Highball With Lemon

Dreamling Day 2026 means it's once again time to update the Masterpost. Links go to Tumblr posts (for when AO3 is down), and each Tumblr fic post has the direct AO3 link as well.

You can also find me HERE on AO3.

(Cut for length so it's not ridiculous when pinned)

This movie got made because Robin Williams said yes to it (and it's important that Gene Hackman did as well). Williams in the 90s was a mega-star of a type that's not present in the current media environment (maybe Tom Cruise, but I personally think that's echo from his salad days). Even his flops made money on the back end in the video rental market, which also doesn't exist anymore (streaming is different). Hackman was on the other side of his A-list career but still Hollywood nobility if not full royalty.

Playing gay was considered career suicide in the 90s. There had been a number of actors who put lie to that belief stretching back decades, but this was Williams and Hackman (yes, being on screen next to a gay character was enough to get you blacklisted) saying "screw that" and doing it anyway.

Being gay and out was career suicide in the 90s.

Nathan Lane had a really nice gig going for himself. The Lion King put him into the Disney rep company with people like Williams, Bette Midler, and Whoopie Goldberg (check their IMBD list from the 90s--they were making bank at Disney).

Lane didn't come out until several years later (nice summary: https://deadline.com/2024/06/nathan-lane-robin-williams-advice-coming-out-birdcage-1235975010/).

I don't want to imply that this was a Sorkinized moment where everything changed because of one thing, but this was a very important movie that caused real movement in the needle on queer acceptance.

Golp: a roundel purpure.

Roundels are circles in heraldry. They are named according to their color, which also has its own lingo. Let’s meet them!

Bezant: roundel or (gold) 🟡

Plate: roundel argent (silver) ⚪️

Torteau: roundel gules (red) 🔴

Pomme: roundel vert (green) 🟢

Hurt: roundel azure (blue) 🔵

Golp: roundel purpure (purple) 🟣

Pellet: roundel sable (black) ⚫️

Dream of the Endless (Morpheus)/Hob Gadling | Part 2 of Stranger Ways | 6k

Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Alternate Universe - Canon, Established Relationship, Relationship Negotiation, Communication, Touch-Starved Dream of the Endless|Morpheus, Tenderness, Food as a Metaphor for Love, The Dreaming Realm, Eldritch Dream of the Endless|Morpheus, Not comics or TV canon but a secret third thing

"Azazel was a right git who wanted to hurt you and figured your squishy human would be an easier target. As my students would say, he 'fucked around and found out.' And you did warn me, love. You spent all that time at the start trying to scare me away. It was more informed consent than I ever got for immortality and I haven't given up on that yet. I chose this. I chose you. On purpose. You are my love."

Read on Ao3

There are some hints that the distance to Rivendell varies depending on who you are. Frodo starts approaching the Ford in late afternoon; he is in desperate need of healing, and is brought to Rivendell midway into that same night.

In The Hobbit, in contrast, the dwarves and Bilbo cross the Ford of Bruinen in the morning, and the sun is down by the time they reach Rivendell. There’s lot of references to the journey being longer than Bilbo would expect:

They came on unexpected valleys, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet, and then looked down surprised to see trees below them and running water at the bottom. There were gullies that they could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them. There were dark ravines that one could neither jump over or climb into. There were bogs, some of them green pleasant places to look at, with flowers growing bright and tall; but a pony that walked there with a pack on its back would never have come out again. It was indeed a mich wider land from the ford to the mountains than you would ever have guessed. Bilbo was astonished.

Then there’s Aragorn’s line when Merry asks him how far it is to Rivendell:

“I don’t know if the Road has ever been measured in miles beyond The Forsaken Inn, a day’s journey east of Bree. Some say it is far, and others say otherwise. It is a strange road, and folk are glad to meet their journey’s end, whether the time is long or short. But I know how long it would take me on my own feet, with fair weather and no ill fortune: twelve days from here to the Ford of Bruinen.”

(By the way, it always amazes me, now I’ve noticed it, that the hobbits manage this journey - which Aragorn says would take him 12 days on the Road, with “fair weather and no ill fortune,” in only 14 days with Frodo severely injured, travelling mainly off the Road, and with some bad weather and wrong directions. Some of that’s due to the extremely fast pace Glorfindel sets for the last twoand a half days, but it’s incredibly impressive.)

