But fear not! I've actually been productive in a variety of ways and have been trying to make use of my summer before school starts back and gets intense for me again. I've done some fandom writing/editing, hauls, and some adventuring! And I'm here to talk about it all.
First and foremost, I love writing. When I'm not writing, I'm actually working on a Sailor Moon fanfiction that has been a six year long project that has went off and on. As of last year, I decided to continue to the fic again. Why was there even a break you ask? I went through a series of personal things that really made it hard for me to write about romance and love. All of which are my forte to write about (as strange and trashy as that probably sounds). As of last year, I found my inspiration rekindled. Especially since Sailor Moon got a reboot. Haruka and Michiru are characters that are very near and dear to my heart. Like the ultimate OTP of all OTPs for me. Mainly based on how beautifully appealing their chemistry is with each other. I loved in the 90s anime how they were the ultimate magical girl anti-heroes. You didn't love them but you kinda loved to hate them until it made sense why they did what they did at the end of the well-loved third season.
In my fic, Michiru changes her surname to Michiru Kisaki to keep her personal life separate from her art life-where she doesn't want to be seen at her own events based on her extreme shyness, fear of being bullied by others are her high school's academy (Infinity is known to have a lot of rich, gifted, brats that are all pretty cut-throat) and eventually in worry of not living up to the expectations of what everyone who has fallen in love with her artwork has made her out to be. Michiru knows she isn't the pretty oujousama (a rich girl in training to be a lady/super onee-san/pretty) that everyone has portrayed her as and is almost anxiety ridden but grateful that she has had the option of staying hidden, knowing well that she is incredibly plain in real life. Eventually she fears people will be disappointed if they know the truth about her. She's content with being a ghost artist. Then enters Haruka Tennou, who is literally known to be the jack-of-all trades prodigy (and unbeknownst to Michiru, an orphan with an extremely troubled past). She's a gifted pianist, loves to race anything with a motor, a photographer at the same art events that Michiru secretly attends where her artwork is featured, and the head of the track team at Infinity. Michiru at first is very thrilled to find someone who is familiar and her age at the galleria but knows that she can't be upfront or be noticed-because Haruka is rather popular and she's yet again, scared of being bullied for being a prodigy painter. Because of this, Michiru finds herself eavesdropping on a lot of Haruka's constructive criticism on her artwork and grows to be quite fond of her. To the point where Michiru is rather infatuated and even tries to lure Haruka in with painting dedicated to the photographer.
Michiru eventually decides to confess to Haruka at school, and gets harshly rejected for not being pretty enough. Understandably, Michiru is plenty hurt for being dismissed as Michiru Kaiou when Haruka seems so enraptured with Michiru Kisaki. She takes it personally and oaths to perfect herself to eventually be on Haruka Tennou's level and get back at her for every cruel thing she said. Within six years, Michiru has perfected herself by extreme dieting thanks to depression and self resentment, but also has went to the extremes of getting plastic surgery. By this time, Michiru has gotten herself confident enough to show herself to the world where she becomes a well-known violinist and painter. One day at her violin showcase, Seiya Kou scouts her from a modeling agency and eventually signs her on to be a model-which after enough establishment in the industry, leads Michiru to want to sing and become known for an artist of many crafts. Not only is she pretty but skilled. Michiru is signed onto to Tennou Entertainment where none other than Haruka Tennou herself is her boss, and Michiru's only condition to the contract is to have Seiya Kou be by her side as her manager exclusively.
And from there a bunch of shenanigans happens. Almost ALL of the Sailor Moon characters from the actual series appear at least once. Even the villains and side characters that people have told me they had to look back and look up to see who the hell they were in the actual series. I'm really thrilled that my readers have been thoroughly enjoying and feel as though the characters are still on point like they are in the actual Sailor Moon series (just in a different setting) and that each character appearance feels like an exciting easter egg. I get really thrilled when people freak out over a new character appearing. A lot of people are waiting for Luna! ahahaha Which is great and I can't wait to reveal her role in this story.
So far this has been a novel length fic. I've been actually occupying myself by revising and editing the chapters-and reformatting the story on my end as well! So I can't give and exact length or number to where the story stands. On Fanfiction.Net in the middle of my editing-it stands are 105,800 words, eighteen chapters, and I don't know how many pages yet. I'm in the middle of editing chapter nine and double spaced in font 12 front on Arial it's already hit the 156 page mark and I'm not even near being finished with edits!
Regardless, it's beat out my record for my longest fanfiction and has been seriously what I've been placing all my heart and soul into other than this blog. I almost feel fucking guilty that it isn't a publishable novel because THAT'S how much work I've thrown into this. I've had a couple friends insist I revise and make it a publishable thing once I'm done and over it since 50 Shades started as a Twilight fic. LMAO fuck. Maybe? I dunno. We'll see. I don't know how well certain things would translate to an American audience because there's a lot of Japanese cultural references in it. How the fuck would I explain a hostess bar/kyabakura (Makoto is one in this LOL) ?
