#tickldpnk8

[qqueenofhades]

Regarding the EO: aren’t they just trying to get the 14th amendment in front of this Supreme Court in order to redefine it? I’m not sure about the birthright citizenship EO, but that certainly seems the case with the sex at conception one.

I'm sure that this corrupt and criminal SCOTUS will attempt multifarious methods of fuckery to help Trump wherever they can, but they do not by any means have the power to unilaterally rewrite or amend the constitution. There is a defined process to create and pass a constitutional amendment, and the bar is deliberately very high: two thirds of both the House and Senate and something like 38 of 50 states have to ratify it. Notably, the 22nd Amendment also limits presidents to two terms, and there is not an easy way (much as he and the rest of the ratfuckers will try) for Trump to get around that.

Basically, I'm seeing some understandable worry that Trump just has carte blanche to change the American government however he wants, and at this point at least, he very much does not. While SCOTUS and/or other Trump judges will invent contorted legal rationales to provide cover where they can: they cannot unilaterally rewrite or amend the constitution. They can certainly perform said convoluted interpretive hijinks to decide what they think it should say; witness their eager attempts to prove that the Second Amendment actually totally authorizes the use of personal assault rifles, pshaw "well regulated" pshaw! But there is not a lot of interpretive wiggle room in either the 14th Amendment or the 22nd Amendment. Which is why, as I said in my tags, deliberately wild overreach BS just to be dicks is not actually very effective and will not stand up (at least right now) to even the most cursory judicial review. If that situation changes, we will make a note of it, but it is also useful to think about what part of their evil bullshit circus is a realistic thing to deal with/push back on, and which is total hot air, meant as a distraction, and will get justifiably shitcanned.

[fishfingersandscarves]

I just gotta say that despite having a beautiful illustration style that is all your own…You also just have such an excellent grasp on the craft of illustration and working in various styles. Speaking as someone in the general design/illustration industry, you are incredibly talented. I know you probably know this about yourself already. But if you ever doubt yourself, if you ever find yourself struggling with imposter syndrome, please come back to this and remind yourself that you’ve got just an insane amount of talent.

WEH THANK YOU

[writing-for-life]

Dream—Streetcar Desire

[tickldpnk8]

So here's a not-as-exciting possible source for the knight at the top of the ceiling:

Spotted at Edinburgh Castle: a statue of William Wallace. The pose and armor is similar, but notice that the coat of arms isn't the same. (so still hoping this is a Last Crusade easter egg)

So about that ceiling

So to wrap up this series on art history in Season of Mists, here’s my last post (at least until I discover more). You know the ceiling in Ch. 6, the one we were all talking about? I’ve continued to do research because so many of those paintings look familiar. And I think I’ve found a few more references for it with all of your help!

For reference, here is again that ceiling:

And as I zoomed in, here are some similar works of art from across the eras that might have inspired some of the details:

Rider mounted on horse vs Napolean Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David (1805)

Scenic landscape with trees vs Chalk Cliffs on Rügen by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

Castle with trees vs The Ruins of Hohenbaden by Carl Philipp Fohr (1814/1815)

Knight Templar (or perhaps Teutonic Order? Both have crosses on their shields) vs Grail Knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) (man, I really hope this is an Easter Egg because I couldn’t really find anything in art history that would match up as well as his costume does)

Huge thanks to @beatnikfreakiswriting , @notallsandmen , @mathomhouse-e , @mollymagician and @quillingwords for their insights on the original post! It definitely helped me narrow down my search, and was such a fun discussion. If you or anyone else has any thoughts or corrections to the above, I definitely welcome them!

And if Kelley Jones is out there and wants to share his inspiration sources, point him my way! 😉

[tryan-a-bex]

100 fics

Today I posted my 100th fic on Ao3!

My first was Pottery; or Function, Purpose and Heart on Mar 11, 2023. It was a retired Dreamling fic with Destruction (who I call Joe) as the main character.

I moved fairly quickly into my Spy x Family crossover series. Anya is so cute, and throwing her in with Dreamling and the Endless family led to a lot of fun shenanigans! (Generally you don't need to know Spy x Family canon to follow these.)

Next I started on my Sandman x Scooby Doo shenanigans! I really like the Scooby Gang, and there are definitely some mysteries to solve surrounding the Endless! (With awesome art by @sab-draws!)

