Poe | he/they
Escape the Night fanblog | #1 Savant Apologist | The Vanguard of JoeyPat
the long way is the only way home, my Post-Season 3 Savant/Detective series on Archive of Our Own
I'm Poe. I'm an adult who is attending university in the US, and you can use he/they pronouns for me. I am primarily an author, but I also create playlists and graphics, make gifs, and dabble occasionally in meta. I'm also a bookbinder. Outside of fandom, I enjoy swimming, nerding out over biology and psychology, and the culinary arts.
Escape the Night has been an interest of mine for about four years now. My favorite characters are The Savant, The Detective, The Journalist, and The Thespian. My favorite season is Season 3. My favorite villain is Arthur Fletcher, from Season 1. This by no means is me saying that I dislike the rest of the characters/seasons/villains! Those are just the ones that I'll most likely focus on.
I love exploring the themes of Escape the Night. At what point does it become acceptable to sentence another person to death? If you let someone die to save your own life, are you a bad person? Are you a murderer? How do you pick up the pieces and keep going, even in the face of world-shattering loss?
Here on this blog, you'll find a mix of those fannish interests mentioned above, as well as whatever I deign to reblog. I usually check my notifications at least a couple times a week, if not more, and try to respond to asks and messages as soon as I can. If you tag me in something and I don't respond, please don't think it's because I'm ignoring you out of malice! It's probably just because I don't know how to interact with other people. Chances are, I'll get to it eventually.
I love talking to people about Escape the Night, so please feel free to chat with me about it!
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I wrote this for Matpat's retirement in March and look at me, right on time as always.
Matthew Patrick's Home for Imaginary Friends and Biblical Abominations
Rating: Gen, no ships, comedy, could be considered crack I guess
Summary: Stephanie Patrick has made a lot of adjustments and sacrifices ever since her husband came back from Everlock and has come out of the other side a stronger person. But six years later, Matthew and Nikita finally achieve the impossible and bring Joey Graceffa back from Pandora’s Box...along with something else. What do you do when your husband accidentally releases the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
You hire them for Youtube of course.
Basically a fusion of Game Theory lore and ETN, featuring Stephanie, Jason, Tom, Lee, Santi, Amy, Mirror Matt, Ash, and a ton of other Theorist cameos and easter eggs. Its the new channel hosts as the Four Horsemen; this will NOT make sense if you don't follow the Theorist channels.
Fic Snippet is below the cut.
Hey Death, whatcha doing?”
“Go away, Fam, I’m busy!”
“You’re busy in MY space! Aren’t you supposed to be off reaping innocent babies or kittens or something?!”
“For the last time, we are GUESTS; you don’t own the space, you glutinous half-wit! Leave me alone!”
“Matt! Matt, Death is messing with your kitchen!!”
“GUYS! I’M ON THE PHONE!”
Stepping into her own kitchen wasn’t supposed to feel like a SAE mission. But Steph kept a flask of holy water and a crucifix in her Lululemon hip bag as she made her way over from the stairwell. The moment she made her presence known, she saw sickly green flames brighten to life in the blank sockets of Death’s skull face.
“Ah! Stephanie! So good of you to join us.” Death nodded his head politely and lifted a skeletal hand to tug at his black hood as though it were some sort of dapper hat. His upper-class London accent made the act feel less ridiculous and more like proper gentleman behavior.
“…Hi.” Steph was never going to get used to how terrifying it was to see green fire instead of eyeballs, especially since Death towered several feet over her and Matthew. Speaking of which… “I thought I heard Matthew’s voice.”
“He went downstairs,” a smooth voice chimed in from behind Death’s black robe. “With the other dude and the chick.”
Death snorted. “Eloquent and informative as ever.”
“She knows who I’m talking about! Now move your nonexistent ass; some of us are trying to work here!”
Steph saw a thick human arm swat at Death’s cloak, and the living personification of Famine stepped into Steph’s view.
