#KNIGHTS ON MARS

[sunlitsorrows]

The Summer Tournement | Squire’s Gauntlet

While tournaments have historically been about battle readiness, in this place and age they are more about demonstrating survival skills; there’s various forms of combat, but also obstacle courses, speed tests (packing your gear, assembling a shelter, repairing a radio), a rodeo, etc., and though Knights still compete, the majority of the focus is on the Squires—the tournament used as a proving ground to earn their Knighthood.

With birth rates so low and death rates among knights so high, the Guild of Mothers decided that while a life of service and chivalry (Mars’ Knights being sort of a cross between cowboys, law enforcement, park rangers, and relief aid) is absolutely the most noble of pursuits, if you want to go haring about the Martian wilderness you have to prove you can survive the kinds of challenges you are likely to encounter—

Which means you have to prove you can survive as many of them as can be replicated in an arena, back to back, for three days straight.

If you can survive a tournament, you can survive anything—and if you can’t, you survive finding that out. If you score in the top five you get Knighted, if not, you can try again next summer*.

It’s a good system: in the past hundred years the number of Knights has actually gone up, since their mortality rates have gone down.

The Five Titles awarded to graduating Squires

Black Knight: Best tactics, made least errors/received the least amount of penalties.

Gold Knight: Scored most points averaged over all challenges.

Green Knight: Scored Highest in survival/field challenges (shelter, repairs, foraging)

Blue Knight: Scored highest simulated medical emergencies.

Red Knight: Scored highest in combat (while the titles are equal, this one is generally looked a little askance at. You don’t win by being chivalrous. It’s a necessary skill, but congratulations, you’re very good at violence! isn’t really a title anyone wants in a culture that prides itself on kindness and cooperation.)

*Which is about two years away, as a Martian year is 1.88 Earth years. Squires can apprentice to a Knight as young as 10 (Earth years), but can’t compete until before they are 15 (EY), most decide they’d rather go back to school or do something else with their life, most of those who are set on their course are Knighted in their second or third tournament, between the ages of 17-22 (EY).)

[penginius]

[ladiemars]

when he was a creature of impulse who chased his own selfish desires of freedom and knighthood and revelry over familial duty without thinking of the consequences

[yume-fanfare]

im going to become the joker

*my tl, so take with a grain of salt

[magical-girl-mayday]

Red Magical Girls ❤️

[zponds]

[g0away-tate]

parents got confused and chose bisexual brokeback mountain daughter(?)

[wolvesbaned]

sad butch werewolf i love you.

[angelvitiated]

butterfly kisses to all the girls in music who help me feel a littl less lonely.. ♡

[itsmarsss]

with a V [Steven Grant/Marc Spector x GN!Reader] (Moon Knight)

Word count: 785

This is another one in the 'scenes i don't wanna throw away from wips that i'm abandoning' series lol. No warnings.

When they 'speak' to each other, italics are Steven, bold is Marc.

Did I just ask them on a date? Yeah and I got their number. Clearly a team effort. 

[. . .]

"Hey, actually- I’m sorry if this is weird, but- are you an actor?"

"What?" 

What kind of pick-up line is that? 

It's definitely not a pick-up line!

"I uh- it's just- every time you come in you have like a different accent? Like sometimes you’re British, sometimes you’re american. Sometimes you even speak some spanish?”

Do you speak spanish? 

I can ask where the library is.

Why would you speak to them in spanish?

You think I came here and ‘donde está la biblioteca’d them? Why the fuck would I do that?

“... So I thought maybe you’re doing those method acting things or something."

"Uh, no. I'm not. Not an actor."

"Oh, okay. Sorry for being nosey, but it was eating me alive!” You joke.

"I work at a museum!" Steven blurts out. 

"Oh. You do?"

He nods.

"That's so cool! What do you do there?"

He averts his eyes to the floor in some sort of embarrassment. "I uh. I work at the gift shop right now. But I give tours sometimes! That's- that's what I actually want to do. Uh, teach people about… things."

"So you must really know your history then.”

"Enough to give tours about it. Not that I’m trying to be… you know. Presumptuous. Or anything.”

Is it even possible to be ‘presumptuous’ about that?

Shut up.

Who even uses the word ‘presumptuous’ anyway?

