#Conflicted phoenix

[polkad0t1]

all of y’all start autism staring at each other. Whoever blinks gets fuckin bited

@glacia-posts @mothcrumbs @conflicted-phoenix @someone-stole-my-sock

[janglyjusticeforall]

"edgeworth shouldnt have gotten 1st place" "edgeworth isnt even in the aj trilogy" who do u think pays rent for that office hm? u think phoenix had that damn whale paying retainer? u think that 16 year old girl was making rent between her algebra homework? be so fucking serious

[phoenixyfriend]

A Dynamic List of Current Events Posts

Compiling my repeating politics post so I only reblog one post at a time instead of five. I'll update it as things change. Also, here are my usual sources.

My Daily Recommendations

How to Call Your Reps about Gaza (2/20/24) This is general suggestions on how to talk, a framework of what to say, and a list of potential arguments to use.

How to Call Your Reps with regard to Aaron Bushnell's Self-Immolation in DC (2/21/24)

Michigan (2/28/24)

Vote in your Primaries

Impact of the War on Israel's Economy

Why I think it's important to understand the geopolitical anxieties of Israelis (2/16/24) - this is a commentary on propaganda and US priorities, and how the latter can be leveraged to stop Israel from pursuing violence in relation to that propaganda

Domestic:

The IVF Ruling in Alabama (2/21/24)

International:

Awareness of Sudan's Civil War

[blueskittlesart]

i am an athena cykes defender forever and ever until the day i die but god. somewhere out there there is a universe where apollo justice got actual follow through and it kills me that i am not living in it

[pineapple-cheese-bread]

I was typing out descriptions of wings for an ATLA wing au I think about/ may or may not want to fully write, and I gave Zuko Phoenix wings and obviously his left wing is burned and damaged to the point he can't fly any more.

But I was writing the description of them after he meets Ran and Shaw (Or during the final Agni kai still in debate) but essentially, they heal and look nice cause he's been 'reborn' in a sense.

Like it makes sense thematically, but know I'm fighting with myself on if I'm just doing the 'Magically heals disability' trope?

There are two wolves inside of me, one wants to keep his wing injured and keep him unable to fly and the other wants the wing healed cause its a Phoenix wing and is meant to symbolize rebirth and renewal.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[puzzledemigod]

So let me get this right

Edgeworth had a quarter of life crisis, went to Europe to find himself, realised Phoenix gave his life meaning, and came back ready to confess.

Meanwhile Phoenix, who used to openly admire, be worried about and even give excuses to Edgeworth even when he was kinda mean, was so personally offended by how much it hurt him to think he was dead that when he came back Phoenix completely shut down every good emotion he felt towards him and started acting like a petty teenager with a grudge.

And now Edgeworth is the one reaching out and questioning his morality and acting hurt when Phoenix is mean to him. Interesting.

[ellascreams]

Don’t Blow Up On Me

[You know what, Zor hacking into your radio signal and saying ominous threats at you during a high stakes mission is usually pretty scary. But when the person currently acting as your handler is a very low ranking ex-employee of theirs, it’s only a little creepy, and really more awkward than anything. Phoenix is just trying to diffuse a bomb. This fic does have some serious moments so don’t expect pure silliness.]

Phoenix mostly worked in their own little office these days. They didn’t have much of a reason to stay at any headquarters building. Still, they had to go to one sometimes, and this was the first time in a while they were really really glad they did.

They were still processing what had happened as they ran. It was all so fast. It started with filling out a survey about how well Ollie had acted as their handler while Reginald was sick. Ok, that made sense. That’s why they were there in the first place. To fill out all the required paperwork before Reginald came back to work tomorrow.

Then the alarm came with its flashing red lights, blaring sirens, and a repeating announcement of what was wrong. It started as just “SECURITY BREACH” and then suddenly became “BOMB THREAT.” Neither of those were good. They grabbed their earpiece and nodded at Ollie to show they were ready to help. Ollie quickly conversed with some other handlers. He turned to them and said “The other agents are going to take care of evacuation and look for any hidden traps or Zoraxis operatives. That leaves bomb duty to us!” He looked at the security report which had managed to calculate the general area the bomb was in. Then he looked at some old Zoraxis bomb models and used them to narrow down its location. “If my instincts are correct, it should be in the breaker room down in the basement.” Phoenix didn’t wait to be told to leave before they started running.

