Incomplete Without Attitude
09/09/2025 | library
When had the library not been the permanent residence of Archer Duncan? His relationship with it was a simple one of symbiosis. Whenever he needed solace from the world, whether purely to read, complete work, or to have an entire existential crisis, that was where he would head. Its quiet halls, however grand they may seem with their tall ceilings and wide walkways, provided an almost mellow comfort, something tangible, an anchor for him to hold onto in the most uprooting of storms. And in return, to the library, he provided its most loyal living, breathing client. Someone to walk its halls, keep it free from dust with borrows that must have been daily, and whisper secrets into its walls for it to be found millennia later.
Beyond such poetry, however, it too offered a practical use: homework. Like many other Hogwarts students, he had too much. While he would not need prompting to write an essay on the side effects of taking the Calming Potion for too long soon enough he found his mind could not exactly keep up with its desires. Depression, after all, was an all-consuming state, and wordlessly, it consumed his motivation to complete work of any sort, even in the classes he once valued. His grades fluctuated dramatically based on his moods, and soon enough, there was no pattern whatsoever other than, to his cynical eyes, failure. No longer could he casually decide to tackle an assignment sat cross legged on his bed, and so grew his reliance for a physical manifestation of a need for academic excellence.
The library forged a space where he was forced to learn, and that straightened out his mindset into one he could focus in. He had learnt the organised chaos of his dormitory, and as much as it was a representation of a mind in a state of disarray, it was no place suitable for working. Especially since the last change of the professor to Sauber, Potions was a subject he had taken care in. Sauber was a teacher he wished to please, and in his opinion, for good reason. Fair as he was, he did not seem to be the sort for favouritism, nor was that what Archer sought for. Approval was key in his equation to the subject, and he found himself actually caring about the assignment in his hands.
Then, with a stroke of his quill on parchment, it was done. Finished. Finally. He stood up in a hurry—perhaps too much of one, and as he pushed his chair in to descend back into his Slytherin dungeons, bumped straight into a girl on her way to sit. He backed up a few steps, but it was not enough to excuse what was obviously more than a brushing of shoulders. Rather than apologise for the faux pas as he would have, however, a crooked grin spread up his lips. “You really should watch where you’re going next time,” Archer chided, half-heartedly and with a handful of snark he didn’t intend.
@Tatiana Contraire
I am not even singed. My wings are untouched. You use them for everything, except flight.
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Incomplete Without Attitude
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Tatiana had just been minding her own business, of course. When a scurrying dark-haired Slytherin had, perhaps intentionally, bumped into her and hadn't even apologized! Unbelievable! Just told her off for not having eyes. The audacity of this boy. His dark eyes scanned her as though he was trying to piece a puzzle that might've included her flaws and how she presented herself, Tatiana rivalled it with her own furrowed eyebrows.
“Excuse me? You're the one that bumped into me. But why does it seem that you're so quick to point the fingers at me?”, she shot back, her eyes full of hatred that wanted to peirce the boy 'till he was screaming in agony. She wasn't usually this hateful, especially to older students that may have had more power than her, but this boy's rudeness was getting under her skin.
She doubted that the boy even actually did anything in the library, probably just went in there and stayed to avoid having to go to detention and the library just happened to be the closest. But Tatiana, as the good, respectful student she was, was actually here to do some schoolwork. Her gaze dropped to the boy's parchment and quills, then to his snarky grin, revealing impeccably straight pearly whites.
His dark hair fell to his shoulders, Tatiana had a funny feeling that this boy was not up to making sure that he looked presentable. His eyes looked hollow and sunken, she wasn't so sure that he had actually felt anything before, though she was quite sure that he definitely felt a burning desire to punch the first-year before him that was reciprocating his approach to an apology, but hey, it wasn't her fault that he started it first!
@Archer Duncan
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Incomplete Without Attitude
09/09/2025 | library
Some part of Archer enjoyed the outright pettiness. Enjoyed arguing with someone he barely knew and would likely never see again in the future. Enjoyed it even though everything seemed so pointless. Enjoyed it even though a younger him would have left in a flustered hurry. Forgive him for being unable to wipe that fiendish grin off his face.
After his mother's death, his father's indifference, his arguments with Matthew, and God knows the other lengthy list of problems Archer Duncan harboured, there was rarely a task for him to tackle that he could overcome. His life was full of hurdles, and each one hit him square in his scraped knees everytime he attempted a jump. This issue, however, was so much smaller than all his other ones it felt, finally, manageable.
“Excuse me?” The girl uttered, indignant. Archer only snickered in response. He found the entire predicament mildly amusing, and in his very dull day, that was surely a welcomed status. She was so mad it was almost funny.
He held his nose up and looked down at her. Lazily, as if the entire matter could not be more casual, Archer began to trace the lining of his satchel with his thumb, rubbing against the leather as he hummed dismissively. Then, his eyes snapped back to the gaze of Tatiana, those upturned eyes about to burst out of their sockets with fury. Archer smirked at the look in them, so wound up over such a small matter, yet still he forced his face into a mask of composure and straightening, said, voice crisp and authoritative, “I am demanding an apology.”
