🤍Rayne🤍

"There's only light left to bring to a world this dark."

[rayne143]

Welcome!

Hi there! I’m Rayne and I love to write fiction. Ask and tag game friendly!

Welcome to The Circus:

In March 2026, I started a new project: a standalone set in 1800s Europe where the poor perform in a circus designed to entertain the rich. It follows Colette de Castillon, a girl born into a rich family sold by her father after he gambles away his life fortune. In The Circus, she meets Valerie Loveday, a girl who’s been there longer than anyone else has ever survived. It follows a desperate fight by a girl who knows she deserves better and a girl who only knows how to survive, not to live, and their ensuing escape… but the longest anyone has ever escaped for was thirteen days.

This story is a romance, focused on themes of learning to love in a broken world and finding light when you only knew darkness. I love these two girls with all my heart, but I will be torturing them beyond what is holy.

So… welcome to The Circus. All is Hell.

tags: #welcome to the circus #colette de castillon #valerie loveday

total word count = 18,338

The Zavaryan trilogy:

Since February 2024 I have been working on a trilogy, with three books entitled The Twelve Blessings, The Twelve Curses, and The Thirteenth Star. At its heart, it is a story about humanity, and four broken children trying to do right in a world that constantly wrongs them. That world is called Zavarya, created by the Twelve Zodiacs, and it’s been breaking long before my characters have been able to get their hands on it… whether to help it or pull it apart further, they’re not quite sure.

This trilogy has stolen my heart because it’s a fusion of all my favourite themes: found family, corruption of power, and the nature of humanity versus the divine. I love to yap about it so please ask me questions if you have any 🫶

tags: #the twelve blessings #the twelve curses #the thirteenth star #parker odysya #roksi swyls #harlyn #zebedav #quincey quetzytav

total word count = 242,926

Left for Dead:

In September 2022, I began a standalone book about a dystopian world in which boys are taken to learn to fight to protect the government, who retreated into a house when the apocalypse started, never to be seen again. The main protagonist Levi Ansel earns his status as a guard after thirteen gruelling years, but finds there’s more to the house than what people say, and begins to wonder if the government are hiding secrets rather than protecting their safety.

I unfortunately lost the document to this project in 2023 and only have a couple of printed pages. I don’t usually post about it on tumblr and I’m slightly too heartbroken to go back and rewrite it, but I’m still open to answering questions if anyone has any!

total word count (was) = 82,613

About me!

I’m from England

My favourite animals are dogs and okapis

My favourite colours are pink and purple

I play bass guitar (favourite bass lines to play are Soul to Squeeze by the RHCP, Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N Roses, and Hysteria by Muse)

I adore Ancient history and literature. At any given opportunity I will geek out over the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. Some Greek theatre I’ve read includes Frogs, Bacchae, and the three Theban Plays.

My favourite books are The Grace Year, All for the Game series, Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Rings, Six of Crows, and the Song of Achilles.

My favourite video games are Legend of Zelda, In Stars and Time, Stardew Valley, and Hades.

My favourite music artists are Frank Turner, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace, Paramore, The Lottery Winners, Halestorm, PVRIS, YUNGBLUD, Sleeping With Sirens, Palaye Royale, McFly, All Time Low, Citizen Soldier, Sleep Token, The Rasmus, and Icon for Hire.

Other random things I like include Shoot from the Hip, Epic: the musical, and playing board games (favourite is Destinies).

