#essie007

[lordgolden]

I have never read realm of the elderlings but I have been passively absorbing the occasional thing you l’ve posted about it and what the actual fuck is going on being between fitz and the fool in those books????? It sounds like the gayest thing I’ve ever heard of.

yeah dude. I can't even explain it lmao. what's gayer being gay or whatever fitz and the fool have going on? definitely whatever they have going on

[fulcrvm]

Ask Game: List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! get to know your mutuals and followers :)

hello!! i really enjoyed your fic, How the Light Gets In!! :D okay, five things that make me happy...

that i did well on a recent internship interview :)

Daft Punk's Alive 2007 on vinyl, which i just got!

finally getting to play TRON: Identity for the first time... woah

being home to cook with my family

THE SANDMAN S2 ENDLESS TEASER VIDEO!??!?!1 YEAH. WOW. YEAH

[steel-wings]

Also for the speak now tv ask game: Steve/Tony

The Story of Us

So so Civil War coded.

I used to think one day we'd tell the story of us How we met and the sparks flew instantly

Works for both 616 (personal preference) and MCU if you want to take it with more of an antagonistic meaning.

I used to know my place was a spot next to you Now I'm searching the room for an empty seat

"I’m not half as good at—at anything as I am when I’m doing it next to you. And that’s the truth.”

This is looking like a contest Of who can act like they care less But I liked it better when you were on my side The battle's in your hands now But I would lay my armor down If you'd say you'd rather love than fight

"The one thing I can't live without has happened. And for all our back and forth--and all the things we've said and done to each other...There's one thing that I'll never be able to tell anyone now...The one thing I should have told you. But now I can't... It wasn't worth it.”

[teejaystumbles]

These are the two illustrations I did for @essie007 's Endless Big Bang fic By The Dead of Morning <3

[essie007]

Dreamling Fic: The Nightmare Lord's Lover Chapter 1

Title: The Nightmare Lord's Lover Writer: Essie (@essie007) Rating: Explicit Pairing: Dream of the Endless I Morpheus/Hob Gadling Tags and Warnings on AO3

Summary: The entity that Hob meets in The White Horse isn’t remotely human; it’s some sort of shapeshifting eldritch monster. But Hob is still very interested in his mysterious friend.

Dream appears to Hob as a different Nightmare creature every hundred years. For @monsterfucktoberbingo.

Chapter 1 is for the squares "eldritch" and "tentacle." Enjoy!

[butterflydm]

I did limit myself to one character per piece of media.

tagged by @aceofthegreenajah and @ofthebrownajah (thank you!)

tagging @markantonys @eidetictelekinetic @essie007 @sixth-light

[endlessbigbang]

Title: By The Dead of Morning Writer: Essie (@essie007) Artist: @teejaystumbles Rating: Explicit Warnings: Suicidal Ideation, Minor Character Death, Temporary Character Death, mentions of revenge porn, mentions of stillbirth Word Count: 39,775 Pairing: Dreamling Additional Tags (up to 10): reverse verse, canon divergent AU, Hob Gadling is Hope of the Endless, Human Morpheus, angst with a happy ending, Endless Family Drama

Summary:

When Despair is killed by the Kindly Ones for spilling family blood, she departs to the sunless lands, never to return. Thus, Hob Gadling, a lowly mercenary living in London in 1389, becomes Hope of the Endless. Over six hundred years later, Death takes him out for a drink, Desire in tow, to the Tavern of the White Horse, where he meets Morpheus, a down on his luck mortal crying into his sangria after a recent break-up. Desire believes that Morpheus’s death wish is genuine and that he will be dead within a year, but Hope is certain the man has too much to live for. Death offers a solution, she will not take Morpheus until he asks for her gift, but as soon as he does, she will grant it. Hob approaches Morpheus with every intention of winning a bet, but Hob is the youngest Endless by far and doesn’t know the family’s full complicated history. Or their connection to Morpheus. A reverse-verse canon divergent AU.