If you'd like to read the fic and judge me tons it is linked here below:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6992931/1/My-Secret-Empress
Happy reading! LOL
In other news, my life got really amusing once Pokemon Go released a little after the forth of July. I was pretty thrilled because I had been anticipating this game ever since the news broke that this game was going to be a thing. Surprisingly enough, I've never been one to walk around my neighborhood or do much. Mainly because I don't live near anyone I know or around anything. I'm not one to go out without reason or destination. Pokemon Go suddenly gave me reason to go out and explore my area. I had to invest in some walking shoes and casual wear a little bit because I was getting so wrecked running. Here are my cute leopard print shoes for my adventures around my neighborhood!!!
I have ran into so much neat things on my adventures out. Firs off, I had no idea beyond the little lot next to my house lay a fucking CREEK. With beavers!!! One evening at a Pokestop, a cat walked out to say hello! :) And on a night where I went out with my baby brother and his friends we spotted a preying mantis eating a beetle. Was literally cannibalism on the streets!!
Recently, I had been having so much fun walking around in the early morning or evening, right before it got extremely hot because where I live we get temperatures up in the triple digits. But this a lot gave me some major trouble as of this week. I made a post on it on my fb and copy and paste it here.
"....Guys please be extremely careful playing Pokemon Go in the evening. I never ever thought about my area being dangerous or risky since it's nothing but neighborhoods of families or teenagers. But this evening there was a group of guys who literally popped out of nowhere. I told them excuse me as I passed because they were in my way and I was on my way to leave the park. And I hear "do you know what time it is?" I quickly tense up but keep walking and quickly say "9:17" which was dumb. Anyone has a phone to check but I was kinda alone and cornered not to respond and I didn't want to anger them but I was continuing to walk. Then I hear behind me "Girl you hella thick" and suddenly I'm grabbed and dragged backwards..... I don't know if that group was after me or my phone but I yanked/propelled myself forward when I hit the ground and ran for it.... The one guy tried to chase me but I ran as fast as I could into traffic even across the street because I was so scared....... The fact that someone would do that to me or even talk to a woman alone like that.....I knew it wasn't good news as soon as they popped out in front of me in the dark and talked to me but still. I thought I would be okay since I've seen girls alone there before. I got home safe-my pants did rip on the side from being dragged but I'm okay. I just thought I would reinforce the "please be careful playing" because some people really are up to no good. I've been going out to play Pokemon Go alone because I don't have friends I know well to walk around or do things with and I chose the evening because it's been hot-I misjudged my little middle of nowhere neighborhood for being safe. I'm really lucky it wasn't worse-I don't know if tonight's situation had the potential of being a rape or a mugging but I'm so thankful to be out of it and unharmed-just extremely shaken. No more Pokemon Go for me.
Basically I was really upset that my small little neighborhood no longer felt safe to me. I also don't understand why people feel entitled to touch, grab, or make me feel threatened/uncomfortable. I'm not sure what they were after honestly. Me or my phone? Thankfully, I have some experience with this type of behavior and knew how to pull away and make a run for it. So this is a very BIG reminder to not misjudge your area and be alone at night. Even the smallest homey middle-of-nowhere areas can be potentially dangerous.
For a day or two, I had completely lost faith in humanity and was thinking about giving up playing the game.
We aimed for the evening time because it was so hot and met up to first chill and get boba at T4. I got an Okinawa Milk Tea (which has been a major addiction lately) and takoyaki because T4 is the only place where I can get that where I live-and it's to dieeee for.
Eventually-me, Katie, Michelle, and Sonia trekked through downtown finding Pokemon and battling it out. Ironically we were ALL different teams. Me being Valor, Katie and Michelle being Instinct, and Sonia being Mystic. There came a point where I took down a gym in this shady ass alleyway where the post office was and I suddenly see the gym flash yellow before I can even throw a Pokemon in there.
It would figure that Katie would snatch it from under me. There was Sonia attempting to take it down for Mystic afterward and these two little kids hid far away in the parking lot of the alleyway and took Katie's Pokemon down before Sonia could and snatched the gym for Valor. SO I got to add my fucken Pokemon there afterall. >:'D
In all, the whole thing was a ton of fun and brought a lot of laughs. It was really neat seeing other people play as we walked down the street. At a spot where the Pokestops were at (which were glowing from Lures at the time) where was sidewalk art. It was actually really neat. Despite some of the shitty things that has went down (robberies and the like), it's really neat how this game as brought communities of people together who wouldn't normally talk because they might not have anything in common. Pokemon has been that common ground!
