#sorry for any typos or grammar issues lmao

[merriclo]

OKAY SO RABIES IS A virus transmitted by bodily fluids, most often saliva and blood. while the entire chain would be susceptible to rabies, you’re right in saying that Twilight would be especially susceptible. this is primarily because as a wolf he fights with his jaws. if he bites a rabid animal or person and draws blood, then swallows, he would become infected.

it’s also likely that, as a farmer, he would be painfully aware of rabies. any warm blooded animal can fall victim to rabies (not just dogs and bats) so it’s not a reach to assume he’d know the signs and symptoms and how to deal with it. rabies is one of those viruses that man has known about for centuries. it’s also one of the few that man has always known a decent amount about, including where it came from. mad dog bites man, man goes mad, mad dog and mad man die. it’s pretty easy to follow.

anyways, twilight would probably know he’s infected, or at least be able to string it together once the symptoms surface. all of the Links would probably know, actually, considering the abundance of Keese and how many of them are from more rural areas.

the thing abt rabies is that as soon as you show symptoms, you’re as good as dead. it’s a virus that ravages the mind, destroys the brain and central nervous system. the moment you’re rabid, you’re dead. it has a near 100% mortality rate. i can’t stress enough how dangerous this thing is.

it comes in three stages: the prodromal phase, the excitation phase, and the paralytic phase. if you want to find in depth information on each phase (like many symptoms, what happens, etc.) then here’s a link to that.

what primarily happens, though, this that they get symptoms similar to the flu, they undergo personality changes, they are likely to become mad, they experience extreme difficulty moving and using their muscles, become paralyzed, and eventually die (most often due to asphyxiation from the diaphragm paralyzing and preventing breathing.)

death by rabies is horrific, and for centuries the most humane way to treat it was either suicide or a backyard murder. there were attempts to treat it before Louis Pasteur created the vaccine, but they were rudimentary and rarely worked. it wouldn’t be insane to imagine that maybe the sheikah had created a vaccine, or that the witches had a potion to cure it. hell, you could even make a loz equivalent of Louis Pasteur and put him in Hytopia!! make twilight the first ever patient under the rabies vaccine instead of that little boy who was tragically mauled.

but, again, once you show symptoms, you are dead. the “good” thing is that rabies can have a long incubation period, allowing time to prevent any damage.

so would twilight be able to survive rabies? maybe, depending on the world building in the fic. would it be fun? absolutely not!! the process of preventing rabies fucking sucks!!! and the terror that comes with an encounter with a rabid animal cannot be understated.

so uh yeah i hope that kind of helps a little bit. if you want more resources or have any questions please please please ask i love talking about this sort of thing. for some damn reason rabies and other prominent diseases and viruses throughout history are some of my favorite things to research, so if i don’t already know the answer i will be very willing to find it <3

Guys I’m not a writer but I do know writing fics take motivation but I have noticed a max or twilight angst fics which makes me very sad because twilight is such a good boy he deserves to feel a emptiness in his chest that comes closer and closer until he starts crying too and I have had a little thought come to me after I watched the new hunger games movie and it’s that Twilight could get rabies easily (maybe idk I’m not a biologist or whatever it’s called) AND I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN LIKE HOW THE WHOLE CHAIN WOULD REACT BECAUSE GODAMN TWILIGHT U CAN TAKE A LOT BUT CAN U TAKE RABIES???

[ceilidho]

Sorry to dump this here, but no one in my immediate and/or accessible circle reads as much as I do and this conversation came up at the right time.

I don't read a lot of romance and I started reading some popular ones last year to ease my way into it. I feel like such a snob to say this, but the plot and writing are never fully fleshed out nor are the characters. None of the romantic actions I see people swoon over are ever explained well enough for me to understand the hype. A scene in which there should be an emotional inner monologue is shorted to a paragraph and if the character is toxic (I understand a lot of people enjoy toxic/dark men, but romance books never write them well enough) and destroys the other character's life/says a relationship-ending lie/any other cliche, there is never enough explanation, justification, groveling, or any thought process behind the reconciliation.