Fic & Art: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48475690/chapters/122275639 Art Post: https://www.tumblr.com/teejaystumbles/724431117641564160/these-are-the-two-illustrations-i-did-for?source=share

[rainbownomja]

Y’all ever have those moments when someone asks you a question and your mind just goes blank? That feels like what happened to me today tbh. I have many a character that I love, these are both my current favs and the ones I could remember XD.

Tagged by @essie007

Tagging: anyone who wants to. Pls tag me if you do I wanna see em!

[gunkreads]

@essie007 @wafflelovingbatgirl on the realistic side of things yeah, that was my answer too

BUT TO CONTINUE THE BIT the density of insanity in this woman outstrips almost anyone else in the cast! She's there for like maybe 50 cumulative pages? Maybe a little more? And she left such an impression on me that I remember more about her than most other side characters.

It does help that I've always been infatuated with Perrin, so the huge (or at least hugely vocal) group who hates Perrin probably barely remembers her. (Btw if this is you, meet me out front of the gas station at 12th and C at 11 tonight. Bring a baseball bat; you'll need it)

Sometimes when I see a listing of a bunch of prominent insane women in Wheel of Time, Deira Bashere's absence just makes me feel delusional. Was she not insane enough for you guys? Was the bogglingly incomprehensible marriage between her and Davram not sufficiently deranged enough for you? She's like every single ounce of Jordan's weird female-character bullshit packed into a 5'10" keg of off-putting crazy. Is it just because you can't imagine any other woman to ship her with (Morgase is right there btw)? Or was there some consensus that she's just too low on the weirdo ladder/too high on the gross stereotype ladder?

[intermundia]

Hello, I was reading your meta about how Darth Vader is a lich (it’s excellent btw) and I was wondering if you could expand more on the classical meaning and uses of the terms “phylactery” and “lich.” I know that phylactery has long refered to the boxes attached to tefilum used in jewish prayer (I’m jewish) and I know the root of the word is derived from Ancient Greek but prior to reading your meta I had heard that the modern use of the “phylactery”/“lich” mythology came from D&D in the 70s. Is there an earlier record of this mythology? Thank you.

The paired terminology lich and phylactery absolutely did enter the modern popular imagination through DnD and other fantasy literature in the middle of the 20th century. I think it’s modern mythology, using extant archetypes to create something new.

The pairing of an undead magician and an object containing their soul/anchor to life are both evocative of earlier mythological elements but not identical. It draws on the ancient idea of magic being a kind of binding and the very ancient concept of the soul. BUT, the words were not linked before the 20th century, and come from distinct heritages.

In DnD, a lich is corporeal, gaunt and skeletal, with points of light burning in place of decomposed eyes. Their soul (life-force? identity?) is stored in an object that binds the soul to the mortal world and prevents it from traveling to the Outer Planes after death. The phylactery itself is usually an amulet in the shape of a small box, but it can take the form of any object with an interior space in which arcane sigils of naming, binding, immortality, and dark magic are scribed in silver. The magician’s soul persists inside the box.

Since about the Middle Ages, the word phylactery’s meaning was specifically fixed to tefilum (small boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses of the Torah), but before that, back in antiquity, it meant something more general like amulet or charm—small objects worn for magical/supernatural protective power.

The word comes from the verb φῠλᾰ́σσω (phulássō, “to protect”), and meant a fortified garrison, and then over time the meaning was adopted and changed into a protective amulet. The Jewish usage is a specific continuation of a long-standing tradition, one that Christians (I think) moved away from as ‘superstition’ and a legacy of paganism.

In antiquity, phylacteries were created using binding spells, engraving, and inscription (spells/magic words, invocations of supernatural beings like minor gods, naming, etc). They were usually tied around the body, either strings/bands, or strips of metal/papyrus was inscribed and then rolled up or folded and carried in a pouch or tubular container. The container itself was not the φυλακτήριον, the inscribed/magical contents provided the power. They were thus not conceptually hollow and did not provide a vessel for a soul or anything like that.

