#but all the other quotes here are in chrono order and i really liked ending on the 'i'm ruined' bit

[i-love-pie-and-satan]

A Self-Indulgent Reader Insert

Note: Alright so I mostly wrote this because I’ve been dying to write a reader insert to the point where I can’t focus on my multichapter fic. So this is mostly getting it out of my system but idk if people like this sort of stuff, then I’m all for writing more. In the meantime, have my garbage.

The first thing you noticed was the smell. It was like a dying animal vomited up something rancid then curled up and died in said vomit before some kid set the whole scene on fire. It made you want to gag. Groaning, you tried to put a hand to your face to block the smell but your hand wasn’t much better. 

Why did you smell so bad? When was the last time you showered? 

The next thing you notice is the weird slimy feeling on your back. That actually makes you gag. Mustering up the strength, you push yourself up and blink away the spots that danced in and out of your vision. For a moment, you briefly panic over the thought of being blind but then your eyes adjust to the low flickering light. From what you could tell, you were in some back alley between two dumpsters. That probably explained the slime you had woken up in. Probably best to ignore it unless you wanted to add to the stench with some vomit of your own. 

Doing your best to ignore the painful throbbing in your head, you pushed yourself shakily to your feet and look up and down the alley. One side looked to lead to a dead-end so you headed the other direction, towards the opening of the alley and the source of the flickering light. As you approached, you raised a hand to shield your sensitive eyes and paused at the opening of the alley. 

Where even were you? You didn't recognize anything around you so how did you get here?

It opened up on to a mostly abandon street that you didn't recognize in the slightest. The only people in sight were a small cluster that stood before a roaring fire. There seemed to be something large in the fire before them but you couldn't quite make it out from where you stood. 

"We got the money," came a voice, making you jump. "We should skedaddle before any heroes get here, yeah?" 

Heroes? Did they mean police? Or law enforcement? 

After a moment, the same voice called out again, as if trying to get someone's attention. "Overhaul?"

"Overhaul," you repeat, voice just above a whisper. The name sounded familiar, though only in some vague way. Frowning, you tried to follow that string of the thought. Where had you heard that before? You knew there had to be something.

Then, floating up from some dark corner of your mind, a quote came to you. "They're all sick," you said, the words feeling foreign on your tongue. "Every last one of them." You weren't speaking a language you were familiar with and yet it came easily. Was this your native language? It really didn't feel like it but you also didn't fumble over it. 

"Hey!" The shout abruptly yanked you out of your thoughts, snapping you back to reality. You couldn't tell which one was yelling at you due to the strange, beak-like masks they all wore but the one with the green and purple jacket was now approaching you. "Pay attention when Overhaul is speaking to you!" 

"I-"

"I asked you to repeat yourself," said the one in the jacket, stopping a few feet away from you. 

Shrinking back against the wall of the building behind you, you swallowed hard and said, "I-I said 'they're all sick, every last one of them.' That's, um, that's what you were going to say, right?"

Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "And just how did you know that?" His voice sent a chill down your spine, setting you on edge. 

As you opened your mouth to respond, you came to the sudden abrupt realization that you had absolutely no idea how you knew he'd say that. It was distressing to acknowledge it but you were coming to the realization that you didn't know how you knew a lot. "I don't know?" you said, the statement coming out as more of a question than you'd like.

"You don't seem very sure of that," Overhaul said sourly, before turning and gesturing to one of the others in his group. As the man with the wide brim hat approached, Overhaul turned to glare down at you again.

The man in the hat (you were pretty sure his name was Nemoto) stared down at you. Like a wave of icy wind, you felt a question pulse through you. "How did you know what Overhaul would say?"

Before you could even think, the words were already spilling out of you."I-I remembered it. From something I watched." The answer probably shocked you more than the two yakuza members. 

"What were you doing in that alleyway?"

"I don't know," you said with a shrug. "I just woke up and there I was."

Rolling his eyes, Overhaul crossed his arms over his chest and demanded, "Is there anything you do know?"

"What do you know?"

Again, it seemed as if words were just spilling out of you or maybe being yanked out of you by force. "I, um, know that you go by Overhaul and that the guy in the hat is called Nemoto and the one over there in the hood is Chronostasis and the big guy is Katsukame. Oh, and we're are currently being watched by Twice." You looked just as surprised as Overhaul but, though you had no idea how you knew, you knew you were right. You knew these people more or less by name. You were also now painfully aware of the man at the end of the street watching the whole group. 

Glancing down the street, Overhaul considered you once more. "Your quirk," he said, voice dropping dangerously low.

"What is your quirk?"

"I don't have one," you said, the words being forced out of you once more. 

Humming, Overhaul turned and said, "Chrono, pack everything up while I deal with the League's little rat." 

You watched wearily as Overhaul went to handle Twice at the end of the street, jumping slightly as Chrono lept from his perch on the parked van. "You heard the boss," he said curtly, "Let's wrap this up quickly. Hey, that includes you." You start slightly as Chrono turned his masked gaze on you. 

"I don't..." you murmur, taking a small step back. 

"Don't even think about running," snapped the largest of the group, Katsukame, as he pulled open the back doors of the van. "You won't get far."

"Do us a favor and make this easy on all of, alright? You're lucky we weren't ordered to kill you outright," Nemoto said with an annoyed sigh. 

They were right. You wouldn't get far, especially since you had no idea where you were. That's not even considering the fact that you apparently speak Japanese and only remembered vague details about random people around you. Taking a steadying breath, you nodded slightly and let yourself be herded into the backseat of the van's main cabin next to Nemoto. 

After a few minutes, Overhaul returned to the van and climbed into the front passenger seat. "Chrono, get us back to base and clear my schedule for the evening. I have a meeting with the League of Villains to attend to."

"Yessir," Chrono said curtly, starting up the car. "And what would you like us to do with the extra?" You frowned at being called an extra but held your tongue. You only knew the barest of basics about them but the air around the gang alone was enough for you to pick up on just how dangerous they could be. 

"The extra?" Overhaul hummed, turning his head just enough to look at you. Trying not to squirm, you met his gaze. "That's a bit rude, don't you think?" 

It took you a minute to realize he was asking you. "Oh, um, I guess."

"So, are you going to give us something else to call you?"

You looked away, frowning in concentration. You had to remember something about yourself. Even if it was something small, you should have had some vague notion of who you were but, if you did remember anything, it wasn't making itself known. "Nothing," you said softly, not looking up. 

Overhaul sighed and turned back to the front. "Shame. Extra it is then. And put on a mask. Until you get cleaned and we know for sure if you have a quirk, I refuse to breathe the same air as you."

"Here. Put this one on," Nemoto said, holding out a black, cloth face mask. Nodding, you take it and put it on over your nose and mouth. 

While the van fell silent, you decided to take inventory of your memories. It wasn't much but, if you could figure out what you did know, it would help you know what blanks to fill in. 

You started with Overhaul since it was the first thing to sound familiar. You knew he was the acting leader of the Shie Hassaikai, a small-time yakuza. His quirk was Overhaul, a power that let him pretty much complete disassemble and reassemble matter. You vaguely remember something about a phobia of germs and an isolated childhood but nothing was all that solid. Then there were his subordinates. Chronostasis, Nemoto, and Katsukame. You could remember their quirks and full names but other than that, nothing. 

Then there's Twice. You remembered more about him, more than just his name and quirk. He was a part of the League of Villains and had developed something of a personality disorder after abusing his quirk. Concentrating on the villain, you did your best to follow the line of thought. Screwing up your eyes, you try to remember.

"He... wants to recruit you," you said softly, pressing a knuckle to the center of your forehead. You could see it, just barely. It was Overhaul and Twice before a group of people who you were pretty sure was the League of Villains. There was blood, too, and someone crumbling to dust. "But you aren't going to agree. You're going to...kill someone, I think, and someone else will crumble to dust. And...um...that's all I can recall." You dropped your hand to your lap and sigh softly. 

"How do you know this?"

 The sudden question makes you jump and you speak quickly. "I remember it from something. I think it's a show but I just can't quite remember where I watched it."

There's a long moment of silence, in which you lock eyes with Overhaul again. Finally, he said, "When we get back to base, I'll have someone do a blood test on you so we can be sure of the status of your quirk. From there, we will discuss this further. I want to know anything you can tell me about tonight."

Sensing that you weren't going to have much of a say in any of this, you nodded and sunk a little more into your seat. 

[mittensmorgul]

So I feel like this season has something to do with touches, a very hand thing. And I directly paid more attention to sam and rowena. I feel like 15x03 was a direct parallel to 10x19. Specially cause in 10x19 Ro said they were mortal enemies and that they'd tried to kill each other and on 15x03 she said they'd grown quite fond of each other. Both ep contrasted a lot, even scenes from the same angle and, HANDS TOUCHING. Also hands 'barely' touching again when they reunited on 15x08. Thoughts?

Okay, okay… this is something I think I wrote about in my very, very long post about Rowena. The relevant bit:

Rowena got a surprise at the end of 10.18, though. A surprise and a gift in the form of Sam Winchester asking for her help and presenting her one of the greatest magical treasures she’d ever laid her hands on– The Book of the Damned. The terms of their deal would be hashed out in 10.19, where Sam agreed to kill Crowley in exchange for her help in translating the book and removing the Mark of Cain from Dean. Sam had no problem agreeing to her terms– killing Crowley who had been sometimes an ally and sometimes an enemy, but he would struggle to actually complete the mission. The main plot of 10.19, though, is fascinating to me in terms of overall themes. And this was, again, Bobo writing Rowena.