It's always just one half-written and half-baked trope after the other.

Again, apologies for dumping it here, but I think there are such damning consequences for women (the main demographic of romance readers) who read things like this and don't give constructive criticism or thought when facing these problems.

no but you're 100% right. i mean, this is one annoying bitch's opinion (mine LMAO) but trad publishing is in the absolute pits right now. that's not to say that there aren't still some good books coming out because of course, every now and then you're going to get a gem. but i think the environment has become outwardly hostile to good writing.

i mean, i know this has been discussed a ton, but the "fast fashionization" of books has become a huge problem. every time there's a new microtrend or whatever, every author rushes to push out a book to meet the demand (see: the hockey romance trend). this, obviously, means that the editing time is severely compressed and you get books published by like harper collins and penguin with typos, grammar issues, and more.

i got some flack for this when i posted about it on twitter ahah but i honestly do not understand why the sequel to "fourth wing" came out so soon (not even getting into the messy qualities of the first book). sequels used to take a year or more to come out to allow for the book to go through several rounds of editing and fine tuning! what happened??!!

i think authors now feel compelled to get their books out as soon as possible out of fear that booktok/readers will simply move on after the initial hype and they'll lose their reader base. there's like an anxiety about being left behind in the current publishing world.

this is kind of in line with what i was talking about the other day with Bo actually - writing romance and smut is actually way harder than people think. you can't just use the same 5 recycled porn dialogue lines and call it a day. you have to care a little about the story you're trying to tell, not just churning it out to make a buck or to make people pay attention to you. i'm not saying belabour every single action and decision made by your main character or go crazy on description (i still think the sweet spot for a published book is between 250-300 pages, and maybe more if you're writing a genre specific book that involves a lot of worldbuilding), but as a writer you need to want to be writing that book in the first place.

no one who's legitimately excited about what they're writing is going to resort to cliches and overused tropes - they might lean on tropes they like, but there's inevitably going to be something original and exciting there.

also my lil controversial opinion about the state of trad publishing lately is that i think it's 100% influenced by this weird pervasive strain of purity culture that's on booktok where people feel like any enjoyment they get from reading a particular thing has a direct reflection on them as a person and their values. rather than it just being a book.

(by the way i actually completely agree with you that even dark romances are as bad as everything else we've been talking about - that's another conversation lol. i also kind of agree with the idea of more romance books coming with content warnings on the front page - this hasn't really caught on yet except with some dark romance authors but i think it's a really good idea)

i don't think there's anything wrong about people getting excited about books on tiktok and instagram and youtube btw. i think it's a fun way to share recommendations, commentary, and interests. what i think is the big problem is that the publishing industry has almost become beholden to trends and online perception because they've seen how much profit they can generate by catering to it, and i think that's why books now just feel bland and soulless. they're tapping into a FOMO on both the authors' and writers' side, of either being left behind and not being able to make a living, or missing out on what everyone else is reading and talking about.

[rodentblood]

man watching the chimereon discord server’s hot debate this morning was interesting

I totes get where folks are coming from with the massive increase of commonality for unknown chimereons being odd since they’re /meant/ to be rare or uncommon but honestly I don’t how it could have been avoided even with higher restrictions.

Mod customs have lead to this steady increase as well as the opportunity for guest artist to be allowed to design them and for them to be winnable via events and purchased via gachas. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either it’s just the natural growth of a rare thing increasing due to desire. The chimereon community has been around for years, the group on DA is roughly 6 years old at this point. So naturally older members are now adults and thus likely have jobs and now have the cash to burn on purchasing any type of chimereons they want. And when presented the opportunity they’ll likely reach for unknowns as they’re the less restrictive subspecies to work with. 

I don’t feel like limiting the amount of unknowns allowed for mods customs, guest artist adopts, event raffles, and gachas is the right call tbh. That kinda just blends into folks feeling cheated out of not being allowed the chance to get the designs they want. 

