I think Tumblr ate my last one so here.

Tis your sign to ramble to thine hearts content

I've been saving these until I have thought about something in particular to ramble about so get ready,

I am obsessed with the vibe of the Wright's being born performers. Before choosing to pursue law, Phoenix was an art student, implied to either be pursuing illustration or Shakespearian theater. I like to think that part of the appeal of criminal law for him was how dramatized everything was. It's more about weaving a story that connects all the dots provided for the evidence and witness statements than about, you know, knowledge of the law. It's about plot twists and last-minute saves and becoming the sturdy pillar for your client. Phoenix only chooses cases that are so wacky and hopeless that make for excellent stories. What I'm saying is that Phoenix lives for the drama and how the courtroom turns into a stage where he has to convince everyone else of the story he's piecing together that very moment. There's just something so theatric about yelling 'objection' and slamming the desk and making some improvised quips to taunt the guy you're arguing against.

I'm also of the opinion that the whole Beanix persona was originally intended to be more of a character that Phoenix put up to get Kristoph to believe that he had given up. It's clear that it was all about hiding his true thoughts and his identity from anyone who would recognize his spikey hair and wiggly eyebrows. He deliberately stopped wearing his iconic blue and general business casual getup and you cannot tell me that there wasn't so much thought into how he started to present himself. He's known for being highly saturated and spikey and generally pretty emotionally open so this character he built is the exact opposite of all those things and it's totally on purpose.

And just like Trucy, this character performance is a coping mechanism to keep themselves safe and seemingly confident. They both smile so convincingly and refuse to let anyone know if something is wrong. They're both manipulative but not out of malice, out of need for survival. They've both been on the wrong side of public opinion and in some capacity are aware that they're in the crosshairs of someone incredibly dangerous. They can only try to keep each other safe by playing into the act that they've worked on for years.

So sure they have to hide their true feelings under a quirky guise, but also I think they would join a community theater and be so good at it. They're in musicals together, I think Phoenix can sing, and he can sing well. He was in all his school plays and got so good at projecting his voice that they didn't even need to give him a mic (me core). That's what made him so good at objecting. I think that the ace attorney stage plays should be canon in the aa universe and Phoenix should play himself and he gets Trucy to play Pearl. He accidentally has so much homoerotic tension with the guy who plays Edgeworth that the real Edgeworth gets jealous.

Phoenix should also know about a lot of technical stuff that comes with theater, so he does a lot of the setup for lights and audio for Trucy's magic shows, he helps her move props around and should be so involved because I think that would be fun.

I also think he should know enough magic that she sometimes incorporates him into the act around their friends, so she makes a card disappear and Phoenix pulls the same one out of Edgeworth's ear. I love it when they're concerningly in sync and they can basically read each other's minds. They stare at each other and have fully silent conversations.

there are a lot of posts out there that are positive and healthy coping mechanisms for handling the holidays. this is not one of them :)

i think there's like. going to be times in your life you will be stuck in a social situation that you cannot escape from gracefully. i do not know why the internet doesn't believe these times exist. it's not always just that your physical safety is at risk - sometimes it's legit like "i just don't currently have the energy or time to put in the effort of responding to this." sometimes it's a coworker you hate so much. sometimes it's just like, fine, you know? like you know you can handle your aunt when she's cheerily horrible, but if you actually set a boundary around her, it's going to be weeks of fallout with your father.

i don't know why people think the answer is always just "cut them out!" or "don't let them get away with that!" because ... the real world is tricky and complicated. i think kind of a lot of us have an internal "radiation poisoning" meter for certain people. like - i'm talking about the ones who are absolutely giving you gradual ick damage. like, you can handle them, but you'll be exhausted.

and yes. you absolutely should listen to your therapist and the good posts about handling others and set good boundaries and take care of yourself. prioritize peace.

