#Maybe Sprout Wings

[fishfingersandscarves]

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little animation of the kiss scene from Maybe sprout wings by @moorishflower aka the scene that has haunted my brain for months

[chubsonthemoon]

Last Binderary book is DONE!!!! This is the incredible Maybe sprout wings, by @moorishflower.

This post is going to be a doozy, so gonna just skip straight to the cut!

INTERIOR

INTRODUCTION

I really wanted to model this bind after my own copy of the Odyssey, (which is all highlighted and bookmarked and annotated to hell from my Great Text courses in undergrad ehe, so this bind was such a fun trip down memory lane!). But beyond just the cover/general aesthetic, I also wanted to give the book a similar feel to these kinds of editions of classics--there's usually an introduction, translation notes, and other supplementary materials, right? Like, a physical manifestation of the work of many, many people, all having conversations with one another across time and space.

So that's what I did! I wrote a short introduction (I will also probably post it to my AO3/my blog as well, in the name of preservation etc. etc.) and began reaching out to folks in the fandom who I knew had created art and meta for the fic. The result? 18k words of analysis, comments, and meta, and nearly twenty pages of art!

And this is what I love most about this bind, I think! This book is the work of several people--truly a collaborative work by the fandom--all of whom I will now be shamelessly calling out below :D

CHAPTER HEADER ART

First and foremost, this book would not be what it is without the gorgeous header art by @fancy-rock-dove! Thank you so much Dove for letting include your work, and for being so supportive and kind these past few weeks about this bind <3 You in particular have contributed so much to this book (which I will be getting more into in the next section ehe), and I'm so psyched I get to hold your art and words, too!

NOTES ON THE TEXT

This section was divided into four parts: Asks and Answers, Meta, Selected Comments, and Chapter Heading Art: Process

For Asks and Answers, I trawled Heather's blog for meta she had written in response to questions and other meta about the fic. Asks came from @fancy-rock-dove, @quillingwords, @kulapti, and myself! (I THINK I got all of them--tumblr's search function is finnicky even on its best days, so so sorry if I missed something T_T) I first got hooked into reading this fic because of one of these asks, so I'm very fond of this section in particular :D

For Meta, I included two wonderful essays written by @pastrypuppy (also known as @kulapti) about Hob as an author figure and the Disrupted Fisher King narrative in MSW. Her analyses were so fascinating and I just had to include them in the book! (And thank you as well for your permission, friend!) (also hello fellow Renegade comrade 🫡)

For Selected Comments, I owe everything to (once again :3) @fancy-rock-dove, whose insights are the epitome of transformative fandom at work. I'd look for their comments after I read every chapter to see what their takes were on this or that element of the story, and every single time I would go "!!!!! I didn't even realize!!!" or "OOOOOOOH I hadn't thought of that!!" It was like being in a lecture hall and always whipping your head around when one of your classmates raised their hand, because you knew they were going to say something fascinating that you hadn't considered before.

Aside from one of my own comments, Dove's comments make up the entirety of this section (for which I owe you my life--your long-form responses to fics are a gift to this world) but GOSH was it also so much fun going through the comments section while typesetting and seeing all the keyboard smashing, yelling, and crying from the other commenters. Communal nature of storytelling and ongoing meaning-making of fanfiction, babey!

And finally for Chapter Heading Art: Process: once again Dove coming in clutch with some wonderful insights into the design of each of the chapter heading art pieces! This kind of stuff is honestly my favorite: meta about art for a fic which is, in turn, a transformation of an existing story (not even to mention that The Sandman is its own kind of fanfiction of existing mythologies and histories)--I just!! Think it's all really, really neat :'D (for more coherent/polished thoughts on this pls see my introduction asjdfkls)

ART

The art gallery!!! A million thanks to @fishfingersandscarves, @honeyseller, @jazzpsych, @doctor-rainbowfoxey, and (HI AGAIN DOVE) @fancy-rock-dove for granting me permission to include all of your beautiful pieces!

As usual for artworks in my binds, I printed each piece out on specialty photo paper to really make the colors pop, then sewed each page separately to the text block! Behold, everyone's beautiful beautiful pieces!