The Werther Project. Sam calls Rowena for help when he finds the location of the codex she needs to decipher the Book of the Damned, held in a long-abandoned Men of Letters chapter house that had seen tragedy befall it after it was eventually bought by a family who didn’t know of the danger buried behind a wall in their basement. This horrific power– placed there by a man who wanted to use the power the MoL had amassed (particularly in this case a codex stolen from a witch of the Grand Coven) for their own purposes– was broken open by a young woman lashing out in anger against her own unfair treatment by her family (her brother enjoyed privileges she did not, while she was expected to do chores and relinquish her own entertainment for her brother’s comfort).

Sam goes to free this codex– once the product and property of women, from the box that required the death of a Man of Letters (apparently) in order to unlock it. But the box contained a different lock, another layer of protection, as well, in the form of a spell that would compel the people present when it was activated into committing suicide by their own hallucinations. Dean hallucinated himself trapped in Purgatory again where a manifestation of Benny encouraged him to stay, to end it all, and not put the burden of killing him onto Sam and Cas. The woman who’d originally unleashed the curse on her own family had stayed in the house for more than 40 years ensuring that nobody ever fell victim to it again. Her hallucination had been to watch her family kill themselves all over again. At first, Sam hallucinated this woman pushing him to end it, but then Rowena mysteriously arrived and promised to help guide him to the codex.

I had to explain all of this, because Rowena… was Sam’s hallucination. Only instead of just guiding him to kill himself to no purpose– the way Susie and then Dean were being persuaded to– she (as a manifestation of Sam’s own subconscious and knowledge of what they were actually there to retrieve) guided him through opening the box. But Dean broke free of his own hallucination and found Sam bleeding out for the spell, and took over offering his own blood in addition. That was the key, that only two men working together could unlock the box and live, and it was Rowena (or a hallucination of her) that guided him to the solution.

She might not know about it, but this was how Sam saw her even then– as nothing more than the potential solution to his problem. At that time, he was using her just like every other man, which he proved to her when he shackled her in iron and forced her to get to work deciphering the spell to save Dean. BOY HOW THINGS CHANGED by the time Sam would willingly give her the spell to unlock her own bound power, right? 2 ½ seasons of growth, in fact, for both of them.

and a link to the whole thing, on ao3 because it’s way too long for tumblr:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21641770

Season 10 was a wild ride, culminating in a massive wtf switcheroo of plot, and this episode fell right in the middle of what feels like a narrative wrestling match, where half the writers jumped on board with the shift in thematic meaning and burning down the narrative structure to accommodate and entirely different resolution for the Mark of Cain that completely took Dean and his own internal darkness out of the equation. But in doing that, in Freeing The Divine Feminine, they also gave Rowena a chance, just like Sam would eventually, and just like Rowena herself would eventually ASK for herself in 13.19.

And it started right here:

Hands and handprints have long been a recurring symbol and theme on Supernatural. But at this point in the story, back in 10.19? They’re about to thematically explode all over the place. S11… was super handsy.

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/this%20season’s%20getting%20handsy/chrono

And that handprint imagery really started ramping up toward the end of s10– not only with this, but also with Dean in 10.22:

I wrote this back in December:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/189794971800/whats-your-take-on-all-the-shots-focusing-on-hands

But like back in s11, I’ve also been remembering how these scenes also focus around “transfers of power.” Or perhaps… the balance of power. In s11, these hands all culminated in Chuck and Amara reuniting, by clasping hands. Talk about a power balance.

But before this, what shook Amara? Was that her touch killed. She ran her hand through the flowers, and they withered and died. She was afraid to accept the kindness of an old woman and feed the pigeons for fear of killing them, too.

And isn’t this EXACTLY Rowena’s story? through everything she’s confessed even going back to s11 (heck, all of this is in my long post linked at the top of this), and wasn’t she directly paralleled AGAINST Amara in 11.18, even though she truly believed herself to be similarly aligned WITH Amara? I think that was the moment Rowena began to truly reassess what she ACTUALLY wanted, by seeing the true depths of The Darkness for herself.

Rowena didn’t exactly know HOW to get this for herself, this redemption, this balance of power, and instead ran the complete opposite direction in s12, abandoning her drive for power and seeking purely human security and protection, but she didn’t exactly have marketable skills aside from manipulating men into providing for her, because of her deeper underlying issues with love, the fear of love, and abandonment and abuse.

It’s literally taken opening up about her darkest fears to Sam to help give her the power, the belief and trust in herself, to find another way, to believe she might be able to change her fate. But as of 15.03, and confirmed in 15.08, she was not enough, she couldn’t redeem herself, even by sacrificing herself to save the world. Horrific, right?

In Chuck’s story, the feminine is sacrificed for the sake of creation.

(to quote Dagon from 12.17 when she informed Kelly of her fate for carrying Jack to term: birthing a nephilim is fatal. always. it’s like Chuck’s story, his creation, can’t abide feminine creation, in any way…and Rowena was punished for her magic just as Mary was murdered TWICE to serve Chuck’s narrative, and Jess was killed to push Sam back into the story, and Eileen has been killed once for daring to interfere with the story and Chuck had planned to kill her again if she hadn’t walked away, and all because he’d had to lock up Amara to start the process of creation in the first place. All of creation has literally been “his story, not hers.” And now Amara has found balance within herself, and is able to walk out of Chuck’s story herself. The only one who hasn’t found balance, redemption, or peace… is Rowena. Well, and Billie, who stepped up to fill the shoes of Death, and who Chuck doesn’t like because she meddles…)

(and omg I went looking for that pic of chuck and amara’s hands clasped at the end of 11.23, I ran across this from the beginning of 11.23, and I’m crylaughing over Chuck in Sam’s arms like that with the “wrong shoulder” grip)

I confess at this point I’ve totally lost the thread of what you were talking about in your first message, aside from the fact it had to do with Sam and Rowena’s relationship as expressed through hands, and honestly… this is the level of the story that the parallel fits.

*restrains self from typing something >.>*

*instead types this* Nice angle on that shot there…

eta, when I came back to tag this after posting, the fact their fingers don’t meet, their hands don’t connect in 15.08 was exactly paralleled to Dean and Cas’s fingers not meeting when Cas healed Dean’s hand, and then when they put their hands next to one another but not touching on the spell bowl immediately before going to Hell and finding Rowena there... there’s disconnects all around!

Lol as I was typing most of this, I had Practical Magic on in the background, wherein two sisters break a centuries-old curse on their family that the men they loved would be doomed to an early death… and they did it, they broke the curse, freed themselves to be able to freely fall in love, by clasping hands.

So please just try and tell me this isn’t imagery directly connected to these themes of love and loss and connection and balance and power.

[visionsofus]

MIT, Time Travel and oh mY GOD IT’S PETER PARKER!

see the first field trip fic here or read the sequel on AO3 here 

| CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | 

| chapter 3 - tapas and the truth |

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Things are definitely looking up for Peter Parker. Months have passed since the Snap and his life is finally beginning to get back on track. He has an amazing job at Stark Industries, he’s almost finished his first semester at MIT with Ned, he gets to swing around New York on the weekends and things are looking like they might actually be going somewhere with MJ.

It’s almost like Peter is starting to get part of his normal life back. It’s a naive concept. Peter knows what he has committed his life to, what expectations everyone has for the hero they know as Spider-Man.

Things quickly begin to heat up and Peter feels the growing pressure of his secret identity beginning to weigh on his decisions, not to mention the mysterious ‘Project Chronos’ which is weighing on him physically and has catastrophic effects on his mental state.

Peter’s survived the impossible - death - but could more deadly things be yet to come?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter shoved his hands further into the pockets of his coat, a smart navy one that May had bought him as a graduation present, a bit of an odd gift considering that had been at the beginning of Summer. He was thankful for it now as it shielded him from the blustering wind that was turning his ears an unflattering shade of pink.

Peter loped down the stairs that led to the sidewalk from Dr Sam's clinic and started off in the direction of the Tapas restaurant that MJ had decided they meet at. Peter retrieved his phone from the pocket of his jeans and sent MJ a quick message letting her know that he was on his way. He breathed out a deep sigh as he waited for the crosswalk lights to change, tapping his foot as he watched the red man flash.

One more session down. Dr Sam had been glad to see him again and Peter was surprised by how much he had to tell her. Although, there was only so much he could say without revealing his identity. May had suggested that Peter tell her of his other identity, but Peter wasn't ready for anyone else to know he was Spider-Man quite yet. Instead, he got by with metaphors and twisting the truth a little. Besides, Sam knew the important things, Peter was an orphan, raised by his aunt and uncle, then just his aunt. When he was 15, he'd applied and been accepted as a Stark Industries intern and had developed a close mentor/mentee relationship with the founder of the company. He'd been one of the people lost in the Snap and the first thing he had seen when he got back (as far as Sam knew) was the news that Tony Stark was dead, another role model, another father figure, gone. Not only that but Peter was facing rising pressure from the media who seemed to have got it into their heads that Peter was Tony’s protégé and was the ‘future’ of Stark Industries. The thought of that made Peter go weak at the knees with worry so he often pushed it from his mind.

Today's session had gone well, and, in the end, Peter was grateful that he had had it. Sam had pushed him a lot more than usual that afternoon, which Peter found odd. It was like she thought Peter wasn't telling her everything, but he wasn't sure what more he could say. She hadn't seemed to believe him when he said he'd 'let go of Mr Stark' and it irritated Peter how intuitive she could be.

A blip from Peter's phone alerted him of a text from MJ which read 'waiting outside the restaurant' and he quickened his pace. Peter cast all thoughts of the session, of work and every other thing that was stressing him out, from his mind and decided to focus on his meal with MJ. After all, he hadn't seen her in two weeks and while they talked regularly through text along with the occasional facetime, it definitely was not the same as being in the same place.