HOWEVER :) ...... since im often in a situation with a Gradual Sense of Ick person i cannot just "cut out" of my life (without losing someone else precious to me) - i have sort of developed the most. maladaptive form of mischief possible. because like, if i'm going to have to listen to this shit again, i like to have a little bit of private fun with it.

now! again, i am physically safe, just mentally drained by this man. you should only do this with people you are not in danger with. which leads me to my suggestions for when your Unfortunate Acquaintance shows up and says oh everyone pay attention to me.

my favorite word is "maybe!" said as brightly and happily as possible. whenever the Horrible Person starts in on a topic you do not want to go further with, particularly if they make a claim that you know to be inaccurate, do not respond to it. you and i have both tried to actually argue with this person, and it hasn't gone well, because this person just wants the drama of an argument. however, "maybe!" gives them literally nothing to go on. it is incredibly disarming. they are used to people having some response. they know they can't prove what they're saying, and maybe! treats them like the child they are. it dismisses them in the politest way possible.

i like to say maybe! and then, in their stunned silence, immediately change the subject. this is because i have adhd and i will have something unrelated to talk about, but if you can't think of topics fast enough, i recommend just pointing to something and saying, "isn't that lovely?" because fuck you let's bring in some positivity.

by the way. that second trick - of pointing to something and stating an opinion about it? - that just works on its own, like, 70% of the time. i picked it up from teaching preschoolers. it's an intentional "redirect". it stops children crying and it also stops grown adults from finishing their explanation on why women belong in kitchens. dual wielding!

keep it silly for yourself. i absolutely do not care if people think i'm fucking stupid (it's more fun if they do) and as a result i will purposefully misunderstand things just to see how long it takes them to realize i've completely removed them from the subject at hand. when they say "women aren't funny" i get to be like. "which women." "all women." "all women in america?" "no in the world." "like the mole people? the people in the world?" "what? no. like, alive." "oh are we not counting the mole people?" "what the fuck are you talking about." "you don't believe in the mole people?"

similarly, i play a personal game called "one up me." my Evil Acquaintance literally knows this game exists (my family & friends caught onto it and now also play it) and it always fucking gets him. i don't know why. you have to be willing to be a little free-spirited on this one, though. the trick is that when they make one of those horrible little bigoted or annoying comments they are always making, you need to go one unit weirder. not more intense, mind you - just more weird. "you don't look good in that dress." "yeah, actually, my other dress was covered in squid ink due to a mishap at the soup store." "you shouldn't wear such revealing clothes." "wait, what? oh shit. sorry, your son tears off strips when no one is looking and eats them. i swear it was longer before we left the building."

the point of "one up me" is to completely upend this person's narrative. we both know this person likes setting up situations where you cannot "win" and then they really like telling other people how badly you handled it. in a usual situation, if you respond "please don't say something that rude", you're a bitch. but if you let it happen, you're letting yourself be debased. they are not usually expecting door number three: unflappably odd. because what are they going to say when they're telling everyone how badly you behaved? "she said my son eats her dresses" ".... okay?"

if you can, form an allyship with someone whomst you can tagteam with. where they can pick up on your weird "soup store" story and run with it.

the following phrase is amazing and can be deployed for any situation: "oh, be nice :) it's the holidays!" i do not know why this works as often as it does. i'll say it for the most random shit. i think this is bc most of the time these people know they're being impolite, they just like to fight.

godbless. when in doubt, remember that you could always start stealing their pens.

the whole point of this is - if you can't escape. maybe see how long you can just be. like. a horrible little menace.

Saturday's at Wayne Manor are family days. The whole weekend is reserved for the family to come and go as they please, but the biggest events are the Game Days on Saturday from 11:00 to 16:00 and Sunday Dinner at 18:00.

Every Saturday is a Game Day, but the third Saturday of each month is Competition Day. The kids all choose their favorite games, and everyone competes against each other. It's very rarely missed by anyone, but there have been times when someone has had to tap out for one reason or another. Alfred keeps track of who's missed how many days. Barbra keeps the tally of who's won what and how many times. At the end of the year, on December 31st, the scores are announced.

Sunday Dinners are sacred. No one ever misses a Sunday Dinner. The last person who did Jason is still getting subtle jabs and looks from everyone and that was a year ago and he had a very good reason, thank you very much! Everyone is always present for Sunday Dinner because everyone still has a room and the option to stay the night between the two days. Most usually take up the offer, but there have been extenuating circumstances that have pulled someone from the Manor.

