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missnmikaelson-main · 4 years

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The Forgotten - Chapter 16

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 , Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15

Well… it’s been a crazy few weeks y'all, but I finally got the newest chapter done. YAY! :D

I also discovered this new app that I love because I like to handwrite my chapters first (there’s just something about the feel of pen and paper that gets the creativity flowing {at least for me}) and the app lets me take a picture of the page and it converts the pen to typing. It saved me four hours in the typing and editing of this chapter.

1919

“You’re absolutely sure you don’t mind?” She fidgeted with her hat and shifted on her toes, setting the simple white skirt to swaying around her legs. Cool air swirled around her exposed ankles.

“Do I mind watching our little heathen?” She ruffled the boy’s neat hair. “He is an absolute nightmare, and I am certain we shall have a horrid time.”

“I’m not a heathen,” he stomped his foot, indignation made adorable by his lisp.

“I was only joking, my darling,” she patted his cheek and bit back her laugh.

Confusion flooded his eyes.

“It’s like when I tell you to cause endless mischief for your auntie, but I really mean…” she knelt at his eye level, smoothing his sandy hair back in place.

“Be good?” Large blue eyes blinked at her.

“Precisely,” she nodded. Some days she struggled to believe he was already six years old. She had never believed her mother, but it was true that time flew by; in the blink of an eye he had grown from a baby to a boy.

“So when I say you’re a heathen, I really mean you’re a little angel.”

He giggled when she tweaked his nose. His eyes snapped back to his mother.

“I will be back after you have gone to sleep; I expect this new warlock to be a long time in his presentation.”

“What does he want?”

“I don’t know, baby, but I am going to find out,” she smiled, “and in the mean time I want you to behave while I am gone.”

“Does that mean misbehave?” He grinned.

“Tonight I mean exactly as I say,” she laughed. “Now hold still, mister, so I can kiss you goodnight,” her eyes sparkled. Leaning forward she planted a soft kiss on his cheek and smiled as he turned his head to return the action. “I love you.”

“I love you too, mom.”

She gave him one last kiss on the tip of is nose and rose to her feet.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she pulled on her jacket.

“Do not rush. It’s important to remain a breast of witch affairs, and who knows, perhaps this newcomer will prove the distraction you’ve been waiting for and off you the opportunity to truly search the compound.”

“It’s the only reason I am attending,” she took a deep breath. It did nothing for the nerves vibrating in her belly. She paused with her hand on the door.

“Elena?”

She turned back to watch the blonde.

“Don’t forget your glamour.”

“Right,” she nodded, catching her reflection in the mirror. Ancient Latin slipped from her lips and before her eyes she watched as her appearance altered.

“You look the same to me,” he crossed his arms.

“That’s because you have this,” she bent and tapped a golden bracelet on his wrist. She smiled at the band that allowed her son to see her while New Orleans saw Isobel.

++++

Her shoes clicked over the cobblestones in a slightly uneven rhythm that leveled out the further she went until she stepped in time with the drum’s primal beat. Nearly a hundred people had made the journey to the cemetery and she could see them all crowded around a roaring bonfire.

She found a place in the throng and watched a lone witch dance around the flames to the beat of the Congo drums. She twisted, spun and reveled in the shadows flickering over her face.

Elena observed the assembly and was one of the first to notice the man; tall and dressed in a smart suit of ivory, he cut an impressive, impassive figure. His ebony skin glistened in the orange light, but she took little notice of his distinguished features; the albino python around his shoulders captured her gaze.

He clapped, commanding the attention of the crowd; they fell silent and only the crackle of wood filled the cemetery. He handed the snake to two young men that melted from the shadows.

She squinted at the symbol on the brows of the identical twins; the cross surmounted by two oblique lines was like nothing she had ever seen. Of course, she had only been actively practicing magic for five years and her son didn’t leave much time for research.

Her eyes snapped to the man whose voice rang out over the crowd. He possessed an enigmatic voice, and spoke with his hands; he left her with an impression of untold power, and the unknown sent a chill through her.

“Witches of the French Quarter thank you for your welcome; it is good to be among people of the faith,” he smiled a disarming smile. “I, too, practice ancestral magic, honoring those who walked the path before us; from them, we draw strength, and you will need strength, for a great darkness is coming. The city your forefathers left you is now overrun by pirates, beasts and vampires.”

Her heart pounded; at any given moment she straddled a fence – the line between witches and vampire – and she never knew which side she leaned as she failed to fit wholly in either group. She shifted, glancing at her fellow witches, but nobody bothered with her; nobody knew. A gasp broke from her lips when the man took the python and threw it on the fire.

“I practice other magic as well. Sacrificial magic: channeling power from the lives of my offerings. I use this strength to vanquish my enemies, and I will punish your enemies for their greed.” He held out his hands. “In return, you will accept my family into your coven and me as your leader.”

++++

She paused at the bottom of the stairs, smoothing down her sweater sleeves. “Everything okay? What’s the situation with this new warlock?”

Elena worried her bottom lip as she hung up her jacket; her fingers hooked beneath the chain of her locket. “He wants… power… control over the coven, and he promises to smite all enemies of the faith in return.”

“One warlock against the Original family?” Skepticism laced her tone.

“He practices sacrificial magic and draws powers from the offerings.”

“Should we be worried?”

“There aren’t enough animals in the world to grant him that kind of power,” she shook her head. “He’ll prove a distraction, but I don’t think he’s much of a threat. The guy just gives me the creeps.”

2011

A hand on her shoulder roused her from an uneasy slumber. She jerked, sending dozens of pages fluttering to the floor. Kol stirred beside her and managed to catch a few crinkling papers before rubbing a sore spot in his neck.

“What’s going on?” He rolled his neck, blinking to wake up.

“I could have used another hour or two of sleep,” she yawned, rubbing her eyes. AA hard crust dislodged from her tear ducts. Her eyes glanced at the large armchairs where Klaus and Elijah flipped through ancient grimoires.

“I’m sure you desperately need rest,” Rebekah in knelt, cleaning the spells, “but your phone has been buzzing incessantly for the past ten minutes… and there it goes again.”

She dug the phone free and read the missed message from Jeremy. Three missed calls followed the text. Evidently she was needed at home.

“Everything alright, darling?” Kol stifled a yawn.

“Something at home,” she shrugged. “I’ll run and see what’s going on, and be back as soon as I can. Stay away from sharp objects.”

“You realize I am over a thousand years old and I have managed to take reasonable care of myself in that time?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh please,” Rebekah scoffed. “Had you been capable of death you would have achieved it a hundred times over. ”

“It’s a wildly different standard when you’re human,” Elena squeezed his hand and laughed softly, “so stay away from sharp objects, or perhaps I should be saying that to Klaus.”

“You’re not funny, Elena.” Klaus glowered over the pages of his book.

“I wasn’t trying to be,” she stood up. “I’ll be back soon, and hopefully by then there will be a spell to unlink us. I’d love to slap you both, but I don’t want the bruise.”

She shouldered her bag, fixing Klaus and Elijah in place with her eyes. “Stay out of trouble.”

“You’re the one leaving the safety of the mansion,” Elijah flipped the pages.

“I wouldn’t call the prison you’re keeping your mother in safe,” she rolled her eyes. “She’s powerful enough that she could break through the shackles.”

“Why don’t you do what you did to your friend’s mother: Stop her magic by turning her?” Klaus rolled his eyes.

“You’re more than welcome to,” she moved backwards to the door, “but I can’t. If I turn her we’ve got a Tyler situation on our hands.”

Kol watched her go and stood, looking around the room.

“Where’s Finn gotten off to?”

“He said something about looking into mother’s spell.”

On the other side of town, in the shadow of the old witch house, Finn knelt in the cold grass, traced the faded salt runes with his fingertips and swore under his breath.

++++

She plopped down on the couch and watched her friend sip the hot cocoa she had brewed; rich chocolate filled the living room, drifting up to the second floor where Abby slept.

Bonnie’s red rimmed eyes drifted shut for a moment and she took the opportunity to study her drawn features. The weight of the world pressed her shoulders into a slump. She had been through the ringer, and as much as Caroline hated to do it she knew she had to push Bonnie a little further.

It would hurt but there were some things that could not be left to fester.

“How long are you going to freeze Elena, out?”

Those slumped shoulders stiffened, and her eyes snapped up flooding with determination as she set her jaw. “She killed my mom, Caroline.”

“Rebekah killed your mom,” she crossed her legs.

“It was Elena’s plan,” Bonnie gritted her teeth; Stefan had told her that much.

“What else was she supposed to do?”

“She could have talked to me and come up with another way,” her blood simmered.

“She couldn’t have told you anything,” Caroline scoffed. “That bracelet you stole was able to control her. She couldn’t tell you anything.” She leapt to her feet and began motioning with wild hands, “she couldn’t tell you she was linked or that Esther wanted to kill every vampire on the planet and throw the balance of nature into chaos. Her options were anarchy or one new vampire. Yeah, your mom lost her connection to magic and Originals were behind it, but you’re not blameless in this.”

Angry tears sprang up in her wide eyes.

“You took her agency when you handed over that bracelet, and she planned the transition of your mother,” Caroline deflated a bit. “Gah! I know you two love each other, but you make it hard sometimes.”

“How do you know all of this?” Bonnie crossed her arms.

“She told me last night.”

“And you just believed her?” Her brows shot up.

“Yeah, why don’t you?”

“She’s been gone a hundred years,” she shook her head. “I don’t know that I know her anymore.”

Caroline sank down, perching on the coffee table. The sudden weight of her limbs held her in place. In that moment she wished to be anywhere else, so she could sink into herself and sleep, or at the very least shut her mind off for a short time and not have to dwell on the knowledge that she could have died last night, with her luck she was not a part of Kol or Rebekah’s bloodline.

“She’s still Elena, Bon,” she exhaled, closing her eyes. “Her methods have gotten a little more drastic, and her circle has grown a little bigger, but it’s still her, and she’ as terrible a liar as ever, so I know she’s telling the truth.”

Bonnie lowered her eyes to the hot cocoa.

++++

The car rolled to a slow stop along the curb, forcing Elena to slow her speed at the corner. Power coiled in her tense muscles, unfurling with the measured steps that marked her path home; if she were honest the only thing that made the house home anymore was Jeremy and Alaric. She suppressed the humming energy in her veins, but it still flowed out of her to shimmer in the air.

Above her head a finch broke out in trilling song, unhampered by the steady crunch of frozen leaves and the abomination below his lofty perch.

She moved on, rushing up the driveway passed the second car. She paused for a breath and read the sticker proclaiming the vehicle as a rental. She hurried into the house where a familiar scent greeted her.

“Thierry”, a broad smile stretched her face in the kitchen, “what are you doing here?”

“Checking on you,” he stood from the table, half-drunk coffee forgotten in his haste. He wrapped his arms around her back and listened to his heart slow. “What was up with that call last night?” “Can’t a mother call just to say how much she loves her son?” She stretched up on her toes and kisses his cheek. Her eyes shifted over his shoulder. “Jer, Ric this is…”“

"We already did the introductions,” Jeremy leaned back in his chair. “Personally, I think I’m a little young to have a ninety-seven year old nephew.”

“You need to consider the extenuating circumstances,” Alaric reached for his coffee.

“Whatever you say grandpa,” he muttered, smirking. Alaric sputtered and thumped his chest, coughing up the drops of hot coffee.

“Mom,” Thierry drew her attention back, “what happened? You sounded tense last night.”

“You caught that, huh?” Elena lowered her eyes, chewing her lips.

“What was going on last night?” Alaric tilted his head. “Aside from the Original witch wanting to kill her children?”

“Had she succeeded she would have killed me as well as every vampire sired by the deceased Originals, no matter how many times removed.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and dropped into an empty chair.

“She was going to kill you?” Jeremy tensed. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I couldn’t,” she pulled the bracelet from her pocket. I couldn’t tell anyone.“

"That’s what you were looking for yesterday,” Thierry reclaimed his seat. “I found the notes in your inventory book.”

“Luckily she failed,” Elena nodded, “and now I have a month to try and reverse what she did and come up with a way to keep her from trying again. But I’m fine, and I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

“It’s okay” he sighed. “So nothing happened last night?”

“Well,” Elena tilted her head, “I wouldn’t say nothing.”

++++

They were arguing again. It was the way of their family when paranoia set in - at least for Klaus. He probably could have spoken his brother’s lines perfectly, would have if not for the persistent throbbing behind his brow and gnawing hunger in his body, but even the thought of food brought a swell of nausea.

“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Klaus’ shout threatened to break his ear drums.

He echoed Finn’s response, but his strained voice went unnoticed by his siblings. He rubbed his temples, drawing in a burning breath of air that set his lungs on fire; he pressed his lips together to hold in the hacking cough.

“I found the remnants of mother’s spell,” Finn dropped the contents of his hand on the low table.

Burnt herbs scattered over the page, but when he tried to read the hastily copied runes the ink blurred and he was swept away with a sudden spinning sensation.

“Kol?”

The soft call came from far away the second was sharper, closer and spoken in his ear. Something white - hair, maybe - flashed in his vision; blue peered into his eyes.

