Launch: 5B

Hello, everybody!

It's been a while since I've last "spoken"; the last time was while I was taking a vacation with my family. 😅  To give some sort of explanation on why the RussDates stopped, I'll admit that I felt tired out by the constant need to give updates? I found myself running out of words to say constantly, and having to force out something per week didn't really feel that great. I apologize for that, though, and I'll do my best to start those updates up again--especially since I'll be returning to school starting next week.

But I'm back, though--hopefully for good--and here to celebrate! It's going to be five years since I've first started blogging here on August 2012; and to celebrate, I decided to have a little throwback as the theme for this year's celebration.

I'll be explaining more about it below--hope you'll be interested in learning more! ♡

"Let's get into it."

Russ' Updates #136: Gold Coast

Hi, everyone! 

Currently in Australia—it’s been a pretty great trip so far! It’s a little hard thinking up and making things to post as we’re practically out most of the time, but I’ll still do my best. 

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Tad’s arc. It’s meant to be similar to Standstill, which I had posted last month. I wrote Standstill to get a feel of what Tad’s arc was supposed to be like; it was also me trying out a different writing style and everything. It’s something I really like so far! I’m hoping that I can pump out another chapter or two this week and really get things going. 

Will also be posting something pretty interesting within the week. It’s not anything I’ve shared on here yet so it might be a little weird, but bear with me! It’s something pretty vital in terms of Coalesce’s main plot. 😉

That’s all for this week! Rest up and be happy. 💛

Russ' Updates #135: Travels

Hello!

This is it--my summer vacation has finally arrived! [cheering emoji] After months of working, doing papers, and everything like that--I'm happy to say that I'm finally free for the next couple of months (or at least until the first or second week of August). It's been such a long semester, and I'm glad to be taking a rest. And speaking of rest--

I'll be out of the country for less than a month! We'll be heading to ~Australia~ for a couple of weeks. With that, I'm not exactly sure if I'll be able to post on here as much. Aside from the whole traveling aspect of the vacation, I'm not exactly sure if I'll be able to bring my laptop. I'll do my best to post, but--no promises. And to think I really wanted to post the first chapter of Tad's arc, too; we'll see what I can do!

[UPDATE (052417)]: Greetings from Australia! I'm glad to say that I've got my laptop and that I'll be poting Tad's arc from this point onwards. 😉

But aside from that--I guess that's all there is to say! I'm finally free; hell, I'm glad to be free.

Also, you might notice that the coming updates would lack their usual header--this was intentional! I'm fixing up my laptop at the moment and am in the process of reinstalling the apps that were lost during its reformatting. They'll (hopefully) be back soon!

"Take a break."

Russ' Updates #134: Freedom

Good evening, everyone! 

It's currently finals week for me--and a bit of good news, I've got two requirements left! Probably won't be posting much until Friday, but from that point onward, I'm officially free. :'D Hope you guys liked the smol posts, though; after listening to the new Paramore album I got inspired to make that gifset. [cheeky wink]

Just keeping this short since I've got one paper to revise and another coming this Wednesday! Really want to focus on finishing everything first before relaxing and starting to have fun. 

I'll probably go back to the OG META trio in the coming days; hope you all look forward to that! 💘

"It's going to be intense."

Russ' Updates #133: Explanations

Hi guys! 

So--you might have noticed that I wasn't able to post an update last week. 😅  I apologize for that, really; I think it's pretty obvious based on the lack of activity that I've been really busy with academics and everything. Rest assured that I'll (hopefully) be back here once the semester ends! As I keep saying, there's a bunch of stuff I want to end up doing--a lot of stuff that I'm excited to share with everyone. 

With that, I guess I can finally start explaining. 

First major thingy: I'll finally start posting the Coalesce arcs by the end of May! If you guys have noticed, I've started to post a bit more about Tadashi and three people who haven't been introduced yet. Check it out in this tag for more! But to quickly explain, the arcs are going to start soon, with Tadashi's being the opener. I'm really hoping that you look forward to it--I've spent the past weeks just conceptualizing and fixing things that had to be straightened out. 

"Not going to lie: a lot is going to happen."

Second major thingy: Coalesce's location is going to change! I thought it would be better to change locations from Atlanta, GA to Seattle, WA. I've done some digging around and genuinely think that this is going to be for the best. So in the coming days or weeks, expect the locations to change as well as a few details here and there--shorts from today onwards will use 'Seattle' instead of 'Atlanta'. 

Third major thingy: I'll be doing something nice this coming July! Don't want to spoil it too much, but here's a clue: it's something I did back in the earlier days of the blog. 😉  Consider it as a revamp or an updated version of that challenge! 

