Cadenza: A Royal Flush Short

Cardios
The Kingdom of Raleigh
Ballroom

“I never knew you could play,” a voice came. Startled, Astrid jumped in her seat and turned, spotting King Nicholas standing by the door of the ballroom. He was about to step in, but he stopped himself, looking a little hesitant. “May I?”

“I – of course you may, Your Majesty, I’m sorry,” Astrid flustred. “For coming without prior permission. I spotted the piano and couldn’t help myself, I’ll leave if you want me to,” the brunette spluttered, rising quickly that the piano sheets flew off and onto the floor. Astrid’s eyes widened and she immediately went down to pick them up, cursing to herself quietly.

Nicholas kept his movements silent as he approached her, leaning down to help her as well. He saw her fingers shaking and sighed to himself, both of them standing up eventually. Astrid’s fingers were (still) shaking as she held the papers in her hands. Nicholas handed her the rest.

“There’s no need to be nervous,” he said carefully.

“Who said I was nervous–”

Nicholas took her hand. Astrid blinked, the other hand clutching the music sheets tightly. “When I was younger,” he said casually, his finger lightly poking her trembling ones, I had the same habit.”

What habit, Astrid’s thoughts raced, holding peoples’ hands randomly? Instead, she asked, “What habit?”

“Having shaky hands when I’m nervous. Or being a shaky person in general,” he explained. “Frederick made fun of me for it until I grew older and stopped the habit. I assume it comes with interacting with others more,” he explained, soon letting go of her hand. Astrid found herself nodding slowly, letting her hand fall limply to her side.

“I see.”

The Royal Flush Relationships: Nicholas and Astrid

After the Storm: A Royal Flush Short

Cardios
The Kingdom of Raleigh
Nicholas’ Chambers
Gilbert, Nicholas

Once again, the meeting with the rest of the three kings was unsuccessful.

Arthur James and Jacques Amadour had nearly ended up throttling each other while Alberto Felipe watched with a clueless, helpless expression on his face. Finally, the Knights had to pull the two Kings apart and Nicholas declared the meeting over.

Nicholas splashed cold water onto his face, furiously rubbing his eyes afterwards. The whole event had (nearly) made him lose his temper; he had nearly forgotten how it was to deal with the rest of the Kings.

It was never a good idea to put Arthur and Jacques together, he ended up thinking, but eitherway, those two would find a way to get at each others’ throats. Nicholas wiped his face with a nearby towel and looked at the mirror, soon patting down his wild mess of black curls. Ruby eyes met the mirror and he made a face, Nicholas soon turning away and moving back into his chambers.

Unsurprisingly, his brother (and trusted Knight) was there, picking at his nails. Frederick Gilbert had his legs crossed, face containing a neutral expression. Nicholas caught sight of the wound on his cheek which was healing up.

“Do you need Isla?”

“Nah. She might tell me off again,” Frederick chuckled dryly and touched the wound, cringing a little bit. “Fuck. Arthur knows how to aim his nails.” Nicholas merely raised a brow and closed the door, which had been left open. “Oops. Judging by the yelling and my new beauty mark, I take it the meeting wasn’t successful?”

“If Jacques wouldn’t bug Arthur and Arthur wasn’t so hot-headed, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Nicholas explained tiredly. Frederick nodded and stood up. “We’ll settle things tomorrow. Hopefully. I’d like to rest for tonight.”

“Got’cha.” Frederick walked towards the door, then stopped and turned to look at his brother, “Should I still check on the three or nah?”

“Don’t bother.” Nicholas ran a hand through his hair and exhaled, “You might just earn yourself another injury.”

FC Guide: The Royal Flush

Eternal Flame: Black and White

"How far would you go just to get what your heart desires the most?"

Russie Babbles: Eternal Flame [Conceptualization]

Hello and good evening, Darlings!

For tonight, (the last day of the first week) I'll be discussing the Eternal Flame (EtF) series, how it came to be, all I've done for this project throughout the years and where it will stand in the coming future. This post will be purely non-lit; it’s going to be me talking to you guys about one of my first projects. ^_^

Without further ado, let’s begin!

The EtF series was actually started when I was in seventh grade. Rothie introduced to me the Black Rock Shooter OVA and because of that (as well as my desire to create something), I was able to come up with the EtF series. Truthfully, I was also inspired by Rothie’s writing project during that time – the First Princess series. At that time, I was one of her co-authors. However, I found myself wanting to make something of my own.

With that, one idea came after another. Within a couple of weeks, I was able to write the very first version of the first book on a spare blue notebook.

Breaking Point: An Eternal Flame Short

Series: Eternal Flame
Astra International School
September 2012

Subject: Lunch
 HS Cafeteria

Arizona’s worst trait(s) had to be her tendency to be jealous and bitter.

