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Delirium: Uh. Yesterday I did some really bad stuff. I mean real bad. You know. But today I did some good things. I don't know. You know.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 0
Walk any path in Destiny's Garden, and you will be forced to choose, not once but many times. The paths fork and divide. With each step you take through Destiny's Garden, you make a choice; and every choice determines future paths. However, at the end of a lifetime of walking you might look back, and see only one path stretching out behind you; or look ahead, and see only darkness. Sometimes you dream about the paths of Destiny, and speculate to no purpose. Dream about the paths you took and the paths you didn't take... The paths diverge and branch and reconnect; some say not even Destiny himself truly knows where any way will take you, where each twist and turn will lead. But even if Destiny could tell you, he will not. Destiny holds his secrets. The garden of Destiny. You would know it if you saw it. After all, you will wander it until you die. Or beyond. For the paths are long, and even in death there is no ending to them. Destiny of the Endless is the only one who understands the Garden's peculiar geography, distinct from time and space, where the potential becomes the actual. Destiny knows. The book he carries is as much a guide to the Garden as it is to the minutiae of future-past. Destiny has no path of his own. He makes no decisions, picks no branching ways; his way is laid out, drawn and defined, from the beginning of time to the end of everything.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 0
Desire is of medium height. It is unlikely that any portrait will ever do Desire justice, since to see her (of him) is to love him (or her),-- passionately, painfully, to the exclusion of all else.
Desire smells almost subliminally of summer peaches, and casts two shadows: one black and sharp-edged, the other translucent and forever wavering, like heat haze.
Desire smiles in brief flashes, like sunlight glinting from a knife-edge. And there is much else that is knife-like about Desire.
Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine: Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are.
Everything.
Despair, Desire's sister and twin, is queen of her own bleak bourne. It is said that scattered through Despair's domain are a multitude of tiny windows, hanging in the void. Each window looks out onto a different scene, being, in our world, a mirror. Sometimes you will look into a mirror and feel the eyes of Despair upon you, feel her hook catch and snag your heart.
Her skin is cold, and clammy; her eyes are the colour of sky, on the grey, wet days that leach the world of colour and meaning; her voice is little more than a whisper; and while she has no odour, her shadow smells musky, and pungent, like the skin of a snake.
Many years gone, a sect in what is now Afghanistan declared her a goddess, and proclaimed all empty rooms her sacred places. The sect, whose members called themselves The Unforgiven, persisted for two years, until its last adherent finally killed himself, having survived the other members by almost seven months.
Despair says little, and is patient.
Destiny is the oldest of the Endless; in the BEginning was the Word, and it was traced by hand on the first page of his book, before ever it was spoken aloud.
Destiny is also the tallest of the Endless, to mortal eyes.
There are some who believe him to be blind; whilst others, perhaps with more reason, claim that he has travelled far beyond blindness, that indeed, he can do nothing but see: that he sees the fine traceries the galaxies make as they spiral through the void, that he watches the intricate patterns living things make on their journey through time.
Destiny smells of dust and the libraries of night.
He leaves no footprints.
He casts no shadows.
Delirium is the youngest of the Endless.
She smells of sweat, sour wines, late nights, old leather.
Her realm is close, and can be visited; however, human minds wwere not made to comprehend her domain, and those few who have made the journey have been incapable of reporting back more than the tiniest fragments.
The poet Coleridge claimed to have known her intimately, but the man was an inveterate liar, and in this, as in so much, we must doubt his word.
Her appearance is the most variable of all the Endless, who, at best, are ideas cloaked in the semblance of flesh. Her shadow's shape and outline has no relationship to that of any body she wears, and it is tangible, like old velvet.
Some say the tragedy of Delirium is her knowledge that, despite being older than suns, older than gods, she is forever the youngest of the Endless, who do not measure time as we measure time, or see the worlds through mortal eyes.
Others deny this, and say that Delirium has no tragedy, but here they speak without reflection.
For Delirium was once Delight. And although that was long ago now, even today her eyes are badly matched: one eye is a vivid emerald green, spattered with silver flecks that move; her other eye is vein blue.
Who knows what Delirium sees, through her mismatched eyes?
