Photofiction: Closed System
Fandom: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Pairing: Ros/Guil
Theme set: Gamma
Title: Closed System
Rating: PG-13
#1 Ring - Elsinore has selective acoustics that make their voices ring through the halls and Guildenstern has the good grace to feel bad about berating his friend so publicly.
#2 Hero - He knows that this is Hamlet’s story and they were never the heroes, but that doesn’t stop him from jumping in to rescue Rosencrantz from danger.
#3 Memory - Their identity flitters down in snatches of memory - a half-lit, half-alive dawn; a stroll through the woods; an intuition of mortality - all with the pair of them together.
#4 Box - He gets stuck on one train of thought like a mime trapped in an invisible box of his own creation until Guildenstern taps him on the shoulder and tells him to come out of there.
#5 Run - He hates always making the running but he suspects he’d hate it even more if he had no one left to play off his words.
#6 Hurricane - If Ros is the flurry of activity that drags everyone into his world, Guil is the eye of the storm who keeps them steady.
#7 Wings - “You wait in the wings and I’ll tell you when it’s our cue to come on … er, what is our cue?”
#8 Cold - “I could jump over the edge,” he suggests, but Guildenstern reminds him that the water will be too cold this far north.
#9 Red - The colors red, green and blue are as real as Guildenstern, but Elsinore, like yellow, is a mystical experience shared by everyone.
#10 Drink - He pours out the wine and they drink to the future - “and to the past,” Ros adds.
#11 Midnight - Guildenstern likes midnight for its in-between qualities and the way they haven’t reached their destination yet.
#12 Temptation - To say that Rosencrantz was tempted to open the letter would imply some sort of intent, not that he was faithfully playing his part.
#13 View - Guildenstern hugs his knees to his chest as he looks out at the view of the ocean, but Rosencrantz crashes into him before he starts to panic.
#14 Music - Later he stares at the recorder and tries to rationalize how the air would vibrate if he covered one stop or another but he has not the skill to make music - Hamlet should have asked Rosencrantz instead.
#15 Silk - The pattern makes for a dreadful kimono, but once it’s in the air, Guildenstern has to admit the silk has a certain grace.
#16 Cover - He’s like a child distracted by too many stimuli and sometimes the only way to escape this sensory overload is to cover his eyes and plug his ears.
#17 Promise - “We’ll know better next time” - a promise that was made to be broken.
#18 Dream - “Or I could be you dreaming of being Rosencrantz.”
#19 Candle - It’s too dark to see, but when Ros strikes a match, the light from his candle reflects the warmth in his eyes.
#20 Talent - Guildenstern insists he has no real talent for drawing, but Rosencrantz knows he could do it if he’d only let go of his inhibitions.
#21 Silence - Whenever the silence gets so loud he thinks he is dead, he reaches for Rosencrantz’s hand to remind himself that he still has something to live for.
#22 Journey - In the woods, no one tells them what to do, so Rosencrantz is determined to appreciate the journey, however long it takes.
#23 Fire - He finds that if he focuses on the squirrel above him he can’t feel the fire at all, but when Guildenstern grabs his hand away he can’t think of anything but how much it hurts.
#24 Strength - He pulls on the rope and marvels at the equilibrium of bearing his own weight, but when Guildenstern joins him, his strength fails him and they both tumble down.
# 25 Mask - He projects all sorts of things to the outside world (I am fine, I don’t need anyone else, I can get by on reason alone) but whenever he’s near Ros he can feel that mask start to slip and he’s terrified of the day it cracks apart entirely.
#26 Ice - He’s heard the plain of traitors is covered with ice, but they were executed before they could betray Hamlet so he supposes they’ll never find out.
#27 Fall - When the ground drops out from beneath their feet, Guildenstern is not afraid of falling because he has a hand in his.
#28 Forgotten - He has the preoccupied air of someone who knows he’s forgotten something but can’t remember what it is and Guildenstern finds it a comfort that he’s not alone in that feeling.
#29 Dance - He has to be in control for smooth sailing, but when they dance, he lets Rosencrantz lead and then they fly.
#30 Body - It would be so much simpler if they could exist as minds without bodies, but then he’d miss Ros’s smile.
#31 Sacred - This scene change is a small blessing - relative stillness, relative freedom from thought, relative peace - he counts it as sacred as anything else in their crazy secular lives.
#32 Farewells - Guildenstern trembles as Hamlet makes his farewells to Polonius - thou wretched, rash, intruding fool - and hopes they get a better epitaph.
#33 World - He answers Hamlet that if Denmark is a prison, so must the world be, and he doesn’t realize how true both of those claims really are until much later.
