#dream of a thousand cats/calliope

[blxck-parade]

is this not just morpheus saving calliope

[sigurism]

Dream of the Endless | Tom Sturridge The Sandman 1.11 -Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope

[reyl0ct]

So I just finished the last episode from season 1 of The Sandman, and oh my gods... That may be my favorite episode from literally anything ever.. I can't even explain why, just wow.

[hjertetssunnegalskap1]

On this day, one year ago, and probably a bit late, I discovered that the Sandman series on Netflix had a bonus episode, and it was like a wish come true. I couldn't believe it! I adore the story 'A Dream of a Thousand Cats,' it's so good, and somehow feels so right in the time we live in. And they somehow managed to update 'Calliope' and make it better, as well. I'll probably never forget that moment when i saw that there was a new episode, and my only regret is that I had a break from Tumblr back then; I'm sure I missed a lot of unhinged posts in the fandom.

Anyway. The reason that I remember this day, isn't that I'm the most fanatic Sandman fan in the world, although I've been reading the comic since '96 or so. I remember because it was my oldest kid's birthday. Today he is 16, and I can't believe it. I'm quite sure that he doesn't quite get how I can get so engrossed in certain stories, like Sandman, or in my other interests or hobbies, but he loves his own music, and he loves stories, and that's all good. Our youngest kid is more of a gamer, and that baffles me even more, but of course, that's how it's supposed to be.

Now, I have a busy day ahead, but when the night comes, I'm definitely doing a rewatch of this episode.

[enbymurderhusbands]

me watching sandman episode 11 of the sandman: Neil Gaiman? is that you in my falafel?

i was really sittin there for a moment like man why’s this skull crow thing sound so familiar

also michael sheen just killed a bunch of kittens and im so mad wtf man

[clairedelune-13]

I did NOT realize that Georgia was also in Dream of a Thousand Cats. 🤣

[clorofilarosa]

[joicerojo]

Recently, i have been watching The sandman on Netflix and i would like to complete a list of good omens actors that are also in the sandman, so far:

Crowley = Dream of a Thousand Cats

Aziraphale = Dream of a Thousand Cats

Mrs Dowling (Warlock’s mom) = Collectors

Pollution = 24 hours

Metatron = Calliope

Mrs Sandwich= The Doll’s House

Edit:

Sitis = Playing House

Giles Baddicombe = Imperfect Hosts

[neil-gaiman]

hi! i was wondering, if DC were ever to let you use Urania Blackwell in your television show, would you create a “Façade” episode the way you did “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope?” I really liked that issue and wished it would’ve been in season one. Related question, when you used certain characters like Lyta Hall and the Scarecrow in The Sandman, did you do it because you wanted to, or because publishers wanted tie-ins to the comic universe? When creating the Netflix show did you have hopes that you could keep their origins (like Lyta being the daughter of Wonder Woman or John Dee being in Arkham Asylum) or did you prefer to keep them separate? Sorry for so many questions, I am just really interested.

When I was first writing Sandman it was in the DC Universe and I wanted to give people who liked the DC Universe a reason to read it. I also wanted to use bits of the DC Universe that I enjoyed, mostly forgotten bits like Element Girl or Prez. When creating the TV series the bits of 1989 DC continuity seemed like potential roadblocks into the show "she's the daughter of Wonder Woman except now post-crisis she's the daughter of a Golden Age superheroine called The Fury..." So we let them go.

[dreamldy]

 MELISSANTHI MAHUT as CALLIOPE THE SANDMAN “Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope” (2022)

[zapiarty]

Sandman - Dead Boy Detective

1389 - Dream & Death meet Hob Gadling; who refuses to die 1489 - Dream & Hob form their Arrangement 1589 - Hob brags about how good he's got it, with a wife, a son, riches and a knighthood. Dream decides to leave early upon meeting William Shaxberd 1689 - Dream waits for Hob's arrival, who is at his lowest point in his life thus far, Dream expects Hob to ask for death now and is surprised when Hob laughs in his face and says "Death is a mug's game, I've got so much to live for!" 1789 - Dream warns Hob against getting involved with the Slave Trade, Lady Johanna Constantine interrupts their meeting, Hob comes to Dream's rescue briefly which amuses him 1889 - Hob wants to learn things about Dream, dares to suggest he's lonely and that they are friends, Dream storms off in a huff declaring he doesn't need Hob's company