He blinked, but the room failed to sharpen, opened his mouth, but the words refused to come. Through the scratching, burning pain in his chest he heard a horridly we rattle and he knew with sickening certainty that the sound came from him.

At some point a handkerchief had been forced into his hands, and as the violent hacking reached it’s end he opened his eyes, regaining just enough focus to comprehend the pale pink spray over an ornately embroidered ‘E’.

“That’s not good,” he muttered. The metallic taste of copper lingered on his tongue. He wiped the cloth over his mouth. It came back red.

He raised his eyes to his silent siblings.

“As I was saying,” Finn cleared his throat. “Mother created her spell and left nothing to chance.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Elijah lifted the ancient symbols.

“Mother made him human,” Rebekah shook her head. Her voice was strangely tight.

“It means she wanted us dead, and she insured it would happen. It means…”

“I’m dying,” Kol’s quiet voice held their attention; he could feel the truth of it in his bones. His eyes cut to his sister; a hint of a smirk crossed his lips.

“Still jealous, Bex?”

“Don’t be so melodramatic,” Klaus scoffed, “you’re not dying!”

“Aren’t I?” He arched an eyebrow, ignoring the irony of being called dramatic by Klaus of all people. His gaze cut to Finn for confirmation while his mind wandered to the only witch who would be willing to help him. He had no idea what she could actually do beyond hold his hand though, not that he would have raised an objection.

“How long do I have?” He ran through the possible options and the ingredients and time required for each, anything viable would need the aid of the full moon which had just passed them by.

“Moonrise.”

Kol’s heart stuttered. Swallowing he looked up. “Please tell me my hearing is going and that I missed the word 'full’ before moonrise.”

He was met with a tense silence and a family that would not look at him.

“Bloody hell.”

He stood abruptly and swayed; black spots danced across the sitting room, blotting out the look of concern on Elijah’s face. A chill swept over him, racing down the length of his spine. For one brief moment he wanted to sag into the supportive embrace of his sister; he longed for his mother, not the bitch who had condemned him to what was sure to be a grisly death, but for the loving - albeit hard - mother of his childhood. But it had never been in his nature to appear weak or seek help, not since the day he had received his arm ring.

So, he blinked the spots away, gritted his teeth, shook off Rebekah’s hand and pulled his arm from Finn’s grip.

“I’m fine,” he muttered.

“You’ve got twelve hours to live,” Rebekah planted her fists on her hips. She yelled after him as he left the room: “that is the opposite of fine!”

“Less then…” Kol’s sharp response cut off, replaced by shattering glass. His siblings exchanged a look, a split second, before racing into the hall where he was holding the railing and staring down at a broken vase. “It was on the edge before I reached the table.”

“Where are you going?” Rebekah rolled her eyes.

“To get the rest of mother’s grimoires,” he gestured up the stairs. “I have no intention of dying tonight.”

“Excuse me?” Elena’s voice drew everyone’s attention to where she stood at the door. “You’re dying? How are you… what…?” she gestured to the door and her car beyond. “I was gone two hours.”

Elijah handed her the paper Finn had brought back, watching as she read through it. Her expletive was covered by Kol’s coughing fit.

The page crumpled in her hands as she pushed through the assembly of vampires and pulled the crushed handkerchief from his hands; her eyes widened on sighting the blood her nose had already smelled. Her ears perked up, catching the race of his heart, and under her breath she murmured a spell that slowed the rapid beating.

Kol lowered his eyes; the handkerchief seemed to spin in his hands, or perhaps the hall was spinning around him. The floor shifted beneath his feet. His knees buckled and he fell.

Elena caught him under the arms, lowering him to the stairs. She pressed the back of her hand to his pale brow and found him cold as ice; truthfully she found that more worrying than a fever.

“Please tell me someone has an idea?” She hated the pleading tone of her voice; she hadn’t felt so helpless since learning through telegram that Thierry was ill back in the forties; the despair threatened to swallow her whole just as it had then when she realized her loved one was dying and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

“The solution would be to reverse the spell,” Klaus passed a glass of water to Kol.

Elena steadied his hand around the glass when it shook. “Thank you so much for stating the obvious,” she gritted her teeth.

“Well, nobody else was speaking,” he leaned against the wall.

“And you just had to fill the silence,” Kol wheezed.

“Drink,” Elena scolded him, tipping up the glass, “slowly.”

“There is no reversing mother’s spell,” Finn nodded to the page still in her hand. “The only thing to do would be to turn him again…”

“That would leave him vulnerable,” Rebekah shook her head, “not to mention – potentially – hundreds of vampires.”

“Would…” Kol coughed, took a sip of water and tried again. “Would it be p… possible to not discuss me as if I’m not right here?”

“He’d be alive,” Elijah glanced down at his brother.

“Or I’d be dead,” Kol rolled his eyes. “Do you really think that mother didn’t think of that possibility?”

“If you would all let me finish speaking,” Finn raised his voice to be heard over the din and the hall fell silent. He looked around to make sure nobody else was going to interrupt him before clearing his throat. “Kol is right, mother would have thought of that. I was referring to the spell that made us vampires.”

“A spell that requires a witch with mother’s blood, white oak, the blood of the doppelganger and the full moon,” Rebekah arched an eyebrow. “That’s impossible.”

“Not necessarily,” Elena chewed her bottom lip. “Your mother is downstairs…”

“I turned her actually,” Klaus lowered his eyes under her glare.

“… Two hours…” she muttered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Kol is also a witch…”

“I’m pretty sure I lack the power for a spell like that.”

“You’d only have to be present for it,” Elena waved him off. “Klaus has a store of my human blood on hand – unless you went on a hybrid making spree?” She met his eyes; despite having to crane her head back to catch his gaze, she did not feel small. She nodded when he shook his head. “That’s two things then and there is more white oak; a sapling replaced the tree you lot burnt to the ground.”

“How do you know this?” Elijah’s eyes narrowed.

“Do I look like a normal vampire?” Elena sighed. She rolled her shoulders back, adjusting her stance on the stairs. “A piece of it was used to make me back in 1914; I don’t know exactly where it came from, only that it originated somewhere in Mystic Falls.”

“Do you remember the cave where we carved our names?” Rebekah glanced between Klaus and Elijah, leaving Elena with the sense that Finn and Kol had been left out of the excursion. “I came across it last night when I was looking for Elena. Carvings have been added to the walls telling of the sapling she mentioned.”

“Even if you could find it, darling,” Kol braced his back against the stairs, “there is still that matter of a full moon that I will not live to see.”

It was Finn who answered her confused expression. Her stomach clenched painfully and she rocked forward, holding her head in her hands; mind racing a mile a minute. Time was a precious commodity that they were running out of.

If only she could freeze it.

She rubbed her forehead with frozen fingers. She needed more time; time to find the white oak, time to prepare the spell, time to reach the full moon.

He would be dead before she could do any of it.

If only she could stop the clock.

What a shame cryonics wasn’t a possibility.

She needed some magical council. She needed Bonnie – who wasn’t talking to her – or Freya – who was taking a very long nap.

“A very long nap…” she breathed so softly the other vampires only heard her exhale. She lifted her eyes, glancing at the Originals who were tied to her and the one who wasn’t; Rebekah met her gaze head on and spotted the determined light before her brothers registered the change in Elena’s demeanor. “I have an idea; a crazy, stupid, impulsive idea that is just ludicrous enough that it might work.”

Thoughts? :D I love hearing from you.

@elejah-wonderland @elejahforever @eternityunicorn @morsmornte @fandomrulesall @xanderling @cry-btch @kol-and-elena-fanfiction @geekofmanyfandoms

#elena gilbert #KOL #Kol mikaelson #kolena #kol x elena #elena x kol #klaus mikaelson #bonnie bennett #caroline forbes #rebekah mikaelson #jeremy gilbert #thierry vanchure #elijah mikaelson #alaric saltzman #finn mikaelson #the originals #the vampire diaries #the forgotten fanfic

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enrinkari · 6 years

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Love is a Scien...tist

Notes: UM. I haven’t written a damn thing in 8ish years so. I’M SORRY THIS IS SO ROUGH AND PROBABLY NOT IN CHARACTER AT ALL I JUST REALLY WANTED TO WRITE orz But yeah. Also near the end you’ll see I have a specific HC for Flug. :x Um. Please don’t hate on this or me too much thank you.

-------------------------

Dr. Flug was glad he had made his last will and testament out before going into Black Hat’s office, because he knew what he was about to tell his boss was going to be the thing that actually drove Black Hat over the edge to kill him.

And he was right.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE ORDERED YOU OFF OUR WEBSITE?! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET ON THERE?!” the demon roared at his quivering employee, fire erupting behind him.

“I-I-I don’t know s-s-sir! I d-d-didn’t put m-m-m-myself t-t-there!”

“YOU’RE NOT TRYING TO LEAVE, ARE YOU FLUG?” Black Hat basically flew in a rage across the room to pick Flug up by his shirt and get right up in his face, with Black Hat’s face turning more monstrous by the second.

“N-N-N-N-NO SIR I WOULD N-N-N-N-NEVER!” yelped Dr. Flug, trying to sink as far away as he could. He started to see his life flash before his eyes before the scene was interrupted by laughter. “Ohohoho someone actually wanted you, doctor?!”

Both Black Hat and Dr. Flug looked up to see Demencia hanging off the ceiling, looking down at them with a huge grin on her face. “I can’t believe it! Who would want a weakling like you?! Ahahahaha!”

“Demencia, do you have something to do with this?” Black Hat dropped Flug on the ground and crossed his arms. Demencia dropped off the ceiling and landed on her feet right in front of him.

“I just thought we could get some alone time, Bon-Bon~,” she said, voice dripping with infatuation. “To get to know each other better, hehehe.”

“But h-h-how did you do it?” Dr. Flug asked, standing up off the floor. “Only I have access to the website. And, y-y-you don’t know how to do a-a-anything on it.”

“What like it was hard?” she giggled. “I paid 5.0.5. in treats to distract you while you were adding new things and then just copy and pasted what you had already done! The hardest part was trying to come up with nice things to say to try to get you ordered!”

Both Flug and Black Hat had to admit that for Demencia, that was a pretty good plan. “Okay, but did you forget you still have orders to fill from your little video stunt a few weeks back? Including one that you are supposed to be at right now?” Black Hat growled. Demencia blinked a few times, thinking. She then laughed nervously and ran out of Black Hat’s office, seeming to remember her job. Black Hat put his face in his hand, sighing. “I will never understand how ANYTHING gets done around here...”

“S-s-sir, about the order...” Flug barely spoke loud enough to be heard. He had a guess that Black Hat was less angry about the whole thing, but still knew one wrong word and it was over for him. “S-should I cancel it?”

“Hmm. How much did you actually go for, Doctor?” Black Hat looked at him, unamused but without the anger from just a few minutes ago. “And for how long were you ‘rented’ for?”

“Ummm, o-only for a day, Black Hat sir.” Flug dug thru his pockets to find the printed order form. Finding it, he took it out and looked at it. “And...um...” He let out a small gasp. “Um...They paid extra for me to be there tomorrow...”

“Well, how MUCH DOCTOR? MY PATIENCE WITH THIS IS WEARING VERY VERY THIN.”

“S-s-s-sorry sir! Um... A...million...dollars?”

Black Hat was quiet for just a few seconds as he let this knowledge settle in the air. A smile then started to form on his face. “Well, well. Maybe I should have told you to rent yourself out sooner, Flug.”

“Y-you actually want me to g-g-go?” Flug was not expecting this.

“It’s only for a day, Flug. Plus, this will be good for you!” Black Hat put his arm around Flug, smiling even bigger. “You need a day out, plus you can you this to check out another villain’s operations and see just how good you have it here.” He then put his arm around Flug’s neck to lightly start choking him. “But if you even think for one second about not coming back...”

“N-n-n-never s-s-sir!” Flug gasped. “I o-o-o-only s-s-serve y-y-you!”

“Good.” Black Hat released Flug and turned his back to him. “Now go back and get ready. I expect nothing but good things from you tomorrow Doctor.”

“Y-y-yes sir Black Hat sir!” With that Flug ran out of the office. He needed to pack not only basic equipment, but protection to keep himself safe, because he just “forgot” to tell Black Hat who placed the order, and hoped Black Hat wouldn’t find out until he was already gone for the day.

