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onehundredandeleventropicalfish · 1 year

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getting emotional about the last issue of sandman again (cw for major comic spoilers, discussion of suicidal thoughts)

because like. so we learn pretty early on what dream's deal with shakespeare was, allowing him better access to his creative potential in return for two plays, and we know this because we get midsummer night's dream, which was commissioned by dream for the actual titania as a parting gift before the faeries left earth forever

but we don't learn the second play until right at the end, after dream is dead, after the funeral, after sunday mourning and exiles, both of which make really beautiful endings to the story in their own right

the second play is the tempest. and there's a lot of the play that neil gaiman quotes in this issue, but i'll focus on the specific two that shakespeare reads aloud

the first is our obvious one - prospero's address at his daughter's wedding.

Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

it's a beautiful passage, and exactly what to put at the end of this story - prospero is reminding everyone that stories are just stories, they aren't real and can't hurt anyone, but also they are the one thing that lives forever. humans are shaped and formed by our dreams, by our stories, we come from them, and in the end, we return to them.

now, prospero is the character we focus on in this issue. because there's a three-way parallel here between dream and prospero and shakespeare himself.

dream and shakespeare have both lost their sons, were both irreparably changed by that. both regret decisions they've made in their lives, and wish to leave the path they've found for themselves, but don't feel they can - their responsibilities are too great, they have no choice but to be what they were born to be. both wonder what might have happened in a world where things were different, but they know that could never have been

and prospero is the balm to that. prospero has made mistakes in his life, he's in several ways the antagonist of this story, but at the end, he gets to put it all aside. his daughter lives, and is happy. he gives up his magic - the source of his power, but also his suffering - and abandons his role, leaves the island he'd been ruling for decades. and this is his happy ending.

when shakespeare asks dream why this play, why he wanted that ending, instead of some great tragedy or drama, something more fit for a king, dream responds "because i will never leave my island."

and we see throughout the issue that that was personal to shakespeare too, it was a wish fullfilment for both of them.

but then we get to the epilogue, the second quote i'm focusing on. because shakespeare doesn't know how to end the play, until he has that conversation with dream.

this is the tempest's epilogue, in full:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown/And what strength I have’s mine own/Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true/I must be here confined by you/Or sent to Naples. Let me not/Since I have my dukedom got/And pardoned the deceiver, dwell/In this bare island by your spell/But release me from my bands/With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails/Must fill, or else my project fails/Which was to please. Now I want/Spirits to enforce, art to enchant/And my ending is despair/Unless I be relieved by prayer/Which pierces so that it assaults/Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardoned be/Let your indulgence set me free.

like most shakespeare epilogues, it's a direct address to the audience, talking about the play. prospero is asking forgiveness from the audience for all he did wrong, but then reminding them that he's only human, don't we all want to be forgiven? and after all, all of this was just a story. he only wanted to create something for you. so applaud the ending, tell him it was worth it, and only with your permission can he finish the story, and finally leave.

and that's the thing, about dream's particular brand of suicidal thoughts. being dream of the endless has been weighing on him for centuries, if not millenia, he longs for an escape, but he knows he can't. when they see it's breaking him his siblings try and convince him to leave, like destruction did, but it's not in him to abandon the dreaming like that.

and that amount of responsibility, of staying alive because you owe it to other people - it's a relief, then, when a battle comes along that's too great for you to face, but there's also a lot of guilt in it. because he gave up. and he knows he did. letting the kindly ones win was the most selfish decision he's ever made

and you might say, well, he's dead, he doesn't have to face it, but that's not wholly true. because all three of the last issues deal with some version of dream after death.

there's the dream of him hob has in sunday mourning, which isn't the true dream, he's dead, except of course it is dream, because he was only ever made of dreams anyway, so does it really matter whether it's real or not?

in exiles the protagonist talks to both morpheus and daniel in the desert, and for dream this was two very different time periods, but to the man crossing the desert, they happened simultaneously, so if time can be warped like that in dreams, who's to say that the ripples of morpheus won't continue long into the future?

and then we have the tempest. dream has appeared after death as a dream, as a mirage, and finally, in perhaps his truest form, as a story.

when dream said he will never leave his island, shakespeare reminds him that all men can change. and this is the fatal flaw of dream - he doesn't see himself as a man, as a person, as anything but the entity which must fulfill his function. he tells shakespeare that men have stories, men change - he does not

and when we end this entire 75 issue run with the epilogue from the tempest, dream is prospero. even after death he's still reckoning with the guilt of making that decision. even now, he won't allow himself that freedom.

and that's the reminder, that all of this was just a story - dream's story. the reader is a character in sandman, all of this was created for us. did he manage to create something beautiful enough, despite the pain? can he be forgiven for the decisions he made along the way? if eventually he gave up, does that make all the time he fought so hard for meaningless?

and he can't be free of the story until we answer that all important question - was it worth it?

to which the answer can only be of course it was.

#you did good kiddo. take your rest. it's okay #interestingly enough the tempest isn't the only play that refers to the afterlife as a dream #hamlet does too (which you know is the piece inspired by shakespeare's dead son)#but that's just me and my shakespeare nerd #i've won literal monetary awards for my writing on shakespeare but here i am rereading sandman and crying #so you all get to cry too #neil gaiman you madman give me your writing talents #the sandman #sandman comic spoilers #dream of the endless #....it feels weird to tag shakespeare in this #wake #mine #meta #suicide tw

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writing-for-life · 4 months

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Sunday Mourning—About Dream Entities and Stars

Why Head-Canons Are Wonderful, But Forcing Them On Creators Isn’t

And as always: Send me asks about everything Sandman-related!

First of all: I don’t want to take anyone’s head-canons away from them, it’s what fandom is partly built on. I support them, I love them, I have plenty of my own. The Sandman very explicitly tells us about “books never written” in Lucien/ne’s library, and we can be sure ours is in there.

But that’s not quite the same as harassing both creators and other fans in an attempt to make fanon canon, and that’s what partly sparked this post. So if a super-long meta exploration of “Sunday Mourning” (and there is a lot in this post) that also contains a bit of fandom criticism (feel free to skip that if you just want the meta) isn’t your thing—this is your warning 🤣

Also: Massive spoilers ahead…

The theory that Morpheus forever lives in Hob’s dreams (and with Hob) as a dream entity regularly makes the rounds. And it’s a nice theory, and I get why people like it. I also get that “The Wake—Sunday Mourning” is maybe ambiguous enough to consider it a possibility (which then goes into head-canon territory). All good so far.

What’s problematic is when fans begin to leverage their head-canons/theories as “true because Neil gave it a like”, and then proceed to present them as canon.

Neil likes posts, yes, but he said *several times* and *very explicitly* that’s never endorsement of anything, but rather valuing that people put thought into stuff and engage with his stories critically (and he also said that it’s sometimes just a slip of his finger, but that just as an aside, you’ll find one example here).

So if Neil liked a happily-ever-after-dream-entity post, that means he supports your head-canons as head-canons because he always does (or his finger slipped—I guess we’ll never know). He is awesome that way and always was. Again: In a way, it’s even an integral part of The Sandman. It also means that he likes the fact you engaged deeply with the source material, in either a heartfelt or critical way.

What it *doesn’t* mean: Head-canon is the same as canon despite both being valid in their own way. He said all of this a million times in a million posts.

Let’s explore that particular theory and start with an ask:

His endorsement goes as far as acknowledging that “it’s never only a dream,” and that “dreams are where the stories are.” And we need to stop pretending it’s anything more than that, even if he likes a few posts here and there (posts that go in all different directions, btw). Neil used his own experience with grief and mirrored it 1:1 in how Hob handles Morpheus’ death in The Wake and Sunday Mourning.

Here is a quote from the Sandman Companion:

NG: […] Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows where to stop. She's realized the real problem with stories—if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.

HB: It also makes me think of Hob's dream in part 3.

NG: That was something that actually happened to me. [1]I dreamt about a friend who'd died six months earlier, woke up completely upset that she'd died, [2]and then realized I'd simply had a dream and felt enormously relieved... [3]and then I woke up all the way and remembered that she really had passed on.

[numbers and bold by me]

And then remember what happened to Hob:

1. He found out in a dream Morpheus had died and woke up upset and crying in The Wake, Chapters 1-3 (#70-72).

2. Then he had another dream that somewhat gave him closure and a sense of relief (Sunday Mourning, #73).

(Can I also just point out where Destruction’s fingers are pointing here and then contrast it with what he told Daniel in The Wake about “walking amongst the stars”, or Morpheus actually turning into a star?)

(What might the end of the story be? Who knows, but once again, have a look where Destruction’s fingers are pointing.)

3. Then he woke up all the way and felt peace (also in Sunday Mourning).

Make of that what you will, but to me, saying that scene was based on his own dream is basically Neil confirming that Morpheus has “really passed on.”

