Guess who's back? (sorry if this posts twice...)
Right, well. I’ve been writing lots (LOTS!!!) of stuff for The Road to El Dorado. And Tulio and Miguel just remind too much of these two XD
Anyway, forgive me if I’m a little rusty. Haven’t written them in a while.
“We seem to be on a boat.”
“Yes. The key word being ‘seem.’”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that this might just be a delusion. We could be imagining it.”
“…I like to think I’ve got a better imagination than that.”
“Well, perhaps we merely expect to be on a boat, and so it appears that we are.”
Rosencrantz blinked. He looked around, walked over to the side, and slapped the rail. Then he turned back and grinned. “It seems solid enough to me.”
“That proves nothing.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust the situation.”
“…I think we should act on assumptions.”
“All right. What do you assume?”
“We’re on a boat.”
“Good. Yes, we’re on a boat.”
“So we can’t be dead.”
Guildenstern looked up sharply. “Why do you say that?”
“You said it yourself - Death is not boat.”
Guildenstern considered this. “I suppose you’re right. Assuming, of course, that you were correct in assuming that we are not imagining things.”
“Maybe it’s taking us back to the beginning.”
“What?”
“Well - I… never mind.”
“No, what?”
“Never mind. I had something, but I lost it.”
“But you did have it.”
“I think.”
“So that means there is something.”
“Yes.”
“Reassuring.”
“I thought so.”
They lapsed into silence. Guildenstern made use of the pause in conversation by beginning to pace the length of the deck.
Rosencrantz watched him idly, starting when the other man whirled to face him.
“We’ve tried the philosophical approach - that didn’t get us very far. We need to look at this practically. Who, for instance, is steering this ship?”
Rosencrantz glanced at the helm and realized that there was no one there. He shrugged. “Perhaps it’s steering itself.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Does it really matter?”
“Of course it matters! If no one and nothing is steering, then the boat isn’t going anywhere, and if it’s not going anywhere then neither are we! And I for one am sick of wandering from one place to another without direction.”
“There’s also the rocks.”
“What?”
“The rocks. If no one’s steering, we could hit the rocks.”
“What rocks?”
“It’s a rather large body of water; I imagine there must be rocks somewhere.”
“…Can you steer a ship?”
“Not that I remember. Can you?”
“No.”
“Might as well not worry about it, then. There’s nothing we can do.”
Guildenstern opened his mouth to argue, but decided it would be a waste of time. He moved to the railing and stared morosely out over the water. “I think we are dead.”
“Not so bad, is it?”
“It could certainly be better. Being on land would be nice.”
“Yes. I always did think the afterlife would be a bit bigger.”
“You said something, before, about the boat taking us back to the beginning.”
“Yes. I remember.”
“You do?”
“I -” Rosencrantz looked startled, then pleased. “I do.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
He expected to hear the words ‘about what?’, but instead Rosencrantz merely “hm”’d and stepped up to join him at the rail. He squinted, then pointed out towards the horizon.
“Look - I think I see the shore.”
“I see it too - I think… That’s odd. It’s… I think it’s home.”
“Funny. I don’t remember it being near water.”
“Nor do I.”
“Not that that means much, all things considered…”
“Perhaps we really are on a boat, but we were imagining the sea. We could be in a lake.”
“Can you swim?”
“Yes, can you?”
“I think so.”
“What are you driving at?”
“Let’s jump overboard and swim to shore.”
“It would put a spoke in their wheel…”
“Exactly.”
“And perhaps, if they’re expecting us to arrive on the boat, and we don’t…”
Rosencrantz smiled. “We could get away.”
“Perhaps. Count of three?”
“One.”
“Two.”
They stepped up on the rail, clasping each other’s hands and balancing. Their eyes met. “Three,” said two voices as one.
They jumped.
And then there's this - I've never written one of these before...
Five Times Guildenstern Should Have Said “I Love You.”
…And One Time He Did.
1.
They were finally homework-free, and were celebrating this by taking advantage of the warm weather. The four of them eagerly spilled out of the school doors onto the grounds, Hamlet leading the way.
Presently they split up, Hamlet going off in one direction with Horatio following behind, and Guildenstern and Rosencrantz walking over towards the trees.
“You fell last time you climbed up in one of these, remember?” Guildenstern said warningly. Rosencrantz laughed as he pulled himself up through the branches.
