✗ || THE SPIDER

TWXNSTARS. ❝ Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot. ❞

AN INDEPENDENT & SELECTIVE DREAM OF THE ENDLESS FROM DC'S THE SANDMAN | PENNED BY JESSICA | SHE/HER | 25+ | ESTABLISHED 2025

Yet when he straightened, he dashed his hands frantically across his eyes, unable to comprehend what they seemed to be taking in: a small tidy room, brightly lit though the world was dark outside the clear windows. A fire flickered beside him, but it seemed cold and empty to him somehow, not an inviting friend that brought comfort.

And strangest of all, a man sat next to it with a book balanced on his lap.

Dustfinger retreated instinctually when the man stood and advanced on him with obvious aggression. In the few seconds before his back hit the wall with a dull thump, he noticed only that the stranger was small and lithe, and therefore quick on his feet, with dark hair and eyes, and something in his expression that terrified the fire-dancer.

Cold, dull metal pressed just above his throat, and his gaze was forced to the ceiling. The feel of it was unfamiliar, but it was obvious that he was being threatened with a weapon of some sort, and he had no doubt that it would be used if he didn't cooperate.

And yet Dustfinger found himself at a loss for words, robbed by fear, his heartbeat suddenly loud in his ears and his breath coming fast and shallow.

"...P-please... I don't..."

The consulting criminal was accustomed to men grovelling for their lives when a gun or even a blade was pressed to their skin, and he always took great pleasure in watching that skin SHIVER beneath cold steel. What he wasn't accustomed to however was receiving such an instant reaction from someone who'd broken into his own home; a penthouse that wasn't easy to locate nor was it easy to gain access to. Usually, those people would be highly skilled in their craft and would have more oomph to them. A drive to carry out their MALICIOUS intentions.

The blonde before him didn't seem to possess any at all. In fact, he seemed almost confused as he did. As though he'd fallen through the ceiling by accident and just to happened to land in a room with someone that would SKIN him alive.

　Was he correct in his assessment?　Or was Will Graham just a lousy liar? He wears the truth like a second skin he cannot properly shed. It hangs onto him and it divulge itself in the depths of his brown eyes. No matter how tightly he thinks he grasps it, it is never enough and he knows it. It slips right through his fingers.

MORIARTY had a knack for finding damaged souls, the same way a narcissist could sniff out an empath from a mile away, and there was something delightfully sombre about the man before him. A depth that went unspoken. Something that could be EXPLOITED, manipulated, played with, and the consulting criminal was all too eager to pick at and fray that thread.

The response he'd managed to elicit though was generic, impersonal, and his eyes flicked up with the urge to roll them. But he refrained. ❝ Yes, I've heard the bogeyman can be quite TERRIFYING. ❞ He teased, his voice laced with sarcasm yet poised in such a way that he could almost be taken seriously. Like he was a man that believed in grim fairytales.

𝑺𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚, 𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍,   depending   how   one   looks   at   the   issue,   it   is   vastly   better   to   let   Moriarty   believe   in   his   own   grandiose   delusions.   Allow   him   to   rest   on   his   laurels   and   believe   himself   to   be   untouchable.   It’s   much   easier   to   manage   him   this   way,   he’s   more   predictable,   if   that   at   all   can   be   said   about   Moriarty.

“I   wouldn’t   call   it   loathing   exactly.”   He   shuffles   his   feet,   switches   hands   that   hold   his   umbrella   in   front   of   him,   sniffs.   “I   can   only   find   in   myself   to   be   mildly   irritated   at   the   pebble   stuck   in   my   shoe.   Loathing   it   would   be   giving   it   more   thought   than   it   deserves,   and   I   am   far   too   busy   for   that.”  

𝑯𝒆   𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔   𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏   𝒂   𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚   𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉,   keeps   the   sneer   away   from   showing   too.   Discussing   semantics   was   not   his   main   point   of   interest   at   the   time   being   and   the   dig   was   just   an   unnecessary pinch   salt   on   the   wound   —   he’ll   have   to   thank   John   and   his   ever   popular   blog   later   on   for   that   one.   

