#unity in death

[fxiled-fxithful]

A soft heavenly choir could be heard as Angela sat in prayer, uttering a single line in repetition.

" Unitas in vita, unitas in morte. Una stabis, omnes cecidere tui. Matris intuitum amplectere. Fatum tuum quando venerit tempus statuet."

[philtacular]

portfolio day! - hi im phil, a solo dev making a game all on my lonesome

[superfandomlife]

Assassin's Creed Unity (2014)

[writing-for-life]

Lost Hearts Everywhere…

…or why comics issue #16 is so central to the whole storyline of The Sandman

We are currently reading #16 of the comics in our community (join us!), and I don’t know about you, but seeing Lost Hearts in context of the whole run always makes me a bit unwell because the visual and thematic parallels are just so strong…

About Lips, Hearts, Living, Dying & Dreaming

Sleep of the Just : Lost Hearts

About Family, Gender, Losing Your Heart & Desire

Tales in the Sand : Lost Hearts

Speaking of Which: About Interfering Cats, Their Toys & Memory Fragments

Overture : Lost Hearts

About Not Wanting to Kill, the Consequences of Failing in One’s Duty & Why Responsibilities Mean Everything

Overture : Lost Hearts

About Being Tired & Walking Away, Victories & Defeats, Life & Death

Lost Hearts : The Kindly Ones

[viaviv124]

Nanda is a professional hater torwards their husband

I had this random idea and was like "tumblr must know"

Trod belongs to @bamsara

[thesandwomen]

reblog and share in the tags who your favorite female character from the sandman comics or show is and why! ☀️

[royal-husbands]

Aegon: show me the body Aemond: I can't Aegon: why?.. Aemond: Vhagar ate it, there's nothing left Aegon: fucked up Aemond: Aegon: Aemond: what are we going to do? Aegon: let's have a feast!!

[seviiul]

𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒓, 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆

𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖 :: ( oneshot ; 1.7k words ) He doesn't find his dearest in bed with him, having left... downstairs, trying to recite his middle-of-the-night piano tune he formed in his head

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 :: ( assassin's creed ) Arno Dorian; male (pianist!) reader

𝐁𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐄 :: mentions/descriptions of nightmares (Arno), mentions of death (within those nightmares)

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 :: reader is referred to as (S/o) ( first fic! )

He doesn't understand.

For a while — a measurement long having lost its precise definition — he has awoken from dreams; memories, each one being a different person he was there for to witness the death of.

There is a range to those peoples: loved ones; familiars; some poor soldiers he needed to end for the sake of anonymity; faces he had long borne awful resentment to. The list doesn't go on for long, fortunately or not.

He has gotten used to them — in a way. Still he wakes up with cold sweat and a fast paced heartbeat; but it isn't as bad as it first was, for both him and his dear.

But Arno never fails to, every time, have moments of contemplation over those night terrors; mainly revolving around why does he must suffer from them. Wasn't being a witness enough already? Must he see these faces again any longer, and not remember them the way he did when they were still alive, instead of seeing these… distortions, in his nightmares? Must they come and haunt him again, time after a time?

Tonight was all the same: another night of bad dreams; another night of awakening with cold sweat and faltering breath. As of now he stared up at the ceiling of the room in silence, arms crossed and stomach quietly churning over the not-so-fleeting memory of what he saw.

He was growing restless over his thoughts, starting to constantly shift in his shared bed and change from position to position; none of them providing any newer sense of comfort. The quiet ticking of the grandfather clock didn't help Arno distract himself either.

What did, however, was the realization that dear (S/o) wasn't next to him, making him do a double take in the process. The certain messiness to his sheets indicate that he left in a rush; and the lukewarmness? That it was not that long ago. And of course, Arno had to go look for him!

But he didn't even get up from the bed yet before he received a hint on where he was: playing of a piano could be faintly heard from here, immediately giving him an idea where (S/o) was at. That is when he went ahead and started to walk his way towards (S/o), the gentle tune becoming increasingly more audible to him the closer he made it to his person of interest.