“Only because the branch broke,” he replied breathlessly once he’d found a place to sit. “Why don’t you come up here?”
Not finding a reason that had any real substance to it, Guildenstern shrugged and began the ascent. A moment later they were sitting a couple of branches apart, Rosencrantz grinning and Guildenstern rolling his eyes. “All right. I’m up here. Now what?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t planned that far.”
“This is stupid. I’m getting down.”
He stood up, maintaining a precarious balance on the thick branch and inching towards the trunk. His foot slipped and he froze.
Rosencrantz giggled. “Need some help?” He stood up as well, grabbing the branch above him with one hand and reaching out towards his friend with the other. Guildenstern let go of the trunk to reach out towards him - which had the effect of throwing him off balance. He fell forward with a cry of surprise, snatching at air to catch hold of something.
He felt Rosencrantz grab his arm, and a moment later they were both dangling from the tree. Rosencrantz was upside-down, supporting both of them by hooking his legs around a branch, holding Guildenstern’s arm with one hand as Guildenstern clutched at his with both, eyes wide.
“…Well this is a fine mess.”
“I think I’m slipping.”
Before Guildenstern could process this, they fell.
He landed on his back. Rosencrantz fell on top of him, throwing his arms out. His palms slipped on the grass - he slid further forward and Guildenstern found himself nose to nose with the other boy.
For a moment they lay there, Rosencrantz laughing and Guildenstern blushing and staring straight into his friend’s eyes.
Then he snapped out of it. “Get off me.”
~~~---~~~
2.
“I could jump over the side. That would put a spoke in their wheel.”
No, he thinks, No you couldn’t because it’s dark and I’d lose you in the water and then I’d only be half of myself and -
“Unless they’re counting on it.”
“I shall remain on board. That’ll put a spoke in their wheel.”
And it’ll keep mine turning.
~~~---~~~
3,
“Guil?”
“I’m fine.”
“No you’re not.”
“I am. Just drop it.”
“No.”
They were in their room at Elsinore, Guildenstern pacing while Rosencrantz sat on one of the beds.
“You’re upset.”
“I’m… disturbed, yes.”
“Why?”
“We’ve got no memories of what’s behind us, and no knowledge of what’s ahead. We’re supposed to be helping a friend that we can hardly even remember - nothing makes sense…” And if nothing made sense, he couldn't function. He couldn't think if there was nothing to go on. Assumptions and words only went so far.
“Has anything ever?”
“I don’t know! I don’t remember!”
“I don’t think it really matters whether we remember or not… I mean, what do memories have to do with our future?”
“Everything! I keep… almost getting something, and then… It’s gone. But - something’s going wrong. We’re in danger, and we can’t escape from it because - because we’re supposed to be in it… There’s nothing we can do! We’re not in control of our own lives, we have no idea what’s going on or what part we’re meant to play in it, and we’re being controlled by people we don’t know anything about!”
“You are upset.”
“Yes I’m upset! I hate this! I hate not understanding, I hate knowing that everything that’s happening is somehow going over our heads, I hate that our lives before this are gone, and I hate that we don’t matter!”
He sat heavily on the bed next to Rosencrantz, dropping his head into hands and feeling lost. He felt an arm go around him and immediately wished he’d sat on the other bed. He could deal with this if he could just relax and think it all through. He could deal with this if he could believe, for a moment, that no one cared what this was doing to him - because if no one else cared, why should he?
He couldn’t deal with this when Rosencrantz was sitting right there trying to help him.
He shut his eyes as everything flooded through him - misunderstanding, fear - terror, unknowing, powerlessness, unimportance, confusion, the frustration of being kept in the dark, the impossibility of ever getting out of this situation, having to keep both himself and his companion afloat in this complex and complicated hell they were going through, the inevitability of… of… of something that he should be able to see but couldn’t… the thing that was terrifying him the most because it was so vague, yet so threatening and so there…
Rosencrantz felt him tense up, felt him start trembling with the effort of holding back.
“It’s all right. It’s only me.”
“Somebody might come in…”
“No. No one here cares about us enough to come in. It’s only me…”
He let go, just slightly, just a few tears, but then they wouldn’t stop. And then he couldn’t breathe.
And the only thing he could hear was Rosencrantz’s voice. “It’s all right. I’m here. Everything’s all right.”
And this was bewildering because he was always the strong one, he was always the one saying those things, and this was getting more and more surreal by the second.
