Unprompted snippage througout.
On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, DB Sommer wrote:
Through The Eyes of Infinity
A Record of the Lodoss War Shortfic
The skies were a perfect azure, as they always were.
Pirotessa hated perfect skies.
Interesting opening.
She could remember a time when clouds would randomly hang in the air. Some
large, some small. Some fat, some thin. Some one huge mass, some strung out
so far they barely connected with one another. And if she used her
imagination, she could sometimes picture the clouds taking on shapes:
People. Animals. Objects. Anything. Everything.
Thats what happens when you take too much acid.
Very considerate, really.
Pirotessa wished people would be less considerate.
Looks like someone needs a bit of change.
It felt like forever that Pirotessa had been smothered in 'love'.
Thats the effect of atwo hundred and forty three year incestuous orgy.
Kinda nasty when you thought about it.
Her last true friend.
Her vibrator had broken in the forties and rosy palm just didn't do it.
Pirotessa had acquaintances, perhaps even a handful that could be numbered
as friends, but she never got to close to them. It was so silly after all;
they always disappeared in what seemed the blink of an eye. Humans always
complained how others were like that. Pirotessa thought it an unusually
accurate assessment for a race that seemed so inherently stupid most of the
time. Centuries of observations had never made her waver in that particular
conclusion about the human race; it only served to reinforce it.
Sadly, after my much reduced time giving examination of the species, I
must agree.
She wondered if her friend thought the same way. She would have to ask her
at this decade's meeting.
I think you refer to it as "this decade's meeting" every time. May want to
change that around a few times.
high. At least a dozen other equally large skyislands were in view from the
border at the edge of the floating landmass she currently stood on, but this
was the one she wanted.
I get the impression that every thing is far too organized to have such
problems as thin air or jet streams bothering people.
happily at the approaching figure. The return smile automatically came to
Pirotessa's lips, and she waved back as she approached.
"I was wondering when you'd get here," Deedlit chided once Pirotessa got to
the table, though the effect was lost since she was smiling happily the
entire time.
Well, four thousand years can change a person. Can't really fault you.
Deedlit seemed unmoved by the declaration. "I'm always early for these
little get-togethers. They do only come along once in a decade. Now sit
down." She made a gesture to the open chair opposite her.
If everything's as calm and placid as it appears to be, I bet that
eagerness is quite unusual.
wouldn't openly admit to it. Though perhaps it was time for a change. Maybe
next time she would surprise Deedlit by arriving at their rendezvous first.
A little change rarely hurt things.
And that last bit made me realize just how subdued these people are. They
need a good war to liven them up.
A young man still in his early teens, obviously a cook from the style of his
uniform, approached the table. He bowed deeply before the duo. "It's an
honor to meet you, Eternal Ones."
He continued gushing. "I've never met one of your kind before, let alone
two."
So elves are that rare. We'll get back to this.
"I've been thinking about the past lately."
Deedlit jerked. The next line was supposed to go: "Not much, and yourself?"
She cast a warded glance in Pirotessa's direction "Have you now?"
Yep, more proof to just how placid these guys are. Good job.
Pirotessa shrugged, a helpless little gesture, especially coming from her.
"I don't know. I just have. And I mean the far off past, not recent events."
"S'a waste of time," Deedlit shrugged non-committedly as her companion's
drink finally arrived. "Worry about what's ahead, not behind."
Eh, I'm somewhat surprised by this. Given how everything seems to be
controlled for perfection, I think you succeeded if you were trying to
make me think this is a 'perfect world,' this line doesn't really sit that
well with me. I certainly received the impression that theirs nothing
cataclysmic in the future to worry about. Of course, your characters could
be brought down to such a level that a minor upset in business could be
considered apocalyptic but still.
"Ahead is always the same," Pirotessa snorted in disgust. "I think I value
the past more than the present. I felt more alive then, even if I was
continuously closer to death than I am now."
"Sounds like you need laid," Deedlit said as she finished her glass and
ordered another.
Even sex would get boring after four millenia.
heard. Her words were more breathed than spoken. "Remember, you asked for
this, so now you're going to get it. The answer is:
"There is no point to life.
"Never was.
"Never will be."