From the start of the alarm to the present, only a minute had passed. This whole situation was bad. Usually they would be upset to suddenly be in a situation like this, and they were, but they were still glad they came to the office when they did. If they weren’t there the bomb would probably still have been planted. They trusted the other agents to be capable of disarming a bomb, but they weren’t sure if they trusted the other agents enough to want them disarming a bomb when Ollie’s life was on the line. They wanted to be the one protecting him from this threat.

They got to the breaker room and the bomb was just… sitting there. On the floor. They were expecting it to be hidden amongst the electrical equipment or at least mounted to a wall somewhere. If they couldn’t disarm it they could probably just pick it up and move it away from the building. Hm, maybe not. It was a big bomb, almost the size of a suitcase, and it very well might explode before they could get it far enough away.

They took a crouched down and looked at it closer. They could hear it ticking but there was no visible timer. They didn’t know how much time they had.

“Agent Phoenix,” said a familiar voice in their ear, but it wasn’t Ollie’s voice or even Reginald’s. “I wasn’t expecting you. That was my mistake. You seem to have a knack for appearing at every mission I have a personal interest in.” Phoenix felt their heart beat faster. No matter how many times they heard Zor talk they couldn’t get used to it. Something about their smug tone, their unwavering conviction that they were in control, and that uncanny voice changer just made their skin crawl.

“I suppose you’ll be attempting to disarm my bomb then. Go right ahead. Convenient how we left it right there, on the ground, in plain sight. It’s almost too good to be true.” The agent instinctively looked up from the bomb and started scanning the room for hidden ones. They shouldn’t listen to Zor but they just said, or at least implied, what they were already thinking. Zor giggled ever so slightly.

“I think it’s best you don’t listen to them.” Phoenix was very relived to hear Ollie’s voice again. “If they think you’re smart enough to catch their usual tricks, they just make things simple and hope you’ll overthink it. And while I may not be familiar with this specific model, I’ve seen bombs like it, and that ticking sound is hard to replicate. It’s a real bomb, and the only bomb here.”

“Oh?” Huh. Phoenix didn’t know you could convey raising one eyebrow through nothing but the tone of your voice. “This isn’t your usual handler. How rude of you to not introduce us,” they said, as if Phoenix would ever want to give them information on other agents or was capable of saying the words needed for introductions. Ollie and Phoenix tried to ignore them.

“You’re going to have to get through the metal casing. It doesn’t have any screws, and cutting or melting through it risks the bomb going off.” Ollie paused thoughtfully. “If you could find something thin enough and strong enough to wedge between the gaps maybe you could pry it open?” Far easier said than done but Phoenix started searching the room nonetheless.

“Or maybe there’s no need to introduce us. He sounds awfully familiar… Ollie, was it?” Phoenix inhaled sharply. It was easy to forget he had actually talked to the doctor when he was such a low ranking employee. They even remembered his name. Eh, that wasn’t too surprising. You sort of need a good memory to be an evil genius like Zor.

Phoenix rummaged through a tool box that had been abandoned in a corner. “I didn’t expect to see you working for The Agency. It may be a bit cliche of me to say but, truthfully, I expected you to be dead by now. I’ll admit that I’m impressed.” Phoenix glanced at the screwdriver several times before an idea struck them. There weren’t any screws on the bomb, but the tip of the screwdriver was thin and flat. Not bad for prying things open.

They took a knee again. It was hard to get good leverage with the bomb on the floor so they kept it hovering at head height while they started trying to pry it open. Dr. Zor was still trying different angles to engage Ollie in conversation. “Perhaps I’m impressed enough to let bygones be bygones and allow you to work for me again.” That one did the trick.