But he felt safe.
“I… I… thank you.”
~~~---~~~
4.
“You were right. It would have been nice to have unicorns…”
“It would certainly have made an impression on the royal family.”
“Even as disjointed as they are.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe when this is over we can go and catch one?”
Guildenstern smiled and shook his head. Here they were in the king’s castle, on a mission to find out what ailed the prince, and Rosencrantz wanted to catch unicorns.
It was a momentary blaze of light that he thought the situation had very much needed.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
~~~---~~~
5.
“I bet you the coin we’ve been flipping that something odd’s about to happen,” Rosencrantz whispered. They stood in a hallway inside Wittenberg, poking their heads around the corner to watch Hamlet and Horatio, who were standing at the window.
“I agree with you, but fine. I’ll win it back later.”
Rosencrantz was, as it turned out, quite correct. Only a moment passed before the prince took hold of Horatio’s shoulders and pulled him into a rough kiss.
The two of them walked away, and Rosencrantz laughed. “All right. So I win this bet, but you can keep the coin. You said last week that this was going to happen.”
“It’s probably happened before.”
“Probably.” Rosencrantz walked idly over to the window Hamlet had been looking out of. Guildenstern followed him.
Rosencrantz felt arms go around him. He turned and their lips met.
The kiss lasted only a second. They pulled away from each other and Guildenstern grinned. “There must be something about this window…”
~~~---~~~
And the One.
“You know… it is curious, the way the heart works. Someone might look at a person and know instantly that there is a connection. Others must spend years with somebody before beginning to trust them. And then some people just fit - just go together, automatically.
We have been together since as far back as either of us can remember. Admittedly that isn’t saying much, but - the scattered memories that I have of… before all this - you’re in them. Almost all of them. That’s got to mean something.
I get angry with you, shout at you, and then forgive you in a moment. I get tired of your puerile disposition and yet I can’t imagine you not being here - nor do I want to. I cannot imagine myself without you.
“Soul mates are defined as two people meant to be together. When one is without the other they are incomplete. Like half a person. Soul mates are, essentially, half of each other.”
“Um. You’re losing me.”
“I love you.”
A/N: Bleh. I really, REALLY don't like number three. But I'm too lazy to redo it. AGAIN.
*slinks away*
~God Bless.
Anyway, forgive me if I’m a little rusty. Haven’t written them in a while.
“We seem to be on a boat.”
“Yes. The key word being ‘seem.’”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that this might just be a delusion. We could be imagining it.”
“…I like to think I’ve got a better imagination than that.”
“Well, perhaps we merely expect to be on a boat, and so it appears that we are.”
Rosencrantz blinked. He looked around, walked over to the side, and slapped the rail. Then he turned back and grinned. “It seems solid enough to me.”
“That proves nothing.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust the situation.”
“…I think we should act on assumptions.”
“All right. What do you assume?”
“We’re on a boat.”
“Good. Yes, we’re on a boat.”
“So we can’t be dead.”
Guildenstern looked up sharply. “Why do you say that?”
“You said it yourself - Death is not boat.”
Guildenstern considered this. “I suppose you’re right. Assuming, of course, that you were correct in assuming that we are not imagining things.”
“Maybe it’s taking us back to the beginning.”
“What?”
“Well - I… never mind.”
“No, what?”
“Never mind. I had something, but I lost it.”
“But you did have it.”
“I think.”
“So that means there is something.”
“Yes.”
“Reassuring.”
“I thought so.”
They lapsed into silence. Guildenstern made use of the pause in conversation by beginning to pace the length of the deck.
Rosencrantz watched him idly, starting when the other man whirled to face him.
“We’ve tried the philosophical approach - that didn’t get us very far. We need to look at this practically. Who, for instance, is steering this ship?”
Rosencrantz glanced at the helm and realized that there was no one there. He shrugged. “Perhaps it’s steering itself.”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Does it really matter?”
“Of course it matters! If no one and nothing is steering, then the boat isn’t going anywhere, and if it’s not going anywhere then neither are we! And I for one am sick of wandering from one place to another without direction.”
“There’s also the rocks.”
“What?”
“The rocks. If no one’s steering, we could hit the rocks.”
“What rocks?”
“It’s a rather large body of water; I imagine there must be rocks somewhere.”
“…Can you steer a ship?”
“Not that I remember. Can you?”
“No.”