The Tapas restaurant that MJ had picked out was in their neighbourhood and within walking distance from both their houses if Peter remembered where MJ lived correctly.

Peter had had a quick look at the restaurant online last week when they had arranged to meet and had found it to be pretty affordable which was good considering they were both students. Though Peter sometimes forgot that he didn’t have to worry about that as much anymore now that he had a steady income from Stark Industries. May was all over his finances, helping him organise it into savings and spending accounts, even setting up a retirement fund. Peter thought it was a bit odd to have a retirement fund at his age and it made him think whether he actually would retire. Being an Avenger seemed to be a full-time job from what he had seen so far, and usually you didn’t live long enough to retire.

With that morbid thought in mind Peter rounded the corner and saw the red and yellow awning that extended above the restaurant front and beneath it, wrapped in a coat and a scarf, her hair bobbing in the wind, was MJ.

Peter couldn't stop the grin that broke out across his face as he called her name and raised a hand in greeting. He saw his smile returned on her own face as they moved towards each other.

“Hey loser.” She said her voice casual but her smile warm.

"It's so good to see you." Peter said suddenly growing a little shy as they hugged quickly.

"You too." MJ smiled and then shivered, "but can we get inside, it is freezing out here."

The interior was everything that Peter has expected from a Tapas restaurant. It was warm and the air was filled with the sound of the chefs in the kitchen and the enthusiastic chattering of the restaurant’s patrons – a surprising number of tables were filled given how early in the evening it was. A waiter met Peter and MJ as they stepped over the threshold and directed them upstairs to the second floor where he assured them there were more tables and it was a little quieter.

“Oh…” MJ said and cast her gaze around the ground floor. It wasn’t a very large space and every table appeared to be taken. “What about that one by the window? Is that table taken?”

“No, if that’s alright with you, you can sit there. I’ll bring around menus in a moment.” The waiter said and smiled at them as MJ led the way over to the window.

“I thought this would be more authentic.” MJ said indicating the table before them. It was little more than a bench, risen quite far off the ground and pressed to the window with two dark wood stools to sit on.

“Perfect,” Peter said grinning, eager to catch up with her and not really caring where they actually sat. “So how have things been? I feel like we haven’t seen each other in ages.”

“It’s definitely been a long two weeks.” MJ said as they removed their coats and sat down at the stools. The waiter returned with two laminated menus in dark leather casings.

“Our specials are up by the bar,” the waiter said indicating behind him, “I’ll let you have a look and come back around in a bit to get your order for drinks.”

“Thank you.” Peter said accepting the menus from him and passing one to MJ.

“Ok this time can we figure out what we’re ordering before we start talking?” MJ said smiling wryly at Peter. “We don’t want a repeat of last time… or the time before that.”

“Or every other time we’ve gotten dinner.” Peter said grinning and opening his menu. MJ was referring to the unfortunate habit that they had gotten into by which they would be so excited to fill each in on their daily lives in their time apart, that they would forget about the food altogether.

Peter scanned the menu picking out a few dishes that he wanted to try and settled for a lemon and lime bitters as a drink

Having decided what he wanted he turned his attention to MJ whose brows was furrowed in concentration as she scanned the menu, deep in concentration. Peter could practically guess what she would go for from what he had seen on the menu. MJ wasn’t a strict vegetarian, but she avoided meat where she could and there were several delicious dishes that didn’t have meat that Peter thought might catch her interest.

His interest however, was focused on the person beside him. He took her in, from her hair and the way it was tucked delicately behind one ear, to her eyes which sparkled in the warm light above them, to the graceful slope of her neck.

“Done.” MJ said setting the menu down and shifting so that she was partly facing him.

“Same.” Peter said grinning stupidly. He just couldn’t stop smiling.

“So—” they both said at the same time.

Peter trailed of and laughed as MJ snickered. It was always like this, it usually took them a little time to slip back into the easy-going nature of their relationship.

“Sorry, you go first.” Peter said gesturing to MJ, and she leant forward as she laughed, her hair cascading from behind her shoulder as she did so. It made Peter want to reach out so he could brush it back and see her smile in all its beauty but before he could, she whipped her hand up to sweep her hair away once more.

“I was going to ask how you’ve been.” MJ said still smiling.

Peter grinned and hung his head as he tried not to laugh, he had been about to ask the same thing. “Ok so I was last here on the 9th? The 10th?” Peter wracked his brain trying to think, two weeks had seemed to pass with lightning speed and yet thinking back to the last weekend he had been in New York made it seem like years had passed.

“About.” MJ said shrugging and waiting for Peter to go on.

“Well,” Peter said shifting in his seat, so he was facing her more front on. “It’s just pretty normal you know? College has so much routine I have my timetable and I stick to it and it’s all almost boringly normal. I hear that Ned’s classes get a little more uneventful.”

“Yeah he said to ask you about the ‘chair incident’?” MJ said using finger quotes.

“Oohhh.” Peter said nodding, “you’re gonna love this.”

Peter proceeded to tell MJ the story that Ned had told him on Monday. According to Ned, his professor had made a rather wild comment about climate change and the next day he walked into his classroom to find his chair on fire and written on his desk in sharpie was ‘feelin’ the heat yet Boseman?’.

“Yeah Mr Boseman was not impressed from what I’ve heard.” Peter said as MJ raised her hands in triumph as he finished the story.

“Gold! I wish I could have seen that.” She exclaimed grinning. “If someone had done that in my class, they probably would have gotten expelled.”

They continued chatting, updating each other on what had happened in the last two weeks that hadn’t been conveyed in texts or facetime. Peter told her about picking Morgan up that afternoon and the fact that Happy had an admirer at her school.

A waiter stopped by to take their order for drinks and food and their conversation was momentarily diverted as they both struggled to recall what they had decided to get.

As soon as the waiter made any movement to leave, they jumped back into their conversation. Peter was eager to hear about what was going on in MJ’s life.

“You’d think doing a double degree would make the work load even but somehow it’s not? I swear I’m overloaded in both degrees but according to the system that’s just how it works.” MJ complained running a hand through her hair in frustration.

Peter for his part tried to be as supportive as he could. Before graduating MJ had made the decision to pursue both Science and the Arts and had been invited to complete a double degree in Fine art and literature with her second qualification being a science degree in physics – which Peter thought she was mad to do but tried not to say anything discouraging. After all, the double degree meant that MJ could pursue her passions, art and literature, while still ‘giving myself up to the capitalist gods and concede to the view that the arts are no way to build a career’ to quote MJ directly, a phrase she often said accompanied by over the top hand gestures.

“If anyone can do it, it’s you.” Peter said genuinely. “And you’ve got a little break now, and then in a few weeks it’s the holidays and you’ll have all the free time you could want,” Peter shrugged and added slightly sarcastically, “plus... I mean I’ll be here too so, maybe that’ll be nice?” He twirled the straw in the drink before him.  

“That’s true.” MJ said thoughtfully.

“Which part?” Peter asked hopefully.  

“Hmm? All of it.” MJ said taking a sip of lemon, lime and biters and looked at Peter from the corner of her eye.

Peter felt his cheeks warm and he decided to take a sip of his own drink to cool them down. It was times like these that Peter wished they were a little more specific about where they stood. He knew he should just ask but it was a difficult topic to broach and he still wasn’t quite sure what he was to MJ.

Before the air could grow awkward a waiter returned with their meal, their series of dishes brought out on cute, mismatched plates and bowls.

As they ate Peter found his usual rhythm with MJ slipping back into place. After they had completely updated each other on everything that had happened in the past two weeks they bounced from topic to topic. Before Peter knew it, it was 7:30 and still the conversation showed no sign of letting up.

MJ had asked briefly about his Stark Industries work but she knew from experience that there was very little Peter was really allowed to talk about, so she generally tried to avoid putting him in a bad position.

“It’s a lot really,” Peter said in response to her query about his work. “I don’t think I really had any idea how full on it would be between college and SI and other things…”

Peter trailed off and felt that the conversation had taken a bit of a sombre turn and he didn’t want to start complaining, not when he was so grateful for his position at Stark Industries and his MIT scholarship.

“But I’ve made a lot of progress on the project I mentioned last time, I think I’m on the verge of a breakthrough.” Peter said.

“You called it Chronos right?”

“Yep that’s the one.” Peter grinned, glad that she remembered. Peter hadn’t really told her a lot about it other than that it could potentially change a lot of people’s lives.

“Chronos was the Greek god of time, right? Is that why you chose it?” MJ said trying to draw some information out of Peter.

He shrugged, “Not really,” his heart twinged at the white lie, “all my projects are named like that, it makes them sound… I don’t know cool?”

“Ok what are some of the other ones called?”

“Oh, you know…” Peter mumbled bashfully, “Rogue One, Lazarus, Skywalker…”

“You’re such a nerd.” MJ said leaning her head on her hand as she looked at Peter with sparkling eyes. The air seemed to shift between them, and Peter felt as though something had changed.

“Are you ready for your plates to be taken?” A waiter said behind them and Peter started. The moment shattered.  

“Yes, thank you.” MJ said coolly and leant to the side as their dishes were gathered a cleared away.

“Alright, it’s quarter to eight so still early.” Peter said glancing at his phone. “Do you want to go get a coffee or something?” After two weeks apart, he wasn’t ready to leave MJ just yet.

“Sounds good.” MJ said grinning.

“So, I guess we’re ready to go then?” Peter said reaching down to retrieve his wallet from his coat.

“I think so.” MJ said following suit.  