Will Hob remember Morpheus? Of course he will. That’s what humans do. Does Morpheus live a happily ever after in Hob’s dream with Hob? And would that be in character? And would he want his memories to be intact to make that happen? Would that truly be passing on?

I will explore why canonically, we don’t find much to support that notion, and why it would seem OOC. But if you believe it, it’s your personal truth. Should we call for the ending to be changed though to make our personal truth that of the author?

Life and death are our own, and it’s never just a dream

Destruction was in Hob’s dream (when Hob never really knew him), and Destruction walked away from it all. As did Morpheus. They’re both free. It was very likely (and I'm phrasing this carefully on purpose) a dream gifted by Daniel!Dream (who had a very long talk with Destruction during the Wake) to give Hob closure, and it seems straightforward enough if you read The Wake not just single-mindedly focused on one thing. Daniel!Dream is not in the original panel, but he is in the background of concept art of that panel for a movie pitch by Jill Thompson and Neil Gaiman, so we can probably assume it was always the intended subtext.

And what does Death say in Façade? Or what does Morpheus say to Orpheus, or to Delirium after he killed Orpheus? That life and death are our own.

Destruction’s life is his own.

Morpheus’ death is his own.

And Hob’s life AND death are his own.

The three of them are the literal embodiment of that sentiment:

One walked away and chose life.

One walked away and chose death.

One chooses life for as long as he sees fit and can choose death if he stops doing so.

It makes sense to put them in a panel together at the end for that very reason (and a few others of course).

That, right there, is already “more than just a dream.” It is the story, not just a metaphor. It is canon, and it is fairly explicit.

Would Morpheus ever want to be a dream entity with all his memories intact?

From this point onward, we get more into interpretation based on canonical character traits:

Morpheus living forever as a dream entity *tied to Hob’s dream* is canonically antithetical and OOC. There, I said it. He wanted to be free from the Dreaming, he even said so to Death (“But even the freedom of the Dreaming can be a cage, of a kind, my sister,” in #69).

But existing as a dream entity WITH ALL HIS MEMORIES INTACT (that alone should make people say, “He would never want this in a million years” because it’s the very source of his pain—he wanted punishment for Orpheus’ fate/death—Nuala called him out on it) would forever tie him to it. Plus, it would make him Daniel’s subject in a way. It would be, again, very OOC.

Also: Dream had very strong feelings about the dead NOT belonging into dreams/the Dreaming permanently, or the living building their lives around them. WHY would that apply to Hector, but not to Morpheus himself? Again, it makes no sense in continuity.

But Destruction was in that dream…

Destruction visited Daniel!Dream during the Wake. They talked about a lot of stuff that’s very relevant, I recommend a reread if you’re not certain (this is long enough as it is, so I’ll skip it at this point). And it makes narrative sense to anchor that in Hob’s dream for reasons already outlined (they might not make sense to Hob, but they make sense to us, the reader, if we are willing to see that “it’s more than just a dream” isn’t equal to two people riding off into the sunset together, as nice a head-canon that might be). What I *do* want to point out though is that Destructions talked about “walking amongst the stars” and again, where he points in Hob’s dream.

Someone said this somewhere else and drew parallels to Stardust: Morpheus *does* become a star (or returns to them, who knows), it’s all over The Wake. That star is in literally *every* panel with a window/sky after his barge has transformed. And what becomes of him as that—who knows, since we all know stars have some sort of sentience in Gaiman’s universe, and that “oblivion is not an option” if Death took your hand to lead you into the afterlife. Again: Head-canon territory…

Head-canons are beautiful

No one is trying to take them away from us. Let’s knock ourselves out in fanfic and fanart, it’s comforting and healing. The Sandman is a story about stories. Our stories are our own, and they are true for us, that’s the whole point. And Neil will *never* tell you your head-canon is not real, because for you, it is, and that’s all that matters. But the constant need to elevate fanon to canon really gets exhausting at times, especially if it involves pestering the creators, constantly being on their blogs/tagging them and trying to get them to confirm what we want.

And to those that insist we will undoubtedly get a happily ever after because “Hob’s dream says so”, and think the writers somehow should “read the room” and provide fan-service (side-note: What is it with this entitlement in fandom? The creator tells *their* story, not yours):

One of the main messages of the story is (already in 24/7) that stories only have a happy ending because we know when to stop, but that they ultimately *all* end in death. No matter how much people say that “the show is so much more hopeful”, that very line has already been brought into the show. They didn’t take it out. It will have weight at some point, I’ll put my money on it.

But show!Murphy isn’t comics!Murphy...

People point out that show!Morpheus is different from comics!Morpheus to justify we will get a different ending. Making Morpheus a bit softer around the edges seems, at least to me, a move to make him likeable as the protagonist, because it would be very hard to like early comics!Morpheus, to be frank. The fact that he brought Gault back from the darkness—I saw that as giving show!only fans a nicely wrapped end of the first season, because we didn’t even know if we would get a second one at that point. It also shows us that he is capable of change—a thing I am near certain he will repeatedly deny as we go on (he already did). So no, I personally don’t think it set him on a different path. There are even scenes in the show that very heavily foreshadow The Kindly Ones (the cracks in the window are overlayed onto his face in such a way that they heavily hint at the scar he is going to receive).

So yes, by all means, let’s have a bit of ambiguity in Sunday Mourning for the people who don’t like the tragic ending, but let’s also focus on more than just making everything about the ship. Their relationship is important, and even more so because it isn’t romantic—that’s why it grows and lasts (unlike Morpheus’ romantic relationships). But it’s only the tiniest fraction of what The Sandman is about.

I write fanfic. I give Morpheus happy endings, too. I get it, I want him to be happy, too. But no matter how much we write him in character, we will ultimately break character the moment we make him do things that lead to a different outcome. In canon, he is the way he is. And I am afraid to say:

I personally think he is also like that in the show, even if they softened him a bit around the edges and shoved certain messages down our throats that people who know the comics didn’t need, but newbs to the Sandman did (“I’m listening now…”)—it was a good move, and all of that made sense for show-narrative reasons. But not once did I have the feeling that he wasn't exactly the same Morpheus underneath it all, and we already had too much foreshadowing to think that we would really get a different ending.

Why chemistry isn’t confirmation of the ship

That’s another one: To turn one (!) show-writer’s comment that Morpheus’ and Hob’s chemistry was a thing, and that they allowed that type of ambiguity, into, “Their romantic relationship is canon.” These two things are not the same. And Neil said that Benton’s comment did not make Dreamling any more real/canon, but people conveniently forget that. He also didn’t deny it, he just didn’t confirm, because, again: He doesn’t confirm or deny head-canons. They’re ours. Let's please stop pestering the man to confirm our head-canons and fantasies, but that just as an aside.

It shows one thing, however:

How conditioned fandom is to make everything about romantic relationships (ideally m/m), even if they have nothing, and I say nothing, to do with the main message.

And it’s okay the wish for these relationships matters to some people, but they don’t have to matter to everyone else, to the extent that we expect the actual story to change. Why try to twist his arm into changing his own story, and the way he wanted to tell it?

So again: Head-canons are beautiful. Trying to get them confirmed by creators and foist them upon everyone else (to the extent that people get harassed) is not.

And if I'm proven wrong on this, I’ll still die happy, but I'm putting my chips down right now and say:

Morpheus will die in exactly the same way as in the comics. And if we get The Wake, we will get a scene in Sunday Mourning that can hold ambiguity for processing our grief, just like the comic can. And the shippers will say, “He’s with Hob, yay!”, and the non-shippers will say, “Nah, not what I saw.” And Neil will get a million asks and answer each single one with:

“What do *you* think?”

#the sandman #neil gaiman #dream of the endless #morpheus #hob gadling #sandman #sandman meta #sandman spoilers #sandman comics spoilers #the wake #sunday mourning #façade #sandman book club #sandman bookclub #canon vs fanon #harassing creators and other fans is never okay #neither is constantly creeping into their inboxes to get your head-canons confirmed

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changeling-fae · 2 months

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Gave my unicorn Tav, Iluatria (Lua for short), an update. I'm a The Last Unicorn hoe.

Her lore:

Lua was a unicorn who lived on the coast before an old dying wizard made a deal with a sea hag to capture her so he could force her into healing him and giving him more life.

He went to the local sea hag and had her help him capture and transform Lua (wild unicorns are notoriously difficult to capture otherwise). It worked obviously, but he betrayed the hag and killed her (who cursed him to be killed by his own folly soon enough, aka Lua).

He basically had her captured Calliope style in the Sandman, trying to persuade/intimidate/force her to give him power but she refused because it’s not something that can be taken. He gets drunk one night and tries to take it by force (by sawing her horn off which would kill her) and she instead impales him with her horn.