“As tempting as that offer is I’m afraid I’ll have to decline on account of you trying to kill me.” When the metal finally gave way it was so sudden Phoenix almost fell. They pried the metal just a bit further until they could see the wires inside.

“Great job! Let’s see, it looks like there are 7 different colored wires… for Zoraxis bombs like that you just have to cut them in reverse rainbow order.” A bit weird, but ok. Phoenix got pliers from the tool box and began carefully cutting. The violet wire snapped in two.

“Whatever do you mean?” Zor continued as if their conversation hadn’t been interrupted by the engineering of their explosives being explained to an enemy. Phoenix cut the indigo wire. “Well, I wanted to excuse the whole leaving me at bottom of the ocean thing, you very well might’ve just forgotten and mistakes happen, but that escape pod was definitely a death trap. I was trying to keep track of all the OSHA violations but I lost count because of oxygen deprivation.”

“It was nothing personal, I assure you.” Blue wire. “That really doesn’t make it any better. Why did you even want me dead anyway?” Because you knew about the experiments, Phoenix thought. They were probably hoping you had just enough food to guard the place until Prism was dead. Then you’d starve so you couldn’t tell anyone about KBOOM. Ollie was very smart but sometimes it seemed like he was too kind to actually understand evil. Green wire.

“Even without the murder attempt a lot of the working conditions were just… bad. For all the issues The Agency has, they still try to prioritize the health of their employees. It’s hard in this line of work, but— Oh, Phoenix! Wait!” The agent froze. The blades of their open pliers surrounded the next wire perfectly still, like it was waiting for their orders to attack. “I know that wire looks like a somewhat orangey yellow, but according to Zoraxis manufacturers, that’s actually just orange. The yellow one is brighter than that.” Phoenix quickly, but even more carefully than before, pulled their pliers away. While they were still too dizzy from adrenaline to understand anyone’s words, they were vaguely aware that Ollie had returned to his previous point. How on earth did he not lose his train of thought from almost exploding?

They broke free from their haze when Zor said “I see. What if I gave you a promotion? I could even make you one of my highest ranking operatives. You’d be paid far better and you’d have my protection.”

“I WAS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN YOU BETRAYING PRISM!”

Phoenix began tuning them both out after that. It was very weird listening to them argue. It reminded them of being a kid at a friend’s house and awkwardly standing there as their friend argued with their parents. And while Ollie never actually gave anything away, it still made Phoenix cringe whenever he almost mentioned Agency secrets in his frustration.

They still payed a little attention to the fight. It really said a lot about Ollie’s skill as a handler that despite the high stakes of their missions this was the least collected they had ever seen or heard him. Zor slowly sounded more annoyed as they realized just how many of their secrets he’d shared and just how much they’d underestimated him. It was somewhat satisfying to hear some of Zor’s smug tone dissipate.

They only listened fully when Ollie said “Phoenix” or “agent.” They still needed his instructions for the next few steps. Plus, if they’d missed their name being called earlier, well, they wouldn’t still be in this strange situation. Their strategy worked pretty well. The only time it backfired is when Ollie started talking about how kind they were to him and how he was sure they’d agree his old conditions were fair. As nice as it was they wished that they could say please just leave me out of this.

After what was probably a few minutes though it felt far longer, the bomb was finally defused, and at the same time so was the argument. It seemed Ollie had run out of things to say and Zor was finally done provoking him. Phoenix could hear interference from Zor’s radio abruptly halt as they left without a word. They weren’t sure when they stood up in all the chaos but apparently they had, because the second there was quiet, the gravity of what happened finally hit them and pulled them down to their knees.

Oh no. They almost died, didn’t they? That wasn’t anything new but it was still always a little worrying. Ollie almost dying with them was new and definitely not something they liked. But what was really sinking in was what the argument with Zor actually implied. They were very secretive and would not like an old employee of their’s alive. Especially not if they were working for The Agency and especially if he was far more clever than they originally thought he was.