The art gallery also satisfies the certain "oooh shiny" part of my brain that always activates when I see pictures in a book, so am also very fond of this section :3

CONSTRUCTION

And now on to the nitty gritty stuff! I used the German Bradel binding technique again, my second time using it. Even though it's more complicated than the case bind, I really love how it gives you the full board space for the cover designs (~it's free real estate~). Keep it a secret but I kiiiiiiind of made a small goof in the last few steps (I did the turn-ins a step too early and so had to paste an extra sheet of cardstock to secure the spine to the boards, whoopsie), but it's a pretty small difference, aesthetically speaking, so it wasn't the end of the world XD

Edges are once again fake gilded, but this time I tried something new with the colors! I did two layers of acrylic paint--one watered down shade of red for the base, then one metallic gold on top of that. I really like the red/gold effect! I'll have to keep experimenting with this kind of layering:

ALSO. Y'ALL! I think I'm finally getting the hang of endbands!!! Many thanks to the folks at Renegade who hosted all the endband workshops last month--I'm still working through them, but even the few sessions I've seen have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful. I learned that tension is Very Important, as well as thread thickness, so I tried doubling my thread and keeping a Very Close Eye on how I was holding the threads while doing the beads. And behold! I still have a ways to go (and one day I would LOVE to do the fancier designs), but I'm v happy with the progress I've made so far!

And finally the covers!! ARCHIVAL MOD PODGE MY BELOVED. I printed on the same matte presentation paper that I used for the art, then did several coats of archival matte mod podge + a pass of gloss mod podge over the title strip to make it ~shiny~. Then once those had dried and I'd adhered them to the boards, I sprayed two layers of matte clear acrylic sealer (also mod podge!) to finish it off. I had some issues with the paper tearing when I handled it before it was fully dry, but luckily the blemishes were small enough that it was easy to do spot corrections with my black acrylic paint. And now I know to be more patient next time LOL

(some non-photoshoot shots that show the shine a little better!)

FINAL THOUGHTS

I had a lot of thoughts while I was binding this book--about Sandman fandom, about Dreamling fandom, about the Odyssey, about storytelling, about fanbinding, about Binderary, about Renegade, about my friends--but really what came to mind the most was gratitude!

Simply put, I'm so grateful to everyone I've met both in this fandom and throughout the years I've been active online--this is SO fun, y'all. It's so much fun to love stories together--to talk about them, to write them, and of course to bind them! I hope I've adequately conveyed that gratitude.

But of course, this book would not exist without the wonderful words of @moorishflower. Heather, thank you so, SO much for sharing your stories, thoughts, and time with us--it is always a happier, better day when I get an email notif from you and when I see you on my dash. I love your work so much, and I'm so happy I finally get to put it on my shelf! So thank you so much again, for everything <3

and OKAY THAT'S IT FROM ME FOLKS!!!!! Binderary 2023 is officially a wrap! I had SUCH a blast--will probably write up a reflection post on it uhhhh after I take a very long nap ajslkdfjslk _(:3」∠)_

all my love! <3

[baconandpie1]

MAYBE SPROUT WINGS - update

I am crying. LIterally.

This update couldn't have come at a better time for me.

I love this FIC so much, I have no words to describe it.

It's among the very few WIPs I've reread without much hope of it ever be finished.

It was worth reading it every time.

Still is.

[taleofdaringdo]

Fanfiction reaction: Maybe Sprout Wings, and Heretic Pride

I've been reading these incredibly written stories in the Supernatural Fic Series Maybe Sprout Wings (link below) by @casuallyneurotic and I'm truly, utterly speechless.

I've been having so many feelings. It's triggering and difficult but also so relatable. The stories of abuse and suffering are traumatising, but also when you see the harsh realities up close in life, when you grow up in chaos and darkness and your body has been a battlefield of its own, and you can't simply turn a blind eye to darkness in the world that has curled its claws around your life, these are the stories that give you solace.

Not because they are soothing but because the realisation that true healing is jagged and sharp little thing with hard edges and makes you bleed before. And because it's not very often that you know that you're not alone in this journey full of thrones.

And not only the healing, stories like these also point right at the gray morality of humankind, force you to look at the cruelty humans are capable of inflicting and HAVE inflicted, so hard that it makes it difficult to turn away from it.

All the more reason stories like these must be told. Because there is so much that exhausts us but must be read.

There is this book of Hindi poetry called "दर्द लिखा जाना चाहिए", meaning "Pain must be written". That's also why it must also be read.

Same reason why we fight losing battles. Not with the hope that we might win but for history to record that there were those who fought, and there were those who survived it.