Guest artists adopts are already limited to three of each subspecies with unknowns and botancials already mixed together so you can only do three total of those so I don’t see how restricting it further would do anything other than hinder the GA’s creativity. 

Mod customs are also restricted to only being allowed once every other month if a mod does enough work for the group to allow them the ability to offer slots. And it’s their only compensation for providing their service to the group so I totally get why most of them when opening slots tend to deviate toward accepting the offers for unknowns cause when offered the chance everyone is gonna take the job that offers the most money for their labor. This doesn’t make the mods greedy btw just a normal desire to work for more money which if we’ve learned anything from the current employment situation makes perfect sense, people want to earn a living wage from their work and if they can earn more money for doing their job they’ll take that opportunity.

Really I feel the issue has to be handled with how unknowns are categorized as well as lessening the restrictions on certain traits. 

We’ve already seen the change with botanicals getting their own subspecies recently. Whose to say we can’t do that with other types of unknowns? Robots seem most popular atm so why not make robotic/mechanical unknowns their own subspecies?

Why not lessen the restrictions for certain traits so that other subspecies can obtain them and still remain those subspecies? there’s quite a few unknown that just because they have 1 unknown restricted trait that automatically makes them unknown despite otherwise appearing as any other common subspecies.

You could also increase the desire for more common subspecies by allowing these restricted traits for myo slots or as purchasable upgrades. 

Overall tho these are just my own musing and thoughts on the matter. Perhaps I don’t have any right to say anything considering I myself have three unknown chimereon (two of which where mod customs) but I just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere that wasn’t the discord server lmao. 

[so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed]

Ask for writers

I was tagged a while ago by @theisolatedlily @zanniscaramouche and @tomlinvelvetfics. Sorry it took a while!

1. describe how you first started writing and when you first posted: I’ve been writing since I was literally able to, but I first started writing fanfic on ff.net back in the good old days. I wrote HP fanfic, among other things. In 2012 I made the switch to AO3 and started writing Ziam fanfic.

2. which of your characters do you typically resonate most closely with? do you base any characters off of yourself?: I’m very similar to Louis in a lot of ways, so his POV definitely comes easiest to me. When I’m writing Ziam I find that I prefer to write from Liam’s POV, though I don’t feel I’m necessarily similar to Liam.

3. where do you often find inspiration?: Movies, shows, random posts on Tumblr.

4. has quarantine helped or hindered your writing process?: Not necessarily either of them, I feel. I’ve had a little bit more time but since I don’t work much I’ve always had the time to write. It’s more the other way around, writing has helped my quarantine.

5. do you listen to music/noise while you write or do you prefer silence? Silence. I can’t write with music on.

6. what is your biggest writing pet peeve in your writing or in general?: In general, bad grammar or ooc characters pulls me out of a story really quickly. I don’t tend to read much fic, since I don’t want other people’s writing style to seep into my writing, so I suppose that would be my own biggest pet peeve, is when I find that I’m not writing in my own voice.

7. describe your ideal writing setup: Basically just at my desk, in a good chair, because right now my chair sucks and my back issues are making me lightheaded a lot, which is why I haven’t written as much as I want to.

8. favorite time of day to write?: Early in the morning/day. When I don’t work I like to write from around 9-11 am since I have the most energy in the morning.

9. favorite genre to write + one you’d like to try writing in the future?: Fantasy, for sure. Soulmates/fates/dystopia fics are still great.

10. do you struggle with writer’s block? how do you typically overcome it? I do when I haven’t been writing for a while, I need to be in tune with my story to really keep it flowing. I tend to force myself through it by just committing to certain times to write, and trying to keep that regularly so I don’t stray too far from the fic.

11. what is the easiest part of your writing process and the most difficult? I tend to write as I go, meaning that I sit down and the words just come pouring out. When I’ve outlined and I feel like I need to stick to that, it sort of feels stifling and I struggle, so I’m best at just free writing and letting the story go where it needs to go.

