#also it didn't fit in there anywhere but it's important to me that the Corinthian is the ship's surgeon

[theaceace]

right so because actual writing doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon does anyone want the outline of a fantasy age of sail Dreamling fic, psyche I’m going to tell you all anyway

The general worldbuilding premise is that the Dreaming (a very fine clipper that can outpace the hordes of hell itself, so they say) is on the tail of a star that is, according to Lucienne's star charts (yes I know that's not how they work but she also has ones for navigation) due to fall. Lucienne is the Quartermaster (using pirate rankings, rather than merchant or naval), making her the second in command, skilled in navigation, and generally a voice of reason to the Captain

Dream and Lucienne know very well that fallen stars fetch a huge amount of money and are pretty magical in their own right, so all of the ships capable of traversing the Sea of Stars will be after it (to get to the Sea of Stars, you need to sail to the edge of the world and catch a storm, which lifts the boat and flips it upside down so its sailing on the sky which is ACTUALLY A SEA BECAUSE I SAID SO, like the boat feelings like it's sailing normally and if you could reach down far enough overboard you'd feel water, but that water is actually the sky and contains stars and if you looked up you'd see the normal ocean above you I don't even know if that makes sense but whatever)

So anyway the ships Threshold and Sunless Lands and Furies and a bunch of others are also going to be after the star

Now the biggest issue is I don’t know if I’d prefer Hob be the figurehead that comes to life and Morpheus the magical captain, or do I have Dream be the captain and figurehead (literally a part of the Dreaming and it’s magic??) with Hob the newest human member of the crew, so HERE’S THE PLOTS FOR THEM BOTH

With Hob as the newest member of the Dreaming and Dream as figurehead, then Hob claims he joined the crew for the sake of his wife and son (Dream is super bummed about this because it means that once Hob is rich he'll leave the Dreaming and also Dream can't smooch him) but during a moment of heightened tension (a battle? A vortex whirlpool?) Dream is trying to protect Hob because hes in love that's what figureheads do, and he's like 'you need to get back to Eleanor and Robyn!' BUT turns out they've been dead the whole time and everyone on the mainland thinks Hob did it, he didn't join the Dreaming to get rich he did it to escape the gallows, and to use the star to buy/wish/whatever himself a new life but he's already found a new life here on the ship!

So they eventually catch up to the star at the same time as the Furies and it's a big ol' battle and the Dreaming is almost destroyed, Dream is basically the only thing holding it together long enough for the Threshold to arrive and start scooping up the crew from the water, but oh no!

Hob has been fatally wounded, so using his Ruby and the last of his magic that had been keeping the ship together (maybe the ruby was left over from a previous fallen star?) He heals Hob, but in doing so is himself turned back into wood and Hob is too weak while healing to grab him and he sinks into the Sea of Stars and it's all terribly tragic except MVP Matthew (a former stowaway, now invaluable crew member who spends most of his time in the raven’s crow’s nest/rigging) totally managed to nab the star in all the chaos and confusion, so the Furies left thinking the star had already fallen (/sunk too deep to retrieve) and Hob uses the star to remake the Dreaming and bring Dream back (and possibly the help of Desire and Death) with the crew's blessing because like fuck would they just sell it after all that

OR

Hob used to be the figurehead of a ship captained by Eleanor and her son Robyn, and he wasn't really conscious or animate yet (that didn't happen until Dream came along) but he still loved them and felt like he'd failed when he could protect them, so when Dream built his ship out of the discarded dreams pieces of other ships that had been wrecked/broken down for parts, he chose Hob as his figurehead and breathed life into him, and oh boy what a life, Hob is going to make the most of it because that's the sort of person he is, and he'd never just give that up!

So, similar to before, off they merrily go to get the star, and Hob is so much more full of life than Dream has ever been and he's teaching Dream to feel joy! There are late night rendezvous! Dream watches Hob experience the wind and rain and sun on his skin for the first time! He's radiant with joy, Matthew is making gagging motions behind their backs!

  But, of course, things go wrong as before, and Dream is catastrophically injured and the Dreaming is falling apart as Dream is dying because he put so much of himself into it, and Hob returns the ruby Dream gave him (he has to literally kiss Dream and slip it over his head because Dream is so insistent that Hob not save him) and Hob goes still with his hand still curved in the shape of Dream's cheek although he was careful to let quickly let go so that there was no chance of him dragging Dream down with him. And I forgot to mention before but for bullshit magic reasons I would think of later, the ruby fizzles out at this point, can't be used again 

And in this one maybe Desire has the star and Dream knows they'll never give it to him except they DO because this is the first time they've seen their brother actually really WANT something for himself and not just for the Dreaming so they give it to him and Dream is going to be in their debt forever but he doesn't CARE. When they get back to the mainland he sets about rebuilding the Dreaming, and it's the first time he's made something from scratch in a REALLY LONG TIME probably for trauma reasons idk, and Hob is the last thing he carves, when everything else is perfect, and finally, FINALLY he uses the whole entire star to bring Hob back, so he's a real boy alive properly and off they all sail happily ever after

#dreamling #fic ideas #not exactly a writing tag #also it didn't fit in there anywhere but it's important to me that the Corinthian is the ship's surgeon #Gault is first mate Gilbert is boatswain Merv is the carpenter and Nuala is the sailmaker