Come to think of it… why did they target this building? Zoraxis as an organization would probably attack any Agency HQ they discovered but didn’t Zor say something about having a “personal interest” in this particular attack? It seemed like they genuinely weren’t expecting Phoenix so they weren’t the target. Zor knew a deserter was here. Phoenix didn’t know how but they were sure of it. Again, Zor’s struggle to recognize Ollie did seem very real, so they probably didn’t know who their ex-employee was. They know now though. Zor even successfully started an argument to get more information about him although it got a little out of hand.

This location would be abandoned now that it was compromised. Even so, Phoenix decided that as soon as they got in contact with Reginald they would tell him to get Ollie a private and well hidden office like their’s. Handler was a job with a lot of official paperwork and a lot of it had to be filled out at headquarters, but even frequent trips to one would be better than staying there all the time.

Phoenix was willing to bet Ollie didn’t realize how much danger he was in so right now it was up to everyone else to keep him safe. He helped a lot of people in this Agency. The Agency could spare a few recourses to help him. If they didn’t, then they would get a proper demonstration of just how terrifying their top agent can be. Reginald always said they were intimidating. Something about stoic silence.

[artish-boi]

[dxrkcorpse]

This one is by far one of my favorites. Just annoying the hell out of him not knowing BS limits sometimes.

I went from haha just for the sillies to them. To goddamn I want to draw more of them interacting. Still gotta update his armor since ain’t no way BS is wearing the same armor through all them years.

Thinking…

Plus it’s not even armor just an illusion but works perfectly well.

[transingthoseformers]

I've been toying with a dragonformers au in my head. Not set in a particular canon, bit of a fusion of whatever I want.

So the transformers are dragons, obviously. But I'm torn between having it be about dragon riders, so Dot with Megatron, Raoul with Tracks, etc. Or a conservation area for wild dragons, with the humans basically being park rangers. Or a combo, a retirement area for dragons used for combat.

I'm sorry, I'm just tossing ideas about.

Hmmmm. Now, I'm not quite familiar with dragonformers as I've probably only read one? Fic with it, and even then i didn't quite finish the fic.

Buuuut, here's what I'm thinking here: a mixture, like you've suggested above. Some of them have grown up with humans their entire lives (or most of their lives) and have handlers. Some have had little to no human contact throughout their life up until this point. Some fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. I feel like it's exactly a good idea to suggest some are former military, but not all of them. Why do I suggest that last line? Hear me out, but

Dragon rehab.

[spacejunkgalaxies]

I CANNOT think about Mia Fey for even a fraction of a second without getting so incredibly sad. Maya deserved to still have her older sister around. Pearl deserved to get to know her cousin. Phoenix deserved to still have his mentor, and to not have to constantly walk into his office without the memory of her dead body slumped under its window. Diego deserved to able to still see his lover and Lana deserved to be able to see her old friend (and maybe past lover) again. Edgeworth deserved to be able to show her just how he’s changed from the disastrous Fawles trial. And Mia deserved to be the one to introduce Phoenix and Maya to each other. They and Pearl deserved to be family.

And nobody lets her rest, not even herself really. She’s constantly being channeled to offer advice; what’s more, one of the Feys has to temporarily give up their spirit and body to channel her. You can’t have all three Fey girls at one time.

It’s just. Fuck. It’s not fair.

[wellnoe]

do sometimes think about what would happen if scott and jean actually had started a new school like they thought about doing.

[reiverreturns]

help it's happening again (having deep and meaningful sereshace character thoughts every time those three are cooped up together in a classroom setting)

[phoenixyfriend]

the state of israel MUST be dismantled for a free palestine. jews existed and lived in ME before the existence of Israel, and jews will continue to live in ME but Israel as a state has to go. israel didnt bring the jews to ME.

See... the whole "Jews will continue to live" thing is what I'm not so sure of.

I understand where people are coming from when they talk about how Israel as a nation-state must be dismantled. It was established by outside forces, maintained by those outside forces, and has in past decades engaged in some truly heinous behavior.

However, that behavior was enacted by the government, which is not all of Israel, nor even all of the Jews in Israel. That government's behavior also reflects on those people of Israel, and any revenge against the government--which is likely if dismantled--is likely to land on the shoulders of the people of Israel who may not have anything to do with it.

