London Anime Expo

HOLY SHIT!

I went to the London Anime Expo yesterday with Dagga and Sarah and... HOLY SHIT! It was AWESOME!

First, we had to get to London, which meant taking a train from Banbury to Oxford, and I was kinda nervous, seeing as it was pretty much my first time on public transport without an adult around. But it was actually really fun. Once we were in Oxford, we had to get a coach to London, which took about an hour and a half, I think. I wasn't really paying attention to the time, and I slept half the journey away (even though I reckon I was the one out of us three that got the most sleep the night before. I know Dagga only got four hours sleep). Then we had to take the London Underground from Victoria station to Tower Hill. And this was where I started getting travel sick. Sarah was way worse off than me, though. And finally, we got a DLR train from Tower Hill to the Customs House at ExCeL, or something like that. That made me travel sick as well.

But travel sickness was forgotten completely when we arrived at the Expo. There were so many amazing cosplayers there, I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. One of my favourites was this trio of guys cosplaying as Luffy, Zoro and Sanji. It was almost possible to believe that those three actually were the characters. (And the guy cosplaying as Sanji was kinda hot. Heheh.) There was also this group of people cosplaying as Eeveelutions, and they were all posing for people to take pictures and stuff. I could go through a whole list of the cosplayers we saw, but I know I'd forget loads, and we'd still be here in the evening talking about it.

Well, then we had to queue up to get our magical wristbands of awesomeness. My back nearly gave out. I swear. We were stood in this mile long queue for way over an hour. There were a few good distractions. Sarah was cosplaying as Tobi and loads of people asked for photos, and even one person cosplaying as Pikachu asked for a hug. There was also this splicer in the que a little ways in front of us, and a Yuffie only a few people in front of us who Dagga started chatting to about FF7.

Then, finally, we got out of the queue of terror, and we finally got inside the Expo at half two (we left banbury at nine. That's five whole hours, and some). Let me tell you. It was so worth the wait. It was crowded and stifflingly hot and so unbelievably awesome. There were stalls all over the place selling plushies and figurines and posters and wall scrolls and props and bags and manga and doujinshi and cosplay outfits and hats and coloured anime contacts and necklaces and other jewellery and anything an anime fan could ever want. There was even one stall selling real swords. There were dozens of katana, and even some real kunai and shuriken, and Asuma's knuckle blades and some wakizashi. Unfortunately, you had to be eighteen to buy one. But no worries, we're going back in October (for Dagga's birthday), and we are so going to the one in 2012 too, so I can buy myself a real katana. Oh, god, I can't wait. I'm so saving up for that. Definately.

Well, moving on from what I couldn't buy, and on to what did. Teehee. First of all, I spent about £15 on a Straw Hat of Power. I HAVE LUFFY'S HAT! Kyaa~! I am so happy about that. I'm going to wear it all the freaking time! I also spent £12 on a Mugiwara kaizoku flag (Straw Hat Pirates flag). I tried to bluetack it to my wall, but it keeps falling down, and I don't want to use pins or anything, cause they'll leave holes in the flag. So I'm kinda stuck on how to get it to stay on the wall... Anyway, I also spent a whopping £30 on an Ace-Hat for Sarah, so we could wander round the Expo as Akatsuki!Ace and Akatsuki!Luffy. Hurrhurr! It was awesome. Sarah got herself a Grell plushie for £15. It's adorable! Then I bought myself a pack of Naruto Shippuden playing cards for £3, which is awesome. There's two cards with Gaara on (Kyaa~!) and quite a few with Itachi on (KYAA~!). And finally, I bought a Gaara poster which was about £4, I think. (GAARA-KUUUN~! KYAA~!). I'm not entirely sure about what Dagga bought because she decided to be antisocial and wander off on her own. But I know she bought a hat with bunny ears on and a Vampire Knight cosplay outfit, which was sexy. She also got a Tsubasa messenger bag, I think.

After that exhausting but exhilarating three hours, we headed back, on the DLR which made me travelsick, back onto the Underground, where we got a little lost. It wasn't bad, but the DLR had taken us one station further than we thought it had, so we got to Victoria station earlier than we thought. Then we had to find the right coach to get us back, and we did, right as it was pulling out of the station. So we had to wait another half hour for the next one. Sarah was feeling travel sick and hungry, Dagga was tired and hungry, and I was just plain old hungry. Finally, the coach turned up and we got on. It. Was. Hell. The buss was way too hot, the air-conditioning was blowing out hot air, and there were no openable windows. And, of course, the heat only made the motion sickness that much worse. I tried to sleep again, but it was too hot to sleep properly, so I just dozed occasionally. The one time I did actually drift off to sleep I had a weird dream where Chopper was taking my appendix out and Sanji was perving on me in the bath. Finally, we got back on the train taking us back to Banbury, met Dagga's mum outside the station, and got dropped off back home at about ten in the evening.

