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princess-earthquake-the-third · 2 years ago

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Here's part 2 of my sandman fic "graveside chrysanthemums",I tried something I haven't done with my writing before,hope you enjoy it.

For part 1 ,go here.

You were still in the dark place, still suspended in the middle of the ocean, still struggling to breathe.

You weren't sure how much time had passed, perhaps time simply did not exist in the dark place.

You had become a statue, of humiliation,of despair,of loneliness,a testament to your own failings.

There was a thought that seemed to repeat itself in your mind everytime you struggled to move.

"Perhaps it would be better if I stayed here"

You would shake it off,not always,but most times, otherwise you would sit in it,like a blanket of numbness covering you, something about the idea of giving up was so tempting.

But you couldn't allow yourself to give up,you had plenty of things to do,dreams to weave and nightmares to create,etcetera. So you continued to struggle.

Just as you were about to stop struggling to let yourself rest,to relax,even though there was no such thing in this place,you saw a light.

Well,maybe calling it a light would be inaccurate,it was a spark,in the choking darkness of this ocean,it barely registered.

It was yellow,not like lemons,yellow like a sun,it floated towards you, bobbing up and down in the air.

Then it was a butterfly,with golden wings marked with blue circles like eyes,eyes that looked on with no clear emotion,like stained glass,the kind one would see in a church perhaps, shinning as the sun blasted it's rays behind them.

It drifted about, landing on your pointer finger as it's final destination,then it's light extended to form a bubble around your body.

Suddenly you could breath again,even though you did not have the capacity to breath as a human does, you dropped to your knees , heaving on the floor that had come to exist beneath you, your body felt warmth,and you looked up at the butterfly.

It was no longer a butterfly, instead, there was I.

Wings like that of the bug itself mounted themselves on my back,a yellow cloak covered my entire body, extending towards the floor,and matching the wings in thier color at the top,but getting more and more orange as you went down,like a sunset.

My hands were deep in thier long sleeves,and I wore a mask with carvings of closed eyes,black lines on a white background,it covered the entirety of my face,with a white hood that obscured the rest of my head,a necklace of golden chains that ended with a small glass orb hanged from my neck,the orb contained an iridescent crystal.

Before you could gather yourself enough to speak,I said,slightly amused,"my my,what have you gotten yourself into?"

The sound didn't come from me in the way sound travels from someone's vocal cords to the ears of the receiver,it was more like a phone call directly to the soul.

It surprised you for a moment,I continued "you shouldn't try to speak just yet"

"Just breathe,we have plenty of time for any questions--I'm guessing a lot of them--you may have"with this ,I conjured chairs by raising my left hand.

Two simple wooden chairs manifested inside the bubble,I took one,and you climbed on the other.

"This place sure looks welcoming" I announced sarcastically.

"Who are you?" You asked, still a bit breathless,with an aggression that was not entirely uncalled for,but that you didn't necessarily mean either.

"No one important really" I answered with a laugh" but I suppose if you require a name,you may call me...." I stopped as though in thought.

"Lady butterfly" I suddenly exclaimed"has a nice ring to it ,no?"

You seemed to be suspicious of this,but also,you couldn't exactly tell who I was anyway, my voice gave nothing away,I might as well have been a talking set of clothes to you.

There were a lot of questions going through your mind,but you blurted out "where am I?and how did you enter my realm?I cannot sense your presence."

I put my leg,or whatever appendage it was,over the other,and did the same with my hands, though it looked as though I just put one sleeve on top of the other,I then said"the answer of the second question is pretty simple,I just walked in"

This answer immensely confused you and cleared up absolutely nothing,but you had decided that getting out of the prison you were in was the more pressing matter right now.

"As for the first question...." I chuckled,the sound was starting to irritate you.

"Why,king of dreams,you already know the answer" I raised my hands by my sides.

"Currently,we are,or rather you are to be more precise, inside your heart" I added.

