Introducing the Doctor.

[ich_bin_faust]

*He swaggers in, looking a little too opulent in a black velvet doublet with scarlet pleats and gilt buttons. Yet there remains a certain scholarly sobriety about his bearing, almost an irony in the particular nature of his haughtiness, which seems rather that of scientists than of aristocrats

Comments

[thanitohercules]

Life for you holds no wonders new-- yet i'faith, it doth for none. 'Tis a wearied thing, this life, at some time decked in joy and at the next, so stale again. It shall prove you prophet, ay, indeed, for when might man have such holy sight but when he knows it not?

*there's a pause, a nod, and a very faint smile* Guten Abend, mein Herr.

[ich_bin_faust]

*he returns the nod, respectfully* Guten Abend. You speak wise words -- wise beyond your years, I deem. For verily, the deepest passions of Man are but a pale flicker of dying waves upon a vast sea whose depths, alas! we shall ne'er know. I have tried them all, and Fate hath dashed me upon her rocks. But where is truth?

*he sighs, and looks at Hamlet with, oddly, something like compassion* Ich heiße Faust. And how are you called?

[thanitohercules]

At times do I feel beyond my years, few though they are, for I have known such troubles you would not fain believe-- *sighs* They say a father's sins do visit not upon his son, yet mayhap this doth at sins cease. In my summer days thought I his wisdom would be a happy thing--

Hamlet, sir, und Prinz von Dänemark.

[ich_bin_faust]

Nay, there is no happiness in wisdom; 'tis folly that breeds joys. 'Tis as well, I suppose, that I have had no sons; for what should I have taught them? That there is no virtue and no repose, only a futile raging and the a vain lust for truth, extinguished finally in death?

A prince, indeed? Freut mich, Herr Hamlet.

[thanitohercules]

And yet I have found no such folly that breedeth joy-- to me, they breed naught but folly's like. *little shrug, noncomittal* In stead of your unborn sons, I cannot give you thanks; I do love my father-- beyond all earthly things save for one do I love my father. 'Tis the son that fails. Nay-- nay, I am with you in mind. I am the last of my blood.

A prince, though more a man, Herr Faust-- Herr Doktor, should your scholar's sadness not deceive.

[ich_bin_faust]

Beyond all earthly things save one, say you? What thing can this be, which exceeds the love of a son for his father? -- you have taken a wife, perhaps? *pensive* I loved a woman once, or thought I loved. But my affections brought her only torment; and now I fear I loved her too little, if love her I truly did.

...A doctor, a prince -- aye, then let us both be men; it is all the same.

[thanitohercules]

Ay, this is my speech. It is, I will give you, as you say't-- in part. I do love, sir, though no wife have I, nor none shall I ever take. Mayhap 'tis too for me a selfish thing and doth upon the other torment bring--

'Tis, 'tis. Afore long, it is all the same.

[ich_bin_faust]

*utterly fails to remark the omission of pronouns* Wisely do you refrain from marriage; 'twould be a cage for you. Mayhap you would be wiser not to love at all -- and yet, if ever I knew aught akin to joy, it was in pursuit of love. Know then that the pursuit is sweeter, always, than the capture. To keep one's love ever in flight: that would be a trick most wond'rous.

[Typist: I can't believe you got those last two lines in rhyming iambic pentameter. *!*]

[thanitohercules]

*non-remarks are probably for the best, though Hamlet's unashamed* Marriage! 'tis a bane to me-- to men, and not to me alone. If I have, as I have, from my father learned among my lessons one in chief, 'tis that I will no harpy wed when to bind doth make harpies of them all. *twitchy smile* Wiser, ay, to never love, but despite a study long and well, no claim to wisdom have I.

Typist: ^^ I can't believe you noticed.

[ich_bin_faust]

Well spoken, friend. All bonds are hateful; yet some we must endure, or else be ensnared by others worse. The ties of marriage do indeed turn damsels into dragons, whom to slay might be simpler than to tame. But where passions delight and love demands no bond or promise -- there, perhaps, is a folly worth persevering in.

Typist: Heh. This is starting to look like some kind of slashy backwards Oedipus-complex... wherein the son wishes to kill his mother and marry have a deeply platonic relationship with his father... o_O

[thanitohercules]

Throw no rope tight around the neck, they have no need to buck. 'Tis a worthy schooling, this, and to be much remembered. A fine instructor doth experience make.

Typist: Well, Hamlet does have all daddy (and mommy) issues known to man--

[ich_bin_faust]

You have some experience, then, in the matter of the marriage noose? I ask, because you seem too young to have already seen such bonds drawn fast and broken. Or perhaps you mean experience secondhand: that is valuable too.

Typist: Yes, that he does. ;)

[thanitohercules]

An marriage be a noose, I have twice seen my mother hung. For me 'tis enough.