Anyways, this arc starts off with Delirium of all ethereals, just wandering about in a 1980'sish city, I think it's London. As usual, she's the embodiment of delirium, but she's thinking about her brother, the seventh Ethereal the readers have only heard whispers of in previous arcs. So she's a little bit out of it, and manages to work her way into a, well. I think it's a gay bar/BDSM club. But in that area, she runs into Desire, who's just doing their thing. Delirium, after returning to his realm, discuss the missing brother. As Desire wants no part in this, she attempts to talk Despair into it, but she's having none of this either and so Delirium wanders back to her realm for a while.
Over with Dream, though, he's just gotten dumped by another girl and so he's standing out on a balcony while it rains in his realm. Non-stop Abrahamic-god-flooding rains, seeing as they last twenty one days before Delirium shows up in his realm, and she's being adorable as Dream's wyvern gate keeper is swinging her in his mouth. A rather exasperated panel of Dream later, and now Delirium's discussing her plan to find their seventh sibling with Dream.
In the end, Dream agrees to help, if only to clear his mind of the person who just dumped him. Things progress, but everyone who knows what might have happened to the seventh ethereal-- who I'm not naming because hahahahah read it yourself-- but they all end up dying or just becoming not themselves.
This quest of theirs continues with some rather entertaining panels that really should be entertaining and some flashbacks of their sibling. Really, though, dream, why'd you think it was a good idea to let Delirium drive, even if Matthew the Raven was there to
Also, more minor characters show up once more! Orpheus returns, and he's still just a head sitting there not doing much of anything. And so many old gods are minor characters! There's Pharamond, a Babylonian god, Ishtar, and Bubastion, although she's growing weak and frail.
Eventually, they find the seventh ethereal. And I really, really want to talk about what he says, but-- spoilers! I may tell some things, but I can't tell them all. I can say that the character changes in this are astounding. At one point Delirium becomes a bit depressed and gloomy. At that point, her usually rainbow speech bubbles become shaky with scrawly letters-- more so than usual, and the only colour to them is a thick gray border with white.
And at the end, time moves on. The tone, due to events, is sorrowful, but at the same time, well-- there's always creation. Things fade away with time-- everything does, but-- new things come up to replace the old.
Two sides to one coin, huh...?
As usual, though, Mr. Gaiman manages to weave an incredible tale full of shifting tones and tiny details that may mean nothing by themselves, but when as part of the whole add a new layer onto things.
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