Fandom: The Sandman (comic) Title: Shades Author: Nyarth (smirnoffmule on LJ) Pairing: The Corinthian and one of his victims (m/m slash) Warnings/Rating: NC-17 (for the sex, it's not actually gory or violent) Link:Story hosted on personal archive Additional info : You can leave feedback via the email link on the main page.
Why should people click? I could say "If you like the Corinthian in any way, shape, or form, this story is for you." But that's not really The Point. It's not about the sex, either (which is not as BDSM-y as the warnings make it sound like -- when you're okay with someone being tied up, you'll be okay with this story). Nor is it really about the second Corinthian, who just serves as narrative bookends. The Point is that this is, at its core, a character study. This story delves into the mindset of a living nightmare, what it means to live in the Dreaming and then wander from the Dreaming into the Waking World. And what it means to be the Corinthian; arrogant, hungry and eager, who wants to be more than the dog on a leash, and gets a whole new world served to him on a silver platter; sensuous, delicious, messy. There are also lots of inside jokes, so to speak, and sentences and metaphors with a delightful, creepy double meaning. There's even Corinthian/Morpheus subtext, if you squint. And I could ramble on and on, but I'll better save that for a proper essay that I can link back to. ^^'
"He had had trouble coming to terms with the worrying quality of termination in the waking world. It was possible to break things there; to make them, and then break them. In the Dreaming, all the making and breaking had been the job of the Dream King. Nightmares like the Corinthian could bend and manipulate, but they couldn’t start or finish. The old Corinthian could stick his fingers in some sweet boy’s dream, and twist it how he wanted it, but nothing remained. [...] Not so here. Same boy, same act, but the Corinthian couldn’t, and wouldn’t, be shaken off and woken up from. They stayed where they were left, and they would be found hours later, laid out like an art installation, gaudy with red paint. Art, or a lesson in anatomy, exposed as nothing more than the sum of their blood and tissue. This is what an honest nightmare does, the Corinthian dimly remembered thinking. Shows people the truth of what’s inside them. About who they really are. What could be more terrifying? Damn, I’m good at my job."
Where to find more by this author: The archive lists some more fics (X-Men, The Authority, Buffy, Harry Potter). Apart from that, I have nothing. :(