Both of them were equally bad in their own way, but when put together, she could be as vapid, sharp-tongued and sarcastic as she needed to be. The rest of the group had only seen her display one side or another.

On that day, she risked showing what could happen if both came into the picture.

Five of them – herself, Teresa, Beatriz, Gaby and Megara – were seated at their usual place, eating their own respective lunches. While Beatriz and Gaby copied off each other (with Teresa shaking her head in dismay), Megara noticed Arizona looking around every few minutes, seeming disappointed, and eating even less.

Which was not how their lunches usually went.

Because:

1. Arizona was a heavy eater
2. Elisa was usually there beside Arizona
3. The two would be reading a notebook and giggling

However, none of the above were happening.

Which probably explained Arizona’s impatient unease. “I don’t know where she went,” Arizona finally broke. Gaby looked up from her Statistics worksheet.

“Elisa?” Arizona nodded, “She’s probably cramming her own Stat homework. And the take home quiz.”

“I didn’t see her stay in the classroom.”

Teresa glanced at the staircase. “Might have been called by a teacher. She’ll come.” Megara’s eyes followed Teresa’s gaze and she blinked, suddenly raising a hand and waving crazily. The rest of them stared in confusion until finally, Elisa came with a much smaller girl trailing behind her.

“Sorry I’m late,” Elisa apologized, setting the sky-blue lunchbox down on the wooden table, “I had to fetch this one,” she nudged the smaller girl, “Before she could end up getting lost. Again.”

“You have little faith in me, El,” the other chimed. The five turned their gazes to the girl, who gave a cryptic smile of her own. “You’re so rude – aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”

Archetypes: Eternal Flame

To Be Found: An Eternal Flame Short

Series: Eternal Flame
Lagdameo Residence
October 2012
7:32PM

Elisa R. Lagdameo almost never cried.

Not in front of anybody else, at least.

In fact, the only person who had seen her cry was her mother, and that was two years ago. Her mother had broke to her the news of possibly moving to another country, and in her shock and anger, Elisa ended up crying.

To her relief, the move didn’t push through. Elisa’s mother was instead made to stay in the country, as her skillset was much more valuable locally than somewhere else. Her mother still teased her about it on the occasion. Elisa would just roll her eyes and pretend that it had never happened.

But now was a heavily different story.

The five of them – Megara, Beatriz, Gaby, Teresa and herself – had parted ways after leaving Arizona’s home. Elisa had earlier asked for Ame to go on without her with much convincing.

The words revealed to the five of them earlier that afternoon hadn’t penetrated her as much as it initially did to the others.

Megara’s hand flew to her mouth. Teresa paled. Gaby whispered a horrified ‘no’ to herself. Beatriz shook her head, rose to her feet, and demanded that the man repeat what he had just told them.

He did.

Beatriz was furious.

Megara and Gaby tried to hold her back. Beatriz launched question after question while Teresa looked on, biting her lower lip.

Elisa remained standing, her eyes blank and mouth not twitching or moving or anything else. But her fists were clenched.

At the same time, she felt as if the wooden floor was slowly pulling her down.

Eternal Flame Friendships: Arizona and Elisa

Like Porcelain: An Eternal Flame Short

Series: Eternal Flame
Astra International School
September 2012

Subject: Recess
Class: II-1

“Sanchez. Sanchez.”

“What do you want, Aquino?” the girl snaps. Arizona Sanchez looked up at Lukas Aquino with a frosty glare, the male merely staring back as he fiddled with his ruby-red necktie. The pencil held between her fingers trembled.

“You’re going to want to wash your face and brush your hair if you want to glare properly and look nice while doing it,” he retorted smoothly. She narrowed her eyes at him and the male exhaled loudly, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the classroom. Arizona squeaked.

“W-What are you–”

“I’m taking you to the washroom, Zone.” He replied. Arizona kept protesting yet stopped upon catching the gaze of Teresa Valdez from II-3. The taller girl’s eyes narrowed. Arizona looked away and the twosome stopped as the Vice President approached them, arms folded over her chest.

“Aquino. What are you doing?”

Lukas’ response was easy, “Just bringing Arizona to the washroom. She needs to fix herself.” The girl was about to snap an irritated reply when she felt Teresa’s eyes on her, feeling the concern begin to radiate off her friend.

“Are you okay, Sanchez?”

Arizona could have chosen to beg Teresa to make Lukas let her go.

But for some reason, the shortest of the three nodded. “I’m okay,” she heard herself tell Teresa. “Lukas is right. I have to fix myself.” She looked away after saying that and could tell that Lukas was looking at Teresa with a confident, knowing smirk. Teresa sighed.

“Alright. Don’t be late, it’s ten minutes to bell.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And he dragged Arizona away, the latter not catching sight of Beatriz Marasigan poking her head out and asking Teresa what was wrong.

