#cuz like if he hadnt

[lavender-acee]

hot take of the millennia, Saiki and Mera were closer friends than we generally think abt

[filurig]

so i might be making a picture book about my blorbos for uni...

[cherry-shipping]

FANART OF THIS POST BY @alsojnpie LMFAO. i thought it was cute and funny so Ermmm ya. hope i didnt draw papyrus too creepy looking LOL

[pivsketch]

Salamander Salazar is an acrobatic high flyer "evil mastermind thief guy" and Bandit Bandit is his henchman/bodyguard/muscle. They were mischievous heels that would always be causing trouble, but just like any quality comical villain bad guy, Salazar's hubris would usually get him in over his head and be his downfall.

Here's them doing a tag team move™:

Anyway these are all several years before the events of the story. Salazar is Taggart's tag partner that had to leave midway through the tournament! He's also his childhood friend/mentor too.

under the cut is more lore/backstory stuff:

Salamander Salazar is the older neighborhood kid that got Taggart into wrestling when Taggart was just a lil kid. Salazar taught him how to (pro) wrestle over the years and after Taggart turned 18, Sal mysteriously started having a new sidekick/henchman he'd do tag team matches with.

Winning the TAGCEN tournament gets you qualified for the "big prestigious semi-invitational continental tag team tournament" where all the best tag teams compete to see who is The Absolute Best. Salazar's biggest claim to fame was the one time he stole the TAGCEN tournament first place medals from the true champions* and used them to enter into the invitational. The resulting shenanigans were fun enough that it led to the rules being changed to make the TAGCEN qualification entirely based on physically possessing those winning medals lol. (TAGCEN is partially ran by someone who loves chaos, after all.)

It made things pretty wild and chaotic for a few years after, but people stopped taking advantage of this over the years and nowadays its a mostly forgotten edge-case type rule. Also btw Sal (and Bandit²) got their asses absolutely trounced in the invitational tournament. If they couldn't win a qualifier, of course they wouldn't be able to survive in the big leagues!!

Bandit Bandit's tenure only lasted 3 short years for whatever reason (concidentally, this was around the same time regular good guy solo wrestler Taggart left wrestling to help out at his parents' bakery, hmm) and Salazar forged onwards on his own. Over the years his mischievous ambitions have mellowed out and he became one of those sarcastic good guy antihero types.

In modern times, Salazar reentered the TAGCEN tournament with a better tag team partner: Taggart, his childhood friend/protege that had recently returned to wrestling. His goal was to win the TAGCEN tourney outright and then go on to win the big invitational, redeeming himself for that failed run several years prior. They were absolutely killing it, but then Salazar got a really good offer from a major overseas promotion he couldn't turn down, and had to leave midway through the TAGCEN tournament. Alas! Salazar's tag team story is left unrealized!

Taggart still gets to wrestle in the remaining round robin matches at least. But, cmon, it's not like anything interesting is going to happen with that, right...? hee hee 🙂

* the winning tag team ended up with a injury right before the invitational and could not compete, and this was way more fun of an alternative than just having an empty slot!

[mossiestpiglet]

I think I might need to give up and admit I’m too stressed about my animals to be able to focus on school work today and just need to do animal stuff instead..

[acourtofquestions]

"You'll come back," Manon said.

It sounded like more of a threat than anything

Dorian smirked. "Would you miss me if I didn't?"

Manon didn't reply. He didn't know why he expected her to.

He'd taken all of a step, when Asterin clasped his shoulder. "In and out, quick as you can," she warned him. "Take care of Narene." Worry indeed shone in the Second's gold-flecked black eyes. Dorian bowed his head. "With my life," he promised as he approached her mount and grasped the dangling reins. He didn't fail to miss the gratitude that softened Asterin's features. Or that Manon had already turned away from him.

A fool to start down this path with her. He should have known better.

The hours that passed were some of the longest of Manon's existence.

From anticipation, she told herself. Of what she had to do.

Abraxos, unsurprisingly, found them within an hour, his reins sliced from the struggle he'd no doubt waged and won with Sorrel. He waited, however, beside Manon in silence, wholly focused upon the gate where Dorian and Narene had vanished.