Gaulcienne caught my eye next. Lucienne, my beloved librarian, and the shape-changing dream-fairy? Oh yes! A Quiet Love with Wings has most of my commissioned art, with pieces by @athymelyreply for Sometimes when You Fall, You Fly, @ibrithir-was-here for Fireflies and a Missing Person, and @designtheendless for The Dragon Rider!

King of Night and Prince of Day, for @nathanwonderwolf's wonderful art, has the second highest kudos of all my fics.

Then I invented an OC who is the preteen personification of the consciousness of humanity, aka Social Media. I thought this was pure crack but people liked it and now it's a series! Dinner and Play was created with @carnelianmeluha's food ideas in mind!

My Dreamling works tend to be short and sweet, often prompted by something on tumblr or discord, and are collected as Dreamling vignettes.

I have recently written (but not yet posted) my first honest to god smut, but early dabbles in the craft were mostly crack, like my Helm Fucking Crack series. I'm unreasonably proud of how cracked it is, and thank everyone who enabled me (notably @sleepsonfutons, @windsweptinred, @tickldpnk8, @zzoomacroom, read their fics!).

My obsession with Fuckboi Dream (mind the tags) is ongoing, and included creating a chapter index with notes so I can find things, a series about Murphy's childhood (somebody please read these, they are so cute), and others, fanart as well!

In The Dragon's Tongue, Lucienne takes on Titania! I commissioned @lostelfwriting to write the bdsm continuation of the scene, and she did a fantastic job!

A Reunion in the Dreaming (picnic recreated here) was the first fic in Walking with the Walkers, my series about Rose, Jed and Unity. It features Rose and Ara (Barbie transformed in Life is but a Dream), Rose and Jed meeting their Endless family members, Jed and Gault having adventures, and Unity throwing family parties in the Dreaming (with art by @ilya-halfelven).

Trials of a Shapeshifter in Love (in which Gault tries to surprise Lucienne with a romantic dinner) was my favourite fic from October 2023 -- Femslash weekend (by @sandmanfemslashfans ) and Monsterfucktober (by @seiya-starsniper and friends) made it a really fun month! I also wrote Chantal and Zelda, Johanna and Death, and zombie Lyta (my most angsty fic, I believe).

Just Get Me Off the Damn Mountain was written for designtheendless' contest and omg, I won! It is my most popular fic, at 185 kudos!

I also wrote an OG story for NaNoWriMo! At 23k, Wander Witch is by far my longest story (the next longest is under 9k).

After a bit of being stuck, I got started again by writing continuations of @gabessquishytum's asks! Thank you to Gabe and to all the anons and contributors who allowed me to post their parts of the story!

Asmi, @weirdly-specific-but-ok, argued that he does not have a fandom, so (with permission) I proved him wrong by writing fanfic where he meets Crowley and the Maggot Fam. I love you, Asmi and the maggots!

Heading on an Adventure, the story of Rose and Orpheus' road trip, led to a series of library adventures for Lucienne (often featuring Meowpheus), starting with The Library Cat and continuing in the Lucienne my Beloved series.

I wanted more Lucienne and Walkers content, so I started a side blog, @lucienne-my-beloved, and am open to prompts there! On ao3, the series is called ficlets for lucienne.

Hob Meets the Doctor June 7, 2389 and The line I will not cross and the line I will (Gaulcienne) are my space fics, and I am unreasonably happy about them!

I'm now writing for @augustwritingchallenge! (They got me over 100 in my wips a week or two ago!) I combined prompts so you'll see a fic every 2-5 days in various series and fandoms, including Good Omens (Aug 30) and Dead Boy Detectives (soon).

And my 100th fic! Why are you whispering? a Jed and Rose fic for the late night call prompts. Woohoo!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported my fandom journey! I'm the least depressed one in my long covid cohort, due to your support and friendship! I cherish every kudo and comment and bookmark and reblog, and the art and fics you all create as well!

[orionsangel86]

A Big Thank You For Death Appreciation Week

This is slightly overdue but I just wanted to say to everyone who participated thank you so much for Death Appreciation Week! All your fanworks have been wonderful to see and it's been a joy on my dash this past week in the run up to the release of Dead Boy Detectives.