There he saw him at the open door of a lounging room: (S/o) was playing away at the tiles of the piano with his fingers, while his foot occasionally pressed a pedal. No music sheets were to guide him on this, his hands evidently careful with trying to figure out the right notes to press, at the same time seeming like he was holding his breath as if it would help him focus on the melody he had in mind.

And he made it all look effortless, like he’d be the second Mozart gracing Arno with his presence. He already is, in a way; letting him listen to his music so peacefully, without asking for anything in return; with no additional pomp or formality included, like in the French high society (S/o) often had to present himself to.

The moment of peace from the piano tune halted, just as suddenly (S/o)’s playing did. Arno too heard why: he had pressed the wrong piano tile and it didn’t sound right; it felt out of tune.

That second of realization was also when (S/o) let out a shaky breath, at once being able to calm his mind from the pressure he placed on himself to achieve perfection. And yet, his body wasn’t calm, his hands wanting to keep pushing away as the adrenaline rush hadn't died down just yet.

But with no more motivation to continue for now, a groan left his lips; hunching over the piano as his hand started to mindlessly press at the tiles in an attempt to find either the right tile or the second burst of motivation for the night. His other hand was in his hair, letting the side of his head rest in his palm, his fingers bunching up some strands in between as a way of getting the adrenaline out, if it meant he had to lose a couple hairs in the process.

Only by the time Arno spoke his name was when (S/o) realized he was there. He didn’t know how Arno had reacted to this tendency of his so far; he didn’t know how he figured that he was here; he didn’t know had he listened to his piano all this time. But by then, he didn’t exactly care. He worried over why wasn’t he sleeping with how.. busy, his career can be during the day; as if he himself doesn’t neglect sleep at the moment.

“Arno,” (S/o)’s voice descended to a whispering tone as his head rose up, trying to meet his gaze. “Please go back to bed, you need the sleep.” his attempt at eye contact failed as Arno placed his hand over (S/o)’s own on the piano, his mouth resting on the left side of his head while interchanging to talk into his ear.

“But what about you?” He slowly moved (S/o)’s hand off the tiles as indicator to take a rest. “You need it as much as I do. Why not join me?”

“It’s not exactly a good time to recite one of your new melodies, (S/o), don’t you think?” Arno continued on, as if he knew he would try to protest his request, saying he wants to finish the tune before he comes with him.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been up like this, monsieur,” He replied, again finding a method to say no. It was a rarity when (S/o) referred to Arno as Mister, even when in formal circles; and when he did, he does it as means to say to not boss him around, when ironically he lets those governors and governesses and whatever tell him what to play next.

To that, Arno let out an exhale, unclear was it a chuckle or a scoff at his statement. A short yet an obviously awkward pause laid unto them both, the tapping of Arno’s index against (S/o)’s back of his hand being a moment when he tries to think of a reason, a reason for him to leave that piano be for another several hours. He was still albeit determined to get him to join him in their shared bed.

“I woke up from another nightmare”, a whisper (a mutter?) from Arno, was what this time had (S/o) direct his attention at him better, now removing his hand from his hair to look up at him.

Arno wasn’t keen on using this as a reason to have him moving; this isn’t the first time (S/o) is to do something about it, and they both preferred to keep the topic of his night terrors between each other in their bedroom. But if it meant he just comes to bed and for once gets his rest with him, he was willing to go a little bit underhand.

At once he was able to meet Arno’s gaze, a sigh leaving his lips at that fact.

“Why must you suffer this way,” (S/o) whispered to him, turning from his stool to face him just to cradle Arno’s face in his hands. There was no ill intent towards that statement, not any kind of tone indicating annoyance or anger – not even slight inconvenience – to him. But it was still simply sad how great an effect an individual can have on anyone, even when long gone. A part of (S/o) knew Arno was pondering on his saying just as much as he was.

Another moment of silence between them was interrupted when Arno, face still in the hold of the other’s hands, leaned forward and gave a kiss, that catching (S/o) by surprise – it was as if he broke him out of this sorrowful, thoughtful trance; breath faltering and all from the sudden contact.

