An Essay Of Thoughts

Call me Aich or Essay. I don't care what pronouns you use for me. I avoid stan and anti culture in equal measure and if you want to discuss something then please don't come aiming to argue. I track the #essayofthoughts tag

[essayofthoughts]

Pinned Post

Hi! Call me Essay or Aich. This blog is a mess of interests, aesthetics, and has some degree of consistent tagging; if you need something tagged tell me and I shall Endeavour. 

I post fic on AO3 under the same username [link], but not currently because I have too many WIPs and not enough brainspace for them.

If you want to find my fic posts the tag is “#my fic”, if you want to find my meta it’s “my meta” or “living up to my username”, and if you want to find my personal rambles it’s “me myself and i”.

If you see something tagged #MIKE that’s for @tobermoriansass. If you see something tagged #NIAMH that’s for @deweydecibelsystem.

Assorted fic wip things are below the cut.

Current WIPs include:

Ghost Cass - Percy’s not the only member of his family to escape the Briarwoods. He’s just the only one to do so alive. 

[Series] | Arc 1 | Arc 2 | Bonus | Arc 3 WIP

Soulmate AU - Percy and Vex both know what it’s like to have a bond broken against their will.

nor all your Piety nor Wit | On Hiatus

Delia AU - After the attack, the thing Percy wants most is his family restored to him. It doesn’t happen how he thinks.

Odi | On Hiatus

Other CritRole Fic WIPs & Ideas

Listed in rough order of how much I have written/planned out for each. 

Projects (AKA, a lot written already):

Evilest AU - Percy doesn’t come away quite so intact from his second encounter with Doctor Anna Ripley.

Kash & Zahra fic - See above. How they meet, how their relationship progresses from debt to friendship to family to love.

Side Projects (AKA, written parts already):

Happier Evilest AU - See Evilest AU, above. Now with a tad less angst.

No Briarwoods (Yet) AU - Whitestone has been without a head of the Grey Hunt. Vex applies to try.

Perc’ahlia Twilight AU - I read Midnight Sun. I realised Percy is what Meyer thinks Edward is. Also, Vex isn’t a doormat.

Fem!Percy AU - Waking up on a fishing boat, surrounded by strangers, in torn, soaked clothes after two weeks of torture hits different as a girl. Will be Lesbians.

Magnus Archives AU - What if Percy as an Archivist?

Murder on the Exandrian Express - Murder on the Orient Express but in Exandria and with a dose of crack.

Perc’ahlia Beauty and the Beast - Vex and Vax kill Saundor but Saundor gets off one last curse before he dies. Vex is a tree-creature, just like him, until she gains a heart freely given.

Wolf Siblings AU - Six Swan Brothers but it’s Wolf Siblings. The de Rolo siblings are cursed to be wolves and Percy travels Exandria with the pack that are his siblings.

Modern Perc’ahlia Fake Dating AU - Do I have worldbuilding and backstory for this set up too? Maybe.

Zahra Backstory Fic - LOOK. Maybe I just have a Problem. And two new blorbos, that too.

Oneshots to finish. One day:

Perc’ahlia Kidfic for @cosmonauthill - I will write it! I promise! A series of snapshots of the early days with baby Vesper.

Rock Band AU for Nell for @nanyoky - I will also write this! I promise! Modern Rock Band AU, mostly fluff, some trauma.

Emon is Burning - Introspection after the Conclave’s attack on Emon.

Desmond-Cass Fic - Canon-compliant fic where I poke at the similar trauma these two have and why they might each have reason to distrust/dislike Percy and also it may end up very very slowburn.

PercyVex Stargazing AU - Tal’Dorei guide lists Exandrian days of the week. Days of the week usually reference gods or moons/stars/planets. None of the Exandrian gods match, not even elvish ones. Don’t match the moon names either. Ergo: planets or stars. Percy speaks Elvish, Vex grew up in Syngorn. Go.

Elaina Lives AU - One of my first ideas when watching CR was an AU where Elaina lives as a Raven Queen cleric and is present at Marrowglade. Have fun!

Canon Vampercy AU - I’ve read too many Vampire!Percy AUs. Kinda wanna do my own take on it.

Ideas? (AKA, I’ve got maybe two lines):

Modern Uni AU - Oh so much trauma in there. Ripley as an evil professor. Percy and Keyleth as roommates and childhood friends. Vex and Vax as the hot neighbours down the hall. Scanlan is That theatre kid. Grog there on sports scholarship; Pike there doing medicine. Go.