"The dreaming is you,and you are the dreaming"I explained the obvious to you"this place is in your heart,or rather the part that holds your pain,your sorrows,past wounds and future worries,you know,the whole shebang"

You,king of dreams, son of time and night,weaver of shadows,you who held galaxies in your eyes, did in fact know,you didn't want to admit that the restlessness you felt reside in you was in any way related to this,for it would be a sign of weakness unbefitting of a creature of the endless,your words,or rather your thoughts, not mine.

Next came another set of enticing questions,you were oddly good at asking questions,or I suppose your mannerisms made people want to answer your questions,even if the questions were unimportant.

"Why are you here then?do you hold any ill will for me,or the dreaming?"you breathed, despite the shivering of your body,your voice was almost entirely undisturbed, almost"I can't imagine you came here for sightseeing"

"I won't patronize you with jokes,dream prince" I moved my sleeves around to gesture as I spoke,like a sentient carpet"well,I will. but at a later time perhaps,this place is rather beautiful though,in a sombre kind of way"

"The reason I came here, however" I uttered "is simply to keep you company!" I chuckled again,this time the sound made you want to throw me into the abyss"I shall be your guard through this unfamiliar place"

"I presumed you would keep your jesting for later" you hissed "as per your own words"

"Oh but lord Morpheus,I joke not!" I was not sure whether the phrase was actually correct,but I never cared for semantics, regardless my point had been made.

"You must excuse me for not being overly enthused about that" you said sarcastically.

"Listen, I'll only stay by your side but a few moments compared to the countless years of your very eventful life"I answered "will you grant me this honor?to be in your presence?"

"It is not as though I have much choice,it seems" and you glared at me!quite ferociously, might I add,your eyes were stars now,but as you were not entirely up to being threatening they returned back to a more human-like shape quickly after.

"Yes,I suppose not" how does one deal with a who knows how old baby,I asked myself this question while thinking about how to approach you,I didn't know the answer but teasing you was fun.

You did something that surprised me,you jolted up from your seat and reached for my mask,I didn't stop you because it was pointless to do so,you yanked my mask off in one flowing motion,and well,you didn't like what you saw.

My mask clanked on the ground,or the floor,or whatever it was,and in it's place was your face.

Or rather,your reflection,it was a mirror,my face is a mirror,I didn't feel like explaining and your reaction was hilarious.

You stood there,shocked,"Well that was just rude" I picked up my mask , flung it over my face,and continued talking as though you didn't do the equivalent of ripping my face off"if you wanted to see what was under my mask you could've just asked" I complained"tsk tsk, always so unnecessarily dramatic"

You didn't hiss this time,you just wondered if maybe you had gone insane,what would it mean for the manifestation of dreams to go insane?

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There was a bit of dissonance as Hob focused his gaze on his surroundings,they slowly went from the usual blurry dreamscape to a much clearer state, everything came into focus and he found himself standing before the entrance to a great castle,so big it was that his neck was starting to hurt as he tried to see the top.

He felt something in his hand,the same gem that Matthew had given him,that cleared up any doubts about where he was.

The door that was so much taller and wider than he was opened with a loud creak,and behind it was a woman with dark skin and pointy ears,her expression was rather grim,but held back by a professional face, throughout the years Hob had seen many different professional faces, but he hadn't seen one so grim.

Lucienne was dressed in fancy clothing ,which made Hob feel rather underdressed for the occasion considering he was still in his pyjamas.

"Greetings,Mister Hob Gadling I presume?" she asked,voice even and collected.

"Yes" he answered "hope I'm not intruding.....I wanna say.... Luciana?"

"Lucienne sir,but we've more important matters to discuss,come"she gestured for him to follow her. leading him through a long empty corridor,followed by a short empty corridor,then a balcony,after that was a room full of birds, mainly corvids,and lastly they made it to the throne room.

