Chapter Text
The Oneiric Ocean 12025-03-10 @942.50
Oneirology is the study of dreams. So a sub-discipline of neurology, psychology and - to a surprising degree - sociology.
NowFuture 5225 HE
"...and then she went inside the Leviathan." the teen explained to his grandmother.
"Eaten." she assumed.
He shook his head. "Promise you won't laugh?"
"I've seen far more embarassing things in my life from people's dreams than this, dearie." she assured him.
"It was a door. There was a door inside the skin of the beast and a ladder leading into the back of the Leviathan. She led me inside and there was a room! Honest to Hades, the Leviathan wasn't a fish, it was a ship! A giant wooden fish that became an underwater ship that could unsink itself!" he told her.
"...you're sure?" she asked.
"Yes. The Leviathan was like a horse, it carried people in its belly but not to eat. That happened inside the tubes." he explained.
"Tubes?" she asked.
"There was water in metal tubes that fed the Leviathan. It was hard to understand, but it ate magic rocks by slowly feeding on the magic to boil water, and the boiling water in the tubes gave it life." he said. "The people were passengers."
"And this beast was... a ship?"
"Yes! I don't understand it, but I could feel it. The water rushed through it like my blood rushes through my heart, and this gave it the power to move without sails, like a ship that worked like a fish."
"What happened next?" she asked.
"After she showed me what was inside, we had to leave for some reason. I wasn't told why, just that we did. When we left the ship, she explained that this ship was part of a military navy."
"Go on."
"The leviathan had 7 giant arrowheads inside of it, made of the same magic stone that fed the beast. The arrows the heads were attached to bore a name on them, a name of uncleanliness. Except why would anyone think Ouranos is sinful? He was betrayed by his own wife."
"He was. May I tell you a story now?" she asked. He nodded. "When I was young I had... a friend. One day she and a man she liked were suddenly told they had to get married because she was gaining weight. She did not want to do this. The man's brother asked why. She didn't want to tell him but she did. Later that day, the man she liked disappeared, and his brother apologized to her and offered to marry her. She looked so relieved that I wondered what had happened."
"Did you ever find out?"
"I wish I could say. All I can say is that maybe Gaia didn't want to have Ouranos as a husband, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. You're a fine young man to have let her push you away, Arturos, but if only all young men were as fair as you."
"It meant please no then, didn't it?" he realised why he had yielded when the dream about the girl had unexpectedly turned away from the originally romantic encounter.
"Yes, I would think so. There are other things in it... but I can tell they're nothing you should worry yourself over. The Black Pouring of Ouranos is a long ways away, at the end of the world. Those who might bring forth his wrathful torrent will not be born for many seasons, long after all of us here now have moved on to the Underworld."
"Why did she pull me close if she did not love me?" he asked.
"Because she cared about you. You were too young to remember, but the woman you described reminds me of your mother's sister, Gloriana."
"Oh! Oh gods. Yes, that sounds... like it would have been a big mistake. Who would be so blasphemous as to feel that?"
"Arturo, if there's one thing I've learned from reading dreams, it's that there a lot of different ways a person can be attractive, but only a handful in which they can love you. Sometimes people think certain strange, unclean things are attractive. No doubt about it, sometimes people need that to be able to raise a family. The real measure of love isn't on how good it feels, but on how right it feels. Love isn't a want. It's a duty you take on because it helps someone who would be hurt without it, a gift you give. She gave you that gift as much as your mother did, Hades host both their psyches, and I think she just wanted to remind you of that so you would know how to propose today. I know you're nervous, but her father and grandfather don't blame you for her death anymore than I do. You can love again, she would forgive you. Your son needs a mother, just like you did. Love has the mercy to take those most devoted to another while they still enjoy living, so that once you are below you will love existing."
There's a lot that can be said about the "real" world after this, but the one that probably matters is the contradiction this and the previous chapter have proposed. If the eScape is a network of dream afterlives that are indistinguishable from real worlds, but "god" came from humans who were somehow able to persist as a conglomeration of minds, how do those fit together? And how does this all count as fanfiction? Well... it's a bit of a long story... a whole "history" in fact...