“I’m just going to go to the bathroom,” Peter said gesturing clumsily over his shoulder, “but here’s my wallet to pay.” Peter said passing it to her, he knew it was a useless endeavour because MJ would probably just split it anyway, she always did.

She murmured something along the lines of ‘ok I will’ as she sifted through her purse and withdrew some money. Peter rolled his eyes but knew that it was useless to try and convince her to let him pay.

Peter left her at their little bench table and darted through the cramped restaurant, ducking past a waiter balancing an impressive number of plates and bowls. He followed the signs that directed him to the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant and followed a short staircase that lead to a small corridor.

Peter didn’t actually need to go to the bathroom… he just needed a moment to think without MJ there to read his facial expressions – which she was infuriatingly good at.

There had been a few moments tonight where Peter had really felt like they were onto something, like they could really be more than just friends. He wanted to broach the whole boyfriend/girlfriend exclusivity conversation with her.

Peter pushed open the door to the men’s room and, after seeing that it was devoid of any other restaurant goers, went straight to the mirror. He stood before it, hands on his hips as he scrutinised his reflection. He’d put on dark jeans and a navy-blue button down and a smart sweater over the top and he might have looked a little preppy but at least it was better than the alternative.

Peter ran a hand through his hair and spun around. “Hey MJ, I feel like this has been a long time coming—” he cut himself off with a groan as he shoved another hand through his hair. Were you even supposed to have these conversations? Didn’t things usually just work out how they were supposed to? All the movies seemed to tell you that once the guy kissed the girl then bam! that’s it, they were dating. Something told Peter that wasn’t quite what happened in real life, but he didn’t exactly have a whole lot of experience in this area.

“Y’know I really like you… I’ve liked you for a long time – I guess what I’m trying to say is will you be my girlfriend?” Peter groaned again, how could something so simple come across as that cheesy? He was in college now things were supposed to be different right? He was supposed to have shaken off that high school awkwardness.

“I’m just gonna go for it.” Peter said shrugging as he braced his arms against the sink and looked at his reflection with determination and a good amount of fear.

“Yeah, you go for it man!” A disembodied voice said from behind one of the toilet stalls and Peter almost jumped out of his skin. “Tell her how you feel!” The enthusiasm almost made him feel better but it was outweighed by the weirdness of the situation.

“Umm… thanks?” Peter said hesitantly mentally cringing at himself over the fact that some random stranger had just heard him rehearsing.

Peter didn’t wait for a reply and instead made a beeline for the exit and the welcoming glow of the warm restaurant floor.

Peter cast his eyes about for MJ, expecting to see her waiting by the door but instead found that she was still sat at the bench on one of the two stools that they had spent the evening at.

Peter strode over to her and when she noticed him coming MJ shifted slightly on her seat to see him.

His proposed question of ‘be my girlfriend’ was somewhat ready on his lips (though it was partially masked with a good deal of worry and awkwardness), but he stopped short when he saw what MJ was doing. She had a smug look on her face that made Peter want to backtrack all the way out the door.

That’s when he noticed it.

MJ had something in her hands.

She was spinning a sliver of what looked like reflective plastic between her thumbs and forefingers like she was a magician performing a card trick. The movement was mesmerising and Peter barely recognised that his feet were moving as he edged closer to their table.

MJ was focused on the card in her hands, her mouth upturned in a wry smile. Her eyes raised to his and Peter halted in his tracks, his heart thudding to a near stop as he met her eyes. They sparkled with amusement and something else deep past that, but he couldn’t quite identify the emotion.

That was when she held the card up with one hand so he could see it properly.

Peter shoulders dropped in absolute despair.

In MJ’s hands was his Stark Industries clearance card. Not the old Platinum X one, which might have been easier to explain, but the new one he had been left by the late Tony Stark. On one side the logo of the Avengers was clearly imprinted and on the other was his own black arachnid that graced his Spidey suit.

[battlersexual]

Board Game Showcase #3: Sentinels of the Multiverse

Introduction:

I mentioned in my introduction post for this series that my love of board games only really blossomed when I joined my college’s board game club. This game in particular was actually one of the major reasons why.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a game about superheroes, but it’s not like any of the multitude of superhero-based board games on the market. Most of those just license actual Marvel or DC superheroes and put them on some other game, like Monopoly or a generic deckbuilder skeleton. Sentinels is something very different: It’s a totally original superhero game, (admittedly very much based on the Marvel-DC characters in a lot of ways) and it’s incredibly fun. Let’s talk about it!

Story:

I’m going to give you the broad strokes here, because trying to tell you the full story of Sentinels would be kind of like trying to summarize the plot of Magic: The Gathering in a single text post. Even with that, this will probably be the longest story segment I write.

In an alternate universe, instead of the Marvel and DC we’re familiar with, the comics publisher that came out on top was Sentinel Comics. Within the world of Sentinel Comics, the stories followed a similar trajectory to ours: the Golden Age where superheroes fought ordinary criminals and nazis, the Silver age with its wacky space shenanigans and superscience nonsense, the more restrained Bronze age where comics started to tackle more serious issues, a brief Dark age where everything was gritty and EXTREEEEEME, and the Modern age, where writers tried to take the best of everything that came before and just tell good stories (perhaps with mixed results, but I’m not a comic critic, so I’ll leave it at that.) The actual card game can best be described as a licensed game set in the Modern age of Sentinel Comics, which just so happens to have fallen through a time portal to our universe.

Overall, the story follows the Freedom Five, an Avengers-esque superhero team working together against all manner of villains, from the moustache-twirling to the downright terrifying. The villains in the game are all structured like crisis crossovers, with a team of supers going up against them. Each expansion to the game introduced part of the ongoing struggle as the comics progressed, culminating in the OblivAeon crisis and the end of the multiverse as we know it.

Obviously there’s more to it, but I want to move on and talk about individual characters later.

Mechanics and more under the cut.

Mechanics:

Sentinels is, technically speaking, a card game instead of a board game. That said, it still falls into the nebulous category of “Tabletop game” and most board game fans consider them board games anyway.

The game is technically 3-5 players, but can easily support 1 and 2 player games by having each player control multiple characters. Each player will pick a hero from the box, along with their deck. For example...

(Legacy is in some ways the most basic hero, so I’ll be using him as an example often.)

Each hero has a character card that gives them an HP value and a base power (In this case, Galvanize). This means the hero always has something they can do no matter which cards they get. Each hero has a unique deck of cards that focuses on their particular niche, Legacy’s being buffing the team and tanking damage.

Heroes generally work on their own, but often excel by teaming up with other heroes and complementing their own powers. Each turn, a player does three things: Play, Power, Draw, in that order. Play a card from their hand, use a power (either their innate power or one listed on an ongoing card) and draw a card. You can skip both play and power to draw two cards instead. If a hero is reduced to 0 HP, they’re not out of the fight yet: the flip side of their card has “Incapacitated abilities” that help the other team members.

(I couldn’t find a good image of Legacy’s incap side, this is from one of the other characters, Fanatic).

Sentinels is a cooperative game: the heroes work together to defeat a villain.

Each villain has their own deck, which acts as a rudimentary AI. Before the heroes get their turn, they flip over the top card of the villain deck and do whatever the card says. Villain cards are often extremely powerful, and can seriously screw over the heroes’ efforts.

In addition to heroes and villains, each game of Sentinels has an Environment. This is a third type of deck that works similarly to the villain deck, but tends to be neutral: I.E. it helps or hurts both the heroes and the villain. The environments range from the city of Megalopolis to the far-off planet Dok’Thorath to the town of Silver Gulch in the year 1883 to a far-future post-apocalyptic earth, each with unique mechanics. The turn order goes villain, heroes, environment before repeating until either the villain or all the heroes are defeated.

Flavor:

An AMAZING amount. You might have noticed that Legacy’s cards have quotes on the bottom referencing a comic he was in. Every card in the game has this, and it’s a joy to piece it all together and figure out what happened in the extensive storyline of Sentinel Comics. The game itself also presents an exciting puzzle where you try to figure out how to get past the villain’s defenses before they kill you. Each hero feels unique and interesting, and once you find your favorite, you’re all set. (Mine is Chrono-Ranger, the time-traveling cowboy).

I do have another particular favorite in terms of flavor, but I... don’t want to mention him. (Too late.) He might show up, and that’s not going to be good for anyone (Hey!) so let’s just move on.

Expansions:

The base game includes ten heroes, four villains, and four environments. This is a pretty good number, but honestly a lot of the most fun heroes arrived in the expansions. I find every new deck to be fun and interesting, so I can blanket-recommend all the expansions, but there’s a lot of them, both big boxes and mini-expansions consisting of a single deck (Like me!), so I’m not going to talk about them individually like before (WHAT?), so let’s just move on to-

No no no no NO! What kind of cop-out is that? You’re just going to tell people that expansions exist and then not explain anything? You make me SICK.

Oh no.

Oh YEAH! That’s right, I’m here to take over this showcase, so why don’t you just sit down in that corner and watch a REAL pro do his job?

Get off my post, Guise.

Not gonna happen! Take this! And this! And some a THESE!

...There we go. Hello, reader! Yep, I’m talking to you, the one reading this now. My name’s Guise, and I’m the best hero in the whole game!

Ha, I love that picture. ANYWAY, since that idiot couldn’t be bothered to cover the expansions properly, I’ll be doing that for him, just for all of you! Aren’t I the greatest? Well, let’s hop to it!

Ahhh, good old Rook City. Nice place, if you like giant mutant rats and government corruption. Which I do, because that stuff is totally X-TREEEEEEEEME!!!