Then we pretty much just stuffed some hastily made dinner into guts, then colapsed into bedand slept all the way through to the morning.

I'm almost certain that despite the three hour long journey there, and the same back, and the good hour or two in the queue, it was the best day in my life so far. I have never had so much fun before, except perhaps when I went to Disneyland Paris when I was little, but even that doesn't compare to an Anime Expo. Nu-uh. Anime Expo pwns Disneyland without question.

I've got to find a way to get more money for October... and I've gotta keep about £160 for 2012 when I can get a katana~! Can't wait!

Ja ne~!

Internet Trouble

For the last couple of days, my internet has been messing about a lot. That has made me reluctant to turn on my laptop at all, which, of course, results in me not writing much either. Still, I've started a Maximum Ride fanfic which, I admit, is a bit of a shameless self-insert which fullfills my dreams of rescuing all the mutants from the School(s) and giving them a safe place to stay.

Moving onto a happier note; I found an Open University course that's very cheap, short (which is good for me because I'm easily distracted and have comitment issues), and dedicated to Creative Writing. I'm especially looking forward to the last segment of study, which introduces you to the world of publishers and publishing. Really, I can't wait.

Me and Sarah have been reading some of the Harry Potter books aloud. It's good fun, and a nice way to reread the books. We started with book 3, the Prisoner of Azkaban, and now we're reading book 5, the Order of the Phoenix.

Also, I've been reading a 'the cast reads the books' fanfic about Percy Jackson and the Olympians, written by this author on fanfiction.net who does a lot of those 'the cast reads the books' type fics:

Percy Jackson's Myth

She's done the Harry Potter books too, with the six guys who went to the Department of Mysteries (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna) as well as James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Alice and Frank, I think. She's also done the Twilight books, but I'm not going to touch that with a ten foot barge pole.

jlmill9

On another note, I bought the fourth Young Samurai book the other day (Along with The Atlantis Complex, which is finally out in paper back, and 13 Curses, the sequel to 13 Secrets. Is looking to be a good series). I haven't had a chance to read any of them yet (though I've already read a friend's copy of The Atlantis Complex (Artemis Fowl book 7) so I don't need to read that one), but I can't wait.

Well, I figure that's about all from me for the moment. I'll try to update soon.

Ja ne~

A New Link

Once again, One Piece has become my main obsession. I've currently got seven fanfics that I'm writing for said fandom, and I've been updating quite a few of them. One of them is new, and is a guilty little indulgence into my obsession with Mpreg (don't ask). The other one that I'm working on most, because it has the most well-defined plot (not that that's saying much...) is Pheromones. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before in my blog. I've finally completed Chapter 1 (and the Prologue) and I have a good plan for Chapter 2 and possibly 3 as well.

Other One Piece news is that I've finally hit the 360 mark in the anime. The Thriller Bark Arc (hurrhurr, I made a funny) is dragging on a little, especially as I don't have the time to watch it as much as I would if I weren't living with Sarah. And I've still got over a hundred episodes to go before I catch up... Joy.

Moving on, I notice I haven't linked to anything in my last couple of blogs so I thought I might as well. What I'm trying to reread at the moment, though with rather less time to myself than I'm used to it's taking longer than I thought it would, is this Maximum Ride fic called Icaria. What it's mainly about, for me at least, is Iggy-Ari friendship, and seeing as those two are my two absolute most favouritest characters in the whole series (and yes, I do obsess over them both), I adore this fic.

Icaria

Other than the newest update, which was quite recent, it's been quite a while since they last updated, so I'm rereading through the fic to remind myself what its about. I hope I can get all the way to the end, but knowing me, I'll probably get distracted half way through and end up forgetting all about it for another few months until the next update prods me into remembering.

I don't really have much to say beyond that, so...

Ja ne~

Scatterbrain

Well, it's been a while since I last updated, and since then, Firday the 13th has come and gone. Happy belated Firday the 13th to you all.

Well, I've done some work on a few of my One Piece fanfics. It's not much, but it's something, I guess.