1916 - Edwin Payne dies via ritual sacrifice to Hell by classmates at 16 - The Corinthian begins his mayhem in the Waking World - Dream of the Endless is captured & imprisoned by Roderick Burgess 1917 - Sleeping Sickness officially acknowledged - Unity Kincaid remains asleep

1926 - Ethel Cripps becomes Roderick Burgess' mistress - Roderick has his son Alex kill Jessamy the Raven - Ethel gets pregnant, steals the helm, sand, and ruby and flees - Roderick dies, Alex decides not to free Dream like he'd promised 1927? - Ethel Cripps gives birth to John D

? - Ethel bargains away the helm to a demon, sells the sand

1989 - Edwin Payne escapes Hell - Hob Gadling waits for His Stranger but he does not arrive (As Dream is still held captive in the Burgess' Estate) - Charles Rowland is murdered by classmates via hypothermia & internal bleeding at 16 in December of '89 - Edwin is there for Charles to ease his death; Charles decides to stay with Edwin instead of going with Death - Some point Edwin & Charles form the Dead Boy Detectives

1994 - Infamous Puppy Debacle (Charles got too attached to a living puppy?)

March 22, 1994 - Devlin Murders occur in Port Townsend, Washington

1997 - Great Fenwick Pixie Escape (puts Edwin at a loss)

2006 - Great Chewing Gum Debacle (stressor for Edwin?)

2015 - Rose Walker & her little brother Jed are split when Rose and their mother Miranda move but her father refuses to let Jed leave with them

2020 - Lyta's husband Hector dies via a car accident, Rose's ill mother dies near the end of the year

2021 - Dream/Morpheus is released & searches for his tools to rebuild the Dreaming - Unity Kincaid wakes the moment Dream is released - Johanna Constantine purchases the sand but left it at a girlfriend's place when she left her 6 months prior (resulting in her death via the sand) - Dream faces Lucifer in Challenge for his helm; wins & humiliates Lucifer - John D uses the Ruby to nearly destroy the world in an attempt to make a better one; causing mass destruction and death, destroys the ruby in an attempt to destroy Dream and replace him but this only returns the stored power to Dream in full

8 Months later: - Death & Dream have a talk, Desire & Despair plot to knock Dream's ego down as Desire's previous attempts failed (Nada, Roderick Burgess); focus turns to Rose Walker (Desire's Great-Granddaughter) - Dream reconnects with Hob at The New Inn; 30 years late but acknowledging their friendship - Rose Walker is the Vortex and looking for her brother Jed who dreams of being The Sandman (thanks to Gault) - Unity Kincaid asks Rose to meet her in London to reveal she's her Great-Grandmother (the Great-Grandfather being her Gold Eyed Man aka Desire) - The Corinthian attempts to use her to create a New Dreaming - Lyta Hall gets pregnant from her ghost husband in the Dreaming; Dream banishes the ghost from his realm as Ghosts shouldn't be there - Morpheus collects all his lost Dreams & Nightmares; returns the Corinthian to his base form - Dream of a Thousand Cats - Calliope's most recent "owner" slips up and she is able to send a message to Morpheus who comes to free her (by driving the man who binds her insane with ideas)

Late 2022 - Crystal Palace & David the Demon enter into a relationship

2023 - Edwin & Charles take on the Case of Crystal Palace on behest of Emma the Ghost

- Becky Aspen case in Port Townsend, WA; meet Esther the Witch, get trapped in Port Townsend by the Cat King - Niko Sasaki & the Dandelion Sprites Case - February 17; The Devlin House Case (Charles' history brought up, meet Monty) - Case of the Lighthouse Leapers (Charles & Crystal kiss, Night Nurse fed to Sea Monster, Cat King taunts Edwin with Monty & Charles' likeness in an attempt to get a kiss) - Case of the Two Dead Dragons (Edwin realizes he's truly in love with Charles as he comforts Charles after a breakdown, Monty steals Edwin's first kiss thinking Edwin was talking about him) - Case of the Creeping Forest (Monty's betrayal, Crystal's Awakening) - Case of the Very Long Stairway; Edwin gets taken back to Hell & Charles goes after him, Edwin confesses he's in love with Charles - Edwin meets Despair and she decides they are "friends" now - Case of the Hungry Snake; Niko dies (?) saving Crystal from Esther Finch in an attempt to rescue Edwin & Charles - The Lost & Found Department of the Afterlife "officially" allows the Dead Boy Detectives to work cases to help them help ghosts cross over in exchange for allowing them to stay together on Earth