Suddenly, Archer reminded himself of Arianna Swann. It was the same snobbishness he always found foul on his tongue in her. It was the same way she lifted her chin, and the same way she sniffed, and the same way she looked at everyone as if they were beneath her. She was witty, that Archer would give her, but the same Swann heiress, in his first Defence Against the Dark Arts class, had led to an interpersonal catastrophe. But she was also a memory from two years ago, and one Archer was still dwelling on.
It was ridiculous to believe he actually cared, but perhaps if he did, the part of him that poured too much mind into how messed up his life was right now, it could serve as a much-needed distraction,
@Tatiana Contraire
I am not even singed. My wings are untouched. You use them for everything, except flight.
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Incomplete Without Attitude
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“I am demanding an apology,” he says, and again, the audacity. Tatiana wonders where this boy has gotten his confidence to be this rude. She glared at the boy, she knew herself that she would never utter the word before him, as if he even deserved to hear her say something like that.
This nut was clearly hard to crack, though there was already a burning desire for her to punch this boy's perfect-looking nose and leave him to double down and bleed, but Tatiana wasn't that sort of person, her parents had raised her better than that, thankfully not as awful as the boy's parents had raised him. Tatiana didn't shout, she didn't cry, no, she'd rather spend the week sleeping in the kitchens than have to show tears before this ill-mannered boy. Instead of doing all that docile actions, she smiled at him in a wily manner, her face breaking into a sinister grin before saying, “But what if you do it first, it's your fault in the first place, isn't it?”, ominously sugar-coating it to the fact that it could send elementary learners to a week-long sugar rush.
She felt a pang of unfamiliarity within herself. This painfully reminded her of her mother whenever she was looking for a favor she knew Tatiana wouldn't like. And Tatiana was submissive back then, scared of her mother, she was young, alone, and defenseless. She didn't know how to primarily function without her mother's cold, sweetly deceiving orders.
Horrendous.
Good, no, great thing she wasn't that type of girl anymore. Good thing that she knew how to defy her manipulative ways, and she definitely was the type of girl who wouldn't put down a fight with some snobbish boy she'd just met at the library because she decided to become a good student, no, they taught her to fight back, and now she would gladly love to use it.
@Archer Duncan
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Incomplete Without Attitude
09/09/2025 | library
Fight back? Why, fighting was a concept Archer, duellist as he was, was far too familiar with. Captured in impulsivity this past week, rapt by the potentials of snideness and violence, yet still riding the elegance of his wave of confidence, there may have been no need to draw blood, but humiliating the younger student appealed to some sick demand that reminded Archer of someone else entirely. Snark had never been much of Archer’s intention, yet a combination of antisocial bluntness and intellectual wittiness had resulted in may a comments that ended in such manners. But, why, begged the question, end a fight with matters of words?
But what if you do it first, it's your fault in the first place, isn't it? The words were laced with a saccharine sweetness, so honeyed it could have almost been ominous. Yet to Archer, it was simply proving that a mild annoyance could have entertaining. A grin split across his face, so bright it could have almost been enchanting. Then he chuckled, not too different from a madman’s laughter, barely tamed, barely him at all. Exclaiming in a voice barely appropriate for their setting of the library, he said, “Oh you talk as if I give a fig.” He was not so brazen as to curse at such volume, but brazen enough nevertheless.
Regaining his composure as the last of his words died out with a snicker, it took Archer, with his wide repertoire of spells, time to think of an appropriate one. Finally, take root was judged the winner. “Anathema Daphnis,” he incanted with a swift flick of his wand and an unsettling calmness, “So you don’t bump into people anymore.”
Shoving past once more her for good measure with entitled intention, Archer left, and, head held high in the hallowed halls, would no doubt promptly forget the encounter.
@Tatiana Contraire
Please contact me on discussing how the spell could work.
Please contact me on discussing how the spell could work.
I am not even singed. My wings are untouched. You use them for everything, except flight.
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Liliya Starkova| Anthonie Engelbrecht
Incomplete Without Attitude
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And thus with a flick of his wand, the boy held his head high and said, “Anathema Daphnis,” the spell hit her before she even knew it was cast, turning Tatiana into a rooted plant, managed to scoff, before turning his back on her and leaving the library.
Unbelievable, now what do I do?, Tatiana thought, fortunately, there was a passing student that Tatiana had tripped and begged to untransfigure her back to a human. After asking for forgiveness of the student and giving them a chocolate frog, she picked up her fallen books and parchments that had fallen when she bumped into the rude boy.
He hadn't even bothered to pick it up, how immature. She'd expected someone to be as noble-looking as him to be at least embarrassed enough to stack her fallen things into a nearby table than just leaving it in the open beside a minor who'd just been turned into a rooted plant, but of course, what could you expect from such a snobbish boy?
After picking up her belongings, she marched out of the library alone, nose held high in an affronted face, looking as though she ought that no one should cross her before she got back to her dormitory.
@Archer Duncan
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