#wordsinhaled

[qqueenofhades]

i'm going feral about queer icon hob gadling thank you very much. I JUST CAN'T WITH HIM. i cry because in the comic in the 1989 panel there's a person at the inn talking about how "of course AIDS isn't a punishment from god." hob has to sit there and hear that and just. JUST. hob being visible! hob being vulnerable in his love! hob surviving all his friends. hob buying the fucking pub with the power of his queer money!!! committing the crime of graffiti to SPRAYPAINT A SIGN FOR HIS LOVE TO FIND

It is... probably because I am a queer historian and that is why I imprinted on Hob in the first place, but uh, yes, I have many feelings about this too, and the subtle way in which queer places and spaces work both in the show and in the Dreamling story specifically. Obviously there are many queer characters in Sandman (and we love it for that), but the White Horse, and then the New Inn, is one of the few physical locations I can think of that is a literal embodiment of queer devotion. Hob buys the old pub and builds the new one so Morpheus, if he does ever come back, can find him! He appropriated the spot where they met the first time, where their relationship was built over centuries, and he both saves the old one and builds a NEW one (new step in their relationship etc etc). And physically paints giant signs because his immortal boyfriend is very stupid! He makes it visible and explicit, he builds his devotion into every fiber of that pub, he does it especially so Dream can still come back and find him if he chooses, he waits patiently, and like... the New Inn is absolutely brimming with queer adoration, and ack.

Also, there was that tantalizing tidbit about the real, historical White Horse pub that the Sandman version was based on, being best known for being run by two women in the 18th century who called themselves "Mr. and Mrs. How." Granted, I found that in the IMDB trivia section and if I was writing an actual paper on it, I'd have to do a heck of a lot more research. However, happily, I am NOT writing a paper, and I say it's real because it feels right. In that case, the White Horse itself is embodied as a queer establishment, a place previously run by married lesbians in Hella Gay 18th-century London, and adds another layer to that being the place where Hob and Dream meet every century to conduct their careful, tentative, tender, unspoken romance.

But then! Tragedy! The pub has been bought and will be shut down, and with it, the physical and literal heart of Hob’s relationship with his "stranger!" As I wrote in my meta about the 1989 scene, everything is so careful, so subtextual, so unspoken, whether it is Hob saying he has been stood up and the bartender deliberately not assuming it was by a woman and offering oblique reassurance that Hob is safe here, as a queer man in violently homophobic 1989. So of course Hob can't stand to think of it going away, and has to save it both for himself and as a queer-friendly establishment! So he takes his queer money, as you say, and does something about it! Maybe bad people get to do whatever in this country with that money too, but so does Hob, and he can claw back a little of the place that has always most belonged to him (and him with Dream).

Hence the New Inn, where Hob absolutely hung Pride flags in the '90s long before it was cool or popularly accepted to do so, was able to use his status both as owner of the establishment and Queer Who Can Kick Your Ass to deal with anyone who had a problem with it, and otherwise keep it ready for the day when his love might get to show up again. It's beautiful! It's visible! It's symbolic! And then when Dream does walk in and make their relationship "visible," i.e. apologising and calling Hob his friend, they get to sit down together in that space that Hob has created and kept as an altar of queer devotion both private and public, they smile at each other adoringly, and then what scene/setting do we cut straight to??

THE GIANT BEATING HEART OF THE THRESHOLD OF DESIRE. FROM ONE BEATING HEART OF DESIRE MADE VISIBLE DIRECTLY TO THE OTHER.

They were insane for this, truly. Insane.

[fishfingersandscarves]

hob’s unsent love letter <3 (text by @wordsinhaled )

transcript under cut:

Dearest My own

Dear nameless Stranger:

First, I must endeavor to impress upon you how wretched I feel in the very writing of this Letter, for it is true that we have never before uttered such words as these to each other, and indeed I have but little cause to hope that the wholly untoward affections herein expressed shall ever be returned by you. I am consoled only in the knowledge that I will soon fling this paper onto the fire presently burning in my study, banishing my sentiments once again to the realm of Fantasy where they rightfully belong…

It is seventy-two years to the day until our next meeting, dear Stranger, and I have sustained myself all these long years since our last with the most earnest and fanciful hope that I might one day yet unburden myself to you and be absolved of this monstruous longing. I am a different man; I am certain you shall not recognize me; for I walk in the world, yes, but as one walks in a dream.