There was no specific association between φυλακτήριον and preservation from death. They affected things like social relationships, brought prosperity, warded off the evil eye, that sort of thing. There was a great deal of paranoia in antiquity about binding spells/curses like defixiones cast by other people, and amulets/phylacteries were more about that and general protection from them and other misfortune than preservation of the life force.

I know that by the Middle Ages, Christians had phylacteries that contained relics (e.g. the finger of Marie of Oignies in the 13th century was placed in a phylactery). So, what was contained inside the phylactery and powered the protection was no longer something inscribed, but a magical token related to death. Christians, though, did not have any desire to keep their souls alive and away from God (based on my understanding of Christian doctrine, the idea of trying to bind the soul to keep it away from God is incredibly deeply sinful?). Those phylacteries then were also good luck charms within the context of having a good, safe, and happy life.

Why then did 20th century fantasy writers decide to use the word phylactery to describe a magic vessel protecting the soul? I hope the lingering Christian fingers-in-a-box and general magical-safekeeping-amulet meanings of phylactery were in the minds when they paired the term with lich, but it may very well have been a direct appropriation of the Jewish (common, modern, recognized) meaning of the word, I honestly do not know.

In terms of the vocabulary, lich (from Old English lic, corpse), is borrowing resonance from something called a ‘lich gate’ which stood at the lowest end of the cemetery where the coffin and funerary procession usually entered. Fantasy authors were probably trying to draw both on the corporeal/physical (i.e. not a ghost) undead figure, and the idea of transition and liminality that the lich exists inside, both dead and alive. Liches refuse the final transition, essentially, to go through the gate.

I think it’s a mash up of ancient ideas—by pairing these words, the writers in the 20th century created a modern sort of undead creature. There is no history of lich/phylactery before the 20th century, but both words are very evocative and conceptually related to magic (phylactery) and the narrative undead villains in stories (lich) through the ages, which is perfect for fantasy stories and games that tell stories in those worlds. I think the use of Old English too evokes Tolkien’s contributions to the fantasy genre. 

By making it specifically a magician (intellectual) who chooses this transformation for themselves, as opposed to a creature animated by something else’s power, it is reminiscent of the concept hubris, especially nerds who seek to know too much and have too much power through technology/human knowledge. Naming it after something Greek also seems to evoke that it is esoteric and something learned from study, while lich is very idk Anglo-Saxon and old in a primeval way.

The whole concept seems very modern to me also to externalize and concretize a soul into something that can be stored like an object (is it from external memory—computers?). It’s a very secular and materialist appropriation of a magic/sacred concept, aka the bread and butter of fantasy lit.

Corpses reanimated by supernatural forces are present in almost every belief system in the world, as well as the idea of souls (ghosts) that persist without bodies. What is interesting is the mechanics of how these creatures are reanimated, how they stay reanimated, and how they are destroyed. That is a whole other subject tbh, a whole book could be written about this.

Tl;dr—the combo of lich/phylactery is modern, but evocative of older things both through name and through mechanics.

[steel-wings]

For the Speak Now TV ask game: Doctor/Rose and Connor DBH

Doctor/Rose: There are a couple of songs that I feel like fit them off this album. I would say for a happy song, Sparks Fly is very good because it embodies the excitement and wonderstruck nature of Rose's early interactions with the Doctor. If I had to choose one though I would go with Back to December from the Doctor's POV, given that their story is fundamentally about 'the one that got away.' Also I mean...

'You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye' is giving "I love you" "If it's my last chance to say it...Rose Tyler I-" Connor (Detroit Become Human): Off of this album it's gotta be Innocent.

Lost your balance on a tightrope Lost your mind tryin' to get it back

Connor is literally a character balancing on the line between two paths, struggling with his humanity and how that costs him his sense of order and purpose in the world.

(Also I know you didn't ask but as I bonus pick I love You're On Your Own Kid for Connor.)