No matter any of that because everyone is here and everyone is staying the night. That means everyone is patrolling Gotham tonight. Almost everyone. Batwoman has offered to take over Bludhaven for the night, so that's where she's gone.

Bruce plans to present his idea of messing with his coworkers when everyone gets back to the cave after patrol. All his kids know who they all are, having been trained by him, so there's no risk or accidental reveals on his part. In actuality, the kids thought of it like a game. They even had a folder for it on the Bat Computer and everything!

Yes, that night, after everyone returned to the Bat Cave, he would gather his Chaos Gremlins and invite them to mess with the Justice League with him. He'd also try and get Alfred in on it. Family bonding, and all that.

Though, making his kids sweat was its own form of amusement for him. It was 3:00 when everyone finally returned. They all ran their own routes, watched over by Oracle, and their own times, but everyone was always done no later than 3:00. It was a rule that the Gotham Rouges had yet to pick up on because Batman went back out until dawn more often than not.

Anyway, Bruce has been the first to get back and had put on an act of being upset. He usually kept his Batman persona with his suit, so he was rarely ever this stoic while he was Bruce Wayne. He hid his smirk as he sat at the head of the meeting table in the Cave, waiting for his children to change and sit with him. Duke normally was asleep by now, but he'd asked the boy to be there, letting him in on the harmless prank while they waited for his siblings and Stephanie to arrive.

Once everyone was seated, he waited a total of thirty seconds, meeting eyes with every one of his children, before he spoke. "I'm very disappointed."

Dick's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He'd known Bruce the longest - aside from Alfred - and had likely picked up on something the second he saw Bruce and Duke at the table. "At who?"

"The Justice League," It was amusing to watch the tension melt off of all of them when he shook his head, "We all know who all of them are, as well as everyone who trained under them, but they don't know who we are."

"Except Wonder Woman," Jason pointed out, "She figured me out when I came back."

Fair, Bruce supposed. Jason was always Diana's favorite. "I think they need some help," he said, "A push in the right direction, so to speak."

Stephanie had a smile on her face that promised mischief. "We're not telling them, right? 'Cause that'd be no fun."

"Course not!" Duke yawned, "B said we'd give them a hint."

"What did you have in mind, father?" Damian asked, stoic as always, but matching the gleam in Cass's eyes.

"We invite them to the Bat Cave," he said, "Show them around a bit. The only exits we tell them about, though, should be the Lane," How the ground vehicles get in and out. "-the Zeta Tubes," Obviously. "-and the elevator. But, we don't tell them what's upstairs."

Alfred seemed very amused from where he had taken his seat at the other end of the table.

"From there," Bruce continued, "We invite their civilian identities to the next Gala. Meet them. Hint about the Cave without actually saying anything. If I know Clark as well as I know I do, then he'll, at the very least, piece together that the Bat Cave is under Wayne Manor."

"And if we play it right?" Dick's grin was manic, "They won't connect who we are."

"Won't that be suspicious, though?" Tim spoke up for the first time, "They may not have put things together yet, but they aren't stupid. They're heroes. If we give them the pieces, they're gonna piece them together."

Damian was the one to answer him. "Batman and Bruce Wayne hate one another, though there is a grudging acknowledgement and respect."

"Give them the right pieces, with a few from the wrong puzzle, in the wrong order, we could totally have them fooled!" Jason explained.

The group shared looks between each other. Nothing needed to be said because the looks and movements said everything.

Alfred smiled and shook his head fondly. "You may plan this in the morning. For now, go to bed and get some sleep."

Part 1 Part 3

I love to hear what people say about Youtube Drama* but it's SO tacky when it gets so offbase that the posts people make start to be about completely off topic infighting within the Watcher fanbase

Ok, so, in Germany, THE kids media to consume in my childhood was audio dramas about teen detectives who got up to mischief and case-solving, usually with a dog and one long suffering adult policeman in charge that had to swoop in to save them and arrest the perpetrators at the end. The most famous ones are The Three Investigators, closely followed by The Famous Five, and German Original TKKG.

Now what I'm saying is: I need exactly that with the Junior Quartet and Jiang Cheng, who hasn't been on vacation in years and whose original job description never included babysitting duty for kids who almost get themselves shot every other week.