She then returns to where her sisters and brothers are like “hey, help me turn back” but then they said they can’t and that’s when Selûne is like “actually I’m going to need you to investigate Moonrise/the Absolute cult that’s forming and then I can turn you back”, so then Lua is forced to investigate which is then when she gets captured and tadpoled.

Since the gods were already sending their clerics and agents to check out what’s happening, Selûne would be like “actually this works in our favor for a bit” and is taking advantage of the situation.

I imagine Lua got nerfed a bit when she was transformed, then the tadpole nerfed her the rest of the way.

She knows she’s a unicorn (horn makes it obvious) but her memories of her life as a unicorn are starting to fade and the more connections she makes in her new form, the more she loses her old self. I’m using it as a form of meta too, since Tav is such a blank slate and feels like they didn’t exist before the events of the game, this is my meta of her literally being a new person.

She’s old, like older than Raphael old, but since I’m stealing so much from TLU, to quote Prince Lir, “she has a newness”.

She was a unicorn under the service of Selûne specifically, and she helped guide sailors and lost souls home along the coast. Keeping with the sea and navigation themes.

She’s not only trying to remove the tadpole but also trying to return to form before she “loses herself” forever. But of course she makes connections and once she and Astarion fall for each other, it’s when she has to make a decision. His spawn route is him deciding to try living again with his old self dead and buried, and with her it’ll be deciding to let her old self die as well.

She doesn't get on with Gale at first because she thinks wizards are selfish and power hungry but over time they become friends and they have interesting discussions around magic.

Right now her goal is “yes, I want to go back, this form is unnatural and torture” but she’ll start to develop an independent sense of self that starts to overtake her old self.

She’ll always have natural grace and beauty, but that ethereal otherworldliness will disappear over time.

While she's in this form she can feel her immortality and old self fade and it horrifies her but once she falls in love with Astarion she eventually comes to accept her new life. My end goal is at the end of the game, she chooses to use what's left of her powerful unicorn healing magic to cure Astarion of his vampirism. Her horn disappears and she's made fully mortal (as an elf) and they live their new lives together.

It's a cheesy idea but Selûne takes their souls (since Corellon won’t have him), and then they get reincarnated as unicorns. They’re essentially new people again, the way reborn souls are, but they find each other again and mate for life once more. And now he gets to be a unicorn; wild beauty, grace, and never again tamed too.

It’s super romantic and cheesy but sometimes I be a sucker for that.

And I do like the idea that Astarion, (who he himself and most people see as used, dirty, and corrupted), is actually seen as worthy enough and loved by a being in universe as pure as they come. And there’s an innocence in his passion for life that would attract her.

#bg3 #bg3 tav #astarion #oc: iluatria #she's unfortunately probably going to be one of my few tav's who kills raphael rip

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endlessthedestiny · 9 months

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okay I read the good omens screen play / shitscript and....... it was something. here are a good idea of what happens there, for those who dosent want to read it

if you don't know what the shitscript is, it's basically a script for a scrapped good omens movie written only by Neil in 1992. it's very different from (I think) any other media/adaptation we had of good omens. apparently neil HAD to make Crowley evil, but I don't know much about it...

tw: abusive crowley

so:

Crowley owns a night club. (yes, Lucifer style)

Aziraphale works as a museum curator.

Also, Crowley cheats in every chess game and wins, making that Aziraphale never won (rather cruel if you ask me) and he hates earth. like really despises.

the plot starts with Satan (here he is more like his sandman/Lucifer2000 counterpart to be honest, even being called Lucifer MORNINGSTAR at some point) gives Crowley the antichrist (Adam).

Crowley is supposed to take care and raise Adam, but when he came back to the club, he put Adam in Madame Tracy's bag to talk to his employee.

Madame Tracy takes Adam home unknowingly. (yes, she will be the one raising him)

Crowley has a fucking panic attack seeing that he lost Adam (also he's fucking pathetic. why didn't he just chase the taxi. stupid).

He drinks alot to calm himself, and then Aziraphale comes into his club and asks what's wrong

Crowley explains (more like spilled) to him what's happening, and Aziraphale decides to help him find Adam. With the condition of being able to make Adam good.

Also theres Anathema. As a child she feels (?) that the antichrist was born.

11 long years of azira and crowley looking for Adam in every city offscreen later............

Anathema goes to tadville (the place where madame Tracy and Adam live) looking for something. she is convinced there is something weird happening.

Madame Tracy's the only one who accepts to rent her a room.

In this version, Madame Tracy's is the "crazy old lady who was hot when she was younger but now she's oooolddddd and craaazy" which is problematic (at my vision)

Adam basically takes care of everything around the house, the bills, breakfast.

Adam resembles more Warlock than Adam from the show... He sometimes is unnecessarily rude towards others, but I think that makes sense with the fact that he had to be so responsible all the time.

He dislikes Anathema at first. But they grow to be friends over time.

theeeen.... Satan calls Crowley again and they talk about the antichrist.

Crowley says that Adam is evil just like him and beautiful blablabla, and then Satan takes a look (using DemonicPowers™) at Adam's face and is very pleased.

Then Crowley comes back at his club and has another panic attack.

Aziraphale visits him again, and again asks what's wrong.

Crowley explains that he met with Satan again, and sarcastically says that he told the truth.

Aziraphale takes his sarcasm seriously and (I think) he was happy that Crowley at least was honest.

Crowley then simply says (and I quote directly) "you are so.... stupid.... you don't deserve to live. I didn't tell him anything. If I had, do you think I'd be here right now?" which is just... damn

azira gets sad and then Crowley basically says that he knows what Adam looks like and azira suggest that they should go to one more town. just one more.

Crowley gets ughhhh fine and they go to Tadville.

Then we get a scene of Adam taking Anathema to his hidden place and showing her his miniature replica of tadville. he says some creepy things about how that in mini tadville everyone does what he says, it's all his.

In the next day, Crowley and Aziraphale go to Tadville. they start looking for a room, but some lady heard Crowley calling Aziraphale "angel" and goes homophobic mode.

Everyone doesn't want to rent a room to them, except Madame Tracy.

Then Adam arrives with the groceries and Crowley immediately recognizes him. Him and Azira take a stroll on the beach, and Crowley says that he's very grateful for Aziraphale.

Aziraphale says he isn't going back to London and Crowley simply says "well, we found him, i don't need you anymore" and Azira reminds him of their agreement of making Adam good.

They invite Adam to go with them for a day in London, and Madame Tracy authorizes much to Adam's content.

They go to London, and in the museum, Azira shows Adam the beauty of humanity and all.

When Adam goes to the car, Crowley tells him that humanity is being above everyone, not caring for anyone (basically, that evil talk etc)

When they get back, Anathema discovers through looking into a crystal ball and seeing Adam's face that he is the antichrist.

Then, Adam goes to talk with her.

Anathema tries to stab him, but she psychologically can't. And she tells him he's the one who is going to end the world.

Adam gets scared for his life and runs away to his hidden place.

Satan transformed his place into a magical scenario full of games and fun and talks with him.

He basically convinces him to enter his side and Adam (who is very fragile because anathema just tried to kill him) agrees.

Basically, the town turns into a huge theater with everyone acting like puppets.

Satan thanks Crowley for raising Adam, and grant his wish of letting him go to Alpha centuri.

As Crowley is waiting for the next comet, Aziraphale goes to him and tries to convince him to help humanity and heaven.

Crowley basically says "hell nah im not helping you"

Aziraphale says "but we are friends."

And Crowley simply replies "Were." :)

Theeen, Aziraphale challenges him to one more checkers game.

They play, and Aziraphale finally wins. But only after cheating.

They find Anathema and she gives them the knife.

Aziraphale enters in full angel form (white clothing and all) and goes to talk with Adam.

Aziraphale basically does "reflect about it" talk to Adam, and Adam seems to not care.

Crowley then goes to Satan and says "I'm not going anymore" and Satan turns him into a snake.

Aziraphale interrupts and points the knife at him. Satan simply desintegrates the knife and hurts aziraphale.

Adam after seeing Madame Tracy's puppet form and reflecting about what Aziraphale said he decides to take a step back and fix things.

He goes to Satan, heals Aziraphale and transforms Crowley back and basically says "I'm not going." and turns everything back to normal

Satan is like ??? and Crowley simply says "wait you didn't rebel to your father too?"

Satan laughs and disappears.

everything ends well

theeee end :3

well, it's not the worst thing in existence but certainly not the best.

good omens but the aziracrow is the most toxic yaoi ever.

#good omens #shitscript #go screenplay #also PLEASE don't ask for a link‚ i don't want the fbi in my house #this is for educational purposes only ok

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inorganicone2230 · 2 years

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This Waking Nightmare (Part 2) Yandere!Morpheus x Fem!Reader

Part 1 and Part 3

Summary: Even before his capture, Dream of The Endless had always longed for a loving partner to share his eternity with, and when he finds that an unexpected turn of events may be the first step towards gaining what it is he has been yearning for for so very long, he’ll do anything to make it a reality.

