Thinking about Astarion's parents and what it must've been like if they truly loved him and then one day he was just .. gone. Gone from their lives forever. Maybe his mother kissed him as he rolled his eyes and his father told him to stay safe today. Maybe he was a reckless, brash, arrogant and decadent young elf barely out of adolescence making his way up in the world but he was clever and bright and full of life and the light of their lives and then one night he just never came home to them
He just disappeared into thin air and his friends and family hadn't seen him and after years and years of misery and torture and horror, they were finally forced to accept their baby boy was dead, another victim swallowed by the gaping black maw of Baldur's gate, having a bodyless burial with a headstone carved in his remembrance because they couldn't take another year of not knowing. Of not knowing what happened to their son.
He was loved. He was loved and missed by someone. When he disappeared, someone mourned him. Someone he can't even remember after centuries of misery and torture. Someone visited his grave. Someone wept for him. Someone paid to have him put to rest. Someone loved him.
He prowled the streets by night that his parents searched by day. Endless. Dogged. Hell for a mother and father robbed of their child. Searching for a single sliver of silver hair in the crowd. His bright smile. His handsome visage, perhaps taking after his father. Perhaps one day he would come home. They could pray and pray that one day he'd find his way home to them. That he isn't dead. One day that never came— and never will.
Because he cannot even remember them. Even as he is free, he cannot remember. Just another thing Cazador took from him.
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Currently thinking about The New Inn and how Hob literally made Dream his own little corner of the waking world to come back to. This man literally bought a pub next door to The White Horse so that when His Stranger deigned it fit to see him again (because of course Hob didn't know he was imprisoned), he wouldn't have to look far from where they'd always met. He literally wrote instructions on the barrier of The White Horse directing him to the place he bought SPECIFICALLY for this, specifically for when Dream showed up.
And I hesitate to call it a home in Dreams regard, but I absolutely do believe Hob lives in a modest flat above the Inn. Part of this is because it makes financial sense- why buy a house elsewhere and have the extra cost of that + travel (home -> brief stop at the pub -> work -> pub for the rest of the day, waiting for Dream -> home). But also, living there means that when His Stranger shows up (because Hob knows he will, he wouldn't have bought a whole pub for the man if he thought he wouldn't), Hob will be the first to know. If he lives there, it doesn't matter if Dream comes knocking at 3 am, Hob will be there to open the doors for him. He asks his bartenders, daily, if someone unusual had come in - pale, hair as dark as night, beautiful as the sun is bright - and at this point they answer him before he even asks. Even if His Stranger was waiting until their next centennial meeting in 2089, just on the off chance that he wasn't...Hob would be the first to know of his arrival.
So anyway, while I wouldn't refer to the inn as Dreams home (yet...) I would call it Hob's, and he built it with His Stranger in mind. And I don't even think Hob would realise the gravity of this after Dream escapes from his imprisonment. Dream returned to his realm and found it partially deserted- his subjects had left in his absence (save for a key few), he returned and found his family had continued as usual (or as usual as the endless are) without him, the waking world only felt his absence because of the consequences it brought (people not waking up, etc).
Yet there is Hob Gadling and his inn.
There is a place, built specifically for when Dream returned to him. A small corner in the waking world where someone- no not just someone but Hob- had built him a pub, a resting place, with the intention of waiting for him. Hob had carved out this little place, so close to The White Horse, with the intention of making it easy for Dream to find, to come back. After so many people leaving him, or moving on, or just plain not knowing he was even gone in the first place- to come back and find a pub, dedicated to him and his companionship with Hob Gadling...thats gotta do something to you man.
So anyway, yeah. Thinking about how Dream feels when he meets up with Hob, after a century of imprisonment, to find that despite their last meeting...Hob had waited for him. And not only that, but he had built an Inn for him- had made a safe place in the waking world, anticipating his return. Hob had never lost faith in him, and Dream would never turn his back on that again.
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as a resident bagel lover and therefore bagel expert, here is how the party eats their bagels. i'm right.
mike: toasted plain bagel with plain cream cheese. he likes what he likes even if it's basic. probably doesn't eat bagels that often but when he does he savors them.
lucas: toasted everything bagel with plain cream cheese. can be persuaded to have chive and onion cream cheese instead on occasion. max wipes the seeds off of his face because they get EVERYWHERE (i eat everything bagels a lot. i promise this is true)
dustin: okay so he's very very meticulous about spreading cream cheese. but the kicker is. he does not actually eat cream cheese on his bagels. he prefers them toasted with butter, which gets him some Looks but it's what he likes and he's happy with it. however, whenever the party (mainly max) is having issues spreading cream cheese, he is always happy to help and proportions the cream cheese EXACTLY RIGHT every time (he's so me)
max: bagel sandwiches all the way!!! egg and cheese on a bagel. sausage egg and cheese on a bagel. tomatoes and veggies and cream cheese on a bagel etc etc. do not make that girl eat open face bagels she WILL kill you
will: LOX EVERYTHING BAGELS (he's so me) with everything on them are his absolute favorite, but since he doesn't always have everything to make them in the house, he's fine w a toasted everything bagel with plain cream cheese and lox :) or just cream cheese. will is the Resident Bagel Enthusiast i think because he is just like me fr
el: untoasted bagels all the way for her (or VERY lightly toasted. but that's pushing it) with strawberry cream cheese. plain or sesame do just fine for this, but she also does like to indulge in the occasional cinnamon raisin bagel + strawberry cream cheese. she is the Resident Strawberry Cream Cheese Enthusiast. she loves it a lot
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