One thing it makes me wonder about though is Boromir, and particularly that the book mentions he arrived in Rivendell "in the grey morning", which personally I've always taken to mean in the very early morning, when there's some light but the sun may not yet be properly up and the dim light has that kind of greyish quality (granted that it's late November, so even with Rivendell being further south in Middle-Earth than my home in the real world, at that point the sun probably rises quite late so it may not mean as much as otherwise). Idk maybe that's just my reading of the text, but given that earlier in the chapter the morning is described as sunny, so the "grey" can't refer to cloudy weather, that's how the phrasing would seem to me, anyway.

And it's always struck me as a little bit odd in the sense that, for that to be the case, he would've had to either both start his journey very early that day (which, granted, in itself is plausible) and have been very close to Rivendell already when he started, or he would have had to push through the night without stopping to rest at all. And to me it's kind of, on one hand if he knew he was close enough to Rivendell to reach it that early, wouldn't he have known he was close, and rather pushed through in hopes of getting somewhere inside before the night was over, instead of spending it camped by the roadside in cold damp late November weather? But if he was so far from Rivendell as to have to travel the whole night through without stopping to reach it in early morning, then how would he have known he was close enough for continuing through the night, instead of stopping to make camp and sleep, to be worth it for reaching Rivendell faster?

But your point about the distance to Rivendell being different to different people in different times would make either of those more plausible, either being shorter than he thought to allow him to reach Rivendell in time to attend the Council (since Elrond implies that those who were in the Council had been called there by fate or some such power and were meant to all be there on that day to play their part in the events at hand), or being longer than he thought it would and forcing him to travel all night to reach it (since he was a stranger, unknown to Elrond and coming unexpectedly).

I would love it so much if they do 🥹 I'm a big fan of Hob choosing June 7th as his birthday OR Retired!Dream choosing it for his birthday. It would be so cute if they celebrate together. Or, just them considering June 7th as their anniversary, and spending the day together.

Feb 13: First by aquilathefighter (499): On the day Dream returns to Hob at the New Inn. They talk until the pub closes and go up to Hob's flat, where confessions occur.

Cobwebs by Torte (1.7k): Hob waits. It is all he can do. He sits at the table in the tavern, sometimes drinking, sometimes talking to other visitors. Mostly he just stares at the door and waits.

A Friend In Deed by SerenAur (2.2k): A take on how that first meeting in The New Inn went. Dream is in dire need of some kindness. Hob provides.

here for a reason by cuubism (2.6k): Hob's out for a walk when he stumbles on his old stranger, feeding birds and looking very sad.

pie of birds and grief and ocean water by Chrome (4k): “Yes,” he says. “But—humans, do you have it where you are hungry, and you only remain hungry so long, and then you stop being hungry?” His blue eyes meet Hob’s brown ones, and it feels as though they hold a memory between them of Hob at the old inn, wolfing down food. Do you know how hungry you can get when you can’t die? “And then it comes back,” Hob says. An unpleasant feeling gnaws at his gut, not unlike the sensation of hunger itself. “But yes, it comes and goes.” His friend nods. “I have found that after…some time, it is no longer a unique sensation.” “What does that mean?” “Do you feel your skin, Hob Gadling? Your bones?” “No,” he says. “Hunger, too, can be a part of you,” he says.

Hope, and a Bottle of Merlot by MDJensen (4.3k): In which two friends just want to visit their old tavern, one last time.

Soundless reunion by Ryunya (6k): After a century in silence, Morpheus escapes his captivity and finds himself unable to speak. It makes his reunion with Hob Gabling hard to navigate, but they manage.

simple dreams of comfort by softestpunk (6.7k): In his captivity, Dream thinks of Hob. His smile, his company, his touch, his love, his body, the life they might lead together. After his escape, he goes to visit the real thing, and gets more than he allowed himself to dream of.

The Weight Of Our Memories by RambleOnWaywardSon (6.9k): “Why don’t you have more faith in human nature?” Hob asked. Dream looked at him, eyes a little dark, squinting. “Why do you have so much?” he countered, slowly. Dream shows Hob where he's been, and Hob shows Dream something about how to heal.