12. how do you come up with original characters? (if applicable): I don’t usually write original characters into my stories, but if I did it’d be from people I know or based roughly on characters in shows/movies.

13. what is your favorite and least favorite word? My absolute least favorite word is cum. Especially as a verb. That’s a hard no from me. I don’t really have a favorite word.

14. what is one thing about your writing that you’re really proud of and one thing you hope to continue working at?: I feel I’m a pretty solid story teller, and that I manage to put emotion into my work that translates to the people who read it. I want to keep working at my craft, I don’t feel there is something I’m particularly bad at, but I know I can improve a lot.

15. what work of yours has your favorite ‘verse/world building? how did you come up with it?:  Definitely there’s no fair in farewell. It’s been in my head since 2014 and I finally sat down to write it in 2017/2018. It’s got so much world building and such a unique storyline, I’m still so proud of it. I don’t remember how I came up with it, it sort of feels like the story’s always been there, just waiting for me to sit down and tell it.

16. what font and size do you write in? single spaced or double?: calibi, 11, single space.

17. what is a typo(s) you find yourself making consistently?: I don’t really know? I don’t think I make a lot of consistent typos. I just write fast and mess up words on the regular lol. but this is a question better suited for my beta, @lightwoodsmagic!

18. (if applicable) do you separate fic writing from fandom?: Yeah I really only write AUs. 

19. what emotion is your favorite to write? which is the most difficult?: Angst is my absolute favorite. I love writing emotional stories, with a lot of introspective characters. I feel that lust is the hardest to write since I’m aroace and I just cannot compute that people want to do the deed lmao.

20. what is one thing you hope readers always take away from your works?: that there is always hope and fate always works her way.

21. what is the best and worst writing advice you’ve ever received?: The best is to not compare yourself to anyone else, since it’s a race you’ll inevitably lose. The worst, oof, I don’t really know.

22. which one of your works would you most want to see turned into a film/television show?: There’s no fair in farewell, absolutely. I feel like it has movie potential.

23. do you write scenes chronologically or out of order?: Chronologically. Usually my stories go where they want to go, so if I wrote out of order none of the scenes would match up.

24. how do you handle criticism?: My first instinct is to be frustrated. My second, more thoughtful attitude, is that I will listen if it’s something I feel is valid. I am very vulnerable in my works and so criticism feels personal sometimes, but I’m also secure enough in my work to know when something is valid and when I should stick to my own ideas.

25. what is the advice you would give to someone who is looking to start writing?: Do it. Write what appeals to you. Write from your heart and your soul.  

26. what kind of feedback on your work always makes your day?: Any comment is great, but I love when people point out the parts that made them emotional or that resonated with them. I love when people pick out quotes that they say helped made them feel better.

27. which fic ‘verse of your own would you most like to exist in? which fic’s characters would you most like to befriend?: Oof. I don’t think I’d want to exist in most of my AUs. I’m pretty content with my life as is, but I’d love to befriend Zouis in my Zouis wallsficfest fic just because I am that mom friend and they both needed hugs.

28. what do you always enjoy getting asks about/wish people would ask about more?: I’d love to get asks about my fics in general! These asks are pretty damn fun!

29. what has writing added to your life? how has it changed you?: It’s added so much love. Love for my writing, love for the stories and universes I put out. And love in the form of dear writer friends who have enriched my life and who have become some of my most favorite people.

30. why do you write?: because I’m a writer and I have to.

boost yourself + tags!

1a. share the last sentence you wrote:

The only one who has a choice is Harry, and this time, Louis will have to listen to it.

2a. describe the wip you’re most excited about:

I’m only working on my @onedirectionbigbang which is a Pygmalion fic and it’s so far 27k of pining and angst and if that doesn’t tell you enough IDK what else to tell you 

3a. share the piece of dialogue from one of your works you’re most proud of: 

Nothing particularly comes to mind at the moment. 