I really don't have much to say at all, as disturbing as that is for me. TRG has come to a standstill until I can get Furry  to sit down and have a nice long chat with me about her character in the story. Fun. I still need to pester everyone else about the details of their characters, but Furisca's the only one that I still don't have a full physical description of.

I'm not really obsessing over one particular thing at the moment, which is weird for me. I mean, I've got One Piece on the brain (damn, the Mugiwara crew looks sexy in suits), and Naruto too, though that's mainly the Akatsuki and NaruHina. Then there's Stravaganza because I'm reading the fifth book; City of Ships at the moment. Next is the Mortal Instruments series, because like I said a while ago, my Angst Muse had been very active and nothing says Angst like unrequited love for a gay Shadowhunter, who's dating a centuries old warlock and in love with his adopted brother, who happens to be in love with his real sister. Like I said: Angst galore. After that is Harry Potter because I bought a HP3 PS2 game the other day, and it's hilarious in how badly it fails. It even fails to follow the plot of the movie, which was a failure in and of itself. And there's also Doctor Who, because the latest episode was so sweet and adorable and just utterly 'Kyaa~!'. "The Doctor's Wife" it's called. And even if you only like Doctor Who in passing, you should totally watch it. (Yes, Devil, Imma looking at yuu).

So yeah, I'm not spending enough time focused on only one fandom to do any writing for it. Oh well.

Ja ne~

Random Update

Well... Not much to say, to be honest. I just felt like updating my blog again.

I suppose... recently, my Angst Muse (They really need names) has been running around like a spaz in my brain inspiring me left right and center. As such, the obsession I'm currently focusing on is Alec Lightwood from Mortal Instruments. Being not only gay, but in love with his adoptive brother, and dating a centuries old High Warlock, it's good for a lot of unrequited love and general all round angst. Unfortunately, my ability to actually write my ideas down seems to have dried up.

I also had a very random idea recently that just won't leave me alone. I'll probably never get round to writing it, but I'll tell you all both about it anyway. Basically, I've always wanted to read the 'Icha Icha' books in Naruto, and I figure that Jiraiya uses people he knows for inspiration. So, why not write out my own Icha Icha series, based on the romantic adventures of my favourite Naruto pairings? Obviously, I would try to write it as if Jiraiya was writing it, and the characters wouldn't have the same names, but just something similar. Perhaps a name with the same, or similar meaning...? Either way, it would be bundles of fun to try my hand at, though I would have to figure out a good background plot...

I just recently finished rereading the Last Battle of the Icemark, and, predictably, I found myself bawling my eyes out by the end. It's not a bad ending (and by bad I mean the villians win and the heros all suffer eternal torment or die horribly, like Romeo and Juliet), but it is kind of... bittersweet. I simply adore all of the characters, and the setting is amazing, and the whole thing is just so... so brilliant!

Also, I just managed to catch up with all the recent Doctor Who episodes, which is awesome, and I had a most intriguing thought. What if the Doctor's next companion (and I know it'd be break the whole 'usually female' tradition, but whatever) was Artemis Fowl? Wouldn't that be hilarious? I might write a fic about that... maybe. I doubt it. Never mind.

Well, that's all the updates for now.

Ja ne~

Mostly Original Shit

Well, right now, I'm almost too tired to think striaght, so there might be a lot of typos in this. Either way, I felt like just shoving a post up before I went to sleep, otherwise, I probably won't post for another week or so.

I really haven't had a chance to do much writing, really, but my drive to complete TRG has been rekindled, and even though I'm only on Chapter 1, and it's being a total bitch, I managed to get some more done on it. Not much, admittedly, but some, and that's good enough. I've decided I'm going to have all five books complete and ready for publishing by the time I reach my 27th birthday (that's about ten years from now). I'd like to have them all done by the time I'm 23 (which will be ten years since the idea smacked me in the face, roughly), but I'm not even sure if that's realistic... Either way, I'm feeling much more driven to complete it.

I'm also finding myself fretting over where my life is going to go (thank you for that, Mary)... I'm one of those people that can't cope on my own. If I have someone with me, whether its someone to look after me, or someone I have to look after, I can keep my cool (reasonably well, anyway), but the moment I'm threatened with being on my own, I freak out. I'd really like to be able to earn money through my writing, but other than getting a book published, I can't see how else to accomplish that. People won't commision me to write stuff like they commision artists...