[gffa]

1/2 First off, I love you blog! All your meta and your fic recs are A+. But I’m messaging to thank you for your meta regarding the Jedi as a minority religion that faced genocide. Thank you for defending the Jedi heartily in fandom and for explaining to people over and over why “these people were responsible for their own genocide” is not a great sentiment. I know it is a fictional world and these are fictional people but I am a real live Jew and Star Wars fan and I don’t have the emotional

2/2 energy to engage with people about this. And that sort of anti-Jedi rhetoric can be genuinely hurtful. I can’t tell you how viscerally painful it was to watch Luke Skywalker, a man raised by a survivor of genocide, whose goal in life was to reclaim his lost heritage say “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” That line was written by a man who was raised Christian and who hates organized religion. It shows. I want to engage with SW fandom but so few places feel safe. Your corner does so THANKYOU

Hi!  Thank you for the kind words and for your story, as well as that I’m sorry you’ve had to go through a lot of hurtful stuff in the fandom.  Of course this is just fiction and I genuinely believe that most of us don’t conflate opinions on fictional stories with real world opinions (or at least we shouldn’t, because otherwise y i k e s at some of this fandom and the hot takes they have), but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be really hard to deal with some of the stuff said about fictional characters anyway, especially when it’s something that is deeply meaningful to us. I struggled a lot to get to a place where I can talk about some of the stuff surrounding the Jedi, because I didn’t have the energy for it for a long time, I couldn’t wrangle my thoughts into coherency because it hit too many deeply personal places.  There’s some stuff I still can’t talk about in public, like the subject of violent deaths of children, because it’s too deeply, personally painful and I cannot share that vulnerability with this fandom.  So, I can grasp at least something of why you don’t have the energy and why, if I can help ease that for you, I’m very glad. I do believe that there’s a balance to be struck between how different fans are going to of course come away with different points of view that are valid for each of us versus that we should all care far more about how we’re affecting real people around us than we should care about some made-up space story, which includes exactly what you’re going through. If it helps, I don’t think Luke was meant to come off as being narratively correct in that scene, that instead he was speaking from a place of depression and inability to face his own fears.  Even Rian Johnson said that Luke mistook a personal failure for a religious failure and that the point was not that the religion needed to end or that the galaxy needed to find a worthier source of hope than the Jedi.  Everything about that scene is specifically set up to be knocked down, everything he snidely says Rey expects him to do?  He does exactly that in the end of the film.  (This does not mean anyone has to like it or agree with my view on things, people who hated that scene are perfectly entitled to it and I’m not actually trying to talk you out of it, only to offer this up in the chance it might help.  If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.) I also do genuinely think that a lot of people just never saw what happened to the Jedi as a genocide, honestly.  It never occurred to me until someone else (another Jewish friend) pointed it out, that it was suddenly framed in a way that made me go, oh, that puts a lot into context. And talking about the Jedi’s actual role and actual position in the galaxy--and I think it’s fair to say that they’re not a 1:1 analogy to Jewish people, of course they’re not, but they can and do hit a lot of themes for Jewish people that I’ve talked to in terms of the assumptions they have to face about their religion/culture and how people talk about the massacre of them and how “they had their own genocide coming to them” is not something that is great for them to hear. Further, to talk a bit about how they’re also not a 1:1 analogy to Christianity, they’re not in the same place re: cultural impact and assumed power, that doesn’t mean there aren’t Christian influences in the Jedi as well, just as there are Buddhist influences in them, that this isn’t about how “you must interpret the Jedi through this strict narrow lens that we’ve decided is the one true way” but more “this has meaning to people and the context can be really important to consider”. So, I will always do my best to be sensitive as I can on these topics (I’m not perfect, no one is, but I’m at least willing to genuinely try) because I know these topics mean a lot to people and if I can help contribute to a safer space for you to hang out in, then that means a lot and I’m very glad I can help.

[essie007]

“You had to kill me but it killed you just the same.”

