For The Halloween/Autumn Prompt: Dialogue // 14 For Corintheus Or 27 For Corinthian & Lucienne :)

For the Halloween/Autumn prompt: dialogue // 14 for corintheus or 27 for corinthian & lucienne :)

So funny thing, @rriavian asked for 27 for Corinthian and Lucienne as well, lol. Great minds! So this is for both of you. ;)

Lucienne & The Corinthian, (with a touch of Corintheus) prompt 27:

"You look so stupid"/"Well that was the idea since I dressed as you."

Send me a Sandman Halloween/Autumn Prompt!

--

"What are you wearing."

The Corinthian's voice echoed through the throne room with an unusual level of vitriol, even for him. Dream looked up from his book—a collection of daydreams from an Indonesian farmer during the year of 1934—to see Lucienne standing at the bottom of the steps.

She looked…different.

"It's Halloween," she responded to The Corinthian evenly, her lips twitching slightly at the words. "I am wearing my costume."

Her costume consisted of tan slacks, a white button-up, cream blazer, and dark, round glasses. The look was completed by a short, ill-fitting blonde wig.

"You look stupid," The Corinthian snapped.

At that, Lucienne didn't bother to stifle her smile. "Of course I do," she drawled. "I am dressed as you." She slipped the glasses down her nose to reveal that tiny plastic teeth had been sloppily applied above and below her lash lines, framing her eyes.

The Corinthian didn't move or snap again, leaving his response to a menacing glare, but Dream could see a slight flush appear on his cheekbones and ears. His hand had curled around the hilt of his dagger in threat.

Lucienne ignored him, smile never leaving her face as she slipped her hand inside her blazer and pulled a matching dagger from the hidden harness. She met The Corinthian's gaze and with an impressive ease, twirled the dagger around her fingers in the same manner The Corinthian had been known to.

Dream suppressed a smile.

"I think you look lovely," Dream told her, also ignoring The Corinthian as an angry snarl started rumbling in the nightmare's chest. "Pale colors become you."

"Thank you, my lord." Lucienne slipped the dagger back into its harness. "Did you have a moment to discuss the plans for the new spire on the southeast corner of the palace?"

Dream placed the book down on the stone step he was sitting on and stood up. "Of course," he murmured graciously. "I always have time for my favorite nightmare."

The snarling came to an abrupt stop.

Dream brushed his hand against The Corinthian's shoulder as he passed him down the stairs, taking a moment for a glance at him. He was no longer glaring at Lucienne and was instead staring down the dagger, twiddling it restlessly in his hands.

The red flush had traveled to the back of his neck. Dream did not think, this time, it was from anger.

Dream's smile grew, satisfied, and he followed Lucienne from the throne room.

This post is your reminder that you are not obligated to blog about current events.

Things are bad. Really bad. Do not let people guilt trip you into tormenting yourself even further over the fact that things are bad. Doomscrolling is not activism.

If you're just on tumblr to blorbopost or reblog pretty pictures, you are not harming people by inaction.

You are not a bad person for not dedicating every aspect of your life and leisure space to whatever disgusting mask-off attack on human life and dignity some government has decided to enact.

Take action where you can, but don't confuse doomscrolling and digital self harm for action.

If you need to lose yourself in blorboposting, go for it.

If you need to log off for the day, whether it's to take irl action or to protect what little sanity any of us have left over the past 7 years, then by all means, do.

Morale is important. Hope is important. Small joys keep us from burning out completely in times like this. Do not let any "if you don't reblog this I'm judging you" guilt trip convince you otherwise.

For the blossoming romance asks: 18? 💜

Cecccciillllllll thank you for this lovely ask, I had so much fun writing it 💖💖

Bit early for Saturday, but this fill does kind of fulfill the prompt "Touch Starved" for Dreamling Week too 👀

blossoming romance writing prompts

--------

hello/goodbye hugs that linger

Hob Gadling, Dream has found, is rather fond of hugging. 

At the end of a long night spent conversing at The New Inn, Hob had wistfully asked Dream “a hundred years, then?” perhaps expecting the same answer Dream had provided him for the last 600 years. But his time imprisoned has changed him, and so Dream instead says, 

“I’ve heard that friends meet more often than merely once a century.”

The smile on Hob’s face grows slowly. It starts with surprise and wonder, a slight quirk of the lips, as if the immortal cannot believe what he has just heard. Then it grows into a blinding thing, full of teeth and unrestrained joy.

“Next week then?” Hob asks. “Perhaps next Saturday at 7pm?”

Dream thinks of his duties, of all the rebuilding he must do for his realm, of the still missing dreams and nightmares, and the vortex that is threatening to destroy the very fabric of the universe.

“I believe I shall be able to make it,” Dream answers, a small smile creeping up his own face.