Wasn't she fabulous in it? Even if it was only a short cameo it was so so lovely to see Death again and it just makes me more excited for more Sandman!

For anyone who wants to see the fanworks from the week, please check out the #Death Appreciation Week tag

For all your excellent contributions to the appreciation week, thank you so much! :)

@dragonnan, @milfzatannaz, @tryan-a-bex, @seiya-starsniper, @writing-for-life, @marlowe-zara , @bobbole , @mjdrawsalot , @nanonews , @goblininawig , @alteon77 , @iconsumethesoulsofthedamned , @tickldpnk8 , @nualaofthefaerie , @lucienne-my-beloved , @kittynannygaming ,

[rey-jake-therapist]

Reading Overture trying to make sense of it while simultaneously thinking of the best way to make my Sandman fic work with the concept of alternative reality like:

For example I've been bugging a certain time on the Alianora case. Morpheus told Hope about Alianora and their fight with the gods, so we can assume that this story definitely happened in the reality where Morpheus refused to kill the vortex AND the killing star. We know from AGOY and TKO that Alianora still existed in the new reality -the reality where the star died, presumably from Morpheus' hands after he blew up the first Vortex's planet-. I observed a slight discrepancy between the story he tells Hope in Overture, and what Morpheus says about Alianora in TKO. It's about her scar! In Overture, he tells Hope the gods did it to her:

He even says, and I think it's important, "I cut the creature from her face myself, bound her damaged cheek with dreams, and with my love."

So it seems that not only Morpheus wasn't responsible for Alianora's scar, but this scar couldn't be associated in Alianora's mind with the heartbreak caused by Morpheus when he abandoned her.

But in TKO, he says that HE left the scar on Alianora's cheek. And clearly, in Alianora's mind it's associated with heartbreak.

And now I'm wondering how much the story become different after Morpheus pulled that ship into reality. In both realities, his love affair with Alianora ended with a heartbreak for her and a world created just for her. But how crazy would that be if, for example, he had met her in totally different circumstances? And this scar thing really intrigues me: why would have Morpheus left a scar on her cheek? I can't see him as a wife beater but what the heck happened? It must have been significant enough for Alianora to predict he would have his own scar one day, and for Morpheus to remember she said that.

And the even craziest thing to think is that if Morpheus and Desire hadn't done anything to prevent the star from destroying the world, Morpheus would have probably not gotten this scar, maybe he wouldn't have killed his son and he wouldn't have died, at least not this way... I mean.... 🙉🙊🙈

Requiring once again the big brains of @writing-for-life, @tickldpnk8, @marlowe-zara and @poobtato on this one... Whenever you want ☺️

[bobbole]

@windsweptinred @tickldpnk8 a collage I had made for halloween, I want to share with the despoe fan club!

[seiya-starsniper]

Music Tag Game

tagged by @bazzybelle, thanks friend! <3

Rules: Shuffle your Spotify On Repeat playlist, and put the first 10 songs in a poll. Have your followers choose which song is their favorite.

I don't have Spotify, but thankfully YouTube Music has an equivalent playlist😄 (Replay Mix, if anyone's curious)

tagging with no pressure @tj-dragonblade @five-and-dimes @tickldpnk8 @silver-dream89 @bruce-wayne-simp

@arialerendeair @sans--seraph @quellawrites @queerofthedagger

[qqueenofhades]

I couldn’t watch the DNC tonight, but your live blogs of the speeches are killing me. 😂 guess I need to go watch the recording of it!

Great news! You can in fact watch the full uninterrupted program (no cuts, no commercials, no annoying commentary and/or pundits) on PBS's YouTube channel! (Select the "Direct Feed" option and not the "Special Coverage" option, since that one does have commentary.)

Day 1 full program:

Day 2 full program:

Now, if you're thinking that watching 6 solid hours of political speeches would be mind-numbingly boring: IT'S NOT. I watched both programs end to end and I will do the same with tonight and tomorrow. It's just great. People roast Donald Trump left and right, people make inspiring speeches, you get to watch the miracle of making a ROLL CALL into one of the best moments of the convention, you get various crowd shots of people crying and excited and waving signs and insanely pumped up, and you want to run through a brick wall like the Kool-Aid Man. Do recommend.