Shut up!

"Sounds like you have fun with it."

"Yes- Yes. I really like reading about these things- especially ancient Egypt. That's- that's actually what I give tours on."

Stop rambling.

I don't ramble! 

"Really? I've always been more of a greek-roman kind of person, so I don't really know that much about Egypt."

I cannot believe they liked the rambling.

You think so?

"You- oh. Do you want to- would you like to come by the museum some time?"

Yes, Steven! We gotta work a bit on the delivery but that's what I'm talking about! Make sure to put in a good word for me!

Don’t be stupid.

“What?”

“What?”

“You, uh-”

Oh, fuck, did he just say that out loud?

Idiot.

Fuck, he did. “Oh, I’m sorry, I was- I was talking to myself. Sorry.”

"Oh. Okay. Well, sure, uh… shit, I’m sorry, I never asked for your name."

"It’s Steven. With a ‘V’."

"Okay, Steven-with-a-V. I would like to come by the museum sometime."

Steven looked absolutely shocked, like the fact that you could say yes hadn't even crossed his mind. "You would?" 

After what you just pulled, I’m surprised too.

Or perhaps you’re just mean.

"Yeah, why not? Then you can teach me more about those things."

"Yeah. Of course. That would be… good. Great! It would be great. I'm- I'm giving a few tours tomorrow. Covering some shifts. If you- if you want to come by."

"I have the morning shift tomorrow. But maybe in the afternoon? What time are you out?"

"I'll be there until six, actually."

"On a saturday?"

"I switched with a colleague. Got both their shifts for tomorrow."

You smile, finally ringing up his order when someone else entered the place, cutting the interaction short. "6.99."

"What?"

"Your order."

"Oh. Right. Here."

He gives you a ten pound note, and you try to give him his change. 

He just smiles at you. "Keep it. As a tip. It's… for being nice to me. And showing up tomorrow?" He hoped he didn't sound cocky. Or like he wanted to buy you with a sorry three fucking pounds or something of the sort or-

"I'd need to know exactly where I need to be for that to happen."

"What?"

"There’s not exactly one single museum in this city, Steven-with-a-v."

"Shit. Right. It's-" 

No, dumbass! Don't just tell them!

What else do you want me to do? 

Holy shit.

"Steven?"

"Sorry, can I borrow that?" He says, pointing to your notepad… with that american accent, again. You then realize he never did explain anything about that, only saying he wasn't an actor, like you thought he was- which made this whole accent situation a lot more intriguing. You'd ask him about it again, but he'd just invited you to the museum and you weren't about to be nosey and ruin things.

Steven-with-a-v-and-an-american-accent grabbed the notepad and pen from the counter and quickly wrote his number on it.

"Just text me and I'll send you the address."

Eh-dress. What was this man’s deal? "Okay. Yeah. I will."

Did I just ask them out?

Yeah and I got their number. Clearly a team effort. 

Can’t you let me have this one?

If you put in a good word for me. 

Ah, yes, of course I will, that definitely won’t scare them off.

[. . .]

A/N: probably ooc but i dont really care lol this has been in my wips for like two years probably and it was never gonna see the light of day

[selemina]

He's about to board his opponent for a heart to heart, litterally!

We love a Gildedguy that does not fuck around! :D

[valeriefauxnom]

Dragalia's Knights of Glory art

Now, it's been gone over how Dragalia Lost actually used quite a bit of inspiration from one of Cygames' previous works, Knights of Glory, for anything from character designs to dragons.

Of course, this showed up quite literally with characters like Lea when they quite literally just had the "Knights of Glory" showcase, but it also showed up in characters ranging from Jakob to Mikoto to Jurota (also showcasing the alighting butterfly blade, also in Dragalia):

However funny it is to see who we came to know as different characters in a different media, though, the dragons are 10x funnier to look at.

You see, it seemed that Knights of Glory had a certain 'evolution system' to dragons, where they'd develop and grow more fancy, if they weren't inexplicably transforming into an attractive humanoid woman because of course-

And oh boy, we can kinda see alternative evolutionary paths for the Greatwyrms.

There's Midgardsormr, who seems to most closely resemble the fully evolved form from the start...(he also gained an element, as this dragon line apparently has no element!)

