and all at once

AN OATHBREAKER’S NOCTURNE: a wip by tris @larkmonteverdi

in the heart of dium lies honorine academy, where knowledge is a resource and the privileged are the powerful. within its walls, competition thrives off philosophical debates, mathematical proofs, and blood.

aline kohler, wearing a stolen name in a foreign land, cares for none of it. she is here for one thing only: an escape from the war that destroyed her home. lost in an unknown world, aline finds an unlikely ally in the street thief léon. he scorns the excess of dium, the pretentious airs of its people, and the lies they speak. yet aline is curious–so who is he to deny her answers? 

but headmistress charpentier has other plans, extending an invitation for aline to join a group of elite students underneath her personal instruction. they call themselves the iris society, and their language is treason against the four kings.

in the heart of dium, secrets have a way of accumulating. amidst it all, the girl who goes by aline kohler might be the only one with the key to unlock them all.

upper ya fantasy, dark academia. of an enemies to lovers variation. a thousand memories from a different life, yet it is still you.

“So,” the librarian says, skeptical. “You’re a ‘magical’ goat who can improve the library’s ambiance, as you say, by telling fortunes outside?”

“Absolutely,” Marjoram nods. She absently shuffles her tarot cards in her hands, shifting her weight to slouch, lean on one goat hoof.

The librarian sighs. “You can fortune-tell outside just for today, as it stands, and we’ll discuss this more, later.”

Marjoram grins at her. The sight of it— a girl-goat, smiling like she knows a secret—seems to irritate the librarian, who walks away, frowning.

It’s Thursday, a slow day. She sits on the stairs with her signboard, but no customers appear. Students at times climb the stairs, only to walk into the library, distracted, ignoring her.

Marjoram never was one for book smarts, anyway. She spits at her feet.

She dozes off at around noon—the sun’s too warm, pleasant—only to be nudged awake by a sturdy mary-jane shoe, pressing into her rib.

She bleats in annoyance and gets up, rubbing her eyes. “What now?”

It’s the librarian, from earlier. She seems furtive.

“I want a fortune,” says the librarian.

Marjoram straightens up. “Wonderful! Sit down, sit down. Thirteen dollars.”

The librarian smooths her skirts, sits carefully on the steps. Hands her the money from a coin purse in her pocket.

“Now, says Marjoram, eager, “Your question, lady.”

The librarian looks both sides, and lowers her voice. “A simple question. When will I find a girlfriend, where will I—and what is she like?”

“Ah,” Marjoram nods, sage-like. “A love reading.”

The librarian grimaces.

Marjoram reads the cards. “Well, well! You’ll meet her today!”

At this, the librarian startles. “Today?”

“She’ll have a goat’s head and goat’s legs, and be a charming little fortune-teller.”

The librarian scowls. “You’re a hack. I want my money back.”

Marjoram holds up her hands. “One date? Please?”

The librarian rolls her eyes. “Pick me up after my shift. It ends at five. We’ll have coffee, that’s all, and you’ll pay with my thirteen dollars.”

Marjoram grins. “Alright.”

As the librarian walks away, Marjoram looks back down at her cards.

A U T U M N   I S L A N D E R S ; a writeblr family by @serpentarii 

i hit another milestone recently and just wanted to thank all of you guys because i would not be here without you, and i really appreciate you all for sticking around. this community is so supportive, talented, creative, and amazing and i wanted a way to highlight that. 

reasons to join ; 

 -  a spot on the family page   -  a tracked tag that i’ll queue posts from   -  edits for your projects !   -  you’ll forever be a badass in my eyes 

hop on a ferry ; 

 -  follow me ;(   -  reblog this post  -  send an ask with your name, writeblr url, your wip title & a short quote from that wip   -  i’ll message you asking for an icon to use for the page   -  tag your work with #autumnislanders !   -  this family follows the same rules as my blog, so please don’t apply if you’re -16 or 35+ 

look to the lighthouse ; 

note: these are more rivals to lovers than anything, but you can use them for enemies to lovers as well. 

oh, you’re walking through this door? let me just ~politely~ slam the door in your face on the way out

i know we’re technically supposed to be fighting each other with swords, but you ended up on the ground and i fell on top of you, and woah… i never noticed how attractive you are until now, so let me just appreciate for a moment – wHY THE HELL DID YOU JUST SHOVE ME 

you’ve got me pinned against the wall and i’m not sure if i want to kiss you, or kill you. probably both 

‘’i know we’re, like… friends now, or whatever, but… i’d still kick your ass.’’ ‘‘like you could ever beat me.’‘ but they do, in fact, beat them.

so you’re just… not going to respect my take on this whole thing and go against everything i just said? that’s fine. i’ll just do the same thing and – oh, you didn’t like that? okay. O K A Y . and obviously, they’re doing it out of spite 

character A says ‘‘i’m going to kill you.’‘ and character B takes a step close, they’re so close now, if character B bends their head, they’d be kissing, and character B’s intensely staring into character A’s eyes, and character A’s like… shit . THIS DID NOT GO AS PLANNED ABORT MISSION ABORT ABORT ABOR —– 

