#dream/calliope

[pyrecryptid]

Carving from Dreams and Nightmares:

the Skill of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the Imagination of Hans Christian Anderson

Magazine excerpt of Sculptor Morpheus in his younger years from Good Times for a Change by @wizardofgoodfortune

#the sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #calliope #good times for a change fic #viarts #cj pls enjoy a young morpheus trying very hard to look cool #dream/calliope #morpheus/calliope

[rriavian]

Another flower prompt fic for the exchange between @bobbole and @windsweptinred this one is for Aloe - Rekindling a former flame - Dream and Calliope

I might have to extend this/write a longer fic, I’ve got some spare prose that didn’t make it in. But we shall see :)

Disclaimer: still haven’t read the comics so this is show canon with a sprinkling of comic details.

-

Calliope meets him in the Dreaming.

She returns by invitation; finds Morpheus in a private place that had once been theirs, a space she knows no one else has been since, yet Calliope enters and finds it is no ruin. This place still growing without them. It’s overgrown but not unkempt; Calliope can feel it as she walks here again, breathes its ancient air and finds nothing stale in it, wonders whether if she looked closely at the ground she could find footprints too. The proof is in these flowers, a valley of them blooming bright, Calliope has returned to a place neither of them have been to in years but it’s still here.

It’s all still here.

Preserved, no tomb but something fresh. This place they’ve long since left, still warm, fading heat insulated somehow, an ember that hasn’t died. Still more to burn.

Dream turns to greet her.

“Calliope.”

“Morpheus.”

He dips, plucks a flower from the ground, rises and tucks it gently behind her ear, both a bow and something else, both a greeting of respect and one that holds all of a lover's daring intimacy. This thing between them a fire, a candle; it’s returning to a home after many years away and still being able to navigate it blind.

This thing between them hovers.

This thing that is and isn’t love.

Once she’d mapped him and the knowledge sustains even in distance, once he’d mapped her and the knowledge links like hands.

Dream offers his now.

He smiles, tilts his head—a question, an invitation of the sort that has brought her here—hand extended palm up, thin fingers that do not beckon, do not seek to risk coercion even to reassure, will let her come to him on her own terms without risk of compulsion. Oneiros will not beg either. It’s just an offer. It’s just a hand. It’s the flame between them, a mortal thing in substance, a fragile thing they both feed to sustain. It must burn. It eats. It’s loss and sacrifice which really just means forever.

It’s warmth and love and that means forever too.

She loved Dream once.

And once is enough—whether it be a slip up, whether it be a mistake, whether it be something far more complex—it means permanence. It means age. Forever makes once a risk. A commitment.

A promise.

It makes it the same as hate.

A similar shade, a similar angle, and to find love one must turn their head and shift perspective, Calliope does so now and finds it again in Dream’s starlit eyes. It’s perhaps right where she left it, isn’t slight though it is subtle, far away or long ago—Dream’s smile is slight though, subtle in almost the same way—subtle in the same way he’s chosen to meet her with eyes that are blue and not black. A lighter shade of the same space, the sky of his love so easy to miss even as you look right at it, right into it. It's one word but one word is all you need. It’s listening close. It’s not assuming silence just because you cannot hear the wind.

Calliope can always hear the wind.

She takes Dream’s hand.

It’s icy beneath her own—now that is familiar too, familiar like lips trailing up her thighs, Dream never sparing with her pleasure, never holding back what he’d give to her—a flame in it because this is another thing that burns. Yet Calliope’s immortal skin remains unharmed by it, unharmed but not untouched, is able to be loved by it.

Able to survive how even softness scalds.

She wonders what he feels when she touches him in return.

Now Dream’s fingers accept the curl of hers; steady to hold, no risk of crumbling at her touch, a match for the density of her own bones as much as she’s a match for his. Calliope trusts his hold, his hand, this a taste of forever in a universe that’s always been dying. A rare relief to touch something that also knows no decay. She can hold on tight, forget strength and know he will not break, she can be careful by choice and not by necessity.

“Welcome to the Dreaming.” Morpheus says softly.

It could be marble beneath her fingertips.

But he is no statue, it could be light without shade but he’s not entirely that either.

Dream is softened by darkness—the black clothes he wears, the arched brows, the perpetually ruffled hair—the full beam of him blunted, edges blurred by a choice the same flavour as hers. It’s the gift of shadow, the respite allowed by shade, because as much as he illuminates he also allows places to hide.

“You did not have to invite me back here.”

“It has been too long already.”

Together they’d had a son, made a tragedy, been taught daring in their mortal child they’d both known they were always going to lose. There was no real cheat, not even in a gift, not for them because oh how what they had done had combined their weakness. Their strength. Oh how what they’d done had given the universe a target that could actually bleed.

There is no weakness now.

They’d not do it again. They are not too old for risk; it’s that they are too jaded, it’s that they have learned what a weakness really is, what it really means, and that holds an implication Calliope must clarify. They hadn’t been naïve before. The risk of their son hadn’t been stupid, her union with Dream had not been foolish—for all it had gone wrong Calliope refuses to insult her love with that—it had been hope.