Eros & Psyche Perc’ahlia - The OG Beauty and the Beast. Trapped in shadows and darkness, Percy is slowly pulled into the light by Vex's persistence.

AU PercyRipley Briarwoods Escape - Percy’s at the Lyceum or Westhall Academy in Westruun to study when he realises he’s had no letters from his family in weeks. He returns home worried - and then he isn’t allowed to leave.

VERY AU PercyRipley Fic - I had an idea writing Delia AU. It goes Very AU, involves less-awful Briarwoods and I’ll write this only if I have time.

Delia AU Spinoff: Cabin in the Woods - Percy is aware enough to plan his own escape...

Delia AU Spinoff: What If More Kids AU - A commenter suggested this. My brain went Brrrr.

Kinda want to write (AKA, a concept):

Magic School AU - This would take a fuckload of worldbuilding but whatever. May never get to this one.

Piercings Percy AU for @agarthanguide - Hannah sent me an idea a while back. One day I will write this. Maybe. Probably? I hope I do.

PercyRipley Hatesex - Figuring out how I could make this work is a challenge given... everything. But the challenge is half of the fun. 

Sonnie’s Edge AU - Look. Look. Vex as Sonnie. That’s all I’m saying. Vex. As. Sonnie.

Witcher AU - I just have Thoughts, okay.

[hyydraworks]

Fox jumpin’ mug 🦊

[parakeet]

just saw a 'comments' tab on someones blog you know where the following and likes tabs would be if enabled and it was just showing all the replies theyve made on peoples posts. this is fascinating when did this feature come out

[parakeet]

EMERGENCY - ITS AUTO ENABLED!

if you've made replies on posts there is now a tab on your blog showing every post youve replied to and your reply.

if this is not what you want, either go to your blog and click comments and disable it from there or just go to your individual blogs setting pages. just change it from blue to grey if you dont want everyone to see your replies AND the post you're replying to

PLEASE BE ADVISED that it is set to disabled for blogs that have not made any replies but it will turn ON if you reply with that blog in the future.! i just tested it with my main, which was greyed out but it turned on the moment i left a test reply

figured i'd get the word out bc i have not seen a single mention of this and i'm sure there are plenty of people who maybe comment on things they don't want on display for everyone to see on their blog lol. you can still look at your replies with it toggled off just no one else can, like locking the following and likes list

[stjohnstarling]

Who wants to get fucked up on the green neolithic slime that makes you hallucinate to death?

[oldpaintings]

John Fabian Carlson (Swedish-born American, 1874--1945)

[razielim]

imagine you're don abene for a second.

you encounter a secunit for the first time.

it saves your life in a situation where no one else would have been fast, strong, agile, and composed enough to do so.

your security team is immediately more alarmed by its presence than the attack that is obvious to you as the bigger issue at the moment

they insist it's dangerous and struggle to relax enough to take their weapons off of it

then a combatbot attacks your group

somehow this secunit, much smaller than the bot, unarmored, without any heavy weaponry on its person, manages to take it down. some real jaw-dropping action, all over in less than a minute

then it leaps into a room with two combatbots and not only survives, but it gets your unconscious friend out alive

then it immediately comes to your own rescue, disabling impressive combat armor

it then is dead-set on killing your attacker who is already immobilized and harmless

clearly this is an incredibly competent and dangerous and powerful person

then miki tells you that it IS rin and you finally put it together that not only is this person competent in the field, but it is also calling all its own shots and has truly come here all on its own and volunteered its services to help and protect you without needing to be asked or ordered

so this person is incredibly competent, dangerous, powerful, AND kind, AND fiercely protective, AND reassuring, AND intelligent, AND selfless

and it's still coming up with great ideas and still thinking proactively about how it's going to face down or distract another combatbot as though there's no doubt in the world that it, still bleeding heavily, still unarmored and barely armed, is ready for another round with a terrifying machine that appears to be nothing BUT armor and weapons

so you step forward to help treat its injuries

and it jerks back a step with the single most frightened face you've ever seen, as though you had lifted your arm to inflict pain and it was helpless to stop you

behind you, even miki can read the devastating expression that's breaking your heart and says "abene won't hurt you, secunit"

where did the fearsome fighter from moments ago disappear to?

who did this to it?

[martysimone]

Dolce & Gabbana | Fall Winter 2020-21 | Ruched Embellished Chiffon Dress

[tedthetalk]

I actually do think it’s better for abusers and abusive characters to realize the harm their past actions caused and seek to do better than be literally or metaphorically executed for their crimes

[tedthetalk]

I think it’s better for abusers and abusive characters to realize the harm their past actions caused and seek to do better than be literally or metaphorically executed for their crimes.

