Stormy Weather, or: Outside, the Wind (Inside, the Light) | Dream/Hob | 1600 words | Rated T
tags: I recently spent an evening without power therefore I must put the blorbos in a Situation, love confessions, first kiss, getting together, power outages, Hob Gadling throughout history, gratuitious use of mildly accurate Middle English
The wind tears around London like a living thing, a wild animal, a predator, intent on the hunt. It chases birds into their nests and people into their homes, moans around corners and rattles shutters, sending piles of leaves whirling into miniature hurricanes and whipping branches into a frenzy, sharpening its claws on roof tiles and telephone poles.
Except in Hob Gadling’s flat.
The New Inn, and the cozy home above it, is in one of those old buildings that’s actually been loved and maintained – thanks in no small part to Hob’s own care and attention. The walls are thick and strong, the roof is solid. The shutters may rattle, but the windows are double-pane; the curtains and carpets are warm and soft, and no drafts encroach on the sanctity of his living room, where Hob and Lord Morpheus, King of Dreams, are having a movie night.
It’s part of Hob’s concerted effort to introduce the Prince of Stories to the stories he’d missed during his imprisonment. Tonight it’s Blade Runner – the final cut, of course – which isn’t necessarily one of Hob’s personal favorites, but seemed to fit the stormy, rainy vibes of the weather. They’re installed on the couch, with hot chocolate and wine and snacks, which Dream has deigned to pick at. Harrison Ford is eating noodles and wandering through wet, moodily-lit streets. The wind is howling outside, but they’re safe and warm and surrounded by soft things and life is about as good, Hob thinks, as it ever gets these days.
And then his lights flicker. Once, twice; there is the impression of a sort of electrical last gasp, and the room is plunged into darkness.
The wind whips and the shutters rattle. A volley of rain spits itself against the windows.
“Bugger,” says Hob.
Dream says nothing, merely brings his wineglass – which had already been cradled in one elegant hand – to his lips.
“Hang on,” says Hob. “I’ve got some candles around here somewhere.”
He gropes his way to the kitchen. In one drawer he unearths some beeswax tapers and several tea lights, which he arranges on a plate. He rummages in one of the deeper cabinets and makes a triumphant noise as he discovers his prize behind disused mugs and a fondue set from the 1980s: a pair of old-fashioned brass candlesticks equipped with round reflectors, highly polished to catch the light and bounce it back out into the darkness.
“You are remarkably well-prepared for an event such as this,” says Dream, as Hob lights his various prizes and returns to the living room with his hands full of flickering flames.
“Well, you know,” Hob demurs. “When it comes down to it, I’ve lived a lot more of my life without electricity than with it.” He arranges the tea lights on the coffee table and sets the brass candlesticks on a nearby bookshelf. “You never really get out of the habit of preparing for the worst. Although I will say, these beeswax ones beat the hell out of the old tallow jobbies we had when I was young. Got ‘em from a local bloke who keeps bees not half a mile away, isn’t that cool? A beekeeper in the middle of London. There, now,” he says, and having arranged the lights to his satisfaction he plops himself back down on the sofa.
Outside, the wind wails. The lack of lamps on the empty street below and the gentle candlelight within make the night seem even darker, and turn Hob’s living room into something even softer and cozier than it already is.
Dream’s face, in the flickering candles, seems even more otherworldly than usual; and Hob, for his part, truly looks as though he belongs in another century. The very shape of his face has changed, somehow, into something older; taking on a new appearance in the candlelight the way a man’s tongue might curl differently around the syllables of another language.
“I miss it, sometimes,” he says lowly. “This kind of world. Before the wires and the phones and the cars. It was… quieter.”
“You speak often of your delight in change and progress. Do you truly long for your past lives?” asks Dream.
“Yes and no,” answers Hob. “Some things are better now, no question. Antibiotics, wouldn’t want to live without those again. Vaccines and X-rays and chemotherapy and antidepressants – almost all the medical stuff. Mass transportation. Cars and planes have never been safer. Honestly, I’ve never understood the people who moan about the olden days and oh, life was simpler back then. Don’t they know how many people died? How many kids? Because they caught a cold or fell out of a tree or had a case of the runs that lasted a little too long?”
He leans forward to adjust one of the candles, which is dripping unevenly, and when he sags back into the couch there is just the hint of a frown between his strong brows.
“And yet…” he says, staring into the flames, voice quiet. “Nights like this. I do sometimes think…”
Hob trails off for a long moment.
“There was a rhythm to life, back then,” he says finally. “You counted hours by the church bells and days by the tasks that needed done. And there was so much that needed to be done… cows milked and fields planted and clothes knitted or mended. And it was all so important, so… necessary. Regimented. But in the in between time – Christ! your time wast thine.” As he speaks, his voice has slipped into an older register: his Rs grown rounder, his vowels longer, curling from his mouth to mingle with the candlesmoke hovering over his coffee table. “I remember fair hours as a lad, even into my manhood, of which I spent lyende in th’ fields, watching ants in th’ grass. And later, too, we’d hie us to bed with the sonne, the fire banked in the hearth. An’ it happen that if we awakened before dawn, ’twas a simple thing to pass the time in simple ways, be it in prayer or in pleasure…”
The innuendo in his words is clear, but Hob is not looking at Dream; his eyes are unfocused as he stares into the middle distance, revisiting the past via candlelight. Until one of the wicks lets out a small pop, and flares, and he shakes himself, coming back to the present.