I think it will amuse you to learn how insistently this officious summer society dotes on me. Wherever it is you remove to when we are not together, let it be a more pleasant place than this! In a fortnight I return early to London, and the day cannot come quickly enough for my liking. For months I have endured covetous glances, suffered in airless ballrooms, all the while my mind fixed, steadfastly and ceaselessly, on you…

How this present society wearies me, my friend

My friend!—No, I do not fear your reproach; I shall not. I pray you will allow me, within the sanctuary of this Letter, and perhaps without, to attach this word to you, in all its manifold complexities of meaning, for in my most private heart it is how I think of you. And is it not true? Are we not friends? For what is a Friend, if not one’s dearest counterpart, that mirror of one’s soul, who abides with one in constancy through all the dreadful and glorious seasons of one’s life? You are all this to me, and more…

Here I end, lest I reveal more of myself and turn you from me for ever. Though it is all I would deserve, I ask that you withhold too harsh a judgment on me, for I am always, most ardently and humbly,

yours in friendship,

HG

[magnusbae]

@magnusbae Destroying me with their tags as per usual.

@arialerendeair-backup

#Dreamling#FUCK OKAY BUT I NEED THIS LIKE BURNING#I NEED THE AFTERMATH OF DREAMS IMPRISONMENT#WHERE HE SO DESPERATELY WANTS TO TOUCH#HE NEEDS TO#Because he realized how close he came to missing the chance#I need him falling on Hob like a Storm#All whispered promises that he makes good on#Dirty talk growled against his neck in the Dreaming and Waking world#Taking him again and again and never satiated now that he’s had a taste#The fear that comes afterward - that Hob will leave him or they will fall apart#And Hob’s steadfastness#Steadys Dream’s anxiousness#And they learn and grow and love together#UNTIL#Hob turns the tables on Dream#JUST IMAGINE DREAM SITTING THERE#Stewing in lust til it’s unbearable#As Hob takes him apart with nothing but his voice#It’s EVERYTHING#And when Dream lets go at last#He’s not willing to try to deny the two of them any longer#AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER DAMMIT

ListEN I neglected the tag trend for so long, I feel like I should put a bit more heart into it again, it flatters me so much you guys still remember my glory days of tagging >:’D 🤭🤭🥰💖💐

AND ALSO— YOUR OWN TAGS— MISS, MISS WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PRECISELY, PLEASE. 

Dream going absolutely feral— oh he still thinks he shouldn’t, for sure, especially after his brush with Desire— but God damn it, he doesn’t care. 

He wants Hob, and he wants him now. 

He’ll fuck Hob near to death, and then some more in the dreaming. His sister has to gently ask him if everything is alright from all the near-death moments she sensed from Hob, or screw it, most likely at least one actual death. (for a few seconds, he’s fine)

And Hob, oh poor Hob, he’s having the absolute time of his life. 

He is not complaining, decidedly so. 

He’ll let Dream have him any way, any time, and more 

He’s obsessed with him. 

It’s when he got somewhat sated that he starts playing back with Dream, giving him some of his own medicine, speaking poems of love and lust to him, it doesn’t matter if he’s not versed or practiced in this, the intent is all that matters to Dream. 

They do it everywhere, in Hob’s classroom, in his apartment, in the dreaming, in the throne room, they’re giddy and stupid and fucking mad in lust.

But of course, all thanks for the intricate, cruel game of slowburn look don’t touch @wordsinhaled so brilliantly wrote here. 

