#scramble's rambles

[scramblecat]

Because I'm so Normal about characters, I typed out a nearly 3k word long essay/observation on how Handler's opinion on Agent Phoenix changes over the course of all three games. It's basically just reiteration of parts of the games I found relevant, and is by no means coherent, but it was fun to write so I thought I'd post it anyway!

Big huge spoilers for all three games under the cut!

So, let's start with some background, shall we?

In the Agency (more specifically, the EOD) agents are very disposable. They die all the damn time-- we know this not only from various comments from multiple characters throughout the game, but also from the board in the debrief room to Phoenix's right-- which shows a list of agents, from which agents are constantly being shuffled out of.

And that's the whole point of the game's name-- Phoenix, being an agent, is expected to die, because there's so many little things that can go wrong. They're expected to die by not only Zoraxis operatives, but Agency personnel as well.

So it's only natural that Handler has a certain nonchalance towards agents dying. He knows how often they do die, and he's used to it. So he knows not to get attached. Hell, he doesn't even have enough time to get attached, the agents are gone so soon.

I Expect You To Die

Agent Phoenix is a brand-new agent, assigned to the Handler we know and love. And, exactly like all the other agents, he expects them to die. Maybe not immediately, but he knows they're going to die nonetheless. And he's very casual about it.

That's exactly why he seems so unbothered at the end of Operation Deep Dive, because as soon as they got into that escape pod and communications were lost, he just went ah. Whoops, another agent down. Too bad. And that's all there really was to it.

If anything, though, he's impressed with them, even if he doesn't show it. He commented on how many people die in those escape pods all the time, and from the state of the escape pod itself, it's easy to infer that it was a struggle. So perhaps he gains a little more respect for them, and starts taking them a little more seriously after that.

As he watches them perform more and more, his opinion continues to change. No matter how unconventional their methods are sometimes, Phoenix is a damn good Agent, and they pull through again and again and again. In First Class, he's actually starting to enjoy working with them. Based on his 'third favorite agent' comment before First Class, I'd imagine to start out he had multiple agents, but by the time the Death Engine rolls around, maybe he's down to only Phoenix. That, or around the start of IEYTD2, he makes the decision to take Phoenix on as his own agent, to make sure they can continue being an agent in the EOD even after they're supposed to have 'died'.

He's not exactly at the level of attachment yet, but… Even through the chaos of the Death Engine destroying the building next door to the EOD HQ, he's worried. You can hear it in his voice post-mission, when he lets Phoenix know that he and a few Agency personnel are closing in on the crash site of the Death Engine. At this point, he wouldn't be devastated if Phoenix died, but he'd probably be a little saddened and disappointed by it.

And then comes IEYTD2.

Spy and the Liar

In Jet Set, once Phoenix takes down the signal jammer, Handler comes back online, and he sounds a bit frantic as he tries to get a hold of Phoenix again. Usually, he's rather lighthearted during missions, but he puts on a no-nonsense demeanor while he's helping Phoenix re-route the plane. He's worried for them. He also praises them when they do things right, and tells them to chin up, and assures them that they're almost through this. Which is not something he's done before. Not only does he care about their safety, he also cares about their wellbeing, and he's determined to keep both intact. In IEYTD2, he's not only there with Phoenix as another presence, he is also there as moral support, and he leans into that job very much.

When he sees the missile, he becomes more urgent.

For the first time, he's scared for them.

In Eaves Drop, Handler goes with Phoenix-- albeit, not all the way into Fabricator's workshop, but he goes with them nonetheless. I don't know about anyone else, but it surprised me, at least.

Handler is comfortable enough with their skills to know that they're worth going with. They're valued highly by not only him, but the Agency, too-- they've been an outstanding agent, and are very quickly making their way up the ranks mission after mission after the Death Engine, and they are all but considered the best of the best. They're a really fucking good agent. So the Agency knows that they're worth investing in.

In Party Crasher, Handler comments on Phoenix's eye injury. While they've obviously dealt with worse before, he's still fussing over them a little bit.

