#he loves lucienne!

[queenii-llama]

maybe its just the bittersweet aftertaste of my religious upbringing coming through but it makes me absolutely feral to see how much Dream cares about his creations. he loves them. he loves them !!!!

[sic-vita]

The Sandman | Morpheus and Lucienne

MORPHEUS: And yet you remained while others fled, the royal librarian of an abandoned kingdom LUCIENNE: I never felt abandoned. I knew you would return.

[lotusxpop]

New sandman hc:

Hob plays DnD because it reminds him of the medieval times so he has a campaign with some of his students and they play every thursday.

One day Morpheus comes to visit Hob when he is on his way to their DnD session for the evening. He decides to sit in on the session and he loves how they create these stories out of a game.

Somehow next campaign Morpheus is the dungeon master and the group of students can't be more enthuastic about it while Hob looks at Dream chuckling and fond because the Prince of stories is their DM.

[just-french-me-up]

[ghost-bxrd]

So I watched the sandman and found out it exists in the DC universe. And the dreaming has a library with every book. And now I can't get it out of my head that Jason would love that library. Thank you for letting put this into your asks.

Yeah it’s kind of mind blowing that it’s the same universe right?! 0.0

And honestly I’d like to imagine that whenever Jason finds his way into the dreaming, Morpheus and his dreams are all good enough to realize that Jason deserves some peace, at least while he sleeps, and allow him to just… chill out in the library. Discover new books. Maybe bring him some tea.

Just… peace, you know? 🥺💚

[notthelemurking]

"*gasp!* Lucienne :D"

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

file under tiny interactions i wanna see in the show bc i think vivienne's lucienne would interact with delirium delightfully

[outeremissary]

Probably the last round of Art Fight attacks for the month. I loved doing all of these so, so much- and I'm so excited to have been able to see another Kingmaker player out there too!!

(sorry to anyone getting tagged a second time, Tumblr did NOT like the first post for some reason)

Bastion and Azathoth - exmeowstic ( @exmeowstic )

Charlie - SpicyTofuRamen (Insta)

Callisto - bigmeandragonlady ( @bigmeandragonlady )

[ennas-aesthetic]

Retired!Dream as a Librarian AU part 2

I am SOOOOOO glad that the reception for the retired!Dream as a Librarian AU was so enthusiastic and sweet! Thank you so much for that (and if you haven't seen part 1 one yet, click here). More snapshots of the AU will be added as we go, because a retired!Dream experiencing the full range of human emotions in a place of community has brought so many stories to tell.

Anyway, a good friend on Twitter asked what happens when Lucienne finds out that Retired!Dream has become a librarian (or at least, a library volunteer) in the Waking World. I DO, in FACT, have a headcanon locked and loaded for that, so here we go:

Sometimes Dream wonders how on earth he has gotten here.

It wasn't like he hates the job. Dream LOVES the local library - loves the staff and the stories and the people. It's the best outcome he could have ever hoped for, really. Like someone has given him a second chance, a renewal. A new purpose where his existence could transpose into a life worth living.

But, OH, the circumstances that it took for him to get here. If only his former subjects could see him now. If only LUCIENNE could see him now.

Dream understands, more than ever, how much painstaking effort goes into even MAINTAINING a functioning library. Running the vastest library he knows in existence WHILE managing the Dreaming when he runs off to brood must have been a herculean feat. Morpheus resolves to be more appreciative of her work over the millennia, if he ever sees her again.

And see her he does. Lucienne comes to the library one day, on the guise of looking for a mislaid book. Her face is wreathed with smiles, looking sharp and dapper in her suit.

"Greetings, my Lord," she beams, eyes alight with fondness and mirth. "You look to be in good health."

"Please," he says, and surprises himself by laughing out loud. Laughing comes easier to him now, he notices. (The first time he did this in front of the library staff it was in response to an incredibly macabre joke he found hilarious. Dream had slapped a hand to his mouth, but the damage had been done: the library staff looked on in ACTUAL suprise, and then they cackled in earnest, delighted that their strange new colleague had a fucked up sense of humor and an absolutely ridiculous laugh. So many more attempts to make him crack up started since that day. Not that he minded.) "Call me Morpheus. I am your lord no longer."