[astrhae]

i’m literally still dying about the yearly dates and the snowdrops and dream bringing hob gifts from the dreaming??? DREAM FLOWERS??????? and how dream’s question changed from “do you still wish to live?” to “do you still wish to be severed from the dreaming?” goodbyeeeee

i'm dying that you noticed the dream flowers because i just think that hob has so much faith in life, even flowers from the dreaming (which shouldn't survive the waking world, because dreams rarely survive the waking world) would grow simply from the sunlight of hob's love, from how much he loves and believes in and cherishes life

i just think that hob has so much faith in life that he makes dreams come true out of sheer stubbornness and love -- and i had to write that thought into the fic and i'm so glad that you liked the little detail 💙

[cuubism]

asdfjfkf hiii just a few things... first of all i completely didn’t realize i wasn’t following you yet and it is now remedied :D second of all your writing is fabulous and third of all asdfhfjcjc the thief hob drabble... i am SO,,, augh. it was so good. the tension. the flirting. the showing off. amazing! i have no idea if you are planning a continuation but if you are i would so gladly read it and if not that is totally fine and it will just live in my head rent free <3333

omg thank you!! :D

i wasn't intending originally on continuing it at all but then this afternoon i found myself indeed writing another little thing that's essentially a followup, at least in spirit

unfortunately (or fortunately?) that bandit thief hob / lord/king dream dynamic got me by the throat 😂

so i'm finishing that... now

[issylra]

um hiii i just need you to know "by the minute" has broken me into a million little pieces and also like knit me back together again???? did not expect to be so invested in Phone Sex Meetcute but like???? IT WAS SO SOFT????? THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH??? what am i supposed to do now???? aksjhlkfhg thank you for writing!!!! i probably should have left this on AO3 but i will comment there separately!!! <333

Ahhh, this makes me so happy! That story was such stupid fun to write that I'm actually sad it's over. The fact so many people enjoyed it is like icing on the cake when I know the premise isn't everyone's cup of tea. Thank you for taking the time to send this because it was a nice little treat to wake up to before work this morning. <3

[lenreli]

hiii i just wanted to say i love your writing and witch dream/vampire hob in space is such a genius and beautiful idea! they have me in a chokehold ❤️ thanks for writing!

dfgfdhggf Thank you very much!!!!! 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[virgo-dream]

A & B for the trope asks?

A: Love it. Spend my time combing AO3 for it.

FOR SURE whump and hurt/comfort. Give me all the post fishbowl recovery fics. Give me 2022 Dream going to Hob for comfort and love. GIVE IT TO ME.

B: Like it. Not one of my bigger cravings, but it can scratch a certain itch if I’m in the right mood.

No powers AUs. When done right they can be sooooo good!!! There's something about taking all powerful characters that are very complex and taking away the "inhuman" parts and grounding them onto our reality. I like that as a character study devide!

[kittttycakes]

OH MY GOD okay i saw your tags and i also am so fine about the fact that fob recalled that lyric in so much (for) stardust… THEY’RE BOOKENDS… everything is fine i’m normal

I am So Normal about it I promise!!! I!!!!

(I have this habit of just looping albums when I’m listening to them on Spotify and let me tell you, the first time it went from so much (for) stardust BACK INTO love from the other side? chewing my own arm off about it because it works incredibly as bookends and it wrecks me as a cycle, never ending, always starting over)

everything is Fine!!!!!

[qqueenofhades]

https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/blog/2017/6/23/mary-east-aka-james-how-and-mrs-how-of-the-white-horse-poplar?format=amp there is also this!

/SCREEEEECH

Okay so yes White Horse Honorary Gay Pub is absolutely canon, and of course Bram Stoker also wrote about them, god bless

[fishfingersandscarves]

🐭! definitely used to be higher because of your incredible talent! i’m so happy i got to know you and glad we are friends 💕

AHHHH I LOVE YOU N IM GLAD WE'RE FRIENDS TOO

[magnusbae]

Tagged by @cuubism ~ thank you for the tag 💕💖🌻

Post the last line you wrote and tag the same number of people as words.

"That until, I couldn’t reach them at all."