That's all for this week--again, I'm really sorry for the inactivity, huhu. I'm definitely going to make up for it as soon as the semester ends (which is after the 20th)! 

Have a lovely week 💖

Russ' Updates #132: Rushing

Hi there, Darlings! 

I'm sorry for the late update--things have been a little hectic again. There's been a couple of deadlines I had to meet, as well as a presentation I had to do yesterday. I was actually thinking of skipping out on updating this week just to cool down, but I didn't really like the idea of that--so here I am! 

There's a couple of weeks until my summer break, and believe me--I'm super ready to just submit everything else and get some well-deserved rest. I've just got, what; three or four weeks to go before my well-deserved break! 

"Keep calm, loves."

Still no Things to Expect segment, sorry about that! But I'll do my best to still appear here and there. Definitely promise to talk about my summer plans pretty soon, too. 

Russ' Updates #131: Schedule

Hello, hello! Hope everything's okay! 

Officially back to campus for me; just to be sure, don't expect too much to be posted except for maybe a graphic and a short here and there. Temporarily removing the Posts to Expect section of this thing so that I won't really feel pressured and everything!

Anyway--I hope you guys really liked what went up last week! Standstill is something I'm really happy with; it was originally supposed to be a 500-750 word thing, but. That happened. 😅  I'll try to post more things like that in the future as previews or teaser, but. We'll see! 

"I'm looking forward to it."

That's all for this week. Wish me luck--I've got roughly a month left until my summer break!

Russ' Updates #130: Downtime

Hi guys! Happy Holy Week if you're celebrating it, and if you're not, then happy April! 

It's currently my HW break from today until Sunday; I'm at least hoping that I can post a bit more in the coming days despite me having papers and whatnot to do. If anything, I'm hoping I can get something out regarding the new trio and/or Tadashi! Keep an eye out for anything about those people; keep an eye out for posts in general. 

And speaking of the trio--I hope the new three have you guys somehow intrigued! To be honest, they're pretty fresh additions--especially the characters of Iris and Ezra. Their stories, as well as the mystery of what happened to Iris Hu, is something I hope I'll be able to talk more about soon. 🌼

"Keep watching, all!"

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

Russ' Updates #129: Almosts

Good evening, Darlings!

It’s only a week left until the Holy Week Break (for me, at least)—just keep holding on for now! There are a lot of things due for me this week academically and non-academically, so at least give me time to get everything done before I (hopefully) come back full force on Friday.

Anyway, in case you haven’t noticed, I switched up the blog layout pretty recently! If the first three months of the year highlighted the models, this time around there’s going to be more focus on META. The character on the banner is Leo Vargas, who first appeared in Traditions. Expect more appearances from him as well as new characters within the weeks!

"Hello, hello!"

Smol update, by the way: I sort of have blog plans? I don’t want to give away too much, but I’d like to try something out by the end of May and for the entire month of July! More details will be given when I’m 100% sure that I can pull them off, but for now, stay hyped. ✨

Posts to Expect:

[ ] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

That’s all for the week! Just a few more days and we’ll be okay. 💜

Russ' Updates #128: Hell Season

Hello, everyone! 

Sorry for the late RussDate--I've been saying this for the past few updates, but. I really, genuinely think it's hell season over here huhu. I was honestly expecting it to just be a hell week, but here I am a few weeks later, currently grappling my way to Holy Week. 

"Calm down--you'll be alright."

With that, I suppose that I just want to warn you guys of decreased activity? I might post graphics here and there, but I personally feel that shorts and whatnot are going to be rare until two weeks later. There's just a lot going on academically and in regards to extra-curriculars, and I don't really want to risk it until I'm genuinely sure that I can get back here without being too burdened. 

Also--expect a layout change by April 1! I promise not to post any memes. I'm excited for April to June's face--it's a character whose FC I've always wanted to bring into Coalesce. 

Posts to Expect:

[ ] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

[ ] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

Have a good week! 

Russ' Updates #127: Limits

Heyo, all! Hope everything is going okay!

I can't honestly get over how March just seems to be one big hell month--I thought that it would be over a week ago, considering that there was a lot going on. But it's still not over? March keeps going, amd there's eleven days until the end, but. Things just seem really draining as of late. :((

I've been thinking more lately, and I think I want to stick to my two-posts-a-week quota? Excluding the RussDates, of course; it just seems more hassling if I try to push myself to reach my own limit when I shouldn't, if that makes sense. As much as possible, I don't want to stress myself out--stress would affect the quality of my posts, and that is something I want to avoid as much as possible! 