"Hmm," Lucienne says. "Very well. Hello, Morpheus." And all of a sudden she envelops him into a bone-crushing hug.

"That was not a breach of protocol and conduct, I hope," she says, mischievous, as she lets a rather staggered Dream go. "Seeing as I am your librarian no longer."

Dream smiles wide. He does not think he has ever smiled this frequently in his entire existence.

He gives her a tour of the library, introduces her to the people behind the counter. After a few conversations the staff has agreed on one thing: Lucienne may be the BEST librarian there is. Some of them had already asked her to stay. Dream has to interrupt quickly, saying that she is already a hotshot librarian somewhere else, before steering her away from her new admirers.

"They adore you, it seems," he tells her. Lucienne rolls her eyes. Even as his librarian she had always been frank with him, but seeing her be openly candid with Dream, without the barrier of his Nobility and his Lordship between them, pleased him to no ends. If any outsiders could have seen them, they would have thought they are just extremely close friends (and they are. They are.)

"And they are COMPLETELY enchanted by you," she shoots back, grinning, "which is honestly quite the miracle."

She teases him about finally being able to handle his books, and jokingly chastises him about not doing it sooner. Dream, to her (non) surprise, takes this seriously, and admits, rather abashed, that most of his bookkeeping skills are only existent because of her. He concedes that she is still the better librarian between the two of them. Lucienne is very smug over this confession (as she should be.)

"I am forever indebted to you," Morpheus says, and finds himself a little choked up at the last syllable. "You have given me a lifeline, in more ways than one." He shakes his head. "I do not know how I may ever repay you."

Her eyes are overbright, but when she speaks her voice is steady.

"Just live, Sire," she whispers. "That's repayment enough."

It's a blessing, almost. An anointment of old, except his birthright is now renewed. Just live. Dream nods, determined to make the boon stick. To keep the oath for as long as he can.

Before Lucienne leaves she hands him a gift. "To complete the librarian regalia," she winks. And just like that she's gone.

Inside the box is a compilation of all the "Sandman Stories" he has adlibbed for the kids during Story Time Tuesdays. A note taped on the book: 'Matthew is gloating because he gets to be a dragon. Name a raven after me, will you?' Dream laughs out loud.

(Sure enough, on the next Story Time Tuesday a new character -- Lucienne the Raven Librarian -- was introduced. The kids instantly fell in love with her, and the book feverishly codifies the stories Morpheus comes up for her.)

But that's not all. In the box is another pouch - he opens it, and a pair of spectacles tumble out. Another note: 'from one librarian to another.'

Morpheus wears those spectacles till this very day.

---

Want to know more about the Retired!Dream as a Librarian AU? Read part 1 here and part 3 here.

[wyvernquill]

“I will see you in the year of Our Lord 1489, then!”

“Friendship. I think you’re lonely.”

---

Some quick and dirty Aristocats AU(?) screenshot redraws inspired by this post by @fishfingersandscarves (and @10moonymhrivertam​‘s tags on it)!

[the-everqueen]

I saw your post about the Sandman season 2 casting and I hope it's ok to ask what your dream cast for the Endless siblings would be? (also any other characters in the show! I know there will be a lot of new faces this season)

oh this is a delightful ask - i have a whole "alt face cast" tag that currently largely serves a human Matthew (Assad Zaman) but i love thinking through casting as someone who literally wrote a dissertation on diverse/colorblind/nontraditional casting in theater. that's definitely influencing a lot of my choices here - i tried to go with West End actors where possible, but i didn't limit myself to the UK. i also, uh. just picked all nonwhite actors because why not!

Destiny: to be clear i do like Adrian Lester as a choice! i feel like Chiwetel Ejiofor has similar gravitas as an actor, but i'd like to see Giles Terera in the role (he played Burr on Hamilton West End, and i think that shows an ability to balance Destiny's solemnness with dry, understated humor). Lemuel Knights would also be fun to watch take on the oldest Endless sibling.

