#The Midnight Dream Series

[mickmathersartblog]

"The Document Shredders Midnight Dream"

digital collage & digital painting by Mick Mather

(click image to vie actual size)

[mintsuwu]

Are Huggy and Kissy in your Dream Series AU? I could see them as friendly neighbors or teachers.

Sadly no, since the Dream Series AU is mostly based around a "what if" for a cartoon of the Smiling Critters, so it is only centered around them in general 👉🏻👈🏻 But the thought of including the other characters and making them into critters for that world has crossed my mind from time to time!

THOUGH they are part of the Midnight Mysteries AU! I have yet to design Huggy for that one since I am still thinking about his possible story and all, but I can say that he is some sort of train conductor and he and Kissy don't know each other yet. If anything they just recognize each other by glance whenever she has to travel along with Poppy and Dogday (as she is her maid) and he develops a crush on her.

[scarlet--wiccan]

What type of character do you think Wanda has the best dynamic with?

Women, mostly. I think Wanda is somebody who really likes being around other girls. I know it's not strictly canon, but I think about those backup stories from First Class, where she and Jean hang out, all the time-- Wanda appreciates female friendships. She has very easy chemistry with any character who is girly and feminine in the same way that she is, but it's also very easy for her to find common ground with other women of color, immigrants, and anybody who's had similar experiences. And while I hate to invoke gender essentialism, I do think that witchcraft and womanhood are very closely linked in Wanda's mind, so there's an immediate sense of sisterhood and community there, which she places a lot of value on.

In general, I think Wanda thrives under certain types of friction or contrast. It brings out a sort of wry humor in her, and generally speaking, she tends to charm most people she meets, which results in a fun sort of push and pull. She's good at teasing and ribbing people. Clint and Tony are really good examples, in terms of her Avengers teammates. There's something similar in her dynamics with Agatha or Stephen-- she respects them, but at this point in her life, she's not going to take shit from either of them. She's their peer, and she knows it, and that's a lot of fun.

I, personally, find that Wanda plays really well against tough, sort of bruiser characters. Wanda brings an extremely feminine, romantic, and emotive energy which provides an easy chemistry with anyone who is more gruff or stoic. Whether that chemistry works in a fun way depends on the writer. But, that brings me to my favorite thing about Wanda, which is that she's sort of a butch magnet. This is more of a recent development, but any time she's around women who are in any aspect masculine, gender-nonconforming, or lesbian-coded, I feel like there is just palpable gay tension. Unfortunately, I don't think she's had a lot of page time with, like, prominent, canonically gay women, but uhhhhhh... y'know, all the more reason for her to team up with Vicky Montesi.

[fruitsofhell]

Goin' strong on a year of struggling to process RTDL DX's fucking Magolor ethnicity twist, but I think I've come to maybe my third eye-opener on why it happened.

The core of Magolor's character is that he is a nobody who pretended to be someone y'know? Even when it was implied he was from Halcandra, you got this image of a little runt living in a hellscape dotted with vestiges of a great past, and one that he lied and stole his way into, ultimately in order to get his hands on the symbol of ownership over it right?

But if he's from Halcandra, to a lot of people and probably the writers, that would imply that there IS something special and deserved of his hoarding of the Ancient's glory. In fandom I often see a character being implied to be RELATED to the Ancients meaning they *ARE* an Ancient. They ARE an important old fart with a lot of history and knowledge, but I have personally never seen it that way.

I LOVE history. I LOVE HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY SO MUCH, and I love thinking about history, mythology, and people as symbiotic living things and concepts, so to me, INSTANTLY the most intriguing route is for the Ancients to be a myth and whoever is left to Just Be A Guy. Maybe they can trace direct heritage, but more than anything they are a person living in the shadow of something, there is nothing but the shadow, and the shadow is that Legacy of The Ancients. Whether it be Hyness ranting and raving about a magic and religion he fundamentally misunderstands, or Magolor claiming an artifact that may've ironically been what brought his home to such ruin.

But I think the writers want to avoid Magolor being Halcandran - to the point of not just leaving it open, or hinting to the negative, BUT EXPLICITLY SAYING 'NO' - because they don't want to say that he is special or deserving of the legacy he is so fascinated with by birthright. But simply, I love writing characters who DO have birthright to things they seek. They're just not informed that birthright is fucking stupid in my headcanon and they will suffer for that.

[thefigureresource]

Fuyuko Mayuzumi : Midnight Monster [THE iDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors] 1/7 scale from Wave coming December 2024.

[revrads]

I had a dream where there’s a FAITH live action Netflix series produced and going to be released on 2025 and it has Hamish Linklater as John Ward and Samantha Sloyan as Amy Martin, then I woke up

[brattysammy]

“Myself. My self.

That’s the problem. That’s the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, self. Thats not the word. That’s not right, that isn’t…How did I forget that? When did I forget that?

The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons.

Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside and I thought I’d despair or feel afraid, but I don’t feel any of that. None of it. Because I’m too busy. I’m too busy in the moment. Remembering. Of course. I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star.

This matter, this body is mostly empty space after all, and solid matter? It’s just energy vibrating very slowly why there is no me. There never was.

The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air I’m no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin. I remember I am energy. Not memory. Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me.

I was before them and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain.

And I am the lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons, and I’m returning. Just by remembering, I’m returning home.

And it’s like a drop of water falling back into the ocean, of which it’s always been a part. All things… a part. You, me and my little girl, and my mother and my father, everyone’s who’s ever been, every plant, every animal, every atom, every start, every galaxy, all of it. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach.

And that’s what we’re talking about when we say God.

The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It’s simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I’ll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams.

But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once.

There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It’s a wish. Made again and again and again and again and again and again and on into eternity. And I am all of it.

I am everything. I am all. I am that I am.”

~ Midnight Mass (Erin’s monologue)

[incorrect-dnd-show]

do yall ever think about the earth side of things in the cartoon? more specifically like, the parents?

like your kid (or kidS in bobby and sheila’s case) went to the carnival with a bunch of their friends, and just…never came back? nobody had any clue where they are. theyre like fourteen or so, thats MIDDLE SCHOOL. and Bobby’s TEN. that is a FOURTH GRADER. just, gone.

and with the new dnd movie we see them aged up, implying they NEVER made it back.

i feel bad for their poor parents

[gwyns]

new sjm fans are so lucky they have a whole ass completed series plus 7 other books to occupy them. back in MY day we had nothing but crumbs and we LIKED it

[mickmathersartblog]

"The Chairmaker's Midnight Dream"

digital collage, digital drawing & digital painting by Mick Mather

(click image to view actual size)

[mintsuwu]

Other than LoolaLamb x DogDay, who else would you pair the Smiling Critters together with?

It depends on the AU we are speaking about, because the pairs in the Dream Series AU and the Midnight Mysteries AU will be different 👀

As for the Dream Series one, my main pairs so to say are:

- DogDay x LoolaLamb

- Bubba x CraftyCorn

- Kickin x Hoppy

- Bobby x Vanny (I need to work more on their relationship development though)

As to the other two, I don't really see them hooking up with anyone (yet). Catnap doesn't really seem like a romantic fellow to me xD and with Picky I'm not sure yet.

And I can't say much in regards to the Midnight Mysteries AU, but for a first... Catnap and LoolaLamb are married in this AU, though it's more of an arranged marriage in which they hooked up for mere convenience. I will talk about other possible ships involving the critters in the future 👀

[raspberryjellybrains]

Something I find interesting as I delve deeper into different mediums of The Sandman is the way that Dream's appearance is used as a literary device. I don't remember whether I've discussed it here or not, but throughout the comics, his outfits serve as an indicator of his outward emotions and attitude while the style of the artist is often used to depict some aspect of his internal, unspoken emotional turmoil/peace. This carries over to the audiobook, though without the graphic aspect inherent to the original medium, it manifests in an interesting way through narration and further solidifies this interpretation of significance.

I had to start on Volume II for *cough* reasons, and the usage of detail is quite similar to other works by Gaiman, in that they are only included where it is important. He doesn't hit you over the head with scenery at every chance, it's carefully slotted into the scene at the points where it is most necessary and poignant, with the depth of these descriptions being directly tied to the importance that you, the listener, understand. We only hear that the random park is peaceful in the soundscaping because the park itself serves no purpose beyond that, but we get a couple paragraphs of description of Hell because it is vitally important we understand the scale and intensity of the horrors found there; setting is only acknowledged when it contributes to the narrative. This is echoed in The Sandman: Annotated, where we get some notes in the script regarding artistic choices—many of which are gestural, some of which are very detailed so that the artist may understand from this where their (and by extension the reader's) attentions must be drawn, which provides a sort of visual pacing.

To draw my point in a bit, Dream's castle follows this rule as an extension of his will and selfhood. It changes often to reflect what facet of himself he wants to convey outward most directly; appearing first as a rather low set, art nouveau affair with perhaps a silly bit of phallic imagery, then a gothic castle atop a mountain, most clearly establishing things when he puts it at the needlepoint top of a physically impossible peak covered in turrets and rooflines which jab into the air forbiddingly during Season of Mists as he contemplates the Key. When Dream is settled, the Dreaming is as well, when he is tumultuous, such follows. We don't get blow by blow descriptions, only when it is necessary.