Rook City was originally its own expansion, but the developers released a box that combined it with the next expansion, Infernal Relics! What nice people. Rook City includes two heroes who are almost as X-TREEEEEEEEME!!! as me, as well as two environments and four, count ‘em, FOUR dastardly villains!

Infernal Relics has plenty of spooooooky magic at play, and features another four villains, two environments, and two heroes, one of which is my good friend the Argent Adept! Here, look at this picture of us!

Ha ha, good times.

They did it again! Shattered Timelines and Wrath of the Cosmos, all in one box. How can you turn that down? If you like time travel and space adventures, these are gonna be your jam, with a total of four heroes, eight villains, and four environments, two of which are IN SPACE! Everything’s better in SPACE! Here’s a picture of me, IIIIIIINNNNNNNN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

Oh, and the Shattered Timelines expansion is where that cowboy that the dumb nerd who started this post likes comes from. You know, if you cared. Which you don’t, because you’re cool! Like me! I can tell.

Vengeance added five new heroes, and introduced the TOTALLY AWESOME team villain variant, where instead of fighting one strong villain, you fight a team of weaker villains! This one can get pretty crazy. The set includes the VENGEFUL FIVE, who you can see on the box, and their decks come with all sorts of bit villains and lackeys to torment the heroes! I took a picture with my nemesis, Argentium!

Whooo, that was one tough customer! Luckily, I got him to chill out. Get it? Chill out? Because I froze him, ha ha! I’m hilarious. And awesome!

And then they did more team villains! Villains of the Multiverse has ten new villains for the team mode, four environments, and NO HEROES AT ALL! Well, lucky thing you can still use the ones from the other expansions, hey? I took a picture with a villain to commemorate this one too, but I can’t seem to find it...

Oh, there it is!

And the last major expansion is... OblivAeon! (Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN!) This one adds five heroes (formerly villains! Oooh, exciting!), five environments, and OBLIVAEON himself, with a new game mode centered around fighting him! Not to mention, you get to see ME take center stage as the big hero that saves the multiverse!

(Uh, not really, it was mostly Luminary who-)

Hey, quiet! Don’t go badmouthing me in front of my adoring fans!

Anyway, I’d love to show you my cool new form in this expansion, but that might be a liiiiitle spoiler-y, so I’ll just say I look like THIS, but WAY sexier!

Well, those are all the big expansions, but we’re not done yet! There’s a bunch of mini-expansions, little individual decks you can buy to add one hero, villain, or environment to the game. I’d cover them all, but there’s really only one you need...

That’s right, ME! Hell, you don’t even need the other big expansions when I’m so much better! Not only do you get my awesome character card, you get all the cards I’ve shown you from my deck, as well as the best card ever! No, really, that’s what it’s called!

I mean, come on! You don’t even need the base game! Just buy me, and you’ll have the best part of Sentinels of the Multiverse, all for the low low price of- hey, get off me! Ow! Stop that! HEY!

All right, that’s ENOUGH. Get OUT of my house.

...Whew, he’s finally gone. All right, let’s get on with things.

Replayability:

Sentinels is pretty darn replayable. You’re almost never going to get the same experience, even if you pick the exact same heroes, environment, and villain. If you have all the expansions, you not only get over 60 heroes and 45 villains, but you can get Variants, which replace all the hero cards (and some villains!) with new versions of the characters that have different powers. I’ve never played a game of Sentinels and felt like I’d seen it before. In addition, you can play it alone, so if you can’t have friends over regularly it’s still a good purchase.

Criticisms:

It runs into a similar problem to Cosmic Encounter where the game is SO spread out over so many expansions that the full experience ends up being an expensive and space-consuming prospect. It’s also a very fiddly game, with tons of counters and cards, so it can be a chore to play some of the more complicated characters. Both of these problems have solutions, however.

Availability:

Sentinels is still being sold, as far as I’m aware. It’s also totally available as a mod on Tabletop Sim, although this doesn’t fix the problem with fiddly counters and running out of space for cards, and in fact makes it worse. But there’s another option.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game is an official online version of the card game. It includes every expansion as dlc, heavily marked down from its price as a physical item, and takes care of all the tedious bookkeeping for you. It also lets you earn the variant cards by doing challenges in-game, which is super fun, although you don’t HAVE to to unlock them that way. There are weekly challenge games that pit a certain team against a specific villain and environment, which often act as a cool little puzzle, (and you get to hear my amazing voice!) Shut up, Guise. I very occasionally stream games of SotM on my twitch channel, so if there’s enough interest I can show off more of the game. In general, I recommend the video game even if you already own the board game: it’s really well-done and fun to play.

Creators:

This is kind of a special segment. I normally don’t talk about the creators of these games, because they’re usually irrelevant to the final product. However, artist Adam Rebottaro and writer Christopher Badell are incredibly active in the community around their own game, and they have a podcast where they talk about the lore of the game and answer viewer questions about the characters and universe.

It’s a ton of fun, they’re really engaging and you can feel their creativity and love for comics radiating from their voices whenever they talk. They’re super funny, too.

(And if you want more of ME- ah, what am I saying, of course you do! - you can tune in to this episode right here, where I make a special guest appearance to talk about myself!)

Get OUT, Guise!

Ugh, what a pain. Anyway...

Conclusion:

I know superhero stuff is kind of over-saturated right now, but even if you’re sick of superheroes - give Sentinels a try. It’s a celebration of comics more than superheroes in particular, and despite taking a lot of cues from existing superheroes, everything about Sentinels is fresh and fun. It’s one of my favorite co-op games ever, and its story is so well-told that I genuinely feel like I need to go read the comics, which I remind you don’t exist. Sentinels of the Multiverse is brilliant and just plain FUN.

Seriously, go play it, and make sure to use all my cards!

Didn’t I tell you to get out of my house?

[randomnameless]

CHAPTER 10 - Perlucos to Chronos!

Seliph’s going to rescue those children while no one cares about Julia! A shame in this bout where siblings talk to each other while an aunt bonds with her niece!

First, someone useless promotes. Is he going to be more useful now? IDK.

Lana can finally fight! Look at that 11 def from Duchess Dozel. Wonderful?

Arthur had to get a pony for this chapter, because there’s going to be some serious Hilda slayin’ in it.

At a leisurely pace? Aw, he is procrastinating on his “hunt children” duty. Maybe he is a good guy deep inside.

Oh, so here it’s father-in-law, so yep, talking about the dear departed Reptor! they didn’t murder him you could have asked aida she’d have known who truly backstabbed the monocle man but she isn’t here anymore

Hilda wants to avenge her family, just like our heroes! If she didn’t order a bunch of children to be captured/killed 20 lines before i’d be more sympathetic to her but...

Holy crap, are you going to pull a Mjolnir ?

Ares has none of this nonsense. After all, he still has to avenge Eldie!

Wait, that was anticlimatic. Let’s use a Naga’s wheel.

In a new reality, Leif talks to his 3rd sister, the only bio sister though.

He has doubts. Look at him.

“Here to do what I can” - Alty was actually thinking about her first bro, the non-biological one.

“someone” how rude Leif! It was Julius, you know, the guy who rewarps around! Granted, even in FE5, Leif never saw Julius. he’d think it’s Salem cosplaying or Saias who’s shrunk

At least Leif knows what is Julius’ title. Maybe Finn taught him. Note how Julius tries to make friends, he saves them from a certain death! “that’s how you recruit people in Fire Emblem, isn’t it?”

Well, you were going to kill their leader, so yay, Arion might be a little sour and send his troops after us.

More EXP for Lester? “but he already promoted!”

Help him with a bow/lance/sword/magic through the guts? Remember Leif, in Seliph’s gang, we only kill, we don’t capture.

“surely” oh Leif that’s not how you cheer someone up!

Look, he is trying to play the good brother again!

I don’t know how you’ll manage that Leif. Postwar!Alty is in a world of grief!

As honest as Seliph can when his wife is cheering - naturally it ended with a crit.

Crawling? Well, she doesn’t have a pony, but that doesn’t mean she’s crawling!

Ingrate is, i’d say, an appropriate term. Not to say Hilda is right, of course, but maybe in her POV she “raised” Tine, gave allowed her, idk, food, a status and some lessons in magic, something that, say, Danan would never have done for Lex’s kids. But Tine has the nerve to turn against them, how dare she?

(not taken in Hilda’s POV : Tine watched her mama tortured to death, and i’m not sure she was given anything by Hilda or if Hilda allowed Blume to “give” her things and play with the Ish siblings)

See? You can’t brag about having tormented her mom while expecting her to be grateful! 

Granted, Tine needed a lot of help to fight here.

Is she really in hell? Some say she ended up in an ice coffin, waiting for the day when Claude will sacrifice himself to let her live anew

Tine’s achievement of the day : managing to make Hilda retreat.

But she stole her tome! Ha, take that!

I love those Loptyr battle quotes. Maybe there’s a special kind of module where you learn how to sound dramatic before fighting?

Sadly he didn’t take the “death quote” option.

Okay, said Lene. “I need money for my dolt husband, his HW costs a lot to repair!”

Why Loptyr needs children ? Is is something like Medeus in FE3 who needed to eat princesses or something else entirely?

Of course! Patty could never abandon children, she used to take care of an orphanage you know?

You’re welcome!

Meanwhile, Faval scores with the Ishtar shabby look-alike. With this, Freege and Jungby are united! Yay?

??? I thought Miletos was in deep shit since the beginning? Maybe it was some kind of other deep shit, like Hilda Hilda’ing people she didn’t like, but nothing like sacrificing children?

Loptyr isn’t a devil, he is a dragon!