“Come on,”

No more words were exchanged following Arno’s whispered request, him slowly pulling away as he had (S/o) get up from the stool as well, guiding him to stand onto his feet via Arno’s hold onto his hands. No more words were exchanged neither following the quiet steps towards the exit of the lounging room, their hold onto each other firm yet soothing as slowly, gradually the want for sleep set in for the pianist.

“Who was it this time?” The silent corridor was suddenly audible with (S/o)’s question, head turning towards the other in reference to the aforementioned night terror. Arno’s answer being a mere rooftop soldier caused the other to let out an exhale through the nose: he did worry over the nightmares he had, and wanted to be there to let him talk, let him cry, wallow, scream – whatever, to get the tension out of his breath and mind. But he had expectations that it was a bad case of a nightmare for this one, coming all the way down to him and all.

“Bastard,”, in a lighthearted note, following a scoff, was (S/o)’s only reaction to his statement, however; a light smile crept onto his face just like for Arno, having caught him go a little underhanded to get him back to bed.

None of them had the energy to keep talking; to bicker at the little trick he pulled as their bodies were almost consciously aware that they’ll shut off for sleep soon. The need for the newlyfound comfort of the shared bed came faster as they shut the door, once again all their thoughts and sayings left in the intimate secrecy they held there.

He lied on who he saw in tonight’s nightmare.

To be frank, he didn’t recall who was it either by the time (S/o) inquired him about it; even by the time he saw him play away at that piano.

He didn’t want to, honestly; the fact that he had another one of those night terrors alone gave him this sickening feeling in the heart: he didn’t need to remember who was it about to add to it.

The 'tune' I had in mind:

© SEVIIUL do not repost, steal, use for AI training.

[spotsupstuff]

Did saint ever ascend biting notos? Also how was the gang’s reunion in the void?

of course Saint has! after all, its sole reason for existence is this. no matter how lonely and difficult the quest will be for it, everyone has to go

as for your second question... my god as u can see i went off on the first one, this is legit the biggest comic i've ever done- i'll do some stuff for the reunion in the void at a later point i prommy 😩✌ it'd be better like that either way. these guys haven't been introduced enough for my tastes for the big relief ending yet

[selcouthself]

so anyways... maybe don't remake something that is & has been beloved by the masses for generations....

[philtacular]

comet dance

doin some work on abilities this week, so new pixels abound

dont forget to wishlist Death Machine on steam!

[senecalui]

"One thing I learned when I died was that we are all part of one big, living universe. If we think we can hurt another person, or another living thing without hurting ourselves, we are sadly mistaken."

—Sandra Rogers

from Lessons From the Light: In-Sights From a Journey to the Other Side by Sandra Rogers, (2009).

[morpheusbaby3]

I love how Morpheus is The Sandman but he is constantly humiliated or berated by women. I especially like when Lucienne does this, in canon or in fanfics.

[buryam-soul]

idk maybe i'm just a simple guy with simple tastes but i really like natlan's story actually

[writing-for-life]

Tags, Glorious Tags

Some encouragement to follow and check them more consistently…

So I did a little experiment: Tags with under 1k followers don’t get their numbers shown on Tumblr. I put the Sandman characters through the search, and while there were no big surprises (if we think about the main fandom demographic), the numbers were still staggering.

I tried all sorts of different iterations, too, and included the higher/most frequently used ones:

Note to self: ��Lucienne the librarian” is not a popular tag. Welp, I shall tag differently in the future.

Two outliers because people will also follow these for the Lucifer/Hellblazer series/comics, not The Sandman:

That’s it. All other characters have under 1,000 followers. I’ve also added the shipping tags to the bottom of this post. Read them and weep/laugh/whatever feels right.

Even if we take into consideration that the characters who already made an appearance in the series will get higher numbers than the ones that non-comic readers haven’t met yet (because let’s be honest: This is currently largely a TV-, not a comics fandom):

Where is Desire (I find that really surprising considering I constantly read how much people love Mason)?

Where is Despair?

Where is Calliope (she has a tag, but that’s in no way Sandman related. All Sandman ones are under 1k)?