Famine grinned at her with a very normal and healthy-looking human male face. Thank God. She would take his human form any day over the emaciated, decayed corpse that was his true form. Today, he was favoring a physique that had very broad shoulders and thick muscular biceps that strained against a baby blue shirt with some anime character imprinted on it. Matthew would surely know the show, but she did not. He had a round tan face with a salt and pepper beard and very mischievous eyes that were partially hidden behind thick black glasses. He eagerly held out one of her mixing bowls, which was filled near to the brim with something that smelled utterly delicious.
“I’m making snacks!”
“Thank you, Famine. That’s very sweet of you.” Steph couldn’t help but break into a smile. “Is this the same body you wore yesterday?”
Famine nodded vigorously. “Matt said we need to pick a body and stick with it. I like this one. Check out my GUNS!” He set the bowl down on the countertop beside him and flexed one of his thick arms at Steph.
Death scoffed. “Flesh is weak. Entropy is inevitable.”
“You’re just jealous because you can’t create anything other than the same lameo body you’ve had for centuries.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the way my human form looks. Not all of us are vain like you and Pestilence.”
“Excuse you?”
Steph jumped. A small, slender woman with incredibly pale skin and long black hair suddenly sat cross-legged at one of Steph’s kitchen bar chairs. She wore a shoulderless black halter dress that went down to the floor, to where Steph could see the tips of shiny Doc Martens peeking out. On her face, she wore black eyeliner to outline her light blue eyes, which were intensely focused on Famine. She looked completely human except for one small detail. She had long, razor-sharp silver claws instead of nails resting elegantly in her lap, like ten slim stiletto daggers just waiting to be thrown.
Death shook his bony head. “How many times have I told you not to scare our hosts like that? Don’t make me put a bell around your tiny neck!”
“Hmm, I’d like to see you try,” Pestilence yawned into the palm of her hand, her claws flexing across her face. They were filed into sharp points and caught the light in a terrifying way. “Sorry to bother you, Steph, but Matt was looking for you and said you needed to be on his call. He’s with the Vessel and Nikita.”
“The dude and the chick!” Famine shrugged. “I said that already.”
“You are useless,” Death groaned.
Oh. Right. Matthew had said he was going to call Jason today. She’d completely forgotten that was happening.
I keep finding these in my inbox and always forgetting to do them, so I'll do this one. But I'll put it under a read more because I'm kind and benevolent.
Last Song: On YouTube (music for writing), Slow Down by Chase Atlantic. On Spotify (daily listening), More Than Anything from Hazbin Hotel.
Favorite Color: Gray.
Currently Watching: Hazbin Hotel, for the umpteenth time. And Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, because Orlando Bloom. And Keira Knightley, for that matter. They're both gender envy for me.
Spicy/Savory/Sweet: Spicy.
Relationship Status: Single and emphatically not interested in changing that.
Current Obsession: If you guessed Hazbin Hotel, you get a cookie. Helluva Boss can be thrown in there as well. I specifically want to break Lucifer Morningstar over my knee and watch him cry.
I'm tagging @lazarus-harp and @sushiburritonoms. Do it or I'll pour ravioli in your shoes.
I was tagged by my good friend @sushiburritonoms (and of a sort, @lazarus-harp) to share the last line of my most recent WIP! Considering my actual most recent WIP is for a different fandom, I'll go back to my most recent ETN WIP:
I hope it’s quick, Joey thinks. And I hope that I don’t have to see the light leave your eyes.
Yes, it's about Joey; is anyone really surprised? Anyways, I don't really have anyone to tag, since Sushi and Alina have both already done it — so consider this an open invitation to do it if you see this!
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Assigning Escape the Night Season 3 Characters Birds For No Reason At All
I was chatting with @sushiburritonoms about the wingfic era of fandom, and realized that it seems to be dreadfully absent in ETN. So, whether you use this for wingfic purposes or just for fun, here's the birds that I associate with (all but one of) the ETN S3 characters, including helpers.