[windsweptinred]

Fandom love but make it Cillian Murphy: what’s his best role and why?

His BEST role?? Uff, would you accept a dissertation on the matter? To be handed in in a years time. With the conclusion being why I believe it should be Destiny of the Endless? Seriously, he's got the cheekbones and the eyes to be Toms big brother.. And the voice and the aura... But anywho, enough on my fan casting. 😅

But yes, his best role 🤔. I think I'll have to come at this from a 'My personal favorites' point of view or I will actually be answering you with an essay!

Obviously, let's get this out the way. He was phenomenonal in Oppenheimer and deserves every bit of acclaim he gets for it.

I will forever love him in the Dark Knight Trilogy. Was it the acting prefromance of his life? No. I think in one movie he only has a few lines. 😅 But I love Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, I have ever since the 90s Batman cartoon. He's my favourite Batman Rogue. I went into Batman Begins excited for Scarecrow... And came out having met Cillian and those supernatural blue eyes of his. And have been in love ever since. 😅 So yes, the Dark Knight trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart.

I actually have a real soft spot for him in Red Eye and Red Lights. Red Lights for the premise, Red Eye because Jackson Rippner... (Jackson Rippner, subtle 🤣) is a charasmatic little dick.

Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders has to reign supreme. The fact that Cillian is able to portray a man of so many contrasts, loving yet glacial, strong yet shattered, dark yet light. And make the character feel so REAL. There's just something he manges to craft with Tommy, this almost inhuman man, who at the same time is loved as an everyman. Able to appeal to so many. I think Tommy is one of those characters Cillian will always be associated with, and with good reason.

There's some of Cillian's work I have yet to see. But those for now have to be some of my favorites. How about you @tickldpnk8?

[writing-for-life]

The Endless Are Not Their Opposite--They Only Define It

I read quite often, on here and elsewhere, that the Endless are also their opposite (@tickldpnk8 and I were just talking about an interesting thread on Reddit), so I just decided to speed-complete this one and get it out of my drafts before it dies in there (so not as much in-depth as originally planned, but sometimes, you just need to run with it 🤣).

The Endless are not their opposite. They define it. It’s a (in my mind, and I’d love to hear what you think) massive difference. And they define their opposite by their absence. If they truly were their opposite, it would give very different meaning to canon, and if we were to do so, a lot of it wouldn't make sense in my view.

Dream is not also reality. He defines it. He is, and forever will be, unreality. It is his absence that defines reality. A dream that becomes real isn't a dream anymore--it's real. That’s the main reason why pulling the ship into reality in Overture weakens him. If he were reality, he could have just snapped his fingers and make it happen. If he were reality, a lot of his problems wouldn't be... well, problems. The fact he is (a) D/dream is pretty much why all his relationships are doomed to fail. Dreams don't last. Dreams are forever strange and can't be truly known.

Delirium is not also sanity/clarity. She defines it through her absence. And when she pulls herself together like in Brief Lives, it hurts her "muchly". It is immeasurable pain for her because it is what she is not and cannot be for any extended period of time without hurting herself.

Despair is not also hope. She defines it via her absence. As long as you hope, you don’t despair. If Despair were also hope, we would not have 6 issues of Overture very clearly showing us who and what H/hope is. If Despair were also hope, we wouldn't need a little girl called Hope reach out her hand and touch Dream—he would have a sister who could do it. But the only time Despair shows up for him, so to speak, is after he killed Orpheus—make of that what you will.

Death is not also life. She defines it. The fact that she is there at your beginning does not mean she is the one who gives you life. She is there so you will remember her, always (and especially when she takes your hand), hence you will cherish life. She does not directly give life to immortals either--they are immortal because of her absence, because she withholds her gift, like she does with Orpheus and Hob (the Eblis-situation has nothing to do with anything in my mind and is linked to a funeral rite, and we are clearly told it is not something she usually does [“it’s been so long”], or is remotely comfortable doing. It is just that she is the Endless that is most life-adjacent and hence the one who will have to do it. Just like Dream is the most reality-adjacent and hence the one who has to pull the ship).