[adranus-isnt-here]

My List Of Kins…

🪦ྀི Therian; Manta Ray, Fawn (x2), Lamb, Dove, Sparrow, Fox, Calico Cat, Brown Cat, Manattee, Harp Seal, Beluga Whale, Whale Shark

🪦ྀི Otherkin; Siren (avian), Siren (mer), Deity, Ocean Nymph, Chthonic Nymph, Angel(-adjacent)

🪦ྀི Fictionkin; Aeneas (The Iliad/The Aeneid), Hekuba (Euripides), Calliope (A Thousand Ships), Thetis (A Thousand Ships/The Iliad), Virgil (Dante’s Divine Comedy), Cadmus (Metamorphoses), Patroclus (The Iliad), Hekuba (Euripides), The Heart (Chonny’s Charming Chaos Compendium), The Soul (Chonny’s Charming Chaos Compendium), Carmilla (Gothic Whore), Adam (Gothic Whore), Roderick Usher (Gothic Whore), Winston Smith (Gothic Whore), Theseus (Ship Of Theseus Chonny Jash), Madeleine Hatter (Ever After High), Celestia Ludenberg (Daganrompa Trigger Happy Havoc), Niki Nihachu (Dream SMP), Boomiee (Brawl SMP), Recall (Brawl SMP), Mami Tomoe (Puella Magi Madoka Magica), Jeanne d'Arc (Puella Magi Tart Magica), Mizuki (Project Sekai), Mafuyu (Project Sekai), Empty Sekai Meiko (Project Sekai), Virtual Singer Meiko (Project Sekai), Polites (Epic the Musical), Perimedes (Epic the Musical), Odysseus (The Odyssey/Epic the Musical), Ctimene (The Odyssey/Epic the Musical), The Sirens (The Odyssey/Epic The Musical), Amber (House of Anubis), Velvette (Hazbin Hotel), Rosie (Hazbin Hotel)

🪦ྀི Archetrope; Cannibal, Unreliable Narrator, Martyr, Sacrificial Lamb, False Prophet, Doomed By Fate/The Divine, Pretty Boy

🪦ྀི Conceptkin; Cannibalism (specifically as an act/metaphor of hatred), Greco-Roman Literature, the Coquette Aesthetic, Poetry, Purple Prose, Devotion

🪦ྀི Objectkin; Ancient Greco-Roman Vase Paintings, Plushies, Classic Books, Red Velvet Cheesecake, Ribbons & Lace, Perfume, Seashells, Pearls, Rose Quartz, Citrine, Ruby, Dandelions, Heart Lockets

🪦ྀི Songkin; Scylla from Epic The Musical, Video Games covered by The Young Professionals, Arsonist’s Lullabye by Hozier, In The Woods Somewhere by Hozier, Talk by Hozier, Through Me The Flood by Hozier, De Selby (Part 1 & 2) by Hozier, Wings Of Wax by Chonny Jash, Dream covered by Chonny Jash, The Heart Acoustic by Chonny Jash, and many many many more.

[sigurism]

Dream of the Endless  The Sandman -1.11 -Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope

[jiliansky-blog]

I will find my way back to you. Chapter 8. I won’t give up

Pairing: Morpheus x FemaleReader

Rating: PG

Words: 1382

After his kiss, you were reassured by his feelings. This Nada doesn’t mean as much to him as she did ten thousand years ago.

Morpheus walked you to the library, where you wanted to continue your research, but you were interrupted by her.

“So you know what can happen after your love?” she asked.

���Yes,” you said.

“And?” she asked.

“And I already told you,” you said. “I’m trying to find a way out of this situation. Instead of just running away.”

“So do you think your love is worth it?” she asked. Her expression was a little bit confused.

