Titel: Rage against the dying of the light
Challenge: "Das menschliche Leben beginnt jenseits der Verzweiflung" [Jean-Paul Sartre]
Fandom: Underworld
Charaktere: Rigel, Nathaniel, Selene
Sprache: Englisch
Kommentar: Rigel kam bis jetzt ein bisschen zu kurz, das musste ich ändern! (Spielt irgendwann vor dem ersten Film.)
It was a moment like this, Rigel thought, that made immortality worth living.
Rage against the dying of the light
One click of his camera, and Selene standing at the window and watching the rain was frozen in time. Another click, and Nathaniel sitting in his armchair and reading a book was preserved for all eternity.
(Or at least to the point these kind of storage mediums would last. Rigel had lived through the change from nitrate film to film that didn’t auto-ignite when you left it alone for too long, and had witnessed the introduction of colour and the rise of digital cameras like his current one. He didn’t believe progress would stop there.)
Neither of them was giving a sign that they had noticed, but he didn’t believe for a second that they had not. It simply showed that they had gotten used it. It was a nice feeling, knowing that they trusted him enough.
Nathaniel turned a page in his book, a look of deep concentration on his face. From where he was sitting he couldn’t read the title, but he assumed it was something philosophical or maybe a collection of poems. While Rigel was interested in the advance of technology, Nathaniel spent his immortality reading more books that a human could get his hands on in a lifetime.
None of them were really sure what Selene was interested in, if anything. She was a death dealer to the core, always vigilant, and it was difficult to get her to relax. (But it had kept them alive in more than one dire situation, so they weren’t going to complain.)
Sometimes, on a calm evening such as this one, Nathaniel read out poems to them or recited them from memory. Those were comfortable nights, with a fire burning in the chimney and no need for guns or violence, and even Selene seemed to find joy in them.
After a moment of consideration, Rigel put the camera down. “What are you reading?”
Nathaniel looked up. “Dylan Thomas. Do you want to hear something?”
Upon his nod he turned some pages until he had found what he was looking for, and began to speak. His calm voice filled the room, pronouncing the words with a light English accent he hadn’t managed to lose in 3 centuries. “Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day, rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, …”
Rigel carefully set the camera on the table and Selene stepped away from the window to sit down in the free chair. Nathaniel kept talking, switching from Dylan Thomas to William Wordsworth and then to his old favourite John Milton. The logs in the chimney were burning down and the night was growing old.
It was a moment like this, Rigel thought, that made immortality worth living. And he caught them all and stored them away to keep them safe.
Challenge: "Das menschliche Leben beginnt jenseits der Verzweiflung" [Jean-Paul Sartre]
Fandom: Underworld
Charaktere: Rigel, Nathaniel, Selene
Sprache: Englisch
Kommentar: Rigel kam bis jetzt ein bisschen zu kurz, das musste ich ändern! (Spielt irgendwann vor dem ersten Film.)
It was a moment like this, Rigel thought, that made immortality worth living.
Rage against the dying of the light
One click of his camera, and Selene standing at the window and watching the rain was frozen in time. Another click, and Nathaniel sitting in his armchair and reading a book was preserved for all eternity.
(Or at least to the point these kind of storage mediums would last. Rigel had lived through the change from nitrate film to film that didn’t auto-ignite when you left it alone for too long, and had witnessed the introduction of colour and the rise of digital cameras like his current one. He didn’t believe progress would stop there.)
Neither of them was giving a sign that they had noticed, but he didn’t believe for a second that they had not. It simply showed that they had gotten used it. It was a nice feeling, knowing that they trusted him enough.
Nathaniel turned a page in his book, a look of deep concentration on his face. From where he was sitting he couldn’t read the title, but he assumed it was something philosophical or maybe a collection of poems. While Rigel was interested in the advance of technology, Nathaniel spent his immortality reading more books that a human could get his hands on in a lifetime.
None of them were really sure what Selene was interested in, if anything. She was a death dealer to the core, always vigilant, and it was difficult to get her to relax. (But it had kept them alive in more than one dire situation, so they weren’t going to complain.)
Sometimes, on a calm evening such as this one, Nathaniel read out poems to them or recited them from memory. Those were comfortable nights, with a fire burning in the chimney and no need for guns or violence, and even Selene seemed to find joy in them.
After a moment of consideration, Rigel put the camera down. “What are you reading?”
Nathaniel looked up. “Dylan Thomas. Do you want to hear something?”
Upon his nod he turned some pages until he had found what he was looking for, and began to speak. His calm voice filled the room, pronouncing the words with a light English accent he hadn’t managed to lose in 3 centuries. “Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day, rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, …”
Rigel carefully set the camera on the table and Selene stepped away from the window to sit down in the free chair. Nathaniel kept talking, switching from Dylan Thomas to William Wordsworth and then to his old favourite John Milton. The logs in the chimney were burning down and the night was growing old.
It was a moment like this, Rigel thought, that made immortality worth living. And he caught them all and stored them away to keep them safe.