Tagged: @cuubism (it's been a month lmao), @arialerendeair , @wordsinhaled , @flowersonmymind1016

OKAY LISTEN 8 IS WAY TOO MUCH, THIS IS ENOUGH

Do it if you wish~ 😌

[mandolinearts]

fairytale knight to defend the prince of stories 💜

inspired by @wordsinhaled

[astrhae]

hi! i just wanted to let you know i discovered a song today, “hyacinthus” by aidoneus, and it immediately reminded me of “what you once wanted”

if i’m being honest i’d do anything to see you

maybe in another life the universe will let me keep you

was there nothing i could do?

should have known, got too close, betraying what i knew

spiting cost, i forgot what made me fall for you

for so long we’d withdrawn from mortality

i had loved you because you were nothing like me

and now i’m having a crisis :’)

hey!! hi!! i'm SCREAMING you don't understand, thank you so much for throwing this song my way -- i had loved you because you were nothing like me is a line that HITS and i'll be thinking about it all week long

it's my first day of clases today and i'm halfway done with the next chapter -- it might come out a little late -- but will definitely be listening to this song while i finish writing it 💙

here's a little excerpt of the chapter just for you :)

And yet, even with the melancholy, Hob clings to the small wonders that keep him smiling, that keep him hoping and dreaming.

He knows the shape of love by the shape of his heart, the hollows of it that he can’t fill, no matter how he tries. He knows it by the shadows of it, the blurred edges of grief teaching him its price, teaching him the fierceness to hold onto love, to cherish it, to cherish life, no matter how fleeting.

[two-hands-toward-the-sun]

Interest Check for Appreciation Event of The Sandman’s Black Characters

Hello! A few of us are trying to put together a fandom appreciation event for the Black characters of The Sandman. It would most likely run for about two weeks. We’re planning on making it a very broad sort of appreciation event, so as to include as many people as possible. So, participation is not limited to just fics and art (although those are extremely welcome!!). Participation can look like metas, headcanons, even memes—anything that centres around this beautiful cast of characters we’re so lucky to see on our screens.

We currently do not have any Black fans on our organisation team, but it’s important to us that we change that! If you’re Black and interested in helping run this event, please feel free to reach out to @tryan-a-bex or @wordsinhaled.

[delta-pavonis]

I would love to hear more about Raspberries and Rum?

*cackles*

OKAY. So this came from a conversation that I had with @wordsinhaled in, no joke, NOVEMBER 2022. And I still haven't written all of it. BUT some of the bits from our conversation are goddamned SOLID GOLD and I am cracking myself up all over again reading the transcript. [Important background science here (just read the title).] Here is me just copy-pasta-ing from Discord with no indication of who is saying what:

hob getting wasted on dream’s jizz because he tastes like a good mixed drink suddenly a thing i need to see Hob as New Inn bartender keeps trying to make a new rum cocktail with raspberry flavor and no one understands why referencing it makes Hob blush, it is just a reference to that cool space data, right? now suddenly need a 5+1 where hob keeps making dream trial raspberry rum cocktails until they find the Perfect One and dream is very bemused Gotta keep going back and comparing to the actual source material apparently raspberry season in the UK starts in june where he’s like fucking. up handmaking raspberry simple syrup in the middle of the night and dream is like “ah, offerings” Because, honestly, he is technically trying to figure out a way to have everyone who orders the drink get drunk on something that tastes like his husband's jizz? And I find that fucking hilarious? Definitely deranged Hob humor mainly because he’s like, do i want everyone to suck your dick? this is reserved for me but do i want everyone to know the JOY of this taste? perhaps However, first time a university student of his orders the cocktail, once it is on the menu, Hob has A Moment of Regret™️  just a moment though i wonder if dream is aware he tastes like this or if he just. came up with the most reasonable taste he felt he would have when composing his physical body, which of course would be nothing like human and of course some esoteric shit like didn’t even think about it once so he keeps trying this drink and being like yes my very competent bartender husband perfecting his fancy raspberry drink i am so proud but hob is looking perpetually more glinty around the eyes each time he gets closer to the mark and dream is like, cottoning on that Something Is Up eventually dream is like “there is some... significance here. that i am missing.” and hob has to turn around and hide his face in his hands because somehow he never thought he’d have to Explain what he was doing especially because i feel like this would be some shit hob would try to do one time in the middle of the night while planning the summer drinks menu and then somehow he’d be neck deep in recipes from google weeks later but then dream is fucking. super out of left field when he finds out like... “you are crafting a libation. to me.” and hob is like uhhhhhhh no???? not actually???? am i??? I mean... just... based... on you? Hob will argue semantics on this dream is like you’re distilling my essence into a drink that all your patrons will imbibe and hob is like uhhh maybe? uuuhhh... maybe I am? okay but dream like THAT’S KIND OF HOT and hob is like I WASN’T TRYING TO BE HOT I WAS BEING STUPID and dream is just. yes. my husband can be very stupid. and very hot "These two things are not mutually exclusive, my dear Hob." of course this has to culminate in “you mean to tell me you don’t know you taste like raspberries and rum? you just made yourself taste all... lovely and you had no idea?” “i had not the faintest idea, indeed.” “you’ve never...?” “i have had no occasion to... sample myself, as it were.” “sample... jesus. alright. what are you, an hors d’oeuvre at the department party?” “no. but it seems i could be its signature drink.” DREAM IS A LIL BITCH hob’s inner exhibitionist cackling at forcing his staid ass colleagues to drink this drink while dream broods in the corner indulgently eyeing his antics everyone like “wow robbie this is a GREAT cocktail mind if i nick the recipe off you” and hob is like “ah no actually, it’s a bit of a jealously guarded secret” NO. Dream overhears and that's how he introduces himself, the little shit "And you are?" "Oh, I am Hob's Jealously Guarded Secret."