#34 Formal - He was born into a family of courtiers so he knows how to use formal language, but with Ros it always seems inadequate.
#35 Fever - In anyone else, the things said while delirious with fever would make no sense, but Rosencrantz makes no sense anyway so he doesn’t have that problem.
#36 Laugh - “What have you done?” he says and stifles a sob that almost sounds like a laugh.
#37 Lies - He wonders if there’s a single thing in his life that wasn’t a lie, and then he remembers Rosencrantz, who is too sincere to be anything but the truth.
#38 Forever - “Nothing lasts forever” - “What about love?”
#39 Overwhelmed - It’s exhausting to watch Rosencrantz think because he makes connections no one else could think of and quite often Guildenstern just walks away, completely overwhelmed.
#40 Whisper - He’s had something in the back of his mind whispering that he’ll die for as long as he can remember, but Rosencrantz doesn’t seem to hear it anymore.
#41 Wait - He waits for his friend’s return until his absence gains weight and when he can wait no longer he finally turns away.
#42 Talk - He doesn’t understand most of what Guildenstern says, but when he gets scared or upset he always feels better when he listens to him talk.
#43 Search - He waves Guildenstern over with his fishing pole and asks if he wants to help search for their names.
#44 Hope - One day Rosencrantz stops looking at him with that blasted hope in his eyes and the cynic in him doesn’t know why he misses it.
#45 Eclipse - Guildenstern starts to explain about celestial bodies and shadows that fall on the moon, but Rosencrantz stopped paying attention long ago and looks up at the lunar eclipse with stars in his eyes.
#46 Gravity - In a perfect closed system the experiment would have worked, but nothing ever is, so air resistance beats gravity and the ball falls faster than the feather.
#47 Highway - Rosencrantz loves the way the wind blows through his hair but Guildenstern gets carsick and will never admit how glad he is when they get lost and never make it to the highway.
#48 Unknown - Rosencrantz is an unknown quantity which is both confusing and intriguing, but something keeps him coming back to pick at the heart of his mystery.
#49 Lock - “Well,” says Rosencrantz as they hear the lock clang shut on their cell, “at least we’re not dead!”
#50 Breathe - When it comes close to the end, he holds his breath and tries to vanish before they get a chance to kill him.
Pairing: Ros/Guil
Theme set: Gamma
Title: Closed System
Rating: PG-13
#1 Ring - Elsinore has selective acoustics that make their voices ring through the halls and Guildenstern has the good grace to feel bad about berating his friend so publicly.
#2 Hero - He knows that this is Hamlet’s story and they were never the heroes, but that doesn’t stop him from jumping in to rescue Rosencrantz from danger.
#3 Memory - Their identity flitters down in snatches of memory - a half-lit, half-alive dawn; a stroll through the woods; an intuition of mortality - all with the pair of them together.
#4 Box - He gets stuck on one train of thought like a mime trapped in an invisible box of his own creation until Guildenstern taps him on the shoulder and tells him to come out of there.
#5 Run - He hates always making the running but he suspects he’d hate it even more if he had no one left to play off his words.
#6 Hurricane - If Ros is the flurry of activity that drags everyone into his world, Guil is the eye of the storm who keeps them steady.
#7 Wings - “You wait in the wings and I’ll tell you when it’s our cue to come on … er, what is our cue?”
#8 Cold - “I could jump over the edge,” he suggests, but Guildenstern reminds him that the water will be too cold this far north.
#9 Red - The colors red, green and blue are as real as Guildenstern, but Elsinore, like yellow, is a mystical experience shared by everyone.
#10 Drink - He pours out the wine and they drink to the future - “and to the past,” Ros adds.
#11 Midnight - Guildenstern likes midnight for its in-between qualities and the way they haven’t reached their destination yet.
#12 Temptation - To say that Rosencrantz was tempted to open the letter would imply some sort of intent, not that he was faithfully playing his part.
#13 View - Guildenstern hugs his knees to his chest as he looks out at the view of the ocean, but Rosencrantz crashes into him before he starts to panic.
#14 Music - Later he stares at the recorder and tries to rationalize how the air would vibrate if he covered one stop or another but he has not the skill to make music - Hamlet should have asked Rosencrantz instead.
#15 Silk - The pattern makes for a dreadful kimono, but once it’s in the air, Guildenstern has to admit the silk has a certain grace.
#16 Cover - He’s like a child distracted by too many stimuli and sometimes the only way to escape this sensory overload is to cover his eyes and plug his ears.
