0035 | in which I stayed up far too late playing Prince Maker Braveness last night

[straightforwardly]

► It's kind of surprising. The main reason why I decided I'd be answering those book-related questions (as seen below) was because I wasn't sure if I'd have enough ideas for entries for an entire month. And maybe this is a bit premature, since we are only three days in, but— now that I've started on these daily entries, I've been getting so many ideas about what I can talk about. It's nice.

► Oh, I like today's topic— it's asking about what I'm Currently Reading. This would have perhaps been a bit more interesting earlier in the semester, when I was in the middle of a million different books, but my answer will still be more interesting than it would normally be, since I'm, for once, actually in the middle of a book— more than one book, even. (I say this because my default method of reading is pick a book, sit down, and don't stop until I'm finished, which means that, unless my nose is actively in a book, I'm rarely "currently reading" any particular book.)

Anyways, enough of that digression, and on to the actual answer.

When I started this entry this morning, I was still in the middle of reading The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark, but I have since finished it, since I only had twenty or so pages left. I got this book for school, and read most of it for class back in September, but we weren't assigned the last sixty or so pages. Still, I really, really liked this book— it's probably one of the best works of scholarship which I have personally read— and have been wanting to read the rest of it ever since. The end of the semester— and so, the end of required reading which ate nearly all of my reading time— gave me the perfect opportunity to do so.

I'm also reading Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them by Marjorie Taylor. I picked it up because on the night of the Friday before last, I became fixated on an old interest in imaginary friends which I've had since I was a kid myself. It hit me that, instead of aimlessly wondering about it, I could actually look up scholarly research on the subject. Long story short, I ended up picking this book up from the library, and since I'll be graduating in about ten days, I need to finish and return it soon.

Finally, I've recently started Fatal Puzzle by Catherine Shepherd, which I picked up from Amazon Prime's wonderful Kindle First program. ♥ I've picked up the habit of always having a book in-progress on the Kindle app on my phone that I can read while I'm waiting for things. I... don't like this one too much so far, unfortunately, despite it being set in Germany, which. *_* Hopefully it'll pick up soon; if not, well, it's not like I spent money on it, so it's still alright.

► Last night, I made the very stupid decision to start up a game of Prince Maker Braveness about two hours before I go to bed. I played the game for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and liked it well enough, although I wasn't overly enamored of it. In hindsight, that was probably because I ran into almost none of the story events in my first playthrough. In any case, I'd found some useful guides since then, and decided that I'd play it at least one more time, and see if I— or, well, my "brother"— could become the Emperor of the Three Realms.

So, I decided to start a new file, and figured I'd just get started on it, and when it hit ten I'd save and go to bed.

I ended up staying up until two in the morning.

In the end, I succeeded at making my "brother" become the Emperor of the Three Realms, though I'm not entirely sure if I'm comfortable with consigning him to that fate. However, I totally and completely failed at getting any of the romance routes I was interested in, despite using a relationship guide. He ended up with someone with the creative name of "Demon Female".

On the bright side, I did have a couple of earlier saves made with the express intention of using them to get some other romance endings without having to replay the entire game, so I can probably do that at some point. ♥

I really, really liked Ares— he put stars in my eyes. This wasn't really a surprise to me, mainly because he was one of the only characters who I got any scenes with in my first playthrough, and so I already knew that I really liked him. What did surprise me, however, was how fond I became of Dean. I honestly thought that I wouldn't like him, but I ended up warming up to him even before I found out about his relationship with Sister/the player character.

Basically, all three of the candidates are apparently silly, adorable, emotionally complicated (and in some ways emotionally-stunted) boys, and I just want to hug and cuddle all of them.

I also found myself shipping a pairing in which one of the characters has been deceased for some time. I've been fond of the Deity Queen ever since my first playthrough, where I spent much of my visiting hours seeing her and desperately wanting to cheer her up. Then she started talking about Sharia (the brother's mother), and I started getting feelings. And then she said the following, and I was totally lost.

"If we can turn back time, if that time during the dancing competition I have agreed to your plea and exchange with you to let you run away from the royal family.
Maybe... Maybe we can have happiness...
Maybe... But...
Now it is impossible...
Sharia.
My best friend...
I'm sorry..."

(And yes, the English in this game is not always the best.)

So, yes, definitely shipping them now, though the fact that the Deity Queen, as far as I know, doesn't have a canon name makes any fanwork a bit difficult.