Of Course: A Russie Features Short

JavaVino Café

Atlanta, GA

United States of America

May 2016

“Do you know what would be great with coffee and mildly overpriced café food?” Aether snorted into her drink upon hearing the other say this; Peters, who sat across her, gave her an amused smirk and primly sipped from his coffee. “Seriously, though. I have an idea.”

“The last time you had an idea, you nearly got on Nakagawa’s bad side for the next few weeks.” Aether cocked a brow at him and the brunet merely plastered a bullshit innocent look onto his face. “But carry on. What’s this idea of yours?”

“It’s something tame. Depending on how we take it,” Peters replied. “Have you heard of the Of Course game?” At Aether’s blank look, he assumed that she didn’t and proceeded to explain. “It’s simple, really. I ask you something and you have to reply with ‘of course’. Even if it’s bullshit, fake, or downright fucked up. The first one to lose their cool or isn’t able to say ‘of course’ loses and pays the winner. Or at least owes them a favor.”

Aether made a face. “Sounds ridiculous.”

“But it’s a good idea,” Peters argued. “And it’s a good game. A really good game – we’ll get to know each other more and shit.”

“Or we can end up causing the next war, but hey, it’s your idea so any casualty count is your fault.” She told him in a dry voice. Peters rolled his eyes.

“Come on, A. Just a round or two. Or three.”

Russ' Updates #077: Ending March

Hi everyone! 

Holy Week has passed and and I'm pretty much back to class (and the college life) from this point on. I hope y'all have been doing okay! Something happened earlier in campus, but as of an hour ago or such, things have already been settled and fixed. *thumbs up*

Rothie and I have been talking more and more about our newest project (which you can check out over at this tag) lately; with that, I pretty much want to share more about it with you guys the more we get the canon of it established. :D Expect that as well as the final Russ Features short to be uploaded by the end of this week (and the RF short to be up by Thursday). 

April's coming up! With that comes the end of Aether's feature, and by then we'll be moving onto the next featured character as well as a new banner by Friday (or Saturday, if I'm swamped). 

I can't wait to see next month's character.

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Writes: A Russie Features Short
[x] Russie Writes: A Transcendence Short
[ ] Russie Reviews: Ten Thousand Skies Above You

Cold Comfort: A Headcanon Short

L’Avalon

August 20xx
11:43PM

“Drinking isn’t going to help you – or your heart – that much, James.” Drake Soledad eyed the other male uneasily as the blonde downed his nth bottle of beer (probably his third or fourth, judging by the other’s poor state of emotional stability when he had called for Drake to accompany him to the bar). “And to think you have a shitty tolerance for alcohol.”

As expected, the other blonde ignored him as he continued to drink his feelings away. Grimacing, Drake discretely took out a sleek, cellular device from his coat pocket and immediately went to his messages, texting up one of his trusted friends and teammates. SOS, he typed quickly, James is fucking up his liver again. I guess you might have heard the news from Carina.

He had barely put his phone back into his pocket when it gave a soft ping noise; Drake opened it up and saw the reply immediately: I heard. Where are you guys? I’ll get to you asap. Drake sent the address and sighed, this time leaving his phone on the bar counter next to his glass of water. Unlike the other guy, Drake much preferred staying sober at all times and not destroying his body piece by piece.

Then again, he also felt bad for James. Judging on the nearly undecipherable texts he had sent him, Drake assumed that what had happened was either really, really bad or really, really heartbreaking. Then again, the male thought with the grimace still on his face, this is both really bad and really heartbreaking at the same time. Considering that the guy’s been in love with Carina for the longest goddamn time.

“I asked Lyra to come over,” he told James. “You okay with that?”

The other barely responded, only covering his face with his hands at that point. His shoulders gave a small quake and Drake’s golden eyes widened before he snatched back his phone and proceeded to beg Lyra to come faster lest the other male start crying on him in a semi-drunken state. “Fucking shit,” he swore quietly, proceeding to throw worried glances at the entrance of the bar while awkwardly comforting his friend at the same time.

Machinery (2/?): A Transcendence Short

Oxbridge University
New York

United States of America

May 2113

Freya gave the desk an irritated few taps while Nico waited for the video call to begin. “What the hell is taking her such a fucking long time, doesn’t she understand that this is a shitty life-and-death situation?”

“Give the woman a break, she’s been studying for finals too.” Nico groaned. He redialed the other’s number on Skype and waited again, “As long as she answers, we’ll be good. We’ll be fine. We’ll be able to settle this without having to panic and eventually settling for the university counselor or some shit.”

“I’ll kill her if she doesn’t answer,” Freya started, but a small beep noise came from Nico’s tablet. The male’s brown eyes widened as he started at the screen and the wild-haired girl immediately scrambled to the bed, nearly knocking over the chair in process. “Salazar? Is that you?”

“What the fuck do you guys want?” an irritated voice came. Staring at the screen, Nico and Freya saw a very unhappy Marion Salazar staring right back at them, her hair tied up and a paintbrush in her right hand. “This better be important, I have a goddamn plate to do and then God-knows how many papers due within the next twenty-four hours.”