And it's just little things like this. In IEYTD2 he's so much more invested in Phoenix's work and wellbeing, and it shows. He's getting really attached, and he's not supposed to, but he very much is.

One thing I want to mention before we get to the painfully obvious, though, is the end of Safe and Sound.

Do you remember when I said agents die all the time? That the Agency, and Handler, are both so nonchalant about agents going missing and dying?

Handler says he's been trying to get a hold of Phoenix for hours.

He's personally gone out to search for them. On his own.

If Phoenix was any other agent, he's supposed to let them die. He would not put hours of effort in tracking and searching to try and recover them-- especially not by himself. I have no doubts this choice of action was frowned upon at the Agency, but he was desperate. He needed them to come back alive. Phoenix is the best of the best, so that need was warranted.

And that brings us to the moment you've probably been waiting for me to mention.

Rising Phoenix.

Now, to start, his debrief. 'If anyone can do it, it's you, Agent.' And then he chuckles to himself, '…Agent Phoenix.'

He sounds amused by the name, but also very fond of it.

You know how people who are fostering like. cats and stuff don't give them names because they'll end up getting attached?

That's the final damning piece. He cares so much about Agent Phoenix-- they already weren't 'some random agent' to him after the Death Engine, but now, they're Agent Phoenix. Agent Phoenix, a completely unique person in their own right. He cares about them as both an agent and a person. And he doesn't do a very good job of hiding it.

Throughout the entirety of Rising Phoenix, Handler is at Phoenix's side, helping them along, giving moral support, telling them that it's going to be okay. He's fearing for them just as much as (or even more than, depending on your interpretation) they're fearing for themself.

When Zor is threatening Phoenix, Handler gently tells them to focus, and assures them that they can do this. He tells them to ignore them, stays by their side, reassures them and keeps them calm.

He sounds like he knows what needs to happen when he tells Phoenix they'll fall to their death, but he says it anyway. Maybe there's another way. He can't lose them now. But he knows he's about to.

And then they fall.

And Handler, who's gotten far too attached to this agent that wasn't supposed to live, cries out, yells their name as the elevator plunges.

And Phoenix dies, right before his eyes.

In Handler's report (his final report, that is, about the Juniper incident), he sounds… different. Handler stumbles on Phoenix's name the first time he says it-- his breath catches mid-word, as if he's trying to hold it together I'm not sure how intentional this was but it's THERE and i lose it EVERY TIME i listen to it and he has to pause for a second after saying it, every time he says it. He sounds like he's trying to hold it together throughout the whole report, and just barely succeeding. I personally like to imagine that this report had multiple takes where he just could not keep it together and had to restart, and that thought kills me dead to have but it's a thought.

Handler thinks Agent Phoenix-- or, in the words of Roxana Prism, his Agent-- is gone. He thinks he watched them die. And he got so attached to them that he's horrendously devastated by the loss.

Cog in the Machine (Tutorial)

So, in the beginning of CITM, the tutorial opens, for the first time in any of the games, without Handler in it. We're greeted instead by a new space, by darkness, and a note on the desk.

It says that this place has been evacuated due to the demolition of the Zoraxis base (nearby this new place), and it mentions Phoenix by name.

It's also addressed as, 'to the next Agent'.

So, we can infer a few things from here, one of which gets confirmed later in the game.

A new Agent was (or is going to be) assigned to this location.

Agent Phoenix is now famous within (and outside of) the Agency. (This is also confirmed on the newspaper on the desk, which cites them as 'one particularly skilled agent')

It's unclear how long it's been since Rising Phoenix or at least I don't know but clearly, it's been plenty of time for word to spread on what happened.

Now, bear with me here while I spout some non-canon information, but this means Handler has likely been hearing about Phoenix's death nonstop since it happened. And knowing how distraught he was over it, it can't have been good for him to be continuously reminded of it. So, this whole time, not only does he think they're dead and he watched them die (and maybe could've done something about it had he acted quicker), but word about it is everywhere.