She stands with her former husband and says. “I thought by now I’d be ready to let him go.”

Morpheus nods.

He does not agree.

It can’t have been naivety because they’d always known they’d lose him. He’d not been weak but Orpheus was born mortal, human, so delightfully, victoriously, human—another thing they both so loved, no disappointment that he had been thus, only joy because oh look Dream look at our son—and they’d known what that had meant. They’d both thought they could take his loss. Calliope had thought herself prepared for grief, had prepared his shroud as she’d sewn his swaddling blanket, prepared her mourning veil the same day she birthed him.

While he took his first breath she’d already begun to grieve.

When she held him Calliope had been determined to keep her eyes open because she knew that in one blink he would be gone.

Yet when the time came no preparation could be enough.

It had been other eyes that turned; others that had seen an opportunity, an allegory perhaps, a feature of a structured story ready to be wielded against its actors, these others that had seen a tool and not a child.

He’d still been a child.

Calliope’s own family had been vicious too, even while playful, an immortals teasing joke so often a mortal blow in strength if not intent. It’s the reality of what goes wrong when strength can be an accident, when it meets flesh that tears. There are no easy targets now—no safe bets, no assured victory, if you want a fight then fight me—no mortal for others to play their games with, to taunt in another’s stead, to hurt in another’s place even as neither of them had ever intended to create a stand in.

Even as neither of them had created Orpheus to absorb another’s blows.

Calliope would have taken every one herself.

As would Dream.

“Didn’t we learn our lesson?” Calliope says.

“Yes.” Dream says, still holding her hand; not letting go, not moving away, his agreement not a rejection of this new old thing they’ve found they are.

The pain in him, the grief, a mirror for hers, the love in him made of it too like a tapestry still weaving. It’s been absorbed, folded in, a different material to its thread. A winter when before there had been spring. Perhaps ice will be all they have—the beauty of it, the soft down of snow, the delicacy of snowflakes—no barren landscape in this, not for them, not for these two immortals.

They can’t be brittle with this, can’t break, must endure forever.

Yet they can find beauty in winter too; immortality what survives the glare of snow, the honesty of it. It’s eyes that don’t squint against lights full beam, won’t flinch, the same when Morpheus looks at her, because resilience has never been an issue. The lesson has been learned.

The wound here is a world that decays while you remain evergreen.

“Yes—”

The flame ignites; even amongst ice it seems fire can burn, Onieros raises her hand to his lips, kisses the back of her knuckles, soft, fleeting, then back again for more once Calliope nods, once she exhales slow and soft. Relieved and pained. It’s an ember fanned to flame by breath, by leaning in close. He’s still smiling, his too blue eyes wet with tears he may never shed, may never let go of.

Yet it’s the light that’s gone. It’s the light that’s still there.

“We did.”

Orpheus had turned back to look at Eurydice. He’d gone to the underworld to find her.

Of course he had.

He was their son.

#dream of the endless #Calliope #Dream/Calliope #the sandman #my writing #prompt fic #I love writing these two!!

[phantasmicfish]

Ladies and gentlemen do we have a ship name yet

Morphiope? Calliopheus? Oneiope? Callioros? Dreamuse?

#NEVERMIND I LOVE DREAMUSE #DREAMUSE #dreamuse #calliopheous #morphiope #??? #the sandman #dream of the endless #calliope the sandman #calliope #since dream literally had fifty thousand different names please not what follows will be all the slash variations #dream x calliope #Morpheus x calliope #Morpheus/calliope #dream/calliope #Oneiros #Oneiros x calliope #Oneiros/calliope

[nycorix]

After many many weeks of marinating in feels I have made an Oneiros/Calliope playlist that captures some of how I feel about this ship (Tom and Melissanthi's portrayal specifically. see how hard I can cry)

I just. They are so so so important to me. I don't have the mental energy to meta this right now but their story is so deep and so tragic and in a weird way so wholesome despite everything that happened between them?? And the fact that, literally thousands of years after they separated, they still love each platonically and would lowkey burn down the world to keep each other from being hurt,,,, I am Unwell

#Spotify #the sandman #dream/calliope #dream of the endless #the sandman calliope #character playlist #ship playlist #my meta lives in this playlist okay #lowkey my goal is to make y'all cry so. tell me how i did 😂😂🖤 #kase rambles #kasey does playlists #tom sturridge #melissanthi mahut #neil gaiman

[thewhoreinthian]

Felt like drawing something soft, so here’s Calliope pregnant with Orpheus ❤️

#the sandman #the sandman netflix #calliope #dream/calliope #the sandman art #dream of the endless

[praetorqueenreyna]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Sandman (TV 2022) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Calliope (The Sandman)/Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Calliope/Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Calliope & Dream of the Endless | Morpheus Characters: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Calliope (The Sandman) Summary:

Free for the first time in over 60 years, Calliope recovers and returns to work.

