#it was a very dramatic dream

[moderndaypandora]

The LAYERS needed in a modern/human Dreamling au.  Some level of Endless family dysfunction, obviously.  Hob's family can be be dead or not, it's all good. Are they old enough to have individually gained the awareness they are off-puttingly intense and should hide it a bit at first, or still in that "no, why would I need to Elsa this" stage?

Option A is both of them trying to play it cool, like "don't scare him off" except they so badly want to go from zero to sixty.

(Death and Desire have ruthlessly drilled Dream with flashcards about how to react appropriately in situations.

Desire: it's your one-month anniversary, what do you do?

Dream: [hesitantly] NOT propose?

Desire and Death, conferring, because that's technically correct but the delivery was suspect.

Death, encouragingly: Good start. And?


Dream: a nice dinner and maybe a walk?

Desire: well done!

Death: and for a three-month anniversary?


Dream: give them a key to my flat.

Desire: [airhorn] NO. RED CARD.)

Option B makes them the classic anecdotal "my grandparents got engaged within seven days of meeting each other and still are happy together".

(Death, rubbing her temples: so you met this guy--

Dream: Hob

Death: -- Hob, and within 1 day you gave notice to the Registrar's Office and figured out the best day to get married. And Hob agreed to this?

Dream: NO.

Death: oh thank go-

Dream: Hob SUGGESTED this.

Death: . . .

Dream: are you going to be a witness or not?

Death, 29 days later in the Registrar's Office, to Hob's witness: Is he sane?

Johanna Constantine, drinking heavily from a large flask: unfortunately yes, by all legal definitions.

Death: fuck

Johanna: [passing the flask over] if your brother's even a tenth as intense as Hob, they'll be fine. Probably.

Death, brightening: Is Hob that bad?


Johanna: You know how sometimes you meet somebody and think "oof, they're a bit much, best give them a wide berth"?


Death: yeah.

Johanna: Hob's like a camouflaged hole in the ground of muchness. Except he's done the hole up all nice and he knows that sometimes you just want to be left alone in the hole to sulk and rattle the spikes for a bit, and occasionally get a F&M hamper tossed in.

Death: [hmmmmmmm'ing approvingly]

Johanna, morose: the bastard.

In the background, Hob and Dream are pressing their foreheads together and basking in each other's presence)

[egophiliac]

So the final character turns out to be based on Ryugen, but it feels kinda weird how there is also one based on Zangetsu and they aren't brothers

Or what if plot reveals they are brothers and he was actually adopted or stollen

I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S ACTUALLY RYUUGEN?! I made a joke about it when Toten got revealed but I didn't actually expect... (I'm counting it as a win though, which means I guessed three out of sixteen! ...given how wacky some of these got, I'm actually pretty proud of that.)

he seems very sweet though! I hope he and his secret hamsters are very happy together. 🐹

(also:

THIS WAS MY EXACT TRAIN OF THOUGHT TOO! either this is an incredible bit of meta foreshadowing, or an incredible bit of Takahashi trolling, and I -- I honestly don't know which is more likely)

[valeriianz]

Thinking about how we, as a fandom, seemed to have forgotten the ridiculousness of the mistletoe tradition. Oh, to be kissed by a stranger under a parasitic plant in public! Why yes, sign Dream up.

Thinking about Hob decorating the New Inn for Christmas. Dream drops in unexpectedly (but certainly not unwelcome) as usual, curious to see Hob draping multicolored lights along the open shelves of liquor behind the bar.

“What are you doing, Hob?”

“What does it look like I'm doing?” and Hob would turn back to his work, and Dream would watch, fascinated. Listening to the cheery music playing through the speakers, listening to Hob speak of the centuries past, how the celebration of the Christmas holiday had been pretty steadily thus since the mid 1800’s.

“The pagan holiday?” Dream would inquire, dragging his fingers along the taped up holiday cards along the backsplash of the bar, like moth’s wings stuck out and on display. Some even transferring soft glitter on Dream’s fingers, making him rub them together curiously.

“Well,” Hob would shrug with a grin. “The Christian bastardization of it.”

“Hardly,” Dream mused. “The Romans celebrated Saturnalia in this time, honoring the god with a feast and gifts.”

“No foolin’, eh?”

And, since it was late and Hob was feeling good about the work he’d done, he’d pour Dream a glass of red and offer him a seat, both of them sitting at the bar and admiring the twinkling lights, the smell of pine from the fresh garland, the garish oversized stockings tacked to the walls, and– Dream noticed with puzzlement, a single bunch of berries and leathery leaves hanging from the ceiling in the middle of an archway.

“I do not recognize this.”