We also had a ton of food. I took the girls to my favorite pizza place where it's 8.00 for a whole personal/or shared pizza with anything on it. It's basically the Subway of pizza and happened to also be a lure/Pokestop spot. We also went to Sno-Crave, which also was near a Pokestop. :) It's one of the few places open late (until midnight) in my town. So we got dessert after dinner. I haven't gotten one of those honey toasts in SO long because there's no way I could take on one of those on my own. We got the cute strawberry one to share.We eventually took a break from Pokemon and decided to play a couple hilarious but fucked up rounds of Jenga. It literally felt like Russian Roulette as we took turns pulling out blocks and placing them on top of the slowly dying tower.
Also near Sno-Crave there was a gym taken over by Team Valor and they had a CHARZARD!! And it was so fucking beautiful!!
Afterwards we headed to my area to play some late night Pokemon. Since we were in a group, I felt a little bit better about wandering around. Everyone parked their cars near my place and we trekked out to find some Pokemon and take some gyms. The weather was so warm/medium nice even after midnight that it was perfect for walking.
On our way to a gym, we ran into some people who asked if we were also playing Pokemon Go. We yelled out yes! And felt a little bit better about playing so late at night because there were other people who were doing the same exact thing as we were! How I ran into assholes two nights before that upset/frightened me was beyond me. Like where the fuck did they come from? Especially since I'm running into neat people like those people in the dark on the hill any other time? lol -baffled-
It restored my faith in humanity! I will say that.
Katie and I took down some gyms and some of us even got easily spooked by some noises around my area cause it's kind of the middle of nowhere and so late at night.... Like super dark even! But the walk around was extremely nice regardless. Here are the gyms me and Katie overtook!
Afterwards, the girls got glimpse of my car and was like, "HEY DARLA...how about you DRIVE?!" LMAO I had never driven at night and the idea intimidated me at first. But after thinking about it and feeling like I had something to fucking prove-I caved and took my car out with them to show them all the things I've been learning and trying so hard to do. I was super flattered that they let themselves put their lives in MY hands. ahaha. At one point in the night I was at a roundabout and was getting tailgated and highbeamed by a car. I was literally like, "Who the heck is this asshole?" and pulled over to the side of the road to let them pass to realize I had a COP behind me.
I'm sure he was just suspicious of a car rolling around so late with a ton of people in it. They've pulled over my brother before too so it wasn't shocking but I was definitely finished driving/done playing this game after that scare. It would have been perfectly legal with my driver's permit and people in the car but LMAO still...jfc
In the process of trying to drive back we got fucking lost in my own neighborhood. Why? Because A LOT of the houses out my way are all designed the same way...so you kind of can potentially forget which street you're on or where exactly you're at. Especially since I wasn't sure where we were once we had crossed the gym bridge that I hadn't realized we had crossed. -directionally impaired once she drives-
Regardless, I had a great time just hanging out. Majority of the time I usually only can play or hang out with people during conventions or events. It felt SO NICE to actually just hang out with friends and have no specific agenda. This was the first time I hung out with people in my area too. I kind of felt like I was back in high school because honestly? That was probably the last time I had truly hung out with people like that... It seriously lifted my spirits and I hope everyone else had a really fun/great time! :)
Hopefully if I can be brave and pass my damn test, I can visit others soon too.
In other news, I have been doing some small make up hauls because I found some major deals. I'll probably do separate haul reviews on each but here's a sneak preview of some of the goodies I've scored this month! ;D Reviews to this stuff soon!!
I'm not sure if you guys have noticed but I've been doing through quite the development in terms of my personal style. Am I still doing gyaru? I'd like to think so. I don't know if you can consider my casual stuff all out gyaru but it has it's influences.
I haven't went to events to really justify going all out. Also, I've been wearing darker looks lately due to my contacts. I REALLY truly and honestly CAN NOT wait to purchase my go-to Princess Mimi circle lenses in prescription. Right now I'm wearing the GEO Nudy Blue lenses and while they were great for the Gazette concert and for more mature looks (why I bought them in the first place) they don't look as good with agejo or himekaji. And I've DIRELY missed doing some really cute big-doe-eyed fluffy lashed himekaji and agejo looks. I've just been wearing blue lenses because they're the only lenses I have right now that I can SEE from. Meaning, I've been making due with my one pair of contact lenses.
FALL will be the season of cute himekaji looks and me borderline looking like a witch bitch (because October is the season of me being crazy and dark and wearing all sorts of things-duh!). I just have to wait to purchase my Mimis!
Here are two of my most recent looks. As you see, I've really been feeling purple lately. Purple lips, purple colored eyeliner... That's been my July vibe. Because I've been wearing colored eyeliner, I've been not wearing lashes as much just to see how it would look.
And I'm not sure how to feel about it.
Purple lips (LimeCrime's Cashmere), lashes, and a heavy contour for my Pokemon Go outing with friends
Rocking the same lipstick but with the colored eyeliner trend (no black eyeliner and no false lashes)-colored liner is from the NYX Vivid Brights Line :)
Until next time guys!