Anyway, welcome to my blog!! hope everyone is having an amazing day 🤍

[ren-the-fae]

First time making something remotely animated :p

[rayne143]

every time you make a piece of art of my characters i literally say ‘this is the most amazing thing i’ve ever seen in my life’ and then you go and render that statement redundant by making something even MORE amazing (and stunning and heart wrenching and meaningful and beautiful and emotional and aaaghHHHFHHJHFH)

this is insane. my heart is so full right now. for those who i don’t know in real life i feel you deserve to know that i nearly cried when i first saw this before my exam and then spent the entirety of my exam thinking about it.

ren, thank you <3 for the art and for being an amazing person 🩷

(also, i believe the flowers in the last panels are inspired by the three wise monkeys- harlyn is ‘hear no evil’ and so the flowers cover her ears, roksi is ‘speak no evil’ quincey is ‘see no evil’ and parker is ‘do no evil’. we discussed this beforehand and i ascribed them based on what they try their hardest not to do… but end up doing in some way or another anyway)

have a good day everyone, i hope you love the art as much as i do 🩷🩷🩷

[rayne143]

acrostic tag game!

i have had this sitting in my drafts since march 14th and just never posted it, so remedying that now. i was tagged by @cat-esper and my word was penumbra! :D

P - Perhaps those filthy actors were like me, human and ruined, but they promised I could turn to the Zodiacs and they’d make me clean, make me valuable.

E - Even as thunder sings its melody overhead, I trace the name on the gravestone again and again, skin soft against derelict cracks and overgrown moss.

N - “No one has ever gotten better by giving up on themself. So don’t give up. Not on yourself, not on us, not on… not on me.”

U - Useless, she said, but even the bluntest sword could provide a heavy-enough blow in a crisis.

M - My name and the broken promises it holds are torn ropes around my wrists, frayed and rough and binding.

B - “Besides, it isn’t always a bad thing to remember your past. There’s solace to be found in the suffering, always.”

R - Rain has turned his long hair limp, tied in dark bunches down his back, but the distant lantern-light of the worshippers’ flames casts a gilded glow across his tanned skin.

A - A flash of iridescent silver among the spilled rain begs my attention.

i’ll tag @purple-dinosaur27 @inedibleparchment @askyaphelion @asterrwritess @writingwithpen

if you want to participate, your new word will be… absolute!

have a wonderful day everyone 🩷

(seriously going back to exam revision now i promise)

[rayne143]

my favourite thing to do in writing is pose the question to my hypothetical readers of whether parker and roksi are genuinely inseparable because they’re actually right for each other or if it’s because they simply do not know how to live without the other, and not in a healthy way

they’re tied together by the same trauma and childhood promises but have they ever actually been allowed the space to grow past each other? and when the pain of the journey does inevitably change them, and they look into each other’s eyes and see a person they hardly recognise, can you blame them for feeling hate?

what would happen if they met later on… forget love, forget friendship, forget loyalty; would they even like each other?

anyway. back to exam revision i guess </3

[ren-the-fae]

When you know you only have yourself to blame....

My sweet baby bean I'm sorry I feel so evil for drawing Parker like this (also I'm enjoying hiding sun/sunflowers in most of my art pieces)

[rayne143]

yes you are evil stop torturing my baby (i say this knowing damn well i’ve done worse to them)

ren once again this is so so so incredible, this piece made my heart clench and i have literally been staring at it for so long now. even though i’m a writer i can never put into words how much i love and appreciate all your work, and i can never explain how happy it makes me, but i hope you understand <3

[rayne143]

Heyyy

Do your characters call each other any nicknames?

hello!! i love this question, thank you so much for asking! unfortunately i don’t use nicknames a whole lot, but here’s what i do use

parker usually shortens roksi to ‘roks’ and quincey to ‘quince’. they feel very vulnerable and childish the first time they do it for each, but in a way they kind of like that it’s childish because it’s a small way they’re able to reclaim some of the innocence they lost in childhood. both girls love when they use those nicknames.

