#includes snippets of Matthew the Raven

[talyasquicktimeevents]

For all my Dreamling people, I've made the first short story for a new little series of ideas I've got.

Imma call it "Tales from The Dreamling" Cause I can.

[tickldpnk8]

Distant Mirrors Reread: August

So here’s the thing, I kind of hated this story the first time I read it. It didn’t seem to give much to the overall plot. I don’t know enough about ancient Roman history to understand the allusions, but I knew that I didn’t care for the rape undertones.

But I’m rereading the comics carefully for any hints to the ending or for any world-building clues, and I was shocked at just how chock-full this issue is. So this recap is way longer than I thought it would be. (and this is also why it took me longer to pull together)

On Dream's Ravens

We get an introduction to another of Dream's ravens in this issue: Aristeas of Marmora. So as far as I can tell, the order for the ravens we know by name is:

Lucien/Lucienne Aristeas Jessamy Matthew

What's cool about Aristeas is his connection to both Apollo and Griffins. If he existed, he was a poet who lived in Ancient Greece and he shows up in Herodotus' The Histories. It's said that he appeared 240 yrs after his death to ask for an altar to be set up to him and the god Apollo...who he had been living with as a raven since his death. The poem he is attributed as having written describes the "far North" where griffins guard gold among other things. Which is likely where Morpheus got his Griffen to guard his castle...as said Griffen tells Matthew he was hatched in the fictional Arimaspia mentioned in the poem.

We get this entire backstory (minus the griffins) summed up for us in just 3 lines of dialog where Augustus asks the raven who he is and follows it up with "the poet, who became Apollo's raven?" when Aristeas introduces himself. I totally missed this when I first read this issue.

On the nature of gods

Gods are born of the Dreaming and return to it when they "die". This gives a bit of a different color to the conversations we saw in Season of Mists. When gods (such as Bast) die—presumably from lack of believers/worship—they return to the Dreaming. In a sense, all of Morpheus' petitioners were seeking favor with their creator. Or at least one who has the power to unmake them. Including Loki.

And then there's the fact that Morpheus tends to get mixed up with Apollo since they have similar attributes. See the reference to Aristeas above, but also this panel:

This is a great little snippet that I think serves no other purpose than to explain why popular Greek myths list Apollo as Orpheus' father when in the comics it's Morpheus. And to maybe make space for the Endless within the larger pantheon of pantheons.

And this panel was interesting because it implies that Morpheus takes counsel from the Roman pantheon. In it, he's explaining why he is coming to Augustus to help him plan for Rome's future. And says that the god Terminus requested that Morpheus help Augustus.

Terminus is the god of boundaries and is usually depicted as a bust on a boundary stone. As far as I know, he doesn't have any relation to existing Sandman characters and doesn't appear again in the overall story. So the question I have is how much overlap is there in this universe between the Greek and Roman pantheons? How does this pantheon relate to his relationship with Calliope and the Greek gods?

On the nature of Dreams and the Dreaming

It's in this issue that we finally get an explanation of the Gates of Horn and Ivory. Augustus explains that dreams come through 2 gates. The dreams that lie come through the gates of Ivory, while the true dreams pass through the gates of Horn. This notion is something that Gaiman borrowed from the Ancient Greeks: it first appeared written down in The Odyssey.

It's interesting to me that he mentions having false dreams every spring. I can only assume he's referring to the dreams we see of his childhood rape(s) and how scared he was. And that makes me wonder upon this second reading what he believes to be lies about them: maybe the incident(s) didn't happen? Perhaps, but I think it's more likely that he no longer sees himself as being a victim.

There's also a lot of discussion around what makes Rome great and how power is conferred on it's leaders. There's this lovely line where Augustus states that leaders are motivated by dreams.

I think Dream would definitely agree with this statement, and I think we'll see more of he's willing to prove his point in the next issue. The idea is that dreams are powerful motivators. And it's interesting that Caius Augustus Caesar, of all people, is saying that powerful leaders are motivated by dreams...when some folks might suggest that those who gain power might be motivated by desire/lust for power. (cough, Desire, cough)

And he talks a lot about dreams in this issue. There are lots of allusions to them in his figures of speech. For example, he talks about the 2 possible futures of the Roman Empire and how it could expand into lands the Romans have barely Dreamed of. In general, I can see how someone who puts so much faith/power/meaning in dreams might be assisted by Dream himself.

A Day to Live

And Morpheus does help Augustus plan away from the watchful eyes of the gods. He suggests that August take a day every year to not be Emperor.

It's got a nice symmetry with what Death was already doing at the time: taking a day off every century to not be Death. Sure she describes it as experiencing Life, meeting her own self, becoming closer to the beings she is in service of, etc etc. But at it's core, she's take a day to not be herself (at least in part).

And in turn, it also has a nice symmetry with what Morpheus eventually does with Hob: take a day off to essentially not be Dream. In sitting and listening to Hob's stories, the Prince of Stories becomes the listener instead of the storyteller.