Dream of the Endless: ah, there's a conundrum.
In this aspect (and we perceive but aspects of the Endless, as we see the light glinting from one tiny facet of some huge and flawlessly cut previous stone), he is rake-thing, with skin the color of falling snow.
Dream accumulates names to himself like others make friends; but he permits himself few friends.
If he is closest to anyone, it is to his elder sister, whom he sees but rarely.
He heard long ago, in a dream, that one day in every century Death takes on mortal flesh, better to comprehend what the lives she takes must feel like, to taste the bitter tang of mortality: that is the price she must pay for being the divider of the living from all that has gone before, all that must come after.
He broods on this tale, but has never questioned her about its truth. Perhaps he fears that she would answer him.
Of all the Endless, save perhaps Destiny, he is most conscious of his responsibilites, the most meticulous in their execution.
Dream casts a human shadow, when it occurs to him to do so.
And there is Death.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 0
Delirium: I met this guy in this club in -- somewhere. This club. Late at night. I don't know where it was. He wanted to kiss me. But I don't like to be touched. So I did this stuff to him, so he saw only colors. Really pretty colors though.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 0
Desire: What have we to discuss? Well, what about you, my brother?
Dream: Me?
Desire: Indeed. Tell me -- How's your love life? Killed any girlfriends recently? Or sentenced any more of them to Hell?
Dream: ...what did you say?
Desire: Well, you don't exactly have trouble-free relationships, do you? Let's see... There was that little one in Greece, what was her name? Carousel? Something like that. And that female oh--What's that pretty plane with all the twinkly lights? You know where I mean. But what you pur her through wasn't pretty at all. OH--And I nearly forgot. Do you remember Nada?
Dream: You... dare...
Desire: Such a sweet child. She really loved you--I know. I could taste her heart. And what did you do? Because she wouldn't stay with you until you tired of her, you sentenced her to Lucifer's domain. Because she hurt your petty pride, you've had her hurt and tortured for ten thousand years...
Dream: ENOUGH! YOU have said ENOUGH, and MORE than ENOUGH. Why I should--
Destiny: You will do nothing in this place, my brother.
Dream: I believe I will go outside... my... brother. I do not... care for the... company here.
Desire: Well! What's the matter with him? Do you think it could have been something I said?
Death:Shut up, Desire. If you ever want to speak again.
Death: You feeling okay?
Dream: No. No, I am not "feeling okay". You HEARD what Desire said. HOW it addressed me. What it INSINUATED. What it implied. YOU HEARD. If Destiny had not intervened, I would have...
Death: Yeah. Well, it's probably a good job that Destiny did intervene, then.
Dream: Perhaps. But none of you spoke out for me. When Desire talked of Nada that way... Sister--you KNOW how I felt for Nada once. What I feel for her STILL. But she DEFIED me. I gave her due warning, and STILL she spruned me, so...
Death: So you sentenced her to Hell.
Dream: ...yes
Death: Desire was right.
Dream: WHAT?
Death: Well, maybe not about EVERYTHING. But right about Nada, anyway. You did a terrible thing to that poor girl. You acted appallingly.
Dream: You too? Even YOU turn on me, my sister?
Death: Oh, just shut up and let me finish. You can shout at me afterwards. Nada loved you. She really did. Now, maybe Desire had more to do with that-- and with your reaction to Nada's love--than it's saying that doesn't matter. Because Nada was right. It IS bad news for us to get involved with them. You know that.
Dream: I would have made her a goddess.
Death: Maybe she didn't WANT to be a goddess, little brother. Did you ever consider THAT? Anyway, condemning her to an eternity in Hell, just because she turned you down... That's a REALLY shitty thing to do. Okay, I've finished. You can shout at me now.
Dream: Is this how you feel? Truly? That I have not behaved fittingly? That I have been unjust?
Death: Yes.
Dream: Very well, then. My course is clear. I had not wished to return to Hell. Not yet. Lucifer Morningstar is not one to forgive a slight, or to forget an injury. But if I have committed a wrong, then I have but one course. It must be made right. I must go my own realm, first, to prepare. And then, though it might mean my doom, I must journey to Hell. My sister, I pray you tell our siblings that I was needed elsewhere, and I could not stay. Adieu.