Moving on. I've come up with another idea for an original story. It's only at its bare bones at the moment, and I'll have to sleep on it and do a lot of scribbling. Basically, it's an idea to write about seven (seven feels right, though it may be too much) books, that are each separate stories, but they're linked too. The idea is basically that the first story might be about one guys adventure, then the next might be about a girl's adventure, and at the end, you find out the guy from the first book is her grandfather, or something. I'm also thinking of combining it with my post-apocalyptic story idea, but I might not do that... I don't know.

And finally, because I feel like sharing, this here is a Writing Prompt I did:

"Ride on the Wind and Ring Daybreak's Bell"

Basically, on Live Journal, there's a community called 31 Days, and on this community, they have prompts for every single day of the year, for each year since 2006, I think. It's incredible, and I have most of 2009 on my laptop for me to browse through when I'm feeling creative without an outlet. That there is the prompt for November the 16th, 2009, and it's the only non-self insert piece I've done for those prompts. It's a Naruto and Sasuke friendship fic, because Naruto's dedication to Sasuke is awe-inspiring, and about the only reason I don't wish Sasuke dead.

Oh, and here's a link to the 31 Days community, in case you're interested:

31 Days

And that's about all for now. I'm going to go crash now.

Ja ne~

Butter on Bread

Well, let me first say that I'm terribly sorry for my long absence. The days just seem to fly by here at Sarah's. Things are a little hectic too. My brain can't settle on one obsession long enough to do much with any of them.

First, I want to mention the spaz-tastic Role Play me and Sarah were doing just this morning. It started off very sombre and serious, with Voldemort planning on how to kill off Sev. Then Brook came and asked to see Bellatrix's panties, Nagini got a boyfriend, Ed crashlanded on the dining room table, Skulduggery and Artemis tried to demolish Narcissa's house and the Doctor landed his TARDIS on Skulduggery's Bently. A lot of other shiz happened besides, but I can't remember it all...

Also, I discovered that I am actualy TWO CENTIMETERS TALLER THAN EDWARD ELRIC. He really is a midget.

So, yes. My obsessions are all over the place at the moment. I've started a new Harry Potter fic, where someone finally points out that Harry's scar is actually the rune Sowilo, which represents victory and the triumph of good over evil (prophetic much?). This random-spazz fanfic was prompted when me and Sarah watched the first five Harry Potter movies out of sequence. I think we started with four, then two, three, one and finally five. It was good fun, and I got creeped out by how much Dolores Umbridge really does remind me of my mother.

Then, of course, my Naruto obsession is still standing. The game that Sarah has goes further into the anime than I've seen, so now I know what's going to happen and I want to stab Sasuke in the face with a pencil. Stupid, arrogant, ignorant, selfish, greedy, vengeful prat. I'm also contemplating a fic where my persona Setari saves the Akatsuki. Starting with Sasori, and ending with Itachi (so far). But as I said, I'm only contemplating, and I'll probably never write it.

Also, I'm suddeny obsessing badly over Iggy from Maximum Ride, thanks to reading an old RP with him in. I've found that there are several similarities between a lot of my obsessions, first and foremost is the crappy pasts. I have a thing for guys with tough pasts, I'll admit. Then, I've noticed that I like guys who're blind. There's Iggy (Maximum Ride), obviously, Itachi (Naruto) and even, apparently, Roy (FullMetal Alchemist). Not to mention Hatori (Fruits Basket), who's blind in one eye, and Dokugan Ryuu (Young Samurai), who has one eye missing. Next, I noticed I have a thing for Pyromaniacs. Obviously, there's Iggy again and Roy, plus Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Dustfinger (Inkheart), and Deidara (Naruto). Finally, I noticed I have a thing for cooks, most notably Iggy and Sanji (One Piece), though V (V for Vendetta) and Howl (Howl's Moving Castle) can cook well too.

In summary, I like blind pyromaniacal cooks with shitty pasts... Iggy to a T really.

I'm also still obsessing over Kuroshitsuji, One Piece and Young Samurai, so my brain feels like it's being pulled in all sorts of directions.

I've also decided to try giving my muses a form again (I tried once before, but it didn't work out too well. They didn't much like the forms I gave them, see...), inspired by the movie '9'. If you haven't seen it, do so. Stitchpunk is the cutest thing ever, and my muses are now stitchpunk-style. There's my most commonly exercised Fluff-Muse, who's a hyperactive over-indulgent muse. My Smut-Muse who works well enough, but buckles under pressure. My Action-Muse who is a lazy son of a bitch. My Crack-Muse who has rare bursts of manic creativity, but is otherwise something of a pathetic little whimp. And finally my Angst-Muse who sits in the corner of my brain growing mushrooms and oozing the occasional wave of depressing literature.