So yeah, a jam-packed issue, and I found I enjoyed it a lot more while clue hunting than I did on my first read-through.

[jayenator565]

Tag Game: WIPs

Rules: List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, maybe even a preview, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on: writing, art, gifsets, whatever.

Tagged by: @gillytweed

Why you gotta expose me and Mac like this cuz, damn ok here we go I have to check ao3 for some of these because their titles in my GDrive are not the same as on the website

1. The Wedding Date - Maggie Sawyer needs a fake girlfriend to go with her to her sister’s wedding. Where basically me and @lyook try and envision the Maggie and Sanvers and the super fam the way we wish the show would have. Haha now to give you guys a snippet or to not give you all a snippet that is the question...

When she turned around to find the nearest exit, she was faced with her mother.

“Duckling, where are you going with so much food?”

“Mhruwhg huretog heirhtu.” Angie crossed her arms and tapped her foot annoyed while she waited for Maggie to act like a civilized adult and chew her food. “We are gonna...ummm...Alex and I...her foot...pain.” She smiled big, hoping her mother would release her.

“I need you to take your Aunt Mable to Callie’s house. She’s going to help with setting things up but she can’t drive by herself.”

“Why can’t Gabs do it?”

“Because I asked you to.”

“Come on...there are a dozen other people that could do it. John. James. Matthew. We’ve literally got all the apostles here.”

2.  Top Shelf D-ealer - Um well you see the entire concept is basically Lexa the dildo dealer and yes that does mean exactly what you think it does. Based on a wonderful true story XD I’ll include a snippet just for you @jealousclarkeauthorities

Clarke didn’t know who this gorgeous specimen of woman was but, attractive or not, something about her didn’t quite sit right with her and it had nothing to do with the way Luna casually slung her arm over the back of Lexa’s chair with the kind of nonchalance that could only be born with familiarity.

Nope, definitely wasn’t that at all.

3. When You Feel My Heat Look Into My Eyes - a demon!Clarke fic where me and @mac-ahroni try and put a spin on a modern college au featuring classical mythology and of course Lexa being hella gay.

4. Supergirl Clexa au - So Clarke as Supergirl, Lexa as Batgirl because @bananat-panda and @mac-ahroni were literally spamming me with their lexa batgirl manips and clarke supergirl fanart and headcanons for days until I gave in >.> There’s 4 chapters written but I’m trying not to post this one until it’s at least a bit more done.

5. My Love's Like a Star (you can't always see it, but know that it's always there) - A Clexa actress au and also a Lexark au. Basically Clarke and Lexa star in the hit spinoff of FTWD...Queer The Walking Dead. I like to think we try and balance the lexark and clexa scenes as best we can.

6. Call Me Maybe?  - Clexa groupchat au that documents most of the craziness that happens in one of our clexa groupchats. 

7. You're Too Sexy Beautiful (And Everybody Wants a Taste) - Basically a jealous Clarke, childhood friends to lovers, modern au. 

8. I Spy Through Her Blue Eyes  - A clexa spy au that got wildly out of hand where Clarke and Lexa are both trained from birth to carry on their parent’s legacy at the Ark a large coalition of spy agencies working to stop terrorist acts before they happen (Person of interest feels anyone). Things get a bit bumpy when Clarke finds out that, not only did the Ark have her father killed, her mother was also in on it. With the Ark agent files stolen and the senior registered agents being picked off one by one the younger generation has to step up sooner than planned to take down the Mountain Men group that stole their intel. This fic is the sequel to that but I don’t wanna spoil it for anyone so if you feel so inclined to start from the beginning:  I Spy with my Little Eyes

9. Joking Around (Or Raven Did What!?) - A sequel to one of my first Ao3 fics, Princess Did What? Really just a light hearted, canon set, crack fic 

10. Heda Klark kom Trikru  - A switcheroo type canon fic that I seriously need to go back and revise at some point and like plan out (After I finish the above fics of course)

11. I Want You On My Mind, In My Dreams, Behind These Eyes - sequel canon fic set after Season 2 that’s probably my most angsty(?) fic. Not that I write a lot of angst. Fair warning I tried (and failed) to write smut

12. Pitch Perfect 2 ish au -  Doesn’t have a title yet but basically Lexa has been crushing on Clarke Griffin since Freshman year of college, unfortunately she has a duty to the Bellas and refuses to break the Bella code which demands she not get with anyone on the rival acapella teams. Mac and I just wanted to write Lexa being a gay mess with singing and then a certain song battle that happened while I was working over at @clexarikleimt really helped influence the rest.

This list doesn’t include everything on my google drive like my one shot prompts (and ok maybe I missed a few WIPs that I haven’t looked at in a while, a while being a few months now)  Kind of daunting to really look at everything I’ve worked on but also kinda fun.

Tagging: @chuckleshan @lyook @seasinkarnadine @ur-the-puppy @shadow-wolf-92 @luxitrikrugriffin @copper-coyote @commander-fuzzy-wolf @shownkindness @immochiball @aud8 @secret-diary-of-a-queer @cahlac and anyone else that wants to.