Qualifications: I've been a birdwatcher since my first year of high school. I'm assigning these based purely on vibes with some occasional help from superficial appearance and/or role taken. Reference and inspiration are taken from the Audubon website. This is American-centric, as those are the birds that I'm most familiar with; a few have ranges down into Mexico or up into Canada but it's certainly a "Birds of North America" list and not really inclusive of the myriad of species seen in other countries.
JC - American Goldfinch
Roi - Red-winged Blackbird
Teala - Bohemian Waxwing
Safiya - Great Gray Owl
Rosanna - Anna's Hummingbird
Manny - Blue-crowned Parakeet (thanks to Sushi for this one!)
Matthew - Domestic Canary (note that this is not a wild bird species like the rest of this list, but is instead a popular domesticated form of a bird that resides in islands off the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and Africa; Matthew's wild species, to me, would be a Mourning Dove.)
Nikita - Golden Eagle (runner-up: Aplomado Falcon)
Joey - Barn Swallow
Calliope - Loggerhead Shrike
Mortimer - Common Nighthawk (runner-up: Chipping Sparrow)
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Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for somebody to conquer.
— 1 Peter 5:8
Done for @slasherbat's Monthly Challenge entry; I got The Carnival Master as my character and decided to pair him with this biblical literature quote. I wanted to do a full set, but time got away from me, so this had to do!
Does anyone else ever think about how fucked up it is that the setup of Escape the Night has us talking about who "deserved" it?
You see it in the fandom, and in the show itself, too — where there's discussions about who "pulled their weight" or who did the most for the team, with the implication that those who didn't deserve...what? A horrible, lonely death? To never see their families and loved ones again?
"I'm going to vote for [X], because they didn't pull their weight," is literally saying that someone being foolish, oblivious, and/or lazy is a mistake that should be punished by death.
Or the fandom, as they say that, "[X] wasn't doing very well, so they deserved to be put into that challenge."
And, look, I do not legitimately believe that anyone in the fandom or the show would ever be okay with someone dying because they couldn't figure out a riddle — I'm one of the ones screeching about how your fannish participation is not morality, and what you enjoy in fandom, or say about fictional characters (or fictional personas of real people) is not, in any way, reflective of your actual beliefs. Let me be abundantly clear: it doesn't matter to me who you think "deserved" to die, because nobody died, and at the end of the day, it's a fake web series.
...But that doesn't change that I think Escape the Night is a perfect encapsulation of the way that manipulation works on humans. As they say,
“1. Man is a MORAL animal.
2. You can get human beings to do anything — IF you convince them it is moral.
3. You can convince human beings anything is moral.”
— Frank Bidart
In ETN, and especially in Season 3, the guests were convinced that voting people to die was the morally correct option. After all, world annihilation (and their own life) was on the line. Isn't that worth a little blood on your hands?
But it's hard to convince your average person that killing other people (or sentencing them to death, I suppose), if those people are otherwise innocent of severe crimes, is moral. So the situation sets it up using two things that are highly prized: merit and fear.
The fear is the easier option to discuss; it's the same point I made earlier regarding world annihilation and their own lives. (And, of course, it's easier to control scared people than it is to control people who have their wits about them. Manipulation 101.)
Merit, of course, is the entire point of this post. Many of us, I would hazard a guess, grew up with the American justice system, wherein death is an appropriate punishment for certain things. In ETN, that category is just stretched a little wider. Someone missed a clue? Well, they must be stupid — so they deserve to die.
And yes, I am defining voting someone in as tacitly saying that they deserve to die, because that is the unspoken consequence that could happen to anyone who was voted in.
Anyways, back to merit. Before every death challenge, barring the special ones, like the Witch's Challenge in S3, there's literally a discussion where the guests are supposed to defend themselves and prove that they helped. And if the court of public opinion decides you didn't? Well, off to the chopping block with you, my friend — your performance was unsatisfactory, and therefore you deserve to be beaten to death/buried alive/whatever terrible fate awaits them that episode.
But isn't that absurd, when you think about it like that? It's like having a shitty coworker that never responds to emails and takes 45 minute lunches. That's basically it. That's what these people are dying for.