4a. share the best first and last lines from your work(s): 

I always try to start and finish with a good line. Here’s the ones from TNFIF:

Sometimes, when he looks down, Louis envies them.

And every day he thanks God for giving them the chance to find each other.

5a. link the last fic you read: 

I uh, kind of reread my own fic last night, does that count? It’s under the moonlight

6a. link the last work you published: 

My christmasfest fic room for your love underneath this tree

7a. link to your ao3 (if applicable):

we_are_the_same

8a. someone that inspires you: 

Louis Tomlinson, and as far as writers go, @londonfoginacup and @lightwoodsmagic

9a. a comfort fic/work that you’ve been grateful for this year:

I truly don’t read much, but anything Emmu writes is top notch for comfort honestly. She infuses her fics with so much warmth and charm that I can’t help but fall in love with every universe she creates.

Alright, I think a lot of people have already done this, but if you haven’t and want to, consider yourself tagged! I’m gonna tag @lightwoodsmagic @jacaranda-bloom @disgruntledkittenface @fallinglikethis @vintageumbroshirt and @dinosaursmate just to see if they want to share!

[seokjins]

for the cuddling prompts! #7, jinkook pls

! send me a prompt and a ship for a minific !

#7 - for comfort

jungkook is crying.

it’s three in the morning and he’s crying, curled up on the bathroom floor with his head between his hands and tears down his face trying to breathe, but every time he sucks in a breath it feels like he’s drowning - the world swaying uncomfortably, a pendulum stuck in balance, reaction trying to reach equilibrium.

he’s delirious and exhausted and half-afraid that someone’s going to walk in on him because he sometimes still forgets that the new dorm has more than one bathroom, one toilet, but his phone blinks a dismal 3:39 AM up at him when he turns it on, and something sinks in his gut when he knows there’s nobody awake in this house. it’s never that he feels lonely, living with the rest of his members, never left behind, never uncared for, but sometimes he realizes, with startling clarity, just how Alone he is.

he was never very good at making friends.

he struggles through a hitching breath as he tries to think of what to do next, knowing he can’t stay here until morning unless he wants to be found like this. it’s nearly four, so even hoseok would’ve left the studio by now, stumbling into his room with hair still damp from the shower and bruises on his knees, which means that jungkook could hazard a trip, dance until he crashes just for something to do or try and catch some sleep on the floor of their practice room. he could also go back to bed, sneak into his closet-turned-bedroom with namjoon and listen to him snore until both their alarms went off.

the knock, when it comes above his head, scares him so bad he crashes into the sink as he jumps to his feet, scrubbing furiously at his eyes.

“jungkook?” seokjin asks, his voice pitched low and quiet. “you in there?”

jungkook swallows, heavy, “y-yeah it’s me.”

a pause, as if seokjin’s trying to think of the right thing to say.

“are you alright?” he asks eventually. 

“i’m fine,” jungkook replies, too fast, “i’m fine. do you need to use the bathroom? i can leave.”

(he can’t leave)

“no, just checking up on you.”

“oh,” he says, at a loss for words, “well, um, you can go back to bed.”

there’s a pause, something terrified and flighty roaming jungkook’s chest in the silence that follows.

“do you want to talk about it?”

and maybe it’s just the way seokjin says it - the concern in his voice, the way jungkook can see his brows pulled together, fingers tucked into the pockets of his sweatpants - or the fact that jungkook’s finally losing it, brittle and tense and emotional and feeling like he’s never going to get out of this rut, but the tears up start again and he finds that he can’t fucking stop.

he’s crying so hard he can’t reply, barely forcing out of choked “i don’t know” before the door opens and seokjin slides smoothly into the gap, closing it behind him, stepping up into his space with no hesitation.

jungkook can’t see the expression on his face from where he’s standing, not with the tears and the embarrassment and the anxiety rushing to his face, cheeks heating up, but he folds himself down into seokjin’s chest anyway, eyes sliding shut when a hand comes up to rest on the back his neck, arm looping warm around his waist.