Time dripped by. The king's sword was constant weight at her side. She cursed herself for needing to prove-to him, to herself-that she refused to let him go into Morath for practical, ordinary reasons. Erawan wasn't at the Ferian Gap. It'd be safer. Somewhat. But if the Matrons were there … That was why he'd gone. To learn if they were. To see if Petrah truly commanded the host there, and how many Ironteeth were present. He had not been trained as a spy, but he'd grown up in a court where people wielded smiles and clothes like weapons. He knew how to blend in, how to listen. How to make people see what they wished to see. She'd sent Elide into the dungeons of Morath, Darkness damn her. Sending the King of Adarlan into the Ferian Gap was no different.

It didn't stop her breath from escaping when Abraxos stiffened, scanning the sky. As if he heard something they couldn't.

And it was the joy that sparked in her mount's eyes that told her.

Moments later, Narene sailed toward them, making a lazy path over the mountains, a dark-haired, pale-skinned rider atop her. He'd truly been able to change parts of himself. Had made his face nearly unrecognizable. And kept it that way.

Asterin rushed toward the mare, and even Manon blinked as her Second threw her arms around Narene's neck. Holding her tight. The mare only leaned her head against Asterin's back and huffed.

Manon hadn't dwelled long on what she'd say.

And as the three hundred Ironteeth witches filed into the hall, some coming off their patrols, Manon half wondered if she should have. They watched her, watched the Thirteen, with a wary disdain.

Their disgraced Wing Leader; their fallen Heir.

When all were gathered, Petrah, still standing in the doorway where she'd appeared, merely said, "My life debt for an audience, Blackbeak."

Manon swallowed, her tongue as dry as paper. Seated atop Abraxos, she could see every shifting movement in the crowd, the wide eyes or hands gripping swords.

"I will not tell you the particulars of who I am," Manon said at last. "For I think you have already heard them."

"Crochan bitch," someone spat.

Manon set her eyes on the Blackbeaks, stone-faced where the others bristled with hatred. It was for them she spoke, for them she had come here.

jacket, then hoisting up her white shirt. Rising in the stirrups to bare her scarred, brutalized abdomen. "She does not lie."

UNCLEAN

There, the word remained stamped. Would always be stamped.

"How many of you," Asterin called out, "have been similarly branded? By your Matron, by your coven leader? How many of you have had your stillborn witchlings burned before you might hold them?"

The silence that fell now was different from before. Shaking shuddering.

Manon glanced at the Thirteen to find tears in Ghislaine's eyes as she took in the brand on Asterin's womb. Tears in the eyes of all of them, who had not known. And it was for those tears, which Manon had never seen, that she faced the host again.

"You will be killed in this war, or after it. And you will never see our homeland again."

"What is it that you want, Blackbeak?" Petrah asked from the archway.

"Ride with us," Manon breathed. "Fly with us.

Against Morath. Against the people who would keep you from your homeland, your future." Murmuring broke out again. Manon pushed ahead, "An Ironteeth-Crochan alliance. Perhaps one to break our curse at last."

Again, that shuddering silence. Like a storm about to break Asterin sat back in the saddle, but kept her shirt open.

"The choice of how our people's future shall be shaped is yours," Manon told each of the witches assembled, all the Blackbeaks who might fly to war and never return. "But I will tell you this." Her hands shook, and she fisted them on her thighs. "There is a better world out there. And I have seen it."

Even the Thirteen looked toward her now.

"I have seen witch and human and Fae dwell together in peace. And it is not weakness to do so, but a strength. I have met kings and queens whose love for their kingdoms, their peoples, is so great that the self is secondary. Whose love for their people is so strong that even in the face of unthinkable odds, they do the impossible."

Manon lifted her chin. "You are my people. Whether my grandmother decrees it so or not, you are my people, and always will be. But I will fly against you, if need be, to ensure that there is a future for those who cannot fight for it themselves. Too long have we preyed on the weak, relished doing so. It is time that we became better than our foremothers." The words she had given the Thirteen months ago. "There is a better world out there," she said again. "And I will fight for it." She turned Abraxos away, toward the plunge behind them. "Will you?"

Manon nodded to Petrah. Eyes bright, the Heir only nodded back. They would be permitted to leave as they had arrived: unharmed.

So Manon nudged Abraxos, and he leaped into the sky, the Thirteen following suit.

Not a child of war. But of peace.

