PART 20
of the dfk 2023 audiobook translation
@cnka
Narrator (audiobook):
Robert puts another piece of wood on the trunk and swings the axe.
Bökh: „And you never wanted to get in touch?"
The Nichtraucher picks up a piece of wood.
Silence.
Nichtraucher: „Why should I? We didn’t see each other for the past ten years either.“
He rips the piece of wood apart with his bare hands. While holding eye contact with Justus.
Silence.
Justus lowers his head.
Jo: „Uh.. weren’t you-"
Martina, quietly: „Jo, leave it. Lets go.“
Martina, louder: „We need to go! We still have something to do.“
The kids leave. Jo and Martina are holding hands as they walk away.
Bökh: „Yeah… Thank you, kids.“
Jo, whispering as they walk away: "What was that just now?!"
Robert picks up the chopped wood and walks back to his wagon. Justus looks after him.
Narrator (audiobook):
If the two friends will find back together? Matze isn’t so sure of that.
Matze, sarcastically: „Well, that was a great success!“
Jo: „Yeah, so much for friendship between Internals and Externs.“
Narrator (audiobook):
At least Robert granted Herr Bökh access to his wagon. He looks around lost in thought more or less, while Robert washes the dishes.
Dishes clatter. There is silence otherwise.
Justus stares wistfully at Robert while he washes the dishes.
Justus takes his eyes off Robert and starts looking around while Robert continues to ignore him.
Bökh: „I thought you were living in London.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Bökh: „It's nice here.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Justus starts walking around.
Bökh: „I told the kids about our friendship.“
Nichtraucher: „As a cautionary tale?“
Bökh: (chuckles/scoffs) „No. Of course not.“
Narrator (audiobook):
Bökh spots the poster of „the Bandits“, the same one hanging in his apartment.
Bökh: „The 'Wild Dog' that we always played in is still there.“
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Bökh: „Should we meet there sometime? For a beer?“
Robert looks up.
He lets out a small huff, almost like an incredulous laugh or a scoff.
He dries his hands on a towel and folds it.
Nichtraucher: (silence)
Nichtraucher: „I don’t know what we would have to say to each other.“
Bökh: „Hm. Well. A lot of time has passed.“
Narrator (audiobook):
Robert sits down at the table and lights himself a cigarette.
Justus turns as well and starts looking around again.
Nichtraucher: „Why didn’t you come to Marie’s funeral back then?“
Nichtraucher: „You didn’t even get in touch.“
[„You didn't even get in touch“ -> parallels to „And you never wanted to get in touch?“]
Justus is silent. He starts fiddling with his jacket and pulls it off his shoulder. He lets out a deep, shaky sigh and is silent for another few moments.
Bökh: „…I don’t know, you met her and… and suddenly you were gone.“
[Parallels to „suddenly your closest loved ones are gone“]
Bökh: „As if everything -our friendship, the band- as if that had all just been a dream.“
Justus turns around and looks at Robert.
Bökh: „Wir zwei. Wir hatten doch Pläne.“
Bökh: „That really hurt me.“
Nichtraucher: „It hurt you.“
Silence. Just the music.
Bökh: „Yes. Very much back then.“
The Nichtraucher lets out a soft incredulous laugh again, almost like a scoff.
Nichtraucher: „I see.“
Long silence. Justus stares out the window. Finally, he turns and walks to the door.
Bökh: „You know where to find me.“
Justus leaves the wagon. Robert nods to himself silently.
Narrator (audiobook):
And with these words, Herr Bökh leaves his friend’s train wagon. If the two will ever see each other again?
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tell us more abt sam and val plsplspls they are the backbone of our society i love hearing abt them
ofc ofc!! i love talking about them lmao
The story itself is called Retrograde and Sam and Val are the two main characters!
(Brace yourself it's kinda long!)
Val:
Personality wise he's pretty reserved, doesn't really say much unless needed, he's more open with people he's close to
Though he may look moody, he's actually just awkward
Currently he's working as a bounty hunter to pay his rent and keep the license but really it's just a title and he just goes around accepting odd jobs that pay him
He doesn't kill people so he instead chooses to beat them up real bad and turn them in
Val isn't his real name, it's just a nickname. Barely anyone knows his real name aside from one or two people.