Hob followed his friend’s gaze and, “oh,” he’d laugh. But it sounds… off-kilter, nervous or embarrassed. 

“It’s mistletoe. Just this– parasitic plant–”

“Why does it have a bow on it?”

“For fun.” Hob would level Dream with a look like, lighten up. Get into the spirit.

“Elaborate.”

And Hob would hmm and haa about this relatively silly tradition about kissing under a mistletoe, how the “rule” had kind of faded away in the past decade or so, but it was still a fun little thing and Hob, ever the purveyor of all things dreadfully human, wants to keep the tradition alive, even if no one really follows along anymore.

And Dream, knowing full well he doesn’t need an excuse to kiss his immortal, very human partner, decides to humor Hob.

He slips from his seat, hearing Hob snicker from behind him, probably knowing full well what he’s about to do, and Dream walks to stand directly under the plant.

The bar is closed, no one else is in the building, but Hob looks around anyway, like there would be anyone else who would take advantage of this opportunity. Dream has to physically bite down a delighted smile as Hob shrugs– well if no one else will– and all but jumps from his stool, slowly walking toward Dream with his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

Without even touching Dream, Hob leans in and pecks him on the mouth.

Dream’s brows rise up to his hairline. “Is that it?”

“I’m afraid so, love.” He points up to the plant above them. "They don’t hang these in public places for full blown make out sessions, you know.”

“Hm…” Dream considers this, and decides if the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe only yields one chaste thing, then he’d have to start collecting them enough to make something substantial out of it.

Cue the ridiculous montage of Hob finding Dream in various locales, venues, anywhere he’s at (even at a holiday staff party) and in all manner of positions, under a mistletoe.

“Was that even there before?” Hob would ask, a red solo cup in his hand and smirking like a fool at the sight of Dream slouching against the wall, a– quite large actually– mistletoe dangling from the ceiling above his head.

“Does it matter?” Dream would counter and Hob would shrug, fair enough, and acquiesce to the plant’s demands. It was a Christmas tradition, after all.

Or Hob entering his office at work and finding Dream draped across his desk, holding a plastic mistletoe that looked like it was bought at a drug store high above his head.

Hob would take a few moments to stand and stare, enamored by this ridiculous creature.

“You know how much I love you?” It’s not what Hob meant to say, he was going to quip something about dramatic Endless and their need for attention, but he’s so gone over Dream that his mouth barely cooperates with his brain in these situations.

Dream would preen, stretching his long legs down so they dangle off the edge of the desk, like a cat sunning himself, shaking the plastic plant for emphasis. 

“You could show me.”

This is their new tradition, every Christmas season. Hob finds Dream everywhere in the waking world, distracting Hob, raising eyebrows, and starting up strange rumor mills. But it’s in the privacy of his own home, coming back from work, and finding Dream wailing desperately against the foyer of his kitchen, a planted mistletoe hanging from the ceiling, as usual. 

“Oh, Hob Gadling,” Dream would cast an arm over his eyes. “How I’ve waited for you to come back and free me from the spell these dreadful berries have put me under.”

“Okay,” Hob would grin, biting back a laugh. “Would a kiss suffice?”

Dream would be hanging off the wall, his long, rail thin limbs bent at every angle under faux duress. 

“Oh! It might do. I feel shackled under this strange power this greenery emanates.”

“Dream of the Endless,” Hob would tease, dropping his bag and taking off his coat as he walks to his impossible lover. “Brought down by a common earthly sprout.”

“Yes, yes, now will you get over here?” 

And once Hob is within arms reach, laughing hard enough to wheeze, Dream would grab him by the shoulders and pull him in.

[shining-scion]

Objectively wiz isn’t that Mature and Deep. If you wanna get really crazy with philosophical discussions outside of headcanoning and Fandom Brand Overthinking (one of my favorite activities) you’ll probably have to go to a text that’s made to be thought of deeply with the ideas it’s presenting and the thesis it’s laying out.

What makes me think of Wiz in a “whoa this is kind of in depth” way is that it’s not like most modern kids media and it wasn’t even really like kids media at the time. (To my knowledge. I was a kid in 2008 but I also can’t remember much of my childhood EXCEPT wiz. So.)

I think it really did try to challenge its audience (kids) with the idea of death. (A couple other things too but ya know.) I’d never seen death talked so much and explored so much as a kid. And it was fairly clear, to me at least, what it meant when it explored those topics. It always stuck with me that Necromancers couldn’t like… really bring anything back. They could only pull them to the mortal world briefly to carry out specific wills. Once someone dies they can never be wholly restored. You have to let them go.

Which is kind of an insane message to tell a child so explicitly.