“I think it's worth my attempts,” you replied. “Look, I can’t blame you for panicking and making the decision to save your kingdom. The fault is his too. But I think your actions were strange. You did a lot to find him, and then you ran away.”

“I panicked,” she confessed. “If not for the rule, I wouldn’t leave. And what are you going to do, if you won’t find out the way around?”

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “I should find. I don’t have any other choice. I don’t want to lose the most incredible man I’ve ever met.”

“Then I wish you luck,” she said. “To do something that I couldn’t.”

And she left the library. She was proud. Just like Morpheus. You thought that everything could be different if love between mortals and the Endless didn’t exist.

Morpheus

When I returned to my room, Nada was here. She looked like she had made up her mind.

“She is…nice,” she said suddenly. “And stubborn. Just like you.”

“Yes,” I replied. “I didn’t want to endanger her. But she insisted on finding another way. I couldn’t say no to her.”

“I see,” she said. “Now what?”

“You are free to go or to rebirth,” I sighed. “I’m very sorry for what I did to you. It can’t change your suffering. But I hope you can forgive me.”

“Thank you, Kai’ckul,” she nodded. “And farewell.”

And she disappeared. At least one thing I can do right.

You were sitting in the library when Morpheus found you. You smiled at him. Furthermore, you smiled because he came to you.

“Nada is gone,” he said. “She is going to rebirth.”

“That’s good news, I suppose,” you said.

“Yes,” he nodded. “But I hurt many more.”

“Will you tell me?” you asked.

It seemed to you that he blamed himself for many things. Perhaps, some of these things weren’t even his fault. First, he was hesitant. He wasn’t sure that he should do this. And then he sat next to you and started talking.

He told you about Alionora, about his son and Calliope. About Kilala. He was still afraid to tell you much. He was probably afraid that you fall out of love with him if you knew too much about him.

“Well, everyone can fall out of love,” you said. “It’s not a crime. It’s sad, but it happens. And in the story, Kilala Desire is guilty, not you. He behaves like your life is a game. It’s terrible. And with Orpheus, it wasn't good.”

“Understatement of the year, as Matthew would say,” he sighed. “I wasn’t a good father. I couldn’t understand his pain.”

“No one is perfect,” you sighed, too. “Maybe you can try to do something for him now. You always can change.”

“No, I can’t,” he replied.

“Yes, you can,” you said. “Everyone can. Yes, it won’t happen in one day, but you’re already changing. Everyone said this.”

“Who?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Calliope, for example,” you said. “And I don’t believe that you are capable of terrible things. You are kind.”

“Then you don’t know me well,” he smirked.

“I know you well enough to say this,” you smiled and kissed his marble cheek. “You don’t give yourself many credits.”

“You are strange,” he sighed, and let you hug him. You didn’t know that a calm and cold King of dreams can be that affectionate.

“And you are such a cat,” you smiled. “Sometimes you are aloof, but sometimes so affectionate. I think it’s cute.”

“You forget that I also king of cats,” he smiled.

“How can I forget that?” you smiled. “Do you want to tell me more about your good sides too? I like hearing about your abilities.”

“I’m afraid I have less good sides than bad ones,” he whispered.

“I don’t think so,” you smiled. “You are kind, smart, sensitive. You have a big heart and feel everything deeply.”

“I don’t think that this considers as good side,” he admitted.

“You are kinder than most humans are,” you smiled. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”

“Why do you have so much… hope for me?” he whispered.

You understood that he wanted to say love, but was too scared.

“You know the answer, Morpheus,” you touched his soft unruly hair. “You are my Dream.”

There are so many ways to say “I love you” without actually saying it. But your words made him smile, and it was a win.

And then you kissed him. You wanted to take away all of his sadness, all his pain. You will fight everyone, if you need to.

Finally, everyone left his castle, and you shouldn’t hide in the library all the time. You found information that the fern flower can grant you a wish if you find it. But July was recently. You need to wait another year.

Morpheus returns to his old work. And sometimes he helps you with the investigation.

“Can you ask someone?” you asked him once. “Perhaps, you sister? Or any other creatures you know? About immortality or that old law?”

“I would rather not,” he replied.

“Why not?” you asked.