It just so happened that it wasn’t until the next morning, after Flug had been gone a few hours, that Black Hat even thought about who was paying so much for his scientist. It was weird of Flug to not tell him. He told 5.0.5 to bring him the order form, and when he saw who it was his slammed his desk so hard he broke it and the floor beneath it. “IT. WAS. HER?!?!?! FUCK!!!” He then stormed out of his office, on his way to his generous client.

~~~

Yup. Flug was still going to die, just out of...how grossed out he was. He stood outside the gate of what, on the outside, looked like a normal, if unusually large and pink, factory. But it was really the headquarters of a villain that, like Black Hat, also sold items to others, but her items were available to the public, and made them do her bidding, all while making her money. Her and Black Hat had a heated rivalry, which made this whole thing suspicious to Flug, but he had always wanted to see how she made people mind controlled, and maybe while he was here he could “borrow” a few samples to use for his own inventions. Sighing, he pressed the button he assumed buzzed the guard station to let him in. He immediately became flushed as it gave off a moaning noise in a women’s voice. “I hate her I hate her I hate her,” he grumbled. The gate then opened, and he walked in towards the factory.

What couldn’t be seen from the outside was that there were mini gardens all over the outside, with beautiful flowers and places to sit and just enjoy it all. It was making Flug more uncomfortable by the second. He was so busy looking around he didn’t see her floating to him until it was too late.

“Fluggy-pooooooo!” He glanced up just in time for his head to be smothered in breasts as she hugged him. “I was getting worried you wouldn’t show!!!”

Flug, even more flustered than before, quickly pulled himself from her grasp and back up a few steps. “Hello, Aphro-die-tea.” He looked her over to see what...revealing outfit she had on today while mentally going over what he knew about her.

Aphro-die-tea; named after the Greek goddess of love. Blue eyes, long blonde hair, 5′ 7″, 36E cup which she swears is real, weight and age unknown. Sells love based items to ‘help people achieve true love’ but often has heinous consequences. Also uses her voluptuous figure to get what she wants. Wearing her most common outfit today: a red bikini armor and red heels, which were custom made to allow her to float up to 6 inches in the air. Also carries a gold staff with her everywhere.

Aphro giggled. “Oh Fluggy-poo, do sound happier to be here. I’m paying a pretty penny to get you to visit little ol’ me.”

“Why did you want me to come over here, anyways?” Flug asking, eyes narrowed. “Don’t you hate the Black Hat Organization?”

She giggled again. “Oh no sweetie. I hate Black Hat, sure, but I do understand that he’s running a business, which is STRESSFUL. It’s a wonder my skin is still as smooth as it is!” She smiled sweetly at Flug and he could feel his heart skip a beat. “No, I don’t hate you, Fluggy. In fact, I need your help with something my own group of scientists can’t figure out. If they can’t figure it out, then you’re the only person who can.”

“Well, I am the world’s greatest evil scientist... Heck, the world’s greatest scientist period!” Flug nodded at Aphro. “I will require a tour of the factory tho, so I know exactly what all I am dealing with.”

She hugged him again, and for the 2nd time in his life Flug’s face was covered in breasts. “OH I KNEW I COULD COUNT ON YOU FLUGGY!!!”

Once again Flug pulled away from her. I can’t fall for her flirting tactics, he reminded himself. Just focus on getting in, stealing samples, and getting back to Black Hat. Yes, just think of Black Hat. “Well let’s go on a tour!” Aphro exclaimed with glee, grabbing Flug’s hand and pulling him behind her.

~~~

He tried hard to not show it, but Flug was impressed with how Aphro ran her business. She had hired (or brainwashed?) conventional attractive women to work for her, and there was a tight efficiency to everything. Imagine if we had someone besides just me working at BHO, he thought. Maybe I could actually get some rest. She had her current top seller on the assembly line today. “Love Goggles! Get the object of your affections to put these on and you’ll be the only one they see. Of course, if they try to take the goggles off, they’ll go blind, but if they don’t want to look at you why should they be allowed to look at others?” Aphro took a finished pair off the line and handed them to Flug. “A gift for you, Fluggy-poo. Maybe they could replace your current goggles?” She laughed at her own joke and kept floating forward. Flug shuddered and put the goggles in his pocket. At least he didn’t have to steal these. He was curious at how they worked, and was already thinking of ways to turn them into a product they could sell.

Aphro guided him to what appeared to be a cafeteria. “Are you hungry Fluggy? It’s lunch time and I have the BEST chefs here. Healthy food that tastes delicious? That’s a real scientific breakthrough.”

“N-no, I um... had a big breakfast before I got here,” Flug lied. He couldn’t risk eating anywhere except in private. “But I am thirsty, so maybe a water with a straw?”

“Oh nonono you HAVE to have some green tea! It’ll help you relax and feel more at ease around here! I can tell you’re still so tense!” Aphro lightly hit the bottom of her staff on the ground and one of the caferteria workers ran over. “A kale smoothie for me, and a green tea with a straw for our guest, please.” The worker nodded and run off to get the drinks. “Come Fluggy, let’s sit and talk for a few.” She floated over to a table and sat down, motioning Flug to sit next her. Instead, he sat in front of her across the table, causing her to pout a little. “What, don’t you like me Fluggy?”

“At best I have a neutral opinion of you Aphro,” Flug replied matter-of-factly. Which is why he was surprised when Aphro laughed at his reply.

“Well at least you’re honest to me. I respect that.” She brushed her hair behind her shoulders and looked off to the side. “I must ask, tho, why were you up for rent on the website? Black Hat tired of you already?”

“Of course not,” Flug answered hastily. At least if he is he hasn’t shown it yet. “It was a prank by other one of our... employees.”

“Oh, Demencia?” Aphro closed her eyes and laughed lightly. “I gotta admire that girl. She really loves your boss. I’ve tried selling my products to her but it was a no go.” She sighed. “Guess she’s smarter than your average lizard/human hybrid.”

I’M GONNA KILL DEMENCIA I COULD HAVE HAD APHRO’S ITEMS ALREADY AAAAAAAAA. “Yeah well thanks to her, I’m here,” he grumbled, before quickly adding. “Um, no offense!”

Aphro opened her eyes and looked at Flug, smiling. “No, I get it Doctor. This isn’t your ideal day, so I do thank you for keeping my order and coming over.” At this time, the worker came over and delivered their drinks and ran back to her post. Flug and Aphro drank in awkward silence.

“Um, I do actually enjoy this tea, so, um, thanks for suggesting it,” Flug finally said, trying to break the silence.

“Oh I KNEW you would like it!” Aphro said happily. She got a sly look on her face. “Tho I don’t know why you need a straw. You could just take off your bag...”

“Nope. We’re not doing this,” Flug said monotone. “I have not, and will not, take this bag off for anyone.”

“Not even Black Hat?” Aphro questioned, leaning forward. The question caught Flug off guard. Would he? He imagined he’d have to if he wanted to keep his job - or his life. But Black Hat had never asked him to since he’d been hired. Why was that? Probably because he didn’t care. Flug was so wrapped up in this hypothetical that he almost didn’t notice Aphro was moving her staff to slowly lift up his bag until she accidentally dropped it. With that he quickly jumped up and pulled a laser gun out of his jacket, pointing at her. Almost as fast was every one else in the cafeteria pointing various guns at Flug.

“I told you Aphro. NO ONE.” Flug growled.

Aphro just stared at him. “I have never had someone point a weapon at me with so much malice, Doctor.” She picked up her staff and got up, floating over to Flug, who kept the gun pointed at her. “And honestly, I think I’ve found a new kink,” she whispered to him. She then giggled and ordered her workers to drop their weapons. “It’s okay ladies. It’s my fault. I disrespected our guest. I’m sorry Fluggy.”

Flug, a tad flustered by what she had whispered to him, slowly put his weapon back. “Apology accepted. Now can we just get to the lab so I can do what I came here to do? I don’t want to be gone too much longer or Black Hat might get mad.” Really, he just wanted to leave, but he knew he HAD to get into the lab.

Ever since they left the cafeteria Flug had been feeling uneasy; like he was being followed, tho it was still just Aphro and him. He guessed it was because they were nearing her lab and he always felt like this in his lab. Black Hat had a habit of just appearing, so he never felt at ease. Trying to shake the feeling - and failing - he noticed that the way to the lab was dimly lit and difficult to navigate. “Um, can’t afford to light back here?” he asked, laughing nervously.

“Unlike your employer, I value my scientists and have it like this to make it hard for people to find where they are going,” she replied with a hint of hatred in her voice. “I’ve had one too many close calls between fellow villains and hero-types who say what I’m doing is ‘wrong’ and ‘illegal’. Plus the only way into the lab is with my staff, so I can keep constant watch on who goes there and what they do while there.”

“Wow. I didn’t think you took what you’ve got going so seriously, Aphro.”

“Why, is that a compliment from you Flug? I’m honored.” She smiled at him, but he could tell she was forcing it. What’s got her so pissed? Just a few minutes ago she was laughing at me! I hate women. Suddenly she stopped in front of a wall. “We’re here!”

“Where? There’s no door.”

“Didn’t I just say it only opens with my staff? Pay attention Doctor.” She slammed the bottom of her staff into the floor, and a pin pad appeared on the wall. “And of course a secret code only I know, just in case someone steals my staff.” Flug tried to watch her type in the code, but she just giggled. “Don’t even think about it Fluggy. I change it after every lab visit.”

“Wasn’t thinking about it anyways Aphro,” Flug lied. That uneasy feeling got especially strong for a second then went back to normal. However, Flug all forgot about it when the door opened and he finally walked into the lab.

For one, it was huge. At least double the size of his back at HQ, and his lab wasn’t small by any standards. It was in almost immaculate condition, fully stocked with everything an evil scientist could want or need. There where sections of the lab dedicated to different areas of science and research, with notes and blueprints lining the walls. He looked at one table and recognized the machine near it. “Hey, that’s our Medusa device! How did you get that?! I know you didn’t pay for one...”

“Oh, I’m just ‘borrowing’ it from one of your clients,” she said, sounding a bit nervous. “I just wanna see how it works Fluggy-pooooooo.”

“Fine, but I’m billing you for one. Now what is it you need me to do?” This was becoming more and more of a headache for him, and the uneasy feeling wasn’t going away either.

“Of course! Over here!” She started to float towards the very back corner of the huge lab. “My girls are bright, but we ran across this equation while researching, and we can’t figure it out. But you are the ‘world’s greatest scientist’ so it should be a piece of cake for you.”

“Where are your ‘girls’ anyways?” It seemed weird to Flug that in this huge lab, there was no one else but them two.

“I figured you wouldn’t want distractions while working, Fluggy.” She quickly floated behind him and put her arms around him. “Besides me, of course,” she whispered.

“P-p-please stop that Aphro, it won’t work on me,” he stammered, pulling her off him. She just giggled and sped ahead to the table. “Here’s your work table Fluggy! Sit down while I go get the equation!”

Flug sat down at the table and waited as Aphro disappeared from sight. “At least this is almost over,” he mumbled to himself. While he was amazed by the lab, he missed his lab. He missed 505 helping him. He even missed Black Hat when comparing him to Aphro. “Heh, that’s how you know I’m messed up. I’d rather be screamed at than have someone be kind to me.” He could have sworn he saw his shadow move on its own briefly, but before he could even think about it again, Aphro came back into view.

“Sorry! I forgot where I put it!” she yelled, waving a piece of paper in the air. She stopped beside the sitting Flug. “I got it tho. Here you go Fluggy-poo. Good luck!” She laid the paper down on the table and moved behind him.

“A scientist like me doesn’t need luck,” he said confidently, turning to look at the paper. He blinked a few times, caught off guard. Instead of the complex equation he was expecting, it was a crude drawing of Aphro flipping him off. “What the -” he started before gasping in pain as a needle went in his back. He collapsed on the table, unable to move.

“Oh Doctor, you silly thing, did you really think I was in need of your help?” Aphro’s voice, now laced with vemon, said. Flug tried to look at her, but he was starting to black out. “You pathetic man. Now go to sleep, Doctor. We have an important date when you wake back up.” Flug tried one more time to get up, but it was impossible. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’m sorry Black Hat, sir.... were his last thoughts before he lost consciousness.

Aphro waited a few seconds to make sure he was out before celebrating. “Ahahahaha I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WORKED!” She kicked her feet in the air. “I got the dumb scientist! And soon I’ll be rid of that stupid organization he works for! Ahahaha!”

“Do you really think so, Aphro-Die-Tea?” a voice growled, and she turned in surprised.

“B-Black Hat?! When did you get here? HOW did you get here?!” she frowned, holding her staff close to her. “You shouldn’t have been able to get in here.”

“Aphro, do you really think you can stop me when I put any effort into anything?” he said, ice in his tone. “Your security is lax at best, and I didn’t have to try hard to find you. I just stayed in my doctor’s shadow. Literally.” He started to smile, showing his teeth. “By the way, I said MY doctor. Not yours. I will be taking him back now, and allowing you to live only because I do not have the time to waste on you.”

He narrowed his eyes when she started to laugh. “Oh Hatty, I think you’ll so realize that Fluggy-poo here is now completely devoted to me.” She snapped her fingers and Flug’s body stood straight up. His eyes were blank, however. “Fluggy, baby, attack.”

Black Hat had about half a second to wonder what was happening before having to dodge a shot from Flug’s laser gun. “Flug, what the hell are you doing?!” he hissed, before dodging another shot.

“I told you Hatty, he’s mine now! Flug, stop.” Flug stopped shooting at Black Hat and put the weapon down. “I injected him with a version of one of our products that makes the person you give it to listen to only you and love you forever.” She put her arms around Flug. “Of course, Flug’s version has no love involved, but I still think it works well enough. Don’t you Hatty?”

Black Hat frowned. Fucking Flug, getting himself into this mess. Now he was going to have to kill him. The thought of that made him feel something he wasn’t used to. Quickly shaking that feeling away, he hissed again and shot a tentacle at Aphro. Maybe killing her would break the control. He had to stop it suddenly tho when she moved Flug in front of her for protection, the tentacle stopping an inch from Flug’s chest.