Stopping the lady from cussing them out any further, Freya decided that it was best for her (or Nico) to spill out the truth. Her mouth hardened into a thin line.

“Just…listen to us. It’s about Ansel.”

Russ' Updates #076: Break Time

Hi, lovelies — good evening! 

I hope you guys are doing well. I know I am, considering that I’m actually off college for a week because of Holy Week going on. With that, I think I have more time to actually post more. :D 

For this week, expect a few more Russie Features posts for Aether and maybe a Transcendence short, too. If I feel up to it, I’ll be reading the second book in Claudia Gray’s Firebird trilogy, Ten Thousand Skies Above You. And when I finish it, you can be pretty damn sure that I’ll be doing another intense review on it. ;D 

"Let's celebrate that."

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Writes: A Transcendence Short

[ ] Russie Writes: A Russie Features Short

Enjoy the week, loves! 

Conversations: A Russie Features Short

Headquarters

Atlanta, GA

United States of America

May 2014

After touring around the building, Eri had asked for herself and Aether to have a small ‘talk’ in her own office. Tadashi was apprehensive about letting Aether go, but the other woman rolled her eyes and told him that he had to check on some of the other agents first. This eventually led to Tadashi leaving, and Eri kindly showing her the way to her office.

Eri’s office was a breath of fresh air. Gone were the intense white walls and clean floor, the sight of everyone walking around in business suits and carrying different folders, containers, and whatnot. Instead, it was a personal space; wooden furniture around, and a warm plum color coating the walls.

“Coffee or tea?” the woman had asked. Aether turned and saw that Eri had already discarded her coat on the coat-hanger by the door, and was this time going through a small container which was placed on one of the room’s small, glass tables. “Tadashi tells me you’re a coffee person, which is great, but your record also says you’re English, so. Coffee or tea?”

“Coffee – coffee would be great.” Eri nodded and Aether took a tentative seat on the couch, looking around in wonder. Framed on the left wall were different photographs as well as official-looking certificates; on another was a framed picture of what looked like her family.

“How are you finding it so far?”

On Fire: A Russie Features Graphic

[x]

Russ' Updates #075: Midterms Season

Good evening, Darlings! <3 

First of all, I want to apologise for this extremely, hella late RussDate. This week really has been a heavier one than usual, seeing as there have been different tests and requirements being thrown around this week. *coughs: Literature 14 midterms* As much as possible, I wanted to focus on those first before attending to the blog, and, well…I guess I’m here now, hehe. 

Anyway, while it may seem really sucky that I’m ‘neglecting’ the blog (I’m not huhu), don’t fear! I have the entire Holy Week off, and while I’ll also be attending to some academic duties by then, I’ll make sure to keep posting. :D I still owe a graphic or two and two shorts for Aether. In addition, I’ve been feeling the urge to post something either for the RRC or for Transcendence, so keep an eye out for that~

How have you guys been? I hope you’re doing well! Aside from the extreme heat here in the PHL, most people have really been on edge because of real life obligations and all. You got this though, fam. <3 

That’s all for this week! I’ll be seeing you guys again this weekend. :D 

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Russie Features Graphic

[x] Russ Writes: A Russie Features Short

Mood Boards: Aether Maxwell

Russ' Updates #074: In Preparation

Good evening, everyone. Aether here. *waves* For this week's RussDate, I'll take charge since Russie's busy with other matters. Just expect a pretty short one for tonight, yeah? 

This week, Russie actually just wants to focus on continuing the posts for Russie Features. In addition, she also wants to post another Transcendence short. While she doesn't really have too much on her plate this week, she might be not as active next week because of different tests and such. Test season or hell week is already coming up, and as much as possible, she wants to be prepared and all. 

Anyway, that's all for this week. She'll do her best to post on time and get everything done by Saturday or Sunday. *smiles* 

Posts to Expect:

[ ] Russ Writes: A Transcendence Short
[x] Russ Photoshops: A Russie Features Graphic

Morning After: A Russie Features Short

Aether’s Apartment
Atlanta, GA
United States of America
April 2016

What had followed that morning was nothing short of tense and awkward.

She wasn’t even sure if what had transpired the previous night even happened; if it was actually something she had dreamed of the entire time. But eventually Aether woke up and felt the soreness in her legs as well as the sensitivity in her hips and she thought oh fuck, it really did happen. It really happened.

(That had led to her glancing at the other side of the bed and seeing no one there. In a spur of emotion, she ended up breaking down only to have the person she had spent the night with come into the room with a tray of breakfast. Whoops.)

So now there she was, picking at the eggs with her fork and trying to comprehend what the situation was at the moment. Her eyes flicked upwards and she saw him sitting by her table, using his own laptop and idly humming as if him leaving her behind months ago hadn’t actually happened. He acted like things were okay, normal and dandy between them, casually making breakfast in bed and working on business deals as if it was nothing.

The messy-haired lady swallowed uneasily and forked some of the scrambled egg into her mouth. It tasted good (his cooking was always good), but their current situation watered the delight of having him cook for her. At that moment, she wasn’t sure if she’d have preferred an early-morning McDonalds run just so that she could spare them both the awkwardness.

OCs x Social Media: Aether Maxwell