So until this settles over, I think I'll be sticking to just a few posts a week. I know I said that I'd be on top of my a-game, but. It might be for the best! Come summer vacation, I'll do my best to pick up activity--and I want to. There's a lot I want to write and a lot I want to share. :') 

"Don't push yourself too hard!"

Posts to Expect:

[ ] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

--

UPDATE: thank you so much for 30,000 views! 💕
sort of hard to believe that after ~4 years of being here, i'd be reaching another milestone.
so--thank you, thank you, thank you. i'll make up soon. xx

Russ' Updates #126: White Noise

Hi there, everybody! I hope you're all okay! 

Last week was pretty okay, I guess? There was a bit of things that went on in the background, but as usual, I'm doing alright! Things could be better from my side, but I don't really want to dwell on them too much if that makes sense. That aside, I hope that you guys are enjoying much more and that you've been taking care of yourselves, all that jazz.

For this week, expect the second part of Pleasantries to be posted! It was originally supposed to be one short, but after finishing the first part I thought that it might have been better to split it into two. I'm mostly interested in seeing how Tad and Mathieu's dinner arrangement turns out; Mathieu wasn't wrong to assume that Tadashi didn't want him there for banter and all. And after that, there's another short coming--might have to do with Mathieu or someone else, but at this point I'm doing my best to establish what happens in canon! Look forward to that. 😁

"I wonder what idea she's got now."

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

[ ] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

Russ' Updates #125: Additions

Good evening, all! 

Apologies for the late post--had to study for a Psych test last night while attending to a number of other obligations! Thankfully, I've managed to finish the requirements for my majors quite early so here I am. I was initially worried that I'd have to post this on Wednesday, but luckily that's not quite the case. 

"Queen of delays and all."

Posted an interesting graphic last week; if you're wondering who those four new figures were, well, I'll be talking about them a bit more as the months pass! I think it's worth saying that I've added quite the number of characters in the past couple of months and that I'll be introducing them one by one as time passes. 😁

Still sticking to two or so posts this week! That honestly might be the case until I'm on summer break, but I'm still hoping that I can bump up the nunber a little bit. Who knows--I don't want to risk burning myself out, but at the same time, I don't want to make the blog inactive. 

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

[x] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

Enjoy this week!

Russ' Updates #124: Progress

Good evening, loves! 💛

Hope you've all been doing okay! People have been getting more and more sick lately; it might be because of the weather? Regardless, I hope everything's going great!

I was only able to post one thing last week--I know that I promised to hopefully go get back to my a-game, but last week was a little rough and I didn't want to force myself to post something for the hell of it. This week, though, I promise to make up for it! Acads are a bit lighter on me this week despite it being midterm week, so expect the same from me with an additional graphic or short. 🌸

[Coalesce Update]: I think y'all are going to be happy to hear that I've done a lot of progress when it comes to determining what happens per arc! The timeline is a little difficult to set up, but based on what I've got, I'm pretty happy with it. There's still gonna be some additions and modifications here and there, but I'm at least 70% sure that what I've planned is canon.

"That's good to hear!"

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

[x] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

Have a (healthy) week! 

Russ' Updates #123: Steps

Hi there! Apologies for the late RussDate--I had to complete some academic requirements first before devoting myself to the blog and everything. I think you can say that things are getting interesting around here because it's that point where things are starting to pick up? (Although let's be real, I say that every week.) It's not exactly midterms week, not yet, but--it's picking up. 

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty beat--but that's not the point! If anything, I'm pretty happy that I was able to stick to the things I was supposed to post. Especially with the graphic for Soo-yeon; if I had to be honest, I wanted to spend a bit more time figuring out what exactly happens to her...and I'm happy to say that I'm slowly getting things down! Baby steps. 👍

For this week, I'm still sticking to two other posts a week. Again, baby steps! I'm hoping to slowly increase it, but for now, I don't really want to force myself. 

"Shh. That's alright!"

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

[ ] Russie Writes: A Coalesce Short

Enjoy! 💙

Russ' Updates #122: Valentine's

Hi, everyone! 

I'll admit--it's a little hard wanting to post on here while at the same time having different academic and non-academic obligations going on. 😅 Considering that it's only February, I'm a bit surprised that I'm already starting to get swamped--but hey, such is life and I should be getting used to it by now. [shrug emoji] 

But that aside, how are you guys? Valentine's is coming tomorrow, and despite how bitter I may be in real life, I genuinely do wish that whoever's got dates do enjoy them. For those who don't, that's fine--I mean, I'll just be catching up on schoolwork tomorrow night as well. Do expect something to be posted tomorrow, though! I might be posting a graphic or a short that commemorates my feelings towards this ridiculously capitalized holiday. 

"You...you really are bitter."