Destruction is not also creation. He defines it. He is what gives us the blank slate, he is what makes creation possible, he is what starts the cycle and ends it, but he is not creation himself. Keeping on destroying makes creation impossible. There needs to be a pause, a break for creation to come to fruition—the absence of destruction. If he were also creation, he wouldn't create so badly (to the extent that it is canonically turned into a running gag), and being around him and seeking him out wouldn't be an issue. But it is.

Desire is not also hatred (I’m still not sure if hatred is really the opposite of desire, but I’ll run with it because that’s what Gaiman chose). They define it via their absence. You know how Dream doesn’t want Desire in his life anymore after one major spat (whether he had reason to or overreacted isn’t really the issue). And what feelings are often left in the absence of Desire? And what does Desire feel and gets themselves tangled up in because they are pushed away and are basically not acknowledged/desired by their own sibling despite constantly trying to show him they are important (desire is not just a sexual thing, people, get your mind out of the gutter 🤣)? Yeah, about that one… There is definitely a different type of enmeshment here which sometimes seems a bit plot-hole-y to me, but I think that might be down to the fact that Desire is the chosen antagonist (and even that, only to a degree until they aren’t). Even so, it still makes sense.

Destiny is not also freedom. He is the absence of it. All paths lead to the same end. Or a decision you make was the decision you were going to make all along, and what looks like a different ending was the ending that would have happened anyway. And even if you choose, the book will start to make that choice destiny again. Only Delirium knows what’s not in his book, and in this universe, the only true freedom is not bound by any rules, logic or sanity…

[tickldpnk8]

Man, seeing the scale of one of these in person really puts the panel into perspective.

Dream’s Castle x Assyrian Lamassu

I’ll get back to my regular series on Season of Mists soon, but have started to compile art history references used in this volume. This is the first on a series of posts on that topic!

Entrance of Dream’s castle in Season of Mists Ch. 3 vs Assyrian Lamassu (winged human-headed bull) from c. 721-705 BCE

The lamassu is a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a human head, bull's body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings. It appears frequently in Mesopotamian art. The lamassu and shedu were household protective spirits of the common Assyrian people, becoming associated later as royal protectors, and were placed as sentinels at entrances.

From the Wikipedia page on Lamassu

[stellerssong]

WKFJSA your WIP Wednesday post is an absolute delight to read, thank you 😂😂😂 can I hear a bit more about #6 and perhaps persuade you to share a snippet if I ask very very nicely?

i'm glad to hear it! the thing i have really missed about being on tumblr is being fucking sillygoofy about my own fic. you have to be an adult in the comments, y'know, and there's only so much room in an author's note for Japes and Goofs when you have to make time to outline non-tag warnings and link song attributions and thank your prompter and/or beta and flash an In Tonight's Performance The Role Of X Will Be Played By card as necessary and—

anyway.

#6 was indeed begun in my evernote drafts while waiting for the Fall Out Boy concert to begin and slowly sinking under a dose of unprescribed downers. i think maybe Pat Stump and Pete Wentz are not good at writing, like, "music"—many of those melodic lines are 100% reliant on "i have the range, stamina, and lack of understanding of what constitutes healthful singing of 23-year-old Patrick Stump" in order to function—but some of their word salad lyrics do make great titles, and except to dream sweet of me was kind of a banger from first principles. but then i was like "oh maybe this is my chance to drop while you're orbiting, might i? a potential fic title i've been holding in reserve for a few years now." but THEN i was like "in the spirit of continuing to tick boxes on my nonexistent List Of Languages I've Used For A Fic Title, and also in the spirit of what actually happens in the fic, why not trína chéile, le chéile, claochlaithe?" vote now on your phones!

okay but what is the fic actually ABOUT. right. what the fic is actually ABOUT is, i believe @tickldpnk8 commented on suffer that hurt that they wanted to see Lucienne tell Dream about her "pleasant" "conversation" with Desire, and to know how that would go. for my part, i didn't want to end revisionsverse without at least one more tender moment between Dream and Luce, because as much as i joke about this being the "Dream talks to all the women in his life au," the Danny/Luce relationship is really the heart of the thing. i also wanted there to be some reciprocity for Luce's courage in suffer that hurt (and during the years of Morpheus' captivity).

something that i think is not super important to fandom at large, but which is very important to ME, is the acknowledgement of female characters of color's emotional labor—not just "wow! you are so girlboss and yass kween and Greta Gerwig Barbie, just like we always knew you were!" but like, "you were brave and strong and i know you didn't really have a choice, but it matters that you endured, let me help you hold that for a while. i see you and i love you." it's the seeing that matters the most to me. not the assumption that She's Always Got It In Her, not the unbroken fortitude, but the acknowledgement of the person underneath. and like, Luce has seen the person underneath all of Dream's competing positionalities so much in this series—has helped shape that person for the reader in a lot of very real ways—so i wanted to get Dream looking back at her, through his own eyes, and showing us the person he loves.