Where is Johanna Constantine (also extremely surprising to me)?

Where is Rose Walker, who had a whole arc?

Where are Fiddler’s Green, Unity (both too old presenting, I get it, but it’s just driving the point home that it’s not about narrative importance but having the hots 🤣), Gault, Nada, to just name a few?

This has nothing to do with screen time allocated to characters, as should also be obvious. Even Matthew is more popular than other (mostly female) characters who drive the story, or are at least a big part of it.

It would be easy to say, “Well, these are just the favourites, nothing we can do about that.” And while that’s true, it’s also not quite as simple…

Fandom favourites vs checking the tags

As someone who runs a Sandman blog that tries to cover all characters (and of course I cover some more than others, so it’s definitely not about that) and isn’t too interested in shipping, I can see how the reblogs stack—they come through people’s mutuals, not through tags (bar the popular two or three).

But if we really love a character, we need to check and follow their tags consistently, and I can tell that’s often not the case but for said popular two or three. Posts for those tend to get default engagement because even people who don’t follow me check these tags, and they reblog straight from there (i.e. not through a third person). Other characters though? Only if someone with a relatively popular blog reblogs (and that hardly ever happens, and if it does, it’s usually for Death, Delirium and maybe Lucienne). It never happens straight through the tags.

Which also makes it somewhat worth thinking about that we, on the one hand, bemoan that no one cares about certain characters while at the same time heavily relying (maybe not even consciously) on mutuals who do check tags to feed that stuff into our dash (and we probably often don’t scroll down very far either). I see those little fandom bubbles very clearly because my blog is pretty broad (as in not ship-centric) and I notice, on the regular, who kicks off the chain for those underappreciated characters no one but them goes into the tags for (you’re doing the Lord’s work 🫂).

This is not about saying some characters should be more popular or others shouldn’t, because people like what they like, and that’s okay. Morpheus is and always will be my favourite, and apparently, I’m in good company 😉

But I also love other characters of narrative importance, and if we want to see their art, their fics, their metas, we need to follow and, above all, check their tags. Regularly. Because that stuff is there. Maybe not quite as plentiful, but the problem is also: If no one interacts with it, people just give up.

But we need to actively look for it ourselves, not just through our mutuals. We also need to think about reblogging more. Liking is great but doesn’t quite cut it for the characters we want to see more of. It’s not how Tumblr works.

And if you create, it’s also good to keep in mind that some people will occasionally say they like or even love those characters, but they factually don’t love them enough to follow their tags. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but the pipeline maintains itself fairly effortlessly while left field stuff is definitely more and harder individual work. And I get that it can feel tiring at times (ask me how I know).

But long story short: Please don’t let it discourage you so it turns into a vicious cycle. Keep on checking the tags, because there are people who create for them. Don’t just like but also reblog. Keep on tagging your stuff so people who love other characters than the main two or three, and those who ship rare pairs, can find you. (Remember that only the first five tags show up in tracked tags and only the first 20 will show up in searches, and that reblogs show up in neither.) It’s hard to cut through the popular tags, but it becomes even harder if fewer and fewer people are trying.

Plus: If you check the character tags outright, you don’t have to wade through everything else. The Sandman doesn’t just consist of its main tag.

And because it’s actually quite funny, I’ll just let the shipping tags speak for themselves (I just picked a few of the most “popular” ones in their different iterations, because if the stats for more popular ships already look like this, we don’t even need to think about rare pairs):

Corintheus: <1k

Morphienne: <1k

Morphanna/ConstantDream: <1k

Dreamuse: <1k

DreamingStar: <1K

Hellmuse: <1k

Gaultienne: <1k

Dreamling:

Even compared to individual character tags, the only one outshining Dreamling is the good old Dream Lord himself. Plus the main Sandman tag (but only #the sandman, because #sandman comes in at a comparably paltry 9.9k). Any questions left as to why most people are here? 😉But again: There are others. Follow and check the tags.

[thesandwomen]

you decide the length and destination of the road trip, and if you like, describe in the tags what you think it would be like!

lmao i really said “do not separate” twice on this poll