So when Alex Burgess unexpectedly flees after the death of his father, leaving Fawney Rig to crumble into disrepair, Dream had no idea that his salvation would come, not in the form of any of his siblings, nor by any feat of cunning on his part, but simply by the unprecedented arrival of a single mortal girl who would go on to forever reshape and change the very fabric of the Dreamlord’s endless existence.

Warnings: There are no warnings for now, these first few chapters will be fairly tame.

Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller and I own nothing related to The Sandman in any of its forms and/or adaptations.

It wasn’t too hard to find the entrance to the basement, not when someone had graffitied two of the most famous book quotes of all time right across the door and walls in big black letters.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here & As above, so below

Whoever did it had probably thought that they were being very clever, but in actuality, they really just came off as being very pretentious and lame. If this were a horror movie, it would be beyond the realm of B-rated cheesiness.

You opened it without much hesitation or fanfare and the door swung inward on rusted and squeaking hinges. Shining your flashlight in, you could see that it wasn’t anything special, just a rickety old staircase that led down into what you naturally assumed was just an ordinary and equally as old basement.

You debated turning around and leaving since you would still have to make the trek back up the incredibly long driveway to make it back to the main road and blessed cell service, but you’d already come this far, you silently told yourself, it’s not like a few more minutes of exploring is gonna do you any harm. After all, if Kalvin had been telling the truth during the drive over, then there wasn’t going to be much to see down there anyway. You’d likely be in and out in less time than it was taking you to actually debate this inconsequential task.

With your mind made up, you slowly began making your way down the stairs, being extra careful to watch your step on the way down so as not to fall and hurt yourself. However, when you finally reached the bottom, you were surprised to see that the opening to the space was blocked off by yet another barrier, this one a barred metal gate that reminded you of an old prison cell door. Luckily for you and your now thoroughly peaked curiosity, it wasn’t actually barring the way anymore since it appeared someone had long since taken it right off its hinges and just left it lying on the floor where it fell.

Carefully making your way around the darn thing so you wouldn’t trip over it and possibly twist your ankle, you finally got a look inside the place, and needless to say, it was pretty damn impressive.

“Holy shit…” You exclaimed.

This sure as hell wasn’t what you had been expecting. You had obviously never seen the basement of a mansion before, but you had imagined that it wouldn’t be that much different from any other basement. However, the dinghy space you had been anticipating entering wasn’t at all what you currently found yourself standing inside of.

Instead of a low ceiling full of cobwebs and support beams and a compact dirt or concrete floor, in its place you found a space the size of a small parking lot, complete with a high ceiling to add more openness to the underground space and solid stone flooring that left echoes in the wake of your footsteps. But it was what you saw in the center of the room that made you truly take notice.

There was a section of the floor in the shape of a large square, smack dab in the middle of the room, that appeared to be separated from the rest of it by means of what you could only interpret as a mini trench of some kind surrounding it in an equally shaped outer square. After moving closer to shine your flashlight down into it, you could just barely make out the telltale signs of dried up sludge coating the bottom, indicating that it must have been filled with water at some point.

“So it was a miniature moat or something?” You questioned the empty room as you continued to look around. If you had to hazard a guess, this probably had less to do with interesting architecture and more to do with the cult that had once called this place home back in the day. There was a small pathway that cut through the mini-moat and gave access to the strange spot, and since you were still curious to get a closer look at it you moved towards it.

*scrap scrap*

The faint sound came from behind you and in a whorl of spiked panic, you spun around, and aimed the flashlight in the direction of the scratching noise and prayed to God that it wasn’t the aforementioned axe murderer you had briefly imagined earlier.

At first, you didn’t see anything at all, but upon closer inspection, you noticed the faint outline of a large rodent near one of the alcoves in the wall and relaxed ever so slightly, but as soon as the light touched it, it shrunk back and suddenly skittered down into the ground through an opening of some kind.

You might have been content to simply forget about that and continue on with your snooping now that you knew there was no danger, except for the fact that you remembered that this whole floor was seemingly made out of stone; and there should have been nowhere for that rat to go underneath it all. You weren’t entirely too sure, but you didn’t think that common household rats were known for burrowing in the ground, much less burrowing through solid stone.

Now thoroughly intrigued, you made your way over to inspect the area and realized that this one random section of the floor was made of wooden planks that extended out from the wall by 4ft or so, in fact, this odd wood trimming seemed to run around the entire length of the room. It was like the people who originally lived here were trying to cover the stone with the wood flooring, but stopped midway through the project for some reason.

Angling your light over the spot the rat had disappeared into, you saw that there was a hole in the wood about the size of a baseball and without much more thought, proceeded to get down on your hands and knees to shine the flashlight inside.

You knew this was an incredibly strange and silly thing to be doing, you weren’t going to find anything of real substance or value in a rat nest, but some unseen force (probably the tequila and your damned curiosity) was pushing you to follow through and at least check it out, if only for the sheer madness of it.

But it wasn’t a rat in a small hole that you saw…

Not even close… It was the broken top step of an old wooden ladder.

“The fuck?” You took a second look to see if it was some kind of trick of the light or even just the broken off piece of wood that would have originally filled in the hole, but sure enough, it was a fucking ladder of all things.

Using the sleeve of your jacket to brush away the thick layers of previously undisturbed dust and dirt coating the wood, you soon found what you were looking for in the form of a rectangular seam that didn’t match up with the rest of the wooden floor boards lining. A quick knock on the top even confirmed your suspicions when the sound rang back hollowly.

This was definitely a hatch door, but it had no handles to lift it with or even hinges at the back to help it angle it upward. If you wanted to get it open, you were going to have to take the whole thing off. But that begged the question of whether or not you even wanted to bother with it. It was probably nothing more than a dank and dirty old root-cellar, but still, you couldn’t help but wonder about it, and you knew that you’d keep thinking about it over and over again if you left without even trying.

Mind made up, you set down the flashlight and positioned it to shine where you needed it before pulling out a sturdy switchblade from your pocket that you had been carrying around for years in case of an emergency or accident. This wasn’t the kind of situation you ever thought you’d find yourself to be using it in, but better this than a potential kidnapping.

Over the course of the next half hour, you worked to use the knife as a makeshift crowbar and pry up the hatch. It wasn’t easy since the damn thing was nailed down in a few spots, but with a little bit of time and elbow grease, it eventually became loose enough to lift and toss aside. The smell of stale air wafted up from the opening and you coughed as the scent settled into your lungs, but it didn’t smell like something rotten or anything horrible, so at the very least, if there were any dead bodies down there, they likely weren’t fresh. As you peered down into the hole, you could see that the drop was about 6ft to 7ft down and the floor was concrete, you just hoped the old ladder was strong enough to handle you going down and back up it at least once. The last thing you wanted was to get stuck down there and end up starving to death, because you highly doubted that Gabby and the others were going to come back looking for you.

So, keeping the knife in your hand, just in case, and the flashlight in the other, you slowly and carefully began making your way down.

The wood groaned and creaked under your weight, but not enough to make you believe it was going to give out or break. You still felt incredibly relieved when your feet finally touched the ground though and you turned around to get your first look at the secret space.

However…

…

That relief was incredibly short lived upon discovering what exactly it was that this odd chamber had truly been hiding.

—————

Morpheus froze in stunned awe as he watched the young woman deceased down the ladder and into the dank darkness of his prison chamber, the flashlight she carried in her hand shining like a beacon from the Silver City itself as it cast eerie shadows all around the space.

If he were mortal and not the true universal embodiment of dreams and the unconscious mind, he might have pinched himself to see if he was dreaming this all up, but such a thing couldn’t be possible, the entrapment circle crafted around his cage had prevented him from dreaming since the moment of his capture.

Which could really only mean one thing…

That this was real.

It was difficult to make out her features from the dim light cast by her flashlight, but right now, he couldn’t care less what she looked like, not when she held the power to help free him just by simply being here. She was the first true living thing he had laid eyes on in… well… he didn’t accurately know how long, but it was long enough that the mere sight of her was enough to make him want to weep.

But as she raised the light to look around, her reaction to seeing him made it clear that he was not at all what she had been expecting to find down here.

She screamed in surprise and stumbled back onto her rear, gaping at him in shock and disbelief. She stayed still like that for so long that, were it not for the erratic rise and fall of her chest to indicate otherwise, Dream feared she may have passed out or even died of fright right there on the spot.

She eventually seemed to get her bearings about her and he heard her mumbling some rather choice words before coming to a decision and he watched with bated breath as she closed up the knife he just now noticed she carried in her other hand and put it away in her pocket. She began scrambling around the chamber, looking for something, though he knew not what for.

That question was soon answered however when he saw her bend down to pick up a large rock with a jagged end, to which she must have deemed acceptable, because she was suddenly making her way over to him. He nearly smiled in gleeful triumph when he saw her shoes scuff a line through the entrapment circle, weakening its enchantment on the glass and his power.