"okay but i'm asking what HAPPENS in the fic. what is the PLOT" THEY CUDDLE IN BED WHILE DREAM CASUALLY HAS A SERIES OF VIVID HALLUCINATIONS. THIS IS A NORMAL DATE NIGHT FOR THEM.

“Where are you now, love?” You are drifting weightless and silent through the soft-edged dreams of a floating cnidarian, the constant pulse-pulse-pulse of your meandering path through space the only defining line between your body, your mind, and the vast careless collective of the open ocean— —and you are stalking along at the side of one of the lesser nightmares as it pursues a child through an alien, twilit forest, tasting fear-sweat smeared over the flat violet plane of a teardrop-shaped leaf, marking the depth of footprints in the leaf-litter, listening for panting breath and for the impact of a small body against the ground as your quarry stumbles for the final time— —and you are stone, molten and white-hot, the burning heart at the core of a newly formed planet which dreams of cooling rains and columns of cloud and the first trembling breath of a living thing that might one day tread the ground of you, the world of you— “I am here with you.” “Well, I know that’s not true,” Lucienne says with a sleepy chuckle. “Or not entirely, anyway.”

[orionsangel86]

Subtext Glorious Subtext! A Dreamling on Netflix analysis in The Sandman - Masterpost

Introduction

Shortly after realising this show was going to become my new obsession, I decided to throw myself into all things Sandman, which meant actually reading the comics (several times over) and listening to the audio book on Audible. The one thing that struck me most after consuming all Sandman media, was how different the tone of the Netflix show was. In particular, the choices made in the show for the Men of Good Fortune sequence in episode 6 The Sound of Her Wings which is the reason I fell head first into shipping Dreamling. The Netflix show portrays Dream and Hob’s relationship in a whole different way to the comic and the Audible book.

Whilst it IS possible to pick up certain moments in the Men of Good Fortune comic which can be interpreted with a queer lense, (the rose, Death’s knowing expression, etc) there isn’t really much to work with until we get to Hob’s dream in Season of Mists (and I’m losing my mind thinking about how the Netflix show will adapt THAT).

The queer coding in the show however is laid on so thickly, it’s difficult to ignore it. Like with most popular fandom ships, the reason Dreamling has suddenly become SO popular, is because viewers all collectively watched this 30 minute sequence, and had the eyebrow raising realisation that this was actually all very romantic and subtextually very queer.

I have yet to see a full meta analysis of the episode, so thought I would write a breakdown of Dream and Hob’s meetings over the centuries and outline how their differences from the comics have had such an impact on Dream and Hob’s relationship. How everything from the tweaks to the dialogue and additional scenes, the acting choices made, music cues, and the use of classic love tropes in TV have all come together to give us a subtextual masterpiece of queer coding and very much turned a friendship into something more. Even if you don’t ship Dreamling, I believe it would be very difficult for anyone versed in fandom culture (and anyone with a good knowledge of film and TV analysis) to ignore just how thickly the queer subtext is laid on.

Besides, its also writer acknowledged that there was intention there among the creative team, whatever they may decide to do with that going forward.

Initially I was going to put this entire analysis into one long post, but it is far too long and Tumblr was getting angry with me for the amount of gifs I was using. Instead I have broken my meta essay down into 8 parts as follows under the cut:

Chapter 1 - A Walk with Death and the Return to the White Horse

Chapter 2 - 1389 and 1489

Chapter 3 - 1589

Chapter 4 - 1689

Chapter 5 - 1789

Chapter 6 - 1889

Chapter 7 - 1989

Chaper 8 - Reunited

I have been writing this meta essay very slowly over the space of 7 months and I would love to know your thoughts, feedback, comments, or questions on it! Tagging those who may be interested and those who have asked to be tagged:

@notallsandmen @academicblorbo @just-cosmere-fan @seiya-starsniper @littledreamling @altair214 @lulusolier @joyce20091234 @zenkitty714 @tickldpnk8 @timeuntravel @marlowe-zara @mr-sadman @duckland

[rey-jake-therapist]

I was reading @tickldpnk8 's excellent meta about Desire, when something they said about Dream disapproving of Destruction's relationship with Ishtar the goddess of love planted a series of questions in my mind...