“Wonderful!” Hob exclaims. “I shall see you here again, then.”

When they stand to depart the pub, Dream finds himself suddenly enveloped in warmth and the smell of old wood smoke and beer. He freezes, uncertain at first of what is happening until realization dawns upon him seconds later. 

Hob is hugging him.

Dream does not know for how long Hob embraces him, but it is over too soon for his liking when the man releases Dream from his hold.

“Sorry, probably should have asked first if you were the hugging type,” Hob says, suddenly shy and refusing to meet Dream’s eyes.

“I…I am not sure that I am,” Dream answers honestly. “It has been some time since someone last held me. At least a century, if not more.”

Hob’s eyebrows raise suddenly, alarm written all over his face.

“There’s a story behind that, isn’t there?” he asks, and Dream can feel the ache in Hob’s voice as he voices the question.

Dream nods. “I am not ready to tell it, yet. Perhaps next week. Or the week after.”

“However long you need,” Hob reassures him. “I’m not going anywhere, my friend.”

On the evening before their next meeting, Dream is exhausted. He has unmade his favorite creation, killed a dream vortex, fought with his favorite arcana, and discovered his sibling had intervened in his realm in a petty attempt at sibling rivalry. All within the span of a week.

—

It is. A lot.

Dream considers canceling their meeting. Reaching out to Hob in a dream and asking to postpone their appointment until Dream can collect himself and feel less unmoored.

But Saturday comes, and Dream finds himself standing just outside The New Inn, contemplating why he has not yet entered.

“My friend!” he hears from directly behind him.

Dream turns and there Hob is, dressed in an outfit similar but not exactly the same as the one he wore last week. The brown leather jacket is the same, as are the shoes, but his trousers are a different color and he’s wearing some sort of graphic tee shirt instead of a plain white one. 

“Hello Hob,” Dream greets, trying his best to smile, despite his exhaustion.

Hob’s brow furrows. “Are you all right, my friend?” he asks, concerns clear in the tone of his voice.

“I am…fine,” Dream answers though he is anything but.

Hob huffs disbelievingly. “No, I don’t think you are,” he says. “Ah fuck it.”

Hob pulls Dream into his arms and Dream gasps at their sudden closeness. Hob still smells like old wood smoke, and Dream wonders if this is his natural scent, or if it is some sort of cologne he wears, whose purpose is to drive Dream to madness with how much he wants to inhale it. 

Dream’s exhaustion lowers his inhibitions, and before he can think better of it, he finds himself wrapping his arms around Hob’s back and burrowing his face into the other man’s shoulder. He thinks the wood smoke smell is strongest here, in Hob’s jacket, and he wonders what Hob has done to imprint this smell into the material. 

“There, there,” Hob says, rubbing smooth circles into Dream’s back. “I’ve got you, old friend. I have you. I’m here.”

Dream finds himself clinging to Hob, perhaps more than is socially acceptable amongst humans, but the other man doesn’t seem to mind. They stand there, just holding one another, until a bar patron from inside emerges, forcing them to break apart and move away from the entryway to the pub.

“I don’t think the pub is the best place for our meeting tonight,” Hob says, once the other person is out of sight. “My flat is not too far from here, if you don’t mind a walk? I’ve got a bottle of mead old as Queen Elizabeth herself in the fridge. I think you may need it.”

“I believe,” Dream answers, his tongue heavy like molasses in his mouth, “that you may be correct.”

Hob smiles. “And I can hug you all you want in the privacy of my living room.”

“I would like that,” Dream says, and finds that he means it. Already his heart is lighter after Hob’s embrace, and perhaps it will grow lighter still, with each subsequent one, given freely, by his oldest friend.

"some of you are miserable because you're mean" post except its "some of you are miserable because you only look at and talk about stuff you dislike"

Hi guys! So this is a little bit of a serious post and I had to post this since I haven't seen anything related to this anywhere. Manipur, a state in India, is in a state of civil war. And it has been going for more than 5 months now, without any proper action from the government. The people there are practically left to fend for themselves.

I am attaching an article below for further information:

BBC News

Manipur violence: What is happening and why

More than 100 people have been killed in ethnic violence that has engulfed a small Indian state.

And if you wanna go into more depth about the government's ignorance here is a video:

The video is in Hindi language but it does have English subtitles available.

Please please reblog as much as you can. The violence is deadly and basically the whole state is suffering because of it for the last 5 months. Horrifying things are being done to them, especially the women and children.

Because I have just seen this specific thing for the second time, I would like to say:

If I reblog your art, I do not expect you to reblog (or share!) my fic in return

If I comment on your fic, I do not expect you to comment on (or read!) mine in return

My enjoyment of anyone's work does not come with strings or expectations

My friendship is not a bill that you will have to pay later

That's it!