they stand there at three - nearly four - in the morning, jungkook reminded horribly of the first night he’d lost it, fourteen and overwhelmed and nearly made it out the apartment door before seokjin had caught his wrist in the circle of his hand and pulled him down onto the couch.

he’s five years older and 10 cm taller, but he doesn’t feel that way when he follows seokjin to the living room and curls up next to him on the sofa, legs tucked into his side like he’s trying to make himself smaller as he presses a wad of tissues against his eyes, tilting sideways until his head rests on seokjin’s shoulder.

he feels an arm settle against his waist, lips against his forehead, temple, nose, the places seokjin can reach without straining, their hands tangled loosely together.

“i think i’m going to mess up,” jungkook admits eventually, voice shaking.

“okay,” seokjin replies, steady. he doesn’t push, just settles into the silence and waits.

“i think,” he manages, “i think i’m going mess up, like. i’ll forget the choreography when i’m in the front and i won’t remember what to do or i’ll forget my lines and stop singing and everyone will stopped singing but the band will keep playing and the fans and i’m gonna do something wrong and i won’t be able to fix it and-,” he cuts off, throat closing up.

seokjin’s fingers tighten around his own.

“and what makes you think that?” he asks evenly.

jungkook swallows.

“what if i don’t have a reason?”

“then i think you should look for one,” seokjin says, peeling the tissues away from jungkook’s face and tossing them onto the coffee table.

“why?”

“because if you have a reason,” the press of lips against his eyelids, down the side of his cheek, the places tears had dried, “then you’ll have a reason as to why not.”

“oh,” he says lamely. “okay.”

“but don’t worry. if you mess up i’ll mess up with you.”

“oh,” jungkook repeats, “okay.”

and he looks over at seokjin, then, mouth half open, their eyes meeting for a second before jungkook swings up and over onto seokjin’s lap, hesitating for a moment as he musters up enough courage to lean in and press their foreheads together.

“can i kiss you?” jungkook asks.

a pause.

“if you want.”

yes.

yes, he wants.

god, he wants, wants it bad enough that he doesn’t stop to think as he curves down to press his lips to the base of seokjin’s throat, the dip of his collarbones, the line of his neck, his jawline, his nose, his brows.

doesn’t think as he rises a little on his knees so he can cup seokjin’s face in his hands and press their lips together, the tension in jungkook’s shoulders draining out of him seokjin tilts his head for better access, mouth falling open, fingers slipping beneath the fabric of jungkook’s shirt. they kiss the way they’ve kissed before, but it’s softer now, quieter, and when they pull apart, jungkook is pleasantly breathless, lips curling up unevenly at the corners.

“thanks,” he says eventually, voice small.

he leans forward so that he can press the side of his face to seokjin’s cheek, arms sliding down to rest at the other’s hips so he can avoid the flush of embarrassment riding high on his skin.

seokjin makes a faint noise, “anytime,” he says, fingers cool against jungkook’s skin. “anytime.”

[xenoblade]

2017 in gaming

LATE AF (March???) but here is a short review for each game I cleared in 2017! Did this last year, so I wanted to did a little comparison.

Fun fact: according to my Backloggery, in 2017 I bought and cleared EXACTLY as many games as 2016. Holy crap...

FF15

Apparently the first game I beat this year was FF15! I feel I've explained my feelings about this game ad nauseam elsewhere... I've never really picked it up again and I'm not really interested in the DLC Episodes, because like... I liked this game! It was good! But... not THAT good to warrant extra money at the present time. Characters were the best thing so I know I will pick up the Episodes eventually, so... I really don't know how to say this but I didn't emotionally connect with it in the end? I'm sorry, I really wanted to REALLY like this, but many things (unrelated to the game but related to the development processes) got botched and it didn't 'click' with me...