“Oh my god. You care about him, don’t you?” Aphro taunted. “I cannot believe this. Black Hat caring about someone?!”

“I don’t care about him, I care about money, and for that I need him, you slut,” Black Hat growled back.

“Whatever. I was going to send him back to you like this, but since you’re here I can end it now.” She smiled like a maniac. “Fluggy, take Black Hat’s life.”

Flug pulled out a surgical knife from a pocket and cut into the tentacle in front of him, causing Black Hat to let out a yelp and draw it back. Flug then launched himself at his boss, trying to stab him. Black Hat easily blocked or dodged his attacks, but wasn’t doing much more. He was trying to figure out how to get out of this without having to find a new scientist. So he wasn’t paying attention to Aphro until she started to attack him as well with her staff.

“ＥＮＯＵＧＨ,” he howled, eight tentacles shooting from his body, pushing both Flug and Aphro away. He was starting to turn more monsterous; teeth were larger and sharper, his eyes glowing red, body becoming larger. “ＩＷＩＬＬＮＯＴＴＯＬＥＲＡＴＥＴＨＩＳＡＮＹＬＯＮＧＥＲ. ＰＬＡＹＴＩＭＥＩＳＯＶＥＲ.” One of the tentacles picked up Flug, who was trying to get up off the floor, and slammed him against the wall, knocking him out. The other seven went straight for Aphro, who pressed a button on her staff and was surrounded by a force field before they could get her. Black Hat sent even more tentacles at her, slamming them against her force field.

“W-w-what are you?!” she screamed, grimacing, trying to hide her fear.

“ＩＡＭＢＬＡＣＫＨＡＴ. ＡＮＤＩＡＭＡＮＧＲＹ.” With a primal roar, he slammed all the tentacles down on her force field one more time, finally knocking it out and sending her straight into the ground. He slowly walked over to her. It looked like the force of his attack had knocked her heels offline, as well as breaking one of her legs. She was struggling to get up on her other leg, with no luck. “ＮＯＷ. ＡＲＥＹＯＵＲＥＡＤＹＴＯＡＰＨＲＯ－ＤＩＥ－ＴＯＤＡＹ？” he asked, wrapping a tentacle around her and pulling her right up to his face, his acid spit dripping on her.

“P-Please, Hatty, don’t. I’m sorry. I learned my lesson!” Aphro begged between sobs of both pain and fear. “I’ll do anything!”

“ＡＮＹＴＨＩＮＧ？” Black Hat smiled and shifted back into his more human form, tho still held Aphro near him. “I was hoping you would say that. I will let you live, if you agree to be...acquired by the Black Hat Organization.” He gave a chuckle. “You can still run the day to day operations, of course. But you will serve me, and will do whatever I tell you to do. Do we have a business deal?” His smile got wider and more sinister.

“Like I have a fucking choice,” Aphro replied. “Deal, deal!”

“Good choice.” He dropped her, recalling the tentacle, then turned to where Flug laid. He walked over and gently picked him up. Besides being out cold, it looked like he didn’t have any other serious injuries. “Oh, Aphro, one more thing. How do I get my scientist back to normal?” he asked without looking at her.

“You can’t,” she said quietly, close to passing out herself due to pain. “The way the serum works is the person is under control until either they fulfill what the person wants them to do, or by a kiss from the one they love romantically.” She let out a small laugh before coughing. “So unless you let him kill you, I guess you’re out of a scientist.” She started to smile, but instead her eyes went wide and she started to cough and choke on her own blood. Black Hat had sent a tentacle straight thru her stomach.

“Aphro, I want you to remember this pain. Because if I can’t figure out a way to snap Flug out of this mind control, I will be back to inflict pain that is a thousand times worse.” He turned his head to look at her, eyes glowing red. “No matter where you are. I will find you, and make you wish you had never been born.” He looked forward and walked away, recalling the tentacle. As it left Aphro’s body, it left a sticky substance that healed the wounds it had caused. Aphro coughed up a little more blood before passing out.

Black Hat frowned. It had been two days since he had brought Flug back, and he hadn’t been able to figure out how to break Aphro’s mind control. He currently had Flug in a makeshift cage in the lab. He had to keep him in it, or else Flug would try to attack him. “Well, you got any ideas, 505?” he asked, sighing. The bear was at least able to get close to Flug without being attack, but Flug didn’t react to him either. 505 jut looked at Black Hat and made sad bear noises.

“Flug, why did you get yourself into this mess? Why didn’t you just tell me who you were going to?! WHY DID YOU HIDE THIS FROM ME?!?!” Black Hat punched the wall, making a hole in it. He was angry Flug hid the info from him, but he was some other feeling he couldn’t place. It made him feel weird, like sick. He didn’t like it. “Ugh, Aphro said he’d either have to kill me, or get kissed by the one he, gags, loves.” He tapped his foot thinking. “Hmmm. 505. Go contact Demencia and tell her to get back here ASAP. If you have to, lie and say I miss her or some shit.” The bear, which had hid when Black Hat punched the wall, gave a quick “Awroo” and ran out of the lab.

Maybe Flug had feelings for Demencia. Maybe that would work. Black Hat growled. Demencia wouldn’t be back for days tho. He couldn’t have Flug stay like for this for that long. He walked up to the cage, but stayed out of Flug’s reach. Flug instantly tried hitting the demon. Black Hat sighed again. With a flick of his hand he locked the door to the lab. He didn’t want 505 to come in and see what was about to happen.

With another flick of his hand, the door to the cage opened. Flug, predictably, jumped at Black Hat, who easily caught and wrapped him up in a tentacle. He pulled a struggling Flug closer, looking at him closely. “Flug, if you can hear me, and remember this, if you tell anyone I will kill you with no hesitation,” he said quietly. He went to lift the paper bag off Flug’s head but Flug jerked his head at the same time, causing the paper bag to go flying. What was underneath made Black Hat feel surprise for the first time in centuries.

Flug was headless. Instead of a head, smoke hovered around where it should be, coming out of his neck. The thickest part of it covered the hole where his neck was, but without his bag holding the rest in place, it swirled around up to a foot above the base. Right now it was swirling about violently, as Flug started to struggle more.

Black Hat barely noticed, however. He was entranced by what was in front of him. He slowly put a hand in the smoke. It swirled around his arm, as if to try to attack him, but then it stopped. Though Flug was still struggling, the smoke, for some reason, calmed down. It lazily floated around Black Hat’s head. He twirled a finger in it, and it reacted by following his finger, like it liked it. “Doctor, you are full of surprises, aren’t you,” Black Hat finally said, in almost a whisper.

He put a hand in the middle of the smoke, where a head should be, and for a brief moment he pressed up against something invisible before he hand went through it. Pulling his hand back, he did it again, though more lightly, and felt something again. It was almost like Flug had an invisible head, but it barely held together under pressure. “Must be how that bag stays there,” Black Hat mused out loud. He lightly felt against it, and realized he was feeling a mouth. He ran his finger across Flug’s “lips”, causing the smoke to swirl wildly and Flug himself to briefly stop struggling. “Heh, you liked that didn’t you, Doctor?” Black Hat laughed. “Well, you better enjoy what is coming next.”

Lifting up Flug’s “head”, Black Hat leaned down and slowly kissed Flug on the “lips,” making sure to be gentle. The smoke swirled around Black Hat’s head, and Flug instantly went still. Okay, that’s enough. You can stop now, a voice in the back of Black Hat’s head said. But Black Hat didn’t stop. He didn’t want to stop. The smoke was intoxicating to him, and Flug’s “lips” were so soft. He almost didn’t notice, but somehow, Flug was kissing him back, which surprised him briefly, but then he decided he didn’t care.

After some amount of time - a few seconds, a few minutes, an hour, he didn’t know - Black Hat finally pulled himself away and gently set Flug down, recalling the tentacle. Flug just stood there for about 30 seconds before he lightly shook his “head”. “Ugggh. Where am I? And why is everything hazy,” he groaned. He reached to adjust his goggles, and wasn’t expecting his hand to reach nothing but air. “... Oh... Oh... OH NO.” He started to panic. “MY BAG MY BAG MY BAG!”

“You mean this one?” Black Hat asked, handing Flug his paper bag.

“Oh yes! Thank you Black Hat sir!” Flug said happily, grabbing the bag and putting it on. Finally able to see clearly, he blinked a few times. “B-B-BLACK HAT SIR????”

Black Hat narrowed his eyes. “I never expected you to hide things from me Flug, and yet here we are. Not only did you not tell me who rented you, you’ve been hiding the fact you aren’t human as well?” He growled. “I am VERY disappointed.”

Flug looked down. “I-I-I’m sorry Sir. I knew y-y-you’d never let me go if I told you, and I just wanted to steal some of her tech to make things for you to sell. I just wanted you to be proud of me, sir.”

Black Hat was glad Flug wasn’t looking at him, because he was just staring at him in disbelief. Flug wanted Black Hat to be proud of him. Flug didn’t think Black Hat was proud of him. Black Hat lightly shook his head and glanced at the door. “Doctor, I hired you and only you. I already know you are good, otherwise I wouldn’t put up with you. Don’t try to make me proud.”

Flug looked at Black Hat in disbelief. Was that...praise? From Black Hat? “A-a-are you okay, sir?”

“OF COURSE I’M OKAY WHY WOULDN’T I BE?!” Black hat snapped at him. “Besides you’re not off the hook! I mean I only had to come save your ass from that bitch!” Flug didn’t say anything, just looked back down again, dejected. “But I guess it wasn’t all bad,” Black Hat continued, more annoyed than mad now. “We made a deal and she is now working under me. So I will forgive you hiding that from me.”

Black Hat walked up to Flug. “However, you better choose your words wisely about why you hid what’s under the bag from me Flug. Or you’ll need a new bag for your arm.”

“W-w-w-well sir, you, uh, just, uh, n-n-never asked,” Flug stammered out. “And i-i-it has no b-b-bearing about how I can do my job s-s-s-so...”

Black Hat glared at him. “Maybe so, but I like to know everything about those that I work closest with, Doctor. So tell me, what are you?”

“I g-g-guess, I’m technically undead?” Flug closed his eyes to think. “It’s been centuries. I barely remember what happened. But what I do know is that I was beheaded, and was raised back to life by something. Why and for what reason I can’t remember. I have it written down in a book somewhere, but I’d have to look for it.”

Black Hat and Flug stood in silence for a few minutes, neither of them looking at the other. Finally, Black Hat lightly put his hand on Flug’s shoulder. “Find that book. I am very curious. Also, take the rest of the day off. Unpaid, of course.” He took his hand off Flug’s shoulder and walked towards the door, flicking his hand to unlock it. 505 instantly opened the door and ran in towards Flug, giving him a big hug. Black Hat watched for a moment, gave a small “bleh,” and was almost out the door before Flug spoke up.

“T-t-thank you for saving me sir,” Flug said, quietly.

“Thank me by making me stuff to sell that actually works, Flug.” With that, Black Hat walked out the door and closed it.

As soon as Black Hat was out, Flug curled up in a ball, about to have a mental breakdown. Yes, the whole thing at Aphro’s was messing with him. Yes, havng his secret found out was messing with him, too. But the thing that was weighing on his mind the most was he hid something else from Black Hat. While he was under mind control, he knew what was happening, but he couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was like his body wasn’t his. But this meant he saw Black Hat take the bag off. He saw Black Hat play with the smoke.

He remembered Black Hat kissing him, and it was him, not the mind controlled version, that kissed him back.

“Oh God 505, what am I going to do?” he asked the bear, who was sitting behind Flug, petting him in worry. “This can’t be happening.”

Oh the other side of the door, Black Hat hadn’t moved. He had his hand lightly pressing his mouth. The kiss of the one he loves. It was him. It had worked. At least I don’t have to kill him, but... What is this feeling I have again?! He closed his eyes and his thoughts instantly went to him kissing Flug. I felt...happy? I feel happy? I’m going to kill his man for making me feel anything. Growling at himself, he walked away from the lab. Well, at things will be interesting now.

#villainous #paperhat #WHAT ELSE DO I TAG THIS?#writing #?#I'M SO LOST #I'M SO SORRY #pls don't hate me

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bigbenblogger · 5 years

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Task completed.

Outreach blog week 3: Romania part 2

As I am writing this, we are in the car on our way back to Baak. We got up on Sunday morning at around 6 a.m., ate breakfast, packed the car and after having a time of prayer just before we left, we drove off and were on our way. Stopping in Austria for an all night pit-stop on Sunday evening, we left again early on Monday.

I probably don’t need to testify to you guys that I’m again amazed it went by so quickly, right? Okay, I won’t. Let me just try and recap some of it for you.

The run of the week was much the same as last week, I will however still give this post the same format as last week’s.