[isawiitch]

Been thinking about middle school a lot lately.

[sporesgalaxy]

I dont have time to really do it justice but I had a dream that Sonic The Hedgehog movie 3 came out and Shadow had long quills with green highlights and blue/purple lowlights vaguely like this

[arri-vixx]

Little Dreamer Boy 💤

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

okay wait laughingstock concept Incoming: so im imagining some of the neighbors (maybe Julie & Frank) noticing that Barnaby & Howdy are a lil fruity, yk yk. and Julie's like damn, i guess we have to play matchmaker here.

so naturally they wind up getting the whole neighborhood involved. everybody's a wingman here. Poppy's dropping hints when Howdy drops off groceries, Wally is constantly asking Barnaby to go get him things from the bodega, etc etc. Howdy and Barnaby are facing this sudden change in town-wide behavior with slight concern and bemusement

eventually - lets say Julie, Sally, and Wally - get Barnaby into the bodega and then abruptly leave like "don't have too much fun without us you two *wink wink nudge nudge*". once they're gone (read: very obviously hiding outside & watching through the window) Barnaby & Howdy turn to each other like:

Barnaby: you think we should tell them we're already married?

Howdy: let them have their fun - they'll figure it out eventually

[riwooga]

A quick Zephyr to welcome the new update 👀✨

[outmaww]

one day left.

[journey-to-the-attic]

I had a prophetic vision.

as a disclaimer this is all so OOC- I get really worried about my random brain junk because I know that I mischaracterize them quite a bit but it's junk for a reason I guess 😅

so I was daydreaming about JTTA while listening to music as per usual and a specific song came up (idk the song it was classical music) and it was very dramatic and it planted this whole SCENE in my head of like. IK in some extreme danger in front of a Big BadTM or something and she's tweaking out because she knows she's about to die *again* and there's nothing she can do to stop it and she just has this moment of complete and utter pridefulness where her thoughts are like "Oh c'mon like seriously? I was killed by one of the seven deadly sins and now I'm gonna get wiped out by this lowlife? I'm so above this"

and so naturally my brain said "hmmm what if IK but cool pact magic???"

So THEN I had this vision of like. when she's having these moments of like, drowning in their respective sins, she goes Magic Girl ModeTM and kind of snatches their powers if that makes sense.....the one I saw specifically was the pride thing with Lucifer, and there's this like huge outpouring of *something* from somewhere in the Devildom, and everyone rushes over to see IK with huge, black raven wings and pitch black hair, and her irises have gone red and everything. she's EMO NOW guys she means BUSINESS. and she's flying over this Big BadTM with a ball of purple magic nonsense in her hand (AKA what Lucifer used to doink her hand!!! CALLBACKS PEOPLE) naturally she passes out from the whole thing because she's only a tiny human and Lucifer's amount of pride has the same effect as a tranq that you'd use on a rampaging elephant butttt the others are like "whoah did you guys see THAT"

anyways yeah. thought that was pretty cool, also high-key just an excuse to make IK look even more like her father

top 1 thing that make me want to draw WHAT THE HECK!!! in a more ambitious timeline i would immediately undertake drawing a Superpowered IK for each sin/brother because but for now..... i will marinate in this idea......

obviously lucifer is very worried but i feel like a part of him is also doing the pleased dad thing where he's like "haha of course my daughter would be able to wield colossal demonic power despite her mundane human body, she's just that talented"

(i think ik taking on his appearance would also make him reconsider some things about himself, because he knows he has a parental sort of affection but he still tries to convince himself that he's just being a big brother sometimes. this fully makes him go yeah i'm a father now)

i feel like the other brothers would also tease him like "wow you're SO full of yourself that ik's body literally couldn't handle it" lol

[idkaguyorsomething]

this is the anybodys/chino dynamic to me

(IMAGE ID: three images. The first one is two sketches of people standing side by side. The first person is glaring and has their arms folded while being labeled “actual sunshine” and the second person is smiling brightly enough that a halo is emanating from their head while being labeled “dangerous”. The second image is of Anybodys from West Side Story 2021. The third image is of Chino from West Side Story 2021)

[mashmouths]

last night sleeping with long hair and i'm not going to get cold feet about cutting all of it off bc i will not pay the cancelation fee 🫶 but tomorrow my hair will be the shortest it's been since i was maybe 10 years old

[reallyintoscience]

Dream, getting caught up on music from the last century. Dream, draping himself dramatically on his balcony, listening to Holding Out for a Hero and sighing wistfully about 1789.

Matthew, entering stage right, has some questions.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

officially getting lost in the animatic sauce u_u

[1-nexomon-a-day]

3/21/24 - Masquiti