Horizon Zero Dawn

What a blast! Reading about my expectation for it last year, it had me quite unsure of what I was getting into but oooh boy. Yes please. It's a nice take on the whole post-apocalyptic setting (the story DID have me go HOLY SHIT a number of times despite me being a sci-fi veteran I guess), and everything's so polished and so well designed (the machine monsters... yes...). I'm just so NOT used to triple A western games lol... Aloy's so good, her VA does an amazing job and dialogue is real good. Combat flows really well and all the things you can do with enemies, like dismantling parts, and bombs, and setting traps... Really nice. Real, real nice.

Nier: Automata

DEFINITELY ONE OF MY 2017 GOTY. This game does A Lot and does it really well, I still don't know if I like the Yoko Taro part or the Platinum Games part more... I think both come together really well. The OG Nier-style endings, the bullet hell parts, the park, the music, THE FEELIOS. This game is such a joy to play... Even if you're not into the Yoko Taro-style shenanigans, do. play. this game.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Apparently I uhhh finished it this year so I gotta... TMS plays very nicely, actually. It's very good and very nice, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it over other games, but it was a fun ride! Characters are a bit of a stereotype but they're pretty likeable (Yashiro and especially Eleonora ended up growing on me!)

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

So it took me MORE THAN A YEAR to actually finish this game (like I had anticipated last year anyway), and I basically forced myself to only after starting Echoes. Playing Conquest basically reminded me of all that I didn't like about Birthright, and the plot... Uhhhh... Again, some characters are nice (especially the royals) but the plot fails to deliver on so many occasions and the maps are basically the same as Birthright... I remember Conquest being advertised as you having to "change an unruly kingdom from inside!", but... you literally do the same thing (invade Hoshido) while trying to convince others you're the "good" guys...? This is so flimsy OTL I thought Conquest was bad enough plot-wise... But then came REVELATION

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Nice. Very, very, very nice. A real treat. This was so refreshing, after having to endure through THREE Fates games that basically had the same problems... orz. Echoes sorta took me back to a more "classic"-style Fire Emblem, it was all very pleasant and "new" while also paying homage to the old, if it makes any sense. I liked the new art style and the all-voiced cutscenes. I guess you could say there isn't much to "do" (not counting post-game) and the story is simple, but I felt it was told in a nice way without being overly pretentious (cough like Fates cough). Some mechanics are BROKEN (5-range bow?? what), but honestly Gaiden was so ahead of its time....

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

Oh boy. A worthy conclusion to the first part of the saga. Honestly, I'm still reeling from that ending... Somehow I ended up enjoying this more during my second run than during my first play... Still. Falcom owns my ass so they can put out any kind of Trails and I'm going to love it. 10/10

Tokyo Xanadu

Another Falcom game that FINALLY got released in english-speaking countries. This one was very nice! I liked the cast and it had a very Persona-y feel to it. I played the Vita version and uhhh... unfortunately it was marred by localization issues, like typos, unfortunate grammar, random names left in kana... From what I heard, these issues were fixed by AkSys in the PS4 release though, yay? Maybe one day I'll play the PS4/PC version, I had a fun time playing through this.

Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

Not gonna lie, I could finish this only because Echoes gave me drive to play more Fire Emblem. This was such a chore... I guess it can be argued THREE GAMES EXTREMELY SIMILAR TO EACH OTHER didn't really help here. This one had extremely GOOD premises, but it falls apart like, RIGHT AWAY, because things basically make no sense. Azura makes no sense. Characters from both sides joining you for no reason. And then Corrin starts being like "Please believe me, we're fighting an INVISIBLE enemy!"... This is so stupid lmao... Maybe I could've dealt with it if it hadn't been THREE games but I just. I'm so glad it's over.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I love Geralt. I just wanted to get this out here before anything. Okay, good? Good. The Witcher 2 was so good! A bit short, but everything I love from 1 is back here. The hidden twists and treachery are back, and so is a pretty engaging storyline! I can't deny a good 75% of the reason I love this series is the charisma and wit of the protagonist, though. Geralt being an actual protagonist instead of a silent type-ish character makes a HUGE difference. Combat also got so much better than W1, and I can't wait to have a laptop that can run W3 properly... orz...