fit right into my usual vocabulary :3

Received the words: dust, glower, night and pierce

And I give you these: limited, dreamer, special, atonement

Surely not the easiest of words and I'm sorry about that XD but I am curious to see what writers would do with them.

I shall tag: @drawnecromancy, @cicidarkarts, @noxxha, @tangledcharms, @aalinaaaaaa, @ryns-ramblings, @stesierra, @duckingwriting, @garthcelyn

(but feel free anyone to jump off my words :3)

(( @drawnecromancy I'll take french translations of those words, too 😛))

Here come the snips!

Dust - from Kristofa and Niskania's story (hasn't got a real title yet)

Through his soil-based abilities, Kristofa easily found his way to the nearest Human settlement, a small and cozy town called Farren. Kristofa was awed by the abrupt change in scenery: a sea of trees and nature turning to rectangular tall homes made of stacked rocks or bark shaped to boards. A cold surface the Humans called glass covered the windows, dead grass or hard panes served as a structure called roofs. Not a single home arched into a dome. Not a single edifice was covered in vines and light. Here, what they called the moons shone down through the night, a vast expanse of darkness speckled with dust that they called stars.

For an instant that obstructed his throat, Kristofa remembered a story Niskania had told him when they were children. Something about 'little lights' and the 'bright eyes of the dark, one small and one large'. He knew that he was supposed to understand something; but Kristofa merely knew to keep staring, dumbfounded. Mesmerized.

---

Glower - from Ario's story part 5, From the Depths

"Are you alright, Yosen boy? You look awful."

"I'm dying."

The person chuckled. Ario immediately recognized him. "You must be fine if you can joke like that," Triku said. His laughter turned abruptly to a pained gasp, but he carried on, "Soba, however, won't be. Not like this. Whatever happened to him,…" Triku paused, his heart pounding with concern and regret. "This is no longer your place."

Your place? No: our place; the place, Ario thought about and he ardently wished he wasn't, his eyes transfixed on the top bunk, that Soba had but days ago befouled with his disgustingly wrong feelings. He needed to remind Soba of his wrongness; of the only way in which he was allowed to be wrong. Ario gritted his teeth and sniffled. Memories stared and smiled and glowered at him, collided with each other, jumbled, fragmented;

---

Night - from Fragments of Selessannea's memories

For the first time in my life, when Devon reached out to me, I pulled away.

"Leave me be," I remember blubbering at him.

"Selessannea," he replied, and hearing my name spoken with such kindness after hearing him yell out with such ferocity made me feel sick. "This place isn't safe for you—"

"Of course it isn't! You're here!"

I did not regret my words right away. In that moment, a terrible disgust had taken over me, as well as the realization that malia had been right all along. I did not see my palo – I did not see the tears in his eyes, nor the shock on his face. All I saw was the blood coating his clothes, and the monstrous fangs protruding between trembling lips. The smell of him – something unnatural that defied description – made me feel sick. In that terrible moment, I wanted but one thing: for Devon to get out of my life, forever.

When Devon left, I did not cry. He was already long gone when a strange, uncharacteristic thought crossed my mind: that if he were to take his life that night to atone for all of his wrongdoings, I wouldn't even care. He'd have gotten what he deserved.

---

Pierce - from The Life in your arms

The girl’s gaze pierced the darkness. He could not see her, but he felt:

She was reaching out. Attempting – and, this time, the term was correct – to communicate with him. She desired something. Something beyond his comprehension; but, he thought, not out of the realm of his abilities.

Lan lifted his head and looked around – at the impenetrable darkness that surrounded him. An idea crossed his mind.

He held out his arms towards the girl – towards where she had last sat, at least – and closed his eyes. Lan took a deep breath, and gathered within himself all the tingling moisture flooding the air itself. Air turned liquid in his breath; power coursed through his veins like rivers unleashed. Through his eyelids, he saw light. With his mind, he saw a large globe of glowing water, spinning and swirling before him - and then he was the water, and he was spinning and swirling and diving and dancing, joyous, unimpeded.

He was water; and he was everything.

But the girl was not. As her shaking fingers grazed the orb – grazed him – Lan perceived. There was a depth of liquidity within her, without a doubt… but it lied deep. Exceedingly deep. Engulfed by thick, viscous blackness that quivered at his touch, peeling away.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Find the Word!