Thank you Soren Kriekergard <sp>
This is when the very existentialist theme of this comes to full light and
I'll take a moment to comment on it. I can't see this happening. A race
thats effectively immortal, barring accidents, I see as adoptng this
philosphy, flirting with it on and off throughout the years. The problem
with this level of nihilism though is if you follow it to its natural
conlusion, past 'there is no point to life' there's no purpose to strive
and they'd all just kill themselves. Up until now, I was assuming that
they had goals to life, just off camera as it were. Given thousands of
years to brood about life and brood about the realization that there is
no point to it, I think the entire race's eventual suicide is far more
certain than the "love drifts to nought" bit.
The last of her energy leaving her, Pirotessa slumped in her chair. She
looked at the half filled glass of Sasuasha Juice. When she had first drank
it, she had enjoyed the mysteries it held; now it was just a gray liquid.
The words just seemed so... true, once they were spoken aloud. It made
terrible, terrible sense. In a way, it explained everything that Pirotessa
had questioned over the last several hundred years. She did not want to
believe them with all of her heart, but that wouldn't change anything if
Deedlit was correct.
I take it from this that Pirotessa has subconsciously believed this for
years and just hasn't been brave enough to admit it.
Deedlit returned to her seat across from her friend. "Hard to accept at
first, I know. I was the same way." At least she thought she had been. That
particular lesson of life had stuck with her for sometime now, perhaps two
thousand years.
Damn nigh everything in Deedlits life happened two thousand years ago it
seems. Wonder how long before she forgets the "meaning" of life.
Deedlit examined her oldest friend and shrugged. "Personally? I live life in
the fast lane. I've helped others fight the good fight and try to hold
myself to noble causes and be true to what I believe in. The Gods know
whatever ideals I have are going to outlast most civilizations. I've spent
most of my time neck deep in humanity. I've had more friends in that time
than I can remember, and sometimes their actions even surprise me. I've had
more lovers than I can possibly remember too. Some I used for sex, others I
thought I loved, and some I truly did. That sort of bonding helps a lot too,
even when you know they're going to die. Basically, what I'm trying to say
is just because there is no overall point to life, doesn't mean you should
stop living it."
Nihilism taken to a different end? Eh, anythings possible, I guess.
Deedlit continued grinning. "Not much. Just going to some bar where we'll
dance a lot, get really drunk, and pick up a couple of guys and get laid."
This is, sadly, the part I really can not believe. Given she's given up on
any point in ANYTHING, effectively, and she's been banging around for
4,000 years, I can't picture her as being excited abut yet more sex. I
know people who've been having it for less than two decades and most agree
it looses its flare much quicker than you would think.
Hmm. Haven't done a 'mere' character piece in a while. Pretty sure the whole
concept of dealing with 'eternal love' for immortals such as the elves set
in Record of the Lodoss War has been done before, just not by me. ^_^ Was
sort of hoping the more 'modernesque' setting in the opening would help to
grab attention, even if the entire concept has been written many times
before in many different ways by those better than I.
Given you've totally changed every bit of the characters, albeit
believably, I don't really see the point in a piece like this. They're not
the herosor villians I've come to like, so its original fiction.
Interesting fiction mind you, but isn't that somewhat against the point of
a character sketch?
As much as I tend to be the closet romantic, I also swing towards less
idealistic versions of love as well, this being a perfect example. Employing
the age old adage of ' eternal love' and some of the difficulties (or in
this case, impossiblity of it) for individuals that might actually have the
ability to live forever certainly applied to that line of thinking. I
thought the idea of Deedlit being the one to completely forget about things
first and being so nonchalant about it would be a bit of a twist. After all,
her and Parn's relationship was the center of RotLW and was pretty much the
classic sword and sorcery, knight and maiden tale, and would be the more
likely part to be remembered rather than Pirotessa's own subplot with
Ashram.
Well the absolute improbability of someone surviving that long, even
accepting this lack of aging, is so staggering and thats glossed over, I
fail to see the problem in eternal love. Actually, I find their continued
existance with what would seemt o be an utterly bleak life harder to wrap
my mind around/
Well, enough ranting. And whether you agree or disagree with the ideas
presented, hope you enjoyed.
Well, I did enjoy the prose, the main reason I find myself reading you so
much. Can't say I think you took the premise to the correct conclusion,
but you did a good job of leading it to yours.
D.B. Sommer
Man, I seem to be sending you more and more negative replies. I wonder if
thats anything to do with I find your writing more and more entertaining
in some weird way. /me shrugs.
Miashara