There are pacifists and children in Israel, just as there are in Palestine. There are people protesting the conflict in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Over half of the Jews in Palestine are of a Mizrahi background, and either came to Israel from Arab countries that wanted them gone, or are the descendants of the people who did so. The establishment of Israel by the Sykes-Picot agreement resulted in many countries having a place to send their unwanted Jewish population to, and those countries now had the option of driving out, or at least 'encouraging,' those populations to leave. Operation Magic Carpet wasn't driven solely by the Imam of Yemen; Israel played its own role in it, as did the US and UK, but the result was a mass exodus of Jews. In 2022, there were a total of six Jews in Yemen. Now, there is only one.

Those Mizrahi Jews are also by and large not part of the Israeli government.

Many of the others in Israel are holocaust survivors, or the descendants of such.

It is not a stretch to say that Israel is, statistically, a country of refugees and their children.

Many of the powers most vocal about dismantling Israel are also the most vocally antisemitic. The most obvious example is the Yemeni Houthis, who have "death to all Jews" as a slogan. Hamas is aligned with them, and both are aligned with Iran, and Hezbollah. None of these specific groups want Jews in the ME, period. Some have made it very clear they don't want Jews to live at all, anywhere. It's not 'Jews who support the Israeli state' that they object to, it's Jewish people, period.

My hesitation about the argument to dismantle Israel is that I haven't seen anyone yet talk about how to go about doing it without a risk that there is another mass exodus or mass murder.

Un-fucking-fortunately, that possible result is also what Israel's government is using as their justification for war against their neighbors, and what it has been using for the better part of eighty years.

I am not defending Israel's actions. I do not condone what they are doing in Gaza. I do not condone what they are claiming about Gaza, and I have heard some truly horrifying propaganda that is getting fed to Zionists to keep the fervor up. I do not think that what they are doing in the Occupied West Bank is ethical. I do not think the Israeli government has a leg to stand on in terms of morality and ethics.

I also think that people who say "Israel should be dismantled" are looking at the past and turnabout as fair play without actually asking 'what will happen to the people who live there if a group like Hamas or the Houthi rebels or Hezbollah uses a weak transition period or sudden collapse as a chance to enact that revenge.

I don't know what the correct solution is. Rebuilding a government with both Israeli and Palestine officials in a joint system, unifying the two regions with the UN enforcing a fair and equal election and representation system? The two-nations solution that people have been talking about for ages, booting Israel from the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, and demanding they pay reparations to the people of Palestine? I don't think withdrawing all international interest and support to let them work it out among themselves is the right call. I don't think having Israel take over completely, or Palestine take over completely, is going to end well for whichever community ends up Not In Charge.

I don't know what can be done. I just know that the short, sweet, pithy 'dismantle Israel' and 'Zionism is bad' statements only sound good until you ask 'but where will the Jews, hated by most of the ME for what their government has been doing, and hated for millennia before that for existing, go?'

Which sucks, because Israel's government sure as hell didn't ask where the people of Palestine would go when they started pushing them out.

It's not fair! It's not fair to Palestine that this all is happening. It is not fair that the founded but unrealized risk to Israeli lives is being weighed against the fully realized and ongoing threat to theirs. It is not fair that thousands of children are dying of air strikes and hunger.

Palestine is undergoing a massacre at the hands of the Israeli government.

It is entirely possible that Israel will undergo that same massacre at the hands of Hamas and its allies if the 'dismantling' happens without safeguards.

Israel needs to stop. People are dying in the tens of thousands in Gaza because of their completely disproportionate response. A ceasefire is unquestionably needed and the ongoing refusal of the US government to help enforce one by pulling support from the IDF is a failure.

(No, not the Houthi strikes. That is a related, but distinct situation.)

But 'dismantle Israel' tends to come with few ideas on how to do so without risking the same situation as now, but in the other direction, and with the same or larger possibility of escalating into a wider regional conflict.