But Sherlock   does   however,   smile,   and   pull   the   gun   out   of   his   pocket,   aiming   it   at   Moriarty’s   knee.   “Actually, what I'd love is   just   shooting   you right   in   the   leg. Blow your kneecap out, I think.   Would   be   interesting   to   see   where   that   takes   us,   don’t   you   agree?”   Not   in   the   move   for   subtle   play   —   he   wants   to   wrap   this   up   quickly   and   be   home   in   time   for   the   afternoon   tea.  

MORIARTY blinked once when he heard the fabric shift, then he blinked again as the gun appeared in his peripheral, the sneer he wore widening in a way that could only be described as MISCHIEVIOUS. All-knowing. Sherlock could be daring, but he was never that daring. Not so soon. He needed to be pushed to the brink first.

❝ you occupy my thoughts. day and night, even in dreams you're there. i want you to never stop haunting me. ❞

❝ i am eternally yours. until the stars go out. and maybe, even after that. ❞

❝ my heart bleeds the color of your soul. i would cut it out and put it in your palms if i could. ❞

❝ it's like you have knit yourself around my ribs. i could no more cut you out than i could remove my own lungs. ❞

❝ you are woven into my soul and i dare not cut a single thread. ❞

❝ i am yours, body and soul, to do with as you wish. ❞

❝ i don't require you to love me back, or to care for me as i do you. only let me be here, let me devote myself to you. that would be enough. ❞

❝ i want to trap your smile in a bottle and take it out when no one else can see. ❞

❝ you belong to me and i to you. ❞

❝ do not look away from me. i cannot bear it when i do not occupy your vision. ❞

❝ i will follow you. to the ends of the earth, to the very gates of hades and whatever might lay beyond. ❞

❝ i will always be here. no matter how far you go you can always come home to me. ❞

❝ tell me all the places you have been hurt, every rejection, every scar. let me love you in all the places where you have burned. ❞

❝ i will not ever let you go. ❞

❝ you cannot escape this. you cannot run away from the love we share. ❞

❝ what we have is deeper than words could capture. ❞

❝ i will be anything you desire. i pluck out the parts of me you find distasteful and stuff your love in the craters left behind. ❞

❝ tell me what you wish of me and i will do it. ❞

❝ i could spend all day merely watching the air in your lung. i would count every blink. i would cherish every sigh from your lips. i could watch you merely exist for the rest of my life. ❞

❝ don't let go of me. i think if you lost me i would die. ❞

❝ i will cut out the tongues of every man who has wronged you. ❞

❝ i wish i could crawl inside you and make a home out of the hollows of your bones. ❞

ACTIONS:

WATCH: for sender to watch receiver sleep.

WATCHED: for sender to wake up and find receiver watching over them.

DISCOVER: for sender to find a journal full of sketches receiver made of them and sender finds them looking at it.

DISCOVERED: for receiver to find a journal full of sketches receiver made of them.

FOLLOW: for sender to stalk receiver, claiming they're doing it to protect them.

FOLLOWED: for receiver to stalk sender and claim they're protecting them.

GOING: for sender to take receiver to a secluded cabin for a romantic getaway.

GONE: for receiver to take sender to a secluded cabin for a romantic getaway.

SACRIFICE: for sender to kill someone who wronged receiver as a grand gesture.

SACRIFICED: for receiver to kill someone who wrong sender as a grand gesture.

CAUGHT: for sender to catch receiver staring at them.

CATCHING: for receiver to catch sender staring at them.

REVEAL: for sender to slowly undress themselves while receiver watches, but doesn't touch.

REVEALED: for receiver to slowly undress themselves while sender watches, but doesn't touch.

BATHE: for sender to bathe receiver, meticulously and tenderly as if serving them.