(If anyone can work out how the title relates to this post, I'll give them (virtual) cookies)

And that's all for tonight this morning, folks.

Ja ne!

Fuck

Well, as expected, I really haven't had a chance to do much writing.

Though, I'm managing to carry on a couple of RPs at the moment. One, with Furry, is successfully keeping my love of Sebastian X Ciel aloft, and the other, with Kioni, is helping keep my obsession with merfolk afloat.

Staying with Sarah has, however, given my smut-muse a big boost. We were playing a Naruto Game (Storm 2 or something similar), and I think we just about managed to turn every single line into somehting dirty. It also prompted me to wonder about a universe/fanfic where the entire Naruto cast are whores, instead of ninja. It's a crack idea, true, but it's still interesting, though I'm not at all sure how I'd write it.

We also discussed the possibility of a One Piece and Naruto crossover, and we decided that even though Naruto would ultimately win in a fight, Luffy probably out-eat Naruto. Imagine Naruto's face when he looses a ramen-eating contest against Luffy! We also agreed that Sakura would destroy Nami in a fight, and Zoro would most likely hand Sasuke's ass to him on a silver platter. It also prompted us to wonder about what Naruto would be like if they were all pirates, and vice versa.

Still, I'm finding it kind of hard to get enthusiastic about anything at the moment. I'm tired, and my hormones are messing me about again, and I just... Well, yeah, whatever.

I figured I'd have a look at the fics I've worked on most recently, and give you a little run down. (In alphabetical order, because that's the way my laptop lists it):

Apprentices: That would be the Young Samurai fic I mentioned in It still only has about 600 words in it. I barely wrote one sentence before I got stuck again. I really need to bully my brain into working on that some more.

The Dragon's Brood: I finally gave a name to that third, unnamed Young Samurai fic I mentioned here. (Though, it's listed as 'Dragon's Brood', which is why it's so high on the list.) It's an obvious name, but I can't think of anything better, so whatever. It's about 1,000 words long now, and I'm really hoping to do some more work on it soon. (Mental Note: I must get the next Young Samurai book whenever we go into town.)

Not Really Lily: Aah, this here is the most unnoriginal title I've ever come up with. Basically, this here is a Harry Potter fanfiction where my persona Setari, and yes this is one of those shameless self-insert fics I warmed you about, accidentally sees Severus's memories and gets her hands on a lock of Lily's hair that he was keeping. Obviously, she uses it to transform into Lily for an hour, and goes and has sex with Sev. Of course, if it ended here it would be boring and hardly worth my time to write. No, Tari gets pregnant, and chaos ensues. I really love this plot, but at the moment, I've hit a little hurdle I'm having trouble jumping. This fic, I'm proud to say, is about 3,000 words long. It's not huge, but it's a start.

Retribution: This one finally has a happy ending in sight, so I'm hoping this will motivate me to get on and write the rest of it. Its another one that's 3,000 words long, and I think it will likely be aboue double that before it's done, but I could be wrong. I usually am... Heh.

Scarlet String: Oh, geez. This one. This is my only Sebastian X Ciel fic. Each part is only just about 1,000 words long (that's less than two pages in Word), and it's this spaztic little fic whose plot is all scrambled up in my mind and I can't kick my brain into gear to write any more. I may post the first few parts on deviantART, but I'm not sure... It's about 3,500 words long though, so it's longer than the others I've mentioned. Hah. That's kind of amusing, in a bitter, ironic sort of way.

Smile For the Camera: This would be the SasoDei fic I mentioned. I really want to keep this one flowing, cause I adore the idea. I will most likely post the prologue on fanfiction.net if I can get a few more chapters done. This'll be the first place I put a link if I do. This one's 3,000 words too. I didn't think it was that much, actually, so I'm pretty pleased.

Well there you go. I actually managed to make a good sized post even though I've done fuck all these last couple of days.  Perhaps I'll make a regular thing of this. Do it once a week, maybe? Maybe once a month if that seems like too often... I don't know. Maybe.

Well, whatever. I've got to be in town at one in the afternoon. I'm going to be shattered. And I'm going to be meeting new people. Fuck. I'm so goddamn fucking nervous and scared and I hate meeting new people. But at least I'll have Furry and Sarah and I think Dagga there too. Still... My tummy's churning just thinking about it. Fuck.

Fuck

I've just gotta take it one step at a time... and the first step is: sleep. So, yeah

Ja ne.