EDIT: I've written a snippet of this and put it in a reblog

You know, a good thing about LMK is that there literally can't be therapy talk because no one in that show communicates with each other

autobiographical post

In my heart I know that (outside of Tim's stalker records and the bat computer) the only pictures of the bats are all blurry, Sasquatch-is-real-look-I-have-proof shadow-in-the-dark quality shit except for one perfect, beautiful face shot that broke the Gotham Internet when it was posted. Every digital copy was corrupted beyond recovery within three hours and the physical copies vanished in the night. Gotham has never recovered.

so many labru fic ideas ... so little time ...

peak cousin sibling behavior

BONUS - who allowed them to run a company?

I feel like a lot of newer astro boy adaptations portray Tenma as a genius in artificial intelligence, when originally Tenma's greatest invention is Atom's 100k horsepower engine and most of what the Ministry of Science worked on when he was in charge was weapons (he even owns a gun in both 60s anime and manga), it's never really mentioned that Tenma played a part in AI becoming as developed as it is in the AB universe, ATB is guilty of this too but im glad they draw attention about him being obsessed with weapons of mass destruction just because he's insane and its funny

THE PARTY VERSION

total drama horror au where after the "contestants" were chosen, chris kidnapped them and dumped them on an island to compete in death games against each other whilst broadcasting it to the masses livestream style. they're forced to comply with their "host" or else their food/living accommodations are stripped away and they're left to fend for themselves in the forest, but participating in the challenges is arguably more dangerous.

each elimination ceremony is taken to it's literal extreme, as the voted out player is just straight up executed on the spot.

the audience think it's some sort of ARG type deal at first, with the campers being actors, but eventually- probably by the first on-screen death- people catch on to it being Very Real.

(chris funds this little 'project' himself mr beast style using his vast amount of tv star wealth, so there's no network/producers that he has to answer to.)

I am coping. I am coping so well.

Remember that ASL + Uta Band AU I made not long ago? Yeah? Well, here you have a really short playlist about it (Yes, their band is obviously called Drums of Liberation. What did you all expect?)

I am making playlists for the other bands I have in mind because I got too into this AU. I'm not sure if I'll ever write something about this, but damn I have so many ideas already... You'll see... I even have a Google doc with it. And I finally finished making the story about how these four ended up making a band and everything!!

Btw, check out the amazing fanart @elsdreamworld made for this AU that I used for the cover of the playlist.

I gotta be honest I’m really impressed by how Taylor still processes her emotions regarding her father through her art and shares that with fans but that’s still something that is in a weird way so public but so private to the extent that no media outlet has ever written about it in depth before. It’s just fascinating how people see certain things but don’t see the rest. It makes you wonder what else Taylor has shared that the public doesn’t fully understand

oh yeah i mean i'm probably the best person to send this ask to in that i've been that annoying bitch screaming from the rooftop that we don't know her at all for idk 6-7 years now lmaooo. i will also say that because that still stands for me, i'm resistant to the idea that we can say with certainty that subject matter about fathers are about her father exactly. we can only read into what we want to, but i'm not the blog for you if you want to definitively talk about Knowing Things About Her. art is always hyperbolic or dissociative or retconning things through fiction or projecting hopes and dreams through fiction. Even she has said not everything in her songs is actually true and she adds things to embellish or throw people off sometimes. so i don't wanna say all of the lines about fathers are necessarily about her father, confirmed, especially since she hasn't really said that herself. and i think that's why media outlets haven't picked up on it or strayed away from it, as it's all speculation at this point.