So, turning back around to my aforementioned idea that by IEYTD2, Phoenix is his only agent, Phoenix submitting their earpiece and identification reconnects them with Reginald and Reginald alone.

When we hear him for the first time in IEYTD3, Handler sounds far different than usual-- he snaps at the person on the other end, as if he's enraged by simply being called. And knowing that he's usually rather lighthearted in demeanor, this in itself is alarming. He's not doing well if he reacts like that.

And then he recognizes who's on the other end.

His demeanor changes immediately. The disbelief and then the giddy joy in his words are also at a level that we've never heard from him before. He laughs-- a full laugh-- and the complete turnaround of his mood is staggering. From this reaction alone, it goes without saying how much he'd truly grown to care for Phoenix before their 'death'. however i am going to continue with saying because the tutorial fucked me up and i cannot emphasize it enough /silly

After finding out that Phoenix is alive, Handler goes right back to himself again, cracking a joke about how he couldn't get rid of Phoenix if he wanted to-- which he could've continued with the same tone of the joke, but an overwhelming amount of sincerity and relief and the winding down of exhilaration replaces it instead as he tells them he doesn't want that.

Throughout the rest of the tutorial, he's extremely enthusiastic, and he fusses over Phoenix ('Speaking of explosion, are… you alright?') and he makes his happiness and relief very clear through reminiscing ('Here! I'll walk you through the rest of it. [pause] …Hah. Just like old times.') ('Haha! That's the Agent Phoenix I remember!').

At one point, he even gets audibly a bit choked up ('Well, I daresay you and I are back on the job! …I… Never thought I'd be saying that again… after we lost you…')

After that, he admits that when he said 'final report' at the end of IEYTD2, he meant he genuinely was planning to leave the Agency. Phoenix's death affected him so much that he was ready to quit his job entirely-- he didn't think it was worth it anymore without them. But at Phoenix's return, he's ready to continue in a heartbeat.

By the end of Rising Phoenix, while it's not readily apparent to both Phoenix and Handler himself, Handler is long past the point of 'getting attached' in the way of 'i like this agent specifically'. After the fact, hearing him both in the briefing he gave and here at Phoenix's return, it's clear that Phoenix means so much more to him than that. Phoenix is his purpose and his reason.

Cog in the Machine

So, in CITM, Handler is overall back to his old self, as full of quips as always. The way he presents himself to Phoenix is very different than the previous two games. He doesn't even try and tone down his friendliness towards them-- he and Phoenix are companions, and there's nothing to stop that fact. To hell with the 'don't get attached' thing, they've been through hell and back together, they're allowed to be close with one another (in any interpretation of the phrase!)

But above all that, throughout the entirety of the game, Handler worries over Phoenix. That worry ranges from simple fussing to genuine, actual panic. I'm mentally ill about this game and character analysis in general so I'm going to cover it case by case.

The first notable instance is in Not A Drill, when the destabilized Kinesium explodes, and Phoenix briefly passes out. Handler is frantically trying to get ahold of them when they return to consciousness, and he is very much pushing to get them out of there fast. He even admits to worrying about them at the end-- while not directly, it's still worry. And in the debrief, he's still super concerned about the kinesium explosion interacting with Phoenix's implant, and alludes to fearing for their life because of it.

In Blind Spot, he checks in on Phoenix if they hit their head on the ceiling after activating the ejector seat, and there's a bunch of little moments like this scattered throughout the game. He cares a lot more if they hurt themself in general, but…

Hot Water.

Operation: Hot Water is the prime example of what I've been talking about in this section.

During the briefing, Handler mentions that another agent experienced a blackout similar to Phoenix's in this same area, and Phoenix is to go investigate it. This already sets the groundwork for him to be concerned about this mission, but as we know… well. Everything goes to shit.

Handler begins to sound nervous as soon as the lab rumbles. He blames it on the wind, and then it happens again, and then Zor's giant squid shows up.

And Handler begins to panic.