“Might as well not worry about it, then. There’s nothing we can do.”
Guildenstern opened his mouth to argue, but decided it would be a waste of time. He moved to the railing and stared morosely out over the water. “I think we are dead.”
“Not so bad, is it?”
“It could certainly be better. Being on land would be nice.”
“Yes. I always did think the afterlife would be a bit bigger.”
“You said something, before, about the boat taking us back to the beginning.”
“Yes. I remember.”
“You do?”
“I -” Rosencrantz looked startled, then pleased. “I do.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
He expected to hear the words ‘about what?’, but instead Rosencrantz merely “hm”’d and stepped up to join him at the rail. He squinted, then pointed out towards the horizon.
“Look - I think I see the shore.”
“I see it too - I think… That’s odd. It’s… I think it’s home.”
“Funny. I don’t remember it being near water.”
“Nor do I.”
“Not that that means much, all things considered…”
“Perhaps we really are on a boat, but we were imagining the sea. We could be in a lake.”
“Can you swim?”
“Yes, can you?”
“I think so.”
“What are you driving at?”
“Let’s jump overboard and swim to shore.”
“It would put a spoke in their wheel…”
“Exactly.”
“And perhaps, if they’re expecting us to arrive on the boat, and we don’t…”
Rosencrantz smiled. “We could get away.”
“Perhaps. Count of three?”
“One.”
“Two.”
They stepped up on the rail, clasping each other’s hands and balancing. Their eyes met. “Three,” said two voices as one.
They jumped.
And then there's this - I've never written one of these before...
Five Times Guildenstern Should Have Said “I Love You.”
…And One Time He Did.
1.
They were finally homework-free, and were celebrating this by taking advantage of the warm weather. The four of them eagerly spilled out of the school doors onto the grounds, Hamlet leading the way.
Presently they split up, Hamlet going off in one direction with Horatio following behind, and Guildenstern and Rosencrantz walking over towards the trees.
“You fell last time you climbed up in one of these, remember?” Guildenstern said warningly. Rosencrantz laughed as he pulled himself up through the branches.
“Only because the branch broke,” he replied breathlessly once he’d found a place to sit. “Why don’t you come up here?”
Not finding a reason that had any real substance to it, Guildenstern shrugged and began the ascent. A moment later they were sitting a couple of branches apart, Rosencrantz grinning and Guildenstern rolling his eyes. “All right. I’m up here. Now what?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t planned that far.”
“This is stupid. I’m getting down.”
He stood up, maintaining a precarious balance on the thick branch and inching towards the trunk. His foot slipped and he froze.
Rosencrantz giggled. “Need some help?” He stood up as well, grabbing the branch above him with one hand and reaching out towards his friend with the other. Guildenstern let go of the trunk to reach out towards him - which had the effect of throwing him off balance. He fell forward with a cry of surprise, snatching at air to catch hold of something.
He felt Rosencrantz grab his arm, and a moment later they were both dangling from the tree. Rosencrantz was upside-down, supporting both of them by hooking his legs around a branch, holding Guildenstern’s arm with one hand as Guildenstern clutched at his with both, eyes wide.
“…Well this is a fine mess.”
“I think I’m slipping.”
Before Guildenstern could process this, they fell.
He landed on his back. Rosencrantz fell on top of him, throwing his arms out. His palms slipped on the grass - he slid further forward and Guildenstern found himself nose to nose with the other boy.
For a moment they lay there, Rosencrantz laughing and Guildenstern blushing and staring straight into his friend’s eyes.
Then he snapped out of it. “Get off me.”
~~~---~~~
2.
“I could jump over the side. That would put a spoke in their wheel.”
No, he thinks, No you couldn’t because it’s dark and I’d lose you in the water and then I’d only be half of myself and -
“Unless they’re counting on it.”
“I shall remain on board. That’ll put a spoke in their wheel.”
And it’ll keep mine turning.
~~~---~~~
3,
“Guil?”
“I’m fine.”
“No you’re not.”
“I am. Just drop it.”
“No.”
They were in their room at Elsinore, Guildenstern pacing while Rosencrantz sat on one of the beds.
“You’re upset.”
“I’m… disturbed, yes.”
“Why?”
“We’ve got no memories of what’s behind us, and no knowledge of what’s ahead. We’re supposed to be helping a friend that we can hardly even remember - nothing makes sense…” And if nothing made sense, he couldn't function. He couldn't think if there was nothing to go on. Assumptions and words only went so far.
