#you might be able to tell that I'm also a famous wuss who's kind of fascinated by the artistry of fear

[hardly-an-escape]

AU free to a good home:

Dream is the creative director of a famous haunted house attraction. known as the King of Nightmares, his "realm" – called The Dreaming – is an immersive, subversive, creative experience. it's different every year.

as you move through the rooms, you start in a beautiful, imaginative kind of dreamscape, almost a piece of interactive performance art. as you progress through the house, he masterfully builds the sense of unease and dread to a pants-shittingly terrifying nightmare peak.

(like, literally. every year there's a tally in the break room of how many people have pooped their pants.)

Hob is a famous wuss. hates haunted houses, hates scary movies. hears a minor chord and hides behind the sofa. he gets dragged along to The Dreaming one year because his colleagues essentially kidnap him (i.e. get him tipsy and arrive at the haunted house before he knows what's going on).

it happens to be a night when Dream is personally filling in at the last minute because one of the actors is out sick. it's one of the scarier rooms – not the scariest, but when things are starting to get real.

Hob is... not having a good time. he's clinging to the back of his coworker's sweater. he has not pooped his pants, thankyouverymuch, but there are visible sweat stains in the armpits of his shirt. and then he gets to the room where Dream is working.

they lock eyes. Dream is like, 'wtf is wrong with this man, he is clearly not having a good time, why is he here.'

Hob is like,

Hob cannot stop thinking about the breathtaking man who frightened the pants off him. Hob wonders if he could be convinced to take the pants off him in a less frightening context. he is so gone for this stranger that Hob, who is again a famous wuss, goes back to the haunted house multiple times in the hopes of seeing Dream again.

Dream is like, 'this man is either insane or a complete masochist but either way I'm weirdly into it.'

he continues to find excuses to sub in different roles. maybe pays a little extra attention to Hob on his way through. maybe breathes down his neck in a way that should send a different kind of goosebumps down his spine but Hob's actually getting a little hard in his jeans because he can just barely smell Dream's aftershave under the greasepaint.

meanwhile Hob is actually getting desensitized enough to the jump scares that he's beginning to appreciate the artistry of fear and the thought and care that Dream puts into constructing the haunted house each year.

anyway I don't know what happens next but probably after Hob goes through five or six times Death or Matthew or somebody gets fed up and locks them in a closet together and they make out about it.