Here is the first chapter of the 5+1 that is in that WIP file (under cut because NSFW - cw for drunkenness and blowjobs):

One: May

It starts as a joke. A joke in Hob’s head that he doesn’t tell anyone. Because he knows that after this many years walking God’s green Earth that he can have a slightly warped sense of humor. 

So Hob keeps his motivations to himself and dusts off his bartending skills, back from when he had just opened The New Inn and was still getting the staff up-to-snuff. And then he sets to work. 

He has to figure out the rum first. Actually, Hob knows exactly which rum he would like to use, the second batch of ron miel honey rum by Destilerías Arehucas produced shortly after they opened on Gran Canaria island in 1884, but as far as he can tell there are only three bottles of it left in the world and they are all in his personal collection. 

So Hob called some friends and obtained as wide a variety of current lines of Canary Island honey rum that he could manage. He bided his time until the next Friday night, poured out a shot of each in a row on his coffee table, and proceeded to get fantastically pissed.

(Could Hob have sipped and spit out the liquor as he tasted them? Sure. Was this more fun? Absolutely.)

It was only after Hob was well toasted that Dream sidestepped into his living room. 

Hob was off the couch and on his knees in front of Dream before he even really decided what to do with his drunk-ass self. He was nuzzling into the fly of familiar black jeans and Dream was letting out a surprised hiccup of a moan and Hob was pretty sure his brain had dissolved into giddy bubbles of lust and want.

Long fingers wound into Hob’s hair and held him there as he rocked forward, purring, “Why hello to you, too, Hob Gadling. I did not expect ah!” A gasp when Hob started peeling away the clothing. “Expect quite this manner of hospitality upon my arrival.”

“Gotta…” Hob had the single-minded determination only liquor could provide. “Need to check…”

Dream made a curious hum of an inquiry at that, but Hob didn’t have time to explain. The taste of the rum was already being diluted by all the saliva pooling in his mouth and he needed to compare them. 

It had been just over a year since His Stranger had walked back into his life. Slightly less than that since they realized what absolute idiots they were for each other. It was enough time, given the many many repetitions Hob had to practice, for him to get really fucking good at getting Dream off with his mouth.

Hob, in his infinite need to stroke his own ego, had timed it once. Well, more than once. Many times actually. The current record was 143 seconds from first press of lips to spend. Hob drunkenly thought he could do better than that. Not that he had his phone handy. Ah well, that wasn’t a good reason to not try.

Dream finished getting hard in Hob’s throat, sobbed as Hob swallowed repeatedly. His lover was shaking with it already, Hob preened distantly, and moved to press the tips of his fingers just so into Dream’s perineum. Another press and stroke behind Dream’s balls, this time while Hob sucked with his entire lung capacity as he backed away, and then the Lord Morpheus was coming with a strangled shout right onto Hob’s tongue.

Hob savored it for a moment, eyes closed, cataloging the taste, before swallowing and scrabbling away from Dream to the table. He grabbed the bottle of what he thought was the best flavor match and took a pull from it.

“Oh yeah,” Hob’s ass hit the floor with a thump. “That’s it.”