“Has anything ever?”
“I don’t know! I don’t remember!”
“I don’t think it really matters whether we remember or not… I mean, what do memories have to do with our future?”
“Everything! I keep… almost getting something, and then… It’s gone. But - something’s going wrong. We’re in danger, and we can’t escape from it because - because we’re supposed to be in it… There’s nothing we can do! We’re not in control of our own lives, we have no idea what’s going on or what part we’re meant to play in it, and we’re being controlled by people we don’t know anything about!”
“You are upset.”
“Yes I’m upset! I hate this! I hate not understanding, I hate knowing that everything that’s happening is somehow going over our heads, I hate that our lives before this are gone, and I hate that we don’t matter!”
He sat heavily on the bed next to Rosencrantz, dropping his head into hands and feeling lost. He felt an arm go around him and immediately wished he’d sat on the other bed. He could deal with this if he could just relax and think it all through. He could deal with this if he could believe, for a moment, that no one cared what this was doing to him - because if no one else cared, why should he?
He couldn’t deal with this when Rosencrantz was sitting right there trying to help him.
He shut his eyes as everything flooded through him - misunderstanding, fear - terror, unknowing, powerlessness, unimportance, confusion, the frustration of being kept in the dark, the impossibility of ever getting out of this situation, having to keep both himself and his companion afloat in this complex and complicated hell they were going through, the inevitability of… of… of something that he should be able to see but couldn’t… the thing that was terrifying him the most because it was so vague, yet so threatening and so there…
Rosencrantz felt him tense up, felt him start trembling with the effort of holding back.
“It’s all right. It’s only me.”
“Somebody might come in…”
“No. No one here cares about us enough to come in. It’s only me…”
He let go, just slightly, just a few tears, but then they wouldn’t stop. And then he couldn’t breathe.
And the only thing he could hear was Rosencrantz’s voice. “It’s all right. I’m here. Everything’s all right.”
And this was bewildering because he was always the strong one, he was always the one saying those things, and this was getting more and more surreal by the second.
But he felt safe.
“I… I… thank you.”
~~~---~~~
4.
“You were right. It would have been nice to have unicorns…”
“It would certainly have made an impression on the royal family.”
“Even as disjointed as they are.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe when this is over we can go and catch one?”
Guildenstern smiled and shook his head. Here they were in the king’s castle, on a mission to find out what ailed the prince, and Rosencrantz wanted to catch unicorns.
It was a momentary blaze of light that he thought the situation had very much needed.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
~~~---~~~
5.
“I bet you the coin we’ve been flipping that something odd’s about to happen,” Rosencrantz whispered. They stood in a hallway inside Wittenberg, poking their heads around the corner to watch Hamlet and Horatio, who were standing at the window.
“I agree with you, but fine. I’ll win it back later.”
Rosencrantz was, as it turned out, quite correct. Only a moment passed before the prince took hold of Horatio’s shoulders and pulled him into a rough kiss.
The two of them walked away, and Rosencrantz laughed. “All right. So I win this bet, but you can keep the coin. You said last week that this was going to happen.”
“It’s probably happened before.”
“Probably.” Rosencrantz walked idly over to the window Hamlet had been looking out of. Guildenstern followed him.
Rosencrantz felt arms go around him. He turned and their lips met.
The kiss lasted only a second. They pulled away from each other and Guildenstern grinned. “There must be something about this window…”
~~~---~~~
And the One.
“You know… it is curious, the way the heart works. Someone might look at a person and know instantly that there is a connection. Others must spend years with somebody before beginning to trust them. And then some people just fit - just go together, automatically.
We have been together since as far back as either of us can remember. Admittedly that isn’t saying much, but - the scattered memories that I have of… before all this - you’re in them. Almost all of them. That’s got to mean something.
I get angry with you, shout at you, and then forgive you in a moment. I get tired of your puerile disposition and yet I can’t imagine you not being here - nor do I want to. I cannot imagine myself without you.
“Soul mates are defined as two people meant to be together. When one is without the other they are incomplete. Like half a person. Soul mates are, essentially, half of each other.”
“Um. You’re losing me.”
“I love you.”
A/N: Bleh. I really, REALLY don't like number three. But I'm too lazy to redo it. AGAIN.
*slinks away*
~God Bless.