First question: how their function influences the Endless' love life? Why was Destruction drawn to a goddess symbolizing Love? Why did Dream disapprove it? Why did Dream neglect Calliope after she gave birth to Orpheus and why did he really severe his connection with them both?

Was it all just..... personal?

When I read that Destruction had a romance with the goddess of Love, my first reaction was to find it.... weird. What do Destruction and Love have in commun? At first view, not much even nothing... except maybe that destruction Can happen because of deceived love?

Dream is the romantic of the family, it's Destruction himself who states it in Song of Orpheus when he tells Orpheus he's just like his father. Dreams inspire the artists and the poets, so his union with Calliope, the poet's muse, probably made sense to everyone (except her sisters, who thought in their great wisdom that Dream was an asshole 😂). But Destruction and Love? Yeah I can totally see why it raised a few eyebrows in the Endless family. I mean, we know Dream in particular disapproved the relationship but Ishtar told her friend that her romance with Destruction ended because of "his family" not just her brother in law, so my guess is that she had to deal with vehement hostility, from everyone not just Dream.

Why would be that? My headcanon's now that the Endless feared that Love would be a bad influence on Destruction, because he would be less kin to do his job right since he would start seeing things differently, about humans, the love they can have for each other and the beauty of it. And I actually suspect that his relationship with Ishtar may have had him question his function indeed, and its necessity. Maybe it's really because he knew Love (he sort of dated it!) that he walked away from the Endless family and didn't choose anyone to succeed him? He knew that love would always end up destroyed but he didn't want this responsibility anymore?

(Please notice I'm mostly talking out loud here.... these are just some random thoughts and questionings....)

Now, Dream and Calliope. In the Wake, Calliope says Dream was basically the perfect husband until she became pregnant. It's often thought that their relationship was damaged by what happened to Orpheus, but the fact is that they started drifting apart long before that. Of course as humans it's tempting to think that Dream lost interest in his wife because she became a mother and he looked at her differently: that's what men often do, right? But Dream isn't a man and Calliope is a goddess; the product of their union was Orpheus, who represented "the supreme power of poetry and music to enchant all natural things". If I look at the evolution of Dream and Calliope's marriage purely on their respective function, the fact that 1. they had separate lives even when they were in love and happy 2. They drifted apart once Orpheus was conceived, both things make perfect sense!

It's often assumed that Dream "gets tired" of his lovers once the thrills is gone aka once the seduction phase is over. But I think it's oversimplifying and again, forgetting that Dream isn't human, he doesn't think like one. My current headcanons regarding Dream and Calliope are that,

They got married first because it seemed to be the perfect union regarding their respective functions. It doesn't mean they didn't love each other, but Dream has loved others before and after Calliope... she's the only one he married, and I don't think it's a coincidence.

They didn't live at the same place, Calliope visited Dream' realm only when she wanted: doesn't it reflect perfectly what inspiration does to us? Coming and going through our dreams, being absent sometimes for months even years....

Once Orpheus was conceived, it's possible that Dream's interest in the relationship faded because... His union with Calliope had filled its purpose. Yeah, I'm aware of how bleak it sounds, but again I'm thinking strictly in terms of concepts, which Dream and Calliope are.

The fact that Dream severed his connection with both Orpheus and Calliope is of course explained within the story told in the comics, but it also can find its roots in the humans'world: the vision that humans have of art, dreams and gods HAVE changed. They don't seem as intrinsically connected as (maybe?) they used to be, at some point science took over and humans kept believing in dreams, but in gods and mythology in general? Not so much. The divorce between Dream and Calliope, I think, symbolizes this dissociation.

I can't NOT also tag @writing-for-life and @poobtato on this big subject ;)