The Sandman | The Quiet Devastation Of Lord Morpheus

The Sandman | the quiet devastation of Lord Morpheus 

LUCIENNE: With you gone as long as you were, the realm began to… decay and crumble.

MORPHEUS: Had they so little faith in me? Do my own subjects not know me?

brief lives doodle

Human!Dreamling AU

Hob is a former soldier turned history professor (original, I know)

Dream is a successful author; he writes under the pseudonym of Morpheus because he likes his privacy

Dream starts sitting in on Hob’s history classes because he’s doing research for his next book

Which would fine and all, if only 1) he had bothered to tell Hob that rather than just showing up one day, and 2) he wasn’t so distracting for the actual students in the class

As it is, Dream just starts showing up after class one day and Hob is like “um?? Can I help you???”

Dream: “your Department Chair said I could be here”

Hob: “well no one told ME that”

It starts off a bit contentious; Dream refuses to tell Hob what he’s writing about, just asks vague questions, and his attitude makes Hob feel inferior or like he’s being judged

In truth Dream is just an awkward idiot who has a hard time talking to people, hence the need for writing under a pseudonym and saving his privacy

Hob, finally reaching his limit with feeling like he’s being judged and deemed inadequate, asks why Dream doesn’t just sit in with the other history professors

Dream, getting huffy and defensive, says “my sister praised your passion and depth of knowledge in your field, but if you truly find me so bothersome, I’ll find someone else”

Hob: “sorry, did you say sister?”

Hob served in the army with Death, who was a combat medic

Death and Hob kept in touch after being discharged from the army, but they both kind of got busy with life and only occasionally saw each other on social media

While Hob went on to get his degree in history and teach, Death got her PhD in medicine and opened her own practice

When Dream complained about needing to do some research on an era of history for his next book to Death, she suggested Hob and talked about how good of a teacher he was. So Dream pulled some strings and got permission from the Department Chair to sit in on Hob’s classes.

Hob is a little embarrassed - he considers himself a pretty average professor and doesn’t have the same years of experience as some of the other professors - but feels honored that Death recommended him so highly

Ofc before he can actually say anything like that, Dream leaves because he’s Offended and needs to sulk

Feeling a little bad about how they parted (only a little bc Dream can be an ass when he wants to be), Hob reaches out to Death again and tells her about it. She’s pretty much like “sigh yeah that’s Dream for you, dw I’ll talk to him”

Cue her calling Dream and calling him an idiot and telling him he needs to use his words more rather than expecting everyone to simply accommodate him.

Death uses Older Sister Voice to strike a blow!! Dream sulks about it some more but realizes she’s right and shows up to the next class Hob is teaching

He doesn’t really apologize but he does say he overreacted; Hob DOES apologize for misjudging Dream, however. He’s still willing to give Dream a shot now that he knows Death specifically recommended him to Dream

Hob tried to ask Dream about the books he’s written before but Dream Will Not tell him what his pen name is; hob also tries to ask what the current book is about, and Dream still won’t talk about it

This is all frustrating to Hob, bc if he knew even what genre Dream was writing he could probably help more than by just giving a basic history lesson. He could be specific about what he tells Dream, give plot relevant info, etc etc.

Dream dgaf tho and plays it all close to the vest bc he doesn’t want someone ‘interfering’ with his writing process. It irks Hob, but he comes to see it as a game, trying to figure out Dream’s pseudonym from little clues in their conversations.

Leading to not only many more classes where Dream shows up (Hob’s students are INTRIGUED bc who is this man randomly hanging around our professor?), but also some one on one meetings either at Hob’s office or at the New Inn over drinks. Dream even offers to pay Hob, but Hob insists he just pay for the drinks when they go out, bc he sees his talks with Dream as a favor to his Death, who saved his life more than once out in the field

What started as a rough partnership evolves into a comfortable friendship over months, as their meetings eventually start to progress past just talking about history to other topics. They get to know each other outside the original context of their meetings by talking about things that, yknow, friends talk about. Food, hobbies, family, past experiences, etc.