Below are two of many lines (without spoiler) that hit me so hard it felt like a punch in the gut.

Thank you @carrythatwayt for recommending this.

Series Link here

PS: make sure to see the tags and heed the warnings.

[moorishflower]

Hello! Some time ago I mentioned that I wanted to paint a tabletop mini based on Maybe Sprout Wings Hob—and finally here he is! Thank you for the inspiration. (I have another waiting to be painted with no hood so he can resemble our guy Ferdie a bit better, but I wanted to do the one with wings first because of you! They are translucent if I hold them up to the light!)

!!!! OH MY GOSHHHH

Oh my gosh this is GORGEOUS, those wings are STUNNING and the shield and armor have turned out so so good! This is absolutely incredible, I have such a huge amount of respect for people who paint minifigs because you're working in SUCH a small, confined area, the fact that you can do all those tiny little details (the pauldrons! the decorations on the armor!) is such magic to me. Oh this is such a beautiful wonderful thing to see, I hope that in whatever game you use him in you roll many critical successes at the times when they matter most and that the story keeps you in its favor <3<3<3

[fancy-rock-dove]

Chapter Head Art for Maybe Sprout Wings (Full set)

I have had just, So Much Fun working on these. This story really is built on such a great concept, and with such fantastic worldbuilding, and with action so thoroughly in tune with its themes that it really does reward digging into. @moorishflower's writing kills me in the best of ways (and in the sleep deprivation kind of ways but I have no regrets), and designing them was a great time. And on top of that, everyone here has been just, so lovely, so I'm very excited to post the full set of chapter head illustrations!

Stylistic consistency continues to elude me, but hopefully these look like a matched enough set regardless. Cursive titles are the chapter titles, block print is my own title for the illustration. Just for fun, and in tribute to the (probably truly unhinged) amount of time I spent thinking about Symbolism while making these, I'm including one selected Fun Fact relevant to my thoughts on some part of each of these at the bottom of this post in case that interests anyone!

Ch 1: Baobabs are some of the oldest living flowering plants on the planet and can live up to two millennia. I have a lot of feelings about the sheer volume of life these trees can contain (both spatially and in time) and what that means for how we look at them.

Ch 2: If Abel were looking to avoid anachronism, he could still absolutely have left out books that were machine-printed with moveable type, but they'd probably have to have been in Chinese or Korean, from somewhere that had already widely adopted the technology by the 14th century.

Ch 3: Homer's works contain what is believed to be the first written mention of apples in Ancient Greece. Its writing is about as many centuries removed from the events of the Odyssey as the events of this chapter are from the first recorded mention of apples in England.

Ch 4: An ink quill is definitely more aesthetic, but graphite had actually been discovered in England and pencils invented in the decades prior to Shakespeare's first writings. It's entirely possible he could've been jotting down quick notes with a pencil like any stagehand today.

Ch 5: Though Corinthian style architecture is named for the Greek city of Corinth, with which it's associated, its inventor Callimachus is actually thought to be Athenian. The spiny, curling acanthus leaves used in its motifs are generally associated with long life, immortality, and rebirth. Go figure.

Ch 6: Symbolically, clovers are a sign that others are thinking of you. They're associated with good fortune, and apparently also male energy, and seen as a sign of protection. Excellent Fiddler's Green groundcover here.

Ch 7: Three-masted, fully-rigged ships became common in Europe by the 16th or 17th centuries during the Age of Sail because the extra space for sails became more necessary with the increase in open-ocean voyages. Making them the go-to type of vessel for both trade and exploration.

Ch 8: The simple but effective design of drop spindles is largely unchanged from their first documented use in the first century CE. there's evidence of their use for spinning (making a single, stronger thread from many disparate fibers) dating back at least to the advent of agriculture, some 10,000 years ago. Definitely what I picture Clotho using.

Ch 9: The fractal, branching structures of roots, lightning, and Lichtenberg figures are all self-similar: you can get much closer and they'll still appear very similar or identical to the way they were at a distance.

Ch 10: The throne room scenes of Sandman were shot in Guildford Cathedral. The Dreaming's Castle was intentionally designed to be a mashup of a whole ton of architectural styles, but the facade and throne room definitely feel gothic or neo-gothic. It's been a classic for centuries and the gothic-style window is definitely the kind I picture Hob's room having, at least on days the castle's feeling a bit fancy.