Monday

On the first day of the week we did some necessary cleaning up. Dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and mopping. Both Casă Speranței and the centre where some of the programs were held, needed some attention. When we did that and the Romanian kids arrived in the evening, we sang a few worship songs, had a short bible teaching (in Romanian, so I can’t tell you what it was about :p) and played a game when it was finished. Guys, talk about a chicken coop :D! The kids were divided into two teams. Two people from a team stood in the middle while the rest sat down on each side of the room. The teams each had to scream directions at the blindfolded person in the middle for them to get to the kid on the other side. Obviously, one team screamed the correct directions while the other one tried to mislead. It made for a lot of laughs! :D

Tuesday

Just before the evening I got to try my hand at wood cleaving. I’ll just share a picture and say I’m glad this world has lumberjacks and poets alike, guess which one I identify as :D

When late afternoon arrived, we went down to the Roma church in Sân Paul to put on the program for the Roma children. When we arrived and saw that we were all alone, we waited to unpack the car. We weren’t sure anybody was going to show up, because there was absolutely no-one there...yet. When a few children did arrive, we decided to get started. Suddenly, within 5 minutes the small church room was filled with children excited to hear the final chapter in the story of Joseph, found in the bible from Genesis chapter 42 onwards. We had the story again with drama and sang and practiced the bible verse some more. This time the kids did much better in singing along, I was so proud of them :D

Wednesday

This morning we had a big task ahead of us! Bogdi, one of the leaders of the Roma church, a guy with an amazing testimony, helped us help Liz transport some logs of firewood from a meadow down to her house. The drive each time took about 30 minutes each time by tractor and it took two trips to get everything to down to her place.

Erwin tried fixing a swinging bench that broke down while I mowed the grass. This job was especially fun for some reason. It really does give you the satisfaction of a job well done and besides, with the audio bible playing in my headphones time went by in no...well, time!

In the evening we put on the program for the Romanian kids and you want to know something really cool that happened? I’ve only learned about 6 words in Romanian, so communicating with the kids was obviously really hard. Until I heard about two kids, a young teenage boy and his younger sister, who used to live in Romania but moved to Spain a while ago. They were in Romania on holiday and so I as able to speak a little Spanish with them! I really never thought I would ever get a chance to speak with people who didn’t speak English, it was a wonderful surprise!

Thursday

If you’ll remember, last week we were invited to a young people’s prayer and bible study group to talk about marriage, relationship and I was asked to talk about singleness. I am no expert on anything, without God I am not wise or have much insight at all. But God has been teaching me so much on these subjects, I was honoured to get the opportunity to share my journey with people. Whereas last week was more about relationships in general, this week Erwin and Anita dove deep into marriage. Since I don’t have any practical experience on being married yet, they asked me to speak about courtship. I can’t write down here what I shared but please, start a conversation with me about this should you ever want to, I’d love to share with you and learn from you on this :D

Friday

This week Friday was our free day. We went down town Cluj to some souvenir shops after which we went to have lunch at a restaurant near beautiful lake Gilău (look it up!). In the evening the teens came and after the God-spot, shared by Anita this time, I played ping-pong with Liz. Although she was really good, I did beat her....twice ;)

Saturday

This was also a relatively calm day. As it was the last full day we were staying in Romania, we packed up as many of our things as possible and cleared out our rooms.

Last week, Erwin ordered two new book shelves for in the library. Normally they weren’t going to arrive until a few weeks after we left and we had wanted to be able to assemble them ourselves. To our surprise they did eventually arrive very early and we were able to put them together completely before we left. They were assembled in record time by the A-team which was also a really enjoyable activity to do together, especially with worship music on in the background :D

Top picture f.l.t.r.: Liz, Anita, Erwin, moi and Bogdan (who we called Bogdi)

Bottom picture f.l.t.r.: Erwin, me, Bogdan (who we called Kretzu) and Anita

Pheewiee..! So many words and I haven’t even been able to tell you half about the experiences I’ve had these past three weeks. Like I said, feel free to ask me about it, there is much more to share!

I also do want to post another update in about a week where I’ll share more and also post some more pictures (there’s a 10 picture limit per post :p). I’ll also want to wrap up and have a look back at this year together with you, dear reader. Look forward to a few posts coming until summer is over!

You have no idea how honoured I am that you would read my blog. Thank you for the feedback you’ve been giving. Thank you for being intentional in following my journey of the past three weeks!

Write to you soon!

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mrjohnangulo · 5 years

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BGG.CON 2018 Recap

by Mary Prasad

Here we are once again for my marathon BGG.CON coverage! This year I'm hoping to fit it all into one part, some of the game publishers I had missed at BGG.CON didn't reply to emails asking for information. So less work for me! Yay! This worked in my favor since my husband and I decided to get our diving certification (plus enriched air and advanced certifications) in between the holidays and into the new year, making things extra crazy. (Don't even get me started on our current tax nightmare and having to change accountants.) BGG.CON 2018 was held November 14-18 at the Hyatt Regency DFW for the last time. It was a little sad as we said goodbye to the wonderful Hyatt staff, who have done such an excellent job over the years.

During the Closing Ceremony, a Hyatt representative was made an honorary geek (games were given to the staff too!) On a more positive note, BGG.CON is moving to a larger space! The 2019 convention will be at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. The exhibit hall will be in one room, rather than two (woo hoo!). The main ballroom will be larger and there will be more hotel rooms available. The hotel will handle about 5,000 attendees but BGG.CON will not max out in the first year due to extra growth issues and logistics. The number of attendees this year was about 3,200. The new location will be closer to Love Field airport. I highly recommend taking advantage of this. It's especially nice for those who like to fly Southwest (like me). We've actually been flying into Love Field the last few years anyway since we discovered it was a lot less expensive for a direct flight, including Lyft to and from the hotel. Also, the airport is smaller — easier and faster to get in and out.

Good thing BGG.CON is moving to a larger space - doubling up doesn't look too fun. Fun Fact: This year's theme was the 1980s. Thanks to the hotel staff, there was 80s music in the lobby and bar plus retro candy and decorations. TeamGeek dressed in theme the first day (as usual) and there were themed T-shirts and posters available for sale. The line this year was similar to last year, averaging less than an hour wait time. (If you waited until the bulk of attendees went through, it was rather short — I think I waited only a few minutes.) Premium badges were available again this year at a flat fee of $400. There were the same number as last year, 150. The benefits were mostly the same except there were no extra games this year. (Last year it was sponsored by CGE.) This option is planned for 2019 but no word on pricing or how many will be made available (although it will be no more than 5% of badges sold). Thank you to [user=CaptainQwyx]Jeff Anderson[/user] for providing stats and some of the other information in this article. Door Prizes Attendees received one item in each group (group/game/company): A/Tokaido 5th Anniversary Collectors Edition/Active Player Network A/Colony/Bézier Games A/Nine Navies War/Decision Games A/Battle Cry of Freedom/Decision Games A/Saint Malo/Ravensburger B/Shop 'n Time/Mercury B/Infamy/Mercury B/Flick 'Em Up/Pretzel Games B/Road Hog: Rule the Road/Ultra PRO B/Flag Dash/Ultra PRO C/RARRR!!!/APE Games C/duck! duck! Go!/APE Games C/Rise to Power/APE Games C/Mini Meteor/Mayday Games C/Mow Money/Mayday Games C/H.I.D.E.: Hidden Identity Dice Espionage/Mayday Games C/Memoarrr!/Stronghold Games D/Nerdy Inventions/Mayday Games D/Twist of Fate/Mayday Games D/Voodoo/Mayday Games D/PUSH/Ravensburger E/Pint Glass/Starling Games Ultimate Geek Sponsors Thank you to the following companies for their ultimate support of BGG.CON: - Active Player Network - http://activeplayernetwork.com - APE Games - http://www.apegames.com - Bezier Games - https://beziergames.com/ - Decision Games - http://decisiongames.com/wpsite/ - Mayday Games - https://www.maydaygames.com/ - Mercury Games - https://www.mercurygames.com - Pretzel Games - http://www.pretzelgames.com/en/ - Ravensburger North America - https://www.ravensburger.us/start/index.html - Starling Games - https://www.starling.games - Stronghold Games - http://strongholdgames.com/ - Tasty Minstrel Games - http://playtmg.com/ Hot Games The following "hot" games were available throughout the convention in a separate area of the main game room: 2 Architects of the West Kingdom 2 Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra 2 Blackout: Hong Kong 2 Carpe Diem 1 Coimbra 1 Concordia: Venus 1 Everdell 1 Forum Trajanum 1 Fuji 2 Gùgōng 1 Key Flow 2 Newton 2 Reykholt 1 The River 1 Root 2 Teotihuacan: City of Gods 1 Treasure Island 2 Underwater Cities 1 Western Legends Game Library 6,443 games were available for check out in the BGG.CON library. Below are the top ten games checked out of the library, preceded by the number of checkouts. There's a full list available as well. This does not include the games that were available throughout the convention in the Hot Games area. Information provided by [user=Aldie]Scott Alden[/user]. 117 Cryptid 104 Everdell 102 Gizmos 90 Azul 89 Villainous 86 Planet 81 Men At Work 80 Coimbra 76 The River 66 Wildlands 66 Wildlands: The Unquiet Dead

Oopsie! Someone bumped the table during (dexterity) game Men at Work. OK, it was me. I said I was sorry! Please still be my friends! Math Trade Okay, this may be the 13th year of the math trade. Last year it was touted as the 10th or possibly the 11th – not really sure what happened to the 12th. Maybe 13 ate it? If you are interested in what games were up for trade or what games people wanted, check out the Math Trade Actual Geeklist or the Hopes and Dreams Request List respectively. Math trades are a super cool way to trade games you no longer play/want for something new to try. If you want to participate, start checking the BGG.CON forum at the beginning of October. There were 297 traded (1010 not traded), with 72 people making at least one trade. Organized by [user=rossum]Mischa D. Krilov[/user]. Virtual Flea Market (VFM) If you have a lot of games to sell, this is an excellent venue for you (especially if you are a far distance from Dallas). List your games ahead of the convention (details here), then bring only those that sold! Time and space was reserved at BGG.CON for participants to meet up. Since the VFM has grown so much, this year 45 minutes were allotted (instead of the typical 30 minutes). There were a few rules everyone was asked to follow to make things go smoothly. Board Game Bazaar (Flea Market) This event fills up with sellers every year so there are plenty of games to barter over. I've gotten some great deals in the past. Below are a few photos of the event, taken during set-up (i.e., before all the craziness started, the hall crowded, and most of the games were sold). If you plan to shop at the Board Game Bazaar, get in line early! It is a long one.

Mystery Meat! Did you take a chance? If you bought one of these, let me know in the comments what it was! I'm very curious (and slightly apprehensive).

Not all the items being sold were games per se, but usually they were game related. Check out these cute meeple bags.

Wow look at the price on this! I'm thinking there may be a sale at our house in the near future. Don't tell my husband. He probably won't miss it, right?

Ooo, candy! Tasty incentives... I think there were games on that table, too.

Spiel-a-thon [user=sconway]Stephen Conway[/user]: "The 10th Spiel-a-thon at BGG.CON was held in Dallas, Texas on November 16, 2018. It was a tremendous success! We had our largest turnout to-date for a Spiel-a-thon in Dallas. AND we raised the most money ever for this location! $3,500 in less than 3 hours. Each Spiel-a-thon is about more than asking people to pry open their wallets, though. The driving force behind every Spiel-a-thon is to demonstrate how play can be a powerful force for good in the world. Don't get me wrong, we welcome your contributions any day, any time. But if you come to a Spiel-a-thon, you come to pay by playing! You play. Then you pay. And The Spiel Foundation uses this money to assemble bundles of games. Each bundle allows more kids and seniors to play. Each game bundle we send out delivers more fun into the world. It's a perfect circle of fun. And that is priceless. Many many thanks to the people who made this event such a success. Thank you to my new Spiel partner Doug Richardson for all his hard work. Thank you to our intrepid staff of volunteers: Francie Broadie Patty Richardson, Marguerite Cottrell, Jay Bartelt, Erin Green, Veronica Worley, Rachel Lee, Ezra Denney, Jeff Ridpath, Beth Heile John Knoerzer and Debbie Ohi." Geek Buzz Every attendee is given a Geek Buzz code with their badge. The Wiki Geek Buzz page has information on how it works. Results are posted on the full leaderboard. Here are the top ten (as of December 31, 2018). 1. Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra 2. Western Legends 3. Everdell 4. Architects of the West Kingdom 5. Carpe Diem 6. KeyForge: Call of the Archons 7. Root 8. Teotihuacan: City of Gods 9. Sagrada 10. War Chest Guests Attending BGG.CON for the first time was video game designer and board gamer, Tim Schafer. For example, he directed Grim Fandango, the first LucasArts game to use 3D graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgrounds (Wikipedia on Grim Fandango). Returning again this year were game designers [user=mleacock]Matt Leacock[/user], [user=Eric Lang]Eric Lang[/user], and [user=RobDaviau!]Rob Daviau[/user]. There was a Special Guest Panel on Saturday evening where attendees could listen, chat, and possibly ask questions.