Doesn't have the best past (original i know but its plot relevant) but he's working through his mistakes and trying to make amends with himself and others
He was found drifting in the river on the verge of death but was miraculously revived by a doctor who ran a small clinic nearby
He got into bounty hunting because he could get a license that works as a valid form of id so he can rent an apartment and have a bank account while also being able to hide his identity (loopholes)
His eyes are actually not normal and are in fact a genetic condition he was born with! He gets a lotta stares and comments for it but he doesn't really care atp
Actually ridiculously good at dancing, he won a lot of competitions for ballroom dancing when he was in highschool and he could've gone professional if it weren't for certain other reasons
Because of his weirdly unique talent, he's really agile which makes him good at close hand combat
He's the one who drives both him and Sam around because he's the only one who has a hoverbike and can drive
Things he likes:
Ballet performances
The spicy shrimp noodles from his favorite thai restaurant
Cheesy romcoms (a secret)
Cats
Driving his hoverbike 30 miles above the speed limit
Things he doesn't like
Fire
Large crowds
Bugs (especially spiders)
People who don't respond to text messages
Messy eaters
Sam:
He's gonna have a longer description cause he's pretty plot relevant for the beginning
He's a pretty easy going guy, in many ways the opposite Val
Easy to get along with, most of the time he's pretty chill so he doesn't find it too hard to talk to people
Not really an extrovert tho, somewhere in the middle but still social if that makes sense
Val found him in an underground cave sleeping in a pod like thing while on a bounty
Somehow he managed to open the pod and wake Sam up, only to find out he has no recollection of anything that's happened to him nor who he is or his name
They decided to call him 'Sam' for now because it was printed on the tag hanging from his left ear
The last thing Sam remembers before waking up is a giant flash and burning buildings
Based on the weird room, sleeping pod, and the weird suit he's wearing, the two figure out that Sam's been asleep for a lot longer than he thought (more than 500 years)
He's actually from the Previous Era, which was an old civilization a lot more technologically advanced than the Current Era but was destroyed by a cataclysmic explosion (wonder what caused it?)
So Sam is technically many many years old atp but is still mentally the same age as Val
As you can guess he doesn't really take this very well
Turns out there was another pod next to Sam's pod that's been opened meaning that he may not be alone
Sam decides he wants to recover his lost memories and find out what happened to him and also find the person in the other pod, or at least what happened to them
Since he has no idea what the current era is like he enlists Val's help in exchange for helping him pay his rent.
He decides to keep his true identity a secret to not draw attention
He's actually really good at fighting and can hold up with Val pretty well so the two become partners
He's got these strange metal implants inside him, the most visible one around his neck which he's a bit self conscious about.
He doesn't know why it's there but it might have something to do with the blue ring above his head
The halo only turns off when he sleeps/lies down but seems to be above his head no matter what (he doesn't like it cause it draws a lot of attention)
His eyes are really unnatural and actually glow in the dark, another thing that freaks him out
His hair is naturally coral pink and not dyed (which is also a bit strange but not as much as the other things in his opinion)
Sam can't really read well, he's not sure if it's because he never learnt to read or the language has changed so much since he went to sleep, he's also not great at math
Kinda thanks to this he's also not great at budgeting and sometimes spends a lot of money on useless things that piques his interest (which causes him and val to do more bounties, much to val's dismay)
Even though he can be kind of an idiot sometimes, he does his best to fix his mistakes and make it up to people
Weapon of choice is dual guns!
Things he likes:
Sweet drinks (he's got a bad addiction to boba, milkshakes, and smoothies)
Arcade games (sucks at the fighting games but really good at rhythm games)
Astronomy (he knows nearly every constellation and its position by memory, it's kinda scary)
Action movies
Things he doesn't like:
Needles
Narrow hallways and closed spaces
Horror movies
Bugs (they're both screwed i know)
Some other fun facts !!
They live together in Val's apartment, they alternate sleeping on the couch and bed since Val felt bad
Even though Val said he'd only help Sam if he helped pay his rent, he actually didn't mind helping him for free and only added that because Sam insisted
Val is the only one who can cook out of the two, however that doesn't mean he's good at it, so they usually just order out most of the time
The world they live in is a mix between futuristic and post apocalyptic, yeah there's still technology but it's not as great as it was before
Part of this was because after the collapse of the previous era, rebuilding took a crazy long time and there was a big power struggle until the current government took control
There was a 4 year long civil war that happened and ended around 5 years before Sam woke up
There's currently a large supply shortage so for the past few decades so some technology has regressed
Their world is technically an alternate universe of our world, the divergent point happened around the late 1940s, I could go into it more but it's not that plot relevant but it is the reason they don't have a lot of today's modern technology despite it being many years into the future
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