Death: You too. HEY! Dream?
Dream: My lady?
Death: Don't do anything stupid.
Dream: I am afraid it is too late for that admonition. But I shall do my best. I can do no more. Either I shall bring Nada out of Hell... or I shall see you again soon, my sister.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 0
Hob Gadling (toasting Dream's journey to Hell): To absent friends, lost loves, old gods and the season of mists: and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 1
Dream: We do what we must, Lucien. Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 1
Lucifer: What we wonder is why they bother. These little demons... They come to our palace and say, "We have battled: There will be a coalition." We say, very well. And they oust each other, and destroy each other, and it matters not. Or they say, "Lucifer, you are deposed, you are no longer king of hell," as if merely saying something were enough to make it true. They believe themselves Lucifer's equals, Cain, all these pitiful little gnats. But there is only one that we have ever owned to be our superior. There is but one greater than us. And to him... To him we no longer speak.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Dream: Lucifer... it seems to go on forever. How big is Hell?
Lucifer: How big? It's vast. Even I couldn't say for certain exactly how vast. It's almost a meaningless question--like asking how big the Silver City is, or how many are the Fields of Paradise. This realm IS Heaven's shadow, remember. Or, more precisely, perhaps, Heaven's dark reflection--like a landscape hanging inverted in the waters of a lake.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Lucifer: Wait. These are the last that I have to deal with. YOU. Little demons. You heard my order. Why are you not gone from this place?
Rimmon: Don't answer him, Ketele.
Ketele: I say what I like, Rimmon-My-Petal. Why? Because I do NOT believe that this pathetic creature is truly our lord Lucifer. Would the lord of Hell DESTROY his realm? Would the lord of Hell EVER free the souls held in torment? Would the lord of Hell expel the never-born? Would the lord of Hell abandon the war with Heaven?
Lucifer: The lord of Hell will do what he DAMN WELL LIKES. Leave. Now. All of you.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Lucifer: I am leaving. And I have closed down Hell.
Dream: How? How can you even...?
Lucifer: Easy. Ten billion years I've spent in this place. That's a long time... And we've all changed, since the beginning. Even you, Dream Lord. You were very different back then.
Dream: Perhaps, Prince Luficer.
Lucifer: You can forget the honorifics. Rank never mattered to me, not really. But the demons expected it... Which is one reason I've quiet. There are others... I'm tired, Morpheus. So tired. You knew me, Dream. You knew me when I was an angel. What was I like?
Dream: You were very proud, Smael. But you were also very beautiful, and wise--and passionate.
Lucifer: Was I? Yes... Yes, I was. I cared about so many things. I cared so deeply, back then, in the cold at the beginning of things. In the Silver City. I suppose that was why everything began to go wrong. You know...I still wonder how much of it was planned. How much of it he knew in advance. I thought I was rebelling. I thought I was defying his rule. NO... I was merely fulfilling another tiny segment of his great and powerful plan. If I had not rebelled, another would have, in my stead. Raguel, perhaps. Or Sandalphon. We fell, my comrades in arms and I. We fell so far...so long... And after an eternity of falling, we came to rest in this place. And I knew then that there was no way that I would ever return to paradise...
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Lucifer: You also rule a world, Morpheus. A world of sleepers and dreamers. Of stories. A simple place-- compared to Hell. I envy you. Can you imagine what it was like? Ten biollion years spent providing a place for dead mortals to torture themselves. And like all masochists they called the shots -- "Burn me" "Freeze me" "Eat me" "Hurt me"... And we did.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Lucifer: But... But I grew weary, Dream Lord. Mightily weary. I ceased to care. And the mortals! I ask you--why? Tell me that--WHY?
Dream: "Why" what, first among the fallen?
Lucifer: Why do they blame me for all their little failings?They use my name as if I spend my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive. "The Devil made me do it." I have never made one of them do anything. Never. They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them. And then they die, and they come here (having transgressed against what they believed to be right), and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retribution. I don't make them come here. They talk of me going around and buying souls, like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No. They belong to themselves... They just hate to have to face up to it. Yes, I rebelled. It was a long time ago. How long was I meant to pay for that one action? So now it's over.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Dream: And what will you do now?