Been a while since I played a game, and I do like this one especially 😁

I was tagged by @drawnecromancy (their post here!) and shall tag without pressure a few people: @cicidarkarts @noxxha @tangledcharms @hippiewrites @deadlyessencewhispers @duckingwriting and anyone else who feels like joining in :D (link back to me, I wanna see your writes)

Words I was given : Spiral, Sheer, Cold, Fur.

Words I'm giving you : Ominous, Sun, Livid, Tentacle

My snips beneath the Keep Reading :3

Spiral - From Ayden's Life Story

"You." Despite better judgment, nearly all present turned their attention towards the one man in Atrophy uniform whom Ayden was pointing his finger at. "You," he repeated, cocking his head, "I have seen the truth of you. Different from your peers – whom you fear. Why?" A few of the people present straightened. Ayden felt their tension, but was interrupted by the red-haired woman who had shot Richard outside. "What is she talking about?", she ordered, causing the man's soul to spiral into utter horror. At a debilitating loss for words, he did not answer. Mortals still held the power to surprise him, Ayden mused about when this woman marched over to this terrified man and held the metallic shaft from before against his forehead. She seemed to have forgotten, or to not care like all of his peers, that Ayden had awoken from death and that by all natural laws he should neither be speaking nor moving. "You saw what we did to him," she stated, nodding towards unconscious Richard's body, "You don't have the luxury to heal like he will. Start talking."

Sheer & Cold - From Heart to Heart

He blinked, and the cold seeped through his clothes, his hair, his fingernails. Frostburn lingered at his extremities, which he barely could move at all. Such a heavy weight bore down on his shoulders now. Shoulders that cracked as he tried to shift – off bloodied knees, he realized now. His hands buried in snow; so cold, so very cold, he couldn't tell whether he sat upright through strength alone, or sheer willpower.

Fur - From Belonging

Mir arched up onto her paws, fur bristling, fangs bared as she growled her warning towards the beast in human skin. Heels clicked against pavement, slow and steady, undeterred even when Mir began barking out the threat of death. Every echoing step brought closer the stink of gore and arrogance. Mir realized that she would have no choice but to fight for her life and that of her dying pup. She growled and coiled, ready to strike.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Deaden my worth

There is a certain pleasure in revisiting stories after a few months of inactivity.

For one, you see more clearly what exactly is wrong with them, allowing for a good rewrite.

For two, you get to rediscover your own story and enjoy all the parts that were good the first time around.

And three, you get the satisfaction of finishing the Thing if, like me, you tended to flitter about a lot and, life aiding, you evolved towards needing to complete all the WIPs you left in your AuDHD-ish wake.

(this story was originally called Assault, but then it evolved. And its core changed. Thus, its name followed suit)

---

"You know the truth," Aneskia's lookalike said, unfazed. "It belongs to your veins now. There is no point in fighting what you know to be foreordained. Lay your head and sleep now—"

"No…"

"—for there is nothing more that a child such as you ought to do. The advent of silence has begun. Do you not yearn for peace? Do you not yearn for your suffering to end?"

Aneskia fought back her tears. She hesitated before responding, a quiet "no" that her lookalike dismissed with ease.

"It is life that is wrong," the lookalike stated. "It is life that brings misery and sorrow to the world, for it is in life that the soul accrues undeserved pain. You who have lost all whom you loved, do you not agree? Had none of you lived, would you not know peace?"

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Hurt

As per the usual, a single vignette turned into a long story sprawling a few different PoVs...

... but this time, I got to visit one of my fave characters in the world without him merely glaring at me and refusing to let me near him because he's just that kind of asocial partypooper.

More seriously, writing Death incarnate is a rare treat for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring him and his encyclopedic mind just a little more :3

---

There had always been something about the swamplands of Korinda that made Zool's makeshift skin crawl. A sensation. A vibration. Something, nameless and insubstantial, yet perceived all the same.

Long before the rise of the Necrolore, he had already known. Yet he had done nothing. Seen nothing. Not until one day he'd come to sever souls and found them steeped so deep in this perversion of death that he had struggled to sever them free.