roksi is hardly ever caught using someone’s real name. parker is ‘four eyes’ ‘star kid’ ‘curly’ etc. harlyn is ‘red’ or ‘darling’ and quincey is ‘flower’ or ‘sunbeam’. she only ever tends to use real names in serious situations, of which she tries her very best to ignore and make light-hearted again, but if you hear roksi say your real name then you know something is seriously wrong

harlyn calls everyone by their last name by default. at the point the story starts, she is on a first name basis with quincey. she switches to saying roksi about halfway through the story. the first time she says parker is towards the very end. no one ever lives down the high of harlyn saying your first name for the first time

quincey hardly ever uses nicknames as she recognises the respect and importance a name can hold. however, she does call harlyn ‘harley’ due to an inside joke (they were both crying so hard the first time they exchanged names that quincey misheard her and it’s been harley ever since). if anyone else calls harlyn harley they’d better start praying for salvation right that moment, but quincey can do it all she likes

for the circus girls, aside from calling her a rat upon first meeting, colette never uses a nickname for valerie. she loves her name too much and sees it as an honour to be able to say it as valerie doesn’t share her real name with many people. she likes savouring all the syllables as she says it slowly and it fills her with pride every time

valerie calls colette ‘sunshine’ sometimes. colette is the closest taste she’s had of sun for years, after all. however, she’s mostly the same, and uses her full first name as a sign of care and respect and love. valerie will never say colette’s last name though, as she hates her family and everything the name stands for. colette admires valerie all the more for it.

besides valerie would much rather imagine colette with her last name but that’s irrelevant-

thank you for the question, i loved answering this. i’ve actually been in a bit of a writing and posting slump because of exams but this was a really nice opportunity to think of something else for a bit. hope you’re having a great day today 🩷

[ren-the-fae]

:3

[rayne143]

AHHHHHHHHHHH

parker and roksi as orpheus and eurydice… one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen in my life and i am so happy right now. this is insanely gorgeous. thank you so much ren <333

“if you truly loved her, you’d have looked”

[rayne143]

Heyyyy

I saw your post about Eurovision and I can’t believe I forgot to ask you: What’re your favorite songs?!?!!?

(I’d also like to say that Britain was fire this year)

hii and THANK YOU someone who likes Britain!!

my favourite was Romania’s by far, I’ve literally been listening to it on repeat I love it so much. This year was actually the first time I thought screw it and spent my money on votes just for them, lol. They would have been amazing winners but I’m glad they came third, they deserve it

It’s up there with Hurricane and Veronika from 2024 and Jezebel from 2022 as my top favourite Eurovision songs

To be honest I ranked this year’s songs as they went in the final so I might just copy my full ranking below, under the cut though cause it’s probably long

Did you watch the competition then? What are your favourites? and hope you’re having a good day <3

romania

finland

israel

cyprus

denmark

albania

sweden

UK

france

croatia

norway 

lithuania

austria

poland

australia

ukraine

serbia

belgium

moldova

czechia

malta

greece

italy

germany

bulgaria

[rayne143]

let’s go Britain 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Sam might just be our chance to not get 0 points from the public vote in what feels like forever

Aside from our own entry, Ch*ke Me, Jalla, Før vi går hjem, Liekinheitin, and Michelle are my personal favourites this year, but wishing luck to everyone, this is always the highlight of my year <3

let the final begin!

[rayne143]

should have clarified, i was hoping for one point at LEAST from the public… not one point total europe oh my god 😭😭😭

sam worked so hard for this built the props himself and everything just to come in last place… actually trying not to feel heartbroken

whilst bulgaria was quite literally my least favourite song this year, i’m happy for her as she seems lovely and it was a fun song. most of my favourites also did very well

okay, can’t wait to lose my mind over this stupid competition again next year 🫶

[askyaphelion]

Sitting by the Fire! (Parker almost sets Quincy on fire 😭)

@rayne143 hope u liked it!

[rayne143]

AHHHHH asky i love this so much!!! your art is always amazing and you’ve captured my characters so well!

i already messaged you how much i love it so i won’t repeat everything but everyone needs to see this because it’s stunning. i’m getting spoiled right now omg

thank you <333

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

I think you have to be at least a little bit in love with your characters to write a story. Not in a romantic sense, necessarily, but you have to smile when you think of them, and linger on the sound of their voice in your mind. In the shape of the clouds, you must see their face, and under the dappled sunlight shining between the trees you need to catch glimpses of their silhouette. They have to come to mind easily, and take their leave with great difficulty. You must know their hearts inside out, see them in their darkest moments, and delight in them all the same. You have to depict them with the care of a lover painting their sleeping beloved, and string word after word to build a tale worthy of your character.