Lucifer: I don't know. To be honest, Dream Lord, I have not given it much thought. I could not return to the Silver City--even if I wished to. I could never be an angel... Innocence, once lost, can never be regained.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 2
Charles Rowland: I think Hell's something you carry around with you. Not somewhere you go.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 4
Edwin Payne: I think maybe Hell IS a place. But you don't have to stay anywhere forever.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 4
Matthew: You look like you haven't slept a wink all night.
Dream: I don't sleep, Matthew.
Matthew: I didn't say you did. I just said that was what you looked like.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 6
Remiel: We have taken back the Key. Hell will again be the abode of the damned, and the demons. The damned will be returned to Hell; and there they will once again be punished. The demons may once more take up residence in Hell, and will be expected to play their part in the rehabilitation of the damned. The War between Heaven and Hell is over. Hell is now directly under Heaven's control and Duma and I will be Heaven's agents in the Underworld...
Anubis: On whose authority?
Remiel: Whose do you think?
Susano-o-No-Mikoto: Dreamlord-- You are not forced to accede to this.
Dream: I did not create the Hell of Lucifer, Lord Susano-o-No-Mikoto, nor the realm of which it is a shadow. If its creator wishes to take it back, that is its creator's affair, not mine.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 6
Dream: This is my home, Azazel; my place of power. This is the Heat of the Dreaming. Reality here conforms to my wishes; it is what I wish it to be -- no more, no less.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 6
Nada: You think you MAY have acted wrongly? You think PERHAPS you'll apologize? You THINK? And NOW what? You expect me to accept that, and say no more? One half-hearted apology, and you've somehow kissed it all better? I Spent ten thousand years in Hell. I could scarcely stand in that oubliette. I burned by day, and froze by night. Glass shards cut my flesh. I starved, and hurt, and wept, and waited. All that because of you. And you "think perhaps you should apologize"? You... You... You make me sick. [She slaps him]
Dream: You hit me, Nada. You struck me. No one may strike me; and here -- here at the heart of the dreaming... I should... I... I ought to...
Nada Yes? What will you do to me, Dreamlord? Send me BACK to Hell?
Dream: No. I... I am sorry, Nada. You are right. What I did was foolish, and heartless, and...and unfair; you hurt my pride, and I hurt you. I was wrong. There is nothing else I can say.
[After a long pause, they kiss]
Nada: Very well. I accept your apology.
Dream: If you wish, Nada... you could stay here with me. Be my queen.
Nada: I said no to that offer ten thousand years back, Dream. I have not changed my mind. But you could give all this up, you know.
Dream: You suggested that once before, Nada. My answer has not changed. I have my responsibilities. I cannot abandon them.
Nada: So you said, a very long time ago.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 7
Old Man: But I think, ANY god that can do sunsets like that, a different one every night... 'Strewth, Well, you've got to respect the old bastard, haven't you? Right. If you're still here tomorrow night, I'll see you then.
Lucifer: I may be here.
Old Man: You're a pom, aren't you? That's okay. I've known some good poms. Seeya, mate.
Lucifer: All right. I admit it. He's got a point. The sunsets are bloody marvelous, you old bastard. Satisfied?
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 7
Remiel: No. That was the old Hell. That was a place of mindless torture and purposeless pain. There will be no more wanton violence; no further suffering, inflicted without reason or explanation. We will hurt you. And we are not sorry. But we do not do it to punish you. We do it to redeem you. Because afterward, you'll be a better person. And because we love you. One day, you'll thank us for it.
Tortured Man: But... You don't understand... That makes it worse. That makes it so much worse...
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 7
The flames of Hell, Remiel muses, have become refining fires, burning away the dross, leaving purity and repentance and good. Remiel hears the screams, and it smiles. Perhaps, it thinks, it judged too hastily. After all, this is part of the plan, is it not? Then how could it NOT be for the best, in this, the best of all possible worlds... perhaps events have ended happy, after all. Happily. Ever after. In Hell.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Season Of Mists: Episode 7