#insomnia thoughts

He knows it’s not as grad as his fathers courting gift to his mother but he finds the biggest and greatest oak tree he can find.

Labors for hours and hours sanding, cutting, shaving, and shaping the bed taking his sweet time to bend the wood using study nails and painting the headboard with an acorn in the middle putting details down to the scratch’s, putting oak leaves and vines around it with dwarven patterns carved into the sides.

(With help of Ori on different patterns)

Never letting anyone in the work space even when he’s not there. It’s a gift meant to be seen when finsihed not incomplete coming out covered in sawdust. Often falling asleep or forgetting meals his only focus is to make it as perfect as possible.

He sews the mattress using the most comfortable materials but dens enough to not feel the wooden beams that hold it.

No one knows what he’s making but only that it’s made of wood a poor gift by some. But to the king he knows it’s will he a grand courting gift as he labors to make his own.

Soon they must reveal there courting gifts as Thorin gifts Bilbo a beautiful metal flower crown made with small jewels shaped into the flowers. The sparking of it giving off an angelic aura around the hobbit when the light hits just right his hair shinning like gold the colors of the crown reflecting.

Bilbo does not bring his by instead leads Thorin to the royal chambers with the company there to witness.

Opening the bedroom doors there where a once broken hard metal bed stood was a grand big oak bed it was big and wide many small paintings telling the story of there adventure to reclaim the mountain. Above the pillows is the acorn painting with a green softly curved boarder.

It was not a bed of rest

It was a bed made for love

To let one know they are safe

To let Thorin know how much the dwarf meant to the hobbit

To share the comfort of the shire

To share comfort with his lover in the bed he made

The blood, sweat and hard hours of labor seen by the company

David Cronenberg frequently invites us to see the beauty within the grotesque, while David Lynch often shows us the grotesque within the beautiful.

Early on, Vox realizes that, for the benefit of his child, he has to get actual sleep - not working until 5 AM and crashing out for a few hours after.

Worse, Vox realizes has to give up COFFEE.

Vox comprises with one cup of coffee per day with a warning, “Anyone that disturbs me while I’m drinking this gets fed to Shok.wav. No exceptions.”

It only happens twice and it’s not like it was anyone important.

(Ethan tried to warn them 🫩)

After, Val reminds him that soda is also bad for him. Ugh.

Alastor comes around frequently and unexpectedly, checking in on Vox and his child

He’s attentive and pleasant and it should be everything Vox ever wanted.

It drives Vox crazy.

It’s nothing like their old dynamic and Alastor is being purposefully polite and fuck that, Vox is done with this shit

He picks a fight with Alastor, complaining that he’s still himself, not just the incubator for his child, fuck him for treating him this way

It’s the most pathetic Vox has felt in a long time

Alastor is genuinely confused, “You want me to insult you?” and Vox kicks him out

Vox feels frustrated at himself afterward

Vox is surprised when Alastor shows up again the next day with a cheeseburger from his favorite diner

Alastor tries asking Vox what he wants from him and Vox answers: to feel like himself again

The deeper, unspoken answer bothers him: to know that Alastor still sees him beneath the pregnancy. To know that Alastor wants him, not just their child

(Not that Alastor had ever wanted him. Wanting Alastor to want him was the oldest desire he’d ever had and the furthest from being possible. He’s not stupid enough to think about it for too long.)

Vox considers the burger in front of him, againthe fact that Al remembers his favorite restaurant and he at least cared enough to take the time-

“I certainly hope your poor taste in cuisine is not a genetic trait.”

And Vox takes a malicious bite, swallowing before he snarks, “This from the fucking cannibal?”

It feels a little more like them again

Vox invites Al to the next doctor appointment where they see their kid for the first time.

It has a weird head shape - design TBD. They should have expected that given that the parents have a television and deer features respectively. It still surprises them.

Vox insists on getting soooo many copies of the sonogram. One for his wallet, one for Val and Vel, one for the fridge and the bedroom, one for his desk - and, of course, one for Alastor

Miracle of miracles: Alastor almost has a visible feeling when looking at his future child.

There’s a joke about Al’s kid not ruining photographs like their father but Vox can’t make it.

FUCKING PARENTING CLASSES

The hilarious faces the Hellborn seeing sinners in a parenting class.

Alastor is enjoying this far too much.

He enjoys it even more when he realizes he can needle Vox into being stupidly competitive about this class.

There may be violence. The class supervisor does not act like this is the first time that this has happened.

Here’s the thing: later in the pregnancy, Vox’s cravings are OUT OF CONTROL. He is constantly hungry and nothing tastes right or fills him up. It’s really fucking distracting. Alastor says that his diet might need a bit more variety.

“No. Fuck no. No way.”

Cannibal town needs to make DoorDash a thing but, until then, Alastor takes it upon himself to deliver pieces of…mysterious meat. It’s very rare and Vox swears he spots one of those finger hors d’oeuvres from Rosie’s shop and he may vomit

But actually…fuck, his stomach rumbles and Vox accepts his fate as the father of a possible cannibal.

It’s fucking good. What the fuck.

It’s even better when Vox finds himself licking the blood off his fingers and Alastor is staring at him…very intently…with a different sort of hunger.

And Vox, not for the first time, wants to fucking jump him…but, God, this is what gets him off? And he has to learn this now?

Alastor snaps out of it but holy shit

And so what if he has sex with Val that night, coming to the memory of that expression on Al’s face?

That’s no one’s business but his, okay -_-

He’ll get over it. Eventually.

At least until the stupidly horny phase of the pregnancy hits.

“Sleep, you need it” and “it’s okay, sleep now”