#the sandman #sandman #sandman spoilers #calliope #dream #dream of the endless #morpheus #dream/calliope #morpheus/calliope #fanfic #my fic #why does this motherfucker have SO MANY NAMES #the sandman netflix #anyway I'm obsessed with episode 11

[neptunian-dream]

Hello, sandman fans! Do you have ships you want to discuss and obsess over with people who share your same brainrot? You can join my discord server, made for every ship in the fandom and for everyone who wants to enjoy dubious/problematic content in peace!

#sandman #corintheus #dreamling #dream/death #dream/calliope #dream/lucienne #dream/lucifer Morningstar #dream/desire #proship server

[wandamaximoffappreciationblog]

#this is so good #the sandman #dream/calliope #Youtube

[soundsfaebutokay]

It's utterly magnetic when a character's rage is quiet and precise. When they don't scream and throw things but they just b r e a t h e and very very calmly aim their fury like an arrow shooting inexorably towards the target of their wrath. It captures my attention, I lean in close, I wait for the hit. It never disappoints.

#yes yes of course this is about #Dream of the Endless #to no one's surprise I'm still not over the Calliope episode #that confrontation with Richard Madoc sure was Something #Morpheus is Furious #and I have Feelings about that #Calliope #The Sandman #The Sandman spoilers #my faves

[ronon-dex]

dream when someone fucks with calliope, hob gadling, his older sister, his librarian, his bird pals, abel, a 21 year old orphan and her missing brother, his cool necklace, his time, his patience, cats,

#he's gota century of built up frustration and he's taking it out on the serial killers :) #dream of the endless #the sandman #morpheus #calliope #the sandman spoilers #sort of #HE WAS SO MAD IN EP 11...... delicious

[magnusbae]

murder or idiot were the only viable options

#I was going to find something truly profound about friendship becoming love and what not #and then my hand slipped and I had posted it the way it is #started with the first half— but I had to show his range in choosing lovers— didn't I #Dream of the Endless #TheSandmanEdit #SandmanEdit #Dreamling #sandmancentral #Hob Gadling #Calliope #Lord Morpheus #dcedit #netflixedit #Morpheus #Dream #The Sandman #The Sandman Incorrect Quotes #if on mobile click on the pic for better readability haha #Honestly Dream is such an intense lil b. #Look at him go. #buns.edits

[nycorix]

At last it is done!! Behold my comprehensive Morpheus playlist - featuring songs that span his character arc from preludes to overture, mostly from his perspective but with a few opinion pieces from other characters sprinkled throughout. For anyone curious, the link to my annotation document is here ! (beware spoilers in the doc if you haven't read the comics yet!!!)

#the sandman #dream of the endless #the sandman spoilers #dream/calliope #dreamling #dream/thessaly #dream/nada #desire of the endless #the sandman playlist #character playlist #morpheus - sandman #morpheus #death of the endless #fanworks #hob gadling #kasey does playlists #Spotify

[xjade-lotusx]

gotta love the duality of morpheus's chosen love interests

ex-wife: a literal centuries upon centuries old ancient greek muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry and who looks and speaks like an ethereal wonder

current boyfriend: a himbo

#the sandman #the sandman netflix #netflix the sandman #netflix sandman #morpheus #dream #dream of the endless #tom sturridge #calliope the sandman #calliope #hob gadling #the sandman dream #the sandman hob #lord morpheus

[fuckyou-saidtheraven]

Bruh the fact that you can feel Morpheus’ anger through the screen. You can see him tremble with rage as his voice becomes cold hard steel. We already knew Neil was right about what he said about Tom’s gravitas, but that scene was on a whole other level. Even I was terrified, Jesus Christ.

And you contrast that with how gentle he is with Calliope. How upset and terrified he is for her. How he actually begs her to accept his help, because he cannot bear to see her in this situation a second longer. How scared he is she’ll refuse out of pride as he did, because he’s been there and he knows the regret that comes after, and because he sees her imprisonment as so much worse than his. Because he knows Calliope, and it horrifies him that something like this has happened to her.

And at the end, you can really tell how part of him still loves her, and regrets so much about what has happened between them. Because like all his lovers, he’s given her a piece of his heart, and that will never change as the millennia go by. And for chrissake, their relationship lasted long enough for him to marry her, to father a son with her. To raise him and watch him grow up and be there with her and the rest of the Endless on Orpheus’ wedding day. And for Morpheus, even after thousands of years of bitterness and sorrow and regret, to come to her aid and demand she be freed, and to tremble even as she talks of forgiveness and presses her forehead to his cheek.

#original post #fandom #the sandman #the sandman netflix #i am perfectly normal after watching the bonus ep i swear #i have so many Thoughts #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #the sandman spoilers #sandman spoilers #dream of the endless #calliope sandman #tom sturridge #character analysis #quoth the raven

[exogenetics-symphony]

Lord Morpheus totally rocking the eyeliner in Calliope

or

when your ex-wife calls so you gotta look hot

#the sandman #sandman #neil gaiman #morpheus #calliope #the sandman netflix #netflix the sandman #dream of the endless #tom sturridge #dream #dream country #dc comics #vertigo #dc #mine.post

[verkomy]

what if we get a “you came” “you called” scenario in good omens season 3

#I would cry #and scream #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens 3 #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #sandman #dream #calliope #text