After years of campaigning to get her voice heard in the city, Square Peg would have been forgiven for taking a break when SPAM started rolling as its own organisation, and maybe even permitted to rest on her laurels for a short period of time.
Naturally, Square Peg did nothing of the sort. Corruption and cruelty were rife in the Arena circuit, even with AMBER and UMBC both pledging to do better, Square Peg saw through the veneer and called out trainers that defaulted to mistreating their Monsters to get them to do what they wanted.
The Square Peg Pens, named after the SPAM founder, remain a solid reminder to all UMBC competitors of how Monsters deserve to be treated, and SPAM continues to uphold that legacy, running spot checks to ensure no Monster is being kept in a pen too small; no fire Monster being doused with ice; no technological Monster being given brutal logical contradictions to resolve. The city may say it's doing better, but SPAM watches and SPAM sees.
And the city is better off for it.
– excerpt from The Unofficial AMBER Encyclopedia
In what may be a first for any of the Bastion Arenas, Pork Scratchings - the large pig Monster owned by Pork Scratchings - took a stand. A literal stand as when facing off against the malicious Edge Of Reality, owned by Zenith, Pork Scratchings did not lie down, it stood on its trotters and squealed angrily as it charged Edge Of Reality, taking on a Monster that has been shown to take vindictive pleasure in how it destroys other Monsters in the Arena, and doing what three badly wounded Monsters before it couldn't do: bring. it. DOWN.
After years of rolling over and taking it, it's fantastic to see that Square Peg's own strength and resilience has rubbed off on Pork Scratchings - the two iconic individuals now able to stand side by side as strong beacons of good Monster Treatment in Bastion, and Indestructosphere can take a well deserved rest from the limelight.
– excerpt from ENTROPY (formerly MAX before a lawsuit by Max Taste), edited by Max Entropy
“WELCOME to the first edition of Pork Scratchings, the magazine for all you Monster lovers out there! Let me say first that Bastion is lucky, truly lucky, to have such a group of lovely and compassionate SPAM members.
In this issue, we have a short history of how we got this movement going. We also have some profiles of our top goals this year, including a summary of what exactly is wrong with Maximum Taste Monster House (like you needed telling!) and Beetle Circus, and in particular how we're going to keep a close eye on Pennythrift Steeple's training methods. Don't worry, though - it's not all negative, and in the first of our 'Success Stories' feature, we have a SPAM member enthusing on how she achieved better treatment for one of her neighbour's Monsters. That Monster went from well-bucket-hauling miserable beast of burden to a cosily-kept water-fetching-helper with a wonderfully soft and gentle yoke and daily massages - we're honoured to share in the joy you brought, AnonAnimalAdorer.
Super excitingly, we also have an exclusive interview with SQUARE PEG herself*.
…Although let's be honest there, she'll feature in basically every magazine - we love you, Square Peg <3 Much love to everyone involved - and it's super good news that we have enough financial success to finally get this thing off the ground!
– From Editorial of Pork Scratchings #1