Hob was not sure what to expect of Dream's castle,but he certainly didn't expect it to be so...all over the place,but then again dreams and nightmares are all over the place.

The throne room was as majestic as most throne rooms, certainly Hob would've loved to look around if it wasn't for the person standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the seat,and the raven on her shoulder, immediately catching his attention.

"Why do you think he didn't tell us about this?"he heard her ask the bird.

"I don't know ma'am, I haven't been with him for long but god he can be stubborn" the raven answered.

"He sure can"sighed the lady,with a bit of fondness and a lot of worry.

Hob moved forward,the lady looked up and noticed him,she had a kind face,one twisted in worry,but a kind one nonetheless.

"Hob Gadling?" She asked" Nice meeting you , again, though I don't know if you remember me"

Something sparked in his memory and he recalled the day he met Dream for the first time,there was a woman with him at the time,he could barely recognize her considering the amount of time that passed and the huge change in clothes.

After a moment of befuddlement ,he answered her "you're the one who was with Dream all those years ago!"

"so you do remember!" she laughed"yes that was indeed me, I'm Death of the endless,Dream's sister"

Hob thought most gods were dramatic about introducing themselves,but perhaps it was just his drama queen of a companion,who didn't give him a name for hundred of years, regardless he was also sort of feeling a bit awkward meeting the literal grim reaper because of the whole,you know, refusing to die thing.

"I'd rather we met under better circumstances,I heard some wonderful things about you,but desperate times call for desperate measures" she explained.

Lucienne stepped in to carry on with expounding " Lord Dream has been trapped somewhere,I know not how to describe the place,but he has been in there for a few hours, I'm doing my best to keep things under control from this side"

"Trapped?how did that happen?" Hob wondered,and worry bubbled inside him,looks like that's a no on the party,also his thoughts drifted towards the Burgess incident,that made matters worse.

"No idea" Matthew chimed in to reply.

After a moment of silence, Hob said"Not that I don't want to help dream" he rubbed his neck ,a bit nervous about everything that's happening "but what can I do? I'm just a random guy, I'm not some god or deity or whatever" the whatevers of the universe were insulted by this.

"That you are,and that is what we need" explained Death,she smiled a pained smile"I'd go help him myself but,see the thing is with Dream is that if I were to help him, he'd take it upon himself to return the favor,and I don't want him to think that he owes me, that'll only drive him further away"

"The creatures of the dreaming all can't go there without getting corrupted"Lucienne added.

"And the endless are wierd about thier realms, something something not my realm not my problem " Matthew croaked "It's kind of an important rule I think " it was a lot more complicated than that but Hob had heard the jist of it when he asked dream about family dinners.

Death declared"Dream isn't that weak,he can make it out of there by himself eventually,but I'd rather we get him out as soon as possible"

"I'm still not sure why I'm a good candidate for this though"

"You're Dream's friend,Dream considers you both of equal footing" Death moved around as she spoke,she put her hands behind her back and faced Hob again "if you were to go ,he might be more willing to accept your help"

"I....okay ,I don't want him to get hurt, err..more hurt"

"I know I'm asking a lot here" Death's face lit up "but all you need to do is get him out of his own head" the way she said that made Hob tilt his head,it was the vocal equivalent of air quotes , without the air quotes.

"How do you know that?"he asked.

"That doesn't matter now"Death looked him in the eyes "Please bring my brother back"

Hob was set on helping Dream,and if he didn't Death might just grab him into the afterlife,he didn't think she'd do that but he wasn't entirely not scared of her.

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(sidenote,if you're curious about who the stranger that appeared before Dream, here's a post about them)

#drops random ramblings #drops writing #the sandman dream #netflix the sandman #the sandman hob #hob gadling #dream of the endless #death of the endless #the sandman death #morpheus #matthew the raven #the sandman fanfic #dream the endless #death the endless #the sandman lucienne #cecil walters(oc)#dreamling #graveside chrysanthemums

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