Matt Leacock — look how happy he is to see me! Who needs a puppy when you have awesome friends like this? Originally Rich Sommer was scheduled as a guest but he was able to get a new TV gig. Another cool special guest thing was a live playthrough of Gloomhaven's new community campaign, which included Tim Schafer, Gloomhaven's designer [user=Cephalofair]Isaac Childres[/user], [user=CaptainQwyx]Jeff Anderson[/user], and [user=Aldie]Scott Alden[/user]. A live stream was broadcast. Even Isaac Childres was excited: "The first scenario of the new Community-Driven expedition will go live at BGG.CON. So the scenario will be available Wednesday, Nov. 14, and then Thursday night, I will be playing it on a live stream at the con with Jeff Anderson and Scott Alden from BGG, and Tim Schafer (!!!), creator of some of my favorite video games like Monkey Island and Psychonauts." Fun Fact: This was BGG's first live-streamed event from BGG.CON. There is some Q&A with Isaac at the end of the video. Youtube Video TeamGeek A special thank you goes out to the staff of volunteers and workers of TeamGeek! They are a big part of BGG.CON's success.

Events You can find the official BGG.CON Schedule here and the Special Events page here. —AssassinCon AssassinCon, sponsored by Mayday Games, ran in the shadows of BGG.CON. Participants must pre-register before the convention. Players in this meta-game are given a special ribbon to attach to their badges. Each must find their target and have them sign their card (the target is eliminated and this is their trophy); the player then gains their target's card as their next target. Players had to report in to the Mayday Games to record their trophies (ties were broken by earliest trophy time recorded). The player who gained the most trophies by Saturday afternoon became the Master Assassin. Prizes: Master Assassin $100.00 Gift Card to Funagain Games 2nd Place $75.00 Gift Card to Funagain Games 3rd Place $50.00 Gift Card to Funagain Games

Funagain Games Booth in the Exhibit Hall —Catch the Moon

Hosted by Active Player Network. Description from BGG.CON Events page: "Test your balance and stacking skills in the new dexterity game Catch the Moon in an event hosted and sponsored by Active Player Network. Catch the Moon, from Bombyx, is an easy-to-learn game for all ages and skill levels that will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to play over and over to hone your strategy and technique. Event attendees will be taught how to play, and may stay and enjoy for as many plays as they want within the 2-hour block (play time is 20-30 minutes). There will also be a live prize drawing, offering players the chance to leave with a copy of the game!" —Introduction to Board Wargaming and Board Wargamers Meet & Greet The Meet & Greet was hosted by [user=doccummins]Christopher "Doc" Cummins[/user], Publisher at Strategy & Tactics Press and CEO of Decision Games. The purpose was to meet new and returning fellow war-game enthusiasts and discuss games would like to play during the convention including setting up schedules for game play. The Introduction to Board Wargaming sessions were two 20-30 minute presentations, also given by Doc Cummins, on basic concepts and terms of board wargaming. The presentations were followed by demonstrations using enlarged versions of Decision Games' mini-games such as: Germantown, Caesar's War, Eagle Day, Phobos Rising, Vikings Tournaments —Tichu Tournament This year's tournament had 24 teams (48 people). Prizes included Tichu decks for the finalists and badges and guaranteed hotel reservation for winners (reservation does not include the cost of the hotel room).

—PitchCar Tournament Attendees could test their flicking skills as they raced their cars (wooden disks) through a custom designed stunt track. And they meant business – check out that crazy track!

There were forty participants in the tournament. For the preliminary races, they had five unique tracks set up, with eight participants per track. There were three preliminary races, with each player getting to race three of the five tracks. Participants were reshuffled so they ended up playing against different people rather than all three races with the same people. After the three preliminary races, players handed in their scores (i.e. their positions they finished for each of the races added together). The lowest eight scores advanced to the final race, where they tore down the preliminary tracks, and built one mega final track for the finalists. The prize was a big trophy. The hosts for this event were [user=BlueWaldo]Chad DeShon[/user] and [user=chaddyboy_2000]Chad Krizan[/user] (the latter provided this information). —Poker Tournament The Annual Texas Hold'Em Tournament is a staple for BGG.CON. There were about 225 participants this year. Amateurs were encouraged to play; if they showed up early, they could get a rules summary to help them get started. No money was involved but there were great prizes! It was sponsored by Tasty Minstrel Games, which awarded a stack of games to the winner as well as a game to everyone in the final game. BGG also gave the winner a couple badges and a guaranteed hotel reservation to next year's event (reservation does not include the cost of the hotel room). Hosted by [user=CaptainQwyx]Jeff Anderson[/user]. —Treasure Island Treasure Island, a SPIEL '18 release, premiered at BGG.CON as a play-to-win tournament. The tournament was played over two rounds with eleven tables, narrowed down to two tables for the second round. The winner of each of the three tables received a copy of the game (distributed by Asmodee North America). Exhibit Hall —R&R Games Information provided by Frank DiLorenzo, President of R&R Games. Outback was released at SPIEL '18. This is a dice rolling, push-your-luck strategy game where players collect sets of Australian animals to maximize their points. It's super cute too (who doesn't love koalas, platapus, or kangaroos?). This R&R version includes variants as well as an option for team play.

The Table is Lava was released at SPIEL '18. Yep, lava table, card islands, and meeples... throw your card and be sure to attach/touch to another card "island" or you don't get to use the card action. Win by having the most surviving meeples. The Coconuts Edition expansion adds another player, cards, and meeples. Fun Fact: Really more of a clue... Frank says "it wouldn't hurt to know how to use the Wayback Machine." —Game Toppers Information provided by Kevin Burahardsmeier. Game Toppers are portable gaming tops that can convert your home table into a high quality gaming solution. Each Topper has modular parts, such as cup holders, accessory trays, and dice towers. They also sell thematic game mats, Game Topper storage bags (for Topper storage and portability), and Game Totes - insulated totes for game storage and portability. Another Kickstarter is coming Q1 2019 featuring new mats, new accessories, and new topper sizes (they currently have five sizes).

—Daedalus Productions New expansion boxes are coming to Kickstarter November 2018. Because game boxes aren't Tardis' ... Instead having inserts lift the game box lid, this new larger box allows games to be fit in perfectly while using the original lid. For example, all of Small World, Underground, and expansions will fit in one box, with both lids: one on the bottom (held by friction) and one on the top, so that in the shelf, it just looks like two games. Daedalus will also be offering magnetic lid bit boxes, which will be configurable and customizable with smaller boxes inside. Boxes will be available in both black or white.

—Catan Studio Information provided by Morgan Dontanville, Catan Studio Catan: Rise of the Inkas was released at SPIEL '18 and should be on the shelves of the English-speaking world November 2018. Inkas uses the standard Catan structure and drastically makes changes in the mechanisms to depict the rise and fall of Andean tribes. Each player must play through the rise and decline of three Inkan tribes in order to win. Rise of the Inkas includes three new trade goods, in addition to the five resources, powers added to Longest Trade Route and Most Combat Skills. But the biggest change of all is the ability to build over top of other players' settlements.

Catan Scenario: Crop Trust is an add-on scenario for your base Catan game. Catan worked closely with Crop Trust, an international nonprofit organization who's goal is to protect global food security. They are most famous for their seed vault in the Arctic that safely houses over 4,000 species of seed. The scenario encourages players to be aware of crop diversity and the dangers of monocultures by way of event cards. It also gives new ways to score points through banking crops' seeds into the seed vault. The game can collapse entirely if there is too much of a threat to the food supply. A large portion of the profits and royalties go to supporting the Crop Trust.

Fun Fact: Catan Studios sent a team to Svalbard, home of the northern most civilization in the world as well as the seed vault that houses all of the saved samples for the Crop Trust. While they were there, they played Crop Trust. —CGE Information provided by Justin Sweigart, Director of North American Operations. Trapwords released at SPIEL '18; U.S. release at BGG.CON. This is a dungeon-themed word guessing game where two teams are trying to guess the word their respective team member is trying to get them to guess while avoiding words on a list selected by the opposing team. Teams try to work their way through a dungeon with different rooms. Curses are placed on certain rooms making things more difficult (these affect the first team(s) in the room and only hangs around for one round). The goal is the defeat the boss monster (which moves up when both teams fail). A timer is optional. Through the Ages: Leaders and Wonders (working title) has a planned release of second quarter 2019 (both physical and digital). This expansion for Through the Ages mainly contains more leaders and wonders for each age of the game. Fun Fact: At SPIEL '18, CGE had a very VERY large helium balloon over their booth. It was so big that it took two tanks to fill it. (Photo, copyright CGE.)

—KOSMOS Information provided by Tom Wetzel, Customer Service Representative. Mercado was released at Gen Con 2018. This is a bag draw game where players draw colored coins from a bag and place them around tiles in a display, on their designated player color's side (each tile has all four player colors, one on each side). The tiles represent merchants, objects, and perfume, each of which has a cost in some combination of coins. Merchants give players wild coins or privilege tokens. Privilege tokens give players victory points and/or benefits. Objects give the players victory points and/or effects (may be good or bad, e.g. gain a counterfeit coin in your bag), better than privilege tokens. Perfumes also have beneficial effects. The player who makes a complete circuit on the score board triggers the end game; the player with the most points wins. Ubongo Fun-Size was released December 2018. This is a smaller box (seven inch) game with thinner puzzle card tiles but the number of puzzle cards included is the same as the original Ubongo game (but double-sided) and the pieces are the same size! Game play has been changed to eliminate the die, instead it is a race to finish filling in the puzzle area first (either with three pieces or four pieces, depending on the side played — four pieces being more challenging). First person to finish gets to keep their puzzle card and takes a gem; other players who finish within an allotted time also get to keep their cards. Players play eight rounds (eight cards). Scoring is one point per gem and one per card. The winner is the player with the most points.

Fun Fact: Rüdiger Dorn got his start designing board games early in life when he "got to know the C64-games Donkey Kong and Frogger." Unfortunately he did not have a computer, so he designed his own board game versions of these games. When asked why he decided to design a bag pulling game, he responded "I love the suspense and the feeling of the material in my hand." —AEG Information from Todd Rowland, Alderac Entertainment Group.

War Chest was released at Gen Con 2018. This is an abstract bag-building war game. High quality poker chips, representing players' units, are drawn each turn; they determine what a player can do on their turn. The goal is to control certain spaces on the board (there are not enough for each player). Each game, players draft four of a possible sixteen units, giving the game a lot of variety and strategy options. Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto has a planned release of first quarter 2019. This is a "saga" expansion, as opposed to a legacy one, giving a story line to the game but the game may be reset and replayed. Scientists, in the process of trying to invent warp technology, attracted a planet-eating creature to the players' star system. This expansion takes players through the "adventure" of solving this problem. Fun Fact: About two years ago, for the Thunderstone Quest Kickstarter, the CEO of AEG put a yellow meeple in one of the playtest photos used on the Kickstarter page. There was a note saying "yellow meeple not included." People started asking why the yellow meeple wasn't available. It became a sort of joke over the next couple years. The yellow meeple started showing up in other AEG promotions and advertisements, even sporting anime eyes in the Unicornus Nights advertising. When Thunderstone Quest was released, an actual yellow meeple was included due to its popularity.

—Wattsalpoag Games Information provided by Kris Gould, owner of Wattsalpoag. Echidna Shuffle was released June 2018. This game is basically an echidna traffic jam where players try to deliver their three bugs to their tree stumps. During setup, players place put pick-up markers out on the game board; this is where the bugs will be picked up. An opponent (to player's left) puts a player's corresponding three stumps on the board. The winner is the player who delivers all three of their bugs.

River Explorers (working title) is planned for release in 2019. The object of game is to make the most money by moving a stack of explores with at least one of your own in it up river along a marked path, dropping explorers (one per space) as you move. The owner of an explorer gains money for being dropped at their trading post (one per disk in the stack next to their matching trading post). At the beginning of your turn you put a trading post next to a space then take your turn: placing an explorer on an empty space or moving a stack of explorers. Fun Fact: The sequel to Echidna Shuffle will be called Echidna Candy Store, based on the pun. —Meeple Realty Meeple Realty makes inserts, and now miniatures, for board games.

Meeple Realty - Terraforming Mars miniatures (seen in photo) coming to Kickstarter early 2019. —Stronghold Games Information provided by Stephen Buonocore, President Stronghold Games.

AuZtralia was released in November 2018. Thematic spiritual successor to A Study in Emerald. The Old Ones, after being defeated in England, have taken up residence in Australia. Players must now defeat them while building rail systems and mining resources. Mechanisms include resource management, rail building, and combat versus the Old Ones (semi-cooperative element against the Old Ones). Terraforming Mars: Colonies was out in November 2018. This is the fourth expansion to Terraforming Mars. Players now visit the outer planets' moons and astroids, where players establish colonies and set up trade routes. There is more player interaction via trading and having other players visit your colonies. Fun Fact: Stephen sent me a couple fun facts. Here's one: Sir Percival (see Stephen's cat photo) was the first "Knight of The Stronghold." Stephen might be a little too attached to his pet. For your entertainment, I thought I'd share an excerpt from our Fun Fact conversation:

—Mayday Games Information provided by Ryan Bruns, President Mayday Games. The Golden Sails has a planned release of second quarter 2019. This is a set-collection, card-driven game where players are navel merchants trying to acquire sets of goods to meet demand: spices, gems, weapons, animal, and spells. Bad Doctor was pre-released at Gen Con 2018 and recently released. This is a tile-laying, player action based game where the goal is to treat patients with the hopes of curing them, or at least not letting them die on your turn. If a patient dies on another player's turn or is cured on your turn, any doctor markers you have on the patient come to your score pile. Doctor markers are put on patients through the best use of your two actions per turn. The winner is the first player to collect 8 doctor markers. Fun Fact: Artist Bill Holbrook did the artwork for Bad Doctor. He also does the word's longest running daily web comic: Kevin and Kell.