They stopped in front of the lockers. Lukas let go of Arizona’s hand and looked at her properly for the first time since their earlier interaction.

“Arizona. What’s going on with you?”

Eternal Flame Relationships: Arizona and Lukas

Rest and Recreation: An Eternal Flame Short

Series: Eternal Flame
Sanchez Residence
August 2011
3:21 AM

After a long night, everyone was asleep.

Almost.

Gaby Rebollos and Beatriz Marasigan were asleep in the double bed, Beatriz snoring loudly while Gaby hogged the sheets. Even in sleep, the energetic twosome kept at it – Gaby would take the sheets, Beatriz would (sleepily) snatch them back and the cycle would go on. It had finally came to a point wherein the four others  had to slide a long pillow in the middle just to get them to stop.

Megara Ronquillo and Teresa Valdez took the two single beds. Megara was perfectly still while asleep, lying on her back and snoozing peacefully. Her way of sleeping reflected her usual demeanour; in contrast to Beatriz and Gaby’s rowdiness each day, Megara displayed tranquility and balanced them out. She slept quietly, tucked in nicely with a rose-colored sleeping mask obstructing her vision.

Teresa, on the other hand, was the firmness the group needed. In her sleep she was on her side, often moving around and mumbling under her breath. Teresa was constantly moving, her mind going miles and miles an hour with the duties she had, both inside schol and out. One would think that sleep would grant her the rest she deserved, but even in slumber she was bustling about.

Two single beds, one double and one queen-sized. The last went to Elisa Lagdameo and Arizona Sanchez, who were under the blankets and giggling as they used their respective laptops. Arizona was eagerly typing up something for her writings while Elisa calmly edited something on a photo software.

“Are they asleep?” Arizona whispered. Elisa nodded.

“Yeah. Finally,” the girl rolled her eyes and Arizona nudged her side playfully. “They take such a long time to fall asleep. Especially Megara.”

“At least Gab and Bea are resting up,” Arizona mused. Elisa nodded slowly at that and glanced at the screen, frowning a little and using the eraser tool to quickly remove a color gone astray. “Elisa,” the other whined, dragging out the last syllable of the other’s name, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Your art.”

FC Guide: Eternal Flame

Launching: The Graduation Celebration

Hello there, Darlings!

Yes – the day is finally here! *eagerly throws confetti* The date is March 23, 2015 and I am hella pleased to announce that the Graduation Celeration is officially open and ready to begin.

Now, you may be wondering – what exactly is the Graduation Celebration (or TGC), and what is its purpose?

"Does it even have a purpose-"

I was able to think of the concept last December while considering different chalenges to undergo for 2015. My mind went to graduation, then to high school, finally leading me to the four main projects I’ve tackled for the past number of years. Note that I chose not to include the Death Note AU as well as Shoujo Parallels (now Beta Originals) due to the fact that I’ve been working on them all throughout my high school life, plus the fact that they’re already heavily featured on here.

TGC aims to introduce you guys to the projects which have been steaming in my head since I was a Freshman. While I have officially discontinued one of them (Hysteria), I revamped two (Eternal Flame and Royal Flush) while conceptualizing  a new one (Equilibriai).

I’m also hoping that it helps me get the motivation I need to continue/restart these certain projects.  ^_^

For TGC, I divided the time into five main sections:

• Week I – March 23 until March 29 – Eternal Flame
• Week II – March 30 until April 5 – the Royal Flush
• Week III – April 6 until April 12 – Hysteria
• Week IV – April 13 until April 19 – Equilibriai
• Week V – April 20 until April 23 – Bonus

What exactly is the ‘Bonus’? Stick until Week V and you’ll see~

For each week, I’ll be posting a minimum of four shorts, three graphics and one Babbles. So, each week (except for Week V) will have at least eight posts. :3 Hopefully, I won’t fall behind or else the schedule will really mess up by then. D:

I hope you all join me as I begin the second challenge of 2015! ^_^

Four: A TGC Teaser

Russ' Updates #029: End of a Chapter

Hello, Darlings - five days left until I graduate, and one week left until the Graduation Celebration! <3 Goodness, I am super hella excited (and nostalgic) about this week. It's crazy.

"You're going to leave the green gates soon, Russ."

So here's what's gonna happen this week (school-wise): today, I had my Commissioning Ceremony. From Tuesday until Friday, I'll be practicing for Graduation. On Saturday, I'll finally graduate from what has been my second home for the past fourteen years. :) 

It's definitely a lot to think of. I'm hella sure that I'll post a Russie Babbles regarding graduation and what the hell I've gone through throughout my stay in school. I'm pretty much dedicating this week to TGC preparations, graduation preparations, and basically slowly accepting that I'll be an Old Girl once I graduate this Saturday. 