Thank you, said Alty. It’s completely useless for me, but thanks still.

15 years? Even after they got their OP Holy Weapons? Dudes, were they all foot units or what?

Even Verdane!

Glory to him! I swear in this game it might be the 2nd or 3rd time I heard Heim’s name. I mean, he is the hero who rekt’d Loptyr/Galle!

If only we had a descendant of Heim around... I mean, we still have a Baldo Crusader, so he is going to save the world, right? Right?

DON’T YOU DARE THE ONLY PERSON HILDA’S COZY WITH IS HER DEAREST HUSBANDO BLUME

It reminds her of the few good times she had torturing Tailte!

At least, no gendered slurs here, and i’m thankful for that or any “how could a woman do that” nonsense. 

Strong and Deedee? It never worked together Shanan, say it, he is really Siggy’s son. Deedee’s just here to give him fluffy hair and some res, that’s all! Siggy’s where the boy got all of his stats!

I love this part, because yes, Seliph is Isaachian at heart. Fig Granvalle, their new Emperor is Isaachian, despite his pedigree saying the contrary.

Don’t put the cart before the horses Seliph. Shanan has a HW, you don’t, so there’s nothing to lend, save, maybe, for your horse.

Oh, maybe Shanan was thinking “look Siggy, i’ve done a great job, your son doesn’t suck anymore” and felt proud/nostalgic, because he’d have wanted Siggy to see how a good man is lil’Seliph became.

Don’t worry Shanan, ghost!Siggy is listening!

Of course he care, what kind of shit kid doesn’t care about his caretaker when he grows up and inherits some piece of land from people he never knew/cared about?

:’( RIP civilians.

Granted, knowing how that man/dragon is full of BS, his “I hear” doesn’t sound convincing. Maybe everyone ran away because someone with his army came to besiege the city?

... We have to fight this war to the end to kill more Morrigans, is that it?

Weren’t the Mairists part of the Loptyr Empire too a long time ago?

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 158: Thoughts and spoilers

This was a great chapter, and full of hype and it really make Deku look like a hero, so let’s jump into it.

The beginning is slow admittedly, with talk of how quirks came about and clearing up the details of how Eri’s power was being used. I was intrigued by the fact that quirks were originally thought of as a disease, which is a good tie in with Overhaul and his goons wearing the plague doctor masks.

Then Overhaul attacks while in his monster form, and he starts pulverizing the streets and destroying homes. The fact that families are in the homes that are being wrecked is a great detail, it shows that this isn’t a “standard anime fight” where they crash through buildings and destroy millions of dollars worth of property. People live her and the fight has to be as contained as possible, and with Deku’s overpowering 100% mode, that may become a serious problem. But then Deku puts my concerns at ease and simultaneously putting my nerves on edge by freAKING PUNTING OVERHAUL INTO THE SKY. And with Eri’s help he doesn’t immediately shatter himself doing so. Even Toga is amazed, she seems to be thinking to herself, “God, Deku baby, I love you but what the hell? Where did that come from?”

The Compress clone died, that is not surprising. Even the clone is not surprised. The Dragon hero (forgive me I can’t recall her name) pushes Uravity and Sir up to the surface in time for Overhaul to have a flash back while he was knocked into the air.

This flash back does shed more light on who Chisaki is as a person and what motivates him. He has an undying loyalty to the original boss, but his so twisted that Chisaki was willing to fight the boss because Chisaki was certain there is a better way. To me, it seemed like Chisaki did physically confront the boss when he would not approve the plan, this is probably what lead the boss to be bedridden. It is also interesting that Chrono was someone Chisaki knew for a long time, I don’t think I would call it friendship, but something close. If I remember correctly, earlier in the arc Chrono seemed offended or angered at least with Overhaul barking orders and I feel that reaction was kinda like a friend reaction, something along the lines of “dude I have known you for years now, a little respect would be appreciated.” I also do like the fact that Overhaul attacked Deku saying “No one is looking at the big picture,” because to me that is how many villains act. No one thinks of themselves as wrong or evil (normally), so the fact that he is justifying it with the “big picture” is believable.

So the beat down begins in earnest here, and there are two things that shock me about the beginning of it. 1.) Deku pulls a “*chuckle* nothing personal kid” and appears behind Overhaul, closing a massive gap without Overhaul even realizing, and 2.) does Deku hit the air hard enough to make a sharp turn? We’ve seen him just last chapter launch himself in the air through sheer strength, but that is straight One Piece Sky Walk stuff right there. Then Deku just starts walloping the guy. Just beating the crap outta him. And it makes sense, you have to hit him hard enough and fast enough that he can’t recover, but like, a 100% Full Cowl beat down is incredible. Also side note, am I the only one who thinks it’s ridiculous that Deku is doing all of this with Eri strapped to his back? Like Eri has to have whiplash. She blinks and she goes from on the ground in front of Overhaul to in the air above Overhaul and then up close and personal so she can see the details of Overhaul getting the snot beat outta him. I will stand by the fact that this is a tad weird.

Then something really cool happens, Sir and Uravity see this. The conversation between them basically is “wait… Deku’s gonna die?” “I mean… I thought he was” “He’s really thrashing Overhaul up there” “yeah he is.” Deku  managed to change Sir’s “foresight”. Through sheer force and nothing else, Deku changed fate, which is something Sir thought was impossible. Not even All Might has been able to twist fate like this. Deku, in this brief moment, surpassed All Might. I have seen it in other posts and I believe I have said it in a couple of my own, but Deku is not the symbol of peace that All Might is, Deku is a beacon, a ray of hope that will guide a wave of heroes forward, it is already starting. Deku is showing Sir, the one person who would have the most reason to doubt, that fate is malleable, it can change, and that we can change it. Deku shows that our own hands we can mold the future into what we want. Genuinely, this makes me very happy, it is such a good message to the audience and even the characters in the story, Hero Academy does a great job with this.

Moving on to the last parts. I am glad that Deku says that he wants to save everyone. It is a call back or an embodiment of that quote from early in the series, “it may be slight at first, but there is a difference between those who always aim for the top and those who don’t.” Deku may not act like he handles things with any kinda self-preservation, but he looks into the future at all times. He is reading and analyzing his enemy and will undoubtedly face a different villain in the future and think back to this one for references. And at the end of Deku’s beat down, he hits Overhaul hard enough that his mask flies off. I really want to see what is beneath the mask. I feel like it should be some kind of deformity that can’t be fixed with his quirk, though the more I see his quirk the less likely that seems.

Ok that is all. Thank you for taking your time to read this. What is it this week with masked guys coming unmasked? Dogtooth from One Piece had the same thing happen to him today. Though Dogtooth was unmasked in a bit more embarrassing way (Can One Piece please have a single character that I can take totally seriously? Is that too much to ask?). Well, thanks again and I hope you  have a great day.

Edit: can't believe I forgot to mention the fact that the Boss straight up tells Overhaul he is wrong and what he is doing is immoral. And despite this he continues onward. He is that desperate to prove that he is thankful, or he is so twisted that he doesn't realize he is doing this for himself, that he puts the boss out of commission to complete his goal. (P.S. I don't understand Overhaul as much as I originally thought, not totally sure of his motive).

[kisaragizan]

Cardfight Anime Fights: Before and Now. [Vanguard Rant]

I guess this would be my first rant about something. Kinda weird that I’m even typing this now but it’s something that’s been on my mind for the last few days, partly because I’ve been re-watching old vanguard episodes from pre-G to G series, trying to understand the game’s evolution and nostalgia. I’m going to split this rant into two categories: Pre-G and G-Series for obvious reasons. I’m willing to include a potential top 3-5 favorite fights but this isn’t a top tens list. So here I go!

Pre-Generation Fights

So Pre-Generation will consist of Seasons 1-4. Yes I’m even including the Legion arc despite how negatively received it was by fans for subpar narrative story and the fights, even the format in real time just being undeveloped. When I think back to Pre-G Fights, I remember looking and watching all of the fights with a bit of involvement as a viewer. Each play is thoroughly shown and you can even hypothesize and theorize scenarios if any of the players did something differently, especially if they made errors in guarding or misplay (unless it was for narrative purpose like Tetsu not calling Amon R to rear and just defeating Ren). I feel as though this era of fights up until season 3 showed a level of skill and showed characters individually by their own play and deck styles. Kai overpowers and beats down his opponents during grade 3 ride while Ren minimizes their resources by killing off rears at the last second, so on and so forth. I enjoy watching these fights the most because it pulls me into the fight. Earlier in the day, I watched Ren vs Aichi at the Vanguard Highschool Championship Qualifier, and noticed that Aichi could’ve won on the same turn in two different ways:  >>One was protecting 9k Rear Guard with 2 10k Shields in hand, following his break ride and callling his 7k grade 1 booster behind something and done the same play: 16k Rear, 33k Vanguard, 19k rear (from break ride and critical trigger power), and Blaster Blade being 16k.  >>Alternatively, he could’ve called his trigger behind a rear guard and had another 24k rear guard which would’ve required 15k shield which Ren did not have.  Now I’m not mad at Aichi at all, but the animators did a good job animating the fight well enough for fighters to see potential missed plays or errors if they paid attention to fight beyond a narrative perspective. There are many more examples like this even in scenarios where it would appear someone cheated but if you follow the game and guarding, it still would’ve equated to the same result (aka when Leon made Tidal attack rear for fourth battle when Tetra-drive requires the 4th to be at the vanguard, Leon could’ve just boosted the 3rd attack and Koutei could’ve just intercepted, same value.) But my point in bringing it up is that these fights had a lot more to offer and take from if viewed from a fighters perspective. The little details put into the fight, showing how a fighter played, how they built their deck, what tactics they used, and most importantly how the fight ended. How a fight ends is equally important because outside of knowing from foreshadowing narration, I like not knowing who will win or seeing someone who is skilled at the game beat down their opponent in a fitting gap of ability (these matches you can look back when Kai just destroys anyone he fights in any of the tournaments). Normally we have the cliche moment of the “Situation Card has appeared!” or the “Top deck win”, however it was done in a way that didn’t just seem like the opponent was completely obliterated and had no chance to stop it. How the player took advantage of their “Situational Card” made the difference from it being a “lucky sack” to a “lucky pro play”. I’ll explain more on this in the G-series segment but a good example of this would be when Leon fought Asaka in episode 116. He was in a tough spot but made the most of his situation and won. A beautiful example of a good anime Vanguard fight. So, before I talk about the G-Series Fights, I’ll go ahead and list my top 5 fights in no particular order.