—Starling Games Information provided by Dan Yarrington, Starling Games and CEO Tabletop Tycoon. Archmage: Ascendant, expansion for Archmage, has a planned release mid-2019. This adds four new modules to the game: Places of Power, New Spells, Prophecies, Cooperative Play (two-player). King's Forge: Masterworks has a planned release of third quarter 2019. This is the fifth expansion for King's Forge. There are four new types of dice: Borealis ("wild"), Aether Ore (metal/magic), Heartwood (wood/gem), Grimstones (chaotic/variable). The game also includes Ambassadors and a new Royal Decree. Fun Fact: Tabletop Tycoon has a town, Tabletop Tycoon Town, where their staff has unique character representations (avatars) that they choose. They have an artist create each representation, which goes into the Tabletop Tycoon Town image on their website. The avatars are also used on their reserved parking spaces and business cards.

—Gamelyn Games Information provided by Nathan Hatfield, Chief Sales Officer. Tiny Epic Zombies was released October 2018. The game features five modes of play: cooperative AI controlled zombie, cooperative with human controlled zombie, competitive with AI controlled zombie, competitive human controlled zombie, and solo. It introduces a whole new set of items for ITEMeeples® (e.g. axe, machetti, chain saw). There are two vehicles (cop car and motorcycle) in which ITEMeeples can ride, allowing them to move further. There are 14 human characters/cards, with zombies on the backs of the cards, for a total of 28 choices. Humans must complete three objectives to win the game; zombies must kill all humans to win. There are different levels of difficulty as well, e.g. one survivor token death ends the game vs. some number of deaths ending the game. Note: players are not eliminated from the game upon token deaths. Game play is under an hour. Tiny Epic Mechs has a planned release of mid-2019. This is an arena combat game, player vs. player, with action programming (e.g. Robo Rally). The ITEMeeples® in this game actually go inside power armors and mech warriors, which sit on the board. When an ITEMeeple moves to it, it may jump inside.

Fun Fact: Every member of the Gamelyn Games team has bungie jumped and sky dived. —Grey Fox Games Information provided by Alex Goldsmith, Grey Fox Games.

City of Gears was released at SPIEL '18. This game originally started as a contest entry for Best Steampunk Game on The Game Crafter, a website for creators to build and sell games. This is a resource management, area control and engine building game where you uncover a lost steampunk city and bring it back to life, using robot workers you deploy from your factory. The game includes 21 unique city tiles, 9 of which you use each game, and 40 different development cogs, each of which grant you a special player power.

Reavers of Midgard is the sequel to the worker placement game Champions of Midgard. It was recently funded on Kickstarter and has an expected release date of second quarter 2019. Reavers of Midgard's core mechanism is single worker placement, with each player getting one action and the rest getting weaker and weaker versions of the same action in turn order. You will send your viking crew to do battle with epic monsters, raid fortified keeps, get boat upgrades from villages, and conquer new lands. Fun Fact: When Reavers of Midgard was initially pitched by J.B. Howell, the game was originally themed to take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. —Devir Information provided by Adam Growden, Sales Administrator, Devir Games. Silk pre-released at BGG.CON, with the full release first week of December 2018. In Silk you play a giant silk worm farmer in the Akaishi Mountains. You will be using your silk worms, shepherd, mastiff, and building improvements to control areas of the board. Your worms will graze on the grassy tiles to score points. Each player will determine their actions by rolling two dice at the beginning of their turn, showing what actions they can take. The die results can be modified by players spending their victory points to adjust the result up or down. Actions can be anything from scoring points to bumping an opponent's silk worm to the Ookami, a monster who steals any silk worms he comes in contact with (costing the player points). Fun Fact: The designer Luis Ranedo is the singer of Spanish Rock band Madera. Youtube Video

Papua will be releasing alongside Silk the first week of December 2018. In Papua, players compete by sending scientists to different board locations allowing them to: discover new plant and animal cards, increase their number of scientists, gain more actions in a turn, gather food and money to supply their expedition, or collect scientific notebooks recording their findings. Players will score points through discovering new species, recording their findings, and resource accumulation. Sets are collected through a mixture of worker placement and secret bidding. Fun Fact: Papua's title art is based off of an image of the Hewa people. The Hewa were one of the last contacted tribes in Papua, with contact not being made until 1975.

Papua Game Board —Eagle-Gryphon Games Information provided by Jason Grantz, Sales Director. Fleet: The Dice Game was released at the end of 2018. This is a roll-and-write game set in the Fleet universe. Players go fishing by drafting "fish" dice that are used to acquire boats and fishing licenses (special abilities). The object of the game is to gain the most victory points by visiting the market, wharf, and harbor. Players sell fish to gain coins in the market and visit buildings at the wharf for end game victory points or special abilities. The harbor unlocks extra storage, more fishing, and victory points. Escape Plan, by the designer of The Gallerist and Lisboa, has a planned release at Origins 2019. Players are each members of a gang who pulled a bank heist then hid money around the city. Now that it's safe to retrieve the money (freshly laundered of course), they are all suspicious of each other. Each tries to recover the most money from the various businesses where money was stashed. The game takes place over three days (with rounds of 6 to 8 actions). To win, a player must escape the city with the most money.

Fun Fact: Eagle-Gryphon's CEO, Rick Soued, and his wife, Joanne, just spent the last six months traveling all across Europe for their anniversary. —Queen Games Information provided by Ian Kissell, Queen Games. Bastille was released at SPIEL '18; it premiered at BGG.CON in the U.S. This is a light to medium Euro game in which players are trying to gain victory points by acquiring leaders, by completing missions, and through various bonuses. It is a worker placement game where the higher placement (influence number) goes first (or first player in the space if tie). The workers (influence number) may be upgraded through one of the actions. Luxor: the Mummy's Curse, an expansion to Luxor, is expected to be released first quarter 2019. It includes three expansion modules: The Mummy, Pitfalls, and New Treasures. Fun Fact: Queen Games started by selling Carrom boards for about the first ten years. —Surfin' Meeple Information provided by Ian Birdsall, Group Marketing Manager, and Nikki Pontius, Surfin' Meeple. Treasure Island, released at SPIEL '18, premiered at BGG.CON as a play-to-win tournament. Published by Matagot. In Treasure Island, one person plays Long John Silver. The other players are interrogating him to find out where he buried his treasure. Some information is hidden and some is public knowledge. The game includes a dry erase board map of the island, rulers, and templates. Players use the latter two to draw lines along which they move, and circle their dig area. Clues can include the direction to where the treasure is buried.

In Imagineers, published by Maple Games (below), players are building rides in a theme park to attract customers, represented by colored meeples, e.g. blue like water rides, red like thrill rides, yellow like family rides. Each player may also upgrade their own roller coaster (on their personal player mat), for example, by adding a loop to their roller coaster. The object of the game is to gain the most fame. Players use happiness points to gain fame; money is necessary to build new attractions and upgrade roller coasters. You generally get happiness by having visitors ride attractions (any player may do this) and gain money by having visitors use your attractions. The game has an intuitive Mancala style of play.

Fun Fact: Chris Leder originally designed Imagineers nearly twenty years ago under the title "CoasterCraft." Fun Fact: Surfing' Meeple got their name from one of the owner's children who loved to surf while living in Californa. —Maple Games Ian Birdsall, Group Marketing Manager. Dragon Boats of the Four Seas is a light euro style game with elements of auction bidding and set collection. Set in a fictional kingdom inspired by Chinese mythology, players take on the roles of leaders of one of the great houses of Zhong-Guo. Over several rounds, players will trade, build farms, and make offerings for the safe passage of their ships to the forgotten lands. Dragon Boats of the Four Seas comes with three-dimensional dragon boats. There are many viable strategies to attain victory. Fun Fact: The original "Four Seas" metaphorically made up the borders of pre-Han dynasty China. —Kolossal Games Ian Birdsall, Group Marketing Manager. Western Legends is available now (reprint also in the works due to demand). It is an open world, sandbox game. Assume the role of historical figures of the American West as you carve out your legend in any number of ways. You can gamble, drive cattle, fight bandits, prospect for gold, rob the bank and become an outlaw, or become a marshal and uphold the law. The possibilities are near endless. Very thematic. Fun Fact: Fans of Western Legends will have the opportunity to Ante Up! this January. Kami-Sama is an intuitive strategy game set in rural Japan during the Edo period. Assume the role of one of twenty Kami with your own unique powers. Use your asymmetrical abilities to place or remove shrines, build patterns to gain favor, draft villagers for bonuses, and work in balance with Nature to become the chief deity of the land. Kami-Sama will be available for retail release in first quarter 2019. Fun Fact: The designers of Kami-Sama hid a number of cute cats among the villages in the game. —Floodgate Games Information provided by Ben Harkins, Owner Floodgate Games. Sagrada: 5&6 Player Expansion was released at Gen Con 2018. This expands the Sagrada base game to five or six players and introduces new private objectives that are position based, shown on each player's card as shaded areas. It also adds a private dice pool: two dice of each color that are rolled only at the beginning of the game; on their turns players must choose one die from their private pool and one from the public draft pool. Bosk has a planned release of late Spring 2019. This is an area control game where players, each as a species of tree, play over four seasons. Spring is when players grow trees, Summer is a scoring round (along the park trails), Autumn is when the leaves fall off the trees - covering certain areas, and in Winter players score for area majority per region in the park. Fun Fact: Bosk was signed by Floodgate Games after Daryl Andrews (co-designer) showed it to them at BGG.CON 2017.

—Indie Boards & Cards Information provided by Nick Little, Vice President of Production and Development. Exodus: Paris Nouveau was released September 2019. This is a social deduction game with hidden teams (hunters and rescuers), set in the Dystopian Universe. This game is a little heavier than The Resistance. It has an auction system to determine the leader each round. There are multiple ways to win depending on which team a player is on. Aeon's End: Legacy has a planned release of end of January 2019. This is the first legacy deck-builder game. It is a cooperative game in which players play as mages trying to fight off a big nemesis boss monster. Players start out as a adept mages. At the end of each chapter (e.g. game) players may upgrade their respective mages by choosing their abilities. At the end of the campaign, players will each have a complete mage that may be played with all other Aeon's End games (i.e. it's a character generator!). Unlike other legacy games, over 80% of the content is repayable outside of the legacy campaign. A reset pack will be available upon release that will allow players to replay the campaign and generate new characters.

Bladius, Aeon's End: Legacy Fun Fact: The designer of Aeon's End: Legacy loves Kpop music. —Infinite Dreams Gaming and Conquest Gaming Warehouse 13: The Board Game will be released first quarter 2019. This is a semi-co-operative (hidden traitor) game where players take on the role of one of the Warehouse agents. The game comes with rules for a fully cooperative variant. Like the television show, the characters go out seeking to retrieve dangerous artifacts: "snag it, bag it, and tag it." Players spend actions to obtain cards, then use the cards to get dice (working the case). Artifacts are retrieved by rolling the right combination on dice to match those on the artifacts. There is a field agent training video available (rules).

Infinite Dreams Gaming has plans to Kickstart an expansion second quarter 2019 featuring H. G. Wells and James MacPhearson as playable characters.

Fun Fact: The designers Michael Aldridge, Russell Rupe, and M. Shawn Smith II, were invited by Eddie McClintock, one of the main actors, to his house to play the game. He played his character, Pete. Eddie also did the voiceover for the Kickstarter video. —BGG Geek Store So many cool things to be found at the BGG Geek Store: promos, games from Asia, apparel, and more!

—Fantasy Flight Games KeyForge: Call of the Archons was released in November 2018. This is a unique deck game by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. Each starter box contains two starter decks (two different decks but these are the same in each starter box) plus two completely unique decks (across all boxes produced) plus all the components to play the game with two players. The goal of the game is to forge three keys. Each player's decks contains cards from three of the seven available houses. On their turn they may play as many cards as they want (no cost) from only one of the houses. The cards allow players to collect aember, attack their opponent's creatures, etc. Aember is needed to forge keys. A Game of Thrones: The Board Game – Mother of Dragons expansion has a planned release of December 2018. This adds House Targaryen (dragon meeples to control!) and House Arryn, the Iron Bank of Bravos option (loans), and a side board of Essos (check spelling of all this). It also expands play to eight. Fun Fact: The lead developer of KeyForge, Brad Andres, created a character of himself in the game, featuring his image on one of the cards: Quixo the Adventurer (a common house Logos card). —Plaid Hat Games Neon Gods was released November 2018. This is an area control game that takes place in the "futuristic" year of 2009. Each player controls one four brightly colored gangs whose goal it is to rule the city by gaining the most blurp. Players gain blurp by building structures, selling product tokens, and winning fights. Players add cards to their game decks through recruiting, which in turn places more of their own gang figurines on the board. Comanauts has a planned release of December 2018. This is the successor game to Stuffed Fables but geared more towards adults. It has similar game mechanisms and is more streamlined and stepped up a bit. Dr. Strobal has gone into a coma taking with him the knowledge of how to save the world. Players take on the roles of comanauts and venture into his subconscious to try to wake him up in time to prevent the end of the world. —Wyrmwood Gaming Wyrmwood makes beautiful game-related things out of gorgeous woods (like purpleheart, zebrawood, and black walnut): dice towers, dice trays, deck boxes, game tables, and more!