When I say panic, I mean panic. He's stuttering, he's audibly having trouble breathing, he's raising his voice.

I'll admit, the first time around, I thought I was just reading too much into his lines-- and then when he commented on it, I thought it was simply going to be played for laughs.

But no.

When the squid comes back, Handler shoots right back into that panic. I'll also admit that at first, I thought he was just scared of the squid, and then he yells that he's getting a wetsuit on. That he's coming to save Phoenix.

Handler, in the entirety of IEYTD3, is terrified for Phoenix's life.

He lost them once. He thought they died. He thought he watched them die. Maybe he thought he could do something.

And he knows that he can't bear to live with that. He now knows how much they mean to him. How badly it hurts when they're gone.

He can't lose them again.

And he'd do anything to keep them alive, if he can. He'd jump into the ocean by himself to seriously risk his life to save theirs. He almost did do that.

Just to make sure they're safe.

Phoenix, over the course of the past three games, has defied Agency expectation in terms of dying. Handler, over the past three games, has defied Agency expectation in terms of caring.

In the first game, he was dismissive about the idea of Phoenix dying. In the third, he's ready to sacrifice anything to save them.

Many expect Phoenix to die. Handler needs them to live.

[scramblesscribbles]

One personal DC headcanon I have that I haven’t seen mentioned around is that most speedsters end up learning sign language pretty early on after getting speedforced. For us the difference doesn’t really matter, but when you can travel at the speed of light waiting for sound to reach your ears gets really tedious real fast.

(Impulse #51 pg 11) [ID: A clip of four panels depicting Max Mercury, his daughter Helen Claiborne, and Bart’s friend Carol Bucklen having a conversation in a car. End ID] Helen “That boy really needs to work on his patience...” Max “I know. Bart gets anxious waiting for the light to come on.” Carol “Light...? What light?” Max “Any light. The light switch in the kitchen... in the living room...” Helen “But those lights come on immediately-- as soon as you flick the switch.” Max “... Yes. You would think so, wouldn’t you?” Like when your brain works that fast I feel like learning sign to save time in speedster to speedster conversations just makes sense.

[bluerosefox]

Drake Siblings

Have I read this prompt somewhere or was this a fever dream from my bored mind.

What if, now hear me out.

What if we bring up Dana Winters-Drake (whose confirmed to at least be alive in the DC verse but no one knows where she actually is)

What if instead of when she had a mental breakdown and getting committed to an Bludhaven clinc she wandered away before anyone noticed and by the time Tim or anyone did notice a lot of stuff started happening at once in both Gotham and Bludhaven (Steph dying, The Bludhaven crisis, etc etc)

Tim still tries to find her though but even with best resources it was like she just disappeared into the wilderness and the stress of trying to handle more and more problems get worse.

So when out of the blue, a couple of years later, he gets a call from an unknown number. On his private, only for friends and family, phone and when he answers he meet with a young girls voice on the other end.

A very young, maybe six or seven, girl who informs him about his apparently half-brother Danny Drake-Fenton. And how she loves Danny so, so, so much but knows her home is dangerous for him to be in.

Tim is stunned and before he could question her, she says Danny is Dana and Jack's baby and that her parents had adopted him years ago and put Dana's stuff that the hospital had away for him to look at when he was older but she just had to fight off their lunch from eating her brother and she knows he needs a better place to live and so she snooped around and found Dana's diary and that she had to unscramble the nonsense Dana wrote and found Tim's number with the words 'tell him about his brother Danny' hidden in it. And-

But before she could keep rambling she hears Danny screaming "JAZZY THE MILK WENT BAD AGAIN AND HISSED AT ME!"

Tim is left with silence after hearing Jazz yell to Danny to lock the fridge and step out of the kitchen as she gets the bat.

