Oneiroi [epilogue]

[mclachland]

prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | epilogue


There is a tree on a sun-soaked hill, an elm with resigned branches that births globules of light and thought, heavy fruit sprouting wings. They tear from the boughs and fly away, leaving the sad elm, never to return and never missed. More blossom in their place almost immediately.

He studies it -- this well-oiled machine -- and is so engrossed in the process that he does not hear the heavy footsteps in the grass behind him.

"It was the first of my dreams," Dean says, coming to stand beside Cas. He shoves his hands into his pockets and looks up at the tree with a critical eye -- usually reserved for the Impala or a piece of pie. Except this is not Dean. "I wanted an extension of me, a piece to do my work should I find myself far away. A part of me, a dream that dreams."

"It is magnificent," Cas admits, watching the process with awe. The fruit, the creatures he has come to know and fear and understand, pull away and drift into the sky. The oneiroi will find the minds of the inhabitants of some world out there, whether it is Earth or a place that does not know of angels and humans and a failed deity's kingdom. He tracks them until they leave his sight.

Dean rocks on his heels and then gazes out into the fields, sunlight reflected back in his eyes, his skin, and Cas is not sure how he could have ever thought this poorly-made copy was Dean Winchester. "It will not be long. A blip. A blink. A breath, and then you will finally be here, my Castiel, dreaming of me."

At the bottom of the hill, the tall grasses rustle and part, and Cas cannot contain the smile that blossoms across his face.

"Cas!"

He shakes his head, still smiling. "You're mistaken. It's true that someday I will be here. I will dream for you, perhaps even with you, but… I will never dream of you."

His words are final, and he leaves Morpheus on the hill to wait for the end of this blip, blink, breath.

Running down the gilded slope to join Dean, Cas holds him careful and close, swallowing his laughter and pulling him back into the grass, into gold, until they disappear.


“As I lay me down to sleep, this I pray:
that you will hold me dear.
Though I'm far away I whisper your name into the sky,
and I will wake up happy.”

End.


Notes:

So, I guess when I said that "Named" was my first and last Big Bang story, I lied. "Oneiroi" was a long time in coming, actually, having first been an original screenplay about a girl who goes into Demos Oneiroi to rescue the kid she's in love with. In 2009, I was gearing up to seriously give thought to shopping it around when I heard that Christopher Nolan was making a movie about dreams. I ended up shelving it, because who would ever contend with Christ Nolan (even if our plots were completely and utterly different)? I ended up using it for my DCBB mostly because I had only a month to write it and I could come up with nothing else.

Writing from Castiel's POV was the hardest thing about it and I probably (re: definitely) will never do that again.

I'm glad I wrote it, but I'm fucking stoked it's over. On to new things!


Thanks:

I would be completely in the wrong if I didn't thank the people who yelled/cajoled/threatened/bribed/sat up until the wee hours of the morning with/loved me throughout June and July.

First and foremost, thanks to my betas peroxidepest17 and nanoochka for pretty much carrying me through the writing process. I'm sure they were ready to murder me in cold blood if I were to say "OH GOD I CAN'T DO THIS" one more time, and no jury would convict them. Between the late night chats, treating them like my own personal sounding board, and bothering them around 2am and pleading for reassurance, I honestly couldn't have done it without them. Thank you so very much. I owe you girls everything -- and by everything, I mean most if not all of my viable, transplantable organs. I love you both.

Thanks to miki_moo, my fabulous artist, for her wonderful work! She is one of the sweetest, most enthusiastic people I've ever had the privilege of working with. She did a great job -- EVERYONE GO CHECK OUT HER ART!

Thanks to timetravel, staraflur, nightanddaze, alexwhitman25, and everyone else who cheerleaded/kicked my ass.

And, of course, as always: thanks to tigbit for being there. <3

Comments

[thad bishop (from livejournal.com)]

Look at me I came back O:

So I think my reading this was a long time coming but I just kept putting it off because I very much judge books by their covers, or more specifically their titles, and seeing "Oneiroi" as a title? Well I had no idea what it meant or what its significance was so I just skipped over it, when I first read Named and caught sight of it, and then when I read Named again and saw it again. I finally decided it was time when I saw someone's post on Tumblr describing some of the things that you wrote into it, and I saw your name and decided well if mclachlan wrote it how much am I gonna dislike it really

I did not dislike it at all. Or rather, oh my God this was so great.

I think I didn't notice while reading, but after, that you definitely struggled with writing it in Cas' point of view. The story was smooth and flowing as your writing always tends to be, but there was something /about/ it. I can't even explain it. Maybe it's /because/ it was in Cas' POV, but I think there was much more difficulty imbibed in every word. Idk, maybe you did it on purpose, considering the tone, with Dean braindead and Cas giving up his wings and the utter darkness of some parts. Regardless, I loved it, it was just different than my expectations.

I was so pleased with just everything that happened in Demos Oneiroi. Especially when they went through the one of three doors. At the beginning I was convinced it was a dream and then nearing the end, I was convinced it was real life and that they HAD failed, even though logically it couldn't have been, especially considering all the chapters that I had yet to read xD Aside from that, the whole torture memory Cas was thrown into. Oh my God. i was just like aching for him to escape, just HE'S BEEN THERE EIGHT YEARS UGH. And then after that I kept wondering why he didn't control the dreams like he had that one.

And then I'll assume Cas' dream about the future becomes a reality because everyone knows time is an illusion and if Cas is a dreaming angel then he can dream about things past present and future.

I will probably reread it in about a year :P, and probably give Named another go, too.