Death: Kirby is obviously !!! we love Kirby. Vidya Makan feels like she has a similar older sister / responsible-but-kind vibe. Olivia Washington (currently starring in the West End's production of "Slave Play") would absolutely be able to portray Death on the other side of having hated her function (i'd LOVE to see a subtle take on Death as someone who has clawed back a sense of personal fulfillment in work that really takes a toll on her).

Dream: remember how Riz Ahmed voiced the Corinthian in the Audible Sandman? remember Riz Ahmed doing all those Shakespeare monologues? yeah.

Desire: Alex Newell! they won a Tony for best actor in a musical and they were one of the first nonbinary actors to be nominated for the award! (they're an excellent singer and also...i think it would be special to have a fat person play Desire.)

Despair: Kaguya. Minami Gessel. Patricia Fa'asua.

Destruction: okay so my ideal would be Toshiro Mifune. i understand that's impossible because Mifune is no longer alive. in which case...Rahul Kohli, or Beulah Koale (these are two entirely different approaches to Destruction - Kohli i could see as the sort of secretive, quiet man who's close to his sister Despair, while Koale i could see as the person who gets into painting after ditching his function and who likes talking to Barnabas).

Delirium: i had a silly but persistent hope that we'd get Bailey Bass as Del. (that scene in the 2022 iwtv where she's talking about her new life as a vampire gives the kind of unhinged/dangerous/sad vibes i get from Delirium as someone who used to be Delight and is now...fragmented.) alternative (but equally good) choices included Stephanie Hsu, Ruibo Qian, Priya Kansara, and (after seeing dead boy detectives) Yuyu Kitamura.

[magnusbae]

yall guys didn't even hear me rant about how fucked it is that Dream was not allowed to mourn his raven and how his feelings been bluntly disregarded because clearly someone else knows best for how he should mourn the loss of his companion

[kelvingemstone]

a starstruck odyssey is for lovers

[mountainashfae]

On Sarenrae these boys are going to teach Tristian the small joys of the world. He’s the one thing they can agree on.

@outeremissary

[formshaper]

🩸 now you get one for Dream and Lucienne

Send 🩸 to find a wound that my muse was trying to hide

There are few things the Dreamlord cannot hide in his own realm if he wills it--but at the same time, the Dreaming is him. It reflects him. Things slip through the cracks. The Nightmare Seas grow choppy and dark; the castle stretches and shifts until it sits high atop a mountainous peak. A dream of heartache grows and spreads and sobs, complaining to anyone who will listen that she feels stretched too thin, as if something were pulling her apart from every direction.

Lord Morpheus, standing at one of the castle windows with hands clasped behind his back, is not looking at Lucienne. To most other observers, he looks as he always looks: cold, austere, unimaginably powerful. His robes, his hair--they drift and float as if underwater, blurring at the edges when looked at directly. But if one knows him...

If one knows him, they might sense that something is wrong. They might catch the smell of heartsick coming off of him like smoke from a wildfire; they might see the way his shoulders tremble every so often, like a bird's feathers ruffling, and feel the way the Dreaming shivers with him.

They might have seen enough relationships blow up in his face over the centuries to know that someone has told him the thing he dreads most: I don't love you.

He knows she knows. She can't not know. Nada, Alianora, Titania, Calliope, Thessaly... Lucienne has seen so many of his failed relationships from start to finish. She has watched him stand just like this a dozen times, still and closed-off while his heart breaks and the Dreaming shudders.

Soon, the Dreaming will flood.

"I... do not want to talk about it," says Dream finally, as if sensing the moment Lucienne's lips had parted to let her speak. He can almost hear Death's voice in his mind: you should speak to someone. Lean on your friends.

He cannot. Just as he cannot turn to look at Lucienne yet.

"Is the damage severe? I know there have been... disturbances..."

His heart aches. Somewhere, that same heartache-dream is screaming.

[two-hands-toward-the-sun]

for DAYS i have not been able to stop murmuring lucienne… to myself the way dream does when he returns home. oh my god. it’s just so???????????