I think the tipping point for Hob realizing he’s got a crush on Dream would be him coming into the university building where he teaches one day and seeing Dream talking to another professor.

All the social studies and liberal arts are taught in the same building. Dream showed up early for Hob’s class bc he thought he heard a different professor reciting Shakespeare to their class once. He likes Shakespeare ofc so he thought he’d show up a little early to listen to the Shakespeare class out of curiosity. He ends up in a discussion after the class ends with the professor. The professor, named Will (bc I think I’m hilarious), is an English professor who teaches a class on Shakespearean Literature to third and fourth year students.

On his way to his own class, Hob sees the two of them talking after the Shakespeare class ends, and feels a little weird about it but he has a class to teach so he ignores it

Or at least he tries to. The feeling grows when his class starts and Dream is nowhere to be seen for at least the first 30 min of class. When Dream finally does come in, it’s the latest he’s ever arrived and it bugs tf out of Hob so much he tells Dream after class that they can’t meet that day bc there’s a faculty meeting that Hob forgot about.

Dream is a little surprised and disappointed, but is okay with putting their meeting off for another day. After he leaves, Hob finds himself wondering exactly why he told Dream they couldn’t meet, bc now that Dream’s gone he regrets lying and just wants Dream to come back. Now irritated with both himself and Will the English professor, Hob goes home for the rest of the day to grade papers. If there’s a little more red on the essays than there normally is, that’s only bc his students had a particularly hard time with the recent unit and not at all bc he’s mad.

Hob doesn’t have any classes the next day, but he does actually have a meeting with the Department Chair about next semester’s classes, so he goes to the university. After his meeting with the Chair, he happens to walk by Will the English professor’s class out of curiosity and sees Dream sitting in the back of the class. Hob gets aggravated all over again, stewing outside the closed classroom door (it’s one of those with the window on the door) and thinking not very nice thoughts about Will the English professor when Dream looks towards him and sees Hob at the door. He looks surprised.

Without even thinking about it Hob automatically leaves bc shit! Dream caught him standing outside the class like a creepy stalker! Fuck. Hob drives all the way home mortified and cursing himself before he realizes he’s blushing all over. Cue the realization that hey maybe this is about more than just his friend becoming friends with Will the English professor.

I have more for this AU, but this post is getting a little long for mobile so I’m cutting it off here (for now…)

dream & death BFSFs!!! (best friend siblings forever!!!) !!!!

Important distinction for Sandman fans who’ve only watched the show...

Morpheus in the comics:

- 100% dtf

- Nada fell for him so fast she saw him in a dream once and was prepared to give up her kingdom for him, Calliope provides a detailed and totally unprompted description of how of all her many lovers he was the best, and Alianora’s very much dead but still thirsting for him

- Can change his entire appearance at will to better his chances

- of all the endless, has only ever been out-hoed by Desire

Morpheus in the show:

- Has clearly never known the touch of a woman in his life

- Divorced

- Permanently looks like an 80s twink with full guy-liner or a bedraggled wet cat

- Divorced.

And let me tell you, as someone who grew up rooting for the trainwreck male-leads in nordic crime dramas and thus likes her men as pathetic as possible, I am loving the direction they’re going in. I guess Neil Gaiman has been immersed in fandom long enough to know how to give the people exactly what they want.

(Edit) This got a few more reblogs than I thought and I am loving some of the tags, so I just thought I’d add as a caveat; I absolutely ship Dreamling, however, I’m more than willing to believe it’s possible for two guys to have a centuries-old queer platonic relationship where they’ve never done anything more intimate than hold hands. And yes, Tom Sturridge was perfect for the role due to his inexplicable ability to have amazing chemistry with anyone on screen (even if they’re playing his immortal siblings) but also manage to seem asexual af, we need more like him.

this fight between Dream and Lucifer is absolutely the queerest shit. you mean to tell me they just need to speak increasingly lethal shade until their opponent folds? dressed up in their contoured leather bad bitch vintage jackets? which Bushwick bathroom is this??