5. Leon vs Daigo 4. Kai vs Kyou (Season 1) 3. Leon vs Koutei (Most of Reverse Koutei’s fights to be honest) 2. Aichi vs Ren (Season 3 & 2 are tied) 1. Kai vs Ren (Season 3)

G-Series Fights

Cardfight Vanguard G anime fights are... a complete mess. I try to watch the fights from a fighters perspective but there are only a few fights where I am able to actively engage myself as a fighter rather than for story. I’ll say this hands down, G-Series has no good anime fights whatsoever with Chrono. Compared to Aichi where he loses but then in other fights you’re like “I don’t know if he’ll win”, that suspense doesn’t exist with Chrono. He wins every fight except gag fights or when they need to show off a new antagonist, which, I understand this is the trend for the protagonist to win as much as they can, which is why I didn’t watch Aichi a lot until about Season 2 where he’d lose a lot of the tournament matches and then improved and started taking wins (and even then he’d still lose from time to time: aka Kai and Ren in Season 3). Chrono takes it to a whole new level, mind you, Chrono is a beginner. Season 1 of G was okay because Chrono started off strong (despite being a beginner) and I gave him the benefit of the doubt of having a fighters sense to strive and improve, which was shown more ferociously than Aichi. However, it was shattered in G GIRS Crisis (season 2, pretty much) where his reign of terror beats even the best of Vanguard from Pre-G. I know the plot was that they needed to win every G-Quest to have Generation Master Titles. Which was dumb. (Well just now looking at the wiki, they needed 50 or more points for Generation Master however 6 Branches, 10 points each. Do math.) Ok, so they won every match, at least the fights were good right? Wrong. The fights themselves are short and rushed and only seem to matter after each players first stride. Sure each game starts the same of riding your grades 1/2/3, however, that’s 5 turns before the first stride appears, you mean that everyone is playing the same and not rushing their opponent down to 3-4 damage? Back in Pre-G, people would be beaten down to 4 or sometimes 5 before their grade 3 ride. Okay so early game is inaccurate or well non-existent, but surely the turns post-Stride/Generation Break are worth it? You’d be wrong again. The game usually ends by the protagonists 2nd/3rd stride, otherwise their opponents third stride will end the game for them. Plus there seems to be a lack of detail for effects unless a unit contributes to the winning turn or to make an emphasis on the opponents ability to defend (or lack of ability to defend: aka showing perfect guards in drive check before the next stride has a guard restrict ability). Plus the fights don’t really show much detail on the fighters own play style, you see their builds and their strides, but nothing on if they’re aggressive or defensive outside of the units they play. The biggest example I can think of is when Chrono fought Leon. For all intents and purposes, Chrono honestly should’ve lost that fight, 0 cards in hand, 1 G3 rear. He topped deck the ability to stride and drove check a critical in both attacks from Nextage and Chronojet. I... don’t see how this is possible granted Leon should’ve had more cards in hand due to abilities of previously activated units. Don’t get me wrong, I know Pre-G has a few fights that are par with how bad this one was (certain top deck Grade 3 w/ no field, 5 open damage for cb5 +10 followed by double critical triggers comes to mind), but this is how most if not all of Chrono’s fights end against high level players. Take a look at any of his fights with Ibuki from the end of CF-G and on (minus when he didn’t have Chronojet). To make matters worse, I believe I brought up the topic of “situational cards”, well, there really isn’t any. Most characters just stride into their secondary/Generation Break 2 strides to end the game as if nothing happened. There’s not much though-processing when watching the characters stride because they just activate their effects as they continue, as though they’re on autopilot mode. Note: I’m not calling the strides or decks autopilot, I’m calling their fighters autopilot, Chrono the biggest one. It’s basically telling the other opponent, “Hey that was cool what you did and all, I might lose, but I’m not so time to win.” Before I wrap this up, I suppose I should mention my favorite fights and I’m gonna be honest, I don’t like much of them, they’ve gotten better in terms of Vanguard G-Next which I do give them credit for but it doesn’t have the same feel of watching it just for the cardfight, it’s just really to show off new units or for the narrative/plot. So... which fights or rather fighters do I like watching? Well in the intended order... 5. Shion Kiba 4. Mamoru Anjou 3. Kouji Ibuki 2. Tokoha Anjou 1. Jaime Alcaraz

Conclusion

For those who didn’t watch Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in the english dubbed, a quote from Zane Truesdale always sticks in my head in any card game. “Knowing how to use a card is different from playing a card.” It speaks a lot to me and shows who really knows what they’re doing and who is just being autonomous when it comes to playing the game. Watching Pre-G fights gives me an understanding that the characters knew how to use their cards properly and make the most of them in order to improve, rather than just playing it and hope it does a lot of damage. I believe that is the difference that makes the fights in the anime more interesting and more engaging in both a fighters perspective and narratives perspective as opposed to just jobbing everyone and only focus on what the fights mean for the plot. Like I said before, G-Series has stepped up in G-NEXT with their fights but it’s still not very detailed and very autonomous, even more so when characters don’t use the abilities of their units (certain Gold Paladin players come to mind when they don’t use their Generation Break 2 to guard.)  So that is my first ever rant about Vanguard. Again, this has been on my mind since I’ve been talking to a few friends about the game’s evolution and ended up talking about the anime, nostalgia was calling and sat down to watch some old episodes.

[farfromdaylight]

For the video game asks, 1, 10 and 12!

1: already answered! another one is pokémon ruby, though.

10: Name a favorite obscure video game.

i’m super torn on which game to talk about, SO I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT BOTH OF THEM.

first one: vagrant story! (wiki entry.) honestly, there is nothing like vagrant story. it was completely ahead of its time (and i would kill for a remaster, hint hint square). to quote my own vagrant story fansite (because of course i have one):

It’s such an interesting mix of genres — roleplaying, crafting, dungeon-crawling, platforming, and good old buttonmashy hack-and-slash — without any element seeming out of place. It’s hard as hell, sure, but its complexity is what makes it a masterpiece. Plus, you know, it’s got an incredible story.

the battle system is a little bit like the VATS system in fallout, in that you pick which body part to target, but it gets a lot more indepth than that – there are multiple weapon and element types, and each enemy is weak to a particular combination. you have to craft the right weapon for the job, but since this is a playstation 1 game, the inventory is very limited and you can only carry a few weapons at a time. so you have to be able to handle each enemy type.

(here’s a post from my last vagrant story playthrough that kind of exemplifies this.)

AND WHILE THE GAMEPLAY IS FANTASTIC, AND SUPER IMMERSIVE – because it’s a dungeon crawler with platforming and puzzle elements, and you’ve got to find your way through – it’s also got a fantastic story. and it’s delivered with literally every character wearing something akin to a bondage outfit.

NO, SERIOUSLY. SERIOUSLY. look at the gallery on creativeuncut. IT’S AMAZING. there’s a guy named jan rosencrantz with a cross-shaped boob window.

tl;dr vagrant story is fucking amazing in every respect and it’s like $6 on the playstation network, please play it. i’m not going to lie, it is a genuinely difficult game, but it’s absolutely, 100% worth it. it is the kind of gaming experience you should have in your life.

…now i really want to replay vagrant story. :”( i’ve replayed it twice in the past few years, though, so i think i can resist.

THE OTHER GAME i want to talk about is valkyrie profile, which i will ramble about under the cut! IT IS EQUALLY AMAZING, AND YOU SHOULD PLAY IT TOO.

valkyrie profile (wiki entry) is another one of my favorite games of all time. there was a period where i was replaying it every year or two. it was originally released on the original playstation, and received a PSP remake in 2006, which is how i first played it. these days it’s a little hard to get your hands on; it’s not on the PSN. still, i absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend it.

valkyrie profile has a unique setup: you play a valkyrie, lenneth, whose job is to recruit warriors, called einherjar, for the end of the world, ragnarok. in recruiting these einherjar, lenneth views their circumstances of their deaths, which are often tragic or in circumstances that leave them with lingering doubts. after seeing their stories (and in some cases interacting with them directly), lenneth offers them a chance to fight for the gods.

these einherjar aren’t fit to be sent directly to the gods, though, so lenneth has to train them up, and that’s where the gameplay comes in. dungeons are explored as a 2D platformer, ranging in difficulty (the hard mode exclusive dungeons are really fucking hard). when lenneth encounters an enemy, battles are turn-based, and each member of the party is assigned to a button - pressing it makes the character attack. it takes some time to learn how to chain attacks properly from one character to the next, but once you do it’s very satisfying.

most interesting is that valkyrie profile has multiple endings. will lenneth follow the orders she’s been given, sending einherjar up to fight in ragnarok, or will she look beyond her duty, and find out who “valkyrie” really is?

valkyrie profile is a melancholy story; it revolves around death and the dying. but the true ending of the game is one of my favorite stories i’ve ever experienced, and lenneth is one of my very favorite characters. (i have a site here that explores her story in depth - beware of spoilers!)

so there you go – two excellent games that are fairly obscure these days for the price of one. (that was so much tl;dr, i’m so sorry.)

