literature

CoaT #7 - Turned to Dust

Deviation Actions

XennyDiemes's avatar
By
Published:
2.3K Views

Literature Text

Chronicles of a Trickster
7. Turned to Dust

Immortality, it's a double edged sword for far too many people who became familiar with it. It's the condition of where a being can live for a really long time or live indefinitely. Never growing old, never getting sick and in most cases immune from disease and injury. The young never desire it, the old wished for it and the power-hungry demand it. But for those who already got the gift of living forever they often wish they never were. The biggest, if not ultimate downside to living forever is that those around who who don't share that trait, slowly grows old and die. Great civilizations will rise and fall around you and the life you once knew gets turned to dust.

At her eight-hundred and thirty-fifth year on this planet, Launa has had her fun around the long spans of times since. Launa is forever ambivalent in her immortality. Why? It's her never-ending desire to do her tricks in a never ending and ever changing world. She has learned a few lessons during that time, Such as as time moves on people's attention span seems to get shorter and shorter, Another instances is that she unlike other witches, warlocks and sorcerers can adapt their magic with the changing times. For instance back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she didn't have to worry about certain technologies and special materials to deal with people who see her through one of her 'perception field' spells. Except those who have gone through some psychological trauma or a 'freaked out' experience that mortals will eventually see Launa for what she really looks like.

There are no worries because that can be writing off as those poor victims just seeing things or just going insane. But with the advent of polarization, materials that can make two-way mirrors and digital cameras, Launa was on a rush to adapt her magic to effect even the most advanced of imaging technologies. Today, even when she is doing her modeling gigs in her human forms or her perceptive fields. Whenever the photographer uses a digital camera to take a great shot. All the preview screen will ever see is just that and nothing more. Then there are the generations that seem to take on ideals of what 's funny or what isn't, What can be considered the most elaborate prank ever devised or just the ultimate in lowbrow humor. You name it she has done it no matter how 'advanced' or how 'common' it is. Except for one play she wishes she never would have done The 1781 'breaking wind' competition incident. Who would've thought that she had the 'pipes' to clear out five city blocks! She regretted eating that ton of cabbage before being called up.

But then there is the other side of the coin where Immortality has gotten her through, other immortals would envy her for personality and attitude how she manages to see the upside of everything mortals have done the last centuries. Launa would not like she had witnessed deaths of loved ones, wars great and small, and everything that would make those who witness these events bitter and even turn their backs on humanity. Launa had times where she too became bitter and even jealous at mortality but later knew it would cost her everything that she could have enjoyed at the time. Even places to call home also weren't immune. It took her seventy years to return back to Amsterdam when she left at the time the Nazis invaded the country for fear of what they can do with her vast library of books: Ether burn them or use them to change the course of history in their favor.

Launa was often asked even to the point of torture of the one question that makes her existence suspect: Does she want to die? Again being immortal at such a young age, she hasn't familiarize herself with death until her later years and her run with things that would make corpses unrecognizable the only true answer is, she doesn't know; ether she doesn't like to know or just don't wanna know but what she does know that the dead can't do anything other than return back into the earth forever locked in the time they came from. Other immortals should ask themselves that question the next time they see their loved ones grow old and die. Have to keep moving for reasons ranging from boredom to rising oppression and never adapt to a generation that wants to see you dead in order for them to survive. That is what makes Launa different from Other immortals, she never lets herself fall to uppity whims, grow bitter with age while managing a good sense of maturity and more importantly, adapting and keeping the memories of those she loved and lost not burden her with the wanting for death.

If it isn't much for her, she'll continue living until death will finally has have it with her and will fight her for her soul. Though she ponders one thing, to immortals evolve with the time and if they do, hopes that she doesn't end up with additional... anythings.
Immortality, It's a sticky subject but Launa is immune to that and differs herself from others who live perpetually long lives as the world around them changes.

Launa (c) :iconhemisphere:
Comments31
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
ActionNero's avatar
Death is a pretty scary concept to explore... I wouldn't put it past her to be actually scared of dying like the rest of us, again, showing a more humane side to your character is a GOOD THING.