Mercury, who is in her middle phase:

Imagine a hydra Mercury!

...Brunhilda? Not very sure on this one. She might just be a new design, but here's my best guess for what dragon they might have been inspired from:

Of course, in her 'final form' if this was a dragon they used as inspiration.

Jupiter, whom I'd almost put in his middle stage for closeness of design:

Last but not least, poor Zodiark, who really got hammered with the skeletal dragon design and is also in his middle stage and is also drooling 24/7:

Where is his stomach? Where are his organs? Why is he bipedal?? He lost some bulk in his transition to Dragalia, too. Honestly, I like Dragalia Zodiark more than his inspiration here.

That's enough of full evolutionary trees for now, though.

Some other funny ones to me include:

-Silke turning into a skeletal horse on her final evolution:

-Baby Leviathan going :-D all the time:

-Baby Poseidon (honestly a lot of the babies are funny since we only knew their final forms, typically);

-Possibly Cat Sìth inspiration???

-Baby Zephyr:

-Baby Nidhogg, sitting all prim and proper and ready to watch Euden die still:

-Teenage...Satan? Having a evil little :) face going on there...

Speaking of, quite a few of the dragons were actually repurposed into bosses, as with Satan above, like everyone's favorite:

(We must not let Phraeganoth be revived! ...Until Bondforged Zethia's story, at least).

Might be a stretch here, but maaaaaybe a bit of Kai Yan in here?

The Hypnos/Thanatos/Mega Monarch Emile line's general design:

This is getting long enough as it is, but if you want to see a mix of some old with a lot of new art that they might have used as inspiration for more dragons/adventurers, here's the link I used to the collections of KoG artwork that people were able to preserve:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DragaliaLost/comments/9rtlnz/knights_of_glory_albums/

Hopefully you find it just as interesting and funny as I did perusing the old art!

[mikeywayarchive]

awstenknight: AWSTEN IN BOSTON, WOULDN’T RHYME IF IT WASNT TRUE

[Mar 13, 2024]

[age-of-moonknight]

“Beware…Dracula!” Miguel O’Hara — Spider-Man 2099 (Vol. 1/2024), #2.

Writer: Steve Orlando; Penciler and Inker: Michael Dowling; Colorist: Jim Campbell; Letterer: Cory Petit

[blazehedgehog]

Be Aware

Back in December, I got an email from someone claiming to be Team Cherry, the developers of Hollow Knight. This "marketing liason" was offering me early access to the sequel/expansion, Silksong, to review.

A friend with connections to the game press quickly pointed out that the real Team Cherry wasn't sending out early access review codes and that they were actually warning users about impersonators on their "Contact Us" form. The email I received was a scam from someone looking to infect me with malware and/or steal my identity. (I wrote a twitter thread about it here)

About a month later, as I was wrapping up work on my "Definitive way to Play Sonic Adventure 2" video, I received another email, this one claiming to be someone from Frontier Foundry asking to sponsor an upcoming video for the release of "Deliver Us Mars." I told them I already had a sponsor for the Sonic Adventure 2 video, and after I was done, I was planning on taking a holiday. They got weirdly pushy with me, saying I could "make a short video" and put the brand deal there. I was too busy finishing the video, so I ignored them and moved on.

Now another month later, I find myself finishing a quick little video and thinking about that Frontier Foundry offer again, but upon looking at it with fresh eyes, it also was a clear and obvious scam. Just like with the fake Team Cherry offer, the person isn't listed as an employee at Frontier Foundry, the email they sent the offer from seems to be a personal email address that doesn't match who they said they were, and the "Contract" they tried to force on me was a huge Google Drive zip file that was password protected to prevent me from seeing what was inside before I downloaded it. The fact that they were so pushy with me suddenly started making a lot more sense.

As icing on the cake, I tried to ask the person for proof of identity, and in the month+ since we last talked to each other, their email address has been forcibly closed by Gmail.

If you're an up-and-coming content creator, please be careful and be aware of tactics like this. It's easy to get starstruck by the idea that you're special enough to get picked for a sponsorship deal or an exclusive beta, but always research WHO is sending you that email and NEVER be afraid to ask for proof of identity. Go over their heads and check with the employer they claim to be from if you need to.

Be smart, protect yourself, and stay safe out there.

[zponds]