“They may not give the answers,” he said. “And I have difficult relationships. Especially with desire. He could give the wrong answer just to spite me.”

“It makes sense,” you sighed. “Maybe I can talk to someone?”

“You wanted to talk to Fates,” Morpheus reminds me.

“I did,” you admitted.

“And you didn’t tell me?” he looked surprised and offended. “When?”

“They came to me when you were in Hell,” you replied. “I didn’t want to worry you. You had enough problems already.”

“What did they tell you?” he asked.

“Nothing new,” you said. “That I should die or become immortal.”

“I prefer you telling me something like that in the future,” he said.

“I told you already,” you smiled. “Did I not?”

He just sighed.

One night you were spending time in Morpheus’s room, reading another book, when Morpheus returns from his work. You smiled when you saw him, but he looked tired.

“Are you alright?” you asked. “You look like you need rest again.”

“I was thinking,” he said. “It’s hopeless.”

“What?” you asked, confused.

“Our research,” he said, emotionless. “I don’t want to endanger your life. I don’t want to endanger you. We shouldn’t be together.”

For a minute, you thought that you didn’t understand him. But he remains serious.

“You can’t be serious,” you said. “You didn’t even try. I won’t have this conversation again.”

“I was trying,” he replied. “I was reading books with you. And we didn’t find anything.”

“No, you can ask your sister,” you said. “Or someone else. You can’t just swallow your pride, even for me. You know what? I think you just like to feel miserable.”

“That’s enough,” he frowned and looked offended. “The rule is real. And I am just trying to save your life.”

“No, you can’t do this to me,” you said. “To us.”

“This dream is over,” he said, and you wake up, angry and devastated.

“My queen,” Cluracane said, entering Titania’s throne room. “” Unfortunately, he refused our gift and didn’t give us a key.”

“What a shame and offense,” she said.

“But I have some interesting information,” he said.

“What is it?” the queen asked.

“There was a human girl in his castle,” he said. “She was hiding in the library. He said she is just the dreamer. But I think she is not.”

“Interesting indeed,” she smiled. “Is he having an affair with a mortal?”

“I suppose so,” he nodded.

“Then she wants to find a way to be with him,” Titania smirked. “You need to keep an eye on her. She can be useful.”

“Yes, my queen,” Cluracane nodded and left the room.

@shadowqueen1318 @mypsychoticlove @justathirstyhoe​ @ladymoztaza @sapphireonline @deniixlovezelda

[goblininawig]

Sandman Rare Pair Fest

Smitten Moon, Laughing Earth

This fic is for the Sandman Rare Pair Fest, pairing Calliope with Modern Johanna Constantine.

Words: 6,227 | No Warnings | Rated T | F/F with background M/M

Prompts: strangers to lovers, au/crossover, and femslash

Tags: Post-Episode: s01e11 A Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Strangers to Lovers, Femslash, Rare Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Immortals, London, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Dreams, Professor Hob Gadling, Minor Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling, Bookshop Owner Aziraphale, Minor Aziraphale/Crowley, PiningDining at the Ritz, Happy Ending

[avelera]

Having a Neil Gaiman moment over here when I realized you saw my tags. Like, “Oh this author I adore that who I know reads their tags might notice, but oh well!” And then just doing a tag ramble because that’s what one does on tumblr, and then. WELP. The mortifying ordeal of your tags being known. 🤣

Anyways!! I would love anything you’re willing to do for Calliope’s perspective. You’ve done one of my favorite characterizations of her that I’ve seen and it’s arresting in the best way. I want to know more of her in this world, Pre-Madoc, and see what she thinks after everything is said and done and if this human truly IS the match of her ex husband. It’s just so fascinating to think about her perspective of their relationship as an outsider with intimate knowledge of Dream and what it means for where Hob and Dream are at!

Friend-o I religiously read my tags you don't understand like how much I'm obsessed with seeing every little thought people might have about my work! (LOL, meanwhile I too live in terror of one my critiques of Mr Gaiman's work from a literary angle one day making it back to him, eep!)

I will say, without diving into prose for it, that Giving Sanctuary Calliope being Pre-Madoc was very central to planning out her character.