12: Name a game that you appreciate, but don’t enjoy. 

oh, this is a good question! i have to go look through my backloggery for this one.

…honestly i find myself going back to ff9 and chrono trigger, for the reasons outlined in the last one. i absolutely understand why they’re well-regarded, they just didn’t gel with me. of the two i liked ff9 a lot more; i struggled much more with chrono trigger. but i totally get why people love it.

also zelda, in general. it’s just not my type of game. again, totally understand that people love it, it’s just not a game series i’ve ever really liked playing, and at this point i’ve accepted that it’s just not my kind of game.

[chronoscasuals]

Game review - Sentinels of the Multiverse (pre-OblivAeon)

Welcome all to Chronos Casuals. My name is ChronosMysty and today starts what could very well be a potentially long series of posts about Sentinels of the Multiverse, created by Greater than Games. Sentinels of the Multiverse is a fully cooperative game in which 3-5 superheroes (eaach with their own unique deck and character card, complete with HP and Power) fight generally 1 powerful supervillain (each with their own unique deck and character card of rules text. More on why only “generally”, later) in an environment that changes the landscape (heh, landscape) of the battle as it goes on (again, each with their own unique deck). Rather than using an existing superhero universe, Badell created his own. You may recognize some common archetypes, such as heroes that include Legacy, the super strong, super resilient, all-American; Tachyon, the scientific speedster; Wraith, the CEO with no superpowers other than her mind and her money; and Bunker, a soldier outfitted with a metal suit loaded with tons of firepower; and villains such as Baron Blade, a no-powered scientist who uses his over-the-top super science to pose a threat to even Legacy; and Omnitron, a sentient AI that decided that the easiest way to end humanity’s problems is simply to end humanity. But enough about flavor, let’s do a very glossed overview of gameplay. The goal of the game (generally) is to reduce the villain (or villains, more on that later) to 0 HP before the heroes all become incapacitated or some other game-ending condition is fulfilled. The villains and environment are fully automated, leaving all the decisions to the heroes. Gameplay goes in order of villain turn, each hero turn in order, then environment turn, then repeat this cycle. The villains and environments use a “Start of turn, play top card, End of turn” turn structure, where start and end of turn are only relevant for timings mentioned on cards. Each hero turn similarly has the Start and End of turn, but the Middle Phase is where things are different: You can do up to each of these in this order: Play a card from your hand (You start off the game by drawing 4 from your 40 card deck. These cards may just have a one-shot effect or may stick around and build up your hero for a time or until destroyed), Use a Power (which can be on your hero’s character card or a card you have in play), and Draw a card. If your hero takes too much damage, they’ll drop to 0 HP, all your cards will be removed from the game, and you’ll cease being active and instead be incapacitated. You’re not out of the fight, though; while incapacitated, you have incapacitated abilities and Middle Phase of “Play, Power, Draw” becomes “Use an incapacitated ability”. To help scale the game to the number of heroes, the designers implemented H, a value equal to the number of heroes in the game (active or incapacitated). Generally used on villains (and generally used to scale damage or destruction), H helps to ensure that villains don’t become too difficult with only 3 heroes or too trivial with only 5 heroes (though, generally, 5-hero games are still much easier).

Is fighting one villain not good enough for you? Well, the Vengeance and Villain of the Multiverse expansions got you covered. You don’t face one solo villain; you instead face H team villains, each of which is about as powerful as (probably slightly more powerful than) the average hero, with an added upside of setup cards but the added downside of not being able to choose which card they want to play or who to aim for. Additionally, the villain turns aren’t all at the front but instead alternate with hero turns (with the first villain turn still being first and a single environment turn per round still being last). Anyway, time from the review part. While I really do enjoy this game, I’ll try to keep this as objective as possible: Pros: • This game has a LOT of variety, especially with all the expansions. Even with just the core game, with only ten heroes (of which you can play 3 to 5), four villains, and four environments, you have... wait a minute...

Seriously, you have 9312 combinations of teams, villains, and environments. (well, technically, you have 576,000 permutations since the order of the heroes does matter, but let’s not get into that). But strict numbers wouldn’t mean anything if they all felt the same. Let me assure you, this is not a problem; even with heroes that share a role or design shtick have different flavor, personality, cards, and deck mechanics. Each solo villain character card has two cards. Sometimes this splits the villain into two phases, sometimes the villain shifts between two phases, sometimes the back side is just used as a way to proc an effect and then flip back. But with a shuffled 25 card villain deck (or 20 cards for vengeance villains, but either way, they’re generally built with higher variance than hero decks), villains tend to create wildly different games while still maintaining their own distinct feel. Environments can also do a lot to change up the game, and once again, an environment deck’s 15 cards tend to be quite varied. • Lore. This game has lots of it. Despite most of the flavor texts being quoted from specific issues of comics, very few Sentinels Comics actually exist (although the writers do say that they keep track of the story as though they did exist to make sure they don’t screw up the timeline and place a quote where it shouldn’t be) and you’ll have to look for the Letters pages or just check the wiki at https://sentinelswiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page Just watch out. Sentinels is big on alternate timelines, so you might get a little confused if you’re not already versed with figuring out comic universe timelines. • This game can be played alone, so long as you’re willing to pilot 3-5 heroes by yourself.

• I know I said I would keep this objective, but I feel like I have to mention that the game feel is superb. The comic-cover like design of the hero cards, the flavor text being quotes from comics, the art style, all speak to the comic design. The mechanics and requirement of multiple heroes needing to stop the villain further reinforce this. The game isn’t perfectly “balanced” in all cases and in general favors the heroes, but that’s part of the point: mostly the heroes win, and sometimes the heroes lose. Even so, quite often, the battle’s outcome feels well-earned, just like how a hero team-up comic should be.

Cons:

• This game has a lot of bookkeeping. Between the Ongoing and Equipment cards that can either provide passive buffs or trigger upon certain events and well as some one-shots’ lingering buffs that can last anywhere from a round to until a certain event occurs, it can be very difficult to manage. The game provides tokens, but they don’t cover all possible events and you may have to buy the token expansion pack for this purpose. Thankfully, having more actual players helps spread the bookkeeping responsibility out.

• As with all fully cooperative games that you can openly share all your info, this can sometimes lead to one player backseat-playing for everyone else. This isn’t so much the game’s fault as it is a player fault, but if you have people in your playgroup who will do this, this might not be the game for that playgroup.

• This is more of a per-villain basis, but some villains (and in general the Vengeance team style) tend to get weaker as the game goes on while the heroes tend to get stronger, causing some fights to peter out near the end rather than have a climactic finish. On the other hand, some villains are too easy from the get-go and some are soul-crushingly difficult. I mentioned being “imperfectly balanced” as a feature and even a pro for capturing game feel, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes leave a bad taste in your mouth (especially with people generally having a negativity bias in which they remember the bad times more than the good times).

• Buying this game and its expansions costs quite a bit of money. This is more of a con for OblivAeon (which will sort-of require all of the previous expansions [or at least the heroes and the complete hero promo collection if you want the intended experience]), but I feel like I should mention it here. I would highly recommend all of the expansions except maybe Villains of the Multiverse, since it only provides 10 villains for vengeance style and 5 environments that, while cool, aren’t completely necessary. (Not so coincidentally. Villains of the Multiverse is the only multi-deck expansion that doesn’t contain any heroes).

• This game’s lifespan isn’t infinite, and even with its large variety and my enjoyment of it, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes get tired of it and nearly lose interest between expansions. And with the game having no more official expansions coming out past Oblivaeon (unless you count Sentinels of Earth-Prime and any expansions it might have), who knows how much longer the game will last.

• Some rules and rulings are a bit confusing (especially if your cards’ printings aren’t completely up to date) and the rulebook isn’t 100% comprehensive. (Then again, this also leaves rulings up to interpretation, which may help with the fun factor if you aren’t a stickler for exactly following the rules.)

Thankfully, some of these cons can be alleviated in different ways (although sadly they can’t all be used at the same time)

• If the monetary cost and/or bookkeeping is too much, you can buy the Steam version. It’s a near-perfect replica of the physical game (with some minor changes due to engine limitations) but a hell of a lot cheaper and has computers doing the bookkeeping for you. You want to know if a target is being affected by something, just zoom in on it and it will tell you in the upper right-hand corner. Very helpful. The downside is that there is no modding support.

• If you want more Sentinels, Matthew Bishop creates The Cauldron, an unofficial expansion of Sentinels of the Multiverse. http://meromorph.com/tangent/cauldron/ https://boardgamegeek.com/article/20532002 • If the regular game is a bit too imbalanced, Adelphophage has got you covered, with both villain promo cards to change up the villains as well as (more controversially) some card inserts to change hero and environment cards as well. He even created some new villains as well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1678967/adelphophages-archives https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1790312/adelphophages-card-inserts I will be doing reviews on those too, likely after my OblivAeon review if it arrives soon enough (I’m expecting it today, actually). I’ll link to them in those reviews too. The downside with this solution is that the Steam game does not yet have mod support to import these, so you have to choose which problem you want to solve.

Overall, I highly recommend this game to the casual gamer. Try it out on Steam, and if you like it, consider getting a physical set for your playgroup and maybe looking into some unofficial expansions. And that’s all I got for you right now. I’ll see you all next time, and remember, keep it casual!