but i do find it an interesting insight that mothers in her songs gets the most delightful, loving lines and songs about how comforted and protected she is by her mother and devastated at the thought of losing her. and while there are nice lines written about fathers like "i love your handshake, meeting my father" or "charmed my dad with self effacing jokes", those lines aren't directly about the father, but about how she's impressed when a partner gets her father's approval. those are the nicest lyrics about fathers, and the rest are quite flippant verging on damning. "leaving like a father" or "careless man's careful daughter" or the one that's top of mind from seven about a presumably aggressive and/or verbally abusive father. it's just a fascinating comparison, how she paints mothers and fathers in her songs, and glaring in a way as well considering the STARK contrast. When you compare that to how she talks about her parents in real life, it's even more interesting! When talking about her mom, the sentiments line up pretty squarely with how mothers are depicted in her music, but when talking about her father, it's like night and day. She doesn't gush about her father in the way she does about her mother, no, but she says nice, charming things about him and only ever positively talks about him. because OF COURSE she would. why would she air her family drama to the public? her parents were divorced for YEARS before it became widespread fandom knowledge and still i don't think she's ever acknowledged it. maybe once, but hardly ever if that. i just find it so fascinating, and revealing in a way, that the most impressive thing a partner can do in her songs in regards to her parents is win over her father. perhaps something that's been somewhat elusive for taylor herself as she has strived for it, however subconsciously.

and also we have that scene from miss americana where she starts crying almost instantly when arguing with her dad about speaking out about politics. a scene i personally can't really watch often because of how it's an almost one to one mirror of my own conversations with my dad, down to how i also just start crying almost right away and how flippant and stubborn he is in refusing to understand where she's coming from. the most narrow minded approaches that he has and getting super defensive when she tries to get him to hear her point of view, as if what's most important to him is that he still comes off like a good person and not his daughter literally crying because of their dispute over something so personal. i shiver just thinking about it because of how i've been in that exact situation, and i deeply sympathize with her. it's a glimpse into how perhaps it's a rocky relationship and because of that, maybe she keeps her distance and keeps it a surface level relationship. i know i do with my dad to preserve the peace and my own sanity. it's a tricky thing to navigate, having a parent who loves you but doesn't fully respect your autonomy and even clashes with you ideologically to the point of diminishing you as a person, however unintentionally. they love you, but not fully in the way you maybe want them to. having a tricky relationship with a parent like that is really hard to talk about to a fucking therapist, let alone baring that to the public in art that can be picked apart. i wouldn't blame her for a second if she's shied away from that aspect of her life in her art for the most part. it bleeds through in her general depiction of fathers, as you said, and that's one of the ways that maybe helps her cope, idk who can say. i recognize that in her art and in that scene in particular just because i have those exact experiences in my life, but that doesn't mean that what i see is actually there in the same way i'm seeing it! it could be partially my projection, but it's also not uncommon and she is not immune to having the typical Tumultuous Father/Daughter friction relationship that seems to affect 90% of the world's daughters of fathers lmao.

i'm always trying to get people to the same realization you have which is that as much as she wants people to think she's an open book, she's really not. no human being could be, that's impossible they'd go insane. we only see the tip of the iceberg that is her life, even when it comes to her romantic relationships. most of her life, the 80% of it or whatever the iceberg stat is, goes entirely unnoticed and undisclosed. we see a very specific sliver of her that she CHOOSES to share with us, that she's painted with her favorite colors and is most comfortable revealing. we are not privy to the full reality of her life, the full scope of who she is as a person and what she does and engages with every day. there are ugly parts she doesn't want us to see, and also things she just plain doesn't want to share to keep herself feeling like a human being with a life that is her own. and yes there are some things she hints at through her art like you said, perhaps some of the details of her complicated relationship with her father. but also as you pondered, yes probably a myriad of other troubles or thoughts or experiences that are so vaguely referenced, nobody has ever picked up on them. but that's the point! she doesn't want to share them in a way that they can be consumed and taken from her. i think that's great and part of why she's somewhat of a stable famous person, so it appears (or at least hasn't had a gone of the deep end spiral like many famous people used to do like clockwork). maybe one day she will feel comfortable talking about her interpersonal relationship with her father in detail, but probably not and she never has to if she doesn't want to. there's a sort of dignity preservation in that i can understand completely, and a protectiveness that comes with that sort of relationship. as much as you may have disdain for your father, the burden of the daughter is that unimpeachable love that compels you to care for them despite what they do and want to protect them. she may hate him, but according to her, only she is allowed to hate him, that sort of thing, and we don't even know how she feels about him in totality. so she may want to keep that part of her life close to her chest and die without anyone ever knowing and that's entirely her decision to make, probably the best and most healthy one if you ask me.

anyway happy fathers day from taylor who says dads ain't shit!