Moving on from senti!Russie (haha), you can pretty much expect some posts here and there. I'm trying to rile myself up for TGC in all honesty - I've done preliminary preparations. If anything, I hope that TGC will be the second successful Challenge this 2015~

"You better not cram it this time. You better not."

*laughs nervously*

Wish me luck as I finally complete the last leg of my high school journey! I'll see you guys very soon. <3

Heroes: A TGC Teaser

"Do not fear vulnerability.

You're human, not a robot."

Russ' Updates #028: Twelve More Days

Hello and good evening, Darlings! <3 

Yeah, you read the title right - I've got twelve more days until I finally graduate! And of course, with graduating from high school comes yet another Challenge-slash-Celebration which will launch in exactly two weeks. :D Are you all excited? 

"I think it's fair enough to say that we're excited, Russie."

This week (until the 20th, actually) is basically reserved for a bunch of batch activities as well as practice for Commissioning, and then Graduation next week. ;w; So if you think of it, I'm pretty much free in terms of academics - especially since all my tests are over and I don't have any academic obligations left.

I'm really hoping that I can post a few more TGC teasers (graphic-wise) and post some shorts along the way. I don't know if it's just me, but... *shrugs* My writing and graphic muse hasn't really been showing up ever since the Quarterly Exams ended. I'm not sure if that's my brain attempting to recover, but I'm also hoping that this isn't a longterm thing. *laughs nervously* 

I've also gotten two new books over the weekend: Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before and Amy Zhang's Falling Into Place. Hopefully, I can a review up in the next couple of weeks, especially since I've been wanting to get my hands on these books for a long time. ^_^

"Is there anything else you want to say or tease?"

Nah - not really. 

Enjoy this week, lovelies! <3 See you all soon~

Heroines: A TGC Teaser

"Don't waste time waiting for someone to save you.

You are the only one who can save yourself."

Freely Restrained: A Shoujo Parallels Headcanon Short

Alpha Belt
Mortal Realm
March 2015
Venura Residence

~Gabriel, Miles~

“How do you feel, Aria?”

“Strangely liberated,” she replies. I can’t help but blink in surprise at her answer. “You know – form PTs, tests, quizzes…all that academic stuf,” she defends. “It’s weird. I feel liberated, but…at the same time, I also feel caged.” She steps into her room and I close the door from behind, watching as she unties her hair. “I’m free from the pressures of academics – school and all that – but…now that I’m done, I feel like I’m just being restrained,” she admits.

My forest-green eyes narrow slightly. “How so?”

“I mean, I’m just seventeen days away from graduating, Miles.” Her eyes glance at the screen of her phone. “Seventeen days. I’m just two weeks and three days away from getting my meaningful diploma. Yet, I’m being kept inside just waiting until I’m out of those gates once and for all.”

Aria exhales eventually and moves into the bathroom, mumbling that she’d just change into more comfortable wear. As the door clicks, I sit on her bed and process what she just told me – her own feelings about being freely restrained.

Did it make sense?

Strangely enough, it did. She felt relieved and frustrated, undeniably gleeful to be free of those terror subjects (Calculus) and of any academic endeavor. In truth, all she had to do for the rest of the month was to keep being the Aria she regularly was with the rest of them.

With the rest of the XDees.

Being the same old, Aria, however, felt like being trapped.

Aria couldn’t explain it properly the first time I asked about it. Not at all. She just made articulate hand gestures and frutrated noises, finally admitting that she couldn’t get around it herself.

She couldn’t understand why exactly her actions felt…forced.

Russ' Updates #027: Final Finals

Hello, Darlings! Guess who's officially done with Calculus for the rest of forever?

"March already? You're graduating in 19 days-"

Shh please don't remind me, Sanchez. :< 

Anyway, it's already March! As Sanchez said, I've got nineteen days left until I graduate and two more days until I finish my final set of exams ever for high school. *laughs* I haven't exactly been able to post that much, really, and I promise that I'll make up this coming Wednesday. Somehow.

Anyway, you may or may have noticed two small changes in the blog layout, yes? 

1. There is no Featured Character this month. Yup - if you check out the side bar, you won't be able to find the usual poster for the month's Featured Character. Initially, this month was supposed to be for Ethon; however, due to certain activities, Ethon will be making his special debut this summer. *smiles* Ethon's absence brings us to the second point -
2. A new CC awaits! Yes, lovelies, there is going to be a new CC (Challenge-Celebration) from March 23 until April 23. I won't be giving up too much details for the moment, as I'll make a post about that in a few weeks, but you can already figure out its' name from the graphic.

"The Graduation Celebration!"

For this week, I'll be finishing exams from today until Wednesday - and from then, my academic days are definitely over. *throws confetti* The rest of March will be spent for graduation practice, and then, Darlings, summer's coming! <3 

Please wish me luck as I continue on forth with my exams. Last push, yes? #Gapang2Grad