Literally everyone on the show is guilty of this, even fan favorites like Matthew, so it's not like I'm trying to call guests out, or anything. I just think it's a really fascinating look into the way that humans can be manipulated into being willing to kill other humans.
Maybe someday I'll write something more in-depth on this.
do you ever think joey looks at mat and sees something more than just a human, than a friend he loves oh so much? does he ever look at the detective and think, with clarity and a resolute confidence, that's my humanity? that's his redemption, proof of his heart, his one good deed in a world full of his mistakes? like ... joey saved mat knowing mat could still hate him after, knowing he could come back vengeful and jaded and restless with demands for the savant to be killed, again. but it was never about the benefits or the consequences : he saved mat not out of a survival instinct but out of pure love. raw, unbridled love. and there is something quite tender and achy about that.
Do you think Joey saved Matthew so he wouldn't have to say that he was sorry? Do you think this was his apology? Do you think that an apology — an admittance of guilt — was too much for Joey, and he did the only other thing he could?
Do you think that the resurrection was, in itself, an admittance of guilt?
I pushed you into the cold dark. I will pull you back out.
ii.
Do you think it was a form of repayment? Do you think Joey remembered how scared he was? Do you think he still tasted the knife and the blood and the fear? Do you think he knew that even if it wasn't his choice, Matthew was forced to pay for his mistakes?
Do you think he regretted that?
You died for my sins. I am willing to die for you.
Huh, interesting find as I sit watching Markiplier letsplays while doing bookbinding projects. In the seventh (and final) episode of At Dead of Night, at around the 4 and a half minute mark, you can see a Society Against Evil symbol painted on the wall of the storeroom. This is interesting because as of now, I have only been able to find that symbol in association with Escape the Night, and nowhere else.
This game was created in 2017, placing it after the first season of ETN, which means that it is entirely possible that the developers of the game used this symbol either without knowing what it meant/where it was from, or they put it in as...a reference? A nod?
I don't know much about this game, and I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before, so I'm sure I'm not the first to mention it. I just thought it was really curious because I haven't seen anyone talking about it.
Does anyone else have any more information about this?
Hihi, very normal ADON fan here! The symbol is actually taken from an edition of "Simon's Necronomicon" by Peter Devenda. It's from the spellbook portion in particular - which is where the illustrated seals for The Fifty Names of Marduk appear predominantly online. The one on the storeroom wall/in ETN is that of the Third Name: "Marutukku"
Basically it denotes a universal protection symbol. Presumably used in-game as a nod to whatever is possessing Jimmy and his attempts to shirk it. As for ETN, I'm a little less knowledgeable but I presume it's thematically appropriate.
It takes from a lot of inspiration from Middle Eastern cultures as well as Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley.
Wiki for Simon's Necronomicon
PDF download from holybooks.com of the spells portion (if this doesn't work as intended just Google Simon's Necronomicon + holybooks)
It appears my post has reached the target audience (people who actually know stuff about this game)!
Thank you for the information, and thank you to @sushiburritonoms as well.
A couple years ago, a friend and I searched for this symbol through the Lesser Key of Solomon and related texts. They were unfamiliar with ETN, but they were relatively knowledgeable about occult/mythological symbols, so I thought they might know. However, neither of us found anything. Apparently, we simply weren't looking in the right place!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Huh, interesting find as I sit watching Markiplier letsplays while doing bookbinding projects. In the seventh (and final) episode of At Dead of Night, at around the 4 and a half minute mark, you can see a Society Against Evil symbol painted on the wall of the storeroom. This is interesting because as of now, I have only been able to find that symbol in association with Escape the Night, and nowhere else.
This game was created in 2017, placing it after the first season of ETN, which means that it is entirely possible that the developers of the game used this symbol either without knowing what it meant/where it was from, or they put it in as...a reference? A nod?
I don't know much about this game, and I find it hard to believe that nobody has noticed this before, so I'm sure I'm not the first to mention it. I just thought it was really curious because I haven't seen anyone talking about it.
Does anyone else have any more information about this?