She set the flashlight down on the ground before turning to face him through the glass, a determined look set upon her rather beautiful face, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he heard another's voice ringing in his ears. He didn’t know if she truly had the voice of an angel, for that’s exactly what it sounded like, or if he was just that desperate for the sound, but he didn’t care. He wanted to beg her to keep talking, to fill his ears with the sweet melody and never stop, but he found his own voice was caught in his throat as the shock that he was finally free settled over him. The long awaited relief washed over him in delightful waves and he slumped against the glass, unable and unwilling to take his eyes off of the beguiling creature standing on the other side of his cage, the rock in her hand raised high and poised to strike.

“Just hang on, I’m going to try and get you out!”

And then she moved.

—————

Finding a naked young man trapped in some kind of creepy glass cage down here was so far down the list of things you hadn’t expected to come across, that it wasn’t ever even an option. But that’s exactly what it was, and you just figured that you could worry about the ‘how’s’ and ‘why’s’ of this incredibly odd turn of events after you had gotten him out of this thing.

For a brief moment, you had thought that the best thing you could do would be to leave and get far enough away to call the police and let them handle this. But you knew they’d likely just think this whole thing was a prank call by some bored teenagers and ignore you, or they’d show up and you’d get arrested for trespassing before losing your scholarship and getting deported. There was also this man’s safety to consider, you admitted to yourself as you thought of what could go wrong if you left him here for even a few hours. You doubted he was down here by choice; what if whoever put him there came back to kill him, or what if he ran out of air or something while you were gone?

He didn’t look hurt or anything as far as you could tell, so he couldn’t have been trapped for very long, you thought, even as your subconscious mind took notice of how there were no human footprints of any kind trailing through the dirt and dust that blanketed the floor, or how there seemed to be no other entrances/exits besides the one you just came through, and that one clearly hadn’t been used in decades.

All of these thoughts piled up in your head faster than you could comprehend or keep track of them, but in the end, it was none of them that made you decide to help him. It was the look on his face, the look that told you something fundamental would shatter inside of him if you turned your back and left him here alone, even if it was only for a short amount of time.

Now here you were, banging on the seemingly indestructible glass with a rock to try and break through, and in your panic, it never even occurred to you to try and see if the damn thing had a door with an outside lock to try and open for him or something.

At first, all it did was scratch the surface and you fears you may actually have to go back up in search of a better tool, like a hammer or something, but after a few more hard strikes in the same spot, spiderwebs and hairline fractures began to splinter outward from the area and you could see that a small hole had been formed. Once the structure was weakened enough, breaking through the rest of it was comparably easy to chip away at, and soon, you had made a hole big enough that he could squeeze through. There were metal pieces wound through the glass and you dragged the rock against both, trying to get rid of as many jagged chunks as you so he wouldn’t seriously hurt himself when climbing out.

“Just… umm, let me brush away some of these shards and pieces before you get out.” You said awkwardly, not entirely too sure how to speak or what to say in a situation like this as you took off your coat and used it to clear away the glass that had fallen inside the cage and then did the same to the floor so he, hopefully, wouldn’t end up slicing the bottoms of his feet to ribbons.

“Give me your hand and I’ll help you out.” You said, trying to remain as calm as you could. He hadn’t said a single word yet as he just kept staring at you with wide eyes and a gobsmacked expression.

You hadn’t bothered to get a really good look at him, not just because of how strange and disturbing this situation was, but also because the man was butt-ass-naked. But now that you were so near to him, you couldn’t not take notice of him and his rather… appealing physique.

Pale skin so white it almost seemed to glow in the dim illumination cast by your flashlight and a messy shock of pitch black hair set over an angular face that you could only describe as being utterly beautiful. With high cheekbones and full pursed lips that were making you think of very sinful and inappropriate things, it really was a miracle you weren’t drooling right now, and that was just what he looked like above the neck.

He didn’t take your outstretched hand though, and instead grabbed the metal portion of the structure and swung himself out with all the ease and grace of a practiced gymnast. His feet touched the ground without a sound and he didn’t even seem bothered by the potential injuries and infection he could sustain from the broken glass and filth ridden floor. He just stood there, stark naked and silently watching you.

As he stood to his full height, you could now see that he was quite a bit taller than you, by at least a couple of inches, if not a whole foot, and you couldn’t help but wonder if you had hit the nail on the head when you thought his movements were as fluid as a gymnast’s, because he certainly had the body of one. He was lean, but even in the crappy light cast by the flashlight, you see that he was sculpted with ropes of solid muscle. He reminded you of those famous statues from Greece, the ones carved from marble to look like the ancient heroes from the epics, like Hercules and Achilles.

But as you looked up to make eye contact with him, you found yourself completely hypnotized by what you found there.

His eyes were the color of raw silver, like dancing silver flames, or the glinting of two bright stars in the deepest and darkest night sky. They were captivating and you found that you were so enraptured with them that you didn’t even realize you had taken a step forward until you heard glass crunching underneath your booted foot and you snapped out of it, jerking back with frightened shock over the momentary loss of your inhibitions.

You really were trying your best not to ogle him, but that was rather hard to accomplish when he was making no move at all to cover himself and you refused to turn your back on him. You might have helped him out of a really bazaar situation, but that didn’t mean you trusted him enough to let your guard down completely with him, he was still a perfect stranger after all.

“Listen,” You started off, trying to find something to say that would help to ease the tension of this incredibly awkward silence. “Now that we got you out of whatever that thing is,” You made a hand motion towards the now destroyed cage. “We should really look at getting out of here before whoever it was that put you in there decides to come back.” You took a step back, opting to put some distance between you and the stranger, but for the first time since you laid eyes on one another, he spoke, and you weren’t entirely certain if it was his words or the haunting raspy sound of his voice that made you freeze, but you did and it cost you.

“They won’t be returning.”

You opened your mouth to ask what the fuck he meant by that, but faster then you could process what was happening, the man’s hand shot out and snagged your wrist. He gave a gentle tug and you went falling into his arms, but before you could even begin to struggle or open your mouth to scream, he opened his other hand and blew something into your face and everything suddenly went dark.

—————

Morpheus caught you in his arms as you went limp against him, the last thing he wanted was to see you get needlessly hurt, especially since he now owed you quite the generous life debt for unknowingly freeing him from what he was beginning to think would be an eternity of confinement.

Looking down at your peaceful expression, he used some of what reminded of his limited power to look into your dreams, trying to find out any information he could in regards to you and the state of the world he was about to re-enter.

Quite often, he was able to glean a lot about a person’s waking life, not just from their dreams, but from the multitude of thoughts that tended to run rampant through their mind in those hazy moments right before sleep truly claimed them. Those moments were often similar to that of waking dreams and he used to use them rather frequently to gather information when it was necessary.

And you were no exception to this trait.

In a matter of moments he knew quite a lot more than he did a few hours ago.

For example, he now knew that he had been imprisoned for well over a century, 106 years to be exact. He also now knew that your name was (Y/N) (L/N), you were 21 years old and attending university here in England despite not being British, he had even learned that you had been fortunate enough to get a single dorm room on campus and that you had been abandoned here after a rather interesting altercation between you and some of your fellow classmates.

With this knowledge in hand, he scooped you up into his arms as gently as he could and found himself marveling at just how soft you felt in his arms. You fidgeted a bit in response to the movement and grumbled something unintelligible before going quiet again, which showed just how weak he truly was, if he was at full power and in possession of his tools, you would have entered into a sleep so deep that only a select few things would have been enough to wake you. That thought was enough to spur him into action once again, and using the knowledge he’d gained from you, he called upon another morsel of his nearly depleted power and brought the both of you to an entirely new location.

Your dorm room was about what anyone could expect of such accommodations and Morpheus was quick to pull back the soft blankets and lay you down on the mediocre bed.

However, despite knowing he should be leaving right this moment to return to The Dreaming and begin the hunt for his tools of power, he found himself increasingly reluctant to fully release his hold on you. He hadn’t felt skin to skin contact in so long, even before his imprisonment it had been quite a while; but it was one thing to shun such a thing by choice, it was another thing entirely to have the option of it totally stripped away from you by force. Now he was feeling it again with you, and to his touch starved skin, it felt like the most exquisite thing in the world, both waking and dreaming.

Without realizing it, he found himself sitting beside you on the bed and stroking the tips of his fingers down your cheek, you sighed in your sleep and leaned into his touch, as if soothed by it. The simple and unconscious reaction left him with goosebumps prickling his skin and his heart stuttering in his chest as he continued to watch you sleep. He thought about entering your dreams and seeing what such a brave little mortal would conjure up in his realm, but for some inexplicable reason, he found himself unwilling to look away from the peacefulness of your sleeping face here in the waking world.

