sidleypkhermit | halfamoon day 10: seasons

Fic rec: loving thus, there is no sleep
Fandoms: The Sandman (Comics)/The Sandman (TV 2022)/Heian Jidai | Heian Period RPF/Kagerō Nikki | The Gossamer Diary

Characters: Michitsuna no Haha | Michitsuna's Mother, Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Desire of the Endless, Jessamy the Raven

Today I bring you a fic by my dear friend

stellerssong , whom I finally have a fandom in common with again. Or at least, I know the Sandman half of this one.

What are the events of the story? The author of the Kagerō Nikki observes the seasons. She encounters Desire of the Endless, and, later, Desire’s moody brother. The extremely limited range of external events possible in her tightly proscribed life is a part of the story, but only one part. A plot summary will not take you into this story any more than it would into a Heian poem. You have to stop whatever else you are noodling around with on the internet and actually pay attention to the delicacy and texture of her prose.

“Merely the wanderings of a woman’s brush, my Lord,” I demurred, “but I am pleased to hear they amuse.”

“They do a great deal more than amuse,” he replied solemnly, setting down a letter tied to a frost-faded chrysanthemum. I frowned to myself, wondering how the frost still clung to those petals when, to my memory, I had sent that letter two Autumns past. I still remembered, too, the verse I had inscribed there, a rebuke to His Lordship after he’d come slinking around my door late at night and, sunk in fury and heartbreak, I’d barred the gate to him: How long and chill the night when one must sleep alone—perhaps you understand it now!

The gift Swan has given us here is both a visit to a literary world of the past and a Sandman story that would be fully at home with the canon. She has comments turned off on AO3, but can be reached ("regrettably," as she says) on tumblr, where you can find the anchor post for the fic here.

Half A Moon is an annual cross-fandom, cross-genre celebration of female characters. If you haven't already, remember to check out