I don't know. I don't fucking know. But please understand that I am coming at this from a place of attempted compassion and concern. I am not trying to be dismissive of people's claims. I do not support Israel's actions. I don't even necessarily think Israel, as it is and as it was founded and as it acts, deserves to remain the power and government that it currently is. Restructuring, renaming, integrating, all these things are options, maybe even necessary ones.

I just don't think 'deserve' is the only consideration when the past seventy-odd years have been spent sowing the seeds of hate and revenge, and so many military groups in their area have expressed a desire to see all of them dead.

If you know of a 'dismantle Israel' plan by Palestinians, rather than some random Western Leftist, that includes plans on how to integrate the people that have in some cases been there for decades, and in some cases ended up there because they were driven or 'encouraged' out of neighboring Arab states...

Let me know.

But please recognize that I am trying my best to base my opinions on compassion and ethics and morality and awareness, not just parroting the news without thought, or my echo chamber, or whatever the first take to come to mind is. I am not trying to be malicious. I am not trying to be ignorant. I am not trying to 'stan America' or whatever people have been saying in my ask box.

They bombed me, too.

[delimeful]

Silver laced wyandotte?

was so confused about this ask until i realized that you were naming the type of chicken in my silly edit

i googled chicken and picked the first image that sparked joy but thank you it's lovely to know what the breed name is <3

[athenaholmesartistsguild]

So if you're an AA fan, you've probably seen the news that 4, 5, and 6 are getting ported to E V E R Y T H I N G just like the OG trilogy and seeing people's reactions to the direction the series took (specifically regarding AA5 and 6) has me thinking about my personal conspiracies about why this direction was taken.

Justifiably, AA4's reception has gotten a lot warmer over the years and --I think-- has circled around to being considered a pretty good installment in the series. Which is good. I agree with this opinion.

But back in my day! (the mid 2010s) I felt so stupid for liking AA4! It was considered obvious that this was a Bad Game (TM) and if you liked it you were an uncultured fool. Personally, I think a lot of people were just mad that the game was different? Obviously, there are valid reasons to not like AA4, but I'm more referring to the overall attitude I observed at this point in the fandom which was that the game was different and therefor lesser.

And I think this attitude caused Capcom to backpedal a bit.

Mentions of AA4 were completely stripped from 5 (save for Apollo, Trucy, and Klavier still being there, the Wright Anything Agency keeping its name and appearace, and Phoenix's AA4 self being mentioned). Even Phoenix seemed to be scrubbed of any flaws. He's just a Nice Guy now. He's a Good Boss. He isn't someone capable of having his daughter forge evidence. He isn't someone who cheats at poker anymore.

And regardless of whether or not you think these decisions were good or bad, it completely changed the way the series was developing. We can't explore the Jury system anymore (at least not until the DGS games). Apollo and Trucy's mother isn't mentioned until the very end of 6. Characters that appeared in 4 can only tentatively be mentioned.

I think 6, because it came out almost 10 years after the initial backlash, is able to reference AA4 more and we're starting to see hints that unfinished story lines WILL (maybe) be wrapped up, but the damage has kinda already been done.

I don't think we're gonna hear from Kristoph again. I don't think Phoenix is gonna go back to his flawed, messy, bisexual self. I still have a tiny, flickering hope that Klavier will show up again, but I'm not optimistic.

And I'm not saying that everyone who disliked AA4 is to blame, or even that the people all those years ago who disliked the game for being different caused our current timeline, either.

Companies are looking for ways to maximize their profits and that oftentimes turns into making art that's safe and palatable rather than taking a bunch of risks. AA4 was a risk and in Capcom's eyes, it didn't pay off critically (although if I remember correctly, it sold pretty well). And that harmed the 'Ace Attorney ~brand~'

Art is frequently at the mercy of the companies who publish it and the consumers who buy it (or don't). I think we ended up with an over-correction that, in hindsight, was a poor decision.

But I digress. I partly just wanted to talk about my experiences in the fandom trenches back in the 2010s. That feels like an eternity ago and it's so much fun to see how it's grown and to interact with new fans.