Eventually though, he knew he had to depart. It was time for him to finally return home, to go back to The Dreaming and assess the damage wrought by his absence over the last century, as well as to begin the search for his tools.

Cupping your face in his hands, he leaned over your sleeping form and pressed his forehead against your own and whispered your name softly to the otherwise silent room.

“You are my savior, my light in the darkness. I don’t believe there is anything I can do that will ever truly be enough to repay you for what you have done for me tonight.” Being this close to you, he couldn’t help but notice your enticing scent and how it made his mouth water, not with the typical hunger one would expect after so long in confinement, but with something that left his cock twitching against his bare leg. However, he ignored that feeling as best he could and continued on. “But this I promise you, my little savior, once I have my tools in my possession again, I will see to it that you spend the rest of your life with nothing but the sweetest and happiest of dreams whenever you enter my realm, even if I have to enter your dreams every evening and craft them by hand myself. I vow that no nightmare will ever intrude and interrupt your sleep ever again.”

There was so much more he wanted to say to you, so much more he wanted to do, but time was of the essence and he needed to leave, before he did something very foolish, something that would surely bring the wrath of the universe down upon his immortal head.

And so, with nothing more than a quick kiss to your brow and another heartfelt exclamation of gratitude, he was gone in a whisp of shadows, as if he had never been there to begin with.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think of this second chapter! I’m dying to know what you all think is going to go down.

Please forgive any minor potholes or inconsistencies, I tried my best to make the detail changes make sense for the story I wanted to tell while still keeping in line with the original source material. This is mostly based off of the Netflix series, but there are some details about the comics and audio books thrown in for flavor.

And as always, I want to give a very BIG thank you to my amazing friend @talpup for all the brainstorming and encouragement on these stories! I’m sure I would have given up on this blog a while ago if it wasn’t for all of their help. I highly encourage anyone who takes the time to read this to go over to their page or their AO3 account under the same name and check out their works, especially Chaos and Lost Song. They are two of my favorite BNHA fics of ALL TIME! And who has also started their own Yandere!Overhaul fic called Crossroads and is set in a 1920′s prohibition style era, it’s amazing and you really need to check it out!

#This Waking Nightmare #18+ONLY #MINORS DNI #yandere!morpheus #fem!reader #yandere!morpheus x fem!reader #The Sandman #Dream of The endless #there will be trigger warnings #in later chapters #unhealthy obsession #hero worship #stalking #typical yandere behavior #yandere blog

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thenightling · 2 years

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The real-world problem with how some people are reacting to the Calliope story

I am shaking with anger at how some people in my Sandman Facebook group are acting about Calliope and shaming the character for not seeking help or "rescuing herself" sooner. Someone even had the audacity to put the word victim in quotation marks when describing her. What makes this even more disgusting is some of the people shaming the victim are women, not just men. I get preferring the term survivor to victim but this wasn’t about that. This reminds me of the people who shame the character Cinderella for "waiting for a man" to save her when all that abused girl wanted was a night of frivolity, of dancing, of not being someone's slave. She didn't expect the prince to fall in love with her. Yes, these characters are works of fiction but the way you treat and react to them says a lot about how you'd treat real survivors of long-term abuse. It's fiction but it's metaphor for very real abuse. Do you treat real-world survivors this way? 1. Calliope was bound by "The Laws" (Of Magick) meaning no supernatural entity could directly intervene to free her. Her "Master" had to let her go, willingly. Morpheus bent the rules to manipulate him into doing that by giving him what he thought he wanted. It also means she's magically compelled to obey any command her master gives her and cannot flee his property without his consent. 2. Many victims of all kinds of abuse are ashamed of their situations or scared. They either are embarrassed or don't think anyone will help them, or if the attempt to get help fails, that it will make their situation worse. 3. Pride is also a factor. 4. The Fates told Calliope about Morpheus's own captivity. She didn't even try to call out to him until she saw the newspaper headline about the sleeping sickness victim waking up, alerting her to the fact that Morpheus was free. She had no reason to try before then. 5. She thought Erasmus Fry would free her upon his death. Not only was she ashamed for having been made a slave but also she thought it would eventually end but he gave her away to a new master. 6. There are plenty of real-world stories of women being assaulted or even held prisoner for years. This is how human trafficking happens. There was a case of a man who held three woman prisoner in a shed he kept outside. He broke them so completely that he could take them out shopping without them trying to flee or get attention. It was THIRTY years before one of them got desperate enough to try and seek help. These things happen to real people all the time. What you say about Calliope says a LOT about how you treat real human victims. Many-a-truth said in metaphor. "Tales and dreams are the shadow truths that will remain when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - quote from Morpheus in The Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

#The Sandman #Sandman #Neil Gaiman

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man-down-in-hatchet-town · 7 months

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Enter Sandman

Spoilers for The Case of the Greater Gatsby Episode 9 below the cut.

I really, REALLY enjoyed this episode! Lots of fun quotes and little moments that piqued my interest and got ye olde wheels churning (not necessarily a good thing for the rest of you, but fun for me). And what a great use of set-up and pay-off with Willie's book club!

But before we get to all of that, a massive CONGRATULATIONS to my man Cliff Calloway on the romantic getaway to Ibiza with his contractor! And another massive CONGRATULATIONS to his household staff for not having to worry about any more bathrooms being added to the mix. It's nice when things work out! (Please let this work out. Do not take this away from me and Cliff and his housekeepers, Shipwrecked).

But onto the actual events of the episode. So Darby is getting tutored, which is perhaps the most sensible and least surprising thing happening on that entire set. Unless our note writer is using Mr. Broderick to infiltrate the set, I don't really think Darby's education will have anything to do with the case, but she did drop the potentially crucial factoid about Mel having a shindig on the night of Fitzy's death. We know he and Sheila were out partying that night--was this the event in question? (I might be wrong, but I don't think we've gotten the answer to exactly where he was that evening, right?) If so, that could place so many people with F. Scott the night someone decided that he had to die.

Also on the set, Leery received a threat of his own! The most notable thing about this note, besides its method of delivery (bold, and also underlines the suspicion that whoever writes/delivers the notes has free access to the lot and probably is or links back to one of the cast/crew/creatives) is that we don't know what it says. This is the only one that hasn't been read to the audience. Is this because it's the same-old same-old, nothing notable, anti-Grapes of Wrath stuff? Or are we meant to think that way, when in fact there's an important clue within that Shipwrecked is waiting to reveal? Even if it is simply another anti-adaption hit piece, it's notable that our Fitzgerald-penned movie has had three stars threatened--more than any other production that we know about. On one hand, a tap-dance version of The Grapes of Wrath is clearly a whole new level of egregious, so its understandable why whoever writes the letters would hate it the most. But still, the clear focus on Grapes is a definite tick in the "the anti-adaption letters are a really a smoke-screen for something else" column.

And then there's the big reveal of the episode: F. Scott Fitzgerald kept tapes of his writing process. Besides explaining Daniel Vincent Gordh's casting as Fitzy (I've genuinely been wondering about how they were going to incorporate him for months), this is huge for the cast. The tapes likely hold at least some answers as to what secrets The Greater Gatsby contained, why it was stolen, why Fitzgerald was killed, and maybe even who committed the murder. (It also could tell us and Fig about the secret Ford is protecting. I STILL HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT.) But where are these golden clues? It's possible, though unlikely, that they're boxed away at the studio like Sheila suggested. It's possible that whoever took the script also took them. But I keep coming back to the Persauds taking time out of the narrative to describe some of Zelda's paintings on the walls--particularly the one that shows a man whispering something "surreptitious" and is hanging slightly crooked. Like someone's been messing with it. What if the tapes are behind that painting? Could there be a safe in the wall, or even one or two tapes with the most vital information taped onto the painting's back (if the fame is bulky enough)? The subject matter of the art equates it with the hiding and telling of secrets, both making it an appropriate work to use to protect such things and also referencing the nature of the script stored on the missing tapes. And that would explain part of why Fitzgerald was so keen on keeping some of Zelda's work on the walls--one painting to protect his work, the others to distract. The psychological implications of him using Zelda's work to protect his precious secrets is also really interesting.

(My other thought is--what if F. Scott Fitzgerald was recording the night that he died? What if the final tape captured the voice of his killer, or even the murder itself? In that case, it certainly wouldn't be with the other tapes potentially hidden behind paintings or stored in studios, but it could be the set-up for a great reveal later on.)

Speaking of Zelda, welcome to the party Tessa Netting! I know that "it's the loose ends with which men hang themselves" is an actual famous quote from the real Mrs. Fitzgerald, but boy-oh-boy was it sinister in this particular context...

And off our duo goes to try and figure her out, anyways. I don't know about you guys, but I'm excited for the potential chaos of "no cop, no cop" if Ford actually ends up going along with Fig's shenanigans for once (he's thawing! I love him!).