Times had not changed, albeit the Necrolore had. Where once it had been but a whistling silence, now, in this area of the world, it possessed a will of its own.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Last Line Tag

Tagged by @drawnecromancy (their post here)

I just remembered as I started work on my own WIP. So. Lines!

"Meris! Please don't leave me! I need you! I am the only one who needs you! Meris!!!" Fedra's screams turned to hysterical sniveling. Demanding help. Ordering her little brother to stay awake – to stay alive. Beautiful pain that had Kassandra grin.

Tagging: @noxxha @cicidarkarts @duckingwriting @desastreus @readrenard @aalinaaaaaa

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Facets of fear

Every now and again, inspiration strikes in ways that I can't understand nor fight off.

It's been a while since Within temptation's album Bleed Out came out, and I have found quite a few character songs in there because of course I did. One of these songs somehow made me think of a character I hadn't thought about in ages, whose life story I had drastically altered about a decade ago. And never did that side of the world feel quite right.

So, inspired by growing obsession, I decided to re-change things until they felt right. Leading to a couple of new stories :3

---

As always when he observed the solemn silence of the church, Sokyte smiled. So many years had passed since he had succeeded the old priest, Father Leros. So many years spent preaching to a community who cared more about gossip than about faith. Few still seemed to care about Alliandra the Magnificent, a divinity said to have protected the village of Hahel when, ages ago, it had come under threat of destruction. As he came to stand before Her statue, a beautifully intricate sculpture carved from the simplest of rock, Sokyte could almost understand the villagers. What manner of divinity would lose Her eternal life to the common threat of bandits, as was often believed Alliandra had succumbed to? But then, did it truly matter whether Alliandra had existed at all – still existed at all – when the message she conveyed was the true expression of divine engagement?

A message so simple, yet so wise: be kind, be brave in the face of adversity, and never surrender to fear.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Ario's part 7 - Conviction

It has been close to a year since last I truly worked on this project. Feels like a lot has happened since then and, frankly, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to continue that project.

Or, at times, whether I'd manage to keep writing at all.

But here we are and I'm still bumbling forward, with a few dreams that may never come true, and only the certainty that I will keep writing for as long as health permits.

That said, enjoy this little snippet of Ario. The choices in this part will likely determine the fate of a few people aboard the ship <<

---

That was it, Ario knew at once. Scrutinizing her, the casual but distinct look in her eyes, the callous bitterness swirling in her heart, Ario understood what about this girl had truly put him ill at ease. Anger pounded along his veins now, deep in his heart, and he was hard-pressed to contain it.

"You're talking about Soba, aren't you?" Ario forced himself back on his feet, to stare down at this disgusting piece of Yosen trash that seemed to think herself his friend. "The Alweira had a name. Has a name. It's Soba. And he was killed by that thing! Murdered! Whatever you may think of Alweira – and yes, I do know our history! – Soba didn't deserve that!"

It took the girl a while before she reacted – before the swirl of her hatred and contempt began to steady, but never fade. "Rika was right," she finally said. "You truly don't understand."

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Find the Word!

I was tagged by @drawnecromancy (their post here!)

Rules: scour your writings and Find the Word!

I frankly didn't think I'd find *all* of them, but somehow I did. Even if I had to dig very far for one.

Words I was given: Marble, Broken, Velvet, Stairs

Words I'm giving you: Beloved, Silence, Mourning, Star

Gonna be tagging @cicidarkarts @noxxha @readrenard @hallwriteblr @duckingwriting (and anyone else who feels like joining)

The snips beneath the Keep Reading. Always remember I write Dark Fantasy :3

/ Marble \ - From Eglen's life story

A scream breached the night. Hurried footsteps hurled themselves upon the marble floors. A door slammed open and shut. In the moonslit darkness, scrawny arms held scorching flesh.

Lien screamed in her father's arms as her skin sweltered and pulsed. The stench of burning flesh nauseated Eglen, but never would he abandon his daughter to her suffering.

"What are we!" she yelled, her slender hands crooked by pain, "What are we to them! What are you! What have you done! What have you done!!!"