You have to be just a little bit in love with your character, and the world you've made, and the story you're writing.

[rayne143]

another stunning piece of art made by @ren-the-fae … roksi and harlyn in all their glory

something i love about rosewater as a couple is that they’re not necessarily perfect for each other; i don’t believe in the concept of soulmates and i believe that ‘true’ love is simply a person whom you can find respite and happiness with. they’re not ‘made for each other’ by any means whatsoever but they still love each other and find paths to healing in each other.

the masks on roksi’s side and the nooses on harlyn’s are such a perfect detail representing their biggest fears in life, but i’m interpreting the art to represent that they can still find this safety away from it all in each other’s care.

all the details of this are perfect. Ren, thank you <33

[fee-eef]

what words would you NOT use to describe your main character / OC? Like if someone said your mc / oc is so _______ you’d cringe

for threadbare, if anyone said shade was kind I would be like what are you talking about

[rayne143]

parker:

cruel. they can be selfish, sure. what they do can be morally questionable. but if anyone ever said their motives came from an innate place of cruelty and not from a place of love and hardship as i know it does, i would be very upset.

roksi:

dumb. she’s a little scatterbrained, sure, and sometimes has the chaotic energy of a duck on crack, but she is most certainly not dumb. that girl can solve maths equations at speeds i couldn’t even dream of and design architecture that will change her world. you just can’t make her give a shit about other things and she doesn’t care if you think she’s stupid

harlyn:

selfish. she never does act for herself; everything she does is for the people she loves. she just wears a mask making it look like she doesn’t care so she can’t be hurt.

quincey:

cowardly. that girl has had to be braver than anyone should have to be. she has every right to get scared sometimes but even on the days where she can’t push through the fear, she’s not a coward. she’s just had to be brave for far too long.

[which-ocs]

Which OC loves pickles? Which OC hates pickles and gives all of theirs to the first, pickle-loving OC?

[rayne143]

all pickles go to parker odysya

[which-ocs]

Which OC owns entirely too many notebooks/sketchbooks? How full are they?

[rayne143]

notebooks? parker. they carry them everywhere and they’re all half broken with how frequently they’re opened. full to the point of nearly being illegible with random ponderings, doodles, revision notes, and deep philosophical questions they want to ask people to engage with but are always too scared to do.

sketchbooks? roksi. she has two for her full dedicated art pieces. three for portraits of all the people she loves. two for random doodles. one for angsty scratches and weird patterns she creates when her brain is feeling overwhelmed and she needs to release her creativity

organised queens harlyn and quincey are terrified of them both for these reasons.

[adhdwannabewriter]

Your writing does not have to be perfect.

I know it's easier to comprehend it on a logical level than to believe it, so if you're one of those people who think their work needs to be perfect or it isn't worth sharing, do this exercise.

Think of the books you like. Now, ask yourself this question: are they perfect?

Were there any grammar, spelling errors? Any plot holes? Was there too much of something? Was there anything you wish they expanded upon; anything that left you wanting more? Were there any moments you thought 'well, that's not exactly how that'd go in the real world'? Any awkward dialogue? Have characters done anything that didn't entirely feel in character? Any other issues and imperfections? Small parts you didn't like?

Analyze it, make a good damned list of everything you liked and you disliked. I bet you'll find something imperfect in every, or almost every, book.

And yet you still enjoyed it.

Readers are willing to overlook a lot, if the story is interesting enough.

So stop worrying about it being perfect and just create something fun.

[rayne143]

ok so no one should let me on tumblr when i’m exhausted because i just accidentally deleted my other blog. lol

rip raynes-circus-writing you will be missed

instead of making a new one i’m just going to change this blog to accommodate all my writing projects rather than just blessings / curses / stars. will defo be editing my intro post before long!!

have a good day everyone, try not to be idiots and delete your blogs like i did 🩷🩷