OH NO – my love interest has said that they don’t care if anything happens to me, but now i’m about to die, and they’re risking their own life by running into a burning building to save me!!!!! also, did they just scream my name before bursting into the building??? god why do they sound so,,, worried???? 

okay, so… did we… did we just hug… dude. let, let go of me. let’s just. let’s just pretend this didn’t happen. *cough* i’m going to walk away now. okay. BYE 

‘‘is that a smile?’‘ ‘‘if you tell anyone about this, i swear to god, i’ll kill you.’’ 

so somebody ends up on somebody’s lap and holy shit maybe the tension is… unbearable 

when they share an intimate moment, or maybe even a kiss, and they’re both so confused by it, they completely derail. like, they just… stop working. because what the HELL just happened and then they just stare  at each other and nobody says a word until one of them turns around and SPRINTS out of the room 

‘‘go ahead, do it. if you’re so convinced you’ll kill me, do it.’‘ faster than a bullet, character A grabs a knife, handing it over to character B, who, of course, despite having spent the last couple of months claiming they would kill their love interest, and leave them for dead, can’t bring themselves to grab the knife, and actually do it

you ever just get so annoyed by a person, and what they have to say, that you snatch hold of knife and throw it into the wall behind them with all of your strength yeah me neither but maybe this fictional couple would

using seduction to try and throw each other off balance, usually by taking their clothes off in front of the other person, and it’s working

you just took a friend of mine hostage, and your crew’s been torturing them… i just found out about it, and i’m so disappointed, and there’s tears in my eyes, and the other character’s like, holy hell it fucking hurts seeing you like that… and knowing that my crew did that, that i did that to you… that i’m responsible… 

when character A is really sad, and just… out of nowhere, wraps themselves into character B’s arms and starts crying… and character B’s just like… what the hell…? we hate each other? but ok i’ll let it slide this time

there’s only one bed, but this time they’re arguing over who has to sleep on the floor, in which nobody agrees to do, so they end up in the same bed, incredibly annoyed that they have to share their space (it’s not like friends to lovers, in which they both awkwardly get into bed and laughs it off. this is straight up just. i will set this bed on fire if you don’t stay over on your side)

do these two do anything other than be at each other’s throats. like. can they hold oNE conversation without arguing over something

so you’re just. you’re just going to chain me up against this tree. okay. that’s fine. that’s totally fine. i’m fine. 

when one of them realizes that they’ve gone too far, and they show up at their love interest’s door to apologize, but the following conversation happens; ‘‘why are you here?’‘ ‘‘i’m here because i want to apologize.’‘ ‘‘well, i don’t want you here, so go away.’’ followed by the character getting the door slammed in their face.

THE FIRST KISS – and total denial after it happened, and they’re convincing themselves that there’s nothing going on between them… and they pull away from the kiss, and look at each other, and they’re just like… yeah. just realized i’m head over heels in love with this person but if i speak i will die

when they’re having a moment, and one of the characters says ‘’you hate me.’’ and the other character replies with ‘’maybe i don’t hate you entirely’’

when character A’s crew has taken character B hostage, and character A finds out they’re to be executed, and suddenly it’s this race against the clock to try and save character B’s life, while also trying to not reveal to their crew that they’re head over heels in love with the enemy

it’s not enemies to lovers if the characters hasn’t tried to kill each other at least once, or betrayed each other, or put a friend or a loved one of the other person in danger 

literally, how much do i have to stress this, enemies to lovers, they’ve got to raise hell in each other’s lives, enemies to lovers is not about sitting around a campfire and singing kumbaya, enemies to lovers means i’m covered in blood, and if you’re not careful, it’s soon be yours

and rivals to lovers is, you’re covered in blood, but since you’re here, i’ll help you clean it up, but if you get blood on my carpet, you better run 

your first draft should not be perfect.

in fact, i would be incredibly worried if you consider your first draft to be perfect. no one’s first attempt at writing will ever be the best - hence the phrase first draft. you can be proud of getting through that first phase (you SHOULD be proud. so proud. we’re all happy you’ve made it that far <3) but a level of arrogance that is perpetuated on writeblr whereby individuals think their first draft is amazing is worrying.

not only is it incredibly unlikely that you will create the perfect manuscript off the bat, but it also inhibits you, as a writer, from the growth in our art that we should be striving for.

so please, i beg: be proud. but don’t forget that no one’s first draft is perfect. and i’m sorry but if other people are telling you it is - they’re either too scared or too nice to say otherwise.

John Banville, The Sea 

a year. 

elegy for the spoiled milk on the kitchen counter, by @boysaints, published in Red Bean Press’s September Issue

taglist + transcript under the cut (ask to be +/-):