Posts to Expect:

[x] Russie Photoshops: A Coalesce Graphic

[x] Russie Writes: A Valentine's Short

Enjoy the week, everyone! 💞

Russ' Updates #121: Upgrades

Hello! Welcome to February, guys! 💙

The Four Loves Celebration ended yesterday--technically, it was supposed to end on the 31st of January, but because of technical problems I ended up having to adjust the schedule. Nevertheless, I hope that you all enjoyed! TFLC was something I genuinely enjoyed working on, and I hope that it sort of gave more insight on Aether and her relationships with Peters, Lysette, Mathieu, and Tadashi. 😁 I'll still continue to explore around those topics but for the meantime, I thought it would be nice to have others have the spotlight!

You may have noticed that there's been a change in layout. For 2017, the four faces of the blog will still be from Coalesce. Instead of the main nine, however, I'm shifting towards the supporting cast. Remember that there are four main factions in Coalesce, so with that in mind, each face for 2017 will come from each of the four! Until April, Kim Soo-yeon from the models will be the the mascot.

Surprise! I'm back.

There won't be any Russ Features for this month! I tend to spend Februaries chilling out as it's my 'recovery' from the January celebration, but I'll still be posting here and there. What I'll be posting exactly, I'm not quite sure--but I'm hoping that it'll be catered around Tadashi, if you catch my drift. 

And finally, I've updated the Navigation section for the Coalesce cast! Feel free to check it out here. I plan to fix up the ones of the other projects when I get the time to do so. 😊

That's all for today! Enjoy the week ahead. 

Russ' Updates #120: TadTher Week

Hey, everybody! 

So I probably owe you guys an explanation on why I suddenly stopped posting for a couple of days. To put it simply, my laptop gave up on me on January 17. It really refused to work; for whatever reason, it just wouldn't boot. I was able to keep up at least by posting the shorts (which explains the different-looking headers, if you've noticed) and managing to do the gifset on another computer. 

...however, I couldn't post starting from the [date-th] because all the graphics I needed for the fourth week were in my laptop. 😅 I know, it's irresponsible of me to not back up my files to my external drive every so often, and I'll do my best to keep that in mind. 

Thankfully, though, my dad was able to somehow fix my laptop and get my files out! To avoid explaining really complicated shit, the hard drive is broken and I need to get it fixed asap. So hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed immediately; schoolwork is really staring to kick in and I need my baby back. 😭

"You'll make it, Russ."

All of that aside, though, I'm back! Agape Week starts today and will last until next Saturday as usual. Despite the delay, I hope you guys still stick around. 💛 We'll be getting to look at Tadashi and Aether's relationship for the next couple of days, and that's something I've been wanting to share for a long time! 

Have a great week, everyone 💫

Russ' Updates #119: MaEther Week

Hello hello, everybody! 

Apologies for not posting yesterday--I had a late birthday celebration with my friends from high school, and it was pretty great! We pretty much drank and played card games for the entire night; it was pretty fun and I'm glad that I was able to see them again. 😁 Anyway, LysTher week ended! How did you find it? Admittedly, I had a bit of a hard time looking for writing prompts, but I was able to pull through somehow. I'm glad, though, that I was able to integrate a bit of the orphanage into one of the shorts. 

Now that it's the third week of January, we move on to our next relationship--something a little spicier and more on the romantic side of the spectrum. 😉 This week, #MaEther takes the spotlight! Arguably the main couple / OTP of Coalesce, and if you know me pretty well, then you'll know that they're my OG ship. Expect three shorts, two graphics, and one playlist as usual.

And to tease--there is a #MaEther short or two which I've been wanting to write for so long but never really found the opportune moment to. But now that this week is happening, we might finally be able to see what exactly those shorts are going to be about. 

"She's been excited for this week for a long time."

Also, I forgot to mention! I'm going back to school this Wednesday (January 18). Just a heads up; I'll still be posting once a day until the 31st so don't worry about that quite yet!

That's all for this week! ❤

Russ' Updates #118: LysTher Week

Hi, everybody! 

Judging by the layout, I think you can tell who’s up this week! We’re going to be taking a further look into the relationship of Lysette Cross and Aether Maxwell; if you’ve been here since the DNAU days, then you might recognize that Lysette is pretty much a revamped version of Linda St. Matthews. Just a little fun fact there hehe. 

"A little hard to believe, but that was me."

There isn’t much to say except to expect pretty much the same content that you’ve seen the past week! I hope you guys enjoyed #PeTher week and got to know more about the two and their relationship with one another. :’D Who knows--maybe this time around we'll get to see their interactions in a certain orphanage~

That's all! Check out the prior posts if you'd like, and I'll see you all again tomorrow. 💚