[those-rainbow-ninjas]

this who i wanna be. every time im like "ugh i should post something but i only have side character shit.." i think of this and draw more random side characters

[scrambledd3ggss]

I’m disappointed the stream got cancelled for tonight, but I’m more worried about how disappointed the cast must be :(

Like I hope we’ll have another stream to celebrate not even for us (the listeners) but so the cast and crew can celebrate this big moment 😭

[scramble-eg]

i got to silly

my fandom collection + more

took me longer than it should

also most of them are autism

blank version if u want

sorry if it looks strange

[allhailnarusama]

The thing about zutara and why it's such a popular ship in the atla fandom (despite the fact that it is non canon) is that, canonically, it's written as the enemies-to-friends trope and done extremely well. It is so well written that it could trip into the enemies-to-lovers trope and still be good.

[foldingfittedsheets]

I need everyone to know I haven’t slept in three days and one of my fellow trainees is a rehire who worked for the company for like eight months. He told me (sleep deprived) that he once told a guest to follow him to the blue mattress (he meant purple) and I ugly laughed so hard the customers at the far end of the store looked over in confusion.

[roadkill-punk]

It's kind of tragic, in a sense, that iterators were made with so much of their creators logic and desires and yet they were left with none of the resources to satisfy such things.

Do you think they crave touch? Family? Do you think they have to have any hope of connection stomped out of them lest they rebel against what they were made for?

Were they ever afraid to feel, or to be outside of what they were supposed to be? If they ever dared to desire, would they have to hide it?

Do you think they saw their creators sometimes as family, and did the abuse hurt just that much more because of it?

Were they like children, when they were born? Did they process the world through the lens of uncertainty and naivete and was that taken advantage of to mold them into the desired product?

Or were they conscious and self aware in full, was is overwhelming, being alive for the first time?

Or were did they process things entirely as machines, did they only learn to be people after seeing it happen around them, and then did they ever regret becoming more alive than they ever needed to be? That they ever became enough to feel hurt and to hurt others?

If they were just machines at birth, with only the capability of consciousness, were the desired traits injected into them with thoughts and ideas and interactions in their formative early years and was anything else just a byproduct of trying to build a person from scratch? Did their creators even want them to feel, to be conscious and alive, or was that just a necessity to create the desired machine?

Did they even care that their creations were alive?

Did any of them grieve, when they left the children of their labor behind? Were they grieved for in turn when they were gone? Do their echoes ever try to reach out, to let them know they aren't alone, to find comfort in connection that before was so condemned?

If they tried hard enough, could they reach?

Could they find each other?

Would it be comforting to iterators that the remnants of their creators could find them, or would it bring more feelings of rage, of sorrow, of painful memories and grief and hurt from the years they were used and the years more they were abandoned?

Did they ever truly mean anything to each other?

[chrliekclly]

omg just asked about the dept you work in on sunny and then processed ur about info after i sent the ask, what do you do in cam? so awesome you work on set i love film/tv and the making of and also sunny is my fav show

in simpler terms:

[scramblesscribbles]

One of my all time favorite Bruce moments is that one time in No Man's Land where he found two women arguing over a baby, thought he was so smart when he tried the Solomon trick, only to be absolutely shocked when that didn't work.

(Batman: No Man's Land Vol 2, page 122) Bruce: okay hear me out. I cut the baby in half. The moms: No????? Obviously not?????? Bruce: ...well I'm out of ideas

(If anyone's curious in the end he came back and basically said "okay what if you raise the baby together" and they agreed to that. Neither of them were the biological mother or had the resources to raise the child alone)

[madbard]

I have so many thoughts about post-canon human Loop, many of which revolve around their acting skills and adjusting to having a face again.

They got so used to fake-smiling during their loops but at this point it’s been… however many months where not only did they not have a mouth, they also weren’t talking to anyone but another version of themself. Not too hard to be mysterious and unreadable in that situation.

But for them to be human again and have access to the full range of expressions that come with that is such a funny idea for me because no way they are being mysterious now.

Imagine they’re traveling with the party and stumble across something triggering. The party asks them if they’re ok and they respond with the classic “I’M FINE (in severe distress)” Siffrin smile and everyone’s faces just drop.

Siffrin: “… does it really look like that?”