—Z-Man Games Information provided by Beth Erikson, Z-Man Games. The Great City of Rome debuted in Europe at SPIEL '18; the U.S. release is planned for early 2019. Players are trying to rebuild Rome, creating their best plan, by placing cards in a 4x4 grid, to present to the Emperor. The first player (which rotates) places their pawn on an action strip denoting resources. The few resources gained the more choices of city cards the player has, i.e. the strip has five resources (bricks and cogs in various order, over 6 double-sided strips), the further down the player plays on the strip, the more they gain, i.e. they gain all resources from the space they are on and up. The player with the best city plan _ that is, the most points — at the end of the game wins. Narabi previewed at BGG.CON and has a planned release of early 2019. This is a small, quick co-operative card game in which players are trying to organize stones in a garden. The stones are cards, numbered or blank, that must be put in ascending order either clockwise or counterclockwise. Each stone card has a corresponding restriction card associated with it (before the game starts, each stone card will be randomly paired with a restriction card and put in a card sleeve - this provides variability between games). Each player gets a number of cards, depending on the number of players, giving them limited knowledge of their cards (restrictions). The players' cards are in front of them with stone side up so restrictions are hidden. On their turn, players exchange stones, working towards the correct arrangement one move at at time while following the restrictions. Fun Fact: Atha Kaanani, the staff illustrator for Z-Man Games, used his girlfriend's image on the cover of Pandemic: Fall of Rome. Since she's his artistic muse, you may see her featured in his other art as well. —Victory Point Games Information provided by Alan Emrich, Studio Lead. Gem Rush Second Edition was released at BGG.CON. This is a 1 to 7 player, competitive or cooperative, fast playing game through a magical gem mine. Skillful hand management and play are key to scoring. The goal is to get the most points by building out rooms in the mine. The new edition added new magical gems and skill cards for individual player skills. The third printing of the second edition of Nemo's War is due to be released third quarter 2019. This will include two new expansions, Bold and Caring and Dramatis Personae. Bold and Caring includes two new motives: adventure and humanist. Dramatis Personae includes twelve new adventure cards mainly dealing with the crew (old and new). Fun Fact: "A Christmas Miracle" promo card is in production for Nemo's War (set in 1870) in which Captain Nemo invents nascent light bulbs and illuminates them on deck for the assembled crew on Christmas Eve. The author of "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas," Jules Verne, was no fan of Christianity but a big fan of science, thus the card is a scientific nod on a Christian holiday. —And now for something completely different... My friend, Debbie Ohi, and I took a break from all the fun at BGG.CON to do a little shopping at my favorite Japanese "dollar" store, Daiso. Technically, it's a $1.50 store but that doesn't sound as good (and I barely acknowledge the extra $.50 plus tax... although this may have added to my checkout shock). Daiso is located only in a few western states right now, so whenever I visit one I make sure to plan time (and suitcase space) for Daiso. They have the cutest sticky notes! Little polar bears, penguins, colorful pencils, and so many others — it's hard not to buy them all. (They're only a dollar, right?) They also have really smooth paper, comparable to Rhodia writing pads (which are much more expensive). Perfect for pointed pen calligraphy practice.

Below is a photo of our combined haul. Funny how all those dollar items stack up to well over $100 (I'm not saying how much over either, just in case my hubby is reading this... love you baby!).

—Ravensburger Information provided by Mike Mulvihill, Ravensburger. Carpe Diem was released at SPIEL '18. This is being hailed as a good introduction to Stefan Feld games since it's a bit more forgiving. This is a tile placement game in which players are trying to build up their own districts and gain victory points to win the game. Points are generated in various ways, and gained at the end of each of the four rounds and at the end of the game. In a four player game there is a tableau of 12 cards (reduced for fewer players) between which each player, at the end of a round, must place a marker between two cards (the space must be empty; they are not cleared during the game). The two cards score immediately. If a player does not have the resources or configuration in their district to score points, they get -4 points. The influence track determines the order players place their markers. The district, influence track, and resources will score at the end of the game. Impact: Battle of Elements was released December 2018. This works similarly to Strike in which player toss dice into an arena (called a cauldron) trying to get matching symbols. In this version, the first die determines the element power that will be active for that game. For example, if the first die tossed has a lightning symbol on it, the Lightning Storm will be active. This means that whenever there are two or more lightning symbols showing in the cauldron, there will be a lightning storm: all players must quickly throw one of their dice into the cauldron at the same time. The active player then receives all dice that show matching symbols. A player who runs out of dice is knocked out of the game. The last player standing is the winner. Fun Fact: For Halloween, Paula Biemann, Ravensburger's Consumer Marketing Specialist, dressed up as Ursula from their game Villainous. In the photo, she's also holding up the Ursula figure and the Arrogance card (featuring Ursula) from the game.

—WizKids Information provided by Zev Shlasinger, WizKids Games. Magic the Gathering: Heroes of Dominaria Board Game was released at BGG.CON. This is a Euro-style game set in the plane of Dominaria. Players use mana for various actions, such as building manaliths, leylines, confronting the Cabal, and discovering artifacts. Player characters, Planeswalkers, also go on quests to gain victory points. The winner is the player with the most points at the end of games. Bumúntú will be released in January 2019. This is a beautiful tile game where players use animal movement powers to collect tiles in order to gain points in various ways, depending on the animal. There is a favor board that determines the value of each animal at the end of the game. The board can be manipulated by players during the game by collecting specially marked animal tiles. There are a few tiles that are marked with symbols that will allow a player to score them at the end of the game as well. For example, animal tiles with masks on them give more and more points per mask collected. Fun Fact: Almost everyone who worked on Maiden's Quest was female: artist, graphic designer, most playtesters, developer, lead play tester, and editors. —Cryptozoic Entertainment Information provided by Matt Hyra, Lead Board Game Designer. Cult: Choose Your God Wisely was pre-released at BGG.CON and should be in stores now. This is a worker/Priest placement game with a unique take on in-game currency: Followers. Players choose Gods and send their Priests to places in the Eternal City in an attempt to bring their deity victory over the minds and souls of humanity. Followers are gained and sacrificed. Altars are built to the different Gods as they clash in this new take on the genre. Fun Fact: Cult: Choose Your God Wisely can now be played on Tabletopia (a virtual platform for board games co-founded by Agrology), allowing people to check it out before purchasing the physical game. Rick and Morty Rickshank: The Rickdemption Deck-Building Game released at BGG.CON. This is a standalone game that is also fully compatible with the original Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind Deck-Building Game. New features include Access Tokens and Council cards. Access Tokens can be bought, gained, and spent in numerous ways. Many cards reference them in one way or another. They also give you the potential to increase the number of Votes you have when a Council card is played. Each Council card causes a Vote to be taken amongst the players. A Referendum is a Vote amongst the players to decide if they should all perform the listed action, or not. A Sanction is a Vote that players take to decide which player should be punished (with varying effects). Lastly, a Bid is a Vote on who should earn a positive effect. Here, each player Votes only for themselves, and the high bidder earns it. Fun Fact: The infamous Szechuan Sauce card is in the game. Get it before it's gone!

—Bellwether Games Information provided by Dennis Hoyle, Bellwether Games. Coldwater Crown: The Sea is scheduled for release in early 2019. It is the first boxed expansion to Coldwater Crown, the strategic fishing game from designer Brian Suhre. Coldwater Crown: The Sea integrates with the original game by adding a new fishing location (the Sea), five new species of fish, a new type of fishing tackle, punchboard fishing boats, and two variant species challenge tiles. A new Port action in the game allows players to move their fishing boat to "Sea," where they can catch Sea fish (and only Sea fish) with any color of bait. Sea fish are scored according to a special weight scale, with the potential for a lot of points, tempting players to stay "at Sea" longer while forgoing points from the standard fishing challenges.

Mars Open: Tabletop Golf was released in July 2018. It is a dexterity golfing game with a flickable paper "golf ball" that can fly, spin, hook, skip and flop. Players assemble and play-through a course, one hole at a time, from the punchboard obstacles provided in the game. They use standard mini-golf rules with modifications to account for the nuances of flicking a "golf ball" on a table. The rulebook provides diagrams to assemble 54 different holes, including trick-shot holes. Players may also design their own holes.

Fun Fact: During development of Mars Open: Tabletop Golf we conducted innumerable tests of the flight paths of the "golf balls," including distance trials on the floor like the one shown in the photo above. —SolarFlare Games Information provided by Dave Killingsworth, Owner & CEO SolarFlare Games. In late August 2018, SolarFlare released its first licensed game property, ROBOTECH: Force of Arms. It is a 1v1 sci-fi card game of fleet movement, area control, and bluffing, which plays in about 20-30 minutes. Everything you need to play comes in a box that fits conveniently in your bag or backpack. Player involvement and card interaction keep the game fresh so it's fun to play over and over. The game is also available online. Fun Fact: Dave Killingsworth, "ROBOTECH: Force of Arms is based on the 1985 Anime Robotech (The Macross Portion). Since we released ROBOTECH: Force of Arms the fandom has been wildly enthusiastic. We took scenes from the show and had the artists remake them in a modern and high resolution style that people have called 'Art as good as nostalgia remembers.' Since this has been so popular, we are actively working on ROBOTECH: Crisis Point, our early 2019 release (also a 1v1 but with deep strategy) based on the Masters part of the show, followed by ROBOTECH: Invid Invasion late in 2019, which will be a 1-6 player fully cooperative game based on the New Generation. Thus, if you sit and play all 3 games over a 2-3 hour period it will be like you played the show."

—Mercury Games Information by Richard "Doc" Diosi, President of Mercury Games. Rail Pass will be released in mid-2019. It is a co-operative, modular pick-up and deliver game. The game is not quite like other train delivery games because it is timed. Players work together to deliver goods (colored cubes) from their respective cities to other players' cities, all of which are color coded (the cubes and the cities). There are always six cities in play regardless of the player count. Trains are loaded with cubes and passed to adjacent players sitting at the table. Although dexterity is a component, the main mechanism of the game requires loading and unloading trains of different capacities, and crew that can only deliver to an adjacent city before being sent back to their 'home' city. Logistics are a large part of this game. The game has a ten minute timer; players must deliver as many cubes to the correct colored cities as possible. Players score the two cities with the least cubes of their color delivered. Any dropped cubes (ones that may have fallen off trains as they are passed back and forth) are treated as negative points. Big City: 20th Anniversary Jumbo Edition will be releasing in mid-2019. This reprint from the late Franz-Benno Delonge is the original modular city-building board game. It features new larger and detailed miniatures and is played on a colorful set of modular neighborhood boards. Utilizing cards for property ownership, players trade and play cards to place buildings and other structures onto the modular boards, scoring points for adjacency to other certain types of buildings, as well as whether the new building is in the "outskirts" (at the edge of the modular board) or "downtown" (encapsulated by other properties within the modular boards). The playing of the City Hall piece unlocks the ability to place many special buildings. A new redevelopment phase has been added to the original game to promote more property card trades among players. Also, a new expansion has been made for the game using pieces approved by the late Mr. Delonge. Fun Fact: The City Hall piece fashioned for this version of Big City is Toronto's City Hall at Nathan Phillips Square.

Big City Parking Garage, a new piece from the expansion Closing Ceremonies

Lincoln had on the special jersey for Game Night. Be sure to check out the latest episode. This year there was a rather odd thing happening at the prize drawing. Number after number was called with no claim, and some that were claimed turned out to be incorrect (winning tickets are checked) — the games kept coming back. This was the first time in all the years I have been going that this has happened. I'm not saying it was anyone's fault, although it was guest of honor Tim Schafer's first time announcing. Just sayin'.

Tim Schafer, announcing yet another "winner"

Prizes, prizes, and more prizes!

When Jeff Anderson speaks, everyone listens intently: (Front) W. Eric Martin thinking about his next article, (R) Eric Lang falling asleep on his feet, (L) Michelle Alden and Matt Leacock sharing a private joke.

Finally Eric Lang, a.k.a. Bunny Ears, gets a taste of his own medicine. Way to go special guest Tim Schafer! You might even be invited back!

A very full room and one very happy (bordering on crazy?) looking Debbie Ohi (bottom right)

Special custom graphic posters given away Finally... There were many other things going on at BGG.CON that I didn't get to cover. These included: Puzzle Hunt, Battling Tops, Orphans and First-Timers Meetup, Designer/Publisher Speed Dating, UnPub (Proto Alley), the ever popular Game Show (two times!), and more. Hope to see y'all next year!!

Ironically, after yelling at Rodney to put his hands down, it was actually the best photo of the bunch. from BoardGameGeek News | BoardGameGeek http://bit.ly/2FPKFiQ

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