#17 Promise - “We’ll know better next time” - a promise that was made to be broken.
#18 Dream - “Or I could be you dreaming of being Rosencrantz.”
#19 Candle - It’s too dark to see, but when Ros strikes a match, the light from his candle reflects the warmth in his eyes.
#20 Talent - Guildenstern insists he has no real talent for drawing, but Rosencrantz knows he could do it if he’d only let go of his inhibitions.
#21 Silence - Whenever the silence gets so loud he thinks he is dead, he reaches for Rosencrantz’s hand to remind himself that he still has something to live for.
#22 Journey - In the woods, no one tells them what to do, so Rosencrantz is determined to appreciate the journey, however long it takes.
#23 Fire - He finds that if he focuses on the squirrel above him he can’t feel the fire at all, but when Guildenstern grabs his hand away he can’t think of anything but how much it hurts.
#24 Strength - He pulls on the rope and marvels at the equilibrium of bearing his own weight, but when Guildenstern joins him, his strength fails him and they both tumble down.
# 25 Mask - He projects all sorts of things to the outside world (I am fine, I don’t need anyone else, I can get by on reason alone) but whenever he’s near Ros he can feel that mask start to slip and he’s terrified of the day it cracks apart entirely.
#26 Ice - He’s heard the plain of traitors is covered with ice, but they were executed before they could betray Hamlet so he supposes they’ll never find out.
#27 Fall - When the ground drops out from beneath their feet, Guildenstern is not afraid of falling because he has a hand in his.
#28 Forgotten - He has the preoccupied air of someone who knows he’s forgotten something but can’t remember what it is and Guildenstern finds it a comfort that he’s not alone in that feeling.
#29 Dance - He has to be in control for smooth sailing, but when they dance, he lets Rosencrantz lead and then they fly.
#30 Body - It would be so much simpler if they could exist as minds without bodies, but then he’d miss Ros’s smile.
#31 Sacred - This scene change is a small blessing - relative stillness, relative freedom from thought, relative peace - he counts it as sacred as anything else in their crazy secular lives.
#32 Farewells - Guildenstern trembles as Hamlet makes his farewells to Polonius - thou wretched, rash, intruding fool - and hopes they get a better epitaph.
#33 World - He answers Hamlet that if Denmark is a prison, so must the world be, and he doesn’t realize how true both of those claims really are until much later.
#34 Formal - He was born into a family of courtiers so he knows how to use formal language, but with Ros it always seems inadequate.
#35 Fever - In anyone else, the things said while delirious with fever would make no sense, but Rosencrantz makes no sense anyway so he doesn’t have that problem.
#36 Laugh - “What have you done?” he says and stifles a sob that almost sounds like a laugh.
#37 Lies - He wonders if there’s a single thing in his life that wasn’t a lie, and then he remembers Rosencrantz, who is too sincere to be anything but the truth.
#38 Forever - “Nothing lasts forever” - “What about love?”
#39 Overwhelmed - It’s exhausting to watch Rosencrantz think because he makes connections no one else could think of and quite often Guildenstern just walks away, completely overwhelmed.
#40 Whisper - He’s had something in the back of his mind whispering that he’ll die for as long as he can remember, but Rosencrantz doesn’t seem to hear it anymore.
#41 Wait - He waits for his friend’s return until his absence gains weight and when he can wait no longer he finally turns away.
#42 Talk - He doesn’t understand most of what Guildenstern says, but when he gets scared or upset he always feels better when he listens to him talk.
#43 Search - He waves Guildenstern over with his fishing pole and asks if he wants to help search for their names.
#44 Hope - One day Rosencrantz stops looking at him with that blasted hope in his eyes and the cynic in him doesn’t know why he misses it.
#45 Eclipse - Guildenstern starts to explain about celestial bodies and shadows that fall on the moon, but Rosencrantz stopped paying attention long ago and looks up at the lunar eclipse with stars in his eyes.
#46 Gravity - In a perfect closed system the experiment would have worked, but nothing ever is, so air resistance beats gravity and the ball falls faster than the feather.
#47 Highway - Rosencrantz loves the way the wind blows through his hair but Guildenstern gets carsick and will never admit how glad he is when they get lost and never make it to the highway.
#48 Unknown - Rosencrantz is an unknown quantity which is both confusing and intriguing, but something keeps him coming back to pick at the heart of his mystery.
#49 Lock - “Well,” says Rosencrantz as they hear the lock clang shut on their cell, “at least we’re not dead!”
#50 Breathe - When it comes close to the end, he holds his breath and tries to vanish before they get a chance to kill him.