Vid Co-Created by: @steel-wings and @essie007 Song: my tears ricochet by Taylor Swift Fandom: Star Wars Pairing: Obikin

[butterflydm]

WoT Fic Writing Update!

Current status of Voice*: I have an Interlude that I will be posting next week. The next main fic in the series is going to have 16 chapters and will have major book plot spoilers through A Crown of Swords. I am not entirely certain when I'm going to start posting it, but I think early December. I have a bit of writing done on most of the chapters, but I'm probably going to skim the books to refresh my memory on some things, plus doing a reread of Voice to keep my changes in mind.

(*since I do have some new followers: voice in the back of my head started as my 'put Mat in the polycule' fix-it story that bridges out of wot 1x6 but is essentially an AU for the entire book series now; there are currently 8 main fics in the series and several 'interludes' that focus in on a particular moment)

I also have two multi-chapter fics I've been working on recently.

1. show-verse Cauthor fic that is going to use my recent Rand/'Selene' mini-series as backstory. Looks like it will end up being 5 chapters, 2 of which are fully written and the remaining 3 are partially written. It will contain spoilers for most of s2 of the show.

2. the "Rand takes Ebou Dar" story (Cauthor & Matavirandlayne), fic idea suggested by @essie007 -- this is going to have 9 chapters, 4 of which are fully written, and another 2 are partially written.

I also have a post s2 one-shot that is basically just exploring the potential new group dynamics through the lens of Elayne. Not sure how long it'll be.

On the meta front, I'm planning on doing some metas on each character's journey this season and how that journey ties into the various themes that we've focused on:

We had a couple of main themes that touched pretty much everyone and then several subthemes that impacted a handful of characters each. I'm kinda planning to rewatch each 'storyline' on its own to examine how each theme is impacted so that would be:

Moiraine & Lan

Egwene & Nynaeve

Rand

Mat

Perrin

Ishamael & Lanfear

The themes I'm looking into exploring are:

control (both over yourself and the control others exert over you)

imprisonment & manipulation

isolation=vulnerability; togetherness=strength

betrayal

Every single one of the main plotlines featured elements from those themes, though some were more intense than others.

Some of the subthemes are:

fulfillment of prophecy (and how others try to manufacture it)

what being seen as "special" can mean and the effects it has

the monster within

I make no promises about how much of this I will get done. But I have rewatched the finale twice now and am itching to rewatch the season, lol.

[theravenofwynter]

@essie007 replied to your post “@essie007 replied to your post “In other, more heartwarming, news,...”

That means the test is positive. Congratulations you have lactose intolerance! Buy yourself some purse lactaids for when you really want to go out for ice cream and welcome to the club.��

that’s not... that’s not a club i particularly wanted to be a part of, but thanks.

[rainbownomja]

6 sentence tag game

tagged by @essie007 Thank you for tagging me! I am also happy it's a short tag game so I didn't forget to do it!

Post 6 sentences from a WIP and then tag 6 people. (Side note, choosing 6 sentences* out of the monster that is my WIP was so hard what the heck.)

*ish, I literally don't know if that's true grammatically but we're going to pretend I'm right and can also count.

---

Then Sam said, “cake anyone? I promise, me and Abby are better at baking than we are at decorating.” He turned away and opened a drawer to retrieve a chef’s knife.

“By which you mean Jodi is better at baking than we are at helping with decoration,” Abigail teased. Sam pouted at her and she snickered before carefully taking the knife out of his hand. “I also don’t trust you with a sharp object.”

She handed the knife to Sebastian who didn’t look at all surprised.

---

This is from my Sebastian/Fem!Player Stardew Valley fic. I originally wrote in 2017 when I was a baby college student. I have been editing it for the last handful of months into what I originally wanted for it but didn't have the technical skill to make happen back then!

I'm tagging @omgcinnamoncakes @blueberrymffn @ml-nolan @notebooks-and-laptops and @notallsandmen (all who may or may not have current WIP's so I also vote six sentences from a favorite if you guys want) plus anyone who would like to (which we're counting as number 6!)