You're Late by vampiringg (7.5k): The Sound of Her Wings but Dream shows up while Hob is in a lecture.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand by Moorishflower (7.5k): Hands are such a human thing, Hob thinks. To make, and shape, and create. The elegance of thumbs. Fashioned by thousands of years of slow and careful evolution for the sole purpose of holding. He wants to hold Dream. To rub their fingers together, that singularly human grasp, to push their palms flat, and their chests close, and he's not sure if he wants to hug his friend or cry on his shoulder, because he should have been there. He should have known. Hob has a hard time believing that Dream forgives him. He has an even harder time believing that Dream might want him back.

Maybe This Is All Just a Dream by my_written_minds (9.1k): When a man clad in all black walks through the door and admits Hob is his friend, Hob doesn't know whether to hug him or play it cool. When it is obvious something happened, something terrible, Hob doesn't know whether to hug him or play it cool. Again. In other words, Dream starts talking and doesn't stop. And suddenly these once a century dates are no longer once a century. More like once a week.

New Moon by Delta_Pavonis (11.5k): They continued to stare at each other and Hob felt the familiar coil of heat low in his belly. Well, that answered that question: still desperately attracted to him even after all these years. Picks up right where "The Sound of Her Wings" left off. How Hob and Dream's reunion (and the days, weeks, months after) go.

the first steps by chubsoneuropa (chubsonthemoon) (12.6k): Perhaps even dreams can change. Or: Dream and Hob, through the seasons.

My Emotional Support Raven by Sylcian_SPH_Legacy (13.3k): Hob Gadling left a long red arrow on the barrier to guide Dream to the New Inn. But what if he didn't? Cue a very lost (inside his own head) Dream and Matthew doing his best to help him (makes five hundred meters and understands emotions).

You found me by Avelera (15.2k): Hob Gadling is recently divorced and not in a good mental place when Dream walks into the New Inn over thirty years late for their appointment. So, instead of warmly welcoming Dream, Hob decides to finally give him a piece of his mind. As far as he's concerned, it's Dream's turn to be the good friend if he wants Hob back in his life. He was not expecting Dream to take him up on that challenge.

the melting press of the sun by cuubism (15.5k, unfinished): Returning to Hob felt like a formality, right until Dream stopped outside the crumpled skeleton of the White Horse Inn.

What We Build and What We Burn by queerofthedagger (23.5k): After Dream finally finds him in the New Inn, Hob struggles to rebuild his trust that this—Dream returning—will always be the case. At the same time, the concern that something has gone horribly wrong grows through meetings, dreams, and details that Hob shouldn't notice but does; not that Dream is much more forthcoming than in centuries prior. That's okay, though; if Hob has learnt one thing, it is how to be patient. Mostly.

the majesty of fantasy (protects me from tragedy) by im_not_corrupted (26.3k): This time, Dream’s imprisonment takes more from him. Upon escaping, he finds himself unable to move on. He is tired, even after regaining his tools and power, and cannot understand why he’s unable to shake off the effects of his time imprisoned. After Death suggests finding Hob Gadling, he finds The New Inn but does not walk inside. The idea of seeing the cruelty he has suffered first hand reflected in Hob is too terrible for him to bear, and so he returns to The Dreaming. After some prompting, though, he begins to visit Hob’s dreams. Somehow, he finds a safe space there in the company of his friend.

take it slow by im_not_corrupted (34k): After his duel with Lucifer and retrieving his stolen tools, Dream is injured and in pain. When he sees Hob, the man insists on helping him care for his wounds.

There's some people in the comments saying "fandoms have always been like this" and others saying "No, it's worse than it was." And both are to some extent right. Fans (or at least a small percentage of fans, and the larger a fanbase gets the larger a group this will describe) have always been Like That; but they did not always have the level of access to creators and actors that they have now.

The notion that a performer needs to be constantly available to public scrutiny, that their personal information should by default be available to any rando with google, is pretty new. It used to be that actors would only be expected to engage with the public on limited, specific, and controlled occasions, usually with security provided. Now they're being asked to rawdog exposure to the mob 24/7 on their own.

(Also, production companies have always always always been exploitative cowards, just to get that straight; reading the biographies of literally any actress from golden Hollywood years makes that clear. It's just, again, more public now.)