#dreamloop!4

(Gift for @the-lion-guard-88 ! Happy birthday Siffrin Puzzles!!!!)

+ small Dreamloop!4 sketches from days ago

This is the first of all the ref sheets for the Dreamloop portion of IHNDsAIMSs! And of course i had to start off with my boy, the man of the hour, the ambassador of all whimsy that everyone has a problem with because no one likes good things I guess.

But before we get into the crazy amounts of lore, I'd like to thank @mage-ical-character-person for the idea for his jammy outfit.. thing, as I was struggling with what exactly I wanted to go for and they just so happened to reblog in the nick of time.

And now: why he eepy tho

I don't exactly have all the lore for him clear cut yet, but i will say that his retirement is a HUUUUUGE part of his backstory (mainly because he was created as a way to cope with it, a comfort to my aching soul)

But as for any present stuff, he currently serves under Ariem as an apprentice, training to become the next guardian of the Reverie after she's gone, he doesn't remember his past life or any of his friends that well as his memories gone a bit hazy from all the years of dream walking.

However, his cloak (other than being really soft and smelling of raspberry pie for some reason) allows him to remember more clearly and carry his friends with him in spirit. He also carrys around a plush of 3 sometimes, just for comfort.

He prefers to just be referred to as "4" rather than his previous SMG title, Ariem sometimes likes referring to him as "Athrú" (Pronounced Ah-roo).

And that's just the surface! Again, not all of his lore is completely established yet, i am still figuring out how he goes from retirement to him becoming a dream guardian (though I did have the idea that it was a missing case, but that wouldn't make much sense)

But besides that, I love him dearly.. and yes, even if he's no longer a meme guardian, even if he's probably severed from his own body or something, even if he's tired and no longer has that same amount of joy and whimsy he used to have.

Despite everything, its still him. /ref

Not only because 4 hasn't seen his friends in years but also.. y'all know the nature of dreams, right? You have them sometimes and then you either remember them super vividly or you forget.

I think 4 still kind of wants to be remembered, despite knowing by the time all the dreams are cleansed of the nightmares and everything is back in order and they all wake up they'll just brush it off as a "weird dream" and go back to their lives.

But 4? He can never go back.

He already accepted long ago that his job was done and he had a new purpose to serve, but the ache and longing for what once was just eats away at him and he constantly has to persevere through those feelings and push forward.

And what's worse is he knows it's going to happen eventually but he is just so terrified that it hurts him and makes him want to cry and scream and beg but he can't bring himself to and it hurts him so much.

But secretly, 3 doesn't ever want to forget him, and he'll make sure no one ever has to.

He'll remind the others of the good times they had together, hang photos and let himself grieve, and heck! He'll keep drawing him over and over again, it's what he's been doing before he got yoinked into dreamland.

You have given your AU Four the Siffrin cloak and named the AU Dreamloop. You have given him the Eye of Horus scars in reference to 1nk’s theories. So if there’s inspiration from both Siffrin and Goop!4 involved, I have to ask.

Mal Du Pays? 👀 Mal du Pays moment?

Mal Du Pays? More like..

Mal Du 🌟Puzzles🌟

Yes, while 4 is mostly Sif inspired in appearance, I think one mustn't forget who created the dream in the first place.