Odile: “Essentially, though this is somehow worse.”

Loop, hiding their face in their hands: “WHAT?!”

[moldyselene]

Some thoughts on the fem au

Even if kaito went off the radar after getting injured, I still like to imagine her sending out doves to check on shinichi (she’s not doing well)

Looking down at the shattered monocle, shinichi can still smell the blood spreading out on the once pristine white cape, can still see the still form of KID before it disappeared in a flash.

Kaito barely made it with the help of akako, with the help of magics and potions, she’s able to at least walk again under a year. Although some injuries still has a permanent effect on her, so returning as KID is an impossible task.

[those-rainbow-ninjas]

the gayass side characters on my brain. go read A Tale of Things Lost on ao3 i dont remember the author im sorry BUT ITS SO GOOD LITERAL BACKBONE OF INUNAKA MWAH some of the interactions are based from that fic...

[curi0uscreature]

* (steam coming out of my head) I’m fucking thinking dude

[midnightwind]

you guys like me going off on random DA tangents and musings, right?? because I've been awake too long so you're getting another one

I have been sat here trying to figure out Why Lucanis' prison looks like a bunch of ice and why it was so far away from the "lab" settings for a while now. (arguably two rooms fit this description, the one where Lucanis tells you about Zara and the one right outside his phylactery room) Like, even without that bridge being broken, it's in such a bizarre corner of the Ossuary. And I mean, it wouldn't really matter with a normal prisoner, but Lucanis was a notorious Crow and mage killer on top of that, plus he was Zara's special little guy to fuck with. You would not want to take him for a long walk to experience the worst shit on earth every few days. Maybe it's close enough to the little room where he mentions Zara and maybe she wanted him close to the door so she didn't have to go far to torture him, but again, leaving such a challenging subject close to the exit seems like a bad choice. You want him to have to get through so many guys and doors before escaping so you have time to take him down.

This also ignores the magic required to leave, but they're not clear on what that is and not all the Venatori are mages so there's gotta be a mundane way out he could snatch off a guard. I digress, the whole ice cage and far off room doesn't make sense. But we know they were shipping demons to Zara. (I'm pretty sure the few demons you confront in Minrathous were Zara's little pets set loose so we can assume she wanted them in the capital for the eventual Venatori coup on the crown) If Zara was about to be stuck in Minrathous for the foreseeable future, setting things into motion for Elgar'nan, I could see her wanting her pet Crow at her side. Especially if you consider the initial idea for Lucanis: he was going to be a mind controlled murder puppet before you break him out.

Sure, Spite didn't crack open his ribcage and crawl out like some new horror, but having a demon in Lucanis lets her control him via the phylactery if not just outright with her blood magic. Maybe his will was too strong for mundane control, but the phylactery works. We know it works based off of Lucanis' dialogue about it. So we know she had a surefire way to keep him under control. (There's a whole other post exploring the amount of dead Venatori and the fact that Lucanis still has his leathers and weapons [which would make sense if he was Zara's murder puppet, but alas] and whether Lucanis recently made a break for it or if the loose demons/spirits/undead killed them all) Maybe he kept his leathers because Zara wanted him presentable upon delivery, I don't know.

But I do think he was being prepped to move. The Ossuary is falling apart, Zara is pulling all the best results, they're losing personnel and servants without being given more; Zara was clearly moving on from that location. But she wanted her little Antivan prize. He's too dangerous to move normally, a Crow is likely to escape if given an inch especially a skilled one like Lucanis, so they need to lock him down somehow. Ropes and chains aren't reliable, not with a Crow, but he's not a mage. You can use magic. You can literally put him on ice. I think they were packaging him up in an ice cube and doing it next(ish) to the door so they could more easily move him. I think Zara was going to take him and his phylactery to Minrathous and use him to cause some absolutely ruthless mayhem in the city before her cult took it over.

I think Rook showing up weakened the spell being cast just enough for Lucanis and Spite to break out, and I think it saved a whole lot of lives.