[spookberry]

Oooh i get it, people like Kokichi cuz hes this games "annoying rude guy who gives the protagonist hints"

[lakewinnipeg]

I stole this screenshot from someone else and the qtweet is a dreadful+factually incorrect thing to say but it's a red herring anyway cuz the actual reason Hitler is the token evil guy in our culture, which is obvious as soon as you think about it for a single minute, is bc every fucking hollywood adventure movie from 1941 thru to the 1990s had pop-culture nazis as antagonists, ergo Nazis being The Bad Guys [capitalization denoting proper noun] became solidly entrenched in anglosphere culture

[auggiedrawsturts]

Happy pride month to everyone except Hamato Leonardo <3

[heliianth]

the dark evil wizards have afflicted me with a hyperspecific interpretation of killuas "moral conflict" which leaves a lot of fan content that tries to engage with it unsatisfying. a wicked and foul hex indeed

[vampbeast]

It's a little strange to me that people are only calling the internet historian out NOW for plagiarism, and not like all the other shit he's said over the years. Like yeah the plagiarism is important, but I feel like more people should be paying attention to the fact he's a bigot wacko too. I guess I'm just a little confused.

[mekatrio]

letting out my thoughts abt those two in tht garden cuz ill probably get way more emotional abt other things once i actually finish the final trial

i get so fucking emotional thinking abt how easily and amicably edgeworth and wright were talking to each other in tht garden like its such a small thing but im so BWAHHHHHHH 😭😭😭😭 OVER IT cuz.. CUZ THEYRE FRIENDS AGAIN 😭😭 cuz they were friends when they were younger and then edgeworth just left and then wright had no idea what happened to him and then he spends the rest of his life looking for him again and then they meet but for the past 2 games they werent friends again yet there was so much tensionnn and edgeworth left again and phoenix went crazy and THEY WERENT FRIENDS but now.. THEYRE FRIENDS AGAIN 😭😭😭😭 they can just TALK and JOKE with each other and discuss things and its like owhhh cuz wright was talking abt how they used to be friends but we never ever saw this friendship we just saw pining and distance and regrets and remorse but here they are again theyre friends again and its oh... 😭😭😭😭 there are some people who you never really stop being friends with.. AUWHEHHHHHGH

[fearandhungies]

like i cannot lie that i definitely am deeply autistic and would kind of hate him doing the job differently even if he Was doing a good job because im just a freak but hes not. hes doing a terrible ass job and wont listen to anyone when they try and teach him how to not do a terrible ass job. anyways who wants to hear the funniest thing imaginable: he left dirty fucking utensils in a plugged sink of dirty water for hours and when my lead called him out on it he said that i told him to do that. and she verbatim replied "i Know he didnt tell you to do that."

[tendebill]

[oc]

UKEF royal family as babies >:3

maffi is done and dealing with the pressures of being the heir to the throne, bernard is smol and so so silly and so so so unbothered by life

and david is the middle child.

they love playing pirates :)

[kandibatz]

had a dream where for some reason bob was moth themed instead of devil themed and somehow it was so so much more terrifying esp in the context of the dream

[official-bunbun]

No you’re so right, Eclipse! Because every time they get Lunar’s age wrong they always ignore when he says he not a child! Literally not his fault that he’s autistic

I didn’t even think about the monty thing, god that isn’t helping the extreme infantilization in the fandom. I’ve always been one against it. As the resident heavy lunar kinnie, fucking hate it so much.

To add on Lunar isn’t the sweet cutie bean either. Look early on when he was introduced, he threatened Monty several times due to being by Eclipse’s side. Lunar is loyal to a T and was willing to sacrifice a lot for Eclipse intel he was shown that he could have something better. Not only that it’s a fact in the show that Eclipse had to talk to Lunar about his cursing problem.

He isn’t innocent and he’s an adult like everyone else in the show. He just doesn’t know as much since he’s never been properly informed on things.

Anyways, I did see some stuff on you missing your brother and as a heavy Lunar kinnie you and everyone in the system is always welcomed on my tumblr <3

YESSS EXACTLY!!! ALL OF THIS

I have vague memory of an episode where Lunar said a curse word of some sort and was told he can't use that sorta language, which wouldve been understandable if it was bc they were recording but sun and moon curse all the time so it was like ???? what

And the smaller model they use for Lunar doesn't really help either, since shorter characters tend to be treated as children more often

It's such an irritating thing in general but ESPECIALLY as a fictive of Eclipse because I knew Lunar and he was no child in those memories

He's not some innocent little baby and I'm tired of seeing him portrayed that way

And thank you btw :D The SAMS community can feel sorta isolating as a system so any expression of support is always much appreciated