#shipwrecked comedy #fig and ford #the case of the greater gatsby #fig wineshine #ford phillips #cliff calloway #darby farnsworth #enter sandman #leery o'shaughnessy

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ashfae · 3 days

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for the gomens ask game! 1, 7, 14, 16, 24!

From this ask meme! Here goes:

when did you first watch/discover good omens, and how did you find out about it?

A couple years after it was first published. I was in high school and addicted to Sandman (and to fantasy literature in general, was part of a volunteer group at the local library that promoted books/library use to fellow teens, insert many stories here), so when I heard Neil Gaiman had published a novel of course I pounced on it (and the others that followed). It took many more years before I really discovered Pratchett as well.

what is your favorite underappreciated quote?

"'Heigh ho,' said Anthony Crowley, and just drove anyway.' Yes, it's from the book. Yes, I' wish it could be included in the series, though I don't know how. I'd love for Crowley to say 'Heigh ho' somewhere in season three. Yes, I am part of a small but determined group of people who're trying to make "Crowley says heigh ho" a legit A03 tag. (Join us, you know you want to)

what is your favorite good omens-coded song? Tough tough call but I have to pick 'Perfect Day' by Lou Reed.

do you know anyone irl who has also watched good omens?

Good lord yes. Not even going to start making a list, most my friends and family have seen it, even without my asking them to so we could talk about it, including my mother-in-law. This tells you a lot about my friends and family. (spoiler: they are great and I am super lucky to be surrounded by amazing people)

what's a theory for season 3 that you NEED to be included?

South Downs cottage. That's the only one I absolutely need. Many other theories I like the idea of, many more others that I think sound terrible or at least unlikely, and ideas of my own that I have no intention of putting on tumblr though I am lobbing some of them into fanfic. But South Downs cottage (or that general sort of together happy ending in a garden vibe) is the only one I need. I'm entirely confident we'll get there eventually. Thanks @midnights-dragon!

#ask meme answers #good omens

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thequeerlibrarian · 2 years

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Tag game ♡ thank you for the tag @singingtillthemorn

name: Alex

sign: libra

height: 171cm

time: 19:09

birthday: 27.09.98

favorite band/artist: Sunrise Avenue, One Direction, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn, Anne Marie, Lewis Capaldi

last movie: Call me by your name

last show: the sandman

when i created this blog: spring 2022 (I had a different one from 2013-2022)

what i post: book stuff, quotes, nature, random posts i can relate to

other blogs: @thequeerlibrarian-fandoms @thequeerlibrarian-1d

do i get asks: yes, for ask games and book recs <3

followers: 629

average hours of sleep: 5-6 h

instruments: piano

what i'm wearing: rn a harry styles sunflower vol6 tshirt

dream trip: Scandinavia in a van

favourite songs: Love of my life and little freak by Harry Styles

I'm now tagging way to many people because I see them a lot on my dash and I like them @queer-lavender @willsparksfly @emincharge @rainbowparadise-28 @therefugeofbooks @yourneighborhoodbibliophile @one-fond-mortal @0oolookitsme @princessconsuelapark @previouslyafangirl @abbeyx @smolhilariousbeans @dolce-far-niente-is-a-vibe @daydreamaeternam @frostandmoonlight @himmelswanderer @hopelessromanticnewrocknroller @hobbitinthelibrary @lwalkalonelyroad @littlehomebytheharbor @chaoticqueengalaxy @cottage-book-fairy @bilderbuchjugend @nothingbutsunflowers @nightowlmila @myonetruebook @midnightlibrarymouse @astaneys @sobermo @sunsmile-lou @alexander-s-lover

#tag game #about me

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writing-for-life · 4 months

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Hey Dear. I highly admire your wisdom and opinions around The Sandman Universe and I’d love to come back to Morpheus’ end and his long way to his fatal fall. Even if he has chosen to go down this road, with all of these alternative exits along his way I still wonder: It all started with that wonderful allegory of „Seeking Destruction“ in Brief Lives. Maybe Neil’s quote „You cannot seek Destruction and return unscathed“ is a key or hint to the question who wanted to destroy Dream? Is it really possible that our good old endless friends Destruction is the one behind? That even when he left his realm it’s still his nature, to destroy (Morpheus) and make something new?! Loki the great manipulator talked about a higher instance that uses him. Was it Destruction? Could he has done it out of what… incomprehension towards Dreams way to rule his own realm or just because of being… destructive?!

Adding as usual: Send me your asks, everyone—I love them!

Thank you so much, friend, and such good questions!

Honest answer: No one truly wanted to destroy Dream apart from Dream himself. Even Desire, who is arguably most out to get him, didn't really in my view. Did they want to teach him a lesson? Yes. Did they want to hit him where it hurt? Also yes. They are just diametrically opposed despite being surface level similar. But when Desire notices it is truly happening, that Dream is on a path with no backing out, they are scared and fairly close to losing their bearings. And their speech during The Wake shows that they just wished they hadn't been in each others' lives and might have both been better for it. Also: They even tried to warn him at the beginning of Brief Lives. And they told Tiffany about it, too. For Desire, the A Midsummer Night's quote also comes true (and how funny is it that we get an explicit mention of both desire and dream here?:

They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream... But the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted.

They think they want to destroy Dream (or maybe not even that. It's really cosmic level "throwing dummies out of the pram" with them. They need a get along shirt, is what I'm saying 🤣). But once Desire gets what they want, it's all not that clear-cut anymore.

Who is at fault or: The Endless as concepts

I guess to look deeper into who is at fault, it all boils down to really having to see the Endless as concepts, and I personally don't think it started only with Brief Lives--it started much, much earlier. At least (!) in "The Sound of her Wings"--I think people often misunderstand it solely as Death setting Morpheus' head straight and him being reminded of his function again. Which is true to a degree. But I firmly believe this is actually the issue where Morpheus decides death is his way out. She gave him "much to think about". He "hears her wings". His responsibilities can wait for a moment (that's the only time you'll ever hear him saying that).

Dream has always been closest to Death--she gives him solace and comfort, he considers death a gift. I recommend reading the poem in issue #8 again.

Death is before me today: like the recovery of a sick man, like going forth into a garden after sickness. Death is before me today: like the odor of myrrh, like sitting under a sail in a good wind. Death is before me today: like the course of a stream; like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house. Death is before me today: like the home that a man longs to see, after years spent as a captive.

Then look at that last stanza. That is his takeaway. That is what it feels like to him. He is that man who spent years in captivity. He longs to see that home--he wants to die. It's already in plain sight here.

And yes, all the other siblings are conceptual as well.

We meet Destiny the first time in #7, "Sound and Fury", and we already get a hint that he is worried to turn the pages of his book--which could be considered foreshadowing that it is possible for Morpheus to die (which shouldn't be the case from all we know up until there).

We meet Desire and Despair for the first time in issue 10, and while people focus a lot on Desire wanting to destroy Dream, I'd like to propose the following: Dream, at this stage, already desires death. Whether he does so consciously or subconsciously doesn’t really matter. So if we see the twins as purely conceptual, they just heard his call:

He is in a state of despair, and he desires to die.

It's always been in Dream to feel like that, for much longer. But this is where it gets really obvious. He made that choice two issues beforehand. Desire always meddles because that's what Desire does. They hear your call and make you want, no matter if it's good for you or not. We see this with literally everyone they are ever involved in. And sometimes giving one thing to someone takes something away from another. Plus, they flippin' saved the Universe with Dream, so they definitely have it in them to do good (even if not always for the most ethical reason). After the reset, they just remember flashes of the wrong (or shall I say right?) stuff, like using dream vortices to get to Dream.

He goes on a journey with Delirium in Brief Lives to seek Destruction. Why did Delirium choose him? Because he's the only one (unlike his siblings, who all sent Delirium away) who is receptive. One could think Dream is in a mildly delirious state after Thessaly left him. And that's why he is so on and off with Delirium. He has moments of clarity when he knows it's a shitty idea, when he knows it affects other people, when he calls it off because he feels responsible for Ruby's death, when he knows it isn't right. And then Death (!!!) tells him off because he "hurt Delirium", and he keeps going. He still seeks Death. And he finds Destruction.

That's all so deeply metaphorical, I don't even know where to start.

Is Destruction behind it?

No. If we subscribed to that thought, Death would actually be a much more likely culprit, but she isn't either. Or she is. Just like all the siblings are and aren't. Destruction is just what he is conceptually, just like all the other siblings are.

It is Dream himself who orchestrated all of it, consciously or subconsciously (both really). And when you look at when he meets what sibling, it all becomes really crystal clear (I actually have a meta about this in the making, I'll tag you when it's done).

If anything, Destruction wanted to help him, tell him to walk away. He says this to Daniel in The Wake as well--that there's basically a way out if he can't do it anymore. But Destruction's way is not Morpheus!Dream's way, neither is it likely to ever be Daniel!Dream's way.