[tedthetalk]

I think it’s better for abusers and abusive characters to realize the harm their past actions caused and seek to do better than be literally or metaphorically executed for their crimes.

[gandalfsbignaturals]

learning to notice an absence of people of color is crazy. you start seeing it everywhere. ill see a random pic of characters or people or whatever and be like "these are all white people. why"

[gandalfsbignaturals]

all the babies in those baby youtube video memes. humanized character posts. like. its the little innocent shit. and like, the people making those baby memes probably arent seeking out white babies. maybe theyre just easier to find. but why are they easier to find? a complicated question, surely... but you know what it probably comes down to. someone, somewhere, maybe a lot of someones in a lot of places, made a choice. maybe knowingly, maybe not. but they made a choice. it starts to make you feel like a conspiracy theorist!!

[gandalfsbignaturals]

its really funny that after 2 months this post is still making racists come into my askbox treating me like im a horrible person for pointing out that sometimes people of color are excluded from things in visible and offputting ways. cry about it

[milksockets]

'this necklace designed by louis comfort tiffany, c. 1910, is made of favrile glass beetles set in gold' in the jeweled menagerie: the world of animals in gems - suzanne tennenbaum + janet zapata (2001)

[asneakyfox]

what "death of the author" means:

a lot of people think the only point of engagement with art is just to decode exactly what the author was trying to say, and their intent is the "real meaning," and once you've figured out the real meaning you're done you've solved it. that's dumb and boring. don't do that.

things death of the author does not mean:

every interpretation is equally valid

you are forbidden to treat what we can know or reasonably guess about the author's intentions as something that matters to your interpretation at all

the only valid way to interpret fiction is to treat it like it's a documentary of events that really happened and never think about it in terms of "why would the creator, a human person, choose to present it this way"

authors shouldn't get to have opinions about what they intended to say through their work, they should shut up and let me tell them what it means because i know better

actually i, the person reading or watching or viewing this art, am the infallible source of real meaning, and everybody who disagrees with me is wrong including but not limited to the author

the audience is the infallible source of real meaning, not the author, and that's why they committed a war crime by not treating my own headcanons as authoritative

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Massive Attack and Tom Waits - “Boots on the Ground”

It’s been 15 years without new music from Tom Waits, who’s joined up with Massive Attack, themselves six years removed from their last release, for “Boots on the Ground.”

Waits’ voice is hollower than in 2011, but no less urgent as he spits out angry, sometimes sophomoric, lyrics - rhyming big titties with cities, for example - over a clackety, martial soundscape meant to represent the titular footwear.

Foreign wars, domestic roundups and the people who make them possible are the targets as Waits growls:

Now who the hell are these federal pricks/hiding in the Senate like a bloated-ass tick/air-conditioned fuckstick loafers/sittin’ in a room full of Army posters

It’s good to have them both back. The remaining questions are whether “Boots on the Ground” signals a period of activity for Massive Attack and/or Waits and whether any subsequent material will improve upon this warm-up protest number.

Grade card: Massive Attack and Tom Waits - “Boots on the Ground” - B-

4/17/26

[slothful-rabbit]

I laughed so fucking hard at this

[paint-lady]

[absurdthirst]

YESSSSSSSSSSS alllllllll of this!!!

[innerchildabortionclinic]

tch, stupid webp image. you will be a png when daddy puts you through the webp to png file converter

[veliseraptor]

that ‘pakige?’ post but me, a couple hours after posting a fic, like ‘comints?’

[kitten-kin]

[leahazel]

F5 F5 F5

[kitten-kin]

… F5 F5 F5 F5F5F5F5F5

[awlwren]

[id: comic about a calico cat. In the first panel, she sits on a counter labelled “My Platform” and hits “Fic” off the edge to the sound effect “*post*”.

Five minutes later, she sits on the ground, labelled “archiveofourown.com”, and twists her head around to stare at the fallen Fic, thinking “Comints?”]/end id.

[id: another comic with the same cat and Fic. She crouches down and baps Fic with one paw, thinking “Comint?” again?

Between the panels, she sits in a more dignified pose, glaring at Fic. “…”

In the final panel, she continuously baps Fic, her paw a blur, poor Fic deforming under the pressure, but there are still no comints.]/end id.

[ymutate]

Ewald Mataré (German, 1887-1965)

[tieflingkisser]