Dreamboy, Dreamboy, you're my only dream...
The Delaroux Sisters
Dreamboy is an audio drama podcast from Night Vale Presents, created by Dane Terry and Ellie Heyman, which centres on Dane, a gay musician from New York. He house-sits in the fictional Pepper Heights, Ohio, where he looks for album inspiration but finds himself still unable to come up with anything. To stop himself from spending his days on Cheetos and Grindr, he gets a job at the Pepper Heights zoo, where not everything is as it seems. Dreamboy aired from October 23, 2018 to March 26, 2019.
Contains examples of:
- Abuse Mistake: When Dane first see's Luke, he sees him get punched in the face after Luke has sex with the realtor next door, but after Dane helps him get cleaned up, it turns out that Luke asks the guys he has sex with to make bruises on his body so he can take pictures of them for his Instagram.
- Bittersweet Ending: by the end of episode 8, Jennifer's plan to expose the truth about Zoe has failed and Dane and Luke's budding relationship is very much in question, but on the upside Cora's prediction of Luke's death has been proved to be false.
- Cool Old Lady: Cora Delaroux, Dane's neighbour. She seems like a generally nice person, always greeting Dan with a "howdy" when he passes her place on his way to work and bakes cakes for people, such as Luke, unfortunately for Luke, she only ever does this when she has a dream of someone who is going to die.
- Creepy Child: Jennifer and the twins are like this at times, even seeming to appear out of nowhere.
- Deadall Along: Zoe has been dead all along. What caused her death is not explained, but as its pointed out, she was old.
- Drag Queen: Diana Greasefire, host at the Gussy Hussy.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Cora claims that when she dreams of people they end up dying.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Discussed in-universe, by Dane and Luke when the former brings up that the way Luke gets his bruises could end up going badly one day.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Between episode 4 and 5, we get Dan Roddlestein's Holiday Hoopla, an annual Christmas radio telephone hosted by Dan on 88.7 Classical Cleveland. Which features characters from the previous episodes, those being:
- Jennifer, who unlike her fellow girl scouts is boycotting the event (for the fourth year in the row) because the lack of other religious faiths present on the show, but does call in to give a wish list, which is more of a political rant.
- The twins, Meryl and Sheryl who perform a dance routine while singing Silent Night, and drawing a pentagram on the floor and then burning a small effigy of Dan.
- Sheila Panzerelli, who was part of a choir performance but showed up late.
- Carol, who Dan met at an amateur pottery night and performs a set of three haikus about the honey wasp.
- Diana Greasefire, performs at the piano with Dan while flirting with him the entire time, which culminates into a rendition of O Come, Old Ye Faithful, almost literally.
- The Ghost: Dan's friend Emily whose house he's staying in during the events of the story. Justified, since she's on vacation.
- Girl Group: The Delaroux Sisters. A group from the 60s who were made up of Cora's mother, her mother's friend and the friend's sister (Cora's mother had the better name), whose music is played at the Pepper Heights zoo, one of which is called Dreamboy.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Dane and Luke are interrupted by the girl scouts when getting it on in the alley behind the Gussy Hussy.
- Killer Rabbit: Killer Zebra in this case. Before Dane came to Pepper Heights, a child got into Zoe the Zebra's cage and was apparently killed by Zoe, described to have been so in a rather gruesome manner.
- Little Miss Snarker: Jennifer, the girl scout comes off as this.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is it fate that Dane and Luke are having the same? Or is it just a dream?
- Old Money: The Stonefall's are described as this, John Stonefall having founding the Pepper Heights a hundred years ago.
- Title Drop: Luke referees to the shared dream that Dane and him share as Dreamboy, and its the name of the song performed by The Delaroux Sisters.
- Writer's Block: Even after coming to Pepper Heights to getaway from New York to get inspired he still gets a major case of this.
