Where You're Just So Awestruck By Something - Tumblr Posts
this is such a specific premise that I'm not sure how many people will even vibe with it, but..... The Blue Castle Dreamling AU?
Hob Gadling in the Valancy Stirling role. aging out of his milieu. stifled and stagnating. longing for something beyond the small, limited scope of his restrictive family life. he gets diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and starts thinking about the end of his days.
Dream in the Barney Snaith role. secretive and somewhat suspicious. creative and adventurous and a little bit wild, but adhering to a strict, if obscure, personal code. thinks Hob is a good chum until he reveals the diagnosis and Dream realizes Hob's desperately seeking the kind of joy only Dream could provide under the circumstances.
Hob wants to live forever, but he thinks he's going to die. so he throws caution to the wind and marries Dream, thinking at least he'll taste a bit of real joy before he goes. they live out a magical year, doing everything he ever longed for: dancing, eating good food, reading good books, absolutely reveling in the natural beauty around them, delighting in physical affection for the first time in Hob's life.
and then (spoiler alert) the crisis: Hob should be dead, but he isn't. is Dream stuck with him now? has he saddled this remarkable man with his presence for the rest of his life? he learns more about Dream's family background and grows only more despondent. there's simply no chance such a wealthy, accomplished man would want to stay tied to a drab, poor, uninteresting person such as Hob...
except... he does? Dream follows Hob back to his drab, poor, uninteresting family home and shakes some sense into him. doesn't he realize that over the past year Hob has been the first thing to give Dream's life meaning? doesn't Hob realize that his pure, unaffected love for Dream-as-he's-perceived has changed Dream's conception of his very self and made him believe he could be loved as he is?
and then they live happily ever after...
context: L.M. Montgomery is most famous for the Anne of Green Gables series, but also wrote many other books, of which The Blue Castle is (tragically, imho) not very well known. it's one of her few 'adult' novels, and is available for free on Project Gutenberg. please read it and join me in my madness...