Now that the visual language has been established and connected (insofar as I really can with the allotted mental energy for a tumblr post, however much of a passion project this may be, I am tired), it can be connected to Dream himself. His character design is very intentional, it reflects the post-punk, modernist take on its themes through his incredibly goth Look—he has the big, messy hair and impossibly white skin, dark clothes and dramatic fashion sensibilities—but beyond that, it reflects what feeling we are supposed to get from him. Morpheus' sense of self is ridiculously deeply tied to expectaction and perception of others, his entire personhood is based on what they expect. Despite this, to his infinite chagrin it seems, he has a personal identity sitting at his core that we see in his "natural" versus "put on" appearance (for lack of better terms): he's quiet and withdrawn but highly passionate and caring with all of the expected emotional regulation issues we would expect of someone with these temperaments they desperately repress; What he can control (clothes and hair) are utilized similarly to the castle, conveying his outward intention—think his driving outfit in Brief Lives versus his family dinner outfit in Season of Mists versus his final outfit in the Kindly Ones—where the things he cannot consciously seem to control are disguised by him, but utilized by art or narration to make a statement on his surroundings and feelings—think again of those outfits, of what his behavior means through that lens, what is conveyed through detail and silhouette.

What these more consistent physical attributes say is quite interesting, and quite revealing: Dream is not that scary. Sure his eyes will make you feel like you've stared down the cosmos and felt god touch your soul, but beyond that? Really? He's just a dude. A beautiful and strange one, but really nothing especially imposing. He's tall, but that effect is sort of diminished by his slight build. His face is angular and ethereal, but often careworn or haggard as well in a way I would compare to a very old and very poorly maintained stone statue. What this means to me is that Dream was never meant to be this frightening and imposing figure, that this was a choice made by the active individual we know exists because he is the one telling us about this all! A choice against his own nature that is concealed as often, swiftly, and mistakenly as his internal nature. This is, to conclude my point, supported by where these aspect of his appearance are given weight through art and narration. We only hear about his stature when he's sad or scared, only hear about his inhumanly pale skin when faced against the more beautiful aspects of personhood or mortality, only hear about his eyes when he uses them to scare or comfort.

These details of appearance are as woven into the narrative as any plot point, and used as any theme; which makes sense, he is the Prince of Stories afterall.

[heretherebedork]

Dome is an inherently empathetic and caring person who has not been jaded the way so many people around him are and, very specifically, the way Khatha has been. And Dome can break the jade, can hear the artifacts, can show Khatha that's he's not only not alone but that the world still holds hope and happy endings and the chance to protect people, the chance to keep people safe.

Dome is the power of compassion and the power of caring and the strength not to give in to despair or to sympathy but to care and to protect and to be and Khatha passed that point long ago, lost that long ago, only to find it again in Dome and for Dome and with Dome.

(Reality: Dome most likely looks like/is somehow related to Khatha and reminds him of what caring meant. Fantasy: Dome looks like Khatha old lover and reminds him of what it meant to be mortal and to love, to care, to want and dream of more.)

I truly just love how they look at each other because it's all about the care and the worry and the way they are aware of each other.

[sononatanellepocasbagliata]

"All things dissolve in time..."

[acourtofquestions]

The blood had soaked the ends of her hair, turning them a brilliant red. — And her eyes ... There was nothing there, as though she'd been hollowed out. For a heartbeat, he wondered if she would kill him, too-just for being there, for seeing the dark truth of her. — She blinked, and the killing calm in her eyes vanished, replaced only by bone-deep weariness and sorrow. An invisible burden that he couldn't begin to imagine made her shoulders slump.

For a month now, it had been the same dream. Every night, over and over, until Chaol could see it in his waking hours. Archer Finn groaning as Celaena shoved her dagger up through his ribs and into his heart. She embraced the handsome courtesan like a lover, but when she gazed over Archer's shoulder, her eyes were dead. Hollow. The dream shifted, and Chaol could say nothing, do nothing as the golden-brown hair darkened to black and the agonized face wasn't Archer's but Dorian's. The Crown Prince jerked, and Celaena held him tighter, twisting the dagger one final time before she let Dorian slump to the gray stones of the tunnel. Dorian's blood was already pooling--too fast. But Chaol still couldn't move, couldn't go to his friend or the woman he loved. The wounds on Dorian multiplied, and there was blood--so much blood. He knew the wounds. Though he’d never seen the body, he’d combed through the reports detailing what Celaena had done to the rogue assassin Grave in that alley, the way she'd butchered him for killing Nehemia. Celaena lowered her dagger, each drop of blood from its gleaming blade sending ripples through the pool already around her. She tipped back her head, breathing in deep. Breathing in the death before her, taking it into her soul, vengeance and ecstasy mingling at the slaughter of her enemy. Her true enemy. The Havilliard Empire. The dream shifted again, and Chaol was pinned beneath her as she writhed above him, her head still thrown back, that same expression of ecstasy written across her blood-splattered face.

Enemy. Lover.

Queen.

[ducksbyday]

Imagine the Life games happening while C!Wilbur was in purgatory, and he just randomly saw people pop in and out of existence.

*Jimmy, appearing for the 3rd time*

"YOU AGAIN?! GET OUT OF HERE!!"

*loud sobbing* WHERE'S MY RANCHER