“God, sorry,” he says, voice back in the 21st century. “Woolgathering. I’ll go on for an age, me. More wine?”
But Dream’s eyes have also gone unfocused, his lips parted slightly, chest rising and falling with unnecessary breaths as he stares – no, gazes – at Hob. He, too, must shake himself into the present moment at Hob’s offer of more wine. He silently holds out his glass.
“May I ask you a personal question?” Dream says.
“Anything. You know that.”
Dream pauses. Sips. Outside, the sound of the wind has not abated; has grown, if anything, even more dramatic. There is the muffled sound of branches scraping against the side of the building.
“Why,” asks Dream finally, “do you pretend to yourself that you do not want me?”
Hob chokes. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Why do you pretend thus to me?” Dream pursues. “Who has known you longer than any being on this planet or any other; who can know your innermost dreams?”
“What do you mean, other planets?” Hob demands. And then: “Have you been peeking at my dreams?”
“I need not peek, as you put it, to see the truth of the matter. It is writ plain on your face and in your every word and deed. I merely wonder why this truth has hovered before us for over six hundred years and you have yet to press your suit. Do you doubt, after all this time, my affection for you? Do you find me – unworthy?”
Dream sounds, impossibly, almost uncertain. Even vulnerable. Hob sighs heavily and leans forward, elbows on his knees and face in his hands.
“I – God. Dream,” he stammers. “Yes, Christ, I am full of doubts. You stormed away from me when I implied you might be lonely, I… I have never, once, thought I had a suit to press at all. What on earth has brought this on? Now, of all times?”
“I do not know,” Dream murmurs. “Perhaps… this darkness is working on me, as well. Perhaps I am as susceptible to candlelight and nostalgia as the next anthropomorphic personification.”
He smiles, a little quirk of the mouth that contains worlds, and Hob leans over, listing helplessly into Dream’s space as the tapers flicker.
“Fuck,” he whispers, pressing their foreheads together, turning his head to butt his cheekbone against the sharp line of Dream’s nose. “Art thou rēal? Speak you treue?”
“Aye, my Hob,” answers Dream. “Min herte is treue and bilongeth to you.”
A sob catches in the back of Hob’s throat at the words. “Fuck,” he whispers again, “Dream, I’m yours. I am. I always have been. My Dream, min sweven, my leof. Alwei, allesweis…”
Their mouths find each other, then, finally, lip against lip and breath against breath. They kiss for a long, long moment, desperate and hungry and soft all at once, as outside the wind howls coldly around the corners of the New Inn, and inside the light cast by Hob’s candles bathes their whole little world in a cozy glow.
“Take me to bed,” murmurs Dream against Hob’s mouth. “Make me your lover. Show me how you pass the time by candlelight, and in darkness.”
“Oh, darling. Dearheart,” Hob answers. “Nothing in this world or any world past could make me happier.”
And he suits his actions to his words.
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I'm so normal about the fact that the crew chose to use the unicorn hoof of all things for Izzy's new leg, its unbelievably moving. The unicorn was the figurehead of the ship, and back then figureheads embodied the spirit of the vessel, offering the crew protection from harsh seas and safeguarding their homeward journeys.
Now i don't think i need to really explain just how beautiful this is, but, I'm also incapable of shutting up about Israel Hands, so.
Izzy seems to assume everyone still hates him, and is drinking his many sorrows away, alone in his room, not knowing that the crew fully recognizes that Izzy saved them from Blackbeard, that he chose to protect them.
The note said that Izzy is the ships "new unicorn" i.e. the new figurehead, this means that he also embodies the spirit of the vessel, and that they have faith in his continued ability to protect them, as is the job of the figurehead.
Even the fact the hoof was painted gold seems intentional, gold in the bible represents love and protection, as if they are saying thank you for protecting us, now let us paint you in our protection as well Izzy.
When they knocked on his door to give him his present, Izzy derogatorily calls himself a cripple, showing that he's feeling particularly clumsy and weak after his fall in front of everyone, and assumes this must be how everyone sees him now as well. But, unicorns actually represent power and grace, they've not only enabled Izzy to feel sturdy again physically with a new leg, they've also taken a bit of the weight off his shoulders emotionally by proving to him that he's not alone. Similar to his new leg, they're willing to bear some of the burden for him.
And that's the thing, Izzy always tries to do things on his own, he gets drunk alone, he cries alone, his version of self-healing involves coming up with stories about sharks biting his leg off, and he even does that alone too. Yet they're giving him a sign that no matter how much he tries to self isolate, he's actually shit out of luck because they're there for him.
What I appreciate about this show of support is the fact that they didn't force Izzy to accept the gift face to face, rather, they left it outside his room, proving that they know him quite well, and didn't want to push him too far too fast. Just like their extending of friendship, they are letting Izzy come to them when he's ready.
But what i love most of all is that it actually works, this is what finally snaps him out of his spiral of depression, and gets him sword training again, improving himself rather than giving up, and engaging with the crew and helping them. This one show of solidarity, gratitude, and compassion, opens his eyes to the fact that he's a part of their messed up family, he belongs to something, and this fact alters Izzy forever.
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