/ Broken \ - Heart to Heart

A mound of flesh, limb, and bone. Blackened, rotting flesh strewn across broken limbs, ribs picked clean and sticking out through a frozen, horror-stricken face. Its empty gaze stared back at [Devon], clearly warning him to run – to escape whatever had shredded its body apart. The nauseating, abysmal stench of putrefaction permeating the air caused him to heave again. This could not merely be a necromantic illusion, could it? Something about this death was wrong. That something urged him to run, and froze him in place at the same time, panting out stress and frost.

/ Velvet \ - The ladies of death AU

"It's gotten pretty clear to me that no one in these lands has ever heard of Vampires, so I'm not going to explain. Frankly: I don't care. It makes feeding far easier when no one knows what to look for." She unfolded her arms upon the armrests, and leaned forward, her eyes ever on Fedra's now restless gaze as her nails dug into velvet. "But you feel it, don't you? You feel it. Just like I can smell the wilt of death on you."

At last, Fedra dropped the pretense. Her eyes popped open. "No—"

"Necromancer," Kassandra stated. "You're just like me – kind of, anyway. A real necromancer would never let herself be controled. Or used. Or abused—"

/ Stairs \ - No-name WIP, part of the Malmern Arc

For a while, Ethan went to stand by the closed window, in the darkness, as Haran had asked that their presence go unnoticed. From here, little of Malmern could be seen except for the great spire of rock at its center, alight with the brightness of houses nearest to it; built, as Ethan glanced it now, as though they were stairs to some inexistent landing. Malmern really was a beautiful city. A vast, beautiful city, where only the rich or the well-connected could hope to live a decent life. Someone like him, …

He glanced back at Nadieja, but saw only shifting darkness. And that's exactly what he would've been, had Nadieja not taken pity on him and provided without counting, like only a noble could afford to.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Heads up Seven Up

Thanks to @duckingwriting for tagging me! Their post here.

For those like me unfamiliar with the rules:

Rules: post 7 lines (or so) from a WIP then tag 7 people (or 6 with an open tag)

I just happen to be working with one of my fave characters today (Zool, who is essentially Death), trying to finish a handful of vignettes. :D

And this time I shall tag people: @cicidarkarts @noxxha @kathea @desastreus @drawnecromancy (and that's five people only but feel free to join in from here, I comment on the works of people who tag me).

-----

For as long as he had existed, Zool had known.

He had perceived, never fully certain of what, exactly, he did perceive.

It had been but a disturbance at first, like a grain of sand budding in a forest.

Then it had grown, over time – over the endless flow of generations passed, present, and yet to come.

It had grown, until he no longer perceived it as an it, nor as a simple grain of sand lost to the ages.

It was… something else.

A voice. A sonority akin to a voice, speaking in chimes and in echoes. He almost wanted to call it a she. A ridiculous impression.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Trainées de Souffrance

(Trails of Suffering in english, the French sounded better, hey it's my stories :3)

A short little thing yet again inspired by FF16 because what is wrong with that game giving me so many ideas about Devon. 

Well. Not gonna comlain, either. XD

This vignette takes place at the most difficult part of his life, centuries during which he lived for nothing but grief and hatred. Even the best of men can lose their way in the wake of suffering...

---

As he made his way through the town's quiet streets, a sound rippled along his skin and his nerves. A sound he wished not to hear, to not pay attention to again. A hideous sound that rolled a growl in his throat.

His feet led him closer to the origin of the sound, through more crowded streets – ill-famed streets, without a doubt. He smelled the stench of blood and violence on many a man he saw parading in the light of taverns and illicit headquarters. The few men who dared approach him, Devon deterred with a mere stare. They were inconsequential to him – for now. All he could focus on was the sound he had heard; a sound that still resonated in his veins, even though it no longer echoed in the air.

As he rounded a corner into a lightless street, a terrible yell scorched the air.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

After a yearlong hiatus, Ario's story is back and we are nearing the final turning points in the story.

It's up to read in its entirety on my website (sorry, it's just too long <<) and voting for the next part will last until July 1st.

And by voting I mean you will decide how the story continues <<

Boy do I hope the votes will go the way I want them to. :3;;;

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Love me, hurt me

Today: a new vignette I have been writing because Final Fantasy 16 has completely put me in the mood for Devon and Sorasiehn. Sometimes, I stop and look at the landscapes just to imagine what Devon would think of what he's seeing, and how he'd feel walking through similar environments - as I know they have way back when.