Ch 11: The item at the front left there is a weaving shuttle. According to Artemidorus, while dreaming of most kinds of looms indicates that you should expect rest, dreaming of a warp-weighted loom -- the kind which was common in bronze-age Greece and enables multiple people to work together on the weaving -- indicates an upcoming journey.

Ch 12: I feel like I've already talked about the symbolism of this one elsewhere, so for this one, instead of a fact, a comment (that I found fun): The binding circle in this only shows up in areas covered by the puddle of the Dreaming Sea, the means by which the nature of the "gilded ring" was elucidated. :)

Ch 13: Greek ships often had eyes on their bow, which among other things, was intended to imbue them with some will and ability to avoid obstacles. The Argo famously had eyes and also some innate awareness/intelligence, and could actually speak to the crew.

Ch 14: While Calliope, muse of epic poetry and eloquence (and the one invoked at the beginning of the Odyssey) is associated with a book, scroll, or tablet, Erato, muse of romantic poetry and love stories, is depicted in crowns of rose and myrtle. My title for this one was very nearly just (Invocation pt. ii). Also, I have a headcanon that Dream has only seen very bad performances of the Odysseyif ( he's seen any at all) since antiquity. Any show that literally begins by calling his ex is something he's not gonna stay for unless he's really sure she won't actually show up.

Whew! thanks to anyone who actually read to the end of my rambling here! Clearly this whole story has been really, really fun to just turn over in my mind. Cool stuff just keeps falling out of it! Since I would literally be two photos under Tumblr's limit on this post otherwise, how about a couple bonus alternate versions at the end here? Because why not?? I added some red accents to a couple of these for fun, and though it doesn't fit the for the chapter headings, I do think it looks cool!

[dearestlyrics]

ghosts and clouds and nameless things

squint your eyes and hope real hard

maybe sprout wings

[malaisequotes]

“A bad dream shook me in my sleep and I woke up sweating, ran through the dark to the shower, already forgetting. Try to think good thoughts, trying to find my way clear. Let the room fill with steam, trace pictures on the mirror.”

Maybe Sprout Wings by The Mountain Goats

[mountaingoatslastlineaday]

Maybe sprout wings

[fishfingersandscarves]

if anyone’s curious about my wings playlist here it is for your perusal! @moorishflower

[ansu-gurleht]

ghosts and clouds and nameless things squint your eyes and hope real hard maybe sprout wings

[fics-recommendations]

Maybe sprout wings

There's a dead man in The Dreaming.

-

Hob Gadling navigates life after death, falling in love, friendship with otherworldly entities, and ravens. A retelling of a story about stories. A study of a complicated man.

Read it here by Moorishflower

[lynn-tged-posting]

i like to think the sprout on his head wiggles when he feels really really happy

[hardly-an-escape]

when someone posts a long update of an ongoing multi-chapter at 10:00 PM on a work/school night, THAT IS THE DEVIL TEMPTING YOU!

DO NOT open that AO3 email. save it for tomorrow. you THINK you'll be able to read the first few paragraphs and then brush your teeth and go to bed. YOU ARE WRONG.

just ignore it, pretend you never saw it, go to bed, and be pleasantly surprised the next day.

[moorishflower]

Maybe sprout wings (Dream/Hob, Finished)

Maybe sprout wings || Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling || Mature || Finished, 91k

The Dreaming, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, 600 Years of Slow Burn, Pining, POV Hob Gadling, Hob Gadling Saves Dream of the Endless | Morpheus from Roderick Burgess, Dream of the Endless | Morpheus is Bad at Feelings, it's The Odyssey but Dreamling, wandering, Returning Home, Corinthian-Typical Violence, Corinthian-typical fucked up sexual predation, Not Really Character Death, Epic, The Odyssey References, Homeric, Quests, Eye Trauma, Minor Violence, Protective Hob Gadling, Literary References & Allusions, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore

There's a dead man in the Dreaming.

Returning home. Conversations. The end.

[nostos on AO3]

[antidotesprout]

Monsterfuckerween Day 1: Biblically Accurate Emmet

“Be not afraid” they said. “We bring you good news” they said.

I had a lot of fun drawing this, though there could probably be MORE eyes, I was trying to keep recognizable character traits, and wanted to show more of the granite skin 💖 I’d definitely like to revisit this design, maybe attach the story idea I’ve been tossing around. Maybe even push it more monstrous. Idk idk but I’m pretty satisfied.

Shout out to @feralsnekvern for the suggestion!