I wanted her to be even more strident and powerful than we see her in canon. There's... hmm... something of a theme that plays into with Giving Sanctuary, that's based on my own lived experience, that sometimes it can take quite a while for powerful, confident people to recognize and admit that something traumatic has happened to them and that it has changed them? And there are scars left behind the first time something really bad happens to a person who had previously thought themselves untouchable? So this is not to say that Calliope was in any way weakened by her time with Madoc, but she might have been changed by it, and at least when we see her in the immediate aftermath, she's more quiet and reserved than she might have been before he captured her, before she's had any time to heal and go back to her old self (insofar as anyone can).

I think to express this is not to diminish the experience of the victim, but to rather acknowledge the violence of the hurt? Calliope was more strident and self-assured, more powerful in the way she took up space before she was captured.

Dream before Orpheus died was happier and it did make him shrink into himself and harden towards the world and become icy and cruel and callous towards the suffering of others when his son died and his wife left him and it felt like the whole world turned against him at once so he lashed back harder and shut Calliope from his kingdom. The whole fic begins because a moment's kindness and empathy from Hob awakens Dream to the realization that Lucienne is afraid of him, that him being party to "cursing" Hob with immortality when Hob hadn't done anything to him and indeed, showed him kindness when they spoke the first time, was monstrously cruel and unjustifiable. Dream as a powerful person took two thousand years to admit that a bad thing happened to him and he can't just use his power to wish it all away and Dream of 1,000 Cats Orpheus back to life! That there's no fixing this and he's been hurt and it changed him, deeply.

And finally, likewise, with Hob. Hob was at the top of the world in 1589! Even when he embarked upon having a family and trying to do it all "right" he did it from a place of hubris, as one who had never really been hurt before. It never occurred to him that his wife or children could die young, or hate him for his immortality, or that some other tragedy could befall them. He waited until he did everything "right" in terms of wealth and status and had a family and thought having waited and planned that long would somehow shield him from the random tragedy of chance, and it didn't. He is scarred by that tragedy, he has shrunk within himself, he is trying to claw his way back and he has faith that he will, someday, but that time is now lost, that suffering has now been felt, he has seen those depths of deprivation and he will never be the same. I headcanon that in canon, without Dream's help, this set Hob on a path to becoming the apathetic, self-centered monster in the 1700s who was so focused on regaining wealth and status after losing them so traumatically that he didn't give a fuck about entering the "shipping business" to do it! GS Hob has already diverged from that path, just by having Dream's kindness and mercy stop his descent into becoming more like Dream over the next century of self-defensive cruelty.

... None of which was your question about Calliope BUT! At the risk of this getting even more insanely long, I will say this:

For Calliope, the most humiliating part of her separation from Dream was Dream becoming a monster. It already took a great deal of courage for her to flout her entire family to marry him in the first place, I can't even imagine having my wedding boycotted by my family? So for him to be so cruel to Orpheus, for Orpheus to then die, and for Dream to just shut himself off from the world and become this icy monster who doesn't give a fuck about anyone and barred his own wife from his realm? That was humiliating for Calliope. It made her feel like maybe she was an idiot, maybe her family was right all along!

The hope she sees in Hob is for him to make Dream a good person again, the person he was when he was in love with her. The person she felt was worthy of her hand in marriage. She recognizes with age and experience that the bitterness began to brew between her and Dream because she couldn't give him the sort of 24/7 clingy affection he craved because how lonely he was being Dream of the Endless, he wanted a personal life so badly and so when she wanted to go create, he grew increasingly bitter about it, because the thing that brought them together (creating) was now driving them apart (Dream just wants to cuddle when she wants to make art together!). She sees in Hob, who has been in love with Dream for 300 years, who is human, who is good for him, who makes him smile, and who *can be* that personal life to Dream, joyfully!, that Calliope saw as her second priority after being a Muse, and she has hope. Not just for Dream, but for herself, that maybe she just wasn't quite the right person for Dream, this famous ex husband of hers. And if Hob works out, Dream will become kind again, and she'll be able to point to him to her family and say, "See, I wasn't the right person, but we were happy for a time, and now he IS with the right person and just look at him. Look at how kind and wonderful and full of joy he is, the Lord of the Dreaming. That is the man I married. That was the person who was worthy of me. And you were wrong to say I was a fool for marrying that person, because he is worthy of love."