AstriaS 3683 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Content Warning: Emotional themes, Suicide A Journey’s End ♪♪♪ Rain fell around a small woman as she paced along the shore near the city of Yong Ping. The night was cool, but not uncomfortably so. She was thankful for that much, at least. As she walked, she stared up at the sky, counting the many stars above. “Tiny pinpoints, unfathomably far away,” she said to herself, “Or perhaps they are deceptively close, xi?” As she made this query, she looked to her side, as if expecting someone to be standing there. She was answered by empty air, and a gust of wind. With a sigh, she tucked her hands into her sleeves, and continued walking. She came to a stop again soon enough as the darkened clouds drifted aside to unveil the full moon above. Approaching the shore, she looked up at the moon in solemn silence. She reminisced for a moment, reflecting on her life. She thought of her accomplishments and her failures briefly, but her mind focused on that which she felt the most sharply- a devastating loss twenty-some odd years past. It was a memory she never could block from her mind, and she never was able to manage or rein in her grief. So often was her mind haunted by the shadow of that one death that she never spoke of it to anyone. In a fleeting thought, she wondered if perhaps she should have shared the story. Yet, this thought she blocked from progressing. It was too late now. The woman knelt in the sand and listened to the crashing of the waves before her. She took a deep breath and drew the dagger she had brought with her, staring at the silver reflection of the moon on the blade’s surface. With stinging tears in her eyes, she took a look back at the city at her back and watched the lantern light flicker in the windows for a few moments. Three seconds… Five? Perhaps fifteen? She wasn’t quite sure how long she stared. She spent a moment more thinking about her friends before finally pulling her gaze free of Yong Ping. Once more, she stared up at the moon above, removing the pins from her hair and letting her locks fall past her shoulders. “We will be together again soon, sister.” She spoke coldly, as she brought her dagger to her chest. But she hesitated. She cast one final glance at the city. “I’m sorry.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she felt the steel pierce her breast, a cry of pain parting her lips before she slumped to the side in final silence. As dawn broke, the body of Xiong Mei would be found by a passing fisherman, her hands still clutching the dagger piercing her heart. Her hair no longer was tied in her usual, well-maintained bun, her makeup was smeared by rain and her tears, and her bright, pink hanfu was stained with her own blood. A woman known in life for her cheerful, sweet demeanor was now an image of sadness in death. A small, folded note was found crumpled in her hands. “To my friends, Farewell. I wish you happier days than my own. Xiong Mei” So ended the journey of Xiong Mei, a troubled, sweet woman, gone before the age of forty. 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevastiel 285 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Beyond, where all things are made grey, a scarred, worn man wraps her in his arms when he finds her. “You were always good enough, rest now.” 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froschli 837 Share Posted August 1, 2021 General Ryu mourns the death of Mei, saying to himself "May you rest with your ancestors, my old friend." 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moo_bot 774 Share Posted August 2, 2021 Tianrui Ren had just finished breakfast when he received word. A sigh passes his lips, the elf departing his usual schedule to pay visit to the Temple, lighting another candle beside the many that adorned the Ancestor Shrine. "Gone, but not forgotten. Rest well, Mei." 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GammaRose 138 Share Posted August 2, 2021 (edited) Kamiyama Izanami had awoken in her usual routine, sun glaring through the cracks of her apartment, but there was not a single scent or the slightest of sounds that was there to motivate her from getting up from her bed. From the first few days when she had settled into Yong Ping, every morning and every evening the elf could always remember the warm and welcoming aroma of Xiong Mei's cooking, and yet not a single moment in time did she ever have the courage to speak to her. However today was the day that she'd break from her tiresome pattern; today was the day that Izanami would speak to Xiong Mei and learn from her culinary skills. Jumping from the balcony of her house down to the level of her neighbor, peaking through the cracks in the door frame something had seemed amiss, not a single sound, not a single Xiong Mei in sight. Perhaps in the square if she looked hard enough . . . was what the woman had thought, and that she did, at least, news of what had happened to Xiong Mei. "Oh." Were the only words to escape Izanami's lips as all sound or motion of thought had been drowned out by the floodgates of a stifling void. There was nothing that she could say nor anything that she could think of, left without the slightest idea of what to feel or even do. A wave of stoicism had silenced all emotions still as the shock struggled to settle in. Those sweet yet simple memories of waking up and going to sleep every day and night by the sound and scent of Xiong Mei's cooking had now become a precious relic of the past. Yong Ping had lost yet another bright and beautiful light. Edited August 2, 2021 by GammaRose 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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