It's also made me want to write a scene that's been on my mind for a few years. I haven't gotten there yet in their main story. But I needed to rewrite it anyway, and do it well this time.

---

Sorasiehn choked as, beneath her knees, the ground gave way; turning to sludge, sucking her in with every frightened breath. Before long, she was holding onto Devon for dear life, his body stiff and safe upon the surface of the quicksand. As the mud reached for her lips, Sorasiehn called out to him – to wake up; to help her. To stay with her.

Don't leave me, she mouthed, even as mud poured down her mouth and her throat and shut off her breathing. Her mind. Her heart.

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Snippet: Ario's story part 7

I'm gonna try to do this thing where I update regularly with current WIP snippets.

Today: the start of the long-awaited seventh chapter in Ario's story! In the last instalment, Ario'd been left with a difficult choice: whom to follow, if anyone at all. <<

(every chapter of that one can be read early through subscription on Patreon or Ko-Fi, or for free on my website)

---

"I—"

Ario could not finish his sentence. Not while Rika stared down at him with these beautiful eyes full of desperation – with that loud heart of hers beating to the rhythm of supplication. Rika desperately needed him to understand, to follow her trail of thought; to see, as she somehow did, that the Orebashi meant them no harm. To simply follow her. How he yearned to follow her to the ends of the seas.

He lowered his gaze, swallowed, and responded with a shaky breath. "I—I'm sorry, Rika. The Orebashi – that thing– killed Soba. I don't care that it's of the sea and rejects us or whatever reason it might have." He lifted his gaze then, and held Rika's. "Soba's dead. I want the Orebashi to hurt."

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

I was asked how I write, and for the life of me I didn't know how to reply to that.

Then my dear friend @kathea swooped in with a great idea and here we are, with a little snippet that shows what exactly I'm working on doing currently.

As extrapolated on in this post, I've been trying to rekindle my love of writing and, so doing, realized nothing says I have to rewrite old stories into my current style. Thus, instead, I'm using my skill level to enhance old works and it has been a lot of fun to revisit this old, flowery style while fixing plotholes, PoV, continuity, etc etc...

It's been going better than I could have expected.

So here we go @desastreus, an example of what I do! :D

(extra detail: 'magic' is a word that doesn't exist as-is on Aeyuu. Every race has a name for it that has a different meaning/weight. Thus, I added in this new information to 'update' the old version, in such a way that context explains what 'viira' means).

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

Last Line Tag

I was again tagged, this time by @aziz-reads (their post here)

So I can't share the actual last lines because um sensitive subject that I don't want to get into right now, so have lines that come little before where I'm at right now:

She had been paraded around like the sole survivor. A miraculous rescue, which nobody – not even the citizens who had known her and her sister for almost two decades – contradicted.

Imagine what you will :3;

Open tag since I tagged people not long ago and y'know I don't wanna be a bother. XD;

[tales-from-nocturnaliss]

9 lines 9 people

I was tagged by @duckingwriting over a week back (their post here). Yes, it took me a while to get to this, simply because it took me this long to get back to writing in itself.

Rules: share the 9 last lines of your WIP and tag 9 people.

The lines (taken from a dreamscape scene):

"Nalyn," the quiet boy repeated, "You still haven't learned. Violence doesn't solve everything." "Shut up! You don't have the right to tell me that!" The quiet boy's sigh filled the room, yet the boy himself was still nowhere to be seen. As though he existed in the darkness that crept along the wall, within the pulse of blood. When next the quiet boy spoke, he was no longer a boy, but a soft-spoken man whose tone carried a hidden hardness. "No one has the right to tell you that you're wrong, do they?" the man said. "And yet you are. You're wrong. You have been wrong your entire life. Your life itself is wrong—" "That is not true!" Aneskia cut in. "—and that it has not ended yet is only testament to your stubbornness. But mark my words."

The tags:

Since people don't seem to respond to my tags, I'm tagging no one :3 feel free to join and tage me if you join from here. If you do, I guarantee you a comment on your lines.