So I guess conceptually yes, he destroys and hence creates something new (which ties in nicely with him visiting Daniel!Dream and actually being the first one who shows true care towards him). But the impulse always comes from Dream I think. Just like with all his other siblings.

Whenever he is closest to someone or meets one of his siblings, it tells us something about his state of mind. Is this a chicken and egg problem, as in: Does he make them do it or do they make him do it? Well, the Endless exist because sentient beings make it so, not the other way around. So he meets whomever he meets because he calls for them, so to speak. At least that's how I see it.

Who is that higher instance?

I am fairly certain that the higher instance Loki talks about is Dream himself. Loki transgressed majorly in Season of Mists, and Dream twisted his arm into a deal at the end of SoM. We never find out at that point what the deal is, but yeah--it's probably fairly safe to assume it's "that one".

Also: If Dream hadn't commissioned Shakespeare, Puck wouldn't have been on the loose.

And even in Dream Hunters (so even further back in time), he already "learned lessons"--especially about existential dread (the Onmyōji), but also about doing the right thing out of love (both the monk and the fox), even if it leads to your own demise (the monk).

And even in Overture, we get hints that he might have had an epiphany that there's another Dream in the future (that whole "time flies" panel, using the saeculum etc). Morpheus gets an inkling it might be a future version of himself that sends the saeculum back in time. How much of it he remembers and whether it is fragmented after the reset will of course forever stay a mystery; but it quite frankly doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t remember because we get too many hints he does.

Suffice it to say: He's been baiting the traps for a while (and even Death tells him so before she takes his hand), literally hundreds of years, but issue #8 is really where everything is starting to fall into place.

And that’s because the fishbowl changed him. He staved it off for as long as he could stay aloof and detached. But once he entered the realm of human experience, as Frank McConnell called it in his intro to the Kindly Ones, he was done for...

Now, whether he wanted it to happen exactly the way it did—that’s an entirely different question, because I don’t think he did. Maybe he had planned for a slightly more, shall we call it elegant exit, but he backed himself into a corner with his rigid sense of duty until the way it went remained the only way out if he wanted to prevent more damage to what he cared for—the Dreaming.

Woah, blabbering away as usual, thanks again for the ask!

#the sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #sandman #sandman meta #sandman bookclub #asks answered #send asks #destruction of the endless #loki the sandman #sandman book club #the sandman meta #sandman spoilers #sandman comics spoilers

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lizajane2 · 2 years

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Quotes from the Sandman that live in my head part 2:

1. “I am a universe. All things encompassing, all life embracing.” Yes, when he speaks with a timbre that literally sends chills down my spine and makes me melt is amazing, however the gentle tone he has here is like warm honey.

2. “Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar, what power would hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of heaven?”

3. “I’m Mark, by the way.” “And I’m gay, so…”

4. “It’s only when they’re mired in their self-made misery that they’re truly content.” Gilbert didn’t have to call me out on my past, damn. Felt personally attacked.

5. “Are men not governed by their dreams?”

6. “You mortals go about your work, your loves, your wars as if your waking lives are all that matter.” As if I didn’t feel small and insignificant enough. Fuck.

7. “You know what can survive the anti-life? You!” Everyone needs a Matthew in their lives.

#the sandman #sandman #lord morpheus #dream of the endless #if I watch anymore I’ll quote the whole damn show #word for word

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thegirlwholied · 7 months

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fellow period-piece swooners, I have a movie rec for you and I am downright flexing my hand about it. and I am sorry, so sorry, that you cannot watch it right now- because I attended the world premiere at TIFF last night and apparently it's still seeking distribution which means unfortunately there are no gifs yet for me to reblog - but this is your notice to keep a weather eye:

the movie is the Widow Clicquot. the plot is champagne!

...not the celebratory spritz and spray of it all, but the dedication and innovation and passion and knowing-your-taste-and-insisting-on-it of getting bubbles to be just the right size and fuck Napoleon's embargos actually...

also, the people expressing opinions about Napoleon are a British cast pretending to be French - which I guess appeals to the piece of my soul that is Les Mis.

it's beautifully filmed in a way I specifically associate with Pride & Prejudice 2005... which makes sense given the director, Thomas Napper, directed the second camera unit on P&P 2005 & Atonement & Anna Karenina & etc. Joe Wright, who directed those, is a producer here (and was on stage last night & I had no idea who he was whoops).

there's a scene of exploding champagne bottles that may haunt me forever the way the floating cotton in North & South 2004 does. that & the vines.

to quote Taylor Swift, "it's giving cinematography."

the Widow Clicquot herself is played by Haley Bennett (who has been in many things I haven't seen...yes I had to imdb Haley while sitting in the row right behind her but) who I have seen before in Music & Lyrics! As Cora Corman! "Way Back Into Love"! & "Buddha's Delight"- I believe in karma (la, la, la)

anyway she's great in this - the Q&A host after called her performance "transcendant", not wrong - she had a SAG-AFTRA waiver to be there, and thankfully because this was very apparently a passion project throw-everything-you-are-into-it role for her. And her post-movie quotes speaking both about the character's passion and her own- "do something that makes you feel like a goddess!"; "do what you love and let it kill you"- made me a fan.

the Widow Clicquot's dead husband? Tom Sturridge, The Sandman himself and playing just as much a dream as Dream (note: I do not promise "dreamy" I promise "dream" which can also have adjectives like "wild" and "fever" applied). You need a good voice when leaning on some voiceover from letters/memory for a character; he sure has it.

but. Sam Riley. aka Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, and Maleficent's hot raven (and looks even better in this imho)- his character is Louis Bohne, Veuve Clicquot's wine merchant, and as much as the Widow herself, his character made me go, "I need to read the book" to learn how much was history v fiction there.

the character dynamic was: damn, of course you're cool with your husband's libertine BFF/possibly-lover, you're secure and he's such fun company.... your husband's tragically gone but his friend helps you out & appreciates your true love of the vineyard without overstepping... well. get yourself a friend you can both giggle with over how hot the new foreman is (Leo Suter filling a historical-eye-candy role) ... AND hook up with yourself. you go girl, & bless your hot bisexual heart fictionalized Louis Bohne.

(hottest kiss in cinema off the top of my head is always the Timothy Olyphant & Jennifer Garner first kiss in Catch & Release. But some scenes here flirt with that level, & it was the Widow/Louis scenes for me).

the sound alone made this one worth seeing in theaters; sounds were so well used (maybe when a movie is so much about taste, & you can't convey taste through a screen, you double down on the senses you can) and it was scored by Bryce Dessner from The National (whose brother has been collaborating on Taylor Swift's recent best tunes)-

the Widow's name is Barbe-Nicole and not to make a Champagne Barbie reference but this hit in the spot Barbie also reached for, in a subtle way, with the effortlessly close relationship she has with her maid (Lizzie from Peaky Blinders! thanks imdb, knew I knew that face) and the woman in a man's world of it all - obviously one who created a successful dynasty of champagne and how did I never know how instrumental women have been in creating champagne as we know it, about to jump down a historical rabbit hole here-

+ also. grief. "you don't understand. he wasn't just someone's first love". an early line + the one that stuck with me.

anyway. not to say I think it's a perfect movie (there were a few "wait I need more information" beats that left me feeling like I *need* and not just want to read the book)... and it didn't make me think "this better be up for an Oscar" (One Life, with Johnny Flynn & Anthony Hopkins which I saw Saturday: made me cry & should be)- though I think it could be for sound!... and I don't know if I'd say it's the movie I enjoyed the most (Flora & Son, out Sept 29) or learned the most from (Paul Simon documentary, all 209 minutes of it, probably takes that of the 4 films I saw)-

But it's the one I'm writing this post about. & I'm going to get the book. It made me want a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. & to go to the champagne region. & to see gifs of it on my dash, immediately. & I would read fan fic if there was some- it built the characters and its own movie world enough for that, with enough space left to wonder- and when a movie can do that, it thrills me.

anyway Tumblr, or at least the side I always land on. I think you'd like it. I think it's your kind of movie too. and it's filled with a lot of love from people who clearly loved making it. here's to independent productions and the unions fighting for fair deals to make a living doing what they love, here's to feeling like a goddess, here's to gorgeous period pieces and gif makers of scenes to come, here's to the author in the audience who got to see her book on screen- and the movie star who got it made and all of us still working on making our own art into something that can be seen someday. Here's to the passion of creativity in whatever shape it takes, pour the champagne 🍾🥂

#movies #films #widow clicquot #period pieces #movie recs #tag or no tag if you're meant to find this post I think you will #(not to sound like one of those tiktok pseudo psychics ye gods but that's just the tumblr way and why i love it here)#nowhere in this post did i manage to mention the young accountant who shows up looking like he could be one of the Les Amis #and playing a great minor role in the part #but also that #this got long but 🤷🏻‍♀️#sometimes you have something to say to a wider audience than your friends and family and tumblr is the place and people i choose

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