#not dream using hob's students to create a real life version of goncharov 1973 about him and hob | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cuubism · 1 year

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*puppy eyes* might we have a little more silly rabbit au? as a treat?

i'm rapidly running out of scenes to share 😂 i'll have to write more

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Sage Advice

Beth was not usually a fiend for gossip. Usually, she kept her head down, did her work, focused on her own life instead of other people’s.

But, oh, did Professor Gadling’s class provide such excellent gossip.

“Do you think he’s a student?” whispered Dylan at her side. They were, ostensibly, at a lecture event on medieval warfare. In reality, they were watching the Professor Gadling and his goth boyfriend show.

Beth squinted in their direction. Their professor was leaning against the wall several meters away, talking animatedly with a drink in one hand. His boyfriend – a word which felt insufficient somehow, though Beth couldn’t think of anything better – stood close to his side, just in his space, and, as she watched, leaned in to whisper something in his ear. “I don’t think he’s young enough to be an undergrad.”

“Grad student, then? But also, there are older undergrads, too, returning student things and whatnot?”

“Do you really think Professor Gadling is that kind of person?” Beth asked.

“I mean I wouldn’t have thought but you know what they say,” Dylan affected a dark tone, “you can never really know another human being.”

Beth snorted.

“He’s definitely way younger, though,” Dylan continued. “It’s a problem.”

“Oh, undoubtedly younger—” unless the guy just had a really excellent skincare routine “—but why is that such a huge problem for you? They’re both adults.”

“I just wanna know,” Dylan insisted.

“You need more excitement in your life.”

“This is my excitement.”

Beth was about to give up and go do something that didn’t involve creepily staring at her professor from across the room, when Professor Gadling rested his hand on his boyfriend’s hip and his boyfriend leaned in and said, just loud enough for Beth to make out, “You always offer such sage advice, Professor.”

She met Dylan’s gaze, both of them equally horrified.

“Is he fucking one of his TAs?” Beth hissed.

“Is he that guy’s advisor?” Dylan squeaked in return.

God. This was just getting worse and worse by the moment.

But also so much more interesting.

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“Your students are gossiping about us again,” Dream murmured in Hob’s ear, voice rumbling so low Hob could swear his wine glass vibrated at the tenor.

“Only because you’re inciting them,” Hob grumbled back. “I know what you’re doing.”

“Contrary to what you believe, I am not manipulating their dreams. This is a game of the waking world only.”

“Why? Why limit yourself?”

“Because it is more of a challenge.” A sly smile cut across Dream’s face. “It has been a long time since I have worked with such raw material. Material that I cannot simply bend to my will. It is far more thrilling to succeed when the difficulty is greater.”

“Material? They’re my students, not clay.”

“That is where you are wrong.”

“So what exactly are you doing, then?” Hob demanded.

“I am crafting a story,” said Dream, and he lit up with such vibrancy at the words that Hob couldn’t bear to tell him to stop even if this all felt more like a mad science experiment than it did storytelling. “But I am not telling it, no. My materials are assumption and implication and I am letting the story tell itself.”

Hob was both impressed and frightened by the prospect of this. “How, exactly?”

Dream’s eyes glinted as if he had just been waiting for Hob to ask. “Like this.”

He leaned in next to Hob’s ear, and Hob caught him automatically by his hip. Dream said, louder than before, “You always offer such sage advice, Professor.”

Hob couldn’t stop his blush at the sultry tone of it. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the two students in the corner started whispering furiously at one another. Dream smirked, victorious.

“Before you say I am manipulating,” he said, back in his lower tone, “ask yourself, did I speak a false word?”

“Assuming you do in fact think I occasionally offer good advice, then no. What’s your point?”

“My point is this: blame me not for weaving lies in their heads. I speak no lies. Weak stories are built upon lies. Real stories grow from a seed of truth.”

“Like dreams,” Hob said, begrudgingly, and Dream nodded proudly. “God, your mind terrifies me sometimes,” Hob added, and knocked back the rest of his wine.

#this au is chaotic as fuck #dream: hehehehe wow gossip is fun #hob: NOT FOR ME #not dream using hob's students to create a real life version of goncharov 1973 about him and hob #silly rabbit au #how many subplots does this au have #too many #magnusbae #my writing #ask #anonymous #dreamling #dreamling fic

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